Naruto's Tragic Childhood

Little Naruto leaped straight off Hokage Rock.

A smile spread across his face...

At that moment...

The video on the Light Screen overhead flickered.

Little Naruto's sweet, childish face came into view as he walked slowly forward.

Along a road swallowed by darkness, without a single glimmer of light...

He kept walking...

The image sharpened from a blur.

Little Naruto saw a child from Konoha trip and fall.

Smiling gently, he slowly reached out a hand to the fallen child.

The child looked up and saw little Naruto.

Hatred twisted the child's face. He slapped Naruto's hand away and cursed, "You damned fox! Did you trip me?"

"I... I..." little Naruto stammered.

"It wasn't me..."

Before he could explain further...

A civilian man appeared out of nowhere and slapped him hard across the face.

Little Naruto flew backward and hit the ground. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

Lying there, he touched his cheek.

He looked up at the man who had struck him, unable to understand why.

Before Naruto could say anything, the child who had fallen complained, "Dad, that damned fox pushed me!"

The man took his child's word for it without giving Naruto a chance to explain.

He glared down at Naruto with disgust and warned, "You damned fox. If I ever see you again..."

"If you dare bully my child again, I'll skin you alive!"

Then he pulled his child up and turned to leave.

As they walked away, he kept reminding his child, "Remember, stay far away from that kid whenever you see him. Understand?"

The child nodded obediently. "I understand, Dad. I'll stay away from him."

The man affectionately patted his child's head.

In the distance...

Little Naruto, still stinging from the slap, got to his feet.

He brushed the dust from his clothes and trudged home alone, his small figure forlorn.

As he walked through the Konoha Civilian District...

The civilians glared at him with hatred.

Several mothers kept warning their children.

"See that kid up ahead?"

"Remember, if you run into him, stay as far away as you can."

"Did you hear me?"

The dozen or so children nodded obediently, though they did not understand their parents' warnings.

Little Naruto walked through Konoha's poor district and looked at the rows of villagers.

Every one of them stared at him with hatred and disgust.

Their looks cut deep.

He ran as hard as he could...

In his panic, he stumbled again and again.

Each time he fell, he picked himself back up.

Helplessness filled his face.

Tears streamed down his cheeks.

The video changed again.

Back in his shabby home, little Naruto collapsed onto his bed.

Tears kept spilling from the corners of his eyes.

"Why don't I have a dad or a mom?" he asked himself through his sobs.

"Why does everyone hate me?"

"Why...?"

Perhaps the day had worn him out.

He fell asleep just like that...

Konoha.

Kushina Uzumaki was already sobbing uncontrollably.

"That poor child," she kept telling herself. "There's no way he's my Naruto."

Kushina thought it through.

Her husband was the Fourth Hokage, and she was a member of the Uzumaki clan as well as a jinchūriki.

Whatever happened in the future, there was no way her child would be hated like that.

The Hokage's office.

A sharp ache gripped Minato Namikaze's heart.

"So my child isn't the savior of this Shinobi World after all," he kept telling himself.

"He's just another child with the same name," Minato reassured himself.

After seeing little Naruto's ordeal, Minato sighed in pain. "If that child's parents knew..."

"How much would it hurt them to learn what he's been through?"

Minato shared Kushina's conviction.

Enough.

Whatever the future held, his own child would never end up living like that.

But Minato also made a quiet decision.

As soon as this child named Naruto Uzumaki appeared...

He would take him in and raise him well, so he would never have to suffer like this.

The video changed once more.

The mournful music shifted to the tearful female rendition of "Actually."

That day, we walked for so long without a fight.

Don't speak of the sorrow when we part.

If you can brush it off with a smile...

I'd rather let you choose the life you want.

In the video, little Naruto had fallen again.

He kept urging himself to take one more brave step forward.

On that pitch-black road with no end in sight, a small, tender foot appeared once more.

As Naruto slowly stepped forward...

A shining surface of water appeared over the dark road.

The sound of water spread in gentle ripples.

Drip. Drip...

The image overhead changed again.

Little Naruto walked through Konoha's poor district, his small face turning this way and that.

Once again, he gathered his courage and walked along the street.

Just then...

His stomach began to growl.

He rubbed his hungry belly.

Then little Naruto stopped some distance from the entrance to Ichiraku Ramen Shop.

He watched a group of Konoha ninja happily eating ramen inside.

Their cheerful voices carried all the way to him.

So did the delicious smell of steaming ramen drifting through the doorway.

As he stood watching, his stomach growled again and again.

He checked his pocket, but found only a few copper coins.

Disappointed, he lowered his head and quietly walked away from the lively Ichiraku Ramen Shop.

Little Naruto arrived at a bakery.

His face lit up as he went inside and looked around.

At last, he picked up a loaf of bread he had just enough money to buy.

But as he went to pay, the bakery owner...

Stormed out and kicked him hard, sending him sprawling.

Then the owner saw the bread Naruto had touched.

He looked at it as though it were something revolting.

He threw it onto the ground and stomped on it several times.

Then he hurled it at little Naruto, striking him in the head.

The disgust in the owner's eyes broke what little composure Naruto had left.

Tears streamed down his face as he cried out, "Why? Why does everyone treat me like this?"

"Why?!"

"Why?" the bakery owner roared. "You damned fox! If the Third Hokage weren't so merciful..."

"I'd skin you alive right now! If you ever come into my shop again, you damned fox..."

"I'll chop off both your hands!"

"I'm not a fox," little Naruto tried to explain. "And I wasn't stealing. I came to buy something."

"I'd rather feed my food to dogs than sell it to you!" the owner snapped.

"Now get out!"

"If I still see you outside my door in a moment..."

"I'll break your hands," the bakery owner warned, stressing every word.

With that, he turned away.

He did not spare little Naruto, still lying on the ground, another glance.