Disclaimer: Naruto, its characters and its settings don't belong to me

I wish I could offer some intelligent comment. Never, not even in my wildest dreams did it occur to me that things might be different this time around.

My god, I get a do-over for my life.

Words – words fail me. I can't even say 'is this really happening?' I know it is. I relived fourteen years of it.

Naruto gets a second-third chance. But this time he knows who his friends are, or at least who they'll be, and who his enemies are.

I have a lot of enemies. Most of them right in this village.

I get to do it over again and now I know I can change things without immediately being struck dead. For the fourteen years ending just after midnight I'd relived the road that first brought me to my death because that was how it had happened, that was how I remembered it happening. I knew what was supposed to happen and I'd arranged for it to happen a second time because what had happened was what was supposed to happen because if I didn't get sent back in time then I could never have existed in the first place because I hadn't been sent back, only I was sent back-

It gives me a headache. Around and around it goes, where the argument stops, no one knows. Luckily I'm not the type to swear, or I'd certainly be swearing here.

I've just thrown myself off the treadmill and I don't know what happens next. Which is insane, because I have memories; how could I have memories unless those memories had really happened? I-

And we're off again. Sorry.

I've been wrestling with this problem for years and the only thing I've figured out so far is that I'm not smart enough to solve it, or even spell it out properly. It just goes around and around and makes my brain sore.

I've already made my mistake and changed what I considered a defining moment of my life. Like it or not I'm off the hamster wheel. If all goes well, then fourteen years from now a group of people I never suspected will fail to kill me. If all doesn't go well I'll be killed before that, either by accident or assassination by the same people. No idea what that would do to the loop but I guess I won't care. I'd still be dead though, and that's hardly what I'm shooting for.

Not this time.

Heh heh.

It's a bright shiny day and I know potentially what the future holds for me. I'm older, I'm wiser and this time I've got no excuses, the damage is already done.

Let's go change the world.

The exaltation passed quickly enough. I've got three years of growing before I'm even vaguely grown and I've got muscles that compare unfavorably to damp noodles. Twelve years of near starvation have left me a little higher than Kakashi's belt. There are watermelons that weigh more that I do. Even Sakura is taller than me, noticeably taller.

It makes me so angry that this was allowed-encouraged to happen to me. A growing child subsisting off a bloody cup ramen every second day and a real one every Friday with the Hokage. They couldn't steal that one away from me in front of the old man. My body is a joke, they should have failed me from the academy for being like this.

I guess that was the point.

Well, I've survived it twice already. Even Sasuke is an elf at this age; Sasuke and I together weigh less than Kakashi does, and he's not exactly a bodybuilder. Take a guy Jiriya's size and you'd have to add Sakura before we could match him on the scale. I'm twelve years old, I have to think like that. Running is out.

Sasuke went missing nin early but he had somewhere to go. You don't get a lot of people going missing nin before they're at least halfway grown because as good as guys like Neji and Sasuke are, they're no match for guys like Kakashi and Guy. Genius status does not make genin or chunin a match for jonin. Same with twelve year old Sanin. While I can handle Guy or Kakashi, I can't handle both at once. Not while I'm this small. If the nine-tailed fox pulls a runner they'll put every Jonin on the village after me. Kohona's Orange Horde wouldn't stand a chance. Plus Itachi and his gang are out there – they're not dead until I'm older.

Nah, running isn't in the cards yet. I'll spend the next three years eating red meat and lifting weights to put some mass on, then I'll look at my options. For now I have to stay focused on how small I am. It takes some getting use to.

No, I'm not bitter.

I'm not a spiteful person. I never was and never will be. I don't pull the wings off flies, I don't act on grudges (though some I try to remember). All told I'm usually pretty good at forgiving people.

Okay, I lied about that last part. So sue me. I'm still smarting from what happened yesterday, Naruto-time. Those – events – damn this is hard to explain. Those events haven't happened – the people who murdered me yesterday have no idea they'd done it- or will do it - today. Most of them probably won't know for another fourteen years – I'm sure not all of them were in on it. Even the ones who were, they haven't done anything yet.

I have to look them in the eye and treat them like the twelve year olds that they are.

Not easy to do when you remember yesterday's screaming. I really don't have the temperament for this, I'm a combat ninja, not an infiltrator. Every instinct tells me to-

Forget it. Forget I said anything. It never happened, or it hasn't happened yet, or whatever – as far as I'm concerned I get a reprieve. I'm older and wiser and this time it's going to be my way. I played it careful last time and wasted a chance to maybe fix things – at least from my point of view. I'm not going to make that mistake again.

No, this time I'll make different mistakes.

Almost have to laugh.

Just to keep from crying. I know this will sound peculiar, but if anything I felt more betrayed the second time than the first. Because like the first time (if I hadn't known in advance) I never would have seen it coming. The mission was exactly the same, I watched everything, looked for some tiny sign of betrayal and didn't find a single one. Twenty four hours ago I thought it was going to be different.

Next time they'll find themselves up against an angry Sanin. Let me know how that works out for you, kids. Or maybe – and this is my sense of humor talking – maybe I'll just disappear and leave them wondering where their target went.

Yeah, I think it calls for a prank, and I've got fourteen years to plan it.

First though, would you excuse me a moment?

It should stink here, but it doesn't. In fact, I sort of like the smell. Musty. Cool and musty. Smells like somewhere I might have liked to hide as a child, sleep away the long summer afternoons.

I walked the inner tunnels of my mind, knee deep in slime, totally immersed in darkness. Time (ha ha) to have this out. Kyuubi didn't come with me when I made my little trip through time. Strictly speaking I didn't either, only my mind. Which is convenient, because what was left of my body-

Anyway, the old fox is rumbling somewhere at the back of her vault, skulking in the darkness. The menace rolling off her – I'm surprised my younger self ever managed to confront this monster. But there's an old saying, Familiarity breeds contempt.

Kyuu doesn't call the shots anymore, I do.

I reached the gates to the central chamber, huge cage doors held shut by a paper seal. Kyuu's low rumble turns into something louder, and those two burning eyes appear in the darkness beyond the bars. From her perspective this is the first time we've met face to face, she's trying to make an impression.

I didn't even bother talking. A lot of things had to happen before I reached this point in my life, but I'm twenty six (or forty), not twelve. A lot of things already have happened, and most of them twice.

Kyuubi roared at me. Had to smile, I've missed that sound. I missed the sound of her claws scraping across the stone floor, the way she smells, I've missed all of it.

Well that was a nice refresher, and enough of Kyuu's bad behavior for a lifetime.

Snapped my fingers. Suddenly I was inside the cage, Kyuubi bearing down on me, she leaps - I raise my hand – her burning nose touches -

And Kyuu is stopped dead like a fox turd hitting the ground.

"Lights!"

All around us overhead lights snapped on, revealing a pen the size of an airship hanger. Those lights hadn't been there a moment before. Kyuubi rears back for another charge. This time I stop the fox with a single finger to the nose, catch both swipes of her immense claws with my bare hands.

This time I didn't let go.

"Took me a long time to realize, fox, but in here I make the rules." I shut my eyes and started to concentrate, Kyuubi trying with all the might of the nine tailed fox to pull her paws back. She's realized something is happening, all she wants is to get away-

So I let her go and leap back she does, a bound taking her as far as the back wall of her stadium-sized pen.

Not that it will help her. Kyuu is roaring still, the light hurts her eyes and she doesn't know what's happening to her.

I didn't use any of my tricks, just walked over. It took some time, which was exactly what Kyuu needed. The final stages of her transformation were ending as I got there.

Kyuubi lay on the stone floor in a virtual sea of long black hair, a shivering and very beautiful naked woman.

"I've chosen a new form for you, Kyuubi-san, one that hopefully will make you more amenable to reason."

The Kyuu made it to her feet after a few false starts. She's not used to standing upright.

She's very beautiful, inhumanly so. And very tall, as tall as Jiriya at least. She towers over my twelve year old self. And she is very, very naked.

"What have you done to me?"

"You're my prisoner, I can't change that. I'm you're prisoner. I can't change that either. Best I can do is make our relationship a little more civilized."

She put her hands on her hips and laughed at me. Me, I'm glad I have the hormones of a malnourished twelve year old and not the hormones of a healthy fourteen year old.

"Change me back, little boy."

"Not going to happen, Kyuubi-san." Didn't hurt to be at least a little respectful. "You live in here, you're going to behave yourself."

I snapped my fingers. Suddenly we were no longer in the mangy giant pen, we were standing in an an absolutely huge traditional room, like something from an old fashion mansion. Mat floors, sliding paper doors, everything.

Kyuu was still very much naked. While her hair reached her toes, all of it was behind her. Yes, very naked indeed.

"I won't have you inside a pen, Kyuu-san. This palace is yours." I pointed to one wall, where a pair of sliding paper doors stood. "There are kimono through those doors, and all the luxuries you can think of."

She laughed at me. "A prison is still a prison boy."

"I told you I can't change that." I pointed to the doors on the wall opposite the first pair. They opened, revealing a beautiful traditional garden. "At least here you can walk in the sunlight."

"A prison, boy, is still a prison. Even when it appears a palace."

"This is the best I can do, Kyuubi-san."

She laughed at me again, bent low so she'd be closer to my own abbreviated height. Kyuubi met my eyes.

"This form you've forced me into is not my own and it doesn't change my nature, Naruto."

That was the first time she'd ever used my name. I hadn't thought she'd even known it when I was this young.

"I will not wear your human clothing," she said. "I will not obey your human rules. I am the nine-tailed fox." She smiled at me, bared her pointed teeth. She wanted my full attention when she said "I will mark my territory about this palace of yours, in the way of all foxes-"

"No Kyuubi, you won't. You're going to behave yourself. You're going to wear clothing-"

"I will not wear your human clothing! I am a fox!"

"I chose that form because it conveys human dignity, Kitsune-san. Because it's adult, and because I can respect it. If you won't allow me to respect it, then your next form won't be a woman, it will be a fox-tailed girl. Cute and little and enthusiastic in a miniskirt and a bikini top. I'll put you on my level, Kitsune-san. After all, I'm a growing boy. I'm bound to have urges."

Finally that reached her. We're connected, the fox and I, and she can see it in my mind. Better the form of a supernatural empress then a growing boy's secret hentai fox toy. Far better.

I actually bowed to her. "Please adapt yourself, Kyuubi-sama. This is the best I can do."

Opened my eyes back in the real world. It's way more than a stretch to say Kyuubi's under control now, but going forward there are going to be a whole new set of ground rules.

It's a brand new world out there.

Believe it.