Summary: A single experience can change everything for a single person. Naruto changes after he dreams about this old man and discovers the truth about himself. He forges his way into this rotten Shinobi world even when hated. "You will not break me!" Naruto Uzumaki will never give up, no matter what! His willpower can't be broken.
"Naruto." Speech
'Naruto.' Think
Past events/Flashbacks
"Summon and Tailed Beast Speech."
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Warning: English isn't my native language.
‚Shit, I can't concentrate!' Naruto threw the leaf away he held in his hand and stood up. He walked in circles with his hand on his chin. He tried not to think about it but always remembered his conversation with Hiruzen Sarutobi.
He stopped beside a tree and yelled in frustration. "GOD DAMN IT!" His fist shot forward like he had trained on the bolder already hundreds of times and crashed against the hard tree trunk. He punched the tree with his other fist before he used his other fist again. This cycle repeated a bit, where he cursed and punched the tree.
Even after 10 minutes, he was still cursing and punching the tree, and already, a little hole was beginning to appear from all the punches. Naruto didn't care that he punched the hard tree trunk with his bare fist and always felt a jolt of pain shooting up his arm into his brain.
His almost inhuman stamina, due to his Uzumaki heritage, wasn't helping him calm down. He could go on for more than a few minutes, but with one last roar, he drove his fist deep into the tree trunk. He gasped and looked at his fist buried in the tree trunk.
He took a deep breath and sighed deeply before he pulled his fist out of the tree trunk. He sat down on the ground and leaned at the tree; he punched for 10 minutes straight and looked up into the tree's foliage. The sun's rays broke through the tree's foliage and hit Naruto in some places. He didn't care that his knuckles were bleeding from all the impacts on the hard tree trunk. His wounds would heal up sooner or later anyway. He wouldn't die from those minor wounds. If Uzumaki or not, those wounds were nothing.
His eyes were unfocused as he considered everything that had happened so far in his life. Why did the fourth Hokage choose him and not another baby? Why did it have to be Naruto and not someone else? He couldn't get it. The fourth Hokage was the one who sealed the Nine-Tails into him, or at least he should have sealed the Nine-Tails inside of Naruto.
If that was true or not, he always viewed the fourth Hokage as a hero from Konoha. Someone he respected and looked up to, but now? That changed drastically when he heard from Hiruzen how the fourth Hokage was the one who decided to turn Naruto's life into a living hell.
The worst thing about it was that he couldn't do anything about it. He was a newborn baby at the time, damn it! How could someone turn the life of a baby into a living hell? Everyone always talked about how babies were meant to be protected and raised properly, but that wasn't the case for Naruto. Before he could even feel the love of his parents or other positive things, a massive beast was sealed inside of him, and he had to get used to hate, ignorance, isolation, and other things. What a damn joke.
Another joke was that the beast wasn't even inside of him! Naruto didn't know if the Nine-Tails ever was inside of him. If the Nine-Tails never was inside of him then everyone hated him for nothing since they wouldn't know it. Everyone thought the Nine-Tails was inside of him.
"Fuck this shit!" He looked at the ground. "I hate this village." His ear twitched slightly when he heard the voice of a few birds above him. He saw how a bird was feeding his children.
…
"Thank you for reminding me of my situation of having no family." He stood up and walked away from the tree he punched a hole into with a clear destination in mind. A little lake was in the nearby environment where he liked to go. He stood at the lake's edge 5 minutes later and looked at his reflection on the water's surface.
He said nothing and simply looked at his face on the water's surface. It was blank and showed no emotions, even when the rage was building up inside of his body again. He took some deep breaths and tried not to explode. He could handle everything; he just needed some time to clear his mind.
Naruto wanted to scream out in frustration but didn't. He decided to ignore chakra control for today since he didn't have the concentration. He would train his taijutsu and his body the entire day. It always helped him to get a clear mind. An intense workout session and, afterward, Taijutsu training were exactly what he needed right now. He walked back towards the clearing where he usually trained.
He fell into a push-up position. He began with push-ups and tried to focus only on his workout. 5 hours later, after an intense workout where he performed multiple full-body exercises, his mind was clear again, and he calmed down. He could control his emotions again, and he accepted them as usual. He could cry and curse everything even more, like before the workout, but it would bring nothing. He would only waste his time.
He wasn't suppressing them; he was accepting that he couldn't change how the villagers viewed him. Even if he would tell everyone that the Nine-Tails wasn't inside of him anymore, he questioned the villagers' reaction. They hate him too much and would most likely never believe him. His ability to adapt to almost every situation has allowed him to survive. If he couldn't adjust accordingly, he would have died long ago. After all, he lived on the streets for six months when he was four. The orphanage that raised him didn't let him live there anymore.
After six months, the third Hokage found him in one of the side streets. Naruto mostly slept in the sewers of Konoha and had his hideout there. His mind had to grow faster and adapt to the situation. Otherwise, he would have died during those six months on the street without any help.
He was in a lotus position on the clearing, closing his eyes. He wanted to meditate a bit since this always helped him to work things out. The aspect of feeling the chakra from oneself wasn't the aspect he used meditation for. He only focused on his thoughts.
Feeling nothing around yourself and only hearing your thoughts was an excellent way to come to terms with his thoughts. Now that he could control himself again after he had exhausted himself and worked out, this was a good thing to do.
Izumi Uchiha looked blankly through the 2 holes in the Anbu mask she wore. She never once revealed herself like she was being told. If she was honest with herself, watching Naruto was a bit liberating. Usually, she wouldn't have time for anything since she had to watch her clan.
The weight that stacked up on her shoulders became more and more. A specific individual already told her that it would be necessary for the village's safety to destroy her clan. She couldn't believe it if she was honest. What should she do?
But all of that wasn't on her mind right now. Everything she thought about was the little blond-haired boy in the clearing meditating. Clearly, he hated the villagers just as much as the villagers hated him, yet he didn't do anything that would mean he would take revenge. He cursed and exhausted himself to get this rage and anger out of his system.
Also, his words were always repeated in her head. "Thank you for reminding me of my situation of having no family." She couldn't describe it, but when she heard those words, she got a certain feeling. She never had the problem Naruto had. She always had a loving mother, a father, a loving little sister, and all other members of the Uchiha, including her best friend and mentor, Shisui.
She loved the village and her family. What should she do regarding her clan and the village? She didn't know. She was just glad it was still some time before the climax of the situation between the two fronts. Also, having something else to do was a bit refreshing.
Naruto's eyes shot open, and he jumped up into a standing position, turning around in a flash. Izumi narrowed her eyes when she saw Naruto's reaction. Naruto looked toward a certain bush and narrowed his eyes. He didn't know why he reacted this way. It was like his body moved on his own.
He could see how the bush moved a little before a little blue toad jumped out. Naruto blinked a few times and sighed when he saw the Toad. He stretched once and turned around, his attention going to the bolder to train his Taijutsu a bit before he went home for the day.
But before he could go away, the blue toad landed before him and looked at Naruto. Naruto raised an eyebrow and crouched down to look the Toad directly in the eye. "Do you want something from me?" He touched the Toad with his index finger and got wide eyes when, out of nowhere, a black sealing formula appeared under the blue Toad and spread even under Naruto.
Izumi saw that and got wide eyes. She already dashed toward Naruto and the Toad but was too late. Naruto and the Toad vanished when smoke erupted in his old position. She landed on the ground where Naruto and the Toad were just 2 seconds ago. She crouched down and examined the ground where the black seal appeared out of nowhere. She narrowed her eyes when she could still make out some traces of an unknown chakra with her Sharingan. She rose into a standing position and made a hand sign before she vanished in a puff of smoke. She would need to report this to the Hokage immediately.
Naruto had both arms in front of his face because of the eruption of smoke. He opened his eyes and lowered both arms when he felt a warm sensation. He took a step back when he saw a giant mountain in front of him that stood entirely on fire. Every tree on the mountain, which resembled a Vulcan, was burning.
Naruto looked over his shoulder and saw a giant swamp with steam all around the swamp. The water was pretty dark, and Naruto couldn't see how deep the swamp was or what was inside it. It was pretty surreal, if he was honest. Beside a burning mountain was a swamp of steam all around it. He looked further along the burning mountain and saw steam around the mountain.
He raised both eyebrows when he felt something. It was like someone was talking to him without actually talking to him. It was weird to explain. It was like someone made his attention clear without saying anything, and Naruto knew what that person or creature wanted.
He turned around and saw the creature that wanted something from him. It was a blue toad like the one he saw in the forest at Konoha. "Wait… you mean you guys summoned me here because you want something from me?"
The little blue Toad croaked once, and Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Wait, now that I think about it… don't Toads live on Mount Myōboku?"
The Toad croaked once more, and Naruto had wide eyes. "You are part of another tribe of Toads?"
He got his answer when steam erupted from the little toad's body. "So, you are the tribe of Steam Toads… why have you summoned me? I am no one special."
The toad croaked once.
"Your boss told you to summon me because I am worthy to be your summoner?"
The toad croaked once.
"OK, lead the way. I will follow you."
Naruto followed the little blue toad into the steam surrounding the flaming mountain. Naruto also got the name where he was here. He was on Kaen, the burning mountain where the steam toads lived. This was a sacred place like Mount Myōboku. The steam toads once were part of Mount Myōboku, but after some were left behind, they found their way toward this mountain and changed to be able to live there.
They gained the ability to erupt steam from their bodies to make it possible to live around the burning mountain. A few minutes later, Naruto found himself inside a massive cave. He wandered around the swamps surrounding the burning mountain and saw a rock formation after a few minutes. A giant rock formation covered the valley where the burning mountain was located and the steam-covered swamps where the toads lived.
When he was directly in front of the burning mountain, he didn't see the rock formation because of the steam that surrounded the burning mountain. He saw a giant blue toad with yellow eyes. (Author Note: The giant toad that Kashin Koji always summoned beside the little blue once.)
Naruto narrowed his eyes when he realized why he had been summoned to Kaen. "To summon it all up for me… you waited for me specifically to be born and to grow up because you were told that I would be the chosen one?"
Steam from two holes erupted on the giant toad's backside before he croaked once. "This was part of a prophecy the elder toad from Mount Myōboku told you?"
After another croak, Naruto narrowed his eyes. "When you still have contact with Mount Myōboku, why are you and your tribe don't go back? Don't you all want to live where you originally came from?"
Naruto raised both eyes after he heard the answer. "No? Why? I thought you would love to return to your original homeplace."
…
"I see. No wonder you and your tribe prefer to live here." After the Toads moved to this place, they didn't have the urge to return to Mount Myōboku. They changed so they could live here, and why would they want to return when this was their new home?
The giant toad croaked once more, and Naruto nodded. "I accept. I will gladly become your first summoner, Gamataro."
Gamataro croaked once, and a giant blue scroll appeared on the ground in front of Naruto. He rolled the scroll out and saw that it had no name so far. This proved that the steam toads had never had a summoner before.
Naruto did what Gamataro told him. He wrote his name in blood and placed his hand under it before he took it away. The bloody name and handprint shone before they became black.
"Good."
Naruto had wide eyes when he heard Gamataro's voice. He looked up at the giant boss of the steam toads and looked into his yellow eyes. "Did you just speak?"
"Yes. Now that you are officially our summoner, you can hear my voice. Normally, this wouldn't be necessary, but my tribe is a bit special, as you already noticed."
"Yes. You mentioned it before. Can I understand the other toads now as well?"
"No. But that won't be necessary since you can communicate with us just with your thoughts. I made it possible to hear my voice through the contract because this creates a stronger bond between the summoner and his partner. When you need someone to fight for you, I will always be the one you will summon. The other members of my tribe aren't specialized for the fight. They are made for espionage and information gathering."
Naruto appeared in the same spot where he vanished. He held a scroll where the summoning jutsu and reverse summoning jutsu were described. Those two jutsu were necessary for Naruto to learn first and as soon as possible to summon the toads or summon himself towards Mount Kaen, where the steam toads live. He would try to learn those two jutsus as fast as possible since he would get training from the toads. He would get trained in many fields since toads could use many different things. Gamataro, for example, could use water, fire, and wind jutsus. Toads were also masters in infiltration.
It was a bit strange to hear, but after Naruto saw some things the steam toads could do, he was convinced. He would need to learn the two jutsus as soon as possible to be able to get to Mount Kaen every time he wanted.
An Anbu appeared before him, and shortly afterward, Naruto found himself inside the Hokage Office again. Things were hectic in the village when Naruto vanished to Mount Kaen. He explained everything to Hiruzen, and after an hour, he could go. He stood in front of the Hokage building with his scroll in hand. He looked up toward Hiruzen's office before turning around and jumping on the next roof to get home quickly.
Someone knocked on his door after he came home, and it was already dark. He was in the middle of cooking himself something. He learned cooking from the 2 precious people he had in this damn village.
He stopped cutting the meat and vegetables and laid the knife down before leaving the kitchen. He walked to his apartment door and opened it. He was surprised when an older girl stood in front of him. She looked familiar, but he didn't know from where he knew her.
"Hello." Naruto greeted the older girl. He would say the girl was 12-14 years old just from the looks of it. "Can I help you?"
The girl had black eyes under long, pronounced tear troughs and jet-black hair pulled back in a low ponytail. Her face was framed with center-parted bangs that extended to her chin. The girl wore the typical Uchiha outfit: a high-collared dark shirt, pants, and blue sandals.
"I am sorry for the late disturbance." Her voice was devoid of emotion. She looked pretty distant and had a blank expression on her face. She was calm and calculated, her emotions in control, and those kinds of things were screaming at Naruto.
"My name is Izumi Uchiha." Naruto raised an eyebrow at the older girl. "I am here to give you something." She held a scroll in her hand before she extended her hand toward Naruto. "In this scroll are advanced chakra control exercises."
Naruto took the scroll of the older scroll with a confused look. "Someone told me about you and your problem with your chakra control. Those exercises are normally not needed for academy students, but since you have a high amount of chakra, you need those advanced exercises to improve your chakra control faster."
"Uhm… thank you. I appreciate the help, but who told you about me? No one likes me." Naruto wasn't stupid. He was sure that even this girl before him knew about his situation and status as Jinchūriki.
"I can see the difference between a scroll and a kunai sealed inside the scroll." With her blank face, the girl looked into Naruto's widened blue eyes.
Naruto couldn't say anything right now. That was the first moment a stranger accepted him as Naruto Uzumaki and even helped him without even meeting him once before. He was completely overwhelmed.
"Sorry, I don't know what to say. Would you like to come inside? I was about to cook." Naruto may be foolish to invite a stranger into his apartment, but this girl was the first to accept him so openly without even knowing him. Besides his two precious people, the father-daughter duo from Ichiraku were the first two people who helped him without knowing him.
Izumi remained silent for a second. She was here because her mother told her to bring this scroll to Naruto. She didn't even know that her mother knew Naruto so well. It was like she knew him from his birth. She knew some of his quirks, his hobbies, and the likes. She never saw how her mother met Naruto or talked about him.
When she told her mother about the accident with Naruto with the permission of the third Hokage, her mother instantly instructed Izumi to bring him the scroll. She was also supposed to ask him something.
"Someone I know wants to meet you. Would you be willing to come with me?" Her mother wanted to meet Naruto.
"I am sorry, but I have to decline. I already began to cut meat and vegetables."
Izumi nodded in understanding. "I see. I am sorry for the disturbance; I will take my leave."
Naruto looked at how Izumi turned around and walked away. He closed the door and looked at the ground. He would have loved nothing more than to go with the girl, but he was very skeptical about anyone who helped him. 8 long years passed, and nothing like this happened in his life.
Where were those people who appeared out of nowhere to help him in the last 8 years? He couldn't trust anyone so quickly, even when he wished he could. He experienced too much betrayal in his life.
Naruto entered his bedroom and placed the scroll from Izumi to the scroll with the summoning and reverse summoning jutsu before he walked back into the kitchen to cook and eat something. After that, he went to sleep.
Naruto came to the class the next day and walked toward the last row as usual. He placed his backpack beside him and the scroll in front of him on the table before he began to study sealing jutsu. After almost 10 hours of sleep, since he went to bed pretty early yesterday, he had a clear mind to learn and to concentrate on the usual things again.
He had to stop when the two loudest girls in the class came. Those two were Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka. He looked at them for a minute, how they argued about who won the race and then how they would sit next to each other. It was always an amusing sight, making him chuckle a bit before continuing.
He wrote something down on an extra scroll where he made notes on the subject he was studying right now. He was focused on his studies, so he didn't realize someone had approached him for the first time. Naruto wrote something down and wanted to look at the other scroll again before seeing a figure standing in the corner of his eye.
His gaze wandered to the person. "Shikamaru?"
"Can I sit here? Ino and Sakura are too damn noisy today." Shikamaru was the unfortunate boy who sat in the same row as Sakura and Ino. Being the laziest person in the class and someone who liked to sleep during class, sitting next to Sakura and Ino was like a curse because both could become loud when they argued about something.
"Sure." Shikamaru nodded thankfully and sat down next to Naruto before he laid his head on the table and closed his eyes. Naruto continued his studies, and nothing major happened until four hours passed.
Break time started, and like usual, Naruto wanted to remain in class to continue studying. His goal of achieving the number one spot on the boys' side was still present in his mind, and he still had much to study. He couldn't waste any time, and since he had no friends anyway, going into break time was simply a waste of time in Naruto's position.
For the first 2 minutes, he could engage in his studies like usual since Shikamaru was still sleeping beside him. It was always like this with Shikamaru. He always slept during class and never did something he had to do. He was a typical lazy Nara.
"Hey Naruto, Shikamaru!" Naruto's ears twitched when he heard a female voice calling up to the two. He raised his gaze from his scroll and looked down toward the sliding door. There stood Ino, with her long blond hair and azure eyes with seemingly no pupil.
"Do you two come?" Ino called up to the two boys. It had been an unusual month. Naruto's pranks stopped, and he wasn't annoying like usual. Everyone first thought he was planning a prank for everyone, but most children became curious after one month. Ino and Sakura were two of those children. What happened with the dead last that he studied, always came to class, and even studied in the break time? It was the childish curiosity, and even when she and her best friend made fun of him in the first two years at the academy, he was the cause to some extent. Who wouldn't make fun of someone who always makes himself the clown?
His progress in shuriken and kunai training, taijutsu matches, and overall physical results improved drastically. He could outrun almost every boy now besides someone like Kiba. His accuracy with Shuriken and Kunai improved, and he won most of the taijutsu matches even when it was close most of the time. Still, he had lost to someone like Choji for the longest time, and now he was winning against him.
Naruto raised an eyebrow when Ino casually spoke to him. He would have understood if she had called Shikamaru, but she had called him too. Something wasn't right. He thought about it for a second but decided to remain in the classroom since the others would likely only tease him.
"Sorry, Ino, but I have to study." He looked down at the scroll again and didn't see the spark of curiosity in Ino's eyes. Now, she knew something wasn't right with Naruto Uzumaki, the dead last in the class and the class clown. Since Shikamaru didn't react, she huffed once at his lack of reaction and walked out toward the others.
To this day, no boy caught her attention, but Naruto Uzumaki was slowly beginning to crawl into her interest. The curiosity from Ino rose over the last four weeks, and now she wanted to get to know Naruto personally. She would get his attention sooner or later. She hoped her best friend didn't have the same plan since she caught her looking back at Naruto once or twice. She was sure Sakura was also curious about Naruto's changes.
After all, both were 8-year-old girls, and someone who changed so much and didn't talk to anyone was a bit mysterious, and this spark of uncertainty was something girls of this age were naturally drawn to.
"Thanks." Naruto looked to his side and raised an eyebrow. "For what?"
Shikamaru looked at him with sleepy eyes. "For sending the troublesome girl away." He went back to sleep, and Naruto sweat dropped a bit before he shook his head and went back to studying.
Author Note: I hope you all enjoyed the second chapter of this story. I wish you all the best! Stay strong, friendly, healthy and happy! I believe in all of you! See you all in the next chapter.