Edit: This is version three. Probably final. Working on the next couple of chapters.
Most people would never have guessed that Naruto was born with the whiskers already on his face. Most people would, then, continue on to guess incorrectly about the source of his massive chakra. People would even incorrectly guess about his absurd level of healing that bordered regeneration. His parents knew, Sarutobi knew, even Kakashi knew. But none else. When the loyal Orochimaru had taken his friend's place, Minato's place, in sealing the Kyuubi into Minato's son, everyone assumed that was when they appeared. But they would be wrong.
The dreams, however, did come with the sealing of the great beast. They didn't used to be very clear but, by the time he turned ten, it all started to make sense to him. They always started the same way. Ever since he was born they started the same way and it was always the same dream. Nothingness. Nothing but one, and the one was many, and the many were all they were. And the one traveled in stillness through all of that which was not until it could take it no longer. Until it screamed insanity into silent void. "Earth!" it screamed. "Land!" it bellowed. "Home," it whispered. And so, in the blackness came earth. Huge chunks of material that floated, some coming together while others gathered a million miles away, floating in ellipses around each other. And the voice was content and the many were no longer the all, even though they were still one, and wandered through what they called land, never finding the tail it grew to be significant. The first voice was silent as it enjoyed the creation and the others had not yet felt the need to speak, as they already knew each other so well.
Possibly coincidentally, during the first year of his life Naruto could nearly reshape landscapes when he threw a tantrum. His parents knew he would be strong, and didn't even sense any of Kyuubi's, the nine tailed demon fox, power. It was all their son. And they knew he would be the most powerful earth user in recorded history. Maybe ever. It was a trying time, mind you, to raise a boy who could cause small earth quakes with tears or make barren soil fertile with a laugh, but they loved him nonetheless. But when he turned one, his dream extended and things changed again.
The first voice was pleased and content to wander their creation, but a second was not. She, it, felt the void still around them. And it felt, decidedly, cold. So the second voice cried out for "Fire!" and for "Light!" And somewhere so deep down that it was hidden from the other voices, maybe even from its speaker, the word warmth was spoken with such longing that great balls of fire were risen into the sky. And the voice called it Sun, and the other like it stars. And the fire above and below and through the void reached her, and warmed her. And she, like her brother-self, basked in the glory of their creation. And the others, too, enjoyed it. She also took pride in her second tail that they had grown. And for many eons of time that stretched from one end to the next beginning and back, they were silent.
Yet again, Naruto surprised his parents at his first birthday party when the candles on his cake lit. And the lanterns lit. And when the roof of the Hyuga's main house lit. The boy, enjoying the warmth and the spectacle of light was all too eager to try his new powers and only due to the wise parenting and discipline of his parents did the village not catch fire. But yet again, his parents were excited. The boy would make a fine ninja one day. And for a year they were happy to help him learn basic control under the guise of games. Until, one year later, he dreamt even further into the dream of the voices.
A third voice spoke one day, when the heat was unbearable. And it called for a way to ease the fire. "Too hot!" it said. "Let make cool, make water!" Something, he thought, to comfort. And so they made water, above and below, in great powerful pools that covered some of the land and in great soft expanses that shielded from the Sun. Some even formed clouds far out in the void, far away from the land or fiery stars. And the voices enjoyed the relief and used their three tails to help them swim the huge oceans they had made. They enjoyed the land that gave a home, the fire that warmed, the water that soothed and cooled. And the voices were quieted. And they stayed that way for a long time, longer than ever before.
Ever since Naruto turned two, two weeks ago, it had been raining. The family had taken a trip to a nearby town where a festival was going on to celebrate, but the rain seemed to follow them and the festival was canceled in the downpour. Still, the weather was warm so they decided to swim as, at least, it wasn't like the rain could ruin a swim in the large lake that was the town's claim to fame. As the boy had learned to walk and could say some small words, they decided to, with extremely careful supervision, swim in the shallows with him. Even if it was more them holding him up while he tried to tread water.
"Come to mommy!" called out a beautiful red-haired woman. Kushina had barely survived the Kyuubi incident as the mysterious black-garbed assassin who had attacked them and freed the great beast from her stomach had nearly done her in, but the wayward Tsunade had made her annual appearance in the village that very day and had managed to save her with Minato's help in fighting off the effects of bijuu removal. It was unfortunate that the carmine woman would barely be more than a chunin in strength ever again.
Her husband, Minato Namikaze, Kiroi Senko, the Yondaime Hokage, the Killer of Legions, badass SS rank ninja with a flee on sight order, was holding their son afloat and laughing with a pleasant smile on his face as the young toddler kicked his short little legs in an attempt to get to his mother. "You can do it, Naruto!" he said.
As if spurred on by his words the boy focused with a cute look on his face as it crinkled in concentration. He stopped swimming towards Kushina, relying on his dad to keep him afloat. Instead, he focused on her and pulled on the water as if pulling a tug of war. "Momma, 'ere" the little boy said and the water surrounding her was pulled right towards the boy. When she was close enough he jumped from his dad's hands to his mom's, laughing in childish glee. "Did it Momma!" he shouted. His parents just looked at each other in shock for a moment.
'A third element?' they shared the thought before Minato's visage changed to one of pride. "You sure did, didn't you?" And it took another month before they could help the boy stop the incessant rain he had caused.
Now, the voices had a land they called home, and fire to warm them, and water to soothe them. But it wasn't enough. They were bored. They knew each other. They needed something more. And the fourth voice spoke up. He called the thought his brethren were sharing aloud, slowly growing more intelligent over the ages. "More creatures!" he said. "We need more creatures to share our home." And again he whispered to himself. "We need companions." And they made them from themselves, from the breath of their body. Some swayed still in the breeze and ate sunlight. Some flew through the swayers, and others flew through the water. Others dwelled in the ground and some on the ground and the beast marveled at the things he had made. For years the four tailed beast wandered through the land, and was happy to have the others of its own self and the others it had made. And they were content for many years, though they couldn't help but feel there was something missing with their creations.
By now, on Naruto's third birthday, his parents were prepared. Yearly to the day, since the date of his birth, Naruto had gained an uncontrollable dominion over some element. That would explain why both Kakashi and Asuma, masters of wind and lightning, were present to tame the boy should one of those elements go haywire this year. Surely enough, on the anniversary of his birth to the minute of birth, the wind picked up around the village and only the soothing rocking Kushina was giving Naruto while singing quiet lullabies along with Asuma's hard work prevented heavy winds from rocking the village and doing light storm damage. Naruto was possibly the best behaved toddler the village had ever seen as, for the next month and a half, the boy meditated with his father daily to control the outbursts of wind he caused at the slightest whim while finally also quelling the occasional outburst of flame, ground tremor, or rain storm he brought.
It was this year that he had met the various clan heirs and made friends among them, especially with another hyperactive little boy named Kiba, the Inuzuka clan heir. Their parents would occasionaly meet together as they were family friends and Tsume always laughed as Kiba, even then, tried to assert dominance over the boy a few months younger than he and was, succinctly knocked on his ass by a gust of wind or tripped by a small rise in the ground that hadn't been there a second ago. The only boy Naruto was closer with was one Sasuke Uchiha. They had been crib mates and, despite the fact that Sasuke had a little of his father's bland personality already, both blonde Namikaze's had managed to bring him out of his shell. They also noticed, in the passing, that Sasuke seemed a little shy around one Hinata Hyuga. One year later, the dream extended further yet, to a fifth voice.
And it said, "I have found what was, was not what we wanted. The creatures we made live, learn, and feel. But only learn so much. Let us make a being that can talk with us, that can interact with us." 'We need an equal,' she thought to herself, though she would never admit it. And they took their most versatile animal, an ape, and changed it to something much different. And then they gave it a spark. A small shock to the mind that started everything else. And for the first time ever, another being spoke on a level like theirs. Other creatures were made as well. Things that the "humans" called "demons" or "angels." And the five tailed beast spoke with them all. Learned and taught and grew and enjoyed itself for several thousand years.
On Naruto's fourth birthday his parents had surrounded him with lightning rods and prepared for the worst. And they were damn happy they had prepared. A blast similar to the technique Kirin, though smaller in size,dropped on Naruto's location and was absorbed by the small field of rods before it could do much damage, though the boy's clothes were still singed and much of the local flora and fauna was gone. For two months Naruto carried a risk of attracting electricity in a storm and for another two months he carried a permanent static charge that shocked all he came in contact with. It was a great trick to use on Kiba. Two months later, his mother and, from time to time, Kakashi started to train him in the basic ninja arts. By the end of the year he would have the physical strength and stamina of a last year academy student, and the chakra reserves of ten elite jounin.
But the humans grew wrongly. They campaigned against angels and demons and wiped all but the fewest of them out. Then, they campaigned against each other. It was ugly. It was brutal. It was death. And when blasts comparable to those the beast could harness launched across his home, he destroyed the harbingers of doom. The sixth voice spoke. "We have done a great wrong and must fix it. We must destroy those who threaten the place we made. Those who threaten peace." 'I only wanted us to all live together," she thought. 'I wanted for us to be even. But instead we must dominate them.' The then six tailed beast wiped out the bombs' creators. Then they wiped out the rest of the corrupt race. And the demons fled to the depths to escape its rage while the angels soared to new heights to avoid the bloody rage that certainly would destroy them otherwise. And the beast raged until all was silent but for the first creatures it had made. And it wept.
Although there were no other elements for the five year old boy to gain this year, precautions were still taken. It was all for naught, though, as there was no sudden chaos as in years past. Over the course of the day, Naruto's chakra doubled and doubled again until he had widely eclipsed even his father who was, himself, known to be a chakra beast. Over the course of the year, it would double once more and, as was discovered during training, he had been given power even over the sub-elements, though they did take more chakra and more focus than the others. Still, that did not make it any less satisfying to burn slowly through a mean man's chair leg with acid breath without being caught or the look on Sasuke's face, as his friend often trained alongside him, when he blocked the practice wooden shuriken with an ice wall or shot out a laser with storm release for the first time. Though Kakashi had heavily chastised the boy for nearly maiming his friend with a laser and when Kakashi "chastised" Naruto it was in the form of physical exercises that hurt like no tomorrow and certainly stopped Naruto from doing his stupid act ever again.
By the year's end, he had grown to be as strong as a genin in most areas, though it was noticeable that the boy had nearly no control over his vast strength and the idea of using genjutsu, despite his vast creativity, was ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as learning healing techniques. And god did he need those techniques. No, not for training. He healed at an inhuman rate bordering on regeneration, though no one really wanted to test out exactly how much he could really regenerate. Of course, the amount of food he consumed was definitely a downside as his metabolism was in overdrive to compensate and he often craved the most disturbing things. His mother always chuckled as his cravings for high calorie foods reminded her of how she had spent many days during pregnancy. In fact, that was how she was spending many days again as she was pregnant with a second child.
Naruto did need healing techniques for his mind, however. He had told his parents about the dreams which, currently, always ended in a destructive nightmare that finished with anguish. Being concerned parents, they tried their best to help him. They even had Inoichi Yamanaka, premier mind-walker and psychiatrist help him. Nearly weekly Naruto would visit the blonde man and tell him of his dreams and, at first, the man had thought they were the result of an overactive imagination. He had given him various normal treatments and sent him home. But the dreams would not stop and each night he would witness the destruction of a new city, of a new people group, of a different time completely. And each morning he woke with tears running down his whiskered cheek.
Soon, Minato figured it out. These things were visions, maybe of the past or maybe of the future. They were no doubt passed down through the fox inside his son, but there was nothing he could do to stop them. So often Naruto would wake at night or early morning and crawl into bed with his parents. They would comfort him, and he would try not to think about the screams and gore. Things would not improve until he turned six and the dream took a better turn.
The beast wept for days. It wept for years, in fact. A man's lifetime would start and his great grandchild's life end before the tears ceased flooding the earth. Its best and most beautiful creation was also its ugliest. But a seventh voice arose as a seventh tail sprouted from the beast. It was in a beautiful, sorrowful, haunting voice that she said, "Once more. We'll give them one more chance. We'll bring them back, but not give them the knowledge of such destruction ever again. All records erased, all evidence destroyed, all needed resources gone forever." 'We will forgive and try again.' And so, with an effort of emotion and will, the creatures, men, were brought back from a single line that had managed to wait out the flood on top of a great mountain where a natural energy had kept them safe. And the creature walked among them and governed them. And they were content with the men they had lead that had not yet been corrupted as those of old had once been.
On his sixth birthday, Naruto knew how to heal. He knew how to heal with a smile the hearts of the downtrodden and how to heal with his power the wounds of the injured man. He didn't use jutsu as it was instinctual chakra use, though he would still need to learn the works of the human body to make himself fully useful. It was also deeply linked to his emotions and, as often as not, trying to do it while angry would just cause more damage or sorrow than just letting it be.
In fact, it may have been this effect of negative emotions causing detrimental health benefits that caused the most eventful event of the year for Naruto's mother. Kushina lost her unborn child. She would never blame her son as she didn't know if it was truly his fault, or if she was simply frail from his birth years ago now. But she did not have the daughter she was hoping for.
As it was right now, he was stronger than almost all genin in everything but genjutsu and chakra control. But, with such a humongous amount of chakra, it was only to be expected. It was decided that he would join the ninja academy this year and be fast-tracked to graduate soon before he turned nine. The various girls he was friends with started to look at their male counterparts with the crushes that little kids get, and Naruto was the target of many young crushes due to his bright personality, great strength for his age, and his good looks that he got from his mom and dad. Whether it was the Yamanaka heiress or even girls a few years older like the girl from the ramen stand, Ayame Ichiraku, they all had their little crushes on the boy over the year.
Unfortunately, Sasuke had suffered a great loss this year. The destruction of his clan at the hands of his brother. And now the boys had become brothers. The young Uchiha moved in with his best blonde friend and they became close, even closer than he had become with Kiba and Hinata. Naruto's new gift of emotional healing was truly a great boon to the damaged Uchiha.
Naruto was quite mature, and wise, for his age, but also quite upbeat and perpetually happy. It may have had to do, largely, in part to his dreams. Anyone who witnessed and felt the thoughts of the many in one, witnessed creation, devastation, and rebirth each night was bound to develop a little differently from other children. Especially the angst of destruction and catharsis of rebirth. That and his mother and father supported him in whatever endeavors he took on.
He was even behaved well enough that when the Raikage, his fiancé Mabui, and a little girl named Yugito visited that year, he was allowed, for the first time ever, to sit with his parents through the political event. And gosh did he like that girl. She was about his age and, even then, was a skinny little girl with blonde hair she was growing into a pony tail. When they were introduced he, being his bouncy self, bounced right on up to the girl and stuck his hand out with a, "Hi! My name's Naruto Namikaze! And you're pretty!" She, on the other hand, hid behind Mabui and only came out to shake his hand with a little bit of coaxing from the pretty dark-skinned woman. The adults could only laugh as he dragged her off after dinner to show her their estate. Even then it was partly his friendliness that helped form the treaty behind their villages.
He even met his godparents, Jiraiya and Tsunade, more often now. The land was in relative peace so the sage could visit more often and Tsunade, now having a reason to visit Konoha in the form of young Naruto, visited nearly weekly. And each time one of the sannin stopped by, they would play with him or show him something new in either jutsu or anatomy before stopping at the memorial to their passed friends, especially for Orochimaru, and leaving with the promise to visit again soon. The two sannin were even seen drinking or eating together from time to time in what both denied were dates. And it was a good year of dreaming while Naruto waited for the dream to continue.
The great beast roamed the land, sometimes in the guise of one of his creations whether it be human, angel, demon, or animal and sometimes in his own glorious form that breathed power. She taught some of the humans a new form of energy in the hopes that they would focus on it instead of what the last group had developed over time, especially since it was the most natural form of this energy that saved humanity the first time. But, the beast could not honestly say it was just for their benefit. No, it was also for the beast.
An eighth tail had sprouted from the beast and an eight voice had spoken. "We need a challenge. We have company but are on a pinnacle that no creation of ours can reach. And we are tired of being revered." 'Tired of being alone.' He continued aloud to himself. "No, we must have a challenge, something to fight with or for, something to bring us more, more, more something than ever before.
The beast did not know what was missing. It now had home and warmth and cool and companions and challenge, but it was not enough. Something was not there and they wanted it desperately. They fought to enable their creation. Teaching them more about this power they called "chakra" and strengthening the men and women who could use it. Maybe, they could be what was missing?
As Naruto turned seven, he nearly instantly gained a greater amount of control over his chakra. Sure, it was only like turning the fire hose that was his leaking stream of chakra from full blast to half power, but the boy was certainly happy for it. He had managed tree climbing, somehow, with his old chakra. Now he could even water walk. This year, in order to cement the alliance with Kumo, both of the young Jinchuriki, Naruto and Yugito, along with a clan heir and good friend, Sasuke from Konoha and Darui from Kumo, would finish their education for half a year in Kumo and half a year in Konoha. It would show the trust each village had in exchanging two powerful potential ninja and not keeping any bargaining power in addition to helping the inhabitants of both villages get used to seeing their allies' ninja in their town as would happen from time to time among allies. A secondary objective was that Killer Bee, the Jinchuriki of the eight-tailed Hachibi would spend the time that Naruto was in Kumo to help him contact the Kyuubi and even to harness some of his powers.
And the four became close friends overtime as Darui's mellow personality mixed well with Sasuke's and the two blondes got along excellently. Over the course of his time in Kumo, Naruto never was able to actually contact the Kyuubi, though he did gain full control over using one "tail" of chakra and was able to differentiate between friend and foe when using up to three tails even if jutsu and fully conscious thought became near impossible. Screw that, using three tails was just stupid as the amount of effort he had to use to not just maul everything was way too huge to be practical in battle.
Towards the end of the year, Naruto and company left with the Raikage to meet Minato halfway between their countries and they reaffirmed their alliance treaty to last a decade before renegotiations would take place. The four children, each as strong as some chunin, parted ways to go home. Minato was pleased to note that, before leaving, Yugito planted a chaste girlish kiss on Naruto's cheeks before they both blushed, fell silent, and parted with smiles on their embarrassed faces. Oh yes, there would be teasing.
The rest of the year was spent reinitiating the two Konoha boys into the Academy so that they could graduate that year and graduate they did. Minato and Kushina decided that the boys would learn under Jiraiya and remain genin until their age group had caught up to them so that the boys could focus on learning politics for their future clan head positions and on other subjects of their choice. Naruto updated them on the story and his parents and local historians alike were greatly surprised. It seemed that he was remembering the first use of chakra in humanity. And only one being was known to have lived back then that may still have sway in the world. The originator of the nine bijuu, their "mother," so to speak. The ten-tailed beast, the Juubi. On Naruto's eighth birthday, the dream continued.
The beast continued on for many years, but no man could challenge him. Could tire him. Could even pose the smallest threat. And as desperation for a worthy fight stepped in, the ninth tail sprouted. "I have no purpose," a new voice shouted in desperation, a desperation that could not be captured in words as it barked, howled, roared, and cried for relief. He had filled much of the void with land and water and fire and creatures and power and the void still existed inside of him. It was still one with nothing and nothing could fill that void that he she it they could create. "It's all so worthless. I just want someone to match me. For the boredom to end. For it all to end." It then howled in a different tone, one known only to a few unfortunates. It was a sound that hurt. It hurt so much to hear it, let alone to feel it. It was the sound of a man missing parts of his lung as shrapnel worked through his blood system. Of a diseased child who was eaten by worms from the inside. The sound of an old man who held his wife's cold hand while his remaining family was long since gone. It simply said, "I want to die."
Yes, this story has an overpowered Naruto. But you will see why as time passes. Already working, almost done with chapter two and will be much of the way through chapter three before I post chapter two.