Welcome to The Price of Human Suffering, the rewritten version of The Power of Human Sacrifice.

I'll start by saying why I've chosen to do this:

The first version was a complete disaster that I only wrote to see if anyone would actually read a fanfic I wrote. It started on a classic/utterly maddening cliché with Naruto being attacked by a mob and becoming a bitter soul. Then I rammed the story even deeper into crap when I just pulled everything out of my ass and didn't explain anything. Not Naruto's fuuinjutsu prowess, I didn't show her progressing while learning it, her training, I didn't deepen her relationships with Sasuke and Itachi properly. And let's not even get started on the foul language for absolutely no reason. I don't even know how that happened. But simply put the whole thing was poorly written and executed.

This is an attempt to expand the universe I started in The Power of Human Sacrifice where Itachi and Shisui are born later and closer to the age of Naruto and Sasuke. I want to show how Naruto forms her bonds with the Moron Trio of Uchiha, and how they all grow stronger together as family and shinobi. There will be noticeable differences between Suffering and Sacrifice. (Hopefully in a good way and I don't just make everything worse).

So without further ado, here goes.

Prologue:

Some people hated her.

Some people pitied her.

Some people ignored her.

But no matter what, everyone knew who she was, even if she didn't know that herself.

She was ignored, shunned, and pitied. It hurt. It hurt like hell.

But she wasn't completely alone. There were rays of kindness in the cloudy gloom that was her existence.

Like the people at the ramen stand. Her firm but caring teacher, and the old man who was the grandfather to all.

But even still... Not even those rays of kindness always shined. She still returned home to no one after school. She still longed for the family she never knew.

She was lonely.

So very lonely.

"Why are you always smiling? You look stupid!"

'Because if I don't smile I'll cry.'

"Why don't you get lost? Nobody wants you around!"

'Because if I had somewhere to go, I'd be there.'

"You're annoying! That's why you don't have any friends! I bet your family abandoned you 'cause you're dumb!"

'I know. I know. But I don't know how to be somebody that people like. I don't know how to be somebody that I like.'

"Go away Naruto! Go away!"

'Where do you go when no one wants you?'

She got older and there were still people who hated her. That feeling chilled her.

There were still people that didn't care about her, and that made her feel worthless.

There were still people that pitied her, and that disgusted her.

The kind people at the ramen stand, the firm and caring teacher, the grandfather to all. She could sense it on them when they interacted with her...

Poor thing. Poor thing.

Disgusting.

She couldn't stand it.

So, she pulled away. Sure, there was genuine affection in their actions, but it wasn't as warm as the feeling she caught echoes of when a mother hugged their child, or when a father smiled down at their kid.

The affection didn't hold a candle to that warmth. The affection was always smothered by the pity.

Poor thing. Poor thing.

It enraged her.

What right did they have to hate her? What had she ever done besides exist?

What right did they have to ignore her? What made them more important than her?

What right did they have to pity her? Was she really so pathetic?

She was angry.

So very angry.

"Why don't you just go away? Don't you know no one likes you?"

"Why don't you shut up?"

"W-what?"

"Get out of my way. You're noisy."

"Hey! Don't talk to us like that!"

"Get out of my face."

"Who do you think you are? You're just a freak!"

"Ow!"

"H-hey stop hitting her!"

"Get off!"

"G-go get sensei!"

"Ow! Stop it Naruto! It hurts! IT HURTS!"

'I hurt. What about me? I HURT!'

"NARUTO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

She got a little bit older and things were still pretty much the same.

But she was not.

She didn't mind much if some people ignored her, she could live with that. That was fine. That was easy.

But she still didn't like to be hated, so she hated them right back. And she didn't like to be pitied, so to them she turned her back.

She stood tall and walked alone.

"Look… there's Naruto."

"She has such a mean look in her eyes."

"Let's stay away from her..."

"I told you she was a freak."

"Shhh! She'll hear you! I don't want to get beat up!"

She shoved her hands into her pockets but kept her head held high.

She was tired.

So very tired.

"I have to maintain my spy network. I can't afford to take care of a kid Sensei, you know how important my work is."

"And you and I both know that she needs someone. Anyone. Yes your work is important, I will not say anything against that, but so is she. What's the point in any of the things we do for this village if not to care for the ones we wish to protect? And what good is being safe if the ones you want to protect are miserable? For god's sake Jiraiya she's your godchild."

"I know that…" He said weakly. "I… I know."

"You don't have to see her if it's too much. Just do something so that she knows someone besides me is thinking about her."

And though the Third didn't say it, they both knew he was thinking about how that lonely little girl would feel when she thought about the kind old man that bought her ramen. She was a sharp little girl. And though she enjoyed their time together, there would come a time when she wondered how much the Sandaime actually cared for her, or if he was just doing his duty to look out for her, as such was the job of the Hokage. He was obligated to love everyone in his village. And they knew that thought would tear into the girl's heart.

Hiruzen did not want to mention he sensed that time had already come. And it tore into the child, leaving someone bitter and too tired for their years.

She sensed it, how badly he felt for her, and she couldn't stand it. So when she turned her back, he allowed her to, fearing he would only make it worse.

"I just have to let her know someone else cares huh?" The Sage murmured. "She doesn't have to see me, and I don't have to see her. She just has to know."

Hiruzen had hope.

He knew it was not too late. She may be bitter, but she had not given up. Not completely anyway. And he knew his student still grieved for the loss of his own student, but time would soothe that pain. There would come a time when the Sage could look upon that bitter misunderstood child and not see the ghost of the great man that fathered her.

There would be a time when he would simply see her, and she would no longer be bitter.

So the old man had hope.

"Yeah…" His student went on, quiet. "Yeah I think I can do that."

She locked the door after her, as her Jiji had instructed her to do for her own safety after entering her home.

It was a little half past four, she'd stayed a bit longer at the Academy to sit on the swing that was often her only companion in the front yard.

She yelped, tripping over something that had obviously been shoved through her mailbox.

"What the…"

The little blonde looked down, surprised to find a journal on the floor by her door.

It was an old weathered thing, perhaps had been white at some point, but the years had turned it a tired gray. The cover was fraying at the borders, and the dark tape-like spine was peeling.

There was chipping kanji in chalk marker written across the front that made her chicken scratch look elegant. It simply read 封印術.

Fūinjutsu.

"That's weird."

The girl dropped into a squat, scooping the old journal up. She was pretty sure she heard Sensei prattle on about fūinjutsu at one point or another, but she personally hadn't been very interested. He'd said when they were a little older they'd be taught how to use storage scrolls and that was that.

She flipped the old thing to the first page, and a rather crisp card fell out. Curious, she picked it up and turned it around, surprised to find it addressed to her.

Naruto,

I was around your age when I got interested in this art, and everything I learned at the very beginning I wrote in this journal. You should be able to understand the notes fine. You'll find the second journal in your mail in two months. Study hard brat.

-A Friend

Her nose wrinkled in distaste, but those last two words gave her a strange feeling. She'd felt that fleeting pleasant sensation radiating from others as they laughed or smiled. She almost hadn't recognized it. It'd been awhile…

The blonde knew the kind old man she'd dubbed Jiji had not written the note. She knew his scrawl and the one on the card was different, written with something blotchy and not the thin little quill she often saw the old man using. She was definitely suspicious, but she was only eight. So, she carefully slipped the note to the back of the journal, and settled herself on her bottom.

For a long time she had refused to smile for others to prove that she was not something terrible hiding in human skin. And she would continue to do so, as she had given up trying to convince people who did not want to open their eyes to see.

She had grown sick of trying and was angry with everything, and had probably also formed into a rather unpleasant person. But she decided that simply living the best way she could was the only thing she could do. Change what you can, do what you can... The rest, just leave it be.

There was no doubt in her mind that some part of her had been shoved into the darkness, and that she was ruined. But it was fine.

She didn't care anymore.

'I don't have any friends.' She thought, thinking about the note. 'And I don't need them either.'

"But... thanks for the book stranger."

And then she began reading.

You guys ready for this?