Hello, and welcome to the story. My name is Mister Lizard and I do hope you enjoy this, my first fanfic. Thank you for taking a chance on this story. -Mister Lizard
Please note i do not own Naruto or any Naruto related products.
The village was in chaos. The walls, which had stood proud against the village's most powerful foes, had been shattered. The villagers had been scattered, running about as chickens awaiting the butcher. The ocean of trees, which once shielded this village from prying eyes, had become alight with fire. The people could only stare in misery as the once great forest, their wooden shield, burned around them. It hadn't spread to any buildings, the wreckage of the once great stone walls preventing the spread. The villagers were horrified as soon, the village was surrounded in flame, trapping them in an arena of flame and smog.
An inhumanly low chuckle echoed amongst the bones of the village as their tormentor appeared. The Nine Tailed Demon Fox was happy, the happiest it had been in decades. It was finally free, free of its human prison. It was now unbound, pouncing gleefully onto the village which had imprisoned it so long ago.
But the Shodai was gone, so was Madara, no one alive could defeat or control the beast. The Shinobi who defended this infernal place attempted to bring the beast down but to no avail. No weapon could pierce the fox's hide, it lazily huffed at any technique they challenged it with.
The villagers despaired and cried as their protectors, legends one and all, fought in vain against this unstoppable force of nature. Shinobi and villager alike could only ask themselves, where was the Yondaime Hokage?
The Kyuubi bared its teeth in a fox smile as it slinked back into the great smoke cloud hanging about the village. The shinobi attempted to follow it, track the building sized monster. The Fox was fast and cunning however, and soon they had lost track of the bijuu in the smoke and smog. The Fox was having fun, leading the little humans too and thro, it would pick one of them off on occasion, just to panic the group a little bit, and to have a bit more fun of course.
It was curious though, as to where its former host and her mate, the Hokage were. They were going to fight him were they not? Maybe they'd run off, it would've been the smartest they would have done in their little lives.
A yellow flash caught the beasts attention, ah so thats where they were. The golden haired man and the fox's fiery former host were standing as tall as they could on a shattered building, staring into the Bijuu's eyes. The Kyuubi laughed, long and hard, who were these insects to challenge him? They were nothing, less than nothing to him in fact.
The Yondaime threw one of his tri-pronged kunai at the Fox. With a flash the man appeared in front of the Bijuu's eyes, three more kunai in hand. Throwing them all in different directions the little sunspot warped out of the way of the creature's claws, which carved apart the air formerly taken up by the Yondaime.
Snarling, the Kyuubi lunged around snapping its mighty jaws, catching only air as the human flashed away. Soon the man was warping around so fast, between so many kunai that the bijuu could only sit on its haunches and seeth. Of course it could feel the man attacking it, the Hokage's assault was slightly more annoying than the rest of the ants who inhabited this place.
But like so many who had stood up to the Bijuu before, it would sit this human back down.
Standing up on its hind legs the monster roared, a shockwave of pure chakra erupted outward from it, dispersing the numerous kunai and forcing the Yondaime to the ground. The man clutched his arm, staring into the Fox's eyes as the creature leaned in to inspect its prey. The Kyuubi chuckled, a valiant attempt from a human so weak, but in the end, as worthless as the rest.
The fox's gaze was averted as a seal glowed in front of the golden haired man, who looked up at the beast and smirked. Smirking in the face of death, what insolence! Rearing back, the fox prepared a Bijuudama, fully prepared to smite the fool from the Earth. The seal pulsed once before a glowing chain erupted from it.
The fox was surprised as the chain wrapped around its snout, the Bijuudama erupting inside of the monster's mouth as the fox was muzzled. Rearing back on its hind legs the bijuu reached up to grab the infernal chain, when another chain fastened itself around the monster's wrist, forcing it to the ground and dragging the fox down with it.
Following the offending chain to its source, the fox saw this chain too, came from a seal. Surveying the ground around itself, all about it seals were beginning to glow. Like a tidal wave new chains erupted from the ground, finding their way around the bijuu's limbs, it's torso, it's tails, everything was wrapped up, forced down, trapped by the chains. All these chains, the seals, the fox knew who'd done this, struggling to raise it's head the fox focused on her, his former host.
Kushina Uzumaki smiled at the struggling bijuu, when Minato was distracting the Kyuubi he had placed teleportation seal around the creature. Her chakra chains now restrained the beast, but they would not last, her power was limited. The beast could only be held down for a few minutes at best, but that was all they needed.
In a yellow flash, her husband reappeared next to her with a bundle in his arms. She nodded to her husband, it was time. Minato undid the bundle to reveal a newborn babe, a tuft of sun blonde hair graced their son, Naruto.
Setting Naruto down the Yondaime flashed through hand signs faster than she'd ever seen him. On the final sign he pressed his hand onto a seal drawn on the babe's stomach. At first nothing happened, then the seal began glowing red.
The seal began lifting off the newborn's skin, the core of the seal, a spiral remaining on the child as the outlying kanji extended like tentacles toward the bijuu. The fox knew what was happening, its eyes widening as panic set in. It would not be trapped away again!
As the seal began creeping over it, the Kyuubi felt its chakra being absorbed by the seal, slowly at first, but as it spread over the monster it began taking more and more.
Kushina gasped as she let the chains go, her strength had faded, out of chakra she collapsed, hoping beyond hope that this new seal would work. Despite the chains sloughing off it, the fox remained on the ground, being consumed by the seal, it couldn't fight anymore. Closing its eyes, the bijuu faded into red mist, before this too, was devoured by the seal.
As the last of the Kyuubi fell to it, the seal began receding back into its original form. The seal pulsed red once, twice, nine times before it faded back to black. Minato sighed and smiled, the Kyuubi no Kitsune had been sealed again. His wife was unconscious and his son was crying as he glowed red, wait what?
Minato gingerly picked his son up as the baby wailed in agony. Faint at first but surely, red lines began forming all over his child. He cried as he realized he was gazing upon his son's immature chakra system, glowing red hot. The Kyuubi was making one last attempt at revenge, it was hoping to overload the seal with its own chakra and force its way out. The fox would kill itself, but it would take the Hokage's son with him, and at that moment, the Bijuu was ok with that.
Minato weeped, he couldn't do anything, he wasn't a medic and Tsunade was Kami knew where in the village helping the injured survive. Baby Naruto's chakra network was completely overtaken by the fox's chakra now. Minato could only think of one thing to do, he had forged another seal, one that could permanently cut off the Bijuu's chakra.
It meant Naruto would no longer be able to access the fox's power, but if it meant his son would live, Minato didn't care. As he applied the new seal over the old one, his son continued to cry in pain, the chakra had swollen the boy's chakra network so much, his chakra pathways were almost as big as Minato's. Minato finished applying the seal at the exact moment his sons chakra pathways burst.
-18 Years Later-
He awoke with a start. Sweat covered his body as sucked in air. That same dream again, he thought to himself, this was the same dream that had plagued him for years now.
He knew what it was of course,everyone did, it was the day the Kyuubi was sealed inside of him. The day he lost whatever potential he had when the beast ruptured his chakra coils.
He was the jinchuuriki of the Nine Tailed Fox. He was the civilian son of the Hokage Minato Namikaze, and the kunoichi Kushina Uzumaki. He was the brother of one of the most talented shinobi since Itachi Uchiha, his sister Mito.
She was the prodigy of her age group, a group that consisted of the next generation of Shinobi clan heads. Who was he?
He was nobody. He was eighteen years old, the 'powerless prince' of Konoha. He was Naruto Namikaze.
Groaning, he got out of bed and began his morning exercise. Push ups, sit ups, everything he could do to strengthen his body. He was not a shinobi, he would never be a shinobi, but he would do what he could.
He made his way into the kitchen, grabbing an apple he sat down at the table. It was five in the morning. The only other person up at this time was his father, who now sat across from him reading a report and drinking his morning tea.
Looking up, Minato smiled at his eldest before refocusing on the report. Naruto shrugged and sat down, munching on his apple. No words were exchanged, not out of spite but simply because they had nothing to speak of.
Naruto was not shinobi, he was a villager. His father could not speak of shinobi matters to a meer villager, not even his own son. Finishing his apple, Naruto stood and made for the front door. Minato glanced up as his son walked out, "Have a good day son."
Naruto waved as he closed the door behind him. At a brisk pace Naruto began his morning jog. His family owned a house isolated from the main village by a mile of forest, close enough that the shinobi of the family could get their fast in case of emergency, but far enough away so as to keep their privacy.
His route eventually brought him to the village marketplace where villagers had begun setting up their shops and shinobi leapt across the villages rooftops, blending into the shadows of dawn's early light. The shopkeepers greeted him as he ran by and several shinobi slowed down and waved at the son of the Yellow Flash who greeted them with a little wave of his own.
Eventually he ran past the academy, his sister should be up and preparing to go by now. It irked him that some of these students, his sister included, could kill people like him with barely a thought. He frowned to himself but continued running, Not much I can do about it.
Not to say he didn't want to, quite the contrary in fact. His greatest wish was to be on the frontlines, helping his family defend the village. But that was not to be. The Kyuubi had destroyed his chakra coils. What little chakra his body produced was barely enough to keep it alive. No, being a shinobi wasn't an option for him.
There were no real styles of fighting that didn't rely on chakra in some shape or form these days. He had once considered waking the samurai's path but a large portion of their techniques relied on channeling chakra through their blades. It was a major disappointment.
His parents tried being supportive of course but they didn't know how. They were all shinobi, their problems were not his.
He had stopped jogging, merely walking through the village as the sun crept overhead, illuminating the village in an orange glow. He frowned in contemplation as he wandered down a street filled with restaurants, what was he doing with his life?
If he were a normal civilian his family would've taught him a trade but that was hard when he wasn't in a normal family. He put his gloomy thoughts aside as his favorite restaurant came into view. Ichiraku Ramen was a small family owned restaurant that made the best food in Konoha. This small family had even let him do some odd jobs for money.
Ducking inside, he took one of the open seats at the bar and knocked on the wood. From the kitchen emerged the owner of the shop Teuchi, who smiled at his favorite customer, "Naruto my boy, I hope you're doing well this day?"
Naruto shrugged, "Kind of, got some things on my mind, that's all."
"Well what kind of things?"
"Just thinking about my future. Just y'know, what am I gonna do with my life." Naruto sighed and held his head in his hands, why was thinking of all this now?
Teuchi gazed at the young man and pitied him. It must be hard, he realized, living in a family of high quality shinobi, and being the only civilian. "I'm sure you'll find something, you're a smart kid Naruto."
The son of the Yondaime shrugged, "I just want to help people, but without chakra there's no way that'll happen."
"You never know, just don't yourself son, you'll get it. Now if you're looking for something to cheer yourself up, hows about a nice large bowl of ramen. On the house!" Needless to say, this made Naruto very happy.
-Later That Evening-
He was running again. Willing his body to be stronger, even if it would make little difference in the end. His day had been frustrating from beginning to end. After his short conversation with Teuchi he had gone home to face a day of work on the family estate.
Things like gardening, masonwork and other menial tasks for the family estate was his responsibility. He was not a master and unless he was formally recognized as one, or he had one as a mentor, no one would hire him, Hokage's son or not.
He had finished his work late, finishing it at around nine at night and instead of going to bed, he decided to go for a run. To clear his head of all these negative thoughts. As he ran he focused on the physicality of it, the beating of his heart, the strength of his muscles, the air being forced in and out of his lungs. It was freeing.
His meditation was broken as a scream pierced his calm. He slowed down, eyeing the buildings around him waringly, what was that? Another scream, this time louder, coming from the north. Someone was in trouble. So he ran, not away from the danger but towards it.
A scream again, he was close, he could hear faint sobbing nearby. He slowed down and pressed himself to the buildings wall, sneaking as best he could to whoever was in trouble. He peaked around the corner and growled under his breath.
A man, a shinobi if his headband was of any indication, was struggling with a woman. He had her pinned face first to the brick wall, her voice muffled as she sobbed. He had robbed her, if the coins scattered across the ground meant anything, now he wanted something else. Shinobi or not, Naruto would not allow that.
He dashed out from his hiding spot and tackled the ninja who yelped in surprise. The woman was dropped and quickly ran away screaming for help. Naruto scrambled up and threw a punch at the ningen who ducked and jabbed Naruto in the ribs and quickly picked him up, then plunged the blonde into the Earth.
Naruto lay on his back groaning, he'd never been in a serious fight before, and was now paying for his inexperience. The shinobi chuckled and pinned Naruto with his knees, he fished out a kunai and teasingly waved it in front of the blondes face. Naruto's response was to spit a glob of blood into the shinobi's eye, temporarily blinding him.
The shinobi attempting to wipe the blood out of his eyes was the distraction Naruto needed as he lunged up, using his momentum to throw his enemy off. The shinobi landed on his feet and lunged at Naruto with the kunai. The blonde sidestepped around the weapon and uppercut his foe.
Crack!
Wait, what? That shouldn't happen. The shinobi fell onto his back, eyes wide and head bent at an unnatural angle. Blood leaked from his nose and mouth, he took in a few shaky breaths and lifted a hand. Was he going to say something?
The hand dropped, the Shinobi was dead.
Naruto's eyes widened, a million different thoughts rushing through his head. At first it was, how did i do that? I've never been that strong before.
Then he realised he had killed a man. Oh God…
He sunk to his knees and stared at the corpse, he was a murderer, he had murdered a shinobi, what was going to happen now?
He shakily breathed in, tears were brimming in his eyes, what was his family going to think? He didn't know how long he sat there. He only came to when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up into the blank mask of ANBU agent Inu.
His one visible eye was penetrating the blonde to his very core. "Naruto, what have you done?"
AN: And Done! Well now, that's the first chapter of The Lion, and my first chapter of anything ever. I'm hoping you all will like this chapter and all the chapters to follow. I'm hoping my ability to write dialogue between characters and fight scenes will get better from here on out. Next chapter we will see Naruto struggling with his first kill and the consequences of killing the shinobi. See ya then!