Chapter One

Many years have passed since that fateful night when calamity struck from the blue and the village hidden in the leaves, though scarred, had begun to heal. That day was gone but not forgotten especially not in the hearts of the people whose lives were irreversibly changed.

On a lonely street in the poorer section of the village walked a small figure. Its footsteps hurried and its back hunched as if trying to present an even smaller profile in the growing shadows before the night. It was not successful though as evidenced by the projectile launched from one of the many alleys that then impacted the cloaked figure in the back making it stumble and revealing to the night air a head of beautiful blonde hair. The figure raised its head to show the young face of a boy no older than seven. His face bearing birthmarks strangely reminiscent of whiskers, and his eyes a bewitching blue that seemed to draw in the soul. His most startling feature however was none of these but the obvious and apparent sunken cheeks and haggard eyes. This was a child for whom life wasn't easy. The boy quickly covered his conspicuous hair once more and not bothering to even check where the rotten produce had been launched from, scurried away. This was not the first occurrence of such an attack.

The boy for all his life had been estranged and reviled by most of his fellow villagers for reasons he did not know. His face hated, his mere presence enough to disperse the happiest gathering. Treated like leper but not told why. Ignored at the best of times and attacked at the worst. Yes his life truly was miserable but it was all he knew. A sad life certainly but one which would one day shape him into a force to be reckoned with and mold his mind into an impregnable fortress the likes of which the world had never known. But it was not this day for today he was but a scared and lonely child who cried himself to sleep every night, wondering what he had done wrong. Wondering what he had done to deserve this. Wondering if perhaps this was what he deserved and the life he was destined to live.

His scurrying eventually lead him to an incredibly luxurious section of the village. This wasn't his destination, and certainly not the safest of the paths he could take to his residence. The earlier encounter had shown him that his regular path home had been discovered and he therefore needed to take this more dangerous route for now while he sought a safer alternative. It was a slight change, something as miniscule as a change of path taken home shouldn't amount to much… but this change would have a butterfly effect making changes unforeseen to the story yet to unfold.

He crept slowly and quietly, almost hugging the large fence next to him to hide in its shadow, his life so far giving him ample opportunities and reason to develop an instinctual and impressive stealth ability. He knew the guards for each of the clan compound located in this district served to discourage ruffians and nefarious characters, but that wouldn't protect him from the guards themselves as he had learnt.

So he was slow and methodical in his movements, senses focused and alert for any signal that would indicate danger, a sensation he had become depressingly familiar with in a short existence. He suddenly paused as instincts took over, standing as still as possible and hardly taking a breath. He wasn't particularly sure what triggered his response but followed them nonetheless, slowly pressing even closer to the fence. A shiver ran down his spine as he heard the slightest of rustles. His heart pounding, he ears straining for any indication of what could be out there, but heard nothing else. He dared not even move his head and so fearfully moved just his eyes through his entire field of vision as thoroughly as possible and still found nothing.

His nose…his nose was his first indicator of something being out of place. The boy couldn't place what it was exactly, just that it definitely didn't fit with the situation. It was a calming and lovely scent not fit for nights of terror and gloom. It didn't belong here. This dichotomy helped calm his racing heart and he focused on the scent trying to track its location. He discovered it moved from above him to his left, just outside his field of vision. He knew he had to turn his head, it was better to know what was coming than to be blindsided.

With even more caution the boy turned his head to the left and almost gasped at what he saw. A figure in dark clothes crouched just outside the fence of the next compound rapidly performing signs with its hands. Thankfully the figure seemed to not have noticed him in the shadows of the fence and he meant to keep it that way. The boy cautiously crouched even lower, trying to blend his silhouette with the nearby bushes.

The dark figure finally found success in its efforts as a slight blue flash appeared before it and seemed to release some sort of barrier that was until now invisible. It reached out and picked up an, until now hidden, bundle and put it on its shoulder and turned to walk away. The boy's heart stopped at that moment. The dark figure didn't see him but his movements allowed him to see exactly what he was carrying, or to be more precise, who he was carrying and by some quirk of fate, she saw him as well.

His eyes jumped to his throat as their eyes connected and the moment seemed to stretch for eternity. Clear blue eyes full of fear stared into scared white eyes seeming to lack a colour in its irises. The moment passed as the now obvious kidnapper moved away from the boy's hiding spot in silence and stealth but the little girl wasn't having it. She suddenly started struggling, wriggling as much as her bindings would allow and even attempting to scream past her gag.

"Damn you child" the figure whispered "What's gotten into you all of a sudden, you're supposed to be more timid than your sister"

This didn't deter the girl who stated to struggle even more. What did though was a Kunai her captor brandished at her and the words

"More of that and I'll slice your throat and be done with you"

The hidden boy was shocked by these events. He didn't know what to do. The criminal was obviously a high-level ninja and he was just a child, not even academy age. He was powerless. But as he saw the terror in the girl's eyes, he knew he had to do something.

He couldn't fight the kidnapper but he knew from the previous events the girl was probably a princess from the clan who owned the other manor and there would certainly be guards nearby who would come to her rescue as soon as possible. But he couldn't just call for help as her captor could very well make use of his previous threat and simply kill her. He had to get her away from him first and foremost but he didn't have time to plan.

His eyes narrowed in determination as he reached into a satchel by his waist and took out a few objects. The boy adjusted his body into a running position as the kidnapper was settling its captive back on its shoulder and moved with a burst of speed. He used the simplest tactic in the book: a distraction. He threw an object in a high arc over the two's head, his target, a wall just ahead of the figure. The spherical object impacted the wall and exploded with a loud pop. The ninja rapidly calculated its trajectory, recognizing the distraction for what it was, his kunai ready to stab whatever fool used such silly trick, only to come face to face with a cloud of some powdered substance. A substance he would quickly realize was pepper.

The ninja screamed in shock and pain the felt his package roughly ripped from his hands and a young voice shout at the top of its lungs

"He's touching the princess in weird places!..."

The boy sprinted away from the ninja with all his might hoping his pepper ball would buy him enough time for the guards to come rescue them. He had no delusions of getting away from a trained assassin with only a couple of cheap tricks. He took a couple of steps before he felt the strength leaving his legs. He looked down and was bewildered to see a kunai sticking through his chest. He felt a presence at his back that said

"Nice try kid, but don't you know…heroes always die"

The ninja reached over to take back his prey but before he could another body crashed into his at high speed. The boy couldn't see what happened next as he had fallen on his back with the girl on top of him. He looked into her teary eyes as he felt the cold creep in on him.

"lavender…" he said staring into her eyes as the darkness consumed him…

…

"Uzumaki Naruto…" an aged man sitting behind a desk in a spartan office sighed as he regarded a file put before him.

"How is he doing?" he asked the man standing at attention before his desk.

"He is recovering as fast as usual and should be up and running in no time" the man reported "The hospital staff already want to discharge him"

"as usual huh…" The old man seemed to contemplate, almost visibly aging a little bit more before the other's very eyes.

"Hokage sama…" the subordinate began but was stopped by the raised hand of his leader.

"I know what you want to say and I've heard it a thousand times" the leader of the great village said "you cannot take the child, not as you are" The Hokage regarded the maked man standing before him, whose heterogeneous eyes were hidden behind his dog like mask "You know yourself the issues you have"

"But Hokage sama…"

"However…" the aged man raised his hand to stop his subordinate's outburst "I do agree with you that something has to change"

He slowly stood up, his entire demeanor shifting as his eyes seemed to blaze to life

"it seems some people have forgotten exactly why I am called The Professor, they seek to bury me in frivolous paperwork and council meetings hoping I wouldn't have the time to see to that child…

"and so far they have succeeded…

"I will take personal care of the boy no matter what the council says"

…

An old man in a fancy hat gazed at a child fitfully sleeping in his hospital bed.

"They would kill me if they saw what I allowed to happen to their son" he sighed to himself looking out the window to the starry sky "I will take care of you Naruto, no matter who stands in my way…"

Hey everyone, this is your friendly neighborhood AFROSAGE

This is my first published work and I would love to hear from you the good, the bad and the ugly so leave your reviews and corrections

I just want to share my vision of what this world would have looked like and how Naruto's journey would have been handled were I in charge trying not to chabge the power system or characterization too much. I definitely will have to tweak some things and give some criminally underutilized characters a lot more screen time though

This is gonna be a long haul and slow burn, so strap in with me and hang on tight as we take this journey together, hope you're excited

One love, Afrosage