AN: I am really loving the reviews and PMs people are sending me, it really is appreciated, THANK YOU. I was very surprised to see that two of you had already guessed who the yellow eyes belonged to.

We are getting towards the end of the 'prelude' or pre-academy arc. More action and missions etc will be starting soon. Sorry if you feel it took some time.

'I am so screwed' Naruto thought as he stared into the bright yellow eyes that were piercing into his soul. He was frozen as the powerful form of a jet black panther kept its gaze on him and its bright white teeth seemed to be the only colour visible other than the eyes, the perfect predator of the night. Naruto quickly deduced that this creature must be the reason as to why some of the baby fawns have been hunted and killed. Backing away slowly, Naruto was hoping not to startle the beast, however with every step backwards he took, the panther took one step forward whilst growling menacingly, this continued until Naruto's back hit the tree. 'Huh, I was wrong. NOW I am screwed' he was really regretting going alone, trying a different approach Naruto tried to make himself bigger and scream to try and intimidate the panther, it worked initially as it took a step back but quickly realising the ruse, it only grew more enraged. Taking a swipe at him, Naruto barely managed to avoid the paw before he found himself against another tree. 'I need to alert someone' he thought and began moulding and flaring his chakra hoping someone would find him, however as he did so he found himself sinking into the shadow of the tree, he was going to stop himself however the panther sensed its prey and lounged at Naruto. Before it could reach him, Naruto sped up the process and disappeared.

(In The Shadow Realm)

Opening his eyes, he witnessed the shadow realm for the first time. "This will take some getting used to" Naruto said out loud as he analysed his surroundings. Essentially the shadow realm was the exact same as the real world with some few key differences obviously. Looking around, Naruto saw he was still in 'the forest' but almost on an endless platform of sorts with some gaps around where he was standing. Where light hit the real world, it was reflected in this realm as the gaps and Naruto guessed he wouldn't be able to enter those areas. However, where there were shadows in the real world, these were portrayed as shadowy outlines in this world. Naruto could see the shadow of the tree he was standing in, as well as the surrounding shadows of the other trees in the forest which all had connecting shadows he could travel through and between. The most interesting thing was the shadowy figure of the panther standing in front of him. He couldn't see anything regarding its physical appearance other than the outline of its shadows, he could see its head tilting in confusion at what must have just happened. Starting to feel a little lightheaded, Naruto knew he would have to hurry up as this was quite chakra taxing. Stepping towards the still prone form of the animal, whilst avoiding all the light sections, Naruto noticed that his speed was greater than in the normal world, which definitely worked in his favour.

Starting to stalk the panther, which was heading back to the body of the lifeless deer, Naruto quickly formulated a plan and began untying the rope he brought with him. Waiting until he could see the outline of the panther 'eat' the shadow of the corpse, Naruto's hands emerged from beneath the animal and quickly tied them all up before emerging fully and tying the paws to its head whilst it continued to try and struggle against the bind. Once he secured the bind, Naruto finally allowed himself to regain his breath, clearly being in the shadow realm was a lot more taxing than he thought. He was interrupted by a feminine growling voice.

"EUUGHH, I can't believe it! A human cub caught me of guard! They will never let me live this down!" The, now identified, feminine voice of the panther rang out, "probably doesn't even know how to wipe his own ass yet" she mumbled out with a heavy sigh.

"OI! I do know how to wipe my ass! You can't act all tough and mig-" Naruto glared at the panther, his fiery side coming out after being insulted before realisation dawned on him, "wait a second, you're a summon?" he asked, having read about them from the scrolls and books given to him.

"Yeah no shit. Now take those binds of me so I can enjoy my dinner" the panther said still struggling against the ropes that bound it.

"Not until you answer a few of my questions, summon-san. Why are you here, I don't remember panther being part of Konoha's summons? Why have you been hunting and killing deer here, I thought as a being of chakra you wouldn't need to consume food in the traditional sense? Who are 'they' that you were talking about? And most importantly, why the hell were you trying to kill me?!"

Getting hungry and not being bothered to prolong this any longer, the summon chose to get this done with as quickly as possible, "first of it's not summon-san, my name is Ameya, call me anything else and it will be the last thing you will say," Ameya started as she looked Naruto into his eyes, "I stumbled onto this village by accident, the reason as to why I was hunting is also why I'm currently in your world. Our first and only summoner died some time ago. Usually, a summoner always has the next heir of the contract ready, we got unlucky that our summoner was banished from their village and never picked a heir. Us as summons are only able to live as such whilst being contracted to a summoner, without one, we begin losing our abilities which define us as summons. So for instance the jaguar family, including us the panthers, are having a harder time to mould chakra and are in need of consuming food in order to stay alive. It hasn't effected our elders and stronger members of our clan yet, however the younger cubs, including myself are all beginning to suffer." Naruto at this point was listening intently to Ameya. The scrolls and books he received from the Hokage and Shikaku barely covered the basics of summoning – the examples, the most famous ones per village and what they are but none of these details. Seeing no interruptions, Ameya continued. "That's who 'they' are, my family, more specifically my two older siblings. These two clowns love teasing me and bullying me for being weaker than them. I decided to prove them wrong and try to find some worthy summoners for our clan. As for you, to be honest you surprised me," Ameya mumbled the final part, clearly embarrassed someone had gotten the drop on her, "I hadn't eaten in a few days and was worried you were trying to go for my dinner, it was more of a warning swipe than actual intent to kill you".

The last part caused Naruto to sweat drop, thinking he nearly was going to lose his life to a misunderstanding. Deeming it safe enough, Naruto untied Ameya and took a precautionary step back just in case. "Listen, whilst I understand your situation, you can't keep hunting the deer here, they are pretty much sacred and respected by the Nara clan. If you keep it up, you will get hunted down so please stop. You should use the training grounds and surrounding forests outside the village, I will speak to jiji and tell him I'm going to practice my hunting abilities so there will be no suspicions of any dead animals etc" Naruto said in a semi stern and semi caring manner. Hearing the chatter of people approaching them, Naruto quickly removed any signs of the previous struggle, including the blood of the baby fawn before addressing Ameya again. "You have to go now, quickly before they get here, they are usually laid back but have been stressed and on edge recently because of you, so please get going" Naruto urged and without turning back went on to meet the Nara members approaching.

"Thank..you.." Ameya said slowly, no human had ever shown her this much care and thoughtfulness. Usually they would try to hunt her or be scared of her, instead this kid had not just captured her but let her go and also gave her an alternative to continue surviving. Grabbing the fawn in her mouth, she quickly leapt away, a couple of seconds before the Nara members joined.

"Naruto what happened? We felt your chakra flare, is all okay?" The voice of Shikaku, joined by two Nara Jonin, asked worriedly. Analysing the situation around him, he didn't seem to notice anything amiss which already said alarm bells in his head. If there was no sort of conflict or problems, Naruto would have no reason to flare his chakra. Instead the clearing looks too tidy and well kept, something was definitely amiss.

"Yeah it is all fine now. I was trying to do the Nara clan a favour by finding out what was hunting the fawns, I saw a small fox at the edge of the clearing which was planning on pouncing, I chased it down before it could and flared my chakra in case there would be more. It ended up fleeing towards the village walls at the edge of the forest. I saw its den as well and destroyed it so it shouldn't have a reason to come back." Naruto was impressed by how quickly he was able to come up with a lie. Initially he could see none of them buying it, however using their fear of the Kyuubi and mentioning a fox as well as destroying its den seemed to have swayed the belief in his direction. The two Nara Jonin expressed their gratitude and motioned for him to join them on the way back, with a promise of letting the whole clan know tomorrow morning, Shikaku in the meantime kept observing the clearing and the surroundings. He wasn't going to press the issue, choosing to trust Naruto as he had never given him a reason not to, even as he saw a pair of bright yellow eyes keenly observing the whole interaction and in the end staring Shikaku in the eyes too, before Shikaku turned around and joined the others.

(6 Months Later)

The remaining 6 months were fairly productive for Naruto involving a lot of training. He continued working with Shikamaru on his chakra control and academy exercises. Shikamaru had low-Genin level chakra reserves but high-Genin level chakra control, he had mastered the leaf balancing technique where he could litter leaves all around his body and spin them all in various directions and speeds. Already thinking that was way too tiring and enough, Shikamaru was hoping that would be enough training until he joined the academy at least. However, living with a hyperactive blonde with a thirst for knowledge and strength as well as a nagging mother who would 'encourage' him to train, that wasn't an option. Every single time Naruto trained, he would be forced to join too either by Naruto dragging him or his mother using her pot as a method of convincing him. Speaking of the hyperactive blonde, he had also mastered the leaf balancing exercise, however he had high-Genin level chakra reserves but low-Genin level control. Both boys currently had learnt the three basic techniques – the shunshin, the kawarimi and the bunshin, however the smallest amount of bunshins Naruto was able to create was still in the hundreds. Outside of the three basic techniques, both boys began learning the shurikenjutsu recently thanks to the sets of kunai and shuriken gifted to both boys by the Hokage himself. Naruto received it since the Hokage still took it upon himself to look after Naruto's need and for Shikamaru, he received it as a 'Thank You' gesture to the Nara taking Naruto in.

Although initially starting as a lie to cover for Ameya, Naruto did begin training his survival skills more and would occasionally drag Shikamaru with him. After speaking to the Hokage, Naruto thought he might as well take the opportunity to actually do learn something and so he would travel to different training grounds every weekend in order to test himself. Of course before doing so, he had to promise and let the Sandaime and Shikaku know where he was going and he had to read all the available information on camping, hunting and survival. He would usually camp out to see how it feels, the initial few times he had to leave early and come back as he wasn't able to handle the situation properly. Through numerous trial and error, both boys were now able to spend a full weekend in the woods and be successful in hunting small animals and prey. What Naruto did not tell anyone is that every once in a while, he would meet up and 'play' with Ameya, he still worried for her safety so chose to keep this secret to himself. The playing involved her being the prey and Naruto having to find and hunt her and then vice versa in order to further improve his hunting and stealth skills. Through the numerous meetings, Naruto managed to learn a few things about Ameya and her clan. Firstly, he found out she was technically still a cub! She was only a few months old when they met and had actually been using some of her remaining chakra to make her size bigger. She was actually the size of a small wolf now without using her chakra, compared to the size of her brothers who were the size of grown panthers. Speaking of her brothers, Naruto found out Ameya belonged to the Jaguar summoning clan and the panthers were type of jaguars known for their stealth and muscular size usually.

Dragging his thought back to the current activity he found himself in, Shikamaru had just won their latest shogi game. The difference being they were playing on a brand-new purpleheart wood game set which Naruto got him for his birthday two months ago, it set Naruto back a little bit and dug into his savings, however, to Naruto it was worth it. Shikamaru was his first real friend and at this point something like a brother to him with how much time they spent together, even though they have two very different personalities. It was for this reason Naruto had saved up for months in order to surprise him and say thank you, this lead to Shikamaru moving faster than either his parents or friends had ever seen and embrace Naruto in a fierce hug whilst thanking him with some tears in his eyes. Speaking of friends, Naruto was introduced to Choji and Ino when Shikaku invited the parents and told them to bring their kids. Naruto and Ino instantly butted heads over their stubborn personality once Ino tried to boss them around as soon as she got comfortable around him, which Naruto would have none of. Shikamaru and Choji simply chose to observe their interaction already knowing what Ino was like from the numerous time their parents organised the three of them to hang out. Unlike Ino and Naruto, Choji got on with Naruto instantly and their biggest form of bonding involved eating contests. After the game was packed away, Naruto went into his room to get dressed and go to a meeting that the Hokage set up. Not much has changed in terms of appearance however he now had one kunai pouch on his right thigh and one shuriken pouch on his left thigh, what differentiated them from regular pouches though were the engravings on each pouch. Each pouch had the Uzumaki and Nara symbol engraved on them in an intersecting manner (think of a Venn diagram) which was also included on the sleeves of his coat and black t shirts. This was a gift from Shikamaru and his family on Naruto's birthday symbolising the bond and link the Uzumaki had formed with the Nara clan and family. Of course when Naruto received this gift, similar to Shikamaru although more expected, he had engulfed the whole family in a hug as big as his little arms could manage.

(At The Hokage Office)

"Come in" the aged voice of the Sandaime Hokage called out to what he was assuming was Naruto knocking, which he was proven right about, "Ah Naruto-kun, punctual as ever, thank you for coming down," he added resulting in a bright grin and small bow from Naruto. "Now the reason for bringing you here is simple, we are going to discuss the next part of your training. Judging by the look on your face, you were hoping to continue staying with Nara family and training there right?" to which Naruto simply gave a firm nod with a small sad smile, already understanding that this wouldn't be the case. "Unfortunately, we can't do that. You see, a year before they enter the academy, most clans take that opportunity to teach clan secrets and techniques to their academy hopefuls and although the Nara family were happy to keep you with them and try to teach you, I figured it would be best to try and help you with one of your own secrets," the Hokage subtly said, hoping Naruto would understand the hidden meaning of his words and judging by the boy's widened eyes, he did. "Yes exactly, that power, Naruto-kun. You are to meet Raven and Bird tomorrow morning at 7am at the Hokage's training grounds, behind the Hokage tower. I have already added your chakra signatures to the training ground so you should be able to enter it without any problems. Now if that is all okay with you makes sense, you should spend the rest of the night with the Naras, I'm sure they'll want to say their goodbyes too." The Sandaime concluded and gave Naruto a small smile, which Naruto returned with a small bow and a big grin on his face, letting the Hokage know it was fine and he'll be okay.

(The Next Morning)

On his way to the training ground Naruto couldn't help but have a small sad smile on his face. Last night was deemed as a celebratory event and even though not usually heavy on the emotions, the Naras made sure to let Naruto know he would be missed and is always welcome to come and visit. Although only a year, Naruto certainly made all of their lives a lot brighter and more entertaining and whilst not a Nara will always be seen as family, especially by Shikaku, Yoshino and Shikamaru.

Continuing his walk behind the Hokage tower, Naruto was convinced he was lost. The Sandaime gave Naruto clear instructions on how to find the hidden training ground however all Naruto could see were trees, trees and oh yeah, more trees. "I should probably head back, maybe jiji got something wrong, I mean he is pretty ol-what the heck?!" Naruto exclaimed loudly. One second he was walking straight past some trees and the next he was in a massive training ground, probably the biggest he's ever seen with a large lake in the middle, training dummies and targets and trees surrounding the whole field. Looking back, he could still see the Hokage tower which just confused him more as to why he didn't see the training ground. Taking a few steps back, he noticed the training ground disappear again, replaced by the same trees as before until he walked forward again making it reappear. "THIS IS SO COOL!" he screamed out and for the next minute or two he was jumping between, what he determined, the edge of the training area and the woods making it constantly appear and disappear. This continued for a few minutes until he was interrupted by a loud noise to his left side.

"AHEM, if you're done?" the amused voice of Bird rang out from the training ground whilst Raven was handing him a small wad of cash. "I told you he would find it cool Itachi, anyone would, you're the only robotic anomaly my dear friend, a training ground that can't be seen unless you know where to look and have your charka signature registered?! How is that not cool?" Bird said gleefully as he started counting the cash.

Taking his partner's momentary distraction as his cue to start speaking, "Please keep our identity a secret Naruto-kun, Bird seems to forget sometimes we are meant to be secretive ANBU, but as he said, my name is Itachi. Itachi Uchiha" Itachi said in a matter-of-fact manner. There wasn't much Naruto could deduce from his tone.

"Oh whatever! If we are going to train him, we might as well get a bit personal and learn to trust each other," Bird said and began taking off his mask, "as my emotion-lacking partner was saying, you have to keep our identity a secret as well as these training sessions. Now that is clear, I am Shisui Uchiha, and we will try to help you get in touch with the Kyuubi and see what else we can do" he finished off with a wide grin.

(A Few Days Later)

Naruto was currently sat in a mediative position under the shade of one of the big trees in the training ground. Itachi and Shisui were both right beside him with chakra suppression seals and their sharingan eyes active and ready. Over the last few days, the two ANBU teens were teaching Naruto how to meditate and differentiate between his different chakra signatures. Due to his already large natural reserves, Naruto never really considered checking for the other signature that resided within him. After explaining to him the difference and how to find the second signature as well as how to correctly meditate and clear his head, all three deemed that today would be the day Naruto would try to make contact with the Kyuubi.

After what felt like hours, Naruto was starting to feel impatient and bored, "this isn't working! Is there no other way I can- OW" he was interrupted by a fist hitting the top of his head.

"Unless you want to take your luck with me throwing you off a cliff and see if that helps, I suggest you zip it and continue!" Shisui said with a huff. What he was not willing to tell Naruto was that he was growing impatient too and was also beginning to question his methods, that is until he felt Naruto go completely stiff before seemingly going limp and still maintaining his mediative posture. "Here we go, Itachi be ready".

(In Naruto's mindscape)

"I'm just saying, this clearly isn't working. Surely there is a different way for me to meet the Kyuubi" Naruto said in an almost defeated manner.

"Yeah, you could just open your eyes… then again of course my jailor has to be an idiot" a deep and growling voice said causing Naruto to open his eyes wide in shock and fear at the sight of the Kyuubi locked up behind bars looking directly at him. "Ah yes, the fear. I missed seeing this, it really does make one feel alive" the Kyuubi said menacingly with a wide grin showing off his massive white sharp fangs. "Now then, to what do I owe the displeasure of your ugly visage" the Kyuubi said in a mocking tone.

"Who you calling ugly, you flea ridden furball!? I bet under your fur is just a bunch of fat! Fat flea ridden furball!" Naruto yelled back, his previous fear and shock disappearing and being replaced by anger. He quickly had to leap back to dodge the large claw rushing forward ready to pierce through him.

"Let me make one thing very clear human, you are lucky to have these bars stopping me from ripping you apart. Now you better tell me very quickly as to why you are here, this is your final chance" it bellowed out making Naruto realise this might be his only chance.

"Okay okay fine, I'm sorry okay? I didn't think the mighty Kyuubi would be so touchy about fleas," Naruto began with his arms up in a placating manner but allowed a small smirk to firm as he saw the eyes of the Kyuubi narrow dangerously, "I'm here to talk that's all. I want to know more about you, more about that night 7 years ago, why you attacked, and more about my abilities because until I heard your voice that night I didn't show signs of these abilities and none of the previous jinchuriki had those abilities". The last part was fairly new information to Naruto which only presented itself after he convinced the Sandaime to give him more info and details regarding the jinchuriki and tailed beasts in the world. What he found out surprised him, especially that both previous hosts of the Kyuubi were Uzumaki, the Hokage promised to give him more information once he graduated the academy Sitting down, at a fairly safe distance, to show he wasn't planning on leaving any time soon and did not want to cause any more arguments or problems, he simply waited for the Kyuubi to respond.

After a few minutes of the Kyuubi intently staring down Naruto, his eyes relaxed a little. 'Definitely not the worst container I had. Weak as hell but I like how he thinks, might as well entertain this a little to see how it goes' The Kyuubi thought before choosing to address the questions. "I will answer what I want and you will take what I give you, nothing more, do you understand?" the Kyuubi began, and only after Naruto nodded showing his understanding did it continue, "you won't know about me or my history until I deem you worthy, which you are not by at least a millennium of years. As to why I attacked, I was controlled by a member of the Uchiha. Relax its none currently in the village otherwise I would have taken over your body myself and gotten rid of him. About your abilities, when your Yondaime sealed me away, your little puny body wasn't able to handle all of my chakra. Instead he split me in half, you have my Yin half and he sealed the yang half into himself, that is how your abilities came about, through me. My previous hosts were older and more developed than you so were able to handle all of my chakra which as a result was perfectly balanced between yin and yang." Giving Naruto a minute to take all of this in, the Kyuubi continued on once Naruto seemed ready.

"Now yin release makes up half of what chakra is composed of, it is responsible for the imagination and form of chakra. Yin is half the reason as to how us tailed beasts were made. Anyways, another form of yin release is what you humans call genjutsu – you are only able to do that because of yin release. You're quite lucky because usually as a jinchuriki it would be impossible to do genjutsu due to your abnormal chakra reserves and as a result poor control. However, with enough control of the yin release you should be able to use genjutsu as long as your chakra control is decent enough. Same thing with your shadows and those Nara people, they're all bastardised versions of pure yin release. Pouring chakra into your shadow, allows you to control it how you see fit, now with this technique being even more supercharged by my own power, you were able to enter the shadows and move through them" the Kyuubi finally finished allowing Naruto, who was currently sat wide eyed with his mouth agape, to take all of this information in. However, he was not ready for the next words coming out of Naruto's mouth.

"Thank you." Naruto said as he stood and bowed deeply giving his thanks to the Kyuubi. Although maybe getting off on the wrong foot, he appreciated everything the Kyuubi just told him, it didn't have to go into so much detail and history but it did, and for that he will be forever thankful. "You have definitely given me more than I expected, hopefully I can make use of this information. I just have one more question, if that is okay?" Naruto asked the last part in a respectful manner knowing the Kyuubi didn't have to answer it.

"Cheeky but I will allow it. Whether I will answer it though is a different question." The Kyuubi said before gesturing for Naruto to continue.

"This mindscape is quite plain. I'm guessing you can't change it, otherwise you would have right? So does that mean, it is up to me to change it?" Naruto asked shyly while looking down which caused him to miss the slight widening of the Kyuubi's eyes. Composing himself before Naruto could notice, it simply offered a plain 'yes' before beginning to feel Naruto being woken up in the real world. However before fully disappearing, Naruto called out "this is a better way of thanking you! I will speak to you soon!" before leaving the mindscape again.

"Stupid brat" The Kyuubi grumbled out, however he couldn't help the small grin forming at the edge of his maw as he noticed the mindscape beginning to change.

(Back In The Real World)

"He's beginning to wake up Shisui, stop poking his face" the stoic voice of Itachi reprimanded Shisui who was busy poking Naruto to wake him. Although only 6 seconds passed in the real world, the Hokage warned them that time would move differently inside his mindscape so they didn't want to take risks, not knowing how long Naruto spent inside.

Opening his eyes, both Uchihas noticed a brief flash of red passing through Naruto's usually bright blue orbs and simply uttered "that was certainly interesting" he said with a wide grin, causing both Uchihas to look at each other and ponder the implications.

AN: Like I said, next chapter will be the last one before the action starts. It will involve one or two more time skips to wrap up the 'prelude' essentially and the basis of how I want the story to turn. Hopefully you've already seen glimpses of that.

Please leave more reviews and PMs with opinions and suggestions or general comments. I am always curious to know what you guys think.