"Naruto. I'm so sorry."

This was Naruto Uzumaki's first memory. Just a voice and a blurry image of yellow and red.

He was currently seven years old, sleeping behind a dumpster in the red light district of Konoha. He was forced to live on the streets due to the fact he was thrown out of the orphanage two years ago.

Mini-Flashback

"I don't care what the Hokage says! He's clearly lost his mind if he wants me to keep feeding you, demon! The Civilian Council will cover for me, so I can finally be rid of you, and keep the children from being corrupted from your influence!"

End

Since then, it's been open game for the civilians, and part of the shinobi force of Konoha. His body a roadmap of scars from the various attacks. Almost every night, if he hadn't managed to find a different hiding spot, he would be beaten.

The old Hokage, on more than one occasion, personally came to stop the attacks, and imprison those who were a part of it. When he shows up, Naruto uses every once of willpower he has to slip away unnoticed.

He didn't trust the Sandaime. In his head, old man pretends to save him, but Naruto always sees the same people who attacked him back on the streets, at most, two days later.

He didn't trust anyone but himself, and his one friend.

His friend who has always supported him.

His friend who has constantly healed him after every attack.

His friend who keeps him sane in the hell he is forced to call his life.

His friend, the Kyuubi.

"It's time to wake up, kit. Find something to eat, then sneak your way to your training grounds." The Kyuubi's deep and powerful voice spoke in his head.

Naruto rises from behind the dumpster. He carefully looked around before making his way to one place he knew were kind enough to feed him. Ichiraku's Ramen.

He snuck through the alleyways, and made it to his destination, the back of the ramen stand. The two years of learning to avoid villagers and shinobi have increased his stealth.

He quietly knocked on the back door, looking around, making absolutely sure no one heard or saw him.

The door opened to reveal Ichiraku Teuchi, the restaurant owner himself.

"Good morning, Naruto-kun. Why don't you ever come to the front? You know me and Ayame don't care about what the village thinks." Teuchi has tried almost every morning to get Naruto to sit in his restaurant. It always saddened him to see a child of all things suffer in such a deplorable way. All he could do is make sure the kid was fed, since he adamantly refused being adopted, even in secret.

'I don't want the villagers attacking the only people who was nice to me.'

Those were his words. Deeply believing in this, he also refused to sit in the restaurant, just in case someone walked by and saw him.

"Shhh! Someone might hear you!" Naruto whisper/yelled. He looked around again, making sure no one came around to see what the noise was.

When he looked back, he saw Teuchi holding out bag for him.

"It's not healthy to eat ramen as breakfast, Naruto-kun, so here's some fruit instead. I hope you can come by again later."

"... thank you."

Naruto took the bag, and set off to the secret training grounds he found.

He enjoyed sitting on top of the Hokage monument. It was a daily ritual, of sorts, to start and end his day on top of the Hokage heads. He then turned and walked to his secret training grounds he found several months prior. He remembered how he found it.

Flashback

One day, Naruto heard some people coming on top of the monument, so quickly, he ran further into the forest behind it. In his fear to not be caught he simply ran without truly looking where he was going. He tripped, and tumbled through what looked to be a cave entrance hidden behind a genjutsu.

Naruto didn't notice the illusion due to the fact that the Kyuubi flared a minuscule amount of it's dense chakra to drop it.

What Naruto regained his bearings, he looked around the cave in confusion.

"Where, exactly. am I?"

"Walk further into the cave, kit. I think I know what's in here." The Kyuubi spoke.

Listening to his only friend, Naruto walked further into the cave. At the end of the tunnel, he found a very bright light. Walking through it, he was surprised at the breathtaking sight before him.

There was a large open field covered in grass and trees, as well as a large water fountain with a pond underneath it. Surrounding the entire oasis of sorts was a large wall made of the same rocks that the cave entrance was made.

"What is this place?" Naruto asked in wonder.

Chuckling, the Kyuubi responded, "This is the secret training grounds of the Hokage. Hashirama and Tobirama found this cave as children, and as they grew older, they used earth jutsu to open the top. Hashirama made the trees, and Tobirama made the waterfall. Using senjutsu, Hashirama made the waterfall continuous. I remember this place, because my first container, Mito Uzumaki-Senju was Hashirama's wife, and he brought her here to train also."

"SO COOL!" Naruto shouted in excitement.

Flashback end

That is where Naruto spent the majority of his days. He doesn't sleep there, because he needs to leave in order to get food. It's easier to move at night, then it is during the day, so he trains during the day, when the sun is setting, he makes his way out of the forrest, and by nightfall, he finds a secluded alley that isn't too far from Ichiraku's Ramen.

Unfortunately for him, in his exhaustion he didn't notice the two Uchiha who followed him.

He found a secluded enough alley and laid on the cold ground. He was finally about to close his eyes and rest for the night.

"KIT!"

He immediately rolled away, but he wasn't quick enough. A kunai imbedded into his arm.

"There's nowhere to run now, Demon!" One Uchiha spat. "No one to save you."

"Do you have any idea the trouble you cost us." The other spoke up. "People saw a Sharingan in your eyes when you attacked, so they immediately thought it was us who controlled you. We were ROYALTY in this village, but your actions made everyone start to distrust us. Now you finally pay for your sins."

"I'm not the Kyuubi, you idiots! If you kill me, then you'll set it free, and there'll be no Yondaime so save you this time." Naruto breathed out, starting to feel the effects of losing blood.

"Shut up, Demon! We can see through your lies with our powerful eyes! When you die, we will restore honor with the Uchiha, and we'll be back at the top!" The first Uchiha said in anger.

"But wait, why not have some... fun, first?" The second Uchiha said, with barely hidden lust. The first looked at him in pure disgust before getting up, and turning around.

"Hurry up and have your fun. Let me know when you're done, so we can finally kill him."

Even in his haze, Naruto knew what was going to happen. It almost happened on multiple occasions. He tried his best to crawl away, while seeing the Uchiha unbutton his pants.

Then, he heard a calming feminine voice.

"Do not worry, sochi-kun. Kaa-chan will handle it."

That's the only thing he heard before seeing a bright light, then nothing.

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