Disclaimer: I don't own anything, like, at all. Nothing. Not even this fanfiction! - no wait, I own that, nevermind..


Every muscle in Kakashi's body tensed unexpectedly as the feeling of dread washed over him, momentarily freezing his diaphragms current action, as his breath caught before it even began. The feeling was almost akin to that of a spider crawling on the back of his neck, or a ghostly hand slipping around his heart. So ominous and hateful.

So unmistakeable.

That chakra was unmistakeable.

Quickly slipping back into reality, the ANBU's sharingan eye curiously swirled as it analysed a number of rapidly expanding red chakra clouds wafting several hundred metres away, just above the tree line. That was no doubt the chakra of the Kyuubi. Such a feeling could not easily be forgotten in five short years. Something was most definitely wrong; was the kidnapper planning to release the Kyuubi? Had they already done this, broken the seal? Or was it Naruto himself channelling such a thick, vile chakra? A feat that was by all means, meant to be impossible. Kakashi had personally looked over the files multiple times, Naruto would likely never unlock his chakra, and for good reason too, as doing so would either cause the seal to fail, and the beast to be released, or the seal to weaken dramatically, allowing the beast to break out at it's convenience. Either way, Kakashi decided it would be best to get to the point the chakra was wafting around now, and as such increased his speed further. A shrill cry of pain echoing throughout the forest only cemented his idea as he rounded in on the noise.

Not needing another hint, he started moulding his chakra for the signature technique of the feared Reiketsu no Kakashi. Darting forward, without so much as taking another glance at the scene, he powered through the seals: Ox → Rabbit → Monkey, with the practiced ease that only he would likely ever have, setting his hand alight with the crackling electricity that made its namesake.

Making it to the clearing, Kakashi left the trees with one strong chakra powered push, propelling him into the air and towards his target in a parabolic arc.


Naruto trembled further, as the sound of a million birds shrieking pierced his ears harshly. The black silhouette didn't seem to notice that, or the bright light, he vaguely thought, before it exploded in a shower of red. Large globules of warm sticky liquid spat out of the silhouette in a grotesque manner, spraying themselves onto the young catatonic blond.

'Help me.' The man's face clearly said among the shock and pain, as the kunai awkwardly slipped out of his hand, leaving fingers outstretched towards Naruto.

Almost as if he was trying to grasp something intangible.

Naruto stood unresponsive watching as the stream of fluid slowly came to a trickle before finally stopping, but not without the occasional gurgling groan or cry. Upon stopping, the light removed itself from the chest of the figure before extinguishing itself, leaving the figure to fall to the side rather ungracefully.

Dead.

"Shit…" he heard a voice mumble from a previously unnoticed form. The voice seemed distant and detached to Naruto – as if he were underwater.

The unfocused form reached up to throw a chillingly, bone white mask off, revealing an equally unfocused face. Deep in the back of his mind he vaguely wondered why everything was out of focus and blurry.

The form made a brisk pace to the unmoving child, bending down upon his arrival to look the blonde in the eye.

"DON'T YOU EVEN DARE YOU FLITHY NINGEN!" a voice rang out from within his own head, oddly enough.

The voice sounded very angry. Perhaps the form in front of him should listen.

A red eye, speckled with black, came into focus from the form in front of him, swirling ominously as it seemed to encompass his vision.

"DAMN IT ALL! KEEP THAT SQUALID EYE AWAY FROM ME AND MY CHILD YOU..." The voice seemed to become even more distant as he drifted out of consciousness, only hearing mumbled fragments.

"…make sure you regret…control!"

"…eye…tear…apart…rend…from bones…"

"…fuck!..."

Soon, even that disappeared, leaving him with image of a red spotted eye, and the blissful ignorance of unconsciousness.


"Shit…" Kakashi mumbled, he hadn't thought before he acted, and now the child before him was left trembling in a catatonic state, covered with splatters of fresh blood. Swiftly walking up to the boy, he tossed his mask off to better reveal his sharingan eye, before crouching down in front of his late sensei's son.

Perhaps it was because he had never interacted with the boy on a physical level before, but Kakashi could have sworn he looked different; perhaps it was because the hair was a shade or two closer toward an orange colour then he remembered?

Perhaps it was because the whisker marks he bore were ever so slightly more pronounced then before?

Or perhaps it was the red slitted look his left eye had taken on – complete with an almost unnoticeably thin black lining?

Yes that was it.

He would have to cover that up before they went back to the village.

Then sit through a very long report/lecture to/from Hokage-sama.


The first thing he noticed was the warm darkness surrounding him.

The next thing he noticed was that his eyes were in fact closed. That probably explained the darkness.

Naruto blearily opened, his eyes, replacing the black with a sea of dimly lit orange. Perhaps he was still seeing funny? Checking, he stirred a little, raising his small fists to rub his eyes.

"You're up, huh gaki." A bored voice, he instantly recognised as Mr Kyuubi-san's, said, "Was wondering how long you were sit around sleeping for."

Mr Kyuubi-san seemed very disinterested, Naruto noted, which didn't really match with the tail that was gently keeping him leaned against Mr Kyuubi-san, but Naruto wasn't really in the mood to question it.

"..Mr Kyuubi-san? What happened?" He asked, as he tried to piece together what happened.

The fox looked down with scowl marring his face, and malice easily visible, in his eyes, at the young child.

However, the young child knew the fox to be more hateful in the past, and that the fox would not hurt him, so gave it no heed.

"That blasted human attempted to steal away your memories," To which the large fox let off a rumble of restrained anger at the mere mention, "I managed to stop him."

Naruto jolted, as if shocked, as the image of a man wearing a bone white mask came to mind, his hand encased with light as it erupted from another man's chest in a spray of red. It was just a flash, but with it came all his memories of the event.

Colour rapidly drained from the boy's skin as he grabbed handfuls of orange fur, and buried himself in it, seemingly trying to hide himself from the world. To which the fox slightly flinched away at. The fox looked like he wanted to perhaps say something, but didn't have to necessary words to do so. For all his immense knowledge, he couldn't know every single word in existence – Kurama reasoned.

After all, words weren't really his strong point.

"..Mr Kyuubi-san..." a small voice started, "..That man, he's dead, right?"

"Yes." Was the simple response.

"I know it's bad," the blond said, "But I'm happy he's dead Mr Kyuubi-san…"

"And so am I."

"…I don't like killing though." He said, pressing himself deeper into the sea of orange.

"" The fox said nothing, and a pause ensued, where the child looked to be internally debating something.

"Hey, Mr Kyuubi-san…" He asked again, sombrely, "You killed a bunch of guys before, right?"

The fox again said nothing, only giving a curt nod, as that pesky feeling that had recently been troubling him, had returned in full force.

"Were-… were they all that scary..?"

"Only some." Kurama replied truthfully, without an ounce of his traditional vicious attitude.


Not a sound was made as the two sat together, the blond in out of character contemplation, the fox with the outwards appearance of, perhaps disinterest?

"…Mr Kyuubi-san?" The blond shyly asked.

"What now?"

"Umm… Could-.. could I, call you 'tousan,' just once?" It sounded more like a desperate plea than a question, to the fox.

The feared nine tailed fox looked off into the inky blackness of the flooded basement for a moment, as if observing something that was no longer visible, an ephemeral reality where only hate could reside, before looking back with his cocky smirk, twisted in a way only he could achieve.

"Bah! What else do you plan on calling me gaki!"


Omake: Canon Kurama lets the cat out of the bag (Or perhaps 'fox' as the case may be)

The fight with Pein had not been going well. First arriving to a destroyed leaf village, then Hinata being struck down in front of him, and now, being caught in Chibaku Tensei? No Naruto's day had not been going well at all.

"I don't know anything anymore!" Naruto said in a crazed fashion, as he sat in front of the Kyuubi's gate.

"Somebody, help me. Give me the answer!"

"Don't let yourself be destroyed as Jiraiya did." Said the menacing voice of the feared nine tails before of him, to which the blond looked up in shock, not expecting an answer.

"There is no escape. Don't make me destroy you," the great bijuu continued, making teen back away slightly, "Naruto, you do not yet realise your importance. You have only begun to discover your power."

"Join me," the fox offered, reaching toward him, "and I will complete your training; with our combined strength, you can end this destructive conflict, and bring order to the Elemental Nations!"

"I'll never join you!" exclaimed Naruto.

"If you only knew of my power." The fox said, perhaps to himself, "Jiraiya never told you what happened to your father."

"He told me enough! He told me you killed him." The blond jinchuriki rebutted.

"No." the beast simply uttered, "I, am your father."

"No.." Naruto, muttered, "No, that's not true! That's impossible!"

"Search your feelings, you know it to be true."

"NOOOOOOO!" He cried as he broke down.

"Well. Can't say I didn't try, ungrateful gaki.."


A/N: Umm, so, excuses. I don't actually have one right now, but I'll let you all know when I think one up.

In all seriousness though, I just started a hectic year of my life - super busy, and stuff, so it's been a little hard for me to have both motivation to write this, and free time, coinciding at the same time.

::HOWEVER! Worry not, as this story will not be abandoned!::

Sorry about the shortness of this, but it is just the second half of the last chapter, soooooo... . yeah.

Seemed everyone was able to guess the cliffhanger at the end, last time, so in future, I'll make it a bit trickier :P

Anyway, it seems as though poor lil' Naruto has just realised what death actually is, I wonder what this will mean for the future? I suppose this wraps up the opening arc.

Also, you guys seem to find this whole fanfiction funny, for some reason. *shrugs* So a question for you all: do you think I should change it from 'adventure' to 'humor' as a genre? Because there hasn't been much adventure yet, huh?

As a response to Gremlin Jack, plot advanced good sir.

As a response to mellra, I apologise for all this wait, and you don't even get to see that part yet, but I've got something special planned for that ;) After all, Minato Namikaze really sucked at seals.

As a response to lovefanfiction120, rmiser1994, NobodiesHiiro, Guest, and everybody else, yeah, sorry about that. Well I suppose this is 'relatively' soon compared to some stuff. I'll try to update sooner in future.

As a response to andrewrodriguez6433, heh, yeah I'm keeping that around as a sort of running gag for the moment :P Also, I have no clue when I'll be able to update - but hopefully not another 6 months.

As a response to Chidori, Yes! It is you!

As a response to T51b Moridin, I never intended to really bring Hiraishin back up, (at least for a long while) but the idea I had was, Minato created something else that replicated the effects of the Hiraishin, without requiring the use of seals.

As a response to wildtrance, Oh, oh, I got that one too! But did you get the Hobbit reference?

As a response to karshow, congrats! Your review inspired me to finish this bit off! Thankyou. ^^

As always, thankyou to everybody who reviewed, followed, favourited, and simply took the time out of their day to read this, and thankyou for the consistent support throughout this endeavour. Stay tuned for next time - Ja ne!