8

*chapter contains depictions of torture and beatings. Reader discretion is advised. If you don't feel comfortable with either of these themes, you may want to skip to the end of the flashback. Thank you*

Flashback no Jutsu

Naruto was 5 years old. It was his birthday. He had been kicked out of the orphanage the year before, simply because they didn't want to care for "the demon" anymore. His Jiji, Hiruzen had offered to give him a rather cheap apartment, and also a monthly allowance that should help cover both rent, and his monthly food expenses. Sadly, he didn't take into account the villagers' views on the matter of Naruto being the Jinchūriki of the Kyūbi, and therefore their belief that he was the demon itself. They didn't treat him the way his mother had been treated when she was the Jinchūriki. Unlike him, she had been beloved by everyone in the village, and had been a respected shinobi. Naruto, on the other hand, was despised for something that he had no idea about or control over. It wasn't fair to him. The villagers didn't care though.

After the last two years of the same thing occurring, Naruto wanted to avoid going out at all if he could help it, because he knew what would happen. Sadly, he had run out of food the day before, and hadn't thought to get more. He wouldn't have enough to last him until the next day either, which meant he didn't have a choice but to go out and buy more now.

It was getting late. The festival was just beginning. The festival to honor the Yondaime's sacrifice when he "killed the Kyūbi" and saved the village from the "demon". The festival would, of course, reach it's peak after the sun went down, when the "Fox Hunt" began. The tradition had been going on for five years now. The first two, they would release a real fox and chase it down, torturing and killing the poor creature when they caught it.

The third year, they did the same thing, except with one difference. When they went to catch the fox, they found it cowering in the arms of a small blond toddler of about 3. He reminded the villagers of the small babe that had been there when the Yondaime died that night, they turned their rage from the fox to the boy.

Their faces morphed into menacing smiles, and malicious smirks, promises of agony shining in their eyes. The blond was terrified. The small fox leaped out of the blond's arms, obviously feeling the murderous aura leaking off their bodies. Sadly, the blond didn't understand. He thought he was just helping a small fox.

Before he could figure out what was really going on, one of the villagers at the front of the group grabbed hold of his skinny arms, holding him in the air, and causing the boy to cry out. His cries didn't get any sympathy from the gathered crowd. In fact, it got jeers and laughs instead.

"Yes, that's right, demon, cry out!" The villager's voice sounded angry. "This is nothing compared to the amount of pain you put us through that night three years ago! You took away our loved ones! Now, you're going to feel some of our pain for yourself!"

The man shoved the small toddler into a wall nearby, pinning his hands together above his head, and grabbed a kunai handed to him by one of the Shinobi standing in the crowd behind him.

"Give us a good show!" With that, the man stabbed the kunai through the small child's palms and into the wall, leaving him to hang there, tears streaking down his cheeks. The man punched the child in the stomach, causing him to gag and cough, struggling to catch his breath again. He then stepped back, and gave a signal.

Suddenly, the people in the front row of the crowd stepped up, and began throwing weapons at the boy: kunai, Shuriken, even glass bottles. One person had a handful of rocks that she threw at the blond's tiny body. Each weapon hit their mark, some piercing deep, others leaving very shallow cuts and falling to the ground. The glass bottles broke on impact, causing not only large welts from the impact itself, but also cuts from the glass shards sliding down toward the ground below. The entire time, the little toddler is screaming in pain, begging for them to stop, asking why they're hurting him, and not understanding. The rocks hurt the most. The cuts were deep, but the pain wasn't as lasting. However, when he was hit with a rock, it could hit anything, including already existing cuts which made them hurt worse, or they would hit new places and leave large bruises, that lasted for a long time, and hurt every single time they were lightly grazed.

Finally, when the blond was about to pass out from the pain, the villagers had had enough. The crowd dispersed, leaving the blond there, stuck to the wall. Thankfully, not too long after, a certain ANBU in a weasel mask appeared, and helped the blond off the wall. The blond only caught a glimpse of long hair in a low ponytail, before the boy passed out from the pain. That was the reason he received his ANBU guard.

Sadly, for some reason they had missions every year on his birthday, so for that one day out of the year, Naruto was warned not to leave his house for any reason until his guards returned. That advice, however, didn't help when he was four, and the villagers broke into his apartment anyway, thanks to the help of the landlord, who had a copy of his key. They beat him almost as bad as they had the year before, but thankfully, he was saved by Dolphin before any serious damage could be done to him.

。・゜・(ノД')・゜・。

Now, he was five, and out of food on his birthday, and making a poor decision to leave the relative safety of his apartment. It was relatively safe since they had had the locks changed, and had not given his landlord a copy of the new key, but it also wasn't completely safe since the windows were easily broken into if someone tried hard enough.

Naruto tried his hardest to stay off the main streets, in order to avoid any villagers roaming around. Sadly, he still had to use the main road in order to get into the store, so he tried to sneak in and out without being noticed.

It didn't work.

Within moments, he was spotted, and chased down the street by a large mob. He zigzagged through the streets, trying to use any alleyways to his advantage. Sadly, he made a wrong turn and found himself in a dead end.

He backed himself into the wall, and stared at his pursuers, trembling in fear. They stalked forward, savoring the terrified expression on his face.

"We're so lucky that you chose to wander out all on your own tonight, demon brat," one villager said, a smile full of disgusting promises spread on his horrid face. "Now we don't have to go through the trouble of hunting you down." That got a few cheers from the crowd.

"I wonder what we should do first... I know!" The man rushed Naruto, and kicked him so hard in the stomach, the blond doubled over onto his knees, coughing and struggling to breathe. Before he could catch his breath, he felt another blow to his side, knocking him to the ground. He quickly curled himself into a ball, his hands covering the back of his head and his knees pulled to his chest to protect himself. He was repeatedly kicked in the back, and stomped on, insulted, and called a monster. They said he was the reason that their loved ones were dead, and that if he didn't exist, they'd still have the Yondaime and the Red Habanero, who somehow also died that day, trying to fend off the Kyūbi. The young blond cried the entire time, absorbing everything they were saying, and beginning to believe them.

Finally, they had their fill, and they left his broken body in the alley, walking away chatting joyfully with each other, as if they hadn't just beat up a malnourished 5-year-old child. Naruto lay there, sobbing in pain, both physical and emotional.

'They hate me. My own village despises me. They wish I didn't exist,' the blond thought miserably. He soon passed out, and that was when he first met the Kyūbi in person.

When he awoke in his own home the next morning, he made sure his ANBU guards weren't paying any attention, and quickly shut himself into the bathroom. That was when he first started cutting. To get through the pain of feeling unwanted by his own village. Weasel found him, and stopped him before he could go any further. They talked through it, and Naruto explained all of his thoughts out loud. Weasel kept it a secret from his other guards, and on only one other occasion had caught the blond cutting himself again. He stopped after that, knowing he could always talk to Weasel about how he truly felt. Then his guards began disappearing, going their own way one by one. When weasel left, there was nobody he could tell all his pent up emotions to, so he resumed cutting in order to release his pain and anxiety. Once all the guards were gone, the beatings became about as bad as his third birthday, with the worst one being the most recent.

Flashback no Jutsu Kai!

"And that's what Naruto went through," Hiruzen concluded.

Even Asuma was horrified. He knew about what Shikamaru found, heard what the blond had gone through that day from the boy himself, but to learn that he had been going through it for so long... he was rather horrified.

Kakashi was frozen in place. Why had he never been informed of any of this? He was on the blond's guard, dammit! Why hadn't Dolphin or Weasel informed him of any of the boy's problems? He didn't even truly understand why they were tasked with guarding the blond in the first place, other than the obvious (to him) fact that the boy was his Sensei's son.

"Do you understand now what the boy went through, and why his teammate's words hurt? And his words, he also meant them. He was also still being beaten even after joining your team. Not as often, or as severely as when he was young, but it still happened. And this last time, it was definitely the worst as of recently."

"That would also explain why you said he has such trouble sleeping," Asuma said, thinking out loud. "You claimed it was because of nightmares, but from what you just explained, the fact that his home was so easily broken into, which was obvious from what I saw, the main reason he had trouble sleeping, wasn't from nightmares, but out of fear of being beaten in his sleep."

Hiruzen simply nodded.

Kakashi fell into the seat closest to him, unable to hold himself up any longer. All these revelations were making his brain short circuit.

"You need to apologize to your student, Kakashi," Hiruzen said sternly. "That boy has been through hell and back more times than anyone his age should be, especially during this time of supposed peace."

Kakashi nodded numbly. He completely agreed with the Hokage. He just needed to figure out how to make his legs work again.

"I'll make sure he does, Otou-Sama," Asuma promised, dragging Kakashi out of the chair and office.

(ᵔᴥᵔ)

A/N: Hey! Double upload! Hope you guys enjoyed that chapter! Hope it wasn't too graphic! Didn't want it to be. Anyway, to be short, sweet, and to the point, thank you for reading, and see you next time! じゃね！＼＼\\٩( 'ω' )و //／／