Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto, which upsets me because i would be set for life if i did (runs off and sulks like a little kid in the corner)
Hiya this is my second fic for naruto, first one went to pieces i think, totaly lost where i was going with it and the development of the plot, where there was one, wasnt great either, but that is why i have started this one, which will hopfully be better as i have learned from my mistakes (I think/hope).
Chapter 1 The Kitsune clan
A lone hooded figure stood staring at the just visible village of Konaha through the foliage of the numerous trees that give Konaha it's name.
The hooded man sighed deeply, he was going to have to spend a lot of time at this village in the very near future, and all because of the Kyubi, it wasn't fair.
The chunin on the front gate sat staring into space mentally screaming for some boredom relief, as it was early in the morning, the sun hadn't even risen, not very many people normally try to gain entrance to the village at this sort of time, apart from various shinobi returning from C+ ranked missions.
They barely even noticed as an average sized hooded man entered through the gates and turned towards them, amusement twinkling in his eyes over the state of security surrounding the hidden village.
"Hello there, are you here on business?" one of the chunin asked politely, as it wouldn't do to insult a possible hirer.
"Of a sort yes, I need to speak with your Hokage." the man replied authoritve manner but still politely, he had long since found out that speaking politely normally makes people more willing to help, even if it was against his character.
"Do you have an appointment?" the chunin asked looking through there lists of authorized meetings with the Hokage.
"No I don't, do you know where I can arrange one?" The man asked, biting back the urge to just go in there anyway, although it would probably be better if he made a good first impression, he wanted the opportunity to get close to the village's jinchuriki.
"You would have to go to the Hokage tower, at the reception."
"Thank you for your help." the hooded man said as he walked into the village, he had to stop himself from slapping both of the chunin for being too trusting when it came down to allowing admittance to the village, especially with suspicious people wearing hoods like he was, because now the village's safety was now his mission.
The massive red building in the centre of the village was really hard to miss, the man figured that that must be the Hokage tower as it stood out miles more than all the other buildings.
As the man was about to enter the Hokage tower he was distracted by a flying kunai that passed right by him missing his by centimetres, and hitting an exhausted looking blond in the calf as he was trying to run away, stopping him in his tracks, the boy couldn't be any older than eight, and he was dressed in really tatty, dirty orange jumpsuit.
The man spun round to see where the kunai had come from, what he saw shocked him, there was a massive group of people running towards the fallen boy, some of the people in the group he could identify as shinobi as they wore hitai-ite and were running faster than the civilians in the group.
The man seeing the group continue to viciously assault the blond, however the blond didn't whimper, the man wondered if he had lost consciousness.
The man ran towards the group kicking the assailants away from the poor kid, with powerful chakra enhanced blows.
The hooded man stood over the blond boy protectively, glaring at the remaining people who remained, which were mostly shinobi, as most of the civilians had run away when they met some interference.
"Why are you stopping us? He's nothing but a filthy demon, can't you see that!" A member of the group yelled in disgust.
The man said nothing, he wouldn't waste anymore energy on these stupid weaklings, even to speak to them, so he just flared killing intent, and watched as they ran in fear.
The blond looked up transfixed at his protector, no one ever protected him, apart from the Hokage, and he was pretty sure this wasn't the Hokage.
"Better take you to the hospital." the man said as the slowly eased out the kunai that had been lodged in the kids leg.
"No! please don't take me there. They will only take me away from you and hurt me even more!" the blond cried out in fear.
"Why would they do that, and what the hell did you do to warrant a beating like that?" the man asked half knowing why, this was the jinchuriki of the Kyubi.
"I don't know why they do these things I just know that they do. Maybe they are right maybe I am just a demon." the boy said quietly, almost in a whisper.
"And who told you that being a demon is a bad thing," the man replied with a weird look in his eyes, those eyes were completely different from what he had ever seen, they were red with cat like slits in them, but the kid found no malice in those eyes.
The boy decided to trust his benefactor, years of abuse and mistreatment had honed his skills in judging whether people meant him any harm or not.
"Where do you want me to take you then?" the mysterious man asked.
"To see the Hokage, the Hokage seems to be the only person who likes me apart from the nice people at Ichiraku Ramen Bar." the boy said.
"Well that's fine, I need to talk to the Hokage anyway, maybe you will get me in there quicker."
"Oh no, we can't just go in the woman at the reception won't let me past, we are going to have to sneak in." the boy said in a matter of fact type of way, which suggested to the man that he was used to doing this sort of thing.
"I am Uzumaki Naruto." the blond boy introduced with a beaming smile.
"Hi I am Masakazu Taro, err aren't you in any pain?" Taro asked noticing the blood still seeping through the pants leg.
"Oh it's fine, I'm used to injuries like this, it's annoying though because it means that I won't be able to walk for a couple of minutes." Naruto said brushing off Taro's concerns, but still enjoying the fact that he had found someone else that cared whether he was alright or not.
"Right I better get you inside then. Is that open window up there the Hokage's." Taro asked, glad he had run into Naruto, as he now had an excuse to see the Hokage without an appointment.
"Yeah that's the old mans office." Naruto said as he was picked up off the ground, Taro leapt up as high as possible then stuck to the wall using his chakra and made walked the further ten meters to the open window.
"Wow, I never knew that was possible, I'm training to become a ninja too." Naruto said smiling brightly at the man carrying him.
The Hokage was relaxing in his chair, he had just finished his dreaded paper work that he had started about 8 pm last night, he was tired, it must be at least 3am by now, he thought to himself, idly lighting his ever present pipe, with his back to the window.
"HI OLD MAN!" Naruto yelled scaring the old Hokage out of his wits, and making Taro think whether it was a good idea bringing Naruto up via the window, but he just shrugged what was done was done.
"Naruto how the he…." the Hokage said answering his own unfinished question as he stared harshly at Taro holding onto the boy who he considered to be his grandson.
"Put Naruto down." the Sandaime snarled at the stranger he saw before him, he must have been a shinobi as he was able to scale the side of the Hokage tower without much difficulty.
"Ok is there a chair I can put him on he still can't stand at this moment in time." Taro said seemingly oblivious to the murderous intent the Hokage was giving him, he was secretly regretting coming in this way and not making a appointment.
The Hokage's attention was suddenly moved onto Naruto's blooded leg, "Who did this to you Naruto?" he asked angrily.
"The villagers." Naruto said, again in a matter of fact tone of voice.
"And several of your shinobi, they couldn't have been any higher than chunin." Taro said, laying down Naruto softly so not to cause him any pain.
"Taro saved me. He's really strong." Naruto said as Taro smiled weakly at the Sandaime.
"Is he now? Well Naruto how is your leg?" Sandaime asked.
"It's almost healed, just a scratch now." Naruto said smiling, Sandaime was a bit shocked to see Taro not react surprised at all from that bit of information.
"Well Naruto why don't you go down to Ichiraku's while I talk to your friend here, here is some money." Sandaime said throwing Naruto a little leather pouch filled with money.
"Thanks old man!" Naruto yelled as he ran out of the office to go get some ramen, the food of gods.
"Who are you and what are you doing in my village? And why the hell weren't you not surprised in the least at Naruto's healing capabilities?" Sandaime demanded hotly.
"I wasn't surprised with Naruto's healing capabilities because I am aware of who he holds is his stomach." Taro said throwing his hood off his head, uncovering his deep red hair (same shade as Gaara's) and his silted blood red eyes.
The Sandaime gasped, he knew those eyes, those eyes were the eyes that the Kyubi had, though lacking the malice and hate, but instead had love and warmth, Sandaime made the connection, he knew who or rather what this man in front of him was.
"What are you doing here?" Sandaime asked coldly.
"I have been sent by my clan elders to personally apologise for the terrible behaviour of my younger brother, Kyubi. I have been sent to give my services to you for the good of Konaha to rectify the damage done by his terrible behaviour."
The Sandaime's eyes shot open with shock at Taro's last statement, "So you are from the demon clans."
"Yes I am, the Kitsune clan, and so is Kyubi."
"So is that all you're here for to make amends, or is there anything else?" Sandaime asked.
Taro was impressed, Sandaime was taking this all incredibly well, he must have heard of the clans before, probably from King Emna, Emna is always talking him, Taro thought to himself.
"Unfortunately I have been given another mission as well, to execute Kyubi so he can no longer harm any others, we have been well aware of his evil streak for a while now, we banished him to this plain of existence two millennia ago, the other Biju are also banished clan members."
"if you banished Kyubi why are you so eager to make amends for his actions, surely you would have given up responsibility for him after banishing him?"
"We did, but the Kitsune clan is a honourable clan, and also Gamabunta the head of the toad clan was out for blood after your Yondaime died fighting Kyubi, we had no choice but to send a representative here, which was me." Taro answered.
Sandaime's eyes suddenly widened dramatically, "But you cant kill the Kyubi with out killing little Naruto!" Sandaime exclaimed.
"And there lies my dilemma I have no wish in hurting that boy any more than he has already been hurt due to him being Kyubi's container. I have a plan that could kill off Kyubi's consciousness and leave Naruto unharmed, but Naruto is going to have to get mentally and physically stronger for my plans to work."
"Ok, I have a couple more questions if you don't mind we asking?" Sandaime asked,
"Fire away," Taro said.
"How come you look human, being from the Kitsune clan shouldn't you be over 100 feet tall?"
"Most of the stronger clans have the ability to transform into a human version of ourselves, I can stay comfortably in this form for as long as I want, that was why I was picked for this mission. Your next question?"
"Who's stronger you or Kyubi?" Sandaime asked, wondering whether Kyubi's legendary strength was normal for members of the Kitsune clan.
"I am not really sure, I won every sparing match we ever had, but we haven't seen each other since he was banished."
"Interesting." Sandaime said to himself. "When you said that Naruto would have to get stronger physically, do you mean in the shinobi arts?"
"In a way he needs to learn how to control both his chakra and Kyubi's chakra without being hurt by it, the earlier we start training the better."
"So what do you suggest?" Sandaime asked, not knowing anybody that would be able to teach him to use the Kyubi's chakra safely.
"I suggest that I teach him, allow me to teach in the academy, being seven millennia old as given me enough experience to teach a class of academy students, I am also quite knowledgeable in the shinobi arts."
"Wait a minute you can't just become an academy teacher, what if I don't go along with your ideas?"
"Then am afraid that I would have to kill Naruto to kill Kyubi, which is a path I don't want to go down."
"Fine, you start tomorrow, I will make the arrangements, here is a Konaha hitai-ite, come to be tomorrow morning for your uniform." Sandaime said passing Taro a hitai-ite.
"See you tomorrow Hokage sama." Taro said respectfully, as he was now the man's subordinate he had to treat him with respect.
"Do you know what you are letting yourself in for?" Sandaime grinned at the red head in front of him.
"Don't worry I will be fine I have countless years of experience behind me."
"Don't be so sure, nothing can prepare you for trying to teach a class full of hyperactive kids. Just try not to kill any of them." Sandaime chuckled thinking back to when he had taught his own genin team.
Taro just swallowed dryly at the old Hokage's warnings.
Well What did ya think, if you have read by other fic did this one start of better than that one? i think it did.
Please review