Chapter One

Bustling with people, smell of the wet soil was lingering through the wind. The village hidden in the leaves was under the care of huge mountains and now black clouds.

Protecting the Village was a huge value and a vast forest, but equally horrendous and beautiful.

Through the streets of Konoha, were couples, singles, old, young and all walking around either for work or strolling for fun. Konoha had a population of around 100,000 making it one of the populated villages.

Konoha was famous for its shinobis, its leaders and its ramen. Neither villages could come close to Konoha, in any aspect, especially the last one. The Teuchi Ramen shop was the most famous one, where even the Hokages, the leaders had parties.

Walking through the streets of this huge village was a kid. Blonde hair, light blue eyes, almost Grey but not natural and baggy, torn clothes. The five year old was no one else but, Naruto Uzumaki. The Demon of Konoha.

Why did everyone say that?

'I don't know. Why do they call me that?' tears trickled down the kids face as he remembered the harsh treatment he received at the Ramen Shop. 'I thought that at least old man Teuchi was different, but…' more tears rolled down his puffed chicks.

Naruto walked and walked. He couldn't think anything and anyone. His mind was jumbled with all the thoughts.

Since he had taken hold of himself, no one in this village treated him well. Except the Hokage, everyone else thought of him as a Monster. And as said before, he didn't know why.

Maybe its my looks? Maybe my hair? Eyes? Or my behaviour? There were countless things he doubted, but at the end, reached to no conclusion.

Every day, he would either get a scolding for things he didn't do, or a beating for mistakes he did not make.

He had been getting sick of it. He wanted to resent them all, but something in him told him not to. They were his fellow villagers. If he had to be a Hokage one day, treating everyone equally was his only option.

His speed increased. He was walking faster. The eyes glaring at him made him shiver, it made him feel weak. His hands shivered, his legs trembled.

His mind started to go in rounds and soon he lost balance. To support himself, he touched something.

CRASH!!

A breaking sound filled the street and Naruto gasped. A small mannequin, white and golden colored had fallen due to him and crashed on the ground.

Looking at the actual mannequin would let anyone know, that it was a defective piece. That, it won't be sold for even 1 ryo.

The shop owner rushed outside, worry on his face. But when he saw the mannequin, it left instantly. It was a mannequin he had to throw away either way, so breaking of it was no big deal. But when his eyes fell on the boy fallen on the ground, the relaxed eyes tensed and anger boiled within them.

"Y….You…." his hissed angrily. "You Brat! What have you done!"

SLAP!

A hard slap landed on Naruto's face, making him wince in pain. Then another and another.

No one came forward to stop the vendor. Rather, they watched in satisfaction. It was like a show, where the worst was getting punished for a crime.

After several minutes, Naruto had curled up like a ball, shivering and whimpering on the street. The vendor huffed and looked at the kid, anger still raging in him.

"If I see you here ever again, I won't be going easy on you!" He kicked the kid a last time and walked away into his shop.

Knowing the show had ended, the people halting on the streets started moving as well.

'Ugh…' Naruto slowly opened his arms around his knees. Blood was dripping from his nose and mouth.

'It hurts….'

'It hurts so much…'

His eyes were watery, slowly tears dripping from them. Naruto had been facing this since a year now. He had gotten used to the harsh speech, but the beatings were unbearable.

'I need a long sleep for this one' he thought, trying to get up. Naruto always healed quicker. Even he knew that. Whenever he had a beating and slept for even an hour, his wounds would have healed.

"Argh!" his bruised hand suddenly felt pain. As if, someone was poking him.

"Ah,…sorry!" a quite but sweet voice entered his ears, making his stomach filled with butterflies.

He slowly looked beside him and saw what he had never seen before. An adorable angel, with pink hair and green eyes like emerald. She reminded him of Sakura he had seen during blossoming season.

The girl looked worried. He eyes showing genuine care. He felt funny. Naruto wasn't used to such look. No, he had never seen such a look.

It made him scared. Why? He didn't know.

"Are you alright? You are hurt a lot." The girl spoke again, this time the worry slipping out of her voice and words.

"H..huh…" Naruto stuttered. He sprang up on his feet, ignoring the pain in his body and started running away from the girl, as fast as he could.

"H..hey…" The girl was stupefied. Had she said something wrong Or had she hurt him while holding him?

"Sakura!!! What were you thinking, getting close to that idiot!?" A blonde girl walked from behind her.

"Ino, what are you saying? Do you know him?" Sakura asked her . The blonde girl scoffed. "Who doesn't? You doofus."

Ino grabbed her hand and started to walk in opposite direction. "That guy is bad news. People say, he is a monster waiting to attack anyone and everyone."

Ino started her rambling of rumors surrounding Naruto. However, Sakura felt it was wrong. The way the boy looked at her and the way he was shivering, he seemed more frightened than anyone.

While they walked to the other of the street, Naruto had reached the park now. Since it was evening, or almost night, the Park was nearly empty. He quietly walked to the far away tree and laid under its shade.

'What was that? Who was she?' the questions started rising in his head. Naruto had never once received such affection, so he was put on guard when Sakura did so.

However, what he didn't know was, there were still many occurrences for his guard to weaken. Sakura would be blossoming soon, in his life.