Namikaze Naruto- The Unpredictable Shinobi

Chapter 3: After Hima's death

Uzumaki Naruto was outside the orphanage. He was walking noiselessly, tending to the shadows. He inheriting his father's intelligence, had understood what his Mama Hima was telling in their last talk. He might have not understood then, but he didn't understand them until a while later- a long while later...

Flashback

Naruto was searching for Hima a day after their talk, but the hushed up, sad voices caught his attention- only to hear that she finally succumbed to her illness and died. The voices were sad but at a point, they held anger at the topic of Naruto and demon brat until one of them shushed the others, saying it was forbidden to speak of it.

Few days later, Naruto met a plump lady who looked not-so-sweet. Turns out she was the new matron of the orphanage. She had been neutral for the first few- I'd like to say days- hours. Encouragement from the other staff there only worsened things. He was beaten, underfed, starved and slaved- made to work extensively. All this was kept hush-hush in the orphanage, but Naruto observed that some of the staff knew. He turned 3 years old only to get kicked out of the orphanage.

He wandered silently, occasionally receiving harsh glares. As it became noon, he did not feel too hungry since he was used to starving, and not many restaurants were kind to him. He was observing everything silently. As evening fell, the Kyuubi festival started. He heard stories of the Yondaime Hokage defeating the Kyuubi no Kitsune on this day, his birthday, 3 years ago. The festival was celebrated as the anniversary of the Biju's supposed death. He idolised the late Hokage and his own parents, the latter being seal masters, according to Hima. Darkness fell and the whispers grew louder, the glares grew in intensity. He had a feeling that something bad was coming up. But, being the mere 3-year-old kid, he couldn't comprehend it soon enough. By the time he decided to get away, he was surrounded and cornered by a mob that started throwing random things at him from rocks to sticks to brooms to pans. An hour later. the crowd dispersed, leaving little Naruto crawling and walking away with bruises and flowing tears.

Days passes into months. He learned that the mob attacks were not as lethal as the one during the Kyubi festival, but they still left him bruised, however, his wounds were healing fast. Other times, people kept away from him and whispered- not so subtly- to their children, to keep away from him. He was called demon, monster, murderer and what not for reasons unknown to him, when beaten up. There was, however, this one restaurant that was open to him and Naruto warmed up to them, though not as much as he did with mother Hima. Yep, the Naruto-fans guessed it right. It was Ichiraku's Ramen- the place serving the most delicious ramen in the world, as quoted by Naruto to a grinning Ayame and a grateful, wide-eyed Teuchi, the daughter-father owner duo of the humble restaurant. He occasionally met the Hokage Jiji in his office, sharing the positive events, and 'conveniently forgetting' the rest.

Flashback ends

Naruto turned 4 a couple of weeks ago. He knew returning to the orphanage was a bad idea and learnt to sneak through shadows to avoid mobs that are easily riled up day-by-day. He reminisced his birthday.

Flashback

Naruto was having a 'normal birthday', when a mob started attacking in the evening. It was early for that if you asked the kid. It was dark when they dispersed. He was about to go into a different alley to tend to his wounds when he was approached by few drunk men and realised, he was in deep trouble. However, he didn't know what kind of trouble it was. He felt uncomfortable under their touches. He had stopped struggling against mob attacks long ago, but now, he struggled again. Suddenly, a hand grabbed his pants roughly and he was alarmed at the action. 

At the same time, a certain someone thought, 'No!' as he didn't know what to do and was running out of options as Naruto's pants were being lowered. Said mysterious being decided to flare up chakra. 

Back to Naruto, he felt something hot and close to burning inside him. A few blocks away, a certain boy noticed the weak flare of chakra. How come others didn't notice, you ask? One, the source of the flare was an alleyway near the bars (unfortunately for Naruto), so, trained Ninja (cough) Jounin (cough) nearby though it was merely the result of some adult action. Two, said boy had been practicing sensory techniques for quite few days. He jumped on instinct towards the source of the chakra flare and found some men surrounding a kid and touching him. 

Said men were backing away a little due to the flare, but he didn't know that. He knocked them out and went to the kid. Naruto felt tired after the sudden sensation of burning in his gut. He was about to pass out when he saw a boy older than him knocking out the attackers before approaching him. Too tired to contemplate whether this person was a benefactor or not, he passed out, not before noting his black eyes with a flash of red and how low his ponytail was.