Chapter 1 The Humblest of Beginnings
Naruto threw the last bit of hay onto the pile and sighed a sigh of accomplishment while wiping his hands.
He looked up at the bright sun, "Three years.", he mumbled to himself.
It had been three years since Naruto left the leaf village. He was sixteen now and had grown in more ways than one.
He was now very tall and muscular, had a tan from working in the hot sun, and had a long mane of blond hair. He'd taken to the simple life. In fact, he loved it.
While he still trained his body and chakra every day, he loved the worriless life he led as a farmer.
The man on the cart three years ago had taken him to a village named Tasero, located in northern Mountain Country. There, he met his beloved girlfriend, Uchyo and his friend group.
Life in Tasero, while slow, was good. The village wasn't well off, but they also weren't poor.
The hard work Naruto and his friends went through everyday left them little time to complain.
He often found himself simply living in the moment, enjoying the company of others and his new life.
"Done already?", laughed an older man. Naruto turned to give him a smile, "Yes, Osai. Don't worry about paying me early though.". Osai only laughed a homely laugh as he pulled out a pouch of gold.
"Nonsense! Why would I hold out on my strongest worker? I bet you could finish triple a normal man's work in half the time if you were paid to!".
Naruto caught the gold Osai threw with one hand and scratched the back of his head with the other.
"You think too highly of my strength, Osai.", he chuckled. Osai lifted a brow,
"Too high?", "Did you forget that you saved my daughter's life the first year you were here by beating a grown man?" Osai smirked, then laughed louder than he had before.
Despite Naruto's modesty, what Osai was saying was true. Naruto was stronger than the average man because of his background as a shinobi. While he didn't tell anyone he was a ninja from the leaf, he told them he was raised to be a weapon and that seemed to extinguish their curiosities enough.
Once Osai had left, the daughter he was speaking of came out of the nearby house.
"Done?", she asked, already knowing the answer. Naruto nodded, "Yes my love. Do you wanna go to the bar?" Uchyo nodded positively in return.
Despite Naruto only being 16 and Uchyo 17, most countries considered you an adult at 14 with hidden villages being the exception, considering you an adult as soon as you become a ninja no matter the age.
As they walked along the roads of Tasero, hand in hand, they enjoyed each other's presence before Uchyo finally spoke, "You know, I'm glad I met you Naruto.". Naruto looked over to her and nodded with a smile, "Me too Uchyo." That was all that was said between the lovers until they arrived at the bar with the rest of their friends.
"Naruto! Uchyo! Bout time you two lovebirds finally arrived! Busy fucking or-", Abe was cut off when his girlfriend slapped him in the back of the head.
"Ah damn! Come on Tora, I was just joking!", he said as he frantically rubbed his ringing head after the blow.
Naruto and Uchyo both chuckled at the sight.
"We saved you guys a seat.", said Isuro while also sending a dangerous glare to her boyfriend, Chino, daring him to make a joke like Abe's.
Chino, feeling the death glance from his lover, avoided eye contact and resorted to looking at Naruto, "Is it just me or do the women here rule with an iron fist?", he snarkily joked, Naruto giving a laugh.
"Ah, I can't say I have any complaints. I'm rather unchained.", Naruto jested back with Abe snorting at the statement.
"I assure you, that makes only one of us.", he said with mock fear towards his women.
"Well,", Chino began, "I can say Isuro is only submissive in bed.", as the joke left his lips he found himself dodging playful blows from Isuro.
The group laughed, drank and ate into the late night until each couple went back to their respective houses. Despite none of them being older than 18, all three men had worked hard to buy houses in the village and their girls had moved in with them with or without their parents' permission as they were now adults.
Once the late night festivities were over, Naruto was laying with Uchyo asleep on his chest. He was deep into thought as he stared at the roof.
Once he'd finally drifted off to sleep, he had the same dream he always had.
"Sasuke!", he screamed as charged towards his old friend with a kyubi-powered rasengan in hand. Sasuke with his chidori. Unfortunately, Naruto didn't aim his rasengan properly and ended up hitting Sasuke in his face while taking the chidori to the heart. "GAHHHH"
He was thrown out of his sleep. This felt like the third time in the past five days. They were getting worse.
"Damn it.", he cursed under his breath, sure not to wake Uchyo.
He got up from his bed carefully and went outside to catch fresh air.
"Fucking Uchiha.", he spat aloud.
"Ha, your hate towards their kind is admirable, mortal."
"The hell?", Naruto said aloud again before realizing who the voice belonged to.
"Kyubi.". He said simply.
"Yes." The beast laughed.
"The hell you want?" Naruto snarled, he had some hate for the Kyubi as he suspected it was one of the reasons he was forced to leave.
"Oh, nothing yet. The question is what do you want?" Kyubi said, trickery prominent in his demonic voice.
"Nothing. So fuck off." Naruto said dryly.
"Hmph. You'll be back. I'm sure." With that, Naruto felt the Kyubi's presence in his mind dissipate, leaving him to his own thoughts again.