Konoha had risen up from that attack of the Kyuubi that made them lose their Yondaime, now Konoha was again beautiful but only from the outside.
That day many people lost their parents, their children and other relatives. They could never forget the hate and anger they had for the Kyuubi never. And all this hate and anger was directed towards only a certain blond kid...
Uzumaki Naruto was a 7 year old orphaned kid and an infamous prankster in Konoha who always ran away after his pranks. He had sun-kissed blond hair, cerulean blue eyes that even put the sky and oceans to shame and cute adorable three whisker marks on each side on his cheeks. But today he was running for different reason...
"Kill him!" one man yelled. "Yeah, kill him and finish what the Yondaime started!" another yelled. Today was October 10th Naruto's birthday and...the worst day of the year. Normally people would just misbehave with him or throw him out of the store and only a few times shinobis went for him.
But today he was being followed by three Chunins who were trying to kill him. One of them threw a kunai at him but he dodged it easily, he had developed a knack for running and dodging as people always tried to kill him or hurt him physically or mentally. He saw that most people can't go after him due to his otherworldly stamina.
He soon reached a dead-end and a chunin threw an explosive kunai at him. Finding nowhere to flee he jumped over the fence to avoid the exploision. But still jumping through the fence he cut his leg. Then he ran as fast as he could and reached his secret place.
Naruto reached at the clearing at the top of the Hokage and sat on top of the face of his hero, the Yondaime.
Konoha looked immensly beautiful from there it was dusk and the glowing light from buildings and shops made it a dreamy sight. Anybody would smile at the scenario but Naruto didn't. Tears fell down from his face.
Why, why everybody hated him? why everybody despised him? Why everybody wanted to kill him? Yes, he pulled pranks but they were not that much serious to make chunins run for him.
"WHY!?" He screamed from the Hokage mountain and laid there down. "why do you all hate me?" He saw up the stars-filled sky. If heavens existed it would be here but it was hell for him, he let a small drop of tear fall from his face.
"Mom, Dad where are you?" he asked while crying silently
After the death of Yondaime, Hiruzen took up the reins of Konoha and gave Naruto a small apartment and monthly pocket money. When he was asked why was he doing so much for the boy he said, " It was the last wish of two of my very close comrades."
Naruto also asked Hiruzen about his parents a lot but he'd either say 'he didn't know them properly.' or 'they were great people.' But Naruto never got a clear answer.
A little while later Naruto fell asleep on the mountain.
A blinding light was coming from somewhere that made Naruto woke up from his slumber. He got up and saw that he was on the Hokage mountain on top of Yondaime's head.
He looked up at the Sun to determine what time it was. Yes, Naruto learned to determine the time using Sun as it was one of the most basic skills of a ninja. And he was not happy."DAMN IT!" It was just a few hours before 10:00 AM and the academy started at 8:00 AM.
Iruka-sensei will kill me this time! He got down from the mountain and dashed towards his home. Naruto's home was a small apartment with dim lights, the living room was filled with Ichiraku ramen cups. It was a low class BHK. His bed was completely untidy.
After brushing, bathing and eating break-fast Naruto reached the academy at 10:45 AM. He tried to silently enter the classroom but was caught by Iruka.
"NARUTO!" Iruka shouted and Naruto was caught red-handed, much to the annoyance of many girls but one indio haired girl was overjoyed. Iruka is a former chunin and an academy instructor who loves to prepare the next-generation of shinobis. He wore Konoha flak jacket and had a scar on his nose bridge and he tied his hair in a ponytail. His parents died in the Kyuubi attack and initially like all villagers he too hated Naruto but then slowly he got to observe the boy and he found that they both were and are alike; pranksters, lonely and orphans. They started to like each other and then Naruto started calling him 'Boss'
He usually was calm person, but now he wanted answers."Naruto, why are you so late?" He asked, although Naruto was his favourite student, he wouldn't allow this kind of unpunctuality.
"Umm...boss personal problems." Naruto said, his eyes downcast as soon as he said those words Iruka knew what he was referring to.
"Okay, go and sit on your seat, but still you'll have to mop the classroom after class, as your punishment." Iruka said and Naruto went to his seat. Iruka continued the class.
"Okay, everyone now this jutsu will help you in memorizing things like mission descriptions, important scrolls, location of enemy hideouts, etc." Iruka explained the memorizing jutsu to everyone as soon as he finished the bell rang.
"Ah, it seems your class is over for today."
Iruka stated and the students got ready to leave but Iruka differed. "Wait!" the murmur died down. " Before y'all leave..." he took out a huge box of record-tapes, "...you will take one of these tapes and practice the memorizing jutsu, each of these tapes contains speeches of Hokages or explanations of your text book chapters and memorise it by Wednesday, because I'll be taking your test on it on Wednesday, understand? The whole class had crestfallen faces.
"Pfft. What a waste of time..." Naruto stated with disinterest. He'd rather spend his time on improving his taijutsu or on making that stupid Bunshin
"Really Naruto? Because I was planning on reliveing the students from two weeks of homework for those who score good in the test and because you will have mastered that jutsu, I'll assume that all of you are learning my lectures using this jutsu."
Naruto's eyes lit up, "Really?" Iruka nodded.
"Wohoo! just you watch I'll have that jutsu learnt by today!" he exclaimed at the thought of being relived from homework.
One by one each and every student took a tape but a student named Kotaru took two tapes so that there was a shortage of tapes for Naruto and the people would hate him more and the whole class would make fun of him.
Iruka was just exiting the classroom when he saw Naruto. "Naruto what happened?" Iruka asked with concern evident in his voice.
"Iruka-sensei... there are no more tapes left for me." The blond told his sensei.
"What? But I myself counted them there were 50 of them one for each student." Iruka wondered how could there be one tape less.
"Anyways Naruto, can't you buy tapes from the market?" the chunin asked his favourite student.
"Umm..."
"Naruto don't say that you spent all your money on ramen again." Iruka warned Naruto.
"No, Iruka-sensei actually there are only a few shops in the village that allow me but the price of the equipment there is very high because of which my whole pocket money gets spent on those things..." The blond clarified.
Iruka was surprised, "Naruto how much do they charge you?" The academy instructor asked. 'These things shouldn't cost that much.'
"About 1000 ryo" Naruto answered
Iruka was angry would be an understatement he was furious. 'Those bastards...they are taking revenge on him like this. I'll have to report it to Sandaime-sama.'
But now the important task was to help Naruto without letting him know how the shopkeepers were looting him. "Naru-"
Suddenly, a girl appeared in front of Naruto. The girl had white and almost pupiless eyes with a fair complexion and short indigo hair. The girl outstretched her hands to reveal a tape.
"F-f-for y-you, p-please t-take it." She stuttered.
Iruka was surprised and Naruto got out of his trance and pointed towards himself, "For me...?" The girl nodded.
"Thanks but won't you need one for the test?" the blond questioned.
"I-I h-h-have a-another at h-home." The girl answered.
Naruto's face lit up, " Thank you, Hinata."
The girl's cheeks turned red but she smiled.
"Now, problem solved. Thank you Hinata." Iruka declared. Then he told Hinata to go home and she returned home, shortly after Iruka left too but before he left, with a grin on his face he reminded Naruto something very important.
Now he has to mop the floor.
