1 Naruto: What Could have been (re-written)

A three year old Naruto is waking up from his sleep, he feels groggy as he looks around the orphanage he felt happy to be with others like him, kids without parents, kids who can understand how Naruto feels when he sees other kids with their parents.

He sees others begin to wake up, as Naruto looks around the orphanage he notices all the adults are gone for some reason.

He began to make his way to the restroom to brush his teeth and to get ready for the day.he felt different from everyone and he never understood why he felt like this he thought at times that is was because he was the only blonde within the orphanage and other times he thought it was because of the whiskers that grew on his face but he couldn't tell exactly what it was that set them so far apart.

While thinking about this he was starting to get dressed as. Naruto being a child was curious about a lot of things, he was smarter than the other children but he never believed he was superior to the rest of the kids he just believed he grew up a little faster and eventually they would catch up to him. he thought faster, he was more vigilant and paid more attention to detail he was a perfectionist but not to the extent of absolute perfection.

He had been considered a genius of sorts, learning things taught to him very quickly, he understood things taught to him and he tried a lot of things, he read most of the books he could get his hands on his thirst for knowledge, seems unquenchable. He always thought big something new and he tried to experiment with them.

He left the orphanage to go to the park near the orphanage to try to find some friends to play with and he played games like tag and hide and seek, Naruto noticed he was stronger and faster than the other kids his age and he took advantage of this while playing with others.

Naruto left the park around noon to head off into the forest to 'train', Naruto idolized the Hokage's he read tales of the Fourth Hokage who was said to be the fastest Ninja in history. Naruto wanted to be just like him, it was said he was a hero, the man who singlehandedly killed a thousand shinobi and Naruto idolized him so he tried training to grow stronger to one day be a shinobi, he ran throughout the forest to build up his stamina, after some time he began to hit some trees to build up some durability but most of the time he trained his reflexes so he set up some logs and blindfolded himself so he couldn't see them coming, so he had to depend on his other senses in the beginning he struggled a lot, but once he got the hang of it he started listening to the wind that rushed past the logs, he felt under his feet the trees slightly lean as the logs fell and he predicted where the logs were coming from and he began to doge accordingly.

Around Sunset, Naruto was walking throughout Konoha with swear all over him while smiling broadly because he felt proud he finally learned how to dodge accordingly. As he walked he felt many people staring at him, Naruto wondered what are they staring at, he looked at himself to see if something was on him but he couldn't find anything wrong so he chose to think about why they're staring at him later, he kept walking ignoring them until he hear them whispering things such as "Look it's the demon boy" and "Why is he even still alive". He walked a little faster to reach the orphanage because he felt nervous.

Reaching the orphanage the owner looked at him with spite, she said "I've moved your bed to somewhere more comfortable" she led him to the closet where they put supplies in there a torn and wet pillow was in the floor with a bedsheet on the floor as he entered the owner slammed the door shut and locked the door from the outside. He laid down while looking at the dark roof he noticed he didn't eat his dinner yet and tried opening the door but to no avail so he decided he would eat tomorrow while laying down to think peacefully *why were they calling me a demon, do they want me dead?, did I do something bad*. All throughout the night these thoughts went through his head until he was too tired to stay awake.

The very next morning he was being kicked out of the orphanage by the Mistress the whole time saying "I won't feed a little demon like you" he had struggled for a bit but when he was outside he ran towards a park to think about what people had been calling him ever since yesterday *demon* he heard from all the shop owners making him flinch thinking all the people within the village were thinking he was a demon. *why are they calling me a demon* his life upto now had been a normal life and he quite enjoyed it but *why are people calling me a demon* he thought as he approached the park he saw kids playing within and he tried to go over and play only for their parents to pull them away from him telling them to stay away from Naruto. Hearing this he had a sad face as he thought *are people afraid of me? Why? Im just a normal kid with.....*"whiskers" he said out loud, Naruto ran into the forest to find his reflection to look at himself to compare himself to others.

That night Naruto decided to stay out late, Naruto learned throughout his life how to cook fish so he hunted them and began to roast them over a bonfire. Naruto was about to take a bite out of the fish he had in his hand when he felt a hand touch his shoulder so naturally Naruto jumped away from the thing that touched him.

"Calm down I smelled food cooking nearby and I came to check what it was." The mystery man said with a calm smile

"Who are you how did you sneak up on me"Naruto said on his guard*How did he sneak up on me I was on full alert for animals that might be nearby who try to steal my food* he thought

"I'm just some old man wandering through the woods my name is Hiruzen Sarutobi I'm the Third Hokage" he said with a calm

"Yeah right and I'm the sage of six paths" He said as he calmed down and sat down on one of the logs.

"Now now no need to be sarcastic, do you mind if I sit down with you" Hiruzen said guesturing to the other log

Naruto nodded and offered the old man one of the fish that was cooking over the fire which he accepted happily.

"So what are you doing all the way out here, shouldn't you be at your home" Hiruzen said questioning Naruto.

"I live in the orphanage nearby and I don't want to because they will just throw me in a closet and not let me eat so I'm eating right now" he said gesturing to the fish that is still cooking over the fire.

"Hey you said your the Hokage right?" Naruto said while Hiruzen nodded as his mouth was still full "So you must know why people are calling me a demon right?" At this Hiruzen visibly flinched, it took him a moment to respond but then he responded "Are they really calling you a demon?" he said with pity and slight anger in his eyes and voice.

"Yes sir but I've always thought I was different from the rest, I mean look at me I have whiskers I don't know anyone else who has them and there are few blonde people around the village too so I have one question, Am I a demon" he said with sadness within his voice

"No" Hiruzen said then he went on "Just because your slightly different then the rest doesn't make you a demon" with sadness clearly in his voice.

"I have to leave but how about we meet here every now and then so we can talk about what we did" Hiruzen said as Naruto nodded excitedly as he finally made a friend while walking toward the orphanage.

( 3 Months Later) October 10th

Today Naruto woke up excited, he quickly got up and dressed himself early so he can leave before the caretakers wake up to kick him out. So he quickly ran out of the orphanage and into the forest because Hiruzen his grandfather figure told him to meet him out there early. Once Naruto arrived he saw Hiruzen as he had a sword in one hand and a scroll in another, Hiruzen noticed him and smiled warmly toward Naruto.

"So what did you want Hokage-jiji" he said with a smile "I wanted to give you this for your hard work throughout these last three months" Naruto has been training more seriously under the tutelage of Hiruzen who gave him suggestions in his fighting skills so by now Naruto was low academy level which was impressive but Naruto always worked hard so it was a good thing that it was starting to pay off.

"This sword is your birthday present it's made out of chakra metal so keep it safe always, and in this scroll are some basic taijustu, kenjutsu, Ninjutsu and the basic three Jutsu needed to pass the ninja accademy, so study it and build your own style to fit yourself with this as the foundation, remember control over your chakra is the most important part to using jutsu" Hiruzen said in one breath.

"Hai Sensei, I will never forget this, thank you jiji I will grow strong to pay you back some day" Naruto said smiling softly while tears stream down his face.

These past three months have been the worst of Naruto's life and the only good thing that came out of it was his grandpa

"I have to leave for my work, so try to enjoy yourself today Naruto you owe it to yourself to relax"

He spent some time in the forest to eat something, after Naruto ate food he began to walk throughout the village because today was also the day the Fourth Hokage saved the village from the Nine tailed village.

Naruto felt admiration towards the Fourth Hokage for killing the nine tails Fox in exchange for his own life and it showed his dedication towards his village, and Naruto respected that he died to protect his village.

(That Night)

he felt stares on him as usual but today was a bit different and he knew it people were smiling as widely as possible and he didn't know why. He had just turned 4 and he was happy. Later on he would get his answer as one of the smiling villagers tried to grab Naruto by his wrist with his left hand but naruto reacted quickly and withdrew his arm quickly, he stared at the man as his smile dimmed and he took out something from his pocket that made naruto very afraid,the villager held a knife in his other hand and it shined brightly, villagers all around Naruto began to pull out weapons and all of them were pointed towards him. Naruto stood there frozen out of fright, his body screamed to him to run as fast as possible but he couldn't he was almost surrounded, seeing he had only one option he ran towards the opening in the encirclement, all of the villagers began to chase him throughout the village but thanks to his Training Naruto was faster then the normal villagers.

Naruto tried escaping the only way he knew how, through alleyways and the forest, he ran as fast as he could, Meanwhile Naruto's mind was in overdrive trying to figure out why this was happening to him especially now that I was his birthday, but before he could think of a reason he was snapped back to reality as tripped over something on the road giving the villagers enough time to catch up to the boy. Naruto now was desperate as they were basically breathing down his neck he ran into another alleyway trying to get away from the angry mob only to be cornered in the alleyway.

Naruto began to search for a way out of his current position, thinking of ways to try to escape from the angry mob, only to find none and once he had noticed he had no escape they were on him they kicked him as strongly as they could,while others punched him as hard as possible, continuously beating Naruto in the corner cursing Naruto just for existing while tears streamed down his face as he felt excruciating pain from the angry mob until he felt slowly losing consciousness.

Naruto felt the pain suddenly stop, he looked up to see who helped him he saw a man with grey hair and a dog mask looking at him, while the mob in the background were running away, slowly as he stared at the man he felt himself slowly drifting into unconsciousness.

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I think this is better then what I had written before let me know what you think.

Thank you for reading.