DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto or anything publicly recognizable.

AN: I know it may seems like this is a crack story, but I can promise you that the other chapters are a lot more serious than this, even if I'll keep humor there won't be anymore 4th wall destroyment. Because I do think I have shattered that wall quite badly in this chapter *rub back of his head*. Well, anyway, if that's what is keeping you from reading the other chapter, please just try to click that next button and don't stop reading at those crackish moment, it'll get different, and it would be a shame if you just gave up on my story because of that.

If I'm asked to, I could even change this chapter a little to eliminate those crackish moments, you only have to ask :)

Instead of the Yang chakra, it's the Yin that's sealed inside Naruto. What changes will this bring?


Prologue

Devastation.

The only thing visible around the area where the previously controlled Kyuubi was located was devastation.

It seems that the old myths describing the nine-tailed Bijuu as Walking Disaster, or Chaos' Bringer were more accurate than what was believed. That was the thought that that jumped in the mind of the Fourth Hokage as he laid his blue eyes on his beloved village.

He didn't have time to ponder, he had to get that beast to a place where he could seal it so it wouldn't endanger anyone anymore. That was his only thought, his drive.

Unfortunately there wasn't any manual written about how to deal with Bijuu, the First Hokage certainly hadn't left any note about it, but he had an idea.

He had to call on the help of the toad boss to hold the beast down for those precious seconds he needed to teleport it to a place where he could seal it as peacefully as possible. His trusted friend delivered, and finally he was able to get the Kyuubi where he wanted it, near his new son and his wife. Even if she was weakened from childbirth, her chain were still the only thing he could think of in short notice capable to actually restrain the nine-tailed Bijuu for the time he needed.

It was with a heavy heart that he reappeared in the field near his family.

Strangely, Kushina was already there, even if he hadn't told her anything. It was as if she knew what was his plan already and just wanted to fulfill what was her duty in it.

In little more than a second he disappeared and reappeared in a yellow flash, his son firmly grasped in his hands.

In another world, one where he was already tormented by his choice of burdening his son with a tailed beast to contain, he wouldn't have thought about which chakra of the Kyuubi, yin or yang, gift to his son. In a split second decision he would have thought that the physical part of chakra was more important for the trials soon to come, maybe subconsciously thinking that with his looks Naruto inherited also his smarts, but in this world, looking at his fiercely struggling wife and then to his son, who was simply clapping his hands in glee, and already moving this way and that to escape his grip, the thought that come to his mind was:

Well, maybe he already has enough yang chakra, a sweatdrop forming behind his head.

And so, he decided to change plans. He couldn't have possibly know how much this would have changed his son and the entire ninja world, about the trials his son would have to go through.

After all, it couldn't possibly be such a big change, right? Yin or yang, what does it change?

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One year later.

Konohagakure no Sato.

Bored.

That's what the great nine-tailed Bijuu felt.

A crushing silence permeated the whole prison in which the Kyuubi has been living, if it truly can be called "living", since it has just been sitting still and sleeping for at least six month now. That blond haired ningen didn't know what it had done when it divided its chakra in its yin and yang composition and sealed the yang in himself and the yin in this, this boy.

It had been the most excruciating pain it had ever felt since, well ever, even worse than the beat down he suffered at the hands of the First Hokage. Sure, it had been one of the most humiliating experiences of its long life, but it wasn't painful, Kurama was just a mass of chakra given form, he didn't truly have nerve endings or whatever those thing ningen had to feel pain were called, so pain wasn't something it could ever say to have really experienced.

But that blonde-haired bastard just had to separate his core component, his chakra, and then bring one half of it in the Shinigami stomach's!

That caused agony. Sheer pain that only someone who had his soul torn apart could ever say to have experienced.

Just to adjust to the sudden feeling of having only half of his being and soul he spent six long months, in which pain was a constant companion. It didn't decrease, it didn't spike casually, it just was always there, and it was maddening.

Kurama thought that he had lost it there, and more than one time, but miraculously the Kyuubi always managed to somehow regain his sanity, strangely feeling more and more controlled and calm with every bout of insanity survived.

Nearing the end of the sixth month of agony, the pain abruptly disappeared as if it wasn't ever there, which prompted another bout of insanity in which Kurama trashed and screamed his hate for the world for days, flinging metaphysical rocks around his cage till he finally regained his sanity.

And it decided, for the benefit of the author, that it was a male, because for some reason the angst that come being a female demon that sometimes went on heat wasn't present, so the only logical explanation was that it was a male.

Wait, he thought, that wasn't logical at a-

And then strangely he lost his train of thoughts, his gender reaffirmed in his mind.

He didn't ever think about his gender for all of time, just assuming that it was always male and that he just took a while to discover it.

Yes, that make sense.

After the male fox discovered his gender, he stopped to think about what happened to him. And think. And think. And think. And think. And think. And think. And think. And think. And think. And think. And think. And think. And think. And think. And t-

You get my point, it's easy to see how after months of doing nothing but thinking he became bored.

He became lazy, a fat-ass, annoying, stupid, and a brat, basically a son of a bitch.

Hey, I'm no-

And he was wasting time trying to deny what I just said.

Anyway, now that I'm done with the bashing of a character, seeing as it is absolutely needed in a fanfiction, I can go on with my story.

The fox needed to do something. He came to the realization some time ago that being made of only the spiritual side of chakra, while weakening him, made him also more careful. The instinct gained from the physical side of chakra were absent, and this allowed him to become more intelligent.

No, he wasn't more intelligent, it was just that he could achieve a more rational and objective point of view, seeing as he wasn't influenced anymore by earthly needs. He had never been able to stop the bloodlust from overcoming his thoughts every time he thought about Madara, or Mito or Kushina or Hashirama, or those two brothers who ate him alive from the inside(seriously who does that?), or Shukaku, or-

Well, his bloodlust was very easily triggered it seems.

That may be one of the reasons he become the boogeyman of little (and not so little) shinobi. But he just couldn't contain his rage at the injustices that each time were dumped on his head.

Why, why must he be hated so?

Before Madara he was content with his life. He would sleep for a long time, and then, when he was almost forgotten by humans, he would wake up and go for his beautiful and satisfying run across the Elemental Nations, and if he had to go through the random village, or the random mountain, well, it wasn't anything his tails or his bijuudama couldn't take care of.

He was damn proud of being possibly the only being who could have said to have ran across the entire world more than once in a single run.

Man, those were the times.

Then that bastard just had to come, and not only did he woke him up from his nap, he also put him under his control. Him, the greatest of the tailed best!

It was unthinkable, but it happened.

And to add insult to injury, he didn't overpower him, he used one of those eye techniques that his father, the Sage of the Six Paths, gifted to his oldest child.

And it was a damn genjutsu! He thought he couldn't be effected by those!

But with his new calm, he could analyze the events more calmly. What happened in the past, remain in the past, he couldn't change anything about it, and acting like a mad beast whenever someone mentioned those whom he held anger towards, would not benefit him in the slightest.

The only true threat here is Madara. Or at least that masked man who pretended to be the the bastard. He didn't care if he was really dealing with Madara or not, the important thing was that that masked man could control his awesome self like him, so he deserved to be handled with the same care(and anger) that Kurama should use with the real one.

He wasn't truly scared -not one bit!-, he was the great Kurama after all, but maybe he could go a more, roundabout way of eliminating his enemy. Ultimately, he was stuck in this container, till death do us apart – he shuddered thinking of what could have happened if he was a female and what it could have meant- so he might as well take advantage of this situation. He was in a as unreachable place as he could be, and if his container could defeat his enemies for him, then all the better, especially considering that he couldn't get out of here, except if he actually was freed by his container, which couldn't be done unless he became the boy's friend...

Or he drove him mad.

But if he is mad he could be outsmarted by his enemy, a wise voice, that of his conscience, seemed to whisper in his mind.

Wait, I don't have a conscien-

Still, it was true. Madara was a bastard, yes, but he was a cunning bastard. All the power of the world wouldn't be enough if they weren't wielded with wisdom, and a berserker wouldn't be able to kill him even if he gifted his container with all his power.

And that was when his plan began to delineate itself in his mind:

a) Help him as much as possible ( he had to suppress a grimace a that)

b) Bring him in his mindscape as soon as possible

c) Explain with kind words point a

d) Become friend (cue shudder) of the lad

e) Guide him till he kill Madara

f) Use the power of friendship to make the lad remove the seal (I'm so evil bwuhahhaha)

g) Kill the fool for ever thinking that he was his friend

It was in a word, perfect.

He wouldn't dirty his paws, he would be cunning, manipulative and incredibly intelligent, he would be a fox. Finally he could become more affine to his chakra form.

He got the free spirited part down, but the astute one? Not really. Till now, that is.

He would be rubbing his paws with glee, if he didn't have incredibly sharp claws that would probably not like being rubbed together.

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Meanwhile, little Naruto passed his first month of life tormented with terrible headaches, so terrible in fact that he passed the better part of six month crying, something that was chalked up to a side effect of being a host to such power from the moment he was born.

It was reasonable to think that it was simply his body adjusting to the changes required of a jinchuuriki, or so the medics thought.

In reality it was just that in his head a fox was going crazy every odd day, regaining and losing sanity as fast as Tsunade of the Sannin lost money in a card game.

Interestingly enough, his chakra was almost even too much balanced between spiritual and physical, something that wasn't really normal for a Uzumaki. They do tend to have ridiculously high physical chakra, that granted them their enhanced lifespad and their incredible vitality.

And while in another world he would have had enough yang chakra to top four Uzumaki thanks to Yang Kyuubi, and pitifully low spiritual reserves, here instead his yin chakra was bolstered by his tenant, who pilfered through his rapidly developing chakra coils his yin chakra enough to match and even just surpass the natural physical chakra that every Uzumaki seem to have in spades.

We can clearly see here how the Fourth Hokage must have been struck, in this world, by a yellow flashing genius when he decided to seal the Yin Kyuubi in his son. At the very least he prevented a irreparable chakra control.

After the Kyuubi calmed down, our little hero finally could get some quiet, and, already sick of crying at the age of six month(almost seven), he become silent in his wants.

Instead of crying like every child his age are supposed to, he would just glare at you, and you would know that he wanted something because that was just how potent his glare was.

It was a really commanding glare.

Sometimes the medics who were looking after him in the hospital room dedicated to Naruto would inexplicably understand what he wanted if the glare was strong enough, and would rapidly bring him whatever, or wherever, he needed.

He had a really beautiful smile whenever he got what he wanted, and, like every child, with it he melted the hearts of the people around him.

Needless to say, the medics all loved him by the time they had to discharge him from the hospital, having run out of excuses to keep him in his room, that now was fully decorated to the liking of the boy, from the toys littering on the ground to the strangely orange blanket.

Secretly, the medics thought that the Hokage wanted him all for himself, seeing as till he was three he kept Naruto in his grand Hokage Mansion, much to the grumbles of all the previous caretaker of the boy. Still, they couldn't negate that it was good for him, and they had to agree that living in a hospital wasn't exactly a good thing for a young boy.

In another world, the Kyuubi would have tried to break free the moment it regained his sanity, thinking that if he tried hard enough he could somehow be able to escape from a seal crafted through the sacrifice of a soul and the Shingami itself.

Tch, so shounen.

His attempts to escape would have brought a fine red mist to sometimes escape the boy at random intervals, making the medic that love him in this world, be wary of Naruto in the other one.

He wasn't at fault really, it was just what any dumb beast who just lost the spiritual half of himself would have done.

Fortunately, here all the medic had to say about the boy was that he was the most adorable thing ever, and that he had such a cute glare that you couldn't help but do anything he wanted, just to see him smile.

Sure, there still were those few stupid/ignorant/crazy people who thought the beast incarnated could control you with his glare, but those of a more rational mind could clearly see that Naruto was just activating just about every motherly instinct there were in the mostly female staff of the hospital.

And passed three years, with the Konoha population still wary, but a little more open, and a little boy who went through everything he should, from potty training to walking, to running, to playing ninja.

Till, one morning, the Sandaime, with a heavy heart, had to finally do the thing he wanted to evade the most. Put Naruto in a orphanage.

He couldn't just show favoritism to Naruto, even if he was the jinchuuriki, there were still another hundred and more orphans who suffered the lost of their parents in the same way young Naruto had, and he couldn't very well adopt them all, and it wouldn't be neither fair nor right to simply ignore them while he let the son of the Fourth live with him like a priced trophy.

Not only was he lowering his political standing by simply housing a orphan, he was also insulting all those young shinobi and civilian who had seen their parents die in front of them by the Kyuubi's paws by taking in the boy who contained the demon that they wanted to have revenge on.

And, even if those orphans would like to simply put everything behind them, they couldn't just give up their anger at the loss of such important figures for them, and some of that anger irrationally translated to Naruto. He could see that they didn't want to, but still mutters of the "Kyuubi brat" being given a privileged standing while they were left to pick up the remains of their life were still unfortunately being shared in the background.

And as Hokage, as one who loved all children of Konoha equally, he couldn't just ignore them to focus on another.

Even if he wasn't just another, and he was one of the most prized, he cringed, weapon of the village, and the son of a friend and a man he held respect for, he couldn't just set aside his principles, the vows he had taken as Hokage, he had to harden his heart and put the little boy he had come to view as a grandson in a orphanage.

So he called him to his office.

The little boy came stumbling in, opening the door in unknown ways, seeing as he still couldn't reach the handle, being a little on the short side.

"Jiji!" The boy ran toward him with a huge smile on his face, breaking the atmosphere he wanted to create with a hug.

He was just making this more difficult.

"Naruto-kun, come with me. I want to go for a walk. Maybe we'll even visit that ramen stand you seem to like so much" The Hokage smiled warmly at this, knowing what Naruto's reaction would be.

"Yatta! Come on Jiji, let's go, let's go!" The boy didn't waste time in taking his hand and dragging him (Sarutobi liked to think he was a good actor) to the door and then outside the mansion, a wooden building on the outskirt of Konoha.

As they were walking, Hiruzen decided that he would approach the subject as fast as he could, he didn't want to make this hurt too much.

And maybe, ramen would make Naruto feels better about the bombshell he would be dropping on his head.

"Slow down, my boy, slow down" The Hokage chuckled as the jinchuuriki tried to do as he was told, but still he could be seen trying to hurry every few steps, his face set in a cute concentrated face.

"Now then" Sarutobi licked his suddenly dry lips, the weight of what he was doing heavy on his soul. "I want you to understand that it's not your fault, no, don't blame yourself, and, if you have to, blame me for this, I'd deserve it" Great, he thought, now I seem like one of those teenagers that want to dump a girl and don't know how.

Meanwhile Naruto looked at him in a confused manner, like he was thinking Does he want to say something or what?

"Anyway" He tried to get back on track "You know right that I'm Hokage, right?" A enthusiastic nod was his answer along with a "Yeah! Jiji is strong!"

Please, Naruto-kun, don't make this any harder thought Hiruzen.

"And sometimes, as Hokage, I have to make hard choices." The Hokage said with a grim face

"Like what?" The dreaded question come up, and Sarutobi decided to simply get out with it

"Naruto-kun, I've decided to put you in the orphanage" He closed his eyes, sadness overpowering him for but a moment.

"Okay!"

And the village was treated to the rare sight of the Hokage stumbling and nearly falling on his face.

With a surprised face he looked at Naruto and then, hopeful that he wasn't angry with him he said: "So you don't hat-"

"What's an orphanage?"

This time the Hokage face palmed. Of course he wouldn't know, he was just a three years old kid! What did he expect, that he would already know everything?

With a sigh, he began to explain:

"An orphanage is a place where kids who have, unfortunately, lost their parents, like you, have to go. There you'll socialize, you'll make fri-"

"So you're going to leave me?" Naruto's eyes were filled with tears.

"NO!" He almost shouted "no. I will always visit you anyway, and, and if you ever have any trouble, just tell me, I will help you. I'll always be with you. You'll just be a little bit more distant, but I'll always be beside you, right here." He pointed to his heart.

"Think of it as a" He stumbled for a word" vacation. Yes, an extended vacation where you'll start to be more responsible. Hey, you'll have the advantage with your classmates as soon as you start the academy. You'll already be able to be good enough on your own."

Naruto, who had been sniffling, tried to be brave, like all good ninja should, as he had been told by his jiji, but he was failing.

So the Hokage unleashed his secret weapon.

"Do you want to travel like a ninja? We'll get to Ichiraku in no time, and then you can eat as much ramen as you want".

There were so much awesome things in Sarutobi's speech that Naruto momentarily lost track of why he was sad.

Ah, the glory of a child attention span, thought the Third Hokage.

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And so he went to the orphanage, not without a last cry when he was left by his grandfather figure.

Still, he still had that voice inside his head that always helped him when he was sad, so he wasn't truly alone.

In fact it had helped him look at the positive aspect of Sarutobi's speech, namely the free ramen and the ninja travel, and when he was crying the voice consoled him and told him that it didn't matter, that they would see him soon anyway, and that it wasn't proper to cry for a boy. At least he thought that "my container" meant a boy, but he couldn't know, he was just a little kid.

A lot of time passed without anything happening, besides the fact that the older kids seemed to always be angry with him, and so even those of his age tended to shy away. He wanted to discover why, but the voice, who at this point he had come to realize was his greatest friend, told him that they were not worth it and that "they would ruin the plot because the author then would have to creat OC, and nobody like OC, no sir"

He didn't understand the first thing his friend had said, but he wanted to unde-

friend, told him that they were not worth it, and instead suggested him that he try to become more intelligent, by, and I kid you not, observing the world around him.

The fox clearly didn't know how to distract the kid, but he was trying his best. Naturally, while in another world the fox would have made his container a walking juggernaut, with his main ability being regeneration and insane power, here instead it approached the problem from another side. He was simply the spiritual chakra, so he couldn't affect his regeneration or his vitality, that was already as high as possible for a human, but it could affect his brain, or, to be more specific, his rate of learning. He simply made it so that his brain processed things at two times the speed of a normal adult human, that being as far as he could take his meddling till he had to grow to not be overwhelmed by this changes.

It had to be gradual, and in fact with his advice to observe the world around him the fox was effectively giving him practice with his new "brain power".

The only other ability he could give him was immunity to genjutsu. Actually this was something even his other self could have done, hell, every good jinchuuriki possessed this ability, it just took a surge of their bijuu chakra and voilà, the genjutsu came undone. It didn't really work for area-wide genjutsu, but for those that affected the mind, it was perfect.

And well, the observing training would translate in a better understanding of his surroundings, which is the key to the ability to dispel that kind of genjutsu.

Well, that and practically every doujutsu in existence, but they're all overpowered so they don't count.

Anyway, his vessel after paying maybe too much attention to his surrounfings, to Kurama's disgrace, randomly understood that having a voice inside his head wasn't normal. It was just one of those thing that you become aware of after standing in society.

Nobody seemed to have those strange moments where he responded to a voice inside his head, or smiled randomly at a joke that same voice did, and so, and here the brain processing speed was for once negative for his vessel, seeing as he understood too much too soon, for a brief period of time Naruto didn't answer the voice of his friend, and began to once more try to be friendly with the other kids, who already saw him as something of a problem kid, who always seemed to be trying to figure something out.

As he started to make bridges toward the other orphans though, Kurama decided that it was time to reveal himself, before something unexpected happen.

And so, while Naruto was asleep, the great fox, who had been preparing for this moment for a lot of time, finally brought the boy inside his mindscape.

In another world, Naruto mindscape would have been a dirty sewer, but in this world, his mindscape was a clean sewer, with sapphire tubes representing his chakra running along the perfectly polished stone walls, with the odd ruby here and there, the water as clean as that of a tropical island, clearly the result of a organized mind (and of a still too pompous fox).

Little Naruto could see that he was in a strange place (who had sapphire tubes anyway?), but it was new, and interesting.

So he began to wander, simply walking without a goal, a look of childish curiosity on his face, contrasted by the sharply focused blue eyes taking in everything surrounding him, just like the voice said to do a little over a year ago.

Oh right, the boy had now almost five years, and to the joy of culture everywhere, he had already learned to read and write. Surely stumbling a little on the difficult alphabet and with a somewhat unsteady hand that led to a not so perfect reading and to a childishly illegible writing, but still, he was a little prodigy.

Especially since nobody taught him anything. The little bugger just by observing the older orphans practice with their books opened had learned everything he could, going as far as to "borrow" one of those books from his friend, not knowing that that book was one of the few present in the little library the orphanage had, along with another few books that really were only there for show. Not many people liked to read books which title insulted him, so after learning to read on "Reading for Dummies" and especially after reading the title of the book they were using to learn to such a vital skill, they simply give up reading all those other "Maths for Dummies", "History for Dummies" and so on and simply went to school and did their homework. Few were those disciplined enough to read a book on a school subject.

Strangely, school books had a bag stigma that caused them to be inexplicably disliked by every student.

Returning to our little wandering five years old bugger, he finally come to a stop in a large chamber, on which every wall was covered in ruby pipes (Seriously, what's up with that?), that abruptly became those previously described just a little outside the great chamber.

The water, that wasn't really that deep before, now become a thin layer of crystalline liquid, so much so that even the short Naruto wasn't affected by it in the slightest, being able to walk without problems.

Now, while in another world there would have been a cage with prison's bars and a angry beast on the other side, in this world the cage wasn't there at all.

Instead the metaphysical image of the Kyuubi's cage was a large, see through, bluish hand. The circular cavern in which the beast resided was covered by this hand, which fingers curved slightly on the top leaving some space for the ruby tubes to leave the cave and ramificated in the way previously described.

In awe at this incredible sight, Naruto run like a child on sugar before the strange, big hand, and when he was near enough to touch it, a voice so very familiar spoke from the depths of the chamber.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you" THE voice said with a chuckle.

"Is this a dream? Are you real?" Naruto was as happy as he was in disbelief. He had heard that voices inside his head weren't real, so this came as a surprise.

"I'm very much real, I assure you, little Naruto" Finally the great beast exposed himself in all of his blackened glory.

"Hey! You're big!" Well that was the first thing that came to his mind. Still, this strange fox was familiar, like he had already seen that form somewhere.

"AH!" He exclaimed in realization "You're just like that giant fox thing that Yondaime-sama defeated in this book, and there was this image with a giant frog and it was in a fight with it maybe?" Naruto rapidly muttered almost to himself, his mutterings becoming always more childish and mature at the same time, strange conjectures being formed in his mind and discarded just as fast, resulting in him not understanding what he was saying.

"Calm down, calm down" The fox said with a deep voice, the sound pleasant to the ears. It had taken years before he could contain his booming voice enough to communicate in a normal manner with his container, but it was worth it. Now I have a deep suave voice, with which I can convince people more easily, thought Kurama giddily.

After Naruto refocused his young eyes on the former being of destruction, the Kyuubi restarted talking.

"Ah, yes, I'm exactly that fox that was defeated by your Fourth Hokage, no need to worry" Here he tried to smile, but, seeing as his fangs do come off as worrying, he saw Naruto taking a step back, so he immediately discarded his new facial expression, thinking about how stupid it was for a Bijuu to try to smile to a human because he wanted to put him "at ease".

"Anyway" He hurriedly tried to change subject " Your beloved Hokage decided to seal my awesome self in you while you were a toddler, probably because he knew of the power I could grant any of my host, but unfortunately died in the process."He had to work to keep himself sadly frowning, but it was essential. First impression were everything."Yet, he still managed to do what he wanted, and sealed me in you. Since you've been but a little human baby, I helped you" He stressed the world helped, after all, it was part b) of the plan "in any way I could, I comforted you, I helped your growth and essentially I did everything to the best of my power to help you, to protect you. Now that you've become a big boy " He didn't expect the small smile he received for what he said, but he welcomed it nonetheless."I've brought you here, so that we could speak face to face, to finally met with the boy I've come to think of as my friend."

His obviously prepared speech seemed to get to little Naruto, who unaware of the consequence such an action could bring, ran toward Kurama.

"No, wait!" The fox warning came too late, as Naruto smacked in the great hand holding the Kyuubi prisoner, and was electrocuted.

After about two minutes of spasms and random twitches, he finally woke up, with a tired "Ugh, what happened".

"You happened" The Kyuubi perfectly mixed false concern and a little of teasing in his voice, just like he had sometimes heard other kids in the orphanage do with their friend.

"You just had to smack against the hand, didn't you" Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head with a muttered "Sorry".

"Well, anyway, I guess we have finally met, uh?" The fox was now in uncharted territory. He had never tried to speak with another so intimately, and when one doesn't have a prepared speech, and was a giant fox of unmatched power trying to speak to a 5 years old boy, well he didn't know what to do.

"Yup" Was Naruto's simple answer.

And then silence.

Some more awkard silence.

"Don't you have some questions? Anything to ask me?" The fox lost his patience and did something so much resembling begging that he felt bile rising in his throat, even if he didn't have bile inside his body.

"Well...I've got some questions...But I don't know if it's okay to ask..."

"Speak"

"The first is...Are you female? Because I heard that female kitsune went in heat and there are stories tha-"

"I'M A MALE!" The fox took a deep breath and then in his most calm voice said "Don't worry, I'm a male" Somehow it didn't seem to be so convincing, but it was enough for Naruto, who grinned brightly.

"Okay, second question: you said you were awesome and powerful, but if so why did you want to be sealed? And I heard rumors about a "Kyuubi attack" and that the Yondaime killed that day, but it destroyed a lot of Konoha, and there are still men at work to rebuild the village so..." His confused voice brought Kurama to a halt.

Shit.

He could bullshit his way through this, but it wouldn't hold for long, and then he would have broken the trust he needed to arrive a part f) of the plan, so it was out of the question. He couldn't put himself against anything the Hokage might possibly say in the future, he needed his vessel to stay in Konoha and grow strong, so that left only option b: the truth.

It left a bad taste in his mouth to have to say how he was controlled by someone proclaiming to be Madara Uchiha, but he had to do it.

With barely contained rage he said: "I was...controlled by a despicable man, truly one of the worst man I'd ever had the displeasure of meeting, a certain, Uchiha Madara." His name still left a bad taste in his mouth. "He made me do horrible things against your village, but your Hokage managed to free me from his control, and then, after bringing me to a safe place, he sealed me in you. I was still angry, you see, but after what happened, I sort of accepted what I become, a prisoner, and decided to simply help you in your life. It was an interesting change, but my hate for Madara still burns as bright as the sun, and the fact that I can't get my revenge sometimes makes me angry...But I know that this is how I have to repent for endangering so many of the humans that reside in this pi-ceaful"Damn he nearly said pitiful instead of peaceful." Village."

Naruto was understandably awed.

"Wow, you're so great! You have to tell me stories of your battle sometimes, I bet they will be EPIC!" He finished with a grandiose motion of his hands.

"Yes, sure" The Bijuu masked the fact that he was nervous with indifference.

"Well then... Last question" He smiled brightly, as if this was the question most important to him "What's your name? I can't go around calling you ninetails, now could I?" No you can't. Lawyers would come and rob you of every penny you have for copyright infrangement.

"I..." Kyuubi was strangely moved by the brat request. And confused. He didn't know if he wanted to reveal his name to this ningen. But...point f), he remembered.

"My name is Kurama, gaki".

And so a beautiful and twisted tale of friendship began, in the most unlikely of places, between the most unlikely of beings.

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The next years passed in a blur, our blond hero having found a friend and having long relaxing chat with him.

To his dismay, Kurama was starting to like the peace he was provided with in the seal, having someone to talk to, beautiful pipes to look at, and the life of his container to influence with his words.

It was probably the calmest moment of his life. And his spiritual side approved.

The most important change for Naruto was that, after grinding through the useful and slightly offending books of the limited library he was provided with, he finally began to go to the famous Ninja Academy of Konoha at the age of six. Unfortunately, there were no discoveries of chakra to be made, only boring lectures on facts that thank to his avid learning of discarded books he already knew, hell, they were still trying to write and read! It was maddening to keep himself from simply shouting that he already knew this things, but the fox inside his head was adamant that he showed himself to be only a average hard worker. He said that if he were to be too good, there would be questions, and saying that the voice inside my head is helping me study wasn't a valid excuse.

Reluctantly agreeing to the fox thinking, he then asked what he should do in class. And the fox, in the sage like voice he tended to acquire whenever he was saying something equally wise and teasing, simply told him that he should pay attention to the boring lectures, just to see if he missed anything.

He never did, but it still let the concepts be more easily remembered.

Now that OC weren't a problem anymore, he could finally find some friends. To the joys of his grandfather, he made fast friends with the clan heirs of the most prominent clans of the village, and slowly, the dream of being Hokage began to form in his mind. It was a distinct possibility too. If the new clan council was to be composed of his friend, it wasn't difficult that he would be chosen as Hokage, as Kurama reminded him.

That's not to say he was using his friends. It was just that the fox liked to make him approach everything from every angle possible, and being friends with the clan heirs only had benefits.

And they were fun to be around with their antics.

Shikamaru the lazy genius, Chouji the not-fat kind guy, Kiba the ferocious mutt, Hinata the shy gentle soul, Ino the loudmouth, Shino the bug-lover and even little Sasuke mama-boy.

He was the intelligent simple guy who keep them together, engaging conversation even with Shino and Hinata, the most quiet of the class.

But even with his newly found fun side, he didn't forget his training. In fact, he had made a promise to himself to beat up this Madara guy who dared to control his furry friend, it was just unfair what happened to Kurama.

Still, the fact that genjutsu could be used to control even being of immense power like his friend was not lost on him, and despite Kurama's attempts to make him stop his path in the illusionary arts, he didn't. It was probably the only subject that he had argued with Kurama. Even now the fox didn't approve, thinking in fear that someday he would be able to control him like that blasted Madara.

But he couldn't stop. It was a strange drive that he had that couldn't be explained, if not by the fact that having such a monstrous amount of Yin chakra led to a natural disposition, and his natural disposition wouldn't let him just put it away.

No he wanted to discover everything there was to know about every arts, and that included genjutsu.

With Kurama's help he was sure he could do it.

After returning from school, he would study everything he could get his hands on about area-wide genjutsu, not only because of a personal like, but also because he needed privacy if he wanted that his attempts to be average didn't conflict with how powerful he wanted to become.

And so, the very first year was spent looking at obscure theories and even more difficult jutsu. And he understood one thing after a year spent on old tomes regarding the illusionary arts.

Nobody knew anything about genjutsu.

They just made up some hand-seal sequence that seemed to work for what they wanted their illusion to do and that's it.

By a process of trials and error after who know how long they were able to create a jutsu. Well, that was if they didn't have a doujutsu, that somehow helped them cast whatever they wanted.

There was no science behind it.

It was a shocking revelation, but then he read something that changed his perception of genjutsu in a old book, titled "Myths and legend of the Shinobi world".

On one of the myth was described a old ninja who was said to have mastered chakra itself, and with it he could make ninjutsu on the spot, apply illusion however he wanted, and simply being so overpowered it wasn't even funny.

While it was probably an exaggeration, it did lend the idea that chakra wasn't something that you could restrict to handseals sequences and a shouted incantation, it did help for sure, but it wasn't everything.

And so, that was what he studied at the academy. Chakra theory so advanced it would make the head of anyone spin. But there was a side effect to this. He began to lag behind in his normal classes. He always promised to himself that he would pick up the material of the classes later, but he just didn't have time, between his new physical regime(which he was practicing in a small field near the orphanage put under one of the few genjutsu he learned in the last year) and his studies, there was no place for history, maths and science. He made sure pay attention in class, but it wasn't often that what the sensei talked about was understood, what with other things to think about, friends who wanted to talk every other minute, it was understandable that he would lag behind.

The Kyuubi berated him for letting his friends get in the way of his education, but he couldn't force himself to ignore them.

They were, friends.

Then, the Uchiha massacre happened, and Sasuke become a brooding mess. What happened to him isn't something he would wish upon his worst enemies, but when the Uchiha rebutted every efforts by his friends to help him, they began to drift away, and Naruto was too preoccupied with his studies to actively go searching for his friend beneath that cold mask he had put on himself.

It was cold of him to do so, but he wouldn't let anything get in the way of knowledge.

As everyone, he fell in a routine. He would woke up, began reading on chakra theory, go to the Academy, have lunch with a book in his hand, study till three o'clock, go to his field(which was protected by one of the few genjutsu he had learned in his first year of the academy), train his body till around six o'clock, and then he practiced with the chakra flow in his body, trying to understand it better.

After that, he just proceeded to have dinner and go to bed, exhausted mentally and sometimes physically.

He discovered that outside of just reading some books, if he wanted to learn how to use his chakra like that shinobi from the myth, he had to feel the energy flowing outside and inside him.

And that's how he began his way on the path of the sensor ninja, and he was talented, very much so.

After discovering his chakra and being able to feel it flow in his chakra coils, he could have stopped his sensor training, but being able to sense everything around you was a skill that his tenant told him would come in handy sooner or later.

That was how he passed five years of academy.

But it had a side-effect. He didn't want to, but his studies didn't let him socialize that much anymore, and outside of taking lunch with his friends sometimes, the clan heirs began slowly began drifting apart from him, not voluntarily but just because of a lack of meetings.

While they were always together, Naruto had to find excuses to do his private training, training which Kurama forbid him from informing anyone he was doing, because, he said:"Being underestimated is always better than being overestimated, brat".

By the time the graduation day came, he could proudly say that he had mastered the flow of chakra inside his coils, which was further proved by how he could effortlessy do some of the chakra control exercises that were said to be difficult even for chuunin.

His sensory training led to him being able to feel everything around him in a fifteen meter range if he didn't focus on it, and almost one hundred if he did.

So, after almost botching the written part of the exam, and doing rather well on the physical part, when they came to the Ninjutsu test, he was exited. Even if he hadn't ever really practiced this jutsu, he was still sure he could do it. He knew the handsigns.

That's not to say that he wanted to leave the Academy Ninjutsus out of his training regime. It's just that he was too preoccupied with everything else.

The henge was really easy, all you had to do was essentially paint an illusion on a thin layer of chakra surrounding your body, and with the low chakra cost and the potentially infinite ways in which you could use it, it wasn't a surprise it was so used by shinobi worldwide.

He made a show of making the required hand sign, because they really helped as a way to somehow induce himself to make the correct chakra flow, and poof, in his place stood a picture perfect Sandaime Hokage, smoking tobacco from his pipe.

Iruka and Mizuki were surprised, they expected Naruto to do just as he had all year long, and fail, but it wasn't so. In fact, it was probably the best henge of the Hokage they had seen until now.

Then it was the Kawarimi. This one was trickier, you needed to let your chakra make contact with an object and then you had to somehow switch yourself with it using a complicated piece of ninjutsu. It was simple with handsigns, but without them it required a knowledge of ninjutsu out of Naruto's range. So he did the handsigns and succesfully switched himself with the required chair, stumbling a bit as he did. That needed practice.

He saw a frown appear for a moment on Iruka's face, while Mizuki was simply watching the proceedings with curious eyes.

So it was time for the Bunshin. This jutsu required a bit of the other two. It was simpler than the kawarimi, but more difficult than the henge. To show off a little and recuperate some of the points he had lost with the imperfect kawarimi, he tried doing it without handsigns.

Will a roughly human shaped chakra to life to your left and right, plant a illusion over it and it's done!

Or it should be anyway.

He couldn't concentrate. He didn't know why but in this important moment he couldn't concentrate.

Just as thought of failure and of the premature death of his carrier were brought to his mind, he felt as the chakra to his right and left finally took shape.

But the shape was all wrong, it was dead on his feet and pale in a unnatural way, and after a instant of wobbling on his feet, it crashed with a thump on the cold pavement, bringing with it his chance to become a shinobi.

He raised desperate eyes to Iruka, whose frowning face was soon screaming

"You FAIL"

And so Naruto ran outside without a headband, a pensive fox resting in his head.

He rested for a while on the swings of the academy, thinking about how it shouldn't have gone like it had, and that it wasn't his fault that he had more important things to think about during the academy's years.

He looked at the happy families embracing and praising their children, and he felt a sting of envy.

His friends looked at him as their families congratulated and hugged them, Shikamaru's mother so happy you could see her round circles around her son screaming about how she didn't expect this, and Shika was wearing an annoyed face, mutterings his catch phrase "Troublesome" repeatedly, but Naruto could see the small smile on his face and he just couldn't bear it anymore, so he ran to his sanctuary.

The head of stone of the Fourth Hokage on the great Hokage's Monument.

Here between the spiky locks of his hero Naruto couldn't be seen, and the view from this high point was spectacular. He could see all of Konoha from here, from the busy civilian running from this shop to that, to the shinobi stealthly jumping from rooftop to rooftop, to the various great buildings of the Leaf Village.

Even if he was angry with the world now, now that he could see his village, he just couldn't stay mad anymore.

He remembered when, only six years old, the Third Hokage come to bring him to his new apartment.

-Flashback-

"So Naruto, you do want to leave the orphanage, right?" The Hokage asked with a warm voice

"Yes, thanks jiji, now I'll have more time to become a better ninja!" Seeing as the Third wanted to interrupt him he suddenly said "And I can take care of myself, believe it!" And a demon cringed in his head, and told him that he will make him drop that word, whatever the cost.

Naruto just grinned.

"I know, I know, you're all grown up now, so we all know that you can take care of yourself" Naruto grin impossibly grew even more"But, Naruto-kun, why do you want to become a "better ninja" so badly?" He was concerned, he didn't want him to search power for the wrong reasons.

"Because ninja are awesome! They're like, so strong and cool, and I want to be the strongest and coolest of them all!"

"So you want to be Hokage?" Sarutobi asked amused.

"Huh?"

"Well, the Hokage is the strongest ninja of the village, so..."

"NO WAY! You're that strong jiji? But, but you're old!"

"Well, I can assure you that I'm stronger than I look" The Hokage chuckled in good spirit. "But, if you want to be Hokage, you have to do it for the right reasons"

"I just want to be strong!" The boy exclaimed as if that was his solution to everything.

"Strong for who? Wait, don't answer that, come with me" With a shunshin they travelled to the head of the Fourth Hokage, and the wizened Sarutobi sat Naruto on his right leg, his left hand pointing down.

"Look" He said, and Naruto did. It was a breathtaking view, the beautiful village bustling with life "Tell me, what do you see?"

"Konoha naturally" He started petulantly "But, it's so beautiful..." He ended in a near whisper.

"Yes, yes it is" Chuckled the Hokage. " But you want to know what I see right now?" A still awed Naruto nodded hesitantly "I see people. Children of Konoha that I have to protect. Shinobi that under my command perform the greatest of feat to help my village grow."

Naruto was taken by the calm and authority of his grandfather figure, maybe he was even more awed by the steely will and power of this old man than he was previously when he saw, really saw his village for the first time.

"And that's how the Hokage, the strongest have to see his village. The will of fire, the will to protect those precious to us with the strength of a thousand sun, must burn the brightest inside the Hokage. " The steely calm in his voice was awe-inspiring

"So, you still want to become Hokage?" The old man chuckled a bit, when the little boy shouted at the top his lung his answer. Naturally he said yes.

"Tch, the old bastard is manipulating you and you can't even tell" Kurama interceded with his voice angry.

He didn't answer to his friend, but when he was finally settled in his new apartment, he lied with his hands behind his head on his new bed and asked him what he mean by that.

"Did you forget that you didn't ever say that you wanted to be Hokage?" Kurama was fast to make his point

"I wanted to be the strongest, and the Hokage is the strongest, so..."

"But it's not true!" Kurama was almost shouting now "There are ninja out there that I'm sure are stronger than your old man, it's not like Konoha is the only place where there are shinobi you know? And I'm sure that strong shinobi exist everywhere."

"I understand that". Naruto said in a calm voice that unsettled the fox " But Hokage is still the strongest ever! You know about the first Hokage? They say he was able to subdue a certain fox..." His voice became teasing.

Kurama wanted to snarl against the bars of his prison, but seeing as there weren't bars and that he took pride in being a civilized and collected being, he didn't.

And if he did he would have been electrocuted by that...hand.

"Oh, fuck it, I don't want to have another discussion with you like the one on genjutsu. Do whatever you want, it's not like I care" Kurama childishly looked away from Naruto, which prompted the giggles of his container. He still was only six years old.

"Don't worry, you big fox. I will become powerful enough to beat that Madara you seem to hate, and that's a promise of a lifetime. And if I become Hokage in the process...Well, I won't complain" Naruto laughed, childish glee on his face.

"Tch"

The fox was strangely moved, he didn't even start the plan in which he pitted Naruto against Madara and he already was promising to do what he wanted.

He should have been evilly gleeful, and he was, but there was something that he couldn't describe just outside of his evilness, something that he never felt before.

Bah, who cares anyway.

-Flashback-End-

"Here you are Naruto-kun" A slightly panting Mizuki finally found just the kid he needed.

"I know that Iruka sometimes can seem cruel, but he's not, believe me. He just want the best for you" Mizuki saw that Naruto was narrowing his eyes at him, so he hurried to say what he had come to find him for.

"But, I know that you really want to be a Shinobi, and for people like you Konoha created a special test, you just have to steal the Forbidden Scroll from the Hokage's office and a learn a jutsu from it, then I'll promote you" He finished with what he thought was a reassuring grin. It wasn't, but he didn't need to know that.

"IT'S A TRAP!" Kurama shouted, making him wince. "Sheesh, I know. But if there is even one chance to pass, I'll have to take it"

"Ah, this headache..." Naruto tried to make up an excuse for his wince somewhat lamely."Anyway, I can do that, Sensei, don't worry" He flashed a bright grin at Mizuki.

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After getting everything he needed for his mission from Mizuki, he prepared himself in his apartment and headed toward his mission, exchanging his simple outfit, which consisted of baggy blue trousers and the white shirt with the orange spiral on front his jiji gifted him, with a ridiculous black tight ninja leotard.

"This is the stupidest idea ever." Kurama had been grumbling for a while now.

"Oh, shut up, you big fox, it will be fun" Naruto thought back to his tenant.

"Fun he says, not only we're going to do an impossible mission, but we're doing it in that sorry excuse for a halloween costume." The incredulity Kurama was feeling at the situation was palpable.

"Eh, at least I found a use for it" Naruto shrugged.

Kurama could only shake his head in disbelief. "You're crazy, crazy I tell you"

Naruto just laughed mentally(Don't ask him how it's possible, it just is).

Sneaking past the Anbu was laughably easy, because thanks to Mizuki he knew when the change of shifts would happen, and he would be in and out before the next batch of super fast elitè ninja began their work.

Well, maybe. He was starting to have some doubts, but he ruthlessly suppressed like he suppressed his chakra, dropping off the map of every sensor in the world.

It might be a little excessive, but that's how good at controlling chakra he was, so it was also true.

He scanned the place, and he could see that nobody was inside. He rapidly approached a window and tried to open it without any noise.

He slipped a chakra string underneath it and then opened it from the inside. Simple.

He entered with the whisper of the wind, closing the window behind him. He was in.

But there were some problems. Sensing around for chakra, he realized that there were a strange set of invisible strings, that seemed to trigger a strange security system, it's anchor obviously the visible seal near the stairs that led to the Hokage's office.

It wasn't really difficult for a ninja to simply jump around, but if he wasn't a sensor and could almost clearly see where the chakra string were, it would have been impossible. Only insane amount of luck would have been able to get you through this minefield of a security system.

Still, it was easily surpassed.

The stairs were strangely unguarded, till he reached the familiar hallway in which was located the office of the Hokage. The same sicurity system guarded the hallway, but when he was in front of the door, he could clearly see that there was something else guarding this.

And then he saw that he couldn't touch the door. A identifying seal was stuck on the other side of the door, which would analyze the chakra of the person touching the door, and it could have any number of effect on the victim. The only way he knew that it was an identifying seal was that there was some of the Hokage's chakra in it, and he was familiar with the Sandaime's energy.

He was stuck.

Opening the door could have any number of effect, but...

There!

It was practically invisible, but a miniscule hole in the seal at the bottom of the door could possibly let a thin chakra string inside, and the handle wasn't guarded by it, so he could open this the same way he opened the window! But he would have to make a chakra string so thin that it passed through the little hole in the seal.

He never had to make it so thin.

It was a difficult task, but he felt it was safe when his chakra reached the width of less than half the diameter of the hole in the seal at the bottom of the door.

He slipped it through, made it arch back toward the handle and -click- the door opened!

He entered with a sense of accomplishment, finally inside the office he needed to be in.

He reached where he knew the scroll would be, after carefully checking if there were any other trap he forced open the safe and there it was.

He put the big scroll on his back, opened the window of the office and just as he was preparing to jump down, a voice stopped him.

"Naruto-kun? What are you-"

"Shit! Orioke Bunshin no Jutsu!" The feared technique surrounded the Hokage with smoke, then multiple copies of buxom young womans did their job at distracting the Hokage.

By the time Sarutobi regained his bearing, Naruto already succefully escaped.

He shouldn't have fainted, but it was just too much for his old bones, and he did feel a genjutsu briefly taking old of his senses, just after the beautiful boo- ehm, women, surrounded him.

Well, he didn't know what his grandson was up to this time, but that on his back was the scroll of seals.

It seems like he would have to alert his shinobi, but first he will notify Naruto's sensei. It seems like they would probably be more open to the idea that his grandson wasn't guilty, and he wanted him captured, not killed.

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It had already been an hour since Naruto arrived in the place Mizuki told him to be, and in that time he was capable of learning a jutsu he was most happy to have in his arsenal.

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

The possibilities were endless! He could train everything at the same time, without having to lose time! And his new clones could also try what is too dangerous for him to try!

It was probably his favorite jutsu right now, and Kurama was silent.

In the meanwhile, he looked at another jutsu, Bunshin Daibakuha, and he started to drool.

He could make his clones explode? That was epic!

He was just about to try his hand at this new jutsu, when he was interrupted by a booming voice.

"NARUTO! What do you think you are doing!"

"Hey, Iruka-sensei! I did it!" He cheered loudly, while Kurama just grunted and said in a smug tone "I told you so". " I learned a jutsu, look, this one!" He indicated the written entry of the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. " And I was just trying to learn this other one! You want to watch?"

Iruka analyzed his young student for any lies he might be saying, but he couldn't find any trace of it. Just as he was about to tell him to stop lying, he heard the telltale sound of metal slicing through the air.

"DODGE!"

He jumped in front of him, the shuriken that he couldn't defect with his kunai slicing through his flesh, but he managed to protect his charge.

"Ah, Iruka, I didn't expect you to be here" Mizuki said, crouched on a tree branch not too far from the clearing Naruta was in.

"Well, it doesn't matter, Naruto, you pass!" He said with a nice smile on his face "Now give me the scroll, I will return it to the Hokage"

Iruka was conflicted. He didn't know what to say, on one hand, bringing the scroll to the Hokage was what they were ordered to do, on the other he was beginning to suspect that his coworker wasn't just using lies to make his work easier, but that Mizuki was the criminal that wanted the scroll in the first place.

Still, he was his friend, so he was hesitant to accuse him.

"Beat him up" Kurama was not.

"You better Believe it" Kurama cringed at the bad habit he couldn't rid his container of.

Naruto tried and failed to make his face confused, and then simply throw the scroll toward Mizuki.

In his glee, the traitor caught it in his hands, then promptly turned and ran, without sparing a second glance at his former friend and student.

He looked down gleefully to see the smiling face of his scroll- wait what?

And then he was decked in the face. Hard. The momentum of his run stopped by the punch, he fell down from the branch he was on, going through at least another three branch, till he was stopped by the unforgiving earth.

With a thump, his body slammed against hard ground, and Mizuki lost consciousness for a moment, then, overcome by anger, he got up, starting a sprint in the direction of the one who dared trick him.

"KYUUBI BRAT!" His shout was probably heard all the way to Suna, but he didn't care. Nobody humiliate him like that.

He didn't care that he broke the law, he just wanted to kill that little bastard.

Iruka, that had tried to go after his traitorous friend, was surprised to see him return to the clearing, and was even more surprised that he just passed by his side, without even giving him a second glance.

Mizuki was a chuunin, not the best, but still a good ninja, if for only the most blunt aspect of this work. He was the powerhouse on his genin team, the one who was capable of doing the most damage.

In his current berserker state, he was dangerous power-wise, but Naruto only had to make a single handseal to ensnare him in a illusion.

Mizuki suddenly stopped, his face angry, running in his mind after his foe, who, while scared, always could stay just ahead of him.

Naruto was understandably smug. His illusions were top notch. This particular one worked on Mizuki's own understanding of the terrain around him, making him run after an illusionary foe, tiring mentally, till he was unconscious from strain.

Not many would not understand that they were in an illusion, but in his berserker state, Mizuki was little more than a savage beast, so Naruto decided to simply let him tire himself.

"Did you see, Iruka-sensei!? I beat a chuunin!" He laughed.

"KATON: GOKYAKU NO JUTSU" The angry visage of Mizuki shouted at the top of his lungs, blowing a fireball of immense proportions at nobody that started the mother of all forest fire.

While the environment become a sauna, Mizuki finally freed himself from his illusion, after seeing that even after being scorched, his foe was still intact and living, with the same scared face as before and the same ridiculous black leotard.

"So you think you had me beaten eh? You're becoming arrogant, Kyuubi" Mizuki's eyes glinted with madness "And now, you'll pay for it!"

He launched himself at his foe, his speed making it difficult for Naruto to react, and if he wasn't a Jinchuuriki, he probably would have been skewered by the glinting kunai in Mizuki's hands.

Instead he succesfully used the Replacement Technique, switching himself with one of the numerous burning log lying around.

His kunai becoming superheated, Mizuki let it fall from his hand with a yelp, then turned to look at his little foe.

Iruka finally decided to join the fight, but before he could, Naruto successfully stuck Mizuki in a genjutsu loop. Practically he just repeated the same genjutsu again and again, the only way to get out of this is pain or constantly running chakra through the coils, with the side effect of burning a lot of it.

Fortunately Mizuki didn't know about this, so he was stuck.

"Iruka-sensei, I'll hold him. But you have to knock him out" Naruto said, the strain of focusing on talking and his genjutsu loop almost too much for him. Kurama was to thank for this, usually you would have to drop your awareness to concentrate on the genjutsu, trusting your partner to dirty his hands for you. The changes he had made to the processing speed of his brain were really a blessing.

Iruka, almost disbelievingly, chopped Mizuki on his neck, making him unconscious.

"That was..."

"Awesome?, cool?, great?, grand-"

"Surprising." Iruka said with a smile.

"That works too" Naruto smiled.

"Close your eyes Naruto" Iruka cleared his throat, his eyes holding pride for his pupil.

"Why?" And Naruto ruined the atmosphere.

"JUST DO IT!" Iruka managed to make Naruto do as he wanted. " And no spying between your eyelids. I'm a ninja, I know if you're doing it".

With a pout, Naruto complied, also because his sensing at this distance was almost like a third eye, so he could see as Iruka undid the knot on his headband, and then placed it on his forehead.

"Open your eyes, Naruto Uzumaki, genin of Konoha" And Iruka was tackled by a hug.

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After a quick stop home to change himself, Naruto and Iruka went to the Hokage's office.

As they reported what happened to the Hokage, with Naruto having to apologize profusely for the stunt he had pulled, the young jinchuuriki finally could ask the question that Kurama was urging him to say.

"Jiji, why did Mizuki call me a Kyuubi brat?" The question was asked in a curios way, as if he really didn't know what he was.

And so, the Hokage told him.

He told him of the great Bijuu that couldn't be stopped by human means, such was his strength. Of the wise Fourth Hokage that decided to seal it in a child, because only in that way could the power of the fox not kill his host. And finally, when he get to the part that the Hokage wanted him to be seen as a hero of the village, finally Naruto could ask the question that he really wanted to know.

He had already asked his tenant, and he had said that he would know soon, but not by him. He didn't remember their names nor their face, humans were simply too small to be remembered at years of distance, and he didn't want to tell him lies.

So he had decided to ask the Hokage, and he would ask him now.

"Why me? Were my parents friends of the Yondaime? Why did he have to chose him?"

"Because, ah." Sarutobi didn't know what to say anymore. He sighed "Come with me".

He walked the short distance toward the only window in his office, overlooking the village.

" Look to the utmost right, yes, that giant stone of a face is your father, Namikaze Minato" He never was good in sentimental moments, and this time wasn't an exception for the great Hokage.

"The Yondaime was my father?" Naruto's eyes screamed happiness at knowing that such a great hero was his father " That's so great! I'm the son of my hero!" And just as he was starting to get into a weird victory dance, Sarutobi told him to hold his horses.

"You can't say that to anyone. Your father had enemies, and you would be put in danger" Not really anymore, relationship between the Leaf and the Stone were becoming better, but it could politically endanger that same relationship.

Even that old Oonoki had to listen to the rambles of his council.

"I promise I won't say it to anyone until I'm stronger than you, old man" Naruto teased.

"What am I supposed to with you, Naruto" The Hokage shook his head in mock exasperation.

"And my mom?" It was natural that Naruto wanted to know the other part of his lineage.

"Kushina Uzumaki, she was a really strong red-haired kunoichi with a fiery personality, just like yours, she really loved you, since before you were born.

Wait a moment, I'll get something for you." He rummaged through the drawers of his desk, till he finally found what he was searching for. It was a photo with Naruto's parents, Kushina's obviously pregnant looking adoringly at her expanded belly.

It moved Naruto that the old Hokage finally told him something that he had always wanted to know, and his parents were also an important secret of the village, so the fact that he confided in his ability to maintain the secret made him happy.

"Thanks" It was all Naruto could say between the unshed tears that he stubbornly refused to let fall.

He grabbed the photo, hugged his old grandfather, and then ran toward his apartment, where he would sleep contently,


AN: So here I am.

Recently I've read Naruto:Ouroborus(if it was called that), awesome story by the way, and stumbling on the author page, I read that OC shouldn't be used because it eliminate some of the quality of what make a fanfic itself, and I had to agree.

Probably nobody had read my first story, for which only the prologue was present, but it was practically full of OC, for which I had a delineated plot and their personality, I had it all roughly thought out from start to finish, but it was, difficult to write.

When instead I started this story, I was surprised by the simplicity with which the words came floating out of my mind, and this same simplicity is what led me to cancel the other story. I still have the prologue by the way, and a little of the second chapter (really little).

So I guess I'm taken more by this story, for which I still don't know what the hell I'm doing, than the other, which was already precisely delineated.

This is a lot more fun. And I hope that the few of you who will read will have fun, and that it wasn't too much of a mess. :P

PS: A beta reader would be a blessing, but I can continue to wing it I guess.