This Chapter is just a piece of Naruto's past. All the characters with names are canon except for Sarutobi Hikone. I feel like this omake is to tell you that I'm not abandoning this fic :)

Omake 3: Remembrance

"I will be monitoring her."

Hiruzen gave a scrutinizing look at the person standing before him.

The newborn baby was in his daughter's hold. The baby, with the yellow tuft of hair and blue eyes, closely resembled his successor so much it gave him a tingle of self-resentment every time he saw the baby's face. After all, he wasn't able to prevent Minato's death and the new Jinchūriki would be without both of her parents.

"It'll be dangerous, Hikone," he warned her, "But very well."

They shared a wry smile.

A pair of teary blue eyes looked up, shivering as she was held in a stranger's arms. Her young mind didn't understand why the nice Hiko-nee gave her a cold look each time she wanted to wail, but Naruto held in.

"Don't mistreat her," Hikone warned the orphanage caregivers and left, "and hide her whenever Danzō comes."

Yakushi Nonō nodded, her grip on the Jinchūriki tightened.

By then, the one and a half year Uzumaki Naruto didn't understand that someone just abandoned her. But that night, she cried all the while calling for Hiko-nee.

"Your name doesn't have kanji, it should be simple for you to write."

"Uh, your name doesn't have kanji too! Only your clan name."

The girl with shoulder-length blonde hair commented while looking at the chicken scratch that was Naruto's handwriting. "Tch, how come I can't read this?" The girl waved around the paper.

Naruto eyebrows furrowed, her palms clammy from grasping the brush tightly. "Your name is simple, too! Four characters, then wham! You're done!"

"I know that." The girl rolled her eyes and snorted. "But your name isn't a shortened version of 'Inoshishi (Mountain Boar)'. Be grateful."

While this girl was nice, she had one of hell of an attitude that left Naruto clueless on how to act around this girl.

Today was the day when the Orphanage opened up its door for a fundraiser. Naruto didn't have a clue why she had to learn calligraphy with this girl on this particular day, where there were so many food stalls to visit. At first, it was fun talking to this girl she had yet remember the name of, but Naruto was bored to death already. She really hated something as boring as 'studying'.

As usual, there were some people who would follow her. As a three-year-old, she found nothing wrong about it and only glance once or twice to their direction.

As she strolled the streets with her blue hat on to obscure her hair and face, her gaze wandered off to a nearby stall. She paused and stared at it, noting the customer with red and white robe looking at her with recognition in his eyes.

"Would you like to come in?" A smile was plastered on the old man's face. Naruto wondered if that was genuine. To her, the old man felt strange. It felt like when she broke those plates and got the coldest stare ever from the Keiri-san.

"I'll buy you one bowl."

For a second, Naruto hesitated. Yet, the smell and the appearance didn't allow her to refuse. Naruto took the seat beside him with little difficulty.

'Whoa,' she sniffed the delicious aroma wafting through the air, 'is it really okay for me to eat that?' She flickered her eyes at the old man and then tried to read the menu.

Finding that she didn't know what she wanted, she tugged the man's robe and asked, "Ojii-chan, I don't know what to choose."

"What about tonkotsu ramen with pork slices on top?" The man suggested while pointing at a picture on the menu. "It's my favorite, I could almost eat it every day," he added.

"But it's not good for your health to eat it every day, Hokage-sama," the girl with white apron and hat commented from behind the bar. The old man was probably a regular for the girl to casually mention something like that. "Oh, hi there, little one. What can I get for you today?"

After glancing up once more to the old man beside her, she said, "Tonkotsu Ramen with pork slices, please."

"Got it!"

As she waited for her bowl of ramen to come, she glanced subtly at the seemingly kind man.

'The old man's name is Hokage, huh? What a weird name.'

Only later on when she told Nonō-san about this encounter that she learned that 'Hokage' isn't a name, but a title for the village's leader.

The Konoha Orphanage, where she had spent two years, is one of the new buildings placed near the edge the Konoha's Northern Gate after the Kyuubi's Attack. To her, the place was almost void of happy memories because the people who acknowledged that she existed could be counted with one hand. Even so, those people's eyes were so cold, her stomach dropped every time her eyes met theirs.

She was doodling in a notebook that Inoshishi-something blonde haired girl gave her when the new kid approached her.

"Hey, hey! Can I join?"

The warden whose name she didn't know, pulled the boy and dragged him away as soon as the boy said it, giving no time for her to respond.

"Don't play with her."

The boy was looking over his shoulder―at her―and looked up to the warden. "But―"

'At least he was protesting,' Naruto tried to tug her lips to form a smile. She immediately cowered when she noticed the look that man directed at her.

She had learned that hatred is unreasonable, vile, and cold. As someone who had to deal with it on a daily basis, she understood it well how it feels.

With a dismayed sigh, Naruto guessed that it was normal to feel like this. To feel only understanding and acceptance, no matter how suffocating it was to be here.

"Here," one of the caretakers, everyone affectionately called her Keiri-obasan, handed her the huge broom. Naruto blinked, broken out of her musing as the woman continued, "Clean this hallway."

Her hand grabbed the handle tightly, her eyes flickering anywhere but the woman's eyes.

"Yes, Keiri-san."

She had learned that tolerance is lukewarm, like the hot tea that got cold in the chilly winter. And it's different from kindness. The warmth from real kindness is like a bonfire that wouldn't burn you―but surrounds you with it.

Naruto learned to be polite, to always use honorifics before one's name, to obey the elders, the likes. If she didn't, Nonō-san, everyone calls her "Mother", wouldn't give her the monthly allowance for her to sneak out the orphanage and visit the Ichiraku.

Even though she knew she was different than the other kids in this orphanage, she always tried to find the positives. If Keiri-san talked to her, it meant she acknowledged her existence. If one of the kids, mostly the new wards, talked to her, which occurred once in a blue moon, it meant she must be doing something right for once.

She could remember that she wasn't always at the Orphanage. She could remember warmth and smiles directed toward her. Her memories might be vague, but it helped her get through living in this establishment, where every day seemed bleak.

"The Yondaime saved us from the giant Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit..."

At night, a bedtime story was told by Nonō-san. The Tale of Yondaime defeated the Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit was already told more than a dozen times already, yet no one was bored.

Almost all the caretakers and the kids avoided her, but she could always listen to the tale she loved the most as long as she stayed at the corner of the room. As she stared at Yondaime's picture hanging on the wall, she wondered if it takes to be someone as amazing as the Yondaime to be acknowledged.

For a fleeting moment, she imagined herself as awesome as the man. She could picture lots of cheers, praises. She hugged her knees together, her eyes hard and focused.

Smiling to herself, she mumbled, "I'll become Hokage, then."