Foreward :
I do not own Naruto or any of Kishimoto Masashi's characters. In order to familiarize yourself with the background and storyline, I recommend reading the original manga to date. I welcome all criticism good or bad! This is my first fic, so I imagine its flawed.
I fully intend to keep with the story, as long as people show interest, so please review.
Anyway enjoy!!
Things in [ ] are sound effects, and italics are thoughts.
Wow its dark…. I can't even see my hands. There it is again… The low chuckle that seems to be guiding me somewhere. Fumbling in the dark… ugh, I could be walking in circles and I wouldn't even know it.
Wuh.. AHHHHH……..
[Thud]
Ugh… that was quite a fall. Can.. Barely…. Stand up… Whoah! The floor is moving!!!
"MWHAHAHAHA…. So you have come to visit me again, little one."
Two red eyes….
With a scream and a start Naruto found himself on the ground by his bed entangled in his blankets, drenched in sweat. "That dream again…. Stupid fox." He thought to himself.
Lately he had been having more and more of these powerful but directionless dreams. He never could remember what the fox said to him, but whatever it was, it always woke him up hard. "I really need to stop eating ramen before bed" he thought. He extracted himself from the melee of sheets and blankets on the floor and attempted to stretch.
"AHHHH LEG CRAMP" he screamed as he rolled around on the floor clutching his offending leg. "Kuso, this is going to be a long day…"
[knock knock] "Come in!"
The door creaked open, and Jiraiya peeked in, with a look on his face that stated that he didn't want to know what it was that Naruto was howling about at this hour of the morning. "I see you are up and at it all ready" he smirked. "Are you ready for training?"
"Does it LOOK like I'm ready for training!?" Naruto shouted. "Why can't you be more like Kakashi and actually be LATE sometimes?"
Jiraiya nodded at the alarm clock victoriously.
"11:00!?!? AHHH how did I sleep in so much!?" Naruto yelled, running around frantically.
Jiraiya inwardly snickered "Actually, the power went out last night, its only 8am" he thought.
Together the frog hermit and his young charge started walking down the path to the training grounds. Unlike his usual boisterous self, Naruto was lagging behind, looking down at the path. "Stupid fox" was all that ran through his mind. Jiraiya, noticing his abnormal behavior, stopped suddenly to confront him… or at least that was his intention. Walking on the pathside, a young woman sauntered by, totally engrossing the dirty old man. Naruto looked up just in time to see his teacher walking away after the young lady bowlegged, giggling crazily. "ERO-SENNIIIIIINNN!!!!"
Jiraiya leaned up against a tree heavily, rubbing the knot on his head where the woman decked him, after she turned around to see what the shouting was about, just to have the old frog hermit run squarely into her, accidentally putting his hands on her breasts. "Ouch, what a high price to pay…" his mind wandered. "I suppose I should thank the kid for giving me the opportunity for that grope though" he chuckled.
Naruto was struggling furiously with the task his sensei had given him. He remembered back to the old man's instructions… "Now what I want you to do, is make a rasengan and carve your name in this tree. I want you to get used to the feel of the cyclone, so you can summon it more quickly and easily". "This has got to be some kind of joke", Naruto thought angrily, there was no way someone could make a rasengan so small and precise. If it weren't for the fact that Jiraiya demonstrated it to him, he would be sure it was a ploy to get him distracted for a few minutes while the old lecher peeped on some swimming schoolgirls. "ARRRRGGHH" he howled angrily and kicked the stump of the tree he just blew into splinters with his technique.
Off behind a tree, a small blue haired girl watched him with wonder in her eyes. "Naruto-kun… sugoi" she thought, as he blew another tree into bits. "He is so strong… It makes me want to keep trying" she sighed, looking at the log she was practicing on. "Maybe someday he will show me how he does that" she blushed. The idea of being anywhere near the brash Naruto was almost more than she could take. His boisterous aura filled her heart to the very brim just by being in the same room as him. Deep down inside she wanted nothing more than to be recognized by him, her hero.
"Yahooooo!!!!" Naruto happily shouted! "Ero-sennin! I did it!!!! Looklooklook! My name!" Sure enough, the hiragana for Na – Ru – To were etched out on the trees surface. "This kid really is something else… maybe he does have what it takes to compare to the Yondaime." Jiraiya thought to himself. "All right, you knucklehead, good work, lets head to town… we will stop at Ichiraku's on our way". Naruto just stared at him incredulously, remembering the LAST time the pervy-sennin told him he was taking him to the ramen shop, and ended up ditching him to pay for his own meal. "Ok fine, Ill TREAT you to some ramen, haha" Jiraiya laughed. "Haha, what a guy… I can't believe he actually remembered that."
As boy and sensei skipped off into town, the sun setting, the little blue haired girl came out of her hiding spot, where she had been watching in awe all day while her comrades practiced nearby. Oh what she would give to have the courage to confront Naruto about her feelings. Inwardly she knew that he liked Sakura. And why not? She was beautiful like her namesake, and was strong and brave for a kunoichi. [Sigh]"Naruto-kun"…. But if there was one thing that the rambunctious teenager had taught her, was to NEVER give up, no matter what happens. She cautiously went up to the tree where Naruto had been training and put her hand gingerly into the crevice that the Rasengan had made in the woods surface. It was sloppy, like someone who didn't practice writing often. Then again, she couldn't ever imagine her crush studying anything but jutsus. She giggled to herself, and wistfully pulled out her kunai and placed the blade underneath Naruto's signature. With the utmost caution she began etching into the wood. With a smile of satisfaction she patted the tree when she was done and began walking back to the Leaf village. Kurenai, who was walking her team back to the village, noticed the girl get a barely noticeable skip in her step as she walked away. She turned around to the tree where she saw the young kunoichi carving, and saw marked into the old tree's surface:
Naruto Hinata
"ITEDEKIMASU!!!" Naruto shouted before diving into his first bowl of ramen, practically inhaling it.
"Good grief, this is going to be hard on my bank account" Jiraiya thought. To his surprise, his charge suddenly stopped sucking the noodles down, and looked at him.
"Do you ever have a really weird dream a lot, ero-sennin?".
"Yeah, one where me and Tsunade were….and without her genjutsu" He shuddered, before he slapped himself back into reality. "A really weird dream?" he asked.
"Yeah", Naruto said, "Like one where someone keeps trying to tell you something, but you always wake up before you can hear what it is they say". Jiraiya looked at Naruto quizzically.
"Um… who is it that is trying to talk to you…." He asked, with a hint of apprehension as to the answer.
"Kyuubi", Naruto sighed.
Jiraiya raised his eyebrows. He wasn't really sure what he expected, but somehow he feared that it was the nine-tailed demon. The seal that the fourth put on Naruto was intended to block the fox's consciousness from its host's, it shouldn't be possible for the Kyuubi to contact Naruto.
Jiraiya looked at Naruto while thinking back on the words of his former student.
"Please Jiraiya-sensei… do not tell him who I am. I couldn't bear for him to know… For him to know that this abomination was sealed into him by…."
"Ah Yondaime-sama… Please don't hate me for this…. I believe it is for his own good."
ondgs in By this time, Naruto was seriously becoming uncomfortable under his sensei's gaze.
"Um… ero-sennin..." he spoke sheepishly, "why're ya looking at me like that".
Jiraiya saw the obvious worry in his eyes, and in an attempt to allay his student's fears stood up, palm out, in his best serious tone said, "Ah! Fear not little chickadee! I may be a super-pervert, but super-pedophile, I am not!!"
Naruto sweat-dropped at the idea.
"That's not what I was talking about…" he mumbled.
Jiraiya sat back down with a plop, and readied himself for his discourse.
"Naruto, has anyone talked to you about your parents?". The boy shook his head. "Well… I knew your father…" . Naruto jumped up wide eyed and pointed accusatively at his teacher, but before he could begin another one of his shouting matches with Jiraiya, the sennin readied a jutsu and slammed the seal in the middle of Naruto's stomach, between the 2nd and 3rd sentinel seal. As Naruto's senses began to fade, he faintly heard Jiraiya's voice say "Perhaps this will reveal some of the mystery to you…." "I prepared this Fuuin soft release just for you Naruto… I hope it helps you find what you seek"
Where am I? That evil laugh again…. Am I dreaming again? Must be.. I'm standing in front of the Fuuin gate again…
Deep inside the darkness of Naruto's soul, behind the Fuuin – Shiki Fuujin gate, Kyuubi's eyes shot open, blood red and in pain. Something outside was probing in its mind, deep within the recesses of his consciousness. Suddenly, every thought, memory and dream that the fox demon had ever experienced was suddenly copied forcefully from its mind, searing his surroundings with a constant screeching sound, like metal on glass.
[Da dum]
Dizzy and disoriented from the massive intrusion into its mind, Kyuubi collapsed and watched, as clear as a candle in a dark room, a small orb of consciousness, a solid orb of thought floated free from his cell, floating to the form laying in front of him. It came down onto Naruto's prostrate form and streams of memory began pouring out into his mind.
[Da Dum… Da Dum]
Naruto clawed at his head, subconsciously trying to stop the sudden assault on his mind. Gradually the shock of the intrusion began to wane, and all he could hear was his own slow heartbeat in his ears. He opened his eyes, and a large grassy field lay before him. Suddenly the ground began to shake. A humongous paw crashed into the ground next to him, leaving a deep furrow in the ground where it landed, and the surrounding grass was seared to ashes instantly by the chakra flowing around it. With a screech Naruto scrambled to get out of the way of the enormous thing seemingly trying to kill him. His body froze in fear as he recognized the blazing purple and red chakra flow that emanated from the being in front of him. His gaze traced up the creatures leg and to its head. "Kyuubi!!!!" he shouted, but the monster in front of him paid him no heed. It seemed to only be interested in one thing in front of it. Its many tails crashed down and annihilated the hillside it was standing on, leaving it standing in the rubble. It spread its stance as if readying itself to charge. Naruto's vision slowly began to collapse under the strain of the moment. "No, I can't pass out now, if I get stepped on by that thing.. I'll be a goner!! I…Can't… keep… eyes… open…." was the last thing he thought as the awareness closed in around him.
