Disclaimer: I don't know why I'm doing this. Obviously I don't own Naruto.. This is just an excuse to make this chapter a tiny bit longer.

"Talk"

'Thought'

"Demon Talk"

'Demon Thought'

Village Hidden in the Leaves, October 10th

12 years after the Kyuubi attack

The streets were littered with civilians and shinobi all making their way home after the long and always exciting Kyuubi Festival. Most children were busy playing games at the many vendors all along the village roads. The games varied from throwing blunted kunai and shuriken at targets to scooping fish out of a small pond using a thin paper cup.

Uzumaki Naruto had chosen not to attend this year's festival. Mainly due to the fact that most of the civilians and even some of the shinobi would give him cold stares. And even a few incidents where some of the more intoxicated people would attempt to harm him.

He couldn't really blame them after learning of his terrible curse. Right before becoming a genin he had been tricked by of the trusted ninja academy teachers into stealing one of Konohas most important items; the forbidden scroll of sealing. Although he couldn't complain too much as he had gotten the chance to learn an extremely power kinjutsu, the kage bunshin no jutsu. After finding out he had been tricked by Mizuki, the traitorous teacher, had tried to attack him and another teacher, Umino Iruka. After a short battle Mizuki threw his demon shuriken at Naruto attempting to end his life. Fortunately for Naruto, his teacher blocked the incoming attack with his own body. After Naruto gave Mizuki a beat down of a lifetime Iruka bestowed his own hitai-ate to Naruto proving that he now was a genin of Konoha.

The sun began to set as Naruto was slowly making his way back to his small apartment located near the Hokage monument. Suddenly he heard a faint sound of a twig snapping in the distance. Even though he wasn't a veteran shinobi, his years of pranking had helped him hone his ability to sense danger and react accordingly to any possible situation he happened to have gotten himself into.

Suddenly he heard the sharp whistling sounds of a kunai heading straight towards him. While his career as a shinobi had been short, he had developed his reflexes to the point where his body would act on its own. Naruto quickly jumped out of the incoming kunai path and landed on a nearby building. He looked up expecting his sensei or perhaps Sasuke, his eternal rival, playing a joke on him. But instead he found a masked man dressed in the standard jonin clothing.

"Wh-who're you?" Naruto asked nervously. On the outside he acted calm and collected as he had been taught in the academy. But on the inside he was scared to death. Naruto was always wary of people he had never met or seen before. He had already had too many incidents with strangers attacking him.

The masked man merely smirked and brandished yet another kunai. Naruto mirrored the man with his own. While Naruto was no pushover, he knew he couldn't take on a seasoned jonin and live to tell the tale. Fortunately for Naruto his sensei Kakashi's house was nearby and he had told Naruto that if he ever needed any help or if he ran into trouble, all he had to do was make it to his house and he would take care of the rest.

Naruto started to calculate his chances of actually getting to his sensei's house when the masked shinobi began arming himself with more kunai and even a few shuriken. Naruto knew he only had a few seconds to make a decision, so he decided the best thing to do in a case such as this was to flee.

Naruto kicked off the two-story building while channeling chakra to his legs and feet which he hoped would give him enough of an advantage over the masked man. He knew many shinobi could also do this but luckily he had a very large chakra reserve and could therefore use this technique for a lot longer than many others.

Naruto and the masked man continued to speed through the village using the landscape to both of their advantage when he felt suddenly felt another presence in front of him. The always optimistic Naruto was hoping it was his sensei, the Hokage, who he had come to see as a grandfather figure or a friendly shinobi who saw him for who he really was.

Suddenly Naruto saw a barrage of kunai heading in his direction. He knew he wouldn't be able to deflect them all so all he could do was get the ones aimed at his vital areas. The next thing he knew was a white hot pain in his left shoulder and right and left legs. He knew immediately, due to experience, that the kunai the two masked shinobi had used were coated in a special type of poison that would slowly and painfully paralyze his body which would eventually cause his organs to fail. While the poison made its way through his system Naruto had made the quick decision to make one final stand before he fell. He quickly pulled a kunai from the holster with his only good arm and wrapped an explosion tag around the hilt of the weapon. He gathered all the strength he had left as he threw the kunai as hard as he could straight up into the night sky. A few hundred feet into the air the tag went off and lit up the sky which could be seen from miles and miles away.

Naruto smiled and thought to himself. 'At least if I don't survive they'll catch the people responsible for this.'

The masked jonin looked up and knew they didn't have much time before more shinobi would come to investigate the large explosion. The leader smirked "If we can't take his life, then maybe we can take something the demon cherishes more." The other man raised an eyebrow at his friend. The only thing he could think of that a demon would cherish is its own life. "What do you mean?" he asked.

His answer was to start walking slowly towards the now kneeling Naruto, removing his last kunai and turning back to his partner. "We'll take his purpose." The man turned back to Naruto and raised the kunai above his head.

Narutos eyes widened. This was it. This was the day he was going to die. And no one was going to remember him. His sensei Iruka would and perhaps his new sensei Kakashi, but that would be it. He looked up at the man and waited for the inevitable to come.

The man swiftly slashed his kunai into Naruto's right eye first. Naruto's scream echoed throughout the village disturbing the people that heard it. Naruto clutched the wound where his eye had been before looking up again and the man took his left eye as well.

The only thing Naruto saw now was darkness. The only thing Naruto felt was pain. And for the first time in his life, he wanted everything to end. By now the amount of blood Naruto was losing was beginning to take its toll in the young boy. The last thing he heard before he slipped into unconsciousness was the subtle sound of a blade piercing flesh, the sounds of footsteps and the touch of a strong person lifting him up and carrying him to God knows where.

October 11th: The next day

Sarutobi Hiruzen also known as the God of Shinobi was once the man that could cause a grown man to shiver in fear just at the sound of his name. Of course that was a long time ago before time had taken a toll on his body. But the incidents of last night had angered him so greatly that as he walked through the dimly lit hallways of the Konoha Hospital the medical staff as well as the seasoned veterans that occupied its room couldn't help but grovel beneath the powerful man.

Someone had dared to attack the young man he had become extremely attached to. Luckily Kakashi had seen his students last ditch effort and ran to investigate. Kakashi had the unfortunate luck to arrive a minute too late as he saw a masked man plunge his kunai into his young charges eyes essentially blinding him for life. The last thing either of the masked men saw was a blood red eye and the sharp edge of the blade that ended their lives.

The Hokage stopped to take a breath before entering the room he had come to visit. As he walked in he noticed Kakashi sitting in a chair looking down at his student at a rare time where his face wasn't buried in his trademark Icha Icha book.

"It's not fair Hokage-sama. He had just become a shinobi. He had so much talent." Kakashi said quietly. Sarutobi nodded. He had seen how much promise the young boy had. His mind was like a sponge always soaking up information and his limitless energy had made it so he could train for as long as he wanted. But now the boy's career as a shinobi was over because of two men who couldn't see past their own hatred.

Suddenly the two men heard a soft groan and saw the young man began to slowly wake up. The first thing Naruto felt as he regained consciousness was pain.

Sarutobi walked closer to the hospital bed. "How are you feeling Naruto?" Naruto moved his head in the direction of the voice he heard.

"I'm doing alright" he answered in a raspy voice. He had been unconscious for a few days and was more than likely dehydrated. He asked the old man to grab him a glass of water and quickly downed it. Naruto knew there was more than one person in the room but before he could ask who was there his sensei interrupted him. "I'm so sorry Naruto. If only I had been a minute or two early I could have helped more." Naruto could hear the sadness in his sensei's voice as he continued to apologize.

Slowly but surely Naruto became more aware of what was going on around him before he asked the two men a question they had hoped never to answer.

"Jiji, Kaka-Sensei, why can't I see?"

A/N: Well there it is. Let me know how you like it. If there are any errors feel free to let me know. If you didn't like it I'm always down to hear some constructive criticism so by all means go ahead and tell me what I did wrong.