Soul Merge
Chapter One: The Beginning
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Overlord, or anything else I may reference in this story.
Thoughts "Telepathy" "Big Thing Talking"
Long ago in the nearly forgotten past when humanity stood at the height of their accomplishments reveling in their supposed superiority to the world and to the heavens themselves, it came. It's origins are to this day unknown but speculation points to many possibilities, it could have come from beyond our star, or from the depths of hell, some even said it was born from the manifold sins of humanity regardless of those supposed origins all agree on one thing, It was a demon.
The oldest legends and few surviving records of the old world disagree greatly on its form and appearance the only consensus being that it was a 'terrible beast' of enormous size with ten tails and that death and destruction was brought with the beast were ever it went.
In time the beast would be named Jūbi, and it would ravage the world and humanity for a thousand years until one man discovered the secret to both it's power and eventual destruction.
As the beast raged across the world many strange mutations appeared amongst the people and animals of the world, one of these mutations appeared in the eyes of a young monk. These new eyes, which appeared to have rings surrounding the pupils like ripples in a pond, allowed the young man to see that Jūbi was composed almost entirely out of energy. Energy that was present in all living things, it was by manipulating this energy that the demon had such incredible destructive power.
Due to his upbringing in the small hidden temple he would name this energy Chakra, and spend many years trying to harness his Chakra so that he and others would be able to fight and maybe destroy Jūbi.
After many years of training his mind and body he succeeded and learned that his eyes, which he had named the Rinnegan, allowed him to manipulate all six elemental types of Chakra. A feat that earned him the name Rikudō Sennin, The Sage of the Six Paths.
While it is known that the Rikudō Sennin and many of his fellow students did fight with the demon Jūbi the specifics of the battle have been lost to time, we do know that in the end the Rikudō Sennin imprisoned the soul and chakra of the beast within himself. He became the first Jinchūriki in order to save the world.
For the remaining decades of his life he traveled the world instructing people in how to harness and use Chakra, as his life neared it's end he realized that the Jūbi was too powerful to be pulled into the afterlife with him when he died and that if he did nothing the demon would be loosed onto the world again.
So the Rikudō Sennin used the last of his strength to tear the demons soul apart, and while he knew that doing so would set many weaker demons loose on the world few of them would be able to stand against the chakra wielding Ninja that now lived.
Each fragment took on the appearance of a beast that Jūbi somewhat resembled, Ichibi no Shukaku the one-tailed raccoon-dog, Nibi no Bakeneko the two-tailed monster cat, Sanbi no Kyodaigame the three-tailed turtle, Yonbi no Saru the four-tailed monkey, Gobi no Irukauma a bizarre looking dolphin-horse thing with five tails, Rokubi no Namekuji the six-tailed slug, Nanabi no Kabutomushi the seven-tailed horned beetle, Hachibi no Kyogyū the eight-tailed giant ox, and Kyūbi no Yōko the nine-tailed fox.
To the dismay of the Rikudō Sennin each fragment was progressively more powerful than the last and while none were as strong as Jūbi he knew that they could still cause enormous amounts of death and destruction, however with the last of his strength gone all he could was pray that the Ninja would be able to protect the people.
Two hundred years would pass before the Nine began to appear in the history books, and indeed they were a force to be feared. However only a few were openly hostile to humanity, some like the Three-tails seemed to be little more than the animals they resembled, others like the One-tail were simply crazy, and the less that is said about the bizarre dolphin-horse thing the better. However some like the Kyūbi were very smart and very dangerous.
Kyūbi realized that all the tailed beasts would eventually degenerate into mindless beasts, due to none of them having complete souls. So he worked hard to find away to overcome this problem unfortunately for him by the time he was ready, the Ninja had already sealed his kin into new prisons.
These prisons ranged from tea pots to infants. These children Jinchūriki were then trained to be the weapons of their villages.
Kyūbi had few options, he could try and free his kin and risk being sealed alongside them or degenerate however he had no idea how to remove his kin from their prisons. Eventually growing desperate he decided to use his new technique, or Jutsu as the Ninja would call it, on a human to give him more time to find an answer.
Kyūbi's pride would not allow him to settle for any human, he chose the most fearsome Ninja that fought in the recent Third Shinobi World War, Minato Namikaze. The man was the Forth Hokage meaning the forth to lead the Ninja village of Konohagakure no Sato, the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
Kyūbi knew that Konoha had never had a Jinchūriki and thus assumed that the village didn't have the means to seal a demon.
He was wrong, on October tenth Kyūbi attacked the Leaf Village, he was a sight that would inspire fear in the hearts of men for years to come. He stood as tall as the cliff face known as the Hokage Monument, were the faces of those great leaders were carved, that loomed over the village. His fur was crimson red his roars deafened many who heard them and his malevolent chakra seemed to poison everything around.
When Minato Namikaze arrived on the field upon the head of Gamabunta, a giant toad summoned by the Forth to aide him whose size neared that of the fox. Kyūbi began his Jutsu, however the Sealing Jutsu the Fourth Hokage used was completed first and a Shinigami, a God of Death, was summoned and with it's power and at the cost of his own life the Kyūbi was sealed into the navel a new born.
This child's name was Naruto Uzumaki, the last wish of the Forth Hokage was for Naruto to be seen as a hero for keeping Kyūbi imprisoned. Sadly the villagers saw the newly orphaned Naruto as nothing more than the Demon within him and wanted him killed, and it was only by the power of the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, who returned to office after the death of the Forth, that Naruto was able to live even the semblance of a normal life.
The Third Hokage passed a law that would prevent anyone from mentioning the fact that Kyūbi was sealed in Naruto, those who broke the law were harshly punished, he had hoped that the younger generation would be able to become friends with the boy. Children however learn by seeing and all saw the hatred directed at the boy, even if they didn't know why, they to grew to hate him.
Naruto was forced to live on his own in a small one room apartment in a near derelict building, overcharged for everything, without true friends, suffering from the mental and sometimes physical abuse of the villagers.
This cycle would last for nine years, until one event changed everything.
{-~oOo~-}
Tadahito Yoshimura was perhaps the most average man alive, he was of average height and build with short brown hair and a five o'clock shadow. Wearing the basic outfit that most Konoha Chunin wore, blue ninja sandals with navy blue pants and long sleeve shirt with a green vest that had more pockets than most civilians entire wardrobe. His hitai-ate, a fancy name for a headband with a forehead sized metal plate engraved with the village symbol, was on his forehead.
That particular evening found Tadahito carrying a box of chocolate as he entered a small apartment building near the village market, anyone who saw him would naturally assume he was here to visit his girl. It was true the chocolate was for her, but he had another goal in mind that night.
He planned to end an injustice that should have never been allowed to continue, that mockery of all that he believed in. The demon in human flesh, Naruto Uzumaki.
As he stealthily approached the apartment door memories of his Tou-san(Father) and Nii-san(Brother) invaded his mind, both had died fighting the demon on the other side of that door along with his personal hero the Fourth Hokage. Tonight would see all of them avenged.
The lock on the door was a joke, Tadahito could have picked it with a paperclip. Once inside he quickly checked to be sure there were no surprises before he began to make a series of archaic gestures with his hands, these hand signs were used by Ninja everywhere to help focus their chakra and allow them to use Jutsu.
The Jutsu Tadahito was using was designed to insure no one outside the room would be able to hear any sounds or sense any chakra being used.
After his Jutsu was in place Tadahito quickly stepped past the dirty laundry and empty packs of instant ramen to the side of the bed were his target lay sleeping.
Naruto Uzumaki was a little short for his age with spiky blond hair that stuck out in every direction, on each cheek were three grooves in his skin that gave the appearance of animal like whiskers, these whiskers seemed the gather and hold darkness making them much more pronounced than they would normally be.
Tadahito snarled silently at the demon-boy in front of him as he pulled a kunai from his weapon pouch, and without a moments hesitation swung the diamond shaped knife downward toward Naruto's heart.
As if on instinct Naruto woke and threw himself away from his attacker, he screamed as the kunai cut a deep gash across his chest and in a panic tried the flee from the room.
Tadahito however threw the kunai, embedding it in the back of Naruto's left knee. The boy screamed again in agony as he collapsed and began calling for someone to help him as he scooted away from his attacker on his back.
"No one will save you this time demon!" Tadahito yelled as he came at the boy putting all of his strength into a punch that connected solidly with the boys head causing a sickening crunching sound and making the boy to lose consciousness.
Tadahito yanked his kunai free from the boys leg, and focused his chakra to charge the blade with electricity and moved to deliver the killing blow. As the kunai descended the Third Hokage and several of his ANBU Black-Ops guards seemed to flicker into existence with in the small apartment.
Reacting with a speed that few believed the elderly Kage to still have he kicked Tadahito off of Naruto, however while he managed to prevent the kunai from hitting Naruto's heart he did not manage to stop the attack completely. The electrically charged kunai struck Naruto's stomach, dead center in the seal that imprisoned the Kyūbi.
{-~oOo~-}
Kyūbi was bored, in the way that only nine years of imprisonment without anything to do but stare at the scenery could do. Sadly the only scenery available was what was immediately outside of his cage deep within the recesses of Naruto's mind-scape, a kind of inner world that reflected the individuals mind and mental health.
Naruto's mind-scape was not a very pleasant place, it appeared to be an ancient sewer system that had decayed to the point that one would be justified in fearing a collapse. Everything that Kyūbi could see was decayed even the bars of the cage door in front of him, sadly they seemed to be just as strong as they were when Kyūbi arrived here. However that was not the worst part of being trapped in Naruto's mind-scape, the place was also flooded with a few feet of vile looking liquid and the smell was bad enough to make a stone gag.
He couldn't even watch what was happening in the outside world, of course he could make educated guesses based on the state of his surroundings but that wasn't really enough for him.
Kyūbi wasn't surprised when bricks began to fall from the ceiling, this he had learned was a sign that someone was attacking the boy, as with every time this happened Kyūbi prepared himself hoping that the seal would fail for even a second and allow him to gain even a few moments of control. For that would be all he needed.
Although he had long since stopped expecting it would happen he had nothing else to do in here, as such when the cage bars flickered out like a bad T.V. Signal he almost missed his chance. Almost.
{-~oOo~-}
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had been working late in his office that night trying valiantly to put his oldest most hated foe, the paperwork, in it's place when he had sensed the uniquely potent chakra signature that belonged to Naruto vanish. He had quickly gathered his three ANBU guards and sped across the city using the Shunshin Jutsu to drastically increase their speed.
When he arrived in Naruto's apartment seconds after he left his office he found one of his Chunin trying to kill the boy that he had come to think of as a surrogate grandson, he had tried to stop the kunai that was visibly sparking with electricity from killing Naruto however the blades momentum was not so easily stopped and it was embedded directly in the center of the seal tattooed on the boys stomach. His blood ran cold as he saw that and he prayed that it hadn't disrupted the seal.
Unfortunately for everyone that night his prayers were not answered. Less than a second after the kunai had hit a massive blast of vile crimson chakra escaped from the boy throwing everyone in the room into the walls.
Sarutobi looked on in horror as Naruto's body shifted, his normally blue eyes became red with slitted pupils, his canine teeth lengthened into fangs, and his fingernails grew into claws.
Before anyone could react the Kyūbi-Naruto was on all fours, he smirked at the Third Hokage and with a crimson flash was gone the only sign he was there was the 'thwump' of air moving to fill the void Naruto had left.
Sarutobi stood his senses fully open, but unable to detect Naruto's chakra or the vile chakra of the Fox.
"One of you take that traitor to Ibiki," he said gesturing to Tadahito, "You others notify the Jonin and Chunin to began a search of the city and surrounding forests for Naruto, make sure they understand that they are to bring him back alive."
"Hai(yes) Hokage-sama(sama=lord)." The Three ANBU said quickly moving to carry out their orders.
Naruto, I hope your all right. Sarutobi thought as he Shunshined back to his office.
{-~oOo~-}
In a small cave heated by volcanic activity further below the earth Kyūbi-Naruto appeared panting like he had just ran a marathon.
"I over estimated this brats body." he gasped as he quickly began molding his chakra without hand signs. "It doesn't help that my chakra is damaging it either." he muttered as burn marks began to appear, he noticed the blood and added, "Plus it's leaking."
Kyūbi could feel his control slipping as the seal repaired itself but he was sure he would finish his Jutsu first, the same Jutsu he had planned on using on the Forth Hokage.
As the last of his control began to fade he felt his Jutsu begin and in a moment of giddiness called out the name of the Jutsu like the Ninja were prone to do.
"Sourumāji no Jutsu(Soul Merge Technique)!" unexpected pain knocked him out.