Life In An Orphanage

If I had to describe life in an understaffed, destroyed orphanage filled with way too many kids, I could do it in one word, shitty.

With most of the funds going back towards village development and repair, we didn't quite have as many nutrients as a normal kid would have. It could have been worse though, life in my old world was a lot worse for some people so I would take what I could get.

I kept at work on my Chakra, after all, it would play an essential part in my ninja future. I had been thinking about the paths I wanted to take. Of course, I only had basic knowledge and since I was only a month old I couldn't even crawl let alone get my had on a book, but with the random knowledge that had been poured into my head, a had a slight idea about what I wanted.

Medical ninjutsu, the second I saw it, infinite possibilities ran through my mind. Why just use it for healing? I could have my cells stimulate themselves to heal any wounds to myself. I could use my knowledge to reverse engineer the jutsu so it did the opposite, I could rapidly deteriorate an enemy just by lightly touching them. The possibilities were endless, I could become a juggernaut that couldn't be killed, I could even reattach my own damn arm!

And chakra control was the least of my worries, living eighteen years without it and suddenly having it makes you very aware that it is there. But chakra nature was what I was most worried about. The fire was useless, I had to say it. Even though it had so much destructive capability it wasn't flexible enough to be any use. The next would be earth, but it would be only good enough for defense. But there were so many other ways to defend that I also wouldn't want that. The next would be wind, it would be useful to apply to weapons, and is great for support. You could boost a fire technique or make your weapons fly faster, but compared to lightning and water I didn't want it. Lightning chakra nature was easily the second-best. You could use it to stimulate your cells and make you go faster, you could even use it to temper your body. It had much more flexibility compared to the fire nature and the speed made up for its lack of defense. But the best element to have would be water. Just like medical ninjutsu, the possibilities were practically endless. It could be used to boost healing, it could be concentrated and easily blast through steel, if you could manipulate it enough you could even blow someone up from the inside out, like a water balloon. And, water was everywhere, making it the most efficient nature type. But enough about my plans, I'm still stuck in the orphanage.

(Timeskip 6 months)

The orphanage had finally been fixed and we had moved. The village was starting to look better and they were finally starting to spend money on things other than repairs after the demons fox's, or as what I heard adults around me call it, the Kyuubi's attack. Of course, they were still severely lacking in staff. So I blended into the background, I could easily walk around at six months, due to my constant use of muscles and my usage of chakra to speed up my growth a bit. So I took care of myself, not that anyone noticed. But I didn't want to be on any of the village leaders' radars, so I didn't show it. It was obvious what would happen, I would be mercilessly trained in an art that might not suit me and then shipped off. After all, Konoha was desperate and the more ninjas they had the better.

Something interesting happened last month though. The Hokage himself stopped by with another orphan. The baby boy had the brightest blue eyes I had ever seen, and bright, spiky golden-yellow hair. With three cute whisker marks on his cheeks. But the Hokage himself dropping of the baby wasn't the only odd thing, it was the child's Chakra. He had an immense amount of Chakra, granted less than mine, but way more than an ordinary child should. You would think he would be a clan's child, there had to be a clan that specialized in an immense amount of Chakra, of course, I wouldn't know. Still haven't gotten any books, just picture books with the oddest of fairy tales. Like the Sage of Six Paths. How could one man invent ninjutsu? I don't know, I didn't pay attention, after all, there were just kids fairy tales to show kids legendary figures to look up to... right?

Anyway, the oddest thing yet about the kid was the second chakra source I got from him. It was located right on his stomach, and the amount of chakra in it was rolling off of him like waves. The sheer amount made my chakra look like a drop in an ocean. But I couldn't get a good read on its nature. So the first night after the Hokage left, I snuck up to the child's crib and leaked a little bit of my Chakra out to scan the mysterious Chakra, and what I discovered was shocking. It was that Kyuubi's chakra! And sealed inside a child to boot. Of course, from the knowledge given to me I already knew about seals, so I knew this child obviously wasn't the fox itself, and even if it was it couldn't do much inside an adorable baby's body. But something I noticed was the minuscule amounts of the beast's Chakra leaking out and into the child as if they were trying to get the child's body to adapt to the Chakra so he could use it.

Disgusted, the best word to sum up my emotions in that instant. The second I realized that all the dots connected. They sealed a giant three hundred meters tall superweapon into a child, and the Hokage himself is dropping him off. Konoha is raising a super-weapon to serve him. The poor child's life will be all manipulation, and he'll probably be none the wiser. And by the time he does realize, he'll have already been brainwashed. Of course, I wasn't just going to claim I'm gonna up and out of here because of this. I'm sure the other villages are all raising their own superweapon, and those children are being treated worse than being dropped off in an orphanage. I considered, just for a moment, stealing the Chakra and purifying it for myself every night. But that was probably not the best idea, the Hokage probably had guards on his baby superweapon and wouldn't want me touching it. So, I decided I would just become his friend.

And life continued like that, I blended into the crowd and interacted with the odd blonde child. I had learned his name was Naruto, and I claimed my name was Sakuya. Everyone still thought I was a boy because We had quickly become friends. He was so cheerful and bright, while I had to admit I was kind of dull in personality, other than my snarky comments and witty comebacks. I had to admit, I was a very arrogant person, but my cheerful blonde friend didn't seem to mind, actually, he took it as his responsibility to be my best friend because I had no one else.

I had met the Hokage a couple of times when he stopped by to check on his superweapon, and I always greeted him politely while the blondie jumped into his arms screeching 'Jiji' whenever he saw him.

Life continued peacefully, or at least that's what I thought would happen. I noticed it slightly at first before it became more and more obvious. The matrons were glaring at Naruto and muttering things under their breath, the other children were slowly shifting away from him. They slowly started neglecting him and were paying less and less attention to him. Until I finally heard what one of them said behind their breaths to him.

"Demon"

Instantly thousands of scenarios whirled around my head, but only one was plausible, they had found out the Kyuubi was sealed inside him, and there were stupid enough to believe he was it. I needed to get both of us out of here as fast as I could. But I knew logically the fastest we could get out and on our own is four years old. So I bid my time.

Two years, Naruto and I dealt with the negligence. I had been thrown in because I was the demon's friend. Naruto didn't seem to notice, he was quite dense from what I could tell. But it was easy to see with the glares and the muttering. Also, the fact that they never gave us any attention and seemed to completely evade us. In these two years, I had started training my body with the same excuse as any other kid, 'I wanna be a ninja!' Of course, for most this was just a childish dream. If you weren't part of a large clan or you didn't have the talent it was but a pipe dream for you.

I still couldn't get my hands on any books, the damn orphanage only brought in picture books. Luckily I could still read and write because this was the same language as my previous world, so I taught Naruto how knowing damn well no one else would. Apparently, the Hokage had decided his little superweapon didn't need to know-how. But I could also tell that the Hokage genuinely cared for Naruto, I must've misjudged the poor man. I'm sure I'll learn the truth in time.

I decided it was time to tell the Hokage, so the next time he visited, on Naruto's fourth birthday, I finally confronted him. "Hokage, why do people call Naruto a demon?" I asked, with as much childish innocence as I could muster. I could see the old man's kind Granpa facade drop and ice-cold killing intent pressured both me and Naruto. I started to sweat slightly, and Naruto looked like he was starting to choke. As the Hokage noticed this, he quickly got rid of his killing intent as he replaced it with his kind facade.

"And what do you mean by this, little Sakuya?" He asked. I was still stunned by the previous killing intent, so it took a couple of seconds to answer.

"Well they always whisper behind our backs about how he's 'demon' and I'm the 'demon's friend' so they give us less than the other kids at the orphanage and all the kids stay away from us." Hokage grimaced at this. Before a contemplative look was put on his face.

"How about this, Sakuya and Naruto, I can get you two an apartment for yourself, think about it as training to become a ninja. Ninjas need to independent after all. I will send you a packet of money every month, and you'll start ninja academy at eight years old." Naruto's eyes sparkled, while I just sighed, I knew this was coming.

"Yatta! C'mon Sakuya 'ttebayo! Let's prove to Jii-chan we can be independent and the best ninjas!" Naruto cheered and jumped up and down. I smiled at him and just nodded my head while the Hokage looked on warmly. He had an ANBU with a dog mask who called himself 'Inu' lead us to a middle-class apartment near the academy. It also wasn't a far distance from a training field or the market, so I would say it's a really nice apartment. Of course, Naruto and I had nothing we owned, so moving wasn't any hassle. And it was already furnished, almost like the Hokage had prepared this already.

"Well, I guess this is our new home, huh Naruto," I said, standing in the living room. It was a decently sized apartment, with a bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen.

"Yeah, but I'm tired, let's explore tomorrow." Yawned Naruto. I had to agree, it had been quite the day. At least we had finally escaped the orphanage life. And so we now had four years until the start of ninja academy.