Naruto was roaming around Ichiraku ramen, he hadn't eaten anything for a day and was pretty much starving.
Sadly he didn't have any money on him, the tiny amount of money third Hokage threw at him was spent long ago.
Now Naruto was wondering if he should try and go to a river, maybe he can catch some fish?
"Hey, you lost or something?"
Naruto instinctively looked up and saw a boy waving in his direction.
'He's probably not talking to me.'
Naruto quickly looked down and started walking away, nobody ever speaks to him unless it's for scolding him.
"That was very rude of you."
The boy once again spoke, but Naruto had this weird feeling that this boy was talking to him.
Naruto first looked around to find who this boy was talking to, but weirdly he didn't find anyone else.
"Are you talking to me..?"
Looking up towards the boy, Naruto asked timidly.
"Of course I am talking to you."
"What's your name?"
"I am Sato, Sato Nii."
Sato waved at Naruto.
Naruto, who was this generations nine tailed jinchuriki, the demon fox, was not used to someone his age speaking with him, so he didn't know what to do.
Still, he had a strong desire to get recognised, he didn't want to pass up this chance to make friends.
"I am Naruto!"
"Naruto Uzumaki!"
"And I am gonna be the Hokage, believe it!"
Naruto gave his entire self introduction in one go.
The boy didn't know if saying something like this to someone he just met was weird.
He only knew he wanted to make friends.
"The Hokage?"
"That's great, I am gonna be the Raikage."
"We are rivals then."
Sato grinned and made up a fake dream to connect with Naruto.
Becoming a Kage was Naruto's only support in his lonely life.
A similar dream was bound to make Naruto feel close.
"Raikage??"
"What is that?"
"Is that like that the Hokage?"
Naruto became interested almost immediately ran upto Sato.
Sato nodded lazily and patted the seat besides him.
"Yeah, sit down Naruto."
"Uncle two more miso ramen."
"One for my friend here."
Naruto who was standing besides Sato and was thinking of leaving quickly, abruptly froze.
"Friend..?"
Naruto whispered, before quickly wiping away the tears spilling out of his eyes.
Friend, this word wasn't new to Naruto, but he had never experienced what it felt like to have friends.
So when he was called a friend by someone, he was extremely excited.
"Umm! I am your friend!"
"Did you hear that uncle!"
"I have a friend!"
Naruto excitedly climbed up the stall and showed off his new friend to Teuchi.
Teuchi was the only one in this whole village who didn't look at him with disgust, that's why he was roaming around Ichiraku ramen right now.
Teuchi was like a parent for Naruto, all things considered.
And just like a parent, Teuchi grinned at the boy.
"Hahaha, that's great Naruto."
"Tell you what, for making your first friend, all the ramen you both eat today is on me!"
Teuchi announced with a grin, this made Naruto's already happy mood become even happier.
"Really! Thanks a lot!"
"You hear that Sato? We can eat as much as we want."
The three year old Naruto quickly shared his only happiness with his new friend.
Sato meanwhile looked at Naruto with pity.
'You are the fourth Hokage's son, you are the hero of the leaf.'
'And here you are starving at the age of 3.'
Shaking his head, Sato speechlessly scanned Naruto, his body was almost skin and bone.
Naruto himself was completely unaware of his unhealthy state and was happily smiling at Sato.
"That, do you really want to be the Hokage as well?"
Naruto scratched his cheek and asked Sato, he had no idea what to say, so he asked the first thing that came to his mind.
Sato didn't ignore the boy either, he rubbed his chin with a thoughtful look before saying.
"Yes, but I won't be the Hokage, I'll be the Raikage."
"They are different."
"They are like rivals."
Sato explained to a very interested Naruto.
Just when Naruto was about to ask something more about Kages, Sato frowned out of nowhere.
"What happened..?"
Naruto said, his voice had a little bit of concern in it.
Sato didn't reply immediately but looked at Naruto closely, then frowned a bit more, as if he was smelling something weird.
"Do I smell??"
"Sorry I didn't take a bath today, my shower was broken."
"Hahaha."
Naruto rubbed his hair in embarrassment and made some distance from Sato.
He was embarrassed because he was lying about his broken shower.
He simply didn't have water supply in the first place, much less a shower, but he didn't want his first friend to know about that.
Still, Sato didn't seem to care about this and shook his head.
"No it's not that."
"You do smell, but I know this smell from somewhere else."
Sato looked at Naruto pretty closely, as if he was trying to remember where this smell was coming from.
Naruto gulped at the serious faced Sato, he was feeling pretty nervous right now.
He didn't want his first friend to think less of him because he was smelly.
"I remember!"
Sato exclaimed suddenly, making Naruto almost fall back.
"What, what is it?"
Naruto asked nervously.
Sato pointed towards Naruto and announced.
"This is the smell of a tailed beast."
"Konoha only has one tailed beast."
"The nine tailed fox."
As soon as Sato's words fell, all colour drained from Naruto's face.
"You are the nine tailed fox."
Sato's statement hit Naruto's fragile heart, shattering it into countless pieces.
Naruto slowly looked down in sadness, he was about to quickly leave after saying sorry, but before he could do so, Sato spoke again.
"That's awesome Naruto."
"I didn't know you were the nine tails."
Sato grinned and patted a shocked Naruto.
He continued without giving Naruto time to think.
"Do you remember my name? I am called Sato Nii? The Nii in my name stands for two."
"That Nii comes from my sister, she is the two tailed beast, hellcat."
"It's really funny, I didn't think I would meet Konoha's legendary fox here."
"It's like we were destined to become friends Naruto."
Naruto's mind became blank.
All his life he was cursed and beaten because he was the nine tailed fox, he didn't even know why he was called a fox, but nobody listened to him.
And now his first friend told him they were destined to become friends because he was a fox.
What an irony.
'Sato is the brother of two tails..? Is the two tails something like the nine tails?'
'Then are we a family?'
'We all have tails..'
Naruto gupled in nervousness at this thought, his lips were trembling but he wanted to ask Sato.
He never had a family.
"Are we family then? Are you my brother Sato?"
"And is my last name Nii not Uzumaki??"
Sato twitched his eyes, Naruto was jumping to wild conclusions.
'Nii is your last name? Please, you already lost the Namikaze name because of the third Hokage.'
'If you are called Nii on top of that, Minato should start questioning if Kushina was cheating on him or not!'
Advanced chapters ahead on patréon
www.patréon.com/ImagineMaker