Prologue: Seed of Darkness
It was a cold October night, fireworks blasting the sky with bright color, as the village celebrated one of its greatest, and most costly of victories. It was this day, seven long years ago, that the monstrous demon lord, Kyuubi no Kitsune, was defeated at the hands of the great Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. This victory came at a great price, as countless shinobi, including the Fourth himself, lost their lives to defeat the beast. All of the main streets of the village were light brightly with lanterns, children ran and laughed without a care in the world, shinobi and civilians alike payed their respects to the heroes who died that day, and in the center of the village, around the base of the hokage tower, Lord Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, held a great ceremony, honoring those shinobi who survived the battle. Our story, however, does not take place here. No, it takes place on the outskirts of village, where a very different tradition was taking place.
In the dark alleys of the abandoned district, an area that was condemned unlivable after the Kyuubi's attack, a group of armed civilians were searching, looking for the source of all their grief and anguish. "I found him!" One cried aloud, drawing the others to his spot, next to a large dumpster, "Fitting place for you to hide, beast!" He laughed cruelly as he roughly grabbed a messy mop of dirty blond hair. The boy he yanked out of the dumpster was covered in filth and scrapes, which he acquired from his desperate attempt to escape the mob. "Let me go!" Naruto Uzumaki cried, struggling to break free from the man's grasp, a river of tears flowing freely down his face. He was thrown roughly on the hard ground and soon, the mob was upon him, kicking and screaming at him, beating him with clubs and stabbing him with their knives and pitchforks.
Soon, they began to disperse, their rage temporarily sated, until finally the boy was alone, a bloody and broken mess. His sobs slowly began to weaken as his vision darkened, his thoughts racing, begging an answer to one question, 'Why?! Why me?! Why do you hate me?! I never hurt any of you…' With that last question, ringing in the emptiness of his mind, oblivion took him, and the darkness swallowed him.
He soon awoke in what could only be described as a dark, run down sewer, with broken pipes leaking a dark blue essence. He slowly sat up, wincing at the soreness of his body, his eyes looking around, taking in his surroundings, "W-where am I?" He whispered, scared and confused, as he was sure he was dead. His eyes rested on a large cage, with bars that reached the ceiling, splitting the room in half. He focused on a single piece of paper, placed on what appeared to be the doors of the cage, seemingly keeping it sealed together. He peered into the cage, curious as to what would need a cage this large, but only found the darkness greeting him. The room began to tremble and shake slightly, and a deep, powerful voice began to whisper into the room, "The Seal…Break the Seal…." Naruto's eyes immediately went to the paper, somehow knowing that this was the seal. Eyes wide, he slowly began to reach out a shaky hand, not knowing what would happen if he were to pull it off, and gripped the corner of the paper, "Yesss...Break the Seal…" The voice growled softly, seemingly right in his ear.
As he began to pull the corner of the seal away, an explosion of red mist knocked him back, tearing the corner of the seal away. Naruto smacked hard against the far wall, and fell to the ground, dazed and groggy, as he tried to regain his bearings. After regaining his balance, he looked back at the cage to see it now filled with a massive cloud of the red mist, figures swirling inside it. For a moment, he saw a terrifying image of a massive fox, nine tails swaying behind it, but then, the cloud began to pour through the tear in the seal, condensing and solidifying into the form of a woman. Her hair was long and the color of red wine, her skin was soft and pale, like snow. She was draped in a deep red kimono, embroidered with rubies, but what stood out most was the two fuzzy fox ears growing out of her head, the seven tails swaying behind her, and most importantly, the red collar and leash, around her neck, connecting her back to the cage.
She made her way towards Naruto, gracefully walking with the confidence and presence of a queen, staring down at him. He began to back away slowly, entranced by the red haired beauty who only had eyes for him, "Wh-Who are you?" He whimpered, terrified and amazed at the same time. The voice that greeted him was not that of the young lady who spoke it, but one that was deep, ancient, and carried the weight of power with it, "I am the beast they fear, I am the reason they torment you so…I am the Kyuubi no Kitsune." She stopped just before him and kneeled, looking him in the eyes. "B-But you're dead! T-The Fourth killed you!" His voice wavers and cracks, terror running through him as he looked back into her yellow eyes. She smirks down at him, laughing quietly, "No mortal can kill me, boy. No, the best he could do was seal me into an infant, namely you. My life is tied to yours now, so I can't very well have you dying on me, can I?" As she spoke, her tails slipped around, cradling around him, pouring her energy into him, "Worthless apes, they foolishly attack you, thinking it can harm me! And they call me the monster!" She laughed darkly, as he gazed up at her, scared. "W-why me? Why did they pick me to…to contain you?" He managed to squeak out, slowly gaining courage as she didn't move to harm him. She looked down at him curiously, "Why did they choose you? That's not what you should be worried about, runt. No, you should worry about surviving, because those apes? They will always try to hunt you down, either to kill you, or use you for my power. The only one you can really trust is me." She smirked, pulling him into an embrace.
With the conversation ended, he bathed in her warmth, slowly drifting off to sleep. When he awoke a few hours later, he was no longer in the sewer, but in the hospital, the Hokage smiling down at him, "Welcome back to the land of the living Naruto, how do you feel?" A few tears leak out of the boy's eyes, "It still hurts grandpa…" He whimpers, his body screaming in pain. "It'll feel better soon, don't worry. I'll be back later, I have some work to do, but I'll bring you some ramen." The old man chuckled as he winked, leaving the boy alone. As he laid there, his body covered in scars and going through wave after wave of pain, he began to feel something new, a rage that had always been there, bubbling under the surface, but now it broke through. He hated the Hokage, for leaving him here in pain. He hated the villagers for putting him here in this bed. He hated the village its self for all the misery it put him though. "I hate them…I hate them all! I'll get them one day! I'll become stronger than everyone and they will pay!" He swore to himself, the words of the Kyuubi ringing in his head, "The only one you can trust is me."
As he entered his office, Hiruzen Sarutobi dropped his smile, a concerned look taking its place. He was worried beyond comprehension, wondering how to explain this to the council. It was in the middle of the ceremony, when a dark wave of chakra pulsed though the village, nearly giving many of the older shinobi a heart attack. This same chakra was felt seven years ago, when the Kyuubi attacked, and at the source of the pulse was Naruto, his body broken and bloody, as he bathed in the monsters chakra. He examined the seal himself and found it intact, but when he had a Hyuuga look at his charka, the man nearly broke into a panic when he found a secondary chakra network supporting the boys. The Third had no idea what was going on, but he had a very bad feeling about it.
Bestiary
Human:The most common form of intelligent life. Generally unremarkable, they vastly out number most other races and band together when threatened.
Ningen:A subclass of Human. Ningen are those relatively few humans who develop a chakra network, allowing them to combine their Ki and Physical energy into chakra, which can be molded in different ways to use jutsu.
Tailed Beast:Vast amounts of wild chakra, divided from a singular source known as the ten tailed beast. Each tailed beast took the form of the first creature they attached too.
Kitsune:A fox spirit who has the ability to shape shift. No matter what form they take, their ears and one of their tails remain and must be kept hidden. It's said if you manage to grasp their tail, then they must serve you for the rest of your life.
