Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own Naruto

Author's Note: This is my first story, I'm not even a native English speaker, so grammatical errors can be expected. I'm writing this fic mainly as a challenge to myself, so being honest I don't know how long it'll take for me to update another chapter and I'm not even sure if I'll be able to complete this.

Young Naruto Uzumaki, after another harsh day at the academy, where Sakura spurned him, Sasuke made fun of him and Iruka scolded him, again, made his way to his apartment. His apartment was a small one room, which made sense since he was an orphan. The kitchen was clean because Naruto almost didn't used it, he preferred making instant ramen instead of actually cooking something, not that he knew how to cook anything. His bedroom was a simple one, he had a single bed, a small TV on the top of a cabinet and a small wardrobe, filled with his orange jumpsuits, the green walls were dirtied, Naruto never cared about tidiness and also never bothered to clean the walls or paint them. With exception of the small bathroom, the entire apartment floor was made of wood. Finally, reaching his small living room, which also served as his dining room, there were, besides the desk and chairs from the dining room part, a coffee table and an old sofa where an unexpected visitor waited.

The visitor was no one other than Hiruzen Sarutobi, he, alongside with Ayame and Teuchi Ichiraku was one of the people that truly cared about Naruto. The aged man was wearing his traditional Kage outfit. Naruto upon seeing the man he considered his grandfather quickly dropped his backpack and ran towards Hiruzen, hugging him. The Hokage made an habit of checking Naruto at least once a month, he already visited him last week, so Naruto was pleasantly surprised in seeing him at his living room. The reason that made the Hokage leave his office, and his damned paperwork, was to talk with Naruto about his academy performance. Naruto already failed the academy twice, and if he were to fail again he would be expelled from the academy. While most of the children entered academy at age eight, Naruto enrolled shortly after his sixth anniversary, so age-wise he wasn't actually behind his classmates. However Naruto grades were always bottom half, he couldn't use any ninjutsu or properly mold chakra and his knowledge was abysmal to say the least. The only part of the curriculum that Naruto actually was above average were his taijutsu, where Naruto mostly exceled due to his willpower and stamina and stealth, where his pranking nature made him top three, losing only to Sasuke, the last Uchiha, and Shino Aburame, the heir to the Aburame clan. Feeling that he was failing Minato, who already had his final wish of Naruto being regarded as a hero, denied by the sheer ignorance of the villagers, Sarutobi decided to have a talk with Naruto.

"Naruto, please sit down we need to talk." The Hokage said, gesturing to the unoccupied seat beside him.

After Naruto released the hug and went to sit on the sofa, he looked at the Hokage, clearly interested in his apparition.

Clearing his throat Hiruzen looked at the sky blue eyes of Naruto. "Naruto, I'm here to talk about your grades at the academy." Seeing Naruto's expression change from interest to sadness the Hokage knew that something was truly bothering Naruto.

"I don't know what's happening jiji, I tried to study but the questions are always difficult, no matter what I do, I'm always making mistakes." Naruto said in a resignation.

"And you've paid attention to the classes?"

"Yes, but the teachers are always ignoring me, like the rest of the village." Naruto said, the last part of the sentence in a mumbled tone so only Hiruzen could hear.

Hiruzen felt ashamed of this, teachers who were supposed to help the students playing favorites and ignoring a student.

"Okay, I'll help you study, what was the subject of the class today?"

"The Great Ninja War."

"I see, the first the second or the third?"

Naruto looked dumbfounded at the Hokage, before shouting "WHAT? THERE WAS MORE THAN ONE?"

After looking at Naruto like he grew a second head, Hiruzen asked for him to show his academy book, already suspecting what was happening: the instructors were sabotaging Naruto. His suspicions were proven correct as he opened Naruto's book. The book was extremely old, probably from the early years of his tenure as a Hokage. Information was clearly lacking and with exception of the cover, that was replaced to the one the actualized books had, every page was yellow of age and several sentences were unreadable.

Hiruzen then patted Naruto at his head and asked him to go to his office tomorrow after class, so he would be able to help him.

After leaving Naruto's apartment, Hiruzen decided that he would hide himself in class tomorrow, so he could see firsthand what the treatment Naruto received from the instructors was.

Next day

Hiruzen made his way to the classroom after activating the Tōton Jutsu (Transparent Escape Technique) that allowed him to sneak upon the class and the instructors. Remaining transparent, the Hokage confirmed his suspicions of the teachers ignoring Naruto. During the ninjutsu training the trend continued, when one of the teachers who were helping each student individually jumped Naruto, choosing to praise Sasuke for his mastery of the Kawarimi instead. By Naruto unsurprised and emotionless expression, Hiruzen realized that this happened more than once. Finally at the taijutsu practice, Hiruzen noted that the taijutsu instructor was intentionally teaching Naruto a sloppy and ineffective taijutsu instance that allowed him to quickly be pommeled by Sasuke at the final spar, much to the fangirls and the instructors delight. The unique highlight of his visit was seeing that Iruka Umino, one of the academy teachers, who lost his parents during the Kyubi attack, helped Naruto at the shuriken practice. Seeing what he needed to see, Hiruzen retreated to his office.

The Hokage knew that Naruto would visit him soon, so he quickly formulated a plan. Instead of punishing the instructors directly, he decided to help Naruto become 'self-sufficient', so the young boy wouldn't need help from the instructors. This also applied to his normal life, if given the right guidance Naruto could easily live all by himself and well. Hiruzen, when visiting him last night noted that his apartment was dirty and that Naruto didn't feed himself properly. And finally, he could prove Danzo, who constantly nagged him about transforming Naruto at the 'ultimate weapon', and most of the villagers wrong and show through hard work and determination that Naruto wasn't the Kyubi.

Hiruzen was taken out of his thoughts when the door of his office opened, revealing Naruto. Hiruzen quickly gestured him to take a seat, which the boy promptly agreed.

"So, how are you going to help me jiji?"

"Naruto before anything I must say something important." as Naruto nodded his head, showing that he was listening, the Hokage took a deep breath before continuing "Naruto, the reason why you were falling behind your class is that the instructors were sabotaging you." seeing the boy's questioning expression, Hiruzen proceed "I watched today's class and it came to my attention that the instructors, besides giving you outdated material, were ignoring you during the lectures and ninjutsu training and intentionally taught you a botched taijutsu instance."

Naruto stared blankly at the Hokage for a few seconds, then his expression turned to sadness, then angriness and finally despair. "WHY? WHY EVERYONE HATES ME?" Naruto asked almost crying.

Now Hiruzen was at a dilemma, he could invent a history or tell the truth. He knew that Naruto probably would accept the fake history, but Sarutobi knew that if he did this he wouldn't be better than anybody else. Steeling his resolve he made a decision that would change the fate of the entire world. "Naruto what do you know about the Kyubi?"

It all made sense, 'demonspawn' , 'demon brat', 'damned fox' finally it all made sense to Naruto, he was jinchūriki of the Kyubi, the nine-tailed fox. Naruto first denied the fact, then he lost his words, then he accepted, after accepting Naruto realized: he was the Kyubi, he killed thousands of people and destroyed the village he now called home. After thirty minutes of crying Naruto looked upon the Hokage who was patiently waiting for Naruto to recompose himself.

"I'm sorry for everything I did jiji." Naruto stated before getting up from his chair and running towards the door. But he was stopped when he crashed against the arms of the Hokage who quickly stood between Naruto and the door and engulfed him in a hug.

After some more sobbing, Naruto asked "Why don't you hate me jiji?"

The Hokage gave the jinchūriki a smile before getting up. He quickly withdrew a scroll from one of the bookshelves and laid it on the table. After this he drew a kunai and put it alongside the scroll. "What do you see there?" he asked pointing to the items.

"A scroll and a kunai." Naruto responded

"Very good, they are different aren't they?" he asked, getting a nod from Naruto. "Now" he continued, quickly sealing the kunai into the scroll "what do you see?"

"You sealed the kunai inside the scroll." Naruto stated

"Very good Naruto, but tell me, just because there's a kunai sealed inside it, the scroll will stop being a scroll?" seeing Naruto shake his head negatively, Sarutobi continued. "Naruto, you're the scroll, the Kyubi is the kunai, you won't stop being Naruto just because the Kyubi is inside you."

Naruto nodded his head, showing that he understood. But then he frowned "Jiji, if things are like you said why the rest of the village hates me?"

"Well, they're blinded by the fear, most of them also didn't know about the quality of the seal, so they think that you are actually the Kyubi."

The young blonde and the aged Hokage kept talking for a few hours. Naruto learnt more about his seal and the Hokage assured that the Kyubi wouldn't take over as long as he controlled his emotions. Naruto also learnt that the Yondaime wished him to be viewed as a hero, but blind hatred made him into a scapegoat. Finally the Sandaime explained about his law that prevented the adults about telling the kids about the Kyubi, so the children would see him as Naruto and not the Kyubi, and how it backfired as the kids mirrored their parents' behavior towards Naruto.

By the time the two finally finished discussing the Kyubi topic, it was already night and the Hokage offered to treat Naruto some ramen from Ichiraku's.

At the Ichiraku's

Naruto and Hiruzen made their way to the Ichiraku's, Naruto's favorite ramen stand. Even though Naruto loved ramen, his affection to the Ichiraku's was because here he was treated like family. Whilst the most expensive restaurants and even some stores refused to sell anything to Naruto, Teuchi and Ayame always treated him well. After placing their orders, which made Hiruzen frighten a little bit because of the sheer amount of ramen Naruto ordered, they continued their conversation.

"Naruto, I'm going to ask a very serious question and I'd like you to answer honestly as possible."

This got Naruto's attention, as he perked up and looked at the Hokage expectantly.

"Do you hate Konoha for everything you've been through?"

Naruto made a contemplative pose, putting his hand on his chin before replying.

"No, but I don't hate Konoha, but I maybe hate the villagers." sighing and taking a deep breath the blonde continued "after what you said to me earlier I understand why they could fear me but I didn't do anything to make their assumptions true."

"Naruto since you were young you claimed you wanted to be Hokage, is this still something you still want?"

"Honestly I think it's not even possible for me to become Hokage anymore, I'd never get the villagers support, you told me earlier that the big clans don't hate me, but I don't think that it's possible for me to be elected for Hokage without the civilians backing right?"

"If I died without stating who I wanted to succeed me, yes. But if I decided to back down from the post and with some backing it would still be possible to select someone without the civilians support as long as I have the shinobi council backing."

"I see, but answering your question whilst being Hokage still has a shine for me I don't feel like setting this as a goal anymore."

"Anymore? So you have a new goal?" Hiruzen asked looking at Naruto with a raised eyebrow.

"Sort of. Now I'd like to become stronger so I can protect you, old man Teuchi and Ayame-neechan."

Gracing a smile Hiruzen complimented the blonde "A noble goal indeed."

The duo kept eating in silence, as Hiruzen finished his Pork ramen, Naruto was already on his way to his seventh bowl of the day. Fearing for Konoha's economic situation due to the massive drain caused by Naruto and his ramen addiction, Sarutobi decided to speak again.

"Naruto, what we're going to do about the academy? You want me to 'talk' with the teachers?" Sarutobi asked, stressing the talk word. Naruto, while still acted dumb knew this talk would be very painful for the instructor. Even though he wanted to see those dumbasses put in their places Naruto dismissed the idea.

"I see…" Sarutobi mused after Naruto's dismissal of his idea." You're willing to let them go freely after what they did to you?" the Hokage asked raising an eyebrow.

"I never said that, I guess some hard pranking is in order, and you're going to help me." Naruto replied with some real hardcore grin that sent some shivers down Sarutobi's spine.

"Oh Kami, I think I've created a monster."

I already have some plot ideas, but I'm always open to suggestions, so feel free to message me with ideas for this story.