Naruto: Lord of the Hydra

Chapter 1 – A pact is made

Chapter Start

It was a bad day for our blonde hero.

He failed the graduation exam for the 3rd time in a row. He had done his best but due to the fact that he could not create one clone, he had failed. Despite not doing that great on the written portions, he had done well enough to pass in the other areas. But it wasn't enough. Poor Naruto could only wonder why? He worked harder than any one of his peers and had no one to help him, but it wasn't enough.

"Hey Naruto, how are you feeling?" Naruto was snapped out from his thoughts and looked at the person talking to him. It was Mizuki, one of the instructors at the academy.

"What do you think, sensei? I failed in the test again." He said sourly.

"Naruto, do you know about a secret test? It's for those that fail but might have potential in other areas. Wanna hear about it? You might pass if you do it properly." Mizuki, sounding innocent to the naïve boy, hiding his sinister intentions.

"Really sensei? What is it about? Of course I will take it, believe it!" Naruto was ecstatic at the opportunity to still become a ninja.

'Hook, line and sinker.' Mizuki thought as Naruto took the bait, barely containing himself from laughing manically at tricking the demon brat.

Few Hours Later

Naruto stopped and hid behind a tree, "WOW! I didn't know Gramps was such a pervert. That made things way easier."

He looked at the huge scroll that he had acquired from the Hokage after using his Sexy Jutsu on him and smirked, "Well, Mizuki-sensei didn't say that I can't learn anything for myself. I mean, I'd be an idiot if I didn't sneak a peek." With that in mind, he opened the scroll and started to look for anything good. Most of the jutsu were complicated; as in the blonde Uzumaki had zero idea what they were meant for. And some even sounded downright weird. But one jutsu caught his attention, and it was Shadow Clone Jutsu.

Fifteen Minutes Later

"Wow that wasn't too bad. Mizuki-sensei still isn't here yet. Maybe I should see if there is anything else in this scroll." Naruto said as he mastered the Shadow Clone Jutsu. With that done, he started looking into the scroll again.

His body was a bit ragged. It was hard to learn at first but he still pushed forward and he managed to learned it. He had a fed cuts on his arm from hitting a nearby tree when he got frustrated towards the end of his learning. But he didn't wish to stop now because he wanted to see if he could learn something else from this scroll, something important. Chances like this never came more than once.

He soon came to another part of the scroll, and read it. It was the Summoning Jutsu. The Summoning Jutsu allows the user to transport a target to their location. The scroll went into the jutsu further, like the requirements to summon an animal and the handsigns for it. It might seem weird that such a commonly used jutsu like the Summoning Jutsu was in the Forbidden Scroll, which contained all the forbidden jutsu of the Hidden Leaf. The scroll described the reason which it was. It read, 'Attempting to summon an animal without first signing a contract teleports the user to the home of the animal they have a natural affinity for. This is incredibly dangerous as there is no telling where you will end up. The risks to the user are very high and should not attempt to perform the Summoning Jutsu without a summoning contract, as their very life could be in jeopardy, depending on where they end up.'

Naruto however, didn't really read the part about the potential risks to his health. The only thing he saw was that he could gain an awesome summons! With this, he would be way ahead of the others! He figured he may as well learn it. Learning not one but two jutsu, he was sure to pass this little test now!

And so, Naruto got to work on the jutsu, practicing the hand signs for it. Another 15 minutes later, he was ready to try the technique. Naruto bit his thumb hard, drawing blood and wiping it across one of his hands. He performed the hand signs and announced, "Summoning Jutsu!" Ordinarily, one would need to have a lot of chakra to perform the technique. Naruto of course, thanks to his huge reserves from his Uzumaki heritage and his tenant, had more chakra than the 3rd Hokage. He powered as much as he could into the jutsu and a plume of smoke appeared. When it cleared, only the Scroll remained and Naruto was gone.

Unknown Realm

Naruto reappeared in a plume of smoke. The smoke cleared soon enough, though it did not help Naruto much. The area he was in appeared to be very rocky and covered by a mist.

"Where am I?" Naruto wondered out loud.

A loud rumbling could be heard right then and Naruto struggled to stop himself from falling over as the ground beneath his feet shook. "What is this?" came a loud, rumbling, but definitely reptilian voice. Naruto felt the ground beneath him rising into the air, carrying him into the sky with it. Soon enough, Naruto realized he was not in fact, standing on stony ground. For the very ground beneath him was scaly like a snake. Looking around, he saw nine other giant heads of snake, each of the heads have smooth gray scales, with three long horns on each side that were curved backwards. Each head had a lighter colored underbelly with unique tattoo-like markings, each with a different color. One had purple, and the same was true of the color blue, red, green, black, white, yellow, teal, brown, and orange. Looking down, Naruto realized he was hundreds of feet in the air and the heads were all connected to a single body. He also noticed that the area was a lush forest with various streams, a waterfall, and various mountain with other features he couldn't quite make out. It would have been a stunning view, had the presence of the great, multi-headed beast he was standing on not been so overwhelming.

"It has been many years since a human has visited my realm. What is your name, child?" The great beast spoke, one of the heads saying the words. Naruto, while naïve and fairly uneducated, was not completely stupid. This creature was massive and Naruto knew nothing he did would be able to harm to it. He was very scared for his life at this point, so he figured that maybe showing a little bit of respect and some courtesy might just save his life.

So, Naruto very uncharacteristically bowed his head in a show of respect. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I'm from the Hidden Leaf village in the Land of Fire."

"I presume the reason you arrived here in my realm is because you attempted to perform the Summoning Jutsu without a previously established contract." The creature guessed, as this had happened several times before in it's long life.

"You are correct, Great One. Though, where this is, I have no idea." Naruto said respectfully.

"You have arrived in the Forest of Alara, which is the home of the Hydra Summoning Clan. As for who I am, I am Progenitus. Worldsoul of Alara, First of the Hydra's, and Leader of said clan. I have been alive for thousands of years and I shall live for thousands more." The great beast said, quite proud of who he was and being the oldest being of among the summons clan. "Despite the prestige and power of my clan, we have never had a summoner before."

"Is there a reason, Progenitus-sama? You mentioned there were several others that arrived here before me." Naruto asked, still showing the respect as he figured it was the only thing keeping him alive right now, along with the interest the titanic Hydra showed in him.

"The ones that came before you failed to pass the test they received, so they became my afternoon snack." Progenitus spoke with as much a grin as a hydra head could muster. "Now, I will ask you a very important question, and you will answer me truthfully. If you fail to do this, you attempt to lie, or you do not provide me with a satisfactory answer, you will become my next snack."

Upon seeing Naruto nod his head, Progenitus asked his question, "What is your life's greatest ambition?" This was a very important question for both of them. This was the same question that Progenitus always asked the others that had found their way into his lands. They had all failed because they either didn't have the potential to be great or they were not ambitious enough. Progenitus wouldn't have just any schmuck being the summoner of his clan. No, they had to have the potential to be great and have the ambition to make their name remembered. All the others that had come before Naruto didn't have enough ambition or enough potential. Looking at this child, Progenitus knew that Naruto at least had the potential, given that he was a legacy of the deceased Uzumaki clan and from what Progenitus could sense, the host of the Sage of Six Paths pet fox. The boys answer would determine whether he would live long enough to see the potential bloom.

Normally for Naruto, this was a simple and easy question. He wanted to be Hokage and by doing so, gain the recognition of his peers and the acknowledgment of everyone in the village. But he needed to fully flesh out his answer, otherwise, he wouldn't live long enough to even try to become Hokage! Plus, Naruto had never actually thought for very long about being Hokage and so this gave him some time to fully consider his answer.

Progenitus received his answer from Naruto several moments later. "I want to be Hokage. But I don't just want to be any Hokage. I…want to be the greatest Hokage that has ever lived! I want to surpass all the ones that ever came before me, and put to shame all the ones that will come after me!"

Naruto's head dropped for a moment, shadows covering his eyes as he continued, "And to do that, I will become the strongest Ninja that ever lived. I will gain power such that I will be hailed…as a God of Shinobi. And all will tremble in fear at the name, of Naruto Uzumaki!"

Some might be wondering why the happy go-lucky idiot Naruto was saying these things. Any one of the villagers that paid enough attention would say this was way out of character for the blonde scion of the Uzumaki clan. They would say that he would want the recognition of the village, not to gain power. Well, the truth is, the Naruto that everyone knew, was just a mask. It wasn't real. The hyperactive knucklehead was a persona created by Naruto when he was very young. Being isolated, hated, alone, lied to, and betrayed your entire life has consequences. It usually fucks a person up pretty badly. Naruto only survived it because he buried all of it beneath his mask of an idiot. Eventually, it just became easier to fool himself with the mask than be that sadly, lonely kid that just about everyone loved to hate. But Progenitus would certainly kill him if he kept the mask up, so he had drop it, in order to preserve his own life.

The gigantic Hydra gave a smile and said, "You answered well. Welcome to the Hydra clan, Naruto Uzumaki." Progenitus looked at Naruto and Naruto became enveloped by a shroud of red, green, blue, purple, and white chakra. The shroud of chakra wasn't hurting him, it was changing him. Naruto felt a rush of power invigorate his tired body and a warm feeling in his shoulders. Taking off his jacket and looking at them, he saw that he now had a tattoo on each shoulder. It appeared as a simple concentric circle with 3 connected serpent heads that branched out from the middle.

"We intend to take a very active hand in how you develop from, Naruto. For now though, return to your village." Progenitus spoke and with that said, Naruto was enveloped by a shroud of multi-colored chakra and was transported back to the village.

The Next morning

Naruto woke up the next morning in his bed. He sat up and looked at the nightstand, which had a Shinobi headband sitting on it. Naruto picked it up and brought over to him, holding it in his hand as he stared at it, remembering the events of the previous night.

After Naruto had been returned from the Forest of Alara, Iruka had appeared mere moments later, none the wiser of where the 15 year old blonde had been. Before Iruka could scold Naruto much on stealing the scroll, or appreciate that Naruto had clearly been training hard, as evidenced by the scuffs and scratches he had on him, Mizuki showed up. After he injured Iruka, who had pushed Naruto out of the way of an attack, Mizuki tried to get Naruto to give him the scroll while Iruka tried to convince Naruto to keep it. Their ensuing argument led Mizuki to tell Naruto the truth everyone had been keeping from him: that he was the container of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.

This didn't shock Naruto as much as it probably should have. After all, Naruto had only just survived an encounter with a powerful and ancient beast and came out of it with a summoning contract and his life. What it had done was answer the question of why he had been hated and ostracized his whole life. When Mizuki had thrown his oversized shuriken at him, thinking he could take advantage of Naruto's deep thoughts, Naruto had been prepared and surprised everyone present by catching it before proceeding to make a thousand Shadow Clones and beat Mizuki half to death. Iruka had been so impressed with the fact that Naruto had learned and mastered a forbidden technique, that he gave Naruto his own headband, allowing the boy to graduate.

That lead to his current inner dilemma. Naruto had to drop his mask of an idiot last night for fear that the hydra lord would eat him. His persona that he had fooled himself into believing for so long couldn't just be put back up as the Hydra's would never accept summoner that acted like his mask. He sighed, as he realized he would have to act as his true self from now on. And that was going to take some getting used to.

Later

It was now 4 in the afternoon and Naruto was currently walking into one of the various training grounds within Konoha. This particular one, was close to the Forest of Death. Naruto had gone today to get his picture taken for Shinobi identification purposes. Afterwards, Naruto had been informed by the Hokage that Mizuki had been interrogated and they had found some pretty bad stuff, to put it lightly. Sarutobi had only given him the basics of what Mizuki had told the interrogators, but with Mizuki being a traitor and a crack in the Konoha Shinobi system that should never been allowed, Hiruzen was forced to conduct an investigation to make sure there were not anymore potential traitors flying under the radar like Mizuki. The academy instructors were also being thoroughly questioned as well. As such, the announcement of the teams was pushed back almost 4 weeks, giving Naruto plenty of time to train.

After that, the Hokage had informed Naruto about how he knew that Naruto had learned the Summoning Jutsu on top of the Shadow Clone jutsu, and asked him what had happened. Naruto was forced to reveal that he was the Hydra Summoner now and that the Hydras were planning to take a very hands-on approach to their summoners development, to make sure he developed into a Shinobi worthy of being their summoner.

Afterwards, Konohamaru had shown up and tried to defeat the Hokage, before hilariously tripping over his own scarf. The ensuing event of Naruto hitting him for daring to accuse him of tripping the clumsy brat and then beating Ebisu with his Harem Jutsu caused Konohamaru to start emulating Naruto in the hopes that he will one day surpass him. So Naruto now had someone who looked up to him.

Naruto bit his thumb once he was inside the training ground and shouted "Summoning Jutsu!" A cloud of smoke erupted as Nartuo's hand hit the ground. When the smoke cleared, Naruto found himself back in the Forest of Alara and in front of him was a large hydra. It had light green scales with red marking s all over it's body, a serpentine tail connected to four legged body with razor sharp claws, and six heads. Each head had 3 frills on either side of the head, a row of razor sharp teeth, and glowing green eyes.

The hydra took a moment to examine Naruto before speaking, "So, you are the one Progenitus-sama was telling us about."

Naruto looked at him and said, "I am. I am Naruto Uzumaki. And what is your name, hydra-san?"

"I am called Gargos, the Viscous Watcher. I am one of several Hydra's that guard the Alara from anyone foolish enough to intrude upon our home." Gargos said. "Follow me."

The Hydra and Uzumaki boy walked deeper into the forest. After walking for about a minute, Gargos stopped and Naruto followed suit. "I'm certain that Progenitus-sama told you that we would be taking an active hand in your training." Naruto nodded at this. "He assigned me to train you for the month that you have before your team assignments."

"How did you know about the team assignments? I was just told that today." Naruto asked, wondering how the Hydra knew that.

"We have ways of keeping up with what goes on in the Shinobi world. In particular, Progenitus-sama can spy on events happening around the world, which is how he knew about your little assignments." Gargos informed the blonde.

"Cool. So, what will we do first, sensei?" Naruto asked, eager to start training.

"First, you will show me what you you can do. Now come at me with everything you have." Said Gargos.

"Alright! Here I go!" Naruto shouted, pulling out several shuriken and throwing them at Gargos.

Gargos moved one of his heads into the way, the shuriken bouncing harmlessly off his hardened scales, before another snapped at Naruto, biting him in the torso. Naruto fell to the ground dead, only for him to vanish in a puff of smoke with a log taking his place.

The real Naruto then jumped out of trees nearby, towards Gargos, throwing several kicks and punches at the heads. Only to get annoyed as Gargos acted like he didn't feel any of the attacks, all while having not moved from his spot.

"Do better than that, hatchling!" Gargos said, before swiping his front right leg, his claws ripping through the first Naruto, making it dispel, showing that it was a clone, then biting the head off of the second Naruto that appeared, showing it was another clone.

Looking around, Gargos didn't see Naruto or any of his clones coming out of anywhere else. That quickly changed when 200 Shadow Clones dropped down from the trees and surrounded him on all sides.

"Hmm, it is impressive that you can create this many Shadow Clones and not die from the attempt. But if you believe you can overwhelm me with sheer numbers, then you are sorely mistaken." Gargos stated gathering chakra in each of his mouths.

"Hydra Flame!" Said Gargos, before opening each of his six mouths wide and unleashing a torrent of ultra-high temperature fire from each of them, burning all the Naruto clones to ash before.

Meanwhile, the real Naruto narrowly avoided being burned by jumping into the trees. It was difficult to see what was going on down on the forest floor from both the burning trees and the smoke the clones produced. Though a strong gust of wind blew away the smoke and residual flames, allowing Naruto to see the Hydra still standing in the same spot. Gargos saw him jump from the trees and toward him recklessly, making the hydra growl and decide to end this. When Naruto got close, he was smashed into the ground by Gargos's tail, creating a small crater. Naruto groaned and shook the cobwebs out of his head while clutching his arm which had been broken at the elbow, only to look forward and see Gargos's claw an inch from his face.

"Had this been a real battle, you would have been dead several times over." Gargos stated bluntly.

Letting the boy get out of the crater he made, Gargos observed the boy as he got up while clutching his broken arm.

"Let's go over what I know of you thus far. You're reckless and charge in blindly without thinking. You have no Taijutsu and swing your limbs about wildly. Your Ninjutsu is limited to only the Shadow Clone Jutsu, and your control over your chakra is the worst I've ever seen in my 500 years of life. By my estimates, you end up using more than double the chakra you really need for a jutsu at the moment." Gargos listed, with Naruto growling as his annoyance and anger grew with each of his flaws being pointed out.

"That said, you have strengths to take pride in. You have the largest Chakra reserves I've ever seen in a human, which means once you have greater control over your chakra, you'll rarely, if ever, have to worry about running out of Chakra in a fight. Your use of Shadow Clones is a strength as well, given they could be used to gather information on your opponent." Said Gargos, with Naruto looking pleased at hearing his strengths, before being confused at the last one. He would have asked, but pain flared in his arm and he was reminded that the Hydra's last attack had broken his arm.

"Do you think you could have not broken my arm? This is gonna take at least a few days to heal." Naruto said, as he had his limbs broke a couple times before.

"I see no point in holding back. If I did, you wouldn't be learning anything worthwhile. Besides, it will fix itself here in a moment." Gargos said unapologetically. Naruto, confused by what the Hydra was saying, was going to ask, when suddenly, more pain flared in his arm and steam rolled off his arm for a moment and then both the pain and steam just stopped. Naruto didn't feel any pain when he went to flex his arm, feeling good as new. Surprised by this, he looked to Gargos for answers.

"When we form a contract with a human, we do more than just give them the ability to summon us. The summoner gains our traits as well. You're immune now to all forms of poison and disease, which is a requirement to interact with many of my brethren, who naturally exude poisonous auras or cause disease. You'll be able to use poison based Jutsu and have enhanced sight, sound and smell. Your skin is now harder, similar to the scales of a hydra. Your bones and Muscles are stronger now too. Had I hit you like that before had been our summoner, you would have been a stain on the forest floor. Instead, you just had a broken arm." Gargos explained, Naruto amazed at all the abilities he had gained just by accepting the contract.

"Our species can also grow back our heads when they are cut off. Cut one head off and 2 more will grow in it's place. You have conversely gained high level regeneration. Your body will heal most of your injuries almost instantly and you can use your chakra to grow back entire organs and body parts, though I wouldn't try growing your head back." Gargos said, as their physiology was still different. A severed head will still kill a human.

"Now, lets continue. You have a lot to be taught and I'm just getting started." Gargos said, as he gained a sadistic smile, one that made Naruto shiver in fear, knowing this next month wasn't going to be fun for him.

Chapter End

So for those in the know, the Hydra's I've used thus far are characters from Magic the Gathering, which I started playing in paper and online last November. I wanted to make a Naruto story where he was a Hydra summoner, cause the couple that I have found haven't been updated in forever. I decided to skip the Mizuki fight because we all know how that goes. So Naruto is going to trained by the Hydras in the next chapter.