A year passed since Naruto joined the Ninja academy. Just like most impressionable and oblivious young students, he had set his goal to be a Hokage one day. The villagers were not kind to him, so it was only natural for him to want to be someone respectable to gain their trusts.

If only that was possible with hard work only...

Everyone but himself succeeded in a simplehenge. Every timehe tried to transform into someone, either part of his body stayed the same, or he turned into a crude mockery of his intended targets. The worst humiliation was when he tried to trnasform into Umino sensei, but he only managed to change his hair color to that of Umino, nothing else. It took all his might (which wasn't much, because his diet was pretty suboptimal) to not cry and bolt out of his class when even the teachers started to laugh at how bad it was. At this rate, he would be stalled for a year and have to re do every thing with an upcoming new admits.

Naruto could not understand just why he couldn't do a simple jutsu like his peers. Did he not have enough chakra? or did have bad poor concentration? or was his body just not right? He pondered while roaming through a forest outside the village perimeter. He was not even a ninja, so as long as he managed to come back in time, he would not get in trouble. He distantly remebred this one older student whose name escaped him, but he couldn't do a ninjustu at all, so he was pouring everything in taijutsu...but does that make him a ninja? Someone who only can do taijustsu will not be a hokage...

"Well, I can't even do a simple henge..." Naruto berated himself.

He turned to get back home. The moon was dimmer than the usual. Umino sensei one time told him that the moon is bright only because of the sunlight was reflecting onto the moon. Yet, Naruto had this idea that Moon can still be bright on its own and even have some mystical powers...or so the books he read said. He liked being flashy and seeking attention, but it was also nice to walk alone under the moonlight.

,"...?"

Naruto felt something amiss. He had been walking 20 minutes back to the village now, but he was still in the word. Was he lost? But he had walked this path more than 30 times now. Sandiame will be extremely mad at him if he ends up sleeping in the woods, and he hated making him upset. He looked around the woods to find anything out of place. Nothing obvious, but Naruto could feel some...coolness in the air. He looked up the moon, and it was redder than before. Just where was he?

Rustle

Naruto, startled looked behind. It was just a rabbit that jumped out of a bush. Naruto sighed in a relief. Then he turned his head back -

- only to see a pale figure standing right in front of his face.

"..."

Humans would usually run when faced with terrifying sights, but sometimes, the terror became too great that they simply became incapable of flights for their survivals...and that was precisely the crisis that Naruto was in now. He did not see just a person, but an eerily pale entity with two eyes - staring right into Naruto's vivacious blue eyes- that were so black that Naruto would almost mistake them as empty sockets. There was also a cold, dark aura around the person. His neck was also twisted in on odd angle, tilting his head unnaturally.

Can you see me?

The voice heard like overlapping of two difference tones, echoing, and it made Naruto twitch. At the same time, , Naruto miraculously regained senses and slowly stepped backward. The person (?) - Naruto just did not know how to describe it - stepped forward in return.

You saw me.

It then smiled crookedly, and that's when Naruto ran, screaming for his life.