Prolog: Past, Present, and Future

"Long ago I was a boy named Naruto Uzumaki. I lived in Konoha, the Land of Fire for my entire life. Since they day I was born I had always been hated and alone, treated less then dirt beneath the feet of the villagers and the council. Sarutobi the Third Hokage was one of the few that liked me and enrolled me in the shinobi academy in the hopes I would learn to protect myself but that didn't work out very well. I failed the genin exam twice due to the fact none of the teachers would teach me anything or taught me the wrong way to do things. When the time came to take the exam again the council had passed a new law, it stated that any student that failed the exam three times wouldn't be allowed to become a ninja of the village. My new teacher Iruka was the only one that taught me anything but it was far too late, I failed the exam because I had far too much chakra to perform the normal clone jutsu. Shortly afterward as I watched all the parents praise their children for passing the test I was approached by Mizuki another teacher at the academy. He told me of a secret test and if I passed would become a genin.

However it turned out to be a lie. I was tricked into stealing the Scroll of Forbidden Techniques thinking I would finally become a ninja but I found out the truth. Mizuki told me the truth about why everyone hated me, I had the Kyuubi no Kitsune that attacked the Hidden Leaf Village ten years ago sealed inside me. I was overcome with grief but Iruka told me that I wasn't the fox, just its jailer and then using the Shadow Clone Technique I defeated Mizuki and became a genin by order of the Hokage for capturing a traitor. I was put on a team with the top two students in the class, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha with our teacher being Kakashi Hatake. I thought I would finally get some respect but my treatment just got worse. My team mates treated me like shit and my teacher was no better. On my first C ranked mission we encountered Zabuza and Haku of the Hidden Mist; I saved Kakashi from being killed only for him to give the credit to Sasuke in the official report. Both Zabuza and Haku got killed later on but not before they taught me an important lesson of being a shinobi. That I would never be anything but a tool for others to use and abuse for their own selfish gains.

Afterward it was the chunin exams. Kakashi tricked us into entering, making us think it was our idea. It was all a ploy to show off Sasuke though, we made it through the first exam and the second with great difficulty, I beat one of my fellow classmates, Kiba and advanced to the finals. I went to Kakashi for training but he brushed me off, claiming he had to train Sasuke and it was only a fluke I made it to the finals. I ditched the jonin he got to babysit me and later found Jiraiya, the perverted toad sage. He taught me to walk on water and taught me the summoning technique. Later on he tried to teach me to harness the Kyuubi's chakra and that's when I lost it. Telling him I would never use the fox, I would never be a tool for the village to use to destroy others. But he forced me to use it, by knocking me into a ravine. I met the Kyuubi, he told me this would be the only time he ever allow me to use his chakra, the next time I would have to take it myself. I summoned the Chief Toad, beat his test and then punched Jiraiya in the face for doing that. I went to the finals and beat Neji Hyuga, one of the most powerful genin in the village. Later on the village was attacked by Orochimaru, one of the legendary sannin and the former student of Sarutobi. I went off to save Sasuke who was dumb enough to follow and attack Gaara, the vessel of the one tailed beast. I saved him and Sakura but the credit was once again given to Sasuke who did nothing at all.

I was approached by Jiraiya; he wanted to seek out Tsunade to become the fifth hokage since the old man had died in the attack. I didn't know that at the time though, Jiraiya tricked me by promising to give me a new jutsu called the Rasengan. He didn't even teach me it though; he showed me how to do it once and left me to fend for myself. I was so angry when he left me alone in a hotel to go flirt with a woman that I got pulled into my mindscape and talked to the Kyuubi. He told me he was sick of my treatment, that even demons would never go so low as to treat their children like this. He had a solution but it required a price, I would have to die in the physical sense. My body would die but my spirit would be transported somewhere else, I would have all my memories and abilities I had but a different body. I refused, I didn't want to run away and be seen as a coward, and it was my undoing. Shortly afterward I was attacked by Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke's older brother. He and his group the Akatsuki wanted to rip the Kyuubi out of me for some reason. Jiraiya arrived in time to save me but the damage had been done, I realized I was in a hopeless situation. I was stuck in a village where I couldn't get the training to protect myself, my only teacher wanted me to use the Kyuubi to become a demonic weapon, and I had an organization after me of the most dangerous shinobi on the planet that wanted to kill me.

I decided to take the Kyuubi's offer but not yet, I had to get away from the pervert and Tsunade who I recently convince to become the Fifth Hokage in case they tried to stop me. Under the foxes orders he directed me to a strange cave hidden under the Hokage monuments, it was the room the Fourth had used to prepare the seal he used to seal the fox inside me. The inside of the cave was covered in seals; they would keep the shinobi in the village from reacting to the fox's chakra once my body died. I allowed the fox to use his demonic jutsu, it ripped my soul out of my body and transported myself and the Kyuubi somewhere else, a world called Gran Pulse.

There the fox told me we would most likely never meet again; his soul would remain on Pulse and become a Fal'Cie while my soul would go to Cocoon to be with other humans. I really wasn't aware of what happened after that, it was like I fell asleep and when I woke up I was in a hospital, being hugged by a small blond girl named Serah. The body I was in was named Éclair Farron and she had been in a horrible accident that killed her and Serah's parents. It seemed my spirit had possessed her body in order to keep her alive, I didn't know why but I didn't really care, I was just happy that the Kyuubi's plan had worked. I was a girl now, that part bothered me a bit but it also gave me something I always wanted, a family. I decided I would leave Uzumaki Naruto behind and would become the new Éclair; I would do anything to protect my new family. I chose a new name, Lightning and began training my new body to handle using jutsu I had learned before. It was a lot of hard work plus I had to learn everything about Cocoon and everything about how to function in this new world. I soon joined the Guardian Corp and become a solider to further my training but shortly after that something happened. My little sister Serah became an L'Cie and by trying to save her I and my new friends Snow, Hope, and Sazh became L'Cie ourselves. Later on we met Vanille and Fang and together we decided to fight against our Focus and save Cocoon rather then destroy it.

We fought Orphan and saved Cocoon thanks to the sacrifice of Vanille and Fang, our L'Cie crests were removed and the people of Cocoon celebrated victory. I'm not sure what happened after that though, I think I fell asleep and awakened to find Sakura and Hinata hovering over me. I don't know what will happen next but in the words of a famous figure from history.

"Listen to my story; this may be my last chance" (Tidus of Final Fantasy X)