Trust || Narushika

Saviour

At the young age of three years old, Naruto had understood why he received the looks the villagers gave him when he walked down the street, he understood that he brought back haunting memories for these people. He understood why they always hurt him so badly, why they never showed him any mercy, he was accustomed to all of this. He understood this all when he met the Kyuubi- or in other words, Kuruma. The young child befriended the demon, the embodiment of hate, quite quickly. Kuruma had told the young child about what he had been forced to do, how he was forced to relentlessly attack the poor village, but the young boy understood because they were both seen as each other. The demon had offered to train Naruto and help him get stronger to fight off the villagers whenever they attacked him, but strangely- he refused. His reason? He didn't want to hurt anyone, his existence was a bother, but it allowed those villagers to release their pent up anger and hurt because of losing the lives of their loved ones and since he was the container for the very demon that took those lives, he was their scapegoat and he didn't mind. He also wanted to go through the process of school, he wanted to try live a normal life and be a normal child, even though he knew that would never be possible.

As he grew up, the beatings had gotten even worse and he had to rely on Kuruma's chakra to keep him healthy. But, on his seventh birthday, everything had taken a turn for the worse. It was the day they would treat him even worse than the other days of the year since today was the anniversary of when they had lost their loved ones. Currently, Naruto was backed up into an alleyway as the villagers took out all their anger and frustration on the poor boy, inflicting all the pain they could. The young child cowered as he let them beat him, not noticing when someone stumbled through the crowd with a weapon. "He should be old enough to take this, right?" a man asked, receiving cheers of agreement from the crowd "he'll heal himself anyways, like the demon he is, that means we can do whatever we want" the man continued, a murderous glint residing in his pupils as he stepped closer to the shaking child, the weapon practically shining in his hand. Curiosity had gotten the best of Naruto as he looked up to see what they were talking about. It was as fast as light, the next attack- he saw the man's hand aiming for his head with a knife in hand. The knife forced its way through the boy's eyeball, earning a shrill scream from the child, that was one of the first screams he had given them in years. "Let's hurt him some more before he wakes up anyone!" the man shouted encouragingly, which led to most of the villagers taking turns to mark him with the knife before they scrambled away from the scene.

He felt dizzy from all the blood loss, not able to stand up as he fell back down after his second attempt. Would he finally die here? He could hear Kuruma panicking in his head, the demon couldn't heal him that efficiently due to how unstable the young child was, he didn't want to harm Naruto any further. Turning to look at the moon, he could only see out of one of his eyes, but the light that came from the moon was soon blocked by a figure "please... don't hurt me" he pleaded weakly, trying to move away as the figure walked closer to him "p-please... i'm sorry" the young boy begged, choking slightly on his own blood as the figure crouched down beside him.

With a sigh, the figure picked up the battered boy, arms circling underneath his legs and back, bringing the bloodied body close to their own. Hardly able to maintain consciousness or struggle as the stranger carried him somewhere, Naruto only remembered hearing a grumble of "how troublesome" before he had passed out from the amount of blood he lost.

His eyelids fluttered open once he regained consciousness, only able to see out of one eyes as he looked around at his surroundings- this wasn't his room. Panicking, despite his major injuries, Naruto rushed out of the bed and quickly exited the room, seeing stairs when he left the room and immediately going down them, passing what seemed to be a living room, without looking anywhere else and seeing double doors in the next room. Heading straight to them, he seemed to have entered a kitchen when a voice called out to him "honey, don't go outside yet, you haven't healed properly" the person instructed, causing him to freeze in his tracks and turn around. He was met with kind eyes, looking at the woman who just spoke to him. She walked over and guided him to the living room, making him take a seat on the couch, which made him notice two other males, they looked like father and son.

"Would you like me to explain how you got here?" she asked, receiving a hesitant nod from the shaken boy. "We were awoken by a scream last night so we decided to go check it out since it sounded like someone was in pain, then my son stumbled upon you in an alleyway and carried you here to recover. When he found you... you were so injured, it was a scary sight, but you've healed tremendously, if not completely, so you have nothing to worry about" she assured, smiling at him before she continued "I am Nara Yoshino, the man beside you is my husband, Nara Shikaku" she introduced, pointing to Shikaku, who gave a nod in return "and my son, Nara Shikamaru" she introduced yet again, gesturing to the younger boy who looked around his age. "If you couldn't tell yet, we are apart of the Nara clan" she concluded, smiling at him.

A year later, they would enter the academy.