Armored Jinchuriki

a kidrazz production

AN: Maltrazz:Hello everyone. This is my first joint story, and I am happy to do it with my good friend kiddi. We have been trading ideas for a while, and decided to try doing a story together. I hope you like it. And now, heeeere's kiddi!

kiddi: Thank you Maltrazz for the introduction. Maltrazz is one of the few people on FFN that I keep in contact with, and a fun person to swap ideas with. I have always had many story plots bouncing around my skull but few people to share them with, I am not willing to publish just the ideas and wait for reviews either.

Now this is our first collaboration fic, and we hope to appease the masses. Though, if you don't like it, please, no flames. As always constructive criticism is appreciated, as well as pointing out and errors we may have missed.

Prologue: Densetsu no Bouheki or The Legendary Bulwark

A young boy was wandering through the forests outside of Konoha. His name was Naruto Uzumaki, and, although he did not know it yet, he was the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

One might wonder what a child of only seven was doing outside of his village. The truth was, he was not supposed to leave the village, but he had discovered a secret tunnel, in a deserted building. He had followed it, and ended up outside the wall.

Not only was it more peaceful here, but he also did not have to put up with the stares and the whispers. He hated the whispers. Out here, there was just the pleasant sounds of nature.

After walking for a while, he came upon a large pile of rocks, and decided to check it out. As he got closer, he realized that there was an opening that he could squeeze through.

When he had managed it, he found that there was a passage going further in. A few moments of walking later, he jumped in surprise when a dim light suddenly appeared overhead. He looked up, only to see a lot of strange symbols on the roof, in a circular pattern. And they were glowing. He wondered what it was, but since it was doing no harm, he decided to go further in. As he walked, more of the strange symbols lit up.

After continuing on for a while, the tunnel opened up into a cave. The first thing Naruto noticed were the two suits of armor displayed on the back wall. One was made up of chainmail and leather, The other was made up of blackened iron plate mail, and had several spikes and a strange symbol on the breastplate.

The next thing he noticed was something he did not recognize at the time. He would later look back, and realize that it was a sarcophagus.

Naruto's eyes locked onto the ornate, stone slab. Taking in all the details. There were images engraved, showing a man in armor, guarding what looked like a priest. In the center of the slab was old script, but the Sandaime had taught him to read old script. Secretly, Naruto believed this was because it was the writing system in place when his jiji was a kid.

"Legend of the... Bu-bulwark of the Sage of Six Paths." Naruto read out loud, stumbling over the word. "He bound his body in iron, to serve as his shield. He dis-discarded all armor, to act as his sword." Naruto paused his reading, as he turned to look at the suits of armor in the room.

"How? How could anyone move in that?" The blond boy wondered, as he looked upon the plate mail. The metal on it was thick, it would have to be extremely heavy. How would one use it in battle, let alone to "wear" and "discard" it and still be of use?

Naruto turned back to the slab, and continued reading, "The Bulwark was, re-rev-ered, Revered! The Bulwark was revered for his i-imme-nse strength." Naruto licked his lips as he went on to the next part, going slowly so as not to mess up his words. "He was once a sam-murai with a strong since of morals. When the lord he had sworn feal-ty to died, the lord's son took control. However, the new lord was a cruel man, ex-executing anyone who was even suspected of dis-re-spec-ting, disrespecting him.

"One day, when a peasant did not get out of the new lord's path quickly enough, he ordered the samurai to kill him. He refused, saying it was dis-honorable to kill an unarmed man over an accident. The lord was enraged, and later hired a ninja to kill the man and his family. He also had the samurai's wa-ki-zashi planted at the scene.

"The samurai tried to pro-claim his in-o-senc-s, innocence, but the trial was pre-side-ed over by the lord, and was nothing but a farce." Naruto frowned, this lord sounded like some of the villagers. "He would have been executed the next day, had a stranger not come to his rescue. The ripple eyed man would later become known as The Sage of the Six Paths." Naruto's eyes widened at this. He was the most legendary ninja in history! "He threw the ninja res-sponsible for the murders to the ground, and told the as-sem-bled people what really happened." (AN: Yes, you are supposed to be pretending a kid is reading this, deal with the hyphens.)

"The samurai felt in-debt-ed, indebted to this man, both for saving his life, and for restoring his honor. He pledged his life to the Sage, and said that he would become the man's shield or sword, as he needed. He would become the Sage's 'Bo-he-ki, Bouheki', or bul-wark.

"Bouheki, as he now called himself, had always been proud of the fact that he forged all of his own equipment. He put those skills to use now, to forge a suit of armor like none that had been seen before." Naruto's eyes were once again drawn to the armor. It was unique, especially the spikes. Reaching over it touched his finger to one of them. Yelping, he pulled back, tearing the skin on his finger and scattering a few droplets of blood. Glaring at the spiky protrusion, the blonde decided not to touch the armor anymore. He turned back to the sarcophagus, and continued to read.

"The Sage used his skills in the new art of Fu-in-jutsu to add seals to the armor. They kept the armor from rusting, or other-wise being e-fec-ted by age. He also created seals both on the armor, and on Bouheki, so that his re-tainer might store the armor more easily. Over time, the Sage trained Bouheki to call upon enough chakra to use the 'storage seals' on his own.

"They traveled for a time, teaching anyone the Sage felt was worthy, how to call upon their chakra. Then Ca-la-meh-tee, calamity struck. A demon walked the earth, spreading des-truc-tion and chaos in its wake. It was called the Juubi, because of the ten tails that it had. It had one eye that was rippled and covered in tomoe." Naruto's eyes widened in shock. The demon's eye sounded like that creepy clan with the fan on their backs.

"Because of the sim-il-ar-ity, similarity to the Sage's own eyes, people started to blame him and this new 'chakra' for angering the demon." Naruto paused, he had to reread that line, "People are stupid." He finally stated, before he continued reading. "The Sage was not sure if this was true or not, but all the same, he felt that he had to try and stop the Beast.

"Little is known about the battle, besides the outcome. What is known, is that Bouheki recieved a mortal injury, by protecting the Sage with his own body. The Sage succeeded in sealing the Juubi, but lost a good friend in the process.

"Bouheki's final request was that his armor be repaired, and buried with him in a secret tomb. This was so that whomever found his tomb might become the next Bouheki."

"Here lies The Bulwark of The Sage of the Six Paths. To whomever finds this tomb: please take this armor and honor the memory of the first Bouheki. Preserve your honor, and protect those that you care for. If you would do this, then simply put some of your blood to the seal beneath this in-scrip-tion. This will seal the armor for you to take with you, and bind it to you.

- The Sage of the Six Paths"

Excited energy is what Naruto's body was made of in that moment. He couldn't wait to tell his jiji what he found. To think all it would take is a little blood to… That is when Naruto noticed a few drops of blood from his finger had landed on the now glowing seal.

"Oops." Naruto said, maybe if he wiped it off... but when his finger came in contact with the seal, it fully activated. A pain that made Naruto think of hot iron, shot through his body. He blacked out, though his hand was still touching the seal, wisp like black lines began to engrave themselves onto the back of his left hand.

AN: There you go! Hope you enjoyed it, and please take time to review.