He was hungry. There wasn't any food in his apartment, and the cardboard box that usually sat in front of his door didn't have enough to feed himself this week. So, he went outside with a pocket full of change. Hopefully he could scrounge himself a meal. It was unlikely, however, and the boy knew that. Still, it couldn't hurt to at least try…could it?

He looked around while walking on the empty streets. It was late and a lot of stores were beginning to close. The blond knew which stores he couldn't enter. He could tell from the stern faces of the owners: that they didn't want him there. So, naturally, the boy complied to their implicitly stated wishes and searched elsewhere.

At first, it confused the boy why he was the one that was always isolated from the crowd. Why him, amongst hundreds of other children his age? Why him, when he was strictly focusing on his own life, trying to survive? These questions have remained unanswered for the longest he could remember, and it occasionally irked him. He gradually grew tolerant to this life most of the time, however. It became normal. Now, he usually changed his direction to avoid unnecessary conflict.

That didn't stop other people from approaching him, though.

"Hey, you."

A low, rough voice came from behind the boy.

"Run, N͟͏̕͠a̶̶͢_̶͢͝ŕ͟t̵͝#̶̕͘#̴͏O̷̵̸҉ before—"

The boy barely registered the second fainter, almost distorted voice as he quickened his pace. Unfortunately, he wasn't quick enough, and a hand grabbed him by the shoulder and forcefully turned him to bring him eye to eye with the man who called out to him. The man's face was covered behind an opaque white mask…odd.

"Finally, you piece of shit. I found him! OVER HERE!" The man shouted to seemingly nowhere. However, in the next few moments, several more figures showed up and surrounded the boy and his assailant.

"H-how can I help—?" The boy stumbled on his words while he was internally trying to assess the situation. There were around eight to ten people in total, all masked. Their intimidating aura was suffocating, especially to the boy that was at the center of it.

The next moment, before the boy could process anything else, the setting changed almost instantly. Instead of the empty street, he was now in a clearing in what appeared to be the forest. The man that grabbed him still had a firm grip on his shoulder. Naturally, his grip was becoming tighter and more painful as the boy tried to struggle.

"You piece of shit," the man spat as he hurled the boy on to the ground, letting him bounce a couple times. "We're going to make history. We'll be praised as heroes. You don't know how long I've been waiting for this moment."

The man let out a maniacal laughter. Slowly, the other figures slowly popped into the clearing one by one… but this time, they had weapons. The boy was quivering, as he saw their brandished swords, knives, and other weapons he couldn't even begin to describe. He knew that if he let this continue, the outcome would be far more than painful.

So, the boy struggled as he turned onto his stomach, and then tried crawling towards the forest to get out of the clearing.

"Watch it, you demon," the man snarled.

As the boy's hand was grasping for the ground in front of him, there was a sudden agonizing sensation. He looked at his hand and saw there was a spear protruding from it, as red started to seep from where the blade connected to his hand. He could feel a numbing sensation that quickly turned into stinging throughout his whole body, and he realized that there was electricity emanating from the spear. The boy, still in mental shock of the situation, couldn't even gasp from the pain he was experiencing. He pulled out the spear with his free hand through sheer willpower but immediately regretted it as blood started leaking immediately.

"What, no response? I've been hoping for this opportunity to come… COME ON, SCREAM OR SOMETHING," the same man shouted, as some cheers could be heard in the distant background.

A foot stomped on the boys back, and he felt his rib cage crush into his lungs. There was an audible crunch. The boy intensely gasped and coughed for air, but he couldn't. The sound of his attempted breathing was wet and heavily out of rhythm as he began regurgitating and swallowing back his own blood. Despite this, the boy never screamed, nor did he cry. He was just focusing on his being, right now. How could he get out of this? Were there any nearby ninja that could help? Why were these people after him? Why was he labeled a 'demon' a slight moment ago? Did they hate him that much, to potentially kill him? Are they going to kill him?

Some of those questions were answered, as one member of the onlooking masked figures cheered, "Kill him already! I want to go home. I can finally sleep tonight knowing this monster's off the streets."

There were multiple voices and a chorus of agreement from various other figures.

"Shut up. Let me enjoy this. I'll never forget what that fox did on that night…I won't forgive that thing…to think it was so stupid to turn into this retarded midget. Look—he can't even open his eyes! He's blinded by his own blood!" he yelled and laughed hysterically in between his sentences. "He's so weak…come on, move. Struggle more. I'll show you the pain we all felt on that day…NOW GET UP." The man shouted as he kicked the boy's body against a tree.

The tree made a loud crunch as the boy's body impacted against it and was followed by a dull thump as it met the ground facedown. Now, all sensation of his body was lost. The only thing the boy could feel was his own heartbeat, and it was ringing obnoxiously in his ears. He could barely hear the man anymore, but he expected that the man was still probably trying to get a reaction out of the boy. Unfortunately, the boy wasn't even capable of making a comprehensible response. His throat was crushed, and his vision was flickering from the lack of blood. At this point, he was simply struggling to keep his sanity together. He couldn't afford to pass out now, otherwise it would completely ensure his own death. Even if his existence was scrutinized by everyone for no apparent reason, the boy still had the will to live. Although, right now, he was bordering the line to let that will go. He was lucky the masked group was giving him the option to even contemplate this for the time being.

His thoughts paused as he received another kick to his chest. Another, and another. Another, but this time to his face. Again, but this time was his shoulder, which was likely dislocated as a result—not that it mattered, of course. Different figures from the group took turns getting their work in to hitting the boy. Some even had their fun by slashing him with their weapons. Some of them verbally assaulted the boy to try to get a reaction from him, entertaining and pleasuring themselves by doing so.

"Demon—"

"You deserve death—"

"Bring them back—"

"Stop pretending to be a child—"

"Why are you allowed to live—"

"Die, fox—"

"I hope I never see your face again—"

"You're just a monster."

The insults and intents to kill were becoming repetitive during the moments when the boy's ears occasionally cleared to discern the words directed at him. Yes, everything was becoming repetitive. The hate, pain, the sound of his own heart throbbing in his ears… he wished it would all stop. He wished he could just sleep. He wanted to be in the comfort of his own solitude, away from the pain.

"Do̵͜n't g̷̨͡͞į̴҉͟X̶̴̷҉͏e̶͝͏̧͘ ̵͞u̸p#͢͜#҉͟͜#̶̛̛́͝#̨͟. ̛ù̵̷p.͢͟͜ ̨I̸*̴̡ ͢͠b̡e̢l͏̢#e̕v̷̀̀ę ͘ì̕n̡͞ ͜͝y̛͘oứ͝"

A sound overpowered the pain and his throbbing heartbeats for a the briefest of moments. He couldn't really make out the words of the voice, but he could feel the intent behind them. How could they say that, though? To not give up? In this situation? Who would not in the boy's position? The boy questioned himself, before coming to a decision.

"҉Y̴ȩs,,̢̨͏ ̛e͘ņ͝d̶͞ų̶͟ŕ̶e̶҉.̸̕."

The clearing grew quiet. Why? Because one of the men that took their time brutally assaulting the boy had a glowing chain impaled through his head. The masked figures were probably asking themselves how a chain could spontaneously appear from nothing. As they traced the chain back to its origin, they noticed it was connected to the boy's exposed back. Realizing this, the crowd grew wary, but they grew even more furious at the same time. The initial attacker stepped forward.

"You piece OF SHI—"

This was interesting to the boy. Despite his battered and disoriented condition, he could still feel where the man was…as if whatever was extruding from his body was an extension of his senses. The moment he could feel the other man speak, he knew where to aim, and somehow made contact with the source of the sound. The silence following the contact was appreciated by the boy's recovering hearing.

As he felt a moment of peace, he opened one of his bloodied eyes and tried to peer through the swollen slits. He could discern a blurry glowing line…that connected to one of the masked figure's head. Taken aback, he opened both eyes, and clearly saw that the man's throat was speared through with what appeared to be a bladed edge on the tip of a chain. The boy's eyes followed the chain down to his body to see that the chain came from his own body. That was a surprise.

The surrounding figures were surprised too, but quickly reaffirmed their situation. Some of them began to weave hand seals as they were preparing a jutsu to fire at the boy, as they felt that this has gone on for long enough and were scared at what the boy could potentially do to them next. Some of them let out war cries as they began to charge at the boy with their weapons.

However, the cries stopped, as the boy felt several more figures appearing in the clearing. Unfortunately, the boy couldn't even respond to the new presences. Realizing he was losing consciousness, he desperately tried to move out of the clearing in a final effort, the boy lost too much blood to carry himself any longer. He at least tried… that was good enough for him, right?

Before his mind completely drifted away, he heard a voice that was shouting his name. He couldn't tell if this one was coming from inside his head, or one that's actually in front of him. Either way, it wouldn't matter soon. He did catch a glimpse of a slightly different white mask in front of him, however.

⁂

The boy, Uzumaki Naruto, was focusing on his breathing with his eyes closed. He didn't know how to feel. He accepted his own death the last he could remember, yet here he was: the present. Assumed present, that is—he wasn't even sure if what occurred was even real. His assailants were shinobi…right? The man that grabbed him definitely targeted him in particular and organized a lynch to do so. They were professional, until the physical torture began. At that point, his life was being toyed with. He realized he was unwanted by everyone, but he never expected anyone wanted him dead.

Naruto was aching and in pain. Once he finally regained senses of his muscles, he allowed himself to open his eyes. His vision could barely focus onto anything and he deduced that he was heavily sedated not long ago. The boy recognized the familiar set of white tiles which formed the ceiling and he realized that he was in a hospital bed. He looked to one side and could make out many drip bags connected to his arm, to his mild annoyance. He tried sitting up but immediately regretted it as a searing pain spiked in his chest soon after. Right now, there were too many questions in his head to make sense of the situation, and Naruto was breathing rapidly as his mind raced. He felt nauseous from the smell of the linoleum floors, the obnoxiously white lights, the slight tingle in his throat from the urge to vomit. There wasn't long to sort out himself out before a voice interrupted.

"Naruto, calm down," a commanding voice echoed the room.

His head cleared. The aforementioned boy tilted his head to the other side to meet the gaze of the source of the voice. A familiar white bearded, wrinkled old man was in his presence. Or, in proper speak, the boy was in the old man's presence. Many would recognize this "old man" as the leader of the village: the Sandaime Hokage, and the boy's personal benefactor. He was admirable, stern, and confident. Yet currently, through the boy's eyes, he would not use any of those words to describe him as of this moment. The sight of the old man with his signature hat off and worried expression warped that strong, reputable image.

"Naruto. I am sorry. You should not have been in that situation at all. I overloo—"

"What happened?" Naruto's voice croaked, surprising both of them.

Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes slightly widened. Not at being interrupted, but more in surprise at the straightforwardness of the boy's question. He expected panic, fear, or some visible sign of trauma. He didn't expect the cold straight face that was on Naruto. He saw the same face that many trained shinobi would wear to hide their internal struggle and conflict. It pained Hiruzen even more to see this boy, who wasn't even a ninja, try hide his emotions to this degree. However, years of experience in the political realm allowed Hiruzen to truly see the panic in the boy's demeanor, and that saddened him immeasurably more. Despite this, Hiruzen maintained his professional demeanor and addressed the boy's question.

"…You were attacked by chūnin pretending to be ANBU. They somehow made their own masks and maneuvered around the usual patrol," the old man responded with an apologetic tone. "The patrolling ANBU should have stopped this before it was even planned. This must have been an internal breach. We're currently investi—"

"Why?" Naruto simply asked.

Both the interruption and question were expected this time.

"…I'm afraid I can't answer that, my boy," the old man let out with a sigh.

"Is this about this…fox?"

There was visible surprise and slight pause in the Hokage's eyes and expression, until a calm and resigned demeanor settled on his face soon after. His eyes closed as if contemplating something, and then opened a moment later as if he reached a conclusion.

"Naruto."

The boy instinctively tried to straighten his back at the abrupt commanding tone, but winced as he failed to do so. After a moment of sorting himself out, Hiruzen continued.

"You are the container of the Kyūbi: the Nine-Tailed Fox that attacked this village seven years ago."

Another pregnant pause to let the words hang in the air. Naruto simply looked at the old man blankly, completely still.

"This does not mean that you are the demon. You are simply the container. This does not change anything. You are still you."

Now it was Naruto's turn to look surprised. He was aware of the attack on Konoha many years ago, but he never thought to associate an insane event like that to the source of all the hate towards him. However, everything slowly fell into place, and realization gradually grew apparent on the boy's face. He really didn't know how to respond to this. After a brief silence to let him further digest the information, the old man continued.

"This is classified information. You weren't supposed to be aware of this until you grew much older. I suppose after this incident, though, it's only fair you should at least know," the Hokage said, "I'm afraid I can't divulge anymore than that, however. Please accept it as it is."

Naruto was about to ask several questions to clarify things, but the last sentence from the old man shut everything down. Why was the demon fox in him in particular? He heard several legends of the Yondaime Hokage honourably sacrificing himself to kill the fox, so why wasn't it dead? If the information was classified, how does everyone somehow know and consequently ostracize him when he was told he wasn't the 'demon fox'?

Various thoughts clashed together, and several memories of shame and instances of hate towards him surfaced. Attempted arson on his apartment when he first moved in from the orphanage, being barred from open shops, being glared at in the streets. He could try make sense of it, but Naruto couldn't fathom how petty the treatment was. Yet, for some reason, he couldn't be upset at them.

"So…what do I do now? People will try to kill me? I just live like this?" Naruto questioned, with a slight waver in his voice.

"As for that, I believe the best option is for you to enter the Ninja Academy. There, you can learn how to properly defend yourself, and you should be secure in the classroom. I'll make sure of it. Once you graduate, people will think twice before fighting a fully-fledged ninja. This problem will never happen in the future, Naruto. Trust me," the old man said firmly, never breaking eye contact with the boy.

However, Naruto was still in a state of paranoia despite his forced, calm outward appearance. He didn't want to be under that stress again. He didn't want to come to accept death a second time. If the Hokage himself overlooked the upbringing of his assassination, who's to say it wouldn't happen a second time? So, Naruto thought about the proposition deeply.

Ninja Academy. He contemplated being a ninja once, when he saw the occasional shinobi flicker in and out of sight from the streets. It was intriguing to see them stealthily maneuver in the shadows, beneath the public eye. He wanted to mimic that; that way, he could hide from them: those scrutinizing, hateful eyes. However, he quickly realized he had nobody to guide him through the process. It seemed almost all capable shinobi came from a background with deep heritage in the art. Naruto didn't have anything like that; he had no clan, no friends, no parents. It's true that he could learn a few things at the Academy, but could he excel? Could he be good enough to fight against another lynch from a mob of supposed chūnin?

"À̶c̢͘c͡è̛̛p̀t.͘"

Naruto was startled but showed no indication of it. This voice, he remembered, was the same one that guided him through the attack on his life. He felt that this voice was gave him the push needed to cling onto his life. More of the incident flooded his memories, and he recalled the instance when it first spoke to him. Perhaps, without its encouragement at the time, he wouldn't even be alive. There were even more questions popping into his head from this new information, but now was not the time to reflect. Naruto cleared his mind and looked at everything realistically without the paranoia and intense thought.

He considered his options. There were certainly no real disadvantages to enrolling in the Academy, and he felt inclined to heed to the voice's wishes. There may be minor inconveniences, but Naruto was sure they would weigh less than the inconveniences of going to regular school.

There was a realization that he was unresponsive for a few minutes, and Naruto looked at the old man's face with caution. The Hokage was simply observing the boy, patiently expecting an answer. The boy then broke the silence.

"…I accept."

"That's good. But before that, it is tradition to ask three requirements to any aspiring shinobi entering the Academy," the Hokage explained. The statement was met with confusion from the boy, as if he expected an elaboration. The old man saw this and continued, "One: love the village and hope to help preserve peace and prosperity. Two: have a mind that will not yield and be able to endure hard training and work. And finally, three: be healthy in mind and body."

As he finished, Naruto looked at the Hokage with even more confusion. How ironic was it, to ask those questions when he was in such a crippled state? Rather, even if he recovered, could Naruto really follow those requirements? How could he love the village, when the village wanted him dead? He didn't think too long on this, however, as Naruto understood that this was merely a formality to enter the Academy. Certainly, not everyone could adhere to those requirements…right? So, his response to the questions was a simple nod.

Hiruzen observed Naruto carefully and sighed. He didn't expect Naruto to take to these requirements personally—in fact, hardly anyone entering took the requirements seriously, as they supposedly came naturally. However, as stoic and blank the expression on Naruto's face may be, he could not hide from the eyes of Hiruzen. The Hokage had experience picking apart emotions; he could discern the emotions of any seasoned shinobi if he so desired—as good as any Yamanaka, he would say. Hiruzen could easily tell that Naruto didn't view this village as his home, and that he didn't love it like any average citizen would. This hurt the old man's heart, and he felt that he failed a certain someone's legacy. Even so, he would try to help Naruto learn to love Konoha and protect it as his home. Hiruzen hoped Naruto would. No, Naruto had to.

"Well, you don't have to think too hard about it now, as you have a few months before you can enroll. You should take this time to recover and rest. Again, don't think too much of what's inside you Naruto. You are not the demon, as many of the civilians may think," the old man assured the boy.

The Hokage left his seat, and Naruto felt a wave of tiredness wash over him. He barely even registered what the old man said to him. The influx of information of the situation didn't help ease his worries at all. However, he was certain of one thing: he had to get strong. He couldn't simply accept unsolicited abuse and expect to walk it off every time. His passive attitude would have to change. He couldn't ignore the village and the village can't ignore him. His ideal will never be met without work. So, he had to train, and make the most of the old man's offer. For now, however, the boy let his tiredness take control. He would act later.

⁂

Miraculously, Naruto fully recovered within two weeks of his stay at the hospital, despite the several near-lethal injuries he sustained from the incident. The doctors were appalled by the development and were reluctant to release him so early, but the boy's medical checkups and attempted escapes from his room convinced them that he was healthy. There were instructions from the nurses on how to take care of his body after surgery, but Naruto didn't pay attention to them, as the instructions felt half-hearted. He himself was curious about the fast recovery process but didn't really question it much. He had other, far more important things to worry about after all.

He needed answers. Answers that the old man would not tell him.

Currently, Naruto was about to enter the private library, inaccessible to the general public and apparently, the average shinobi as well. He was aware of this place only by eavesdropping from librarians in the public library. Naruto entered by evading attention in the standard library, then maneuvered his way into the closed off areas by observing the occasional chūnin's patrol patterns. It was fairly easy, but still took some careful observation. After that, he noticed a door that was suspiciously out of place. At a glance, it was just like any door, but he could feel some sort of energy from it—he couldn't quite explain it. Regardless, he took the opportunity when the chūnin was out of sight to discreetly open the door. At first, there was a slight panic as he heard a subtle hissing noise, but it immediately died down. He then entered the dark room and went to work.

After some more maneuvering, the boy then settled himself in between a candle-lit corridor of bookshelves. There was a stack of books relevant to his curiosity at his sides. It took hours of searching, but he managed. There were several failed attempts after sifting through random stories such as one about a giant toad battling giant snakes, a rabbit goddess descending onto earth and becoming human, and a weird story about how the moon was lifted from the earth itself by one single man—absolutely insanity. Despite this, he did find some relevant books regarding his questions.

The attack of the Kyūbi.

The same Kyūbi that was inside Naruto as soon as he was born, apparently, as he had no other memory of his life being any different. At first it was worrying, but the Hokage's words kept reverberating through his head. He was not the Kyūbi. That still didn't mean that he couldn't be influenced by it, somehow. That was probably the most frightening thought—how could he verify that claim? He was already hearing voices in his head…so what if—

"D̕͝҉ë҉̨̨̀N̨̕͞t̴̴͜͝ ́͜͜c̴͜͢͠ơ͘̕҉̸M̢҉̧͠҉A̡̢͞R̵͜͞͝͝E͢͡͝ ̴̷̸̡̀t̴͏҉̧͢Ḩ̡̨́͘A̵̧̡͜͠ ̶̛̛͘1̵̨$̶̴̡͟θ̸̷͝͝#̸̢̕͝x͟͡͠å̀͞ ̢͘͜F̛͟í̶̷Ó͢͠͞X̕͟"

Naruto's ears popped. Clearly, whatever he was just thinking wasn't taken kindly to whatever entity that was somehow in his head. There were no comprehensible words heard—just plain noise, in fact—but the boy could still understand the intent of them. The voice's reoccurrence, however, confirmed that what he heard during that incident and meeting with the Hokage wasn't simply him being delusional—or, maybe he never exited the delusion yet…who knows?

Regardless, this voice has helped him in a time of need during the incident, so for now, he would investigate it later. It wasn't the immediate concern, despite how troubling it may be. He wasn't really in a position to talk to the voice, after all. However, this still posed the question about the Kyūbi itself.

Obviously, it wasn't dead as the legends made it out to be. The Yondaime died to seal it inside Naruto's own body. The boy managed to scrounge into the deepest of shelves to find a book on the beast. It was interesting; apparently the Kyūbi wasn't the only demon feared across the hidden villages. It was classified as a bijū, a Tailed Beast, and there seemed to be other demons similar to it, but with differing number of tails. There were nine bijū in total, with the Kyūbi having the most tails. Perhaps the number of tails signified the level of power, in a way?

As Naruto flipped through the pages, he noticed that each demon in the book was accompanied with an ink illustration with a following description of their abilities and lore. Apparently, at one point, the Shodai Hokage had all the bijū in his possession but then gave each reigning hidden shinobi village of the time one or two bijū as a sign of respect and equality. It seemed like it was an attempt at peace, as naïve as the gesture seemed. Reading more from this information, it was a surprise to Naruto to find that sealing a bijū within a human being wasn't an uncommon practice, and that there were several people that underwent the process. There was even a formal term for those individuals: Jinchūriki. He wasn't alone in the sense that he contained a demon, and Naruto found small comfort in that.

What shocked Naruto further was that he wasn't the only container of the Kyūbi specifically. There were others before him, and the containers were traditionally in Konoha—

"Ca͘͟r͟e̶̷̡f̀́u̶̶l̛͞.̢̡̛"

He didn't even process the voice this time but instantly heeded the intention. The boy swiftly snuffed the candle and pulled himself and his books out of site from the door. Within his own curiosity, he nearly forgot about the patrolling chūnin at the door. He held his breath and willed his presence to be as small as possible, hoping to somehow disappear entirely. Naruto's efforts may have worked or was entirely lucky, but the patrolling chūnin closed the door and Naruto could hear footsteps waning in the background, as if the ninja was walking away.

Still suspicious, Naruto strained his ears to the best he could and was surprised at the extent to which he could hear. He was sure his hearing wasn't this good before. It was like an entirely new world, and he could hear just as much outside of the room as he could inside. Unfortunately, inside the room, there were subtle yet distinct footsteps that Naruto couldn't really tell whom it belonged to. He definitely heard the chūnin leave, but there may have been another person that entered…or even scarier, was inside all along. However, Naruto noted that these footsteps were off somehow, like they were out too of rhythm to be labeled human.

Naruto didn't have time to think about this. To cut his research project short, or continue? Naruto decided on the former. This was not to say he wasn't not going to take a book along with him—after this infiltration, he was going to get something out of this. It was a shame, but he put the books away in random shelves and almost instinctively kept the book he was saving for last: the autobiography of the Yondaime Hokage. He could only manage to escape with one book, and this was the one; a book written by Minato Namikaze, the man who sealed the demon inside of Naruto, sacrificing himself to do so. Naruto wanted to know everything about him and possibly discover why it was Naruto of all people to contain the Kyūbi.

Quietly, Naruto maneuvered his steps around the other footsteps he could hear, as to keep his distance from whomever the odd person was. He was at the door before he froze in place. His own heartbeat was pounding in his ears as he felt eyes on his back. He could have sworn that the footsteps were heading towards the other side of the room, and Naruto cursed himself for trying to escape so soon. He turned his head slowly and immediately caught his gasp before it came out.

A pair of glowing, orange eyes with horizontal slits met with his. The body of whatever creature the eyes belonged to was hidden in the shadows, and he couldn't directly identify what it was.

Fortunately for Naruto, this wasn't a chūnin. Unfortunately, this wasn't even a human being, and he felt he was wasted his chance to discover more books. Regardless, Naruto took this opportunity to escape, as his head was nearly buckling under the suspense of almost being caught. He exited the door and could have sworn he heard a light pop as he left. He strained his ears again and couldn't hear anything inside the room.

Pushing this odd situation aside, he made his way to leave the library. He wanted out as soon as possible. This day was intense. Naruto wasn't sure if he could do anything like this again. He knew, however, that if he wanted to be a ninja, adventures like these were necessary.

⁂

In his apartment, late at night, the boy was staring intently at a book. It had been hours since he initially flipped through the entire book, absorbing all its contents. Yet, the boy was still staring at the cover of the book, trying to sort his feelings and thoughts towards it.

Frankly, Naruto was mildly upset. No, actually, he was outright annoyed. The book he snagged so painstakingly close to risk being caught with was a disappointment. The first few pages were interesting, sure, but there wasn't anything in there which was anything different from the gossip and rumours of the Yondaime back in the orphanage. Accomplishments in the Third Shinobi War, duties as the Fourth Hokage, various political feats. Everything written in the book seemed so basic that it felt like the autobiography wasn't even written by Minato Namikaze himself! It's as if another person wrote everything in his place! It was interesting, sure, but not what he wanted.

What annoyed Naruto further, however, was that there were several blank pages in the book. What was the purpose of this? To waste his time? Because, if that was the intention, the Yondaime surely accomplished that, and Naruto certainly didn't appreciate that one bit. Really, Naruto wasn't sure what he was expecting. He sighed and laid down on his bed, stretching. He reflected on what his next steps should be.

Obviously, the book wouldn't contain any information on the Kyūbi attack. From Naruto's understanding, the attack on the village was spontaneous and the Yondaime died, so naturally there wouldn't be any information about it in his autobiography. However, what Naruto really wanted to learn about was how the Yondaime sealed the Kyūbi inside of him. To seal a demon—one that was supposedly the most powerful of all bijū, no less—was an amazing feat. This topic garnered great interest in the boy. Fūinjutsu.

An idea struck the boy, and he felt stupid for not thinking of it sooner. Seals, of course. Naturally, the now-deceased seal master of Konoha would have used seals. Naruto sat up and stared at the book with a new perspective. He was a complete novice in seals, and had no experience in reading them, apart from recognizing the distinct red-bordered explosive tag, flash bomb, or smoke bomb. They were common since they were in such heavy demand, so almost all ninja supply stores had them in stock—not that Naruto could buy any, of course. Regardless, the boy had no idea where to even begin to crack any barrier seals in the book, if there were any in there to begin with.

"T̢ak̕e a ͘lǫơk̛.̡"

There it was again. That voice. All the times the voice spoke were in times of urgency, like on the day of the incident when the boy was about to die. Another time was during his confrontation with the Hokage, when he was in a heavily sedated state. And finally, was during the library, when if he were to get caught caught reading let alone steal one of the restricted books, no doubt the boy would get lynched again. The voice always popped up in his head spontaneously, yet in perfectly timed moments. However, this time, Naruto half-expected it. This time, the voice was clear, less distorted. He also noticed it sounded oddly feminine. He could clearly hear the sound of the words instead of having to interpret the meaning behind them.

"…Hello? Who are you?"

No response. Again, this was half-expected by Naruto. Sighing, he simply heeded the words and opened the book. To his shock, the previously blank pages were now full. In fact, it seemed that the whole book itself was rewritten; there was no trace of the prior contents left. Naruto could barely contain his excitement and wonder at what had just happened.

"Thank you, whatever you are," he murmured, expecting the voice to somehow to hear him like he instinctively knew it had.

Naruto's eyes scanned through the pages with newfound curiosity and discovered a list of various notes and entries which were sorted by what seemed to be the date. Rather than a biography, the book now resembled a personal journal of the Yondaime. It was slightly overwhelming, but the boy decided to read the book again from the beginning.

He started from the notes when Minato Namikaze entered the Academy himself.

⁂

A week passed after the discovery of the personal journal of the Yondaime, and Naruto was currently on a trip to scout out a specific training ground the former Hokage presumably trained in up until his jōnin promotion. The personal notes were pleasantly useful to read for Naruto, who knew absolutely nothing on how to be a shinobi. Without a clan background, he was at a disadvantage compared to his future peers. So, Naruto was especially grateful to himself for risking entrance to the library and the voice for allowing him to somehow break past the seals on the book. Because of the effort and trouble to find and read the book, Naruto was sure to make the knowledge from the book as lucrative as possible.

He left the journal back in his apartment as to not risk damaging or losing it along the trip. It was unnecessary to bring the book along regardless, since the boy memorized all the information pertaining to him at the moment. The book itself was absolutely dense with information, and it somehow packaged the entire shinobi career of the Yondaime up until his inauguration for Hokage. It still amazed Naruto how ingenious it was for the former Hokage to use seals to hide the pages as an initial barrier, then layer it with storage seals to summon more pages of notes. However, it didn't stop just there—no, that would be too simple—the stored notes were also storage seals masked with even more seals hiding the contents. Without his random ability to somehow break through these seals (which he guessed was the voice's influence), Naruto definitely wouldn't have been able to access the final layers. There seemed to be a hierarchy in the level of information: the more advanced the technique, the farther down the chain it is stored. Unfortunately, the deeper notes contained various jutsu and shinobi techniques that were far beyond the boy's capabilities to even understand, so Naruto stuck with reading the surface level techniques. Not to diminish the surface notes, obviously. After all, without them, he wouldn't even know about the training ground he was venturing towards.

However, as Naruto walked along the vague path in the deep forest, he was beginning to doubt his memory of the map of the forest in the notes. Perhaps he should have made a copy of it, in hindsight. He foolishly realized that solely relying on the path was an obvious mistake as it completely vanished and was now navigating through mental approximations of distances. Eventually, he noticed a trend of the trees becoming thicker as he followed the path, so he decided to risk follow the thickening trees. At this point he had no clue where to go.

Naruto was mildly surprised when he stepped around a tree to find himself in an open clearing surrounded by trees. In the center was a giant tree stump embedded in the side of a rocky hill. There seemed to be an entrance carved into the side of it.

"No way… that can't be it, can it?" Naruto questioned to himself aloud.

Slowly, he approached the entrance, wary of any traps or seals. Once he stepped foot at the entrance, Naruto peered inside. What he saw astonished him.

There were hundreds of wooden dummies set up across the dirt ground of what seemed to be a giant underground arena. Naruto discerned that there appeared to be a variety in them, however. Most of them were the classic static totems with wooden protrusions that Naruto expected to see…if the protrusions weren't barbed with spikes. Some of the dummies were grotesquely humanoid shaped with heavily exaggerated features; each one seemed to have disturbingly intricate, unique carvings of demon faces on their heads. Lastly, there were six significantly larger dummies against the walls…if they could even be called "dummies". These "dummies" were tall and huge in the fact that they were…well, fat. They all resembled monks in a way with each of them being bald and robed. Their faces differed in emotion between what seemed to be happiness, anger, sadness, fear, disgust, and surprise. It was intimidating, having them all stare at him whilst in the center of the arena.

The Yondaime's book mentioned that there were a few training dummies that were good to train physical fitness, but this wasn't just a few—this was insanity! Overcoming the shock of the sight, Naruto walked farther in to observe more of the arena, wondering how on earth he was supposed to train with these "dummies". At the far back, Naruto noticed a noticeably large wooden statue standing on a tall podium that blended in with the wall. Looking carefully, he realized the face was the Shodai Hokage's, which he recognized from seeing the same face on the Hokage monument nearly everyday. The statue held its hands in which Naruto correctly associated to be the Ram seal.

He wanted to continue observing, but suddenly the Shodai statue's eyes glowed. Naruto was startled as the arena began to shake violently, and he noticed all the humanoid dummies began whirring and coming to life. He assumed they would be rooted into place, but they started moving towards him, much to his shock and fear. Now, they were behaving like automatons, minus the mechanical gears and machinery. No, these things felt as if they were alive. Panicking, the boy attempted to take a step back to run away, only to pause as he saw something.

A glint.

One long blade in the center, with two shorter blades near the handle pointing outward. The handle itself had vague writing on it. Of course, Naruto would recognize the Yondaime's signature kunai. The kunai itself wasn't important, but that seal on the handle definitely was. After all, it was they key to the Hiraishin, a legendary technique that was a foundation of the legacy of Minato Namikaze. Naruto wanted it badly. Unfortunately for him, it was embedded in the ceiling…right above the Shodai statue's head…at the back of the arena…behind the army of dummies that were charging at him right now. The boy glanced back down to consider tanking through the dummies and climb the statue to grab the kunai, but quickly dismissed the idea.

"…Shit."

Amidst the slight hesitation, Naruto overlooked one of the demon-like dummies (which he internally dubbed the oni) that came in too close for comfort. It slashed at him with its clawed hands, and Naruto appropriately rolled forward to dodge with a slight graze. He doubted he could run to the entrance to escape anymore—it was too late for that. Naruto glanced at the oni and was intimidated by the wicked face with teeth pointing in almost every direction. The demonic eyes had a slight glow to them as it began to try another attempt to slash the boy.

In hindsight, Naruto shouldn't have walked so far in.

If that wasn't enough stress, however, one of the monk-like figures (which he dubbed the Sōryo) leaped towards him, shaking the entire arena as it landed. The sheer power of the landing was enough to cause Naruto to hold his breath, completely intimidated. The appearance didn't help either: it was oddly reminiscent of a very, very large toddler with its morbidly happy features on its face. The Sōryo jumped again, with Naruto at the destination of its landing. Panic set in, as Naruto jumped backwards, only to gasp out in pain as he felt the barbs from the stationary dummy. Stuck, Naruto could only stare at the impossibly stretched, mocking smile on the Sōryo's face. It looked as if it was pleased that it was going to liquify the boy beneath its feat. Naruto could hear his own heart thumping wildly, drowning out the footsteps of the other Oni dummies. Time slowed as he stared intently at the smiling face, wondering if his death was going to come for real this time. He closed his eyes in a desperate attempt to embrace the impact.

He waited.

"Y͜ou̷'͝re ̀safe̴. D́o̢n'́t̷ wor̡ry."

Soothing voice spoke sweet.
His heart calmed, tension easing.
Lids part, to see chains.

The same chains that saved his life once before. They came back to do it yet again. Naruto stared wide-eyed at the Sōryo, which was suspended in the air by two chains impaling its shoulders. He noticed that the spiked dummy from behind him was ripped out of the ground, away from his back. His eyes followed down the chains to once again discover it protruding from his own body.

His admiration for the chains was interrupted by a slight twitch of the Sōryo. Naruto almost instinctively willed the chains to move, flinging the giant wooden figure at the nearest group of approaching Oni, knocking them all off balance. He was shocked at how natural that technique felt.

Getting used to flirting with death, Naruto focused on the current objective at hand. The sensible part of his mind told him to immediately use this opportunity to escape…but of course, his ego was telling him to use his new power to get what he sought his eyes on: the tri-pronged kunai. He looked above the Shodai statue's head and saw it glint in the cave light, still embedded on the ceiling. With new confidence in his chains, he tried reaching to simply pluck it out, only to be disappointed by the limited reach—the kunai was still so far away.

The dummies creaked and the arena trembled; a warning of what was to come if Naruto didn't hurry. He realized he was limited on time. He was fortunate that the voice saved him yet again, but he wasn't sure if he could handle fighting this army on his own with the chains he had no experience with. Especially not against that manically happy Sōryo that shook the entire arena each time it jumped.

"…"

An idea.

It jumped. It jumped. It jumped really high. This may be stupid, but Naruto was liking the idea the more he contemplated it. He remembered the jumping trajectories of the Sōryo, so he could predict how and where it would jump and land. To get it to jump the way he wanted it, however, he needed to reposition his body, and change the target of landing. Upon deciding, Naruto looked at the smiling Sōryo and immediately acted. He ran fast, trying to make this effort as lucrative as possible.

Naruto planted his two chains outwards into the ground in the direction he wanted to go, then straightened and pulled them at the same time. The sequence of actions caused his own body to fly across the field above the army of chittering dummies. He landed in an awkward position, and quickly maneuvered his way through the stationary dummies into a relatively open clearing. He was now in a position with the Sōryo in front of him and the kunai behind him. His chains were poised in the air in a menacing manner.

Naruto then waited, and almost wavered as the stupid grin on the Sōryo looked as if it widened.

As he waited, there came a pause. In that pause, Naruto knew the next moment would be it: all or nothing. The smiling Sōryo bent its knees, as expected, and the boy took action. He ran desperately and then slid under the wooden figure's legs. As he was sliding, the chains latched onto the shoulders of the Sōryo, and Naruto felt himself being lifted as it jumped. To add an extra boost, he jumped off the ground along with it and pulled his chains with great force simultaneously. Within a fraction of a second, he was high in midair, with his right hand outstretched. His eyes were set on the kunai. The movement of space slowed as his mind focused on the prize. Gracefully, his palm met the handle, then his fingers curled, then the boy yanked it out of the ceiling. Many feelings and emotions flashed through his mind: elation, accomplishment…and panic.

A question: how was Naruto going to land?

He was suspended in the air as he looked at the floor. The floor full of sharp, pointy edges of the swarm of Oni. The boy felt the air push against his skin as he began his descent.

Before he could even think of his next steps, however, space distorted. His eyes were open the entire time, and even then he could barely even process what had just happened. The boy was panting heavily as the exhaustion caught up to him and he took a moment to grasp his surroundings. In front of him was the forest he came from. He turned around, and saw it was the cave he entered earlier that gave him hell. His attention was drawn to the fading of the glow of the eyes of the Shodai Hokage statue. All the dummies then stopped what they were doing and froze in position, just like they were when he entered.

Naruto looked at his tightly clutched right hand, confirming that the kunai was still in it. It was, and he was welcomed by a slight warmth from it as well.

"I couldn't have…" Naruto openly said, doubting himself.

He slowly was starting to accept the fact that he leapfrogged a giant wooden monk with his new discovery of usage of chains, grabbed a kunai of the legendary Yondaime Hokage that many nations supposedly feared by presence alone, escaped the hell pit which contained a horde of wooden "dummies" that were supposedly for training (according to Minato Namikaze), and finally, miraculously used the Hiraishin to do so. Today was quite eventful…and stressful.

Naruto took one last look at the Shodai Hokage's statue and wondered. Could this have been a test, in a way? Did he pass? Why was the arena built like this, anyways? Many more questions passed through his head.

However, he was tired, so he willed his thoughts to vanish for now. He turned around and began walking, hoping that he could recall the mental map out of this dense forest.

⁂

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