Sitting alone again on the swing, wishing for somebody to acknowledge him, or be his friend, was Uzumaki Naruto. Lonelieness was almost all he knew. Many think he gets abused, but something far worse in some ways happens. He is ignored, completely and totally, as if he doesn't exist. Only the Hokage, the leader of Konohagakure no Sato, the Sandaime Hiruzen Sarutobi, as well as a man named Teuchi, who owns a Ramen stand, pays attention to him.
At the age of 8, he has yet to make any friends his own age. His parents died the night he was born, or so he was told. Many times though the citizens have muttered otherwise, saying things like, "I wouldn't be surprised if it's parents abandoned it" or "Such a thing deserves no family". He started believing them about 2 years ago. After all, only one or two people are saying otherwise, so the majority must be correct, right? Even when he entered the academy at the age of seven did he not get attention. Nobody would help him, and would only point out his flaws without mentioning a way to fix them.
Deciding that it's once again a hopeless attempt to get somebody to notice him he starts to walk back to his apartment. On the way though, he notices a kid playing around. He appeared to be setting a bucket of water that would fall if a certain rope was tugged by passers by. Naruto was intrigued and decided to once again try to get some form of acknowledgement. Walking over he asked, "What are you doing?"
The kid responded, "Go away freak, we're trying to set up a prank."
"What's a prank?" was Naruto's further question.
"What are you, stupid?" the kid replied, "it's a practical joke."
With that said he ignored Naruto and finished setting up his prank. Naruto decided to wait and see what would happen. He stood back a ways and watched as another kid walked down the street, and tripped the rope. The water, bucket and all, landed on his head. Noticing Naruto he started chasing him and yelling about the prank. Naruto was confused, but secretly pleased. Despite that it was negative he was actually being acknowledged for something. He wasn't getting ignored. Granted he didn't do anything, but it felt good. Eventually the other boy gave up and Naruto was able to go home unimpeded.
That night, Naruto made a decision. He would prank as much as he could, so that he could be noticed for more than a few seconds at a time. With that decision he made his dinner of cup ramen and got ready for bed. The next day was an off day for the academy, so Naruto decided to do his first prank. At a loss for ideas, he simply copied what the kid yesterday did. Getting a bucket and rope, he filled the bucket with water and tied the rope to the bucket's handle. Unfortunately, the only place to place the bucket was in a branch on a tall tree. He unsteadily climbed up the tree and placed the bucket down. unfortunately branch was thin and wobbly, so as he let go of the bucket the branch decided to snap. Falling ten feet to the ground, and the bucket landing on his head caused Naruto to be knocked out.
Slowly Naruto came to. He wasn't expecting to awaken in a sewer, though. Nor did he expect for the sewer to contain a giant cage with the word seal on it or see an enormous silhouette behind the cage. Nervously, he called out, "W-who's there?"
Slowly the silhouette stirred. Two huge eyes appeared, and a deep voice muttered in a language Naruto didn't understand, "So my Jailer finally decides to appear. Well well, what to do. Ignore him and hope he leaves or scare him to death and make him leave. Decisions decisions."
Not knowing what was said Naruto nervously states, "What are you? Are you going to eat me?"
Laughing, the figure says in a language Naruto understands, "You don't know what I am? I am what you humans call the Kyuubi no Kitsune!"
Naruto, who if anything becomes even more fearful, says, "You're the Kyuubi? But the Yondaime killed you!"
"Obviously not. I doubt we Bijuu could be killed, at least in the truest sense. Though sometimes I wish we could be," the Kyuubi said bitterly.
"Why would you want to die?" Naruto innocently asks.
"Because human, imagine living for several hundred years, and seeing those you care about wasting away to nothing. Imagine being one of the few to know the truth of a past – yours, or the worlds."
"What do you mean? Aren't you a demon, one who has no feelings but for yourself and your survival? Isn't wishing to die opposite to that "
"Hmmph, just like a human to talk about something they know nothing about," the Kyuubi muttered bitterly, "If somebody says the grass is red, does that make it true?"
All of a sudden Naruto realized something. The kyuubi was lonely. Angry about being sealed, and treated as a mindless beast had to be worse than what he was going through. At least he had a chance to prove himself. At least he was free. The Kyuubi on the other hand wasn't. It genuinely seemed to have feelings, as bitter as it was. Naruto made a decision then. A decision that would change his life and the entire world.
"I'm sorry."
"What?" came the surprised response.
"I said, I'm sorry. I didn't know that you were lonely. I didn't know you had feelings aside from anger."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why would you care? Why when every other human has treated us like monsters and made no move to get to know us would you care? Why should I believe anything a human says?"
"I have an idea what you're going through. I'm pretty much-"
"Leave. Now."
"But..."
"NOW!" the Kyuubi roared 'As if a boy such as him could understand my pain.'
Naruto started awake, in a cold sweat. 'Was it a dream?' He thought. No, he decided. It was quite real. Getting a bearing on his surroundings, Naruto realized he was in the hospital. A voice said, "Ah, your awake, Naruto."
"Old man! What the heck happened. Last thing I remember was falling out of a tree. And then something weird happened."
"Oh? What could have happened?" Naruto's surrogate grandfather claimed.
"I met the Kyuubi!" he replied.
The Sandaime looked startled, but it quickly disappeared from his face. "I'm sure it was a dream Naruto, I'm sure it was nothing."
"No, Old Man, it wasn't a dream. Why would you lie? Why would you not tell me!? I saw the surprise on your face. I'm stupid, contrary to what the instructors at the academy say."
The Sandaime replied, "It was to hopefully give you a better life."
"Better life? Better Life! At least if I knew, I would know it was none of my fault. At least then I would know why they hate me, ignore me, and treat me like an object instead of a person!"
The Sandaime looked sadly at him and said, "I'm sorry. At the time it felt like the right decision. I thought people would change. Obviously I was wrong. Hopefully you can forgive me in time."
"In time, maybe, but not now. I can tell you though, the Kyuubi is certainly not as evil as they seem to think."
"It was trying to trick you, Naruto. Demons tend to do that."
"No, he wasn't. You can't fake that kind of loneliness. I should know."
The Sandaime looked down in sadness. He vowed to change Naruto's situation. But there was one thing he couldn't let stand. "If you see or hear the Kyuubi again tell me."
"I might, I might not. I see no reason to tell you anything else that happens. Only when you can prove that you are truly honest and trustworthy will I believe you. Now leave, I'm tired of talking to you." With that he rolled on to his stomach and closed his eyes. The Hokage stood for a few seconds before thinking, 'I'm sorry, I will make this up to you'. He left to go back to his office and think of how to help Naruto.
Naruto, however just closed his eyes and attempted to go back to that strange place with the Kyuubi. Trying for hours, he couldn't figure it out. Eventually he got desperate and thought, 'If you can hear me, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you.' With that, he attempted to sleep. Not long after, he dreamed. Dreamed of a group of people he didn't recognize. A group in strange clothes speaking a strange language.
-Dream Sequence-
"We can't stop it this way," a man in all red wielding a sword that appeared to be on fire and a sword that appeared to be made of ice. He seemed desperate, as if whatever was attacking was impossible to beat. "All we can do is wait," a blonde haired woman with weird metal rings in her hands stated. "Yeah, and hopefully Sis can come up with something," A silver-haired man with a ball and spike like weapon said with worry. A man wearing shackles, but a fancy dress coat added, "Yes, all we can do is hope for Raine to come up with something." A rather flamboyant looking man with red hair and a pink coat stated, "I'm sure that my hunny will come up with something. She is after all extremely intelligent." The man with the shackles replied, "You shouldn't talk about my wife like that, Zelos. It's not becoming of the former chosen."
"Yeah yeah," the now named Zelos said back without care, "how many times have you mentioned this? You know how I am."
"Yes, and it gets rather annoying," the other one replied.
"Now is not the time everyone," a pink haired teenage girl with an axe interrupted, "We need to focus." So saying she blocked a disembodied shockwave with her axe. "Yeah, idiot chosen, how do you expect to defend yourself if you are acting like you usually do?" an unseen voice said in annoyance. All of the sudden they heard an excited squeal, "MARVELLOUS! I HAVE DISCOVERED A SOLUTION!"
"Now is not the time for your quirks Sis," The silver-haired man stated.
The voice came into view. It was a silver-haired woman, similar in looks to the man with the spike and ball weapon. She thwacked him upside the head and said, "I'm perfectly serious now. Anyway, I've come up with a solution. All we have to do is use this archaic spell I found to split the Juubi's power and seal it into ourselves and seal it's soul into a large object, like the moon. It is incredibly complicated and taxing, usually requiring the mana of one or two people to do. However we can split the amount needed between us. The thing is we need at least nine people to safely contain it's power, when we only have eight. In addition, there's no telling what will happen to us when it's done."
"How is that even possible?" the silver-haired man exclaimed.
"I don't know but it's all we can try at this point," the silver-haired woman replied.
"Even so, you said we need nine people at least. Kratos left 50 years ago, how can he help us?"
"There's Marta, she's been depressed since Emil died and has been unable to do much of anything. I'm sure she would do anything to take this thing down," the red suited man said.
"True, let's go to her. At the very least the Rheiards can still work, and are faster and more maneuverable than that demon's weird energy blasts." The scene shifted to a middle-aged woman, laying down as if asleep. She had orange gray hair, and looked to be in haggard shape. A voice, the one with the blonde hair said, "Hello, Marta." She got no response, but continued anyway. "We found a way to beat it. But we need you. Your the only one with the strength to help us, what with your past connection to Ratatosk."
All of the sudden, she shot up as if burned. She stared with vacant and bloodshot eyes. Eventually she spoke, in a voice unsteady with disuse and age. "How?" Was the simple question. "We seal its soul into the moon, then split its power up into nine parts, and seal one of each into each one of us."
The expression on Marta's face changed from vacant to mad with grief and anger. "Let's do it. At least if we fail I can be with Emil again." So saying, she got up slowly and stiffly. They left the run down house and saw a dark purple-blue haired woman. She said, "Good, Colette. She agreed?"
"Yes, Sheena, she did," the blonde replied. The scene shifted again to eight of the nine standing in a circle chanting in the same strange language. Suddenly a huge flash of light appeared. And the people were seen writhing in pain. The brightness of the light increased, and obscured everything else.
- Dream Sequence End -
Naruto awoke with a start, in a cold sweat.
