Thanks to all of those who took the time to vote! The polls aren't going to end just yet. That'll be next chapter.

Please tell me what you think of the story so far.

Naruto, at this point in the story, is five.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. 'Nuff said.

Please take the time to review. I really don't mind critisism:it tells me what I'm doing wrong. If you liek the story all you need to do is click that little blue button on the bottom of the page and type a few words.

When voting don't forget to specify whether you're voting for the pairing or for who Naruto goes with.

Naruto ran down the street, eyes scanning for a place to hide. He was being chased by some of the local school bullies, who'd been told by their parents that he was a monster. They figured that that made it okay to taunt and hit him.

Seeing the entrance to an alleyway that would eventually lead to the network of passageways that made up the poor district where he lived, and could hopefully lose his pursuers.

He turned the corner quickly, slowing down only slightly. Several of the people chasing him kept running at full speed, though, and ended up tripping. After running from the boys chasing him for about fifteen minutes, Naruto made a wrong turn and came to a dead end. He gazed up at the looming brick wall in horror, before slowly spinning around to face his now chuckling adversaries.

His first instinct was to beg them to not hurt him, to leave him alone. He knew from previous experience that that wouldn't work, though. Begging only made the beating worse.

Luckily, they didn't hurt him too bad because they got bored with his lack of response. Laughing, they began to walk off, before one of them had the brilliant idea to add insult to injury, saying, "Weakling. No wonder all our parents don't like him! He's an idiotic wimp!"

Naruto's shoulders tensed, and he clenched his fists, the knuckles turning white. Despite the fact that he was repeating the mantra of 'Ignore them. They are useless moron whose opinions are not worth your time or consideration,' like he had ever since he was two, a red film began to slip over his vision. "Shut up!" he cried, his voice rising in pitch and volume. "What do you know of me? Nothing! You guys're the idiotic wimps!"

The leader of the group's eyes narrowed, and he replied, "What did you say, brat?" The sound came out as almost a hiss, conveying extreme annoyance and anger.

Realizing his mistake, Naruto stuttered, "N-nothing," but the damage had already been done. Without uttering a sound, the leader walked up and kicked Naruto in the stomach, cracking at the least one rib. "Watch your mouth, trash," he snarled, "Or you'll wind up in deep shit fast." With that warning and its implications hanging in the air, he turned on his heel and stalked out of the alley, his friends following close behind.

When they'd gotten far enough away to be out of earshot, Naruto started chuckling. Not only had the kid's threat been pathetic to many that he'd heard, but the five bullies were probably now hopelessly lost in the maze that was the bad part of town. Morons.

Picking himself up off of the pavement, Naruto noted that nightfall was quickly approaching. He then started running towards his usual sleeping spot, hoping that another street urchin hadn't claimed it for his or her own.

A B C

"That bakemono(goblin, monster, apparition, ghost, phantom, evil spirit)! It should pay for what it did to our children!" one of the chunin in the room grumbled. The parents of the five bullies and other 'concerned' shinobi and citizens were gathered in one of the many meeting places scattered throughout the village.

"My son, Ichirou, was badly hurt because of the trick that demon played on him and his friends!" a jounin added, forgetting to mention that the 'trick' had been to run away into a complex system of alleyways.

"But what should we do?" Another of the chunin, this one a female, asked.

"Beat some sense into it, that's what! Make sure that the monster doesn't hurt them again!" the first chunin to speak shouted. Many others cheered their agreement; eager to bring harm to the one they perceived as the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

A B C

Naruto tossed and turned in his bed, the nightmare that his life was following him even into the dream world, never giving him respite from his suffering.

Drenched in sweat, the blonde Jinchuuriki shot up into a sitting position, fully awake and hyperventilating. His eyes darted around nervously, scanning the room for signs of an enemy. Seeing no threat, he waited for the pounding of his heart to quiet down, before slipping off of the battered mattress he used as a bed.

Standing slowly, he looked around his pitiful one room apartment. The only furnishings were the ancient mattress he slept on, several crates that he used to store clothes, weapons, and scrolls in, and some more crates that he used in lieu of a table and a chair. On the table was a microwave which was way past its prime, and hardly worked anymore. He stored ramen in a few of the crates used as the table.

He rummaged through his makeshift cupboard in the dim light provided by the single, grimy window. Finally finding what he was looking for, he took out the only bowl he owned, a plastic bowl with cracks dotting the edges. He sprinted to the public bathroom for that floor, swiftly filling the bowl with water. Returning to the apartment, he emptied the ramen noodles into the water and put the bowl in the microwave.

Naruto began to get dressed while he waited for his food to cook. Seeing as how he owned only two outfits, it didn't take him any time at all to decided, and he'd already pulled the battered black T-shirt with a faded red spiral on the front over his head and put on a pair of black shorts, securing them with a makeshift belt, by the time his food was done. The cloths hung loosely on his thin frame, being a few sizes too large. The pants would've fallen down if he hadn't come up with the idea to twist his blanket into a rope and use it as a belt, thereby insuring that the pants wouldn't fall down, embarrassing him.

Picking up his chopsticks, Naruto began to slurp the ramen noisily, finishing quickly, even managing to lick the bowl clean. With a contended sigh he replaced the bowl and chopsticks in their perspective places, his belly as full as it would get anytime soon.

Humming a tune he'd picked up on the streets, Naruto slipped his worn shoes on and exited the apartment. He then began running through the streets of the bad section of Konoha, heading towards the academy. While this would be most children's first year in the academy, it was his third, seeing as how he'd entered two years before everyone else, at the age of three.

Grinning, he skidded into the classroom. The other occupants, all two years older than him, took this time to glare. He could feel their disapproval of his actions, and in many cases the feeling he got was either extreme dislike or outright hatred. He didn't particularly care, seeing as how, even though they looked at him with hate shinning n their eyes, they were indeed looking at him.

"Sorry I'm late! My alarm clock was broken!" he announced. He didn't actually own an alarm clock, but he'd heard of such fascinating devices, and knew that if they didn't work people who were dependent on them woke up late. His actual reason for being late was that he'd slept in because he hadn't gotten home till after midnight, and his body had taken extra long to recuperate.

"Sit down and be quiet, brat," his teacher snarled. Naruto shrugged and sat down in the back row, as far away from everyone else as he could manage. Hearing the teacher start to rant about political conditions 100 years ago, he decided that the lesson was useless and drifted off to sleep.

A B C

The ringing of the lunch bell drifted through Naruto's mind, interrupting his dreamless sleep and yanking him back into the Hell that was the waking world.

The blonde lifted his head slowly, looking around. The other kids were filing out of the classroom, lunches in hand. Must mean it was time for him to sit on the swing while envying the others of their good fortune.

Naruto got up and walked to the back of the line, to tired to act the idiot and draw attention to himself. He hated acting like a moron, but it was the only way to get people to look at him, and also the one time he'd shown promise several villagers had taken the time to take their rage out on him, beating into the blonde that demons such as himself should be stupid and weak, and that if they overstepped their boundaries that they should be punished accordingly. Taking this lesson to heart, Naruto was sure to always be the dobe in his class, so as not to risk such a severe beating once again.

When they got outside Naruto walked dejectedly over to his usual spot, hoping that some new kid who didn't know who or what he was would take pity on him and offer to share some food. No such luck.

Naruto, despite all appearances, was fairly observant. He needed to be, after all, in order to avoid being slain because he was unlucky enough to become the Jinchuuriki to the Kyuubi no Kitsune, although he himself was unaware of his status as such. Because he was more observant than the average five-year-old, he didn't fail to notice a group of people standing not to far away, glaring at him, killing intent rolling off their bodies in waves.

He wondered what they were doing there. It was normal for a few to be standing nearby, trying to kill him with their eyes alone, but such a large gathering was uncommon. The last time he'd seen such a thing, the next day his house had been completely trashed beyond reason, and he'd been beaten within an inch of his life. If it hadn't been for the timely interference of several ANBU, he would've indeed died that day.

When lunch ended they had their lessons in tai and ninjutsu. Naruto made sure to pay extra attention during this, knowing that even such basic skills would come in handy. Unluckily for him, his teacher hated him and refused to correct the mistakes Naruto was making, instead sneering at the blonde's failure. Naruto just doubled his efforts, determined to wipe that smug grin off his sensei's face.

He failed miserably. Every time he tried to summon chakra, it would suddenly flare out of control, ruining whatever he was attempting to do. In taijutsu, although he was doing well for a five year old who'd only ever been trained by himself, he was no match for the seven and eight year old who came from prestigious clans, the like of which made sure to drill such basics as taijutsu into the heads of their children. The shuriken and kunai he used in weapon training were useless, having been used so much that they broke or were the products of beginner blacksmiths, and were therefore weighted unevenly. He only managed to hit the target twice, even though he had ten shuriken and ten kunai to practice with.

He adverted his gaze from his sensei's triumphant gaze. This was not because he was ashamed, though. It was so that the chunin wouldn't see the look of absolute loathing that marred his young features, highlighting the skull evident through his skin, having no baby fat to soften the lines, and turning his scrawny, street brat face into something feral and slightly demonic. He'd learned a long time ago that the only emotion he could show in public without bringing down severe punishment on his head was happiness. So, even though he'd never felt genuinely happy in his short life, he grinned and laughed all the time, so as not to become nothing more than an empty shell. Because, the way he saw it, even make joy was better than no joy at all. Right?

A B C

Because of the way the villagers had been acting that day, Naruto decided against going to his apartment for the night. Chances were he wouldn't even return for a week, not even to grab his pitiful supply of ramen or his one extra outfit and his poor excuse for pajamas. They'd probably all been destroyed by now, anyway.

He trekked out to one of his many hide outs, hoping that the remoteness of the place would be enough to protect him from the villagers' wrath.

Arriving at the glade hidden deep within the woods, he scavenged round for dinner. He managed to come up with some nuts and mushrooms. Not exactly a feast fit for a king, but it would suffice. After finishing his meal Naruto curled up in the cavity underneath the roots of an ancient oak tree and promptly fell asleep.

A B C

"Damn it, where'd the brat go?" one chunin shouted angrily. They'd lost the brat yesterday after he'd left the Academy, and he'd never returned to his home.

The gathered civilians, genin, chunin, jounin, and one or two ANBU argued for a bit, before the arrival of another ANBU interrupted them.

"I followed the Kyuubi no gaki. He's taken up residence in a forest glade, apparently having sensed our intention to harm him." At this point he glared at the others, annoyed that they'd let their plans be figured out so easily by a child of a mere five years. He continued in a monotone. "He's still asleep at the moment, but even if he wakes we shouldn't have any trouble with him. Our only concern is if others who are against us punishing this demon for what he did find out about our plan."

The others nodded, and soon it was decided that they'd head out to the glade as soon as possible, so that the demon brat wouldn't forget his transgressions.

A B C

Naruto's eyes shot open as he bumped his head against a tree root. Hard. He'd been having another nightmare, and was actually quite lucky that he'd only now been woken up.

Crawling towards the entrance to his little den slowly, Naruto peered around outside, looking for signs of an enemy's presence. He'd learned that caution was always a good course of action, especially with the villagers planning something. Seeing nothing, he decided to wait for a few minutes. If nothing revealed itself in that time, he'd assume the surrounding area to be safe, and exit his hiding place.

His course of action decided upon, Naruto reached into one of the smaller cavities among the roots, and pulled out a small store of food he'd collected the previous day, anticipating the necessity to wait in his den for who knows how long.

He ate as slow as he could, but the food was still all gone within five minutes. Seeing nothing, he began to shift towards the entrance, until he heard a noise. He froze in place, straining his ears to pick up even the slightest of sounds. Filtering out the forest sounds around him, he could hear what distinctly sounded like human voices. From the pitch and volume of the voices, they were searching for something. He was willing to bet that month's allowance from the Hokage that their target was him.

He wasn't disappointed. Naruto swiftly retreated into the shadows when two genin blundered into the clearing. Luckily, they seemed to have no clue he was there, and instead were worrying that they'd lost track of the chunin they were told to keep up with.

Deciding that the clearing would be a good place to rest, they sat down. One actually was leaning against the very tree Naruto was hiding under. Ah, the irony of life.

After about thirty minutes had passed of them doing nothing but complaining about their temporary teammate's absence, when they'd been the ones to lose track of her, the chunin finally walked into the clearing. Naruto almost had a heart attack when he saw that she was an Inuzuka. The only thought that crossed his mind was, 'Shit!'

"There you two are! How stupid could you be? Because the two of you crossed a river, even Mao had trouble finding you!" Naruto then noticed her black and brown dog. The canine was sniffing the ground, and was drawing closer to the tree. 'Did it notice me?' he thought, trying to not panic, knowing that the dog would be able to pick up on the difference between his scent and the surrounding scents a lot easier then.

"Sorry Manami-san," one said, hanging his head in shame. "We won't do it again."

"You better not! Geeze, I can't believe bakas like you exist! If you two are ever made chunin, which I find unlikely, I sure as hell won't want to be on your team!" she complained.

The other boy, this one a little taller and older looking than the one that had apologized to the girl, suddenly shouted, "Shut your fat mouth! We wouldn't want to be on your team anyways you fat bitch!"

"Hiroto! Don't!" his friend warned, alarmed that he'd piss off the bitchy Inuzuka.

"What did you say, you brat?" she growled, clenching her fist. Before she could pound some sense into the boy that dared insult her, Mao called out, "Manami! The boy's here!"

Naruto wasn't at all surprised that he could understand the dog's speech. He'd been able to comprehend what all animals were saying ever since he was a little kid, although he had trouble with non-mammals and domesticated animals, and it was easiest for him to talk to and understand foxes.

"What did she say, Manami-san?" the first boy asked, wary of getting on her bad side.

"The boy! He's under that tree!" she exclaimed.

Hiroto, the one who'd been leaning against said tree, leaped up and reached into the root system. Naruto shrank away from the genin. He wasn't able to get far away enough, though, and Hiroto found him. He then grabbed Naruto's hair and yanked the blonde boy out of his haven, causing the Jinchuuriki to whimper as his hair was pulled out by the roots.

"Hiroto, go get the others!" Manami ordered, grabbing onto Naruto roughly.

"Why me? I got the damn demon fox out from his little den!"

"Because I'm your superior, and I don't like it when my subordinates are rude. Now go!" Grumbling, Hiroto relinquished his hold on the child and ran off to find someone else involved in the manhunt.

A few minutes later, Hiroto returned with the ANBU from earlier, several jounin and chunin, and a handful of genin and civilians following behind him. "There he is! The demon brat!" Hiroto exclaimed pointed at the now crying Naruto.

"Good job you three," the ANBU said. "What are your names?"

"Inuzuka Manami!" the girl exclaimed. "I was the one who found it!"

"Sato Hachirou!" the quietest of the three announced.

"I'm Inoue Hiroto!" the louder boy announced. "I got the demon out of its den!"

"Very well. All three of you shall be rewarded appropriately," the ANBU droned. He signaled to the others gathered. By now more villagers and shinobi had shown up, and Naruto knew that this was to be no simple beating. He cried out in pain as fist after fist hit him, before falling into shock.

Well, there you have it! Chapter 1.

Here's the results of the poll so far:

Naruto goes w/ Itachi:4

Pairng Votes:

Itachi-1

Sasuke-1

FemKyuubi-1

Not Yaoi-1

Shukaku and Sakura, if when the two of you reviewed you meant to say you wanted the pairing to be Itanaru, please clarify that. For now I'm just assuming that you two voted for Naruto to go w/ Itachi.

For all of you who don't like yaoi, and for all of you who do, I'm going to be writing a branch off of this that isn't yaoi. At this point it looks like the non-yaoi paring will be NaruKyuu, and the yaoi pairing is tied between Itachi and Sasuke.

If you have a problem with the pairing, please vote so that it will be changed.