The Demon of Konoha

X

Naruto was pissed off. They had finished their first day of training and Naruto was far from being able to reach the top of the tree. He relieves his stress through his brutal workout regimen, but not so brutal that he has any obvious injuries. After he gets back to the house, he gets glares from the others as he eats his massive ration of food courtesy of a scroll Hiruzen had given Kakashi due to Naruto's extreme diet. He didn't get it. Sure Tazuna was poor, but Tsunami had one less mouth to feed.

Then that god damned brat. Spewing about pain and how none of them knew it. Naruto didn't know about Kakashi, but he experienced pain and Sasuke experienced pain. Naruto had never shown it, but he had felt bad for the last Uchiha. It was painful to be alone against your will. No mother to hug you when you are sad or cook you good food or call you embarrassing names that you loved. No father to encourage you or support you or teach you the lessons of life and how to be strong. No siblings to care for or look up to. No cousins to play with. No sitting in your grandparents' laps and getting candy and snacks your parents forbid.

Everything he did, everything that felt good, everything that defined him as the demon brat of Konoha was because of his insecurities. He trained until he broke because he would never become Hokage. Accepting something doesn't mean you aren't still angry about it. He beat up other students because he knew he would never have friends. He called his classmate's mama's boys because he had no family. And he laughed at people's misery to cover the tears of his own. He approached the clearing where they had trained. and faced a tree.

The people in the house heard the felling of three trees. That was it. Kakashi went out to investigate and found Naruto with his entire arms in compound fractures and his head bashed in. But under his swollen eyes and coagulated blood Kakashi could see the drying paths of tears down the boy's cheeks. Kakashi gently picked up the severely injured boy and took back to the house. Tazuna and Tsunami were mortified at the state of the boy, unquelled by the jonin's explanation that it was a common occurrence. Sasuke and Sakura could never not flinch at the sight. And when Kakashi walked past Inari's room, the boy saw the bloody figure of the previously enraged boy he had insulted.

Nobody looked at Naruto with disdain, especially after he returned with arms and head completely healed, as if last night never happened. It was then that they realized why the blonde ate so much. If destroying his own body to an inhuman degree and healing it overnight was a daily occurrence, a large amount of mass and energy would be needed to regenerate cells and heal. He also often went to the main part of the village.

The streets were muddy and children were dressed in worn and ill-fitting clothing. A few women sat near the village's only tavern, with young children in their arms. A few men could be seen squandering their little money for a high to distract themselves from their depressing life. Naruto had seen two families move out from the village, the children's tears shed when they were torn away from their home and friends. Tazuna's family fared much better than most in the village, but were still well under the poverty line by Konoha standards. However, the thing that stood out most to Naruto was that this village didn't know who he was and they never questioned his looks. He had asked a man about it and the man had explained that in the neighboring Land of Water, especially in the Village Hidden by the Mist, most of the people shared the characteristics of sharks. They would pass through the Land of Waves regularly so it wasn't uncommon to see someone with more animalistic features.