I DO NOT OWN NARUTO!

Lost Hopes

Being the first year living alone by himself, he was having a terrible year. He was only 4 years old and always was alone, but he had to do stuff that adults usually do, which are cook and clean for himself.

He's always hoping that one day, somebody would be nice enough to take him in and even maybe adopt him. He wanted to feel how it was to be loved by parents, even if they are not blood related. The only thing that he has from his parents is a necklace. He wears it all the time and never takes it off, unless showering, because it's the only thing that shows somebody cares about him. Too bad they were dead.

Oh, yeah and Naruto knew of the Kyuubi since forever. Ever since he remembered, he could always communicate with the Kyuubi through his mind. Kyuubi is the only one that can comfort him a bit, when he gets sad, but it's just not the same having parents comfort you.

Naruto learned how to survive out in the woods, and knew how to obtain food there, because in some cases, the markets set the food price too high for him to afford, he thought that they just wanted to starve him for a day. So since then, he did lot of fish catching and rabbit hunting when he couldn't get some food from the markets.

One day, something happened… something happened that will forever change Naruto's path. It'll be the worst day of Naruto's life.

Naruto walked by an old man, who was trying to reach for his cane that fell on the ground.

"Hey, do you need help ojisan?" asked Naruto politely.

The old man looked at him, and smiled, "It would be very nice of you, if you did" replied the old man.

Naruto helped the old man pick up his cane and was about to leave, but "Hey kid, if you don't mind, do you want to come over to my house for a snack, it'll be the least I can do to return the favor" said the old man.

Naruto looked at the man with a shock, he was the only person that has ever return a favor that he did. He felt like he made a new friend.

After a short walk, he came upon the house of the old man. He went inside and found many ninja weapons and scrolls all placed on the walls as ornaments.

"You were a shinobi?" asked Naruto as he looked at each of the ninja gears.

"Yes, yes" said the old man in deep thought, "it was a long time ago, but I remember those days like they were yesterday. The excitement of becoming a genin, the dream of becoming the hokage, rising through the ranks, those were the best memories of my life."

Naruto listened as the old man told stories of his old days and teaching the boy a few tips about shinobis after finding out that the kid also wants to be a ninja when he grows up.

The old man's wife came home and she greeted Naruto as kindly as the man did. This day was really the best days of his life so far.

Naruto also told them about how his life has become so far. He told them how all the villagers have been treating him.

"Well, you might have a great burden, but one day, I can see you becoming a great shinobi" said the old man, after the boy looked depress.

It was getting late and Naruto kindly accepted their offer to join them for dinner. Naruto loved every minute of this and thought that nothing could go wrong to make this day go worse. Boy, was he wrong…

The boy was about to leave the house and saying his farewells. He opened the door outside and saw people in a hurry, looking like they were trying to find someone.

"Hey, it's the demon boy!" yelled the people near the house. All the people around gathered around the house and Naruto got scared.

"What are y-y-you gonna d-do?" Nervously said Naruto.

"We're going to do this village a favor, we're going to get rid of you, demon" yelled one of the angry villagers.

The old couple saw this and quickly pulled Naruto back into the house and locked the door.

"Naruto, you got to run away from here" desperately said the old lady "you have to live on to become a great ninja" the old man quickly ran into his room and coming out with a small scroll.

The mob was outside banging on the door, and they were almost in.

"Learn this jutsu and it'll show you where everything I possessed when I was a ninja." Quickly said the man. "There's an escape route over there" pointing at one of the floor tiles. "It leads to the underground tunnels, follow it and it should lead you to outside the village. It can only go through 1 person at a time, so you go first."

"I never got to know your name, ojisan" said Naruto, with tears in his eyes.

"My name is Kazama Ichigo" said the old man.

"My name is Kazama Yukie" said the old lady. "You better hurry they're gonna get in here soon."

Naruto quickly ran into the hole. "Come quickly, before they get you too" cried Naruto.

The old man quickly ran and closed the floor tile, when Naruto was in there, he quickly used a binding jutsu so that nobody can open it and no sound could be heard coming from inside it.

Naruto panicked, what was the old man doing? Why did he seal Naruto into this tunnel and not running away with him?

Naruto heard the door crashing down.

"WHERE'S THE KID!" yelled one of the angry villagers.

"You should be ashamed of yourselves" said the old man "the kid himself has done nothing wrong, he's just like any other child that you find on the streets. Just because the fourth sealed the Kyuubi inside him, you treat him like dirt!" yelled the old man furiously. "Do you think that the fourth would be so careless as to leave the demon behind without a properly formed seal?"

"No, but you don't know the limits of the demon" said a shinobi within the mob. "The fourth could've underestimated the powers of the demon, you could never be too careful right?" asked the shinobi. "Now hand over the child before we have to kill you."

"I've lost all hope for this village" softly said the old lady "Although I only got to know the kid personally for a day, I can tell you that he's no harm, but you people would murder an innocent poor child, just to prevent something that would never happen. I guess the village I once knew is gone."

"We will not let you have the kid, no matter what you do!" yelled the old man.

Naruto was listening to the conversation all along and was crying even more than before. Even though the old couple knew of the great demon beast inside of him, they still treated him kindly. He cannot let those couple die just for him. He banged on the tile but it just won't budge, he yelled as loud as he could yet nobody out there could hear him. Then he heard them talking again.

"Well, you're gonna be like this then DIE!" yelled one of the people from the mob that lit the house on fire. "Die with the demon that you protect, nothing good will ever come from demons, even if they're sealed." With that they all threw their torches around the house and soon the whole place was on fire.

The old man went back to the tile and spoke "Naruto, if you're still there run as far as you can, they'll kill you once they get you. Don't worry about us, we knew that this would happen once they showed up outside our house. You're a great kid and I want you to become a great ninja in the future, even if you have to join another village. But just don't hate your father for sealing the demon inside of you, it was the only survival of the village when the Kyuubi attacked." Whether Naruto was there or not, the old man did not care, he quickly laid down with his wife by his side.

"He'll grow up like how we all did, as a great shinobi" were the last words of the old man with his wife nodding, as the drifted off to unconsciousness and soon be burnt to death.

Naruto, with his arms wiping the tears away, was running far through the tunnel right after the old man said his last words.

The only person who ever showed kindness to him was now burnt to death by the people who hated him for having the Kyuubi sealed inside of him. He couldn't take much more, finding out who his father is (not quite hard once the old man said don't blame your father for sealing the Kyuubi inside you), and hearing the only ones that showed him kindness, dying in the fire.

He ran and ran, he didn't know where he was going, but he finally arrived outside the tunnels, and found out that he had been running and crying the whole night, since the sun was now rising. He could see Konoha over the hills, looking at the village with disgust and hate. He sat near a tree and rested.

He thought about all the things that occurred and slowly took everything in. He slowly felt like he was falling asleep until fatigue took over and he laid there in his sleep.