Shortly after visiting Naruto, the Third Hokage issued an order across the village: no one was to speak ill of the boy.
It was a strange thing about people, Naruto thought bitterly. Tell them not to do something, and it only made them want to do it more. They'd even find ways to twist the rules, to convince themselves they weren't really breaking them.
He knew this the moment he returned to his small hut after hunting. He stood frozen, speechless, staring at the wreckage.
His fishing net, torn to ribbons. The small fishpond he'd dug, smashed open, the fish and shrimp crushed into the mud. The crops he'd carefully planted, ripped out by the roots. And the hut itself... just a pile of splintered wood. Inside, foul-smelling yellow stains smeared his clothes and bedding.
Everything he'd painstakingly built over the last half-month, simple, yes, but warm, his own little space, was gone.
'My home,' he thought numbly. 'It's gone.'
The villagers wouldn't dare defy the Hokage's order directly, wouldn't gossip behind his back. But 'accidentally' passing by the demon fox's 'den'? 'Inadvertently' destroying it? That was apparently acceptable.
He could almost feel unseen hands fanning the flames of hatred. He'd sensed it earlier, how the malice directed at him seemed to have doubled after his meeting with the Third.
'A Jinchuriki is a tool, after all, something to be kept under control.'
'And I actually felt guilty towards the old man? Put hope in him? So naive.' In the Hokage's eyes, what truly mattered wasn't Naruto Uzumaki. It was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
The village's weapon versus the Fourth Hokage's son. Two labels for the same body, but worlds apart.
Disappointment? Anger? Should he try to find the ones who did this?
'No,' he decided, the fight draining out of him. 'What's the point?'
He took a deep, shuddering breath and let it out slowly. "I never knew," he whispered, his voice rough, "that people could be so... vile. To do this... to a kid who hasn't done anything."
His small fists clenched at his sides. "I really hate this place." His voice cracked. "This village... Konoha."
He looked up at the empty sky. "Minato... what exactly were you protecting?"
---
Naruto moved back to the apartment he'd lived in before-a small place, just a living room and a bedroom. It wasn't much, but it was four walls and a roof.
Though it was an apartment building, supposedly full of people, his floor remained empty. No neighbours. Just him. Even here, inside, he could feel the constant weight of their animosity pressing in from all sides, a suffocating presence.
He walked to the dusty mirror and looked at his reflection-blond hair, blue eyes, whisker marks.
"I'll stay here for now," he murmured to the boy in the glass. "Just gotta get stronger."
In the ninja world, strength was everything. That much was clear.
***
Living in the village had one advantage over the wilderness: he didn't have to hunt for food. And thanks to the Third Hokage's order, the food wasn't being tampered with anymore.
Still, beyond buying basic necessities, eating at restaurants was out of the question. Almost every shop turned him away. Ichiraku Ramen was the sole exception.
If he couldn't cook, he'd be stuck eating instant noodles and drinking milk. Thankfully, he knew his way around a kitchen.
The days settled into a monotonous routine. Training felt pointless, no matter how much he trained. Without proper guidance, all he could manage were basic taijutsu exercises. He knew about things like water walking, tree climbing, even the Rasengan... but he lacked the fundamental skill needed for any of it.
He didn't know how to control out his Chakra.
Without Chakra, all those techniques were just empty words.
He wasn't old enough for the Ninja Academy yet. And besides... he doubted they'd let him in even if he was. Too dangerous to let the Jinchuriki run wild..
*Drip... drip... drip...*
The sound of water echoed, pulling Naruto from his thoughts, or perhaps from sleep. He blinked, his eyes slowly adjusting. He was lying on a cold, damp-looking floor in what seemed like a vast, dark sewer or basement.
"This is... this is it!" His eyes flew wide, a surge of excitement chasing away the gloom. "Finally... I can finally get here!"
This had to be the seal space inside him. Where the Nine-Tails, Kurama, was imprisoned.
He couldn't train himself properly. But if he could get help from Kurama... that was the key. The fox would know how to access Chakra.
Naruto scrambled to his feet. He paused, noticing something odd. He touched his clothes, looked down at the floor where he'd been lying. It looked wet, but he was completely dry. 'Weird.'
The light was dim, casting long, distorted shadows. He could barely make out his surroundings – mostly vast, empty space with water pooling on the floor. There seemed to be only one path forward.
He followed it, his footsteps echoing eerily, until he reached a colossal set of iron bars, like a gigantic cage door. In the centre, a single piece of paper was stuck, covered in complex symbols he couldn't decipher. A seal.
"Knew it," he breathed, trying to tamp down the giddy excitement bubbling in his chest. He'd thought about this moment, planned what he'd say. His 'cheat', his path to power, was finally within reach. The strongest of the Tailed Beasts-Kurama, the Nine-Tails!
Squinting through the bars into the darkness beyond, he saw a figure stirring, slowly moving closer. Naruto took a deep breath, wanting to make sure he was heard, and yelled with all his might:
"Hey! Fox! Time to pay the rent!"
The figure emerged fully into the faint light filtering from somewhere above. Naruto stared. This... wasn't the monstrous, nine-tailed fox he'd expected.
It was a man, looking maybe twenty or thirty years old, with wild, spiky black hair. He wore a bright orange-yellow martial arts Gi.
And strangest of all... there was a glowing halo floating above his head.
"Who... are you?" was Naruto's first stunned thought.
Followed quickly by: 'Wait... I feel like I know him from somewhere...' A powerful sense of deja vu washed over him.
"Yo!" The man raised a hand in a cheerful greeting. "I'm Son Goku!" He grinned broadly. "Hahaha, been waiting here ages! Didn't think anyone else was around. Kinda thought this was the afterlife, you know?"
He rubbed his stomach. "So, this is what the underworld looks like now? Where's King Yemma? Hey, you got anything to eat? I know dead guys don't gotta eat, but man, my stomach's still rumbling!"
The man kept talking, a cheerful torrent of nonsense spilling out.
'Son Goku? What is he doing here?' Naruto's mind raced. "How did you get here Kakarot?"
"Huh?" The name Kakarot, make Goku frown, looking slightly put out. "Only my brother Raditz had call me that," he muttered, before correcting Naruto more firmly. "Why you calling me that name like that too?"
"I'm not Kakarot. I'm Son Goku! A Saiyan raised on Earth!"
(E/N: Conversation between Goku and Naruto even when happening in his head would be encased in double quotes like "Speech" and when Naruto talks to Goku he doesn't speak it out loud, like an idiot. Thought I would clarify)