Yes, a new story by me! Sorry, but it'll still be a couple days until Psyche or Lucidity are updated, as my muse insisted (read: threatened to go on strike with my other stories) until I got this out. This story's still really early in development, so the quality (and length) aren't up to par, but I'm... okay, I guess, with how it turned out. Dunno when I'll get the next chapter of this written, so...

Read and enjoy (and make your guesses about what comes next)!

Disclaimer: I wouldn't be writing Naruto fanfics on if I owned Naruto, now would I?

Becoming

Chapter 1

Death

The sky was dark, and the new moon was evident in the streets of Konohagakure, making it much darker than usual. The only light came from the occasional streetlight or those few shops open so late at night. It was nearly midnight, and one Uzumaki Naruto was steadfastly walking through the streets, arms full-up with bags of groceries. Since his earlier revelation of his milk having soured, Naruto had made a quick stop at his apartment, removing his Hitai-Ate and setting it down on his dresser. He'd gone through his cabinets and fridge, tossing out the old, moldy and expired food while making a list of what to shop for before heading out into the forest to train.

The reason for his sudden need to train was because his new Sensei, someone named Hatake Kakashi, had told him and his two teammates that they were going to go through a survival exercise the following day, and to not eat breakfast. Naruto frowned at that thought, wondering just why they weren't supposed to eat breakfast, but if it would make him a ninja, he'd gladly follow those orders.

Turning a corner, Naruto's thoughts drifted to his two teammates. When his name and Sakura's had come up, he'd been elated- the girl he liked- or rather, used to like, since she'd said that she didn't like him and had said that he was a nuisance, making him rethink his crush on her- was with him, so that created enough opportunities for him to prove her wrong. He wasn't a nuisance and didn't get in her way, he was Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage! Shifting his groceries, Naruto allowed himself a small punch before having to adjust so that his groceries didn't fall over. His thoughts then went to his other teammate- Uchiha Sasuke.

Naruto didn't know what those girls in his class thought Sasuke was so cool, since he never did anything to garner their attention. Sure, his family had all died, which made Naruto feel for the guy- them orphans had to stick together- but that didn't suddenly turn the guy into someone able to make women swoon when he struck a pose or talked to them. Walking under a streetlight, Naruto scowled as he thought of Sasuke's personality, or lack thereof. The guy barely said anything to anyone, and yet most of the girls in his Academy class had thought that he was some kinda prize to be won!

Shaking his head clear of those thoughts, Naruto continued on, walking through the empty streets, feeling his aching muscles scream for rest.

His Sensei- Naruto didn't know enough about the guy to make an accurate description, but he seemed like a flake. A lazy flake, since he got hit with the eraser and evaded answering his own questions. It made Naruto wonder if it was too late to try to get onto another team, and half-remembered words of Iruka-Sensei saying that all team placements were final drifted through his head.

Naruto was so caught up in his thoughts that he barely noticed when a woman appeared before him, hysterical. She was wearing a simple white gown, flowing down and around her body, so wispy it made her seem almost ethereal. The stark white of the gown made her dark skin stand out all the more, and Naruto swore that her skeleton could be seen through her skin.

"Please, help!" She gasped out, her chest- which, Naruto saw, was just as skeletal as her face, seeming to contain almost no amount of muscle- heaving with short, uneven breaths. Naruto took a step back, scared.

Are people supposed to look that... dead?

"Help!" She rasped again, her voice sounding like nails on glass, it was so rough and grating. The sudden noise had Naruto drop his groceries, the contents of the bags spilling out haphazardly, and clutch his ears and stagger backwards, away from the skeletal woman. She took a step towards Naruto, though whether it was a step or she just threw her leg out and hoped it would catch ground and keep her upright was unknown, and raised a single arm, so thin it was almost like it was just a skeleton with skin over it, towards him. "Please." She repeated in a softer voice.

Naruto lowered his arms, by now completely scared of this strange woman, and looked around quickly, hoping for someone- anyone- to step in.

There were none, the street just as bare as before.

The woman took another step towards him, her torso falling forward as she continued to beg him for aid. Moving with as much speed as his worn muscles could, Naruto's hands darted down to the pavement, picking up the half-empty bags.

"I'm sorry, miss." He started babbling, hoping against hope that she would just go away. "But I don't think I can help you."

His hands were positively shaking as he picked up his scattered groceries, and he was reaching for his carton of milk- which had fallen very close to the woman- when Naruto felt the skeletal hands latch onto him, pulling his entire body towards her.

Shrieking (because that high-pitched noise that left his mouth most definitely was not an un-manly scream of terror, despite how much it sounded like one), Naruto twisted, trying to slide out of his jacket and escape, only to find that the woman had too good a grip on him. Thankfully, his legs were free, and he was close enough to her that he could kick her legs out from underneath her, hopefully using the distraction to escape and seek help. However, his kick never landed, and she seemed to have regained her ability to properly function, as she hooked one of her hands around his throat and had slammed him against the pavement before kicking his knee, the sound of the kneecap's shattering audible to the entire area. Naruto opened his mouth in a silent scream riddled with wet coughs, his entire body arching up and away from the ground, before he began to blindly flail about, throwing punches at her as best he could, only to find his left hand held in one of her own, her bones biting through his skin and squeezing. There was a snapping sound, and she dropped his arm, his hand dangling down lifelessly. Naruto was breathless, and opened his mouth to scream once more. This time, he had no doubts that the sound he emitted as she heft him up, carrying his weakly protesting body with her back into the alleyway.

Naruto held his one good hand in one of the basic hand seals taught to everyone, trying to gather chakra that wasn't there, only to realize that he'd worn up almost all of his chakra training, fighting with his Shadow Clones and practicing his aim with his Kunai and Shuriken, meaning he had little else to use against this woman. He vaguely noticed that she had stopped and had struggled to free himself and limp into one of the shops, where a ninja (and a medic) undoubtedly would be called for, but the dark-skinned skeletal woman held fast, tightening her grip on him ever-so-slightly, making him gasp for air through a highly bruised and broken throat that already was hard to breath with. He tried to speak, only for the words to come out as a wet gurgling nose, his lips clapping together soundlessly. Suddenly, he felt weightless for a second before all 89 pounds of him returned, jerking him down and exacerbating his wounds. The woman pulled on his jacket, yanking him down onto the wet, stinky ground, and Naruto realized with a start where she'd taken him- the sewers.

Oh god. He frantically thought. She's going to kill me!

Though he could not see anything in the pitch black of the sewer, Naruto could feel her grasping his jacket and yanking at its collar, trying to free his neck. Naruto made one final attempt at fighting back, using the last of his strength to try to reverse their positions, only for the woman to shake off his arm like it was nothing more than a fly in her face. Yanking hard, Naruto both heard and felt his jacket rip, the two halves slumping down past his shoulders to rest around his elbows, as he now spent what were undoubtedly the last moments of his life clenching his eyes shut and cradling his surely-broken wrist up against his body, trying to conserve what little heat the dark, dank, cold sewers made to leech from him. His breaths were short and wet, drawing little air into his lungs, as his windpipe had undoubtedly been crushed when he'd been slammed down onto the pavement.

"Help." The woman whispered into his ear, her breath hot, disgustingly so, and the smell of it made him gag- like rotting, moldy meat. Naruto could feel her breath as she moved down to his neck, all hot and like that of a dead animal, and he heard the sound of something wet slapping against something else. He wondered what it was, and it wasn't until she dragged her tongue over his jugular did he realize what the sound was.

She was licking her lips.

She's gonna kill and eat me.

The last thing he remembered before his descent into the inky, unfeeling void of unconsciousness was pinching and pain and the feel of his blood as it was drawn out of his body-

And then, in a sewer in the dead of night, Uzumaki Naruto died.