Beware
By Parade.

I started this one shot like…last year sometime, and I totally forgot the idea behind it, that’s why this one shot may seem unfinished. Erm…yeah, well I hope you like it anyway.

I do not own Naruto.

xox

I walked down the pathway to the forest. The loud chatter that was coming from the villagers that surrounded me quickly quietened down to a frightened hush. They saw me. They feared me. They hated me.

Who am I? I am the most hated person in this village. Who am I? I am the killer of one of their most beloved people, the Fourth Hokage. Who am I? I am the vessel to the most feared beast ever to walk the lands of the living. Who am I? I am Naruto Uzumaki.

I was used to this quiet. The villagers looked at me with fearful eyes, slightly recoiling in case I came close enough to touch them. Others looked upon with hate, wanting nothing more to slit my throat open and hang me from the ceiling by my remains. I am Naruto Uzumaki, the most hated person in Konoha.

I walked with a grin, bathing in their fear, bathing in their hate. It made me feel alive; I could command these fools with just a step of my feet, or a flick of my wrist. It made me feel complete with power. I could kill them without a second thought, and they knew that.

My teeth clinked together as I bared my fox-like grin. I closed my eyes as I walked, revelling in the stench of repulsion that rolled of these people.

“Beware...” My eyes opened slowly, but the grin never left my face. “Beware, child...”

It was the same woman from back then; old and decrepit, her face cracked like the dry earth from the desert.

“Sorry, old lady,” I grinned, not even looking at her. “Nowadays, other people would be better of heeding your warning. I'm done with superstition.”

I left them behind, and looked at the glowing sun. I smiled at it, and licked my lips. “Don't worry,” I said. “They're all just wasting their breath.”

xox

A twelve-year-old Naruto Uzumaki ran down the pathway to the forest. “Damn it! I'm late!” he huffed, trying to put both his jacket on and his left shoe at the same time.

“Beware...” came a voice. Naruto slowed down, looking at the source of the voice in apprehension. An old lady sat on the steps of a building, rocking slowly back and forth. “Beware, child...” her voice came, cracked and dry and broken, like she hadn't had any water for days.

“...why?”

“Today is the day when your dreams will be broken. Do not try, child, as you will fail.”

“What?! Don't be stupid, I will become Hokage!”

“No. You'll never become Hokage, child. Instead, you shall become someone much, much, much more powerful. But no, that is not the dream of which I speak.”

“What are you going on about?” Naruto looked at her, but found that she had already gone. However, the strange old lady had left something behind; a curled up feeling of dread and hate, lying in the pit of his stomach, recoiling and waiting to strike.

“W...what?”

xox

“Sorry I'm late, guys!” Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. To his surprise, Kakashi, their chronically late sensei, was already there. The blond checked his watch, but he was only three minutes late.

His pink-haired team mate glared at him. “You're late, Naruto.”

The snake-like creature that lay in his stomach snapped angrily, and it's host seemed to channel the feeling through him as well. “By a whole three minutes? Wow, Sakura, how am I ever going to make up for this, eh?”

He spun on his heel and dropped down on the floor and leant upon the bridge railings, glaring a hole through his feet.

“That's enough, Naruto,” his sensei said, shaking his head. “We are going to do some more chakra-control training today. So follow me.”

xox

Naruto sat at the base of a tree, his body shaking uncontrollably. He drew his knees up to his chest and hugged them, but this provided little comfort. His teeth clattered as he stared with dilated pupils at the bark of the tree in front of him.

What had he done? There was no need for him to lash out at Sakura and Sasuke like that, absolutely none. They had not been acting any different to how they usually did, so why had he attacked them as badly as he did?

Despite this, there was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind, and this was what scared him the most. Because this little feeling had a voice, and this voice was saying that they deserved it.

What was Naruto turning into? Why did he take such a guilty pleasure in the looks of pure horror on his friend's faces? Or the terrified screams that ripped through their throats? Why was it that, even now, as he played the sound of Sakura's shriek in his head did he feel a stirring in his stomach; the snake that had been accompying him all day?

Because it felt good to get revenge.

Revenge for what though? What had they done?

They called you names.

They always called him names.

They put you down on your every attempt.

The always did that.

They made you feel like a failure.

But he knew he was a failure.

They made you feel weak.

He was weak.

They made you feel unloved.

...He was unloved.

xox

It was unclear what happened that day. Some think that the old, decrepit woman had put a spell on the young Uzumaki. But that's just a fantasy. Everyone knows what really happened. The pressure of being the most hated person in Konoha had been building up slowly over the years, and that day was the day the boy finally snapped.

Whatever it was, it was made sure that the weak, naïve failure of Konoha was no longer thought of as such.

No one believed him to be a push over any more.