AN: I OWN NOTHING

They had been in the academy for almost two months now. Naruto, even though he wanted to keep to his clan's legacy, was incredibly close giving up on the art of fuinjutsu. Progress was just too slow, he had started learning the art about a week after the start of school and he still couldn't even make the basic storage seal.

He took his mind away from those depressing thoughts and focused on the history lecture that Iruka was giving.

"The Fourth Hokage is considered to be one of the most powerful Kage to have existed, this is largely because of his Flying Thunder God jutsu, although it was originally invented by the Second he was able to take the jutsu to new heights. He used the jutsu to defeat a large army of Hidden Stone ninja that we were engaged with during the third shinobi war."

Iruka saw a child raise a hand, "Yes, Sakura?"

"If there's a Fourth Hokage how come the Third Hokage is in charge?" Sakura asked genuinely curious.

Iruka smiled, "Well you see Sakura, the Fourth Hokage gave his life to protect the village, when seven years ago on October tenth the village was attacked by the Nine tailed Fox, a demon that is said to be impossibly strong. Lord Fourth gave his life to kill it and save the village."

Sakura had another question, "Iruka sensei, How did the fox look?"

Iruka eyes became clouded, he had been near the area the fox first appeared, he could never forget. "If you guys give me your permission I'd like to show you through genjutsu." Seeing all of his students nod, Iruka went through a few hand signs and things went dark to his students, he channeled what he remembered of the fox to their minds.

Naruto blinked and the world went dark from the darkness a giant figure stepped forward with nine tails swishing in anger behind it. It was giant, covered in orange fur but what caught Naruto's eyes were the twin red eyes with a slit pupil, they reminded him of an old dream. He heard the illusion roar and was reminded of mocking laughter, then the genjutsu ended.


From after the genjutsu the day was a daze to him, Naruto was sure Sasuke was angry with him, he'd been useless at training after school. He had decided to leave early there was no use in training right then.

It was late in the afternoon when Naruto started meditating. He meditated for hours and when he eventually opened his eyes.

Mindscape

He was somewhere he thought he'd never be again, the lonely forest. He was pretty sure that he wasn't asleep, that meant this place was most likely his mind. He went straight to the gates in the clearing, sat down in front of them and waited.

Familiar eyes opened and looked down on Naruto, he heard a cruel laugh coming from the cage. "I see that now you're here to finally face me boy."

Naruto looked down, "If you aren't a dream what are you?"

The shadow laughed again, "You already know the answer, is that not why you're here?" The giant shadow stepped forward and it was like the moon's light could finally pierce the darkness of the cage.

Naruto stood in shock, eyes wide. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was like he was in Iruka sensei's genjutsu all over again. He had no words as he looked at the giant Ninetails.

"What, you have nothing to say now boy?" The fox said almost mockingly.

"How! How are you here!?" Naruto asked in panic, hyperventilating. "You're supposed to be dead the fourth killed you!" Naruto's eyes were wide and he was shaking.

The Ninetails scoffed and narrowed its eyes, "The hubris of your kind knows no bounds, as if I the great Ninetails could ever be killed by a mere human."

"Then why are you here?!" Naruto all but screamed at the fox.

The fox narrowed its eyes and growled, "Watch your tone boy… I'm here because you humans are disgusting. When the gift of chakra was given to you instead of using it as a means to achieve peace, you used it to find more ways to kill each other and when that wasn't enough you trapped us inside yourselves for even more power?! You truly disgust me."

Naruto had fallen on his knees near the end of the fox's speech, he had tears in his eyes, he couldn't believe it the fox was trapped in him? How? That's when he looked up at the gate, in the middle of it very high up he could see a single piece of paper with the Kanji for "seal" on it.

Why? Why was he chosen to have a monster sealed inside of him? Why did the Fourth hate him do much? Naruto felt his tears flow, as he closed his eyes and stopped trying to hold them back. He didn't want to be here anymore.

Outside world

When Naruto opened his eyes he was back in his room, he still had tears in his eyes, he calmed down and felt his chakra, he looked deeper and deeper then he felt it. A tiny spark of that overwhelming, angry chakra and then he knew what the fox said really was true.

He buried himself into his pillow and let himself sob. After a while he got angry, if they were lied to about this, what else were they lied to about? It didn't matter at this point.

It took some time and a shower for him to calm down proper, he sorted his thoughts and realized that he still wanted to be a ninja, he wanted to know about the seal that was put on him. So he would need to redouble his efforts in seals, he would still be Hokage the greatest that this world has ever seen, if only to make sure that no child would be cursed like the Fourth had cursed him.


The next morning Naruto got up a little later than usual and took his normal walk to school the words of the giant orange fox still in his mind, "When that wasn't enough you trapped us inside yourselves for even more power?!" Us? So that meant there was more than just the Ninetails there were other beasts.

He noticed the streets were starting to be crowded, he didn't usually get up late because he preferred avoiding the crowds, he never liked the way they people in the village looked at him, he never understood why, 'Maybe they know.'

As the streets were getting more crowded he felt like he was being suffocated, it was like he could feel disgust, hatred and dislike emanating from the people all around him, from the people that were acting like he didn't exist except a glance in his direction every now and then.

He didn't understand, he'd always known that they didn't like him that was obvious from how they treated him. But he never felt like they hated him, until that very moment. He tried to convince himself that it was just paranoia but it felt so real, he picked up the pace of his stroll to make it to school quicker.

He felt overwhelmed by the time he made it to the academy grounds. He went straight to class to sit by his friend, on the way there he could feel some negative emotions directed towards himself, his only respite was getting to class and sitting next to his friend.

Sasuke looked at him and raised an eyebrow, "What's up with you?"

"Nothing." Naruto said, clearly hiding something and then closed his eyes and began meditating as a way to take his mind off of what he felt that morning.


From that day and the following weeks, Naruto spent time trying to learn how to manage what was happening to him after he found out it was actually real by feeling Sasuke's annoyance with him on multiple occasions. He also redoubled his efforts in sealing, learning at a faster rate than before. He was on his way to making a storage seal, getting closer by the day.

Soon it would be four months since they entered the academy, he and Sasuke weren't close with anyone and nearly never spoke to anyone else, it was worse since Naruto was avid that they avoid most people now. He had better control of the thing that had been bothering him since he'd spoken to the Ninetails, he could feel the emotions of others, especially the negative ones.

He could somewhat mute it, but he didn't have control over it at the moment, it seemed it would be a while until he got to that point, but he was beginning to have a good grip on what emotions he was feeling, where they were coming from and where they were being directed to.

Most adults in the village felt anger, hate and fear when they looked at him, he supposed they knew about the Ninetails, the kids just ignored him because the adults did so most didn't feel anything towards him. The ninja in the village were neutral, though some did hate him, Mizuki, he had noticed, was among those few that did.


A little after four months since the beginning of school Naruto got the chance to spar with Hinata. He'd been waiting for this moment, the Hyuga was a nice girl despite her cold exterior it was very rare to feel anything but good feelings from her. She also seemed to regret it whenever she hurt her opponent in a spar but she still pushed on.

Naruto stepped into the ring opposite Hinata and made the sign of confrontation. A grin could be found on the blonds face as he looked into Hinata's blank face, she wasn't fooling him though, he could feel her excitement.

"Begin!"

Naruto ran straight for Hinata and started with a round house kick that she ducked under and when Naruto landed she jabbed him twice in the stomach and then on both shoulders. Her strikes were quick, but they lacked power and Naruto had watched her spar enough to know her patterns of attack so he knew to duck the palm strike that came for his nose next and he lashed out with a palm strike of own that caught her on her chest, she winced and skidded back.

'Argh, he hits harder than Neji and he's hardly affected by my strikes' Hinata thought in frustration. She went at him this time he seemed to adjust quickly to her speed and dodged everything she threw at him, she mixed and matched her katas but he always slipped away.

She came with a palm strike to his head and he dodged to the left so his body was next to hers and he elbowed her to the ribs with his right arm.

Her eyes widened, 'That's Kiba's move! Come to think of it the technique of that palm strike earlier was very similar to my own.'

She had to block a punch from Naruto's right arm that would have landed on her face, that left her open for a very Sasuke like kick to the side of her body that was just elbowed. Did Naruto just take moves he saw people do and fit them in with his own style?

Whatever it is that he did it was working. She jumped back to get some respite and as Naruto came for her she launched herself forward catching him by surprise. She got him with multiple palm strikes, to the chest and arms, she then simply redirected his fists with her palms leaving him open to take more hits from her.

Naruto grit his teeth and fought through it. He went for a swing with his left but Hinata used his momentum and directed his arm to the right, and gave him a palm to the ribs under his left arm as punishment for his mistake. He wouldn't quit though and could feel her mounting frustration. He could probably take a lot more hits but he could see he was starting to slow down.

Her hits weren't particularly hard, but she seemed to have a certain way of hitting him in certain spots that almost left him numb in some places. He would lose soon if this kept up, he needed to end this quick, he'd noticed in all her fights, she wouldn't used her legs and her footwork was rigid. He'd take advantage of that.

He dodged everything she threw at him as best as he could, it was difficult and he was still hit multiple times but he pushed through the slowly approaching numbness and building pain. Then he saw it, she stepped forward he did a simple leg sweep and was on her as soon as she hit the ground. He grinned when he heard Iruka call the match in his favour.

The whole class was silent, some couldn't believe what they'd seen, it was one of the longest and most skilled fights to have taken place since they'd started sparring. Naruto and Hinata made the seal of reconciliation and walked back to their regular places.

As Naruto was on his side he couldn't pay attention to any more fights all he could think of were the feelings of anger, hate and absolute disgust pouring off of Hinata when she'd realized that she lost, he could tell that they weren't directed at him at all. They were all directed towards Hinata herself.


"What was up with you today? You've been weird and staring and the Hyuga since you beat her." Sasuke said to Naruto jolting him out of his thoughts. They were walking to their training spot after school.

Naruto frowned, crossed his arms and looked away from his friend while grumbling, "Yeah right, I don't know what you're talking about"

Sasuke just rolled his eyes, "Yeah right, you probably couldn't have beat her if she was allowed to use her clans techniques though." He said knowing he'd be able to catch Naruto's attention and take his thoughts off of, whatever was bothering him.

Naruto turned to him, incredulous and wide eyed, Sasuke wasn't the type to lie about things like this, "What do you mean? What special techniques do they have, does it have to do with her eyes?"

Sasuke chuckled and nodded, "Yeah, partly anyway, my dad says they have special eyes like my clan but they can see through things and see your flow of chakra, when they fight using their techniques they can cut your chakra off. They can even destroy your organs with a light touch"

Naruto paled, that was extremely dangerous, he was lucky that she had to hold back then, "You sure she wasn't fighting with her clan techniques already? I was feeling numb out there."

Sasuke laughed and looked up in thought with a hand on his chin, "She definitely wasn't, father said I wouldn't miss it if a Hyuga ever used their eye technique. If I were to guess I think she was just hitting pressure points."

The blond nodded, he knew Sasuke was looking up some medical ninjutsu and anatomy scrolls while they were in the library sometimes. He was so angry when Sasuke healed himself during a spar once, the only times he could beat Sasuke these days was when he outlasted him.

After a while they got to their clearing and started stretching. Sasuke was surprised when Naruto just said "You can come out now."

Sasuke turned to see Hinata come out of the foliage behind them. How did Naruto even know she was there? He didn't sense her in any way.

Hinata looked at Naruto with a blank face but Naruto could feel the anger she felt towards herself right then. "How did you know I was here?" Hinata asked trying her best not to let her annoyance shine through.

Naruto gave a small smile, not anything taunting it seemed kind of sad to Sasuke who was just watching from the sidelines now.

"I have great senses, I couldn't make you out following us through the village because there were so many sounds, but once we entered the forest I could hear you, barely though, your steps were almost perfectly timed with ours." Naruto said looking down.

This seemed to lessen Hinata's anger, she looked straight at Naruto, "I want a rematch… no holding back and we use every skill at our disposal."

Naruto cocked his head at this, it would be interesting. He looked to Sasuke who just looked back deadpan.

Naruto thought about it and put a hand to his chin looking up, "Sure I guess." He looked to Sasuke next, "Any advice?"

Sasuke just sighed, "You already have all the information you need. Right now she's the one at a disadvantage." He moved to the side and climbed a tree. That reminded him of the chakra control exercise they were supposed to start today, he supposed he'd have to wait until this was over.

He looked down at Naruto and Hinata, they took their stances. If Hinata hit Naruto using her clan techniques, that would be it. He watched them stand for three more seconds and at some unseen signal they launched at each other.


AN: Sorry for the long wait, life finally caught up with me. I'll try and keep regular updates. Naruto has gained a bit of the Ninetails' ability to sense emotions, I've done this because I think it makes no sense that other jinchuriki have been able to use a portion of their beast's ability without having full control but Naruto can only use the ability after he's gotten control of the Ninetails