Disclaimer: Guess what, I don't own Naruto or Yu Yu Hakusho! Big surprise, isn't it? By the way, this goes for the entirety of this story, so I won't put this here again. It's just too troublesome.
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Will of Fire
Chapter 1: A Boy and his Demon
Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha, the Village Hidden in Leaves, looked with sad eyes at the unconscious four-year-old that lay in a hospital bed. The young boy had just suffered yet another beating at the hands of the villagers. It was a miracle that he was still alive at all. He had hoped he wouldn't have to do this, but the boy needed protection. Normally, Sarutobi would have absolutely no doubts in his mind about placing the boy with who he had in mind, but the man had just recently lost someone very precious to him. 'I hope he's up to the responsibility...'
Just then, the room's door opened, and admitted a young man of about seventeen, with silver hair, his Konoha headband, the symbol that he was ninja of the village, covering his left eye, leaving only the right one visible, and looking bored.
"You called for me Hokage-sama?" he asked. It was then that he spotted the youth lying on the room's hospital bed.
His visible eye narrowed dangerously, as he spoke with a venom in his voice, "Who was it?"
"It's already been taken care of Kakashi," Sarutobi replied, before the young Jounin did something rash.
Kakashi's walked over to the youth's bedside, eyes softening as he went. He took a minute to think on how much the boy would resemble his father when he grew up. He then turned to the Hokage with his bored expression back in place, and waited to hear the reason he had been called here.
"I had hoped that the hatred the villagers harbored for him because of his... guest, would fade, given enough time," Sarutobi began, a sorrow adorning the old man's features, "But, apparently, I was sadly mistaken." He heaved a heavy sigh and continued, "If this goes on any longer, I have no doubt that he'll take one too many hits, and die. That is why I need to place him under the protection." He watched as Kakashi blinked, slightly confused as to why he was being told this, until his eyes, well, eye, widened with realization.
"I need that person to be someone that I know I can trust with his life. I need that person to be you, Kakashi."
"Understood," Kakashi stated; the Sandaime didn't even have time to blink before the answer came. Not only that, but Sarutobi saw a look of determination in the young man's eyes, that was rarely ever seen.
The old man smiled and said, "Good, from now on he will live with you. I expect him to be moved in by tomorrow afternoon." With that, Sarutobi walked out, knowing full well that the boy was in excellent hands now, his previous doubts forgotten.
Kakashi reached over, placed his hand on the sleeping boy's shoulder, and said, with a fierce determination, "Uzumaki Naruto, I am sorry that I haven't been protecting you up to this point, as I should have. I promise you, that I will never fail you again." As he sat down in the chair sitting next to the bed, he added, with a silent tear falling from his eye, "I'll never fail anyone again."
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Deep in the recesses of Naruto's mind, the young boy sat, crying into his arms, huddled against the bars of a gigantic cage, the only thing adorning it was a small white tag with the kanji for 'seal' written on it. Inside the cage itself, a massive figure lay, it's crimson fur bristling in anger, it's nine tremendous waving menacingly behind it, as it looked upon the sobbing figure sitting in front of him.
And they dare to call me a monster, when they would do such things to a child, Kyuubi mused. He wished he could reach out and comfort the young kit, but he could never get past the seal that kept him inside the boy. He had only actually been able to talk to Naruto for the past year, and, for reasons he couldn't fathom, he had quickly come to see him as a son, someone that he would protect with all of his power.
'I'm sorry kit, if it weren't for me, you would never have to deal wi-'
"No," Naruto cut in, quickly turning around, tears still rolling down his face. "It's not your fault, Kyuubi-san! Remember?! It was the bad man with the cloak with all those clouds on it, and that freaky mask, that made you do it!" Naruto really didn't like it when Kyuubi would start blaming himself for what he had to go through. The demon had been Naruto's only real source of comfort for the past year of so that he had been able to converse with him. Naruto looked up to the actually gentle fox as a father figure.
At the look Naruto was giving him, Kyuubi's eyes filled with a compassion never seen, or heard of, in a demon. The Kyuubi then leaked some of his chakra through the cage to warm and comfort the young boy.
Naruto let the blood red chakra wrap around him, in the Kyuubi's own version of an embrace, and allowed it to carry him off to sleep.
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Naruto awoke the next morning to find himself lying a hospital bed. He sat up slowly and yawned.
"Yo," came a voice to his right.
Naruto started and looked to his right. There he saw a familiar masked face looking back at him, holding a familiar little orange book.
"Kakashi-san!" the boy exclaimed, as he lunged at the only adult that he felt he could trust, besides Sarutobi of course.
"I see your wounds have already healed nicely," Kakashi stated, seemingly unphased by the fact that he had just been tackled.
"Yep! Kyuubi-san already took care of me!" Naruto had a smile on his face as he said this.
Kakashi just smiled back. Kakashi had known about Naruto talking to the Kyuubi. Naruto had actually told the Sandaime about it the day after the first occurrence. He in turn told Kakashi. Needless to say that he had been surprised, and maybe even a little scared. What had confused him the most about the situation, though, was that Naruto said how kind the demon had been. Sarutobi was actually able to find out what may have caused this, after a little bit of research, of course. He said that the Yondaime's seal was so powerful, that not only had it begun merging the Kyuubi's chakra with Naruto's, it had also begun merging their very souls, as well. He explained that it was more than likely that the Kyuubi had been infused with some of Naruto's more dominant traits, since it was Naruto's that was the dominant soul.
"Well, tell him that I said thanks, will ya? I was pretty worried," he said, as he ruffled the boy's golden blond hair, with a warm smile showing through his mask.
Naruto brightened even more at this, and vigorously nodded his head.
"Oh, and before I forget, what would you say if I told you that from now on, you got to come live with me?"
Naruto sat and stared at Kakashi with wide, azure-blue eyes. He couldn't believe what he was being asked. Live with Kakashi-san?
"One question first," Naruto said. When Kakashi looked quizzically at him, he continued. "Am I dreaming?"
Kakashi's smile widened even more behind the mask as he said, "Nope."
At this, Naruto grinned the widest he ever had in his short life, jumped onto the ground, and started jumping up and down, yelling, "Yatta (Woohoo)! Yatta! I get to live with Kakashi-san! Yatta!"
As Kakashi watched the boy, his smiled became a grin that his mask was having a lot of trouble concealing. This was going to be interesting.
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Author's Notes
Soooooo... what do you guys and gals think? I know, I've barely scratched the actual story, but I've gotta get this stuff out of the way first. So, anyway, please R&R!