Adventures of a Half-Demon
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, etc, but I do own my OCs, as well as Asahigakure.
A/N: Since I'm currently rewriting my other story ''The Desert Fox', I began this story because I wanted something new to work on.
---------------------Begin Story: LoHD Ch.1----------------------
Naruto's eyes went wide as he realized that his friend was about to die. Being beaten by mobs was nothing new to him, but his friend had never been around when he had been mobbed before. Now that she had been caught with him, she was going to be killed, and it was his fault. He struggled against the person restraining him, but it was no use; being only ten years old, he was no match for the older chunin that were attacking them. Naruto watched in horror as his friend, Rai, was restrained by one of them as another drew his sword. The swordsman started to run towards her, when everything slowed down.
The chunin took one step, in slow motion, and a red, demonic aura started to encase Naruto, causing his canines and nails to extend into fangs and claws. His pupils changed into slits like those of a cat's, and his eye color started to bleed into red.
|Flashback|
Naruto was hiding behind a row of tall bushes to avoid a mob, when he saw someone coming up to him in a crouched position. It was a silver haired girl with blue eyes and pale skin that looked to be about his age. When she reached him she sat down at his side, facing him.
"Hi," she said, "my name's Rai, who are you?"
"I'm Naruto," Naruto whispered, "please don't be too loud, I don't want the villagers to find me."
"Why not? Do they not like you?" the girl whispered.
"No, they've always hated me, and they always beat me when they catch me." Naruto paused as he seemed to think of something, then leaned over towards her, "you should leave, if they see you with me, they might attack you too."
"I'm not worried about it," she replied, "besides, you look lonely; I want to be your friend. It's not good to be alone in the world, and you look like too nice of a person to be without at least one friend."
Naruto's eyes started to water, "you really want to be my friend?"
She just smiled at him and answered a simple "Yup."
|End Flashback|
The guy took another step and started to raise his sword above his head, prepared to behead her. Naruto was now covered in red chakra, which gave him the appearance of a fox, and appeared to be in a blind rage. He bit down on the arm of the person holding him, before smashing his hand through the person's chest and crushing his heart. He turned around and, without a moment's pause, started to run towards the guy that was about to kill his friend.
|Flashback|
Rai was sitting on his bed beside him after a particularly bad beating, keeping him company. She had been the one that had to carry him all the way home, as he had just now regained consciousness.
"Rai," he began sadly, "I have something to tell you; I just found out why the villagers hate me."
"Why?" Rai asked.
"Well, it seems that when I was a baby, I had one of the most powerful demons in the world sealed into me, one that almost destroyed the village. I didn't want to tell anyone, but you're my friend, so I thought you deserved to know. I'll understand if you don't want to be my friend anymore though, after all who would want to be friends with someone who contains a demon?"
Rai wrapped Naruto in a hug, "don't be silly, when I came to this village, I was alone, and I found you alone and without a friend too. Since then you've become a brother to me, it'll take a lot more than a demon to change that."
Naruto smiled, "thanks Rai."
|End Flashback|
The guy tried to bring his sword down on her head, but instead felt his wrist being caught by a smaller hand.
"Get outta my way demon." the swordsman shouted, "I want you to watch as I kill your little slut."
"No." an enraged Naruto yelled, the Kyuubi's voice starting to bleed into his, "you won't touch my friend!"
The swordsman tried to throw a punch at Naruto, only to have it blocked, and to have Naruto jump onto him and bite down on his throat, ripping at it with his fangs. The swordsman struggled, but quickly succumbed to death. Naruto looked around to see his friend laying on the ground and the last of the three running off.
"I'm sorry Rai, I should have never gotten you into this," Naruto cried.
"Don't worry, it's not your fault," Rai replied, coughing up blood.
It was at that moment that reality sank into Naruto. His friend, the girl who had become his sister by everything but blood, was going to die there, even though he had saved her from the guy's sword. All he did was grant her a slow death in stead of a fast one.
'Kit' a deep voice boomed throughout his head, 'if you want to save her I can save her for you, but it will require turning you both into half demons. Put your hands on her shoulders.'
"Rai, the Kyuubi can save you, but it will mean that we will be turned partly into a demon, and you'll be shunned like me. Do you want to do that?" Naruto nervously asked.
Rai smiled weakly, "if it means not having to leave you here alone then sure. Go ahead."
Naruto put his hands on her shoulders. "Okay, fox now what?"
'Now all you have to do is try not to scream too loud' the Kyuubi said as he started to change their bodies, 'you know kit, you're lucky. If you two had been a year older this wouldn't have worked. After this you should have increased strength, speed, chakra reserves, and will be able to use techniques that use yokai, or demonic energy, instead of chakra. You'll also be the newest members of the Kitsune Clan.'
True to what the Kyuubi had said, he felt a burning and it was all he could do to not cry out loud enough for the village to hear him. After it was over, he collapsed beside her. He weakly managed to push himself up, and looked down at her, swishing his tails back and forth. Wait, tails? Naruto looked back and found that he had two black bushy tails with white tips. Looking back at Rai, he found she had two silver fox ears at the top of her head, and a single silver tail. She stirred a little and groaned in her sleep.
"I've got to get you out of here before they try to kill us again," Naruto said as he picked her up and did his best to run towards the gates of the village. When he got there he saw two guards on duty. Sighing and hoping for the best, he hid his tails and walked up to them.
"Halt, demon" the closest guard shouted, "what business do you have here?"
"I'm leaving the village for good," Naruto answered, "I don't have a pass though."
"Well," the guard smiled and looked at his partner, "OPEN THE GATES! I think we can make an exception for you two on the condition that I don't have to see you in the village again."
"Thanks, and don't worry, I'm gone for good." Naruto walked through the gates and ran off into the woods. After a short while, Naruto had to set Rai down because he was too tired to go any farther. Just then Rai started to stir again.
"Where are we?" she tiredly asked.
"Somewhere in the forests outside of the village."
"Oh." Rai giggled, "your tails are cute."
Naruto blushed a little, "thanks, and I like your new ears."
Rai reached up and touched her ears, only to find they were no longer there, so Naruto guided her hands to the top of her head. "Cool. Well why don't we get some rest, you look tired."
"Sure," Naruto said, laying down beside her. Soon they both drifted off into sleep.
----------------------break-----------------------------------
A young looking woman muttered to herself as she made her way through the forests of fire country. There were a couple reasons why she was not happy, one of them being that her village was making her take on a gennin team even though she was only a fresh jounin and this would be her first team. The second was that she was supposed to be picking two of her team members, but she had gotten lost on the way there. Grumbling, she took out a map of the area.
"Let's see," she muttered, "Pine tree, Pine tree, Pine tree, Oak tree... Ah! Here we are, the big willow tree, which means that..." she trailed off as she looked over her map to see a young blond haired boy and silver haired girl laying on the ground a yard in front of her. She sweat dropped, "how did I not notice those two before?"
Just then, Naruto began to stir. Looking around, he saw a woman that looked to be about 20, with green hair, gray ears that resembled those of a wolf, and five gray tails that looked like his, but were a bit different. She had brown eyes, was wearing a loose black shirt with baggy black cargo pants, and was holding a map. Though Naruto was comforted a bit by the fact that this person was like him and Rai, he was a little suspicious.
"Hello," the woman said while putting away the map, "good, you've woken up. My name's Mai, who are you?"
"My name's Naruto," Naruto said as he pushed himself into a sitting position, "and this is Rai. Are you a half demon too?"
"Yes, but please use the term hanyou. Half demon sounds like someone about to rip out your throat. Anyways, I've been sent by my village to retrieve you two and bring you back to my village with me."
"What do you mean you've been sent to retrieve us? How'd you even know we exist?" Naruto asked.
"The Kitsune Clan sensed another two people being initiated into their clan by becoming fox hanyous, so I was sent to get you two, especially since you live in Konoha. That place is the worst possible area that one of our type can live."
"So, that's what the Kyuubi meant when he said we were the newest members of the Kitsune Clan," Naruto muttered.
"Kyuubi, eh? I was wondering what happened to him." Mai commented.
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, a confused look on his face.
"Well, one day about ten years ago, he left on a mission to track down the founder of the Uchiha clan, and then he disappeared." Mai explained, "Next thing we knew he attacked Konoha."
"So the Kyuubi is actually a good guy?" Naruto asked.
"Yup," Mai answered, "besides, he saved you, when, if he was evil, he could have just escaped as you were dying. So, what do you say, wanna come back with me and become a ninja?"
"No one will beat us or make fun of us will they?"
At this question, Mai felt an anger at what the child must've had to go through swell up inside her, "nope, in fact, most people are like us."
"Ok then, let's go," Naruto announced, "I'll have to carry my friend though until she wakes up."
"Don't worry," Mai responded, "I'll carry her for you."
As they ran across the forest floor (because Mai said she didn't like to run through the trees if she didn't have to) they talked about what the village was like. "Well," Mai started, "the village is made up of four major clans, the Kitsune, or fox, clan, the Ookami, or wolf, clan, the Tanuki clan, and the Dragon clan. There is also a clan of humans called the Hyuuga clan. They have special eyes that can see forms of energy such as chakra, which makes them excellent healers and fighters."
"Wow, I thought the Hyuuga clan was only in Konoha," Naruto replied.
"Nope, though I bet they don't want to admit that they aren't the only ones left. Konoha's branch of the Hyuuga clan was a segment of the Hyuuga family that would eventually come to settle with us that was exiled for practices of slavery, among other things. They are probably a lot different than the ones with us after so many generations apart, so you may be surprised."
-------------------4 hours later-------------------------
Rai had woken up about three hours ago and the three of them had just arrived in the village. They were only able to see it once Mai had shown them how to activate a special eye trait the Kitsune Clan had, which gave them the ability to see through all forms of illusion.
"You have the eye trait too, but you look like a wolf," Naruto quietly began, "so are you a fox or a wolf?"
"Both, my mom was a wolf hanyou, and my father was a fox demon," she answered, "now, we have to take you to the leader of the village to get you two listed as gennin. It's probably a little bit early to have you guys out on the battlefield, but you've already had two years of academy and we still have a month to train before we pick up our third member, so I'm not worried about it." As they walked towards the large tower in the center of town, they saw a woman with long black hair and silver eyes, who was wearing a gray dress and a black shirt with a silver seven tailed wolf on it. Her sharp canines became visible when she smiled and waved at Mai.
"Hey Mai-chan," she called out, before disappearing and ending up beside them, "these two on your team?"
"Yup," Mai smiled, "I don't think they've had any training yet, so I'm going to be training them until the end of the month when the academy lets out. Mom, this is Naruto and Rai; Naruto-kun, Rai-chan, this is My mom, Kyoko."
"Hello Kyoko-san" Naruto and Rai called.
"Hello Naruto-kun, Rai-chan," Kyoko replied. Kyoko looked back towards Mai, "will they be staying with us or the Kitsune?"
"I think they are staying with the Kitsune clan. I'll ask when we see the leader, though."
"Well, I'll let you go register these two and get them their equipment. Why don't you bring Naruto-kun and Rai-chan by later for dinner, so they can meet the rest of our clan."
"Okay. Well, I've got to get these two to Kenji-sama, so I'll see you later," Mai said as she turned around and started walking away.
"Bye Kyoko-san," Naruto and Rai chimed, before following Mai.
"See you three later," Kyoko said as she disappeared.
"Wow," Naruto started, "your mom seems really nice."
"Yeah, she is," Mai answered, "of course most people in the village are nicer to people, especially outsiders, than other villages are. Also, the wolf clan is one of the friendliest bunches of people around." Mai looked up to see their destination a block ahead of them. "Hey, I'll race you two to the tower!"
"You're on!" Naruto shouted.
"Sure," Rai agreed, and with that the three all took off running towards the building.
------------------Break-------------------------
In the top room of the tower sat a thin, brown haired man that had brown eyes and a large pair of brown wings that matched his eye and hair color. If he were standing up, a large reptilian tail of similar color would become visible. He appeared to be in his early thirties, and had no facial hair to speak of. He turned on the large TV hanging on the wall in front of his desk to watch the tower's surveillance camera and sighed, rubbing his temples and watching his newest jounin arguing with her two students about who got to the tower first. As much of a headache as it was, it was the reason that he chose her to be their sensei. With a case such as this, where the boy was rescued from a village that was abusing him, a sensei with her personality would be best to ensure that they grew up normally.
Just then, he was broken out of his thoughts by the door opening. "Welcome back, Mai-san, and welcome to the 'Hidden village of the Hanyou' you two. My name is Kenji."
Naruto sweat dropped, "that's the best name you could come up with for your village? No wonder you hide from everyone."
"Uh," Kenji stuttered, "well... we're a relatively young village, only having existed for fifty years or so, so we haven't gotten around to making a name yet."
"You've been around for fifty years and still don't have a name?" Naruto smiled, "that's why everyone just calls you 'leader', you haven't come up with a -kage name for yourself yet!" Naruto started laughing, while the nameless kage just started poking his fingers together in a very Hinata like manner.
"Well I have an idea," Rai piped in, "you could call yourself the Asahikage, and the village Asahigakure."
Kenji thought about this for a moment before answering, "village hidden by the morning sun, I like it, Asahigakure it is."
"See how easy that was?"Naruto joked.
"Well, I guess the people in this village just aren't creative enough," came Kenji's reply, "but anyway, here is your equipment. Senbon, kunai, shuriken, and a main weapon of your choice from the armory, as well as heat reflective and cut resistant clothes, and a pack to carry supplies in. Now, since you three and your last team mate will be entering the chuunin exams in two and a half years representing the village, you have to wear hitai-ate to show your affiliation to the village. Which colors would you like?"
"Midnight Blue," Rai answered.
"Dark Red," was Naruto's choice.
"What? We have to wear one of those ugly things?" Mai huffed, but then gave her choice, "greenish-brown."
Kenji picked three blank white headbands with metal plates on them and channeled chakra into each one before tossing it to its new owner, "and yes Mai-san, you do have to wear it. Now then, since you two have all your basic gear, you're set. Mai-san, would you show them to the armory to get them their main weapons?"
Mai pouted, before turning around and starting to leave, but she quickly brightened up, "hey, come on you two, let's go see what kind of cool weapons you'll get."
After they had left, Kenji just sighed, "children. So much more trouble than they're worth."
--------------------break---------------------
When they arrived at the weapons shop, Naruto and Rai were looking around in amazement at the amount of weapons that the shop had.
"What kind of weapon do you use Mai-sensei?" Naruto asked.
Mai pulled out a weapon that looked like a curved hatchet with a spike coming out of the back of the head from a loop on the back of her pants leg and showed it to Naruto. "I use two pair of throwing axes," she replied.
"Wow," said Naruto in amazement.
"Welcome to the Armory," echoed a voice that appeared to come from nowhere. Naruto started to look around the room trying to find whoever it was that greeted them, when suddenly a gust picked up and a woman with blue hair, eyes, wings, and a blue reptilian tail landed in front of them. "I assume that you two are here for your primary weapons?"
"Yes, ma'am," Rai replied. "Um, do all people that are half dragon have the same colored eyes, hair wings, and tail?"
"Yes, they do," the woman said, turning around and leading them into one of the inner rooms of the building. "Unlike what some people may think, and what most other villages practice, the first weapon that you receive is always the best. This is because you and your weapon must share a partnership together for the rest of your lives."
The woman closed her eyes and seemed to meditate, then, with her eyes still closed, walked to the wall and took down a weapon from it. Appearing to focus harder, she walked to a different wall and took down a second weapon before returning to where Naruto and Rai were. "Naruto and Rai, right?"
"Yeah," Naruto said, "how did you know?"
"I knew because your weapons told me when they chose you," she replied.
"They chose us?" Naruto asked disbelievingly.
"Yup, here, take them," she said placing them on the ground.
Naruto reached down, almost instinctively grabbing the one that looked like a staff with a curved dagger size blade at the top. He examined it, noticing that the staff part of it was painted such a shiny black that it could be used as a perfect mirror. He closed his eyes, and when he did he saw a black cat standing before him, looking back at him.
"Who are you?" he asked, squatting down to get a closer look at the cat. After a moment, he started to see an image of his new weapon superimpose itself over the cat. "So are you the spirit of my weapon?" he asked, to which the cat flicked its tail and purred.
Meanwhile, Rai was also examining her weapon. It was an older looking scythe, with a dark wooden handle and a blade that also looked ancient, but even though it seemed to be at least a hundred years old, it was still in as good of shape as it was when it was first crafted. She ran her hand over the flat part of the blade and closed her eyes, and suddenly she was in an ancient looking cemetery.
Looking around, she could see mausoleums, giant stone crosses, and smaller, but ornate headstones decorating the cemetery, and looking down, she saw that she was standing in front of an unmarked grave. Sitting on top of the grave, was a raven that stood about a foot tall. It let out a screech, and she fell to her knees with her hands tightly holding the sides of her head. Now she was in a decrepit old house, watching a image of herself hanging from a noose, with blood running out of her mouth and empty eye sockets. Rai gasped and a tear ran down her cheek, watching as a crow sitting on top of the phantom's head ate one of her eyeballs. Suddenly letter made of blood, her blood, she noted, appeared on the wall behind the body. The letters read "The fear of death is your enemy, and if you let it enter your heart it will signal your immanent demise. You are worthy to step through the gate and have your eyes opened."
Suddenly there was a flash of light and she was standing in the cemetery again, only the raven wasn't there anymore. Rai heard a caw, and looked to see the raven sitting on top of a headstone inside of an inner part of the cemetery, a part that she had to step through an arched gate to get to. She walked through the gate, and when she did a wind started to blow, kicking up dust off of the graves. The graves were aligned in three circles around a large dead tree. The first circle had nine graves, the next circle had eighteen graves, and the final circle had thirty six graves in it. The raven called again and flew onto a branch of the tree, where it stood looking at her, as if daring her to come. Following it, she entered the circle, where she noticed that the dust was starting to blow in a circle around her, and made her way to the tree. When she had sat down on the branch beside the raven, she looked out into the area beyond the cemetery and saw a huge dead forest containing trees similar to the one that she was sitting on. There was no grass, and as far as the eye could see, the sky was a dark overcast.
Slowly, Rai opened her eyes to the real world, and looked around to see Naruto looking at at her confusedly and somewhat worriedly, and the clerk giving her an amused look. "So, I take it that you're both satisfied with your weapons?"
Both of them nodded, but Mai had an unsure look on her face. "Won't a scythe be a difficult weapon to use on the battlefield? I mean, she'll be off balance and she'll have to keep the blade from dipping down as well."
"Nonsense," the clerk said, "it'll be a bit more difficult at first, perhaps, because she'll have to get used to the weight and balance of the blade, but she'll be able to use it just as well as any other person uses their katana. Trust me, I know these weapons, and besides, that one chose her."
"Alright," Mai said, still a bit suspicious, "I'll take your word for it."
"Good," the clerk said, shooing them out of the weapon room, "I'm sure you three still have many things to do, so you must be on your way. I also have a mission to attend to, so if you need anything from the store, ask my brother, Kenji. When you need me in the future, my name is Suzuka."
With that, she flew off, and the three realized that they were now standing outside of the building completely. "Well," Naruto mused, "I guess when you've gotta go you've gotta go. What next, sensei?"
"Now we get to go by the clan compound for the Kitsune family," Mai answered. She thought for a moment, and looked back towards the tower in the center of the village, then shrugged, "and I completely forgot to verify with Kenji-sama that you were actually staying with them, so I guess I'll just ask them when we get there. Let's go, you two."
After ten minutes of walking, they came to a rather large compound surrounded by dark red walls with a gold, sleeping fox painted on one area of the wall. Sitting on top of the wall, in the center of the area the fox was painted on, was a person with red fox ears whittling away at a block of wood with a knife. When they got within ten meters of the compound, the man's ears twitched, and he glanced up at them. He didn't pay them any attention, though, until they were standing right in front of the wall, at which time he quickly put away the wood and the knife and hopped down from the wall.
"So, are these two the new clan members that we were supposed to be receiving?" the man asked, looking at Naruto and Rai.
"They sure are," Mai answered, smiling, "they will be staying with your clan right? I kinda forgot to make sure with the leader."
"Yup, come on in," he replied, but was cut off from saying anything else by Naruto.
"But there isn't any door," Naruto observed, "and I can't jump that high to get over the wall."
"Of course there's a door," he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "What do you call that?" He motioned to the fox on the wall behind him, as if to prove his point.
"A wall," Naruto answered. "A very tall wall."
The guy just shook his head hopelessly and clapped his hands once, and a huge section of the wall slid open, revealing the entrance to the compound. He smiled at the shocked look on Naruto's face, and led the three of them into the compound.
As they were walking in, Naruto's attention was caught by a redheaded girl who was training with nunchaku in one corner of the yard. When she realized that there were people going into the compound, she stopped to look at them, but continued staring at Naruto the entire way into the building. Naruto wondered who the girl was, but said nothing as they entered the main building.
-------------------End-------------------------
That's it for this chapter. Next time on Adventures of a Half-Demon, meeting the Kitsune Clan, clan dinners, and a month of training.