Chapter One
To Start Your Life With A Smile
At the age before her first birthday, Naruto Namikaze-Uzamaki's fate had been sealed and signed by the deities above and Shinigamis below.
She was to live the rest of her life without parents. At least, not in the usual sense. She'd meet some rather parent-ly figures in her journey to fix the world's mistakes, but as far as blood relations went, she had no immediate family to turn to.
Which was why until the age of four, she grew up in an orphanage. The day before her birthday was the same day she got kicked out. For the fifth time. At the third orphanage.
Apparently even Hiruzen Sarutobi had his limits, and this was one of them. The next day, Naruto moved into her own apartment, a tiny living space she would find refuge in until it was burned down on her 6th birthday.
It was then that she wondered how come she seemed to be hated by so many.
It was then that she decided she would always smile, no matter what they did to her, because in her heart, it had been decided.
It was then she chose her future career to be Hokage, the greatest ninja of all.
There was a system in the politics of Konoha, one in which a group of elders could vote on life-changing decisions daily. One of these votes happened to put the Third in a hot spot.
The bijuu container was not to be included in any clans or other ninja related activities for fear of imbalance.
Sarutobi had let more than just one thing slide past him before, but this went too far in his opinion. With that in mind, he vetoed the vote (hahaha Hokage powers lolz) and gave Naruto the choice of whether she wished to attend a civilian school or ninja academy.
She chose the latter of course.
The Fourth Hokage was Minato Namikaze, a man with high regards and praises directed towards him, along with occasional death threats, daily. Or, what used to be daily until his date with death. In the citizens of Konoha's eyes, he helped to destroy the Kyuubi. Yet the Kyuubi didn't stay down, rose up to kill him and his wife, all before being reincarnated into Naruto.
Konoha had some very untruthful stories.
Naruto happened to be in one of them.
This lead to many events, some terrible, and some good, a few even life-altering.
Such as the second night of the Hanami Festival in Naruto's seventh year of life.
The Hanami Festival was three days long, created as a tradition to honor the flower fairies or watch the sakura blossoms die and fall off or something like that. The blonde girl standing in front of a pile of ashes and ruins decided she wouldn't attend. She had nothing to wear now with her home and wardrobes burnt.
So off she went to the one of the very few places she knew she could stay safe. Hokage Tower.
Sarutobi was more of a crazy uncle to Naruto than a grandfather. She knew he was bound and restricted by laws in Konoha to not always be able to aid her, yet it still hurt her when he couldn't. And he was rather weird after all. She had told him for such a long time that smoking would come back to get him in the end, but he never did listen…
"Jiji-san?" I pushed open the doors to his office, my head poking through the slim gap.
"Ah, I was wondering if you were coming to visit anytime soon. Apologies Fugaku-san, I hope you wouldn't mind if Naruto joined us." He took another puff from his pipe, gesturing me in.
I slipped past the doorway opened just the slightest bit wider, softly shutting it closed behind me. Another person was here, probably the 'Fugaku-san', and that was the only reason I used an honorific for Jiji. This new person had eyes and hair to match the remains of my house. All black and dark and it may as well have been the bottom of the bottomless pit 'cause it certainly matched.
"I'm sorry for interrupting." I mumbled, moving to sit on the couch off to the side. With how I looked, people didn't seem to care much when I came in during meetings. The cliche of a blonde haired, blue-eyed angel in the form of a little girl was harmless, they were certain.
"It's alright Naruto, Fugaku-san and I were just finishing up anyways." Jii-san said, smiling at me.
"So Naruto, have you finally decided to ask me to accompany you tomorrow? The Hanami Festival only comes once a year you know." Now I felt worse knowing I'd be the reason he would lose that smile soon.
"Actually Jii-san, I can't go because I don't have anything to wear. And I've got a bigger problem now too. Some silly villagers must have been playing with fire near the apartment, so whoosh, it's all gone up in flames… again…" I grinned sheepishly, shrugging my shoulders as if to say 'what can 'ya do?'. I let my gaze fall down again, back to staring at the floor.
". . . Fugaku-san if I remember correctly, you have a son around Naruto's age in the Academy and another ranked as Anbu now." Jii-san turned away from me, fixing his gaze on Fugaku with a glint in his eyes that I would have preferred not to be there.
"Yes, that is correct Hokage-sama." Fugaku answered swiftly, not sparing a single glance towards me.
"Then allow me to assign your children their first C- rank mission together, and hopefully not the last. Escort Naruto Uzumaki at the Hanami Festival for the next two days-" I cut off Jii-san here, not wanting to hear anything more.
"I refuse to have a babysitter Jiji-san, plus that Sasuke-kun in my class hates me like everybody else and I'm pretty sure he's Fugaku-san's son and if he's not, I'm so sorry for associating him with you sir." I puffed out my cheeks, casting a glare at Jiji-san, trying to use my 'serious' eyes.
"Naruto," Jiji's voice lowered as if warning, but with those gentle eyes, I knew I needn't worry about anything.
"I'll treat you to ramen later if you agree."
"I'M IN, SIGN ME UP!"
At the very least, hearing Kurama rumble his deep chuckle again was worth accepting the far too obvious bribe and pretending I could be easily bought.
At least, that's what I told myself as I pictured mountains of ramen and a sea of miso soup.
Fugaku Uchiha sighed as he walked back to his clan's compound. Which was understandable, he had just been roped into the Third's newest scheme along with his two sons, one who wasn't even (officially) a ninja yet, and in that matter, wasn't supposed to go on missions.
Oh how he looked forward to explaining this mess to his wife.
She met him when she was five. Two years was all they had to build up this strange, twisted relationship, but two years was such a long time for her to actually have someone stay by her side.
No matter if this 'someone' was a creature of pure chakra sealed in her.
He had explained to her, on one of their first meetings, that she could project herself into her mental landscape to speak with him face to face. Or face to snout. Muzzle? She guessed it depended on the form he took that day.
The first meeting was by accident. She was running from the angry mobs again, dashing into an alley with the only the thought of getting away from those eyes, those hateful eyes with all that malice bubbling past the surface, overspilling into hurtful glares. She made it into her hiding spot without notice from them, but as she was leaving, standing up behind the junk thrown in there, she had heard the distinct voices of the mob coming back. Her reflexes brought her hiding behind the mismatched objects again, dropping her so quickly she wasn't able to avoid crashing her head on the twisted metal bed frame she had hid under just moments before.
Suffering an injury to the head, along with her sense of balance being thrown off with how quickly her body moved, led to blacking out.
"You dare to enter my presence you unworthy human?!"
My first instinct was to duck and cover up my head, which strangely, didn't hurt anymore. No matter, it was something to worry about later when I was safe. For now-
A laugh rang out in the unfamiliar space. I shifted on my knees, just now realizing there was water rippling around us(?) and it vaguely looked like that abandoned sewer pipe I had to hide in a few months ago.
I never knew a laugh could sound so evil. It was dark, sending unpleasant shivers down my spine, like those hands that bruised and broke and took.
"You cower as you should now, filthy human. To fear me is right. Stand and face me. Now WHY ARE YOU HERE?!" The voice boomed out once more.
I stiffened, uncertainly uncurling my body from its defensive stance. I gathered my courage before standing up fully, set on facing this head on. It might get me killed, but if I was going to die, I'd do it with some sense of self-respect. Rather morbid for a five year old, a mere child, to have such thoughts on death, but my situation pushed for certain levels of intelligence to overcome a premature end.
My sight was of darkness behind vertical iron(?) bars, an impossibly large gate with only a piece of paper connecting the two halves of the simple door, and a boiling red that seeped past the bars like syrup. It oozed more than flowed, reminding me of the bloody hoagies I sometimes coughed out after running into more violence prone people.
"I am Naruto Uzumaki of the village Konohagakure." I hesitated, unsure of who I was addressing, but making the guess he (for that deep voice sounded distinctly male) was behind the bars and with good reason.
"What is your name?"
Silence was something I usually liked because it meant safety, it meant peacefulness. I didn't know until now it could also mean chaos and morbid thoughts cruel enough to not need a voice.
"Leave human. You have no right to stand before me and ask that. LEAVE."
I wasn't given time to ponder how weird it was he said I couldn't stand, since he was the one to tell me to stand. A sharp pain had cut into my stomach, the sewer around me twisting into pure darkness. I can't remember if I screamed or not before I woke to blinding white all around and a buzz of low conversations in the background.
The hospital again. I think I could have really liked this place if the nurses and doctors didn't stare at me with the same eyes as the angry mobs. The fact I was definitely not a 'stay still' kind of person either didn't help.
The second time, third time, and the few dozen more after that were all accidents as well. I was well aware that place was dangerous, but it didn't stop my curiosity. I slipped back into that strange realm of a slightly flooded sewer serving as a jail for a creature (monster?) that would stare at me with sharp eyes.
I realized, after the third visit, he couldn't hurt me, else he already would have. That small piece of paper stuck to the gates kept it locked. After gaining that knowledge, coming back to this familiar yet unfamiliar place became less stressful.
Even if the impromptu visits themselves remained unpredictable.
Sometimes I'd be trying to hide again, but for the most part, it was when I tried to fall asleep. That didn't start making sense until he finally introduced himself and explained of course.
She came back again and again, looking as confused each time as the first. Kurama huffed, pondering over the strange jailer he was bound to. Upon entering her mindscape, her first actions were usually some form of self-defense.
The second time she came back, she was wary and scared of him, as she should be. He didn't (or couldn't) bring himself to speak to the human, her words from the first visit still unnerved him (not that he'd ever admit it), asking for his name. She left soon after.
The third visit, she questioned him again.
'Hey, are you locked in there?'
'What do you look like?'
The questions continued until her fifteenth visit (not as if he was counting though).
'Why is there a piece of paper on that gate?'
'Are you really stuck here?'
'I learned the kanji for seal… So, is that paper…?'
'You're a fox, right? I saw one in the forest the other day and its nose looks like your's.'
'Why won't you talk anymore?'
'... Am I… bothering you…?'
'I'll keep talking even if you don't answer.'
The Kyuubi gave no reply to any of her inquiries.
(And Kurama would never admit beginning to look forward to these visits.)
Then she came back on that fifteenth visit with the kind of tiredness he had seen war veterans brave before. Kurama merely watched. It seemed this was a visit like the first, trauma to the head brought her here. She came in the state she bore in reality, clothes torn (off her body he noted), hair dirty (was that blood, he didn't ask), numerous injuries worn on the skin he saw (he saw quite a lot), and sad blue eyes that made his hackles rise.
Sadness.
No, something more.
Hate? Agony? Yes. Yes yes yes, but different… it was-
This human, did his jailer, this small fragile creature, feel as he did?
Lonely fit all too well for this situation, for their situations. She was lonely, and so was he (although he would sooner rip off his tails before admitting this).
And perhaps, even as distanced from this foreign emotion as he was, Kurama supposed she radiated a type of fear he didn't notice before. Or was this new? She never gave off such an intense aura in her other visits.
The girl, his jailer, was crying in a way Kurama couldn't admit to being surprised by. Silently, bringing an arm up to wipe her face at regular intervals. She must have been used to this type of grief then.
Releasing a huff, Kurama sat back on his haunches, unfurling his tails behind him to settle down more comfortably. It was no concern of his whether the human (kid, child, kit, an unhelpful part of him supplied) was sad.
After over two hours in the thick, nearly tangible silence only broken by water dripping, Kurama expected her to leave soon. The tears had stopped by now, but she remained, sitting cross legged facing him, eyes staring up with a dull glaze to them.
Drip. Drop. Plik!
(He ignored the fact that he was the only thing she could be staring at.)
He shuffled his tails behind him again. All he allowed the human to see of him was his front, his nine tails going unnoticed in the darkness he used to hide all of himself in. (But not now. He didn't hide anymore once she took his appearance in stride. Or at least what he let her think was his full appearance.)
Drop. Plik! Tik.
"I don't want to leave." The human child finally said. Her voice was hoarse, he noticed, as if she had been screaming before.
Drip.
"Not if it means going back to them." Her voice wavered on the last word, all the fear Kurama felt from her edging into that word, bordering on a terror formed from years of insanity.
Drop.
(Maybe that really was the reason for the fear. Years of madness, barely keeping herself on the side of 'sane'. Kurama was no fool, he knew of how his jailer was treated, but reaching up to grasp the sight she saw in real time was more trouble than it was worth, and her memories were locked away from him.)
Plik! Tik. Drip.
"They take from me so much I don't know what I have left, I can't know for certain what I have left. Not even Jiji is mine, because he's the Hokage and that means he lives for Konoha." She shuddered before him, shoulders hunching, hands sliding back behind her to support her against the ground, bracing herself. Her eyes were bothering him, a paradox in themself. Turbulent, filled with indescribable alien feelings, and blank, as empty as the sky.
Drip. Tik. Drop.
"I only have my name, my name is all I have. That's why I'm going to ask again now." And she smiled at him. She dared to smile at him, showing such innocence (or what of it she had left) and genuine curiosity. Kurama felt his fur bristle, his head pounding as these emotions, pesky things, began fueling his actions again.
Plik!
"What's your name?" She was still smiling.
Kurama closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath (was the air just a bit fresher or was that in his mind) and answering before those fleeting feelings left once more.
"Kurama."
He pauses, because he doesn't know what to say next. How could he? He is alone, after the world rose and fell around him for all his life, he remembers with a startling, painful clarity, he is alone.
Plop. Drop. Drip!
(It kind of hurts for him to remember that, but you never heard it from here.)
Plik. Tik! Ting.
"Human," Because Kurama doesn't want to get too close to this human, so easily hurt. (Who will be hurt, he does not know. He doesn't want to know.)
"Stand up. It is pitiful to watch you stumble like that."
Another halting pause. This conversation had not been what Kurama expected, this one-sided speech with hard words. (They should have been softer for this human, so easily broken.)
Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop.
"My name is Kurama." (And he doesn't care if he's repeating himself now, because that smile hasn't left her face and it stirs strange things inside his chest.) "You will address me as such."
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, Kurama-san, and it's a pleasure to formally meet you." (His chest is aching and his mind is screaming that her smile is something, something-)
"Do you know where we are?" He asks to distract himself. Kurama is afraid to finish that previous thought.
"Looks like one of those sewers I sometimes have to hide in, but I always arrive really weirdly, like when I fall asleep or hit my head." The human, jailer, Naruto stands up, walking closer even as she has to crane her neck back to look him in the eye.
"Brat. We are in your mindscape." Kurama watched as confusion warmed away fear in her eyes.
"Kurama-san… are you some kind of… emo inner demon I have?" That last part had been said in a rush, and Kurama couldn't decide if he wanted to laugh, cry, or scream in frustration.
Drip. Plik.
"Brat, shut up and never bring up that idea again. You'll find out who I am soon enough." And because maybe Kurama was some kind of self-masochist, he added on, "Ask about the Yondaime's death."
Quickly growing to regret his new feelings and the stupid mouth of his, Kurama lashed out with a wave of chakra, forcing Naruto awake and conscious again. He told himself, as he lay down and curled his tails around him, he didn't care if it meant no more visits now that she knew.
He told himself it didn't matter.
Barking out a cold, cruel laugh, he wondered what other lies he would tell himself in her lifetime.
He closed his eyes with the thoughts of open skies and freedom.
Blue was what he dreamed off.
(He told himself it had nothing to do with those sad, sad eyes.)
(Nothing at all.)
I get the feeling I'm going to regret starting another fic soon.
And yes, genderbend again. Naruto = female.
Review...?