DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO NOR AM I TRYING TO RECIVE ANY TYPE OF PAYMENT WHEN I PLAY WITH THE NARUTO UNIVERSE.
Naruto opens his eyes, everything is dark everything is wet. He hears a dripping, drip, drip, drip, drip. Naruto sets up and examines his surroundings. "Am I dead?" he asks himself, relief the only emotion in his tone. The blonde haired blue eyed boy stands and realizes he is ankle deep in warm water. "Am I in Hell?" He asks himself confused. Then panic once again grips him. 'Am I truly the demon sentenced to hell for crimes I can no longer remember commiting?'
A warm blast of air hits him in the face. It is surprisingly refreshing, not the kind of thing he would expect in hell. Gathering what courage he can muster he holds his head high and follows the red and blue pipes down the apparent sewer deeper into hell.
Naruto passes few doors on his journey deeper into the sewer all of them locked, in disrepair, a common theme in this sewer dimension. The warm air blasted stronger with every step he took. But now he felt two blasts. One from the front one from the back. Along with the beating of his heart.
It took about five minutes in when Naruto stepped into a cavernous room he immediately noticed a giant steel barred door that ran from floor to ceiling. Try as he might his eyes couldn't penetrate the darkness behind the bars. This was without doubt where the warm air was coming from. 'Am I standing at the gates of hell?' Naruto asked himself.
He stepped closer to the bars, so close he could reach out and touch them. A giant red clawed paw struck at the door claws coming through inches away from Naruto's face. Naruto stepped back and looked up taking in the massive form before him. It was the Nine Tailed demon fox.
Kurama was impressed, any other human would have soiled themselves in fear from that. It's new Jailer seemed to be made of Sterner stuff. The boy had barely blinked. "So my Jailor finally visits. All it took was very near death." Kurama roared the last part.
"What do you mean 'near death'? How am I hear if I am alive? Where is here? Why are you here?" Naruto asked confused. He had to be dead right? Everyone knew that the fourth had killed the Nine tailed fox demon. So it stood to reason that if he were face to face with said demon then he too had to be dead right?
"You almost got us killed is what I mean. I even sensed the hostile emotions from those shinobi. Yet, you still couldn't get away from them." Kurama scoffed. "As for your other questions, you are here because I brought you here to keep your spirit from leaving your near dead body. Here is within a pocket dimension or storage seal, for lack of a better term. And I am here because that bastard fourth imprisoned me in said seal using your body and life force to power the seal."
Naruto put his chin in his hand and paced back and fourth digesting this new information. 'So the fourth couldn't kill the Demon, and instead somehow managed to seal it, whatever that means, within my body to save the village. I am not the demon fox remade, reborn, or what have you. I am it's prison. Which while that still sucks, it is much better than what I had thought until said fox explained all this to me.
I have a pocket dimension that my spirit can somehow survive in, and it just so happens to hold the single most powerful tailed beast ever to be discovered. And I am alive.' Naruto thought.
"So am I going to live?" Naruto asked. Might as well know now whether he should even get his hopes up.
"Yes, some other shinobi found you before you could be beheaded. I am flooding your weak human body with as much yokai as it can stand which will keep us alive." Kurama said. Thinking to himself that this child had taken most of that news rather well. To be Honest the fox was expecting the child to start wailing about the unfairness of it all and have a break down. Kurama may have just woken up, but something pretty significant must have happened to this child for him to handle such life changing news with such neutrality. The demon would review what memories it had access to later to get a better understanding of its new host.
The Demon was brought out of its own musing when it heard the most surprising thing in its existence. The child who had just gone through this massive ordeal looked up at Kurama and said clearly and honestly. "Thank you. I know that if I die, I also know that you are mostly chakra given sentience so you would come back. That is one of the villager's worst fears. So I know you didn't have to do what you did. Thank you."
To say that Kurama was shocked would be putting it rather mildly. A human, whom was host to itself, was thanking it? Kurama who had roamed the earth for thousands of years would have never thought to see the day.
"What is a seal?" A young soft voice asks. Breaking Kurama out of it's shock.
"A seal is the product of an all but lost ninja art known as fuinjutsu. With Fuinjutsu there is almost nothing that cannot be done. One of the Fourths most powerful aspects were that he was slightly skilled in fuinjutsu. Some called him a master in the art, pfft, fools. The seal that imprisons me was his greatest work and it was created by another. His own creation the 'Flying Thunder God' technique was novice work at best. Fuinjutsu has become such a rarity these days there are only a few novices in all of the elemental countries."
Naruto's eyes lit up at that. What a powerful branch of jutsu. He had of course heard of the fourths original and most powerful technique. When you live in a building full of children in a shinobi village you're bound to hear reference to some of the more powerful techniques. Rumor was that the 'Flying Thunder God' technique was what turned the tide in the last great shinobi war. Fuinjutsu had been the only thing that had stopped the greatest off all the demons. And the art that powered those kind of techniques was all but lost?
Naruto snapped himself out of his awe to ask. "What do you do in here all day anyway?"
"What else can I do? I sleep, I wait for your death so that I may have a chance at freedom. After all what is the life of a human to a being of absolute power and immortality."
"Why is this pocket dimension so… drab?" Naruto asked looking around at the sewer like space.
"It is a representation of your mind, and bodies, well-being. It is connected to you in nearly every way. Those pipes our chakra networks. The locked doors are hidden abilities that you haven't gained access to yet. And the sewer itself is what amounts to your heath physically and emotionally. Improve your health improve the conditions of your mind. Meditation wouldn't hurt either."
That shocked Naruto. His body was a sewer because of the way that he had been treated all his life. He knew he was smaller than most children his age, but to learn that his body was in such disrepair? It was astounding. It made him both sad and angry. Justifiably angry over his treatment. And sad because he had done nothing to deserve it. If the nine tails was to be believed he was the only thing keeping the demon from completing its destruction.
"Is there no way to make my life better?" He mumbled to himself.
"You could always release me. You would have to suffer no more, I would make sure that those who mistreated you are never able to do so again." Kurama suggested.
Naruto surprised himself when he actually thought about it. Release from the pain of hunger and abuse. Could he sacrifice everyone he knew in order to end his own suffering? A memory played for Naruto. Of an old man in white and red robes holding his hand and playing with him. Of the man coming around every once in awhile to check on him to make sure he was okay. Of the man telling him stories of great men and women fighting for truth and justice. He had always wanted to be like that man. Everyone who saw the man smiled and said hello to him. You could see in their eyes he looked up to him a great deal. That man who had been a surrogate grandfather for him and so few others did not deserve to die because Naruto was weak. With resolve Naruto promised himself that he would become stronger. That he would never think about just giving up again. That he would live up to the men and women in those stories.
"I'm sorry Fox, I cannot release you to hurt anyone. Though I suffer there are those that I care about. For them I will continue to suffer and pick myself up, and truly become strong. Strong enough to change my life. Strong enough to ensure that no other child has to live the way I do hated and alone. That is a promise of a life time." Naruto said with conviction.
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