Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I don't own some of the ideas and concepts presented in this story. I do own some of the OC's though so… yeah… that's about all
I probably won't update very quickly but I promise to keep updating whenever I get the chance, or whenever I feel motivated enough
Chapter Three: The Proposal
"To become my guardian," Naruto asked, tilting his head in confusion, "What do you mean by that?"
Lev sighed and then responded, "Look I'll be honest with you young one. You carry a heavy burden; a burden that is both a blessing as well as a curse."
Now Naruto was even more confused, "Okkkk… but what does that have to do with you becoming my guardian?"
Lev sighed once more, and then gesturing towards the bed, and then said, "You might want to sit down for this." Naruto plopped down on the bed and Lev took a seat on the only chair in the room. "What I am about to tell you is true and I don't want you interrupting until the very end, understood?" naruto nodded and Lev's face took on a very thoughtful expression. "Very well, were should I begin?"
(I am not going to go into a long and boring explanation so let's just skip ahead shall we?)
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After Lev's long and, somewhat dull talk, he and Naruto just stared at each other for a minute, neither moving an inch, until finally Naruto spoke up. "So let me get this straight; you expect me to believe that your some thousand year old being that was sealed away for using something called the Dark One rituals, and were just released four years ago. And you have come back into existence in order to teach me these rituals because of the 'burden' that I carry," Naruto said. "That is correct," Lev said and then there was another awkward pause.
Then all of a sudden Naruto jumped up, a huge grin on his face, and excitedly said, "Wow really? That is so cool! What are you going to teach me? Can we start now? How powerful are these ritual things anyway?" along with a plethora of other questions. Lev was taken back; he was not expecting such a… enthusiastic response. He was expecting to have to prove himself but then again, this is a four year old we are talking about… was he this easy to convince when he was that age… of course not.
He stood up and walked over to the now highly energetic bundle and placed his left hand on the child's head. "So I take that as a yes," he asked, a small smile hovering over his lips. "Yep," Naruto replied, his grin so wide that it nearly took up his entire face.
Lev's smile vanished almost immediately and then he said, "Very well. Now you must learn of the burden you carry. And when you do, I hope that you will not hate those you hold dear."
"What do you mean by," Naruto started to ask, but was cut off as Lev slammed his right hand into the child's stomach, knocking him out almost instantly. "May any gods that may be watching, please look after this child," Lev said as he clasped his hands together, as if in prayer, then said in a commanding voice, "Heart Ritual: Voice of the Inner Spirit." He then placed both hands that were now glowing a soft, sickly looking green color, upon Naruto's chest.
---
Naruto found himself in a sewer. How did he know it was a sewer? Well the fact that he had to duck down into a few of them from time to time to avoid would be assailants are the reason. "Where am I," he asked to no one in particular.
He then heard a voice, seeming to call him from down a nearby passage way. He followed the voice, walking down twisting passage ways, filled with murky water, until he came upon a giant room. The room was totally nondescript except for the fact that it contained a cage the size of a mountain in it. Yeah, completely not noteworthy.
Being the curious child that he was, Naruto walked up to the large cage, which seemed to be the origin of the voice that he had been following. Stuck to the cage was a piece of paper with the kanji for 'seal' on it. Even though he could not read, he just seemed to know instinctively what it meant. As he got close to the cage, a large claw lashed out at him, clashing against the metal bars. Naruto fell back into the water, and when he did, he looked up, and up, and up, into the large glowing red eyes of a fox, a giant nine-tailed fox.
"I want to eat you," the fox seemed to say, "I want to rip you limb from limb, but this accursed seal won't let me. Come closer so that I may devour you."
Now Naruto wasn't that stupid. He wasn't about to do anything like… correction, he is even stupider. Naruto just insulted the giant, malevolent demon who hates his guts. "What the heck is an oversized fur ball like you doing in a sewer?"
Now the fox didn't take this very gently, just the opposite in fact. "Despicable human," it bellowed, barring its fangs at Naruto, "I am the mighty demon lord, Kyuubi, and I demand that you show me respect!"
Now Naruto was a little frightened, so this time he at least tried to be respectful. "O-Ok. What is such a powerful demonic fur ball such as yourself doing in a sewer?"
Kyuubi sighed and thought, "This is the human that accursed yondaime sealed me into. Now I hate him even more. Oh well, might as well make the best of it." He then sat down so that he was as eye-level with the frightened child as was physically possible. "What I am doing here," Kyuubi said, "Is waiting for you to release me you annoying little brat."
"And why, pray tell, should I do a stupid thing like that," Naruto asked.
"So that we may get revenge," Kyuubi replied.
"Revenge," Naruto asked, even more confused than he was before, "Why would I want to get revenge?"
At this, Kyuubi gave a very toothy grin and replied, "Why for sealing me inside you of course. You should take revenge on the accursed humans of Konoha who sealed me inside you. The very humans who hate you very something you could not prevent."
Naruto's face was now one of complete and utter shock. "N-no! That's not possible," he cried out, holding his head, tears filling his eyes, "You mean to tell me that-"
"Yes naruto," a new voice said and both Kyuubi and Naruto turned towards the new comer. "What are doing here bird," Kyuubi spat as the figure flew towards them.
"Me," the voice, a slightly bigger than average raven, replied as it landed softly on Naruto's shoulder, "I am simply here to ensure that young Naruto here does not get any wrong ideas, like him being you or you being him, how the people of the village lied to him all his life. How he is nothing more than a demon and a monster. Those kinds of things."
Naruto looked at the raven in shock and started to say, "But, I mean, if he," and point's at Kyuubi, "Is in me then doesn't that mean-"
"Popycock," the raven said, "You are no more a demon than I am rat with wings. Just because we have been called those things doesn't mean that we are what they call us."
Naruto calmed down quite a bit upon hearing this, but then said, "Ok, but if you are here, does that mean that you're a spirit as well?"
The raven grinned, or at least did the closest thing to a grin that it was capable of, then replied, "Hey you're pretty sharp. Yes, I am spirit, an inner spirit at that. I am the thing that gives people who use the Dark One rituals, or Users as we call them, their power. Every User has a unique spirit that upon the moment they start using the rituals, obtains."
"So does that mean you're my inner spirit," Naruto asked, slightly disappointed that his inner spirit was so weak looking.
"Nope," the raven replied, "I am Lev's inner spirit. And I'll have you know that we spirits are not judged by how big or powerful we are. We simply determine what types of rituals you can or can't use. So even though I myself am weak, my User is very strong so we balance each other out rather nicely."
"Ok," Naruto said nodding, "then who is my inner spirit?"
The raven pointed at the cage with a wing. "Wait," Naruto said, fear in his eyes, and "Don't tell me that-"I refuse to be this brat's inner spirit," Kyuubi growled, thrashing about in his cage… yes in my story the Kyuubi is a he.
The raven laughed evilly at this then said, "You don't have a choice. The spirit council has decided that you 'will' be this lad's inner spirit. And there is nothing you can say or do to change that fact. After all, this boy has a destiny to fulfill. He is the one who will-"
At this, Lev's voice seemed to echo throughout the room, "Ciar! You speak too much. Hurry up and get out so that Naruto can wake up."
Ciar, with an embarrassed look on his beak quickly said, "Whoops! Sorry, I'll be heading out now," then took wing and flew off down a corridor.
"Wait," Naruto and Kyuubi cried out in unison before suddenly everything went black.
---
Naruto awoke in a cold sweat. He glanced around the room, his sight landing on Lev who had once again taken a seat on the chair. Lev just looked at Naruto… or at least he thought he was looking at him. It was kind of difficult to tell with his eyes covered. "Now Naruto," Lev started to say, "Do you understand what I meant by 'do not hate those you hold dear'?"
Naruto nodded his head numbly, and suddenly Lev's voice took on a rather happy tone, although his face managed to remain as calm and stoic as ever, "Good! Now we must be going. We have places to go and people to see." And with that he leapt to his feet, snatched Naruto up by the scuff of his neck like some sort of dog, and walked calmly out the front door, leaving the four civilians lying on the ground, and the decapitated ninja stuffed rather hastily in a trash bag.
---
To say that he was surprised would be an understatement, he was absolutely shocked. Here he was, reading the latest Ichi Ichi- I mean, doing paperwork, when suddenly a young man clad in dark robes walked through the door of his office, a rather ruffled Naruto tucked under his arm like a sack of potatoes, as if he did it every other day.
The young man casually walks up to Sarutobi, places Naruto down gently, turns to him and says respectfully, "Greetings Old One. My name is Lev and I have come with a proposal for you."
Sarutobi looks from the young man, Lev, to Naruto, who had a rather sad look on his face, refusing to make eye contact with him. He turned back to Lev and said, "Alright, but first tell me why you have brought Naruto here, and why does he look as if he just found out his favorite puppy just died."
Lev's tone suddenly became very serious, although his face remained as impassive as ever, and said, "Why the answer is simple Old One. Young Naruto here just recently found out about his tenant."
Sarutobi suddenly stands up, knocking over papers and a assortment of other objects as he did so and exclaimed, "WHAT?!?"
"Jiji," Naruto piped up, rather quietly, "Is it true? Do I really have the kyuubi inside me?"
Sarutobi suddenly went from totally outraged to kind and compassionate faster than you could blink an eye. He walked around the desk to Naruto, knelt down, placed his hands on his shoulders and said, "Yes Naruto. But you have to understand, it was for the good of the village. And you have to trust me when I say-"
At this Naruto perked up considerably and said, "I know Jiji. I know that I am not the furball," at this Naruto could have swore he heard a growl, "I know that you see me as the jailer and not the prisoner. And for that, I thank you." Naruto hugged Sarutobi, joyfull tears in his eyes. They stayed like that for a while until Lev decided that there was a little too much love in the room for his tastes.
"Ok people, break it up," he said, clapping his hands so as to get their attention. At this Sarutobi stood up and looked at him coldly, and said, "I assume that you are the one who told him."
At this Lev had the decency to look embarrassed, "Me," he said innocently, "No of course not. I mearly helped him to find out or himself."
Sarutobi sighed, knowing he wouldn't be getting anything else out of him so he decided to turn the conversion back to an earlier topic. "Very well," he said, "so what is this proposal you have for me?"
Lev's lips twitched slightly, as he beat down the urge to smirk, and gestured for Sarutobi to sit down. "Old One," he started to say as the hokage took his seat at his desk, "I have come to you tonight, in hopes that you might allow me to train young Naruto here, in an ancient art."
Sarutobi had taken out his trusty pipe and as he lit it asked, "And what pray tell, is this art you speak of?"
Lev replied, "Now Old One, I am not at liberty to tell you. However, if you do allow me this one little favor, then I can guarantee that you will find your village with a powerful tool at your disposal."
Sarutobi took a drag from his pipe. "So you wish to turn Naruto into a weapon. Is that it?"
"Not at all," Lev replied, "I am merely stating that after I finish teaching young Naruto here, I will be more than glad to teach others this art as well."
"I see," Sarutobi said as he puffed out a cloud of smoke, "Would there be certain qualifications to be taught this art?"
"Only that they may be young and have qualities I find worthy of being taught," Lev said, "So unfortunately I will not be able to teach anyone over the age of 15."
"And why is that," the aging hokage asked.
Lev suddenly became very serious and replied, "To be honest Old One, if I tried to teach anyone older they may get it in their heads that they can use this art to further their own ends, and so I find that the younger someone is, the easier it is to beat into their soft, underdeveloped minds that this art is not to be used lightly."
"True that," the old man replied, "Very well. You may teach Naruto this… art as you call it. And when the time comes that I feel that it would be for the good of the village for you to take on more pupils, then I shall allow it."
At this Lev's face softened considerably, "I thank you Old One," he then unsheathed a sword that neither Naruto nor Sarutobi knew that he had knelt down before the hokage and said in a completely serious voice, "From this day forth I pledge my loyalty to you, and no other. When the time comes that you require my skills, I shall follow your orders without question, and with the utmost obedience."
Sarutobi looked at Lev and with a flick of his wrist said, "Rise, and from this day forth, you are an official envoy of the hokage. You answer to no one but me, until the time comes when a suitable successor for hokage presents him or herself."
Lev stands and says, "thank you Old One. Now there is the small matter as to housing, supplies, and the dead ninja in Naruto's trash bin."
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Ok, I put a lot of effort into this update so I hope I manage to get some reviews out of it, if not I may take awhile to update again, but I will do my best to update quickly. Anyways, here is a little sneak peak as to what is coming up in the next chapter.
A new house, a new sensei, a new life. Maybe even some new friends. What awaits Naruto in the next chapter of "The Dark One Rituals". You'll just have to wait and find out.