Disclaimer - I own Nothing, but my Ideas
Hello Readers, Welcome to my first story. I have been a reader on this site for a couple of years now, and I decided why not give writing a try. As I am new to this, I will take note of any comments sent my way. This story will be a Naruto X Marvel Crossover; however, it will focus on the Naruto Universe. Inspired by Naruto: Hunt for the Nine Rings.
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"Normal Speech"
'Normal Thought'
Reading
"Bijuu/ Large Summon Speech"
'Bijuu/ Large Summon Thought'
Jutsu, Ring Power
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Chapter 1: A Legend's Beginning
On the night of October 10, the village of Konohagakure no Sato was a magnificent sight to behold. The trees in the forest surrounding the village were covered with leaves that had varying colors of yellow, green, and red. Every now and then a strong enough breeze would pick up and grab the leaves so that they would be blown around, which would momentarily hide the village. The forest seems to give off a calming tune thanks to the breeze and the plentiful wildlife that inhabits it. The full moon was hanging in the cloudless sky shining brightly down on the village, bringing into view the many buildings and structures that make up the village and illuminating the four distinct faces that were carved onto the cliff that was located at the village's northern edge. To the villagers it is the perfect setting for their annual festival, the civilians are going about through the many stalls that are set up enjoying themselves, the shinobi who are off duty have also joined in the festivities, while those who are still on duty are leisurely patrolling the village to keep order.
It is hard to believe that not ten years ago the village was laid in ruin after an attack. However, it was not an attack from any of the surrounding nations, but a single entity. This entity was called the Kyuubi no Youko, one of nine other similar entities that roamed the Elemental Nations. These nine entities were called the Bijuu, each Bijuu is said to be a force of nature, and their strength is measured by the number of tails that they possess, the weakest being the Ichibi and the strongest being the Kyuubi. These nine entities were said to have brought untold destruction were ever they went and according to public knowledge the first eight of the Bijuu were killed the First Hokage Hashirama Senju shortly after the village system was created. The Kyuubi was also supposedly slain during the battle between Hashirama and Madara Uchiha. So, when the Kyuubi appeared in the middle of the village it brought many questions to how it was still alive. The Kyuubi laid waste unto the village, and none could stand up to its terrible might until the Fourth Hokage arrived at the battle, where he proceeded to teleport the entity away from the village and the villagers were informed that he was finally able to put an end to the Kyuubi once and for all, but at the cost of his own life.
Only the village's higher-ups which is composed of the Hokage, the Elders, and the Clan Heads of the most influential clans; know the real result of the Fourth Hokage's battle against the Kyuubi. To even begin to understand it is essential to know that the Bijuu are not creatures of flesh and blood, but they are beings of pure yōki, and because of this fact it is impossible to kill them, it is possible to destroy their forms, but they will eventually reform and continue to wreak havoc. It was later discovered that while it is impossible to kill the Bijuu it was possible to seal them away into humans, these people were known as Jinchūriki. So, knowing this, the Fourth Hokage resorted to using a forbidden technique to summon the Shinigami to aid him in sealing the Kyuubi into a child that was born that very night, but with all powerful techniques there is a price and the price of summoning the Shinigami was that at the end of the technique his soul was consumed by the Shinigami.
At the end of that night the village was in ruins and their leader was dead, the only one that came out of that battle was the baby that was brought to be used as the Kyuubi's Jinchūriki. This child's name is Naruto Uzumaki, and while the Fourth Hokage's dying wish was for the child to be known as a hero, he is known as anything but a hero. Demon, monster, the fox reborn are just a few of the names that the villagers refer to him as. For when the Fourth Hokage died the previous Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen took up the position again. In an act of sheer stupidity or spite decided to follow through with the Fourth Hokage's final wish and proclaimed Naruto as the Kyuubi's container to both the shinobi and civilian council. This caused the entire civilian council and some of the shinobi council who were under the belief that the Kyuubi was dead to start to panic and quickly demand his death, once he saw this, he banned them from sharing this with others. However, in a matter of days the entire village was aware of Naruto's connection to the Kyuubi to a degree. The Third Hokage seeing that he could not entirely keep the villagers out of the loop created a law that forbade the passing of the knowledge of Naruto's status to the younger generation.
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In an abandoned district, there was a run-down apartment building in the southern outskirts of town. This building housed a single occupant, who was but a boy. He possessed spiky sun-blond hair, amethyst purple eyes, and a rather pale skin complexion. This child was none other than Naruto Uzumaki, who had just celebrated his tenth birthday today. He was lying in bed sleeping, when the clock on the wall of his small apartment signaled that it was midnight, a faint golden glow started to appear on the back of his right hand. The light kept getting brighter within the next few moments until it blazed with such intensity that it illuminated the whole room. Suddenly a few sparks started to appear, and then they ran down Naruto's arm.
"Aaarrrggg" Naruto gave a quick yelp of pain as the sparks sent a jolt through his nervous system. Now fully awake he started to observe his surroundings.
After taking a few moments to get the awareness of his surroundings, in which he took a few glances around himself to see if anyone was attacking him. Only after ensuring that he was the only person in the room, he noticed a strange golden glow that seemed to be quickly dissipating on the back of his right hand.
"What the hell, why is my hand glowing" Naruto yelled as he began waving his right hand around, trying to get rid of whatever the cause for the strange glow was.
After a few more moments, the golden glow finally died out, and once it did, there was a small puff of smoke. What appeared from the smoke confused Naruto somewhat as unlike the many times when he had seen something similar with the storage scrolls, it did not contain something like kunai or some other ninja tool, but a small letter.
"What is going on, and what is up with this letter," the blond muttered to himself. Once Naruto finally calmed down completely, he picked up the letter that had fallen onto the floor.
He gave the letter a quick look over, and he immediately noticed his name written on its back. It seemed to be drawn in a hurry, and there appeared to be a few specks of blood sprinkled on the envelope. After thinking for a few moments, he decided to open the letter and read what was inside.
Naruto,
My son, my beloved little Maelstrom. My name Is Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze; I am your mother. If you are reading this, it means that I am no longer amongst the living. I knew from the start that there was the possibility of my death when I became pregnant with you, and as such I prepared for such an outcome. Pregnancy was even riskier for me compared to others because of my circumstances. However, the risks could go to hell for all I cared, and you were the best thing to happen to me in this life. So please, for my sake, do not blame yourself for my death because I was more than ready to give my own life to bring you into this world. You are my legacy, my greatest joy, my most outstanding achievement.
Enough of that for now before I get any sappier; allow me to introduce myself properly. My name is Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze, and I am the wife of Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage, Kiiroi Senkō but most of all, my idiot husband. I hail from the former village of Uzushiogakure, from which our clan, the Uzumaki, originate.
Let me tell you some things about myself; I have red hair, which is our clan's specifying trait, and amethyst purple eyes. I have always been told that my personality is that of a tomboy. I am naturally aligned to the elements of Wind and Water; I am also a Fūinjutsu Grandmaster and have learned of all the different styles of the Uzumaki Kung fu. I was born as the Crown Princess of Uzu no Kuni.
If events have come to pass, as I fear, you are now the third Jinchūriki of the Kyuubi. However, before I dive deeper into that topic, I want you to know this YOU ARE NOT THE KYUUBI; you are Naruto, my beloved son. When I told you earlier that circumstances made my pregnancy more dangerous, I meant that I, too, held the Kyuubi. Something that was discovered by Mito Uzumaki, who was the First Jinchūriki was that the seal that keeps the beast contained weakens for female Jinchūriki when they are giving birth. She passed this information onto me when I became its Jinchūriki.
You have a great destiny ahead of you, my little Maelstrom. Far more remarkable than that stupid prophecy that your toad of a godfather could ever imagine, or the fate that your fool of a father is preparing for you even as I write this letter. (sigh) I wish that I could be there for you, my Maelstrom, to give you both my love and protection. I know that your life will be one of hardship; there will be much pain and suffering, more than I dare to imagine. I, too, know the burden of being a Jinchūriki, and I have only Kami to thank that only the higher-ups know of my status. I do not have your father's faith in the people of this village, nor do I understand where he gets his faith. People are creatures that are controlled by their fear of what they can never understand. Unlike your father, who believes that humans are naturally good people, I have lost too much already to fools to ever put my trust entirely in people. Be strong, for you are an Uzumaki; we allow none to control our destinies, so bear our legacy proudly.
Our clan's lineage goes back to the age of the Rikudō Sennin. He had two sons, the eldest who established the Uchiha and the younger brother who found the Senju. We are descended from the younger brother, who also had two sons. The eldest fell into the never-ending battle between the two clans, while the younger brother wanted nothing to do with the struggle. So, he left and went his own way.
Several generations later, one of his descendants, who we know as the Mandarin, tired of the never-ending conflict that the continent was in, decided that it was time to put an end to the war. The problem, however, was that he did not have the power to accomplish his goal. So, to gain the strength needed, he spent countless hours researching the mysteries of chakra until he stumbled upon a branch of chakra manipulation that had only been briefly studied by the Rikudō Sennin. That branch is what we now call Fūinjutsu. After experimenting for years with Fūinjutsu, he eventually crafted ten powerful artifacts that no one could replicate to this day. These ten objects were ten rings, each ring held immense power, and with them, he went on to end the chaos that had spread.
After he brought an end to the chaos that had spread throughout the continent, he established his empire. He was a wise and fair ruler who went out of his way to bring an era of prosperity to his citizens, but he was said to be crueler than any demon that walked the earth when provoked. Nevertheless, he ruled for several decades with no major conflict, and it was not till he was nearing the end of his life that his enemies struck.
The jealous, fearful, and greedy fools made their move, and despite losing more than eighty percent of their forces, they managed to strike the Mandarin down. With his defeat, they thought that they could use the rings for themselves, but the Mandarin had the last laugh for the rings could be used by only those of his bloodline, and so in his final moments, he scattered the rings across the four corners of his empire to keep them from other hands.
With the Mandarin's death, his empire fell apart quickly, and the land was divided into many nations that are known to this day. His children, our ancestors, fled the mainland, for they knew that it would mean certain death if they were to remain. They eventually arrived upon the island that would come to be known as Uzu no Kuni. It was an island that was surrounded by heavy mist and treacherous currents.
For centuries, our clan slowly built up our strength, while at the same time, we secretly searched for the rings; using our mastery of Fūinjutsu, we created various Fūins with the sole purpose of locating the rings. Unfortunately, none of them ever bore any results; in fact, we only managed to acquire one ring in our countless years of searching, and it was only sheer dumb luck that we found it at all. This ring was the Kōri no wa (Ring of Ice); this ring is worn on the left little finger. The ring will allow you with training to gain mastery of ice and cold and grants you immunity to the cold. According to the records that our family had, the Mandarin produced ice that neared absolute zero. The documents also described that the ring's power increases the more rings one had in their possession.
The Kōri no wa was passed down to me on my tenth birthday when I was appointed as the Crown Princess of Uzu, and now I pass it down to you. It is sealed in our clan's crest, the red swirl on the other side of the letter, so push a little chakra into it. I have also included my diary, as I hope it will let you get to know me and scrolls that contain our clan's techniques this is contained in the seal below our crest. So grab hold of what you want and live your life, not for the village that does not deserve your respect or love, for people who could care less if you live or die but live for yourself and find somewhere you can call home, a place that you genuinely want to protect.
I only ask that you do one thing for me, my son, to continue our search. Find the other nine rings and use them to bring our family back to glory; this is my only request.
Well, that and to find a girl and give me plenty of grandchildren.
Anyway, I mentioned that our clan has been researching for generations in an effort to locate the other rings, our clan developed a method to track down the other rings, although it is highly inaccurate, but I think that my own research may have cut down the range that you will have to search, it works by enhancing the innate connection of the ring that you already have in your possession, and it will be useless to anyone who doesn't possess one or contain Uzumaki blood. The unfortunate part is that I gave it to Tsunade, who is your godmother, for safekeeping. She most likely fled the village after my death, but I do not hate her for it; she has experienced much loss in her life and is broken by grief; my death was likely the final nail in the coffin. If you manage to track her down, please tell her I am sorry, and if you can, try to be there for her. Unfortunately, I cannot speak the same for your godfather Jiraiya; I will never know why Minato was so insistent on naming that man your godfather. If he took responsibility and raised you, I'll apologize when we meet in the pure land, but I doubt he will do it. The man is nothing more than a fool and a waste, who cares more for his lusts than his responsibilities to all but the village.
Live a long, happy life, my little Maelstrom. Know that I love you with all my heart, and when your time comes, I will welcome you with a hug and hope you will give me one in turn. Do not forget to live and love.
Love,
Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze
"The Bloody Red Habanero"
"The Crimson Despair"
And most importantly, the title I cherish more than anything "Mom"
PS: There is a Fūin marker that will enable you to control and limit the Kyuubi's chakra flow; slap it on the seal (the seal is on your stomach), and you should be able to keep it from interfering with your chakra system. If I know your father (and I do), he most likely overlooked that in his design.
PSS: Beware the village, I have spent many years investigating the fall of Uzu, and there are many unsettling details that I have come across in my search. I have not been able to gather too much in facts however as the villages higher-ups would always try to divert my attention from my investigation and would never allow me to return to Uzu. It was not till your father became Hokage that I was able to make a brief journey to my homeland but by then it had been almost two decades since its destruction. I also was never given clearance to the most sensitive data in the archives. Be wary as the fact that you are a Jinchūriki many of the higher-ups will see you as nothing but a weapon.
PSSS: Tell no one of the ring.
Tears were falling long before Naruto finished reading the letter his mother left him. After he finished reading the entire letter, he was sobbing, and so he let years of suppressed emotions out as he cried in both grief and joy. In grief for the mother that he never knew and in joy for knowing that he had been loved. After taking a few more minutes to let out his emotions, he started to calm down enough to get control of his emotions.
Naruto then read the letter several more times to engrave every word his mother wrote into his mind. He was finding both solace and pain in finally having this connection to at least one of his parents after spending years wondering who they were, if they loved him, and if they were even alive or had abandoned him. Finally, he gained a small true smile, as he now had sense of closure that he had the answers to his questions.
Though the smile did not last long as Naruto started to frown, despite what he let others think the blond was quite intelligent, he hides that all behind a mask of a fool, that he had developed to try to deal with the many years of the villagers constant emotional abuse. As he processed the content, it brought into question several topics that were mentioned in the letter. As he took some time to think about what this information meant, he felt many different emotions, and over time, the emotion he settled on was anger. Not anger at his mother, no, this anger was directed at the inhabitants of the village, but most of it was placed on four individuals. His father for sealing the beast into him and subjecting him to all the torment that he has gone through. Tsunade and Jiraiya for abandoning him as they were supposed to have been his guardians. And the Hokage for constantly lying to him. Of the four, he felt the most anger towards the Hokage, as unlike the other three, he has interacted with the Hokage. So, he feels betrayed and starts to wonder what else is the Hokage not telling him or is lying to him.
Pushing away his slowing rising anger with the discipline that he has gained from years of experience, he turns the letter around and sees a very familiar red swirl, putting that to the side for the moment he locates the seal below it and channels a little of his chakra into it which causes it to faintly smoke until another object is lying on top of it with a small Poof. Naruto quickly notices the object revealed to be a small, very thin book. It is covered in a red leather, and the center of the cover etched in black is 'Kushina Uzumaki.' He realizes that this must be his mother's diary that she talked about in her letter. He starts to become disappointed because of the book's appearance, but he once again shoves it to the side for now as he opens it. As he does this, he notices a slip of paper between the cover and the first page.
Naruto, this book contains my thoughts and knowledge, starting from when I was eight to the night before I am scheduled to give birth. While you read this, I ask that if you are deciding to follow through with our legacy that you read slowly. I have also taken the time to go through and apply storage Fūins that contain clan scrolls starting from entry-level to grandmaster-level. I hope that you will learn better by reading my own experiences while learning the various techniques of our clan. It may not look like it can hold much, but once again, it goes back to are clan's specialty Fūinjutsu, the dairy was created to hold a nigh-endless number of pages and keep it condensed so that it is easy to carry and conceal. Also, to avoid any worries of it being damaged, let's say that nothing less than a S rank jutsu can even damage it.
After he finished reading, he set the slip to the side and felt the earlier disappointment caused by the book's appearance to disappear. He then puts it to the side for now but is determined to read it later. He picks the letter back up and then turns his focus back on his clan's crest, the very same red swirl that he sees daily on the back of the shinobi chūnin and higher, as well on his orange jumpsuit. He adds a mental note to research this later and then places his hand on the crest and channel some of his chakra into it. This results once more in another small cloud of smoke and a quiet Poof.
Once it disperses, he notices that there is now an object between his hand and the letter. As he takes his hand away, he sees that it is a ring. The ring is composed of a golden band with many symbols etched onto it and a light blue jewel with the character for Ice seemingly floating inside it (appearance is similar to the Makluan rings). As he brings his hand to pick it up, he notices a slight chill around the ring. Once his hand finally reaches the ring and picks it up, he starts to feel an indescribable urge to put the ring on, remembering from his mother's letter where the ring goes, and he slips it on his left little finger. Once it is on his finger, the ring starts to pulse, and he gets the feeling it is examining him. After a few tense moments, it stops pulsating and instead begins to let out an almost inaudible hum. From there, he gets the feeling that the ring has accepted him.
As he sits there staring at the ring that now rests on his hand, he starts to think about what he wants to do with his life. Before it seemed so clear, he would work his way up the shinobi system and gain the acknowledgment that he has always craved from the inhabitants of Konoha. From there, he will eventually gain the position of Hokage to cement all that acknowledgment and gain the respect of everyone. However, now he is unsure what he wants to do. As he sinks into his thoughts and looks back at many of his memories, he starts to see that the Hokage in his monthly visits had, over the years had given him small nudges now and then to point him in that direction of thinking. This, combined with the facts that the Hokage was hiding his parentage and lying to his face over the years, had in one fell swoop shattered any trust he had in the old man. After he took off the proverbial rose-tinted glasses that he had been wearing, he quickly saw that there were several unusual situations when it came to his relationship with the Hokage.
He was the only orphan that the Hokage ever seemed to interact with, and when he first approached him, he did it under the guise of just another old man. The Hokage also always told him that he needs to always forgive the villagers, even when some of them would beat him to a pulp in his earlier years. He requires the villager's acknowledgment and several other things that he finds odd. As he puts this information together, a question starts to grow. Why? Then he starts to think back to his mother's letter, and the answer finally comes to him. The Hokage has been trying to ingratiate him to both the village and the title of Hokage because of his status as the Jinchūriki of the Kyuubi.
And as Naruto comes to this realization, his body starts to shake violently, and his breathing becomes quick and ragged. He goes from a sitting position to curling upon himself, as he starts to realize that the very purpose that he had been striving for was nothing more than the results of the Hokage's manipulations, what else was a lie, who could he trust. As he further spiraled down this train of thoughts, he failed to notice that the ring had started to give off a faint glow. However, he was finally pulled out of his thoughts as he felt a pleasant chill begin to travel through his body. He starts to uncurl, looks at his hand with his tear-filled eyes, and sees that the ring's jewel is glowing and that ever-present humming seems more audible.
After a few moments, he starts to let out a soft chuckle that proceeds into thunderous laughter that continues for a few minutes, where he seems to begin to pull himself back together. Once he is no longer laughing, he sets his eyes back onto the ring.
"So, either I have lost it, or are you trying to comfort me?" he asks while staring directly at the ring on his finger. To his surprise, the glow gives off a quick pulse.
Naruto stares at the ring for a few moments after that.
After that, he proceeds to ask the ring the most important question "You aren't going take over my mind, are you?" At this, the ring's glow slowly starts to dim. Naruto takes this as a no and is comforted that while the ring seems to possess some sentience, it doesn't seem to have any harmful intention towards him.
Now that he has got that cleared, he starts to bring his thoughts back to what he wants to do with his life. He now is confident that he wants nothing to do with the position of Hokage, and he will give the old man a chance to come clean on his eleventh birthday, but if the old man doesn't say anything, he won't pursue that bond anymore and will cut it.
He also decides to try and figure out why his clan's crest is worn by most of the shinobi of the village, but there is no mention of the Uzumaki.
While thinking about this, Naruto considers if he should stay in the shinobi academy; the answer he quickly reaches is a yes as he will no doubt bring attention to himself if he drops out of the academy for no reason. This will likely be brought to the attention of the Hokage, who probably visit him to express his 'concern' for why he dropped out of the academy. This meant that he would need to continue to wear the mask that he put up around everyone. He will also need to take it to the next level as he will need to hide his intelligence and skill level now that he has access to techniques.
The only reason that Naruto is the dead last is that the teachers ignore him when he has asked for help, but he has also long suspected that some of them are purposely sabotaging him. According to his mother, she has provided him with the techniques that he will need to succeed, not that he is planning to let anyone else know for the time being.
Naruto plans on reading all the information left behind thoroughly so that he ensures that he misses nothing. However, he also understands that he must not let any of his newfound knowledge be known to anyone.
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Hello everyone, this marks the end of the first chapter of hopefully a new story. Now to answer some questions that are sure to come up as the story comes along. First, I have changed some of the backstory of Naruto; it should become more apparent as the story comes along. Second, I am changing the age at which the academy starts and ends; the ages are now 9 to 16; this is mainly because I am planning on trying to include some pairings but cringe when imaging doing this for a 13-year-old, so yeah, I am aging up the characters three years. Third, for those who obsess over the original Naruto plot, there will be some changes I won't tell you how much (I don't know myself "looks away while whistling"). Finally, I am unsure about release dates as I am trying to bring everything together while still making it original and fun to read. I have had this story in my mind since I came across Naruto: Hunt for the Nine Rings a few months ago. I have read quite a few stories on this website, and only a few stories have stuck to me like that; I hope that BigCC will someday continue it. So, with all that said and done I hope you have enjoyed, till the next time.
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