Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto. Eventually get blaze, become fire, pyromaniac, fire style only

Italics means personal thoughts

"Yatta! Time to start a fun day of playing pranks; I mean earning some respect around here." I yelled out to the peaceful village of Konoha. Of course not many people heard me because it was so early in the morning, but that didn't stop me, Naruto Uzumaki.

I then started running through the village, laughing the whole time. Eventually I ended up on the Fourth's head. I looked out on the village that, I figured, would one day be mine. "Aw, it will be good when I am Hokage. Then everyone will respect me." I then sighed as I looked over the peaceful village. I would be beginning at the Academy in about a month. I couldn't wait! Thats when I saw an abnormality. 'Is that a fire?'

I then rushed to check out the rising smoke because I am an outstanding citizen above all else. I got closer and realized that it was someone's house on fire. 'Well I don't know them so its time to leave.' After deciding that, I turned to walk away. Thats when I heard the ear-splitting shriek. I realized that someone was still in the house! One word is always good to describe these kinds of situations, "Shit!"

I rushed into the burning house to try to help whoever was stupid enough to get caught in a burning house. I found a young girl, well young is relative considering she was probably my age, trapped beyond some burning wood. 'How the hell am I going to get her out of there?' I sighed, 'This was going to hurt.' So thinking, I ran through the burning timber to get close to the young lady. On closer inspection, she was kinda cute.

I grabbed her and tried to run. Unfortunately, the whole house decided to try to come down then. It blocked the door I had used to get in. Some days you just don't have any luck. I then looked around to see if there was any other way out. There was a window, but we were on the second floor... decisions, decisions. I took the window because I really didn't want to burn to death. Now that I think of it, why am I almost naked? I looked to myself to see that my clothes had burned off and my body was starting to redden in certain places. I may not be a medic, but something told me that was a very bad thing. I had to get out of here!

I took the young girl and jumped out the window. It really felt like a long fall. Lamenting at the day I was having, I really had to appreciate the power of fire. I mean it burned! It was also really hot! When I became a ninja, I would use fire. With this thought in mind, I landed on the ground, hard.

I tried to get the girl up, but my body really didn't want to move very well. Thats when finally some luck appeared... in the form of a big, ass snake with a lady on top. It really wasn't my day!

I woke up in the hospital. Well it was better than being eaten which I thought was going to happen. I looked around the room and saw white. White walls, white floors, I looked down, white clothes, I looked further down... yep, white undies. There was too much white. Maybe one day I will paint the hospital. At least people would praise my name because they would no longer go mad from too much white. Future plans in mind, I tried to get up. 'Ok, that was really hard.'

I looked my body over and saw that my skin was... flaking? Thats not supposed to happen! I pressed the call button to get a doctor in here to explain what the hell was happening. Then I had to wait five minutes because doctors are slow.

"Ah, young Uzumaki. You're awake, I see." No duh, genius. He also had white on, probably why he was insane. "You were checked in with third degree burns. Also your attire was very minimal, so we had to dress you as well. Truthfully, your recovery has been nothing short of amazing." After he finished his little spiel, I decided to upgrade my plans for when I became a ninja. Not only was fire awesome, it was also very strong. Even barely getting touched by it could send someone to the hospital with their skin flaking off. It really hurt!

I really didn't pay too much attention to what he was saying about my health and how amazing it was for me to recover so quickly. I mean, I am going to be the next Hokage, of course I am amazing.

Then Jiji walked in. "Hey, Old Man. How you doing?" I chirped happily at him. His eyebrow kept raising the longer he looked at me. 'Maybe he was basking in my awesomeness?'

"Naruto, you do know that you were brought in with third degree burns?" I just looked at him like why did that matter. Apparently he understood the look because he just shook his head. He then said, "You saved the life of a young girl, Naruto. I am proud of you." I beamed, really the only way to describe a smile that went from one ear to the other. "I think the young lady will be by here later to thank you in person, but on behalf of the village, I give you my thanks, Naruto." I think my smile got larger, now it reached into my hair.

We chatted in comfort as we both waited for the young lady who would now see me as her saviour. Yes, being a rescuer of damsels in distress really suited me. I smiled when the young girl walked in. I could just see the respect and amazement shining from her eyes.

"Oh, Naruto-sama. Thank you so much. Whatever could I do without you. Please allow me to be your servant." At least thats what I figured she would say. What I got was, "Why the hell did you have to save me!" These were no soft spoken words; no these were shouted out with so pained a voice that I felt like crying from just hearing it. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. Even Jiji looked surprised.

My response was, "Huh."

Then I got a long, detailed tale of misery and woe. I felt really bad for her, but I still couldn't understand why she wanted to die. "Say... I still don't understand why you want to die. I mean, so what if people try to keep you down. You have to rise above what people think and say about you. People tell me all the time that I will never reach my dreams, but I just ignore them and go about reaching my dreams still. If you have a problem with that split personality of yours or whatever it was then just train to control it and become really strong." I gave her my best smile after finishing what I thought was a great speech.

This time my expectations proved true. It really was a great speech. She just looked at me in utter amazement. I am that good. Then I remembered something, "Whats your name by the way?"

"Yakuma Kurama" came from the girl in sweet voice this time. We then looked at each other for a time. I don't really know what she was thinking, but I just stood there with a smile on my face. I was thinking something though. I was thinking about how powerful that fire had been. I mean I was still hurting now. I was going to become Hokage, so if fire could hurt me then that meant it had to be powerful, right?

"Do you really think I can control my other personality?" Yakuma-chan asked innocently. I gave her a sharp nod of my head. It was my personal belief that anyone could do anything they set their mind to. Yakuma-chan gave her head a hesitant nod, and then gave me a slight smile. Man this girl could be cute when she tried.

"Thanks. May I know the name of rescuer?" I was startled that I hadn't given her my name.

"Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage of Konoha!" I gave her my best cool pose. This consisted of me with a smile on my face and giving a thumbs-up. I thought I looked pretty dashing if I do say so myself. She giggled. I will take that as if she agreed with me.

"Hey, Jiji. Is Yakuma-chan going to be going to the Academy with me? I mean if she wants to grow strong enough to conquer her other personality then she needs to be a ninja, right?" Jiji gave me a weird look. It was like he was actually being serious or something, but he was just Jiji so he couldn't actually get harsh. I just chalked it up to my imagination.

He said he would take it under consideration. I took that as a yes and got up to hug Yakuma-chan in congratulations at being able to become a ninja. She was so surprised though that she fainted. "Jiji! Yakuma-chan fainted; you have to help her!" Jiji just chuckled like it wasn't his problem! I was so going to prank him after this was all over.

Yakuma-chan eventually woke up and started hugging me. She was also crying! I really couldn't figure out what was going on! After calming down slightly, Jiji explained the situation to me. I just promised him that I would be by Yakuma-chan's side the whole way. No way was some weird imaginary thing going to take my new friend away.

I finally went home after extracting a promise to go to Ichiraku and eat later with Yakuma-chan. I was so happy because it was really the first time that I had ever eaten with anyone besides Hokage-Jiji. On my way home, I decided to make a quick stop. After procuring the item I wanted, I made my way into my apartment.

Once inside, I started playing with my new accessory. I had bought a small lighter. I was really interested in fire after seeing its power. I couldn't wait until I became a ninja were I could use fire as much as I wanted to!

I lit the lighter everywhere in my apartment. I even set some things on fire just to see how long it would take to burn. I didn't know it then, but I was starting to become a little pyromaniac. Once I got off my high of burning everything I wanted to, I noticed that I had already used half the fuel for the fire. That was disappointing. I knew I would need to either: a) buy a lot of lighters or b) find a lot of fuel or make my own. A) was really expensive, and b) was problematic. What was a young boy to do. Ask Jiji of course! Maybe he could even teach me a jutsu! With new excitement, I tore off towards the Tower.

Bursting into his office, I yelled out, "Jiji, I need a jutsu!" Of course this was met with profound silence. Jiji just looked at me. Then he looked at me some more. Then he laughed. I got pissed at the point when he just looked at me some more. The laughing just took me over the edge. "Whats wrong with me getting a jutsu? I won't do anything bad with it. I just want to... experiment!"

"Naruto... what kind of jutsu do you want, and what do you think will power this jutsu?" Damn Jiji and his logic. I hadn't learned how to do that magic stuff that made ninjas super cool. I think it was called chatra or something like that.

"Um, I want a fire jutsu, and I will learn that magic stuff to power it." I delivered this degree with all the grandeur any 8 year old future Hokage can: in a whiny voice. I think Jiji developed a sweat-drop.

"Well, for one thing, its not called magic. Its called chakra. Second thing is that fire jutsu are very dangerous. I mean, you just got out of the hospital because of sever burns. That can happen to even the most careful ninja when practicing fire jutsu." I was unimpressed. Jiji developed another sweat-drop.

"Ok Naruto-kun, let's make a deal." I nodded my head eagerly looking him straight in the eyes. "When you unlock your chakra, I will give you a scroll with 3 fire jutsus on it. I will instruct you in the first one, but the others you will develop on your own. How does that sound?" Another head nod. "In exchange you will protect young Yakuma-san and keep her safe from any bullies if she attends the Academy. Is that a good deal Naruto?" I was salivating over what Jiji was giving me. I mean I would have protected Yakuma-chan anyways.

"Deal," and so me fate was sealed. Looking back, this was probably one of the most important moments in my life.