Insert disclaimer here
Blah Blah Blah basic text (i.e. description, speech, etc)
Blah Blah Blah Thought or some transaction within someone's mind (also flashbacks)
Blah Blah Blah Kyuubi talking to Naruto Jutsu will also be bold
BLAH BLAH BLAH yelling, or emphasis of some sort
A/N
I thought I'd explained everything well enough but evidently, I didn't cuz I've been getting a lot of questions. Sorry everyone.
First of all the question of "How did Naruto change?" basically the seal cracked leaking youkai (demonic energy) into Naruto's body mutating his cells and effectively driving him crazy (i.e. his thoughts, behavior, intelligence, etc. are now that of a wild animal).
Also this is a NaruxHina, I went back and I think I found what might have confused some of you, the reason Hinata was not bawling her eyes out rather than Sakura was because, as I see it, there are three levels of grief: (1) "ya I'm sad but I'll live" (2) bawling your eyes out (Sakura) (3) denial, basically it is so bad that it just doesn't register so there is very little immediate reaction.
Those were the two big ones; remember if you are at all confused, please put it in your review. Speaking of reviews, I WANT FEEDBACK! How am I supposed to get better at this if I don't know whether I'm doing a good job or not? So feel free and as long as it's not malicious like "dude you suck go crawl in a hole and die" I can take criticism, so feel free to point stuff out to me.
The spoiler was a one-time thing to get people hooked when there was only one chapter for all of you who were wondering why there wasn't one last chapter.
Ok whichever of you it was who gave my muse caffeine I hate you with a passion. He hasn't left me alone for five freaking minutes and when he's not pestering me to either write or brainstorm he's glaring at me; seriously I've got scabs all over my back from where his eyes have been boring into me.
On the note of the story, a lot of people have been complaining about how long it takes me to update, I'm going as fast as I can. Some chapters will take longer than others, deal with it.
Chapter 3: Musing and Mayhem Part:1
Several weeks since the field trip incident
As the last of the tourists (yes Naruto has become a tourist attraction, it's the whole tails and ears thing) left for the night a young raven-haired academy student peeks out from behind a tree scanning the area for any prying eyes.
"Heh heh," chuckles a spectral figure from one of the many trees surrounding the cage. It had been the same for months, every night the Uchiha kid would come and sit against the bars talking to his friend. Or rather, the creature that had once been his friend.
'How did I get stuck babysitting again?' Anko muses, boredly twirling a kunai around her finger. 'Oh yeah, easy money. "An extended D-Rank paying a B-Rank commission due to possible complications."' That's what the Third had said when he'd asked her to join the rotating watch. 'Old geezer didn't tell me it was gonna be so boring... Oh well, the pay's good.'
"Sakura's been a royal pain lately, now that you're gone she doesn't have anyone to vent on, but I can't complain I guess, one less fangirl to worry about. Ino and the others are still… "
'Sakura? Isn't that the pink haired kid that visits every day after the academy lets out?'
To answer Anko's thought, yes Sakura had been coming by, sometimes accompanied by Hinata, Ino or both (those three had really grown close lately), every day to visit Naruto bringing him treats from time to time but mostly just to keep him company for a little while. For some strange reason ramen seemed to be his favorite, especially from this Ichiraku place(they weren't really sure how they'd figured it out), Anko didn't know why and quite frankly she couldn't bring herself to care.
'Damn nosy disembodied voice reading my thoughts. Man this whole place is on the fritz, even those stick in the mud Hyuuga.' Recently the Hyuuga heiress had taken to disappearing for hours at a time, not to mention the "delinquent tendencies" she had begun developing according to some of the clan elders. 'Kid has spunk though,' Anko thought to herself remembering the "incident" a week or so earlier.
Flashback
Late one evening the young girl had crept to the edge of Naruto's cage and JUMPED IN, as in willingly entered the cage of, what was for all intents and purposes, a chibified Biju.
Earlier that day Hinata had walked past a group of girls talking about some of the horrible things Naruto had done since transforming (Translation: little gossiping twits that got into a pissing contest over who could make the worst rumor). After being told by Hinata, in a small but surprisingly forceful voice, that they were mistaken one of the girls had dared her to spend the night in Naruto's cage. Meaning it as a joke and fully expecting Hinata to laugh while declining the proposal, you can imagine how horrified she was when Hinata accepted.
So it was that Hinata, under the watchful, though hidden, eye of one previously stated Mitarashi Anko, entered Naruto's domain (all 150 square meters of it).
Now, normally it would have been the first course of action to oh say... immediately jump in and get the "poor defenseless girl" out of harm's way! However, for whatever reason, the Hokage had ordered the guards to stay hidden until absolutely necessary (i.e. imminent bodily harm to someone that would be missed). And so Anko just sat and watched (very very closely).
As Hinata landed on the floor of Naruto's cage some five meters below ground level her confidence in her longtime idol finally cracked.
'What if it's not even Naruto anymore?' Iruka sensei had gone over the theory of what the youkai had done to Naruto in class but… 'What if he's wrong? What if the there was no lingering impression of the original and the warped Naruto…BAD HINATA!' she berated herself, shaking the "bad thoughts" from her mind.
All the while the cage's slightly bewildered occupant stood (all fours) a few feet away eying his visitor in a manner that would be best explained as the "hmmm." Seemingly reaching a decision Naruto crept up to the new arrival until he was right next to her.
'BADBADBADBAD-eh?' looks down and, "EEK!" the shriek was more from surprise then from actually being scared but it didn't matter.
Hinata's surprised yelp startled the inquisitive boy sending him twenty feet to the top of a rock formation hissing like a mad cat.
For a moment they both just stood there, Hinata staring at Naruto and Naruto staring back. Then, ever so slowly, Naruto left his perch, prowling toward the young Hyuuga... never taking his eyes off of her.
Said Hyuuga was currently debating just what Naruto was doing, and whether or not to make like a banana and split, when she was enlightened as to the nature of her situation.
It didn't matter what he was going to do because whatever it was there was nothing she could do to stop him and in all probability, he was faster than her so running was most likely an exercise in futility.
That, the knowledge of just how completely helpless she was, terrified her and as Naruto drew closer she simply closed her eyes and waited. For several moments nothing happened as she listened to him pad closer, then about a foot from her they stopped. Nothing happened. No searing pain, nothing gripping her throat, just a soft rhythmic sound. That was it just a sound.
'GAAAAH! I can't take this! What is he doing?' she wondered, her curiosity all but eating holes in her shirt. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore and when she opened her eyes…
He was sniffing her leg.
For a moment she just stared, dumbfounded... then the stress of the past few minutes finally caught up to her. Just as the thought of how anticlimactic her situation was crossed her mind she blacked out, crumpling bonelessly to the ground.
A short while later Hinata awoke on the ground. At first, she didn't remember where she was and so did what any sensible half asleep nine year old in her position would do. She panicked.
"Where am I?!" she asked herself whipping her head around in every direction in an attempt to find something familiar. However after a moment the memories of the day returned replacing the panic with confusion.
'Where is Naruto-kun?' she thought, looking around for the boy. It wasn't hard. For one thing, the cage wasn't very big and for another, his long bushy tails were pretty hard to miss. When she found him he was in his "den" curled into a ball fast asleep.
'He's really cute when he sleeps,' she thought with the barest of smiles. Then, lying down a few feet away, she thought, 'I should probably get some sleep too.'
There was one major flaw in Hinata's plan (well three really): it was nighttime, the temperature was dropping like a stone, and she only had a pair of pants and a light jacket. So for the next thirty minutes or so she lay there shivering when all of a sudden something wrapped around her middle lifting her up.
"EEP!" she whirled her head around to see who had hold of her only to see, 'Naruto-kun?'
To be more specific it was Naruto's tail that had her. Naruto himself was looking at her doing a passable impression of Shikamaru's "hey I'm trying sleep here, what's with all that racket" look. Then he just rolled over... his tails, however, were another story. Before Hinata knew what was happening, they began encircling the little Hyuuga, cocooning her in a fox tail sleeping bag.
'Sooooo comfy,' and then she was out like a light in a blackout.
End Flashback
At this point, the musing Anko suddenly fell into a fit of silent giggles that reduced the young tokubetsu jounin to a quivering ball.
'Oh the looks on their faces were priceless,' she thought.
What she was referring to was what had taken place the morning after when two men walking passed Naruto's cage had seen Hinata in "the clutches of the demon." They had been arguing, loudly, over whether to do something themselves or go get the Hokage when all of a sudden Hinata's head had popped up over the cage wall politely asking them in a very drowsy voice to, and I quote: "Excuse me? Shut up." Then she had let herself back down, walked back to the den, snuggled down into Naruto's tails, and gone back to sleep. The dumbfounded look on the men's faces had indeed been priceless.
After a few minutes of writhing silently on her branch, Anko sat up now looking far less happy. She knew Naruto was the "Kyuubi Kid" and all but she really didn't understand why people thought he was so dangerous.
"For crying out loud you even toss toys back when they fall into the cage," she said more to herself then to Naruto. 'People have more reason to be afraid of me, even you knew that,' she thought, remembering the incident during Mizuki's "field trip."
"Field trip my pasty white ass," she snorted.
Flashback
Hinata is standing against the bars staring blankly into the cage, the rest of the class is talking amongst themselves. One, a few inches shorter than the rest breaks off heading for Hinata.
"Nee-chan are you ok," the lavender-eyed girl asks.
Turning her head slightly but still staring into the cage Hinata answers, "Yes Hanabi I'm fine."
Crossing her arms and adopting her "alright my ass" look she wheedles, "Does the baka have something to do with this?" All Hinata heard was "baka."
BAAAAAAAD choice of words genius.
"What was that?" Hinata demanded in a voice as cold as the Alaskan tundra.
'OOOOOH CRAP! RABID HINATA! RUN FOR IT!' Unfortunately for Hanabi the "it" was a five-meter drop into Naruto's cage, a sickening blow to the head, and a broken arm.
Needless to say by this time most of the class was thoroughly panicked. Anko, who had sent for a medical team, was now jumping into the cage to retrieve the little Hyuuga prodigy. There was one problem though, Naruto was already there.
Suddenly Naruto, who had been crouched by Hanabi nudging her head, sniffed the air once then whirled around flaring his tails behind him growling.
Anko froze, the look on Naruto's face clearly meant, "come any closer and I kill you in the most spectacular and messy fashion available," but she needed to get to the girl.
"Ngh," Hanabi grunted in pain as she began to wake up.
Giving Anko one last glare Naruto started to turn back to Hanabi but stopped, sniffing the air again. In a sudden flash of movement, Naruto's tails wrapped around Hanabi, for some reason Anko did not understand he had several supporting her head and neck, lifting her from the ground then he sped off to the other end of the cage.
When Anko got there at first all she saw was Naruto perched on one of his rocks looking at something off to her right. Looking around she found Hanabi…and the medic team?
End Flashback
'You knew they were coming didn't you,' Anko thought, before giving a snort of laughter. 'Those guys really need to shower more often,' she thought, only to tense a moment later as she heard something from the direction of the village. Turning to get a better look Anko turns to look then sighed resignedly. "Oh great," coming toward the cage is a small mob, think torch and pitchforks(so all civies by the look of it), "Oh well beggars can't be choosers… I hope they pick the hard way."
Hopping down from the tree Anko paces calmly in front of the cage for a minute waiting for the crowd to arrive.
"Eve'nin folks what can I do you for," Anko calls mockingly to the crowd as they get close.
"Move it, bitch!" one of them calls throwing a brick at her.
'That's it? That's all I get? A freakin' brick?' Anko pouts moving her hand to intercept the projectile.
But the brick never made it.
Edited: 06/26/19
Muse Rant
SOS! SOS! SOS! HE'S CONSIDERING HOLDING CHAPTERS HOSTAGE IF YOU DON'T REVIEW. Now granted I already know what's going to happen and I proofread for him but I have friends at school reading this and they're threatening to cut out my liver with a spoon, *whimpers while shuddering uncontrollably* A FREAKING SPOON HELP MEEEEEE.
*Pant pant sweat sweat…finally calming down* moving on thank you to Foxtrot (this alias has been chosen to protect the identity of my benefactor lest she suffers Delta's wrath, and trust me no one wants to be on the receiving end of that *shudders at bad memories*) for the Pepsi, no-dose, and Hershey bars she wer-
SHE GAVE YOU CHOCOLATE TOO!?
*Cower* And I thought I was crazy.
THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CRAZY AND SLEEP DEPRIVED YOU PINT SIZED SADISTIC SALT SHAKER!
*Currently hiding under a rock* Oh that's low, it's not my fault I have such bad dandruff.
YOU SHOWER ONCE A WEEK IF I BEAT YOU WITH A STICK!
Little to the right…*presses the shiny red button*
Ahhhhh...
Ok that should hold him... I hope. As I was saying before I was so maliciously interrupted, thank you Foxtrot (he he Foxtrot) for the stuff you sent me and don't worry about Delta he's really just a big softy.
*as though from far away* I heard that!
Better make myself scarce *takes off at a pace that would leave Speedy Gonzalaz green with envy*
Notes/Explanations
For anyone who may be confused, after the effects of the "fight or flight" wears off you feel exhausted.
Naruto's tails are roughly 15 feet long
Yes toys, and other stuff, have fallen in the cage and Naruto does throw it back
It's not that uncommon to gain early entry into the academy, Naruto did in canon from what I've gathered.