The first few days of winter were always a special time in the Hidden Leaf Village. It was the time when all the traveling merchants from all over the Elemental Nations would come and set up their stalls filled with all kinds of wondrous items. And for one boy in particular it was the best week of the year.

Naruto Uzumaki always loved that time. The villagers all left him alone, with no harsh words or glares, and the visiting merchants were always very nice to the poor orphan, and would often give him discounts. He would buy all his clothes at that time.

That particular day he was standing by the stall of the mask-seller. He always had the coolest masks, so much so that even the Anbu would sometimes take glances at them in passing, but that year he had come boasting of an Uzumaki mask. The Uzumaki clan, not that Naruto knew that, mind, were famous among some circles for seal-lined masks with many wondrous special properties. It was rumored that they even had a mask capable of summoning and controlling the Shinigami itself. But that is neither here nor there.

This mask, which Naruto couldn't get his eyes off of, was that of an Oni, a type of demon much different than the Tailed Beasts most would think of. It was red and bald, with for horns, two larger and two smaller, with white eyebrows, mustache and beard, sticking out wildly. The eyebrows were much larger than those of the Jōnin Naruto would sometimes see running around the village.

Naruto ignored the dark voice inside his head telling him to run away from the mask. It never really gave him good advice anyways. He scanned the small crowd gathered around the stall for his 'competition'. Relieved to see no-one interested in the mask, he forked over all the money he had and took it home. After a few more hours of looking around, of course.

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He arrived at his house just after the sun had set, scratching his arm on a nail that was sticking out of the door, next to the knob. He didn't notice a small drop of his blood fall between the eyes of the mask, or the glowing black lines that appeared on it for a moment, before dying down. Closing the door behind him, he sat on the small futon in the small room and, once again ignoring the annoying dark voice permanently stuck in 'stab, stab, kill, kill' mode, put the mask on his face.

A pulse of energy shot out in several concentric circles around him, and slowly a large red head, looking exactly like his new mask, materialized in front of him. The giant head just blinked, looking at the blond haired copy of its face.

"Well, would you look at that." It spoke in a deep, masculine voice.

"Uh, mister, who are you?" Naruto asked, tilting his head in confusion, completely ignorant of the dangerous entity in front of him. The head raised its white eyebrow.

"Who, me? I am Tarakudo, King of all Shadowkhan, Lord of all Oni!" He yelled out in a dramatic voice. "Satisfied?" The boy nodded. "Good. Go on, then, take off my face." He paused for a moment, letting out a small chuckle in amusement. The boy did as told, putting the mask on the bed next to him. "Impossible." Tarakudo muttered. "You look just like... What's your name boy?"

"Naruto Uzumaki."

"Uzumaki... Is your mother's name Kushina?"

"I don't know. I'm an orphan."

"No, I don't suppose you would, seeing as she..." The Oni muttered to himself. He looked at the mask more closely, and the black lines around its eyes and mouth started glowing in response. Closing his eyes, the head vanished and a large man appeared in its stead, with red skin and dressed in a black kimono with red linings and spiky shoulders. The man stretched his hands a bit and sat down next to Naruto, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Naruto, there is also one other title I have, one that I thought I would never get to use."

"What's that, mister?"

"A father. Your father, Naruto." The blonde's eyes watered as he looked hopefully at the giant figure.

"Really?" Tarakudo's eyes softened a little and he brought the crying boy into a hug, petting his head softly. "Promise?"

"Promise, kid."

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So, here's the first chapter of a brand new story, actually one of three Jackie Chan Adventures crossovers. It's pretty short, but I had a good feeling about ending it now. You can probably expect the next one tomorrow, and maybe an update for another story, too, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I think Tarakudo was probably my favorite Big Bad of the series. In fact, let's do a recap:

-A statue of a long dead dragon throwing fire around whenever something annoys him

-The same long dead dragon, now a spirit instead of a statue, trapped in the body of the steadily decreasing threat with girly white hair, constantly getting pwned by his eight demon siblings

-A short, pale, anti-Uncle who always looked like a Butt Monkey to me

-The awesome, and very affable, floating demon head, who I thought was the kind of guy that'd love his kids

-And finally, the son of the aforementioned statue turned spirit stuck way into Jive Turkey mode, and his three Turkey henchmen, who turned out to be pretty much a whiny brat at the end

Yeah, definitely my favorite.