Two Peas in a Pod

Chapter 1: Lonely

On his eighth birthday, young Naruto had to again question why so many of the villagers were always mad at him. Particularly on his birthday, Naruto walks around the village with people treating him like the plague. Naruto loves Konoha, but on this day, he must get away from it all.

Naruto had a secret path he used to sneak out and into the village. While admiring Hokage Rock, Naruto was exploring the mountainside and throwing large rocks around when he found a conspicuous hole hidden beneath a pile of rocks. Naruto was scared but crawled through the hole that could barely accommodate his small stature to see what was being hidden. From then on he would occasionally travel beyond the wall and for a brief time he felt relieved. Naruto felt serene to be truly left alone and not having others constantly judging him.

"Why doesn't anyone like me?" Naruto looked to a small frog, not much larger than his thumb for answers. Of course, the tiny frog disregarded Naruto and continued its trek to a nearby puddle. Naruto felt only a bit odd talking to animals, because it was calming to spend time with the animals in the forest.

"I did want to train today" Naruto was intending to be mischievous by sneaking out of the village as he did. He wondered if anyone would ever come looking for him, even if he stayed away from home and school for days. Naruto got to his feet intending to get to work, but after a pretty butterfly flew right by his face he became happily distracted. Naruto marveled at the many colors of the insect as he tried to get a better look while the butterfly flew away. A sky blue, blood red, and forest green decorated the butterfly. After following the butterfly for a while and being unable to catch it, Naruto became frustrated and sat against a tree. In moments, the butterfly was perched on Naruto's nose, producing a big smile on the child's face as he tried to get a better look at the creature. After Naruto had moved too much the butterfly flew into his eye and flew away. Naruto yelped in shock and covered his eye as the butterfly flew away.

"It was pretty ugly up close" Naruto shrugged and began to practice throwing his ninja stars. He became bored soon enough and was prepared to head home, but the boy did not want to face what awaited him. Instead he decided to travel farther away from the village, off to explore and entertain himself.

After a lengthy yawn Naruto realized how tired he was. The sun had already set but Naruto didn't want to head home. He was walking towards the village for a while before he realized he had managed to travel hours away from Konoha and no longer had the energy to get back. Naruto hunkered down to wait out the night and get a bit of rest, with the faint hope of someone coming to find him.

Naruto woke up clutching at the pain in his stomach. He didn't bring much sustenance on his little journey and all he had left was some water. Naruto sat sipping at his water when he realized the village seemed too far away. His fumbling around in the dark last night seemed to have been pointless. Naruto felt dejected and began to question heading back if so many people didn't want him there. Eventually Naruto began heading towards the tall walls of his village.

Naruto was happy to see squirrels and rabbits as he walked home but was terrified to come across an angry bear. Naruto froze in place while the agitated animal approached him. Naruto received a severe scratch to the chest, the boy was shocked to see himself bleeding and lost consciousness. His body emanated a dark energy force that frightened the bear away.

Naruto opened his eyes to see that he was in an unusual place. The floor was covered in an inch or so of water. The metal walls were discolored and rusty. Pipes ran all along the ceiling. Naruto could hear breathing. Out of curiosity and despite his fear, Naruto followed the sound.

Naruto stood at a doorway. He knew something bad was beyond. He backed away, wanting to find a way out, then the thing spoke.

"Well come on in" The voice was deep and gravelly, but Naruto felt more confident and walked into the doorway. On the other side of the room the thing was locked inside of a cage and shrouded in shadows.

"Hi! I'm Naruto Uzumaki."

"I know you" Naruto cocked his head to the side in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"I've been here since you were born"

"Huh?" Naruto was frightened again and didn't know what to think. The thing in the shadows laughed and scared Naruto more.

"Should I tell you?" The thing in the shadows sounded giddy and playful but Naruto was still afraid of it. "Hmm?" It was waiting for an answer.

"No"

"But that's no fun"

"Fine then"

"That's the right answer. Now then, where to begin? Well, I'm the nine-tailed fox and am sealed inside of you. Yep, that's about it"

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said"

"But the nine-tailed fox was killed by the 4th Hokage!"

"Nope. And you should be happy right now. I know you always wondered why the villagers hate you. Now you know"

"It's not true!"

"What do you think I am then? Where do you think you are?" The thing slowly emerged from the shadows.

"You're … I-I I'm dreaming!" The Kyuubi was a mass of evil energy in the shape of a giant fox. The fox had a huge and disturbing smile on his face.

"No you're not"

"Go away! Leave!" Naruto was doing all he could to hold back tears.

"I'll be happy to"

"… Really?"

"Yes. You just have to rip that seal off my cage"

"That's all?"

"That's all" Naruto came closer to the cage of the beast.

"This paper here?"

"That's it"

Naruto had never seen a seal before. He had no idea what the writing said or how it kept such a beast locked up. Naruto wasn't sure if he was doing the right thing, but then he told himself 'once the fox is gone everyone will like me'. Naruto moved quickly to rip the seal off the cage when suddenly the Fourth Hokage appeared beside him. Naruto stopped mid-motion and the Hokage spoke to him but Naruto could not hear what he was saying. Naruto looked inside the cage and somehow Kyuubi's smile widened. Naruto saw powerful energy creeping out of the cage and then he saw darkness.

Naruto woke up not knowing he had fallen asleep. Naruto smiles at the prospect of making friends with all the villagers. But soon his smile became a grimace. Something was wrong with his body. He felt pain all over and it was getting worse. He couldn't help but to scream from the pain. He looked to his arms in shock. It was as if bubbles were forming under his skin. Naruto passed out from the pain with tears running down his cheeks.

"What did you do?!"

"What?" Naruto didn't know who was yelling at him or why but they woke him from his sleep so he decided to start his day. Naruto barely had time to open his eyes before he was yanked to his feet.

"Answer me" This person scared Naruto and for some reason his body was sore all over.

"You're hurting me"

"Pathetic. I can't believe you have some of my power!" After yelling in Naruto's face the scary guy threw him to the ground and walked away.

Naruto was now fully awake and could get a good look at his attacker. Naruto marveled at the other being, whatever it was. It had shaggy hair like Naruto's but it was red rather than blonde. More importantly, in that big bush of hair were ears like a cat. And his face looked just like Naruto with those whisker marks on his cheeks, except his eyes were red rather than blue. Furthermore, the thing had a furry red tail with a blonde tip, and the guy was stark naked. Naruto quickly averted his eyes in embarrassment. But he soon realized that he was naked himself, with furry cat ears and a blonde tail with a red tip. Naruto wanted to question the animal boy without prompting more of his aggression. The Naruto look-a-like was staring off into the woods and appeared to be deep in thought.

Naruto's stomach growled, quite loudly, and the animal boy looked at Naruto angrily. Naruto responded by avoiding eye contact.

"Let's go for a hunt then. These circumstances are unfortunate, but I am quite excited to kill again" The huge smile on animal boy's face brought Naruto to a complete understanding of his situation.

Naruto wasn't the best hunting partner and was working his way through the last of Kyuubi's patience. So Naruto wisely suggested fishing instead.

"I've only gone fishing by myself before"

"…"

"Everyone says it's boring but I think it's pretty calming. It'll be nice to have someone to talk to though"

"…"

"I remember-"

"Shut up"

"…"