AUTHOR'S NOTE: For those of you who are wondering, in this universe everything is run by sealing methods. Seals are faster to make then Naruto's technology, but they won't work as well as electrically powered appliances and aren't as eloquent in use. If a seal is destroyed, then it has to be remade. Naruto could simply mass produce his wares.
Chakra is a much thicker and slower energy then Electricity. It is much more useful for large-scale destruction, while electricity and technology will be used with finesse. The technology will probably be more practical when used for speed, efficiency, and stealth. It will also make everything easier and more reliable then seals for homes and personal, mundane use. Seals can only be crafted by seal masters or people versed in the art, and that limits the amount of things people have that work with seals.
Summary: Naruto, neglected his whole life by everybody including the hokage, has never been touched by another living being that he can remember. At the age of six, he finds himself with that chance and it all goes wrong. Promised with a better life, Naruto releases Kyuubi, but a secondary defense seal pushes the beast back while the excess energy goes to Naruto. Naruto develops a unique bloodline and an unstable biological structure that takes from its surroundings to make it better. Naruto decides he needs a way to defend himself, so he uses his creative mind and the knowledge of others to build himself a new life. Immersed in his new hobby, he makes a legacy. He doesn't want to be seen, but remembered. Everybody will remember him as the revolution.
As a side note, I was wondering if I should take this story into a Resident Evil type world or a Matrix type one? I already have ideas on how to transition into both, and I'm wondering what the majority of the people want. Who knows? I could even do both.
Every story starts with a beginning. This one simply starts with a brief look at what happened before our true story begins. It can be spoken in the form of a giant destructive red fox standing just outside of a small village. A blond man was about to make seemingly random hand-signs, but at the last second, an ancient-looking man pushed the first off of the mountain toad that they both happened to be standing on top of and did the hand signs himself. A second later, the fox was gone and the old man turned to black dust, which scattered into the wind, never to be seen again.
But, that's the prequel to the prequel. How the story actually does start, is of a darker quality. An orphan, unknowing of the burden placed upon him, walked through the streets of glares and deathly whispers. He was always the center of attention, not knowing why and always wondering. Whispers of 'fox' smashed into his ears like lead hammers, poisoning his mind. The six-year-old boy hated it. He despised it. His glacial blue eyes glared out at the worthless trash, which stared back at him with hot intensity. Ice verses fire.
Naruto, no surname, had lived at a cruel orphanage for the first six years of his life, occasionally meeting a scant few that helped him. But in the end, he was alone once again when the people buckled from the pressure of helping the cursed child. He was never physically abused, but the lonely existence that he led was painful enough. He never had anyone truly care for him. Even the supposedly righteous and loving hokage hated him. He didn't know why, but everybody seemed too afraid to even touch him. The few times the boy tried to make contact with another living human, they had shied away with a certain trepidation and fear unbecoming of a man versus a child.
The boy left the orphanage the previous day, to finally get away. He didn't know where to go or what to do, but he just knew that he needed to leave. He needed to get away and just let those humans rot. And that was the first point that needed to be made in this story. That was the instigating move that set the course of destiny.
The second point in this chain of events came later that day. Naruto was still trying to determine what to do next, because he didn't know where to go. He never had any place other than the orphanage. The only real place he went outside of the orphanage was the park, where he would watch other people interact and lament on the cruelty hidden behind such a happy and giving exterior. It was at that moment, the one where he ran into a man of seemingly high standing and a wealthy background, that things shot to hell.
Naruto's blonde hair and whiskered face collided with a pale man's hip. The man looked down at the boy, black hair waving in the wind as his head turned, and let his pale eyes land on Naruto's unblemished face. Everybody turned to stare at the now unmoving man and the obstacle in his path. Tension filled the air. Anticipation of what could happen next thickened around the crowd, mixed with emotions. Some were whole with sympathy, others with anger. The mix was entirely superficial and unimportant, but the feelings permeated and entranced.
After a moment, the older male gave a slight smile, unnoticed by the rest of the people. Naruto unknowingly smiled as well, unused to the happy emotions this man showed. The boy reached up to touch the man, but before he could, the audience that had taken to screaming behind him distracted him. He turned to look, and found a glass bottle thrown his way. It shattered against his arm, imbedding several shards of glass into it. Naruto screamed and ran, followed closely by the repeated screech of rocks behind him. The man, a very important man, could do nothing lest his standing in society fall along with his clan's. As such, he simply turned his head at the sight, smile long lost, and walked away at a lethargic pace.
By now, Naruto was lost and unable to guess which way to travel. He had never been in this position, cementing his notion that humanity was evil. People chased after him, yelling odious bullshit nobody could truly understand behind the rest of the shouts that intertwined with the first. For a moment, Naruto wondered why the police force wasn't helping, but then remembered that the Uchiha clan ran it. Naruto could never understand that clan, because when out of the public's eyes, they were pleasant around him. As soon as another person appeared, though, all civility was lost. This was one of those cases.
Naruto weaved in and out of alleyways, getting hit only a few times. He was actually pretty fast for his age, but that wasn't enough. Even with his herculean effort, one rock hit his head and threw him into a blissful unconsciousness.
An unconsciousness that only lasted a bleak ten seconds.
Naruto woke up in a black hallway. Cobblestone bricks held the walls a dirty grey, and old pipes intersected and led down the hall. The pipes glowed an eerie blue with splotches of red. There were several puddles on the floor. A faint red light lit up the distance of the hallway. Malice filled the unknown area like an ocean.
The boy stood up, shakily. He looked around in slight fear, wondering where he was. He voiced his thought in the phrase "Where am I" before taking a trembling step forwards towards what can only be certain doom.
The hallway was a long one, and the farther he got, the more rage he felt. The red became more and more pronounced as his figure began to change. The other being's malice affected Naruto's thoughts and judgment, forcing out his darkest and evilest desires. Thoughts of destroying the village and murdering all those that wronged him flew to the forefront of his mind. Killing them in ways that even he didn't know was possible. It was like another person was pushing thoughts into his head, but he didn't mind. He reveled in the feel of getting revenge on those that took his contact away.
Red shined off his eyes, giving him a demonic visage. He came to the turn that all of the power was focused behind, and walked in. He came to a chamber with a ceiling so high that nothing could see the roof. The walls were made of the same cobblestone as the halls, and pillars outlined a path to the center, which housed a large cage with what looked like tempered steel bars. The keyhole was covered in a single sheet of paper with a sealing symbol painted on it. Behind the bars, two enormous red eyes glared out into Naruto's own.
A dark and unholy voice spoke out of the depths behind the bars. "My jailor has finally decided to come and visit me. How… quaint."
"Wh-who are you?" came Naruto's stuttering voice.
The eyes seemed contemplative for a moment before answering. "I've been trapped here for so long, with no way to leave. All I need to do to get out is find somebody willing to tear that piece of paper off of the bars, but nobody has done it for me, yet."
Naruto, with his experience, didn't trust so easily. "You never told me who, or even better, what, you are. Are you some kind of alien bent on destroying the world?"
The eyes looked incredulous, but regained their cold indifference fast enough. "Who I am doesn't really matter, does it?" The guttural voice somehow morphed into a silky voice that seemed almost hypnotic. "I'm trapped here, and a nice little boy like you won't let someone like me stay trapped here, would you?"
"You could have done something bad. Bad guys are the ones that are locked up, so you must be bad."
The eyes looked amused. "That's not always true. I'm sure you've met bad guys that weren't behind bars. The opposite is true for good people, also."
Naruto's thoughts went to the villagers. He thought about how they were all bad to him, and how they treated him. Anger and irrationality burned through him. "Those people…" he mumbled.
"Yes, those people," the fox repeated. "They are all bad. If you let me go, I can make sure those bad people are taken care of. You'll never have to worry about any bad people again."
It was so tempting that Naruto began to walk forwards. The promise of not having to deal with those people again drew him into a lull that moved him to the iron bars. A rhythmic tapping of feet brought him closer to the bars, one step at a time. As Naruto got closer, more features on the beast behind the bars became prominent. Scarlet fur covered it. Its face was that of a fox, with long ears like a rabbit. An evil visage of a snarling nine tailed fox stood before the boy.
The boy faltered for a moment. "You look scary" he said. "Are you sure you aren't bad?"
"All I want is to be free. Get me out of here, and I'll make all of your pain go away. All of those bad people will disappear."
Naruto nodded and continued his march forwards. The water began to rise through the floor, covering his feet, and then his knees. It turned crimson, like the fox, and like blood. Naruto reached forwards and grabbed the corner of the sealing paper and tore it off. Slowly, the gates opened, and then for a moment nothing happened. Red energy began to leak out, and then burst out and spread like a wildfire. The walls began to crack and fall apart. Bloody chakra enveloped the boy and tore through his skin, and through all of this, the fox watched.
"I will be FREE! A hundred years, I've been trapped, but no longer. These people will feel my wrath for putting me away for so long. They will all DIE!"
Then, the energy began to backlash. Searing hot veins of red flew and cut through the fox. The seal was still reacting for some reason, keeping the two souls bonded. The Kyuubi realized this almost too late. The child, Naruto, was screaming from pain. Energy coated his body, tearing it apart, and the fox soon joined in, screaming in rage for being thwarted in his attempt to escape. Kyuubi moved back to its cage, where the energy was forcing it to go, and the gates closed upon its reentry. Energy stopped thrashing, and centered around the only free being in the chamber- Naruto.
Hordes upon hordes of crimson demonic power thrashed and trembled towards Naruto, and began to envelope him even thicker than before. Naruto fell to the ground in agony while his body absorbed the power. Because the power was centered in his mindscape, the majority leaked into his head and began to crush it under the intensity. His entire body adapted in a form of evolution, in order to store the magnitude of dense energy swarming into his person. The true magnitude of the changes remain to be seen, though.
At the end of the transformation, Naruto blacked out only to wake up back on the street he was attacked on. The one where he fell after being the target of a stone. What he saw when he woke up were the backsides of all of the people running away from what could only be a monster.
The first thing he noticed was the lack of pain shooting through his body. The relief was enormous. He had never been exposed to much pain other than some paper cuts when he managed to acquire drawing materials, so the great relief was somewhat expected. He began to wonder if what happened was a dream, and with his luck, it actually was a dream. He was insanely lucky if you didn't know. He could probably use that someday.
The next thing he noticed were the ninja who thought they were hiding in the shadows, creeping up on him and getting ready to knock him unconscious. They wore white masks that hid their features and were being overly cautious to apprehend a single boy who did nothing wrong in the first place. Four ninja, to be exact.
The third thing he noticed was his sudden knowledge on who these people were, what they knew, everything they ever did, how they did it, and just about everything else. He knew the one sneaking up right in front of him was ANBU captain squad Delta, Hatake Kakashi of the sharingan eye and every jutsu the man knew as well as battle tactics and strategies as well as a very advanced vocabulary. The man on his right was a new recruit, Yahoshi Genrai. The woman behind Naruto was Nakimura Ariana with excellent taijutsu and genjutsu skills. The last person was Nekoma Yuugao.
There was one other thing that he noticed, though it didn't seem important at the moment, but his left eye felt like it was working better than before, but he put that behind him. The people's intentions were to subdue Naruto, and Naruto didn't want that.
"Why are you trying to hurt me? It doesn't seem logical to subdue a young child, much less an orphan, with four ANBU members of your caliber."
The four people were incredibly stunned from that remark. Naruto smiled, but his face was shadowed so nobody could see it. It was like the shadows jumped to protect his identity, but from the wreckage of power that went through the air, it was obvious that it could only be Naruto.
Naruto was now hearing them wonder why the boy could see them, because they were supposed to be untraceable. They were the best assassination squad and had a high level genjutsu concealing their location. It didn't make any sense at all unless the Kyuubi was either in control or influencing the boy.
Naruto began to think aloud. "The Kyuubi, huh. That must have been that thing there…"
The woman, Ariana, heard the remark, and immediately threw a kunai at Naruto. Naruto was able to anticipate it and moved slightly to the side. He would have moved more, but he was only six. What do you expect? It missed his jugular and only cut the side of his neck. Naruto grunted. Nothing like the burning he experienced earlier. The other three people jumped to grab the woman, and successfully restrained her.
"What are you doing!? He's obviously being controlled! You have to kill him before the Kyuubi actually does escape!" She was struggling at the men's hands frantically. Naruto watched in silent anger.
His anger was unsilenced when the woman said "Who cares if he goes missing? Nobody! He has nobody, and will always be alone!"
Naruto interrupted. "SHUT UP!"
Suddenly all four people became silent and looked up at the boy. He make eye contact with all four, and they all gasped. Kakashi muttered "Shari-" but was cut off by Naruto's sudden intake of air.
Naruto felt like he lost a small amount of energy as soon as he made eye contact with each individual. Then, he felt invisible blue strings attach to their minds, connecting them to him, and then disappear completely. The worst part of it, was that Naruto couldn't feel the energy coming back, only cyphoning and regenerating to expand what was already lost. It was like his chakra was expanding, but what he used wasn't coming back. His chakra kept trying to refuel anyways, increasing his coils. It wasn't the best sensation, but Naruto's anger forced him to ignore it.
"Why don't you all just die!"
And like magic, the four ANBU took out kunai and stabbed themselves to death. Piece by piece, his lost chakra began to regenerate, and when reality hit him, Naruto wanted to throw up, but with the memories and thoughts of those four war veterans, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead, he put on a stoic face, turned around, and walked away to one of their houses. Nobody was around, the streets were deserted, and the world seemed to have come to a standstill. It was nighttime and Naruto simply wanted some sleep. So, he trudged on.
Coming to the first apartment, one that belonged to that man, Genrai, he disarmed the traps as if he'd been doing it all his life and took straight to the bed, waiting for what would come the next morning. Waiting for the world to change. Maybe then he could be happy.
At the same time, Minato Namikaze, Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakura, was waiting for his ANBU to report back with Naruto so he could confirm that it was only a fluke event that occurred when the Kyuubi's chakra went out of control. He still hadn't heard a thing and was getting impatient and slightly worried. His men should have been back by then, or they would have been dead. But if the fox was released, then the village would be in flames. None of what was happening made any sense.
Minato called for another ANBU to scout the direction of the energy. "Report back to me as soon as possible." He said.
The man saluted and left without so much as a door opening, let alone closing. Minato sat back down and stared at his desk, wondering what went wrong. Everything he did was to protect the majority of his family. That is where all of his problems started. He had forced himself to hate Naruto, and left the boy to the people he swore to protect. Everything he ever did was to protect the village and his family.
It had only been two minutes before the ANBU was back in front of the Hokage. "I have found the squad sent to retrieve the boy."
The Hokage's eyes lit up. "That's good. I assume they're coming here right now with the boy."
The ANBU hesitated for a moment, but responded in turn. "They have been found dead. All evidence points to suicide. I have carried out emergency orders and procured the sharingan eye from Inu's corpse and incinerated the bodies as per instructions."
Minato's face quickly became emotionless. He trembled slightly, but nothing else showed. "Investigate any other possible causes. Bring Naruto to me in the morning, and I will see if I can get anything off of him. Send the head of Torture and Interrogation a message to meet here tomorrow, as well. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!" And he left.
Minato stood, alone in his office. He stared at the wall, motionless, before solemnly taking off his robes and hanging them on his chair. He sat down. Some tears pooled down his cheeks, and he slammed his head into the desk and yelled "WHY!?" His hands beat the desk for a moment and then drifted towards his head, where he gripped, and wept silently for the next hour. He fell asleep crying.
Naruto awoke the next morning at what he assumed was 6. He felt refreshed and like he could take on the world. He sat up and looked at the clock on the wall, seeing that he was correct, and it was 6 in the morning. He listened to the ticking for a moment.
He suddenly spoke "it's two seconds fast, and getting faster."
The clock sat there on the wall innocently, and waiting to be fixed. Naruto got up and took the clock down and set it on a table. Once it was opened, Naruto looked at the sealing array the kept the clock going, and analyzed it with a critical eye. He knew what most of the symbols represented from that one person, Yuugao, who leaned very basic seals. The ones he didn't know were a very simple matter to figure out. Naruto took a brush from the table to his right and dabbed it in some opened ink before beginning his drawing.
The seal on the right analyzed the amount of light showing in a day and moved the time accordingly, and the seal just below it compensated for the seasons and time of year. Connecting the two was a speed matrix which kept the clock going at a specific speed so the other two seals didn't have to do as much work, thus conserving a person's chakra when being recharged. If he were to adjust the matrix seal slightly, then reset the other two, the clock should be fixed entirely.
And Naruto did just that. He listened to the ticking for another moment, and when satisfied, he set it back and walked out of the apartment back into civilization. He saw a few people standing out on the street, walking around. As they got close, they would make a powerful curve around him about as far as they could. They all kept their distance, but the closer they got, the faster he was living their lives and all of their memories. Naruto felt a migraine coming on. It hurt.
He was able to glean information on selling and accounting. He got a bit on plumbing, also, and architecture. The one person that didn't go so far around him, though, was a woman apparently named Hideki Sora, who was an archeologist. She studied the unique properties of magnetism, and what it had to do with the planet they were on. Specifically how it reacted to chakra. It was interesting. Apparently everything had a sort of code which can bond in such a way that it can connect with other things. He'll have to look further into this later.
Naruto kept walking, watching as more people avoided him and more information passed through his head. He really scared a lot of people the other day. He didn't care all that much, though. It wasn't anything new. Maybe it would all be better if he wasn't noticed at all. Maybe he should just disappear from their sight. Then they wouldn't treat him like they did. Yes, that worked. But how? How could he disappear like that? Illusions would work, but from what he could tell he had way too much chakra and not enough control. He would have to fix that. Those ANBU could disappear. They hid in the shadows and were so good at it that they would look like the shadows themselves. Maybe he should try it? That worked.
Suddenly people were coming close to him again, and the migraine was getting to a dangerous level of pain. He was starting to get woozy from the intense pain. It just hurt. He was getting lifetimes worth of knowledge and information, and reliving people's lives. He felt all of the pain the people felt, and all of their happiness, too. How they cared for their children and not for him. He felt happiness at their hatred to him, and it made him sick. He saw their greed and their want. These people didn't deserve their lives. They were like wild animals. They deserved to be chained down and caged. Right now, though, he needed a fast way to defend himself.
The pain suddenly became too much and Naruto fell out of the shadows in the middle of the now busier street, unconscious. Less than a half an hour later, a single ANBU came and collected him, dropping him in the hokage's office in the chair where he would wake up.
Minato watched silently as the boy opened his eyes. They sat there for a moment, both having blond hair and blue eyes. Minato's eyes held a regretful tinge to them, Naruto observed, while his own were that of a glacier; unmoving. Then the memories hit.
"AAKKK!" He grabbed his head. "arggghhhh…" The man before him was a master sealer and understood how to construct powerful jutsu. He was definitely the leader everybody made him out to be, and completely able to seal the nine tailed fox impeccably. But, he didn't, did he? It was the Sandaime that did it. Then, the reality hit him. He was the man's son.
The hokage just sat there and watched. At this point, he had convinced himself to hate the boy, even if he subconsciously still did love him. It was one of the jobs as the head of a family- to make all necessary sacrifices in order to keep the prestige of the family solid and great. He had another son to worry about, also, and that son could take over in the place of his estranged one. A minute later, the groaning ended, and the boy was glaring at Minato with such deep hatred. Minato, himself, was lost at the sudden hatred.
On to business, though. Minato asked the first question without prequel. "What happened last night?"
Naruto thought quickly. "I was being attacked by the villagers. They hurt me, and then I don't remember."
The hokage narrowed his eyes. It added up. It would explain the Kyuubi's chakra. "I sent four people to check on you. They died. Do you know why?"
"No. I would never hurt anybody." It seemed so truthful. "Why would I want to kill anybody? This is my home."
The hokage almost accepted it there. He actually felt bad interrogating a kid. But this was important. "They seemed to have killed themselves. Can you explain that?"
"Why would they do it? Why would somebody kill themselves?"
Dammit. This was going nowhere fast. He wasn't getting anything from the kid. He was really starting to feel bad for the kid and how he was treated. Maybe he should 'adopt' the kid so he could keep an eye on the seal. That would be a great reason. He would make sure the seal doesn't break, and all he would have to do is house the kid. First, though, he would get the head interrogator to give the kid a mind sweep and make sure the facts were straight.
"There's a man that's going to look at you for a minute, okay? He's just going to give you a check up to see if you're in need of medical attention. Is that fine with you?"
Naruto felt the man's intentions and didn't want to be found out. He didn't know what to do, so he waited. Maybe the mind reader would know something. It wouldn't take long. In the meanwhile, the two blonds shared a battle of wills- Naruto in his white t-shirt and black pants, and Minato wearing his ceremonial kage robes.
When the door opened, the two broke eye contact and turned to the newcomer. Inoichi Yamanaka, the mind walker. Naruto quickly assimilated the information and organized his mind, changing and creating false information based off of several theories that came from their mind arts. From what he learned, they couldn't do that because they never had any real reason to. But, in the scant few minutes he had, Naruto was able to devise a method of reverse mind arts that, instead of going into another person's head, he could go into his own and organize every thought and memory he had as well as fabricate false ones. It would be a boon to remember everything with perfect memory, too.
Inoichi stepped in next to Naruto and gave a respectful bow to the Hokage before turning to Naruto. "My name is Inoichi Yamanaka, and I'll be doing your check up. First off, do you feel any pain?"
"No" Naruto replied.
"Good. Take off your shirt and we can begin."
Naruto took off his shirt as instructed, and Inoichi brushed his hair back in what would be seen as a placating manner and used that contact to delve into the boy's mind. What he saw, he definitely didn't expect.
The man, instead of viewing direct memories like the norm, found himself in the middle of a desert. Pyramids towered over him, and several catacombs were just visible through the doorway directly in front of him. A noise of moving sand flew around him gradually.
"What is this? I've never encountered anything like this. Amazing. Truly amazing."
"Yes, it is." Came a voice from beside him.
Inoichi jumped and spun to look at what appeared next to him. Golden hair came into his vision followed by a whiskered face. Inoichi figured that he should have expected something like this in a jinchuriki. The bijuu has to have some sort of consciousness in the boy's mind. An entire world was baffling, but possible.
"Naruto, what is this place? Have you been here before?"
"Inoichi, look into my eyes." The man did, and Naruto felt a sudden pull on his chakra. The invisible strings appeared again and vanished, and a small piece of chakra vanished- about as much as Inoichi had in his coils. The chakra began to try and regenerate, expanding his coils slightly as it tried to fill the unrefillable gaps. "Leave here. Tell the hokage that I know nothing. Tell him that I blacked out after getting hit by a stone."
"Understood, my king."
Inoichi left Naruto in the desert, where he waited for several seconds with a grin etched into the stone that was his face. The grin took a slightly maniacal shade before Naruto started to laugh.
"It worked. IT ACTUALLY WORKED! Now I have the power to cage these dogs like the animals they are!" And he laughed, and laughed. Only when he quieted down, did he actually leave.
Back in the real world, no time had passed. Inoichi looked at Naruto, and said "I think you're just fine. You're free to go."
"Wait outside. I have something to discuss with you before you go." This was the hokage.
"Yes, sir." And Naruto left to wait outside.
Thirty minutes later, Inoichi came out of the room. He gave a smile towards Naruto. Naruto felt the string still attached to Inoichi, and the chakra was still missing. Naruto's chakra was rising slowly, and kept rising at a rate to fill the gaps even then. Inoichi seemed oblivious to what happened in his mind. He seemed convinced that what Naruto told him actually happened. Interesting…
Naruto decided to test it out some more. "Meet me in four days at midnight under the holy elm near the park."
Inoichi's face became blank for a second as he responded "Yes, sir, my lord." Before his expression turned back to normal. "See you in a couple of days, Naruto. Can't wait for your surprise!"
As Inoichi left, Naruto smiled slightly as a gleam came to his eye. It was all so perfect. He realized it, now. Deception was the key to everything. Manipulation could get him anywhere. Naruto turned back to the hokage's office and strode in. As soon as he got in, he made eye contact with the hokage and enforced his will upon the man. The connection was made and Naruto felt a much larger chunk of chakra leave him. Naruto could feel the man wanting to tell him about his lineage and adopt him out of pity. Having a home wouldn't be so bad. It wouldn't even matter if he was ignored, so long as he had a bed. With one small push, Minato spilled his guts.
"Naruto, you're my son."
Naruto put on his best mask. "What? But I'm an orphan."
"No, you're not. Everything I ever did to you was to keep my family safe from ridicule. I have a wife and a son who couldn't afford to take the brunt of the village's anger."
"But why did you just abandon me? Why didn't you help?"
"I couldn't" Minato said. "Because if I did, I might have gotten too attached and brought you in. I'm going to fix my mistakes now, though. I'd like to adopt you."
Perfect. Just as planned. "Why not earlier? You could have done it before. You're the hokage! The best! Everyone respects you."
"I didn't have an excuse to do it before, but now I can say that it's to watch and observe the seal. Why am I telling you all of this?"
"And what's the seal?" He needed an excuse to know about it, and what better way than to be told by the hokage, himself?
The man paused for a moment, but then continued into an explanation. "You are the container of the Kyuubi, a great demon that attacked our village on the day of your birth. You hold its power back from destroying the village again."
And that's exactly what he needed.
Minato moved onto another topic at that moment. "I would like to adopt you into our clan as Naruto Namikaze. Is this acceptable?"
Naruto ran forwards and embraced the man in a hug screaming "Daddy!" Once in the hug, though, Naruto smiled a dark smile that could only read 'success.'
Because of the special case, the adoption would need to be reviewed by the council of Kanoha. Of course, Minato could just authorize it himself, but he would lose face if he did it that way instead of the democratic way. Besides, the council always kissed up to him. They would see his reasoning as a godsend. Everything would work out perfectly, as long as he doesn't admit to helping the boy at all.
For the next two days, Minato worked out all of the paperwork before the meeting began. Naruto, on the other hand, was working on using the knowledge he now had in a powerful and positive way. For him, at least.
Minato Namikaze knew of some labs situated around Kanoha that used to be run by the traitor Orochimaru. The man was a supposed genius, and if Naruto could harvest that man's knowledge, then he would be set to begin his own secret experiments and devise his own technology and studies. Naruto knew so much at this point that he was able to mentally put things together into workable scenarios. If only he could have a place to put these things together.
That's where the labs came in. They would be used as Naruto's workplace. First Naruto would make a method to defend himself with, and then… the possibilities were endless. Since Naruto now knew where they were, the only problem would be getting inside of them with shinobi guarding them. That's why he got the hokage to move the guards to different locations, while Naruto went in and scoured the places.
Naruto made it to the first building, which happened to be the technology and research department, and walked in. The people around him paid him no mind, as he blended in with the shadows, dark as night. He made it to a bookcase in the medical library, though by then he knew most of what there was in those texts, and removed several books. He took his hand and placed it on the wall and pushed in, activating a switch which opened the side wall. Naruto, intrigued, walked in vowing to examine the sealing methods later.
Once inside, the door closed behind him. He looked at the many glass beakers and test tubes. There seemed to be blood stains on the tables, and there was a door on the right. Naruto walked through the room, examining the many pieces of equipment but only being able to recognize a few of the serums. The place would be perfect if there was a place to connect it with the outside world. Naruto moved to the door and opened it, revealing a bedroom complete with a bed, a dresser, and an illumination seal to create light. Examining it all with a critical eye, he found one of the statuettes on the dresser to have a hinge. He picked the thing up, it was in the shape of a snake, and opened the hinge. A seal was activated, and another door was opened behind the bed.
This was one paranoid son of a bitch.
Naruto went through the newest door and found himself in what appeared to be a library of sorts. Looking at the titles of the handwritten texts, Naruto found that it consisted of all of the experiments the man, Orochimaru, did in this facility. There was also another hallway that led to the outside, hidden behind the sealing array on a rock. It was made to create a permanent illusion that fooled everybody in proximity, thus keeping the location a secret. The rock just so happened to be located just outside of the Namikaze residence.
Since he was there and probably no one was looking for him, he decided to get started on his first project. The question was: what would that project be? There were so many things he had ideas for, but he needed materials. He could get a lot of the materials easily just by using his immeasurable stealth capabilities that he recently found out he had. Some of them, though, couldn't be found in the village.
After a while of thought and brainstorming what would be the most useful for the moment, he came to a conclusion. He would need a better way of defending himself. He could order several of the ninja around the village to protect him, but they wouldn't always be there and Naruto didn't have time to condition himself nor the patience for flashy techniques such as most jutsu. He thought about this for several hours the previous day after seeing from memories that explosions can propel objects. He would name the creation a 'firearm' because it would fire a projectile forwards from an object located in a person's hand.
Snow country had something similar, but theirs shoots kunai at a pace slow enough for jounin to dodge around. Their weaponry is most likely powered by energy seals, which simply push the kunai forwards because an explosion would off balance the blade. If the projectile was round and small, though, then an explosion would propel it forwards at an extremely quick pace. It would need a long cylindrical barrel to keep the bullet on course, as well as a lever of some sort to activate the explosive seals. Naruto smiled. It was a good thing he learned from one person how to do the craft of metalworking.
Naruto began construction on the lab, by first building a connecting room off of the hidden library. He was able to steal a steel table and install it in the side of the new room as a work bench. He then installed a sweltering station as well as a fire pit to superheat the metal and work on crafting it. Later on he would have to get some way of speeding up all of his processes, but he was already working on that. One man, a chemist, had recently discovered a reaction of chemicals that would help regenerate chakra in a person's coils. Naruto may be able to turn that into a portable energy source.
After getting a hold of several tools and some scrap metal, all of which he stole without anybody knowing, he began to mold the barrel of the firearm. He left a hole in the back of it so the blast could get through, and began to work on the hull and butt of the firearm which he decided should be a sturdy, yet comfortable material. The blast from the explosion would knock the gun back, and metal wouldn't be very good for the shoulder. There was a small tab that could be removed to place the explosives, and a seal matrix was placed in the wood to prevent the destruction of the handle.
The trigger was tricky, but the final product was decided to have a small guard on the finger to prevent any misfires, and it was connected by a chakra absorbing metal. When somebody pushed chakra into their hands and pulled the trigger, a pin that filled with chakra would connect to the explosive array, making many powerful explosions that would launch the projectile.
The projectiles, themselves, were made of lead. Any other metal would be too brittle and weak, and get destroyed by the explosion. They would be round, so they could go forwards with a greater intensity without going completely off course.
Naruto assembled the parts. It took two days to make it, but he succeeded. He walked to a target range he set up in the lab and readied the gun by putting in the explosives. He pushed the bullet in and cocked the gun, which he decided to call Model: Firearm. It was long, and he could barely hold it, but it worked. Naruto readied it, aimed, and fired. The bullet missed the target completely, instead going into the wall next to it.
"Damn!" he said. "I had it so perfect. What went wrong? Why is it so inaccurate?"
Naruto sat down and pondered what could have happened. Maybe if he went outside and walked around, it would come to him? It was worth a try. It had been two days, and the adoption meeting was supposed to be the following day. With that in mind, he made his way out of the lab and took a stroll through the village.
He passed many houses, the majority of them with flat roofs or slightly slanted roofs. There were some kids playing with a ball in the park. Naruto turned towards the park, watching everybody just laying around or enjoying others' company. A frown made its way to Naruto's face. He had never had such contact. Sticking to the shadows like he had for the last few days, he sat and watched everybody around him. He soaked up their knowledge but didn't care. He just watched. He watched until the sun started setting, mourning for his terrible life. When he became a shinobi of this village, he would use their first real mission to fake his own death and move away.
And he watched as the kids threw their ball over a fence and left with their loving parents. When the park was deserted, he walked over to the ball, and made a contemplative toss into the air. How he yearned to be loved. He wanted to have somebody that would care about him, but the human race was a terrible race. He didn't know if he would ever find anybody even tolerable. He tossed the ball into the air once more, putting a little spin on it. He watched and noticed how straight it went…
"That's IT! I've got it!" Naruto rushed back to the lab and began to work out how to make a more accurate weapon. He figured on using rifling to create spin on the bullet. That would solve the accuracy problem, but then it would take a while to reload. That involved loading the explosives as well as the bullet. It would take too long to use conventionally, but what if he put the explosives and the bullet together? He could put a metal casing around it with the explosives in the back of the casing and the actual bullet in the front. The process would be accelerated by such an exponential number that the only thing that would make it faster would be if the bullets could be reloaded automatically or even if the gun could shoot several bullets in a short span of time. But that was a project for another day.
Naruto quickly drew up the schematics, making sure that all flaws were corrected. Everything looked so perfect drawn up like they were, that Naruto almost wanted to get started on it that moment. Maybe he could even add something that can attach to it to magnify the view. Now that was a thought. He would look into it the following couple of days, but at the moment, he had to sleep so he could be ready for the meeting the next day.
The next day, Naruto made sure he could be seen by anybody who would have wanted him. It wouldn't do to not be found by anybody and be late for his council appointment. To pass the time, he walked languidly around the village, watching, once again, the friendly and loving interactions between the populous. He hated it. It was like lying to his face, and him never seeing the truth. It was terrible.
Sometime during his jaunt, a brown falcon flew down and landed on his arm, holding a letter attached to its leg. Naruto was quick to retrieve the message, and read through its contents.
To: Naruto
The meeting has been scheduled for 1400 hours. Meet there at the designated time and do not be late. The meeting place is in the council halls, located at the end of the commercial district and near the shinobi archives. It is adjoined to the Kage Tower.
The note was not signed, but Naruto didn't expect it to be. It wouldn't be very secretive if whoever sent the letters signed their name every time a letter was sent. Naruto rolled the slip back up and used a small fire technique to burn it. The ninja that he passed always did it, and he just happened to pick up the habit as well.
Running through the streets, he found himself in front of the council chamber. It was thirty minutes before the meeting would start, and even longer until he was called in. He pulled out some drafting paper that he had rolled up and stored in a scroll and began to work in earnest. It would be his next experiment after he finished his firearm, which he would call a 'rifle', and would be groundbreaking.
He had recently acquired some magnesium, which was what they were calling those rocks now, and by scraping it with certain metals, it would create a magnetic field around the metal. Because of the makeup of a magnetic field, Naruto theorized that if he were to spin a wire around the magnet, then an alternate form of power could be generated similar to lightning. If he could do that, then countless avenues of possibility would open up for him. He would need more people to work for him, though, and it would need to be kept secret from the outside world. Both could be done pretty easily. The only hard part was finding people qualified to do the research and intricate procedures.
Naruto was still drawing up plans when the council started filling in. Everybody that saw him strayed to the far side, but he didn't mind. He was too occupied with his paper to care about anybody else. The shinobi of the council were much more subtle when avoiding him, and not all of them did. Naruto still noticed, even while not looking. He could feel their intentions and through the minute vibrations in the ground, he could pinpoint their exact trajectory and movements.
Everybody was presumably in and accounted for five minutes before the actual meeting. Naruto stayed on his bench in the hallway, waiting for his turn to come in. He was just perfecting the schematics he had in his hand- a way to implement his generator so it could run by itself- when the actual meeting started. The walls were soundproofed much to Naruto's dismay. Though, Naruto shrugged it off and went back to his drawing.
If Naruto could get a force of nature to perpetually run the wires around the magnetic core, then it would be powered indefinitely. He could put a wheel in a river, or even put it straight into a dam, and the water would turn the turbines to power the electrical energy. Another thought would be to use the physics of wind, which could turn pieces of metal if they were angled and put on a circular point. That gave him an idea all on its own. Using wind, he could make something fly using those physics. It would be even better if he could generate his own wind to make it fly. Electricity would simply be the predecessor to a new age.
The most successful path with the least amount of flaws was if he could generate steam, which was created by heat. As long as he could superheat water, it would push turbines generating a large amount of electricity. All it would need was manpower to keep it fueled, and coal because coal burned the easiest and possibly the hottest.
Didn't the sun provide energy, too? He'll look into it. The doors were opening and a man stepped out. "You're needed, Naruto. Please follow me."
"Yes, sir." The man looked to be a regular civilian, and the memories he gave were that of a messenger. Nothing useful unless Naruto wanted to practice espionage and information gathering. Actually… that would be very useful. "Look into my eyes," Naruto said.
The man raised an eyebrow, but turned anyways. "What is it?" he spoke in an annoyed tone.
Eye contact was made, and an almost nonexistent amount of chakra left Naruto. "Bring me any vital information you receive before it goes to the receiver. Anything that you are told must be delivered at any cost."
"Yes, my King." His blank face turned back to one of emotion. "I've been informed by the hokage that any important information that comes through me should be sampled through you, first. I don't know why he would allow you to have such vital intelligence, but orders are orders. Now, follow me."
Naruto nodded and walked in behind the man, who kept glancing back at Naruto in a wary way. After a minute of walking with that man glancing back in nervousness, Naruto gave a slight suggestion to try and calm his nerves. If only to get that annoying worm to stop it!
"You know, you shouldn't be afraid of me. I'm not going to do anything."
The man didn't say anything for a moment. Then "Why am I scared of you, again? I can't seem to remember what you did to me." The man turned and actually smiled in Naruto's direction. Naruto, himself, was slightly freaked out by the man's complete personality change.
It must have had to do with his control. People who are under his control even followed his suggestions. That would definitely get incredibly annoying. Naruto stopped walking, causing the man in front to take notice of the silence and stop, as well.
"Is there something wrong?" he asked.
"No, just give me a minute. I'm six years old and I'm a bit tired."
The man gave a small smile. Naruto wanted to run away screaming for a second before he calmed.
The man answered, "of course. Try not to be too long, because the council is waiting. I'll think up an excuse."
Naruto thought about all of the ways people would stop the effects of a genjutsu, and putting his hands together in a ram seal he muttered "kai" while releasing a chakra pulse. "Tell me your wife's name."
"Kimiko Azura."
"Damn." He thought of how to cancel a bloodlimit. He assumed it had to do with his eyes, so he tried to cancel the chakra going to his eyes. He tried a command again and got the same reaction. It didn't work. In one last ditch effort, he canceled the chakra to his whole body as he saw people do sometimes with genjutsu when their chakra wasn't strong enough. It should nullify all effects on anybody he ever affected. He tried again, and there was still no change. Naruto's situation was something nobody had ever experienced before. And it would prove to be an incredibly annoying and great gift all in one.
They continued moving, and before they stepped into the large chambers, Naruto had one more thing to say.
"Shit."
Once inside, he strode up to the podium in the center of the circle. Taking a look around, he saw everybody around him staring with a mixture of disgust and reverence. The delayed memories hit him hard, but with his powerful mid arts he was able to sort them all before any pain hit him. It let him absorb the important things and discard unimportant things until they can be reviewed later. Then, something unexpected happened. His body was wracked with pain and he fell over.
He saw himself as a separate entity, or at least that's what he thought. What he watched, though, was entirely accurate. He was glad that there were walls on the podium sides that blocked view, and that the hokage was the one that went to see him so he could whisper the words "Don't tell anyone" before he truly blacked out. The reason he was so relieved was because when he appeared in his mindscape, he came face-to-face with his body lying in front of him, and his body was changing slightly. He recognized everything from the memories he viewed.
The first thing he saw was his right arm opening up in ten separate places. Behind the small cuts showed ten sharingan eyes. It was horrifying to see. Naruto looked at his own arm and saw the same thing happening to it. He took his other arm and started to claw at it an abject horror of what was happening to it. He didn't want to turn into an even bigger freak than he already was, and having ten eyes on his arm wasn't helping. He almost took a kunai and cut them out when they all closed very suddenly.
In the sand, the body was going through other changes. A sharingan eye appeared in place of his right eye, and then turned off. Both of his eyes then got the three-tomoe sharingan, and stayed. Naruto cut the flow of chakra to his eyes like he knew the Uchiha did. The two sharingan turned off. His nails turned to claws and his canines became sharper. Eyes became slightly slit. None of that changed back. His eyes also paled slightly, but not by much.
Naruto stared at himself, thinking about how he just gained access to all of the bloodlines in the room. It was entirely unexpected, and not even that good. When was he even going to use some of them? They would do much better in his subordinates, not himself. Maybe if he could learn advanced biology from Orochimaru and Tsunade he could isolate the genes and imbue them into another person. It worked with one person according to the Yondaime. If only he knew how it worked.
Naruto was a scientist and engineer. If he spent his genius on inventing things, then his fighting skills would suffer. If he spent it all on fighting, then his advancing era of tech would suffer. He wanted to be a scientist more than anything else, so the tradeoff was obvious. Because of the knowledge of everybody else, he would know and be able to do jutsu, but that's not what he wanted. He was apparently a master at stealth to the level that kages couldn't detect him when he was right in front of them. He tested it out. He would perfect his chakra control from its already fairly refined state (memories will do that to you) and teach himself to detect others even when they're out of sight, because he already can do that when they're in sight, and he'll learn some genjutsu. He'll just never be that fast or that strong. He'll probably just be average in those areas, or even slightly lower.
It was a sacrifice he was willing to make. He was a king, not a knight or a rook. He was the leader and not the follower. His tactics and IQ would save and win battles that seem unwinnable. He just needed the animals to obey. Then he'll throw the tigers into the new era.
When he woke up, it was still in the hokage's arms and at the podium. The man was stalling by throwing some diagnostic jutsu at him and saying that he looked all right. Naruto took initiative and stood up, declaring and showing that he was fine. His hands were hidden by the podium walls, and everybody was too far away to notice any of the other changes. His right arm was covered by slits that were eyes, and every one of them was entirely unnoticeable unless examined closely.
The hokage moved back to his chair at the head of the hall and began. "As you all know, I propose to adopt the boy, Naruto, into my clan." Everybody nodded slightly. Naruto had his eyes fixed on the man, Danzo, in the back corner. "He is here to validate the documents and adoption. You all know the reasons, of course." Everybody nodded again. "Good. I will now sign the documents."
A cry of "Wait!" echoed through the room. The hokage paused for a second, staring into the eyes of a brunette woman sitting on the civilian side. "Are you sure you want to adopt that… thing?"
Minato held a certain gleam in his eyes that intimidated the woman. She continued, albeit shakily.
"It could hurt you, or even kill you! Just so you could keep an eye on it, you put yourself in danger? Why not let a less noble person watch it instead? Let the Uchiha or Inuzuka watch it!"
Fugaku Uchiha stared at the woman and snorted slightly. He mumbled something like "Less, my ass" and looked away. His thoughts, which Naruto heard with clarity, were 'but, adopting him wouldn't be too bad… it would certainly be interesting.' But, he wouldn't let anybody actually hear that.
Hiashi Huuga rose an eyebrow at the woman, which she saw and turned to face him. "It?" was the simple response he had to that.
"He's a person, too. You heard what the hokage said, and almost everybody knows it's the truth. He's just a kid with a burden" came the second reply from the pudgy man next to her. She came back with as much confidence as she could.
"Then why does everybody avoid 'him'? Why do you all move away when it, I mean 'he' comes near?" The woman had a slightly smug smile on her face.
"Have you ever noticed that when anybody gets near him they have terrible luck? Everything the goes near ends up broken and everybody broke and miserable. We don't hate him, but we care for our family and ourselves, too." This came from another rich businesswoman.
"Even I can attest to that." Hiashi was speaking again. His face became mournful, and filled with grief. "My brother came home several days ago after trying to comfort the boy on the streets, and yesterday-"
The hokage spoke up. "That's enough, Hiashi. Nobody needs to know, yet. If you wish, you may leave."
"It's alright, Hokage. I'm fine."
The woman had some sort of realization at the moment, and rushed at the boy to try and kill him. It was like something just snapped in the brunette. As she was about to strike the boy, Minato was in her way and grabbed her head. In a quick motion, her neck was snapped and she fell to the floor, dead.
Minato stared at his hands like he committed some heinous act. It was like his body moved on its own to protect the boy. He looked around and saw Inoichi halfway to the boy as well as the messenger moving back to his spot where he was residing. None of it made any sense. It was like the boy was a puppeteer pulling the strings of their lives. Now that he thought about it, there were several things that happened that didn't make sense, and it all centered around the boy. But that couldn't be possible… could it?
"This meeting will be put on hiatus and meet back up in one week. Dismissed!" the Hokage yelled.
Naruto watched all of the people file out except the hokage. No excuse anybody came up with would change the fact that he was always alone. Nothing could take back years worth of pain. Nothing. That man, Danzo, intrigued him. Danzo had a nondescript organization being run underneath the village that not even the hokage knew about. The man that illegally harvested sharingan eyes from dead Uchiha soldiers and implanted them into himself using Orochimaru's methods. Naruto was now one step closer to learning and using genetics. It would open so many doors. It would allow new bloodlines to be created and existing ones to be given to other people. It was so perfect.
In one week, Danzo and the council would be under his control, and his stature in the village would be cemented. Until then, he would build his inventions, and through trial and error, he would create his new world, starting with his own lab and building outwards. The world will be changed. Soon, he will rule with technology. Nobody, unless they worked together, would ever be able to match his genius. And it is only the beginning.
