This is a collaboration with StringDman.

Don't know how this first story will go, but i hope you guys like it.

Konoha street, night time

"THAT'S RIGHT YOU DEMON!" A drunk man shouts at a little blond boy cradling into himself on the cold ground. "THIS IS WHAT YOU GET, MONSTER!"

The man kicked the boy in the stomach, hard, causing him to dry heave. The other people around the man joined in and started to kick at the boy. They shouted many dirty things to him like demon, monster and other various derogatory things. All the blond haired boy could do was pray that they would eventually stop before he would have to limp to the hospital again. The boy hated the hospital. Not because of the food or terribly uncomfortable beds they have, but because of the way they treated him. They wouldn't treat him like normal kids at all. When a normal kid went to the hospital, they doctors and nurses would treat him or her with care, yet when the blond boy went there, they would only treat him half way before tossing him out. Usually at night so that the villagers could continue to do what they're doing now.

After several long and painstaking minutes, the mob saw that the boy had stopped moving and was barely breathing as well. Satisfied, they all dispersed right before any anbu or the Hokage could show up. After they left, the blond boy slowly opened his one good eye as his left one was swollen shut. He slowly raised himself on his surprisingly unbroken arms and crawled away to a nearby alleyway to rest up. As he leaned onto the wall and took slow, shallow breaths, he looked up to the night sky and started to sob. Ever since he could remember so far, this has been his life. Chased around by the angry villagers, usually cornered and then beaten half to death. The glares and hateful remarks were always present as well. Usually 'demon' was the main thing said to him. He didn't know why.

The boy placed his head into his hands and continued to sob, not even noticing that he was being watched by an old man from afar.

"Oh Naruto." The old man says to himself as he watches the boy through a crystal ball. His wrinkled faces showing only one emotion. Despair. He knew that he couldn't do next to anything to help the boy now named Naruto.

Naruto Uzumaki had been one of the most hated individuals in all of Konoha. All because of something far out of the boys control. The forth wanted the villagers to see this boy as a hero to all, yet their anger and hatred outweighed their logic and reasoning. The boy was always constantly hated and hurt on a near daily basis. It is very worrisome when a child of only four years old tells you that he has grown somewhat accustomed to the pain.

The old man watched Naruto for a few more minutes before seeing that the boy had fallen asleep in that alleyway. Once Naruto had fallen asleep, the old man cut the connection and let out a tired and frustrated sigh. He went back to his paperwork, not aware that the next few days would prove rather arduous for the blond haired boy.

The next day

As the sun descended upon the village, the alleyway was filled with its ever present light. It shined onto Naruto, who was leaning on a dumpster, and woke him up from his uncomfortable sleep. He stretched a bit and popped several of his stiff bones before noticing two things. One, a broken mirror in front of him showed that most of his injuries had healed almost fully, and two, his clothes were ripped up.

His clothes consisted of a blue shirt along with bright orange shorts. He didn't even have any shoes on, so his feet were worse for wear.

Naruto let out a sigh before putting on a brave face and leaving the alley. He walked down the street, ignoring all of the hateful remarks and threats as best as he could. It was never easy for him though, those remarks. It was always hard to ignore them. Especially the ones that threw things at him for no reason.

As he passed a few of the stores and restaurants, Naruto quickly ran passed them as to not get his hopes up of today being different than the last times. Usually when he passed these types of areas, his stomach would growl uncontrollably since he was malnourished half the time. The other time he's just eating ramen. True, he loved the stuff and all, but he would never have anything else aside from it. He was only four and had been living on his own ever since the orphanage kicked him out two years ago.

Naruto hurriedly made his way back to his rundown and shabby apartment a few minutes later. Home sweet home... if you were a rat that is. The apartment building was more on the torn apart side than most buildings. The walls were torn up, there was entire patches missing from the roof, the flooring was not sturdy, the stairs looked like they were put back together multiple times with tape(because they were), and the landlord, an old and short man, made no indication of fixing up the place.

That was just outside. Inside of Naruto's room was worse. Trash from the villagers screwed about the place, rats roaming around looking for what little scraps they could find, broken glass in a pile from adults and other kids throwing stuff through them, rotted out walls and flooring, and a large hole in the ceiling that the landlord left there. Top that off with no insulation or hot water and you have a horrible living condition for a child.

Naruto sighed as he opened his ajarred door from the last time a few villagers broke in. He went inside and looked around for the spare set of less torn clothes in his closet before pulling out something. A red shirt with a few kunai holes in the places where his heart and stomach are supposed to be, and a dark blue pair of shorts with a slight tear on the right thigh leg.

After he dressed himself, Naruto decided to sit down on a part of the floor that wouldn't creak and give way to his light weight. When he sat down, he soon laid down and looked up to the cracked ceiling close to where the hole was.

"I really hope Ji-Ji can help me fix the roof this time." Naruto said to himself in a hoarse voice. He gave a few quick coughs to get his voice back to its original state, but that was in vain.

With another sigh, Naruto stood up and decided to head out for a walk to the only place in town that was nice to him. Ichiraku Ramen.

It took Naruto a little bit of time, what with having to avoid everyone that 'ran' into him. Once he got there though, he immediately perked up and that big goofy smile spread along his face.

"Hey old man!" Naruto said enthusiastically as he sat down on the stool in front of the stand.

Said old man looked over and smiled at his favorite customer.
"Hey there Naruto. What'll you have this time?"

Naruto smiled warmly to the man as he made out his order.
"Five bowls of miso ramen, and five bowls of pork ramen please."

The old man chuckled under his breath before his daughter came out and greeted the blond. The girl had short brown hair and a generous smile when she saw Naruto.
"Hey there Naruto-kun." She said to him. "It's good to see you again. How are you?"

Naruto knew that she was only asking to make sure he was alright. She kind of became like an unofficial older sister to him ever since the orphanage incident. Naruto didn't want to worry her, so he just gave the same answer as always.
"I've been doing fine Ayame-chan."

Ayame simply smiled and continued with his order, completely aware of his lie.

After an hour or so of eating and talking to the Ichiraku's, Naruto left to go and see the Hokage like usual. He had been doing this for some time now, going to Ichiraku's to eat, hanging out there to talk for a bit, then heading to see his surrogate grandfather. It was always a hassle to get in to see him, what with the receptionist always shooing him away and the stationed anbu who hated him throwing him out without the Hokage's knowledge.

Naruto would usually wait for him out in the lobby or outside the building until he came down for a short break. Even if Naruto was having the worst of times, which were a lot of times, whenever he would see the old man it would always brighten up his day. Today was no different.

"Aw, Naruto-kun." The old Hokage said to him as soon as he saw the boy.

Naruto gave a big tooth smile and ran over to him, hugging him in the process.
"Hey Ji-Ji!"

The Hokage hugged him back and the two went for a walk outside. As they walked, they talked about a few things, the hole in the ceiling of Naruto's apartment being the main thing though. As they walked on, Naruto could feel that something was off about Ji-Ji. He couldn't place his finger on it, but something was just off. The Hokage was usually a busy man, that, Naruto understood, and he usually looked tired during or after a days work. But now, he just seemed to be thinking about something. Something deeply important.

"Ji-Ji?" Naruto started only to receive silence.

Naruto became a little discouraged at this and decided not to press the issue. The man is an important figure to all of Konoha, so he might be thinking of something for the village and its people. That was when Naruto sighed again at the thought of 'the people' of the village. Along with both sides of the council, these villagers have been making his short life an absolute hell. The beatings were bad enough, but that was just the civilian side. The shinobi side would be a little more creative with the way they tormented him. Naruto remembered one time when the clan head for the Inuzuka clan sent their dogs out on him for 'fun'. Or the time he said hi to a shy Hyuuga girl and beaten by other members when they poked him. Somehow he was put into shock and cardiac arrest from that. The Aburame clan was surprisingly lax on what they did to him. Usually they were rather stoic but a certain few would send their bugs on him just to make an example. Naruto still has bad dreams about those bugs.

The two continued to walk until the Hokage was called back to his office rather urgently by an anbu Naruto recognized. The dog masked anbu with the gravity defying gray hair was one of the few anbu that at least didn't pay much attention to Naruto to want to hurt him.

The Hokage nodded to Dog and he left via a swirl of leaves. The old man turned to Naruto and gave a slight smirk.
"Naruto, I have to get back to work now. You head on home, okay"

Before Naruto could even say 'okay Ji-Ji', the old man was gone in the same way as Dog. Naruto sighed as he looked down to his still uncovered feet. He walked away and just wandered along the village with no real goal in sight. Should he head home? Why? The place was horrible. Should he head to a playground? No point. The parents and most likely older kids would just chase him off. He could try going back to Ichiraku's, but by this time in afternoon they would be a bit too busy. Those were the only places that Naruto had ever known nowadays.

Sighing out of despair now, Naruto simply kept on walking until nighttime hit. He didn't even notice until it was too late. Nighttime was the worst time of day for Naruto to be outside. People got drunk, drunk people wanted to 'have some fun', and there would be a Fox Hunt. Naruto had no idea why they did this or why they called it a Fox Hunt. Maybe it was because of his whiskers or something.

Anyway, Naruto started to walk a little bit faster as not to get caught and beaten up once again. He could already hear the murmurs of come of the villagers as they started to follow him. This time though, the fear and anxiety of the situation got the better of Naruto and he took off in a dead sprint. The civilians saw this and made a mad dash to try and keep up with the surprisingly fast 'demon boy'.

Naruto ran as fast as he could and ran past a few kids his own age on the way.

He past this black haired boy with deep onyx eyes that was walking with his parents and older brother.

A girl with pink hair that shouted at him the moment he bumped into her mom. Her mother joined in the shouting and encouraged the growing mob to chase the boy with haste.

He past a blond haired girl with light blue eyes that looked to him with a slight interest. Though her father, a shinobi councilman, wasn't all too amused by the boy nearly knocking his daughter over. A quick apology wouldn't cut it in the mans eyes.

Next was that shy Hyuuga girl. He passed her as she was being escorted by two men from her clan. No doubt that if he bumped into her, the mob would be the least of his problems.

Next was a boy dark hair tied in a pineapple shape. The boy payed Naruto no attention and couldn't catch many details of him before the mob ran past him.
"Troublesome."

The last person Naruto ran past was one of the Inuzuka boys that let their dogs chase after him. The boy laughed as the mob chased after him and wanted to send his dogs after the boy as well.

Naruto just continued to run. To where, he didn't know nor did he care. As long as he got away from them, from this village and its abusive shinobi, he didn't care where he ran to.

As the gates came up, Naruto realized something, he was now running through a forest. He just kept running without any rest despite his muscles screaming and begging him to stop. He didn't listen to those thoughts and just kept on running, eventually tripping on a protruding tree branch. He fell face first on the hard ground and slipped into a blackened unconsciousness.

For a while there, Naruto found himself at peace. Floating in some kind of comforting embrace, a first for the blond four year old. He felt warmth for the first time as he was caressed by something soft and protective of him. He snuggled up to the softness and curled into it, smiling to himself that he was finally able to feel this warmth for the first time.

Unbeknown to Naruto, it wasn't the embrace of a person. No. Not a person, but a fox. A large fox that gave a feral smile to the sleeping form laying on one of its tails.

"Finally."
It started in a deep and menacing voice.
"Now, to begin the bonding."

So, what do ya'll think? Pretty cool right? Like I said before, this is a collaboration with a friend of mine, String Dman. He helped me out with the story and gave me a pretty cool idea for Naruto to have the ability to-

You know what, the next chapter will explain it. It is what the Kyuubi referred to as 'the bonding'.