Kitsune and Neko

Chapter-22

-Flashback

A four year old Naruto was walking back home to his tiny little apartment after being glared at while he was at the grocery store. He was looking at the ground, trying not to look at anyone's face. He blamed himself, at this age, he didn't know what burden he carried, and he simply thought that it was something that he did which clearly upset the whole village when he was young. Maybe the thing he did was something so huge that even his parents didn't want him, why else would he be alone, he thought to himself. The third Hokage only came to his house once in a while to check on him or give him his monthly expenses and the old man was the only one who was kind to Naruto. The rest of the village hated him. He was getting tired of this. He just wanted to be accepted, he didn't want them to praise him or worship him, all he longed for was a little bit of attention and acceptance. He bit his lower lip, trying not to cry, he just wanted to fix whatever mistake he made.

He knew that if he continued any longer, he might burst so he ran back home with the bread, eggs and milk he had bought. He didn't know how to cook anything and eggs were the only things that cooked themselves once they were in the pan and he had saved up for a toaster for his bread so that was all he ate. As he reached his apartment, he closed the door, locked it shut and started to calm down. Maybe someday, someone will acknowledge him, till then he will just have to work hard for their attention and acknowledgement. With determination in his eyes, he poured himself a glass of milk and went to sleep early. The next day, he was going to start training by himself and since he didn't know any jutsus, he decided to just increase his stamina by running laps around the village.

Naruto age-8

"I'm telling you we should paint the Hokage monument!" Naruto growled at his best friend who he was currently having an argument with.

"No, I'm telling you that we should paint the shops instead!" Ino growled back to her partner in crime. The two had become the infamous 'Blonde Pranksters' who the people and most of the anbu were terrified of. No matter how hard they tried, they just couldn't catch the two so they did the next best thing, they complained to Inoichi. "Besides, you should obey your elders and I am older than you!"

"Only by a few months. Just listen to this, if we paint the shops, not the whole village would know but if we paint the entire Hokage monument, the whole village will know!" Naruto said, laughing maniacally. He quite enjoyed pulling pranks on people and he was shocked when he found out that Ino secretly liked it as well. She didn't tell him but whenever he tried a prank on her; she would never fall for it saying it was just too easy for her. Naruto was surprised as he had gotten away with pranking Jonins successfully but still it was too easy for Ino. For the next two months, the prank wars started between them before they finally teamed up and started to prank the whole village. The only issue was that because the blondes were too stubborn, they couldn't always agree on the same thing.

"Fine." Ino said giving in. She was not that stupid to fight if his plan was better than hers. "But, you have to treat me to Ichiraku's." She said with pleading eyes that Naruto just couldn't deny. He nodded in conformation and the two began to devise their next prank.

-Later at the Torture and Investigation department.

"Inoichi-sama, the Hokage has requested your presence." One of Hiruzen's anbu said, appearing in front of the mind master.

"Is it about the two?" Inoichi said, sighing. He already knew that it was not a good sign when Ino left the house at six in the morning but he didn't want to stop them from doing this. He knew the horrors of the ninja world and he wanted them to enjoy what few years of fun they had before graduating from the academy. The Anbu nodded in conformation and Inoichi replied with an 'I'll be there in a few minutes.' He said, getting back to his paperwork. Once he was finished with that, he left for Hiruzen's office.