2008-06-11 - created text file, recorded bunny

2011-10-08 - edited a bit for FFn

Naruto Daimaoh

by dialNforNinja

Now I know you've seen this one before - a giant fox demon laying waste to an army of ninja with its nine tails, across the field a giant frog with a blond man on his head, doing some kind of sealing-style ninja magic with a newborn baby in a sling at his side.

Things were just a little different than you might expect, though - the man a little more worn looking, and a wide trail of its own blood down one side of the fox's face where some grievous injury had been inflicted and then healed, the edge of one ear still ragged as it reformed.

Namikaze Minato, Fourth Hokage of the Village Hidden in Leaves, had tried making one, all-out attack with his strongest move, a desperate attempt to win without using the suicide technique he'd created as a fall-back out of the desire to see his son grow, to give the boy the home he and his wife had dreamed of even if she couldn't share in it, now. Kushina had begged him to be strong, to not follow her too soon even as the difficult birth took her life, and he'd done his best to live up to that request, but it seemed the power of a demon could not be swayed by mere mortal wishes.

The toad leaped closer as he finished a long set of hand seals, the first of three stages to the method he'd developed, and a spectral arm reached out from the spiral that had formed on his belly, through a second on the baby, and then in a physics defying way across the two dozen feet to the growling kitsune youko, staring petrified with disbelief as a mere human summoned the God of Death himself. Its physical form being only a representation of spiritual power it sublimated away as the demon was pulled into the seal, now glowing a menacing cherry red around the wailing infant's navel.

Knowing he only had minutes at best, seconds at worst until Shinigami claimed his own life and soul in payment for the service, the Yondaime hurriedly applied the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style around the outside of the spiral, whose glow faded as the energy and the mind of the raging demon were constrained to limits within the ability of a merely human body to take. He could feel himself faltering as he painted additional seals for the Four Elements style, but his consciousness was fading and the chakra to activate the technique wouldn't form - the body was willing, but the spiritiual energy needed to direct its stamina into the outside world was being devoured too quickly.

Defeated by his own technique, the Fourth fell to his knees, only barely able to keep his weight from falling on the helpless child. "Bunta," he gasped. "Quickly... bring him to Sarutobi... the final seal... activate... it..."

Then the man heralded as the strongest Hokage yet was no more, and the huge toad summon was left alone to fulfill that last request. Out of respect for the man, he did so, but the delay was not without some cost - demonic energy had flared up again during the interuption, and by the time the Four Elements Style seal was completed it wasn't just whisker marks that had been added to young Naruto's features, his irises had bled from blue to red and gained vertical slits, and his little fingernails thickened and curled together at the tips into small, rounded claws.

They smoothed out again as the demon was finally fully caged, but sky blue irises still carried diamond pupils, and the ridged, whisker-like scars on his cheeks stayed as well.

"Ne, Gramps, what's this Academy thing you want me to go to?"

The Third Hokage, reinstated six years ago after his successor's untimely death, smiled gently at the little blond boy slurping ramen beside him. "The Konoha Academy is where boys and girls go to learn how to become ninja, to protect this Leaf Village with their strength."

"Protect... WHY WOULD I WANNA DO THAT! This village is full of evil meanies, who always pick on me and call me names! I don't wanna be a ninja... I'll... I'm gonna become the king of all demons and punish the wicked! Everybody will wish they'd been nice to me then!"

Seeing the stricken look on the old man's face, one of only three people who'd ever been kind to him, Naruto quickly added, "Don't worry Gramps! I'll be a good demon king and only bad people will get punished, not you or Ichiraku-ojisan or Ayame-neechan! You're not mean, so it's okay!"

The ramen chef and his daughter, who'd frozen in unfamilar fear as the lonely little boy they'd slowly opened up to seemed to fulfill the worst rumors about him, relaxed just a bit as he added the qualifier. The Hokage's own heart had clenched in his chest at the child's resentful declaration, chilled as much at the thought of facing the boy's parents in the next world when he'd allowed the village to fail their trust so badly as at the prospect of facing a vengeful jinchuuriki. At the same time, there was just the tiniest sliver of hope, Naruto was still young and all it seemed he needed was a few friendly faces to keep him from turning completely down a dark path.

Even more importantly, being admitted to the Academy would put him under the Hokage's authority as a ninja-in-training instead of the civilian Council, and despite all his arguments the Council continued to turn an ever harsher eye on the young demon container. That was what had prompted him to try enrolling the child two years early in the first place. "Naruto," he said, putting forth his most serious but still caring look. "At the Academy, there will be lots of chances for you to make new friends your age, and..." he hesitated at saying any more, but there wouldn't be any point sending the boy if he was already determined not to learn "... to be a demon king, you'd need to be strong, and ninja arts are the strongest on the battlefield."

Slitted blue eyes studied him through narrowed, suspicious lids, but finally the whisker-cheeked blond nodded and went back to his meal. He knew that even a demon king could get hurt by ninja, so maybe he should learn how to be one, after all.

So, Naruto went to the Academy. He didn't exactly make any close friends, but a few of the other boys would hang around with him sometimes, so that wasn't too bad, and he got to practice his skills at punishing the wicked with pranks ranging from tossing water around a corner and running away to elaborate multi-stage traps.

Naruto's body was strong and his mind quick enough when something engaged his interest but unfortunately little of the Academy's instruction did, especially as rendered through the bias of teachers who'd lost parents, siblings, or team mates to the attack of the Nine-tails and held him as the living symbol of their resentment. He'd failed two graduation exams, dropping back to the class with his year mates, and the third as well thanks to irregular chakra that foiled his attempt at the specified ninjutsu.

Anxious to be done with the place at last, having learned all he could or cared to from it, he'd taken up the 'alternate test' one of the less openly hostile teachers had proposed later that afternoon despite signs of being a trap, and after studying the scroll he'd been tasked to retrieve it was even more obvious that the whole situation was a set up. A set up that he'd profited more by than he'd even dreamed he might, but a set up none the less. Now he was just waiting for the liar responsible for the situation to show up and end the 'test.'

Newly sharpened senses felt someone arrive in the trees behind him, and he called out, "So, Mizuki-sensei, here at last? I got the scroll, but I can't demonstrate any of these techniques, so I guess I still don't graduate, huh?" Still facing the other way, he laughed at the rush of muddled feelings in the other man's aura. "Having second thoughts? Well, it doesn't matter... I learned something good anyway, and unlocked more of my real power. Here, why don't you give it a try?"

Naruto nicked a thumb on one needle-sharp incisor and scattered a few drops of dark blood in front of himself. "Rei, doru, konjou, chishio, shin'on! Majutsu: Ketsukuro Bunshin!" He turned at last to fix ominously glowing red eyes on the intruder as four more pairs rose from the shadows on either side, the duplicates taking form an instant later as pitch-black silhouettes of the boy, their only discernable feature the eerie red eyes.

This utterly cool and intimidating pose fell apart as he saw who exactly had found him. "EEEH! Iruka? You're not Mizuki-sensei! Even if you're cold sometimes, I can't use a big punishment on you!"

Speared on those burning eyes, the Academy teacher was still frozen with remembered terror as they softened in confusion - though no more than an Academy student himself at the time, he'd been present when the nine-tails attacked, and had lost both his parents in the battle. He'd tried to at least be fair to the kid, grading and treating him no more harshly than the rules specified but it was hard to set aside his anger, especially with the boy's bizarre fixation on becoming a 'good demon king' to hand out punishment to the unrighteous.

The practical jokes and the way the other kids kept him apart, on the other hand, were all too reminiscent of his own troubled childhood, and the talk he'd had with the Sandaime that afternoon just underscored the fact that all the kid really wanted was some attention... but those demon eyes, and the spoken incantation without hand seals, those were the same as that terrible night.

"What are you doing here anyway, Iruka-sensei? You're not the type to go along with something like this fake test..."

Shaking himself, the scar-faced chuunin forced his mind back into action, even the strange silhouette clones no longer ominous with their eyes as quizzical as the original's. Putting together the things his erstwhile student had said, he realized, "Oh, so that's the situation..."

"So, you figured it out?" This time, the new speaker was indeed Mizuki, sneer twisting his face into a cruel mask. "I guess I'll just have to kill you both, in that case."

( blah blah canon blah... )

"I'll tell you a secret, Naruto... No one is supposed to say, that you are the demon fox!"

*Oh shit,* Iruka thought, *the poor kid was unstable enough before...*

Naruto's shoulders shook, but his bowed head hid his reaction for a moment... until he gave up on hiding the laughter, rearing back and letting it escape. "You... Did you really think I didn't KNOW!" he demanded, getting his breath back under control. "In my dreams, I remember those times... forest spirit, then temple guardian, summoned ally, and eventually just a rampaging scourge consumed with arrogance... and a human who punctured that arrogance. Didn't you ever listen to me? I'm going to return to my place as the king of all demons, and give out punishment to the wicked... that means you, traitor!"

That burning red gaze fell on its intended target this time, and the white-haired teacher was locked shivering in place under their terrifying malicious intent. The four clones who'd vanished into the shadowed woods reappeared, equally spaced with their master around the tree where Mizuki was crouched. "En, chi, naki, doku, yaki!" they chanted in unison, causing a pentagram of red light to spring up from the ground as if shining through cracks. The ground at center of the sigil began to crumble away, more red light shining out of the gap, as the original Naruto called out, "Majutsu: Inpu Kaiin!"

The phenomenon quickly spread until the tree's roots could no longer support it and it tumbled into the pit, Mizuki releasing a terrified wail as he fell with it. The aperture remained open a few more seconds, spewing foul smoke and blast-furnace heat, before first the glow faded, then the pentagram, leaving a divot in the forest floor perhaps ten feet wide and deep.

Their energy exhausted and tasks finished the four clones dispelled, leaving Naruto alone with the injured Iruka. The boy panted a bit as the glow faded at last from his eyes, and the prominent fangs peeking out from his lips faded back a bit. "Eheheh... that was a little harder than I thought, even after getting some of my old power back..." he admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "Anyway, Iruka-sensei... I'm not sure why you saved me like that, but thanks."

"Naruto... you know what it's like, don't you? To feel pain, to be alone, to try anything to make people look at you... If you're a human or a demon, you're still Uzumaki Naruto, my student. Come here a minute."

blah blah headband, Sarutobi sits back from his crystal ball, a bit troubled by the blatant use of demon magic but glad to see Naruto forming another bond to Konoha, and relieved to finally know why Naruto wants to be a demon king. Even if the goal itself is worrisome, the continued insistence on moral judgement and the Kyuubi's rampage being held up as an example to avoid are positive signs.

"...and to kill a certain man."

Crimson eyes glowing faintly as he used their power to read the auras of his new team mates, Naruto finally understood better what the situation of his rival was. "Someone who was close to you but betrayed you utterly... family?" Ignoring the furious glare prompted by his muttered insight, Naruto flashed the dark-haired boy a wide, only slightly menacing smile that screwed his eyes up in happy arcs. "I never knew you had such a good goal, Sasuke! As a great demon king who punishes the wicked, I'll lend you my strength!"

"Demon of the Mist? No, he's just a human..."

"Sasuke... that mark... it's really weak, I'll get rid of it for you. You should have told me if you wanted to sell your soul for power, I'll do a way better job than this!"

"Hey, that's the loser who put that demon mark on Sasuke. I could make a better contract with my BIG TOE! I'm gonna kick your ass, you pansy snake-lover!"

"There's an unbreakable barrier in the way, you know."

"So? Knock the building down, they can't keep it up if they're splatted on the ground."

"..." "..." "..." "We knew that."

"So what you're saying is, when you're inside that circle and do the ritual, your god Jashin returns any attack on the one whose blood you used? It's a good thing that was mine, then. En, chi, naki, doku, yaki! Majutsu: Inpu Kaiin!"

The ground fell away under the Akatsuki member Jashinite circle and all, and moments later billowing blood-red flames sprang up around Naruto, who grinned cheekily at the vanished man's partner from their embrace. "Nothing like a little taste of home, ne?" he caroled, stretching and slapping his chest.

NOTES & TRANSLATIONS:

Daimaoh - great demon (lit. 'evil') king

Rei, doru, konjou, chishio, shin'on - spirit, mud, willpower, blood spilled from the body, (sound of a) heartbeat

Majutsu: Ketsukuro Bunshin - Demon arts: black blood clone

En, chi, naki, doku, yaki - fire, blood, tears, poison, ashes

Majutsu: Inpu Kaiin - Demon arts: path to hell opening

Background explanations: The delay in finishing the seal let the Kyuubi start to merge and take over baby Naruto, implanting memories (but FAR from its full 10,000+ years worth) and transforming the body to properly use demonic energy, but then Sandaime finished the seal and ripped its actual mind apart. Inside the mental cage is a mindless, ravening beast, without even a solidly defined form. Naruto can draw as much of its chakra as the seal will allow whenever he likes, and the power-up in the woods is the result of reading about the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style and altering it to let more power flow. Because of these changes, four of the twelve marks around the spiral on his belly are a slightly different color of dark blue (signifying Sarutobi's having finished the Four Elements seal instead of Minato) and one of the Hakke Fuin's marks has a maroon squiggle over the outer end where he weakened it.

EOF