The next three or so years were very boring and very lonesome for Tamamo. Being sealed into someone wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. She had to give credit where credit was due, however, because the material this seal was made of was damn strong. Of course, a seal meant to contain the great Kyubii had to be strong, but she didn't know that.
At the very least, it was very spacious within the sealed area. Apparently the cage was originally meant for a much larger creature, but honestly she couldn't care less. At least she was able to stretch her legs and not worry about a lack of space, although she spent most of her time meditating. If she meditated long enough, she could eventually regain her other eight tails and reach godhood again, although she had no delusions she could even reach one tail within the normal lifespan of a human.
Unfortunately, a Servant ultimately survives on magical energy, whether it's mana supplied from their Master or by devouring the souls of others. Clearly, she was in no condition to go around devouring the souls of random people, being locked up in a cage and all, and she didn't need more people to refer to her as a fox demon. She already had enough of being chased around while getting called a demon in life, all she was hoping for was getting summoned by a handsome Master, and becoming a good wife.
Instead she finds herself chained and locked up within five minutes of her summoning. And they say that only Lancers have the terrible luck.
Even when she is sitting still, her magical energy still depletes at a constant rate, since Servants consume energy simply to exist in the first place. It didn't help that the poor child seemed to be malnourished from what Tamamo could glean from his memories and as time went on she found herself having to cast healing magecraft more and more as the adults in the orphanage seemed to hit him whenever he somehow displeased them or simply because they could. The first time this happened, Tamamo had freaked out and sent a pulse of healing magecraft through the bars of the seal. Fortunately it seemed to work, and the bruise on his left cheek healed quickly as a dull green light enveloped the injury.
However, having to constantly heal poor Naruto put a significant drain on her magic reserves, and eventually she found herself dangerously low on mana.
The first and only time this happened, she started panicking and latched on to one of the strange pipes that ran along the walls of the sewer that seemed to carry some sort of blue energy. The moment she made physical contact, she felt immediate relief as she was able to absorb and internalize it as Od, until she felt her host fall unconscious and she realized that she had screwed up big time by draining too much at once. Her host was still a toddler, the magical standards that would apply to an adult obviously wouldn't apply to a child as young as this!
Nearly having another panic attack, she took hold of another empty looking pipe and tried to pump some of the energy she had taken back into his body. However, Od was not the same as the energy she had taken. She realized that fact very quickly as instead of blue, she pumped teal colored Od into the pipes. What happened next was unexpected.
Previously hidden lines embedded into the walls lit up as the magical energy entered them, forming complex circuitry-styled patterns. Tamamo immediately realized what they were.
Those were magic circuits.
Apparently the act of introducing magical energy into the boy's body had awakened them. To say that Tamamo was surprised would be an understatement. Whether he had always had the capacity for magecraft or if the circuits only appeared because Tamamo had existed within him, she didn't know. Although, by the existence of that other blue energy, she assumed the latter was true.
Tamamo frowned as she looked at the pipe with blue energy running through it. It seemed to be running a rather low, although it was refilling slowly on its own, which looked like a good sign. Pumping a bit more Od into the boy's system, she sat down and stared at the wall. Not like there was anything better to do, anyways.
And then she saw it. What appeared to be a tiny hole in the wall.
She pressed her hand against it, and was shocked as she felt very pure natural energy outside. As a Caster as well as a fox shaman, she was naturally sensitive to these kinds of things. Apparently this world had a ton of nature energy, also known as the life force of the world. Taking a deep breath, she reached out and was rewarded with what looked like a green thread of energy. She kept pulling till she had a sizable ball of the stuff. Very carefully, she absorbed a tiny trickle of the green natural energy.
When she could feel no ill effects from using it, she took in more and more until her magical reserves were full.
And she had never felt better.
The nature energy of this world was incredibly potent and she found that she didn't really need a lot of it, especially since she wasn't using up much energy due to the lack of combat. She then drew in some more to refill Naruto's energy reserves. Pressing a hand onto a pipe, she pushed the nature energy in until there was a perfect balance of blue and green running through the pipes. Putting her hands on her hips, Tamamo congratulated herself on a job well done concerning the internal energy crisis. She went back and tried to draw in more energy when her host started waking up. The moment Naruto moved his body in the outside world, Tamamo found it nearly impossible to get a firm grip on the nature energy. She decided that it was probably enough for now.
Naruto woke up laying face down in the dirt. He had been walking around the orphanage by himself since none of the other children ever wanted to play with him and the adults were all mean to him. He scratched his head as he tried to recall what happened before he blacked out. He had suddenly felt drained of all his energy before falling unconscious, but now he felt better than he ever had! His body felt light, his vision was more clear, he could sense people for some reason, he even thought he could walk around with his eyes closed and still be fine. His hearing was also improved, and he could hear people in the orphanage complaining about the "fox demon" again. He frowned as he looked at the sky; the sun was already beginning to go down.
Looking back toward the orphanage, he decided that he no longer wanted to stay there anymore. He decided to leave right now, and used his newfound sensing abilities to avoid every single person on the way. He left the orphanage without looking back as he made his way towards the forest, not noticing that his whisker-like birthmarks had turned into actual whiskers nor the fact that his pupils had turned into slits.
Naruto wandered around in the forest, munching on some berries and some other leafy things. For some reason, he thought he heard a voice in his head telling him what was good to eat as he walked around foraging for food. It was definitely dark now; Naruto planned on climbing up a tree to sleep for the night, and then he would go find Hokage-jiji and tell him that he was planning to live in the forest from now on so no one would bother him anymore.
Suddenly, he heard twigs on the ground snapping. Naruto instantly stood as still as a statue at the sudden noise, not noticing the energy filling his body again.
He saw a strange ninja carrying a large bundle over his shoulder. Unconsciously focusing chakra into his eyes, he saw that the bundle was actually a dark-haired girl! She was tied up and gagged, and he could see tears falling from her eyes.
Without a second thought, Naruto jumped out towards the man.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing with that girl?!"
The ninja just stopped and stared. "What does it look like, kid? I'm kidnapping the Hyuuga heiress. Now get out of my way before I make you."
Naruto didn't know what a heiress was, but he certainly knew what a kidnapping was.
"Let go of her before I make you!" Naruto shouted.
"Oh? You think a brat like you can defeat a ninja?" The ninja simply dropped the girl on the ground and faced the boy.
This only made Naruto angrier as he ran towards the ninja, intending to jump up and punch him.
The nin was slightly caught off guard by the boy's speed but he quickly composed himself and punted Naruto out of the way.
"Tch, damn kids should know their place. I was making good time too." The ninja muttered as he turned around to pick up the girl again, but was interrupted when Naruto charged at him again with his fist raised.
The ninja just sighed as he turned around and punched the kid in the head. He almost felt bad, but he had a mission to do and he couldn't let his personal feelings get in the way.
The poor girl watched with tears flowing as she saw the boy weakly try to get back up again.
Naruto was starting to black out. As his vision faded, he thought he saw someone trapped inside a cage, shouting something at him.
The ninja sighed and turned around again to deal with the girl, only to find himself blasted to the ground by a sudden gust of wind. Turning around to see what happened, he saw the boy had changed.
The boy, who was previously wearing a T-shirt and shorts, was now wearing a strange blue robe, and his hair had grown into a ponytail reaching down to his shoulders, secured by a large blue ribbon. The biggest change was the presence of a pair of fox ears and a very large fox tail.
Shit, is this their Jinchuuriki? I didn't even feel any chakra from that! the ninja thought to himself as he flung a kunai at the boy. Even a three year old would be deadly with the power of a tailed beast active.
Before the kunai could hit their mark, however, a mirror appeared out of nowhere and blocked it.
"Kidnapping children? How despicable." The cold voice that came out of the boy's mouth was clearly that of a woman, and his eyes looked at the ninja as if looking at filth.
Tamamo, now in control of Naruto's body, rushed at the ninja with B-ranked agility, his three year old body proving to be a difficult target to hit as the enemy tried to cut him down with a kunai in hand.
Tamamo winced in pain as she waved her arm, commanding the floating mirror to bash the enemy. The sudden high-speed movement was literally breaking the poor boy's body, and she had to end it quickly and decisively.
She had the mirror hit the ninja in the back of the knee, forcing him down, before channeling magical energy for a spell.
"Jusō - Hyōten (Curse: Frigid Heaven)."
An ofuda appeared underneath the ninja, bursting into ice and freezing his legs to the ground. Then she charged in and kicked the man in the crotch with her right leg, eliciting a high-pitched squeal from the poor man.
"This is repentance through crotch violence!"
The girl watched in amazement as Tamamo whirled around and kicked the man in the crotch again with her left leg, before executing a set of very excessively flashy backflips.
She dashed forwards before leaping high into the air, doing several front flips with her leg stretched out for a jump kick.
The ninja's eyes widened in horror as the outstretched leg reached closer and closer to his poor genitals.
"Ippu-tasai Kyosei-ken (Polygamist Castration Fist)!"
Tamamo landed gracefully behind the man and held her fists to her sides, before the ground beneath the man inexplicably exploded.
The ninja screamed before passing out from the pain as Tamamo struggled to walk over to the girl and ripped off her bindings, the fox features and clothing already reverting to normal.
"Are you...okay..." Tamamo forced out before Naruto's body couldn't take the strain and passed out.