Chapter Text
It was a sweltering summers day in the Great Shinobi Village of Konohagakure: The Village Hidden in the Leaves. The citizens were milling around going about their daily business.
Green eyes peered from behind an alley wall. Wide and unblinking as they stared at the fruit vender's wagon. Today the jolly old man was not only selling his delectable fruits, he was selling ice lollies.
Natsu didn't know how, but he was going to get one of those ice lollies. His stomach grumbled at the thought of one of them. He stared down at his grubby hands, an assortment of coins clutched tightly within them. It would be enough to buy more than one, but it wouldn't be the first time a vender had refused to sell to him.
Natsu pouted. If Gramps was here the old hokage could just buy one for him, or make the old man sell one to him, but alas, the Hokage was away on 'important business' that Natsu didn't understand.
He was only four after all.
He watched with envy as children stopped parents, pointing to the wagon. Parents followed jovially to buy their beloved children cold treats and fruit. Jealousy pricked at his insides; Natsu didn't have any parents. He was an orphan. And the adults he had met didn't treat him very well. He knew why of course, but he didn't understand it.
He rubbed absentmindedly at his stomach. It was because of her.
The Blazing Monster Cat, Matatabi.
In other the words he was the two tails' jinchuriki.
The cursed child of the leaf.
Though he was originally meant to be in Kumogakure as their jinchuriki, but his village had gifted the tailed-beast to Konoha as a peace offering. At least that's what everyone said. But Natsu knew that wasn't true. Gramps had said that he was the only one special enough to hold the two tails.
Natsu had grinned when he had been told that.
He was special.
He frowned now knowing that being special wasn't anything to smile about. It meant always being hungry and glared at.
The orphanage didn't want to keep him. The kids wouldn't play with him. And the shop owners always pushed him out of stores and refused to let him buy.
Being special was the worst thing to ever happen to him.
It meant he was a freak. It meant he was unloved. It meant he was alone.
Natsu sniffed before decidedly shaking his head. That didn't matter now. The only thing that mattered was that he had a plan. A couple of weeks ago when Gramps had taken him to a village peace talk he had seen the hokage do something he had not thought possible.
Gramps had called it haggling. Natsu didn't really know what haggling meant, but it must have worked, because at the end of the day it had been the hokage who had walked away with the delicate china vase, not the wealthy heiress who had left empty-handed.
The trick, Natsu thought while looking at his handful of coins once more, was to offer more than it cost. All he had to do was give the vendor more than what he wanted.
Natsu smiled. He could do that.
Quickly and confidently, Natsu stepped out from the alleyway he had been hiding in. His small feet padded softly against the ground as he approached the wagon. He felt the prying eyes of villagers on him, but he paid them no mind, he had a mission.
He never did like the way the villagers looked at him. Whenever he would walk with Gramps the villagers would just look away, but now their gazes felt so heavy.
"Hmmm?"
The gruff voice of the fruit vendor washed over him, forcing him to look up. The vendor looked angry when he wasn't smiling, though no one apart from Gramps had ever smiled at him, so he may as well have been smiling. Not discouraged by the man's reaction to him, he held out his hand full of coins brightly.
"One ice lolly please!"
"Get out of here brat, I don't sell nothing to monsters."
His smile faltered for a moment before he resumed his plan.
It was full proof, he tried to tell himself.
"I'll pay you double!"
The old man was glaring now. Before Natsu knew what had happened, the man had lashed out, instinctively Natsu moved back scared. The villagers didn't hit him often but when they did it wasn't pleasant. Normally he told himself it was because he had done something bad. Because he had deserved it.
"I said no, scram brat!"
He would cry himself to sleep on those days, hugging his knees together and hiding in an alleyway until the bad thoughts went away. He knew he wasn't completely alone when he did this. He could smell them. The shinobi Gramps had chosen to watch over him. The Anbu.
Why didn't they do anything? He used to think. But deep down he knew. Anbu only looked after important people, like Gramps. Natsu wasn't important. Not to anyone.
Natsu blinked, he could feel his heart beating eratically as he stared at the coins by his feet; the vendor had merely knocked his money away. He could feel the stares heavier than ever now. The snickers of the resounding crowd more prominent. Some braver fellows clapped in the background applauding the fruit vendor.
Natsu didn't have to look up to know the vendor wore a proud smile now. And he wouldn't look up. It hurt more to know that the vendor did not feel an ounce of regret, took pride even in pushing him around.
He wondered sometimes, why him? Why did they hate him?
But he realised he didn't want to know the answer.
That afternoon on a hot summer's day, without looking up, Natsu ran.
~~~
"Hey Flame Brain! What are you thinking about!?"
"Huh?"
Natsu looked up from where he had been staring at the floor.
He was in the Guild Hall.
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean!? You've been ignoring me this entire time!"
Gray was in his face and glaring now, the alpha growling slightly at the prospect of being ignored. And Natsu may have imagined it, but Gray looked almost concerned.
Regaining his composure, Natsu glared back, grinning. "What you wanna fight ice princess!?"
Gray grinned back any traces of concern or anger vanishing.
"Bring it!"
With that Natsu and Gray were once again having one of their usual brawls.
Just another day in the Fairy Tail guild.