Demon Boy
By Goddessa39

Canon: Naruto
Rated: T for Teen I guess…
Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine. Sakura would grow a brain and Naruto would notice Hinata sooner if it was mine.
Characters: Jinchuuriki Naruto, Jinchuuriki Gaara, Team 7 bashing, Konoha bashing, etc.
Timeline: not really applicable but anytime post-Chunnin Exam Arc I guess...
Genre: Horror/Angst
Summary: Naruto knows he is many things, but… [They called him demon once.]

Uzumaki Naruto is a bright and happy [how deep do these masks go?] person who smiles in the face of adversary and holds a flag of peace. He is unpredicatable [no one sees him cominggoinggone] and a dobe [who beat the temegeniusmonster] so he cannot possibly be dangerous.

His first memory is [painredtailsangerfearlovepain] indistinct. What he knows is that he hates his dreams partially because they make him wake [and shake and cry and sweat] with tears on his face and the loose sheets kicked off his bed in the night. Sometimes, Uzumaki Naruto can convince himself that it is all a nightmare created by [glares and hate and eyes and rage and fiery pitchforks] his imagination. He pretends that the walls are that of a firm house of protection [but not love because what is love to a demon boy] and not broken pitchforks stuffed with toilet paper and held with gum.

But when he is not making a clown of himself [hey, no sane non-Konoha Gennin or Chunnin in the elemental nations can claim his sneaking around in ANBU quarters is not training] he is somewhere quiet and alone where the wood grain of growing trees is still fresh and green [and reaching up-up-up into the clear sky that has no hatred for him] and Naruto knows that those [brighthatepain] dreams are more than just imagination.

To the Sandaime Hokage he is a half-fey grandchild with wild eyes and [pain] loneliness in his gaze. Naruto looks at the man with love and [respectfearloyalty] something that is not quite relief in him. He is a lonely boy, an ostracized spirit and that the old man notices him at all is seen something approaching a miracle [don't believe in them].

Ninja, to Naruto, are people who are not civilians [sneakier] who have ways around things that are seen as law [or not Law]. The idea of answering only to the Old Man is also seen as a perk. Naruto's future career as a ninja is a way to not be weak [to not be beaten], to rise above [won't be held down] and not settle for a life of pain and [weakweakweak] bored misery.

To the villagers of Konohagakure, Naruto is the demon in human form, an easy target [hated and alone and no ANBU around to help him] and though the boy will learn to ignore them he will never quite get over his hate [his not theirs] that comes from the surprise [and sometimes not so] beatings.

Everything gets a little skewed as he gets older though. He is six [almost seven but malnourished and short] when he looks around with clouded eyes. "Wait a second," he says to himself. "Everyone looks at me like 'demon' is a fitting name, but what have I done?" Naruto has spent time crying why this is so, asking aloud to everyone only to be [beatenglaredathated] left with unanswered questions and healing gauges and bruises. It is logic that points him towards the more esoteric books in the library [sneakiness is something required for his continuous life and the library is not even lightly guarded] and gives him ideas.

Uzumaki Naruto is too young to think such things, but Konoha has molded him into a hardened child of harsh [bloodtearspainhell] times.

Orange is picked up not only because he likes it but because it is a noticeable and [baitmeseemehatemefearme] sticks out in a crowd. He laughs when it gives passing people headaches [so the ninja are watching] and learns to shout loudly in return with a blazing grin.

He gains a few loved ones, eventually. Ji-Ji [helpme], Ayame and Teuchi [feedme], Iruka [teachme] and even Anko [belikeme] become special to him, inherent to his routine. Years pass in the relative harmony [beatingsandpainandhate and why is nobody helping] that is his life.

And then Mizuki... the man had never been favorable to the boy, but he had also not been as malicious as some of his previous temporary teachers. Truthfully, Naruto had smacked himself for never putting all of the clues together, but then maybe he had not wanted to know the wicked truth. If Naruto did not disliked the man [for hate unearned] or hate the man [for hurting Iruka-sensei] then maybe he would thank him if only for assuaging his long-held curiosity.

Because although the truth is not something he truly wants to acknowledge, it is also false that ignorance is bliss.

It is Iruka-sensei standing over him as if a parent animal about its cub [protectlovehelp] spouting off about a Law [Ji-Ji had always held secrets tightly] and lies [demondemondemon] and things no innocent should ever hear [but then he is not so innocent is he?] that Naruto realizes what Mizuki died not believing.

Uzumaki Naruto is not the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. Later as he sits in the Hokage's office [old man looks solemn, old man tells him he is not a demon, old man is in charge of a military village] and he traces the lines on his cheeks, perfectly even like a mirror image with three on each cheek. The old man explains about the seal [burningbellyhungryalone] and the secret [no help, so alone] and why he never said it.

So Naruto smiles and nods and says "Yes I understand," but [hatepainfeartearsblooddeath] knows it is all a lie because it never did him any good.

It is hope that disappoints him again. It is hope that his Gennin team will be the family of sorts it is created to be but from the beginning it is a disappointment [but then what isn't?]. Sakura is cute enough but with no strength besides a few memorization keys. He tries to cheer her up [positive words and a crush and friend] but gets a slug upside the head for his troubles. The last Uchiha is [so similar and alone and] distant so Naruto creates himself in the image of a lesser person but gets mocking and beatings [sameasusualparforcourse] nothing good in return. Kakashi-sensei is supposed to be strong [and smart and caring and stuff] but he tosses him away with [wrong to ignore one for another] a thousand years of pain and [alone as always] Naruto knows it is not going to work out.

D-ranks are boring [and everyone is patronizing only him] and training [but only for the Uchiha] goes nowhere so Naruto is happy with the idea of a C-rank to test-the-waters. Also, he has never been out of the village so it is an adventure.

To be honest, he doesn't notice the puddle as strange [who would?] because even if it has not rained, the paths are long-walked and anyone could have dropped something like the caravan they passed half-an-hour back [that did not glare]. Sakura will screech in surprise when they are ambushed by genjutsu. Tazuna is scared. The Uchiha freezes and is also surprised and the Jounin [trash] abandons them to possible death. Later, the Uchiha will act superior as always and the pinkette will berate him and the Jounin [trashtrash] will tell tales of how the demon-boy froze at his first encounter.

Those who hear of it dismiss that C-rank mission that turned into some kind of twisted A-rank as something the Uchiha prodigy and the Hatake [hewithaSharinganeye] fellow reaped profit and saved the day. No one sees the orange [freakdemonmonstermurderer] listen in on this and bow his head in [anger] grief. Kakashi may have seen him as an emotional person who could not kill because he cried when snow-soft Haku [so like him, usedabusedtool] died, but the fact that Momochi fell in battle just pisses him off because the other ninja died loyal. [Sometimes, Naruto wonders if he will die still loyal.]

What the one-eyed Hatake fellow [trashtrashtrash] will never find, what no one will ever find, is that Naruto is familiar with violence and in fact killed a man who kept stalking Ayame-neechan. But then, only the Uzumaki knows where that particular set of bones are buried.

The next while goes by quickly, not light speed [timebeforetimeafter] but quickly. Naruto would not call them friends but some of his peers on other teams form light bonds with him. It helps that he is an underdog with a smile for other underdogs and a genuine hatred for [dismissalsuperiorannoyances] geniuses who think they are the center of the universe and inherently unique.

And then... Gaara... Gaara who is so different [familyhateblood] and yet the same [angerhatealonedemoninsane] in the exams.

Later on, generations will be regaled with tales of why Suna and Konoha retain such close ties like the fabled Konoha and the [decimated] lost Ushiogakure [Uzumaki still] had held. They will say that the jinchuuriki of the Kitsune and Shikaku had been brothers in all but blood due to seals upon their persons.

Only they, Gaara and Naruto, will look around them and [laughcryhate] be silent about their sameness because only they can say [voiceinyourheadMother and demonfilthspawnorphan] that it was their villages that made them demons. They could have stood passed the whispers in the mind and the heat [warmthfireanger] in the belly.

The only visible scars on either of the jinchuuriki are on their faces, though for different reasons. Gaara has his sand [sheildhandsbars] that keep others and their weapons away from scarring him. Naruto has a maternal birthright but also a wicked chakra supply that helps the birthright healing for even unnoticed scratches.

It was after the attempted assassination of Gaara by his uncle Yashamaru that he looked in the mirror convinced that nobody [especially the voiceinhishead], not his distant blood siblings or the blood father [Kagehatrednothing] that he used the sand [morehandsothersnotfriends] and carved a deep wound into his head that meant "love." Maybe he hated the demon, but it was the only being that would remotely touch him.

Almost every person who hears the basis of this kanji on the future Sunagakure Kage's forehead looks at the red headed ninja with the knowledge that he is [pathologically bonkerswronginthehead] insane.

In contrast, Naruto has lines that have always been compared to whiskers. Naruto smiles and they smile with him. He is well-known for it and oftentimes the lines convinced a villager that he looked nothing like their beloved deceased Yondaime Hokage.

What only Gaara will ever know is that those lines, however descriptive, was not a birthmark [born yellow haired and blue eyed and beloved and smooth-cheeked] but were carefully carved into his face with a sharp fingernail when Naruto at the age of five and some months finally put together that he must be a demon.

Naruto carved those smooth whiskers into his own face because if the world thought that he was a demon [whom knew nothing], then who was he to disagree?

Fin.

Okay, the whole point was to say the last line. It evolved some and is missing some pieces, but it is there. Reviews appreciated. What do you think?