Chapter 1
"The Kyuubi could not be defeated and so the Fourth Hokage was going to seal it into himself, but at the last moment the Third Hokage decided to intervere, stopping the Fourth Hokage and sealing it inside Naruko Uzumaki-losing his life in the process. " the MC of the Memorial Festival finished dramatically as he gestured to the timid girl beside him-Naruko Uzumaki.
The crowd cheered and clapped, a lot of people bowed to the flustered Naruko who was standing in the middle of them all-hailed as a hero, a savior.
Unnoticed by any of them, a child no more than five-the same age as Naruko-cloaked in black looked at the scene below him from the First Hokage head forlornly with a pained smile. Looking at his sister hailed like that in the Memorial Festival that also doubled as her birthday party-their birthday party actually because they're twins.
Not that anyone knew that fact.
The Memorial Festival was a festival that was held where all of the Konoha citizens-civilians and ninjas alike-were gathered around the Hokage tower on 6 p.m until 09 p.m every year on the day the Kyuubi was sealed to-as the name suggested-memorize all of the ninjas that died in the Kyuubi incident that was also doubled as the birthday party for Naruko Uzumaki as she was born at the same day, the jinchuuriki of Kyuubi, and so she was hailed as the savior of Konoha.
His mind went back to the half-truth the MC read about the Kyuubi. The story of how the Kyuubi was defeated that was always read in the Festival was all true, as far as what everyone in Konoha knew though.
There was actually a hidden fact that only a select few known.
The fact that another baby was born in that day-Naruto Uzumaki-and the fact that the Kyuubi was actually seperated into two-the consciousness and the chakra-before it was sealed. The consciousness went to Naruto, the chakra went to Naruko. Only Minato Namikaze, his father and Kushina Uzumaki, his mother knew this-not even Naruko was told of this.
As far as Naruko or even everyone in Konoha concerned, Naruto Uzumaki was just an orphan that was adopted by the Hokage into their family who just happened to have an uncanny resemblance with the Hokage and Naruko herself.
Clearly, no one tried to connect the dotes between his appearance and his family-everyone just accepted what was told without any suspicion.
He closed his eyes and sighed before opening them once more-this time a more childish grin was on his face, just like how the children below him grinned and smiled in the Festival-the sad air had disappeared as he noticed the presence of another person near towards him.
"Why aren't you in the Festival ?" The masked silver-haired jounin asked airily when he suddenly appeared on the empty spot beside him.
"Kakashi-san ! Wow ! How do you do that ninja jumping thingy ? Teach me ! Teach me !" Naruto exclaimed, his eyes wide and sparkling.
"You'll know when you become a ninja. " Kakashi waved him off without looking up from his orange book. "Now, why are you here?"
"Ah...hehehe..."Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "That's because it's easier to watch the festival from here rather than under there and become a meat pie from all the shoving that they did. "
"You know as Naruko's brother shouldn't you be down there with Minato-sensei, Kushina-san and Naruko ?" Kakashi asked again.
"Adopted brother." Naruto corrected," Beside, it's not like I have to be there. It didn't matter where I am. " He added truthfully with a wide grin to Kakashi.
Kakashi sighed, "Well then, I need to congratulate Naruko first. See ya. " Kakashi said as he raised his hand lazily and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Finding no other company, Naruto's wide grin melted into a sad smile once again.
It was true that it didn't matter to his father and mother where he was. As long as he was alive and kept the Kyuubi's consciousness deep inside his mind it was okay.
After all the only thing that mattered to them was Naruko. Naruko who was the Kyuubi's chakra jailor. The one his parents had great expectations in. The hero. The light.
Who was he to intervere with that ?
He didn't have any rights to protest, after all his parents still treated him as their son. It was because of them that his status as the Kyuubi's consciousness jailor didn't spread out-succesfully preventing the hatred that was sure to be directed to him by the village.
It was more than what he could ask for, right ? So what's the problem ?
The problem was the big difference of how his parents looked at Naruko and him.
For a normal observer, there was no difference in the treatment that they both received. Both had the same attention. Both were taught by their parents fairly. Everything were equally received by them. They were the perfect example of balanced family.
But to him there was a glaring difference.
The way his parents treated him equally. It was out of fear. Fear that if they didn't do what he asked the Kyuubi's consciousness would take over.
The way that his parents looked at him. It was out of worry. Worry that someday he would snap and destroy the village.
But to Naruko they did all that out of love and protectiveness. They hoped one day Naruko could use the Kyuubi's chakra and control its mind just in case he happened to snap and unleash the Kyuubi's consciousness then the only thing that could stop it would be Naruko. She was a fail-safe procedure for him if his father nor anyone else could stop him.
Not that he would allow that to happen in the first place.
Heck, Are they really underestimating his self-control ? He had even met with the fox itself and made an agreement with him without the fox's consciousness taking over when he was only four-when he had first realized why his parents looked at him like that.
Not that anybody knew of that fact.
On one hand, if he told them there's a possibility his parents would relax around him while on the other hand there's also the possibility that his parents would be more wary at him than ever by meeting the fox-thinking that he would be brain-washed by the fox or something.
It was just like a bet.
In the end, he had decided not to tell anyone. The chances for his parents to be wary of him were higher than the chances that they would actually accepted him and he couldn't risk it.
Well, there's that reason for not wanting to be present in the festival. But there's also another one.
The fact that his friends would follow him.
Now, it's not like he hated having friends. No, he loved them. The problem was they're not true friends.
Those so called 'friends' were just a bunch of kids who wanted to get close to Naruko using him in the process. They thought by befriending him they would be in his sister's good book.
Well, it worked actually and he didn't even bother to correct them. They were trivial matter after all. It didn't really matter to him although it...saddened him somewhat.
He looked at his sister once more contemplatively. He supposed it was justified to hate his sister now-for she was the key character that made him like this.
If she's not here, will he be the hero? Will he recieve all of the attention from his parents? Will he be the light ?
His eyebrows furrowed at the thinking as he shook his head at his own questions.
No, it was not his sister's fault. He wouldn't-no, couldn't-hate his sister, while it might be true that his sister was the cause, she was also the only one who accepted him without any inferior motives-an innocent naive little girl was what his sister was, contrast to her more hardened brother. And anyway it's not like he could hate her...and his family no matter what they did. It just wasn't in his nature.
He had long since accepted his role in the family.
Unnoticed, feared, used by others-it was something he was used too. If his sister would save the world in the light, he would be the one that protect it from the darkness. If she's the light, then he's the shadow.
A dark chuckle escaped his lips as he stood up from his current spot and jumped onto the path along the Hokage mountain, walking calmly to the forest behind the mountain to his favourite place-his own make-shift training ground-which was actually just a small clearing surrounded by trees that isolated him from others, though it was currently getting larger because of some of his particularly destructive ninjutsu practicing.
He supposed it was time to practice some jutsus and chakra control if he really was planning to be his sister's shadow.
After all the Festival shouldn't be finished in another 2 hours so he had until then to practice unnoticed before going back home.
The first thing that he did was practicing the Hiraishin that he had saw his father taught Naruko a month ago but still didn't taught him by saying that he's still not capable and such. He had picked one of his father's special three-phronged kunai unnoticed to try it and had succeeded on his tenth trial so that he understood the process before studying its seal so that he could make a replica of this in battle.
The process of the teleporting itself was simple after he got used of the sudden fast teleportation as the after-effect of the technique. All he needed to do was using a little chakra to activate the seal and he would be automatically teleported to where the kunai was.
The hard part was the seal itself. After all it's not like he could use any of his father's kunai again or he would notice that they went missing, right ? So that's how he tried to copy the kunai for his use. He was no master of sealing, but he had a photography memory and was a natural genius if he said so himself and there's a lot of books about sealing in the house, so it's moderately easy for him to learn the seal and a little hard for him in understanding the complicated way it worked though in the end he managed to replicate the jutsu in 1 month.
He took out his own kunai with the seal and threw it before automatically sending his chakra into it. A familiar tug and the feeling that his body had been forcefully moved was the cue of his success as he suddenly stood in the place of the kunai, catching the kunai gracefully in hand and slipping it back into its holster as he usually did with his father's kunai when he had gotten use of the sensation.
'Well now that it's a success, next step should be meditating.' He thought as he plopped down in the middle of the clearing.
He inhaled and exhaled regularly while clearing his mind. His consciousness blurred before it suddenly came to a focus. He opened his eyes only to stare into a pair of red eyes filled with hatred and the body of the nine-tailed fox-currently only having one tail with him-seperated from him by a prison with a seal on the metal bar.
"Yo Kyuubi! " He greeted him with a grin.
"Tch...brat ! What do you want !" The Kyuubi snarled.
"Nothing~ I just thought it would be a good idea to visit you. "
The Kyuubi growled in response but didn't do anything malicious.
"How's the chakra restoration progress ?" Naruto asked.
"Enough to get me back a tail. " He answered curtly.
"Hm...for one year, one tail. It's a really slow process isn't it ?" Naruto asked contemplatively.
"Why don't you try giving me more of your chakra then ?" The Kyuubi said as he smiled-more like showing his sharp teeth menacingly though.
Naruto calmly answered with a sweet smile of his own, "Nope. 25% of my chakra is enough. Any more than that and I won't be able to be a decent ninja then. "
"Tch. If only I'm not stuck in this damned cage within a damn sewer then I might have crush that masked bastard who dared to control me along with this pathetic village by now. " the Kyuubi said.
" You had promised not to hurt anyone in the village or I won't give you the 25% chakra for your revival. That's the agreement. " Naruto reminded with a frown.
" Yeah. Once I'm out of here though, you have no control over me. " the Kyuubi retorted.
" But you won't be able to get out of here unless I die in which case you will die as well or get sealed into my sister as she had the chakra-which will result in overloading her mind and naturally destroy her from inside out resulting in her death before you managed to merge with your chakra and destroy the seal, which will result in your death as well. " Naruto pointed out.
"Smart brat. " the Kyuubi said sarcastically as he curled himself to sleep. "If that's all then go away." He said before Naruto got unceremoniously thrown out of his own mind by the ungrateful Kyuubi.
Naruto opened his eyes in the real world while trying to subdue the headache that he got from forcefully knocked out of his mindscape.
He shook his head as he wondered for the hundredth time if it's actually a good idea to make an agreement with the Kyuubi.
He remembered when he was four years old and found himself in the landscape after he accidentally overheard his parents talking about him, Naruko and the Kyuubi in his mind he had quickly went to his bed and cried before eventually stopping in favor of trying to prove that the Kyuubi was real.
He concentrated hard really hard to get into his mind and see the Kyuubi when he realized that his surroundings had changed into a sewer. He walked ahead before seeing a jail with a seal with a normal-sized orange fox inside-unlike what the Kyuubi was like when it was described in the stories. He blinked at the sight as the fox looked at him straight in the eye.
"So my jailor had finally graced me with his presence. " the fox said, snapping him back to the present.
"You're... the Kyuubi ?" He asked incredously.
"Of course brat. " He said sarcastically.
"Then...how?" Naruto gestured to his body.
"Hmph. I don't have the chakra to mantain my appearance. It would be a long time until I manage to get my chakra back. "
" Wait. Your chakra's sealed within my sister, you can't get it back. " Naruto stated.
"I'm the mind. I can regenerate my chakra. Your sister only has the chakra, without me the controller it was just a lump of useless chakra."
" But why can't my sister control it?"
"That's because I'm the one who control how much chakra were allowed to be used by the jinchuuriki if I wish to. Without me, if she tried to access my chakra all it will do was overloading her chakra system. Tell me brat, what'll happen if a chakra system get overloaded ?" The Kyuubi trotted to him until he reached the bar seperating them.
"She'll...die. Or in best case scenario she can't use chakra anymore thus not becoming a ninja." Naruto said with a frown. "But that won't happen, right? " he quickly asked.
"Well, it is a possibility. But like I said, there's a possibility she will survive and even manage to use my chakra later. "
"Really ? " Naruto asked.
"Yes. Though for now if she tried it by her own, it was a guaranteed way to her death."
"By her own...then if someone helped her she'll survive. " Naruto exclaimed.
"Exactly." The Kyuubi smirked.
"Who is it then ?" Naruto asked.
"Me, brat." The Kyuubi answered.
"What? You? But you're sealed here. " Naruto frowned in confusion.
"As one being, I still have some control over my own chakra although I can't move it nor do anything with it, but if she ever tried to access my chakra then I can decide how much she had."
"Then. You will stop my sister from overloading her chakra system." Naruto stated.
"Nope." The Kyuubi simply answered.
"What ? Why ? " Naruto asked with surprised look.
" I don't have any obligation in keeping her alive. If she died then so be it. "
"But...she's the one who had your chakra. If she died then the chakra disappeared." Naruto countered.
"Well, what's the use of the chakra that I can't use. I can even restore my own chakra." Naruto looked at the Kyuubi with a barely concealed panicked expression.
"But in this case I can ensure your sister's safety in using my chakra if you can supply me with all your chakra constantly." The Kyuubi said calmly.
Naruto perked up and looked with hopeful eyes, before squashing his hope and concentrating in his offer-his mind went to calculating mode.
"Why do you want my chakra ?" Naruto instantly asked.
"I need it if I want to generate chakra faster brat. How long do you think I need to wait here if I generate my own chakra ? It's easier to convert your chakra into mine." The Kyuubi answered nonchalantly.
Naruto closed his eyes to think his offer. He supposed it was not actually harmful and a win-win solution for his sister. Though...,not all of them or he won't have any chakra left.
"Not all. 10%." Naruto stated.
"No, too small. " the Kyuubi waved him off.
"15% then." Naruto said.
"All. Any less than that and this agreement was off. You can kiss your sister's safety good bye."
"I can always tell my sister that she can't use your chakra instead of agreeing to this, resulting in your loss." Naruto retorted.
The fox looked agitated. "Tch. Fine. 25%. "
"If you can promise me that you won't harm the village anymore then I'll agree." Naruto added his condition.
"Tch. Deal, brat. It's not like you can control me later. "
"Then I will cut off my chakra." Naruto retorted.
"Then I will let your sister die." The Kyuubi said.
"I'll just stop her from using it un the first place then." Naruto said, holding his ground.
"You, tricky brat, is interesting."The fox leered at Naruto's face,"Not many of my jailor is as daring as you, retorting like that. Let's see then, if you have the skill to back it up. "
"Hey ! I'll be a great ninja someday" Naruto shouted out childishly.
The Kyuubi paid him no heed as he said," Now get out of here."
Naruto felt his consciousness slipped away and refocused again before opening his eyes and staring at the familiar wall of his room-reaching the conclusion that the Kyuubi was real and also not as scary as the story said.
"Well, I suppose it is necessary in a way."Naruto said absent-mindedly, while looking up at the full moon in the night sky. Naruto sighed before getting up and stretched his body, taking a taijutsu stance.
'Time to practice again.' He thought go himself as he went through the kata that he saw in one of his father's scroll.
A/N : Okay, how is it ? I get the idea from when I read a fanfic about Naruto having a twin. This one won't be a dark Naruto though, unlike many other fanfics. What do you think ?
Please review !