Thought's

Weeks went by, and Naruto worked day and night until his hands bled. He was sure he hadn't done enough to make up for being a monster, and he had accepted the beatings Mistress had started giving him.

He had worked so hard that every surface of the orphanage was always clean, even the outside. It was hard to keep it that way, as almost every day, new graffiti covered the outside of the orphanage, making more work for Naruto.

Things had become harder for Naruto now that he'd stopped going through garbage cans in the middle of the village, and he hadn't had anything to eat since last week on Monday.

There it is again; that feeling where I'm about to pass out. No doubt from lack of sleep and malnutrition. Naruto truly believed he deserved this torture, and no amount of telling him differently would make him believe it less.

Naruto was excited. He hadn't seen gramps for weeks! Oh man, I'm gonna see gramps again! It's been ages. I can finally ask him!

Naruto was smart. It had taken him a while, but he had finally figured out that just working hard at the orphanage wasn't going to change anything. He needed something more life-risking.

It was that thought that lead him to the conclusion that the only way to get forgiveness from the villagers was to become a ninja of Konoha.

Using his three year old logic, he knew that the most important person of the village could let him go, and the most important person he knew was gramps.

I was walking past the mirror when I froze. "I can't go to see the Hokage looking like this." Turning around, I ran silently to the kitchen, and rummaged through the 3rd drawer until I found the scissors.

Back at the mirror I could see how bad my hair looked. It was longer for sure, but it did not look blonde at all. More brown with caked blood and dirt matted into it. Not to mention it reached past my shoulders.

No wonder Mistress always grabs my hair!

Taking the scissors, I hacked my hair off around two inches from my scalp, and carefully made sure the newly severed hair was disposed of, (buried in the back yard,) before shaking as much dirt as I could from it.

All set. Walking down the hall, I reached the door. Oh no, I'm done for, I thought as Mistress reached out from behind me, and wrapped her hand around my throat.

The whale of a woman slammed the skinny blonde haired boy to the ground, and his head made a loud crack on the stone floor.

Her face was red with rage, and she raised her other quivering fist to meet the blondes jaw that would later become a yellow and purple bruise on his previously flawless face.

Seeing the rage on her face, Naruto stopped struggling in her grasp, knowing he did something, so he deserved it

This only served to make her even angrier, and she released her hand from his throat. Holding him down with a fist to the gut, she pulled out a...

She pulled out a ninja blade known as a razor knife . Naruto started struggling again. Seeing this, he didn't want to die without fighting for Konoha, but to his dismay, she held him firm.

Screaming at him, "you demon, you're a wolf in sheep's clothing! You dare take food from my stores?! You will pay!!!!"

With this, the razor was raised to his throat. She paused before she dragged the razor down his throat, not enough to kill, but certainly enough for it to hurt.

Raising the blade to his face, she made three deep cuts on both sides of his cheeks, deep enough that any normal person would have died of blood loss.

Naruto however, was writhing around on the floor, screaming profanities at her as she beat the "dying" child black and blue.

All this did was make her beat him further. He realised this after a good 20 minuets later, and his screams stopped.

All that could be heard was Mistress's heavy breathing, and small whimpers of pain coming from the blonde.

With this, she yanked said blonde up, oddly satisfied with his light weight, and tossed him down the basement stairs.

Naruto patched his face up as best he could, and managed to stop the blood loss. It will however, undoubtedly scar his face.

//--------------------------------------\

Sarutobi was becoming increasingly worried about Naruto, whom he hasn't seen in about two months. Caught up with his Hokage duties, he hadn't been able to go find him.

Sarutobi promised himself that if Naruto missed the date next week, he would go and find him, Hokage duties or not.