Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Title: Dreams or Delusions of the Cursed
Pairings: ItaNaru, KyuuNaru. Mentions of past SasuNaru.
Warnings: REWRITE!! It's been a long while since I've been able to have time for this fic and I'm terribly sorry for allowing it to go neglected for so long…it's my favorite out of everything that I've ever written and when I sit down and write for it, I want it to be the best that I'm capable of. So that's why I'm making these changes, there will be a few major changes among the story as you read along, although the major elements of the story will be present.
This is a Yaoi fic, so if that offends your sensibilities feel free to look elsewhere for entertainment. Also there will be a few alterations to the story line from the manga first and foremost being that Naruto –did- succeed in dragging Sasuke back to Konoha during the retrieval mission. That will play a huge element in the story. Also, here Naruto will be 19 in this fic…that's a nice age right?
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01: Dreams
Dreams.
According to medic-nins, dreams are nothing more than the brain processing memories and thoughts while it is in an unconscious state. A hodgepodge of the day's events, which sorted itself in the myriad of neural pathways that was the human mind. A means of filtering away memories in a manner that allows the mind to recharge and refresh for the next day.
Ancient civilizations believed that dreams were the key to understanding the future, that dreams were a window to the spiritual world and that all one had to do was look and they would learn of the future.
Most people believed that dreams were something along those lines.
Naruto Uzumaki was not most people.
Naruto believed that dreams were a door to the past.
And for him they were.
Naruto didn't want to remember his past.
His life was that of a jinchuuriki. He was meant to sacrifice everything from the day he became what he was. Sure, it was horribly unfair but someone had to do it. Naruto understood that perfectly.
That didn't mean that he had to like it though.
So, Naruto loathed sleep. For to sleep meant to dream and to dream meant to remember and above all else he did not want to remember.
It hurt too much.
To partake in, what would be for a normal person, a brief respite from the waking world would mean to plunge headfirst into a freefall into a slideshow of his nightmarish past.
To close his eyes would mean that he would, again, bear witness to the beatings that he took in spades as a child, the chronic neglect he suffered at the hands of various 'guardians' and foster families who constantly 'forgot' to feed him or give him medical attention when he needed it, the terror that he had to endure as an innocent little one when someone believed that he needed to be taught a lesson for nothing more than existing.
All of this would come back to the forefront of his mind. They would no longer be relegated to the furthest corners of his mind, where they could safely be stored without harming him.
And so Naruto never slept.
And so the nightmares of the past no longer plagued him.
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Naruto busied himself, preparing his living room for his nightly ritual. There were a few silver and black candles lit within the room, along with a few sticks of lavender scented incense.
Enough to sooth his weary nerves but not enough to put him to sleep.
Naruto was on his hands and knees drawing a very complicated and ornate seal on the ground of his living room. His eyes were narrowed in determination and he chewed on his lower lip, as he concentrated at the task at hand.
After about an hour, he was done and looked at the seal with a sense of accomplishment.
The Fuuin no Ikoi.
An S-rank seal that, when done correctly, would recharge the mind and body, while keeping the person using the seal in an altered state of consciousness that was similar to sleep but not. It was more of a meditative stance than anything else. It permitted the user to rest up, while keeping them alert to the world around them.
The seal was not dangerous. Complicated? Yes. Dangerous? No.
Jiraiya had told him that the primary reason that it was classified as being so dangerous was because Orochimaru was the one who created it. Apparently in his younger years he had already amassed such a long list of enemies, that he had no choice but to forgo sleep in order to survive both in the battlefield and in his own village.
'Figures,' Naruto thought.
Somehow the idea of the snake bastard amassing a huge amount of enemies when he was around Naruto's age didn't seem too far out of the realm of possibilities.
His thoughts then went to Gaara. Gaara (who at the time seemed suspiciously well rested…for him, at least) was the one who introduced him to this seal (which he learned from a scroll that he had stolen from his father when he was younger) and Ero-sennin (who caught them creating the seal.) After explaining the situation to Toad Hermit he agreed to help them and altered the seal, so it could function as a permanent replacement for sleep, seeing as how originally it was only meant to be used sparingly.
The Toad Hermit also made it a point to teach both jinchuuriki the art of Fuuin jutsu in the event that they ever needed to make alterations on the seal or if there were ever any issues with their demon seals that needed correction. What Jiraiya didn't tell either vessel was that he had been incredibly impressed that two 'brats' had managed to pull off a very complex seal with nothing more than need and drive guiding them.
Naruto was contemplating bribing the sennin with his Oiroke no Jutsu (1) technique to get the man to just tattoo the seal onto his skin. That would certainly make things much easier for him. If he were on a mission there was no way that he would have the time to create such a complicated seal and also it would look suspicious to anyone he was working with to just see him perform an allegedly dangerous and forbidden seal with a degree of familiarity. That would easily result in him getting into trouble with the higher ups.
Not that he wasn't already on the top of their list of 'People to Hate' but still, he had to be careful.
No reason to give the council of Konoha another reason to give him the stink eye. He got that enough by just breathing.
Briefly, as he did every night, he contemplated if he should go to Tsunade, but decided against it. Sure she was the closest thing he ever had to a mother, and sure he felt rotten for not telling her, but it was for the best. It wasn't that he didn't trust her; it was just that she was a medic-nin through and through. Apart from the fact that if she ever caught wind of what he was doing, she'd likely have a brain aneurysm at the thought of him using something Orochimaru created, she'd confine him to the hospital, like any medic-nin worth their salt, and in order for him to get checked out.
That, unfortunately, was out of the question. Naruto remembered the last time he had to stay at the hospital. There were still many medic-nin's with a grudge against him for containing the Kyuubi and there was no way that he'd ever go trouncing into the lions den. He still had nightmares as to what happened to him in the hospital after he managed to drag Sasuke back to Konoha in less than mint condition. The only reasons that the blonde wasn't outright murdered was because of Tsunade and Shizune, but Naruto wasn't about to take any chances. The numerous gashes and scars imparted onto him by hateful medic-nins often took months to heal, even with the Kyuubi healing him nonstop.
Naruto shook off those thoughts like he did every night and sat within the seal.
After a few hand seals, his entire body relaxed immediately and Naruto began his rest.
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As Naruto fell into the peaceful state of meditation, he felt the familiar pull in his mind that signified a chat with his 'guest.'
The closest thing that he could liken the sensation to was that of a free fall.
As he walked down the corridor to the fox he couldn't help but look at his surroundings with a sense of accomplishment. Throughout the years, he had learned to change the surroundings in his mind; right now it resembled a beautiful palace. The walls and floors were a deep sapphire and the halls were decorated with beautiful paintings or open scrolls that the Kyuubi had wanted him to become accustomed with. When he reached the cage he couldn't help but sigh, he found that while he could change the inner portions of the chamber in which the fox was located, he could not remove the cage door itself. That was a part of the seal and could not be altered, no matter how hard he tried.
'Sorry I can't do anything about the cage,' Naruto said softly to the figure in the cage.
'It's alright, brat. It's not like any of this was your doing, so don't worry about it,' a smooth, deep voice sounded off.
The blonde boy walked down the palatial halls towards the source of the voice and came across a humanoid figure. Said figure before Naruto was that of the infamous Kyuubi no Yoko, the most powerful and feared of all the demons within the realm of mortals. Naruto absently remembered the first time that he saw him in his human form. He found himself gaping like someone had manually undone the cables connecting his brain to his body.
Kyuubi appeared every bit, the regal and powerful being that he was, that element of his character seemed to be present regardless of whatever form he chose to present himself in. The demon took the form of a tall, broad shouldered red-head. His hair, a fiery red compared to Gaara's darker hue, was long and flowed down to his waist. His skin tone was slightly darker than Naruto's, taking in a deep bronze. His eyes were a deep silver, always giving a shimmer that usually reflected amusement or in certain moments agitation.
The only thing covering the demon's modesty, or lack thereof, were a loose pair of slacks that showed off his happy trail.
All in all, he was a rather sexy bastard.
If Naruto was honest with himself, he'd admit that the fox was an incredibly handsome individual in this particular form…well he did admit it, just not out loud. The demon would tease him unmercifully if he made his thoughts public. Not that it would save him from any teasing, the fox had a habit of finding out what the blonde was thinking and bothering him with it.
Like when he first showed off his humanoid form to the blonde one.
Naruto remembered that day well because one moment he was talking to a…well…fox and the next moment there was the single most handsome man he had ever seen before him wearing naught a stitch of clothing on his delectable body. Kyuubi picked up on the blonde's reaction which was a mix of blushing and sputtering about like an idiot. Hell, every once in a while the fox saw fit to flash the boy.
It just happened to be a kink of his.
The blonde jinchuuriki learned many things that day, but one will forever stand out in his mind: Kyuubi was an exhibitionist of the highest caliber and absolutely delighted in teasing him with his body.
But for all the perversion that the fox was capable of, he was a relatively nice guy.
Relative being the key word.
He was an asshole first and foremost.
Kyuubi was a blunt individual to put it mildly. If he believed that Naruto was being a whiny idiot at any particular moment, he would say so. Of course if he believed that the blonde did something impressive, then he'd express that as well.
It was annoying, but refreshing.
Naruto never had to guess where he stood with the demon and for that he was rather grateful. It wasn't the guessing game that he had to engage in with the vast majority of the villagers and shinobi.
It was difficult, though, to get an unbiased opinion of how things in his daily life were. The demon for the most part held humans in very low regard. Naruto had proved himself to be one of the few exceptions to that opinion, as well as a few other individuals that the blonde had encountered in his life; such as Haku. Naruto had asked him once long ago just why that was. The demon merely replied that it was something that that it was something that could not be easily explained and that it was truth that he would learn for himself in time.
The second thing that Naruto had come to learn about the demon was that he was a perfectionist of the highest order.
It was Kyuubi, as well as Naruto's belief, that anything that was worth doing was worth doing right. This was a belief that had been directly applied to his training regimen. During Naruto's formative years, his education at the hands of the academy had been spotty at best, so whenever he was visited by the Sandaime or was under the guardianship of some of the kinder who would take the time to teach him things like reading, writing and, later on, basic shinobi lessons, Naruto would take what he learned and go over them almost obsessively till he was able to remember and apply said lessons by rote.
Many in the village to this very day claim the boy to be nothing more than a dead last, but that was merely the biased opinion.
No normal child, let alone an idiot, could survive all alone in a village of hostile ninja. In all honesty, it was a marvel that no one other than the Sandaime and those that Naruto trusted picked up on the boy's rather impressive survival abilities.
Hatred is truly the ultimate blinder of common sense.
But it is perhaps that hatred that allowed him to live for so long, for there was no telling what sort of danger he would have exposed himself to if the wrong people noticed him.
Kyuubi gazed at his young vessel with profound amusement dancing in his eyes, 'So brat, how have things been amongst the ningen?'
The demon asked this nearly every night, not because he cared about the humans that Naruto interacted with because he didn't, but he understood that the humans in Naruto's life were immensely important to him.
And if his brat was upset, he was upset. Not that he'd ever tell the blonde that, the blonde would likely get an over inflated ego and come whining to him every time someone denied him ramen.
Naruto sighed in exhaustion, 'Depends on who you're talking about. The pervert, hag and Iruka-nii are fine, same old routine with them. Shikamaru, Chouji and Ino are doing a lot better and they're helping Kurenai with the baby…she's doing better now too, but you can tell that she really misses Asuma-nii (2),' Naruto looked a little sad at the mention of the man, 'I miss him too…he'd be proud to see that the baby looks just like him.'
'Kid, his spirit is probably around his mate and kit right now making sure that they're fine.'
'Really? Then why haven't I seen him yet? Normally I'd be able too.' (3)
The demon shrugged his shoulders, 'He's probably more focused on making sure that his family's alright than wanting to make chit-chat with such a scrawny, annoying little bratlet like you.'
Naruto's cheeks puffed out in indignation at the remark. This made Kyuubi quite pleased, annoying the brat never got old.
The fox just game him a smirk, 'How are the other ningen doing?'
Naruto gave him a glare, not forgetting the teasing the fox put him through, 'Everyone else is doing fine. Sasuke's still a dick though and Sakura still pretty much hates me…but other than that there's nothing out of the norm, no one's on a mission at the moment, so they're safe for now…'
Kyuubi frowned as the blonde's tone became a bit sad at the mention of his former teammates. Neither were pleased with the blonde ever since the retrieval mission. The Uchiha was enraged being defeated by someone he considered a weak, submissive partner and the female's fury was for the realization that she would never be of even passing importance to the male that she wanted.
Stupid, selfish, worthless trash in his opinion, that didn't deserve to breathe the same air as the one that they had hurt so badly.
Neither were worthy of someone as special as Naruto, but that didn't ease the blonde's pain. He quickly moved to finish that train of thought, 'That is good, although such moments of peace are a rarity in this world.'
The blonde jounin nodded and gave a small smile, 'True, but all the same I'm still thankful that everyone is safe.'
Kyuubi nodded, and his frown melted to an immensely lecherous smirk that would have sent virgins running in terror and Naruto too, had said blonde been paying attention, 'To hear you speak in such a manner…You're such a bottom my dainty little Naruto...'
Naruto flicked him off in response still not recognizing the danger his chastity was no in.
The demon's smirk grew even wider, 'There's nothing I love more than a saucy uke…' and with that said he reached through the bars of his prison and gave Naruto (who had been leaning on the bars to his prison) a very hearty squeeze to the ass.
The blonde just looked at the demon with open mouthed shock, stupefied into silence. Kyuubi made a mental note to grope the blonde more if it got him a few minutes of peace and quiet. It also helped that the boy's ass felt as though it were made for groping.
'Now that is nice…why haven't I done this before?'
Naruto turned crimson at the comment and tried to get free to no avail; his ass was now the demon's hands which currently had no intention of letting go anytime soon.
'Y-YOU PERVERT!' Naruto screamed his cheeks now the most charming shade of rouge, 'HANDS OFF MY ASS!'
The fox demon purred heavily, totally enamored by the power of the ass in his hands. The ass in his hands was of mystical proportions, he was sure of it.
'KYUUBI!!'
Violent struggling was met with failure, for Kyuubi was quite happy where he was at this point in time…not to mention that after 19 years of celibacy, this was heaven.
Naruto took one look at the demon's face and saw that he had the same perverted leer that Jiraiya possessed when he found a way of peeping on Tsunade without risk of death…until she did find out and almost killed him.
Not that this wasn't all that bad.
It had been an awfully long time since he last had a lover and it was nice to be thought of in a desirable manner, but having the fox look like he was going to start humping his leg was a bit much.
'Mmmmmm…,' Kyuubi purred drunkenly, now rubbing his face against Naruto's crotch and massaging Naruto's ass in a manner that could only be described as obscene.
So with that a very flushed Naruto took a deep breath, grabbed Kyuubi's hands (whose grip has slackened in his attempt to feel every nook and cranny of the blonde's ass) and pried them off his ass as quickly as possible.
After Naruto managed to free himself and get a few feet away from the demon, Kyuubi whimpered that the mystical ass was gone.
'Oh mystical ass, why oh why did you leave my grip?' Tears were pouring out of the demon's silver eyes in mourning of said ass's liberation.
Naruto's eye twitched and then he flushed when he saw a very large tent in Kyuubi's pants, 'Horny much?'
Silver eyes looked at him in want and frustration, '19 years of celibacy will do that to a man, all the missed ruts…all the ukes that I could have rammed into…all the bitches I could have rode…it's been a nightmare…'
Naruto, although ready to slug the pervert before him, felt a little bad for the demon, he was having problems adjusting to a life of celibacy and it had only been a few months since his last sexual encounter, 'You're in a rut now? As in right now?'
'Yes…the mystical ass brought it forth, teasing me with its perfection and taunting me with its perkiness…it's like it speaks to me… "Please Kyuubi-sama; I crave your hot stick of man meat in me! Please, please satisfy my needs!!"' A pout and tears accompanied his declaration of perversion, making for a rather awkward silence.
'You really are a dirty, dirty fox…you know that right?'
The demon was about to say something to Naruto when he stopped and thought of something better, silver eyes lighting up with the unholy light of perversion. Naruto, finally noticing the danger his virginity was now in, backed away slowly making sure to keep an eye on the pervert before him.
'Kyuubi? What are you up to?'
Kyuubi grinned creepily, 'Do you really want to know my sweet little uke?'
Right as Naruto was about to answer…or run and scream…whichever, he felt a tug on his consciousness.
'It'll have to wait, I have to wake up,' Naruto answered, more than glad for the diversion.
The demon tilted his head to the side and smiled, 'That's alright. I'll molest you later.'
Naruto's eye twitched at the declaration and he decided to leave before things got weirder than they already were.
Two blue eyes snapped open to see Jiraiya's amused face not two inches from his own.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Naruto freaked at the closeness, while Jiraiya laughed heartily at the small blonde's reaction.
"What the hell?! Haven't you ever heard of personal space?!"
The older man watched Naruto sputter and squawk indignantly for a few moments with a shit-eating grin that showed just how much he truly enjoyed getting under the blonde's skin.
Which he did.
"When you're finished whining clean up and pack up, we need to be in Suna in a few days."
Naruto stopped and looked at Jiraiya curiously, "Why?"
"The creepy brat's (4) got information on Akatsuki and he's made it more than clear that he's not talking to me unless you're there…Really gaki, how the hell do you manage to get all the ice queens to give you the hairy eyeball?"
A furious crimson flush rose to his cheeks, "I'm going to go get packed," and with that Naruto arose and rushed to him room to pack.
Jiraiya smirked at the boy's response before pulling out a small notebook and starting to write in it, giggling the entire time.
"Sensual Kitsune Chronicles, Chapter 1: The Dreamer and the Desert Prince…"
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Footnotes:
(1) Oiroke no Jutsu: Sexy Technique
(2) I'm going under the assumption that since Naruto was cared for by the Sandaime, he had a good relationship with Asuma.
(3) I was watching an episode of the Ghost Whisperer when I was doing the rewrite; it seemed like an interesting power for Naruto to have.
(4) Jiraiya's name for Gaara…kind of mean….but it seems like something that he'd say right?
Glossary:
Fuuin no Ikoi: seal of rest (most likely incorrect, I came up with it and tried my hand at translation)
A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I'm going to try and update on a regular basis so that this fic won't languish in the annals of the internet as it did before. Thank you so much for reading and for all the marvelous reviews…I will do my best not to let you all down.
P.S. Spoilers for Manga Chapter 398…well…not really
Has anyone read the latest chapter of Naruto?! Hot damn the Shodai's hot! And so is Madara! Kinda makes me want to write something about them…I am however wondering we'll be seeing more of the Nidaime anytime soon…He's practically the most neglected character in the manga…I think the only time he was seen was during the whole Hokage battle…