Everything was wet. Naruto slowly opened his eyes as he felt his body was surrounded by water. He tried to move but none of his muscles would respond to their commands. Moving was apparently completely out of the question. The air around him was completely still and it was almost pitch black. The outlines of pipelines along the ceiling could just barely be made out. The water strangely was neither cold, hot, nor was it even in between them. It didn't even have a current to it, yet he was slowly floating across the water towards an unknown destination. Naruto's mind was so scrambled that even though he knew something was wrong he didn't try to resist anymore than the little he already had. Just let his body be dragged away by an invisible force.
It felt like months had passed as Naruto continued to drift along nonstop. Nothing about his surroundings had changed at all. The dark outlined pipelines repeated the same pattern over and over again. No air could be felt blowing through to tunnel. The current-less water still was without a temperature to it somehow, and Naruto continued to not move. By now he was pretty sure he had died. That he was unable to survive the encounter with the Grass Ninja. He had always dreamed of battles to the death but he never dreamed that he would be treated like a rag doll by a ninja he felt was just toying with him.
Hell. I've died and gone to Hell. He closed his eyes to shut out the depressing view he was given. I made a new dream. Just got a new goal, and I didn't even get a chance to go after it. Heat slowly began to fill the air as it stirred slightly. Alive I was hated. Unloved by what I wanted to protect. Treated like an outcast in my own village. In danger constantly in my own home. A steady dripping noise began to filter around Naruto in the otherwise silent corridor. Who was I kidding? I never had a chance at anything. Not Sakura. Not completing this exam. Not being awarded the Hokage seat. Slowly his body began to sink deeper into the water that slid coolly against his exposed skin. Should just have given up. I was meant to die. I was meant for Hell.
"...No."
Naruto's eyes slowly open as he heard a soft melodious voice whisper into his ear. As his they opened he finally took note to the changes that had occurred. Again he tried to move his body and was able to twitch his fingers, but that wasn't much progress. When his eyes fully opened Naruto slowly took in his new surroundings. He was in an enormous open space that was shaped somewhat like an egg around the edges. There were large red pillars that stood in what would be considered the middle of the air and stretched high into the darkness above. They were spaced close together but just far enough apart to fit three people through at once. Except for to that were firmly pressed together. The water around him was a reddish-black that became redder the closer it was to him. He continued to drift for awhile longer. Passing through the pillars and towards a wall of darkness before two hands reached down and stopped him.
Naruto's eyes took in the small pale hands that had a soft but firm grip on his shoulders, following up their slender arms to find a face of a sad women. Her hair flowed down her face in soft waves, and even though it was a deep, dark red it was somehow glowing around the edges. A slim face with a small nose separating two light purple eyes, and a scar just above the left eye. The women seemed to be on the verge of tears. "...No," she said. "You are not meant for Hell Naruto. You are meant to be something so much greater."
Naruto stared at the women for a beat before trying to move again. Everything was stiff, but he was able to at least sit up. It was a slow process of movement, but he eventually came to be almost level with the women. "Are you a mind reader?" was the first thing to pop out of his mouth. Chuckling softly, she shook her head no. "Sadly I am not. But ya know awesome that would be if I could." Naruto smirked slightly at her faint attempt to joke with him before looking at her a bit more closely. Even kneeling he could tell that she was a little on the tall side. Her hair cascaded all the down to water and wrapped around her like a curtain with much of it floating on top of it away from her. The hair hid her legs and immediately gave him a picture of her floating above the water without them that he had to shake away. She had slim figure on her with a pair breast just slightly smaller than his head. A plain black shirt was the only noticeable clothing on her. Suddenly he noticed that she was holding him on top of the water with her hands.
"Can you tell me where we are? Also who are and if you can't read minds, why did you say what you did then?" Naruto's eyes narrowed slightly as he tried to puzzle the last part out himself.
"I'm...you can call me Akane," she said making Naruto smile at her, "and we are currently somewhere no else can get."
Naruto tilted his head and scrunched his face up in confusion. "But...that makes no sense. How can no one else get here if I can? If you can?"
Akane shifted slightly. "This place. It's a mindscape. Your mindscape to be exact. No one other than you can come in here without your consent. So we are really just in your head ya know. After you were blown away, and the pain knocked you out, you came into yourself." She could see the question forming in his eyes as he stared at her accusingly and rushed to answer him before he voiced it. "Me, I've always been here ya know. Been with you since the day you were born. That's why I said what I said earlier. After being here so long I've been able to tune into your thoughts. I know more about you than any other person in the world does Naruto."
For a moment Naruto was silent. He looked away from Akane and down at the arms that were holding him above the water. "You've been here my entire life?" She nodded then said yes when he still didn't look up at her. "How? Why are you here?"
Her mouth opened and closed like a fish as she tried to answer the question. The subject was obviously very delicate. I guess there is no avoiding it. I have to tell him sooner or later, she thought sadly. Nodding she waved a hand as she loosened her grip on Naruto slightly and conjured a small, circular table with two matching chairs into existence. Standing slowly, Akane carried him over to the chairs then set him in one before sitting herself in the other. "I could have just walked you know." he grumbled quietly. "How did you make these chairs and table appear like that?"
Akane sighed and looked down at her hands that she had clasped in front of her one the table. "Being here so long has given me a small ability to bend reality in your mind ya know. Now...I don't want to repeat myself so please don't say anything until I finish." Naruto was going to ask why when she looked up at him and their eyes met. So much same seemed to cloud those light eyes that it shocked him into silence. "I...I wasn't always with you ya know. I used to have a complete life of my own before I ended up here. But something terrible happened and my power was used to cause harm to others in a large scale. I never wanted to hurt anyone but I wasn't in control ya know. A man with the Sharingan had me in a mind control jutsu." Naruto silently cursed those eyes and all the Uchiha who ever achieved them. "Anyways after a real major battle with a very powerful man I was sealed away into a women to be kept in check ya know. That man was your first Hokage Senjuu Hashirama and the man who controlled me was Uchiha Madara." Naruto's eyes widen in disbelief and started to say something when Akane held up a hand to quiet him. "Don't interrupt me. Whether you believe it yet or not doesn't matter. You will soon enough. Now after I was sealed I essentially gained back some of my will that had be stolen from me by Madara but any sense of freedom I had was completely gone. In a way I guess it was better than being forced to kill those I never wanted to ya know. Anyways since then I have constantly been sealed inside of someone. Well, almost constantly. On the day that my second jinchuuriki, what you guys are technically called, gave birth I was ripped out of her, almost causing her death and set free. But I was immediately met with the power of the Sharingan again, and was once more a mindless puppet bent on destroying everything in my path. That was the day I rampaged over Konoha 12 years ago. And the rest…" Slowly she trailed off as she lowered her head. Knowing that he already knew all there was left to say.
Naruto sat in stunned silence as he absorbed all of what he just heard, and pieced together what she left off. "You...you're the Kyuubi. You're the reason I lived the way I have had to all these years." Akane nodded and shrunk down into her chair as he had spoken barely above a whisper. Clenching and unclenching his fist, Naruto relived every moment he tried to understand why he was so hated. Each moment he was told that the shopkeepers didn't sell to his kind. Each time he ran for his life with a mob of enraged civilians trailing him. Then a thought dawned on him. "Your last jinchuuriki...she...was she my mother and what happened to her if you only almost killed her?" Akane's only answer was the stiffening of her body. That was all the answer he needed. "You ruined my life in every possible way before I even had the chance to live it. Why shouldn't I hate you even if none of this was your fault?"
At the word "hate" Akane looked at Naruto almost feeling completely defeated. For a moment there wasn't a demon capable of destryoing millions of lives for pleasure in front of him, he realized. Just a long-lived women with nothing left in her life. "You have every right to hate me Naruto. But believe me when I say I loved your mother. She was my very first friend and I was so happy to be with her ya know. And I love you Naruto. Just like I would my very own kit if I had one. You're so much like a daughter to me."
"I see well...wait! What did you just say?! I'm no girl I'm all man! Can't you see that or are you blind!" Naruto scowled at Akane as she pulled away from the table somewhat. "N...Not anymore. That ninja did a pretty decent number on your body ya know. It took a lot of my power to keep you alive, certain places," Akane said while stressing the words certain places, "were pretty much done for. So I changed you into a girl. Keeping you a boy would have given you a horrible case of ED."
Naruto shivered at the abbreviation thinking of how bad it would be to have Mr. Happy completely out of commission. Better gone forever than hanging there useless. What the fuck could cause it though... "I guess I understand you," he sighed, "but I have a question?" Akane sat up slightly straighter as he seemed a bit warmer than he did just minutes ago. "If I'm a girl now, why do I still look and sound like a boy?"
"Oh that's because this is who you are. On the outside you are a girl. But on the inside you are a guy ya know. You are literally a man stuck in a women's body. And don't worry about your attitude or preferences changing much. So no need to worry about like, getting into guys...unless you were secretly gay that is."
"I'm not gay."
"I know. Just giving an example." For a moment the two sat in relative silence. The water around had drained to the point their feet could touch the floor and they wouldn't be drowning. There was also a slight breeze passing along taking tension away with it a little at a time.
"So will you tell me about my mother? What was she like and what she did for fun? Tell me who her friends were and how close they were do you think? Was she a ninja like me? How did she meet my father? Wait, who is my father? Was he a ninja too or something? Did he love her? Why is..." The questons just came rolling out of him as the came. Here was someone in front of him that had all the answers to them and he needed them.
Slowly Akane reached over to Naruto like he was a frightened rabbit and took his hands into hers. "Not yet Naruto, but after this part of the exam is over. I'll tell you everything you wanna know about you mother after that, but your father is a different story. I'll tell you about him another time." Naruto grumbled and puffed out his cheeks like a baby. Akane chuckled slightly at the sight and shook her head before looking him in the eyes again. "Until then Naruto, let me help you. I can train you even if I can't leave your mind. If you gave me the chance I could open the door to an entire new world of jutsu for you ya know. Assist you in understanding things you couldn't before. Help you truly become more." Naruto was caught by the sincerity in both her voice and beautiful purple eyes that seemed to have brightened right before his. He knew even without thinking about it that he would accept her offer. Not only was she truly and honestly sincere about helping him, but the chance to truly become more, be more than what he has come to be or would have turned into, was just too great an offer to pass up. So all he did was nod and watch her smile for the first time since he saw her. "Great! As soon as we have a chance we'll get right to it. Now it's time for me to send you back and wake you up."
Naruto stood an stretched out his arms and legs. "So how do you plan on doing that?" Standing as well, she walked over to him and placed her hand on his chest. Giving him a slight chakra filled shove she pushed him out of his mindscape. Akane closed her eyes and sat on the weakening table as the chairs rotted away. "...I won't fail him Kushina. I swear it."
A girl slowly opened her eyes to see a canopy of trees far above her with pinpricks of moonlight filtering through to her. She was laying down on the ground of the forest floor. The ground was cold from the night air that was blowing and she decided to stand up. When she did she found that her clothes were ripped to shreds almost exposing her completely to the world. What do I do now? I can't possibly walk around like this.
"Henge Naruto," a slightly disembodied voice said into the girls head. Jumping slightly, she whirled around trying to find the source of the voice. "Naruto. It's just me. Your time in your mindscape unlocked a mental link for us. Now we can talk whenever you want to ya know. All you have to do is think and I'll hear you. And if you don't wanna talk just think the connection over." Sighing her relief that she wasn't going insane the girl began to walk away when she stepped on something squishy yet firm. Looking down, she saw the dead body of a male sand ninja. His lower half was smashed under a pile rocks while the back of his head was obviously smashed from how flattened it looked. Blood was sprayed across the front of his shirt and face with some of it dripping into his wide open mouth and eyes.
What the hell?! Akane, what kinda messed up shit is this?! Looking around she saw two more dead sand ninja at the edges of what seemed to be a crater. The furthest one from her was missing his head, while the other one arms where gone and half his face was nothing more than a bloody mess. "This happened when you crash landed you slammed into these unfortunate bastards. You hit them with so much force you killed two of them instantly ya know. The other guy, the one you stepped on suffered a bit before finally dying. Kept yelling about sand for some reason." Oh. Looking at their prone bodies, the girl saw something that made her heart do back flips in her chest.
Moving over to the second body closest to her, she found the boy held both the Heaven and Earth scroll in his pouch. Quickly tying the pouch to her leg the girl made to take off and leave. "Wait!" Stopping mid jump the girl ended up tripping and face planting hard on to the rough ground. "Eh...sorry but you should henge into your original self to move around for now so that no one knows what happened to you. Also your new body is different in more ways than one and you won't be able to fight probably in it." Nodding and then henging into her old-self, Naruto stood and brushed the dirt of her tatterted clothing.
Thanks. Looking down at her hands, Narto thought of everything wrong he had done with this body. From the pranks he pulled on the wrong people to not rejecting what he should've done. Having a new body was like having a knew life. She could do things all over again and completely different. And Akane... for everything that has happened to me in my life, I don't blame you and would like to try and be your second friend. Cutting the connection before anything more could be said, Naruto leapped away to find her missing teammates. Somehow knowing exactly what direction they would be in. But as she searched she felt something she hadn't felt since she met Iruka. A true sense of knowing that you're making the right choice in trusting someone. Deep inside of her that someone could be found smiling softly with tears of joy.
Author's Note:
Sorry about that false update that happened. Was going to update yesterday, but screwed up and ended up with a blank second chapter without anytime to put up the actual chapter itself.
Akane means "brilliant red" so I chose it as the Kyuubi's name just to play on her hair a tad bit and something different from the usually names.
Chapters will slowly become larger. Review?
