A/N: This is a daemon AU fic. I'd rather not overload this Author's Note with a long explanation of daemons and how they work so if you aren't familiar with them and are curious I'm sure Google will tell you all you need to know. Bear in mind that this isn't just transplanting daemons into the Naruto universe but this is also an AU in its own right. History took a different turn before Naruto was born and thus the world you're familiar with will be very different from the norm, daemons aside. I've been working on and dreaming up this fic for several years so I thought it high time I give the thing a go. I hope you enjoy it.

Edit: If you're re-reading this and wondering why this doesn't look at all like what was there before, I actually rewrote Chapter 1 to better fit the coming plot. I think this fits the story much better than the previous version. Don't worry, you'll see what I mean...

A Brave New World

"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies." - Aristotle

01. A Place Called Home

Once, when he was eight, Naruto had found a map of the world.

There were a multitude of derelict, empty buildings strewn throughout Uzu Isle, so of course Naruto and Efrosyni had spent much of their childhood exploring every last one. There were treasures and secrets to be found in those places and they gathered them up greedily like the magpies that loitered around their home. There had been other people here once who had lived in these places and walked these streets, but for one reason or another they had gone and Naruto could only guess at the kinds of people who had come before by their now crumbling infrastructure and abandoned possessions.

And thus, in his wanderings, Naruto came across a door he could not open. This didn't stop the boy however, such things rarely did. Though he may have inherited his father looks, it was his mother's stubbornness which defined him. So the next day, he and his daemon arrived once more, though this time they had come prepared with a heavy, bent piece of iron he had filched from one of the buildings across the street. After a few minutes, Naruto and Efrosyni broke the lock and were rewarded with a loud creak as the door swung open.

The mysterious room turned out to be much smaller (and far more unremarkable) than they had guessed, barely more of an oversized closet really. A very cramped oversized closet. There was a desk, a few chairs, and several large metal filing cabinets all squeezed inside with barely any space in between them all to move freely, even by someone as small and skinny as Naruto. He almost would've just left the room behind then in search of someplace more interesting if it hadn't been for Efrosyni jumping onto the desktop. With a sigh, he squeezed inside and looked down at the paperwork strewn across the desk.

Both boy and daemon had learned to read several years before, but much of the things spoken of on those papers were dry and uninteresting and Naruto huffed petulantly as Efrosyni, a crow now, scanned the pages of a notebook curiously.

"This is boring," Naruto announced. "There's nothing here."

His daemon gave him an annoyed look and clicked her beak. "There's plenty here."

He was just about to say 'not really' but stopped when he caught sight of the large map behind her. It was old, yellowed and curling at the edges, but it was the biggest map he'd ever seen. Naruto maneuvered himself around the desk and stepped up on the chair to get a better look. It wasn't just a map of Uzu Isle or the rest of the Land of Water as he'd found on the walls of old school buildings or government offices, but a map of, from what he could only assume, the entire world. Certainly more of the world than he had ever known there was. Delicately, Naruto traced the lines between a place called the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning.

"That can't be right," Efrosyni had fluttered onto his shoulder for a better look. "Uncle Kakashi and Grandpa Jiraiya talk about the Land of Lightning, but they've never said there was a Land of Fire."

Naruto frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Yep. They only ever talk about the Land of Lightning and the Land of Earth, not Fire."

"Just those two? Because there's a Land of Wind on here too, and a whole bunch of other countries it looks like…" He traced over the Land of Rivers and then back over the Land of Fire. Right in the middle there was a big black dot with the name Konoha next to it. His finger stopped, hovering over the name. Boy and daemon went silent.

And then, "Dad talks about Konoha…with Grandpa Jiraiya."

Naruto stared at the black dot and wondered.

He waited until his mother had gone to bed before he posed his question to his father. They sat on the porch, side by side, waiting for the heat to die down and the stars to come out. His father's daemon, a slim spotted cat larger than a hound, lounged in the grass at Minato's feet, soaking up the last rays of sunshine.

"What's Konoha?"

Naruto wasn't sure how he had expected his father to react but it certainly wasn't the deep sigh the man let out in response. It was a long sigh. A heavy sigh. As if he had been waiting for such a question for a very long time. He ran his fingers through his daemon's short fur and the creature blinked up at him with large yellow eyes. For a while neither spoke and there was only the drone of cicadas and the crash of the waves at the bottom of the hill.

Finally, "I think I would've preferred if you'd asked me how babies are made."

Naruto made a face.

"I know how babies are made!" It was hard not to know living amongst the various wildlife on the island.

Minato laughed, scrubbing his hand over his face. "Yes. I suppose you do, don't you?"

Naruto waited. He didn't dare ask the question again for fear of his father brushing him off or changing the subject completely. Minato sighed again, long and drawn out and sad. He didn't look at his son.

"I was born there. It's where your Grandpa Jiraiya and your Uncle Kakashi were born too. It was our home." His father began. He sounded a thousand years old. Tired and worn and crumbling at the edges like the map he had discovered in that office. "It was a village. A very big village where all of my precious people lived. And then, the war came and the village was destroyed. After that your mother and I found this place and we had you and Izumi."

Naruto was quiet, his mind processing. Suddenly, a horrible thought entered his mind. "Those…the people who you had a war with. Were they…were they the ones who…who did that…to mom?" His voice grew quieter as he said each word until the last few came out as barely more than a whisper.

His mother was not like he and his father. He had Efrosyni and his little sister had troublesome little Melqart and his father had Austeja. But his mother…

She was alone.

Minato stirred, the very mention of his wife drawing him out of his melancholy and straightening his spine.

"No. That was…someone else."

"Who? Why? Why would someone do that?" The words tumbled out of mouth before he could stop them. Efrosyni sat in his lap, her ears perked. His father had never elaborated upon his mother's condition before, only saying that a monster had eaten Illtyd.

His father finally glanced down at his son then. His face was hard and unflinching. His voice was like steel. "Someday Naruto, I will tell you. But not tonight." He turned away. "Now go to bed."

Naruto and Efrosyni fled.

A/N: Poor Kushina. She's had a rough life.

Naruto (8) - Efrosyni (unsettled)

Minato (34) - Austeja (cheetah)

Kushina (32) - Illtyd (none/snub-nosed monkey)

Izumi (3) - Melqart (unsettled)