What Am I?

It was a beautiful day in Konoha, the birds were singing, the people were enjoying the festival, and a certain perverted sinning was careening through the air. Coincidentally, the window in the hokage's office was shattered, which was the direction that the sinning was headed away from. Outside the office standing guard, an ANBU remembered hearing the aforementioned sinning yell, "I regret nothing!" right before a loud crash and a bunch of shattering glass. The ANBU felt it best not to ask the hokage what had occurred for his own safety.

Elsewhere, a boy with sun-kissed hair groggily got out of his bed. Looking at the calendar, he thought, 'Ah shit, its October tenth'. This was the day the boy turned sixteen, but that's not why this day promised to be terrible. The blonde boy hated this day more than any other day because this was the day that the people's harsh treatment of him became worse. This was the anniversary of the Yondaime Hokage, the hero of the village, sealed a powerful demon into the boy's infant body, sacrificing his own life to complete the seal.

(Author's note: If you haven't figured out who the boy is then I have some instructions I'd like you to follow. First find a dictionary, and then look up the definition of the word 'stupid'. Next, take a permanent marker and copy the definition on to your hand. Close the dictionary and hold it above your head. Repeat these words, "I shall read more Manga from this day forth" then drop the dictionary on yourself.)

Only the adults knew of the nine-tailed fox's, or Kyuubi, prison within the boy, but few to none acknowledged Naruto as a boy. They chose to see him as a monster, the demon that killed their beloved leader, and lived as a constant reminder of what the village had lost.

Naruto ate his breakfast, then took a shower. After that, he got dressed and left his apartment, locking the door several times behind him. He snuck through the alleyways careful to avoid everyone who loathed him. Knowing them by heart he could avoid running into people…usually. Rounding a corner too quickly, he ran into a certain pale-eyed kunoichi. He and said kunoichi each fell backwards as a result of the collision.

"Sorry, Sorry…" Naruto said hoping it wasn't some drunk who went out "demon-hunting".

Upon hearing his voice, the kunoichi's face went a deep enough scarlet to make a tomato jealous.

"Na-Naruto-kun..." "Oh, hey Hinata, what are you doing here?" asked the blonde boy, as he stood, extending his hand to help her stand up. But Hinata's gaze wasn't on him; it was on the ground before her because the ground had suddenly become completely fascinating.

"…Hinata? Are you ok?"

"Yes" she said, flustered, and her cheeks still a deep crimson.

'She's really weird,' Hinata looked up into Naruto's cerulean irises. Her eyes widened as he began to slowly lean down towards her. Her thoughts raced, 'Is he going to…' Her heart pounded in her chest as her crush's face was nearing hers. 'Naruto-kun…' Closing her eyes she tilted her head up slightly when suddenly she felt a large hand wrapped around hers. The instant their skin touched, time seem to completely freeze for her, even as the boy pulled her to her feet.

"Sorry Hinata about running into you, I was darting through the alleys and wasn't looking where I was going……well gotta go Hinata, bye!" He called, running off.

She stood their as if in a trance, completely oblivious to the world around her. Hinata didn't move a muscle as Naruto left. She only recalled his hand touching hers.

"Oi, Hinata!" the voice of one of her teammates called out. Kiba ran over to his entranced teammate, noticing her stillness. He knew she was always on the quiet side but he also knew that she didn't freeze without a good reason. "Hmm," the striped-face boy pondered as to what could have caused this, "Hinata, what is it?"

His voice broke her out of her reverie, "Kiba-kun, when did you get here?" "I just walked by and noticed you standing here, spaced out."

Naruto walked past a group of villagers near the village gates. He watched as some people back away and others muttered amongst themselves. "Look there he is…" "Why is he still alive?" "If it wasn't for him the Fourth would still be here..." Their words stung as if a knife had slashed away at his skin, but he shook it off and quickened his pace.

At the gates there stood two people, one relaxed, the other was pacing slightly. The relaxed one was a tall, silver-haired jounin, with one eye hidden behind his headband. A mask covered his face, but it was hard to tell because he held a small orange book in front of him. The pacing one was a kunoichi, whose pink hair was tied with her headband. She wore her typical medic ensemble as her sea-green eyes darted from the ground she was pacing on to the path that lead to the gates.

"Augh! Where the hell is he?!?" cried the frustrated girl. Kakashi merely shrugged to her and resumed reading his book, chuckling every so often in it. As if on cue, Naruto strolled over to them. Walking up to his teacher, he just stared at him, confused as to why the ever-tardy copycat ninja was on time.

"Nani?! What are you doing here, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Didn't I say to meet here at 9:00 yesterday?"

"Yeah, but it's a little after nine now, and you usually leave us waiting for a couple hours at least." Kakashi just looked Naruto over with his uncovered eye, and shrugged.

Sakura spoke up, breaking the silence, "So, what's our mission, sensei?"

"The mission?" the Cyclops ninja asked confused putting his book away, "Oh right, that mission…well unfortunately the mission was assigned to another squad."

"WHAT?!" exploded Sakura and Naruto. Kakashi just sighed behind his mask, "Yeah, the Hokage decided that it would be better suited to Gai's team." "Gai's team?" cried the frustrated blonde, "Why them?!"

"Cause….well…" Kakashi said, scratching the back of his head.

"Well, if it isn't my eternal rival, Kakashi Hatake." bellowed a voice from behind them. Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura turned to see none other than the green spandex wearing, bowl cut-styled ninja and the self-proclaimed Konoha's Noble Blue Beast, Gai Maito, walking over to them, followed closely by his mini-me, Rock Lee. The other two members of the squad, Neji Hyuuga and TenTen Hinamori, coming from a completely different direction.

(Author's note: TenTen doesn't have a last name that I know of in the manga, so I gave her one. If the name bothers you, too damn bad. Thank you, that is all.)

Sakura decided to ask them why they arrived from another direction instead of coming with their other teammates.

"Neither of us felt like marching around with the 'youth patrol'" the white-eyed boy responded glumly.

"You know, I can believe that," chuckled Naruto. Then he noticed Lee's approach of Sakura and gave her his typical nice-guy pose, with teeth flashing action. He inwardly grimaced, and guessed that Sakura was probably doing the same.

"I shall complete this mission swiftly and return to you to prove my undying love for you, my sweet Sakura blossom. And if I should fail, then I promise to run around the village a thousand times!" Everyone sweatdropped, well everyone with the exception of Gai.

"That's my prized student," said Gai, with 'youthful' tears flowing from his eyes.

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

The two hugged as they were surrounded by an ocean background, complete with crashing ocean waves and sunset, leaving everyone to watch this awkward and, unfortunately, common scene.

'No matter how many times I see it, it still makes my stomach churn,' grimaced Naruto.

Neji decided that he, and everyone else, had had enough of this moment, so he cleared his throat rather loudly to get their attention. Gai faced Neji and bellowed, "Neji, are you sick? Have the flames of your youth diminished?!?"

"No, I'm fine. Let's just get going." Lee began to step towards him but froze when the Hyuuga prodigy yelled, "For the last time, Lee, NO! I don't care if you want more training; you're not carrying me on your back!"

Lee looked slightly disappointed but his face brightened as he turned towards Naruto.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but Gai-sensei proved himself to be the better sensei. Kakashi may have lost the match, but you should feel too bad because Gai-sensei is the greatest!"

"Lost the match?" Naruto asked rather loudly.

Sakura shot a glare that would make even the dead roll over in fear at Kakashi. "You bet our mission on your childish squabble with another sensei?!" she said threateningly, cracking her knuckles together, in way that would send shivers down Ibiki Morino (the best interrogator that Konoha had to offer)'s spine.

Kakashi eyed her nervously, "Well would look at the time, I have a meeting to go to…bye!" And with that the copycat ninja vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving a very irked med-nin, muttering curses about certain irresponsible, idiotic senseis.

Noticing a dark, chilling feeling in the air, Naruto turned to see what every man fears to see, a pissed off kunoichi with super-human strength, ready to explode on anyone who crossed them. Reacting like he usually did in these situations, the blonde threw up his arms in front of him to act as a shield from the pink-haired girl's wrath.

Said girl merely stormed past Naruto. He watched her stomp away, his breath caught in his throat as he was too scared to make a sound that might attract her attention to him. He then realized that Gai and his team had long since left, leaving him all alone. He sighed in a depressed tone before putting on his foxy grin and went to his favorite place in probably the whole world, the Ichiraku Ramen shop.

"Ohayo, Ayame-nee-chan" He took a seat and looked around "Hey, where's your dad?"

Looking over at him Ayame smiled at Ichiraku's best customer and said, "Hello Naruto. Dad needed some more supplies, so he went to buy some. So I'm the one running the shop today. I assume you want your usual."

"Yeah, believe it!" shouted Naruto with his endless enthusiasm.

"Twelve large miso ramens, coming right up." The dark-brown haired girl disappeared into the kitchen as the smell of hot broth filled the air.

'Ugh, how can you eat this stuff day after day?!' snarled a deep voice somewhere within Naruto's mind.

'Who asked for your opinion, you damn fox?' retorted the irritated blonde.

'I don't care if you asked for it or not! You're just a little brat, so show some respect for the king of demons, The Mighty Kyuubi No Kitsune!!'

Naruto just rolled his eyes, '…Are you finished, fuzzbutt?'

The Kyuubi was about to attempt to rip the boy to pieces. But before he could, a bowl of hot steaming ramen was placed in front of the boy.

"Alright! Thanks Ayame-nee-chan. Itadakimasu!" Breaking apart his chopsticks, the boy quickly began slurping up his noodles. After he finished his dozen bowls, he paid Ayame and said farewell.

"Aah, that was good." He said to no one in particular, wandering through the alleyways. 'Now what should I do with the rest of my day... maybe I should ask baa-chan for another mission or I could ask Ayame if she wants me to help in the ramen shop since she's the only one there.'

"Hey boss! What are you doing" called an annoying voice, belonging to a little ten-year-old genin with spiky brown hair. The boy ran over to Naruto.

"What's going on, Konohamaru?"

"I saw you walking around, so I wanted ask why you're not at the festival with everyone. A lot of the village's other ninja are there."

"Well…I'm actually busy right now."

"Doing what? It looks like you're just walking around to me."

Naruto gulped. He didn't have an excuse to not be at the festival well, not an excuse he could use, seeing as it was forbidden to speak of the Kyuubi being sealed within him.

"I uh…I'm headed to get a mission…yeah, that's it."

"Really? Too bad you have to miss the celebration, good luck on your mission boss." The small boy ran off leaving an extremely relieved Naruto. He left down the alley oblivious to someone's gaze upon him.

"I will avenge my clan by killing you, Kyuubi-child." muttered a man with dark crimson hair, red as freshly spilt blood. His bangs draped over the right side of face, obscuring the rest from view. The man disappeared as his prey turned around.

'What was that?' thought the whiskered face shinobi.

'I don't know kit, but it's gone now.'