New Life Arc

Chapter 1 - Out of Konoha

"Normal Speaking"

"Thinking"

Run.

She had to run.

She couldn't dare stop or else they'd catch her.

A small girl, about five years old, ran through the streets of Konohagakure fearing for her very life. She had shining, blonde hair and bright blue, cerulean eyes. Six whisker-like birthmarks adorned her face. She was dressed in a green kimono. At one point in time, it seemed like it would have been a very beautiful kimono with an ornate design of several butterflies imprinted in a lighter green color. However, now the kimono was tattered, ripped, and filthy. Her own body wasn't in any better condition either. She was dirty all over and also had scratches and bruises on various parts of her tiny, fragile body.

Currently, she was running as fast as her kimono and legs would carry her. A mob was after her again. But this time was different. They didn't just want to do her harm this time. She saw the murderous intent in their eyes. She quickly had to flee and escape from them long enough for the Hokage to save her.

The streets were barren due to it being late at night. The lynching party had arrived during the evening and torched down her home. She luckily managed to get out but now the mob was after her.

Where was the Hokage and his ANBU? She'd thought they would have intervened by now.

"Hurry! Get it!" came a cry from behind her.

"Don't let the demon escape!"

She panicked. They were getting closer. She had to get away. She quickly looked ahead at the path ahead trying to locate any means of escape. Something caught her attention: it was a tiny alley between to buildings. It was just wide enough for her to squeeze through. She quickly ducked into the alley when she reached it and quickly moved through to get out of reach of the mob.

"Dammit!" one cried furiously. "It got away!"

"Quickly! Find a way around! We cannot let it escape!"

Panic struck the small child as she made her way through the rest on the alley. She was in another abandoned street, however, across from her, instead of more structures, was a forest.

"Down this way!"

"Hurry!"

"We can't let it get away!"

These voice came from off in the distance, but they were closing in. In an effort to get away, the child broke into a sprint deep into the wood. She forced herself through trees, brush, and darkness trying desperately to get away. Finally, she stopped to rest and hid behind a bush. She could see the torchlight of the mob reaching where she had entered the woods.

"Where the hell did it go?"

"It couldn't have gone far. Find it!"

To her relief, they started to spread out away from the woods, only glancing at where she probably could have entered the forest, however, thankfully she had somehow left no obvious hint that she had entered the forest. She let out a breath of relief until something grabbed the collar of the kimono and threw her into a tree some 20 yards away. She looked up and was instantly terrified. Before her were three Konoha shinobi. All of them wore standard shinobi uniform with what she recognized as a Chunin vest. She couldn't make out what their faces looked like due to it being night and their faces weren't in the moonlight.

"Well well well. What do we have here?" one asked rhetorically with a greasy tone dripping with sarcasm.

"It seems like the demon is out and about," another answered.

"It seems to have not learned its place," commented the third. "I believe we should show it where it belongs in the village."

"I agree," commented the second one again as he cracked his knuckles. The small girl could only whimper as three, grown shinobi took their anger out on her. Within a couple of minutes, their aggression ended leaving the girl bruised, bloody, and dirty. She laid on the rough ground leaning against the tree trying desperately to stay awake. One of the shinobi chuckled, "Ah, it felt so good to release that built up anger I've had over the past, couple weeks."

Another one nodded, "Yeah, kicking the crap out of the demon is a good stress reliever."

The third one smirked darkly, "You know, there are other ways to relieve one's self with the opposite sex."

This comment got the other two smirking but a quiet whisper cut off their thought process.

"L. . . le-leave. . . m. . . me-e. . . al. . . lone. . ."

They snapped their heads towards the blonde-haired child as she slowly started to move.

"Oi, demon! Stay the fuck down why don't you!" one sneered. However, the child slowly started to rise as an eerie, red cloak of chakra began to slowly surrounded her. She founded her voice yet again but this time it was clearly stronger.

"L-leave me. . . alone. . ."

The shinobi sneered, "The demon finally reveals its true colors!"

Her chakra cloak was coated densely around her body. Her wounds were healing quickly and the chakra appeared to concentrate on top of her head into two triangles and into nine tails on her tail bone. Her eyes opened to gaze at her attackers.

"Leave me alone."

The shinobi drew their kunais ready to attack, "Get ready to die, demon!"

The chakra on the girl's body hardened into solid parts. A ball of flame formed in front of each tail. The girl held out her arms as if pushing someone away. She tightly shut her eyes.

"Leave me ALONE!"

The tails launched the orbs of fire in front of her like catapults causing a massive inferno of fire at the shinobi causing an incredible explosion before the girl. The girl panted out a few times as the chakra faded before gazing upon the destruction before her. Her eyes widened as she looked on at the horror before her.

The landscape around her was ravaged and black. Ash rained slowly from the sky, the trees scorched, and the terrain was unrecognizable. However, the worst was the scorched bodies of the three shinobi before her. Nothing was left of them except pieces of torched cloth and dark, black skeletons. She gasped as she back further against the tree only to feel something soft and furry block her way. She looked down at her butt to see what it was and was stunned to see a bundle of several tails sprouting from her tail bone.

Fox Tails. . .

. . . and there were nine of them. . .

"Wha-?" the girl asked to herself in a frightened tone but she trailed off when she felt something twitch on her head. She slowly touched her head and felt to fox ears on top of her head.

Suddenly, all the names, the hate, the anger towards her being all came flooding back to her. The words they used to describe her: demon, it, monster. She thought back to what she heard from the Hokage about the Kyuubi attack. How the mighty fox destroyed much of Konoha and killed many shinobi only for the Yondaime to sacrifice his life to kill it.

But. . . did he?

She then recalled when her birthday was: October 10th.

The same day as the Kyuubi attack.

A cold sense of horror and dread washed over her like a tidal wave. Was she the Kyuubi? Was she the cause of so much death and destruction as well as killing her hero, the Yondaime Hokage? The names and treatment from the villagers swam around in her head furiously. It all made sense now: the names they called her and the the ferocity with which they hated her. Was she the Kyuubi incarnate? She didn't want to believed it but the proof was apart of her even as she tried to deny it to herself.

"Quickly! The explosion took place this way!" came a shout from nearby. The child darted her head around and saw torchlight quickly making its way towards her. She gasped and looked around. If they found her with her current appearance and around such carnage they would kill her. She had to flee. She had to run away.

She had to get out of Konoha.

She sprinted deeper into the woods. There was no denying it. She was the Kyuubi, and she couldn't bare to be in the village she caused so much pain to. All the beatings, all the names, and all the neglect suddenly made sense and to her it felt justified. She had done so many terrible things. She had killed her hero. She couldn't bare the truth.

Without warning, something in her head told her to stop. She did so a found herself face to face with a tall wall. It was the wall that surrounded Konoha. It was tall, slick, and it wasn't climbable for a civilian. How was she going to get over it?

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?!" cried an outraged voice from some distance away.

"IT WAS THE DEMON!"

"FIND IT! KILL IT! MAKE IT PAY!"

The girl panicked. She had to find away over the wall and fast. She grasped her head tightly trying to think but quickly released her head from a sharp pain in her skull. She looked at her hands. Her nails were currently long and sharp. She quickly thought of an idea. It wasn't likely to work but it was her only option right now. She quickly shot her hand at the stop nails first.

Her claw-like nails dug into the stone.

Quickly, she dug her other hand above the other one and began climbing the wall like a ladder. As soon as she reached the top she took cover as the mob had just arrived.

"HURRY! SPREAD OUT AND FIND IT! DON'T LET IT ESCAPE!"

With that, they took off in various directions leaving her alone on the wall with no human in sight. The girl took a minute to catch her breath before deciding to move on. She slowly climbed down the other side of the wall and took off into the forest beyond.

It would be many years before she saw Konoha again.

A couple of hours later. . .

The girl finally stopped moving. She believed she was far enough away from Konoha now that she could rest. Now that her adrenaline rush had severely declined. She now had time to process what had occurred. She took a glance at her hair. It was crimson red. Not the bright blonde she used to have. She knew she had to get a better view of herself.

As if on queue, she heard a frog croaked from nearby. Slowly, she made her way through the brush and up to a nearby lake. It wasn't a large one; she could see the other side of it relatively close by, but it was too large to be considered a pond. With the moon giving her the ability to see her full reflection on top of her improved eyesight since her transformation, she gazed upon her new self.

Her hair was indeed entirely crimson red, her eyes were blood red with slitted pupils, she had fox ears on the top of her head, and nine, red-colored, furry tails adorned her backside. The points of her ears and tail were white-colored like a fox as well. Her whisker marks were far more pronounced than before as well. When she opened her mouth, she also noticed she now had fangs. It was unmistakable. She looked like a young, humanoid version of the terrifying Kyuubi no Kitsune.

With that, the emotional, physical, and mental trauma of the night overcame her, and she broke down and cried. It was practically silent but the tears and sobs pour out of the girl for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, she started to walk off into the woods alone. She had to find some form of shelter for the night. Then she noticed something along the lake's edge. It was a fire.

Someone was nearby. She turned to bolt away from the area to prevent herself from getting caught but as soon as she turned she ran into something hard. After rubbing her head briefly she looked up to see a man standing there. He wasn't very tall, perhaps around the Sandaime's height. She could also tell he was old. He looked just as old, if not older, than the Sandaime as well. He had white hair, a short, white beard, and pale, grey eyes that gazed at her with a look she had never seen before: Interest.

However, she then noticed that, under the cloak he was wearing, was a katana sheathed at his side. Seeing that, she turned to bolt but before she could sprint off and calm and concerned voice asked her, "What is wrong, child?"

The way the voice came upon her froze her in her tracks. She turned back around and gazed at the man with nervousness and fear. The man, however, knelt down, a bone popping along they way much to his chagrin, so that he was closer to her level. He gazed at her with a genuine look of concern and care.

"What is wrong?" He asked again.

The girl sniffled, "I. . . I am sorry, sir. . . I'll leave you alone. . . just please don't hurt me. . ."

The old man's eyes widened in surprise at the response, "Hurt you? Why on Kami's great earth would I want to bring harm to a little child?"

She looked off to the side with a depressed look, "It. . . it wouldn't be the first. . . my village hated me. . . they hated me so much. . . not that I can blame them. . ."

The old man raised a suspicious eyebrow, "Oh? And why can't you?"

She was silent for a few second before she uttered out in a weak voice, "I am. . . the Kyuubi no Kitsune. . . the one that attacked Konoha five years ago."

His eyebrows raised in interest and surprise but they quickly fell and studied her again. There was a long pause before the old man spoke again, "What is your name, child?"

She looked up to the man with a heart-broken expression, "Kyuubi no Kitsune."

He sighed and shook his head, "Your real name, child. Please, tell me your real name."

A self-deprecating tone sprung from the child's depressed form, "I. . . I told you! It's-"

"I know you are lying to me, child," the old man spoke softly but sternly. Her eyes gazed into the old man's and she saw the concern and desire to help her. Finally, she gave in.

"U-Uzumaki Naruko."

His eyes widened in recognition, "Uzumaki?"

The now-named Naruko nodded.

"How long have you been in this form?"

Naruko looks up at him curiously despite her depression, "A couple of hours."

"Have you ever taken this form before?"

"N-no."

"What happened prior to your transformation?"

"I. . . I was beaten by three shinobi. . ."

The old man's eyes widened before melting into a thoughtful look. Finally, he smiled and gazed at the small girl before him, "You are indeed the Kyuubi."

Naruko's downtrodden expression took form, however, it ceased when the man continued, "However, before tonight you were not."

This caused her eyes to widened, "What? But. . ."

"Prior to this," the old man answered her unfinished question. "You were the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki."

"Um. . . what's a jinchuuroki?"

"Jinchuuriki," the old man corrected. "And a jinchuuriki is a person who has had one of the nine tailed beasts sealing within them. You had the Kyuubi sealed within you, however, due to what happened to you tonight, you somehow fused with the Kyuubi essentially becoming the Kyuubi. You aren't the same monster that attacked Konoha. You were merely, up until tonight, it's jailer."

Naruko didn't know what to say. She was speechless. She tried desperately to comprehend what was just told to her but for some reason it wasn't registering.

The old man slowly moved over to the girl and picked her up in his arms surprising her, "Now come on. Let's go back to my camp. It's late and we will discuss this in the morning."

He carried her over to the campfire by the lake. Here he set her down next to the fire and laid her on a blanket and then covered her with another. It wasn't long before she was out-cold in a dreamless sleep.

The old man gazed upon the child yet again before sighing, "Dirt, blood, a torn kimono. . . what hell did you experience tonight, Naruko?"

He leaned against a tree and uttered, "Such cruelty shouldn't be accepted. Do not fret, little one. Those foolish villagers shall not harm you again. . ."

With this oath, he fell back into a well-deserved rest. . .

The next morning. . .

Naruko's blood-red eyes opened the following morning after her new fox ears alerted her to the chirping of birds in the distance. She leaned up, stretched, and yawned as she took in the morning's sun rays. She blinked, suddenly realizing she wasn't in her dilapidated bed. Then, all the memories of the previous night hit her. The chase, the beating, the transformation, the escape, and the meeting. It all came flooding back to her.

"Have a good night's rest, Naruko-chan," came a calm, soothing tone from nearby. Naruko gasped and looked up. There before her was the old man from the previous night, and he was smiling at her. Now that it was day, she could see his appearance far better.

His elder visage easily gave her the impression that his sagacity was far more refined than the Sandaime's simply due to age and experience, which was odd considering the Sandaime was already in his sixties making him one of the oldest living shinobi. His white hair was short and straight while his beard was bushy and went down to just above his sternum. His gray eyes reflected a vision of a man who had seen far too many winters for a human.

The old man wore a brown, baggy gi and a brown-gray hakama. Over that he wore a tattered brown and gray haori. A dark gray sash was wrapped around his waist and a katana was sheathed at his side. He had socks and reed sandals on his feet. Clearly he was a warrior of some kind but it was clear he was no shinobi.

"Who are you, sir?" Naruko asked curiously causing the old man to blink before laughing, "I forgot to tell you my name didn't I? My apologizes, Naruko-chan, my old age must be catching up to me. My name is Nobunaga."

With the smile the old man named Nobunaga was giving her, she finally couldn't help herself. For the first time in awhile, she smiled, "Hello, Nobunaga-jiji."

"Nice to see you are in a better mood," the old man commented as he widened his smile in recognition. Naruko then curiously looked over the old man again, "Why do you have a katana, Nobunaga-jiji? Were you a warrior of some kind?"

Nobunaga smiled, "Indeed you are correct. In my youth, I was a samurai of Tetsu no Kuni."

Naruko blinked as she tried to term out on her tongue, "Samurai? What's that? Is it like a shinobi?"

Nobunaga chuckled, "Sort of. A samurai is a swordsman who follows a strike code of honor and obedience. He taught how to fight since childhood and at the very core is the predecessor of the shinobi. But don't let that fool you; we are still a powerful and respected force."

Naruko took a second to fully process before she shouted out, "That's awesome, Nobunaga-jiji. What rank were you in the samurai forces."

Nobunaga laughed at her sudden change in tone. Just prior she was nervous and depressed but now she was cheerful and upbeat. Such an amazing little child.

"Ah, first I should explain the ranking system we have in the samurai forces, alright?" after getting a nod from Naruko he continued. "The lowest ranking of our military force in Tetsu no Kuni are simply known as samurai. Above them are the Gunsō, who command small squads of samurai. Above them are the Rikusōchō, who are usually in-charge of several squads at a time and making sure they do their jobs. Above the Rikusōchō reside Chūi, who usually are assistants their superior rank which is the Fukutaichou since these have a difficult job being in-charge of several Rikusōchō and their subordinate squads. The Taichou reside above the Fukutaichou and these samurai are the heads of entire regional divisions of samurai within Tetsu no Kuni. Above them are the two Soutaichous who are in command of the western regions of the country or the eastern regions. Finally, we have the Taishou, the strongest, wisest, and most experienced among the samurai who commands the entire samurai force."

Nobunaga waited a bit for what he had just told the child to sink in before he continued, "As for what rank I am, or was rather, I was a former Taishou."

The name of the position he held in his younger years shocked the child. This old man's similarities to the Sandaime continued to grow in number. Both old, both kind, both powerful warriors, and, now she realized, both military leaders.

"Well then," Nobunaga spoke again. "Since we've now introduced ourselves. I think we should wash you up. Correct?"

Naruko blinked and tilted her head to the side as a sign of confusion. Nobunaga chuckled, "I'm sure you don't want to spend the day covered in dirt and blood do you?"

Naruko blushed from embarrassment. But slowly she got up and Nobunaga led her to the lake.

A couple of hours later. . .

Naruko was sitting in a towel before the campfire. Nobunaga had gone into a nearby town to get her a new kimono since he sadly stated that her old one was easily beyond repair due to her beating and transformation. One of the last connections to Konoha in a physical sense was now gone and Naruko had accepted that she needed to find those final connections to her past and eliminate them. After telling Nobunaga about her brief life, he mentioned she needed to forget her past, live with it, learn from it, and seek the future, and, of course, being a five year old child meant she took that literally as she sought any opportunity to break free of anything connecting her to Konoha. The kimono was the latest connection to be snapped. Now, all she had to do was wait for the old samurai's return before she could finally get far away from the village that had caused her so much pain.

So, to pass the time, she sat and waited while thinking upon the events of the past couple of days.

She was once the container for the mightiest of the biju, the Kyuubi no Kitsune, and now essentially was the Kyuubi. But despite that, so many questions remained unanswered in Naruko's mind.

How is she still in control?

Did the fox's mind still somehow have influence over here?

How much power did she receive from the fox?

Could she control such power?

If so then how?

So many unanswered questions indeed, and she felt that answering these questions would just sprout more.

Even so, however, she knew that's not really what she should focus on at the moment. In her heart, she knew she was in control and no longer had anything to fear from the fox if what Nobunaga said was true. Speaking of the old samurai, he, too, raised questions within her mind.

Why was he being so kind to her when everyone else she'd met, besides the Hokage, saw her with hate?

Why was he so willing to help her and not even question her origins? When she had first told him she was Kyuubi he seemed very much suspicious, but in the sense that he could tell that she wasn't really telling him the truth. Was it just an ability all old people had?

Nevertheless, after her bath in the lake, she felt so much cleaner. She blushed a bit thinking back at how he compared him washing her to when he used to wash his daughter when she was little. When asked about his daughter she could see a strained smile on his lips. He didn't answer but something told her it was a very touchy subject for him. Then she thought again, "He washed me like he used to with his daughter. . . Does he see me as his child?"

This idea in her mind made her red and brought a comforting warmth to her body. Even with the Hokage, she hadn't been called or even insinuated as a child or grandchild-figure to the old man. However, this older man on their first meeting basically told her without actually saying it that he was treating her the same as he would his own child. She never knew the feeling of having parents or even feeling wanted by society. The Hokage himself seemed sad every time he saw her.

However, Nobunaga was pleasant, kind, and a fatherly-figure she never knew she could ever have. He took her in without a second thought. He didn't hate her. He didn't glare at her. He attack her. He didn't see her as the demon fox. He only saw a little child with no home or family. It was a surreal, new experience for her but she couldn't help but be contented by it. She sighed blissfully for the first time in her life as she uttered a suffix she'd never called anyone, ". . . jiji. . ."

"Sadly, I think even for me grandfather is too young of a title," came a voice from nearby. She turned to see Nobunaga holding in his hands a brand new kimono for her. It was a white kimono with a red sash and red swirls decorating it. It was very pretty. She smiled broadly at seeing him again but blinked when she processed what he had said, "What do you mean Nobunaga-jiji?"

Nobunaga chuckled softly, "How old do you think I am, Naruko-chan?"

Naruko blinked with a confused face before studying him. While he certainly did look older than the Hokage, she assumed it was probably just from his beard more than anything. He didn't seem that much older than her former village's leader but he seemed to insinuate otherwise, "I don't know. 68? 70?"

Nobunaga chuckled again, "Try 87, Naruko-chan."

The red-headed fox-girl gaped in surprise. This old man wasn't just older than the Hokage; he was old enough to be the Hokage's father. The Hokage had only just turned 60 if her memory served correctly after her trauma. This man was twenty-seven years older than the Sandaime Hokage, "87?! But how? You look so much younger than 87! How are you so old?"

Nobunaga laughed at Naruko's reaction, "Thank you for the compliment, Naruko-chan. As to why I look longer I guess I can attribute that to my samurai training among others things. As to how I am so old, well, I believe I just found out."

This statement confused the young Naruko. She tilted her head to the side and blinked trying to comprehend and make sense of what the old taishou had just told her. Just found out how he lived this long? What the hell did that even mean? It was so cryptic and Naruko's five year old mind couldn't process it. She decide to voice her confusion to the kind, old samurai, who in turn smiled at the fox-girl, "Contrary to popular belief, I am a very spiritual man. I believe everything happens for a reason we cannot always fully understand until a specific scenario reveals the reason to you. As for what I meant, I believe I am this old to meet you, little one. After all, if I died from old age long ago, I wouldn't be able to take care of you now would I?"

The old man's words stunned the tiny girl. She could believe what she was hearing. This old man had told her, by his belief system, that the reason he was almost 90 years old was so that he could find her and take her in. No one had ever said such a thing for her. For the first time, she believed if some sort of deity did exist, it had finally heard her prayers. Tears began to slide down her faces as she started to cry. Never before had she ever had this feeling of belonging; that some actually truly cared.

In an instant, she launched herself at the old man and embraced him tightly. She even hooked her legs and, subconsciously, her tails around the old man, fearful of letting go as if he could just vanish. Naruko broke down with a river of tears now flowing from her face. The old man calmly wrapped his arms around her in an embrace.

"Shh, there there, Naruko-chan," Nobunaga soothed. "Everything will be alright from now on. I won't let Konoha have you again. I am going to take you to Tetsu no Kuni where I promise you will be accepted. Alright?"

Naruko's only response was to bury her face deeper into the old man's chest as Nobunaga comfortingly caressed the top of her head.

Well, chapter one. Sorry if it's a bit clunky, I had a different one on the site but somehow it was deleted without my knowledge. So I had to retype it. Hopefully, it's still is perfectly functioning with the rest of the story. Anyway, seeing as how putting links into a fanfiction won't work I have decided to put the link to the forum in my profile for anyone who is interested in joining the discussion forum on this fanfiction. I hope the forum will allow me to get closer to my readers and to produce a better story for all of you. Anyway, I am planning on doing five or more Response to Reviews per chapter now as apposed to three. So keep those reviews coming! Thank you all for your support!

Please review!

~Teddypro