(AN: In this story, the technique Kage Bunshin will follow a set amount of chakra to create that will fluctuate in accordance to the way the clones will be used (more chakra for increased endurance, intelligence and so on). This is vastly different to the canon version of Kage Bunshin, which is that chakra is divided between each clone equally. I'm posting this notice because, in the past, people have had issues with the fact that I chose to have Kage Bunshin's chakra consumption as a set amount instead of equal splitting dependent on the amount created.)

Chapter 1: Reflection on the Past

I stared at the ceiling of my small bedsit apartment, my mind in chaos. Past events continued to replay in my mind; Iruka-sensei finding me in the forest with the Forbidden Scroll to now. Kami I was stupid to fall for that bastard's lure of the fake graduation test, but damnit, I was desperate! The scroll itself should've hinted in my head at how potentially dangerous what I was about to do could have been. But I was always rushing in headfirst into whatever task, challenge, fight, etc. lay before me, without thinking.

You're probably wondering why I'm lying wide awake at 11 in the night, doing nothing but staring at the ceiling. It's a funny story. Actually it's not that funny, but more of a mind-blowing revelation story. Sometimes life just throws you a curveball and all you can do is try to duck. Well life has certainly thrown me many, many curveballs. Some hit, some missed. But this particular one slammed straight into my head. And now, I could only hold on for what would be the ride of my life.

It all started when I was going for my third try at passing the Ninja Academy test. The test was almost exactly the same as the past two times I tried and failed. The theory part was easy now. The first time I found out that I had been slipped a theory test for a Jōnin promotion application instead of an academy level theory test. When I protested loudly, I was disqualified on the spot. Yeah, just like that. Do not pass Go. Do not collect Academy Graduation Certificate. …Assholes.

The second time I got that test, I knew better than to complain. And so I struggled and most probably failed that test. I dunno. They never did give back my test results. But after moving past the theory, came the sparring and accuracy tests. And I had the misfortune to be matched up not against the instructor like the others had, but against Emo Pants himself. Aka: Sasuke Uchiha. And I really hate that guy. But more raving about him later.

Predictably I got my ass kicked. The shithead instructors from the year before didn't bother to correct any mistakes I made in my Taijutsu forms. So I thought I was doing very well and needed no adjustments. Until I was defeated in almost one move. To my credit I was so bad that the first move I made almost caught Sasuke off guard since he wasn't expecting how truly bad I was. For the shruiken and kunai test I thought they were going to hit most of their marks, when all of a sudden they moved sharply away from all the targets, like they were magnetised at polar opposites.

And then after the Taijutsu test was the jutsu test. In this I actually didn't do so bad. I managed to switch with a much heavier and larger object with the Kawarami and my Henge was damn near flawless. But then… came the f'ing Bunshin test. This jutsu was supposed to create corporeal clones to serve as distractions. Key word is supposed. I ended up making pale and dead looking copies. This got me an instant fail.

And then the third year came and went. This time our class received a new teacher. His name was Iruka. And he was a hardass to be sure. At first he looked at me with the same cold eyes that almost everyone else did. But they seemed to change not too long after the start of the term. Soon after that, he bought me some raman from the Ichiraku Raman stand. But his new understanding of me did nothing to curb his punishments after I pranked him. Out of respect for him, it was nothing too hardcore. A little body glitter here, a little glue there… I made sure it could be washed out.

When the theory test came up, I was surprised that I had received the same test everyone else had gotten. Instantly that catapulted Iruka into my list of favourite people in this village. Which at that point in time only had three people in it, not counting the newbie on the list. So I breezed through the test and I was confident I got a decent score. Well, at least not a horrible score. Theory is never my strong point.

Then I went up against Iruka-sensei himself to test my Taijutsu. After he and I had become sorta close, he spent some time correcting my stances. By this time I had learned to compensate for my lack of Taijutsu competence by using the terrain however I could to gain the upper hand. The result was a wild fight of dodging, rebounding and all sorts of crazy brawler moves. While Iruka helped me with shaping up my form, he told me to keep with the extra moves so to throw the opponent off balance. My Taijutsu test went well and I saw an approving nod from him.

The shruiken and kunai test went almost exactly the same. And I swear I saw that Mizuki ass smiling to himself when this happened. I now know that he was the one who rigged my test at that moment. But at the time I thought nothing of it.

Fortunately you didn't need to pass all of the sections of the entire test to graduate. However there were three jutsu that were a must to master, or at least, do correctly. Kawarimi and Henge I passed with flying colours. But the damn Bunshin…

Needless to say it was the same result as last time. A pale and dead clone lying on the floor. It was strange because the harder I practised and tried, the worse it looked. I just couldn't understand it at the time. I've since been enlightened.

Iruka gave me a loud fail which I had no idea where it came from. Perhaps he had lingering feelings of pent up aggression after pranking him yesterday with the Sexy no Jutsu. But that wasn't on my mind at that moment. It was my third consecutive fail and I was starting to lose my will to continue to be a ninja. While some people say that I might have an unbreakable will to persevere until I reach the goal, I knew that as long as I didn't get the help I desperately needed to pass, I was going to stay at the academy, repeating the year over and over. And I refused to stay like that. Maybe I could start my own raman stand or get a job at Ichiraku's…

As I sat on my favourite swing, thinking about what to do next, Mizuki came by and comforted me. We left the academy and sat on top of some random guy's roof. He told me that Iruka was just looking out for me before he presented me with the 'secret' test; to 'acquire' a certain scroll without anyone knowing and learn at least one jutsu from it.

Thanks to my legendary stealth skills (I ain't kidding) honed from years as a master prankster, giving the slip to Chunins, Jonins and even the occasional overconfident ANBU, I was able to easily sneak into where the scroll was kept, strap it to my back, and left without anyone ever knowing. I went to the place where Mizuki said to meet him at, took the scroll off my back and unfurled it to the first jutsu on the list. This was the first revelation of the night I had. And spoiler alert; it wasn't getting old anytime soon.

The first jutsu was Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. At first I was intensely ticked off at the fact that the word 'Bunshin' was in the title. More like 'Kage Bullshit no Jutsu' I had thought at the time. But upon closer inspection I saw that this was a physical copy. The jutsu was quite easy to master. Within an hour of intense practicing I had it down. It used up more chakra than a normal Bunshin used, but it was much easier to form. So with that jutsu learned, I moved to the next one.

This actually wasn't a jutsu, but a sealed item. From the writings next to the seal, someone named Orochimaru created a special bloodline limit and was able to administer it in tablet form. However the project was a bust as none of the test subjects showed any aptitude in using it. So the samples were destroyed. All but one. Which was apparently sealed inside the scroll, probably to be experimented on at a later date when technology was better equipped to fix whatever was wrong with it. The idea of a mass produced bloodline limit would be something any country would be willing to explore to give them an edge.

The writings mentioned no side effects at all from the failed attempts, which was probably one of the reasons a sample was sealed and not all of it was destroyed. There was also no description of what the person could do, if it ever worked. Seeing no harm in at least trying it out, I unsealed the item, a small tablet, and gulped it down. I waited 30 minutes but nothing happened. Arrogantly thinking that it was a dud, since there was no way someone as awesome as me could have failed to gain a new bloodline limit, I dismissed the rest of the entry and was about to move onto the next, when an interruption in the form of an irate teacher appeared.

From there things moved quite rapidly. At first I welcomed Iruka for finding me and then said that I mastered one jutsu from the scroll so he could pass me. Then Mizuki appeared out of the blue and attacked Iruka, and not very well I might add. Only one of his shuriken actually hit. Out of ten. I wonder if he passed his accuracy test in the academy. My guess is nooooo.

And this was when revelation number two came along. After some back and forth banter between the three of us happened, it was revealed that the infamous nine-tailed demon fox that attacked our village 14 years ago was me in human form. At first I wanted to laugh and ask what he was smoking, but then it all began to make sense. All the cold stares, the yelling, the unfairness. It all became so clear. Now as you can imagine I was a turbulent bundle of emotions at this point, so I didn't even see the giant ass shuriken heading to me courtesy of the silver haired asshole. All I know is that Iruka told me to duck and out of instinct, I did.

The next thing I saw was Iruka standing over me with the implement of death sticking out of his back. He prattled on about something that I wasn't really paying attention to at the time. I was still trying to recover from the Kyuubi news. So I did the only thing that made sense at the time.

I ran.

After seeming to lose them in the surrounding forest, I came to a halt and placed my back against a tree, catching my breath. Then I saw Iruka and… me? dive into a clearing behind me. Since I knew there was only one me, and that was me… then the other me was an imposter of me under a Henge. My brain began to hurt at that point. Yeah, I know. Pathetic, right?

Events played out and the two showed their true selves. Then Iruka went and said heaps of nice things about me. Really nice. Like recognising-my-worth-as-more-than-just-dead-weight really nice. And that earned him a permanent spot on my 'People I Care About' list. As I saw Mizuki set up for a finishing attack to kill off Iruka-sensei… well, there was no way in hell that was going to happen. So I dived in there, kicked his ass with about 50 clones to help, and saved the day!

Revelation number three then happened as Iruka presented me with his ninja headband, saying that I had passed and was now a true blue ninja. That was easily one of the happiest moments of my life, only equalled to becoming friends with the Ichirakus and getting my own apartment from the old man.

After a heart-warming episode of almost killing him with my hug, we returned the scroll back to the old man, Iruka went to recover at Konoha Ninja Hospital, and I went back to my apartment to get some sleep. Team selections weren't going to be held until the day after tomorrow, so I planned to sleep in, play some Assassin's Creed 3 on my trashcan liberated PS3 (blow the crap out of some pirate ships on a navel mission), get lunch at the Ichirakus and some bragging, and then watch the new Mass Effect: Paragon Lost anime move I torrented off the net. I was itching to see Vega in action from before his ME3 debut.

But the night was still young and there was one last revelation to be revealed. I went to sleep and woke up, not in my bed. Not even in my room. I was in a sewer of some kind. I was standing ankle deep in water, inside a long corridor with pipes lining the walls and ceiling. Having nothing to do, I walked forward.

I don't know how long I walked for. Minutes, hours. Time sorta merged together. But eventually I came across a massive room. Half of it was barred by a massive metal caged door. Half way up the closed doors was a piece of paper with the kanji for 'Seal' on it. In a rare realisation, that was going to become quite common in the coming days, I realised that this was where Kyuubi was sealed, and that I really wasn't the Kyuubi incarnate. But I expected a massive amount of evil and killing intent to be radiating from the cage door. Instead there was nothing.

"Hello?" I called out, not entirely sure if I actually wanted an answer. There was a heavy amount of splashing, before the fourth and final revelation showed itself. Or rather themselves. I was expecting some sort of large evil looking fox with big teeth and red eyes to come to the cage bars and start growling away at me.

What I wasn't expecting was nine very attractive women coming to stand inches away from the doors.

"You're late," one of them said. She had lower back length light strawberry blonde hair with a few thick locks that fell over her front and reached her lower breasts, light peach skin and violet eyes. She wore a high class schoolgirl outfit, the kind you'd expect rich schoolgirls to wear, with the shirt and jacket a white colour with blue trimmings. The style was slightly militaristic as well. Lower down she wore a short pleated blue skirt and brown silky pantihose and on her feet were knee high stiletto boots. Her boobs were quite large. About a 30G-cup size I guessed. And I was very good at guessing thanks to all the porn I've watched. Her way of talking was high class. On her head were a pair of fox ears and swishing slowly behind her was a fox's tail. They were coloured in the same colour as her hair, but the tip of her tail was in vanilla.

"Now don't be rude, Sylvia. He's had a big night," a second voice answered the first. This one belonged to a woman who had thigh length, chestnut brown hair in a large single plat, peach skin and ochre brown eyes. She looked very kind and she made me feel at ease. She was dressed in a lavender purple kimono with a light pink sakura blossom pattern on the bottom of the kimono and the ends of the long miko like sleeves. A violet wide obi was wrapped around her waist and she wore simple tabi sandals. This one's breasts were smaller than the first female's, bout a 38DD-cup, though it was hard to tell in that kimono. This one also had a pair of fox ears and tail. Hers were also coloured the same as her hair, but her tail tip was in sienna brown.

"Well, we're not going to help matters, that's for sure!" laughed a woman who had short, spiky and wild tawny hair, brown skin and orange eyes. A pair of silver scale capoeira pants and a golden top consisting of two straps going from a necklace with a jewel to a butterfly-shaped pin on the back of her pants. It was Christie Monteiro's outfit from the more recent Tekken games. Her boobs were bout a 36C-cup and the tip of her tail was in bronze.

"So… who are you?" I asked.

"We're all vixens who got sealed inside of you just after you were born," replied a new voice, and I turned my head to see a girl of maybe 16 or so. In terms of looks, she looked like a pink haired version of Guan Yinping from Dynasty Warriors 8. Straight, hot pink hair reaching to just below her ass, light apricot coloured skin and wide, pink lips. She wore Guan Yinping's Famitsu collaboration DLC outfit from DW8; a beautiful green kimono jacket with wide miko sleeves and detailed red and yellow flowers printed on them, a red short skirt, brown thigh highs and black leather heeled boots. She had small breasts, a 34B-cup, but that just accentuated her innocent look. And the breasts were perky so by no means was she flat. She was also the shortest, just under my height and her body shape was petite, like a young princess. Her tail tip was lavender pink.

"At the time of sealing, we were one creature; a nine-tailed fox," the next woman added. She had waist length wavy and floppy auburn hair, seashell coloured skin and copper brown eyes. She had the largest breasts out of them all, most probably a 32GG-cup. She was a dead ringer for Kozue Takama from the hentai series, Aniyome wa Ijippari. One of my favourite series. She wore different clothes though; a pink V-neck top to which her breasts strained against the confining fabric and showed off some very nice cleavage, an indigo pencil skirt that ended just above her knees and glossy black stockings. Her tail was tipped in rust brown fur.

"That's something we'll get into later," the sixth woman said. This one had light tan skin, long and wavy black hair, 36E-cup breasts and magenta eyes. She was tall too, probably the tallest out of the group. She wore a similar outfit to what Faye Valentine wore in Cowboy Beebop; tight black shorts and a skimpy sleeveless shirt that showed off her midriff, thigh high black stockings, a red overcoat worn loosely and black stiletto shoes. On her lips was painted magenta lipstick and surrounding her eyes was black eyeliner. And damn was she sexy. Just her posture, hell even her aura spoke volumes of sexiness. And it wasn't a slutty sexiness. It was a classy sexiness; sophisticated almost. Like Bayonetta. Her tail was tipped in byzantium fur. And her face had the look of an older, mature woman. Like one of those older TV stars in the Bold and the Beautiful.

"We go into our combined form every year to stay alive," said the seventh woman. She had straight mid-back length luminous blonde hair, peach skin and azure blue eyes with just the right amount of eye shadow collected around the top corners. She had voluptuous breasts, bout a solid 36D-cup, and her ass and legs were very well toned and sexy. She wore ultra-pink glossy lipstick. Her clothes were identical to what Takao from Arpeggio of Blue Steel – Ars Nova wore in her first appearance; a white dress with frills on the top half and a short skirt bottom half. On her legs she wore black pantihose and white high heeled shoes. Her tail was tipped in amber yellow. Her voice also carried a French accent.

"Taken advantage we were," said the eighth one in a monotone. This one was covered in a full cloak similar in design to the cloaks Organization XIII wore in Kingdom Hearts 2. Even the hood was up. Thanks to the hood shadowing everything except the lower half of her face, I couldn't tell the colour of her eyes or her hair. However I could see that she had ivory skin. The size of her breasts was also a mystery as the cloak hid that feature. Her tone of voice suggested that either she didn't care or that she was a serious kuudere gal. Her cloak also hid her tail so I couldn't tell what colour it was either. However the hood of the cloak was designed with cat ear extras so her fox ears weren't flattened against her head when the hood was on. She was also quite short, almost as short as the pink haired one was.

"What?" I asked intelligently. It seemed the cloaked one just said that out of the blue and that I was missing some context.

"Don't mind it. She just doesn't like to waste time," said the ninth and final voice. This one had mid back length dark red hair in a high ponytail with her fringe reaching to her eyebrows and two unbound shoulder length locks framing her round face. Along with her beautiful red hair, she had large and round emerald green eyes and peach skin. In terms of looks, she looked like Mizuho from the hentai series Mizugi Kanojo that I recently downloaded. Like all the others, her fox ears and tail were the same colour as her hair. However her ears were tipped in black fur, while her tail was tipped in white. This woman was dressed the most daringly out of them all. She wore a white bikini top with red flame decals that her 38DD-cup breasts fill out completely, black thigh high stockings, a pair of very short white hotpants with a white belt and silver buckle, tight black princess gloves and wore black supportive high heeled sandals. It was basically Yoko's outfit from Gurren Lagann in a different colour scheme. So in other words, she was hot and cute at the same time; a dangerous combination to be sure. "We were ambushed by someone who had put a lot of planning into doing so. He knew where and how to hit us. It also wasn't the first time it had happened either." Here she began to growl loudly. "I just wanna kick that masked asshole into orbit, just to deliver a vertical clothesline when he falls back!"

"Please calm down Rubi!" the pink haired one said in a concerned tone.

"It's useless April. Once she gets like this it's hard to calm her down again," the strawberry blonde haired one said.

"But I-" the one called April began to say before I interrupted.

"I'm sorry, but how bout we go through introductions first?" I suggested.

"Hmph, very well. I believe I will go first," said the strawberry blonde haired one in that superior and regal tone. "My name is Sylvia young one."

"My name is April," the pinkette said.

"Zoë," Miss. Organization XIII said, still not looking directly at me.

"I'm Irikah!" the brown skinned one said loudly.

"My name is Dusk," the older uber sexy one said.

"My name is Erinya dear," the motherly brunette said.

"I'm Elaine," said the Kozue look alike chick.

"The name is Samantha," said the Frenchy.

"And I'm Rubi. And together we make up the Kyuubi. Nice to meet ya face to face," said the red head.

"Ok," I said, nodding as each incredibly hot or cute woman introduced herself. "Well my name is-"

"Naruto, and you wish to become Hokage," said Erinya kindly.

"How do you even-"

"We've been inside you almost since birth. We've seen everything in your life," Rubi said before her face became sad and she looked to the floor. "We're sorry that your life is so messed up. All that hatred. It must be overwhelming sometimes. And it's all because of us. If we were only more alert-"

"Don't be sad," I said as a sudden wave of sympathy washed over me. Without thinking at how dangerous this could be, I walked up to the bars and through them. I stood in front of Rubi and placed my hand on her arm. "It's not your fault. I'm not blaming you at all."

She looked up in surprise. "You're not mad? Not at all?" she asked.

"Nah. These villagers are just bitter about the past. They haven't moved on. But let's not worry about them. Right now, just know that none of you need to feel sad or sorry or guilty for how my life turned out," I said gently.

"…Thank you Naruto," Rubi said with a smile.

"Aww, you are such a mature little kid!" Irikah said as she wrapped her arm around my neck and pushed my head in between her breasts as she playfully wrestled with me. At least, I think it was playful. I was too busy trying to breath.

"Careful Irikah dear!" Erinya said as she gently pried my head out of her grip.

I gasped for breath for a moment before looking around. They all wore smiles of gratitude. They were of varying degrees, but they looked glad I wasn't holding a grudge against them.

At that point there was a sudden shaking, like an earthquake. "Ahh! What's happening?!" I cried out in confusion.

"You're getting smarter," Zoë said in the same monotone.

"How do you get from an earthquake to getting smarter?" Irikah asked with a dumbfounded expression.

"That drug Naruto took must be freeing up the synapses that are clogged up thanks to our youki in his brain. That's having an effect here because we're in his subconscious. Even a child can figure it out," Samantha said in a smug tone.

"Oh… I see," Irikah laughed, seemingly oblivious to the fact that her IQ level was insulted. "Hey wait a minute! Did you just call me stupid?!"

"Oh no! I was talking about this other person I know who's stupid, not you," Samantha replied in a falsely innocent voice.

"Ah… oh, Ha! I thought so!" Irikah laughed. She then seemed to realise that Samantha was toying with her. "Hey! Wait a sec, you did mean me!" she yelled.

"Can I help it if you're always proving my point?" Samantha shrugged.

"Now I'm mad," Irikah growled. They then started picking up random things and throwing them at each other, making quite a spectacle. I didn't even know where all this stuff came from. I wanted to laugh loudly at this, but I was currently thinking about what drug and what synapses were. Then, all of a sudden, it was like a door opened in my mind and I knew exactly what she was getting at. I still had no idea what synapses were, but I understood what the conclusion for the conversation was.

"Sorry about them. They get like this sometimes," Elaine apologised.

"It's ok," I replied distractedly. "So what you're saying is that tablet I took is making me smarter?"

"In a way. An unforseen side effect of the seal holding us at bay is that a very minute amount of our combined youki is always streaming into your brain and halting activity in there. It's not lethal but it's stunting your mental growth, keeping you, for lack of a better word, dumb," Rubi explained. "But whatever was inside that thing is now freeing up the clogging effect our youki was having on your brain; no, more like it's eating the youki. You're not really getting smarter. It's just that your brain is running faster and that speeds up processing time. This also improves on the time it takes to understand information presented to you."

"What?" I asked. Despite the brain boost that just happened, I was still lost to her explanation.

"I guess it hasn't happened much yet. Basically thinking will be clearer and complex information will be easier and quicker to understand. But you can only operate on what you know. So if someone tried to explain string theory to you without you having learned the math to understand it, you would still be lost. You see?" Erinya asked.

"Yeah. I don't know what string theory is, but I get what you're saying," I nodded.

"Also, freeing up the synapses will also improve your memory. You'll be able to remember small details you learned in the past but forgot over time," April said.

"Cool. But I thought that pill was a dud. Nothing happened," I complained.

"Well manifesting a bloodline takes time. Longer than 30 minutes. As the tablet is having an effect on your brain means that something big is happening. You'll just have to wait to see what it is," Dusk said.

"Right," I nodded. We were silent for a moment. "So, what now?" I asked.

"Well we have a favour to ask you," Rubi said. "We'll help you and protect you from harm as long as we're inside you. We'll give you power to help defeat any enemy that you aren't strong enough to defeat on your own. All we're asking is to come out and get some fresh air."

"Can that really happen? Wouldn't the seal prevent that?" I asked.

"We've worked out a way to get around that. You can summon us individually and we'll have all our powers and strength intact, I think, but we'll still be connected to you. We're not sure in what form, but I'm willing to test it out when you're ready," Rubi said confidently.

"Umm, ok," I replied.

"We should let him have some time alone to think about these things. It's a lot to take in," Erinya said kindly.

"Tch, this is nothing compared-"

"Compared to what you've gone through; we know Sylvia!" Dusk cut the blonde haired woman off. "God, you're like a broken record sometimes, you know?"

"Humph!" she huffed before turning away and walking back into the depths on the barred off room.

"Did I do something to offend her?" I asked.

"No. She's just learned to rely on herself a little too much," April said with a worried look in her eyes.

"You're the only one she seems to take it easy on, April," Irikah said.

"So how do I come back here again?" I asked.

"Just think about this place before you go to sleep. But we've set up a two way communication between us when you're awake. It was activated when you arrived here," Elaine replied.

"Just remember to think your words instead of speaking them or people will start to think you're crazy as well as a demon," Samantha said.

"Samantha!" Erinya scolded.

"What?"

"That was a little too far!"

"Huh?" Samantha looked at me to see that the demon comment had kinda hit a little too close to home. She instantly looked regretful, her ears drooping in remorse. "Sorry. My bad," she muttered apologetically.

I shook my head and put on a brave face with my usual masking smile. "It's ok. I've gotten used to it."

"But no child should have to get used to what you've gone through," Erinya said as she enveloped me into a hug. I froze at the contact before a wonderful warmth washed over me. I felt safe, secure and… wanted. This was what I had been seeking for a long time. Not to be recognised. That was just a front. What I really wanted was to experience what other kids my age did when they came home from the academy and were hugged by their parents in greeting. 'I guess this is what it feels like to have a mom…' I thought to myself.

"Thanks…" I replied thickly with emotion as I returned the hug briefly before pulling away. I didn't want to be seen as too weak in front of people. I then smiled, for real this time, and I imagined myself leaving this place as my improving mind had now worked out that I should be able to just imagine myself leave this place. And so I quickly began to fade from view.

And this is where we stood at the moment. I had nine very attractive vixens in my head and a blooming bloodline limit on the rise. I was finally a ninja and I had learned a cool new jutsu. I knew the reason for all the unfairness in my life but I wasn't going to let that get me down.

"I will become Hokage!" I said with renewed feeling. I then sat up and looked at my orange clothes. "But first, I need some new uber awesome threads."