Chapter 1: How it all began
In a long-ago forgotten age, before even time itself was a meaningful standard, there was only chaos. Among the chaos of the bits of matter and the particles floating in the abyss, there was energy. More so was this energy than just a meager representation of existence, of the cold things dead and silently existing in the great and terrifying empty; It was spirit. From this energy, this spirit, the first of life struggled into existence. Once, in a long-ago forgotten age, against all odds, against all reason, something began to move. Life's struggle against chaos began here, with these beings, and by the time the conflict between life and chaos had reached its peak and the chaos had been beaten back beyond comprehension, the heavens and the earth had become separated and established as a monument to life and its great desire to succeed, to conquer all, to exist. Here, the cycle of creation was spun into motion.
However, our story does not begin here with the beginning of all things. No, our story begins long after, during the time of humanity, the era of spirit and chakra, during the age of clans, war, pain, and suffering. Our story begins a measly four years after the third shinobi war. Our story begins with a child. A child of blood so pure and a lineage so strong he could be looked upon as the embodiment of life, light, and creation itself. The child, born into this world and abandoned in the same night, a representation of the purest of beings, a child destined for greatness bearing the legacy of life and the kami above, forced to carve his own path through existence in direct parallel to life and chaos in the very beginning. Our story begins here, on October 10th.
Blood was in the air in the village hidden among the leaves. The military personnel in its entirety was consumed with the efforts of rescuing civilians, putting out fires, providing medical assistance, and desperately throwing themselves at the monster carving its way through their home and loved ones. The Kyuubi, the nine-tailed fox demon, the embodiment of rage and destruction was tearing its way through the reality of the quiet village people a thousand trees at a time. Each swipe of one of its tails leveled neighborhoods, emptied lakes, and rearranged the earth. While this was happening, the strongest warriors in the village were sitting together in one of the only rooms still standing in the Hokage tower. They were discussing exactly how they were going to save their home.
"Minato don't be foolish! The village still needs you. I'm old. I've served my village long enough. Please! Grant me this opportunity for one final service." Pleaded the third Hokage.
The desperation was clear on Sarutobi's face as he gripped the soft white robes worn by Minato now sullied by the residue from flying debris or the dust that filled the air. Sweat had begun to bead across Sarutobi's forehead, his knuckles had turned white with exertion, and the mere thought of losing yet another young, promising leader to the village's Will of Fire was no doubt responsible for the ulcer he now felt gnawing in the pit of his stomach.
"Haven't I lost enough? Haven't I lived a full life? Please just wait a little longer! I just need a little more time and I'll be capable of performing the seals fast enough to use against the Kyuubi. I can take your place!" As the third pleaded, tears ran down his face.
"Sarutobi-sensei, shouldn't you know by now that it is my responsibility as the current Hokage to provide peace and security to all the village dwellers? I can think of no greater opportunity to prove love for my people than this. If sacrificing my life right now saves even ten more of the people who put their trust in me to keep them safe, then it is worth it a thousand times over. Go now Sarutobi-sensei, donate your ability to the village and help them to safety. Allow me and Jiraiya to take care of the rest."
Jiraiya stood next to Minato, tears barely held behind the crumbling reservoir that was his eyes. His face was marred by a grim and unstable determination.
"Come on Minato, every second wasted is another lost civilian. If we're really taking this path then we need to do it now." Minato's teacher barely shambled through the words that needed to be said. He could barely keep the tremble out of his voice as he thought about what was about to come and the future he was about to participate in bringing about.
"Right, you're right as usual Jiraiya. Come then, little Naruto and I have a date with a biju don't we?" Minato gazed down to peer into his newborn baby's warm, ocean blue eyes as he spoke.
"Jiraiya, when all this is said and done, I have but one request."
"Anything kid, name it and it's yours."
"When I'm gone, care for my son. I give you Uzumaki Namikaze Naruto, my beautiful Maelstrom. Help him grow into the hero I can see trying to break free of this little body. Teach him how to change the world, to bring that peace you're always heckling me about."
"I would be honored Minato. Are you sure there's no other way?"
The tears flowed freely now.
Minato turned to face Jiraiya and wistfully smiled,
"Come on dad, now's not the time to be having second thoughts."
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A 5-year-old Uzumaki Naruto was lying in a hospital bed. This stay, one of many, was sponsored by the hands of several drunken villagers who decided that the most fulfilling activity one could have after getting one's nightly fix of liquor was a fox hunt. When he was admitted to the hospital his injuries were recorded to be four shattered vertebrae, a broken orbital bone, severe sepsis due to impact tears inflicted on his large intestines, a dislocated jaw, and fifteen puncture wounds found littering his chest cavity. The villagers responsible for such actions were long gone by the time someone who cared enough to report him to the nearest patrolling Anbu had managed to stumble across his broken body. Unfortunately for the young child laying suspiciously unhooked to any sort of medical monitor devices, he was both very much alive, and very much still conscious.
Above him, the nurse that had been forced into watching young Naruto gazed down at him with unrestrained malice. It was unfair that she had to spend her time watching over the demon brat when he was so obviously going to die. She couldn't wait for the celebration the villagers would undoubtedly hold when the monster finally heaved its last pained breath. The only reason she didn't end the creature herself was the repercussions she might face at the hands of their demon-loving hokage. She watched the wretched creature wriggle and writhe, squirming in agony for what seemed like hours before she finally realized; The creature lying in a pitiful heap on the steriel, plain hospital bed was steaming. Visibly, the young nurse could see wounds closing underneath the flesh-scented vapor and the thickened blood beginning to flow underneath his lacerated skin once more. She could smell the sharp tang of iron as the demonic heap prostrated before her started bleeding a fresh, second round of thickened, braken blood created from a heart that was now frantically, rapidly beating. Then, she saw it. The creature turned its head.
In the mind of young Naruto, there was nothing but the blinding pain of being awake when you are more injury than child. This was only amplified when the steam came. Ever since he could remember he's been a little different. That broken leg that he got jumping down out of a tree? Healed by the time he had gone to sleep. That time where he was hit by a carriage so hard that when his head bounced off the ground he felt a snap in his neck? He was able to get up and eat lunch that day. Four months ago when that construction worker accidentally dropped a metal bar from three stories up and it put a hole in him big enough that he could have passed a bouncy ball through it? He didn't even get to properly panic about the injury before it had filled in and smoothed over. A slightly discolored portion of flesh was the only thing that even suggested he had been struck in the first place. Each time he either injured himself or was hurt by someone else, there was steam, white-hot pain, and then a new mark reminding him that it wasn't just a dream.
However, Naruto had a feeling that this time was going to be a little different. There was so much pain, it was overwhelming. He longed to go back even to those sweet few hours when he was first receiving the injuries. Every second he took another pained breath, more and more steam seemed to waft off of him. Then, he heard a muffled gasp over to his right somewhere before making the effort to see who it was in the room with him. It was a nurse. Little Naruto tried to ask the now horrified nurse what was going on but as he turned his head his tiny jaw limply fell to his chest. That was when it began. A warm, red glow enveloped the entirety of his body like a rapidly thickening coat of bloody amber. Then came the snapping of bones and the tearing of flesh. His spine violently snapped back into the correct position, tearing, reforming, and rebuilding the supporting muscles and ligaments before finally, the fractured vertebrae welding themselves back together. The waste matter that had entered his bloodstream from his torn intestines was ejected forcefully and was splattered against the wall opposite his bed. His eye socket wetly snapped back into the correct position in his skull. His eye, once limp and useless in his head, now bloodshot, bearing a distinctive demonic slit was sharply focused on the nurse. Finally, once all his internals were set into place and the blood stopped flowing, the final injury healed was his jaw; A wet crunch was all that was required to set it back into his head.
"W-why is this happening?" Naruto's tiny frame shuddered in pain as he spoke. His red, slitted eyes were wide with fear bearing unshed tears.
"Y-you really are a demon….YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A DAMN DEMON! The nurse lunged towards Naruto, there was murder in her mind and violence dancing across her features seconds before her head was abruptly removed from her shoulders and her remains were covered using a spare hospital bed sheet. In this instance, the orchestrator of the sudden removal happened to be one of the Hokage's personal Anbu operatives. Trailing not far behind was the Third Hokage himself.
"Inu, remove her."
Within the blink of an eye, an Anbu operative bearing a mask with the likeness of a dog was quickly dragging out the corpse of the deceased nurse. The only indication that there had ever been a nurse at all was the name tag that was intentionally left behind in the wizened old Hokage's hand.
"I thought I remembered telling the hospital staff here that there were oaths to be administered upon the hiring process." Turning the nametag up into the light he spoke.
"Family name of Kamihara, I want a list of every living relative and co-worker they have on my desk by this evening. If any of them are suspected of participating or aiding in what happened here today, I want them to be made into an example."
The only response the addressed Anbu, this one bearing a hawk mask, gave was a slight tilt of their head before he was gone.
Young eyes peered up at the Hokage full of uncertainty and question.
"Jiji, what's going on? What's happening to me? Why did he kill that lady?"
The young boy's tone, sweet and innocent, was marred by the presence of the fox. Its aura giving the child a tone that could only be described as murderous.
"Hush now Naruto-kun, I have a friend here that will explain everything in just one second. All you have to do is take deep breaths and try to be calm. I promise, everything will make sense in just a minute."
After these words were spoken, a man stepped out from behind the Hokage. Now in the light, Naruto could see the greying, platinum blond hair that marked him as a Yamanaka mindwalker. Though, the significance of this fact was lost to the young traumatized boy.
"Hello Naruto, long time no see." The fatherly Yamanaka spoke in a steady calming tone.
"I'm here to explain everything that's going on, you must be very confused. Would you mind closing your eyes for just one second before the explanations begin Naruto? I'd like to run a basic medical check-up on you before I start explaining everything. I just want to know for sure that you're ok."
Naruto, being the young orphaned boy starved for attention that he was, almost immediately calmed down at the foreign but instinctively desired fatherly tone in the blond man's voice. Closing his eyes and tilting his head ever so slightly back giving a simple statement of
"I'm sorry, I never meant to make anyone angry"
"I know my boy, everything will make sense soon." The Yamanaka was grateful that the young boy's eyes were, in fact, closed. Had the young man decided to impishly take a peek at his examiner he would have seen the tears gathering in the older man's eyes.
The split second that the mindwalker made contact with Naruto's head the young boy felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity, followed by an instinctual all-consuming sense of dread. That was all he could feel however, given the next moment he was unconscious and the mindwalker was doing his job; One he had done countless times in this very room to this very boy. He was going through the child's head, removing, implanting, and altering memories. The process of fundamentally changing the young boy's life and worldview took a mere two hours of concentration and quiet. All that remained of this incident in the young boy's head by the end of the process is the memory that he had been playing on the rooftops when he had suddenly lost his footing and fell to the ground below, where upon impact he hurt his back. He would remember being fine by dinner.
"Report." Barked the Hokage, his voice laced with steel.
"The procedure was a success Lord Hokage. However, I must remind you that no one person was meant to be altered this many times to this degree. Each new procedure risks a memory collapse or even the risk of causing long term damage to the mental stability of this child. Especially given that these procedures were enacted during his developing years. I cannot be held responsible for the eventual break in his psyche should we choose to continue down this road. For Kami-sama's sake we're going to end up creating a monster worse than Suna!"
"That's enough. I asked for a report, not your opinion or an attempt to predict the future. I am well aware of the risks involved. Have you forgotten just exactly who it is you are speaking to?"
"No Hokage-sama. I apologize for my impudence. If that is all I will take my leave."
The Yamanaka turned and made a move to leave the room. However, he stopped before his journey could reach completion. Turning, he regarded the wizened Hokage once more.
"Hokage-sama, I'd like to perform one more evaluation before I take my leave. I'd like to perform a basic therapeutic evaluation of his psyche after he wakes up."
"Request denied Yamanaka, you're pushing your luck today aren't you?" The Hokage stopped, then sighed. "I'm not trying to be difficult Inoichi. I know you are just worried about the child and trying to do your job. How would we justify to young Naruto here why he has to undergo a psych evaluation because he...he…what was it that this is going to be replaced by this time?"
"He fell out of a tree and hurt his back this time Hokage-sama" provided the Yamanaka, now identified as Inoichi.
"Right. How will we tell him that he is undergoing a psych evaluation because he fell out of a tree? The entire purpose of the procedure here was to remove suspicion of the fox and ensure his loyalty to Konoha. We just can't risk a collapse, you've said yourself how tenuous this little balancing act is."
"I…..understand. I'll take my leave then if there's nothing else.
"Good work today Inoichi. You've done more for Konoha than you know."
With that, the middle aged mindwalker took his leave, leaving Hiruzen Sarutobi alone with his thoughts and the young boy fitfully resting on the hospital cot.
"Naruto my boy, just how am I supposed to honor Minato's legacy like this? I don't suppose you have any ideas do you?" Silence met the wizened Hokage. "No, I suppose you wouldn't right now would you?" Hiruzen chuckled to himself, "Get some rest boy, you deserve it."
End of Chapter 1.
Author's Note:
Yo! First upload and I'm gonna be honest, I don't know where this is going. I want to make this something that runs quite a while but I'm buried under work at Uni so if I don't upload frequently its because this has been put on the backburner. Having said that, the odds of me abandoning this story are pretty slim - even if it's a huge flop and nobody likes it - due to the fact that its just a personal project. I wanted to see if I could run a comprehensive story free from clichés (as many as possible). It's gonna be a bit less goofy than some of the others because that's my preferred tone. Also, I've read an ungodly amount of works from this hellhole website so if you review or message me saying I copied or stole something from another fic my response is probably going to be similar to "Oh hey, didn't even remember reading that. I did really like that element. Cookie for you for finding an Easter egg." Hope you enjoy!