Prologue:

The sun was setting, the boy mused inwardly as leaned onto a pillar and observed few rays of orange light managed to get through the thick layer of leaves of the Forest of Death. The weather was becoming colder, albeit slowly.

The winter was coming, thought the boy with a small amount of anxiety as his eyes briefly turned toward the pile of sticks and woods he had been gathering ever since the first day autumn came. Even though the winter couldn't force the leaves of Training Ground 44 to fall to earth, it didn't mean he would be safe from the harsh cold weather. It had been a miracle that he had found this temple or else, he wouldn't have survived the previous year's winter.

Shaking his mob of spiky blond hair, the boy moved his gaze to the inside of the temple... No, it was more like an ancient mausoleum with a strange architecture than just an old simple temple. Its size was so large to the point the first time he had found this place, he had been so gobsmacked that he would have frozen in his spot had the coldness not reminded him of the reality he had been in.

But the moment he had stepped inside for the first time, he could feel a frightening pressure residing in every single brick of the temple. It made his inside screaming at him to run outside as fast as he could instead of seeking shelter in the temple. And the air... it felt like as if Death itself materialized and permanently resided in this ancient place.

A dry chuckle escaped his lips. To be frozen to death or to be scared to death. Such choices he had been given at that time. At least until now, he had gotten used to this feeling. Sure, he still didn't dare to go further into the temple but the main hall was enough for him as a shelter

Moreover, this feeling probably was the reason why no beast dared to come to this place, which helped his life in this jungle training ground a lot.

"Well, I guess I should go check the traps." he said aloud to himself before the echoed coming from temple reached his ears. Hearing the echos of his voice was his main way to deal with the loneliness. Still, he hoped that his sanity would still be intact...

But then again, between going insane and being beaten by the villagers to within an inch of life every time because he was the vessel of a gigantic nine tails fox's soul, he probably would just choose the first anyway.

Oh right, he also needed to restock his coltsfoot leaves and some herbs, came another thought as he check the pouches around his belt. Picking up a bony white skull mask and some strange daggers he had scavenged from a wall, the boy took a close look at the knives to make sure they were still sharp before putting the mask on his face on his belt.

"O Owner of this place." Getting on his knees, the boy began his daily pray to whoever the temple was dedicated to "Thank you...for letting me seek shelter at this place. Thank you... for letting me use the tools and weapons. Thank you... giving me the mean to fight and live for another day."

Calling him mad for doing this, but he wouldn't care. Even though this place was devoid of life, the boy could still feel there was definitely something... 'alive', for the lack of better words he could come up, in the mausoleum. To be more precise, it felt like this place had a will of its own.

When he had wondered aloud whether he should take the tools and weapons hanging on the wall in the main hall or not, he could feel a phantom sensation pushing him forward, inviting him to get what he needed.

Whenever he cleaned the main hall, tried to maintain the tools and weapons, or offered the most delicious part of his catch (cooked, of course) as a token of gratitude, he could feel a sense of approval and amusement wash through him.

To the child, this place... despite its flaw, still felt like much more a home than the place where his biological family lived in.

As the boy stood up and walked out of the temple, he never noticed a pair of ghostly burning eyes in the shadow following his retreating form.

"Here you are!" The child let out a victorious cry as he managed to pull the catfish out of his makeshift fish trap. While the traps on land didn't catch anything, one of the fish traps was a success. Based on its size, this fish was held about 10 kilograms of meat, enough for about 2 days.

"Well, time to go bac..." before he could finish his cheerful thought, a bloodthirsty scream echoed to his ears as he rolled to the right side by pure instinct, right before what could only be described as a hideous beast jumped out and chomped down where the boy had been half a second ago.

"What in the world..." whatever words he wanted to said died in his throat as the beast turned to him. A heavy rotten odor came from it nearly made him gag as its scale held a sickening gold shade. And the gazes of its lion head along with a goat head and a snake head in the form of its tail, were all directing at him.

Its target. Its prey.

Acting on instinct, he threw the fish to his right side in an attempt to distract the beast as he jumped back toward the left side. But...

"Grooaahh!"

What had he expected? This thing had three bloody heads! Using the momentum of his jump, he narrowly dodged the incoming snake head. With a swift movement, he threw a dagger at the beast but much to his horror, the dagger just bounced off harmlessly against its scale.

"Gaaaaaah!"

The snake head's fang impaled through the calf of his left leg as the boy could feel a burning pain poured through his wound, forcing an agonizing scream out of his throat. As he desperately tried to move his now paralyzed body, the jaws of the beast opened, ready to devour its now completely harmless prey.

Time seemed to stop as he stared at his incoming death.

So this would be his end. A bloody and terrifying death.

Heh, at least the village wouldn't have to worry about the soul of Kyuubi revive and revenge on them in the future, he thought humorously with a small amount of bitterness in it.

"... May I find my worth in the afterlife." he mumbled quietly before he closed his eyes, waiting for his gruesome ending.

Things felt like eternity yet he felt no pain.

Was death always this gentle, he wondered?

"Dost thou hear it, foul beast?"

The cold deep voice made his eyes snap open. The hideous beast no longer had its snake fang kept the boy at bay, its fearsome expression was wiped clean as it cowered away from the towering figure stood in front of him, its body was shaking uncontrollably.

"The tolling of the bell?"

Otherworldly blue flames and black fog shifted around the black tattered robe as the pressure coming from the figure reminded the boy too much of his shelter.

"Let thy corpse be freely and fully exposed..."

The feeling of Death itself.

"Hand over thy heads."

(Chapter end)

Author's note: Phew, finally had time for writing. Real life has been hard on my and I barely have time to muse, let alone writing something. And since I haven't seen any fanfic with Gramps as Naruto's mentor, I decided to accept my friend's challenge to write this kind of fanfic.

A small warning, I will not write bashing since I'm not good at that stuff. And even if I (unintentionally) wrote it, it would be in a very minimum amount. And for the sake of this fic, the age setting in this fic will not be the same in the canon of Naruto

The (intended) next update maybe True Magic or Lord of Souls (as I am writing both updates at the same time, not sure which one will be finished first though) or maybe this story (if my flow can go a little bit further).

Finally, please read and review!