Summary:

Confronted with the hate of the villagers and born into the middle of a conspiracy, how will Naru grow up? Will she become a play ball for the forces around her or will she fling away the chains tying her down and fight for herself? Will her experiences guide her down a dark path towards power and revenge? Will she enter the vicious Cycle of Hatred?

AN: Hey everybody out there, welcome to my first try at Naruto fanfiction.

I'm a great fan of female Naruto fanfiction as well as those themed a little bit darker than the original story... Ok, quite a bit darker than the original.

So that's what I'm trying to write here, a darkish themed female Naruto thrown together with a little bit of conspiracy and a more gray matter than ramen in her brain than the original Naruto.

She will be strong and I plan to let her rise to the top eventually, but there enough people in Naruto that will still be able to kick her ass for a long time and quite easily so, if she isn't prepared for them. She will have a bloodline that I thought would be interesting to play with but I will try not to overpower it.

I haven't decided yet, if I should make this into a harem fic or stay with my initial thought or whether I'll try my hands at writing lemons.

Regardless of that, I will rate this story as M because the depiction of violence might get graphic at some point.

With that I think the most important stuff should be out of the way and I can say at this point that I hope you'll give me any sort feedback on the story and review a lot. I will try to answer/address what comes up in reviews unless it spoilers something.

Have fun reading.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto in all its glory, including all characters, although it would be nice if I did.

Here is my legend/key for the text:

"I was lost on the road of life." - speaking/shouting

"YOU DEMON!" - loud shouting

'Why do they all hate me?' - thinking

"YOU PUNY LITTLE HUMAN" - Bijū speaking

'HMM... I THINK, I'LL TAKE A NAP' – Bijū thinking

Chapter 1 Bloody Prolog

„NOOOOOOO, MINATO!"

„SHIKKI HAKKE NO FUIN!"

A pale white hand reached straight through blonde's body grasping the chained scarlet beast, pulling it slowly into the body of the newborn.

„Wait! That wasn't supposed to happen! It shouldn't have been my soul! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" was the last, the cerulean-eyed man could say before the ephemeral appendage finished it's work, taking it's toll back with it. The man, now without the core of his existence, his soul, fell limply to the ground in front of the bed occupied by his dead wife's body.

Following this was a deafening silence.

No movement, no voice, nothing. Nothing in the cave gave any indication that there was life in it just minutes prior. Lifeless bodies and the eerie flickering of the candles made it a gruesome sight to behold. The light of the candles slowly but certainly gave away to the consuming dark void that was about to enclose everything, threatening to hand it over to the hands of oblivion.

That was until the cries of an infant broke the silence, refusing to waste away to nothingness.

And like this three and a half years passed...

A plump woman with graying hair, a grimy apron and a smile of pure malice on her lips stood in front of a red building. She was the head matron of one of Konoha's orphanages and as such a widely respected woman, known for her kindness and ability to sooth those who lost their parents in childhood and raise them to be upstanding adults.

She was a person overflowing with love for all of her charges, well all except one and she was very excited about what she was going to do to said charge in a few moments.

In front of her stood a small, thin blonde child with innocent azure eyes. Next to it, thrown into the dirt were a few pieces of rags which barely qualified as clothing and teddy-bear in the same state as the child, pathetic and dirty.

"Today is the last day I have to suffer you being near any poor child you could corrupt, you demon. You have been my bane for the last three years and by Kami's name if it wasn't for the explicit order of the Hokage I would've gutted you personally. But finally I can get rid of you little pest.

Now take your stuff and get lost. If I happen to find you anywhere near this place, so help me Kami, you will wish that you never reared your ugly head from the depths of hell you came from!"

With that, the friendly head matron together with the other two caretakers of the orphanage, accompanied by some of the children under their care chased the small blonde child away. Chasing away I this case entailed the throwing of rocks, hits with sticks or plain old fists.

"Get lost, demon!"

"Go die, you freaking monster!"

Fleeing as fast as its small feet could carry it, the small whiskered child ran away from the orphanage, onto one of the many roads of the village hidden in the leafs.

Which didn't exactly make the situation that much better.

"Now, what do we have here? Has the little demon left its den?"

As soon as it set foot outside the orphanage, a multitude of eyes gleamed with an insane glint, promising revenge, agony and suffering, all directed at one person. Itself.

Knowing what kind of pain looks like that foreshadowed and horrified by the amount of people, the child could only follow its most basic instinct, which was screaming at it to run away.

"GET IT!" screamed one of the surrounding men, which was followed by a loud growl from the remaining men and women.

Dropping what little possessions it had been able to take with it from the orphanage, it bolted straight through the crowd hoping to escape as multiple hands tried to grab it.

The blonde mop of hair shot through legs and evaded all attempts to pin it down thanks to its small size, making it behind the mob, never stopping its sprint to get away as fast as possible.

"Don't let it get away!"

"Get back here, demon!"

"You'll pay today for what you did to my family!"

The group of people erupted into a frenzied stampede, pursuing the form of a small child, clad in a battered white t-shirt and short black pants.

'What have I done to them? Why is it always me?' the child thought as its pursuers gained on it.

Turning into an alley to it's right, the blonde started a wild chase through the streets and backstreets of Konoha. This only led to the amount of people on its tail to steadily grow in numbers as wherever the chase went, people took notice, that the 'demon' was apparently game, which meant that they now could do what they held back the last three and a half years. Most of those who could afford it happily stopped what they were doing to join in on getting a piece of their vengeance.

Past shops and mansions, through the main road and alongside the Hokage Monument, the raging mob chased their nemesis without rest nor fatigue. For every one who needed a short rest to catch his or her breath, another two joined the jolly hunt.

Every attempt to hide proved totally meaningless as the shinobi that had run alongside their prey's path guided the horde of civilians towards the blonde with pinpoint accuracy and the sheer amount of eyes focused solely onto one target allowed for no escape.

The hunt continued on for hours, the chasing party always pushing, leaving no room for rest, forcing their prey to despair by looming behind it, promising all sorts of suffering should it slow down or come to a standstill. Naturally, no one can do a feat such as outlasting an unlimited amount of pursuers that could switch out and rest if they were tired and escape them inside a closed off environment. Much less is this possible for a malnourished child.

And then the obvious happened. The child's body was overcome with exhaustion and its muscles screamed from the strain that had been put on them, so it shut down quite literally.

And in the worst possible location at that.

Surrounded on three sides by high walls and the forth side plugged with the crowd of bloodthirsty villagers the panting child lay on the cold, hard ground, unable to run any further. With each step the villagers came nearer, the azure eyes took on a deeper shade of bone-shaking fear and utter despair.

With an eerie silence, completely unlike the howling screams for blood and revenge from before, some of the people slipped around the blonde laying on the ground, encircling it and slowly drawing closer and closer until there were only one or two steps between the child and its pursuers.

When the dead end was completely filled with people, a woman with a shiny headband sporting the insignia of Konoha on a polished metal plate spoke up in sickeningly sweet voice.

"Had enough, demon? But don't worry, we're not finished with you, not by a long shot."

The woman then pulled out a kunai from a pouch strapped onto the side of her right leg an slowly twirled it around with a finger through the ring at the kunai's end before changing to a reverse grip on the bandaged part and bringing it down onto the child in a fast motion.

"THIS IS FOR MY BROTHER!"

Black steel met flesh and the sound of kunai scraping along bone could be heard, followed by a moment devoid of any motion inside the dead end. The kunai was struck right through the left leg of the blonde child right up to the hilt, exiting the limb on the other side because of its length and the almost nonexistent thickness of the appendage. Drops of red were sprinkled on the woman's face and an incomparably larger amount of lifeblood stained the child's leg and the surrounding ground.

As time resumed its flow, the blond child let out a pained scream.

The crowd took this as their signal to start their spectacle.

Butcher knifes, clubs, frying pans, sticks, shuriken, kunai, tantō. Something that can be used to beat a person, you name it, it was there and used to beat the poor figure of a small child. Some of the shinobi even gave out their 'supplies' to civilians that didn't have a weapon on hand.

"DIE, DEMON!" a man shouted as he used a crude club to batter the child's right leg, resulting in a loud crack, breaking it and forcing the white bone to push through the skin.

"How do you like your on medicine, HUH!?" a woman shrieked while stabbing repeatedly into the left arm, taking extreme pleasure in twisting the slightly rusty and almost blunt knife while it was stuck inside the arm.

"YOU KILLED MY WHOLE FAMILY!" a teenager cried out with tears of rage in his eyes as he opened up the child's torso for abuse as he repeatedly punched the pinned down blonde into the stomach with enough force to make the child cough blood moments later.

While all this went on, the air was filled with screams of agony, so loud and loaded with suffering and pain, that even the hardest, most heartless torturer would stop out of pity for the poor soul.

As time went on, the people noticed, that their victim blessed them with a special gift.

To their utter insane delight, the abhorrent, disgusting demon healed from the wounds they inflicted on it at an amazing rate.

They just needed to stop their 'treatment' of a limb for no longer than ten minutes and it was healed enough to enjoy continuing their work again and everyone would be able to get their fare share!

The screams continued until deep into the night.

Their diminishing volume betraying the increase in brutality the villagers of Konoha had to offer. As the sun fell, more and more people amassed in the small dead end which by now was stained red. That most of them were intoxicated by now only furthered the lengths to which they were willing to go in their thirst for revenge.

With the rays of the morning sun, a dog-masked ANBU returning from a mission outside of Konoha traversed the roofs, heading towards the Hokage tower to report the successful assassination of a Konoha nuke-nin that was about to offer Kumo information on the village as the intense stench of blood distracts him from his path.

'Why is there such a thick smell of blood inside the village?' he asked himself in his thoughts as he changed his course towards the source of the smell.

Quickly racing the rooftops to investigate, the ANBU stopped on top of a three-story building.

Glancing down in the small back alley the battle-hardened and war-forged shinobi had trouble keeping his sole eye on the scene in front of him.

The walls painted dark red with drying blood up to a height of no less than two meters, staging one of the most gruesome and repulsing things he ever laid his eye on, making him glad, that his other eye was covered or he would have to remember this for the rest of his life. And that is saying a lot coming from an ANBU shinobi.

On the opposite side of the exit of the small dead end, the bode of a small blonde child was pinned onto the wall by several kunai and senbon. One kunai through each each hand, lower arm, upper arm, the feet, each leg, several at the sides of the stomach, a couple of senbon laced with some fluid through both shoulders each, further senbon sticking in the elbow and knee joints as well as in the middle of the stomach and one lone rusted butcher knife at the side of the neck.

All of those weapons were the same as the dead end, stained red and even worse, still being stained.

Hearing a small whimper, the dog-masked ANBU stood frozen. 'By Kami, that kid is still alive and conscious!'

He jumped down into the dead end and quickly tried to pull out all the weapons from the crucified body, hoping the child would make it.

"Hold on, kid." He tried to encouraged the quietly whimpering blonde while pulling out the kunai lodged through the right hand.

"I'll take you down and get you straight to the hospital, so don't die on me!" The silver haired man continued with a desperate tone.

After all instruments of torture where removed from the child's body, the ANBU carefully picked it up and rushed to the hospital.

With a barely audible voice, hoarse from screaming all night long, while looking at the shinobi with gravity-defying hair the child uttered just two words:

"Thank you."

After the last syllable left the child's mouth, the blonde haired, azure eyed girl's world went black.

A/N: And this concludes the prologue of Cycle of Hatred. I hope I'll get productive feedback and that you liked my idea.