Transposition

Chapter 3: Bad Life

Naruto Uzumaki was having a bad day.

Well actually, a more accurate statement would be that he was having a bad life. Despite that dreary thought, Naruto was actually A-Ok. He had told himself a million times that it could always be worse, in fact he'd probably spoken to people who've HAD it worse and he just didn't realize. Naruto probably deserved worse anyways, especially considering he WAS the Leaf's resident Demon Brat.

Naruto didn't exactly do anything to remedy this oversight. After all, he lived with the inherent knowledge that people seldom got what they deserved, whether it be good or bad.

Despite his complaints about the pace of the current day, wasn't necessarily that anything unusually bad had happened. No major events or catastrophes; day had been almost completely normal. Well normal for him at least. Naruto had a nagging feeling that his standards didn't completely match others of his same age group.

Either way, Naruto was NOT happy. Which was why he had decided to run away.

Not permanently of course.

He hated ( loved?) the Leaf Village (it was complicated ok?) but sometimes he just needed some time away.

Away from the almost constant scrutiny.

Cold eyes that followed his every move. Stares. Whispers.

-Demon brat-

-Monster-

-Scum-

-Why don't you just go ahead and die already?-

Naruto didn't like thinking about these things for very long. Besides, when he was younger- around four years old, right after the headmistress had kicked him out of the orphanage, he had tried to run away.

This attempt was supposed to be a permanent solution however he had, unfortunately, been followed. Naruto had been able to sense the presence of most anyone even the special masked ninja, Anbu his mind supplied, hiding among the trees and foliage. Sadly, being aware of their presence could only get him so far and, try as hard as he might, Naruto hadn't been able to run away or even hide from them .

So he had ended up sleeping in the forest for a couple of days, using the kunai knives that he had found littered in the Genin training grounds to catch fish from a nearby river and hunt for squirrels and other small rodents. He had also somehow managed to start a fire to stay warm at night and to cook the raw meat.

Nobody had ever taught him how to do any of these things. A occurrence like this wasn't entirely uncommon for him, after all, there were some things that Naruto just instinctively knew.

How chakra worked for instance (not that he could use it yet)

How to hunt and scavenge for food.

How to hide from the drunken civilians that chased him with broken bottles when he tried to sleep in alleyways. ( this civilians were always punished severely by Gramps whenever he found out. Naruto almost felt sorry for them. )

Feelings of inherent right or wrongness guided Naruto's actions on a regular basis. One of the most prevalent examples of this was when he met the tired looking old man out in the forest on a chilly autumn afternoon. He knew that the very same old man who gave him kind smiles (nobody looked at Naruto like that) and murmured reassuring words, ruffled his hair when others shied away from his touch, was not to be trusted.

So he decided to follow his gut instinct.

Naruto called him his "Gramps" and gave him some of his food ( this kind elderly man who took food from a hungry child) and watched him with a guarded gaze.