Disclamer: I don't own Naruto nor any characters or abilities created by Masashi Kishimoto.
Summary: The King is the most important person in the country, the one who stands above them all. The King of Men is a lost title, given to a human who stands above all of humanity, someone to whom there is no equal or better. Though nobody realizes it, everyone whishes for that title but it can only belong to one. How does one become the King? Only a bird knows.
King of Men
Chapter 1: The Blond Beauty
At the park in Konoha, children were playing on the equipment like they did every day. The parents sat on park benches watching their children's behavior and making sure they didn't talk with anyone they shouldn't, especially one boy in particular. The demon fox was at the park again, apparently hopping to corrupt some of the children of the village. None of the parents would stand for that thought, even if the Hokage had forbidden them from attacking the fox-boy, they still didn't have to let their children associate with the monster. They told their children that the boy was trouble and they'd be punished if they even went near him, let alone talk to the little monster. That left Naruto sitting by himself at the edge of the sand box, wondering why he'd even bothered to come to the park in the first place.
The boy looked around at the other children, wishing he could be able to play with at least one of them. However, even at 7 years old he was well aware that the adults of the village hated him for some reason, a reason no one would talk to him about. Being alone all the time really too it's toll on the boy, so he decided to visit the park in hopes of someone playing with him and alleviate his loneliness. The trouble was that he kept forgetting that going to the park had the opposite affect, seeing all the other kids playing, but unable to talk to any of them, made him even more lonely then before.
Suddenly, the voice of a woman cut through his thoughts, "How come you're playing here all by yourself, kid?"
Naruto turned to look at the voice and found the most beautiful lady he'd ever seen. She was mid height, with long flowing dirty blond hair. She looked about 22 years old, her eyes were a pretty shade of off-blue, and thought the boy didn't give it any real thought, she had decent sized breasts. Men would easily call her a natural beauty, and would fall in love with her almost instantly. Most of the women in the area were jealously glaring at the woman, she didn't seem to have a single flaw on her entire body, and she wore regular civilian attire that you could find at any random store. Still, the thing which made most of the mothers at the park angry was the fact that the woman was talking to the demon brat.
Naruto didn't know how to respond, people didn't usually just walk up out of the blue and randomly talk to him. He just stared at the woman for a few seconds before turning back to the sand box and trying to play. The woman, however, wouldn't take silence for an answer. She sat down next to the younger blond and said, "You know, when a person asks you a question, its polite to give them an answer. Even if its something like, 'I'm not going to answer you, leave me alone.' At least that's still an answer."
Naruto just shifted the sand a little before saying, "I don't have any parents to teach me stuff like that. I don't have any family at all."
The blond woman just stared ahead before replying, "Tough break kid, that never leads to an easy life. But that still doesn't answer my first question."
She kept staring at Naruto until the boy thought back to what she originally asked, and finally answered, "None of the other parents will let me play with their kids. They get angry and yell at me if I try to approach the others, and if they try and play with me then they get grounded so they don't even try."
Naruto fiddled with the goggles on his head, not knowing what else to say. The lady seemed to understand and decided to change the subject. "Not many people wear goggles to the park, you planning on swimming later or something?"
The boy shook his head and replied, "Nope, this is my temporary ninja headband. I plan on exchanging it with a real headband when finally become a leaf shinobi. Everyone respects the village's ninja, so if I become one then people will start respecting me too! I'll even become Hokage if that's what it takes."
Naruto's smile looked genuine, but the woman could see past it. She could see the anger and hate which existed inside the boy, his desire to force everyone to respect him if need be. However, she simply smiled back at the child as if taking his words at face value. "Becoming the village leader, huh? That's a big goal to have for such a young kid. Are you sure you've got what it takes?"
Naruto jumped up kicking sand around, making a "V" with his fingers. "Of course I do. I'll work hard ever day, nothing's impossible if you try hard enough. I'm even enrolling in the ninja academy in a few years and I'll train supper hard!"
The blond adult tried to resist, but she just couldn't help herself, "You're so cute!" She grabbed the boy sitting in front of him and crushed him into her breasts, swinging him back and forth like he was a toy.
Not that Naruto let that happen to himself, he tried his hardest to free himself, pushing with his arms and legs while complaining, "Hey, let go! I wasn't trying to be cute, I wanted to be cool and serious!"
Laughing, the woman lifted the boy up and started spinning around. "Sorry kid, but your not old enough to pull of the 'cool and serious' look. And judging by your looks, it won't really happen till you hit adult hood." She set Naruto down outside of the sand box, Naruto was slightly dizzy from the experience. Nobody had ever done something like that to him, the only adult who was nice to him was the Hokage, and he was too old and proud to be childish like that. "I like you kid," Crouching down and sticking out her hand, she added, "I'm Nagi, wana be friends?"
Naruto just stared at the older woman, flabbergasted by the turn of events. Nobody had ever even acknowledged him, let alone wanted to be friends with him. Especially none of the adults. "Aren't you suppose to make friends with people your own age?"
Still stretching out her hand and smiling, Nagi replied, "Normally, yes. But you can make friends with anyone, any age. I'll tell you right now, that I can't be family to you, but I can listen and hang out sometimes. Still interested?"
Naruto was slightly hesitant, but eventually reached out his smaller hand and placed it into Nagi's larger one. While shaking, he added, "My name's Naruto, you said you're Nagi, right?" The woman nodded, "Cool, do you have time to hang out now?"
"Yep, anything you wana do today?" Nagi waited while Naruto thought. The boy had never had a friend before, especially an older friend, so he really didn't know what to do.
"I'm not sure, lets just walk around the park and talk for a bit." The woman nodded, and the two set off. Some of the parents had left the park with their children, not wanting their children to see someone being friendly with the Kyuubi brat. They could punish their own children, but they couldn't stop a grown adult from talking to the little demon. The parents who remained vowed to make the new comer's life miserable, in hopes of driving her away from the demon brat.
Naruto returned to his apartment with a smile on his face, not his fake smile either but a real one. He'd spent the entire day talking to Nagi about everything he could think of, everything from homes to dreams to likes and dislikes. It was great, he'd never had someone really listen to him before. He even brought her over to his favorite ramen stand shared a meal together.
He didn't just talk about himself either, the young Jinchuriki had asked questions about his new friend as well. She seemed to be a jack-of-all-trades kind of person, taking any job she could find to keep herself employed. Currently, she had a job as a private singer for someone in Konoha, though she wouldn't say who exactly He only gave her one day off a week, so she couldn't visit more then that. It made him slightly suspicious that she could be doing something indecent, but Naruto tried to take her words at face value. Still it was hard to do so, there was something strange about Nagi that he just couldn't put his finger on.
Naruto didn't really care in the slightest, she was his first friend ever and she'd even given him a gift. He fingered the necklace, stroking the feather at the end of it and remembered their parting.
(Flashback)
They'd just finished dinner and Nagi apparently had to leave. "I don't know if you'll believe me Naru-poppy, but I really had a good time today. It can be invigorating to hang out with kids once in a while. And, because I had a good time, I wanted to give you something as a token of friendship." The woman pulled out a necklace from under her shirt and handed it to the younger blond. It had a single feather on it, unlike any Naruto had ever seen before. It was golden, and if Naruto didn't know better, it seemed to glow slightly.
"Wow." Naruto really didn't know what else to say. Nobody had ever given him something so beautiful before.
"You don't find feathers like that every day, so don't go losing it." Eventually, the boy seemed to get over his shock, launched himself at the woman and latched onto her while shouting continually shouting, "thank you".
When he finally calmed down and stopped crying tears of joy, he began looking around as if looking for something, then he seemed to get a good idea. He reached up and plucked his goggles off his head and held them out to the older woman. "I don't really have anything as beautiful as the feather, but please accept this as symbol of my friendship."
Smiling playfully, she asked, "Wasn't that suppose to be your ninja headband until you became a genin?"
"Sure, but I can always get another pair if I want 'em. I don' t have anything else that could come close to being a gift to a friend, so its that or nothing." He held out his goggles and looked at Nagi expectantly, until the older woman finally smiled and took the item from Naruto.
"Thanks, Naru-tan. I've never had goggles before, I'll keep them always." Turning to leave, she added, "I've gotta prepare for work tomorrow, so I'll see you next week, squirt."
She walked away while Naruto waved enthusiastically. He put on his necklace but tucked it under his shirt, not wanting anyone to steal it, and took off for home.
(Flashback End)
Naruto turned off the light in his bed room and continued to reminisce about the best day of his life. He couldn't get over the fact that he had someone to talk to, even if she wasn't his age. It made his happier then he could believe. The boy fell asleep like that, clutching the feather he still wore and began dreaming of what he would do next week.
Deep within the sewers of the seal, the Kyuubi was both furious and terrified. It would have been one thing if his vessel had simply met with that woman, even if he'd made a contract with her it wouldn't have mattered to the demon. But for that bitch to give the flesh heap such a gift…
There werr foot steps coming from the corridor, light and sure footsteps, it could only be one person in the entire world. From the corridors of the seal came Nagi, the only person in the world Kyuubi wanted to tear apart more then anything else right now.
"Hey, Kyu-chan. Long time no see!" The woman waved at the caged beast enthusiastically.
The fox demon was less then happy. "You disgusting hag! What the hell do you think you're doing!" The nine-tails raged. All of his tales were twitching in agitation.
"Why, I came down here to talk." She put her hands behind her back and kept her smile on her face, trying to act friendly.
Kyuubi wasn't falling for it. "You know what I mean you bitch. The feather, I can feel the power its emitting from here. Do you realize what that will do to my vessel?"
Nagi's smile slowly turned from friendly, to dangerous. "Of course I do, Kyuubi. Why wouldn't I know. I made that feather especially for Naruto."
"YOU SICKENING HORE! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US ALL?!"
With her happy smile, she replied, "Not at all fox-chan. I just want to make things more interesting. You know, have some fun."
"If I wasn't in this cage, I'd tear you and your fun to pieces." The demon snarled.
"You mean, that's what you'd like to do if you were free, right Kyuubi no Kitsune?" She gave the Kyuubi a smug look which caused the Kyuubi's hate to deepen to new levels. "In any event, you're not free so you can't do anything to stop me. Oh, and just so you don't do something crazy like try to manipulate Naruto…" Nagi held up her hand and it began to glow, soon the entire room was glowing and Kyuubi looked around trying to see what was going on.
"What did you do this time."
With a playful laugh, she replied, "I just enhanced the seal a little bit. Now, Naruto's mind can't enter here and you can't affect his mind with you're power."
"I'll kill you, you pathetic bitch. I'LL KILL YOU!" The demon screamed. Nagi's mind left the seal, laughing her head off all the while.
(TBC)
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