Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does. This is purely for entertainment purposes, something I'm sure everyone can appreciate.

Chapter 1

Amidst the haze and stifling heat, something moved. The steam, scalding hot to any mortal touch, swirled and centered on a single point. The vapor sizzled, as if the congregation was dangerous to itself. Water dripped from cracks in the roof, far above and hidden beneath a veil of darkness. The water pierced through the steam everywhere, and yet it did not dissipate.

Instead, it began to coalesce. It had no definite shape, and the contours of the thing changed as if uncertain of the final product. However, any doubt of its sentience was scattered as the oppressive presence intensified. This thing was alive.

There was a sound. It was the first in the chamber.

It was a strange noise. It broke through unseen walls and ripped a hole in the air.

And then, the white coat vapor fell. Or rather, it unrolled. Curling up at the edges, the sheet of steam, curved in upon itself, as if being pressed into a ball.

The steam, which had been covering the shape of something large and monstrous, kept crunching in, continuing the silent implosion. Another noise from the beast it had covered rattled the tiny ball, and for a moment it seemed as if it would unravel.

A perilous moment of stillness passed, and the beast began to regain its bearings. It knew that something was off about everything. In a single instant something had hurt it, actually hurt it! Something abominable had happened; a travesty against the very fabric of the world.

The demon fox, also known as the Kyubi, felt something lightly brush against its senses, which alarmed the beast. Never before had it felt something like this.

Meanwhile, the little vaporous ball continued to compress itself. It hung in mid-air, suspended by nothing and letting little impede its progress. It was unstoppable now, and perhaps some part of it was aware of that.

It was now tiny. Now smaller than a glass bead. In fact, that is exactly what it was.

The fox noticed the bead. Its large eyes, bigger than any man, focused on the miniscule object, and they shone with clinical curiosity. The crimson of the iris screamed silent war at the world, yet the fox felt no particular urge at the moment. Nothing like this had ever happened before. No matter how much it scoured its memory, the fox scrounged up no particular instance where such a strange series of events happened in this order.

The bead hung there. It was of clearest white, yet even that description did it no justice. It merely underplayed the sheer finality it emitted.

The fox could have gone on for years like that, observing the both wondrous and dangerous object without ever sating its curiosity for the knowledge. Anyone observing would have thought so as well, but something disturbed the scene.

An opaque hand plucked it out of the air, and the Kyubi's head snapped up in accordance, tracking every movement of that hand with unholy accuracy.

It followed the hand to an arm, and the arm to a body. The thing it saw was like something out of a pop out book. A humanoid of some sorts, its face grotesque and awe-inspiring, and just the sight of it sprang out at the fox, blocking any thought, any cohesive reaction. This thing, by far the most memorable entity the fox had ever encountered, did not heed the beast.

In fact, it seemed far more focused on the bead, which looked ever so small in its purplish rotting hands. The bead seemed to vibrate, as if in yearning for the creature. The creature, its face already showing off an abnormally large mouth, grinned, and that image was burned into the fox's mind for all eternity.

It held the bead between its forefinger and thumb, and brought it closer to its oblivion eyes. It inspected the bead for any defects, searching for some shallow scar that marred its perfection.

It seemed to the fox that it found none, for soon after its inspection was concluded, the creature brought out a small satchel. The thing looked ridiculous in its oversized hands.

Opening the satchel, the creature visibly licked its lips as it gazed inside. Even though it never understood them later on, the fox saw all the sin and vicious vices that gripped the creature that moment. And yet, it still did not feel fear that time.

The creature, the Death God, let out a silent howl of triumph as it dropped the bead in the satchel, and then closed it.

A sound that would deafen any human followed, and the demon fox felt an unearthly wind pick up from nowhere. It seemed to come from the small doorway on one side of the chamber it was in.

There was no resistance on the fox's part.

It was ironic. A creature that so many compared to a force of nature, one practically the very essence of an angry deity portrayed by an artist, blown back so easily by a very real force. It was a pity the demon literally did not understand or appreciate such a concept.

Despite the motion, the Kyubi did not crash into the far side of the chamber. It landed with fluid grace unbefitting of one so large. It merely continued its observation of its surroundings.

It realized then that the Death God had left, and that large bars of some sort blocked its way to the rest of the chamber.

The fox turned and circled its cage, and nudged the back wall almost unconcernedly. When it did not crumble away at the touch of its muzzle, it paused for a millisecond. It occurred to the fox that it was in an unpleasant situation.

The Kyubi let out a small snort. It was in a cage, then. How very…human.

No matter. It would fall easily enough given time and effort.

"How'd you like it, Kyubi?" said a voice outside the bars.

The demon fox turned to look at the source. It was very aware of how it was just a manifestation of sentient chakra, and so, the sensation of movement in an actual body had always been like moving in a too tight full body jumpsuit. The sensation was alien.

"Pretty good for a rushed job, don't ya think?" continued the creature, its voice calm and irritating to the fox.

As if turning off a switch, the inside of the cage blackened. Two gigantic orbs stood out in contrast to the darkness, each one focused on the new intruder.

It was a human, one of the ones that had been fighting it. The human looked undamaged for some reason, as if any of the wounds it had received had never happened. It was garmented with some odd second skin, the kind that all other humans seem to possess. Its top was covered in what appeared to be a fur rag that resembled the sun.

The human bent down and looked at the Kyubi, relaxed and as if assured of its safety. "You've caused a lot of suffering, you monster." It said softly, "You and all those other Tailed Beasts." The human bared its fangs suddenly, "But no longer."

What was it speaking of? Was this little thing responsible for the cage it was now in? The idea was ludicrous; it would have brought the demon fox into a giddy fit if it could have appreciated the finer points of possibility.

The human gave the fox a cheeky grin. "You're stuck here, in my son. Well, the real Minato's son. Man, you gotta love seals."

The human was quiet for a second. It sighed once, and then all was silent again. The fox pressed closer to the cage bars, and the apparition before it looked startled for a second. The Kyubi lunged at the toy with one of its enormous paws, teeth shown for a brief instant as it snarled.

The paw crashed down upon the visage of the human, but what the demon had been expecting would be a squelching sound following a scream, was nothing more than the wispy feeling of plunging through thick smoke.

"I'm dead already fox." called the voice of the human, echoing impressively throughout the chamber. "You can't kill me now. You can't kill anyone now."

The voice was getting fainter now. It was apparent to the Kyubi that the image of the human just now was just another aspect of the seal the original human used. How convoluted were these creatures?

The fox observed the bars of the cage with something akin to disgust in its eyes. Very well, it could wait. Demons had nothing to fear from time, let alone humans.


The streets of Konoha were in dire need of some D-rank missions.

Despite it being the strongest of the five great villages, Konoha had never sported as much an advanced environment as the more modern cities had. A lot of its funding had been put into more dire and necessary things such as the mining of some particular ore for weapon production, or in making sure its soldiers never suffered through debilitating things as starvation. A lot of it was also spent on the Academy, towards raising evermore powerful ninja with each generation.

Now, however, with peace reigning between the villages (mostly), the money was exploring new outlets, and so, citizens of Konoha were finally experiencing those lavish conveniences that nobles and merchants had entertained for several years already. Thing's like sewer systems and improved medical facilities were more common nowadays than they were years ago, but there were still those holes of times gone by.

One such feature was that a great many of the roads in Konoha were not paved. Dirt, kicked and pounded into a hard surface, still dominated a large part of village's streets, sullying the clothes of many, and driving many housewives to petition for better roads or even to order D-rank missions to pave them. They wrung their hands raw at times just to get the stains out, only for them to do so again the next day.

It was always one of those mission scrolls that somehow got shunted to the side in favor of more dire things such as a lost dog or groceries that needed to be done.

One individual though, did not mind the dirt on his clothes. In fact, he welcomed it. The more on him, the better; he felt it'd help. Such a practice would seem repulsive to those who contented themselves with a cleanly household, but this young one could not care less.

The young one looked at the groups of people shuffling back and forth across the street. This part of town always gave him the heebie jeebies, but it definitely was the easiest place to get some stuff. Quietly, the young boy looked up at the adults passing by, taking in everything with a wondrous awe as people went about their daily lives. His eyes locked on to one particular person, a hunched over old lady carrying a bag of vegetables from the market.

She was a crone, from what he could tell, and easy pickings too. Hunched over and slow, the woman was walking with a shuffling step that made it look like she wasn't even lifting her feet off the ground. She wore a purple floral dress that was too large for her, and it showed by how tattered and laden with dirt it was at the hem.

The young boy, whose name was Naruto, grinned as he watched the lady pass him. His sunny blond hair stood up in spikes around his head, defying gravity with its urchin like shape. Normally his hair would draw attention to him right away, but this time he had help.

Naruto, looked behind into an alley with several trashcans. Hidden by these trash cans was a young girl. She was taller than him by a couple of inches, sporting several curls of plain brown hair, with a straight faced look to her to match. Her name was Saya or Senya or something like that. He didn't know really, now that he thought about it.

Maybe he should ask her?

'Nah,' he thought after a second, 'don't need to.'

He focused on the crone across the street. He grinned once again, already anticipating the sweet taste of triumph.

"Ready?" he asked quietly over his shoulder. So far, no one had taken notice of him just sitting there, but he did not want to try his luck.

He heard the response but barely. It was broad day light, and there was no ninja around as far as he could see, but both of them were acting as if everything they valued hung in the balance of this operation of theirs. Naruto could not shake the feeling of being watched as he casually walked across the street, head ducked low so as to not draw too much attention…yet.

He heard someone mutter something nearby but he ignored it. He kept walking, trying not to be too obvious that he was heading for the woman with the vegetables. Clenching his fists anxiously, Naruto licked his lips as the sight of the bag came into view. His stomach gnawed at him, but he fought it down. He was literally shaking with anticipation.

This was fun.

There was no signal for the next part of the plan, but the girl did not need one. All she needed to do was come running at the old lady, crash into her, and in the confusion that would follow, Naruto would just pick up some of the stuff that fell on the ground, which, in his mind, she would not miss. No old lady used up so many vegetables for herself, he reasoned.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" screamed the girl as she shot from her spot in the alley, all gangly arms and legs, with no grace whatsoever.

People's heads turned to look the little brown rocket. Conversations stopped in midsentence, suddenly deemed second best compared to the little girl. The whole damn street stopped to look at the girl, as if a screaming child was the newest invention the world had lugged out.

Naruto suddenly didn't like her all that much.

The girl dodged people in her way, and ran straight towards the old lady, unyielding and blind ignorance to danger etched into her expression. She kept yelling, waving her arms above her head like some miniaturized Spartan. Everything about her screamed of guileless determination.

The old lady had stopped, though one would have to look closely to tell. Her wrinkled old face turned to look at the brunette on a collision course with her. Her eyes widened in shock as the girl showed no sign of stopping, and it was too late for her to move out of the way.

The girl for her part did not falter. There was a need in her expression that bespoke of more than just hunger. Once she was close enough, the girl jumped forwards into the woman. The younger of the two hit the older one and knocked her off balance, and both of them fell to the ground. The old lady's cry of surprise was cut short as she met the ground, all flesh and bone.

Naruto had to smother a cheeky grin at the sight. Whether he liked her or not, his partner was really good at this.

"Oh, oh, ooooh!" wailed the woman on the ground, who was still being weighed down by a youngster too dirty to be out in decent company. "Ooooooh!"

The girl disentangled herself from the woman's arms and legs, her head and body aching from the impact. "Sorry!" she cried, "I'm so sorry! I-I should have b-been looking where I was going....but there was this guy and h-he had a knife and I was scared and he looked so scary a-and I was by myself…"

Yet the old lady did not pay her pleas of forgiveness any need, for her own body was protesting in reaction to the fall. Her hip felt like it had been knocked up to her chest, her chest felt like it had been crushed, her arms refused to move, and her lungs screamed in effort to bring air back into her system. The world just wouldn't stop spinning, and she couldn't hear anything except for a loud ringing.

It took only a moment for people to begin to move. Men dropped what they were holding to help the old woman to her feet, and several women took the young girl aside, making cooing noises and all those things they generally did when faced with something cute and terrified. A young man in his twenties volunteered himself to diagnose the old woman, citing past training as a genin to do any necessary first aid and such.

It was such a sudden influx of activity and effort that Naruto was momentarily shocked by it. A rough shove to his shoulder brought him back as others made their way to the group. Amidst the vivacity of the show, a simple spectacle that would warm the hearts of anyone, Naruto began to enact his plan. Pushing his way through, he pretended he was just looking at the crone or the girl like everyone else, but closer and closer he got to the bag of vegetables that lay forgotten on the ground.

'Suckers!' he thought mischievously, feeling a certain level of satisfaction from a plan gone right.

The bag was heavier than he thought, but nothing he would be able to handle. Now all he had to do was get away.

"Hey you!" yelled an older man as he caught sight of Naruto. "What're you doing with that?"

Naruto did not have to think about it to realize that he had been caught. Scrambling to get proper hold on the bag, the whiskered boy began to run as fast as he could, tripping up at first from the weight he held.

By now people had begun to realize something else was afoot, and the noise and confusion had risen to new levels. Eyes were drawn to the blond who was running away and people tripped over themselves and each other as they scrambled to catch up with the young fugitive. The young girl from before was clutched on to by the older woman, as if to protect her from the young thief.

And the old woman had not yet ceased her wailing.

Chaos reigned in that street, but soon enough people began to leave the mass and chase after the boy, though it was only five or six that did. That was five or six more than he had planned on escaping from, but Naruto did not look back to count. His little hands gripped the strap of the bag tightly, and he swung it over his shoulder so that he wore it like a pack.

Which, he later realized, was not the best thing to do. That had just made it easier for others to grab him from behind, and soon Naruto found himself being lifted up from the ground by the very bag he was trying to escape with. His short legs ran on empty air as he was lifted from the ground with veritable ease.

"You know, you shouldn't steal from others. Especially from old ladies crossing the street." said a voice lazily.

Craning his head, Naruto tried to get a good look at his captor, only to find that his face was being obscured by some weird looking mask and dark cloak. Naruto struggled uselessly in the man's hold, arms waving and legs kicking at anything.

It was both comical and pitiful. His whole plan shot to hell so easily by this weirdo! Why couldn't things ever be easy for once?

"She wasn't crossing the street!" he yelled, hoping to gain the upper ground somehow, "She was just walking!"

His captor's response was to shake him like a rag doll, causing him to feel sick and some of the vegetables to fall through a new hole in the bag. After gaining some of his bearings back, Naruto aimed a kick at the man's crotch, only for it to fall short by a large amount. Sometimes he hated being short.

"Let me GO!" he screamed, shaking himself viciously.

"Hmm? Be quiet would you?" said the man with the mask, "These nice men want to talk to you about something."

Turning his head, Naruto saw the men looking at him angrily. His hopes fell as he saw the looks on their faces. Thieving wasn't dealt with leniently anywhere, but that particular district was one of the harsher ones. He should know, he had the spankings to prove it.

Not willing to stick around any longer, Naruto decided to forego the bag. Twisting himself appropriately, Naruto slicked out of his too-large shirt and told his legs to run faster than they ever had in his life. But not before grabbing one of the vegetable that had fallen to the ground, and stuffing it in his shorts.

And so, he left, with a carrot in his shorts, and without a shirt to cover the rest of him up. His laughter rang throughout the dumbstruck street, as he made a turn and vanished from sight.

"After him!" yelled one of the men, an older man with too much facial hair. He looked to be the kind of guy that didn't like leaving things halfway done.

They were all stopped from advancing though, by the masked one who'd stuck his arm out in front. "Oh, let the kid go." he said, nonchalance tracing his tone, "It's not like he mortally offended you or anything."

The man looked uneasy. He wanted to go after the kid, but this man before him was obviously a ninja, and he really did not want to cross one of those. After doing a mental checklist of what he valued more (his principles or his safety), he suddenly found that he was acting irrationally.

There may have been a small altercation involving sharp pointy objects and a scary voice, but that was obviously just embellishment of whoever retold the story.

Meanwhile, Naruto was making his break for the rendezvous point. His heart was beating faster than his body could keep up, and for several moments he knew nothing else other than the feeling of the ground beneath his feet as he tore through the thinning crowds of people. His life had always been one surprise after another and that back there had been no exception.

As he got closer and closer to the meeting point, Naruto began to slow down. It was only then, as he began to walk normally, that he realized that he was almost collapsing from the sheer exertion of the run. Soon enough, he did, and in his oxygen deprived state, everything just began to seem funnier. Naruto began to giggle, and he clamped his hand over his mouth to stop making noise, but soon it was a full-blown laughter and he could not control himself.

He laughed until tears came out of his eyes. He laughed at the world, at himself, at the carrot that was still in his shorts, at the old lady on the ground, at everything he could think of. Ecstatic snorts left him as he thought of the masked man who'd caught him.

Life, Naruto decided, was good. Sure people ignored him or called him names, but one day they would all change their view of him. He still did not know what he would do to achieve this, but he knew he would do it.

Still chuckling, Naruto pulled himself together and began to wait for the girl.

The rendezvous point was beside a smallish warehouse, one that was no longer full of rations and weapons. It was a leftover from the last Great War, where the distribution of essential things such as food had to be properly controlled and defended in case of enemy attack. It doubled as a bunker for civilians in case of enemy attack, but not one of any particular safety.

Regaining his breath, Naruto leaned against the wall, fighting off the exhaustion that was gripping him. He got his second wind soon enough and before he knew it, he felt like he hadn't run for his life at all.

He waited for what felt like hours there. Sitting atop an empty crate, Naruto waited for the girl to come back. Once the sun was setting, he began to wonder if she got lost. It certainly would not be good if that happened. The two of them had to be back at the orphanage by nightfall.

After a couple more minutes, he really began to worry about her. What if the adults had figured it out? What if they'd decided to punish her? What if she sold him out?

He was almost bolting from that place before he saw her come around from the front of the warehouse. She was huffing and puffing deeply, her face cherry red from the effort it took to get her there. Sweat made her hair cling to her skin, and her eyes were unfocused and she seemed to be swaying on her feet.

"Finally," said Naruto, jumping down from the crate, carrot in hand, "I thought you weren't going to show. I was going to eat this thing all by myself."

"Sorry," gasped the girl, "but those ladies wouldn't let me leave." She made a face as she thought of what they wanted to do to her, "They kept trying to give me a bath. I only got to escape because some of the ninja showed up."

"Eh? The ninja?" Naruto asked, "What'd they want?"

The girl shrugged. "I dunno, but they looked like they were looking for someone."

Naruto gulped. "Strange, huh?" he said unconvincingly.

The girl shrugged again. Naruto really needed to find out her name, he couldn't just go on referring to her as 'the girl' without sounding like a jerk to himself.

"Forget them," said the girl, "did you get it?"

The blond boy only shook his head. "Not everything. Some guy with a weird mask took most of it."

The girl only looked at him strangely, before she let out a frustrated noise like a mewling cat. "Aww man! That sucks."

Naruto wanted to feel sorry, but he couldn't bring himself to do so. He had brought something with him, hadn't he? In his mind, that was enough reason to celebrate.

He showed her the carrot in his hand. Some dirt had gotten onto it, but nothing a little water could not fix. They just needed to eat it before they went back to the orphanage.

The girl looked at the carrot appreciatively, and then at his shirtless state. "Where'd you keep this thing?" she said as she inspected it closer, "It smells funny."

"In my shorts." he said clueless as to her sudden disgust, "I had to keep it somewhere no one would see it."

"That's….that's sick!" cried the girl as she pushed the carrot away from her, "You are soooo disgusting!"

Naruto was confused with her sudden change in demeanor. It was still a carrot, right? It was still one of those things people would put in a stew to make it taste good, right? So it should still taste good too. There was nothing wrong with it, as far as he could see. It was still orange and long and even had the green thingy on it too.

The young boy was nonplussed with the girl, and he tried to convey his confusion as eloquently as possible.

"It's still a carrot right?"

"That's not the point, you jerk!" screamed the girl, "I can't eat that now, and neither should you!"

"Really?" he said as he brought the carrot closer as if to analyze it, "Why?"

The girl stopped screaming and looked at him as if he grew several extra appendages. She didn't say anything for a good second, before she snorted and turned around. She began muttering several not nice things about him under her breath, but Naruto heard none of them.

"Hey don't you want some of this?" he said as he raised the carrot above his head, as if offering some priceless piece of jewelry to a pauper. "Saya? Don't you want some of this?"

"My name's Sayoko you jerk!" yelled the girl back at him. She said nothing else as she turned around the corner and vanished from sight.

Naruto was speechless for a couple of seconds before her regained his composure and muttered angrily, "Weirdo."

He really didn't see a problem with this. If the girl was a weirdo, he really didn't want to be near her, especially if some of her weirdness rubbed off on him. He already had troubles with most of the other kids and adults, and being estranged even further was not on his list. Besides, that just meant all the more for him.

"Bottom's up." He said to himself as he looked at the carrot. Bringing it closer to his mouth he closed his eyes and bit into it, his young teeth somehow piercing the touch exterior skin of the vegetable.

However, before it even touched the back of his throat, he spit it back out. "Ewww!" He said as he wiped his mouth viciously, "Ugh! That's nasty!"

Naruto looked at the carrot again, suddenly seeing it in a whole new light. Not only was it hard to bite into, but it quite literally tasted horrible. He couldn't understand how stew could taste so good with something like this in it. There was simply no way!

He looked at it a bit more before he threw it to the ground angrily.

He did not look back as he went about his way towards the orphanage.

End Chapter 1