A five-year thought. This is a story about what if's. A story about worst and best case scenarios and how they could shape people. A story of a little boy that wants so badly to matter.

Note, for the sake of this story let me state:

Without the massacre, Danzo was not ordered to disband root. Nor did he achieve his Sharingan Eyes or Shisui's eye. He is Sharingan-less.

What if three major events never happened to the members of team seven?

What if Ino never befriended Sakura?
What if the Uchiha Massacre never happened?
What if Naruto met Danzo instead of Ichiraku?

5-year-old Sakura sat alone. Which was nothing new. Today she sat alone with flowers between her fingers and tears brimming her eyes (again, nothing new) and she was acutely aware of a boy down the hill. The wind picked up, carrying the smell of spring towards him and his hair was nearly blinding as it reflected the color of the harsh sun. Sakura was forced to blink away her frustration. "W-what do you want."

Her bangs were down, covering her eyes, but she still tried to maintain eye contact through the small gaps. "A-are you here to laugh at me too?"

The boy tilted his head to the side before grinning. Half-human, Half-animal, like he'd never learned the propers of communication. It unsettled her. And when he spoke his voice was too raspy for a child of only 5. His words basic and guttural. "Why that?"

She took in his appearance of messy sunshine hair and sky eyes. Clothes that were both baggy and too small and a line of fish hanging from a string and stick over his shoulder and could only think of an animal.

"Why cry?" He asked.

Forgetting the squirming in her stomach the 5-year-old Sakura tried to be defiant. "I-I'm not!"

Naruto didn't yet understand the basics of English. He didn't understand a lie. He didn't understand much. Most people didn't hold such long conversations with him. He trekked up the hill and held out the string of fish. "Cool?"

She tilted her head to the side, mimicking him. "Did you catch them?

He nodded eagerly, excited someone was keeping conversation with him for longer than a glare. "Want?"

Sakura clutched the flower closer to her chest, glancing around, "Y-you'd share? With me?"

He came closer and scrunched up his tiny face, "Hehe, you look like!" He held up a small rainbow trout.

"A- a fish!?"

He nodded. "Pretty!"

They were two children in a world where no one else existed. Self-centered and closed minded as children were but with kind souls and a potential of friendship.

Not everything with potential lasts. This wasn't the first kindle to go out, nor the last in their short lives, but it stands out. It will stand out.

It has to. It has to be worth something.

"What mom?" He asks Sakura the next day. She was talking about her parents and how they did something to make her upset. Naruto thinks it's too hard to understand the big words. While Sakura seems upset it isn't at him so he's okay with it.

She stares at him and it isn't a look he knows. He's never seen that look. But it can't be that meaningful because they're only 5. So he tries again, trying to remember the little words that seem to make people respond to the big ones. "What a mom? What a dad?"

It's wrong and he knows it but he's happy with Sakura doesn't laugh at him. Laughter is never alone. Laughter leads to pain and the red stuff. Naruto tries to laugh to show that it's okay, that there doesn't have to be red. Only five and he already has a thesis for cause and effect. He thinks it works because Sakura is kind.

One week after their initial meeting the quell came, another Saturday with it's mocking sun. As if to say 'look at how bright I burn' to the waning ember.

Naruto ventured out further then. Which he shouldn't have done and rarely did. He stuck to the perimeters laid out for the village that was loosely patrolled despite the villages still-weakened state. But today he was just so hungry- multiple meals a day still left him unsated. Why did he eat so much? What was a 'parasite'? He didn't understand the big words adults used. And the money he'd been given to last a month was gone by the third day. When his monthly allowance barely covered rent and the stores that would serve him charged upwards 500%.

He was only 5, he shouldn't understand currency yet. He shouldn't understand currency before the words 'mom' and 'dad'.

His fishing line had been destroyed, his spot discovered, and so he continued on his way. Deep past the forest and to a secluded section of the river. Small lacerations marred his arms as he fought through the bramble but Naruto didn't feel it. They were already healing in wisps of smoke. He'd recently learned that not everyone healed like him and wasn't that a strange concept.

Regeneration, he heard the term once. It meant you healed fast, he thought, not fully knowing the implications of showing off such an ability. It was a superpower! Naruto wanted to be a hero like Jiji. Like the Sannin. He couldn't see the Hokage monument but he looked where it would be, grinning. Everyone loved the Hokage so it would only make sense if he became one, they'd also loved him.

They'd stop laughing.

(Naivety was one word for it)

"Watch Jiji, I be best!" He pumped his first in the air.

(Stupidity was another)

He'd barely landed from his high jump when a shiny metal object hit the ground by his feet, where he'd stood just a moment before. He stumbled back, hitting his butt hard on the rocky ground and his fishing pole landing in the water. The jolt would have made him cry if he wasn't shaking from a fear he didn't understand. Why was he afraid? Why did the very blood in his veins warm him to run yet weighed him down like lead?

You're being attacked, the voice whispers and it takes him a moment to realize it's his instinct. He doesn't know the word but accepts the feeling and knows it belongs somewhere deep inside of him.

Someone was attacking him. He'd been pushed, laughed at, ignored, spurned… but never attacked. He glanced around, crouching slightly like a wild animal and backed up, trying to get to the trees where he somehow knew it was safe. Where he could hide.

Something dropped. Something so fast it was like a firelit shadow. Naruto tried to run but tripped over the metal object in the ground. A kunai, though he did not yet know the name of it. He'd seen others hold them, seen them shaken at him and he knew it was meant to cause pain. To frighten.

It had frightened him before, maybe it would frighten the black blur. He plucked it out of the ground with both hands and stumbled back with the force, once again hitting the ground. He tried to warn the figure to stay away- to beg him to stay away- but instead of words, he came with noises. Grunts and groans as he tried to move back. His eyes shot all over the place, unable to tell what he was looking at beyond the oddly colored mask on the cloaked persons face.

This was what a monster looked like, he thought.

The masked monster said even less, a new Kunai in his hand as he lunged at Naruto.

And Naruto, knees shaking and Kunai nearly slipping from his sweaty grip, didn't know what to do. He didn't want to fight, didn't know how to fight the obviously grown monster so he flopped onto his stomach and started to crawl away.

Cries filled the area - ripping their way from his throat and leaving a feeling like rubbed dirt behind- but they were too far away from the village. Nobody would save him. Nobody would even hear him. He cried for the only persons who'd shown him kindness, he cried for Jiji. He cried for the pink haired girl that reminded him of a trout. He knew she couldn't save him but he had no one else to cry out to.

The cries stopped completely when a sharp pain hit his leg. It was different from the normal scratches, something even he knew wouldn't heal right away. Gasping in shock, hair sticking to his damp forehead and tears streaming down his cheek he found himself unable to breathe let alone scream when a hand grabbed the back of his head, forcing him up. It was all he could do to keep himself alert. The monster was going to get him. The monster was going to get him.

Fear.

Naruto had never felt something so strong. Something so basic and instinctively telling him to get away and when he couldn't something else bubbled up. When he knew he couldn't save himself by running a more volatile feeling burst. Something he couldn't name. It wasn't hatred, it wasn't bloodlust, it was just pure and condense….

Desperation.

With what felt like the last breath Naruto would ever have, he twisted, the Kunai in his calf ripping out as he lashed. He'd only meant to push the man away. To get him to leave him alone. He wanted to survive! His arms flailed out wildly until something wet shot out at his face. Warm, musky, thick. It covered his face, followed by a garbling strangled noise and suddenly a heavy weight on top of him. His body twisted unnaturally as he was trapped under the large, convulsing man.

(When did he start thinking of the monster as a man again?)

With wide eyes and shaking hands, he managed to squirm his way out from under his attacker and stared. The man wasn't moving anymore.

"M-mister?" He pushed on the body. "M-mister?"

Nothing. He wiped the cooling liquid from his eyes to see better and pushed the man over. He frowned as he noticed red spreading from where he pushed. For a prolonged moment, Naruto couldn't even grasp that it was the man that was leaking the red. There was so much of it and some white an something shiny and puffy sticking out.

It took a minute for it to set in. As he stared at the masked man, red flowing freely from what Naruto could now recognize as the man's neck. A red and white monkey mask over his face that didn't look as threatening anymore. A small trail of red started somewhere under it, flowing down and pooling in the man's ears.

Then Naruto glanced down at his own hands and a sobbing gasp ripped from his throat as he finally realized what he'd wiped from his face. The red stuff. And it wasn't his for the first time. "Aaah!" He dropped the Kunai and scooted back, glancing around wildly and shouting in distress.

No response came and he timidly crawled towards the man again. His palms picked up dirt as it stuck to the blood and the grainy feeling made him shiver.

"N-no! No. Mister, Mister wake! Mister!" He shook the body hard, trying to get him to wake up but he didn't. He was still warm, but quickly turning cold. "Mister, please. Please wake."

Swoosh.

Naruto didn't look up as a new figure landed in the clearing, he was still pleading with the man to wake up. "Mister…"

"He's dead."

The voice that spoke was neither harsh nor gentle. It was even, stating a fact and confirming Naruto's fear. No one had ever talked to Naruto this way through the shock Naruto felt almost warm from it. Relaxed, honest, and a dozen other words he didn't have to express himself. "I- I no want. I no mean," Naruto insisted, rubbing away at tears once more. Trying to wipe them away but only smearing more red.

"You did nothing wrong. You wanted to survive and so you killed him." The same voice spoke simply to the child, as one should. "He is dead. His hatred for you led to conflict and you won. Do not forget this moment Naruto. Look at him. Look into his eyes Naruto."

Despite the rocky bank the man made no noise as he came up right beside Naruto. His cane hit the ground. Naruto peered up, at last, to take in his appearance. Folded arms, a scarred chin, and steely black eyes. Unimpressed. "Take off his mask."

"I- I no mean-"

"Yes you did. You killed him, so you could survive. Such is the basis of all conflict, all war. Now take off his mask."

Naruto shook his head up at the man. He didn't want to disappoint this man that did not hate him but this was too hard.

Don't make me. Don't make this be real. I want to wake up.

"N-no I-"

Something rough hit the back of his head, hard. Naruto didn't even see the new man move. He rubbed the back of his head, staining blonde locks brown with a cry of pain.

"Lesson one: Never forget the face of the man you kill. Now take off his mask. You killed him, it is your duty to remember him. Make it worth something"

Naruto didn't understand, but the man scared him and warmed him all at once. He rubbed his eyes once more before reaching out and smearing his hands across the mask. It took a good minute for the tiny child to bring himself to do it: to remove the mask. His stomach flipped. Naruto expected ugly hate but that wasn't what he found. He saw gentle features and glass eyes still reflecting his last emotion: fear. And Naruto knew, he'd never forget those eyes.

"Come. You have much more to learn."

Naruto expects punishment. He'd killed someone so he deserved it? But this man, made of stone, doesn't seem upset or angry. Then again, he doesn't seem particularly pleased either. He reminds Naruto of a fish with the way he simply observes the world impassively.

"Mister?" He asks, still struggling to catch up to the man that didn't so much as pause.

"Danzo," He corrected. "But you will call me master*"

Naruto is temporarily distracted by the hard word, but only until he trips over something and scrapes his palms against harsh rocks. He'd nearly forgotten about his injured leg as adrenaline numbs glances up, wanting to see what Danzo would do, but the old man just keeps walking. By the time Naruto jogs to catch up his palms are healing and even his leg hurts less. But He regrets looking at them immediately, the red from earlier has not yet fully dried.

"Mas-ter" he struggled and the words come out broken but comprehensible "Man-"

For the first time during their walk, Danzo looks at him with the same impassive look. "Is dead. Do you know why it's important to never focus on death?"

Naruto shook his head, noticing they were coming up on a gray… Block of sorts. When Danzo doesn't answer he tries again, "No, master?"

"You will not prevent more deaths if you dwell on necessary sacrifices,"

It's dark and cold and lonely in Root. Naruto has been cold before but in Root they take everything. They make him strip until he has no possessions, not even a sleeping roll. He has no pants or shirt or underwear. In this cold abandoned sector, it's just skin and cold stone. He cries the first night as brave as he wants to be. As strong like Master as he wants to be.

He cried for Jiji, wondering why the kind man hasn't come for him. He wonders where the trout one is. Vaguely he recognizes the abnormality of the situation but by morning he's adjusted enough to sleep. That's another thing he's never been able to go without. He thinks in the morning it will be okay but it's tough waking up from dreams with so much red- dripping sweat despite the cold so he has to peel the skin off of the cold ground. The sweat makes it easier to rub red off.

He's barely alert enough to begin feeling his own filth when something comes out of nowhere. Adrenaline heightened from the dream and the events of yesterday he rolls quickly to the side and kneels back on all fours. There's another monster, he realizes with sick dread. A monster with a mask and a sharp thing.

Kunai, something nudges his mind. He accepts his instinct this time without fighting it and continues to crawl backward. He still can't see an end to the large stone hallway- at least he thinks it's a hallway without an end or a beginning. It's like his current nightmare. He's still waiting to wake up but the masked man lunges before Naruto can figure out how. He vaguely has time to realize this mask is different from the monkey man. Will he have to look at this mans face with shaking red hands too?

Then like swallowing rocks, mortality sinks in that he could be the one being remembered. And he doesn't want to be. There's an animalistic cry coming from somewhere. It's so loud it shakes his chest and there are sudden butterflies in his stomach. He isn't brave or coordinated enough to attack the monster in front of him with its tall confident stature leagues above the one from yesterday. His instinct shouts at him that he's outmatched.

But he doesn't want to be looked at so he backs away, jumps and rolls awkwardly. He never dodges. Each time the sharp item, the Kunai, slices through his bare skin. He heals fast enough that by the time the next hit is made he's nearly recovered. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he feels relief. He can do this. If he can just avoid the monster long enough surely someone will come.

Surely Master will come. Or Jiji. Or trout girl.

Instead, it's pain that greets him. Adrenaline wears off and his healing slows to a standstill. It feels like it's been days of him running and trying to dodge the fast man. He chases him down the corridor until they come upon a red handprint on the wall that's so nostalgic it takes him only a moment to realize it's his own. They've somehow come around in a circle despite running straight.

That, more than the pain or the realization that Jiji and trout girl and Master aren't coming to save him is what breaks in reality. He isn't winning, he isn't even close. The monster is playing with him as Naruto plays with the fish. He knows he can eat it at any time but it's fun to watch it flop.

He learns of defeat. "Please. Please. Sorry Please. Sorry," He stops and begs for the monster to leave him alone in the only way he can and finds his lack of vocabulary as frustrating as this situation.

Then, after what he's sure has been days he simply gives up. He stops fighting and the monster leaves the Kunai wedged deep inside his leg. He's not healing anymore but it doesn't matter.

The masked monster didn't even look at his face. At that moment he wants nothing more than to matter, to mean something. He's alone and wishes for the mocking sun when it turns dark and his ember finally goes cold with no one to even bear witness.

Then it's truly dark but it doesn't feel like sleeping because he doesn't dream and it seems no time has passed at all when he opens his eyes. He 'wakes up' to the same darkness but this time he can feel his limbs and he knows he's not in that mock sleep. His body hurts and the Kunai is still in his leg. For a long time, he doesn't move even though he knows he needs to. He needs to find a way to escape and let Jiji know where he is!

Slowly feeling around he touches something hard and textured like soil and flinches back. Curiously he tries again in a moment when nothing happens. He feels around until he notices there's three of them and they're round like oversized marbles no bigger than his palm. Smelling reveals nothing more about these mysterious orbs. They're not weapons and they smell like the plants the adult's horde in the market. Curiously he licks one. Nothing.

He puts them back for long enough to assess his injuries. He realizes the kunai isn't getting out of his leg on its own but he doesn't want to touch it. The wounds already healed and even touching the weapon shoots pain like he's never experienced straight to his spine.

He's so afraid, sitting alone in the dark and not knowing when the monster might come back. Paranoia infects him until he recoils against the wall with his leg bent awkwardly and his head ducked as much as it can be. If he can't see the monster maybe it won't see him.

It could be days until hunger draws him to move again and a sense of shameful boredom shines through his terror. Someone left these balls for him. Why? He picks one up again, recoiling back into himself in his attempt to hide. He holds the ball against his stomach and thinks. Why would they leave this?

It dawns on him. Did Master leave it for him? Tentatively he licks it again. With the full apprehension that he could be eating dirt, he takes a large bite. He finds the texture gritty like sand and he coughs dry, suddenly thirsty. But he finds even one bite seems to fill him up considerably and Naruto cannot help but choke through the bitter chalky texture until not just one but all three are gone.

Then it's time for the knife. Being full gives him the energy to at least try to wedge it free. Every time he touches it the pain explodes through his nerves. Quick, he thinks, and it won't hurt as bad. Like chopping off the head of a fish. Only it doesn't work and when he tries to rip the Kunai his healed flesh grips tight and he maybe gets an inch free.

The rest is easier but hurts worse. No sooner has the Kunai finished dinning on the ground- the echo overriding his whimpering- then a torch lights down the hall and with it a step, step, thunk that makes him cower.

"You did well."

It's amazing how simple it is to pull Naruto from his cowering shell. The smooth voice parts through his fear and settles something deep inside. His head snaps up and for a moment he looks like a proper child glancing up from mindless coloring. Nothing matters but his master. His face splits into a grin. "I knew. You Come. I wait. I knew." He tries his best to express how happy he is to see Master

Something new flashed in masters eyes but then it's gone. Somehow that just encourages him to show his master how happy he is.

Root takes everything they can from the blonde boy. His name is the first thing to go. They call him 'it' for three years, the same three years they keep him trapped in a stone underground with high ceilings and never-ending hallway.

A system is established as the first day repeats itself. The hell that he'd never have thought to find normal. As Naruto has no idea what day or season it is he gains a general understanding of his own version of time. There are only 4 hours of the day and they are always the same.

His vocabulary is limited to what he'd overheard before coming to Root. He's named Hour 1 'Wake'. He always opens his eyes to the pain and a unanimous ninja attacking him. They don't stop even after he's bloody. Even when they cut too deep and he cries and begs and waits to matter enough that they look at his face. This time always feels the longest and hurts the worst.

The second hour is called 'Regeneration' and comes forever after when he's allowed to rest his growingly scarred and slow-healing body and food balls. They always go down like chalk but they take away the hunger. They leave him crumpled on the ground. This is the shortest time by far.

And he's glad because the only hour he looks forward to is the third. He names it 'fish' for that reason. This is the hour that keeps him fighting in the mornings. It's when Danzo steps out from an always dark hallway. Danzo is the only one that speaks to him and this is the only time that varies in the day. He teaches him new things like how to read and write. When he does well Danzo will give a small nod that causes Naruto to brighten and try even harder next time. Danzo is the second person to ever show him approval. But unlike Jiji, who abandoned him here and never came to save him, Danzo visits every day.

He forgets about trout girl in time. He even forgets about the lump in his chest that's hard to swallow around when he think she and Jiji abandons him. Eventually he can't recall what the color pink looks like and just remembers the smell of Jiji's hokage robes.

And time 4 is 'dark'. It's When he is allowed to curl up on the stone and sleep. Peacefully if he's pleased Danzo for the day. And a shriveled mass on the floor, with vomit in his nose and somuchredredred if he'd been displeasing.

But it didn't change him. The dark didn't change him. He was still happy. The dark didn't change him. He was still happy. He was.

Looking for a Beta.

Author notes on what to expect:

I will not character bash. I believe every one of Kishimoto's characters has a purpose. Some of them might be pricks because that is their character. Some might be out of character, as events change them, but overall I respect each one of them too much to bash them.

I'm keeping the currency rate an even 10RYO:1USD:100YEN