Back from the dead and ready for chapter three!

This is an AU that contains, kyuubi naruto, fem naruto, and one of the greatest examples of human stupidity.

this chapter will contain a lot of child pain and blood.

Something you guys should know; I had a friend look over the last few chapters and help me fix grammar errors. There has also been a little change to the first chapter, the identity of who sealed the Kyuubi in the twins changed a bit and Kushina has some long term issues from having the Kyuubi taken from her.

Nothing too major, it made future plans much more interesting.

Naruto is owned by Masashi kishimoto


-{}- is a POV shift.

line is scene shift.

"JUTSU NO NAME" is a jutsu.

"Foolish monkeys," is Bijuu enhanced voices, or powerful people speaking.

'thoughts' are thoughts.

Underline is Time Stamp


September 14th 56 VE (Village Era)

10:12 pm

Heavy rain fell on the dark village of Konohagakure. Since the season was Autumn, the rain was fridged. While it wasn't snowing, the wind had a feral bite to it that ensured that it would put anyone who stayed out too long in the hospital if not freeze them to death where they fell.

For this reason Naruto couldn't stop. He staggered down a dark alleyway between two buildings that luckily didn't have any windows to let people look out and see him. He was glad for that and glad that no one was following him. He had had enough trouble from the villagers today. Looking down Naruto sucked in a deep breath before mechanically pulling another sharp thing from his body.

Naruto's mouth silently screamed in agony at the decidedly unpleasant sensation. It wasn't the worst thing he had felt today so he could keep quiet by alternating between biting down on his lips with his eyes closed and wide eyed silent screaming as he rode out the waves of pain.

'There, there, you're doing great,' Kaa-sama said from inside of him. The five-tailed fox wasn't all that good at comforting her kit, she wanted to hold him to physically touch him. She was never good with words and now couldn't think of what to say to help ease the pain.

'You're doing great, my kit, my strong strong kit.' Naruto held back his tears as Kaa-sama praised him for his strength. Whenever she did that he could remain silent. He had cried enough already.

Below the child's line of sight, the tiny hole made by the rough wooden spear point closed and healed without a scar. He hated them for this, he really did. Pushing against the wall, Naruto started moving down the alley towards his den. Today hadn't been particularly good to the young Jinchuuriki.


September 14th 56 VE

9:02 am

Naruto hadn't liked when his Kaa-sama had teased him about going out and exploring the 'largest world' he would ever find. But he certainly liked exploring and walking through this forest.

Something about the way the light shifted through the various shades of green and gold at a single breath of the breeze both hiding and revealing hidden facets of the forested landscape captivated his attention. He felt like he could happily sit in the forest and watch the light shift forever.

Kaa-sama listened when he talked about the light and trees that interested him, but at the same time she kept giving him confusing and contradictory suggestions. One moment she wanted him to try running and jumping around and didn't tell him why, the next she wanted him to stand still and be as quiet as he could while sniffing the air.

He didn't mind running and jumping, in fact, it was like he had been supercharged somehow. He loved that he was faster than before, but the best part was that he could also jump very high. Maybe he could reach the tree branches high over his head with a little practice without having to climb the tree first. The whole standing still and breathing thing rather boring so he didn't do that for too long before returning to jumping around like a cartoon bird on chocolate.

-{}-

Kyuubi shook her head as she watched, amused and a little unsettled by her kit's actions. She enjoyed how enthusiastic he was, but the view was so shaky! She couldn't get a clear look at the world around the two of them since it was constantly moving and twisting as the boy enjoyed the forest. It was making her a little motion sick. As Naruto came down from another large leap, he decided on the spur of the moment to tuck and roll to dispel the energy from his tiny fall back down.

"Uhhg-" Kyuubi clamped both of her hands over her mouth as nausea worked had its way with her from watching the world spin. The Fox started getting a little unsteady on her feet before quickly closing her eyes to block out the sickening view through Naruto's eyes.

'Ah, much better,' she thought as her balance returned and her stomach settled. One reason she had started making her body bigger when she was young had been because she had hated the feeling of motion under her feet, riding boats had been murder to her composure.

Instead of dredging up her memories of the horrid methods of travel, Kyuubi focused on why she had asked Naruto to run about; The comparison of her kit's abilities from before and after she had lost a tail.

He was faster, stronger, and could smell better than a normal human. Naruto's sense of smell wasn't good enough for him to hunt on scent alone, but it was definitely a cut above the rest. He could recognize where a person had been standing if they had been there within the hour.

His speed was something else that had gotten better. Compared to the improvement in his sense of smell, it wasn't as large a leap, but it was still noticeable. A human could catch him, but it had to be an older person as despite being five years old or so, Naruto was as fast as a nine year-old in training.

Impressive for his age, but to those who didn't know much about children it wasn't notable. As for his leaping, that was much better. He was reaching at least three feet straight up from a standstill and was pushing four with a running start. It was certainly not normal for a child to do that without basic Shinobi training. She worried that people would notice it and blame her for it, or make their jealousy another reason to hate her kit.

Before she could decide what to do about it, Naruto reached the Senju clan main building and the road leading back into Konoha. 'Hey, Kaa-sama,' Naruto thought, rubbing his stomach and looking at the clan compound, 'I'm hungry, do you think there's there any food in here?'

"I don't think so," Kyuubi replied. She remembered from when she had been sealed inside Kushina that the only remaining member of the Senju clan had gone off on a drinking and gambling journey of self-destruction because she couldn't handle her loved ones dying. She hoped the woman never came back. "I think that building has been abandoned for years," she continued, coming back out of her thoughts, "Any food that was inside has been destroyed by now."

'Aww,' Naruto groaned in disappointment, 'Guess we'll have to go down the road.' He started following the trail without another word.

Sitting in her cage, Kyuubi shivered in anxious fear. She didn't want her kit to go outside this forest. It might be the home of the hated Senju, but no one would dare come in here and hurt her kit out of shear reverence. She was worried since nothing protected him outside of it. Kyuubi narrowed her focus to the window representing what Naruto was seeing, watching it like a hawk. If danger was going to find him outside of these trees, then she was going to spot it first.

-{}-

Naruto didn't know where to go. Upon leaving the trees of the clan grounds, he found himself at a crossroads. Looking to the right, he saw that the road continued unabated until it abruptly turned and followed along the walls of another clan's grounds. This one was walled in normal white stone with a red stone rooftop. Just in sight was the clan symbol, a V shape with an arc connecting the two sides part way down and a stylized flame in the center.

The other road curved to the left, hugging the tree/hedge wall until it disappeared out of sight. That way contained an open field that started at the left road and continued out along the third road for a long way. Finally, the path directly in front of Naruto smelled like people. There wasn't much to describe it apart from that simple fact. The way ahead was a simple loose gravel path with nothing but grass expanse on the right for about fifty meters before it ran into the aforementioned clan grounds while the left side was completely empty of everything except grass.

Following some of the sagest advice ever given to him, Naruto followed his nose and took the path directly in front of him. The road was boring since it only went straight forwards and passed mostly open fields. Whomever had set up that forest clan grounds must have really wanted space and quiet to make it so far outside the village proper.


Finally, after what must have been forever, or twenty minutes, of walking the child saw the buildings around the next bend in the road. Laughing with joy, Naruto picked up his pace to a run in search of food. The streets around the boy were brightly lit and colorful. The buildings around the street were large and varied, looking like they had been built or added to over the decades instead of built as one large construction or all in one design.

It looked like one large, confusing jungle gym to the young blond and he loved it. Naruto's Kaa-sama was also enjoying the novel sight, it was very different from the one she was more familiar with; seen from above as she walked through it. Being at ground level made her appreciate her former size much more.

There weren't many people on the outskirts of the village, mostly just a few apartments that people barely lived in at night and left for long hours at work during the day. As Naruto continued further into towards the center, the increase in people became obvious. Men and women from all walks of civilian life filled the street, bringing noise and simple yet content feeling to the flow of life in the village.

Naruto gaped at the crowd despite the low number of people. On this street were more people than he had seen in pretty much his entire life. In the orphanage he had been exposed to about eight various adults who had brought him meals and had seen, from a distance, small groups of kids about his own age that he hadn't been allowed to play with.

Here and now there were about twenty adults walking up and down the road, double the number Naruto had ever seen in his life put together. Looking up and down the road, he was a little disappointed to note that there were no kids. He'd love to meet some kids for the first time. Mentally Shaking the sad feelings off, Naruto started working his way deeper into the village.

'Where are we going?' Naruto asked Kaa-sama as he passed the first cross roads since he entered the village.

'I'm not sure,' his mother answered, 'We should start by finding somewhere to bed down for the night and then look around for some food.' Foxes, even large demon ones, were very meticulous about their dens, so that was high on the list.

'Can't we get some food now?' Naruto whined as he felt his empty stomach. The last time he ate had been forever ago after all. Kyuubi sighed inside of him.

'I don't know what we can eat right now,' she explained, 'I don't think your stomach is strong enough to handle raw meat and I'm worried that you'll burn yourself cooking, so hunting is temporarily not an option.'

'What about asking nicely?' Naruto wondered as he passed an open area in the village containing benches and grass instead of houses, a park he realized excitedly.

Kyuubi laughed at that thought. Humans weren't kind enough to just give food away to people like her kit, she was sure they would rather hurt him.

'What's so funny?' Naruto asked, not getting the joke.

'I'll tell you later,' Kyuubi temporized to keep how dark the world was out there from her kit. 'Now, we need a place to sleep. Try to find a snack of berries on the way, I'll tell you if there are safe to eat.'

'Okay,' Naruto grumbled as he obeyed his Kaa-sama and started looking for a place to sleep.


September 14th 56 VE

2:40 pm

"Hey, who's kid is that?"

The woman who asked was tall, with sharp cheekbones and long black hair. She was dressed in dark pants and a cream colored long sleeve shirt.

Around her were her friends: a shorter, stout, woman that had an easy smile and loose blouse-pants combo, a brunette that was right in between the two others in height with a much larger figure than the others, and finally the leader of the group, a woman with blue-black hair coupled with onyx eyes and a light skin tone wearing a dark blue dress.

"I don't know," the Uchiha woman responded with a frown. The boy they were looking at was rather odd looking compared to the children around him.

The women and their children were all in the little park near the side of the village, the mothers sitting on a bench nearby watching their young play on the structure nearby. The child that had caught the first woman's attention was standing to the side looking up at the largest play structure, the one that all the kids were crawling over.

The park was mostly empty except for this group of kids. The only other people there were a couple and their pink haired daughter leaving for the day. The group of mothers and friends had decided to set up a play date here, letting their children spend the rest of the day running around before going back to one of their houses for dinner.

The play area of the park was a simple dirt space that was pockmarked with stubs of grass where the kids hadn't trampled the dirt to a state resembling rock. The climbing toys were set up as a set of large towers facing each other along with several other little fortifications spaced between them.

There weren't enough children to fill both towers, so instead the kids had taken over one and were calling it their castle. The group of women had to hold in a chuckle as the newcomer was stared at by the children on the structure. Those on the mock tower were sizing up the newest comer to their tiny kingdom as if trying to determine if he was worth playing with or not.

Since his back to the mothers, they couldn't get a good look at the child's awestruck face. All they could see was that he wore shorts and a short sleeve shirt that was probably too cold for this autumn weather. The mothers all collectively cursed whoever let their little one run around outside in so little protection from the weather.

His hair was blond, shockingly blond, as if it was made from gold thread instead of human hair. The other children were all like their mothers, black, brunette, and one dirty blond, making this slim child's hair extremely odd in the other kid's opinions.

After a moment, the 'intense' standoff between the group of already friends and the newcomer broke off and they decided to let the blond join in. The mothers smiled as their young let the strange child join. 'They are so cute when they learned to share,' their thoughts again acting collectively. As the little one started climbing the wooden structure effortlessly, the mothers returned to their conversations.

"I hear that Inochi's little girl pulled Shkaku's son around by his shirt when they were playing," the stout woman said with a giggle. The tall one laughed as well as she imagined the little blond princess of the Yamanaka clan dragging the lazy Nara heir around because she was bored.

"I thought the Yamanaka were supposed to be more mentally strong than physical," the one with the larger figure said with a playful smile, "I guess their next generations going to be a little different than ours."

"NO!" the Uchiha woman gasped dramatically, "Don't you dare start talking about the next generation. We're too young to start talking like old women Yayoi."

"Face it, Uriko," the tall one said sadly, "We're old enough to start talking about the next generation like old women." The Uchiha woman started glumly shaking her head.

"No, no, no, I won't believe it," she muttered over and over to herself as a dark cloud of depression gathered over her head. The others laughed as she tried to deny the inevitable.

"Don't worry," the stout woman reassured, "It isn't so bad being old. We've survived this long without becoming 'old women', so I don't think we'll need to worry about it."

"We certainly have survived a lot," Uchiha Uriko agreed with a frown. Five years since the Fox, and six since the Third Shinobi war, they had seen it all. Even at a measly twenty-five years old they could say their life hadn't been boring.

"Hey," the tall one spoke up suddenly, "is it just me, or does that boy have whiskers on his face?" That pulled the women from their reminiscing. Looking at the boy much closer than before, the women were rewarded by the child turning around so that he could clamber up the next part of the play structure.

"He does have something on his cheeks," Yayoi mused, tilting her head. Curiosity won out and as she gathered her Chakra, the ex-Shinobi mother activated her Sharingan. Her vision was much clearer now and she was able to get a clear look at his face. "Yes," she confirmed, "He does have little whisker marks on his cheeks."

"Is it some kind of clan mark?" one of the others asked worriedly. She wasn't sure how comfortable she was with those marks, they reminded her of the night she had lost her father.

"No," Uriko answered, thinking back on her lessons on the clans, "I don't know of any clans that have markings like that."

"Should we be worried?" the stout woman asked, a strange marking could be from a clan ritual or sealing something like Hyuga's eyes. Uriko poured more power into her eyes and they started to let her see Chakra.

"Hey, Uriko, are you alright?" the tall woman asked as she looked at their Uchiha friend. Uriko was slowly leaning back into her seat. Her face was paling very quickly and she had become as stiff as a board, her breath coming quicker than before. The other women had noticed their friends strange behavior and it set off warning bells in their heads. By the time her back had come to rest flat against the bench they women were ready to jump into action.

"Are you alright? Do you need something? What is it?" The group questioned their friend.

"He, I think that boy is the Jinchuriki," Uriko said as her Sharingan faded. The other mothers stopped looking at Uriko to gape at each other before turning to scrutinize the boy. He was on top of the play structure talking with one of the other boys, smiling with a huge grin that threatened to split his face.

"Are you sure?" They all asked at the same time. The small humanoid playing with their children looked rather normal despite the uncomfortable markings on its cheeks. Worry however, replaced their previous joint expressions of fear.

"No," Uriko said, "I can't be sure, but he has a lot of Chakra centered low on his body where a seal would be put, and he's the right age, so…" The other woman didn't need any more evidence.

"Hiroshi! Asuna! Kirito!" all of the mothers suddenly jumped to get their children. The boys on the climbing structure jumped to look up at their names and the blond one jumped as well as the sudden movement surprised him.

"Come on down, it's time to go home," the brunette mother said quickly as the children turned to look at them.

"Aw, do we have to?" the tall woman's son, Hiroshi whined. He loved this wooden jungle gym, there was an awesome little section in the center that was hidden from the watching adults so it made the absolute best spot for hide and go seek.

"Yes, you do, Hiroshi," the stout woman replied, "Come on Asuna, your father is expecting us home soon."

"Eh?" Asuna exclaimed. He thought that his father was on a mission. "But we want to keep on playing." He was sure that something was wrong if his mother was forgoing a laid out schedule, his mother liked to micro manage things.

"Come on, Kirito," Yayoi ordered with a fake smile, "I think it's time for us to leave as well." Kirito sighed and shrugged before he started climbing down. The others soon followed suit and the play structure was soon empty of children except the blond one.

"Bye, Naruto," Asuna called back as the group's mothers marched their children away from the park. The blond, Naruto apparently, smiled and waved out to them as they turned a corner and disappeared from his sight.

"Asuna," the boy's mother chastised her son before speaking to the entire group. "I don't want you to play with that boy anymore." She commanded as the other mothers nodded in agreement to their own child.

Asuna tilted his head and blinked at his mom, confused as to why she had said that. Asuna had problems with getting along with the other dim children his own age. His mother at first had to all but force him to be friends with Hiroshi and Kirito.

"But why?" Kirito asked the question on all their minds. Naruto had been a little shy and weird at first but his enthusiasm had been honest and funny, so they had warmed up to him quickly. He had even volunteered to fill the last roll in their game even though no one else wanted the girls part.

"He's a bad person," Hiroshi's mother informed them, thereby siding with her friend and causing the boys to jerk their heads around to look at her.

"He's not what he seems," The only woman who wasn't a mother in the group said as she shuddered. Using her Sharingan after being retired for four long years was starting to give her a headache.

Asuna frowned, there was something off about their mothers words, like they were trying to avoid telling them something. He didn't get why they were telling them to stay away but not telling them why apart from vague answers.

Instead of pressing for more answers now, he just sighed, "Troublesome."


Naruto watched as his new friends left with their own kaa-samas. He had originally come to this park because Kaa-sama had said this was a place where they could find easy cover from the weather and maybe some food. The park was large with thick bushes and towering trees that helped make the area feel like there was barrier in between it and the rest of the village even though it was surrounded by houses on all sides.

The leafy bushes according to Kaa-sama were great for keeping things warm since the crunchy brown leaves were great insoltater… insolater… they stayed warm. Smiling to himself, Naruto started running around the park, picking up leaf bunches by the armful.

Going back to the play area, he started dumping the collected material into the 'princess room' Hiroshi had shown him inside of the tower, making it warm for the night. The 'princess room' was a small space that could only be gotten into by first climbing up and into, then down to the ground of the tower and was small enough that he could lay curled up comfortably.

It took almost half an hour for him to completely fill the space in the play structure, but it would be worth it according to Kaa-sama when night came. Naruto gave a little cry of joy as the last handful of leaves was placed inside of the castle, Naruto's castle. He liked the sound of that.

Now it was time to find food. Jumping off the top of the play structure, something his mom said never to do when someone could see him, Naruto started hunting for something edible.


September 14th 56 VE

6:12 pm

Konohagakure was a village thrumming with emotion. All the Shinobi on the evening patrol could feel that something had disturbed the villagers, they just couldn't quite tell what. As the group of Chunin passed over the streets, roof hopping from one to the next, they saw little pockets of villagers gathering in stores that were usually only used to servicing Shinobi and in houses that were noted for their large rooms where people could gather and discuss things effectively.

"Something's up," the lead Chunin said, looking back at his subordinates for the mission. The group was made of Shinobi that would pass for civilians except for their Chunin flak jackets, under which they wore passably normal clothes. Combined with their dark hair and average features, the group could have been a group of friends out for a night on the town apart from the fact that they were jumping from building to building.

"Want one of us to hedge and go ask?" one of the smarter people in the eight-man patrol inquired.

"Hn," Lead agreed with a nod. It was in the center of the village, so it was most likely just some party that had invited far too many guests, but Lead couldn't think of anyone of note with a reason to celebrate today. The group landed on the top of a roof down the road from the meeting spot and one of his party hedged her clothes to look casual.

The group knew what to do. As their infiltrator, named Kiko, dropped to the ground and started walking towards the building, they moved forwards carefully keeping at least one person in line of sight. They weren't ANBU, so no one had code names, but their leader just had a tendency to ask to be referred to as lead when in charge. Kiko paused just long enough for her patrol to get situated before moving in to gossip with the people at the door.

After a solid minute of just talking and smiling, the apparent guards had become fast friends to the stranger they met just now and were willing to let her into their gathering. It wasn't as if they were doing anything wrong. A public service, that's what it was. The rest of the patrol stood on their respective guards, waiting for something to happen.

After ten minutes, their companion exited the building and walked down the street until she was out of sight. The patrol picked themselves up and moved to meet up with their member.

Realistically, there was no need for such over the top stealth, this was their own village after all, but it kept them in practice and accomplished their goals at the same time.

Their extra member was standing in a short, dead-end, alley just around the end of the street when the group landed around her.

"So, what's the news?" Lead asked.

"There's going to be a hunting expedition inside of the walls," Kiko said easily, "It's nothing that we need to get involved with, they're just enthusiastic about who will catch their elusive prey."

"What are they hunting?" Lead asked. It was a bit early for hunting since it was still early autumn, most animal would still have their summer fat instead of the girth most hunters liked on their prey.

"Foxes," Kiko answered with a smile. "Some mothers saw one in the park and they want to catch it themselves without Shinobi involvement. Sport and all that."

-{}-

Kyuubi no Yoko shivered in her little cage. Something was terrifyingly wrong, she could feel it. That in and of itself was a strange feeling, she was so used to being the cause of someone's fear that she had almost forgotten what it felt like to be afraid. She was on edge and needed to figure out why.

"Naruto," She called out to the mindscape.

'Ya?' Naruto responded, looking up from a berry bush in some other park than the one he had started looking in.

"You should start looking through the trees, there might be some late fruit left," Kyuubi said, knowing that that would take up most of his attention.

'Okay!' Naruto said obediently and started doing just that.

"Why am I afraid?" Kyuubi asked herself quietly enough that Naruto wouldn't hear her. "I might be stuck in Naruto, behind these bars," she started thinking out loud, "but I'm the Kyuubi no Yoko, nothing can even hurt me for long. I'm not even in danger of being hit thanks to this seal." Her eyes widened, "But Naruto is more than capable of getting hurt. Am I afraid for him?"

Sadly, there was a lot to fear for the child; People would attack him, the entire world want him one way or another, outsider humans would want to take her from him to empower their own village, but this village was supposed to have protection from that.

'At least until they send him out to die in battle using her power,' she snipped mentally before refocusing.

Inside humans on the other hand, were a much bigger threat to her kit. They were a lot closer and most of the 'protection' provided by the village was unreliable thanks to Madara making her attack on the village five years ago. Kyuubi paused and tilted her head.

'Why hadn't there been attacks already?' she asked herself. Sure, there had been that one man back when Naruto had been a baby, but there hadn't been any deliberate attempts to hurt

Naruto since then. Maybe the old monkey had been protecting her kit from afar? It would have been very easy for him to set up guards around the Orphanage to filter the people going in and with her senses diminished to what Naruto can hear, smell, see, and taste, she would have no way of knowing.

'He would want to look over his weapon,' she reasoned spitefully, but then how did the matron ever get her kit out of the Orphanage to begin with? Had she duped the other monkeys somehow? Either way it didn't matter, something was telling her that her kit was in danger.

"Naruto," she called out to the mindscape again.

'Ya?' Naruto responded just like he had before.

"We need to get back to the den," she ordered, searching the view of what her kit was seeing for danger.

-{}-

Naruto blinked and stopped staring up into the trees. Instead he tried to look inside of his own head, going cross eyed as he tried to talk to kaa-sama.

"Why? What's wrong?" he asked.

'Look forwards,' Kaa-sama snapped prompting Naruto to focus forwards instead of cross-eyed. 'We need to get back to the den because there is something wrong,' Kaa-sama explained to her kit, 'I don't know what it is but something is wrong. I can feel it in my tails and you can always trust your tails. Take what we've got and let's get back.'

"O-kay," Naruto said slowly, drawing out the word in confusion. The pile of 'what we've got' was only a handful of berries and a few mushrooms. He had enough for tonight, but that was it. Kyuubi looked at the little gathering. On one hand, it was enough for now, but the other hand mentioned that it was also autumn. Food would be harder to find as winter started coming, so tomorrow would also have to be spent looking for food.

It would have to do for now, her instincts were telling her run home now or it would be too late.

Naruto wrapped his berries in a little pouch made from his shirt, stuffed the mushrooms in his mouth and started walking. The sun would be going down in an hour anyway, it would be too dark to search for food soon.


September 14th 56 VE

6:34 pm

People moved around the mob like agitated ants. The group, despite its status as a mob, was a well put together machine of organized people. The main body of the mob was moving in a group around the center of the village in groups of five or six, looking like any other group of young adults walking on the streets at early evening time, but they kept their eyes out for the Fox and another on the other groups just in case they saw it first.

The others parts, however, were moving far and wide around the village in groups of two or three. They were the scouts that were actively hunting down the Fox. The 'leaders' of this large group, about a hundred active hunters all told, were very happy with their strategist for suggesting the formation.

It provided quick results. A person ran up to the leaders group.

"We saw it," the excited man said as soon as he was close enough.

"Where?" the head of the five joint leaders asked, a smile gracing his face.

"One of the side streets," the 'scout' told them excitedly, "This way, Morino is watching him."

"Good," the head of the group nodded before giving a signal to the other groups around him to follow. As they started moving in one direction, the man giving the orders fell in with another part of the mob. "Thank you for the organization tips, Kiko. Now we can punish the monster for that night," he said as he passed by one of the woman in that party.

"You're welcome," the Chunin said with an easy smile.

-{}-

Naruto wasn't looking in their direction.

Consequently, Kyuubi didn't see them.

The child was tiredly walking down a nearly empty road, hold a fist full of berries and about three blocks from the park where his den was located when someone put their hand on his shoulder. Naruto jumped, turned, and looked up to see what had seized him.

He was an old man, maybe in his fifties to sixties, his clothes well made and looked comfortable for work clothes. His shirt was made from thick cotton and was a deep blue color, his pants were brown canvas with large pockets.

As Naruto took in the man and the man looked Naruto over, groups of about five people per cluster started coming out of roads and spaces between buildings to form a circle around the two.

The man was smiling at Naruto. However, it didn't put Naruto at ease, the stretched lips and rows of teeth peeking out from in between them did nothing to hide the scary look in the man's eyes.

"Hello there… kid," he greeted, grinding out what age group Naruto was as if the word was poison, "What are you doing out here so late at night?"

"I, ah, I'm, heading home," Naruto said, getting scared.

"Ah, I see," the man replied with a nod. The crowd that Naruto was just now noticing gathering around them let out a laugh as the man spoke. "Where is home for someone like you? A building with a loving mother and father? Fellow children? Maybe a sister and brother to play tag with?"

"No," Naruto said softly. He was officially frightened now.

"That's right," the man dropped the smile, his hand clenched tightly on Naruto's shoulder causing him to jump and squawk in surprise at the pain, "because you live in hell, just like all the other demons."

'RUN NARUTO!" Kaa-sama shouted in the boy's head.

Naruto squirmed in the man's painful grip, surprisingly the man let go of him as he managed to pull away. However, the man had added a push that sent Naruto face first onto the ground.

Pushing himself up, Naruto found himself facing the way he had been walking before the man had stopped him.

The road had been filled by the mob by this point. They were standing in a circle with an open space of about fifteen feet in the middle, the crowd around him was about three people deep at its thinnest spot and almost seven at its thickest.

"You live in the dirt with the rest of the filth," the man said, pulling out a dented and dirty shovel from behind his back, his knuckles white from the pressure of gripping the crude tool. "We, as good citizens of Konohagakure, should help you go back to where you came from monster."

One issue with living in a Shinobi village; there are a lot of sharp things stockpiled. Almost everyone in the crowd held something sharp, from old Kunai to shovels, kitchen knives, and other household commodities. About a twenty people had forgone their wit entirely and held sharpened sticks that were leveled at him in case he tried to run towards them. Naruto paled as they all looked at him with almost hungry eyes.

"Get him," the man ordered in a sickeningly happy tone. At first, only five guys had the nerve to follow the man's order. They were armed with broken bottles and crude clubs. Naruto tried backing up away from them since they all came from behind the first man. His face was frozen in panic as they charged.

"AAH-!" Naruto suddenly found his voice and started to scream but was cut off by the first man cracking him across the face with his bottle. To their credit, the crowd seemed a little perturbed watching what looked like an adult male smashing a bottle across the face of a child. But, they were just as quick to remind themselves that that thing wasn't a child. This was the Nine Tailed Fox Demon that had destroyed the village five years ago; it was being punished, not beaten. As the first five moved in and obscured the scene, they started gathering their nerves for their turn.

After ten minutes or so, some of the men pulled back to catch their breath and survey their handiwork. They hadn't broken any skin, but they didn't need to. This part was about breaking bones.

Naruto's right arm was limp in the ground, bending at a spot that simply wasn't natural for the human body. Naruto was laid out on the ground, gasping for breath as he tried to not move. His unbroken arm was brought up and around his head while his knees were pressed against his chest in a fetal position.

"A-are you sure this is a good idea?" a young mother in the crowd asked in the lull. She could almost see her children in the way the boy was helplessly sprawled out.

"Yes!" one of the beaters said harshly and emphasized his words with a kick to the Fox as adrenaline coursed through him, "This will bring our loved ones back to life! Look at it, it's already releasing its unnatural powers," he prodded Naruto with his toe before grinning triumphantly, "Its arms already healed."

Not a single person in the crowd who had even a basic knowledge of Chakra was willing to correct the man about the 'unnatural powers', they were to happy to have another reason to push the crowd to kill the fox.

The crowd all focused on the boy, trying to see if it was true. The Fox's right arm had been snapped in two by the men when Naruto had curled up to protect himself and they had started to hit about the same area in unison. The people watching gasped as a faint red glow accompanied a whimper of pain from the boy and the bone seemed to reset itself.

The shouter laughed and stomped on the newly healed arm, breaking it again and shouted over Naruto's scream, "Can there be any doubt that this is the Fox? It uses the beast's' own powers." Stupid civilians and revenge blinded Chunin. The crowd bought the logic the adrenaline addled man was preaching and swallowed their remaining hesitations before large groups started scrambling forwards to get a piece of the action.


September 14th 56 VE

9:41 pm

The one saving grace for Naruto that day was that it had started to rain.

The members of the crowd who had drew first blood were the first to notice. They were standing on the side lines to cool off as they let others in the mob got a good swing or two in. To outside observers, the mass of people looked like a festering pile of maggots wriggling over the best part of the rotting flesh.

Back on the edge, the three men and one woman looked up as the first fat drops started falling on them.

"Hey," the woman called loudly, "It's getting dark and looks like rain, do you think that'll finish the Fox off?" The mob, except those currently hitting the now mangled boy, paused and took a step back. The fevered frenzy that had clouded their minds and eyes was beginning to drain from them as they paused to look around for the first time in hours.

After a minute, those currently hitting Naruto also took a little break as well as they wondered if exposure would kill him.

The unofficial leader narrowed his eyes at the sky and then down at the pitiful monster. "I think that he won't survive the night," he decided with a satisfied smirk.

Naruto looked like he had been put in a blender. Both of his arms were broken, the left at the forearm and shoulder, while his right wrist laid flat against the back of his forearm. His shirt was torn to pieces and his torso was marked with almost innumerable slashes. Even worse, his belly looks flat and watery, as if his ribs had been broken to the point that they didn't define his chest anymore.

Legs were relatively unaffected, just broken at the knee on his right and his foot had been smashed to pieces on his left. It also looked like someone from the 'spear stick' line had broken his/her weapon by stabbing him in the thigh and leaving the tip in his flesh. The one aspect that had been utterly destroyed, however, was his face.

The crowd had worked his face over as thoroughly as a rancher would on a horse's coat. The jaw that had been broken before was now shattered, a piece of his mandible was sticking out of his flesh and into the boy's mouth. Cheeks and soft tissue were cut and an ear lay about three inches from his body.

Naruto's brow line was broken and his skull was fractured. A miracle had saved Naruto's eyes though they were dim; his pupils two different sizes, and one seemed to be misshapen by the broken bones around the eye, but they were still there.

For some reason, the one person who had cut at Naruto's neck hadn't managed to kill him, just leave a slash mark that touched on vocal cords before being given the highest priority and being healed. The mob had left the neck alone after that.

The leader looked down as rain started falling on the demon. Blood was thick on the ground and the shifting of so many feet in so little time had shifted the dirt road under him, creating 'mud' from the liquids coming out of the child-sized creature. Idly, the leader noticed that the Fox also bled red and pissed like anyone else while trapped in that form.

The red energy that the mob had noticed before was slowly stitching the soon to be carcass back together, but it was a thin stream of energy that would probably only sustain the things life for a few hours out in the autumn air and the freezing rain.

"I think we can relax," the Leader declared to all those assembled in resounding voice, "The elements will strike the final blow for us."

The crowd looked at each other reluctantly, as the rage left they felt just a little guilty about what they had done and something told them they shouldn't have been there. However the human mind is very good at ignoring things that it doesn't want to think about and they put the guilt out of their thoughts.

Giving those around them a tense nod, to assure themselves, they started to disperse, a few took the needed time to hide the blood flecking their arms and clothes. Soon, the entire area was devoid of people except for the one on the ground and the leader.

"I really don't have much time, the village patrols will be here in about half an hour, so please die quickly," the man said to the boy. The child just sucked air through his ruined mouth and tried to not suck down too much blood with every gasp.

"You took everything from me five years ago, you know that?" the man spoke as if he had all the time in the world, despite what he had said a moment ago. "Not just the night that you crashed your way through our village, but later you took my son from me." The man leaned to one side, shifting all his weight onto his right leg.

"He still hasn't woken up from whatever you did to him," the man started to tear up as he saw his son and granddaughter in his mind's eye.

"I'm not one of those that people that think that we'll get our families back by killing you." It had been easy to form the mob and getting what he wanted by letting them believe that lie. "I know that the dead can't come back, but now my son might just wake up." The man's voice was desperate, he had exhausted every other method of helping his son he could think of and now was grasping at straws.

The two people just remained there for a moment. Locked in silence as one tried to reaffirm the logic he had accepted when he had started this, the other just trying to take one breath after the next. Letting out a sigh, the man turned to leave.

"I hope you can find forgiveness," he said over his shoulder, noticing that tears were starting to fall from the blonde's cheeks, "I guess even monsters like you can feel some remorse."

Naruto heard every word the man had said, and he cried…

Out of rage.

As he struggled just to keep living, he kept shouting in his bruised and battered mind, 'IF I'M A MONSTER THEN WHAT ARE YOU?! WHAT KIND OF PERSON DOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS!?'

What had he done to cause so much hate? What could possibly cause everyone to want to hurt someone like him as much as they had just done? Why? Tears stung the gashes on his cheeks as they fell, causing them to burn as they reacted with the open wounds but he couldn't stop them. He hated them so much. No answer came as the rain started to come down in ice buckets.

-{}-

"Naruto?" Kaa-sama's uneasy voice reached towards Naruto as he lay on the ground. The rain was coming down as if the heavens also wanted to scrub the boy from the ground.

"Naruto?" Kaa-sama's voice was scared. The room that was his mind was dark, and she hadn't been able to get anything out of her kit for the last ten minutes.

"NARUTO! Please, answer me."

'They hate me,' Naruto's mental voice was tired and sounded like it was on the brink of fading.

Kyuubi closed her eyes against the tears of relief and pain that threatened to fall.

"Yes, they do. It's all the red-eyed one's fault," she said bitterly.

'WHY!?' Naruto's voice caught Kyuubi off guard with the intensity it demanded of her compared to how weak it was a second ago. The Fox shivered. She didn't want to talk about the night of her kit's birth, but he needed to know, he was desperate and she knew in her bones that Naruto would keep on asking until she gave later.

"A red-eyed person used me to attack the village," Kyuubi admitted, "He placed me in a Genjutsu that caused me to destroy a large portion of the village. Those animals were the people who had lost family during my 'rampage', they want to hurt me and they think that they are doing that by doing this to you."

Naruto was silent as he digested the reason for his pain. Kyuubi looked around the mindscape, trying to find any hint of Naruto's thoughts. The problem was that Naruto wasn't thinking, he was letting his feelings talk for him, examining himself for an answer to how he felt about this. After what felt like an eternity to the Fox, Naruto spoke in a quiet, hushed tone, 'I hate them, these villagers, that red eyed man, I hate them all.'

"I agree, kit," was all that Kyuubi could say to that.

'Hey, Kaa-sama,' Naruto said to get her attention.

"Yes Naruto?" she answered.

'Can you heal me? Like you did when my jaw was broken last… wasn't that just this morning?' Her kit's words were halting and he sounded like he was fighting a wave of pain again, it was getting to be too much for him just to talk. She started to feel him fading, into unconsciousness or death she didn't know.

"NARUTO! DON'T GO TO SLEEP!" she shouted the time-honored phrase normally reserved for the battlefield.

'But I'm tired,' Naruto replied, sounding weaker, 'and it's, cold.' Kyuubi looked around, trying to think of something she could do to save her fading kit. Her eyes landed on the bars of her prison.

she was afraid of them, she realized. During her musing earlier she had touched a bit on how she feared them. They were the physical representation of her seal and she had no way of knowing what they did. Already she had lost a tail to them and it hadn't grown back with her replenishing chakra.

She had lost a lot of power when her tail had vanished into them and she couldn't even feel where it had gone. However, her kit had been healed by her giving up a tail. Would it work again? Did her power go somewhere other than into her kit?

She really didn't have the time to answer any of these questions or to look of other options.

Kyuubi closed her eyes, swishing her tails around as much as she could in the confined space. The fox felt every hair on her beautiful tail shift as she swiped them through the air, before she plunged one into the bar in front of her. Immediately there was a disturbingly familiar sucking feeling, causing the Kyuubi to shake with disgust as her tail disappeared into the bar.

-{}-

In real life, the sudden influx of Chakra caused Naruto to audibly gurgled through the pain. A cloak of red energy exploded from the boy, looking like a beacon of red in the darkening night and causing the rain that hit it to sizzle. Under his skin, bones and their respective fragments vibrated and moved back into position, starting with the ribs surrounding the boy's lungs. As the power started to ebb, Naruto could breathe a little easier, but he was just as immobile as ever. The mob had done everything in their power to physically break him.

-{}-

Kyuubi breathed slowly as the strange sensation of pulling increased. She could tell that Naruto still wasn't going to be alright if she didn't put a little more into it. Sucking in a quick breath, Kyuubi pushed another tail into the malicious bar. Naruto could actually cry out this time as his skull healed and his mandible was pulled back into his skin.

Finally, Kyuubi felt like Naruto was healthy enough to get up and make it back to the den.

Leaning away from the cell walls, Kyuubi found that she couldn't pull her tails back to her body.

Jerking her head around, Kyuubi found her tails vanishing into the bar faster than before. Digging her feet into the floor underneath her body, Kyuubi strained to pull herself away from the bars.

It didn't work and she started sliding backwards. Panicking, Kyuubi threw her tail forwards and latched onto a bar on the far side. That tail started to vanish like the other two and it jerked her forwards as her tails pulled her in two different directions.

Capitalizing on this, Kyuubi gave one more push and managed to pull herself away from where her tails had been vanishing. She collapsed onto the ground in an undignified heap before jerking to her feet and quickly jerking away from the wall where her single tail had been disappearing. Finally, free from the horrible wall, the fox stopped to examine the damage. Her blood ran cold as she saw only five tails waving back at her.

"Naruto?" She called. If Naruto made it through the night then it would be worth it, "Naruto?!"

'I'm here,' Naruto answered. His voice was strange, it sounded a lot more like a gravely teen then a child's voice it had been before.

Kyuubi frowned as she worried, 'Did his voice not recover from the slash?' she thought. Permanent injuries were a rare thing on Jinchuurikis, but with the amount of damage inflicted on him just now, it was to be expected.

"Can you stand?" she asked her kit, relief and sadness evident in her voice, but both were restrained until she got her answer and she could relax.

'I think so, but it hurts.' That answer would work for now, at least until they got back to the den.

"Please try to stand, we need to get back to the den to sleep. That much energy being used at once will leave you too tired to wake up in the morning," she said gently. 'That, and you need to sleep to process what just happened,' she continued mentally. She wasn't a psychologist, but she knew that everyone needed time to process after an event like that.

Clenching his eyes tightly, Naruto slowly sat up trying not to jostle any of his remaining cuts. Looking down, he found that while his bones were healed, none of the cuts, bruises, or shrapnel wounds were gone.

"Gah!" Rolling over was an extremely painful thing to do, but Naruto managed it and pushed himself up onto his feet. Taking one shaky step, Naruto paused and pulled a piece of broken glass out of his hip. As he continued to discourage various shrapnel from causing him further pain, Naruto started walking back towards his den.


I didn't like writing lots of this chapter for obvious reasons.

So responses.

Guest: It goes down before getting better.

edo123456: I was thinking about one OP ability but that's it, suggestions on what that might be are welcome

Airog: Mokuton is a kekkei genkai right? If so then no.

Guest: I don't think that Narutos sister would be arrogant, naive and proud, borderline arrogant, yes but she has been humbled during her life.

Guest: Pairing has not been determined. I would suggest you wait a bit and let me write my version of people before choosing who you root for.

Random Guest: Thank you for your advice on the proper way to call Naruto Kyuubis son. I honestly don't know Japanese enough to correct it myself.

DaMonkMan: Fixed "fix whiskers".

Streema: Getting back with the Namizaki family depends on what Naruto thinks of them, right now those thoughts are exceptionally low.

Azaira: Thank you.