Chapter 1
Naruto was always a normal boy, or that's what he would tell himself. See deep down he thought of himself as a monster, his deep psychological scars have been left to tear away at his self-respect and even the way he saw himself.
He was sitting in his room in the orphanage, it was a pretty empty room, having only the essentials for one's survival. A bed, a carpet, a desk, a chair and a relatively small closet containing tattered and old clothes from older residents of the orphanage. Unlike the other kids, he wasn't allowed to go out and buy his own clothing, he never knew why and every time he had asked the matron of the orphanage just coldly told him he did not deserve new clothes.
The other kids that lived in the orphanage with him took this hatred towards Naruto as something that is normal and he ended up being bullied a lot growing up, he got in a lot of fights where kids would take his food or take any book he was reading or just not let him be in peace. Every time Naruto would complain to the matron, she would just ignore him and go on with her day as if nothing happened. Well, that was the case until the Hokage got involved and made the matron finally take care of the issue.
He never thought his life could get weirder than how it was right now, he didn't even know why he was hated and ignored by everyone. He thought that maybe his parents had done something bad and that's why he is the scapegoat of the village, but every time he had asked the Hokage why he would just say that he would tell him when he is older.
He sighed as he climbed up on his bed, tucking himself in under the ripped and dirty covers and using the hard, stained pillow to make himself as comfortable as possible.
"Maybe tomorrow will be a better day, it is my birthday anyways." He fell asleep that night thinking about how life would have been if he had parents to take care of him and teach him things.
October 20th
Naruto awoke in the morning; he would guess that it is around 7am judging by the sounds of the countless other newly awoken kids talking with their friends while making their way to breakfast.
He got out of bed changed into his daily wear. He folded his pyjamas nicely and placed them on his bed which he also made. He put on his shoes and proceeded to leave his room to go down to hopefully get some food today.
He reached the lunch hall as he quickly took the food that was given to him, and speed walked to the empty table in the corner of the hall. He pulled out the rusty and disgusting chair as he placed the tray on the table. Said table had the word "demon" and "bitch" etched all over it. He didn't know what the second word meant but he could still guess it was not something positive if "demon" was something to go from.
He sighed as he began inhaling his food at inhuman speeds so that he could leave first and get a good and quiet place to read a book in the living area of the establishment. The speed at which he ate his food was also just a thing he developed from the fear of having his food stolen and staying hungry for the rest of the day.
He kindly placed his empty plate in the area designated and left the food area without any words.
Time skip
Naruto was sitting in a corner of the living area reading an interesting book "Tales of a gutsy ninja". It had quickly become his new favourite book since the name of the main character was also Naruto! He felt like he could disappear into the book and imagine as if it is him that's going through all the impressive stories and doing all the cool ninja stuff.
His dream was one day becoming a shinobi of the leaf and at the end of his life one day also become the Hokage. This dream came from his admiration of the Fourth Hokage of Konoha. Minato Namikaze. He also felt that when he became Hokage people would not ignore him anymore and he would finally earn admiration from the village that despised him.
He was so deep in his train of thought that he never noticed the matron of the orphanage getting progressively angrier at the fact that he was "ignoring" her. She ended up nudging his shoulder as he immediately snapped out of it looking at her with fear in his eyes.
"You have a visitor boy." She said forcing herself to sound as neutral as possible towards the demon incarnate in front of her. His eyes lit up as he realised who the person was.
He quickly dropped his book and ran out towards the entrance of the orphanage finally reaching the old man standing out there. He had on a gorgeous flowing red and white cloak that wrote "3rd fire shadow" on it. He was also adorning a matching hat and a wide smile when he saw his favourite blonde boy.
"Naruto!" shouted Hiruzen Sarutobi the 3rd Hokage of Konoha as he bent down, as much as his old body could let him, and picked up the young and frail Naruto in a loving grandfatherly hug. Naruto smiled in his arms, he had really missed his grandfather figure. He was sad when he received his letter saying that due to important business he could not meet him any time soon but he would do his best to meet him on his birthday.
Naruto would never get mad at the old man. He knew that he was very held up by his Hokage business and never looked to him with anything other than pure admiration and love.
"Its nice to see you again Grandpa!" Naruto said as Hiruzen laughed heartily putting Naruto back down on the ground and grabbing his arm.
"It is nice indeed young Naruto. Now what do you say we get out of here and we can get some ramen in the meantime" The older man said as Naruto's eyes sparkled at the chance of having ramen.
"You know it Grandpa!" He shouted energetically as he pumped his fist cutely in the air and Hiruzen could not hold back from smiling dearly while looking at the boy.
Naruto finally returned in his room after being with his grandfather figure all day. He sighed contently as he closed his eyes and smiled knowing that there is one person out there that truly cares for him, other than ayame and teuchi of course! The father daughter duo had been there for him since day one. He remembers the day they found him crying alone in an alleyway alone and when they approached him and even offered him food and a place to stay until he was sorted out.
He looked at Ayame as his older sister and Teuchi as a parental figure. He was so happy to see their smiles when he entered their small ramen shop as they shout in happiness when they see their favourite (and best) customer come back.
While deep in thought he remembered what today also was, the Kyubi Festival. The day where the mighty fourth Hokage managed to defeat the nine tailed fox giving his life to save the village he loved with all his soul. It was a beautiful story, and it was even other villages could respect when hearing. It really showed the maturity and love the young Hokage had for his village. Truly the will of fire.
He decided that today would be the day. He had promised his grandpa that he would never sneak out during the Kyubi festival, even though he never even knew why he couldn't. He decided that enough was enough though and today would be the day where he finally goes to see what all the secrecy is about.
He had enough of constantly listening to the other kids discussing how beautiful and fun the festival is every time it happens so now he will go out and experience it for himself.
Sneaking out was uncomfortably easy. All the workers and almost all the kids of the orphanage had left the building so that they could all go and have fun at the festival so all he really needed to do was be quiet and just leave the building from the front entrance.
He traversed the beautifully lit streets of Konoha with red lights and all kinds of decorations, most of them being shaped into over exaggerated versions of the nine tailed demon fox. Kids giggled running through the crowds holding all different kinds of candy and other snacks and goods that you could find in a celebration. He smiled to himself finally understand what this all was about.
It was super fun! He was really enjoying himself just walking around and looking at all the different parades and games and vendors that have set up in the main street of Konoha.
Everything was going swimmingly until-
"Lookie here guys! It's the demon itself. We should teach it a lesson about why it should not be outside this night." The leader of a relatively big group of drunk villagers and even a few low ranking shinobi. The group smiled sadistically at Naruto as he turned around to run as fast as he could through the winding roads and alleyways, trying to find any possible escape from this hell.
He ran through countless back alleys and dark roads only to end up in a dead end.
"No no no no no." he whispered to himself trying to see if he had enough time to turn back.
"Hahaha look guys! The demon got lost! Its okay runt we will make sure you find your way home after we teach you a valuable lesson!" The lead villager said as he took out a very sharp and very dangerous kunai from his back pocket.
Naruto looked towards them scared at what might happen to him.
"Give it to him Kosuke!" said some of the villagers cheering him on as he stood in front of the young kid menacingly.
"You know demon, the third Hokage made a law which doesn't allow us to hurt you at all, let alone kill you." He said as he bent down " But after I am done with you, there is no way you will remember what happened here tonight." He said as he smiled sadistically towards Naruto and without warning began the torturing.
Naruto couldn't anymore. He had lost his voice half way through the torture and by that point he could only stare lifelessly hoping he is saved by anyone.
'Someone, anyone… Please' He thought to himself, not having enough strength to even use his voice, what he didn't expect though was to receive an answer. It was more of a whisper really.
Naruto opened his eyes again wide feeling suddenly rejuvenated from the onslaught of attacks he had been receiving for the past 15 minutes. He stuck his arm out in front of him towards the mob of villagers who stopped to stare.
"What are you doing demon child?" Kosuke said wearily stepping back slowly but it was useless.
"Shinra Tensei!" Naruto shouted as suddenly an invisible force around him pushed all the villagers back full force into walls or other debris in the now long abandoned road.
Last thing Naruto could remember seeing was Kosuke and his mob standing back up slowly and running as fast as their damaged bodies let them many stumbling along the way. Naruto after making sure no more danger was around him succumbed to his injuries which came back tenfold due to his adrenaline slowly disappearing.