Rebirth
The Nine-Tails in present day. But he's really just a fluffy red fox with severe ramen cravings. Right?
The city wasn't really quiet, but it no longer bustled and churned with people on its sidewalks, in its parks. Traffic wasn't so frequent, and the only people out were the ones with the night shift, or the seedier side of city life. It was two in the morning, when no sane person was still awake. The sun wouldn't rise for another four and a half hours.
In the north, the horizon glowed a malevolent, bloody red.
It happened suddenly for those who slept, but for the unlucky conscious, it started with an itch in the back of their minds. Like they'd all forgotten something very important, something vital for their survival. It slowly intensified, this instinctual feeling. Few recognized it, and those that did ignored it. Because that sort of thing just didn't exist anymore, it was all fiction and fantasy and legend now.
Maybe the north side of the city heard roaring in the distance. Maybe it sent little chills down their spines and they thought about leaving work early, because who was coming in at two in the morning anyway? Maybe things went quiet and calm before the storm. But everyone heard it the next time, the bone-chilling, heart-stopping roar of a thing, a beast, forgotten for far too long. They had believed it gone, and they would suffer for it.
No one saw it coming, because the sheer fury that ripping the air to pieces before it had sent them into the deepest, darkest corners they could find. Terrified out of their minds, they finally remembered why they created fire (to keep them at bay) why they destroyed everything they couldn't tame (to make them go away) why they once feared the dark, even as they hid within it. They understood that feeling now, that primal memories were screaming at them to runrunrun, asfastasyoucan, and dontyoudarelookback.
It was a mass of glowing, burning red miasma, forming a giant canine shape with long ears and claws and teeth. Eyes like blood and fire and death itself, nine tails swinging and bearing doom within every single twitch. Lips pulled back, because it is so madmadmad at everything. It lifted its head to the dark sky and roared that it will have vengeance, and it will not rest until every living thing is gone.
Its paws crushed a dozen houses with one step, its tails toppled skyscrapers like dominoes. It spared nothing, it was chaos come down to wreak havoc. And when not a single living thing existed among the wreckage, it straddled the city with its four paws at each corner and roared again, a warning to all who would listen.
No one heard.
And the nine-tailed fox released all of Hell upon the world.
"So, what do we learn from that story?" Iruka asked the class.
Naruto's hand shot up so fast it nearly pulled him out of his seat. Iruka sighed. "Naruto?"
"That the fox is big and mean and that if we ever suddenly feel like we're all going to die, we should run." He said, pleased with his answer.
"Sorry, Naruto, but no. The Nine-Tails is fiction. It doesn't actually exist." Iruka said, kindly. "Sakura, your answer?"
Naruto slumped down and tried to tune out Sakura's answer ("To listen when someone tells us something important.").
It's okay, kid. Even if you're the only one who knows I exist, it won't always be that way. The voice in his head whispered to him.
Naruto smiled a secret smile. I know, Fox.
Who cared if no one knew that the demon fox was still around, or that it's really just a fluffy red fox with severe ramen cravings? Naruto knew, and he had the best friend ever because of it.
Deep within its prison, eyes like blood and fire and death watched the failing seal. The Nine-Tails laughed.
This is in present-day, the first part is just a legend (might've given the Nine-Tails some ideas, though) and the second is the reincarnated ninjas of the Leaf village. They're about twelve here, With Iruka as their teacher (of course). I guess the Kyuubi got passed down through Naruto's line or something. I don't know, really. It's a oneshot and it's going to stay that way, sorry.