The chakra burned, almost as much as his rage at the events happening before him.

What should've been a joyful day, where he would finally prove to all his class that he was no loser by accomplishing to graduate a year earlier than customary. But he had failed, all because of that damn Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Technique). For that reason he was now here, having been played and used like a fool by a damn traitor.

Naruto gritted his teeth further as Iruka-sensei received yet another cut in an attempt to protect him, all to the sick delight of the silver-haired traitor.

Giving a kick to the Academy teacher, Mizuki started going on a rant again. "Did you have fun playing hero dear Iruka? I don't even know why you care about that demon, I'm doing this village a favour by getting rid of that freak!"

Iruka didn't answer the question, instead trying to push further his exhausted and damaged body, an action which angered his old colleague.

"Why? Why are you trying so hard for the reason of so much death? For the embodiment of that monster?" Mizuki repeatedly questioned while kicking the fallen chunin. This went on for a while, as Naruto kept struggling to dislodge the shuriken that left him unable to assist his teacher, trying harder and harder in singing with the gasps of pain escaping from Iruka.

"Because…" Iruka looked up as he muttered those words, grabbing the leg that persistently kicked him with unnatural strength that shocked Mizuki. "Because Naruto is not the Kyuubi. Because he is only a hardworking student who was dealt with unfortunate circumstances. And because he is similar to me… because I care about him as my precious student!" Iruka shouted with as much strength as possible those last words, daring to glance up to who would soon be his murderer instead of staying in his downwards stance.

"Enough, this cursilery has been going on for far too long. Farewell Iruka." Mizuki said with the slightest bit of guilt seeping through his words, but nonetheless readying up the giant shuriken that he had been known for.

"Die!" But before the weapon could finish its downward motion to finish the life of his opponent, Mizuki felt something. Something that stopped him completely on his tracks.

At his side stood it, now free from his earlier chained state. It stared at him with crazed eyes that also felt blank, a void that if he stared for too long he would succumb to insanity for. It was Naruto.

No thought came to Naruto's mind, only thoughts of placating this thirst for blood resonated inside it. Not even the burning pain of his skin slowly eroding away as it was replaced by a yellow sick chakra couldn't penetrate this stream of thoughts.

The shake of bones, the erratic twitching of fingers, the accelerated heartbeat of his prey. Now he could hear all those little things with his new ears that he didn't care to notice hadn't been there before. Flapping his tail that made the grass die every time it touched the ground, Naruto slowly crept closer to his victim.

A silver bunny for a yellow fox. What a fitting meal this would be for him. He would have salivated if he still had something inside his mouth. No tongue or saliva to devore this new treat, only sharp gigantic teeth to munch on its meat.

Lucky him that his prey didn't move, only shaking in place as of it had seen a ghost. Foolish thoughts, what kind of rabbit could see those ethereal beings? Moving his rabbit's hair to the side to clearly see the face, unwillingly leaving some bushes of blood with his sharp fingers, he could now see the terrorized expression of it. 'Delightful,' he thought as he smiled with no lips.

But before he could start indulging in his gluttony, a voice called him to stop. "Naruto stop! You need to overcome its control, or the whole village will be in danger!" The strange brown porcupine warned him. In that moment he wanted to kill it for its annoying sounds, why couldn't it stay quiet as the rabbit? But before he could end it with a swing of his tail, something deep inside him stopped him.

"What, it's precious you say?" Naruto asked out loud in a monstrous voice not fitting for his size. "I can not eat the rabbit either?"

Naruto spent a while arguing with the mysterious voice, but decided to relent after a while. "Fine…" And with that muttered, the darkness hit him as gravity consumed him.

In another place altogether, observing everything from a crystal ball, Hiruzen sighed at the complicated events that had happened. It had been close, too close to the Kyuubi getting out.

"Not even you Minato could figure out how to beat these monsters…" Hiruzen lamented as he stared at a portrait from his successor.

'Still, I can't leave this matter unhandled, I need Jiraiya here as soon as possible.' But that was not good enough, the Third Hokage realized, who knew how much time his annoying student would avoid him. He needed a back up plan.

Fortunately he had right the thing, Hiruzen smiled wryly as he took out a book he had been waiting for a while to give. He had thought of gifting it as a way to repent for all those kept secrets, but oh well.

"Oh Naruto, you are too easy to influence…" Hiruzen chuckled drily at the blond's expense, the absurdity of the situation too hard to contain with himself.

-o-

Now Naruto laid on his apartment's bed after having managed to graduate thanks to the failed plan of a traitor, apparently he had used his new super cool jutsu to beat him up only to get knocked out by the chakra exhaustion.

It was a shame he couldn't remember the beginning of his epic ninja adventure to become Hokage, but there was nothing to do about it.

Naruto groaned once again at the question before him. 'How am I supposed to know what my specialty is? It's not like the Academy ever said anything positive about me…'

He was now answering a sheet of questions that was supposed to orientate the teachers on what team he would be placed in. 'Who even cares if I answer honestly? I'm sure they will just place me according to my grades.'

Still, it made him think about some stuff, he had never considered what he would like to specialize in. He had never thought that far ahead, having enough on his plate just trying to graduate, but now that he had done it... what would he do?

Hopefully speaking, he had always wanted to be a ninjutsu specialist, who wouldn't want to learn how to shoot fire dragons? But, and Naruto slumped his shoulders at that, if he wanted to do that he would need to find a ninjutsu specialist that would be willing to teach him. 'And good luck trying to find one when I'm the freaking embodiment of the Kyuubi!'

Naruto sighed exasperated, why had he decided that graduating early was a good idea? The amount of things that he had to deal with was not worth the bragging he would be able to do to his old classmates… well maybe a little.

Naruto smirked at the thought of Kiba's jealous expression when he showed up with his shiny headband.

'Ugh, I will just do this dumb thing later, there's still something I have to check.' Naruto thought as he reached for a particularly old book that seemed quite out of place in the blond's room. The gift the old man had given him to express his remorse over holding some secrets from him. Naruto gently opened it with a curious and excited gaze, after all this was what he had always wished for. To know his family.

The book apparently contained some history about the Uzumaki, and if the Hokage was to be trusted his parents came from that clan. He had been quite disappointed when he learned that the clan had gone extinct before he was born, but at least it was something. Something that could at least fill up a little bit of that void in his heart on his longing for family.

Naruto started reading with utmost concentration, something that would be shocking for anyone that knew the blond. He read about how they settled in an island far away, protected by whirlpools, about the few wars they had between themselves before they established a lasting peace, and how they all united to make what would later be known as Uzushiogakure. But something stopped him from his reading, in particular a paragraph related to something he now knew quite well.

"The Bijuus, soulless beings who were unflinching to even the likes of the First Hokage, but the Uzumaki in their eternal wisdom created something to stop them: fuinjutsu. With the power of the sealing arts, the world finally had a way to cage these monsters, albeit with a sacrifice. Sealing a Bijuu means condoning someone to spend the rest of their lives being with it, having to suffer its continuous torment to their mental well. These individuals were soon left with broken minds, unable to grasp the reality around them. And for that reason they have the name that they have, because they show to its full extent the power of human sacrifice. That is why they are Jinchurikis."

After Naruto took a moment to process all this, he laughed. How could he not? After all, it was really ironic that his 'family' was the reason he had a demon fox in his gut at that moment. Taking a moment to cool off, he started rereading and a word piqued his interest, where had he heard that before? 'Maybe from one of those spontaneous lectures Iruka-sensei likes to do that don't enter in any kind of test.' Naruto shrugged absentmindedly as he read further about what fuinjutsu was. It basically consisted of doing some weird scribbles with ink and then activating it with some chakra.

To Naruto that sounded quite simple, so what made it more special than ninjutsu? And why could it seal the Bijuus when the latter one apparently was really bad at it? Unfortunately the book didn't provide an answer to those questions, which made Naruto frown in slight frustration.

But still, fuinjutsu sounded so simple that even someone like him could do it. Naruto stopped at the thought, and started pondering it further. He would just need to find a book to get started on it and he would be set to go. Naruto went back to the crumpled piece of paper beside him. 'What is your specialty as a shinobi?' Naruto read once again. 'Maybe I have found it.'

-o-

The next morning Naruto quickly skimmed over the book to check if it had more information about this 'fuinjutsu', but unfortunately for the blond he came out empty. So he went to the next best option for where a book about an oldass ninja art could be: the library.

"Alright, let's do this!" And with a determined gaze on him, he launched open the glass doors of the library and narrowly avoided getting kicked out when he realized he was pushing them the wrong way. Overcoming the little mishap, he went to investigate.

"What do we have here…" Naruto whispered as he glanced with narrow eyes at everyone that came in his vision, after all, only complete freaks would willingly be at the library by this hour.

Finally, he made his way to the so-called 'Genin section.' Naruto couldn't see what was so special about it, it had more of the same they had passed in the Academy but somehow worse. 'Like seriously, who cares about the trading routes that we got? It's not like shinobi are merchants.' Naruto thought as he carelessly flipped through the pages.

After a couple of minutes of searching, he found it, or at least he assumed he had. 'Fuinjutsu: Beginner Style Sealing Section Volume I.' He read, which made him notice the other books and scrolls with the same design of random ink scribbles. He briefly considered just taking them all home and be done with it, but shook his head at the thought. He didn't even know if he was going to stick with fuinjutsu.

Taking the single book, he went back home after getting through the complicated system the library had in place. 'I mean seriously, why the hell do I need a card for them to lend me a book? It's not like I'm gonna steal it…' Naruto thought as he reached his messy bedroom.

Discarding some forgotten ramen cups that laid on his bed, he put the book down for which he had gone through so much trouble. Naruto sat there for a couple moments, waiting to see if the book would just transfer all its holy knowledge to him, but to the blonde's misfortune he had to read it.

'Alright then…' And with that, Naruto started the process of slowly and painfully reading every word, having to reread entire pages at a time just to grasp the basic message. An hour passed like this, until the blonde reached the first activity that would put to test everything he had just learned.

Laid before his eyes, occupying the full two pages, was a 'simple' seal that would produce some type of light at the contact of chakra. Having his ink kit from the Academy right with him, he got to work.

The matrix of the seal consisted of a spiral that was encircled by one big circle, simple enough… right?

"Arghh, this is so stupid! How am I supposed to draw this damn circle?!" Naruto yelled out loud as his stroke of ink ended up once again looking like a wobbly egg. He had never been the artistic kid or had fancy calligraphy like Sakura-chan, his writings barely legible to even Iruka-sensei, so this somewhat simple task was an insurmountable challenge to the blond.

Fortunately, hard work always pays off at the end, and after hours of countless strokes later, he had it. A textbook circle, something to be displayed in museums for it's perfect roundness.

Naruto's eyes sprinkled slightly at his majestic masterpiece, but shook off the feeling and went on to complete it. He had a seal pending after all!

With utmost care he finished the spiral inside the circle, and with anticipation in his eyes he waited. And waited.

'Hmmm, why is this not working?' Naruto thought to himself as he jabbed the seal with his finger expecting for it to turn on any other second from now. But to his dismay, the seal remained unresponsive.

After a thorough examination, he denied the possibility that his masterpiece of a drawing was at fault, to Naruto's relief.

"Still, what's wrong with it?" Naruto muttered as he skimmed over the pages of the book to find the answer. And when he found it, he wanted to hit himself because of his stupidity. The last needed ingredient was chakra, of course!

Naruto gathered chakra at his fingertip, and when the warmth presence of it made itself present, he touched the starting point of the spiral.

"Woah…" To Naruto, it looked like magic. He saw as the comforting blue that he had longed connected with chakra traveled through the spiral of ink, leaving a mild light by its trail. When it reached the end, the entire circle flashed up at once and stayed in that mild luminosity for a couple moments before it went down to the simple ink scribble that it was before.

Naruto stayed in the same position as before, completely unmoving with his eyes not even fluttering slightly. Finally, his shock diminished as he jumped all of a sudden.

"That was so cool! And I did it! Me! The class clown Naruto Uzumaki!" He shouted as he jumped around the place, he had never expected for it to work just like that!

Naruto stayed in that state of euphoria for a couple minutes more, celebrating his far and few accomplishments was important after all!

Now more calmed, he noticed through the corner of his vision an ever so increasing light. Turning around, he saw it was coming from his seal.

'That shouldn't be happening…' Was all Naruto could think before the lights from his apartment went out, and the only light source nearby was that of his seal.

Gradually, the light started changing colors. Purple. Yellow. Orange. Black. Red. And in that color stayed, a darkish red as that of blood, the one that flooded immensely on the battlefield and one he would see shed many times in his ninja life.

But to scare and surprise Naruto even more, the light started taking shape, and changing texture to what he could only compare with jelly. With a simple eye it started, one with no pupil but nonetheless carried feeling. Intensity to it. As if it looked directly to his soul, which made him feel more exposed than he ever had.

From there, the singular eye mutated further, developing a head with another eye to it. Features started to develop on it. Animalistic. Nose, ears, fur and fangs.

Finally it finished, and Naruto gazed at what could only be the Kyuubi. Even if he had only seen it in history textbooks, it was unmistakable.

There it was. The one with nine tails. The one above all eight. The one that has never been defeated, and the one that shall never be challenged.

Naruto's whole body was shaking uncontrollably, all his instincts screaming for him to run, but being unable to by the sheer fear. The demonic fox head before him stared at him for some moments, before he made something that made Naruto nearly faint over his fear. It smiled. A smile so unnatural and unbecoming on that fox's face, that made his mind repulse it with its every fiber.

But, in a moment, everything went back to normality. In one instant he was back again to his room with its functioning light bulbs, and a scroll in his bed with the same seal he had drawn dozens of minutes before.

Naruto stepped back until his back was against the wall, and just slumped there in complete silence. An hour passed like this, the only sound being the one from his broken fan that he had forgotten to turn off.

At last, Naruto broke out from his state of paralysis as he started freaking out. "Oh hell, for Kami's sake what has just occurred?!" Naruto yelled in between his erratic breathing and occasional bouts of pure shouting.

He had already experienced these kinds of 'illusions', and had been living with the fact that the Kyuubi resided inside him for some years now. But nothing to this level, not even remotely comparable to it.

'Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. In… out…" Naruto sighed as he relaxed his whole body, after all panicking was for idiots and acting was what was needed. The only shinobi lesson that had been worth learning.

'Alright Naruto, how do you defend yourself from a monster that not even the Yondaime could defeat?' Naruto asked himself hoping for some illumination, but no revelation occured to the blond.

His eyes wandered around his room, inspecting every strange little weapon he had and scrolls with jutsus in it, but none seemed to be able to help defend him from a gigantic demon fox. Suddenly, he remembered his culmination of efforts for the day that resided in that little scribble of ink.

'Fuinjutsu, the only thing capable of containing these demons.' Naruto thought while clutching the scroll with the seal close to his chest.

Maybe learning fuinjutsu would not be up to choice anymore.

But the thing that shook Naruto completely to his core was how oddly familiar he felt with that presence.