Title: The Child of Darkness

Rated: T (most likely going to be changed)

Category: Naruto

Pairings: None

Summary: He wasn't as idiotic and weak as they thought. No… in fact he was strong, raised by the darkness they left him in.

XOX

Chapter 1: Changes

XOX

He stared mutely at the sky above, watching the moon and stars crawl across the black sky at a snail's pace.

Pain. So much pain.

It was his birthday. He should be happy and joyous, but of course things were always different for him.

Please, stop the yelling. It's so loud.

Instead of celebrating with cake and presents, he was gifted with a beating and staring at the night sky in an alleyway until he passed out due to blood loss.

Red. It wouldn't stop. The bleeding.

He sighed in relief as darkness started to overcome his vision and he succumbed to the world of unconsciousness.

Bliss. Sweet bliss.

XOX

The large figure stared blankly at the scene unfolding itself before its eyes, snorting. The human race was pathetic – so ignorant and unaccepting. And they called themselves the top race is existence. It shifted, stretching its body out like a cat. Rudy red eyes gleamed as the humans stopped beating on its host, leaving the child in a pool of his own blood. It growled, anger coursing through it. This sad excuse of a human was its host? With an annoyed flick of a tail, it let its chakra flood the child's reserves and heal his body.

XOX

He gave an annoyed snort as he came to. The sun was shining in his eyes, irritating him to no end. He waved an arm over his face trying to shield himself from the strong rays. Much to his relief, darkness overcame the bright light, allowing him to finally open his eyes. He sat up, assessing the damage done to his body. As per usual, his body was completely healed, not a scar or scratch left. The pain was still there though. With a groan, he pushed himself to his feet and limping his way back to his 'house'. He would never call that dingy apartment his home.

He sighed – it seemed no matter what he did, they still wouldn't leave him alone. If he was ignorant to their name calling and threats, he got attacked. If he was happy and loud, he got attacked. If he tried to give logical reasons and talk with his attackers, he still got attacked. 'I've had enough. I'm not going to change myself if it's not going to change how they treat me.' he growled in his head. He vowed to himself that for now on, he would be his own person, regardless of how society reacting.

The dark. How soothing and blissful…

XOX

Iruka growled as he stepped into the room, watching his so-called 'angels' run around the room, yelling, throwing paper shuriken, and flipping over chairs. They were in school to become ninja. If they were serious about being ninja they would have recognized his chakra signature or at least wouldn't be this wild and loud because ninja were supposed to be stealthy, calm, and quiet. He cleared his throat, hoping they'd hear him over the noise. Apparently not. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the door open and saw a mop of blond hair. 'Naruto.' he thought. He turned fully towards the blond, ready to give the blond an earful when he saw the boy's choice of clothing. He was in a dark blue sweatshirt with a hood and black shorts.

"Naruto… what are you wearing? What happened to your jumpsuit?" What he received was a monotone reply.

"It was too bright. Attracted too much attention from my… pursuers." Iruka winced but forced a smile.

"Well go sit down while I get the others under control." The blond nodded mutely and walked towards the back of the room where his seat was located. He dodged the barely accurately thrown paper weapons and paper balls, sitting down in his seat calmly, seemingly not fazed by the chaos around him. Unbeknownst to anyone else in the room, he was rather jealous of these children. They were in school to be assassins, to take people's lives for the sake of their village. And yet they still fooled around like it was an everyday thing to take one's life? 'They've never seen the real world.'

That, however, was explainable. Most children were ignorant to the real world as their parents shielded them away from it so they'd have a normal childhood. 'I'm not like most children though,' he thought, 'and I never will be. I've seen too much.' After ten minutes or so, Iruka got all the student calm enough to sit and be quiet. Iruka stood tall, hands on hips, glaring down at the children, daring them to make a peep.

"Alright then," the Chunin started, "now that I've got your attention, we will begin weapon throwing today." The children looked ready to jump up again if Iruka didn't interrupt them. "Hold it! Before you get excited, you will be separated into groups of two. To make this lesson more fruitful, it will be friend against friend. Now don't think of this as competition, but rather training with a partner. Find your partner now and when everyone is just about ready, we'll go outside." The second the Chunin stopped talking, the class of seven year olds jumped up, eager to pair up with their friends. Naruto took his time with getting out of his seat, knowing from experience that no one would like to pair up with him. After most of the kids in the room filed out, he got up from his seat and stood at the back of a line, not caring where. Iruka cleared his throat to get the attention of the children. "Alright then, the person you are going against will be your training partner when it comes to weaponry. Now remember, this isn't a competition. The purpose of this exercise to see where you stand in weapon throwing and how your partner can help you improve. Shikamaru and Chouji, you two are up first." The two children threw their weapons. "Good, good. The both of you just need to work on your stance and power. And next up is…" That is how it went for the past twenty minutes. Being that the kids were… kids, the lines weren't organized so he couldn't exactly tell who he was going up against. He chanced a glance to his left, his somewhat neutral mood dulled from apprehension as well as a hint of excitement.

While he would be the laughingstock for the next couple days for attempting and most likely failing to challenge the Uchiha, this chance was rare – very rare. It gave him a chance to test his skills against the crème of the crop. It was about another ten minutes before just about everyone had gone, save Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto growled lightly at the small conversation occurring in the background.

"He's gonna lose. He's pathetic."

"That idiot has no chance against Sasuke-kun."

"He should give up while he still can."

He snorted inaudibly – the comments the adults made were ten times worse and he ignored those with practiced ease. He was handed a kunai and a shuriken, as was his partner. "Ready boys?" Iruka asked. The two nodded. "Go!" The blond hurled the kunai with as much strength as he could muster, the shuriken following soon after. He peered over at the target, seeing his throws were about 5 rings off from the bull's eye. He looked over at Sasuke's – the raven had managed to lodge both the kunai and the shuriken in the bull's eye, the kunai pinned through the hole in the shuriken. He frowned beneath his hood, sighing with disappointment. Hearing the sig, Iruka snapped out of his shocked stupor. He smiled at the two boys. "Well this is perfect!" The Jinchuuriki's frown deepened at his sensei's remark.

"There's nothing perfect about this unless you're going to have Uchiha train me. I thought the purpose of this was to work with a partner to balance out each other's weaknesses." Iruka blinked again at the well-spoken statement before smiling.

"But it is, Naruto." The Chunin walked over to the targets. The whole class followed their sensei, Sasuke and Naruto in the front. Blue eyes widened as he saw both his weapons buried deep in the targets, their ends pushing out the back of the target. "While Sasuke may have the timing and accuracy correct, Naruto, you have the speed and brute force. A throw with Sasuke's traits may be most likely to hit its target but the lack of force and speed gives the victim not only time to move but to block with no recoil. On the other hand, a throw with Naruto's traits leaves open many opportunities to strike back while the pursuer is constantly raining weaponry, hoping to get a hit. If you combine the two together, the results would be much better without too many loopholes." The blond blinked and smiled softly to himself, glad no one could see under his hood. "Now then! Until lunch, everyone is to take practice kunai and train with their partner. Mizuki-sensei and I shall return shortly." The two Chunin stepped inside the building, leave the children to shift into their groups. Naruto sighed – being from an elite clan, he knew Sasuke obviously didn't want to train with him. He walked over to a large tree in a lonely corner of the training grounds and sat down, comforted by the shadows of the tree. He stared out at the other children, running around and grouping up. A rather large crowd of girls were following the Uchiha around, hoping to be his partner. He shook his head softly before letting his eyes slip closed, intent on sleeping throughout the practice time.

He we just beginning to doze off when the sound of footsteps made his eyes snap open. He watched as the youngest Uchiha stalked over to him and stopped not too far away. "Hey," he called softly, "Iruka-sensei said we have to practice."

The blond shifted, sitting up Indian style. "No offense," he started, blue eyes gazing intently at the raven from under his hood, "I rather not get mobbed by your rabid fangirls." The heir cracked a small smile and chuckled lightly.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about them. They're too busy 'trying to prove their worth' to even care about you training with me." Sasuke said, making air quotes. Naruto sat still for a moment, opting to stare at the ground, contemplating.

It was obvious the young Uchiha just wanted a training partner that was on his 'level' per say. 'And having a training partner for a while will be good. I can gauge my skills.' Naruto looked up suddenly, standing up soon after. "Okay, I guess we can train. Let's just go far away from the others so they don't interrupt us." In all honesty, he just didn't want the other kids to tease him about something stupid and irrelevant. They chose two trees to pin their targets on and each took a set of practice kunai and shuriken. He turned to the Uchiha. "So who should train who first?"

"Well, seeing as I can always ask my brother to train me, I should train you first." Naruto frowned, ready to protest, but held himself back – Sasuke had a point. He had an older brother in the ANBU who could help him with just about anything while Naruto could only hope he'd improve without any pointers. He sighed and nodded mutely to the raven's suggestion. "Okay, so first we should start with the way you throw. Which hand do you throw with?" The blond blinked before raising his right hand. "So we'll practice with that hand first and then the left so you can throw more than one weapon at a time like I did. Now throw one of the kunai." The blond did as told, the knife hitting the target with a loud 'thump' and burying itself somewhat into the trunk of the tree. He turned to the raven. "I've noticed that you throw to the right with the way you swing your arm. Now that's okay – everyone throws differently – but if you decrease the amount of force you swing your arm with and increase the amount you put in your wrist, your throws should be a little more accurate." He nodded, flung another kunai at the target, this one burying itself deeper into the target and much closer to the bull's eye. He smiled – he was getting better at this already.

XOX

Twinkle: And that's the first chapter. As of now, I've only planned a few chapters ahead. I'll let you guys know when I have a problem with writer's block. Also, I have the couples planned out. Since this story is mainly focused on Naruto, other couple are pretty much irrelevant but you can still leave your suggestion for other couples other than with Naruto. No NaruHina or NaruSaku. Even though I JUST said that I have Naruto's couple planned out, I have a feeling that in the future one of you are going to suggest one of those couples. No offense to anyone who loves those couples but I don't like them. Anyways! Leave reviews giving me your opinion of the story. Love it? Hate it? Don't want me to continue? The last one will be disregarded because I want to continue it anyway. Hehehe Ja Ne!