Don't Fear the Reaper

By Sgt. Nolisten

Disclaimer: This is going to be the first and last time I say this for the rest of this story, I don't own Naruto or any of the other stuff used to describe and or relate parts or what ever. The best that I own is my nickname, this story plot, my games and game systems, and my porn… I mean… my collection of highly entertaining and educational photographs.

Ch. 1

A second chance, not many people get that in life. It is such a rare gift that getting struck by lightning has a better chance of being received. The most frequent type of person that receives One of these chances are those that have done wrong on their first time around, so lawyers are the most common.

Though there are some who deserve one and yet never do. One such soul was just a little boy. Hated for something he had absolutely no control over. Put down, threatened, and beaten every other day by his fellow villagers, he calls out for a second chance for something he never did. Yet those same villagers don't hear it, blinded and deafened by their own stupidity.

He never receives one. Not one for five years of living. He never receives a second chance… until the day he died. Until he arrived on the front door of Death. Until he arrived on the front door of the being that sealed his fate at birth; the Shinigami.

***

Naruto Uzumaki opened his eyes to look around when he fully awoke. It was a common occurrence for him. Get seen by an angry villager, get chased by a mob, get called a demon during the beating, get knocked out by a blow to the head, get saved by the old man Third Hokage, and wake up in the hospital with the said old man watching over him.

But this time was different…

He wasn't in the hospital. Nor was he in that sewer-like place with the big fuzzy thing in the huge cage that he visited after a very harsh beating when he was three. No, this time was very different.

He stood in a yard surrounded by a waist high wall. On the other side of the wall were hills upon hills of wheat, barley, and corn. Gentle breezes from the direction where the sun had just fully come out made the produce sway back and forth, giving it a wave-like appearance. To Naruto's five year old mind, it looked beautiful.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Naruto jumped at the sound of a voice right beside him. The man was bordering seven feet tall; strands of his randomly spiky black hair covered the sides of his head as well as his neck, leaving his face exposed. His face was deathly pale, his eyes were angled, judging, and cold except while looking upon the field. His mouth was filled with sharp teeth that were clamped around the handle of a small kodachi knife. His clothes were like that of a daimyo or a samurai.

"Oh, hey Shinigami-dono. Nice to see you again. So, are we gonna have some sushi, ramen and herbal tea as usual before sending me back?" The death god looked saddened, if the sagging of the shoulders and the tears forming at the corners of his eyes were anything to go by. It's common knowledge that the Shinigami never took out the dagger from his mouth except when he's severing souls from someone he meets and deems unworthy of life, even in battle, so he learned to speak clearly with it in his mouth. What he said next shocked the boy to the core.

"No, my friend, you're staying here permanently now, Naruto. You…you were finally killed."

The tears finally fell from his eyes. Naruto's vision became blurry, and he felt something warm and wet rolling down his cheeks.

"What did I ever do to them? My pranks never harmed anyone. Why did they hate me enough to kill me?" he wailed, kneeling on his knees.

"Child, they don't hate you. People constantly allow emotions to judge their actions. You know your birthday is on the same day that the Kyuubi attacked your home village, it's not a coincidence."

"Wh-what do you mean?" he sniffled out, only half interested.

"Your Yondaime couldn't kill the Kyuubi, he was too powerful. So he sealed it away into a newborn child; you, young one. I helped in its sealing so I know it was absolute." He was about to go on, until the super intense killing intent made even him pale further. Such killing intent that made even the god of Death afraid was all being produced by a child! Shinigami looked at the child's face and gasped in shock.

His nails were almost three inches long. His canines were an inch longer and the whisker birthmarks on his cheeks were thick, almost pure black. His irises were slitted and string thin. But that was the most shocking thing about him, his eyes. They were still pure blue!

"You mean to tell me that they did what they did for no reason? That I had to suffer five years of beatings? Five years of assassins? That I had to suffer fiver years of being ostracized by my peers because their parents feared me even though they knew my seal would never break?"

"Naruto…" The boy's body had started glowing orange in color while his skin grew darker. His eyes looked like they were starting to sink into his skull.

"Damn them beyond Hell! I won't kill them; I'll obliterate them! Not even their souls will be left! They want a demon? I'll give them worse! I'll give them the Death God's friend! I'll give them the Grim! I'll give them me, the Reaper of their Souls!"

Before the Death God's very eyes, Naruto's body and clothes turned the darkest shade of black that absorbed all light. The outline of his small shirt and baggy shorts that clung tightly to his five year old body due to no store willing to sell him replacements stretched and grew to look like a cloak similar to what ANBU wear. The bottom of it was raised too high and flowed too fast to be caused by the gentle breezes. His hands, which were raised partially from his sides, remained the same size but his fingers shrunk to where the tips were like unsharpened, round tipped spears. Where the knuckles connected, or should be connected, nothing but air held the sections together.

The blackness receded, showing the dark grey cloak and the shadows that hid his head. Though if one were to garner a guess by the bleach white bones for hands, his head would be that of a skull. His head rose up to the point where Shinigami could see the perfectly angled bone jaw, and the arms reached up and grasped the hood. Pulling it down confirmed the Shinigami's suspicion as he gazed at the fang toothed and abysmal eyed skull. He jumped back in surprise when said skull and his bone arms erupted into bright fire.

Naruto took one look at his shocked friend before he started laughing. It was an unnatural laugh as it wasn't a happy laugh. It was a laugh full of malice and vile hatred, and it was absolutely laced with evil as well as complete insanity. Truthfully, it scared the all nine levels of holy hell out of even Death himself. (To imagine it, mix Captain Barbosa's laughter in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Black Pearl, with Ghost Rider's voice in… well… Ghost Rider.)

Naruto slid one arm up his sleeve as he used his other hand to grasp his flowing cloak. With a yank of his cloak was pulled over his head before being tossed to the side. He was completely human underneath but was now five feet five inches tall and now had a face that would knock women fifty feet away with a simple glance and smile.

He had a very strong chin. His cheeks were sunken enough to define his high cheekbones and make his jaw line all the sharper. With no baby fat on his face, it made his calculating, expressionless face all the more intimidating. His eyes, still blue and slitted, were diamond cutting sharp that seemingly could rip the truth out of anyone's mind.

To put it in layman's terms, he could win 'World's Sexiest Man' with no competition. (Okay, if you've seen my profile, I'm a guy so I have no idea what women think is sexy for a man's face. Don't sue me if you think this is wrong.)

His clothes, however, had changed dramatically. They used to be a white shirt with an orange leaf spiral as a design and a pair of khaki shorts. Now? Now they were a nearly black colored set of samurai ceremonial or battle robes. (I give you Samurai Jack's uniform.)

Naruto looked down at himself before scowling. "Shit, this so fucking sucks man!"

What he said knocked the Shinigami from his shock. "What does?" he asked, shaking his head.

"Well, I found out I could use the powers of a demon, I feel like I have enough strength to lift a mountain, I can transform into something that can scare anyone shitless, and yet I can't even use any of that on the village anymore!" Naruto explained, crossing his arms in his usual childish pout. Silence reigned for a moment before a look came a crossed the Death God's face that made you put a mental light bulb above his head.

"Maybe you could…" Naruto's head shot up to look at him.

"What? What could I do?"

"Oh I don't know…" the god said, " Theoretically speaking, you could be revived; and, hypothetically, you could even keep this new power of yours and even learn how to use that scythe I sense is sealed in your hand." He said all this with his hands crossed behind his back and a smile that looked innocent yet also said 'I know something you don't' in a sing-song 'voice'.

"How?"

"Hm? How what?" the god asked, playing stupid.

"How can you do that?"

"Well, by natural law, I can take on a human spirit and train him or her to be able to use my powers on the human world with no restrictions except from commands by me…"

"So will you take me?" The Shinigami shot him a look that said 'WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK?!?' An evil, sadistic smile spread a crossed Naruto's face and it was matched in intensity by the Death God's, even if you could hardily see it behind his kodachi hilt.

"The graveyard in Konoha is getting pretty empty. I would do it myself, but with sooo much work to do, I can't fill up the empty space." The sarcasm could practically be seen pooling in the area around them.

"Oh, I could help you out on my spare time…" Naruto shot back. The amount of sarcasm being made could make a class five hurricane.

"Alright then, get inside and go to bed, training begins tomorrow."

Naruto turned around and noticed the small two story house in the middle of the yard. It wasn't too big nor too small, big enough to accommodate a family of five or so. Naruto noticed that there was a rather large forest behind the house, but nowhere near the size of what he guessed the fields to be. Naruto gave a small happy smile and started walking for the house's front door.

"Thank you for the house. I'll see you tomorrow morning… sensei…"

When he closed the door, the Shinigami gave a small smile of his own around the kodachi before turning back to the field. Mumbling under his breath, he said a few last words before vanishing and returning to his job.

"You're welcome Naruto. It's the least I can do for your birthday. You'll make one hell of a hero one day, and I'm going to make sure you will die happily because of it."

(Chapter End)

A.N. Well, what do you think? Just so you guys know, however, I have already completed 11 chapters for this story of mine and decided to release this as I am having a writers block the size of Rhode Island.

I will update whenever I can, but if I don't then I am probably having internet connection problems, my computer is having problems functioning, have my computer taken away, in an area where I don't have computer access, am having writers block, or have temporarily forgotten.

Reviews with questions that don't reveal the story's plot I will answer vaguely. Reviews with thoughts of what will happen next I will read with amusement and a scanning eye for how open I'm being in the story. Reviews with pointers about spelling (as I don't really give a damn about grammar since I'm a human, not a damn machine) I will thank and attempt to do what is suggested unless I believe it is right (I will still thank you for the suggestion). Reviews with flames, destructive criticism will be ignored.

Thank you and see you next week.

, out!