Chapter 1: Acceptance
Blood.
It was everywhere.
On the ground.
On what remained of the walls that once protected the small town.
It was what remained of the bodies, the people, which had once lived here.
The life source that gives us breath, that allows us to move, to walk, to talk was all that remained of them.
"Is this the fate of the people I meet?" the girl sat against a wall, her fragile arms wrapped around her legs protecting her bruised and broken naked body. Long red hair fell all around her like a shield against the world as her dark alpine green eyes peeked out.
"No. Not all of them." The voice was deep; it felt like it had just risen from the grave and spoke with all the dark anger of hell but the voice had no body, at least not a body yet visible to her eyes as of yet.
"So only other Sacrifices will survive?" her voice was thin and frail, just like her poor pale body. It was shear luck that the Biju had stumbled upon such a treasure. An unclaimed Sacrifice.
"No, others will survive. But these people have done you harm, they knew it was only a matter of time." The great Biju stepped forward from his hiding place in the shadows.
His form had changed, in hopes to be more appealing to the Sacrifice but he saw the fear she looked at him with. It was not the fact that he was a Biju that frightened her but the human form he had chosen. Men had hurt her.
"Child, I shall bring you salvation. Be with me and no harm shall ever come to you again. No man shall touch you and no woman shall hit you. There shall always be food for you and you shall always have clothes on your body. There will be a warm bed to greet you and a place away from the cruel tortures of this world where you can always call home." The Biju watched the girl, her green eyes watched him.
The silence seemed to last an eternity.
"I accept." The Biju stepped forward, his form changing as he walked. Nine tails came from him, his ears grew, his eyes darkened his body changed shape into a giant fox.
The girl was tiny, frail, sick and probably had far worse problems with her current being.
"You will never have to fear again."
"I know Kyuubi. Thank you."
The village or what remained after the Kyuubi's attack was discovered the next day, no one knew what had happened, some blamed it on all the blood feuds that were occurring at the time and that the poor village was just caught in the middle.
No one knew of the girl the village had kept hidden. No one knew of what she was or how powerful she could be to a village or a human being.
No one knew that the last Sacrifice to ever be born since the time of the Sage of Six Paths was now in the possession of the powerful Biju Kyuubi.
And no one knew that in the years to come, she would be the difference between salvation and destruction.
Centuries Later
Naruto Uzimaki paced his room, pausing each time the thought came into is head.
He had control of Kyuubi.
Shaking his head he kept walking.
He stopped again.
He had control of Kyuubi.
'Is this what you're going to do all day?' the voice startled Naruto, making him jump slightly as the hairs on the back of his neck raised.
'No, I'm going to go train as well. We have a ninja war on our hands and we are going to have to go deal with the other Biju.' Naruto thought at the Kyuubi, who snorted in return.
'We will do no such thing, there is a reason we are on this island.' Kyuubi spoke his hatred filled voice seemed all the more angry at being under the control of the "brat".
'Well they can't keep us here forever! I've got to face Sasuke!' Naruto shouted in his head, sitting on the bed and putting his head in his hands.
'That will not be happening and soon you will be back anyway, be patient.' Kyuubi said making Naruto stiffen.
'What do you mean?' Naruto felt dread creeping through him.
'Madara as you call him has taken one step to far.' Kyuubi spoke as if he were just saying something from the funnies in the newspaper but the scene being played out wasn't that good.
'What has he done?' Kyuubi snorted.
'You shall find out soon enough, but for now there is something far more important to attend to.' Kyuubi stated.
'And what could that possibly be?' Naruto felt the anger rise in him, what could possibly be more important then protecting his friends?
'There is a girl, she can protect everyone you care about from what Marada is about to unleash.' Naruto stared at the wall.
'A girl? Where?'
'I hid her in the mountains, she is protected by enough seals that even the greatest of your Kage's walked right by her and did not see her or feel her presence.' Kyuubi said a dark chuckle to his voice.
'What are you suggesting Kyuubi?'
'Do I have to spell it out for you? If you find this girl, she will protect everything you hold dear and she will help you stop Madara.' Irritation seethed from Kyuubi's voice.
'What makes you so sure Kyuubi? How do I not know that this is a plot to free yourself?'
'Because no Biju would ever risk the life of a Sacrifice and no creature is dumb enough try and harm one.'
'A Sacrifice?'
'Yes. My Sacrifice, the girl holds the key to my power and my very soul.'
In Suna
The fiery red haired Kazekage sat in his office, silently shifting though the papers neatly stacked in piles.
Reaching up he placed his head in his hand and stared hard at the paper in his other hand, he just couldn't focus. Naruto kept appearing in his head and worry had wormed its way into Gaara's thoughts.
'How far is Naruto willing to go for Sasuke?' If anything in the red heads opinion Sasuke did not deserve someone like Naruto to even be in his life but then again no one truly did. Naruto was a diamond in a desert of sand.
But it was a sigh of relief to know that Naruto was safe and sound, secretly hidden away from prying eyes.
'I wonder how long till this whole thing begins.' Getting up from his chair, Gaara walked the short distance to with the window and sat leaned on the wall, staring across the village.
How long would it be until Suna would be a war torn country?
Staring out at the desert he watched as the red sun set and the walls of the village slowly draw long shadows across it, eventually reaching up to where Gaara himself stood.
The stars in the night sky quickly appeared shortly after that.
A knock on the door drew Gaara's attention away from the desert, the village and for the moment, Naruto.
"Yes?" a voice that sounded like hundreds of grains of sand rubbing together echoed on the walls.
"Kazekage-sama, the council wishes to start the meeting now." The young female secretary said, looking at him shyly.
"Inform that I shall be there in a minute."
"Yes, Kazekage-sama."
The woman left and Gaara could only stare at the door; finally, as if needing to sum up the courage to do so, Gaara left his office and headed toward the council chamber.