Path of a Ninja Arc:
Chapter 1~What Ever You Do Don't Head Toward the Light, I Don't Need To Deal with the Paperwork That Come With It~
Disclaimer: A disclaimer a day keeps the soulless lawyer away, so I do not own Naruto
"normal Speech"
'thoughts'
Demon and other uber being
Konoha
Blood and death was in the air of Konoha as the Kyuubi no Kitsune, best known as the most powerful biju in existence and least known as the greatest demon prankster, continued with its path of destruction. After years of being sealed within its current host it was finally set free by a masked ninja with a strange, swirling pinwheel eyes. Suddenly Minato Namikaze, aka the Fourth Hokage, appeared on top of his toad summon, Gamabunta, and teleported the Kyuubi away from the village.
Minato approached his wife Kushina Uzumaki as she called out "Chakurachen Shoheki (Chakra Chains Barrier)," to restrain the Kyuubi.
"Minato I'm going to reseal the Kyuubi in me. Whatever happens, please take care of Naruto for me," a dying Kushina said. The forced extraction of the kyuubi had nearly killed her on the spot. It was only her willpower that was keeping her going right now.
"No!" Minato argued. "In your condition right now the Kyuubi will only break free again, the only choice we have is for me to use Shiki Fujin (Demon Consuming Seal) to seal the Yin half of the Kyuubi into me and Hakka no Fuin Shiki (Eight Trigrams Sealing Style) to seal the Yang half along with some of our chakras into Naruto to help him and act as fail safe for the seal."
"But if you do that then you will die and Naruto would ended up alone and hated as a jinchuriki," his wife said.
"Don't worry. We made Jiraiya his godfather and I'm sure he will take care of Naruto" Minato assured her.
Somewhere near a bathhouse
A white haired Toad Sage sneezed.
"I feel as if I'm about to disappoint my student by forsaking the responsible that he give me, oh well back to my research hehe," Jiraiya said as he went back to peeping.
Back to Minato and Kushina
"Besides, I will make it my last request that Naruto will be viewed as a hero for imprisoning the Kyuubi. I'm positive that the village will honor my last request, the request of their beloved and awesome Hokage," Minato said with a grin.
Back at Konohagakure
The minority of ninjas, the majority of civilians and the league of unholy miserable old people known as Homura, Koharu, and Danzo sneezed.
Back to Minato and other
"Are you sure about that?" Kushina asked skeptically.
"Yes and there is no way that I could ever be wrong about this," he answered back.
"You just had to go and jinx it didn't you? I'm going to beat you to a bloody pulp if anything happens to Naruto you know," Kushina deadpanned.
"Okay let's get this started," Minato said as he ignored his wife's threats and began to perform the Shiki Fujin (Demon Consuming Seal) and summoned the Shinigami.
'Finally, sometime away from the horror know as paperwork. Anyways I should probably get to my job of taking souls now,' the Shinigami thought as he began to pulled out Kyuubi's Yin chakra out of him and seal it into Minato.
While this was happening, Minato and Kushina were saying their goodbyes to their son. Then, Minato sealed the rest of the fox's chakra along with part of his and his wife's chakra into their son.
"Hmm, your parents placed a great deal of burden on you, while at the same time they placed a lot of faith in you, little one. It seems that you will do many great things in this world," the Shinigami said while looking at Naruto. "As for these two souls, once they are done with what they have to do I shall collect their souls," he said looking toward Minato and Kushina, "anything that will give me less paperwork to deal with now is good for me." As the Shinigami was about to leave, he sensed something and looked back at Naruto. 'It seems that while the fox was being sealed away some of my essence was sealed inside the boy as well,' the Shinigami thought. 'I can deal with it now or wait and see how it will benefit me later on.' After studying the tiny human for a moment, he made his decision. 'I'll just deal with it later, might be fun to see what happen,' the Shinigami concluded as he left.
5 Years Later in Konoha
"Damn stupid villagers, why do they always do this to me every time?" Naruto asked as he ran away from an angry mob of villagers once again. For Naruto, being hated, chased and beaten all the while having peoples after his life is a part of a normal week for him. Although, normal is not how you would describe this spiky blond haired kid because for as long as he could remember he has seen things no one could, he could see all kinds of spirits around him. The first few times that he realized that he can communicate with the dead, it freaked him out, but over time by having them willing to talk to him and all the while being shunned by most of the village, he became used to them. From his strange ability, he also learned that all sort of things have a soul, from animals to plants to rocks, even the river and the air we breathe. This gave him a unique view of the world. While being the village pariah, he ended up befriending many of the friendly spirits. Due to Naruto's wind affinity, which he discovered by conversing with the spirit of a friendly shinobi a couple of years back, he gained a new familiar by the name of Cloud. Cloud was a carefree glowing gray or sliver orb with wings.
"Demon"
"Monster," the angry mob screamed as they chased Naruto.
"Don't worry Naru-kun, soon the ANBU will be here to deal with the mob and then we can spend the rest of this nice day watching clouds," Cloud said in a cheerful tone.
"First of all, who are you, a Nara?" Naruto deadpanned. "Secondly can you help me out by blinding them with a sandstorm or something?" Naruto ranted as he ran.
"Okie Dokie" replied a happy Cloud as he blew a dust storm which blinded and slowed down the incoming mob.
Unfortunately for Naruto as he turned around the next corner he came across another group of angry mob, who proceeded to beat him to a bloody pulp.
As he began to pass out the ANBU showed up and made short work of the idiot villagers, who had broken the third's law.
In Naruto's Mindscape
Naruto awoke to a dark, damp sewer like place.
"Hmm I wonder where I am, I guess I will have to walk around to find out" he said. After wandering around aimlessly for hours, he came across a cage with the kanji for seal attach to it. Then, all of a sudden, a pair of giant red eyes appeared and focused on him.
"So we finally meet, you pathetic excuse for a human," it boomed.
"Who are you?" asked a scared Naruto.
"I am the great and powerful Kyuubi no Kitsune" it boomed again.
"AHHHHHH! Help! I'm going to get eaten by a demon fox!" Naruto screamed as he ran madly around in a circle. After running around for few minutes he slammed into the Shinigami.
"You don't know how lucky you are kid, you almost kicked the bucket there," said the Shinigami. Upon seeing the Shinigami's demonic face, Naruto fainted. "How the hell is it possible for him to faint inside his own mind," he deadpanned. "Hey kid wake up. I don't have all day you know," the Shinigami sighed.
"Please don't eat me?" a scared Naruto asked.
"We're not going to eat you," the Shinigami replied.
"I don't know… I haven't had a decent meal in a long time," the Kyuubi added as he licks his lip.
"Shut up Kurama," the Shinigami snapped.
"Kurama?" Naruto asked.
"That's the name of the giant furball here," the Shinigami said as he pointed to a pissed off Kurama. "I suppose I should change my appearance so you stop freaking out," he said as the Shinigami changed his appearance to handsome man with dark eyes and white hair slicked back. He wore a black suit with white gloves, a black fedora and a cane.
"Where are we, what are we doing here and what are you?" Naruto asked waving his arm about.
"We are in your mind, you're here because you were knocked unconscious, the Kyuubi is here because the Fourth Hokage sealed it inside your gut to save the village, I'm the Shinigami and I am here to talk to you," the Shinigami said as he counted off the questions. "Also, if you were wondering about the demonic look it because I look badass with it, but then again, I always look badass," he said as cross his arm in a gangster pose while both Naruto and Kurama sweat-dropped at that.
"So that's why the villagers hate me. They think I'm the Kyuubi," Naruto said as he dropped his head.
"Yep, they're that stupid to not know the difference between the cereal box and the prize inside it, but you don't worry about it because you are not fluffy-chan," the Shinigami said.
"Yeah like a pathetic human like you could be me…hey don't call me fluffy-chan," Kurama growled.
"Anyways, this talk may take some time, so can you change the scenery around here and feed some rabbits or something to Mr. Ego here?" the Shinigami asked.
"I can do that?" Naruto asked.
"Yes," the Shinigami replied.
"Change it to what?" Naruto asked again.
"Make the surrounding into something decent looking. This is your mind, is it not?" the Shinigami replied. Naruto closed his eyes, then the scene changed into an infinite blue sky with white clouds floating around and they were stand on top of an endless sea that reflected the sky above. The Kyuubi had a collar with the seal on the dog tag around his neck, next to him was a giant white rabbit and in front the fox was a table and two comfortable chairs for Naruto and the Shinigami to sit in.
"This tastes likes miso ramen and it doesn't bleed," Kurama growled.
"That's because the only thing they feed me is ramen, miso is the best flavor by the way, and I don't want to have any more nightmares than I already do, so no blood for you," Naruto deadpanned.
"Anyways the first thing on our agenda is that I want to make a deal with Kurama. I have your Yin chakra with me, and with it I can make a body for you so you can come out to the outside world to get some fresh air. I can place the new seal on him to let you do this if you make a promise to me that you will protect and help the kid. And with the new body and seal you can eventually end up being truly free if you make an oath with me to amend for your past sin by doing good deeds and promise to not to do any more evil deeds after you're free," the Shinigami said.
"Hmm interesting, but being good is not my thing," Kurama said.
"The kid will help you take down that S-rank shinobi that you are pissed at," Shinigami said.
"Who?" Naruto asked.
"I tell you later but for now help me out here," he replied to Naruto before returning his attention to the Kyuubi, "Well?" the Shinigami asked.
"Good but no," Kurama countered.
"I give you more bunnies to eat and add some different flavors that are both ramen and non ramen in taste," Naruto added.
"Keep going" an interested fox said.
"I will make the kid stronger and you have the most powerful host as your partner"
"And?"
"Candy?"
"I'm not a little kid"
"Women?"
"Nope"
"Men?"
"I don't swing that way!"
"Pie"
"Now you guys are just making things up"
"Disneyland"
"How the hell do you know about that place?"
"How about you help me prank peoples that are mean to me"
"Haha ha having people suffer unimaginable pain and humiliation is the ultimate form of entertainment! Okay, you have yourself a deal," Kurama agreed with an evil smile on his face.
"Kurama, I think you have a lot of unresolved issues to deal with, but for now, let's move on to the next issue at hand. Naruto, as you know now, the Fourth Hokage was unable to kill Kurama here so he was left with no choice but to seal him in you." the Shinigami said as Naruto nodded in response. "However he couldn't seal all of the fox's chakra, so the Fourth summoned me to seal half of it in him and the other half in you, but while I was there I wasn't careful about controlling my power so when Kurama was being sealed in you some of my essence got sealed into you, giving you a little bit of my ability."
"Or you just being lazy again," Kurama huffed.
"Ability, you mean how I can see spirits and weird stuff?" Naruto asked.
"Yes, but there is more to it than that and my minion here will tell you all about it," the Shinigami said as a black bird appear in front of him.
"I'm not your minion I'm your employee, don't make me call the union on you," the bird ranted, before turning to the blond boy, "anyways hi Naruto-kun I used to be a Konoha ninja when I was alive, but after I died I made a deal to be a reaper, a middleman for the Shinigami," the bird said.
"Why?" Naruto asked.
"I can't tell you why right now because of a certain reason also because of that reason I can't tell you my real name either, so until that time you can call me Crow" he answered.
"So because of the situation you are in, I decided to help you grasp your ability. In return, you have to work for me," the Shinigami said.
"But I want to be a ninja, then fulfill my dream of becoming the Hokage," Naruto stated.
"Oh you can still do those things. What I'm asking from you won't interfere with your dream, I'm just asking you to do a few tasks for me when you have the time," the Shinigami responded smoothly.
"What would I be doing for you?" Naruto asked.
"You will be helping any spirits with any task that they need help with and helped the spirits of the dead with any unfinished business so they can move on to the afterlife. Once you get stronger, I want you to help me hunt down certain immortals that are foolish enough to believe they can escape me. You don't need to worry about that right now. Most likely you will cross paths with them eventually," he answered.
"Sure anything that makes me strong and awesome sounds good to me," Naruto replied.
"Okay, let me make a few adjustments to the seal to make things a little easier for you now and I will start working on crafting a body for the fox with his Yin chakra. Once that is done, there will be more things for you to do so until then Crow here will tell you about your unique ability," the Shinigami said before he left.
"So let me tell you about your abilities or should I say kekkei genkai since you can pass it to your descendants. Also I should tell you about the kekkei genkai you got from the fox as well," Crow said.
"Kekkei genkai?" Naruto asked.
"It looks like I have a lot to explain so let's begin," Crow sighed.
Omake:
~Q&A with Naruto, Crow and Kurama~
"So why did you attack Konoha for anyway?" Naruto asked.
"Hmm, I think I will tell you when you become a Genin," Kurama replied.
"Why does the Shinigami eat a person's soul for?" Naruto asked.
"The gateway to the afterlife is in the bowels of the Shinigami's stomach," Crow answered.
"Okay, oh hey you are sealed in my gut right?" Naruto asked.
"Don't remind me," Kurama huffed.
"And we are in my mind right?" Naruto continued.
"Yes we are. Where are you going with this, Naruto-kun?" Crow asked.
"Well, I know that I sometimes tend to think with my stomach," at this Kurama chuckled, "but," Naruto continued while ignored the fox, "how come I can talk to the fox in my mind when he's in my gut."
"…"
"…"
"…"
"I'm not sure Naruto-kun," Crow answered.
"I have no idea," Kurama replied.
"Hmm, mind link?" Crow suggested.
"How the chakra network is set up?" Kurama added.
"Pocket universe?"
"Astral projection?"
"Magic?"
"42?"
"Well, I guess it is just one of those life mysteries that we will never know," Crow concluded.
"You mean like where babies come from?" Naruto asked.
"Actually that's one of those "we will tell you when you are older" things," Crow said.
"And I can't wait to see the brat's face when he finds out," Kurama chuckled.
A/N: Thank for reading and I will be updating as soon as possible until then Sayonara no Jutsu.