Little Fox Kit Found A Place to Call Home

"Human Talk"

'Human thought'

"Human Yell"

"Demon Talk"

'Demon Thought'

"Demon Yell"

*Flashback*

Abuse

For every child who cries at night, alone with shame and pain and fright.

For every child who wants so much, to only feel a gentle touch.

For the beaten child, who cries in pain, whose tears run silent, like the rain.

For the child used to satisfy lust, who never learns to love or trust.

For the child taken from her home, and made to feel so all alone.

For the child whose home is just a shell, where life becomes a living hell.

For the child who smiles but cannot feel, because of scars too deep to heal.

For every child who yearns for love, I hope and pray to God above.

To hear your cries and heal your pain, and give you back your life again….by Kathy Williams.

I do not own Naruto…sadly it belonged to our beloved Sensei Masashi Kishimoto.

The Land of Water, it's oriented toward the element of Water; the weather's today is cool, and full concealed by the snowy mist make it hard for the weary travelers to see. The entire land from far and wide are covered in white snow, trees are leafless, and animals are hibernating, sleeping the entire winter till the day when spring comes while the Villagers are in their comfortable home with nice, warm fire warming them up from the harsh winter and enjoying each other's company like a happy family, aside from a small bundle who's settling in a hollow of a tree trying his hardest to bury himself in a thin blanket that could protect him from the cold.

The little bundle is poor and cold boy; his clothes are stained with dirt and dried blood from the old wounds and torn as well even his sandals are in shreds. His skin is burning him with terrible pain from the cold that turn his once tan skin into blue, the blanket didn't provide any protection from the cold, and it's ragged and very thin barely covering half of his body. The boy buried his face in his lap and hugged his knees to his chest to warm his body but instead he shivered and quickly hugged his knees closer and brings his blanket closer to.

The boy lifts his head slightly up to check the weather outside from the hole and to show his face. He has spiky golden hair like the sun, blue eyes that can outmatch the sky and the ocean and three whisker-like marks on each side of his cheeks that resembles of little fox kit. He shivered again as the wind blew inside as he hugged his knees closer.

"I-I-It's s-so co-cold." The poor shivered boy mumbled, and his voice is hoarse and weak.

His name is Uzumaki Naruto; a boy who has no knowledge of his heritage or no idea who's his real parents is, he has been tolerated in name calling, physical and mental abuse from the Villagers of Konoha for as long as he remembers, never understand why they did or why did he do deserve this? He's been neglected, shunned, unwanted, and unloved by the people. He desire for a gentle touch and loving embrace from Mother and caring and compassionate Father to shield him from harm, but sadly none will give him the yearning he desired, but to leave him alone of what he deserve which he doesn't know what or why.

"I-It doesn't ma-matter right now I ran aw-away, and I'll I'll n-n-never come back!" Naruto mumbled with no regret in his tone.

That is right, Naruto ran away from his Village of Konohagakure where he'll never return, his Village was never his home, and it was nothing but a prison that he gets tortured every day when he had enough. He recalled the day where he walked out of his old and painful life for good.

*Flashback*

"Where is it?" Said the man with a pitchfork, panting from all the running.

"I just noticed he went here," said another with Kunai, grinding his teeth in frustration.

"Maybe he went that way, he couldn't get far." A woman who said it with a crazed look in her eyes.

"Let's go before the Demon escape," said person and the mob of angry Village dash to the direction to find the Demon worthy of beating.

The angry mob didn't take notice that said Demon has used the Transformation Jutsu that turned him into as part of the wall of the building behind him once the coast is clear he called off his Jutsu, he puff, and gasp tries to regain his breathing and calm his beating heart. He looked at where the mob once stood and scowled and gritted his teeth, the pain from the inside is so much worse than anything he had felt and always there, never to leave him like some kind of curse forever to be never removed like scar.

"Why?...why do they? I never did anything wrong, and yet they…keep," he wouldn't cry; he refused to cry, he already shed so many tears till it's went dry, and it hurt him; it hurt him so much. It's no use thinking now, he commented, if he stays any longer the mob might find him, so he quickly but quietly leave as his short legs could carry him.

After he successively escaped from the Villagers, he's walking back to his apartment peacefully without getting caught, but tonight his feet had dragged him elsewhere and instead he ended up standing in front of the closed Village's gate.

He don't know why did he come here in the first place, but something tells him that his feet didn't drag him by a chance. He gazes at the gate with an unreadable expression and then his eyes suddenly gone wide with realization when he thought of something that he never he thought of before.

Run away!

That what he should have done to run away from all this madness, all this confusion, and all this pain to run away where he can free from it all, right? Is it running away is the only solution to get away from everything he had been suffering for so long, then that mean he'll leave a few people whom they're only ones that they cared about him, Old Man Hokage, Iruka-Sensei, and Inu-kun, only three people out of thousands of Villagers who hate his existence.

He thought if he runs away he'll leave those three people who cared for him and leave and adventure to the unknown, on the other hand; he can be free from everything and start something new and find a place where he can call home and family who can love him without being thrown away or shunned; he can be himself.

He bends his head down; his hair shadowing his eyes, and his lips are a thinned line as he is debating in his mind if he is doing what is right. His body, mind, and heart can't take much longer than this if he stays he'll go insane but if he runs away he might have the slightest chance to find a place to call home.

After long debate, Naruto had final made his decision he'll run away, but the big question is how? He thought, he can use Transformation Jutsu, to turn himself into any animal, but the problem is that Anbu are lurking everywhere even hid Jutsu requires constant emission of Chakra while mentally maintaining the form the Anbu can track him like finding a needle in a haystack, but if he hides his Chakra the Anbu won't find him, but this skill requires skills and knowledge to develop such technique and most of all he's an Academy Student, they only learn the basics of Chakra, but how to control it is a different story. Although, Naruto's Chakra appears more advanced than of a normal child, he knows because he knew it; it's like his Chakra level is High-Ranked Chuunin, and maybe he still escaped without being spotted.

"Well, it's worth a try."

With that thought, he turned into small feline; he made sure he hid his Chakra and then he tottered as he tottered to the gate, when he spotted a small hole near the gate, big enough for him to fit in and get out, talk about lucky. He looked around making sure no one saw him before he squeezed his way out and dashed off.

He couldn't believe it; he did it. He actually escaped from this hell hole and plastered a cat like grin as he sprint away without turning back.

*End Flashback*

Naruto starting to cough hard that he thought that his throat is on fire, and he can feel his body already losing to the cold and about to shut down, already giving up on him as losing of consciousness.

He tried to fight it but even his mental strength has no power left to stand-up and fight, the cold winter has weaken him and pushing him to eternal sleep, which he'll never awake to see the next light of dawn again, his eyelids are too heavy to keep them open, and his warm, pure blue eyes have not lost its color, turning into dull grayish blue as if all life in it is gone. Naruto doesn't die like this, not after he fled from that hellhole of his Village just to die here, but his body is failing him. Then all the remaining energy died down, causing him to fall on soft ground with a soft thud and lay there lifeless.

Ba-dum

Ba-dum

Ba-dum

Naruto can feel his heart beat like drum in perfect motion and feeling alive which made him confused in his sleep.

Somehow, he feels warm again as he snuggled closer on his bed, now he is confused even more, and he wants his eyes to open already so he can find out what's going on. He groaned in irritation as he finally made his eyes open slowly, and two cerulean orbs have been exposed. He blinked few times to clear the blurriness from his eyes till it's gone, he looks above him is a dark sky filled with sparkling stars and crescent moon glowing brightly on the night sky, providing a light path for the weary travelers and warm feeling lulling them to sleep. Naruto is confused at this; he thought for sure that he's going to die in the coldness but instead he feels cozy and warm, and his body has regained life once more, so the big question is how?

"Oh! I see you're awake." A soft voice startled Naruto a bit and looked to see a feminine looking boy with big dark brown eyes, shoulder-length black hair, pale skin, wearing a short blue kimono with light blue edges and dark grey split skirt.

"How are you feeling now?" The boy spoke again with a worrying look in his eyes that something Naruto never used to see; he's not sure how to answer him back or if he should trust him as, well.

"What's matter? Did the cold freeze your tongue or something, kid?" Another voice alerted Naruto again that coming from his left. He craned his neck to see a tall and noticeably muscular man with pale skin, short spiky black hair, brown eyes, and small eyebrows. He donned the village's standard uniform and flak jacket, and his forehead protector is putted sideways on his head with the symbol of Kirigakure, and he masked the half of his face with bandages. He choked when the man look at him with beady eyes like demon but regardless this man look viciously scary and teasing remark, the look in his eye look bit of a worry like the boy.

Naruto is confused by these strangers till it came to him, it all makes sense now these strangers might have found him and saved him from dying. He slowly sits himself up when a boy stopped by putting his hands on his shoulders.

"You shouldn't get up; you need to rest," said boy. Naruto wants to protest, but his body still haven't recovered completely yet and let the boy push him back to his bed.

"What, what happened to me?" His voice is sore with cold that he choked, and cough, the boy quickly got a canteen; he lift Naruto up and pass the canteen to his lips, and Naruto drank the water greedily, he feels relieved that his throat no longer hurt him and contented to have water filling him in. The boy pulled the canteen, pleased to see the blond boy is content, he put away his canteen and put Naruto back on his bed.

"We found you on tree hollow, you were trembling badly, and your skin turn blue, so we saved you." The boy smiled softly, happy to see him okay.

"How long did I sleep?" Naruto asked again.

"About a day, but you made quite a fast recovery!" Naruto detects a surprised tone that he never seen anything like this before. Naruto wasn't looked so surprised; he sometimes doesn't know how his injury's heal, no matter how deep or bad the wound is the next day there gone, no wound not even a scar as if it were never there, the man, on the other hand, has these knowing eyes as if he knew what this boy really is, but stay silent for a moment. The feminine boy smiled again that makes his face glow.

"Well, it doesn't matter now; the important is that you're okay. Why don't you sleep for the night after all you need all the rest you can require?" He said, and Naruto didn't need to be told twice and so Naruto nodded, he thanked him and closed his eyes, and sweet slumber overwhelmed him.

The next morning, Naruto groaned as the morning sunlight hit on his face rendering him to wake, he blinked and sat up; he yawned and then looked around noticing he is not in the hollow tree anymore, but an open area where snow glittered like diamonds by the sunlight's ray, all in all it's beautiful scenery

Naruto tries to remember what happened last night by scratching his head and blinked the foggy sleepiness away till he remembered. Last night, he was been saved by two strangers, one boy who look like a girl and large masked man who found him. He looked around to find them till he feels something soft touching his leg, he looks down a snow white rabbit with ruby eyes staring back at him; Naruto blinked as the rabbit twitch his pink nose and flapping his right ear. After they stare at each other, the rabbit tottered slowly to Naruto till he put his head on Naruto's hand, asking for petting; Naruto were surprised by it and did what the rabbit wants, he caress his silky furry coat and a smile curved upward to see the animal pleased.

"Kōsetsu* likes you a lot." Naruto looked up quickly to see a familiar face, the boy smiled down on him and carrying woods.

"Kōsetsu?"

"That's his name; I found him, and he was injured, and I healed him back to health and ever since then, he's been following me around, so I took him with us." He smiled softly, obviously remembering that time.

"Oh! That's a nice name for him," said Naruto and when the rabbit heard him praising his name, cuddling him more, they both laugh at an affectionate bunny.

"C'mon, we're making nice hot stew," the boy exclaimed.

A minute later, a large man return with dead deer and pull out the vegetables they have found. And an hour later, the stew was finished, and they all sat quietly eating their stew in silent, Naruto keeps on eating and glancing at the large man next to him with a curious look of a kitten. The man has removed his bandage to eat and to show he had a relatively narrow jawline and jagged-teeth whenever he opens his mouth to take a bite of his stew; the large notice the boy's stare before and talked annoyingly.

"Has anyone ever told you is rude to stare." He said bluntly, and Naruto averted his gaze faster than the blink of the eye and embarrassingly blushing to be caught so easily.

"Sorry," he mumbled, and the man snorted.

After they finish their stew, they all sat together in silence except for Kōsetsu, who's happily munching his greens that the boy brought for him. After what seem like hours passed, the boy spoke first.

"What were you doing in there out in the cold? Are you lost?" Haku asked twice. And then Naruto panicked, he knew that one of them will ask that question soon. He wished that the earth he's sitting on could open up and swallow him up before he decides on answering it to him, maybe he could lie to avoid any further question.

"I think the better question is, why he ran away?" The large man said causing Naruto to gap like fish with a face like, how did he know!? The man looks at him with a mask on also with an expression that say, "I already know" while the boy looks upset.

"In Snow Country, blond hairs are highly rare around here, which means you're from another Village, from another Country. So spell it." The man had his eyes narrowed which Naruto had zero chance to avoid this. He tightens his knuckles hard on his shredded pants as his shoulders begin to shake; the boy next to him look at him worriedly as he about to comfort him when a large man silent him with a glare and the boy sat silently with his face frown. They all waited for him to fess up now, and after a long moment Naruto finally spoke.

"Yeah, I ran away so what." He then looks at him with a fierce expression on his face that no child his age should make that face.

"I didn't regret it; I chose to run away because every day on every hour I get thrown out, mugged, throwing rocks at me, shunned by everyone, and get chased around about half the Village like an animal, but you know what's funny that I didn't do anything to them and yet they keep going on, punishing me for something I did which I don't know of." Naruto finished with a pained expression and the silent greeted them once more, the boy who watched and listened to his story of his life and how he's been going through that made his heart cringed in pain because, he knows what's like to think, unwanted and as for the large man, there no expression on his face as if he didn't scowl or upset or sadden by it, just the appearance of the overall unaffected face. The man sighs.

"The world we live in is corrupted to the point where it's impossible to fix." He stated making the boys look up in confusion and the man continues as he stares at Naruto.

"You honestly don't know why?" When he sees the look of the question in his eyes that he has no clue of anything. So, he gives his answer he needs.

"Since you're outside of the border I guess there's no point of holding secret now," he said as get himself comfortable and Naruto still no idea what's he talking about till the man spoke again.

"Have you ever heard of Biju?" He was pleased to see the boy nod and replied.

"Yeah, they're Tailed Beasts with pure Chakra with immense power; I heard a story about them; there's one that attacked the Village I ran away from."

"And when your Village did get attacked and whom it was?" He asked.

"It was seven years ago, and the monster was the Nine- Tail Fox, Kyubi. But I don't see what this got to do with me?"

"Just shut up and listen, as I've expected I heard from people that the Kyubi attacked the Village seven years ago, and not one Shinobi could lay scratch on him; the Kyubi had gained a reputation as an age-old natural disaster, giving no chance of defeating him, except there one thing that can defeat a monster like them is by sealing them," then the man frowned in disgust.

"Are they this powerful to be sealed away?" The feminine boy asked with eyes wide in fascination.

"Yes, but this Biju is too powerful to be sealed inanimate object. No, their Chakra is so massive is unstable, so they decided to seal them in something alive, like humans." Gasps were heard to discover such horrible truth.

"These numbers of people who were chosen to be the Jailers for the Biju are called Jinchuriki; they exhibit extraordinary powers due to the tremendous chakra reserves they possess. But people don't see them as Jailer, but they see them as monsters in human form they believe in thus shunned them, leaving them to defend on their own without the help from anyone." He finished.

"But, that's still doesn't explain what this have to do with me!" Naruto exclaimed still not getting it.

"You said the Kyubi attacked the Village seven years ago; they cannot defeat it, so they sealed it instead as it is…now answer me this…in what day did the Kyubi attacked your Village?"

"Um, they say in October 10th the same day when I was born." He answered. The man didn't say a word just kept staring at the boy, waiting for him if the boy fathom on what he's trying to say. Minute pass and eventually Naruto understand it as his eyes widen.

"Wait, you don't think that I…that I'm…NO WAY! THERE IS NO WAY I?"

"You were born the same day as the Kyubi attacked the Village, and he is the strongest out of all Biju, the only way to defeat such a monster is by sealing to the only living thing he can find, and that is you! And that's the only reason why your Village despise because you are, and you will forever be a Jinchuriki!" Every word is harsh and cold like a blade, but it everything he said was all correct.

Naruto stood still like a statue, frozen in shock with his eyes are wide and hectic, his body shake violently while his brain trying to find the possibility that none of it these are real, but no matter how many he tries to deny it, and at the same time he finally found the answer that he's been dying to know after asking himself why.

The reason why the Villagers acted this way? The reason why they treated him like dirt? The reason why they shunned him from everything he can never have? To they he's a monster that they fear, the monster who almost eliminate the Village seven years ago, but the only thing he didn't do any of this, he was just born at the wrong place at the wrong time and now he had to live through this abuse and hate for the rest of his life, and all because of the crime that's the Kyubi commented.

Then Naruto heard a shuffle of packing and look up to see the two strangers who saved him are packing their things and about to leave or better yet leaving him. He bit his lip; he should have known; he had high hopes that these people are helpful ones, but they probably saved him out of pity and leave him on his own since he's healed that's must their attention all long…alone, that what he meant to be…alone.

"What are you sitting around here for?" a gruff voice startled Naruto and immediately looked up, facing two strangers with their backpack on their back, looking at him as if they are expecting something of him. The masked man see Naruto is not moving has stifled a sigh and Haku smiled spoke for him.

"Since you have nowhere to go, why don't you come with us then?" Naruto blinked and blinked, try to absorb each word to his brain, and repeat the same sentence over and over of what the boy said; the man see the boy were not moving and didn't say a word, and spoke gruffly and annoyingly.

"Do you want a note or something? You're coming with us, and I don't want any whining or crying, you're coming with us weather you like it or not." Before the man can predicate, Naruto enfold around the man's leg since he's too tall. He was surprised and shocked for sudden embrace from the boy, and he feels something wet on his pants, the boy is crying but by the look from where he's standing he can see the boy is smiling as, well.

Naruto leaped like leopard and held the man's leg like monkey; he's overflowing with tears as his grip tightens, holding him as if he makes sure that all this is real and not some twisted Genjutsu playing trick on him like some sick joke. But as he held him, he realizes from the depth of his mind and his heart that these two strangers have accepted and, what's more? They want him to come along on an unknown journey to wherever they're going. He was so overcome with happiness, joy, relief, and recognition as more tears rain down on his whiskered cheeks. The boy smiled, holding Kōsetsu and the man turn away from the boy but clearly deep down him feels himself happy too.

"All right, all right, enough with the mushy stuff wipe your snout and let's get a move on, we need to get to our destination before nightfall, let's go." he said grumpily, pushing Naruto off of him but not too rough and begin to walk followed by boy carrying his snow white bunny and lastly Naruto.

Naruto used his hands to wipe his tears away, but he kept his smile while his heart flutter with joy, this has to be the most happy moment that he will never forget from these two people who not only they saved him from the brink of death but they saved him from the dark loneliness that he had been struggling to get free. He had welcomed this warm feeling with open arms and immediately he realized something he forgot, he didn't know their names yet.

"Hey! I didn't ask your names so, who are you, guys?"

"It's very nice to meet you," said Haku politely and a soft smile on his face.

"Zabuza!" spoke Zabuza.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto; it's nice to meet you too. Haku, Zabuza,"

And that's rap folks, this story I replace Naruto the Demon Knight to this. I hope my readers will like this story; see you all next time on The Red Mist.

Japanese Translation to English:

* Kōsetsu = Snowflake.