So, yeah. It's been like what, a week? Oh well.I'm here, to inform you, of something extremely epic. I have done what no man has... No, wait. It's been done.

I've made a writing challenge. Taken straight off of my profile:

"Writing Challenge #1: Hitoko Naruto (Naruto Lightman)

Naruto meets Cal Lightman, and Cal takes Naruto under his wing; teaching him how to read people with a glance. Naruto will no longer be dense, and he'll be decently strong since Cal works with Ibiki in T & I. Any pairing except NaruHina. NaruSaku is fine depending on how you go about it. If you can manage a Naruto/FemKyuubi, then you're a hero. Simple as that.

Notice how there's barely any constraints there? It's called freedom. I know, in this day and age?! What the hell am I thinking ;)"

So, yeah. I hope somebody takes me up on this, it'd be really epic. I'd do it myself, but... y'know. I've got about 9 stories in reserve for once I'm done with OnS.

Which, by the way, has a new chapter coming out soon.

I know that I haven't achieved my usual avg of 4,000 words with this chapter, but I've decided to put quality over quantity (for this story, atleast).

Enjoy!

Different Circumstances Chapter 1: Fuin no Chikara; the Power of Seals

Sarutobi Hiruzen was a weary man. Yesterday, his successor, Namikaze Minato, sacrificed himself to seal away the Kyuubi no Kitsune, murderer of thousands. Now, lying contently in a cradle within his office was Minato's son, Naruto.

Hiruzen had to decide just what to do with young Naruto. Already he could sense the influx of paperwork, demanding Naruto's death, enslavement, incarceration and various other unfavourable scenarios. Then, he had to think about Naruto's remaining family, Namikaze Uzumaki Kushina, who was still alive – no thanks to his pupil, Senju Tsunade.

"You're just like your father," Hiruzen deadpanned to the baby, who gurgled happily; his cerulean eyes twinkling mischievously. "Just like your father…"

Hiruzen looked back down at the sheet in his hand which held the history of Namikaze Naruto. After a moment of thought, Hiruzen wearily sighed, and began to black out certain parts of the sheet; including Naruto's parentage.

Thirty seconds later, the name Namikaze was replaced by Uzumaki. After staring sorrowfully at the sheet, he muttered, "This must be done. For the good of the village."

The Sandaime left his newly retaken office.

Fifteen minutes later, the shadows themselves seemed to move, and the door to the Sandaime's office opened and closed an inch. A shadow seemed to creep towards Naruto's crib, and a black-haired man with a crazed smile appeared in front of him.

His kunai glinted from the brief amount of light let through by the windows, and he brought it down with both hands.

At that exact moment, Naruto turned in his sleep, and instead of having his chest stabbed, he was stabbed in his arm. Due to his small size, though, the kunai went through his arm, lung and just barely touched his heart.

The assailant spat in disgust. "Damn demon," He muttered. He brought his kunai up once more. "Just die!"

There was a flash of red, and everything went dark for the assassin. Hiruzen slowly cleaned the kunai which had pierced Naruto's lung, and watched, saddened, as little Naruto bled out from the gaping hole in his arm.

"I should've been faster…" He murmured sadly.

At that point, since the universe had already decided that dull moments had no right to exist, Namikaze Uzumaki Kushina walked in on Sarutobi. Luckily for him, he was blocking poor little bleeding Naruto from sight. Hopefully securing his village's best interests, of course.

Since Hiruzen turned around just as Kushina strode in, he failed to notice the faint traces of red chakra which were quickly sealing the wounds.

Naruto gurgled happily and stared at the giant fox. Yue tilted her head to the side and stared right back at him. After a moment, she nodded sagely and picked him up with her teeth and brought him into the cage.

At that moment, the cage sealed, and Yue could've sworn she heard that weird piece of paper (dubbed 'Paper-chan') yell, "Damn it! Why was I so slow?!"

Naruto's eyes widened as he felt Yue gently drop him onto a fuzzy tail and he quickly grabbed onto it and managed to bury himself in the fur. When he'd established his place; he looked like he had red back hair. Naruto nuzzled his cheek against the tail; causing Yue to giggle. "He's so cute!" She cried. "I wonder what his name is…" Yue paused thoughtfully, and then nodded to herself. "I shall now call you Ant-kun."

Naruto stopped nuzzling the tail, and cocked his head to the side. After a moment, Yue blinked. "You're Naruto-kun, then?"

Little Naruto gurgled and climbed up her tail. After a few moments of lying there, he began to feel sleepy.

"I'll still call you Ant-kun," Yue muttered obstinately as she felt her own eyes droop. Her last words before sleeping were, "Okaa-chan…"

Somehow, through a (possibly unintentional) screw-up of the Shinigami, time simply didn't pass within Naruto's head.

"Chan is a term of endearment," Yue stated.

Naruto blinked.

"Yes, I know I said the same thing about 'kun'."

Silence.

"Alright, fine! I'll stop treating you like a baby," Yue muttered.

Naruto gave her a toothless grin (which was quite easy, considering his lack of teeth).

"Big poopiehead," Yue grumbled lightly. In response, Naruto pulled on her fur. "Ah! I'll stop!" She cried while thrashing around. Incidentally, her thrashing caused one of her tails to hit the rather flimsy-looking piece of paper holding the bars closed.

Were Yue not a child, she would have wondered how a piece of paper could possibly manage such a feat. Then, she would have connected the dots and realized that logic was probably nonexistent in here. After that, she'd wonder why logic was nonexistent, and she'd eventually learn that she's in Naruto's head…

Or stomach?

Okay, his body.

That or, she'd think that Ant-san was playing hide-and-go-seek with her, and Ant-kun was an innocent bystander. It was a rather fun game, though Ant-san always found her before she could find him. Ant-san also seemed to complain every time she nuzzled him or prodded him.

She wondered why.

But, the narrator digresses.

The little piece of paper suddenly exploded in a plume of smoke, and Yue quickly turned her body towards it; causing one of her tails to hit a wall with tremendous force. "Ah!" Yue cried in pain, and she stared morosely at her tail, which had a rather large red bruise on it.

Which begged the question: how the hell did she know the bruise was red?

Ah, right. Her skin and fur was red too.

"I got a boo-boo!" Yue complained.

The blond man who'd appeared from that plume of smoke suddenly felt very awkward. "I'm…sorry…?"

"Okaa-chan says that kissing boo-boos makes them go away!" Yue stated.

"Okay…" He nodded, not getting the point. By then, little Naruto had climbed onto Yue's head, and was stroking her ears.

Yue was reminded of that rather plump rabbit that Okaa-chan had once brought her for being such a good little – No! Bad Yue! Okaa-chan said never to speak about it again!

Although, that could have had something to do with the fact that the rabbit was hairless… and looked similar to the blond man standing close-by.

Once again, if Yue weren't an adolescent, Konoha wouldn't have been attacked, Naruto would probably be a bumbling idiot who wanted to be Hokage, and the Yondaime – who had a ramen addiction the size of his wife's temper – would actually be leading a village during a time of peace.

Thank god Yue was a – very, very cute and clueless – little girl.

Also, thank god pedophiles didn't have vans and candy in which they could use to prey on children. Her sweet tooth was not to be trifled with.

"It's your fault!" Yue cried, glaring at the blond man; who suddenly paled. "Since Okaa-chan isn't here, you have to kiss my boo-boo!"

"Uh…" He trailed off rather unsurely. "You know, this isn't what I signed up for when I agreed to be Hokage. I mean, my oath said that in the case of my willing capture, I wouldn't do whatever the hell my 'prisoner' said, but if my capturer was a demon…"

The Yondaime Hokage suddenly paled. "Were my capturer a demon, I'd have to listen to its every demand…"

The piece-of-paper-turned-Hokage groaned, and slowly – very slowly – walked to Yue, quickly kissed her tail, and disappeared behind the bars in less than 5 seconds.

Yue grinned toothily, making her look rather malicious despite the missing tooth. She grabbed little Naruto – who Minato still hadn't noticed – with one of her tails and placed him on the ground. As soon as she put him down (gently), he looked at her, and his big… blue… eyes… widened comically. The small tear was the clincher.

"He's so cute!" She gushed, and she quickly curled against him and closed her eyes.

Naruto snuggled into her, and her lips formed a small smile. Ant-kun helped her forget about Okaa-chan's absent… absince… abstinence?

Ironically, the Shinigami had spent a lot of time taking cold showers after Yue was born. Considering current situations, he'd probably spend a lot of time sleeping in the garden (which was full of wailing souls) as well.

Minato blinked. "I feel strangely unloved," He muttered. After a moment, he turned back into the sheet of paper which – rather unnecessarily – held the gates together, and he pretended that nothing happened.

"Owkwaa-chan…" Naruto muttered.

"Sarutobi-san, do you know where my son is?" Kushina asked as she worriedly wrung her hands.

Hiruzen inwardly winced at what would happen if he told her. "I'm afraid that Naruto-kun…"

Kushina's eyes widened as he trailed off, and she seemed horrified. "No! I refuse to believe that my Naruto-chan would be killed so easily!"

"Ku—"

"Owkwaa-chan…" Naruto muttered.

Kushina's eyes narrowed. "What was that?"

"Nothing," Hiruzen replied cautiously.

"It sounded a lot like 'Okaa-chan,' didn't it, Sarutobi-san?" Kushina asked; her voice dripping with sweetness. Despite himself, Hiruzen shuddered. When a woman sounded like that, you were either very lucky, or very, very screwed.

Ironically, sometimes the two meant the same thing.

Kushina shoved past Hiruzen and saw a little boy with bright blond hair and whiskers on each cheek. "He looks a lot like his father," Kushina murmured.

"Indeed," Hiruzen replied. After a moment of silence, Hiruzen slowly spoke up again, "You know that you can't keep him."

Kushina whirled towards Hiruzen, and glared at him. "He is my son!" She hissed. "I love him, and I won't let Konoha take another person from me because of their selfishness."

"If this is because of—"

"No, it's not because you idiots chose to keep your own ninja inside of Konohagakure no Sato while Uzugakure no Sato burned to the fucking ground!" Kushina yelled.

Amazingly enough, the yell didn't awaken Naruto. Though it did cause one of the sleeping ANBU to suddenly jerk awake and fall on the floor. The ANBU coughed slightly and slid his hand through his grey hair, then hid back in the shadows again.

"Kushina-san, it was Minato-kun's wish that Naruto would grow up in Konoha," Hiruzen stated.

"Why?" She snorted. "So that he can be ostracized like I was?"

"Kushina-san, I won't let you take him from here," Hiruzen said in a steely voice.

Kushina narrowed her eyes and grabbed Naruto. "You would kill a mother for her child?"

"I have done worse," Hiruzen replied. He made to grab Naruto, but was stopped when a red barrier sprung up where Hiruzen's hand would have grabbed Naruto. Hiruzen narrowed his eyes. "Red…? The Kyuubi!"

Kushina personally didn't care. She knew that in her state, she couldn't take on the Sandaime. Especially not when she had to protect Naruto-chan, and gods be damned, she'd protect him with all she had. Even if this power was provided by her husband's murderer.

Pushing herself past the still-shocked Hokage, Kushina frowned slightly. She knew that she had to leave Konoha for Naruto's safety, but where?

As soon as Kushina reached the gates of the Namikaze mansion, she frowned. Judging by Hiruzen's shock, she had two minutes at the most. The objective was to get Naruto the hell out of Konoha as fast as possible.

Kushina frowned as she fingered a tri-pronged kunai. Minato had worked on teaching her the Hiraishin…

"Why do I get the feeling I just screwed somebody over?" A conspicuous sheet of paper murmured.

Kushina let out a quick prayer to god, the Shinigami, and whichever Kami had decided to listen to her. Then, cradling Naruto protectively in both her arms, she concentrated.

When she'd been out on a mission, she chose to leave a marker at Nami no Kuni so that she'd have something to fall back on. Now if she could just get it to work…

Without warning, Naruto disappeared, and Kushina's eyes widened in fear. She clutched her heart and slowly exhaled. "I have to get him!"

Kushina then did one of the most reckless things she'd done to date. She used Shunshin to move to Nami no Kuni.

Of course, she had an extremely large chakra capacity. So why was this so reckless?

Shunshin no Jutsu takes up 20-30% of the user's current available chakra. While it seemed like a small loss, it was in fact extremely dumb. Especially when you're running from an entire hidden village.

Oh well.

Luckily for her, ANBU deployment was kind of slow, since Hiruzen decided to give all shinobi (save his personal guard) a day off for mourning the dead. Today was, for all intents and purposes, the best time to get the hell in or out of Konoha without detection.

As soon as Kushina had made it three quarters of the way to the border of Hi no Kuni (going in the direction of Iwagakure no Sato rather than Nami no Kuni) she was intercepted by Hiruzen; the presence she had felt.

"Going to Iwa with Minato's son, Kushina?" Hiruzen shook his head remorsefully. "You truly want his death, don't you?"

"I'm sorry; did the colorblind pot just call the kettle black?" Kushina snarled.

Hiruzen narrowed his eyes. "I liked you, Kushina-san. I truly did. Though, you go too far. You're a threat to my village as you are. I'm afraid you're forcing me to do something I really… do not… want… to… do."

"Bite me," Kushina hissed.

Hiruzen shook his head sorrowfully, but just as he was about to attack her; he saw double and lunged at the wrong counterpart.

Kushina blinked, then shrugged; hightailing it to Nami no Kuni so she could find Naruto-chan.

A red-furred vulpine smirked slightly when it saw Hiruzen fall down to the ground and groan. "This is as far as I can interfere… The rest must happen."

As soon as Kushina had reached the location which held the marker, she let out a sigh of relief when she noticed Naruto asleep and unharmed. She quickly gathered him into her arms, and felt her strength leaving her. Using the last of her strength, she huddled into a tree; hoping beyond hope that they wouldn't be found.

"Oh crap," Minato muttered. "I think I'll have to somehow teach the kid sealing…"

He turned back into a human and frowned while watching Naruto, who was still nested in Yue's fur. After a moment of thought, an idea struck him. "Perhaps… Instead of teaching Naruto directly…"

Kushina groaned when the sun shone into her eyes; unwilling to give up the comfortable bed. Suddenly, she was jolted awake. If she was in a bed, then that would have to mean…

Kushina opened her left eye just a crack, and noticed the leaf symbol on the wall. She inwardly cursed. It seemed that she'd have to escape again.

Just as Kushina had that thought; she felt as if a bolt of lightning had made its way down her spine. Not in the good way.

Come to think of it, it reminded her of that incident with Hiruzen and the monkey…

Either way, she was in immense pain after thinking about leaving Konoha. Ah, a loyalty seal. How fucking great.

"I'm afraid you've forced my hand, Kushina-san," Hiruzen spoke up from the corner of the room.

"Y'know," She coughed slightly, "this reminds me of that time you got that monkey–"

Hiruzen immediately cut her off, "Since Naruto-kun seems to know that you're his mother, you'll have to take care of him. Consider this your mission. You can't leave Konoha, or tell him about the seal you've undoubtedly noticed." Hiruzen walked out of the room, but paused in the doorway. "Oh, and Kushina-san? If he proves to be a threat to Konoha, you'll have to eliminate him."

Kushina clenched her teeth and narrowed her eyes. "I need to get rid of this fucking seal!"

She heard crying coming from what seemed to be a crib and she got up; wincing all the while. Apparently, the person who retrieved her had decided that she wasn't worth a safe trip back.

Atleast Minato helped her with a 'chastity seal,' so to speak. That took a load off of her mind.

Still… It surprised her that Hiruzen acted so ferociously. He'd started acting like such a grandfather after Minato became Hokage.

Then again… ninja did live on deception. It pained her to know that her son would have to live and grow up in this world. That's probably how her parents felt when she decided to prank them until they allowed her to become a ninja.

…

On second thought, maybe not.

Kushina rubbed her left shoulder and frowned. That was where the seal was kept. The bastard had deliberately kept it out in plain view.

Minato frowned slightly, and turned back into his 'human form'. If things had gone according to plan, he wouldn't have been able to do this. He had planned to seal the yang side of the Kyuubi's chakra inside of Naruto, and make the other half inaccessible. In retrospect, that probably wouldn't have worked. Looking back at his seal, it would be impossible due to a small mistake he made in the seal.

Thank god the Shinigami interfered, otherwise Naruto would have the evil half of the Kyuubi sealed within him. Granted, having the entire Kyuubi sealed inside of him wasn't necessarily the best option, but it was better than a completely evil Kyuubi.

Although, now that he'd seen the Kyuubi… its mannerisms were extremely similar to that of a naïve child. So, that could only mean one of two things.

The Kyuubi was a child. That was the easiest conclusion to make.

Yet at the same time, it was also possible that the Kyuubi knew nothing but destruction.

Still, what were the chances of that.

"Hey," Minato cleared his throat slightly. Yue raised her head drowsily and looked at him. "Want to see something cool?"

Minato held up an explosive tag he'd made. One of the things he'd rather not think about was how the tag would react in Naruto's head…

Oh, wait, this was his stomach. Well, there was no problem then. A little stomach-ache wouldn't hurt him. Much.

"Yeah!" Yue grinned.

Minato nodded, and inconspicuously sent some of Yue's chakra into the exploding tag. He quickly crumpled it up and threw it away, and the piece of paper exploded. Minato turned back to his audience and grinned.

Yue was gaping. "Wow… That's just like what Otou-san does when he's angry! Ne, can you show me how?"

Minato nodded. "Hook, line and sinker," He muttered.

Kushina pulled her hand away from Naruto when he burped, and smoke came out of his mouth.

"What the hell…?" She muttered. "That'd only happen if you swallowed an extremely low-grade explosive tag! Hell, only Minato knows how to make those!" As if those words struck a chord in her, she paused. "Nah, it couldn't be. That's about as possible as Sarutobi-temee and another monkey…"

Meanwhile, a monkey walked up to Hiruzen, and he blinked. "Did Kushina send it to me…?"

He narrowed his eyes and grabbed the monkey; throwing it at the wall. The monkey screeched and pushed off the wall to tackle him. Hiruzen quickly ducked, and watched as it flew out of the open door. Hiruzen sighed in relief.

"Thank god…"

Suddenly, the monkey burst through the door and tackled Hiruzen. Hiruzen threw him at the wall again, and it bounced off of the wall and stuck to Hiruzen's face.

"Damn it!" Hiruzen grunted; his mouth open slightly. His eyes widened when the monkey started to… release its bladder, and he quickly threw the monkey at whatever the hell was closest to him.

Hiruzen coughed and spluttered on his paperwork, and his eyes widened when he noticed the monkey.

The damn thing had crapped all over his paperwork! "Nooooo!" Hiruzen wailed

"Why do I feel as if somebody just got a fraction of what they deserve?" Kushina mused.

She shrugged after a moment, and picked up Naruto. He cuddled closer to her, and she smiled slightly.

"You're my little ball of sunshine, aren't you?" She cooed. "Oh yes you are! Oh yes you are!"

Naruto giggled slightly, and she smirked. "It's you and me against the world, Naruto-chan… You and me against the world…"

She walked to the Namikaze mansion as quickly and stealthily as possible. She was personally amazed by how quiet Naruto was. All of her friends had told her that babies were generally noisy to the point of insanity.

She counted herself lucky.

Kushina stopped in front of the gates of her house, and wiped some of her blood on a seal.

She frowned when they didn't react. "What the hell…?" She muttered.

"Ah crap, I forgot to un-key Sarutobi from the mansion," Minato mused. "Oh well."

She frowned after a moment, and sighed. It seemed that she and Naruto would have to live in an apartment. If only she had some of Minato's blood…

Kushina's gaze suddenly flitted towards Naruto. There was still some caked blood on him from the assassin…

She carefully and gently scraped some off, and placed it on the seal. Kushina smiled in relief when it opened, and she quickly went inside.

As soon as Kushina was inside, she used some of Naruto's leftover blood to un-key Hiruzen from the house, and to key herself in. With a sigh, Kushina quickly placed Naruto in the crib which she and Minato had painstakingly bought for him.

As soon as she shut the door, Kushina slumped against it; the strain of the past week coming back to her. "Minato…" She muttered. "It's him and I against the world… what can I do?"

Tears began to stream down her face. "Minato-kun... I miss you," She sobbed. "Please, wherever you are... Help us... Help Naruto-chan..."

To Be Continued.

I'm not sure if this is as good as my previous chapter, simply because this one hasn't had any proofreading. Although, I've spent over 3 hours on this. Which is a lot, since it usually takes me 2hrs to write 4,000 words. This is only 3,719 fyi.

Originally, I was thinking of having Kushina die quickly. Then I thought of her and Naruto going to Nami no Kuni and staying there forever. Then I thought about Kushina being teleported by the Hiraishin, but not Naruto.

Finally, I decided on the outcome. Naruto would be transported by the Hiraishin (she didn't know it, so she accidentally sent Naruto with it, but not herself) and then Kushina would rush to get him. Finally, she would catch up to him, and they'd be captured.

For the sake of the story, I decided that Kushina would be unconsciously captured.

As to why she hadn't been grieving Minato that entire time... She was in shock. Notice how she collapsed and started sobbing after everything was over? Yeah.

Anyways, ideas are welcomed. If you can send me a story to read (100,000 words or more that's good) within 1hr, I'll love you. I'm going on a trip, so I need to put some stories on my iPod to read.

Laterz