AN: Hi guys! This story is hopefully going to be a long story. Don´t worry if you didn´t watch Fairy Tail, that´s no problem. I won´t use any other elements than the attacks so there won´t be any characters appearing from the Fairy Tail universe. As for strength comparison, a normal dragon is as strong as a bijuu but since Igneel is the Fire Dragon King, he´ll be slightly stronger than the Kyuubi. (Doesn´t matter that much, but for people that didn´t watch Fairy Tail, here is the comparison) If you have any suggestions for this story I´ll gladly listen to them but can´t promise I will include them. Let´s get started!
"Talking"
´Thinking´
Technique
Demons/Dragons
"Talking"
´Thinking´
Disclaimer: I don´t own Naruto or Fairy Tail.
The Redscaled Hokage
A young boy at the age of five walking down one of the alleys in Konoha. This boy was Uzumaki Naruto, Jinchūriki of the Kyuubi. The downcast expression he wore, suggested that something sad had happened. He wore black Shinobi sandals, blue shorts and a yellow T-shirt with blue stripes. The clothes looked extremely old and worn out.
"Why did they kick me out of the orphanage? What did I do, to make them hate me?" he questioned as he started crying. "The world is cruel."
He had been walking around for the past hour now, looking for a comfortable alley to sleep in. It was already 5pm and he still hadn´t found a suitable spot to sleep. He was nearing the village outskirts and saw a few different training grounds. Most of them had small forests so he went towards what he thought was Training Ground 7 and went to look for a place to sleep.
After a few minutes, he found a big tree with a small hole inside. A part of the tree was hollow. Finding nothing better, the boy squeezed through the small opening which was extremely small. Actually being glad that he was malnutritioned for once, he looked around. It was extremely tight and dark. He was sure that he wasn´t the only living being in the tree right now. In fact, he could feel an insect crawl on his neck.
Being a small boy, he was scared of insects and only wanted to run away from his hiding spot, but he knew he couldn´t as the tree would protect him from Konoha´s winter.
His stomach, then grumbled loudly. "I´m hungry. I want food" the small boy cried. Enduring the pain, Naruto finally fell asleep.
XxXxXxXxX
As Naruto groggily woke up, he felt something tickle his lips. After a few seconds he slightly jumped up in shock and started hitting his mouth. As he looked closely, he could see a spider running away.
The boy slightly teared up and squeezed through the hole again. He stumbled and fell face forward to the ground. It took a few seconds until he was able to open his eyes because of the blinding light. Overnight it had snowed and everything was covered in white powder.
"Wow!" the five year old breathed out. "Pretty." The boy had never seen such a beautiful sight. The landscape was covered in snow and reminded him of a fairy tale the Hokage would read to him. It was about a princess getting lost in the wild and a prince saving her. This was set during the winter. Naruto had yet to realise that gathering food would be even harder than before. Finding food in the winter was hard, but with everything covered in snow, almost impossible.
Overwhelmed with emotions the boy sets out to look for even prettier sights.
"I´m really hungry." the boy complained as his stomach started hurting even more.
Occasionally the blonde found food storages of squirrels in trees. Not wanting to steal everything he only took a few from each storage so he could survive. Naruto loved animals after all. As he was exploring the winter wonderland he completely forgot about the events that had conspired the day before.
Hours had passed and Naruto was still walking around, unknowingly leaving the village further and further. As it started to get dark, the boy had to look for a place to sleep again.
"I miss Teuchi-ojisan and Ayame-nee." he thought sadly. He had met the ramen stand owners a few days ago. "They don´t look at me like the other villagers do." He wanted to taste the amazing food called ramen again. The Food of the Gods, as he called it.
He was now around 2-3 kilometers away from Konoha. "A cave!" Naruto exclaimed before taking off towards the huge cave he had spotted. "Wow, this cave is huge! I bet it´s really warm inside!"
The cave was dark, so he put his right hand on the wall and started going inside. The stone was extremely cold, which made Naruto want to retreat his hand, but he needed it for guidement. Naruto was now starting to get a bit scared as he went further inside the gigantic cave. Instead of like a normal cave, this cave went inside the mountain for quite a bit and Naruto still had to discover where it went down.
The further Naruto went inside, it got hotter. He was actually starting to sweat from the heat. Something had to be heating up the cave.
"Yikes!" the blond shouted as he fell and landed on something very hard, even harder than stone. "This feels scaly" the boy said as he rubbed his head. The material reminded him of a Lizard´s scales.
He and the Hokage had gone to play in the outskirts of Konoha a year back and Naruto had found a Lizard. He still remembered the excitement he felt after finding it and his grandfather figure allowing him to touch it. These days, the Hokage had barely any time left to play with him. Naruto was very sad about this, but he knew that his Grandfather figure was the Hokage and had to protect the village too.
The blonde got up and noticed that he had probably scraped his knee. He wasn´t sure because he couldn´t see anything. Suddenly the floor shook and knocked him down again. This time he fell onto the cold stone floor. That was when he realised that the scaly material he had fallen onto before was very warm.
"W-Why is the floor shaking" he cried out.
"Who dares to wake me up from my slumber?" a dark voice boomed.
The entire cave suddenly lit up and Naruto gaped at what he saw. He started to lose consciousness.
"A-A-A Dragon?!" he shouted, his voice trembling in fear. The dragon was gigantic and dark red in colour. Its lower body, the stomach, the inner portions of its long tail, legs and inner portions of the wings were beige. Its entire body was littered with scars, the largest one being an X-shaped around the center of its body. It had black spikes on its back, reaching to the end of its extremely long tail. It had three horns on its head, one being on the nose. The dragon was lying on the floor and raised its head.
(AN:Google Igneel for a picture if the description wasn´t detailed enough)
"A human?" he wondered out loud. "A hatchling at that. What do you want with the great Fire Dragon King Igneel?!" he roared.
Naruto had to give his best to not wet himself. He was too shocked to answer.
"Answer me!" he bellowed again.
"I-I-I" Naruto stuttered ,"I w-was only l-looking f-for a place t-to sleep." he managed to say.
Igneel remained silent as he towered above the boy. He bent his head down and got closer.
"S-Stay away Dragon! I-if you mess with me, you´ll have t-to pay the consequences!" Naruto shouted, still shaking in fear.
"A puny human like you is threatening ME?!"
"I´m no puny human! My name is Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konoha!" Naruto roared as the dragon did, standing his ground. His knees were buckling and he wanted to throw up, but he´d never back down! He was Uzumaki Naruto. The name was going to be feared in the future!
The dragon looked surprised as the boy declared that he was not scared. A boy that age should have already passed out of fear. No. A grown man should have already passed out of fear. In the old days every dragon feared Igneel and for the first time, somebody declared that he was not going to get pushed around by him.
"You interest me boy. Uzumaki Naruto you say? Very interesting indeed! he shouted amused. ´He seems promising.´ Where are your parents hatchling?"
Naruto was shocked for a moment, but didn´t let his guard down. ´He probably wants to make me think he´s nice and then eat me!´
"I don´t have parents." he said emotionless.
´No parents? This seems to good to be true. It´s been a while since I had an apprentice´ "Does somebody look after you?"
The blonde winced. "No,n-not anymore. I got banished from the o-orphanage"
´Only a hatchling and surviving alone? He´s strong´ Igneel then smirked.
"I-I won´t let you eat me!" Naruto spoke as he saw Igneel smirk.
"Naruto... How about I train you? Make you strong."
Naruto´s expression changed from slightly scared and serious to dumbstruck. "Huh?" was all he could say.
"I can teach you the ways of Dragon Slayer Magic."
"M-Magic?" Naruto became suspicious. "Magic doesn´t exist everyone knows that! You can´t fool me. I won´t let you eat me!"
Igneel chuckled slightly. "You´re wary eh? I like that. Never trust anyone immediately. But no,
I´m not lying. You shinobi use this power called "Chakra", right? Magic is similar. Why should Chakra exist, but Magic not?"
Occasionally, Shinobi on missions would find the cave. They would enter it and scout it, but never make it outside again. Many challenged Igneel with a power called chakra. Instead of eating some right away, he made them tell him what the power they used is called. It didn´t feel like magic after all.
"Y-Yes, but I can´t use C-Chakra yet." the boy mumbled. "But you´re right. I guess magic could exist. Prove it and I´ll believe you"
"Very well." Igneel tilted his head upwards towards the ceiling. He then took a small breath and spewed out a large beam of fire. Of course he held back immensely, not wanting the cave to collapse.
"A-Amazing" was all Naruto could say. The heat was almost unbearable. "A-And I can learn that?"
"That and more! Achieving your dream will be easier too!"
"O-Ok" the Uzumaki said confidently "I won´t disappoint you!"
"That´s the spirit Naruto! But I´ll warn you already. The training will be harsh. Far harsher than any Shinobi training you will ever do. Are you prepared?"
"Yes, I am! I´ll make everyone in the Village recognize my strength!" he was now grinning. "B-But how is this going to work out? I-I can´t just leave the Village and coming here and then leaving the same day doesn´t make much sense"
Igneel gave a long, ´hmmm´ and started thinking.
"W-What if I get Hokage-jiji to meet you. He might let you train me!"
"Are you sure? The Hokage is the village leader right, how do you know him?"
"He plays with me sometimes. He might agree after meeting you Igneel!"
"Alright. Stay here for the night and then go get that man tomorrow morning. But if he tries to make my power, his own like they have with the Bijuu, I´ll eat him!"
"B-Biku? What´s that?" Naruto asked, puzzled.
"Don´t worry about that yet. If I do start training you, I won´t only be teaching you how to fight. Maths, English, History and common knowledge are also going to be taught by me."
Now Naruto was starting to get interested. Learning and such didn´t really sound appealing to him but he did want to learn how to read and write. He was planning on becoming a Shinobi but the Shinobi Academy, usually, only starts with the age of 8. Before that children go to kindergarten, which was the orphanage in his case, and then later school. After three years of normal school, they get to choose between normal school and Shinobi Academy. Then at the age of 12, the students would (hopefully) graduate and become a Shinobi.
"Does that mean that I get to skip normal school?" the blonde asked excitedly. He was sure that the teachers wouldn´t treat him well.
"That depends on the Hokage."
The blonde was about to answer, but suddenly yawned. "I´m getting tired Igneel"
"That´s fine, good night Naruto." The blonde then lay down onto the hot floor and fell asleep immediately. He was used to hard surfaces when sleeping so it didn´t really pose a problem.
´This kid... I sense a lot of magical potential. Not only that, but there also seems to be some kind of weird power inside of him. Darker and scarier chakra. Maybe...´ Igneel thought wisely. ´A jinchuriki eh? Even more interesting. I´ll have to ask the Hokage tomorrow to make sure.´
Igneel then used his talons and gently lifted the boy up and leaned him against himself. He had already grown attached to the boy and hoped he could train him. He hadn´t felt these emotions for thousand of years. Even the great Fire Dragon King Igneel had his sentimental moments. Everyone had them. "You´ll become a fine Dragon Slayer, Naruto."
Igneel had not left his cave for around a thousand years. Due to some incidents in the past, he was believed dead. He had finally gotten his original strength back a few years ago. Although there was still one question left to be answered. How was he still alive? Dragons had a very long lifespan, but several thousand years were still unimaginable for a dragon.
Currently, Igneel was the only dragon alive. The last ones had died a long time ago. While recovering in his cave, he had met the great Rikudou Sennin. He had gifted him immortality. Igneel was now a being similar to a Bijuu. Instead of being made up entirely of chakra, he was made up from Magic. He could die, but would reform years later again.
"Now let´s see what the Hokage says."
AN: All the unanswered questions will be answered in the future, for example why Igneel gained Immortality. Please review and give me some feedback about the story! See you next time!