A/N: I am sorry to everyone, but I am rebooting the Fox of Konoha, I hope that it is better than the first one as I feel that I have grown as an author since then. So, to everyone who has read this before, and to all my new readers, I welcome you to the first chapter of The Fox of Konoha 2.0 (and yes, I am aware that it is horribly not clever.)
The moon rose from her bed. As it was since times long since passed, ever since the Rikudo Sennin had forged the moon from the earth with his legendary eyes, the moon was at her most luminous, her beauty was not diminished by the dark trees that framed her face. Her radiance shone down through the dense canopy that blocked out almost all of the light even during the daytime. Training ground 44 was its official name, but everyone knew it as the Forest of Death.
The darkness encroached around him as he pulled his dark orange jacket around his frame, the dark was no stranger to him, in fact he loved it. The dark was always alive with secrets, things that hid during the light of day were allowed free reign at night. Trysts, collusions, secret back room meetings, poetry, magic, all of these things came alive in the night. And Naruto loved it. It was much more fun to roam the night and see the secrets of the world than it was during the day in the harsh light of the sun. To him, the world came to life only in the darkness of the night.
The next day was going to be a big one in his life, it was to be the Genin promotion test at the academy, but for some reason his godparents chose tonight to visit the village to report to the old man. They were mostly busy with their own village but were still fiercely loyal to both it and Konoha, and that showed as the two villages had close ties economically, ninja from both villages were permitted carte blanch access to both, within reason of course.
It was no big deal to Naruto whether or not the exam was tomorrow or three days from now, he was finally ready to do the distance and pass it. He had stumbled on the mention of a technique while reading, the Kage Bunshin, and when he had pestered the old man about it he had relented and shown him the technique. It was the answer to his prayers, because it had such a large power requirement he could use it even with the shitty chakra control that afflicted him because of the Kyuubi, or as he preferred to be called, Kurama.
The forest around him swarmed with life, here were wolves that had cornered their prey, a snake was crawling through the undergrowth in pursuit of a mouse, and the bats were around, feeding on insects the size of his fists, which said something about the size of the bats. The size of everything in the forest had to be ten times or more the normal size in the wild. His crazy older sister had him train in the forest every day after his classes were out for the day. Well, she wasn't technically his sister, she wasn't related to him by blood. But she was the adopted daughter of one of his godparents and she looked after him while they were gone, which after they had left to make their own village, was, essentially, all the time.
The constant training in the forest had strengthened him, and the fact that he had somebody that actually gave a damn to train him meant that he was actually not behind in his classes at all. However, his sister did make an interesting point, the less an opponent knows about you, the more they are going to underestimate what you are capable of, especially if you were the dead last in your class. In fact, if he had tried he would be tied with that raven haired Uchiha that was the poster boy for emo in his class. But if he did that it would defeat the purpose of the idiot act that he put on every day. In any case, it seemed like the forest had accepted his presence, as the foreboding feeling that pervaded the forest and warned away any intruders.
"Its almost as if the forest itself is alive." He mused to himself aloud. Not expecting any response from around or inside of him.
"It is" came an ancient voice from inside of him, "This place is as old as time, a remnant of the days of the Shinju, from when this earth was young, there is a reason that the animals here are gigantic, the chakra in this place is a powerful as it is ancient." The massive chakra construct from inside of him reminisced about the forest, as if it were familiar with it, "This forest is from the time before humans even possessed chakra, and it still remembers that time, it is asleep now, although once, long ago it was awake and was known by a different name, but whatever that name was it has been lost to time. In a time long gone by it grew around the base of the Shinju, growing from the strong chakra that radiated from the roots and base of the mighty tree. And when the fruit was stolen from the tree, this forest rose in anger with the tree, becoming a scourge on the lands. But when the beast was quelled and sealed by the Rikudo Sennin the forest stopped. For now though, the forest sleeps and dreams of one day awakening and reclaiming the world under the Shinju, but that is a story for another time."
By the time the fox had stopped talking Naruto had reached the clearing that he was meant to, in the center of the forest next to a tower that had been built to facilitate the Chunin exams, being the most secluded spot in Konoha didn't hurt either, as technically nobody knew that the blonde idiot from class was even allowed to enter the insanely dangerous forest, let alone that he was there with alarming regularity as it was his adopted sister's favorite training grounds.
He disliked that he only got to see his godparents under these conditions, but it was good to see them at all. In some other world, in some other time, it was possible that he would never have known them at all, or only briefly. In fact it was entirely possible from what he had heard that one of his godparents would have been one of the worst villains in Konoha history. But it was useless to think about the could have been's when the present was so full of opportunity. Or more specifically, was full of opportunity for him. As he awaited his godparent's arrival in the forest he took the time to lean back against the tower and expand his chakra to the surrounding area, it was a form of sensing that was only usefull for people with a large amount of chakra, and the technique itself was somewhat akin to echolocation. By keeping his senses open to the chakra he pulsed into the clearing he could "see" the shapes of things that blocked the path of the pulse.
Normally all he saw was the outlines where the chakra was blocked, creating shadows against the background of the blue of his natural chakra. But this time was different, not five feet in front of him, was a shape that shone a calming radiance, as if it was adding chakra to the surrounding air around it not simply making its own or feeding the natural system around it. Startled, he opened his eyes to see the being, but, when he did so he found that he could not see it.
"I know you are there, show yourself!" demanded the young shinobi, drawing a kunai from the holster on his right leg, bringing it to bear against this unknown person.
"You cannot yet see me, yet you know me" came a surprisingly feminine voice, it seemed to echo throughout the clearing, "I am the right of your blood. And a companion for your loneliness."
Naruto was astounded at this, in all of his reading he had never heard of a technique like this, unless it was genjutsu, but his relationship with Kurama should be able to negate genjutsu. Even so, the blonde made the ram sign and pulsed his chakra again, trying to force any foreign chakra that might be in his system out of it. But afterwards found that he could still feel the presence of the strange being in front of him.
"I see you do not trust me," the voice sounded wounded, as if his actions had honestly hurt her emotions, "Can you not recognize my voice?" the voice inquired, he could tell it was moving closer to him by the presence of power it was emanating, as it got closer he started to get the feeling of recognition, as if it was something he had long forgotten, or else something he had yet to realize, and grow into. The voice continued in its speech, each word leading him closer to the understanding that he knew was just out of his reach.
"I held you on the days that you were the saddest, I was the warm wind that carried your hopes and dreams as you sat on top of the monument. I was there every time you were rejected by others, and I was there when you were saved from the mobs by your sister. You know me Naruto Uzumaki, and you gave me my name. You named me after the gentle breeze that comes on a hot day to bring relief. And although you have long since stopped believing in me, I have never left your side." The being was right on top of him, and wrapped itself around him, surrounding him in a comforting wind that warmed him to the core.
Naruto's eyes widened as memories came flooding back. Memories from before he had met his godparents, from before his life had taken a drastic turn for the better. There HAD been something that he felt had watched over him, it made him feel as if no matter what happened to him, he would be able to rise above it and go on he had named the wind after the most gentle of things he could think of. He had thought it was just his childish mind creating something that had not actually been there out of loneliness, but that was not so. He had named her
"Zephyr" he breathed into the warm winds that surrounded him. And as he did he felt a stinging sensation inside of his eyes. He felt chakra flow into pathways he didn't even know he had as the stinging in his eyes increased to a crescendo. And as it did a figure began to be distinguished within the vortex of wind. It was, as he had guessed from the voice, a female, of slender build, young looking with modest breasts that were hidden from view by leaves that shifted about in the wind, the same could be said of her other undergarments, although that one was rather modern in construction although it was covered by a skirt made of leaves as well. Her skin had a greenish tint to it, almost unnoticeable unless one was looking right at her. As she swirled around Naruto he could feel her chakra flowing into him and becoming a part of his own.
The chakra didn't even feel foreign at first, he couldn't distinguish it from his own at all, it was almost as if it was reclaiming a part of itself, not absorbing something foreign. He could feel himself bonding with Zephyr on a level that would be impossible for anyone else to accomplish. What he didn't know was why. Why him? Out of all the people on the planet this beautiful creature had decided to watch over him when he was nothing special.
"That's not true at all kit." Came the ancient voice from inside of him, "She is one of the guardian spirits of the Uzumaki Clan, she was drawn to you and has awoken in you one of the most obscure dojutsu to ever exist in the Elemental Nations. By bonding with Spirits representing the forces of nature the Reisei Shidaigan uses the bond between the wielder and the spirit to create a power far beyond the abilities of both."
The wind around him died down as Zephyr became incorporeal and wrapped her air around him. "It looks like somebody is coming." She said, disappointed that they had been interrupted so soon after finally meeting in the flesh. After saying so three figures emerged from the foliage. One possessed long spiky hair and wore a headband with the kanji for "sage" on it, he wore geta sandals and looked like he was more interested in having a good time than anything else. The second man looked like he needed a few good meals in order to put some meat on his bones, he was slender with a pale complexion, with a face that proclaimed to all and sundry that he was snake like. The third and only woman in the group of three had blonde hair and a diamond on her forehead, she was also being supported between the two men as she appeared to be drunk.
"It seems like our favorite godson has stumbled onto something interesting." The pale man stated as the three of them walked towards the tower, "His eyes did not shine like that the last time that we saw him." His eyes glittered with curiosity at the potential he saw for exploration.
"Calm down Orochimaru," the spiky haired one said, "You and Tsunade are sure welcome to your questions, but we cannot forget why we're here in the first place."
"Yer jest getn worked up cuz ya knew the gaki's parents first Jiraiya" slurred out the drunken woman between them.
"It's been a while…it's nice to see you all again." Naruto greeted the legendary sannin, and, through an odd quirk of fate, his godparents.