Okay, just to make everything clear, this story was written awhile ago and I ended up taking off this site however I've decided to repost it and many others that I've discontinued or are awaiting a rewrite.
ALL of my active stories are posted on the profile for Fenris187 and none of the fics here will be updated.
Also, I own no IP at all right now and make no money off this free access fanfiction.
Uzumaki Naruto was an unusual child, at just seven years old he had already had countless near death experiences courtesy of the angry mobs and assassins that tried to kill him on a regular basis. The worst part was that he didn't know what he did to deserve their hatred.
The attempts on his life were always at their worst on his birthday, that day they would beat him till he was within a millimetre of death before the ANBU that were supposed to look after him would step in and take him to the hospital just to make sure that they didn't get punished by the village leader, the Sandaime Hokage.
Naruto was pretty sure that only 4 of the ANBU who ever looked after him actually did their job properly and would stop the mobs before he was hurt.
Inu, Neko, Tenzo and Itachi, they always made sure that he was protected whenever they were on watch duty. Inu and Neko even went beyond the call of duty and helped him when they were off duty, they even bought him a few sets of kunai and shuriken for when he started the academy today.
The problem was that all four of them were considered the best ANBU had to offer, and were always being sent on important missions and as such couldn't look after him more than a couple of nights a year.
But as mentioned before, today was the day he started the academy.
"NARUTO! WAKE UP!"
"AARRRGGHH!" the young boy screamed out as he fell out of his bed. He was short for his age due to malnutrition, his spiky blonde hair cushioning his fall. His face was adorned with 3 distinctive whisker like marks on each cheek. His deep azure eyes looked up to the voice as he nursed the back of his head and was met with a small, floating red orb with large green eyes and a small mouth, framed by extensions that looked surprisingly similar to a pair of hair bangs while a strange, wispy tail like protrusion stuck out from its rear.
"Naru-chan do you want to be late for your first day of the academy?" the strange being asked in a stern yet feminine voice, causing the blonde to start looking around for a clock, which he eventually managed to find.
The clock said that it was 7:30, and the academy started at 8:00, and it was twenty minutes away from his apartment.
"SHIT!"
"Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto! What did you just say?" the strange ball asked with narrowed eyes in a dangerous tone, while the child dashed around his apartment getting dressed while gathering his supplies for school.
"Shut up ya stupid hallucination!" the blonde shouted out as he began to boil some water for a cup of instant ramen.
"I'M NOT A HALLUCINATION!" it screamed back.
"Then how come no one else can see you!?" Naruto asked loudly causing the strange ball to go silent.
"I never expected anyone to be able to see me, even you," it finally replied with a sad look in its eyes, "but even so, DON'T SWEAR!" it finished with all the previous anger fully restored.
"I'll swear if I want to!" this was obviously the wrong thing to say, as the strange floating orb charged straight into him, and then somehow forced his arm to slap him, obviously as punishment for his outburst.
"That's it I'm officially insane," the blonde muttered to himself as he sat in the corner of the room assuming the foetal position.
"Oh come on Naru-chan, if you don't hurry up you'll be late for school," the ball said as it floated in the middle of the room.
"SHIT! I almost forgot!" he shouted as he finished getting ready, causing the ball to sweatdrop "I've only just punished him for that and he goes and does it again, just how dense is he?"
"Naruto! STOP SWEARING!"
"Leave me alone! I don't like you ya stupid hallucination!" having said this, he was surprised to see the orbs eyes fill with sadness and pain, he didn't understand or care why or how, it was just a figment of his imagination after all.
Quickly getting ready he left his apartment and headed off towards the academy, not noticing the floating orb beginning to shed tears as he closed the door.
The walk to the academy was uneventful, the villagers did nothing more than glare at him on his way to the large building and the floating balls that showed up everywhere completely ignored him, which he was grateful for.
As he entered the building he was immediately met with the icy stare of the academy's receptionist, the person obviously did NOT like him.
"Uh, hi, I'm supposed to be starting the academy today," the blonde stated nervously, he really didn't want to get in any trouble.
"Go away demon, we don't have anywhere for your kind here!" the receptionist spat out at him causing him to flinch at the hate directed at him.
"And exactly what do you mean by that?" came an angry question from a person hiding in the shadows. He had gravity defying silver hair and was wearing black ninja pants, a black form fitting, long sleeved shirt, black shinobi sandals, black fingerless gloves with a metal plate on the back of each hand, metal body armour, shin guards, forearm protectors and a dog mask. Strapped to the back of his waist was an ANBU issue ninjato. It was one of the four ANBU who actually helped him, Inu.
"Inu-niisan!" the blonde cried out as he noticed his big brother figure standing in the corner. Even though you couldn't see his eyes, it was clear that he was glaring at the now paralysed receptionist.
"Hokage-sama himself has approved Naruto to enter the shinobi program and you are refusing to allow him entry into this establishment, that would qualify as treason, do you really want to suffer the consequences of such actions?" the masked shinobi asked dangerously as the receptionist paled under his gaze.
"N-no ANBU-san, I-I'm sorry i-it won't happen again," the receptionist stuttered out before searching their records and pulling out the small boys timetable and handing it to the ANBU.
"Make sure of that, if the Hokage finds out about this single incident, he won't be happy, so feel lucky that I'm giving you ONE chance. Come on Naruto, I'll explain to your new sensei why you're late," Inu stated as he took the young blonde by the shoulder and led him to the classroom he would be spending most of the year.
Inu knocked on the door before opening it to a room filled with children sat a desks staring at them, while a Chūnin at the front looked on with interest before sending a glare at the young blonde, "how may I help you ANBU-san?" the man asked, he was average in his height, had messy brown hair and was slightly overweight.
"Naruto here is joining this class but was held up by an incompetent receptionist, I hope you'll treat him properly," the silver haired man stated dangerously behind his mask.
"Of course Inu-san, now Naruto, would you please go and take your seat over there," the instructor said calmly as he pointed to an empty seat.
After taking his seat, Inu left the class and the Instructor introduced himself as Mayakashi Gihen, before asking the class to introduce themselves one at a time, with only 8 others in the class standing out to the young blonde.
They were Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chōji, Yamanaka Ino, Aburame Shino, Hyūga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. Seven of them stood out to Naruto due to them being from ninja clans, while the other stood out due to her 'exotic' hair colour.
Shikamaru had black hair tied up into a pineapple like style and was slumped over his desk, Chōji was overweight and eating a packet of crisps while wearing under wear on his head, Ino was a pretty blonde girl with blue eyes, he could hear buzzing coming off Shino who wore a high collared coat and a pair of sunglasses, Hinata was a dark blue haired girl with lavender eyes and was currently trying to hide in the collar of her coat, Kiba wore a grey coat with fur trim1, Sasuke was a dark haired boy with black eyes and was wearing a blue t-shirt and white shorts and Sakura was a small girl wearing a red dress and had PINK hair.
"Now you," the Chūnin stated as he pointed at Naruto.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I like ramen, training, Neko-chan, Inu-niisan and Oji-san, I hate the 3 minutes you have to wait for instant ramen to cool and balls," he said earning questioning looks from the rest of the room, "my hobbies are gardening and my dream is to become Hokage!" he finished with determination.
"Alright then, first thing you are going to learn is how to channel your chakra," the Chūnin said as the lesson on channelling chakra started. Half way through the lesson though, "Uzumaki! Stop disturbing the class!"
"What ? I wasn't," but that was all he could say before the instructor interrupted him.
"That's it! Get out NOW!" the clearly angry Chūnin shouted at the young blonde who decided that it would be better to just do as he was told.
He waited outside for the rest of the lesson, before the entire class exited the room and made their way outside.
"Uzumaki!" the brown haired man stated as he exited the room, "Don't you dare speak back to me again! Do you understand!" the man said through gritted teeth gaining a nod out of the young ninja in training, "good, now hurry up and get to the 1st year training ground ya worthless brat!"
Naruto quickly got up and made his way outside.
The entire class was gathered in front of a large ring used for taijutsu spars, "alright class, now it is time to test out your skills in taijutsu, first up is, Nara Shikamaru vs Futokutei Ichi," the Chūnin stated as the two contestants entered the ring, "Now BEGIN!" "I give up," the sheer speed of the forfeit threw everyone off, since the pineapple haired Nara started to say it BEFORE their instructor had finished.
After a brief argument over how troublesome a simple spar to test their level is, everyone fought someone, most either being unimportant or (in the case of the clan heirs) too quick to care about.
"Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, please enter the arena," Gihen called out as the two walked into the ring, "BEGIN!"
Without a seconds hesitation the dark haired boy charged at the blonde and landed a right hook to the side of his face, causing him to fall on his ass. "HAHAHAHA" the rest of the class laughed as Naruto felt tears welling up in his eyes, not from the pain but the humiliation.
He refused to let the tears fall and got back on his feet, only to receive a punch to his stomach courtesy of his opponent. Before he had a chance to cough, he found a kick hitting the side of his face, causing him to fall down yet again.
Just outside the ring, the strange ball from his apartment looked on in pain, anger and pride, pain at seeing Naruto get beat down like that, anger at the students for laughing and the instructor for not stopping the match and pride, at the blondes will to keep getting up.
Eventually though, Naruto was unable to continue and passed out.
When he woke up, he saw a white ceiling "Oh, great, a hospital," he thought as he looked around, it was when he noticed the desk with a young nurse sitting at it that he got confused.
"Oh, you're awake," the woman stated when she realised he was conscious, "you really should learn to give up. You took quite the beating because of your stubbornness."
"Who are you and where am I?" he asked completely ignoring her statement.
"(sigh) I'm the school nurse and this is the nurses office," she told him deciding that he was too dense to listen to reason.
"Huh? The school has a nurse?" the blonde stated as though it was something he had never considered, causing the young woman to sweatdrop at his stupidity.
"You do realise that students get injured all the time and the hospital is on the other side of the village right?" she asked him hoping he would understand.
"Ah, sorry, guess I wasn't thinking huh?"
"That's okay, I'll do to give you a quick check up before you're allowed to leave, okay," she stated as she began to check over her patient.
After several minutes of making sure he was fit enough to return to class, she gave him permission to leave, which he happily did.
As he was trying to find his classroom, a voice he really didn't want to hear called him from behind, "are you alright Naru-chan?" the floating orb asked as it flew in front of him.
"Go away!" he said through gritted teeth.
"But, I can show you to the classroom," the strange object claimed desperately.
"How can a figment of my imagination know something I don't?" he asked it in the hope that it would leave.
"Because I'm not a hallucination!" it responded, while thinking of how to punish the Hokage for making it so difficult to get the boy to acknowledge it.
"(sigh) fine then… if you're right, then I'll admit I'm wrong about you being a hallucination," the blond finally relented, earning a smile off the strange being.
"Alrighty then! Follow me!" it shouted joyfully as it bobbed down the hallway, with Naruto following just behind it.
After a couple of minutes walking, the blob finally stopped just outside the classroom he had been assigned to.
"See… what did I tell ya," the ball said smugly.
"Okay… so you're not a hallucination… but that doesn't mean I have to listen to you," he claimed as he walked past the floating orb and knocked on the door, leaving it to blink dumbly several times as he was let in the classroom and told to take his seat.
By the end of the day, Naruto had been thrown out of the classroom yet again, been advised by several more people to learn how to give up, cause it usually hurt less and missed even more coursework.
"Look Naru-chan… I know you don't want to listen to me, but please understand that I have your best interests at heart, and you need to go to the library and study if you want to become a ninja!" the red ball stated at him as he walked home.
"The librarian won't let me in."
"Then go at night."
"It's locked at night."
"Then just break in."
"That's a crime."
"So is assault, but that never stopped the villagers from doing it to you."
"(sigh) fine, fine, I'll go at ten," Naruto finally gave in, knowing full well that the little ball was capable of keeping him awake all night if it wanted.
When ten o'clock came, Naruto was ready for his first attempt at breaking into the Konoha library, of course, since it was a public library, as long as he didn't take anything or cause any damage, he could only be charged with breaking and entering.
Quietly making his way towards the building, he used his years of beating aided stealth skills to reach the library undetected, before taking a hair pin he had found one day, and using it to pick the lock. Now one might ask why a seven year old child knew how to pick locks, and the answer was simple… he needed to. Most dumpsters in Konoha had padlocks placed on them in an attempt to make the blond starve… but he just learned how to unlock them.
Finally unlocking the door, he had a quick look around to make sure no one had seen him, before opening the door and entering the building for the first time in his life.
"Wow… I have to admit, you are definitely stealthy for a seven year old Naru-chan," the red orb stated as it phased through the door as he closed it.
"Uh… thanks, I guess," the young blond responded with a little bit of uncertainty in his voice, before he proceeded to search the building for shinobi material.
After several minutes of searching (with the aid of the blob) he had gathered the main material he needed for his first year at the academy, however, as he was walking towards a table to place the books on, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye.
After placing his books on a table, he proceeded towards the thing that had grabbed his attention, one of the bottom shelves… felt off. After ignoring the red orbs calls, he proceeded to remove the books from that bottom shelf, and the more he removed, the more he saw… IT.
He didn't know what it was, he didn't know why he had this strange attraction to it… until it spoke to him.
"Can you see us child?" a feminine sounding voice called out, earning a yelp of surprise from Naruto.
"It appears as though he can at least hear us," a masculine voice claimed in response to the first.
"Wha-what are you?" the seven year old asked, before what once a strange mass of… something, shot out of the shelf and revealed a pair of animals.
One was a smooth white kitsune with red outlines distinguishing its lips, ears and white, pupilless eyes, while it's paws and the tip of its tail were a light gold colour. It also wore a red bib with a pair of kanji written on it, attached to a red, wooden frame that was located just past its ears.
The other was a Tanuki that had blood red fur with gold and black outlines marking its mouth and white, beady eyes. It had a white mane and its paws and the tip of its tail were the same gold as the kitsune, while it had a similar wooden frame hanging from its neck, while a conical straw hat, with a black tip and the same kanji as the kitsune's bib, shadowed its eyes. It also possessed a small gourd attached to its left hip.
"Hello little one, my name is Imari," the fox stated in the feminine voice.
"And my name is Shigaraki," the Tanuki claimed in the masculine voice.
"What are you?" Naruto asked while backing away from the creatures.
"We are Yamagi2 and we were tasked with ensuring the survival of the shamanic ways," Imari stated.
"However, in order to do so, we needed to find someone with a certain trait… we needed someone who can see ghosts," Shigaraki further explained.
"Over the past 1000 years, no human we have found possessed that ability, however now, you have found us, as such, you are now the sole heir to all the shamanic techniques acquired by the former Asakura family, as well as us and a pair of shikigami called Zenki and Kouki, however it would be wise for you to leave them until you have gained the appropriate strength to wield them, since they can be destructive if not properly controlled," the white fox explained, earning wide eyes from both Naruto and the red orb.
"W-wait! What are shamanic techniques?" the blond asked in shock.
"Shamanic techniques involve using your furyoku or spiritual energy, to bind a spirit or ghost to an object in order to gain access to powerful techniques," Shigaraki explained.
"You can also fuse with a spirit or ghost in order to gain access to the skills they possessed in life, for example, you could fuse with that ghost there and gain access to any skills it had before it died," Imari informed them.
"Wow… that's a lot to take in," the seven year old blond claimed in shock.
"Yeah… it sure is," the orb admitted as well.
"Sooo, if you're a ghost… who are you?" Naruto asked the orb, resulting in it sweatdropping.
"You mean to tell me you seriously haven't figured it out yet?"
"Huh? Figured what out?"
"(sigh)… my name is Uzumaki Kushina and… I'M YOUR MOTHER!" the orb shouted out angrily, causing Naruto to stare into space for several seconds before responding.
"If you're my mother, then who was my father?"
"Namikaze Minato… the Yondaime Hokage, (thump)," Kushina informed the boy, causing him to faint from the shock of being the son of his idol.
"So the child fainted… come on Shigaraki, Kushina-san, would you please be so kind as to lead us to the boy's home, so that we can put him to bed?" Imari asked, gaining a nod from the ghost before the quartet left the library (but not before Shigaraki tidied up), and headed to Naruto's apartment.
1 He hasn't got Akamaru yet
2 Mountain spirits
