Naruto's Miserable Childhood

Little Naruto jumped straight off Hokage Rock.

A smile filled his face...

At that very moment,

the Light Screen in the sky flickered.

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

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

Still, he kept walking...

The video sharpened from a blur.

Little Naruto saw a child from Konoha trip and fall.

Smiling gently, he slowly reached out a hand to help.

The child looked up and saw him.

Hatred flashed across the child's face. He slapped Naruto's hand away and shouted, "You damned Nine-Tailed Fox! Did you make me fall?"

Naruto tried to explain in a panic. "Um, I..."

"It wasn't me..."

But before he could say anything more,

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

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

Lying there, he touched his cheek.

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

Before Naruto could speak, the child who had fallen complained, "Dad, that damned Nine-Tailed Fox pushed me!"

The man listened only to his son and gave Naruto no chance to explain.

He glared at Naruto in disgust and warned him harshly, "You damned Nine-Tailed Fox. If I ever see you again..."

"If you dare bully my son again, I'll flay you alive."

With that warning, the man hurriedly pulled his son away.

As they left, he kept reminding the boy, "Remember, if you see that child again, stay far away from him. Understand?"

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

The man fondly patted his son's head.

In the distance,

little Naruto, still smarting 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 warned their children over and over.

"See that child walking up ahead?"

"Remember, if you run into him, stay well away."

"Did you hear me?"

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

Walking through Konoha's poor district, Naruto looked at the rows of villagers.

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

Their looks finally cut him to the heart.

He ran as hard as he could...

In his panic, he kept stumbling.

Again and again he fell, and again and again he got back up.

His face was full of helplessness.

Tears streamed down his cheeks.

The video changed again.

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

Tears kept slipping from the corners of his eyes.

Choking back sobs, he asked himself, "Why don't I have a dad or a mom?"

"Why does everyone hate me?"

"Why..."

Perhaps everything that had happened that day had worn him out.

He fell asleep like that...

Konoha.

Kushina Uzumaki had already broken down in tears.

She kept telling herself, "That poor child. He can't possibly be my Naruto."

She thought about it again and again.

Her husband was the Fourth Hokage. She was a member of the Uzumaki clan and a Jinchūriki besides.

No matter what happened in the future, there was no way their child would be hated like that.

The Hokage's office.

Pain stabbed through Minato Namikaze's heart.

He kept telling himself, "It seems my child isn't the savior of the Shinobi World after all."

He tried to comfort himself. "So he's just another child with the same name."

After watching little Naruto's ordeal, Minato sighed sadly. "If his parents knew..."

"How much would it hurt them to know their child was suffering like this?"

Minato thought the same thing Kushina did.

"Never mind."

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

Even so, Minato 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 that.

The video changed again.

The mournful music switched to "Actually," sung by a tearful female voice.

That day, we walked so far without a single fight.

When we parted, I kept my sadness to myself.

If you could simply smile and move on,

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

In the video, little Naruto, who had fallen,

kept pushing himself to take one more brave step forward.

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

As Naruto slowly stepped forward,

light shimmered across the dark road, turning its surface to water.

Ripples spread with each soft splash.

Drip. Drip...

The image in the sky changed once more.

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

He gathered his courage and ventured down the street again.

Just then,

his stomach growled.

He rubbed his hungry belly.

Then he came to a spot not far from the Ichiraku Ramen Shop.

He watched a group of Konoha Ninja happily eating ramen.

Their cheerful voices reached him from inside the shop.

The steam carried the delicious aroma of ramen through the doorway to where he stood.

As Naruto watched from a distance, his stomach kept growling.

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

He could only lower his head in disappointment and quietly walk away from the bustling Ichiraku Ramen Shop.

Naruto Uzumaki came to a shop that sold bread.

Delighted, he went inside and looked around.

At last, he picked up a loaf he could just afford.

But as he went to pay, the shop owner

stormed out and kicked him hard, sending him flying.

Then the owner spotted the bread Naruto had touched.

He looked at it as though it were something revolting.

He threw it to the ground and stamped on it several times.

Then he hurled it at Naruto's head as the boy lay where he had landed.

Seeing the disgust in the owner's eyes, Naruto could no longer hold back.

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

"Why?"

The owner roared, "Why? You damned Nine-Tailed Fox! If the Third weren't so merciful..."

"I'd flay you alive right now! And if you ever come into my shop again..."

"I'll chop off both your hands."

Naruto struggled to explain. "I'm not the Nine-Tailed Fox, and I wasn't trying to steal anything. I came to buy something."

The owner cursed at him. "I'd rather feed my food to dogs than sell it to you."

"Now get out!"

"If I see you standing outside my door again,"

the owner warned, putting extra force into every word, "I'll break your hands."

After that, the owner turned away.

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

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