Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything else in the original story aside from things I came up with myself in this fanfiction.

Author: This is my first fanfiction. I always imagined a story of a Naruto that slowly gave into hatred with a lot of character developments. He will turn darker and/or lighter as the story progresses. I will manipulate the story to show the necessary signs. There already exists a Naruto who was weak and stupid at the start of the story in canon. In this fanfiction he will gradually become a lot smarter, colder and have lots of issues. However, he will also be extremely hardworking. His early childhood will make him so that he has no other choice because it will be far worse compared to canon. He will still have similarities to his canon self but also have some more unique quirks. You may notice those things.

He will not have a Harem, there will be no sex scenes and no other weird things like pairings with far older people. They ruin stories and I personally don't approve of such things. Pairings will mostly stay canon. If I'm going to pair Naruto with someone, it can only be one at a time. This goes the same for other fanfics I may write in the future. However, I can kill off a love interest then move on another.

There will be lots of horror and torture to make the readers understand Naruto's development as a person. His childhood will be far worse than canon. In canon, he was rarely physically abused with few to none attempts on his life if I remember correctly from Manga, Anime, databooks or other source material. This is completely different in this fanfic. That's why I want to go more in detail with my own version of his early childhood during the earlier chapters.

Feel free to share your opinion in the review section as long as it doesn't contain foul language. You may ask your questions there and I'll answer them if and when I can. I am also open for suggestions. This way, I can possibly incorporate some 'interesting' tips and ideas into the story.

So without further ado, let's begin the story.

"Talking"

"Demon talking, Bijuu, summons,..."

'Thinking'

'Demon Thinking, Bijuu, summons,...'

Prologue

The Hidden Leaf village of Fire Country, known currently as the strongest shinobi village in Fire Country. With Fire Country being one of the 5 great nations alongside the Wind Country, Earth Country, Lightning Country and Water Country. Aside from the 5 great nations, there were other smaller nations, but they were not on the level of power compared to the great nations. The village was inhabited by both ordinary civilians as well as by the many Feudal clans from across the land who once waged war against each other. Many clans were wiped out of existence, women taken as spoils of war by the victors, children orphaned or worse yet, forced into the battlefield. After many such wars the clans grew exhausted as war took its toll on them. After a truce was formed and soon after, an alliance between the strongest 2 clans who were once rivals, the Senju and the Uchiha, had laid the foundations of Konohagakure. This led to many other clans in Fire Country joining this new foundation. The population grew to an extraordinary rate. Hashirama Senju, who was the leader of the Senju clan and initiated the idea of a large shinobi village, was chosen as the leader of the village, the Shodaime (first) Hokage. Later, in other nations, different clans sought to follow the example of a single large shinobi village, Kirigakure of Water Country, Iwagakure of Earth Country, Kumogakure of Lightning Country, Sunagakure of Wind Country and many others. His rival and former best friend Madara Uchiha had not taken this well and attempted to rebel with his clan. However his clan did not want to wage another war and stayed loyal to the village. Madara had no choice but to abandon the village, only to later return to challenge Hashirama Senju in a deathmatch in the area later known as the Valley of the End where he had lost to the newly proclaimed Shodaime Hokage.

Many years later, on the 10th of October, during the night, an ancient beast known as the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked the Hidden village of Konohagakure. The Kyuubi no Kitsune was described as the most powerful Bijuu in existence that could level mountains and create tsunami's with its 9 tails. When it rampaged in Konohagakure, many buildings were destroyed and many shinobi and civilians died, leading to a huge portion of the village being destroyed.

This destruction would have continued if it weren't for the leader of the village, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze and his wife, Kushina Uzumaki, took it upon themselves to defeat the rampaging Bijuu (tailed beast). Knowing that killing the Bijuu was impossible, he executed his last option to save his village. He and Kushina sacrificed their lives to seal the Kyuubi in their newborn son, Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, making him the new Jinchuuriki or the 'Power of human sacrifice of the Bijuu'. The Fourth Hokage and his wife wanted their child to be seen as a hero. However, with no parents to raise him and the hatred of the villagers against the Kyuubi, the boy would live a lonely and hateful life. Leaving him having to fend for himself at an early age.

Chapter 1: Beginning

"I don't wish my life to be made a story, but if someone bothered doing so, it would be no less than a tragedy." - Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze

Konoha streets: 4 years after the Kyuubi attack

Naruto Uzumaki, a small child with blond spiky hair was messing through a garbage can trying to find anything to eat. Just a week ago, he had been kicked out of the orphanage he was living in. He hadn't eaten a good meal ever since. He didn't understand why he was despised or treated worse than the kids in the orphanage. It had been like this since a few months ago. But at least, he was never starving or was abused physically. He had a bed to sleep in and sometimes still played with the other children in the orphanage. Sadly, things changed for the worse 2 weeks ago. He didn't understand why he was kicked out. Was he a bad kid? Was it something he did? No, it couldn't be. When he asked 'why', the headmistress simply said that there was no place for 'Demons' in the orphanage. During the day, people would form mobs around him whispering words and glaring at him. Some of them would even go as far as throwing insults and objects at him. Hell, they would even come and beat him senseless during both day and night as if the insults and thrown objects weren't enough. He didn't understand why. But there were a few insults or nicknames that they called him the most. 'Demon, Monster, Devil's spawn,' and so on. That's what people called him on the street. He had heard these words too many times to not know what they meant. But there was this one story back in the orphanage that was often told to the children. The one about the Kyuubi, a giant demon fox with nine tails that attacked the village 4 years ago, strangely enough on 10th of October, his own birthday. According to the story, the 'Demon' was slain by the Fourth Hokage, the heroic leader of the village at the time, by sacrificing his own life and thus saving the village. So ever since he was thrown out, he asked himself questions starting with the same word.

'Why'? 'Why am I alone', why don't I have parents? Why do they hurt me', 'why insult me', 'why does everyone hate me', 'why am I forced to eat from the garbage'? 'WHY DOES EVERYONE CALL ME A DEMON?!'

Realizing there was no more food in the garbage can, he stood up with tear stained cheeks and was about to leave for a place in the Konoha forest to eat his food.

Hokage's office

The Third Hokage, also known as The professor and The Third God of Shinobi, Hiruzen Sarutobi was observing the boy from his crystal ball with sadness in his eyes. As he looked at the conditions the boy was now living in, this sadness quickly got replaced by his anger. He had recently learned that Naruto was kicked out of the orphanage. This wasn't what he planned for the boy. He intended on keeping Naruto's Jinchuuriki (Power of the Human Sacrifice) status a secret from the villagers. However, the recent attempted kidnapping of the Heiress of the Hyuga clan and the political backlash had made him neglect the watch on the child for the past year. He knew that the boy's father, his former successor, wanted Naruto to be seen as a hero, but Hiruzen knew that would not be the case. The morning after the Kyuubi incident, he had called a council meeting to discuss the events that took place the night before. The moment he told the council about the kyuubi's sealing, most of the council had screamed for the 'Demon's' death. Other council members, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, Hiruzen's former teammates wanted confirmation for the Jinchuuriki's capability to fill the role so that he would stay loyal to Konoha. Then there was also Danzo Shimura. Danzo's intentions for the new vessel were for him to be trained in his Root ANBU standards under his direct control to create an emotionless weapon with the sole purpose of serving Konoha in his twisted way just like his 'special' ANBU Divison. In order to do this effectively, he wanted to have the boy as soon as possible to prevent the boy from adopting 'unnecessary emotions'. Root was an organization created during the reign of the Nidaime Hokage, Tobirama Senju. They were tasked with keeping the peace of the village by doing the most immoral and dirtiest of missions.

Ambitious clan heads like Fugaku Uchiha wanted to adopt Naruto into their own clans to increase the military and political power of their respective clans. In order to avoid all of these things and to keep his promise to Naruto's parents that he would take care of him, Hiruzen sent Naruto as a baby to the orphanage and made the council swear secrecy about Naruto's Jinchuriki status to make sure he would live a normal childhood, making his status a S-rank secret punishable by death if it was ever revealed. Hiruzen also forbade any interaction between older clan members and Naruto. Unfortunately, he could not adopt Naruto either as it could be seen as the Hokage wanting to increase his own power even further. However, someone discreetly spread rumors about his Jinchuuriki status to the rest of the village a few months ago. Whoever it was, did a damn good job hiding his identity. In order to give the boy some kind of normal life among his own age group, he enacted a law that forbade the population talking about the Kyuubi in any sort of manner. People that did, were to be executed on the spot. However, this would not stop the villagers as both civilians and shinobi alike had found the boy to be the target to vent all their negative emotions on. Who would enforce the law of a leader if most of his own soldiers did not follow the law? Who would stop everyone from talking about it in private?

Nevertheless, the damage was already done. For Hiruzen only 2 parties could have spread these rumors as the civilian council members and Danzo came to his mind. The first trying to get the child to suffer and die and the latter trying to get rid of any positive emotions and make the kid unstable to force him into Root.

And so, Naruto's hell began.

While he was watching the boy from his crystal ball, he saw the boy leave the alley. He sighed before getting up to leave the office to meet the boy for the first time.

Konoha forests

(A/N: scene from the filler episode of Shippuden where he meets Hiruzen in the forest, but with a slight adaptation.)

Naruto was now walking in one of the big forests of Konoha. Ever since he was kicked out of the orphanage, he went to the forest where there were no people to bother him. He always felt relaxed when he was surrounded by nature. Nature didn't hate him. So it made him forget the village's hate. He decided to go catch some fish for the night or maybe get some edible food from the plants or trees, something he usually did. After he was done, he built a small campfire a few meters from a small lake to cook his food. He didn't notice the pair of eyes that were approaching him from behind. After he finished cooking his first fish, he was about to bite down.

The boy was startled when an old man's head was smelling his food from behind him.

Panicking, he grabbed a big stone in his hand and was ready to smash it against the old man.

"W-who the hell are you, dattebayo?!" Naruto asked with fear clear in his voice. The man simply smiled and kept his distance. Inwardly the old man was very amused that the boy had a similar verbal tic to a certain red haired woman.

"I'm just an old man passing through," The elderly man replied, his smile never leaving his face.

He finally relaxed after the old man reassured that he meant no harm. They eyed one another for a moment until both of their stomachs growled furiously, both blushing in embarrassment. Naruto snapped out of it first when he offered some food to the kind old man who thanked the boy. They ate and made some small talk until they gazed at the stars above them. Hiruzen broke the silence first.

"Look at those stars. Yes. This world is boundless. Compared to the vastness of the world, man's existence is very insignificant"

"Yeah? You sure know a lot, dattebayo!" Naruto looked to the sky. "No kidding. The world is really big, huh?" Hiruzen nodded at that. "I wonder. How is the world outside these walls? What is out there?" Hiruzen was taken aback by this. Here he was listening to a child asking questions that kids twice his own age wouldn't even think of asking. He was also worried if Naruto wanted to leave the village, referring to the boy's previous questions. Before they could continue, both their stomachs growled again and they broke in laughter once again and started eating again.

Much to Naruto's happiness this would not be the only time he and 'Gramps' would spend time together as the man would later reveal himself to be the Third Hokage, much to Naruto's surprise and awe. Not long after, a caretaker would be assigned by Hiruzen to live with him.

On top of that, he would get a monthly stipend from the village for his daily needs. Naruto was shocked that anyone would be so kind to him. He couldn't help but give a large smile. He no longer had to sleep on the cold surface of the street.

1 year later

Naruto Uzumaki is now 5 years old in his bed staring at the ceiling. However, unlike other 5 year olds he wasn't living a happy childhood. When he got his apartment and caretaker from the Hokage, he was extremely happy. But to his disappointment, his happiness didn't last. His caretaker treated him so bad, that she was replaced after the first week. The second one, while not as bad, still treated him with nothing but contempt. Both were retired kunoichi's who didn't have children of their own. The Hokage had specifically chosen them, because he thought they would see Naruto as their own and they possessed the minimal knowledge of seals that were necessary to distinguish the boy from his 'tenant'. Sadly, things didn't go well. Both caretakers had lost friends or family members to the Kyuubi and took their anger on its vessel. The first one abused him both physically and mentally and would lock the door so he couldn't enter when the mob came that would often come to beat him up. She would even use the stipend Naruto had gotten for her own needs. The second caretaker at least didn't abuse him physically herself or lock him outside.

Due to his status as a Jinchuuriki, he would often get kicked out of stores or restaurants. Those willing to sell him, only did so if they could overcharge him. This led Naruto to only shop a few times a month in order to manage his monthly stipend he got from the Hokage. In the past, he asked his caretaker once if she could come shopping with him only to be violently refused. After the first caretaker was taken from duty, he tried his luck with the second one, only for her to refuse him also, albeit without violence. He decided to hunt or get fruits from the trees in the forest instead like he did in the past, because his caretakers often 'forgot' cooking food for him. However, there was one small ramen stand that did accept him. It was run by a middle aged man, named Teuchi Ichiraku and his daughter, Ayame Ichiraku.

Flashback 1 month ago

He had asked his caretaker for food. In response, he got a handful of painful words and no food. It was raining profusely and he quickly started getting soaked. He could feel himself getting cold from the rain. His stomach growled. He had barely eaten anything in the morning and it was already late. He wouldn't make it to the forest before night. When he walked in the streets, he could smell the delicious food out of the nearby restaurants. However, there was one that stood out the most. He ignored the glares and whispers around him. Following the smell, he saw a small stand named, Ichiraku ramen. He could see the several people sitting there slurping noodles within their throats. He looked in his pocket for money, only to find a few coins. He turned around with disappointment and left. He came back later that evening as the ramen stand was about to close. He didn't know why. But he just wanted to eat there. So he took a little peek out of the corner of the entrance of the ramen stand. The man who was cleaning the table noticed a blond boy peeking at his little ramen stand. Realizing who Naruto is, he gave the boy a kind smile and motioned for him to enter. Naruto made a squeaking noise at being caught staring and turned away but only to look back again in a very awkward way. The man just chuckled in amusement at the boy. Realizing he was allowed in, he entered the stand. Although, he was still a bit uneasy in case the man wanted to deceive him. It happened a few times before. The man simply went back to the kitchen and started making ramen.

From inside the kitchen a young girl who looked a few years older than him, smiled kindly at him. That smile sealed the deal. He finally relaxed. The girl then approached him.

"Go ahead. Sit on the stool," she said with a warm and kind voice, but the boy couldn't quite reach up high enough to sit on it, much to the girl's amusement.

"Too high!" He whined, unknowingly making himself look even more adorable.

The girl couldn't take it anymore and screamed 'SO CUTEEEE!' when the boy brought his hands up with his watery blue eyes looking up at her as if telling her to lift him up. After recovering from her fangirlism, she scooped the boy up and sat him on the stool. She was surprised at how light the boy was.

'He must have been malnourished for a while now.' She had heard villagers yell 'Demon', Monster, murderer or any other horrific nicknames at the boy. She felt sad for the boy. He couldn't possibly be compared to the Kyuubi. One look at him was enough to tell her that the boy was not the monster that attacked her village almost 5 years ago. Besides, the boy was so cute with those whiskers. She always wanted a little brother, but her mother died during the Kyuubi attack. She proceeded to kiss the boy on the cheek, much to his confusion. For some reason, he felt warm when the girl did that. It was a welcome feeling for him. He only felt a similar warmth with the old Hokage, except this was even better. He didn't want the feeling to go away. The girl was curious about the whiskers even if she knew what the boy held. Letting her curiosity get the better of her, she gently touched and caressed his whisker marks. She widened her eyes when something absolutely 'adorable' happened. Naruto purred. She did it again for confirmation causing him to purr again. She practically had hearts in her eyes after that and couldn't stop rubbing his whisker marks with her fingers for minutes. Naruto felt like in dreamland. He never felt so relaxed in his life. When the girl had quit doing that, he reached out to her hand and put it back on his cheek. He didn't want her to stop anytime soon.

When the man returned with a bowl of ramen, the boy became amazed at what he saw. He wanted to dig into the food, but stopped and looked down solemnly.

"But Mister, I don't have money to pay."

"Until you are able to pay for your meals, you will get to eat for free here. Oh, I'm Teuchi by the way and this is my daughter Ayame." Finally, there were other people that treated him with kindness. Tears rolled down the boy's whiskered cheeks. After wiping them, he gave a big foxy smile.

"Thank you and nice to meet ya, Teuchi, Ayame! I am Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!"

Flashback end

Ever since that day, Ichiraku Ramen became a second home to him while Teuchi and Ayame became the closest thing to a family to him along with his Grampa, who would tell him stories about famous heroes, both shinobi and samurai. These stories always managed to excite him. He would occasionally go to the Hokage Tower simply to hear more stories or his Grampa would visit his apartment to spend some time with him and treat him to some ramen. He would also help the boy in his free time read more difficult words and even taught him how to write. Due to all this, his pain of loneliness started to fade a little bit. The villagers' hate was still equally strong, but with his bonds to his precious people he finally had shoulders to lean on.

'I am not alone.' He convinced himself as his thoughts went to his newly formed bonds. Gramps, uncle-Teuchi and big sister Ayame.

To be continued.

Author (Update 27/10/2023): Just fixed some small errors in the grammar and setup of my paragraphs.