It has been almost a hundred years since the age of man fell and now within the last few hundred have they risen back to power, overpowering their demon and vampiric overlords.
Little did my father, Kagen, know when he sent the shroud into the atmosphere that the chemicals would have such an adverse effect on the world. Not only did it disturb natures balance, it awoke something of tremendous power and threw it into a horrible rage.
The Juubi awoke and destroyed everything in its path to find the one that disturbed the balance he worked so hard to create. It opened the gates of Makai to send a message and to establish his will upon the remaining survivors.
I killed my father before his awakening and little did I know of the demon when this happened. Then again, I think his fate ending by my hands was fitting since he killed my mother's family just so I had nowhere to turn but to him. But this being...
Instead of being infuriated with taking his pray granted me power beyond imagination for doing his work. Apparently I was on his good list since I had nothing to do with the vampiric takeover, the human's polluting the world or anything else at that matter outside of extracting my rightful revenge and protecting the few I cared for like Severin.
For that he saw me as a pure being and gave me this power... Power that could put me on equal footing with even the greatest entities outside of himself. It made my job easier to protect those around me and rip apart the last remnants of my father's worthless family.
I guess from his prospective I can understand what he meant. Vampires only saw humans as cattle and didn't care about anything else other than their need to feed while humans saw all vampires as vile creatures that needed to be exterminated and didn't care what it took to do it, destroying whatever resources they had to accomplish that goal.
Years past and I had my only son with Severin. Thanks to my twisted sister's experiments on him and my blood he turned to be a dhampire. Not that it mattered for he was still our son and we raised him with care.
But it wasn't too later that Severin passed away from a rare bone disease. With the state of the world there was no cure for his alignment or anyway to dilute his pain during the end. So out of mercy... I ended his pain and let him go onto the next world.
My son soon grew to age and went out on his own. I checked in on him every now and then, to make sure no demon or vampiric lord out for revenge would take is life. After all... I'm sure I've pissed of my fair share of them in my extended lifetime.
Seeing that he had a family of his own after a while later, I left him alone in peace while occasionally stopping by to see my grandchildren. After all, being a grandmother had been something I always dreamed about.
It wasn't too long after when it happened and Juubi's reign came to an end.
The demon didn't see the difference between humanity and the vampiric race and saw them as equals, slaughtering them to rid their knowledge of their poisonous ways. It took hundreds of years but his work was almost complete when it happened.
A single human had somehow gained the power of the Gods and was able to stay on even footing with the ten tailed demon. Yet the fight slowly but surely was turning in the Juubi's direction having nearly limitless stamina and recovery and the human was on his last leg. But it was his determination and desperation that proved to be the true turning point.
To this day I still don't know how it happened but the man was able to seal Juubi within him, making its power his own. And in a brief display of power he wiped out most of the demon and vampiric race, falling prey to what Juubi was trying to rid the world of...
Intolerance.
Juubi saw everything was equal. Whether you were human, demon or vampire everything was the same before him. Even he considered himself to be a creature of God and use his power to fulfill his wish.
That is what the humans didn't understand. Instead of seeing his ways and realizing he was doing everyone favor, they saw the demon as an indiscriminate beast with no intelligence that slaughtered everything in its path.
How wrong they were...
However with the man's purge he killed my descendants, who only had trace amounts of vampiric blood within them, with only one surviving his wrath. I saved that girl and my power surged to heights I never dreamed of before.
The gift of power Juubi had given me had only untapped my true potential and having my family killed in cold blood before me brought forth the rest.
I slaughtered that man, severing him limb from limb, leaving his head before I gutted his stomach and place his body onto a pike. Yet the bastard still was able to live from my vengeance just long enough to split Juubi nine pieces and scatter him across the world.
Making it a priority to find these nine pieces, I left the girl with people I could trust to raise her.
Time passed and luck had it that humans got to the Bijuu before I did and sealed them away. Since the souls with him sealed were innocents, as Juubi would see it, I did nothing and decided to watch over them and to keep an eye on the last of my bloodline which slowly grew and became a great clan.
As I did so I noted something of my bloodline... They shared my color hair.
Each and every clan member had a deep shade of crimson or radiant red unless their spouse's genes were more dominant, which was hardly ever the case since only those descendent of demons or vampires would be so.
They also seemed to be able to tap into their lineage, drawing upon a secondary chakra source as they called it. In truth they simply drew upon their vampiric energies. However it hardly ever gave them too horribly much strength. Very few could ever wield abilities outside of those weird chains... Something I was never able to do...
Until I tried to use it.
But yet again it seemed my blood was not fated to last on as war drew near after a century of turmoil that saw two major wars before this coming war. They were wiped out yet again, however, in act of desperation they reached out to me before this happened I took the children to different villages, leaving one left that was meant to go to Konoha.
Uzumaki Kushina... I grew close to the girl on the way there and when it came time to say our goodbyes and leave her in the village's hands... I couldn't do it.
I knew what they were going to do to the girl. She was going to become the next vessel of Kyuubi, following in her great aunt's place since they had very similar abilities. This I could not fault seeing that releasing the demon would only do damage to their village, I allowed the sealing to take place... Under a few requirements.
Thankfully they were met. Kushina was filled with happiness and was able to maintain control over the fox. While not a perfect vessel, not that any to this point were, she was one of the most apt at wielding the demon's power.
Too well at that.
She was constantly hounded by the Cloud, wanting her bloodline and her knowledge of controlling bijuu so their vessels could wield their power like she could. The first time her future husband saved her life. And after a few failed attempts years later they finally succeeded in getting to her again.
I had to free her since during this time a new eight tail vessel had arose and was in sync with the demon. While Minato had confronted them, I snuck into their village, freed her and knocked the Cloud out of the Third Great War with a good, wholesome slaughter...
I think I enjoyed doing that a little too much...
But nonetheless she was safe and now eight month's pregnant and the Third Great Shinobi War coming to a close, I left her be to check on those left with my blood. She was in good hands with Minato-kun...
That man... He was something else entirely. Someone I respected and there were very people I could say that for. To be honest...
I felt jealous of Kushina having fallen for such a good man.
As I checked on the others, some had died due to the war while others were living peacefully. Yet there was one that disturbed me far more than it should...
Uzumaki Nagato.
He was the leader of a group headed to capture the bijuu. Their goal while unclear I could sense it was not for the good. If they were after Juubi I would let them continue... For at this point...
Juubi would be satisfied with this world enough to let it go forward and see if his dream could unfold. And with someone like Minato leading the charge I'm sure he would be elated to know that there was a chance...
However something else bothered me while I was watching over this group. I could sense there was someone else there... Someone pulling their strings and this bothered me.
Pein, as Nagato called himself, apparently possessed the eyes of that bastard back then but it just seemed like he was being manipulated by someone else. And if that was the case...
I had to find this person.
But I found him too late.
He had set out to destroy Konoha and nearly succeeded. There was only one person standing in his way and that person...
Minato-kun had sacrificed himself for whoever this bastard was had released Kyuubi the moment after birthing her child to seal Kyuubi back into the child. It was the only thing he could do for while he had stopped him in combat and even stopped the fox from leveling his village...
The man escaped and left a horrible toll in his wake. The death of the Fourth Hokage of Konoha and his wife...
And now their son was being martyred as the scapegoat and there was cry for his execution. This would not happen...
I would not let it.
"Give me the child." I dropped down from my spot as many of the council cried out for the child's blood, only the former Hokage standing before them as their only opposition.
All the bickering stopped and everyone attention had been drawn to me. My emerald eyes simply gazed over them before falling onto the small tuff of blonde hair cradled into Hiruzen's arms, a jutsu probably having been used on him to let him sleep peacefully. "If you don't want him, he belongs to me."
While there was no hesitation on the old Hokage's part, knowing just who and what I was, others cried out feverously against such an action. "Impossible! This child is an abomination and must be put down or else he will come back to destroy us!"
"Outrageous! That beast to be put down immediately!"
Brushing them and many other complaints off, taking the young boy from Sarutobi's arms and cradling him to my chest and asked for his name. "Uzumaki Naruto... Named after his mother."
"Naruto... Uzumaki Naruto huh? I think they either spent too much time at the ramen bar or they've been reading the pervert's only non-perverted book." I responded with a smile before I cooed at the young child, who was unusually wide awake and smiled up at me and batting his hands towards my face, before turning to leave.
Of course I couldn't just get there without interruption. "Just who do you think you are? We aren't just going to let you walk out with that monster!"
As several of the woman's clansmen began to surround me, ready to act despite Anbu fiercely loyal to their fallen and previous Hokage's ready to attack them at a moment's notice, I simply turned to the woman and released my killing intent.
Every person dropped to one knee if not straight to the floor as my emerald eyes gazed into her brown ones. "I am a vampire... The strongest vampire to ever exist in history."
"And this is my great grandson I would appreciate it if you drop the names otherwise I will be feeding on your blood. Good day."
In that instant I released my killing intent and stormed out of the room and made my way to the streets, planning on picking up a few supplies for the child before heading out.
Yet as I left I noted Naruto was looking up towards me with his cerulean eyes. At first I thought he was about to cry, most likely scared of the pressure I placed on the foolish humans. And here to my surprise he started laughing and clapping his hands at me.
I could only stand there and stare at him. Did he not feel any fear of what I had just done? Or perhaps he did but realized it wasn't aimed at him but to protect him?
All my staring did was draw me to his eyes and in an instant I was drawn in. It was like I was drawn into another dimension and I could see everything around me.
Everything was circling around me to quickly to be made out. All I could do was hear the occasional phrase and see a similar tuff of blonde hair to the child I was holding just a second before.
"Seriously? How stupid can you be?"
"Fire in the hole!"
"Love... Don't know. But I do know what it feels to be loved."
"And another one bites the dust."
"You know at times... I really hate you."
"Boo-yeah motha fucka!"
"Go to hell and BURN!"
"I love you to the depths of my heart... But I still really hate you at times like this!"
"Oh yeah! Let's go wild!"
While these phrases made no sense put together, especially when I couldn't put a visual on what was happening, but somewhere deep inside I instinctively knew who this voice belonged to...
I just didn't understand it.
Then in a sudden on the visions stopped and before me stood the man I had been hunting for, who eluded me and caused this event with what seemed to be a smug attitude around him. It was difficult to say with that new grey mask of his...
Hissing out, wondering just what was going on, and about to flick my blades in to place to fight, a young man suddenly stood in front of me. He wasn't in great shape, mainly due to the few wounds and bruises that covered his body, but I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of him.
It was almost like he was Minato... Yet Minato was dead and this person was just a little too different. But his aura was the same and the intensity in his cerulean eyes matched the deceased Hokage's...
"Naruto..." I muttered in disbelief, now wondering what was happen more than ever before.
Was I being shown future events? Or was this what would happen if I left the boy here? I just didn't understand...
"Why don't you just surrender already? This is inevitable. Everyone else has fallen or has failed to reach this stage. Give yourself to me and I promise you will feel nothing more and this world will experience a true calm." The masked man stated as he stood before the blonde I knew that was of my blood.
To my surprise I heard his laughter and a slight grin on his face. Just what was it that made him this determined? Even from my look things look bleak as I could see there had been a new war and his side had obviously was on the losing side.
But the way his eyes shone and gazed into the man's off colored eyes I noticed something... Hope and an iron clad will that refused to give up and fight for what he believed in... What was precious to him.
The Will of Fire like the Third Hokage would say.
"I won't give up... Because I am the light... The defender of justice. I am hope to those who cry out into the night... I am the light in the darkness! I am the hope for everyone... I am the light, nightmare to you!"
And with a burst of strength, the masked one was knocked back. Yet before I could see the conclusion of this battle...
I found myself back on the street, holding onto a blonde newborn who was now sniffling, obviously about to cry.
Snapping out of my daze, putting aside what I just saw, I smiled at the child and lightly batted at his nose with a lone finger. "You hungry? Well, let me get a few things so I can feed you then."
Seeing the child in my arms snap back into his happy persona and giggle, I could only shake my head. Whatever it was I saw it didn't matter. What matter right now was this child's welfare and I, for one, was going to give it to him.
Besides, I hadn't played mommy in near a millennia. Maybe the change of pace would do me a bit of good... I've been high strung of late. And it wasn't like this would be that much of a chore.
It wasn't like this child was a god or something.
A/N: Yeah, yeah, new story. Decided finally to do this after much debate and as I can hope you can see this is a remake of Blood Naruto, hence the title. This is all about what if Rayne had taken Naruto immediately after he had been born and before anyone could make his life hell. What would become of him? What would change?
Obviously a lot. There are also some things I changed along with the story line since Naruto's canon has changed since I originally wrote Blood Naruto. I've also changed a lot of the background story and I'm getting some of this out now with this prelude.
However with a lot of my stories, this one is written with theme and you can see early that I just come out and say what this theme is. Intolerance. So I'm going to be diving into this with a little more than just an idea but more of a concept. Religion will end up getting thrown into this, mainly because at times Religions can be the worst offenders of Intolerance.
I also just had to throw in that end bit, a tribute to Naruto's literal God status at the end of Blood Naruto. There will probably other references towards the original, maybe once a chapter.
Well I hope you enjoyed this preview of this story to be and I hope you'll leave me your opinions on what you think and what you think I need to work on.
And also, before I go, the pairing is mostly set. There are three pairings in mind: Naruto/Fu, Naruto/Yugito, Naruto/Fu/Yugito. So far I'm leaning to Fu part of me wants Yugito to be there as a tribute to the original BN. Your input would be much appreciated here so I can make my decision, though this isn't up for polling.
Peace Out.