A/N: This chapter came out pretty good in my opinion. It wasn't too short, at least.
It was sad to write at the end though.
Legend of Naruto: Ocarina of Time
Chapter 1: Scorpion Squabbles
"Hokage-jiisan! What did you want to see me for?" Naruto barged into the room shouting.
"Shh… calm down Naruto, this is important."
Naruto's eyes narrowed. If the Hokage was telling him to be quiet instead of laughing like he normally does, something's wrong.
"What's up?" he asked in a smaller voice.
"Naruto, have you been having funny dreams lately?"
Naruto stared. "How did you know?"
"Many of us have been having the same thing. All of the people in tune with the world probably are. Something large is brewing."
"What… what do you mean? What does this have to do with me?"
"I have a mission for you." The Sandaime said.
"Wha… but I'm not a ninja, you can't give me a mission! It's not allowed."
"But you are a ninja. You may not have passed the test, but you are still a ninja."
Naruto watched the man carefully.
"I know that you could have passed the exam. I was watching you shivering in fear from your nightmare."
Naruto's eyes widened. "How could you have seen me, you weren't there?"
The Hokage laughed. "I'm the best ninja in the county. I may be old, but that doesn't mean that I've lost my touch."
Naruto was in shock. The Sandaime was going to make him a ninja?
"Take this headband. It is different from all of the other Kohona headbands, but it still symbolizes you being a ninja." The Hokage reached into one of the drawers of his desk, and pulled out a hitai-ate. It was on burnt orange cloth, and rather than having the symbol of Kohona on it, it held three golden triangles, which together formed a larger triangle.
"The Triforce!" Naruto cried. "You're giving me a headband with the Triforce on it?"
"You will wear this headband with pride, now that you understand, will you not?"
"Yeah!"
"I'm glad that I can do my part to help you along your quest. But now the mission."
Naruto instantly turned serious. "What can I do for you, Hokage-sama?"
The Hokage was startled by the change in character in Naruto, but hid it well. "I have been cursed. The Forbidden Scroll of Seals has been stolen as well." He said simply.
Naruto was shocked. "Who cursed you?"
"A tall man with eyes like a snake. He was and old acquaintance of mine. He demanded something that belonged to me, and I wouldn't give it to him."
Naruto eyes widened with the description of the man. "He was… he was in my dreams. A man with eyes of a snake!"
The Sandaime was worried. Having such powerful connective dreams at such an age was either very problematic, or impossibly fortunate. The question was, in this case, which was it?
He shook himself out of his musings, and looked down at Naruto.
"Do you have the courage to face the unknown? Do you have the courage to find the man who controls the curse on me, as well as retrieve the scroll that was taken from me?"
Naruto stared at him. "Why do you want me to do this?"
"It is the only way to prepare you for what is to come. You wish to be the hero of legend correct? There is only work and more work along that path, this is only the beginning."
Naruto stared hard at him, before nodding. He picked up the hitai-ate and wrapped it around his forehead. The metal glinted in the morning light.
"Do you have any idea where the man who stole the scroll is?" Naruto asked quietly.
"Head to the east, he has taken up residence in the forests surrounding the town, for if he left them, he would be too far away to control the curse."
Naruto bowed, earning another weird glance from the Hokage, before turning and walking away. As he reached the door, he stopped. "Don't worry about the curse, Jiisan. I'll take care of it."
He walked out and closed the door.
"If only it wasn't too late already," the Hokage sighed.
Naruto dashed out of the Hokage's office as a blur of orange. He wondered if he would be getting a team later, but he decided that he wouldn't be. The teams were being assigned today, and he would miss it.
So what was he going to do? He was a ninja, with no rank, and apparently, no village relations. Sucks to be him.
Naruto reached the village exit, and jumped over the gate. Landing with a light 'thump' he dashed off again, this time going east.
After running for a little while, he slowed down. The forest was getting darker, the trees blocking out the sun. "This must be the place. Now what?"
Naruto heard a rustling from the bushes nearby. Whipping around to face it, he drew his sword in a flash.
A scorpion ran out of the bushes, and ran past him. Naruto frowned, "What's a scorpion doing here? They're not native of this area…"
Another hissing voice answered from behind him. "Correct. But these are my pets, I can summon them where ever I want."
Naruto spun around. There stood… "Mizuki-sensei?"
The man laughed, a freaky insane giggle. His voice was squeaky, and very high pitched, and had a tint of insanity. "Is that the name of this human? Ha, no, I'm not this Mizuki of yours. I've only taken over his body. Possession is a wonderful ability, don't you say?"
Naruto hissed in anger. "You're possessing Mizuki-sensei? How could you?"
The person giggled again. "He agreeeeed to it. Hehehehe. He wanted power, and I just gave it to him. But he never said he had to be in control of the powerrrrrr! So I took control of his body and stole this important looking scroll for Orochimaru. He'll be pleassssssed with me!"
The Possessed-Mizuki pulled out a few kunai and shiruken and started throwing them at Naruto. "Now, g-g-g-get out of my way, b-b-b-b-brat! I need to be leaving soon."
Naruto dodged the shiruken and kunai with little trouble, they hadn't been thrown very fast or hard.
Naruto looked up at the man who had been possessed, and watched as he grabbed a large scroll, and turned to start running with it. Naruto quickly scooped up some of the shiruken he had dodged, and threw them back, with full force, at Possessed-Mizuki. One of them caught him in the arm, and caused him to drop the scroll.
Mizuki growled at the pain, and pulled the shiruken from his arm.
"Do you, do you want to d-d-die b-b-brat?"
Naruto snarled at him. "You let Mizuki-sensei go, and give me the scroll and I won't hurt you."
The man giggled once more. "You can't hurt me without hurting 'precious Mizuki-sensei!' F-f-f-fool! You can't beat me!"
Naruto hissed. "Kuso, he's right. That is Mizuki-sensei's body. If I kill him, I'm killing Mizuki-sensei!"
The insane giggling continued for a minute, before the man turned around again. He reached down with his good hand, and grabbed onto the Forbidden Scroll of Seals.
Only to have another shiruken embedded into his hand.
"Goddesses damn you!" The man cried in pain.
Naruto snarled at him again. "Hokage-jiisan gave me the mission to recover the scroll and to get rid of his curse. I don't want to have to kill you, so if you just let Mizuki-sensei, the curse, and the Scroll go, I won't have to."
The man giggled again, pulling the shiruken out of his hand. Then he turned around to face Naruto.
"Do you think you can beat me, boy?" The insane tone asked.
"I know I can beat you! You're just hurting people I care about!"
Mizuki-sensei's face snarled. "The Goddesses will laugh at you when you are defeated so easily." The man made a few handseals, and an illusion wound its way around Naruto.
Naruto found himself in what appeared to be the inside of a giant tree trunk.
"This has got to be the most complex genjutsu I've ever seen." Naruto said wonderingly. "I wonder what I should do."
The insane giggly voice answered. "Just get yourself to the belly of the tree, and you'll find what you're looking for! It's like a gi-gi-giant maze!"
Naruto looked around a bit harder, trying to find where to go. There was a pathway that went up the tree, and he stood on a bit of web that appeared to be blocking a hole downwards.
Naruto decided that he should find his way up first, and dashed towards the wall. He quickly jumped up and landed on the pathway coming from the wall.
Taking a few more jumps, he found himself at the end of the pathway. There was a door on one side, and what appeared to be the end of the path, in the direct middle of the tree.
He quickly took the door, and found himself in a room, with a small bush in the center. The bush moved for a second, before something popped out of it.
There was no describing the bush monster. It was ugly, that was for sure.
Out of the large hole in its front, a brown nut shot out. Naruto crossed his arms in front of himself, guarding him from whatever it was.
Upon feeling the hit, Naruto pushed his arms away, causing the nut to rebound to its sender. The being squealed and ran from its bush.
Naruto ran up quickly, and grabbed onto the small bush on its head.
"What are you?" he snarled at the beast.
The plant-thing seemed to be rather scared. "I-I-I'm just a lesser demon, a Deku scrub! I'm just here to guard Queeny! Don't hurt me, please! I had no choice!"
Naruto hissed, and let go. In an instant the demon was gone.
"Kuso!"
He ran to the nearby door that had unlocked itself when he defeated the scrub. Opening it, he found himself in a small room that held a chest. Only problem was the chest was guarded by two more Deku Scrubs.
Quickly dispatching them as fast as possible, he ran to the chest. It was a small chest, not particularly important looking but it was a chest, nonetheless.
Opening it, he found a shiruken holster, sitting on a velvet surface.
He grabbed it out of the box, and hooked it onto his left leg, as his right arm was usually occupied by the sword. Reaching down to test the dispenser, he found something odd. All of the shiruken had a small symbol carved into them. It was a small symbol of an eye.
After testing that the Shiruken threw properly, and worked in the way intended, he ran back to the center room.
Naruto ran to the rather suspicious end of the pathway that seemed to float in the middle of the room. Looking down from the edge, he saw he was directly above the spider's web. When he had tried to break the web before, it hadn't worked. But maybe, gravity, along with his body weight would work.
He took a step back, and got a running start to his jump. In an instant he was plunging.
He crashed into the web, stretching it a long way before it broke, and he fell again.
This time he landed in water. It stopped his fall, but it also hurt, which wasn't a good thing.
Naruto quickly got out of the water, getting close to the small torch nearby him in an attempt to dry off.
Quickly he realized that he was drying off much faster than usual, even with an open flame near him.
"Oh well, might as well take advantage of it." He dashed off in search of which way to go.
Searching, he found a door, with three small blue flowers in front of it.
He started to run past them, but stopped to stare as they grew taller than him in an instant.
One of them started to snap at him as if it were a predator.
Naruto jumped back with a "Kuso!"
Naruto pulled his sword out, and snapped it at the closest of the three plant-beasts. It snarled at him, and reached out as far as it could go in an attempt to get to him. He smacked it again, and it retreated and fell back, before shriveling up and dying.
The little demon plant left behind a small glowing yellow-orange sphere. Naruto quickly grabbed it and ran back out of range of the other two plants.
It had a small seal that glowed with a green light, and Naruto tossed it experimentally. He missed catching it, though, and it hit the ground.
A bright flash of light came from the ball. Naruto quickly looked away, attempting to stop himself from becoming blind.
When he looked back, the two other plants seemed to be stunned, standing straight up, tinted orange. Naruto took an experimental slash at them with his sword, and they quickly fell dead, leaving behind their own flash spheres.
Naruto grabbed them, and shoved them into one of the many pockets on the inside of his jacket.
He dashed through the door, and came face to face with another Deku Scrub. Only now there were three!
"How many of you are there!" he cried.
The three of them looked at him, laughed, and launched several nuts at him. He deflected all three back at the one in the middle. It hissed, and went back into its bush.
Then, the other two fired faster, angry that their friend had been hurt. Naruto spun around to dodge the two bullet-nuts, and threw two shiruken in their direction. The third one was hit because he was closer, and then the first one was hit. All three of them cried out "Injustice! How did you know our secret?"
Naruto looked at them questioningly. "What secret?"
They stared at him. "What do you mean what secret? You hit us in the proper order! If you hadn't we would have kept attacking you."
"Why do you only stop when someone hits you in the right order?" Naruto asked.
The three of them blushed, as much as a hunk of wood can blush. "Well… it was his idea!" All three of them pointed at a different one.
Naruto laughed. "Well, whoever came up with that isn't very bright!"
The three glared at him. Then they vanished.
The door that was nearby gave off an audible clicking noise, signifying that it was now unlocked.
"I hope this is the end."
The door opened when Naruto got close enough to it, and he walked through.
He stood in small hallway, which led to larger, empty room.
He stepped into the larger area, and from behind him, a slamming noise came.
He whipped around, and saw that a large stone wall appeared to have closed off the hallway, like a large door.
The insane giggling appeared once again.
Out of the shadows of the mist in front of Naruto came the possessed Mizuki. He had an insane smile on his face. "G-g-good job. You're the first p-p-person to ever beat my Tree Dungeon. I applaud you!"
"B-b-but now you have to fight me!"
Naruto stood still.
"Fine. Lets go!" Naruto shouted.
Mizuki's body twitched for a second, and a moan came from him. "N-N-Naruto! Help me!"
Naruto was shocked. Mizuki-sensei was back!
"Kill me, Naruto, so that he doesn't get to escape! Please!"
The insane voice took over again. "Shut up, puny human! You'll learn eventually to not attempt to take back your body!"
The possessed body looked up at Naruto to see his eyes blazing. "You'll regret hurting Mizuki-sensei. I'll make sure of it." He proclaimed.
"Hehehe, you can't hurt me, puny human!"
Mizuki's body started to glow a little bit, and the room lit up. The possessed body shook for a second, before the body started to change. The muscles bulged and expanded. The skin started to tear away, leaving a large black armor in its place. The body expanded, and stood taller. The head became rounder and rounder, until all that was left of the head was a sphere. The two eyes on it started to grow bigger and bigger, and they merged together. The whole face had become a giant eye!
Out of the monster's spinal cord came another limb, a giant tail. On the end of it was a wicked stinger that looked like it could pierce steel easily.
The arms of the body grew larger and larger, resembling a scorpion's front claws. They clicked a few times, as if testing, and then stilled.
The legs of the once human had grown stronger, and larger as well, but not as much as the arms had.
The now beastly creature fell forward, standing on its claws and feet. The tail was strung high in the air, swaying about.
Naruto stared at the creature. "What are you!"
The insane giggle seemed to echo around the strange room. "I'm the great scorpion queen, Gohma!"
The beast leapt at Naruto, taking him by surprise. The right claw opened up, allowing Naruto to see the sharp edge on the inside. Those things were giant scissors!
"Kuso!" he cried as he jumped away.
The bladed claws passed him by, but now he was right in front of the demon's red eye. Naruto struck out with his quickly drawn sword, and the beast cried out in pain, before retreating up to the roof. Naruto watched it carefully.
The tail came whipping down quickly stretching much farther than should be possible, and Naruto couldn't dodge it in time. The stinger sliced through his clothing, and cut his left shoulder. He winced at the pain, but quickly got out of the way of another stinger strike.
Then, after dodging another strike by the stinger, the demon dropped off the roof, landing with a crash. It used its tail to lift itself off the ground, and struck at Naruto with its claws. Nimbly dodging the strikes, Naruto was starting to get tired. This was bad.
Naruto quickly broke through the demon's defenses and stuck at the eye a few more times. The demon screeched again, and retreated. It lashed out with its tail a few more times, attempting to catch him, but he continued to dodge.
Naruto's world started to get a little blurry. Notgoodnotgoodnotgood! Naruto's mind cried.
He jumped out of range of a few more slashes from the tail and the demon itself as it attempted to fall on him. Getting as close as he could, he jumped onto the thing's back. Taking a moment to study the armor, he jumped off. Going through the whole process again, he dashed around and landed on its back. This time, he took the sword, spun it around, and stabbed it directly into the small open spot on the armor, near the base of the skull. With a squelching sound, the demon instantly stopped moving.
The world around him faded away, back to the forest they had been in before.
He jumped off the demon's back as the world started to get even more blurry.
It an instant, the demon started to decompose. It faded away in a small blue flame, and left behind Mizuki's body. He was still alive apparently.
Mizuki opened his eyes. There was Naruto, watching him blearily. Then he noticed the huge cut in the shoulder of his clothing, and hoped that Naruto hadn't been hit by the stinger. It had a poison in it, rather fast acting too. Naruto would die!
Mizuki knew about the demon that the boy was carrying, but he didn't deserve this! The boy had saved him after all, he couldn't be all bad. Mizuki knew the boy was going to die, if he didn't do anything about it. But he had no chakra, so he couldn't do anything.
Wait… there was that one technique that he could do, and since he was going to die anyways, why not?
Mizuki called out to Naruto. "Naruto, come here." His voice was weak and decrepit. Naruto looked up, and stumbled over to him.
"Let me heal that wound of yours. I'm going to die soon, since the demon attached his life force to mine. So I want to heal you from that poison first, quickly come here." He said urgently.
Naruto complied, and came closer. Mizuki laid his hand on Naruto's wound, and for a second nothing happened. Then, a bright blue light came from his hand, flowing into Naruto. Naruto felt cleansed, and the blurriness went away quickly.
The glowing stopped, and the hand fell away from his shoulder. Naruto's eyes widened.
Naruto reached down to feel Mizuki's pulse… nothing.
He was dead.
"BASTARD! I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS!" Naruto's voice echoed around the forest.
He picked up the body of his dead sensei, as well as the Forbidden scroll, and carried them back into the village.
The guards respectfully let him through the gate, and he took the two things back to the Hokage's office as quickly as he could.
Opening the door, he found the Hokage sitting there, calmly waiting.
Naruto quickly set the dead body into one of the chairs across from the Hokage.
"Naruto? What happened?"
"A demon was possessing him, some demon that worked for someone called Orochimaru. Now he's dead, died to save my life. Damn it!"
The Hokage smiled lightly, happy that the boy was alright. While he was sad at what happened, he couldn't do anything about it now, the past was the past.
"Naruto, you did well."
Naruto pulled the scroll from off of his back, and handed it over to the Hokage. "Here's your scroll, too, by the way."
The Hokage opened it, and nodded. "Good job. We only have one more thing to discuss."
Naruto looked over at him. "What now?"
"I'm still dying."
Naruto stared, shocked. "But… but, didn't I just kill the guy who held the curse? Shouldn't it have worn off!"
The Hokage sighed. "No. When I sent you on the mission, I already knew I was going to die. That was the not so important part. You see, this was just a test for you. My part was unimportant."
Naruto glared at him. "What do you mean? I did all of this for you! You weren't unimportant!"
"But I was going to die either way. You may not have known that, but I did. I only have a few things left to do."
"Naruto, do you remember the story of the Demon Fox, Kyuubi, and how he attacked our village twelve years ago?"
Naruto nodded, staring suspiciously at the Hokage.
"Well, that story isn't entirely true. You see, it is nearly impossible to kill one of the Tailed Beasts, let alone the strongest of them. Since Kyuubi was the strongest of the Tailed Beasts, no one could possibly kill him."
"Then what happened to him?" Naruto asked, curiously.
"He was sealed inside of a person. A newborn baby to be precise, as nobody else's inner chakra coils could adapt to its presence."
Naruto was looking at him more suspiciously.
"The Yondaime Hokage picked a child, one who had been born that very day, and sealed the demon inside of him. You see, Naruto, you are the container to the strongest of the Tailed Beasts."
Naruto's eyes widened almost comically. "Wha… but… that's not possible! I'd have known if I had something funny like that in me!"
The Hokage shook his head. "Lift up your shirt, and concentrate chakra into your stomach, the seal should reveal itself."
Naruto did as commanded, and watched, horrified, as a strange spiral seal appeared on his stomach.
"Oh goddesses." Naruto said, faintly.
"Don't worry Naruto. The Kyuubi was under a spell when he attacked our village. Very few know of this though. Orochimaru, and several of his subordinates combine their powers to cast a berserker's spell on Kyuubi to make him insane. Killing off one of their number should have removed the spell from him. As such, he should return to normal, and may prove to be very helpful to you in your situation."
Naruto twitched. "How can he help me, its not like he can talk to me or anything?"
The Hokage nodded, "Valid question. I am capable enough with seals to alter the seal to allow you two to converse, and give him an avatar in the real world. It will not be able to do anything; all it will be is a small fox, most likely. It won't have access to any of its own chakra, so it shouldn't be able to cause any destruction. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Do you have any objections?"
Naruto shook his head. "No, as long as this helps me."
The Hokage smiled. He stood up shakily and walked over to Naruto. Naruto held his shirt up, and the Hokage started to make hand seals. There were too many for Naruto to count, and after a while, the Hokage stuck him right in the seal. The whole room glowed, and the seal changed a small amount.
The Hokage stepped back to check his handy work. He nodded and smiled, and turned away.
A glow started to erupt from the seal. Slowly but surely a tiny fox shape came out from the seal. It had two small glowing wings coming from its back, and nine tails instead of the normal one.
The wings flapped lightly, and the body floated upwards a little. The avatar shook itself lightly, and started to wake up.
"Oh, my aching head. Wha… wait… do I have a body again?"
The Hokage spoke up. "Yes, for now you have a simple avatar as a body. I would have attempted to completely unravel the seal, but that would have killed you both."
The furry little creature looked up at the Hokage, before floating a few feet closer. "Who are you?"
"I am the Sandaime Hokage. And the boy behind you is the one that you were sealed in when under the berserkers spell."
Kyuubi spun around in the air, and pointed himself towards Naruto. "I see."
The Hokage started to speak again. "I would like it if you were to help Naruto on his quest. He is most likely going to run into the man who cast the spell on you, so it may end up helping you get revenge for what has been done to you."
The Kyuubi snarled at the thought of the man who caused him such pain. "Very well. I guess I'll help if you need it. I can give you demon Chakra if you ever need it. Just ask nicely, and you'll receive." Naruto nodded in response.
With a flash of green light, a small glowing emerald appeared in the air. The emerald was wrapped in gold, forming the symbol of Kohona.
"Take this, Naruto. It is the sacred stone of Kohona. You will need it." The Hokage spoke softly, almost with reverence.
Silence lasted for a moment, before a large cracking noise broke through the air.
The Hokage twitched in pain. "Ugh."
The Hokage quickly stood up, and walked over to the balcony that he loved to stand at. Quickly taking a stance that he normally does, head held tall, one hand holding his walking stick, the other holding onto the railing. He watched his loved land as his body slowly started to turn to stone.
Naruto watched, saddened as stone started to spread over the Hokage. His hands went first, and then it slowly spread up his arms. His body was quickly turned as well, leaving only his head.
"I'm sorry for leaving you like this, Naruto. I wish it didn't have to happen. Go quickly, and run to the Castle in the North. There you will find the princess of Kohona, Princess Zelda. She will be very important to you in your quest. Take the stone I have given to you and present it to her. She will know what to do."
"Kyuubi, please, help him complete his quest. I… entreat… ye…"
His whole body was covered in stone now, permanently overlooking his village of loved ones.
Naruto and Kyuubi replied as one. "Yes... sir." Tears rolled down Naruto's cheek.
Then they turned, and began another step in their journey.
A/N: To any of you wondering what Kyuubi looks like. He's kinda a cross between Kero, from Cardcaptor Sakura, and Navi, from the Legend of Zelda. He's got Navi's wings, but he has an almost stuffed animal quality to his body, only instead of being a chibi lion, he's a chibi fox. I'd post pictures of all of the characters and what they looked like if I had a scanner that worked at my house.