The Cage

Disclaimer: Naruto and all its characters are property of Kishimoto Masashi, and I claim no ownership. I do however claim ownership over this story and any original characters created within.

Konoha

Seven Years after the Kyuubi Defeat

For a small grocery store in the corner of the market district it was a typical busy Sunday afternoon in Konoha. Sitting in one corner of the store was a man in his late 50's, completely ordinary with black hair and brown eyes. He was wondering through the store seemingly searching for items to add to his cart, however in truth he was calmly waiting with a plan set in motion.

'It should happen any second now, this will probably just confirm what I already suspect, but I have a right to know since it's about me'.

Several paint bombs suddenly exploded in the store, the once clean and pristine store was now tidied, mostly in orange. The store owner was one of many 'Naruto haters' who took pride in refusing to serve him and make his life genuinely difficult, and the orange paint was by this point was already symbolic with one of Naruto's famous revenge 'pranks'.

'Now lets throw out the bait' "Damn Kyuubi brat"

Right next to him another customer, covered with orange paint dripping off him quickly leaned over and whispered "You know the law no matter how horrible he is, you can't say that"

'Great there's an entire law about keeping this bullshit secret, well that explains why people called me a monster or demon avoiding the term kyuubi, still it didn't actually keep it secret. It wasn't hard to figure out that it had to do with the Kyuubi, what with my whisker marks and my birthday on October 10th'.

"Sorry but it's just..."

"No need to say it, honestly look what the bastard did to us. I don't know why they let that brat run around, he's a danger to us all. There is no telling how long that seal will hold."

So a seal, fuinjutsu, I honestly don't know much about them but hopefully this one works like those storage seals. I see ninja use. Honestly, anything would be better than me actually being the Kyuubi. The last thing I want is those villagers to be justified for treating me like this.'

With a hint of worry in his voice the 50 year old man leaned over and asked this oh so generous customer "what's wrong with the seal?"

"Normally there wouldn't be an issue especially with someone like the Yondaime doing the sealing, there have been people who have had similar... burden's in other villages, but this kid is different. The fourth had to do his on the fly, without the month's of normal prep, and it's the first time that monster had ever been sealed. There is no telling how long the seal will hold, or whether the beast can influence him. The brat should have been taken far away from konoha, trained and raised for a weapon far away from the village."

'So that's what these jerks think, as long as I have this 'burden' I guess I will only ever be a weapon or a prison to the people of konoha.'

The shopper would never realize that he had spilled an S rank secret to the very person that it was supposed to be kept from, that the man he was talking to was actually Naruto in henge.

Konoha

six months earlier – Hokage Tower

It didn't take a genius to see that he was treated differently. He knew it couldn't be for his blond hair or blue eyes, the Yamanaka's had both of these. He knew his whiskers also couldn't be the cause because the Inuzuka had similar features and no one treated them like they were the plague. So if it wasn't his appearance it had to be something else. Was it his family? No, no one seemed to know anything about them and people didn't seem to get angry when he asked about them, well any angrier than they normally got when he asked them a question.

What eventually gave it away were the names they called him. A demon, a monster, fox brat, however the only demon he had heard about was the Kyuubi, the Kyuubi that just happened to be killed on the same day he was born. At first he assumed the worse, that he somehow was the Kyuubi. He lost countless nights of sleep over this and became rather detached, refusing to speak to anyone, so much so that after a couple days the hokage personal picked him up and brought him to his office for the day.

Why was jiji nice to him? Why would jji look at him with those guilt filled eyes? If he was the kyuubi why would jiji look guilty? Why couldn't he live a happy life? Then an idea came to him. "hey jiji could I learn that ninja disguise technique all the cool ninja use?".

There was a reason Sarutobi was known as the god of shinobi, he immediately picked up want the boy wanted to do. 'Naruto wanted to hide himself from the world just so he could enjoy the normal freedom and experience any other child receives for free. Oh how he had failed his predecessor. However there was merit in teaching the boy the technique, he could finally get some normalcy in his life and shop without worrying about store owners. Unfortunately there was a risk that he couldn't allow. He couldn't stand it if Naruto hid himself from the world, after all if he did he would never be able to show the populous how wrong their assumptions are.'

"Naruto, I will teach you how to use the henge if you promise me you will not hide yourself away from the world, Konohana simply wouldn't be the same place without your smile."

Naruto's smile, the facade he created to hide his pain, after all if you just imagined you were happy, if you just smile all the time, maybe one day you it would become part of you and you would be, if the other kids thought he was happy maybe they will play with them so they could be happy as well. Well at least that was the logic his six year old self came up with. Naruto stopped expressing his pain at an early age, once he realizes people didn't take pity on him when he cried. Instead they no matter what he did they tried to ignore his existence, as if it was painful even to look at him. Jiji was the first person to ever truly acknowledge him, he wouldn't lie to jiji, but even if he couldn't use it all the time the henge was too damn useful to pass up. It could be the answer to all his questions

"sure jiji I promise"

"Okay Naruto first sit down and meditate and …."

For the first time Naruto learned how to activate and mold his chakra.

Konoha

Present Time - Naruto's Apartment

Naruto sat in his apartment, the apartment he ended up moving into six months ago after going through several orphanages, each one worse than the last. Each one responsible for negligent, some forgot he was there, others tried to keep him away from the other kids as if he was a threat to him. Eventually Jiji decided enough was enough and gave Naruto his own space to live in an apartment. It was owned by one of jiji students. Since then Naruto has lived by his own with someone Sarutobi trust dropping in once a week to make sure Naruto was okay.

In truth for the last several months Naruto hasn't been okay. Gripped by the fear that he deserves every bit of the hatred sent against him he had been depressed and suffering, but now, now he might finally have found the clue to jiji's guilt and hopefully the solution to his fear. 'A seal, the biju was sealed, but where was this seal. All the seals he had ever seen ninja use were visible, why was his invisible? Was there a way to make it visible?'

Since finding out about the Kyuubi Naruto had used his henge to research as much about the fox as he could. Some stories considered the fox a natural disaster with no intent just destruction, others considered the fox as a being of pure malice. Some considered it an intelligent evil entity and others nothing more than a rampaging beast, however there was one constant the Kyuubi was an entity composed entirely of chakra and as such was immortal.

'Chakra, it's a chakra entity, if it's sealed inside me it must be connected to my chakra system Jiji talked about. What happens if I channel chakra?' Sure enough a seal appeared on his stomach, a massive spiral surrounded by 8 sealing letters branching out.

'So there is a seal. The next question is if there is any way to see what's inside it. I want, no I need to know how this thing works. If I am right and this works like a storage seal then if the Kyuubi is intelligent it might be my only ally to help me. The issue is accessing it, I seriously doubt anyone would tell me how to access this damn thing even if they knew. I am going to have to solve this through old fashion trial and error.'

'Chakra worked to make the seal appear so what if I concentrate chakra on the seal. It should work like the leaf concentration.' Sitting down Naruto focused his chakra towards his stomach… 'Nothing, shit no matter how much chakra I concentrate there nothing changes. Umm how else could I see inside the seal. What If I remove Chakra from the seal area… still nothing. Okay, how do I access this damn thing. Well Jiji said meditating allows you to look inside yourself and feel your chakra system, If the fox is sealed inside me and connected to it…'

Naruto sat down in a Burmese meditation position and concentrated on his self, looking deep inside to the very movement of chakra inside himself. Accessing my chakra like this always feels so incredible. It's like I am submerged in a light blue sea no a blue tempest with a rapid current pulling me around. It seems to be easier to navigate around this tempest now than two months ago, most likely due to my chakra control, but besides that I can't notice any difference. How am I supposed to find the seal here anyways.

Unsure what to do,Naruto submerged himself deeper and deeper into his chakra flow, sinking through down through the endless sea of blue. He went deeper and deeper into the abyss until he saw something, just a spec but there was definitely something bellow. What is that, is that red? why would there be some red specks floating below in my chakra pool. Red specs, the Kyuubi was red and is an entity made out of chakra. Are those specks escaping from the seal? Is the seal really not secure, well if so that's more reason to go through with my plan.' As he descended red specks the world suddenly swerved and he was no longer in an ocean in fact he was no longer underwater at all.

'Well… this is new. I'm in a cellar, no there is water flowing below, this is definitely a sewer. At least these red torches give off some light, I wonder if these were the red specs I saw before.' Walking through the sewer Naruto traversed following the red lights until it he stood before was no longer red torches but an entire glowing red room before him. 'hopefully here I will finally find the answers I need.' Naruto headed towards the light to meet with the entity that made his life so miserable.

The Kyuubi's Cell

Naruto stood before the towering entity, easily 50 stories high with a blood red coat and vicious looking eyes that conveyed the raw hatred the entity felt toward humanity and the jailer that was standing before it. The only thing holding it back being the iron gates in front of it and a small thin sheet of paper with the kanji Seal labeled on it.

"Come Closer little boy" The Kyuubi rumbled in a deep bellowing voice that resonated throughout the entire sewer system.

"I would love to eat you but this accursed cage gets in my… Why, why are you laughing" This was certainly NOT the response the Kyubi expected. He was expecting his pitiful jailer to be surprised, afraid, break into tear and cry, even demand his chakra, but laughter…

"Sorry, Sorry I am just happy. Not only are we separate beings but you're intelligent. The stories I could find about you were all vague or contradicted each other so I couldn't tell anything meaningful about you. This was definitely my best case scenario"

A massive killing intent escaped from the cage, it was like nothing Naruto had ever felt before. Sweat started to beat off Naruto and he felt himself start to shake and for a couple instances he thought he was going to die, that this was the end, until the kyuubi's bellowing voice shook him out of it.

"YOU ARROGANT MEATSACK you actually thought you were ME, Let me rip you to shreds for…"

Naruto bowed his head. surprised at the gesture from a human the Kyuubi actually stopped his speech. "That was not my intention. Kyuubi with the way the villagers treated me as if I had a plague and the fact they called me demon or fox brat, well I wanted to make sure we were separate."

"Ha, Didn't your idiot leaders send you down here to take MY power how could you not know you parasite. You and the rest of your horrible race, taking that which is not yours ad doing anything to obtain more power."

"Parasite you're the one who.."

"NO human, THIS horrible seal works by taking MY chakra and giving it to you. Your own chakra supply is from stealing mine. You ARE a thieving parasite."

'Stupid kyuubi, ugh got keep my cool and be respectful if this is going to work'

"I never chose to have this seal, if it's leaching from you I'm sorry. I was never told anything. I had to figure out what was going on by myself, why people hated me and treated me so poorly. I am not here for your power or chakra Kyuubi, if possible I would like for us to get along since we are both stuck"

"Get along, GET ALONG. Your village enslaved me and all the other biju for our power and handed out my kind as if we mere your personal belongings. Your kind have always treated us as slave and attacked us for your selfish reasons and you expect me to get ALONG with you. I do not care what you came through and want LEAVE."

'Well that's good to know. If konoha distributed all the biju, it would have been years ago decades even, before the Kyuubi attack. The kyuubi says that as if he was sealed with them. I wonder if the attack was the Kyuubi escaping or if he escaped earlier and came back for revenge. He is certainly angry enough for it. Wait doesn't that also mean I am not the first jailer for him. I wonder what happened to the previous ones.'

Kyuubi, I did not come down here for your power but to make a deal with …"

"A DEAL, you say you don't want my power and yet you have the audacity to come here and try to make a deal with me. What could you offer me, there is nothing your willing to give me that I would want, Leave." Struggling to keep a grasp on himself over the over bearing killing intent Naruto decided to head right to the main topic.

"Kyuubi what I want to offer you is… FREEDOM". With those words the anger and killing intent the towering fox was emitting abated. The Kyuubi brought his massive red eye to ground level, focusing on his seven year old jailer with sudden interest.

For starters let me give a shout out to I need a haircut's and his story Lay Down Your burdens. This story is heavily based off and inspired from his fanfic.

Note: One of the things I plan to guarantee is that my OC version of Naruto remains balanced despite the increase in IQ. If you paid close attention you will notice that Naruto did not learn the shadow clone (like he did in Lay Down Your Burdens). In fact I will warn you right now that I have no intention for Naruto to ever learn the technique. It is a hidden leaf kinjutsu after all, Naruto only learned it the first time around through lucky circumstances. Actually that's another thing I plan to change, I want Naruto to win fights through strategy and intelligence rather than luck.

To individuals who think naruto is too smart for a 7 year old I would like to remind you of Itachi's maturity and mindset at that age and the fact Kakashi was already a chunin (a squad leader). I believe that Naruto's intelligence can simply be contributed to being another protégé. The reason I had Naruto go through this at such a young age is simply because Naruto will need time to train.

As for the civilian's, I tried to make sure their reactions were realistic. Giving the last minute circumstances of the sealing they have valid reasons to question its strength. They have no way of knowing that the Yondaime had prepared the seal months in advance once Kushina was pregnant. Biju's have previously escaped from their host or even gone rampant from inside their jincurican's (gaara) so those worries are well founded. To them Naruto is a dangerous existence and reminder of an awful night they would rather forget.

The general populous simply wants to avoid such an individual (they wouldn't 'abuse' him, that would be incredibly stupid). Honestly considering the circumstance and what they know, this is a completely understandable view. The story is written from naruto's perspective and since this is directed towards naruto he probably won't see it as understandable. I would like to remind the readers that as long as I am writing through a character the world will be experienced through tinted lenses.

Eventually (when I get around to finalizing it) I will also be posting all the rules and conditions of basic fuinjutsu for my fanfiction on my bio. Advance fuinjutsu will always be derived from the basics.

Please feel free to review and write any constructive criticism you have for my story.

Next chapter, May 16th (The Key)