Former Fox of Leaves
A Naruto Fanfiction
There were no other shinobi invaders besides the ones that he'd already gotten rid of. He was almost disappointed.
Almost.
Of course now he had another dilemma, that being, how he was going to get rid of the corpses. He wasn't supposed to go outside but neither was his companion around to move them out of his dark little space of existence.
He didn't mind the stains that'd be left, it wasn't as if there was light to even see them anyway, but the corpses would start to smell before long. The ones that had been charred by paper bombs were already reeking up that section of hallway.
He sighed and rested his head over his forearm just on the edge of his ledge, bored and agitated.
"How much longer is he gonna be gone, anyway? It seems like forever ago," he spoke aloud, seemingly only to the emptiness of the room. Silence followed his question before he growled softly and lifted his head. "Well? How long, do you think?"
"Don't ask me, kit. It's not like I keep his calendar," a deep, rumbling voice answered only to his ears, a voice no other could hear.
The kid huffed in annoyance and rolled onto his back, letting his head hang backwards over the edge. "Well…how long has he been gone so far?"
"You know I can't tell one day from the next or the passing of time down here," Kyuubi rumbled, sounding equally annoyed. "Day, night, yesterday, tomorrow, it's as much a mystery to me."
Naruto only hummed and closed his eyes, though nothing seemed to change around him with the complete lack of light to this place. "I hope he comes back soon. I don't want to have to smell corpses when I'm trying to sleep."
"And I don't want to listen to you rambling when I'M trying to sleep," Kyuubi growled, giving the impression of batting his tails in annoyance.
"Sorry, Kyuubi…" Naruto mumbled, once again restlessly changing positions, laying on his side now. "I'll just be quiet now." The beast only harrumphed at him before pitching them both into silence. Kyuubi was always in some sort of foul mood, but some days were worse than others.
Some days the fox actually seemed almost eager to talk to him, and it wasn't as though the boy had anyone else to talk to himself. Friends weren't exactly a luxury he had ever been fortunate enough to have. Obviously Kyuubi wasn't in a very talkative mood today though.
He sighed and closed his eyes. Maybe if Tobi returned he'd have someone to talk to. The masked man wasn't exactly the most talkative all the time either but it was better than this depressing isolation.
Besides, he didn't like these Leaf shinobi knowing where he was and trying to hunt him down. Maybe it was time to discuss moving to one of the other hideouts again.
"Oi, brat!"
"Hm? What is it?"
"Don't bother wasting your energy waiting up, you know how long that guy can take to make his appearances. You sleep too."
Naruto hummed softly, at first not moving before he deftly snatched up his pillow and nestled against it. "I guess. Maybe he'll be back by the time I wake up, you think?"
"Hmph, I can only hope so. Waiting around here is too dull. Those Leaf ninja are the only real action we've seen in a while."
"Maybe…but I wish they'd just leave us alone." Naruto mumbled into his pillow, hesitating to speak what was on his mind for several moments. "Kyuubi…do you think I could've had friends…if I stayed back at the village?" he asked somewhat mournfully.
For a long time the fox was completely silent, before huffing irritably. "Just shut up and go to sleep, brat. I told you to stop talking."
"Sorry," Naruto apologized again, sleep not long to claim him, already having forgotten his earlier complaints about sleeping with the smell of corpses around.
Naruto mumbled incoherently to himself even as his awareness crept back, splayed and idly scratching his stomach. He'd managed to keep his pillow beneath his head though now it was wet with drool, and his shirt had crept halfway up towards his head while he'd been sleeping.
He groaned softly and lifted his head, not bothering to open heavy eyelids just yet. It hardly mattered since his place was completely dark beyond anyone's ability to see anyway. Groggily and still not quite awake, he moved to crawl out of his sleeping place and unceremoniously toppled to the floor, letting out a whine of pain.
"…ooowww…damn it…that really hurt," he complained, rubbing his head. He took a second to recover before standing up with a grumble, walking forward carefully. He reached the spot where the body should have been but his foot didn't touch anything.
He tilted his head in question and felt around, continuing to walk forward, but it had disappeared.
"Hey…the body's gone…that means Tobi must be back." he thought aloud, making his way down the hall. The other body that had been run through by one of his many traps had disappeared too, and the two that had been burned into crisps.
After a brief walk he spied dim firelight ahead in one of the various chambers, keeping his guard up just in case but not terribly worried about more enemies. When he finally emerged he was greeted by a tall, black-clad figure that was familiar to him, a poof of unruly black hair pushed up by the red swirl-shaped mask that adorned his face.
The man was alert to Naruto's presence immediately and turned to face him, one red Sharingan eye peering at him from the single eye-hole.
"You're finally back. Just where the heck have you been all this time?" Naruto demanded petulantly, offering up a slight glare through intense blue eyes.
"Oh, you know me! Always busy, doing things that need to be done! But it's so nice that I was missed! I missed you too, y'know?" Tobi offered up in a ridiculous, rambling, hyperactive voice that sounded like it belonged to a cartoon character.
Naruto closed his eyes with a frown. It was obnoxious even by his standards, and that was saying something. Or at least saying something compared to how obnoxious he once tried to make himself out to be, though he'd fervently argue he wasn't that annoying brat that only pulled pranks and caused trouble to get attention.
Tobi was the first one to acknowledge him even when he didn't cause trouble, and even took him seriously enough to train him to be a better ninja, instead of just blow him off like the adults in the village had, so it hadn't been as necessary to go out of his way to cause trouble.
"You can drop the voice and the acting, ya know. I'm not a little kid anymore."
"Heh, sorry, it's become a habit I guess," the man returned in a more serious, natural voice. "You look annoyed."
"Some of those stupid Leaf ninja managed to break in here again while you were gone, ya know. It was troublesome."
"I'm well aware of that." Tobi returned, pausing before he added, "Well…what I mean to say is that it became relatively obvious by the bodies. You seem to have handled it quite nicely though. It's quite impressive you were able to handle four Jounin so easily."
"Well of course. I mean, I have something they don't, after all." Naruto reminded. "They never even think I can use Kyuubi's power when they come after me, so it's not exactly hard to catch them by surprise."
"That is true…" Tobi agreed. "However, don't get too confident. It's been easy up to this point, but don't take the Leaf too lightly. Eventually they'll send someone a lot harder to handle than those you've faced so far."
"Heh. He says that as if he actually thinks the Leaf village can take me," Kyuubi scoffed indignantly.
"I'm not too worried. And anyway, if they know where I am, shouldn't we move to one of the other locations or something?" Naruto suggested.
"I thought you said you weren't worried?" Tobi questioned with a note to his voice that might have been amusement.
"I'm not worried, but it's irritating. Those bastards from the village did nothing but yell at me to go away, but when I do they all come after me instead of leaving me alone. I left to get away from them! I just want them to leave me alone and stop hating me!"
"I'm afraid that making them stop hating you won't be so easy as to simply go into hiding." Tobi stated seriously, maybe even with a touch of understanding to his voice, unless Naruto was mistaken. "People aren't able to let go of their hatred so easily. The fact that you even live and exist in this world is enough to kindle their fear and anger towards you. At least, with the world as it is now, but as I promised you before, we're going to change that."
"Yeah…but how? I mean…I've done what you've asked and trained really hard, every day! I've gotten really strong and even figured out how to tap into Kyuubi's power, but all I've done is hide underground, not doing anything to change things, not going anywhere, moving from one hideout to the next whenever the Leaf shinobi find out where I am and come after me. What am I supposed to accomplish always hiding like this, not allowed to leave but not allowed to just be left alone either? It's so frustrating!" The blond ranted, a hint of desperation and longing in both his tone and eyes.
"Patience. You won't have to hide much longer. All of this hiding and training in secret has been for the sheer purpose of preparing you for the real shinobi world. Before, you were too easy of a target if anyone figured out who you were, so it was necessary."
"I know that…" Naruto mumbled reluctantly, looking kicked. "…but…"
"Before, you lacked the skills necessary to deal with other shinobi that would be out searching for you, so it was important for you to hone your abilities without the risk of being spotted and taken back, or killed. Since then, you've progressed well, and although it has been the cause of some trouble for us, those few instances where the Leaf village located you and tried to come after you turned out to be a little bonus to help you further hone those skills for true combat. Yes, it won't be long now before we can begin our plan…"
Naruto perked curiously, somewhat distracted from his sorrow and frustrations. "You mentioned that before…but I still don't know what this plan of yours is."
"I thought it better not to mention the details before, in case it would become a distraction to your training, though I think it would be best if you didn't know just yet."
"And why's that?" Naruto demanded, scowling.
"Just think about it. Your greatest weakness is in the execution and combatting of Genjutsu. If, for some reason, one of the major village's managed to somehow capture you, for instance, and interrogate you, there's a risk that knowing too much could give the enemy information and get in the way of our plan towards erasing this hate and pain, even if you don't willingly give it to them."
"I guess I see your point…" Naruto muttered reluctantly. "You can't tell me anything about what this plan is?"
"Well, it is necessary for me to tell you this much. Do you have any knowledge of what the Tailed Beasts and Jinchuriki are?"
Naruto blinked and tilted his head in confusion. "Tailed Beasts, and Jinchuriki?"
"Tailed Beasts are powerful beings like myself, brat, and Jinchuriki are the ones who have us sealed inside them, like you."
"You mean…there are others like me?" he questioned aloud. Tobi didn't seem to think the slight shift in his confusion, or that he suddenly knew what those terms meant despite never having explained them to the boy, were anything unusual.
He knew that Naruto could converse with the nine-tails, having been the one to help the boy reach that point, and since no one else was ever around to judge him Naruto had gotten into the habit of talking to it out loud and fully in the open.
"Yes, including you, there are nine in total," Tobi confirmed. "Well…to be more exact, there are nine Tailed Beasts, the Bijuu. However, not every Bijuu has a Jinchuriki. At least not always. As their hosts die in one way or another, sometimes they are revived free of being sealed, and other times, they are sealed into a new host. The Kyuubi has already had two hosts before you."
"Really?" Naruto questioned, actually somewhat shocked by this. He'd always assumed he was the only one it had ever happened to, though he couldn't help but feel a strange sort of vibe emanating from Kyuubi. "Who were the others?"
"Neither of them are people you would know, so it isn't really worth mentioning. After all, it's because the previous hosts died that it was then sealed into you."
"Oh…I guess that's true." Naruto deadpanned. Still, he got a strange feeling that there was something more to it he wasn't grasping. "Anyway, what about these other Jinchuriki you were talking about?"
"In order to carry out our plans, we'll need a great amount of power. Only then can we make everyone else within the shinobi world see their faults, and make a newly realized world where hate, and pain, and loss no longer exist. They will be erased from this world, so that only good things like love, understanding, and gain exist in this world. In order to accomplish this, we'll need all nine Bijuu."
"I see…" Naruto hummed, not really having any more answers than before, and not really fully understanding all of it, but he figured he was beginning to understand what their goal was going to be.
"In every village, Jinchuriki are treated the same as you were. They are shunned, and viewed with fear and hatred. Some may come willingly, others might not. I already have other allies working on trying to find and bring the Jinchuriki to our cause, but I want you to help as well."
"And what about the ones that don't want to help us?" Naruto asked, not sure he wanted to know the answer.
"Then we may have to capture them by force, but we won't kill them. It's important that we keep them alive. They are…invaluable, after all."
Naruto only hummed thoughtfully before lowering his gaze, not sure if he'd really be able to carry through on that. Surely…those other Jinchuriki…they must understand how he felt too, right? Perhaps they were even people that he could become friends with.
People that wouldn't hate him for what he held inside of him…
"I know that the very thought of having to fight one of your own must be unpleasant for you," Tobi sympathized. "But when all is said and done, it will be worth it in the end. When the world I envision is finally created, you'll no longer have to worry about being hated. No one will look at you, a Jinchuriki, with hate or fear again."
Naruto was still reluctant, but he nodded his head none the less. If that's what it took to live in a world where he wasn't looked upon as a monster, for what others had forced upon him, then he'd definitely see to it that Tobi's plan succeeded.