Author's Note's: Sticking my oar in on the Naruto/Prototype craze. Trying something here that may or may not fly. Bear with me, the last time I actually read the Naruto Manga, we were in the middle of the exams, so things are probably going to go freakin' AWOL during that, because I am lazy and it is one of the major turning points of the manga. As always, flame away if you want too. I frankly don't care. Please review, I like knowing what you're thinking, even if it is just 'good job' or 'this thing is a POS'.

Disclaimer: Don't own the idea, am unlikely to ever own the idea, and I'm so broke I'm rococo, to use the joke. To sue me would be a waste of time and effort.

Paradigm

By: BlackLadyCharon

Prologue: Awakening

The sentience dreamed.

It had done so for a long time, since before the wars, before the creation of the Bijuu, before the Ninjas and Hidden Countries. It dreamed through its 'bloodline' whispering in their minds of a city of glass and steel, towering buildings that made people appear as nothing. A place where science reigned, disregarding things such as Chakra and elemental affinities, and changes were created by artificial means. By cold steel and thread, by mutation and artificial selection. By bacteria and prion and virus.

The sentience itself came from such an experiment, and had thought itself a man. Had reacted as a man, lived as a man, and pretended to die as a man. Now, very little of its original self remained to it, but it still felt duty to those that had come from it. Protect and serve. And there was only one of its blood left to it. There had been two, but the elder had given up his life, and the younger was too small to do anything. The sentience stirred in its sleep, forming a human shape. Partly awake, it became aware of something new in its environment.

Something NOISY.

"When I get out of here, that cub and your village will be DUST, Yondaime! DUST! I'll mangle everything and piss in the ruins! I'll… GURK!" For the first time in it's long existence, the Kyuubi no Kitsune knew fear. The being holding its throat looked like a human male, wearing clothes that the Kyuubi hadn't seen since humankind blew itself up with its fancy-smancy science, a hoodie with a few curls of dark hair escaping from under the hood, jeans, and sneakers. The pale gray eyes that stared at the Kyuubi held very little humanity, though, and from the elbows down the arms were dark, spiky flesh ending with four long, heavy claws instead of hands. The thing tilted its head to the side, observing. It yawned, and then spoke.

"Shut. Up. Now."

The Kyuubi no Kitsune did as it was told.

Having silenced the noisy thing, the sentience turned to collecting his memories back into something resembling order. After a time, he recalled things. Not many things, not all of them, but the few he considered important enough to transcribe to his most basic level.

His name was Alex Mercer, he was also BlackLight. He was a monster that played at being a man. He ran through the list of what he had been able to do, but was distracted. Something was wailing. Something small and afraid. Alex stood, walking into the darkness around him even as it changed for him, blossoming into a tangled web of cells and synapses, holding memories that for now were locked away as useless. In the darkness beyond the web, he found what he was looking for. Small and tiny, a shock of blonde fuzz and scrunched up eyes that made the whisker marks more prominent. Alex picked the babe up, noting the seal, and then jounced him a tad uncertainly. His own memories of his 'children' were so far back and fragmented he could barely even remember that he'd had them. However, the last of his blood before this one's thoughts still left a trace across the child, and Alex stared down at him, wondering what strain of insanity had made its way into his bloodline.

"Naruto? What kind of moron names a baby fishcake?"

It was going to be a long eleven years.

:: Prologue End ::

And poor Alex gets stuck in Naruto's head in my own way. This ought to be interesting, once I get my glasses back and don't have to retype every other word. Reviews are much loved, pwease?