The staff of death and Blonde Kitsune.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything else I think of cool from anywhere else that I think will fit.
"Normal speech"
'Normal thoughts'
"Demon or powerful spirit speech"
'Demon or power spirit thoughts'
(Author notes and little bits of info or scene breaks)
(DS)
Naruto was sitting in the Hokage's office waiting for his somewhat adoptive grandfather to come back from a meeting. Of course, for a boy like him, sitting that long was nearly impossible at the age of seven. So he got up and snuck out of the room without letting secretary even see a glimpse of him. He saw a door that was cracked open with a guard sleeping in front of it. Naruto, being the little devil he is, snuck into the room after he dropped a stink bomb into the man's pants.
He looked around and saw a small silver wire on the floor. He stepped over it nimbly. He looked around and found scrolls, books, and cases of old weapons aligned neatly around the walls. Picking up a few books, ones with fancy covers, and skimmed some of them. Sighing in frustration at the complex notes within, he got up and began putting them back in what he thought was their place. He placed a finger and dragged along the spines of some of the books and saw there was a little gap. When he looked closer he saw it could be swung open like a door. Giving into his curiosity, he squeezed his hand into the crack after opening it wider.
Inside there were a few more dusty scrolls and what looked like a staff with a human skull on it. What intrigued his mind was that it was glowing. This made Naruto rush to it like a moth to a light source and pressed his excited face on to the glass casing. He eyed all of it's ominous detail in awe. Naruto opened the case not knowing he set off a silent alarm. His fingers lightly grazed the staff and a sudden pulse within him resounded. He stepped back and began to panic as his vision was slowly being consumed by darkness. And soon he felt himself falling deep into an abyss. His scream for help being devoured along with his light.
Silence.
Consciousness returned to Naruto and he weakly pushed himself up. The blond looked around groggily and saw darkness. Despite being in what he could only guess as an eternal void, he could clearly see his hands and legs. He crawled around in a panic and in the corner of his eye; he saw the staff standing upward on its own. He hastily went over to it, hoping for a way out, and felt something there, something blended into the sable world. It felt aged and what Naruto could only describe as 'dark.'
The skull on the staff started to glow ominously from both eye sockets.
"So, you are the one who awakened me from my long slumber. You are not of demon or even a half demon descent. Who are you boy?" a voice resounded throughout the void from all directions.
Naruto jumped back in fright and looked around him looking for the voice. The darkness, as if alive, stared his small being down. Quivering and wanting to go back, Naruto shakily replied in a small tone, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. Who are you and where are you?"
A dark chuckle fills the void around Naruto, who jumped in response.
"Foolish child, I'm right in front of you boy. I am in the staff. My soul was sealed with in it long before this village was an idea. My name is Shade." the voice began to collect in to one single direction. The staff radiated a red light as if it was welcoming, even luring, the young boy.
Naruto was half amazed and scared to say the least. Moments passed in a pall of silence before he slowly got up and walked hesitantly over to the staff. He saw the aged skull's jaw was rattling in silence.
"Wow...you must be strong..." the boy said in a tone barely above a whisper.
"Strong? Boy, before I was sealed away, I could level mountains, fell jungles, and ravage civilizations into nothingness. Many demons, Halflings and even humans such as you, sent brave missionaries to kill me or to get me onto their side." the skull boomed with a reminiscent and slightly proud voice.
"Then how did you get sealed into that staff if you were strong?" asked Naruto, for once he was wary and careful not to enrage this unknown being.
"One doesn't gain power of my level without meeting ones powerful. I was close with a small group of heroes. One, a paradigm of a paladin, was very hard set in his ways of 'good' and 'justice'. My powers and beliefs were of his opposite spectrum." the staff shook the void in bitterness before calming and inching closer to the frightened boy. "I utilized the ancient arts and complex workings of the fallen. Necromancy."
Naruto looked at the skull oddly and asked, "What's necromancy?"
"Boy, necromancy is, in simple terms, the magical art of the dead. With Necromancy one can bend the rules of life and death. Summon the dead to serve them. Even learn to convey with demons. Create a myriad of curses to befoul your foes. Bewitch the mind with sweet and lethal temptation... Boy, Necromancy is absolute power." the staff inched even closer than before. It's eyes glowing a cold crimson.
Naruto was shocked to hear this. Even with his stunted growth and mind he knew with a bit of this power he would be a force to be reckoned with. He was hooked of one thing the staff spoke of. Reviving the dead. He could bring back his parents, and learn who they were. He wouldn't have to be alone. He could live normally...
"Now, this 'paladin' was quite the dark one despite his foolish beliefs. He always despised me for my power over the dead. Saying I was playing at being a wicked god. That I defile and pervert the sacred remains of the deceased. I always chose to ignore him and not provoke him. But one day, when I was in my tower using my magic to talk to an ancient spirit of an old king, he burst into the room." the staff paused as if it were eyeing his guest to check if he was still listening.
Naruto was sitting quietly and attentively. The villagers would have taken a triple take at his rare behavior. Even go as far to say he was possessed.
The staff continued his tale and began circling Naruto. "He said he was there as a chosen representative doing the work of whatever god he was so devout to. He charged at me and I blasted him with my own magic. After a long battle that destroyed that leveled the tower, he invoked a spell that, in exchange for his own magic he would seal my soul away into my staff. I was taken aback that he knew of such an advanced and secret spell. My own underestimation led me to being sealed. However, the foolish devout didn't know I was going to do that same thing a week later. He had unknowingly made me a lich. My only obstacle was the natural fact my body was decayed and the only thing I could move was the skull on my staff." Shade finished his tale with a slight growl.
Naruto took in his story like a sponge. It was like he was feasting for more knowledge.
"Now you see why I do not roam the earth to this very day. Wielding my power to its fullest, I can probably make a new body...but I'd need someone to teach. So congrats young Naruto, you have the honors to become one of the most powerful beings under my guidance. Now... Do you accept it?" The skull's glowing red 'eyes' bore right into Naruto's innocent blue.
Naruto shakily smiled and said "I'll happily help you Shade-sensei. Just tell me what you want me to do. I'll do it, anything to learn this power so I prove I'm not weak, so I can prove I'm the most powerful person in the village! So I can be a Hokage!" He finished by grabbing the staff.
The darkness shattered around him silently as light returned to him. The room reappeared. Everything was as is. Except the staff was resting in the boy's arms.
Naruto darted out of the secret room and through the bookshelves and out of the guarded room. He knocked the sleeping guard over, making the stink bomb go off, as he ran out into the streets. He ran with a smile plastered on to his face, getting weird glances from the villagers, and hid in a back alley not far from the side of the rock face where the Hokage monument was.
He snuck to his home and climbs through the open window.
He goes to his mattress, if someone could call the holey piece of cloth one, and sits down. He puts the jacket he had wore onto a nail on the wall, his makeshift coat hanger he proudly made himself, and sits in front of the staff he leant against a wall.
"Is this 'home' where you live boy? This squalid shack would have made my leveled tower look like a manse. I have a better place for you to stay instead of this gutter. Now, I want you to go to that cliff face on the side of your monument, and then find a place that looks like it has a painting on it. I'll tell you more when you get there." said Shade as he projected the directions to the boy.
Naruto nodded, half annoyed at Shade's dissing of his not so messy home, and picked up the staff then ran out the door. He stopped for a moment to take in the last image of his home and memories before sadly closing the door.
He ran along the cliff face and saw what he believed was just a mark in the stone made by a jutsu a long time ago. It was covered with dirt and in a open back alley behind a weapon shop, where a young Tenten Aramaki was indulged in reading about knives and such. After brushing off the grime and dirt, it showed to be a large complex pattern of a skeletal system of what looked like a man with bat wings and a large tail. The staff in Naruto's hand moved on its own, pressing the left wing, the arrowhead on the end of the tail, the right wing, and finally the right eye of the mural.
What happened next surprised the soul out of Naruto but not warrant a scream so anyone would see him, the mural moved seeming to bow to the new disciple. Naruto gripped the staff in awe as an opening was made with no sound at all. Magic indeed. The opening was large enough for a couple of ninja to walk through easily. Naruto walked into the opening and down a hallway lined with glowing red crystals. When he got to the end of the hall he entered a room with very old furniture made of, what looked like, bones. Sticking up from one of the chairs facing away from the hall was what looked like two plant leaves with teeth. He set the staff down and ran around the room looking at all the new things he had never seen before. The opening closed silently as Tenten walked by moment's later still reading.
Directly behind an excited Naruto, the staff of Shade glowed as the skull smiled wickedly.
(End chapter)
Ok folks thanks for reading this. I must thank my Friend Inugami for beta'ing this and making some great changes! So please, Review this story! I'm beggin ya, the more reviews the more chapters I'll right.