A/N: I am so sorry for the hiatus, but life got in the way and sadly writing and reading are not my life. Anyway I am back and hopefully will be for a while. It's not a super long chapter, but what I have planned next will work better for the next chapter. I sure do hope someone is still reading this.

Oh I almost forgot, I do not own Naruto otherwise I would be fired or something after this long absence.

/

Naruto hurried home after class ended, hoping to be able to catch a nap before starting on his homework. He dodged through alleyways and rooftops until reaching an almost completely deserted part of town. It was the part of Konoha that had been hit hardest by the Kyuubi attack. Most of the damage around Konoha had been fixed years ago, but for whatever reason this couple of blocks on the edge of town had been neglected. Naruto, not for the first time, found himself grateful of this as he relaxed to a stroll after double checking that the area really was deserted. He had lived within this area at least on and off for the last four years. He stumbled across it when he was six; about a year after he was kicked out of the second, and last, orphanage in Konoha.

Naruto paused; making sure no one was around, not even ANBU, before disappearing through a window. Naruto was currently living in half of a one story building. The other half was caved in on itself, but the half he was staying in still had a roof making it one of the nicest places Naruto had stayed. He placed his worn backpack on the floor under the window before taking off his shoes and collapsing on the worn blanket that severed as his bed. Naruto was asleep before his body hit the floor.

Naruto sat bolt upright covered in sweat and breathing deeply. He quickly scanned the room only to find it empty. He sighed in relief, but then immediately groaned when he realized his short nap hadn't been that short and only a faint glow still remained of what must have been a beautiful sunset. Naruto sighed sadly as he looked over at his backpack and untouched homework. He looked down realizing he was still in the same cloths he wore yesterday and knew that by this point he must be starting to stink.

Naruto slowly got up and put on his shoes before he grabbed the garbage bag sitting in the corner and took what was left of a bar of soap off the barley standing shelf. He looked out his window, scanning the area before slowly climbing out and taking off at a run to the nearby forest. He didn't need to go far before he reached a stream. At the stream he took off his cloths before jumping in. The water only came up to a little below his knees so Naruto had to nearly lie down to wash his hair. He got out shivering before he took a ragged piece of fabric that looked like it might have been a towel in a past life out of the garbage bag and dried off. Once he was somewhat dry he took a pair pajamas covered in holes out of the bag and put them on. "I guess I'll have to find a way to get a new pair" he sighed looking at how small they now were on him.

Now that he was clean and dressed he kneeled by the stream and began scrubbing his cloths against a rock. He added some soap and again scrubbed his cloths until he was satisfied that they were clean. He did the same with the worn towel before he took his dripping wet cloths back to his home and laid them out over a cinder block to dry.

"I hope Teuchi wasn't too worried that I didn't come by for dinner tonight, but, I couldn't let him feed me for free two nights in a row." Naruto mumbled as he looked out his widow at the first stars of the night. "I'll just tell him Iruka sensei fed me today, after all that isn't a lie," Naruto said brightly as after some thought. After a few more moments of staring at the stares Naruto sighed. "It's too dark to do my homework so I guess I had better try and sharpen my kunai," Naruto said after remembering the Kunai test the day before. Naruto had done poorly on the test and wanted to show that he wasn't completely hopeless during target practice the next day.

Naruto took his kunai out of and laid them on the floor in the little light that the window was offering. It wasn't much, but it would at least keep him from losing or stepping on any of the weapons. He got the rocks he used to sharpen his tools off the shelf next to the soap before sitting on the floor to get to work.

They were taught how to sharpen weapons last year in class, but told that that was a last resource. It could damage the blade and never got it as sharp as a weaponsmith could. The problem was that using a stone was Naruto's only resource. You were supposed to trade in dull weapons for new ones, or at the very least by a sharpening kit. That sounded nice in theory, but no weapon shops in town would do business with Naruto. He obtained all of his weapons by scavenging training fields for kunai and shuriken that had been lost or abandoned. Academy students were only allowed on one training ground besides the Academy unsupervised and that meant slim pickings for the boy. He had gotten in trouble multiple times for being caught on other training grounds while looking for weapons. When he was in questioned about why he was there Naruto always made up some story about how he was training and then rambled on about how he was going to be Hokage. Naruto knew better then to tell anyone the real reason he was caught in the training grounds. He made that mistake once and Naruto always learned from his mistakes.

The first time he was caught, when he was seven, was soon before they were to start weapon training during his second year at the academy. Little Naruto was busy looking in a thorn bush near some targets in training ground three. He was so focused on his task and not getting stuck by to many thorns that he didn't notice the young Jonin enter the training area. Seeing the little feet sticking out of the bush and knowing that they were too small to be Itachi, the only ninja to graduate early in many years, she smiled evilly. She walked silently over and hosted the small boy roughly out of the bush by his left foot and dangled him upside down in the air in front of her face. The rough treatment many thrones to dig in to little Naruto who had blood slowly seeping from cuts that now littered his body. The ninja didn't notice or chose to ignore them. "What do we have here," she asked sweetly, bringing Naruto closer to her face.

Little Naruto smiled kindly at the ninja before offering his name. He saw the Jonin smirk and couldn't hide a small shudder. "I was just trying to find some kunai to use in class mam," he squeaked politely.

Her smirk only grew into a full blown grin at his explanation. "Well, well, well" she said shaking him roughly before bringing him within an inch of her face. "Doesn't the little monster know better than to take what isn't his? Well I'm just going to have to teach you a lesson then aren't I," She whispered dangerously into his ear. What followed was one of the worst beatings of Naruto's life. He had woken up the next afternoon in a dumpster near the fish market.

Naruto was ripped harshly from his thoughts by a searing pain in his left hand. Naruto cursed as he looked at the deep cut that went from between his middle and pointer finger all the way to the bottom of his palm. He took the now blooded kunai that he had been sharpening and went over to the shelf. Taking the remnants of what used to be a shirt he quickly cut a strip and neatly wrapped his hand. Giving up on the kunai he put everything away before crawly over to his blanket and falling into a deep sleep.

/

Naruto woke the next morning to a bird chirping happily in his window. He started to burrow deeper into his blanket before sitting bolt upright and cursing audibly. He hurriedly got dressed and grabbed his stuff before making a mad dash to the Academy. It didn't matter because Naruto was already over an hour late, but he was still doing his best to get to class as early as possible.

Naruto pulled to a stop right outside his classroom door. He took a deep breath before pasting on his trademark grin and loudly barging into the classroom. He scanned the room quickly looking for an open seat. "Aw man! Do I really have to sit in the front row" Naruto whined in an overly loud voice. He continued to grumble while his classmates laughed until he took his seat and noticed an irate looking Iruka standing in front of him. "He he, hey Iruka sensei" Naruto laughed nervously rubbing the back of his head.

"It is still the first week of school and you are already showing up to class this late. How irresponsible can you be? I mean, do you even want to be a ninja Naruto? At the rate you are going you can forget Hokage, you won't even make genin," Iruka yelled causing Naruto to inwardly cringe at his words while the other student openly laughed. "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Naruto steeled himself before his grin broadened and he stated waving his hands in a pacifying manor at the enraged sensei. "Hey, hey I just over slept is all. It won't …" Naruto was cut off as Iruka caught him by the left arm.

"What happened to your hand Naruto," Iruka said suddenly losing his steam.

Noticing his still bandaged hand Naruto grit his teeth before quickly laughing loudly. "Well you see," Naruto said slowly before going into a wild tale involving itching powder, a clothing store, ANBU, and a crazy chase. "So you see sensei that is why you never let anyone catch you when you bomb someplace with itching powder" Naruto said knowingly.

Iruka blinked owlishly at him while the class roared in laughter before he cleared his throat. "Yes, well Naruto I think the correct lesson is don't bomb places with itching powder."

"Wow really sensei, are you sure" Naruto asked while scrunching up his face like he was really thinking about it.

"Yes Naruto I am quite sure" Iruka said frustrated. "Now then, that still doesn't explain how you hurt your hand."

"Oh right" Naruto said quietly. "I … uh … fell, yeah that's it. While they were chasing me I fell" he laughed while again rubbing the back of his head nervously. Iruka just sighed in exasperation before going back to the board to finish his lesson.