This chapter's development may seem a bit rushed, but I redid it a few times and this is the draft that I actually felt ok with posting.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
When the Anbu ninja in the area heard the sound of an altercation in the orphanage, they quickly entered the building and found the problem. As they entered the room they immediately were hit with the scent of sex and, in a much more potent quantity, blood.
The Tora masked Anbu asked, "Could you please tell me what happened here?"
Yumi was still in shock due to Naruto's 'outburst' but she knew she didn't want him to get in trouble. "That…man tried to have.. his way with me and my little Naruto saved me." Her warm, yet slightly distorted smile made the young boy blush.
The name made the Anbu's eyes widen underneath his mask, there was only on Naruto in this village and if he's involved this might be serious. "This is very important ma'am, did you see anything out of the ordinary as your little savior attacked? This seems to be too much damage for a seven-year old to cause."
"My Naru has always been a bit strong for his age, so its right up his alley. But PLEASE! Please don't punish him too badly, he was just worried about me! Don't take him AWAY FROM ME!"
The more than shell shocked young woman shattered at that point. She had been attacked by the caretaker in charge of the entire orphanage. He had taken her purity, and the only thing that was true in her world at the moment was the fact that Naruto had come to save her. Two other Anbu who were luckily female came to escort Yumi to the hospital and she was about to fight to get back to her savior until Tora spoke up, "Don't worry ma'am, I'll make sure that his punishment if any is light." With a highly distorted content look on her face, Yumi calmed down enough to be sedated and taken to the hospital. Naruto was taken to the Hokage, how in turn told the Anbu to watch over him through the night until the morning in case the boy's emotions when out of control.
Next Day, Council Chambers
The first person to speak out for the meeting was an older man with grey hair, a beard, glasses as well as a constant frown. His strong jaw seemed to be the only detail that time hadn't eroded. He was one of the Hokage's advisors "So the little demon shows his true colors?" Mitokado Homura spat out.
His old teammate's dark eyes only hinted at her exasperation. Her grey hair is pulled back in its normal twin bun, and her formerly beautiful face was marred with the wrinkles of her frown. Utatane Koharu simply sighed. She didn't care much for the young boy, but she was aware that he was not the Kyuubi reborn.
Nara Shikaku spoke up next in a bored tone. "Are you sure you don't wanna reword that statement? It could be taken as a violation of the Third's Law."
"Indeed it could," Sarutobi Hiruzen chimed in. "Even as one of my advisors, if I hear you talking that way again you will be executed like anyone else." The Kage's calm tone indicated just how serious the statement was.
Aburame Shibi stated next. "I would believe there are more factors involved in this incident than just the identity of those affected. From what I've been told, the young Uzumaki walked in on a very distasteful event and fought for the young misses."
"He's right! And if the pup hadn't killed the bastard already, there wouldn't be anything left to bury once I got to him." The feral woman added. Inuzuka Tsume may have been from a "wilder" clan but none of her people took rape lightly.
Sarutobi decided to end the conversation quickly in order to get back to Naruto and help with damage control. "Miss Aizaki's testimony states that the head of the orphanage didn't take kindly to her standing up for little Naruto. He started out by threatening her and it escalated to physical violence. She said that his fear of the demon's wrath kept him from attacking the boy himself. The man eventually decided that since she was becoming one of the demon's 'whores' that he should get a bit of pleasure from her himself…" The elder stopped in order to calm himself down. He never let his emotions show though.
"Miss Aizaki said from there, he dragged her to an empty room in the back of the orphanage to violate her when Naruto must have heard noises. Sadly, he was not swift enough to preserve her innocence. He did however assault the man in a rage which led to the man's demise in a civilian hospital."
Yamanaka Inoichi spoke up, "But shouldn't it have been impossible for such a young boy to possess that much strength?"
"I said the exact same thing, but when I did the young lady grew defensive and said that he had always been strong for his age. The tone she used and her obvious lack of regard for her own wellbeing says much about her mental state." Sarutobi countered.
"Well that, I can understand. She had been traumatized enough, so the last thing she would want to see is her little knight in shining armor being punished. I say we reward him." Akimichi Chouza commented.
"We can't reward a CHILD for killing a man in a blind rage! But even I can see that punishment isn't ideal." Hyuuga Hiashi stated.
The meeting of the minds ended with the decision to check the boy's mental state and find a new place of residence for him. No child should have to deal with that sort of memory being pushed into their face daily. But as a Jinchuuriki, it was already determined that the boy would have to be persuaded to carry on and eventually become a ninja.
Naruto's Mindscape
The soon to be eight-year old boy wandered around in an area similar to Konoha, but with a dark sky of broken glass above him. Fearing the situation, Naruto fled to the only place he knew he would be able to find comfort in the Leaf Village. He ran past the front desk and up the stairs as fast as he could without stopping until he reached the doors. Upon opening them he saw an eerily familiar form.
"Welcome Naruto." The even more familiar voice called out.
"Who are you?"
"I'm you. Well, another part of you. For your sake, call me Uzumaki."
"How are you me? And where am I? Tell me how to get back, Yumi nee chan needs me!" Naruto cried out
"Easy there… Yumi nee is fine now; you made sure of that before you came here. We're in your mind Naruto, the shit you saw was too much for you to handle so you created me…" Uzumaki said calmly, his personality a mix of his normal self and parts of others he aspired to resemble.
"If you're in my mind, then how can you help me?"
"Simple, I'll take over for you. I'll live through the pain until you're strong enough to deal with it all. Naruto, you are a good kid. I don't want to see you change because of what Others do wrong so I'll deal with it. I promise that this partnership will help you become strong enough to be Hokage one day!"
"Uzumaki… make the pain go away." Naruto said in a subdued voice before he felt himself drift off into a deep slumber.
Konoha Hospital
Sarutobi Hiruzen was not having a good evening. He already had paperwork that needed to be done before noon tomorrow and now his favorite little friend was in the hospital. Naruto's favorite caretaker was victimized and the boy was cursed with the vision of it happening on top of the act of murder. It was no surprise that the boy was unconscious when the Hokage entered the room.
"How bad off is he?"
"Well, he was calm up until the point where we escorted Miss Aizaki to the hospital first. Not long after though, he simply passed out without a word. His heart rate was far higher than we expected since he had calmed himself but our doctors saw no damage to his body so we assume mental and physical exhaustion kicked in."
"And he's been asleep this whole time? I'll need to speak with him as soon as he wakes up. I'll have an Anbu agent available to contact me when he awakens."
"No need Jiji… I'm up." 'Naruto' said drowsily.
"Naruto, I know that things have been crazy this evening. Tell me, are you feeling ok?"
"Not Naruto. Uzumaki speaking." He corrected.
"Wait, what? How is there any difference?"
"You're important to Naruto so I'll let you in on a little secret… I'm here to take over for a bit until Naruto gets over the trauma."
The worried Hokage snapped his fingers and an Anbu appeared; who was quickly told to summon Inoichi. Many scenarios popped into the elder's head to explain the current circumstances. Maybe Uzumaki was really the Kyuubi set free, playing a role until it could escape and destroy Konoha. He dismissed that idea for a bit, considering the fact that he would have sensed any malice in the boy's mannerisms. Perhaps the boy had gone insane. That idea wasn't dismissed. The Yamanaka Clan head entered the room to see an uncharacteristically stressed looking Sarutobi.
Without turning to face him Hiruzen said, "Inoichi san, I need you to use your mind walk technique on Uzumaki here…"
The man addressed did as he was told, expecting to be faced with a sleeping or enraged Kitsune but was greeted by the same Konoha likeness as Naruto seen. This time though, Uzumaki sought out the intruder and made motions to the other man to follow him. Uzumaki lead Inoichi through the village and onto the Hokage Monument's Fourth Hokage ledge. There an transparent blue orb could be seen hovering, containing the sleeping persona known as Naruto.
"I'm sure this is who you're looking for, right? Naruto let me take over and cover for him while he gets over the trauma of seeing Yumi nee getting hurt like she did. I'm what his mind created to cope."
Inoichi went through the paces, checking and double checking to see if Uzumaki's thoughts and actions matched up with most multi personality patients. Once it was confirmed that his story checked out, Inoichi ended the mind walk and reported his findings. Hiruzen wasn't too pleased about the situation but was more than accepting of the fact that the Naruto he knew and loved was still in there somewhere. Feeling a lot more relieved now that he knew there was no threat of the Kyuubi escaping he continued onto his next objective.
For a very short notice procedure, the Hokage found an apartment in one of the cheaper parts of the Leaf Village that had no negative intent toward the Kyuubi host. The owner just wanted to be certain that he'd have a way to be paid each month and that the apartment itself wouldn't be left damaged. With the affirmative on his requests, Hiruzen had the keys to the place before he went to the hospital to check on Naruto.
"This will be your new home Na... Uzumaki. I'll make sure to give you an allowance that will cover the rent and cover your food expenses. I'll be by to make sure that everything's going fine from time to time, but feel free to visit me if I'm not buried under a pile of paperwork." Sarutobi joked before going home himself.
Normally he would have an obvious presence of psychologists watching the boy, but Inoichi's dealings with Uzumaki and the obviously high intelligence for a seven year old made him feel safe with the idea of only having Anbu in the shadows. Uzumaki settled in as well, aware of the deep slumber Naruto was in and understanding of the necessary course of action to gain power.
The Next Week
Uzumaki was well on his way to getting used to the freedom of being the dominant personality. The Hokage was someone he felt her could trust just as well as Naruto did and he was much more oblivious to the civilian populations disdain than Naruto was. He wasn't going to join the Academy, but his chakra was unlocked by a man with a bandaged eye who also gave him a booklet on control exercises. Due to those gifts, Uzumaki spent most of his time strengthening his chakra control through trial and error, more error than trial, and doing simple workouts to grow stronger.
His dealings with the Leaf Concentration exercise worked pretty decently for a while, but left him desiring more difficulty. He moved onto the Leaf Floating exercise to allow a more difficult challenge. After blasting the leaf away a few times, he reread to realize that he would have to focus on only using a certain amount of chakra to keep the leaf afloat and near enough to catch. Due to his high amounts of chakra, this proved to be difficult enough for him.
Uzumaki, Age 8
Within the passing of a month, Uzumaki started to modify his chakra control training to floating a sheet of paper instead of a leaf and upping the amount of basic workouts he did. He was saddened by the news of Yumi being placed in a mental institution due to the trauma she faced, but the Hokage promised to do the best he could for her. And for his birthday present, he somehow convinced the leader of the Leaf Village to buy him a game rated higher than MA.
Flashback
"Come on Jiji! Do me this one favor and buy me that game! I won't ask for shit else!"
"Language Uzumaki! And for the last time I am NOT buying an eight-year old a game that some of my ninja won't even play!"
Getting desperate, Uzumaki played his final trump. "It's not like I hasn't played it before… Renji nii even said I was pretty good at it…"
"Oh? And how might I ask have you had the opportunity to play this game?"
Feeling himself shrink under the old man's glare, he replied "The orphanage had the system to play it on the entire time, it's just that one of the kids smuggled the game in and didn't know how to hide it that well."
After explaining how much of the game he had already experienced, Uzumaki eventually earned himself the game he wanted. Hiruzen himself decided to try it out after the debate, not that he would admit it. So Uzumaki was alone to train whenever he wanted AND to play a game most other children wouldn't get a chance to see until they were eighteen. But even the best of days can turn on their head with the right events.
That Night
The blond Jinchuuriki found himself returning home late that evening from the Hokage's tower and bumped into a man while heading home. If he had been looking where he was going, not only could he have prevented the collision but he would have noticed the man's wobbly stance. The man was drunk and standing stock still in the middle of the street.
"Fuck'r you thinkin you're bumpin into?" the man demanded. The rest of the people outside simply watched.
"Sorry bout that." Uzumaki replied as he was about to walk off.
The man yanked the boy's arm and pulled him back close. "That aint no apology ya mannerless little shit! No kid with parents is this bad! Get over here and lemme beat ya like the parents you don't have shoulda!"
The inebriated man balled up his fists and struck Uzumaki hard in the shoulder even though he aimed for the chest. Uzumaki retaliated with kick to the shin and the fight escalated. The man and boy continued to fight in the middle of the street with people either watching or walking by like nothing was happening. Even after the man pulled too hard and dislocated Uzumaki's shoulder the boy continued to fight to protect himself. After a while though, the man tired himself out and spoke up.
"Well damn kid, either I'm gettin soft or you're the baddest little fucker in Hi no Kuni!"
In-between huffs Uzumaki replied, "Fuck you old man, leave me alone so I can go home!"
Genuinely impressed, the drunk pulled himself to his feet and grabbed the boy's arm once more with far less pressure. "Come on kid, let's get you to tha hospital." Too tired to fight back at the moment, Uzumaki simply walked with him to their destination. Inside they both were treated, though the man was in for alcohol poisoning, and released soon after. Now sober the man spoke up.
"Sorry kid, got a little outta hand back there. But as least you had enough fight in ya to keep goin."
"What the HELL is wrong with you?"
"They say I'm a tad touched, if ya know what I mean… Oh, the name's Saito."
"So you kick my ass, take me to the hospital, THEN introduce yourself? Oh hell… name's Uzumaki."
The two talked for a bit more before they parted ways. In a retarded twist of fate, the drunk who attacked him was the same man who owned the apartment that he stayed in. Worse yet was the fact that even with their less than ideal beginnings Saito managed to ease the tension in the air before leaving. The clash with the drunk also brought some new information into the light. The tests ran on Uzumaki showed a highly accelerated rate of healing, demonstrated by the tiny cuts and bruises from the fight gradually fading into nothing. That information still didn't prevent Uzumaki from having to save Saito's ass from getting roasted by an angry Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Saito, Saito, Saito... he will become the bad influence who starts this party off. Yumi and Renjiro will reappear later on in the story, but the next chapter will be more about fleshing out why Naruto's personality will change so much. There is a poll on my profile about some of the people who naruto will meet during Academy days. Check it out and vote on whether or not Shikamaru and Shino should be made female in this story or if I should simply create OC Aburame and Nara women.
