Hello, everyone. This is my first attempt at writing a story, fanfiction or otherwise, so know that it will improve as the story progresses. I'd be ecstatic to get any input from you guys. Is my writing crap? Tell me so I can get better. Anyway, I think it'll be good to establish some things early on: Naruto is still quite young in this story and hasn't become a grinning idiot yet. He hasn't found any friends, or acceptance from anyone (Ichirakus don't exist). All this means Naruto doesn't have a particularly good perception of Konoha.

This chapter will probably be the shortest in the entire story. It's an introduction to get the story kicked off, and each chapter from now on should be at least double its length. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

In the evening of October 10, a small 7 year old boy with blonde hair and three whisker marks on each cheek could be seen running down the street. Like each year previously, Naruto was being chased by a mob of angry and very drunk civilians. Sometimes they would catch him, other times not. Though he would always heal inexplicably within a few hours, not leaving so much as a scratch.

Due to years of practice and the pursuers' inebriation, however, he was able to slip into an alley unseen. He breathed a sigh of relief, then made his way back home, deep in thought.

This had happened every year, yet he was never told why. 'Why does everyone hate me? What did I do to them?' Nothing, of course. As much as he tried to forgive the villagers or justify their actions, Naruto couldn't help but hate them.

With his thoughts turned inwards, Naruto didn't notice that his door was open. As he wandered in, he realized something was wrong, but it was too late. His eyes widened momentarily before everything went black.

"Hurry up and kill the demon so we can get out of here Raido," said one man.

"I have a better idea Han," Raido grinned, "let's make it suffer before it dies."

Han's grin matched his friend's, "What do you have in mind?"

"We take him out of the village and leave him out in the forest so that it can die slowly of hunger. A demon like him doesn't deserve a quick death."

"Agreed," said Han, before dumping the boy in a bag and slinging it over his back.

The two men made their way out of the village undetected, and continued east through the forest for several hours. Once they felt they were far enough they dropped the bag unceremoniously on the ground before each giving it a kick and leaving.

Hours later, Naruto woke up, crawled out of the bag, and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He took in his surroundings, and wondered why he was in the forest. As Naruto wandered around looking for any landmarks to guide him, the events of the night before came back to him.

He was kidnapped and left for dead in the forest, that much was easy to figure out. 'Whatever, I'll just have to find my way back to the village. Explaining to the guards where I was will be a pain though.'

He continued walking looking for anything familiar for a minute, before climbing a hill and taking a long, sweeping look around the surrounding area. Seeing no sign of civilization, he was hit with a realization. 'Shit, I can't even see the village from here. What am I going to do?! I don't even know which direction it's in!' Naruto panicked, picked a direction and ran frantically as fast as his small legs could take him.

After a few minutes of useless running, he had tired himself out, and slumped against a tree. With this short break, his rational side took over. 'Ok, since I can't see anything familiar, I'll be here for a while. I'll need to get food so I'll still be alive when someone comes looking for me.' Naruto then began to look for something to eat. After all, he hadn't eaten for a while up till now, and was already hungry.

Naruto went from place to place, looking for something edible. It shouldn't have been hard, because after being kicked out of the orphanage, nobody was willing to feed him. Therefore he had learned what was and wasn't edible through trial and error over the years, as he would rather poison himself and have a chance of surviving, than starve and give in to certain death.

Before long he noticed that he didn't recognize any of the plants in the area. It was clear now that he was very far from Konoha. If the fauna wasn't familiar, he likely wasn't even in the same region of Hi no Kuni. Because of this, the chances of someone finding him were slim to none.

Naruto pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind and decided to try to catch an animal to eat. This would be the first time, as he'd never needed anything but berries and fruit. He came to the conclusion that his chances would be better if he had some sort of weapon so he found a stick and sharpened it to a point.

Naruto found several rabbits and deer, but before he could get close they each detected him and ran off. This process was repeated countless times, and Naruto soon found that it had already begun to get dark.

His eyelids had already started drooping, so he made his way to a small hollow created by the roots of a tree, laid against the side, and promptly fell asleep.

Naruto woke up the following morning, and immediately felt hunger pains and thirst. He considered looking for food again, but in light of his recent failures, he decided it'd be better to look for help. So he began to wander in a straight line, figuring it was the fastest way to find a town or road.

For hours he continued walking, as his hunger and thirst grew worse. It seemed that nothing was going his way, not that it ever had. Thinking back on his life in Konoha, Naruto realized just how bad it had been. All the kids at the orphanage teased him, or worse, completely ignored him.

The orphanage's matron gave him an old mattress that should have been thrown out years ago, He was given just enough food to keep him alive (if he was lucky), and he was not allowed to keep any belongings, as they would claim that he 'stole' anything he would bring back with him.

When he moved into his apartment later on, his life improved very little. Stores would sell overpriced items to him or refuse to serve him at all, people would glare at him or even hit him if he came too close, and each year during the celebration of the victory over the Kyuubi, he would be chased until he was inevitably caught and beaten to within an inch of his life. After that he would return to his apartment only to find that it had been ransacked and his few belongings stolen.

This gave him a little hope that maybe he could find somewhere else to stay, where he wouldn't be treated like dirt.

With these thoughts in his head, he made his way with renewed vigor. After another hour or two of walking, it seemed that Naruto finally had some good luck. A small dirt road came into view. It was in bad shape, indicating that it was rarely used, but it was a good sign nevertheless.

He followed the road for the remainder of the day, finding nothing, and going to sleep hungry yet again.

On his third day in the wilderness, Naruto was beginning to lose his strength. At this point a part of him wanted to just lay down and sleep, but he knew if he stopped now it was unlikely he would get back up.

Naruto trudged down the path, as his vision began to blur. He lost his balance and stumbled face first into the ground. It felt nice just laying there, but Naruto gathered his willpower and managed to get back on his feet.

For another hour, he hoped against hope that he would find someone before it's too late. As he walked, his body began to shut down, and he knew it too. 'It seems that this is it for me. Not exactly how I wanted to die, but at least the villagers don't have the satisfaction of killing me themselves,' he thought with a humorless smile.

Naruto stumbled again, but this time he stayed down, as he had already fallen unconscious.

Unbeknownst to him, a tall old man, in his early seventies, with gray and red hair was walking down the very same road, on his way to purchase supplies from the nearest town. He saw Naruto lying face down in the dirt. For a moment, he was worried that the young boy might be dead, but noted that he clearly wasn't as he was still breathing.

The old man decided to delay his errand and tend to the boy, so he picked him up and made his way back to his home in the forest.

-Konoha Council Chambers, Next Day-

"As of this morning the search teams have been unable to find Uzumaki Naruto," the Sandaime said seriously. "I've extended the search but it does not seem likely that he will turn up."

"Finally that disgusting piece of trash is gone! My daughter and I can sleep peacefully now," said one exceptionally loud council member with pink hair.

After uncovering his ears, another council member stated confidently stated, "Good riddance, that little gaki did nothing but cause trouble."

Save for a few in the room, each member of the council had similar thoughts.

Sarutobi Hiruzen watched all this before closing his eyes and sighing sadly, 'Minato, Kushina, I'm sorry. I've failed you in every way, and now I've failed your son.'

One man with bandages covering his entire right side, sitting quietly with an unreadable expression thought, 'Those idiots, don't they realize now that we've lost our weapon Konoha will be seen as weak? This wouldn't have happened if that fool Hiruzen had given him to me like I wanted.'

"Did he run away?" Danzo suddenly asked.

An ANBU with a boar mask was waiting quietly on one end of the room. He looked over at Hiruzen, who nodded at him. He then spoke up, surprising most of the room's occupants who hadn't even noticed his presence. "There were no signs of struggle in his apartment, and nobody seems to have seen him at the time of the disappearance. However, the door was left ajar, which could mean any number of things. All of his belongings remain, making it unlikely, but not impossible, that he left of his own volition. This all points to a kidnapping, though we have no way to be certain."

Danzo appeared to be satisfied with this answer, and began scheming about how he might turn this occurrence to his advantage. 'This is the perfect opportunity for me to gain control of the Kyuubi. If my Root is able to find him before Sarutobi, then I can train him in secret and Konoha will gain a powerful weapon.'

"Is this all you called us for Sandaime-sama?" asked one council member in a bored tone.

"Yes. It was. You are all dismissed, I will call you again if there is any important news regarding Uzumaki Naruto." replied Hiruzen calmly, suppressing his anger at the council's flippant attitude towards the disappearance of the person he considers to be his surrogate grandson.

Hello again! Glad that you made it through. Since you're able to tolerate my writing, it gives me some hope you might actually read my story. So I'd like to give a bit more insight on how this will play out. There will definitely be a pairing at some point. It will almost definitely not be any girl from Konoha. Chances of a harem are slim. If it works I might add a second girl. Lemons will also show up later.

This fic is rated M, and I will not water the story down. There should be plenty of bloodshed and gore, and no characters are safe (well maybe Naruto).

Naruto will become strong fast, but for good reason: first, he won't have multiple comrades picking up the slack when he makes mistakes. Also, in canon he learned the kage bunshin no jutsu in hours, so he no doubt has plenty of potential (not to mention mastering elemental manipulation in days despite shitty chakra control). Third, I'm just tired of seeing Naruto get his ass kicked then winning on determination alone. Keep in mind that Naruto will still often cut it close, or lose altogether.