Disclamer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters but if I did…well we'll cross that bridge when we cross it.
A/N: I'm die hard Naruto fan but every now and then I like seeing what things would have been like.
SEALED
Orochimaru nearly scowled as Minato's demon powered son stopped his snake summon, he didn't because he was fairly sure that the young Uchiha would have lost the will to fight and that would have ruined his fun too soon.
Well aren't you an interesting one, he thought as blonde's taunt relit the fire in Sasuke's eyes.
He stretched his tongue out and picked up the blond, the chakra tasted disgusting on his tongue. He exposed the seal and understood it at first glance, it wasn't particularly complicated.
Now why would you want your son to have access to the Kyuubi's chakra, Minato? No matter, I can seal this properly and move onto Sasuke-kun.
Naruto cried out painfully as the chakra enhanced fingers slammed into him and then darkness took him.
NO! The Kyuubi growled as he watched the sewer grow dimmer by the second. He could feel his access to the boy fading; soon he would become an ordinary prisoner. He was being locked away. FOOLISH HUMANS, YOU MAY SUPPRESS MY POWER FOR NOW BUT SOON I WILL BATHE IN YOUR BLOOD. YOU AND THIS WEAK VESSEL OF MINE WILL KNOW TRUE TORTURE, UCHIHA MADARA.
Before the light disappeared completely, the demon known as Kurama released a memory. A memory that started the moment he escaped from that loud-mouthed red headed Uzumaki. Yes, he was going to show his vessel how his parents died. He was going to show the boy how he killed them.
Kyuubi laughed but it sounded like a rumble in tune with an erratic heartbeat. It was frightening. The nine tailed fox continued his rumbling laugh and imagined how the blond idiot would react to his memories of the hundreds he slaughtered that night but then a thought crossed his mind as his cage was completely shut off from his vessel.
YOU BETTER NOT ALLOW SHUKAKU TO KILL YOU, BRAT!
For Naruto, first there was darkness then things started opening up. There was a small hole then things started clearing up, his senses were not ready for the onslaught.
"Stay in there fox!" someone said over other more oppressing sounds. It sounded like a woman screaming.
"I'm not the fox," Naruto pleaded "I'm just the container!"
After some moments Naruto realized he could not be heard, this was a memory and he could do nothing. There was more noise and maybe an explosion. The small light was too small to allow him to see anything yet. But he didn't need to see anything, from the moment he escaped; he knew he had been lied to.
"I am the Kyuubi, Mizuki was right. I am the Nine Tails in human form."
A masked man appeared and his eye was enough to subdue the great beast. Naruto was glad that someone had been able to stop it then he remembered that he was the fox and sadness took him again
Naruto was horrified as the Konoha ninjas attacked him with techniques that would have been powerful against his human form but was less than impressive against his fox form. His claws swiped and entire buildings were reduced to rubbles, children were crushed and women were smashed against walls. The men were unluckiest; he sought them out and tore them apart actively. It was disgusting.
The trauma was overwhelming and he barely noticed the Sandaime push him back with a giant staff. That raised his hopes but then he remembered how this story ended, there was nothing to be hopeful for, in the next few moments he would be defeated by the Yondaime and turned into a baby. However, when the Yondaime appeared he was holding a baby and a red haired woman, hope was returned and he cheered uncharacteristically.
He had a mother who loved, he wasn't the Kyuubi. He would be raised by her and never have to look through dustbin for food or be beaten and glared at by the villagers, he would be happy.
"I'm going to seal him in our son" said the Yondaime and Naruto realized two things at that moment; the first was that both his parents loved him and the second was that somewhere in this memory, they would die.
His mother, Kushina, pleaded with his father not to seal the Kyuubi in him. It was all in vain and when both his parents saved him from being killed, Naruto hated the Kyuubi more than he had through this whole memory.
"Naruto," began his mother. "Eat a lot of vegetables and have balanced diet, stay away from strangers and alcohol until you're old enough. And as for girls, find someone who will love you and take care of them. Make us a lot of grandchildren." The Yondaime coughed a laugh, "I'm sorry Minato, I took up all your time."
"It's alright," laughed Minato "Listen to you motor mouth mother, Naruto. And become strong for both of us."
Then the memory faded and an ominous voice boomed from nowhere at all.
YOU BETTER NOT ALLOW SHUKAKU TO KILL YOU BRAT!
Naruto sorted through all the memories…his parents had loved him and they had risked their lives for his. The masked man was responsible for his parents' death. So was the Kyuubi.
And become strong for both of us. Those were his father's parting words.
*flashback*
He had been practicing the whole night and his arms were incredibly sore.
"Alright, guys" said Iruka-sensei. "Today we'll be assessing your shuriken and kunai throwing accuracies"
Naruto couldn't help but groan, he had mastered this but he was in no condition to repeat the skill now. When his turn came, he missed the target completely and one between the legs of the now fallen Iruka-sensei.
The entire class broke into a laugh.
"Can't you do anything right, dead last"
"Yeah, you're so pathetic"
"This guy is the one who's supposed to be hokage?"
Naruto pushed his hurt down and broke into his trademark grin, "Sorry about that, sensei"
*end flashback*
There were many more memories like that, he had trained dammit! Once he had spent an entire night conditioning his body by punching and kicking a post and the very next day they had taijutsu bouts and he lost his because he could not block or attack without getting hurt. Naruto opened his eyes and wiped away the tears.
He could hear the sounds of a fight outside the cave he was in, he also felt more in control of his body and his chakra wasn't fluctuating anymore. He was in perfect control.
Don't worry, Kyuubi, I won't die yet. I'll get stronger and kill the masked man and when I'm done with him. You're next!
Naruto walked out of the cave and took in the scene in front of him, Lee was on the ground and so were two Sound nin. Sakura had a horrified look on her face and Naruto followed her gaze to where Sasuke had a Sound ninja on his knees.
"What's going on here" Naruto said more calmly then he would have liked, he noticed the tattoos and purple chakra around Sasuke's body. "Teme, what the hell did you do to your face?"
"I became powerful." He said in a matter of fact way and began to pull on the Sound ninja's arms.
Naruto heard the cracking of bones and was immediately in motion and before Sasuke knew it, a chakra enhanced fist to the jaw sent him to the ground and effectively knocked him out.
"Naruto-baka," said Sakura as she ran to her crush. "How dare you hit Sasuke-kun?"
Naruto clenched his jaw. How was it possible that he thought this girl was attractive. He ignored her and turned to the panting Sound ninja.
"You should go now" Naruto said as he found his old joyful voice. He chuckled a bit as the genin looked at him gratefully. "No need to thank me, we're taking your heaven and earth scrolls"
The Oto genin used his working arm to pull out the scrolls and dropped them at Naruto's feet.
"Thank you." He said as he woke up the groggy girl and picked up his other teammate. They walked into the darkness and the forced smile on Naruto's face became real.
"Sakura?" Naruto said a few minutes later. She looked up at him with a face of utter shock.
"Wh—what did you call me?"
"Sakura" repeated Naruto, "That was your name last time I checked. What happened to that grass ninja and Bushy Brows over here?"
When Lee was woken up, Sakura had just finished her story. He mentioned something about flames of youth and then took off.
"You should sleep," Naruto told Sakura, they had both agreed that tomorrow morning they would set off for the tower.
"Idiot," she said once more. And Naruto's clenched his jaw again. "Who's going to protect my dear Sasuke-kun from the other genin if I'm asleep? I could never leave his safety to an idiot like you."
"Sakura..." Naruto began in that calm voice that crept up on him earlier, "Do you really think you're stronger than me?"
Sakura was taken back, she had expected him to apologize and do what she said like usual but the question he asked her scared her. She had gone into team 7 knowing that she and Sasuke were the best and Naruto was the dead last, but now that she thought about it.
"O—of course, y—you were dead last, you id—" She could not help but stop as she saw Naruto's eyes for the first time since he'd woken up. They did not hold the sparkle of happiness like before, instead they were cold and angry. She had never been afraid of the blond but those eyes frightened her, she had gotten used to the adoration he'd always showered her with those eyes.
Sakura did the smart thing when she lied down and closed her eyes because Naruto had been sure that if she'd opened her mouth and said that word again, he would have done a little more than just clench his jaw.
Naruto left a shadow clone behind and went to vent all the anger he'd built up.
Three chakra signatures up ahead. Whoa, that's so cool I can feel their chakra. Alright then, it's hunting season.
Naruto found the three grass ninjas huddled around a fire. There were two girls and boy. The boy easily had the largest chakra reserves and he had brown hair that constantly moved when his green eyes looked around. The girl seated next to him had the same features and was clearly his younger sister; she seemed content with staring into the fire and rubbing her hands together. The last girl had brown eyes and black hair. She was the first to notice him and tensed up instantly.
Naruto stepped into the light just as she threw a kunai where his head had been. The other two jumped to their feet each with a kunai in hand.
"Hey," Naruto said casually with his goofiest grin.
"What do you want?" said the brown eyed girl. Her shoulders signaled the start of hand seals and Naruto moved in.
The other two tossed kunai and he dodged to the side awkwardly just as the brown eyed girl finished her seals and shot a jet of water at him. It slammed him in the chest and the girl didn't let up until he slammed into the trunk of a tree. The boy was descending from above with a kunai ready to impale but Naruto had sensed his every move and sidestepped the kunai and kicked the ninja in the head when he landed. Naruto watched the water jutsu user dash towards him and felt the boy's sister to his left.
I should have gotten a sensory ability years ago.
Naruto ducked under another kunai and charged the girl in front of him, she lashed out a kick and he slapped it away with his arm and used her lack of balance to drive his knee into her stomach with some chakra enhancement. Before she fell, Naruto was already dashing at the shocked sister who fumbled for something in her pouch, before she raised whatever it was. He had her keeled over with a kick and a quick chop to the neck knocked her out.
Naruto glanced at her hand and noticed the heaven scroll in her hand. She was going to surrender. He pushed down the guilt.
"Mina!" shouted the brother, who had regained his bearings. "You'll pay for what you did!"
Naruto glanced at the other girl to make sure she wouldn't interfere then slowly walked away from Mina and faced her enraged brother.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto" he jubilantly said.
"I don't care!" spat the genin. And began hand seals.
Naruto was not going to make that mistake again and fired off shuriken which were deflected by a kunai which was thrown at the already dodging blond. The grass ninja closed the distance and fired off a barrage of punches and had Naruto dodging and blocking. Then the other ninja fired off a kick and Naruto coated his leg with chakra and matched the boy's own. The boys jumped apart and charged once more, this time Naruto abused his large chakra reserves and his new found control to increase the strength of his attacks. Even when the grass nin blocked he got hurt and soon he was panting on the ground after getting knocked down for the fifth time.
Naruto then picked up each sibling and laid them by the fire, the last girl was still on the ground and recovering, he helped her to the fire as well.
"Why…did…you…" asked the girl.
"The boss wanted to see how well his chakra enhanced clones held up against other ninjas" said the clone, right before he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
The girl, Asa Mizushima, looked at her battered and beaten teammates and swallowed, if a clone could do all that then what about the original. Whoever they were going to get their second scroll from was not going to be a Konoha ninja, those bastards were crazy.
Naruto paused for a moment as the third and last Uzumaki Kage Bunshin's memory flooded his mind, he'd increased the durability of his regular Kage Bunshin by coating their bodies with concentrated chakra but the only problem was each clone cost him a quarter of his reserves. Three was his limit at the moment.
Naruto ducked another Kage Bunshin's kunai swipe and went back to dispatching the army he'd created four hours ago. His stamina had becoming frighteningly unbeatable and there was also the fact that he couldn't get the image of his parents out of his head, so he fought until they were all gone.
Naruto walked back into the cave and ignored Sakura as he exhaustedly snuggled the ground and slept. Soon he would be in the tower and then he would confront the Hokage about his parents. Gone was his dream to become Hokage, he had goal now. He needed to kill the Uchiha with the mask and then destroy a demon, becoming a chuunin or Hokage was not a priority. He needed to become stronger; he needed to be the strongest.
