Edited: 10/27/18

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

Thinking/Time Skips

Jutsu/Point of View

Demons/Summons Talking

"Normal Talking"

The man looked down at the scene below him while stroking the small white fox next to him. Below him was a loving married couple that was expecting a child, a girl to be exact. How exactly this man knew this months before the couple themselves knew was a mystery. But he isn't the main character of this tale. The child of the prophecy was growing in the redheaded mother's womb. The man watching grinned impishly as he waved his hand, causing a shimmer in the air. A few moments later, the mother passed out, her husband rushing to help the unconscious women. The man smiled again, satisfied with the results left to go to his shrine and grab some inarizushi. The tale had just begun.

Several Years Later...

A little redheaded girl walked down the bustling streets of Konoha with a small pout forming on her whiskered face. She still didn't know who left that frog wallet and the large number of Ichiraku ramen coupons in her house. She knew two different people got her each one, the frog wallet smelled of alcohol and oil while the coupons smelled of dogs and paper. She smelled the air, but the overwhelming scents of so many people really did not help her search. She sighed as she thought, I really wanted to thank them... The girl had no idea how the two people knew that it was her birthday today. Even then, it was more surprising that they had even bothered. Most people didn't even look at her and those that did glared with so much hatred and anger that it made her want to curl up into a ball.

"Naru-chan!"

The girl, now identified as Naru, turned around swiftly with a bright smile on her face, "Hokage-Ojisan!" She ran up to her loving grandfather figure with open arms as the two embraced. The girl was too caught in the hug to notice the glares of hatred, anger, and disgust pointed at the two, but she did hear whispers of, "Look at that demon girl!" and "What is the Hokage thinking?!" Naru's grip of his Hokage robes tightened as the said person sighed at the people in veiled disappointment. He then, while smiling gently, took Naru's small hand as they walked to Naru's favorite ramen shop. Once there, Naru's slightly dejected look brightened as she ordered miso ramen, while the Sarutobi ordered pork ramen. As Naru started inhaling the ramen at insane rates that were definitely not good for a six-year-old or any person, Hiruzen began to contemplate about Konoha. He remembered hearing from his ANBU that the girl had been kicked out of the orphanage a year ago, without his knowledge, hence the reason why she already lives in an apartment. He wanted his granddaughter figure to have a normal childhood, well as normal a childhood a jinchuuriki could get, but it seems his pleas to the gods were not heard.

The Hokage was broken out of his thoughts as he sweatdropped at the ridiculous amount of ramen bowls that were being stacked up to the left and right of the girl that seemed to have inherited both her parents' love for ramen. Hiruzen smiled nostalgically at the little girl. She had definitely inherited her red hair from her mother although her blue eyes are from her father which made it seem slightly out of place. She had a slightly chubby face, just like her mother, but it looks as though her personality was more similar to her father's than her mother's. The Sarutobi Clan head mentally sighed in relief. He didn't know what he would do had Naruto inherited her mother's personality. The already large amount of paperwork he had now would probably double in size and he could practically feel the ache from all the headaches he would get from her pranks.

The Hokage was broken out of her thoughts as Naru finally finished her last bowl. He pulled out his plump wallet as Teuchi passed him the check and when Hiruzen saw the number of zeros, he couldn't help, but weep from his now flimsy wallet. She had effectively drained all of his money, but when he saw her happy smile, he knew that he could never be mad at her for long.

The two now walked back to Naru's house as she skipped in front of him. Once there, the Hokage gave her his birthday present which consisted of some black "ninja clothes" as her surrogate grandfather put it. Naru pouted at the lack of orange before smiling in happiness from receiving a gift. Hiruzen patted her head fondly before doing a swift leaf shunshin back to his office. As soon as he left, Naru felt the smile on her face slip as she gently closed the door to her house. It was a fairly simple apartment with only one other room, which was the bedroom. However, the whole apartment building was unofficially her's, considering that no one else lived there after she moved in. Even the landowner had left leaving her with no need to pay rent, a fact she considered both a blessing and a curse. Naru sighed before putting her new ninja clothes away.

Afterward, she looked at the pile of ramen coupons and the frog wallet with a frown, trying to crack the mystery. She shrugged and decided to put the ramen coupons away while switching her current wallet for the frog one, which she now dubbed "Gama-chan". After switching the insides, Naru walked to her old fridge and took a peek. The inside of her fridge was barren, only enough food for one or two small meals. While the Hokage occasionally dropped by to stock her fridge, it simply wasn't enough food for the growing Jinchuuriki. Naru briefly contemplated going out to buy some groceries before grimacing. While the villagers very rarely physically abused her, the stares and silence pained the lonely girl. Thankfully, her dear grandfather provided her with a parcel after he had found out about her homelessness to help the small girl carry her things. This proved handy when she made her trips to the forest to forage and hunt for food.

Naru trotted off to the forest on one of her routines as she sighed in bliss from the cool autumn breeze and the scent of the forest. The trees were undergoing a transformation of colors, turning into various shades of red, orange, yellow, and brown. It was a morbid kind of beauty when one remembered that the color transformation was due to the leaves gradually dying. The chirping of birds and rustling bushes further enhanced her experience in nature, her ninja sandals crunching on the fallen leaves and branches. Naru's expression brightened when she spotted some edible flora. While she mostly knew what was and wasn't edible due to trial and error, there were times when a kunai would come flying through the air, piercing certain plants. Naru didn't exactly know what that meant but assumed that this mysterious kunai was letting her know that the said flower was inedible. When she later asked her surrogate grandfather what the flower was, she noted his paling expression as he swiftly bought her a book on the wildlife of Konoha's forests. That was when she learned that the flower she almost ate was one called acontinum, commonly known as aconite, monkshood, wolfsbane, leopard's bane, mousebane, women's bane, devil's helmet, queen of poisons, or blue rocket (1). To put it far more frankly, it was an extremely beautiful, but poisonous plant genus. Since then Naru studied the various plants that are edible to ensure that she wouldn't have such a close encounter with death and was therefore fairly knowledgeable regarding plants.

In addition to her foraging for plants, Naru occasionally went down to the river to hunt some fish. While she knew there were probably more effective ways to fish, she simply didn't know nor did she have the materials to actually fish for... well fish. Instead, Naru learned from watching other animals hunt, such as bears, weasels, and birds. Though the weasels and birds method of fishing was simply not doable for Naru, or really any human for that matter, she found that with enough practice she was able to hunt like a bear. The large carnivore swiped the fish with its paw onto the land and then proceeded to kill it as it flopped helplessly. Naru struggled with this method occasionally, due to constantly missing the fish because of how light and vision work, but she was eventually able to fling the fish onto land. From watching the crows making spear shaped sticks Naru learned how to make one as well and used that to skewer her prey. While she still couldn't actively hunt an animal like say a rabbit or deer, she was still able to at least grab some nice sources for lean protein.

Today, Naru decided to go fishing but found a large bear taking her usual spot. Grumbling in annoyance Naru moved a bit more upstream to a location closer to a large waterfall. This spot was deeper than where Naru usually stayed, but she didn't have a choice. Naru waded into the water, the cold reaching her abdomen. There, Naru waited. She made sure not to move, lest the fish swim away, but when the time came, she would swing her hand just like that bear had done. A few minutes later, a shimmer of silver scales notified her of the presence of some rainbow trout. Naru felt anticipation well up inside her but squashed it in favor of watching the glimmering fish carefully. There! Naru swiped forward, flinging the fish onto land, but found herself standing on nothing. The water that was previously above her was now close to her neck and was slowly approaching her mouth and nose. Naru struggled, straining her small muscles in the water. Unfortunately, the current soon pulled her under as Naru attempted to get her head above water. However, her resistance was futile as she began to sink. Naru tried one more kick yet the world was becoming blurry, black smoke filling her field of vision. And so Naru fell, deeper and deeper, dragged by the ruthless current.

For those who don't know Japanese, I'll put out the definition down here, but please know that it may not be 100% accurate so if you spot any mistakes, down here or in the story, please comment on my story or PM me. Also, I will also cite any source down here if I use outside information.

Inarizushi - It's "sushi" that is composed of a pocket of aburaage with sushi rice inside. The aburaage is sweet and inarizushi is said to be a certain Japanese god's favorite dish (*hint - the name of the god is in the name)

(1) Wikipedia

Fun fact about wolfsbane! Wolfsbane isn't actually one type of flower but is actually a whole genus of flowers meaning there are about 250 species that are all extremely poisonous (except for a select few). Well, guess that's about 250 different poison concoctions you could make with just wolfsbane!

Fun Fact 1: Naru's favorite colors are orange and blue

Fun Fact 2: Naru is able to recognize some of the animals in the forest (and has named them)

Fun Fact 3: Naru's ANBU almost had a heart attack when Naru reached for the wolfsbane and decided to study other poisonous flora just in case