"Character Speaking"

'Character Thinking'

- The start and ending of a flashback (In some ocassions a Character's reminiscence).

I don't own Naruto, but you already knew that didn't you?

--

Minato's attempt at sealing the Kyuubi went wrong, very very wrong.

The old fox noticed Minato's use of the Shiki Fuujin upon feeling a tug on his chakra and seeing the Shinigami on the Hokage's back, in a desperate attempt to save himself he managed to break the hold of Kushina's chains, severing her head with one of his claws.

'K-Kushina' Thought Minato as he watched his wife's head leaving her body, he was trembling in horror, sadness and fury and as the tears rolled down his face his will to fight started to falter, how could it not? The woman he loved above everything else was just beheaded in front of him, no matter how strong or resilient Minato could be, there's only so much a man can take, but he had to get a hold of himself, there was a lot at stake here and the sound of a crying baby reminded him of that fact, he found comfort in knowing he wouldn't live much longer.

The Kyuubi picked the wailing baby up with one of his tails, taking Naruto very close to his mouth. He looked down at Minato's trembling body.

A threat.

Snarled the Kyuubi, clear disgust in his voice when talking to Minato.

The Yondaime Hokage seeing very little choice complied and willed the Shinigami to stop while he directed the chakra he managed to take from the kyuubi into Naruto's little body, a seal-like mark appeared on the the boy's stomach and as soon as it appeared, it dissolved into nothing.

Normally, a seal of this nature fades into the recipient's body and only shows itself when the recipient channels chakra. The seal on Naruto shattered and turned into a puddle of ink.

Seeing this Minato realized that sealing the chakra in his newborn had failed and it was too late now to redirect the half of the fox's chakra he sealed in his own body.

Knowing his life was about to end and that there was nothing he or anyone could do, the Hokage decided to try one more thing.

"Kyuubi..."

The old fox had to blink at that, not even his siblings address him with that level of familiarity.

"I have something to ask of you." Now he was surprised. "Please, leave..."

He just stared at him, almost like looking at his soul. "We both know you didn't attack on your own will, and even if I despise you for what you did to my wife. You're as much of a victim as Kushina and the people of this village were, you were denied your freedom since before I was born and now Naruto here..." The Hokage took one last look at his son.

"Naruto here will have to grow up without his parents because of the mistakes of dead men." Senju Hashirama gave away the bijuu like they were pets in his search for peace, what did he accomplish again? "So I'm asking you... no, I'm beggin you Kyuubi..."

"Be free."

If you ask the Shinigami why they allowed this to go on for so long the answer would be I don't know whether it was out of respect for the dying man or the millenium fox standing in front of them - they don't really know, but this was as long as their grace extended and with the legendary man's parting words the God of Death took his soul and vanished.

That was the scene the sandaime arrived to, a collapsing Hokage holding a headless woman, a crying baby and a gigantic fox standing in front of him.

His ANBU were ready to move and the old Hokage stood his guard, as amusing as it was for the fox to see them thinking they stood a chance, he had no wish to stay in this village any longer.

Both the ANBU and the old Hokage were confused to say the least, they weren't dumb enough to trust the fox, kitsune were very cunning and deceitful creatures after all, but they knew they stood no chance against the immortal.

Said the fox interrupting everyone's thoughts,

At that Hiruzen stared in disbelief,

'Madara?'

Kyuubi looked away from the battlefield.

With that, the Kyuubi turned around and walked away, while the Sandaime quickly picked up the crying baby and started to retreat, if the Yondaime couldn't subdue the fox no one in this village could, the Shiki Fuujin seal on his successor's stomach was enough proof of that.

Said the fox, stopping the ANBU and Sandaime on their tracks.

"Huh?" Was the - oh so eloquent - response of the tired old man.

And as he said those words, the legendary Kitsune vanished into nothingness, the only evidence of his presence was the cloud of red smoke left behind.

---

The sun was shining brightly, a large contrast with the chilling breeze. It has been years since the kyuubi attack, the village is recovering slowly but steadily.

In an apartment not too far away, the hokage and a young boy could be seen eating while talking to each other.

Soon, the room turned silent when the boy abruptly brought up the question that the old Hokage dreads so much.

"Jiji, did you know my parents?" Poor boy had lost count of how many times he asked that very same question, at this point he asked because it turned into a habit not because he actually hoped to get an answer.

The old hokage sighed, "Naruto-kun..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen was a powerful and respected man, but like any other he was human and humans make mistakes, now he realizes not telling the little kid of his heritage was one of them.

He had decided that keeping that information from him would keep him safe, Minato Namikaze made a lot of enemies and if there was a chance those enemies would retaliate and seek revenge through the man's only child he wouldn't take it, so he didn't, and kept the secret on a need to know basis for the past six years waiting for his own student and the legendary man's sensei to approach the boy about it when he felt the time was right.

Looking at it now, he realizes that might not have been for the best.

The boy was very smart and Hiruzen was aware of this, but he was also mature enough to handle being an orphan and living by himself, Sarutobi was sure he could keep such a secret if he was explained exactly why it needed to be a secret, his own student however didn't know the boy near enough to realize such a thing 'not that he made any effort to ever get to know him at all' mused the Hokage but immediately shove that thought away, it wasn't important right now.

Naruto was a very lonely child, he knew nothing about his parents. He wasn't ostracized or hated, he was just upset, sad, lonely and confused, like any other child would in his situation.

The day of the Kyuubi attack, the hospital took heavy damage, the nursery being completely destroyed. Many children's lives were lost that day and Naruto, being the lone survivor, gained quite a reputation.

Not as a Jinchuriki or a 'Demon child' - although some people had some questionable theories - but as a reminder, a reminder of what a lot of people lost, and some of those people would go out of their way to let him know just that, thankfully that was only some hurt and stupid people, the problem was that Naruto didn't like pity and that was the way everyone would look at him. It made Naruto develop survivor's guilt, top that with the hardships being an orphan entails and it was a recipe for disaster.

"I made a mistake Naruto and I hope you can forgive me." Naruto perked up, confused on why the old man was saying this so suddenly.

"Come with me, there's a lot we need to discuss." Both left on their way to the Hokage's office, Hiruzen really wasn't looking forward to telling him about Minato, and he wouldn't - he would however explain why it's being kept a secret, knowing that you're being lied to is better than knowing nothing at all - but he figures no harm in telling him about his mother and the Uzumaki clan.

---

Years have passed and now the young ninja - Naruto - has finally passed the graduation exam.

Although, it wasn't an easy ride to graduation.

Naruto is a very smart and creative child, the pranks he sometimes played on people showed a level of creativity and detail many hoped to accomplish.

If only he was that dedicated to his other studies.

That is not to say he is academically dumb, he just doesn't try hard enough to learn 'boring' and 'useless' things that have 'nothing to do with being a cool ninja'.

He often offers the bare minimum to pass his written exams and that doesn't help much either which frustrates his sensei to no end, Umino Iruka was aware Naruto had the potential to be hailed as a prodigy but never tried hard enough to exploit that potential.

He did pass though, even if he had to work very hard to get the control necessary to perform the regular bunshin, apparently Naruto's chakra reserves were very big and dense even for an Uzumaki.

The Hokage suspects it has something to do with Naruto's chakra being purple like Iruka said it was when it started swirling around him during his examination.

-

"So you're saying, Naruto's chakra flared and swirled around him while he was trying to perform the Bunshin and it was a different color?"

"Yes Hokage-sama, Naruto's always had a hard time controlling the little amount of chakra he needs to perform the bunshin because of his large reserves,"

"But it isn't weird for someone's chakra to flare and swirl around them in these situations." And it wasn't, Naruto was just one of many with this kind of problem, but for some reason Naruto had a lot more trouble than it is normal, there was no real reason for his chakra reserves to be that big, even for an Uzumaki.

"What surprised me was the color of his chakra, until now I had never seen purple chakra, do you know what it means Hokage-sama?" Sarutobi Hiruzen wasn't hailed as The Professor for nothing, but even he had never heard of that, that is not to say he didn't suspect what could've caused that peculiar phenomenon but... some things are better left unsaid.

-

"Hokage-Sama! Uzumaki Naruto stole the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing!"

"No, he didn't."

The chunin tasked to inform the Hokage of what had happened moments ago was very confused about the blonde kid seated in the stool right next to the Hokage.

His face became quite a nice shade of red.

"Naruto-kun and I are having dinner together to celebrate his graduation, how could he have possibly stolen the scroll?"

The answer to that question was revealed not long after that.

Sarutobi took Naruto along with him back to his office, where they discovered that someone posing as Naruto had made his way into the tower while Hiruzen was away, too bad they didn't take into consideration who the Hokage was to Naruto.

"Iruka-sensei is in the forest with Mizuki-sensei." Declared the blonde.

"How do you know that Naruto?"

"I-I guess I just know? I've always been able to feel where people not so far away from me are, isn't that normal?" What a time to discover Naruto had sensing abilities.

"Could you lead us to them, Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen stood up as he asked, Naruto following the action.

He then suddenly turned around and sprinted to the window, "Let's go!"

Naruto led the Hokage and a few ANBU to them and got just in time to stop a Fuma shuriken from ending Iruka's life by the hand of Mizuki.

Multiple people in masks jumped into the scene, surrounding Mizuki - who was looking around frantically - daring him to even move a muscle. Mizuki raged, he turned around and fled.

At least he tried to flee before one of the ANBU suddenly took his hand, twisting it before slamming his whole body onto the ground, back-first. Mizuki howled in pain, he tried to squirm off the hold on his hand but the ANBU was persistent and instead tightened the hold.

"You're more involved in this than I would like Naruto, this incident will be classified as an B-rank mission on your record, you helped track a spy which means this mission will be kept a secret known to only the people involved, is that clear?" Asked Hiruzen

Naruto had never been on this side of his grandfather's Hokage mode, he wasn't being threatened, he was just being treated as a shinobi and for Naruto it was a bit overwhelming, Naruto was still Naruto which meant he was also excited for having completed his first mission.

"Yes Jiji! Not a word" Replied Naruto with a smile.

After the ANBU apprehend him and took the traitor to T&I - Naruto, the Hokage and Iruka took the scroll back to the tower, both Hiruzen and Iruka failed to notice Naruto taking a look at the scroll while they were distracted talking among themselves.

'Kage Bunshin huh?'

It was later discovered Mizuki simply chose Naruto to impersonate because he thought an orphan would have a lot more trouble proving his innocence without the back-up of a family to serve as an alibi, so he figured by the time the truth was discovered he would've gotten very far away.

Naruto just so happened to be the only orphan he knew enough to imitate.

Talk about bad luck.

---

"The objective is quite simple, you have to get these bells from me before the alarm rings."

"But there's only two bells, sensei..." Said a girl named Haruno Sakura.

She was the top-kunoichi of the year, she got a perfect score in all written portions of the academy and did fairly well in all other areas, that is not to say she was the best there is, but the academy's low standards led her to believe she was.

"That's right, that means one of you won't get a bell and will be sent back to the academy for another year." Let it not be said that Hatake Kakashi isn't good at deceiving people.

After telling his students to come at him with the intent to kill and the pink-haired's concern for their sensei's well being - like they could hope to hurt a jounin - they scattered and hid away, well, almost all of them.

"Can I get a bell?"

"Huh?"

"I asked if i can get a bell" It took a few seconds for Kakashi to process what his student was asking, he replied nonetheless.

"You're asking me if I can give you a bell?"

"Mhmm."

"...No."

"Oh well, it was worth a shot." And after saying those words Naruto burst in a cloud of smoke. Let it not be said that Uzumaki Naruto doesn't think outside the box.

After his failed but clever - if you ask him - attempt at getting a bell from Kakashi, Naruto decided to retreat and think for a moment, Naruto might not be the brightest crayon in the box but even he knew there was no chance a group of Genin could beat a Jounin on their own.

Naruto's train of thought was interrupted when he heard a yell of

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

Naruto was sure (mostly) Kakashi wasn't going to try and seriously hurt a bunch of genin so that only left...

Sasuke.

'Might as well check out how the brooder's doing' Thought Naruto while he started making his way to Sasuke through the trees making as little sound as possible, Kakashi of course knew exactly were he was but decided to watch how this was going to play out.

The aforementioned Uchiha was not having the time of his life, but all things considered, he could be doing worse, if only he could figure out how to get out of the ground.

'When I manage to pass this stupid test I'll definitely ask him to teach me this jutsu' Thought a very annoyed raven haired boy, he could see how useful this Jutsu could be, but that doesn't mean he liked being on the receiving end.

'It would be fun to trap the idiot using this'

And almost like summoning him with his thoughts, said idiot made an appearance.

"Oi Sasuke, how'd you get in there?" Asked a snickering Naruto, it really was hard not to laugh at the situation, but Naruto was trying his best to get a hold of himself, right now wasn't the time to antagonize Sasuke.

"Shut up!" Easier said than done, Naruto never knew any other Uchihas but this one had a very short temper.

Naruto conceded and started digging Sasuke out of the hole Kakashi left him in, during the process a hyperventilating Sakura appeared through the bushes only to look at the form of Naruto's prone body and - from her perspective - Sasuke's head laying on the floor.

It wasn't long till she passed out yelling something about headless princes and more babble Sasuke couldn't quite make out.

"Any bright ideas?" Asked Naruto, Sasuke was just about to blow him out and remind the idiot that he didn't need his help.

He managed to get a hold of himself, Sasuke wouldn't say it outloud and he knew Naruto wouldn't either but they were both friends, the only friend the other had and even if 'Socially adept' was not Sasuke's defining trait he knew better than to treat the only friend he had like dirt, Sasuke developed some sort of Superiority and Inferiority complex after that night and sometimes he lost control over the most stupid things, but with Naruto it has always been different.

It was a very weird friendship, and Sasuke couldn't quite remember when or how exactly it had started but it did.

'Maybe it was that one time in the lake...'

-

A lonely boy found himself sitting in a little pier above the lake where he learned his most prized jutsu, the jutsu that made his dad proud of him...

Not that it mattered anymore.

It had been a few weeks since the night that forever changed his life, since the night when his greatest hero, the person he looked up to the most, betrayed him.

It had been a few weeks since he snapped

It had been a few weeks since The Uchiha Massacre occurred.

Sasuke had been a very sad and lonely boy these past few weeks, but most of all he had been annoyed, very very annoyed.

He couldn't understand why the people of the village thought he would want their pity and empty apologies, the only thing he wanted was to kill that man, at least that's what he told himself.

The only thing he wanted other than revenge was company, even if he wouldn't admit it himself, he longed for someone he could relate to, someone who would be able to understand what he was feeling.

For some reason he felt the need to turn around in that very instant.

A blonde kid wearing a white t-shirt and gray shorts was walking by in the road right behind the lake he was sitting at, Sasuke knew him as a boy in his academy class.

Menma was it? Something like that, he couldn't quite remember and it wasn't really important to him right now. The boy then mirrored his actions and turned to look at him...