I am not normally one to preface my chapters with an author note, especially not the prologue. However this story feels a bit different, the prologue is a bit longer than what I normally do for one.

For one I think I should clarify that I intend to tag this story as Supernatural/Horror but those are not the only themes, and the horror is primarily the personal horror of living through becoming inhuman.

For two I have no idea what pairings I will do in this story, that's currently undecided. Finally I should warn that this story will contain blood, lots of that, as well as the usual Naruto fare of child soldiers using combat drugs and getting traumatized but with more blood. Also technically underage gambling happens in canon Naruto.

Naruto Uzumaki was many things, and he knew very few of those things. He knew he was human, despite what some whispered, a young child even in the eyes of the law at least until he could pass his genin graduation exam, he knew he was stealthier and more deceptive than people gave him credit for, case in point he was currently hiding from trained shinobi with years of experience on him.

In his defense if they didn't want him to paint the Hokage monument then they should guard it a little better, as it was he was basically free to escape but he hesitated before taking his usual hiding spot.

Something he'd heard clicked and he went a different direction than he usually would, something about having patterns being predictable. His gut instinct proved invaluable as he watched Iruka, one of the chunin in charge of academy students like Naruto, check the spot he had been about to hide in from the shadows of a storm drain.

The young blonde ducked down just in case his sensei glanced over and saw his eyes in the darkness, he could see that the storm drain was designed to let water through and was not designed for comfort or transport but he was still small enough that he could manage the squeeze.

Naruto knew he wasn't considered intelligent, or even competent at being a ninja like he wanted, but he wanted to be a ninja. He was plenty capable of hiding, the issue was that he did not like doing so and could not sit still for extended periods.

At every other aspect of being a ninja he sucked, middle of the class taijutsu and bottom of the class in every other field. He could hit a stationary target with a shuriken, unless they wanted him to throw multiple. His ninjutsu was abysmal, even his Henge no Jutsu was far too flashy and gave off far too much chakra vapor when he used it to be practical for stealth so he'd tried to come up with ways to use it as a distraction.

Nobody seemed to appreciate the genius distraction that was turning into a naked woman unfortunately, Naruto just didn't understand why though. If it worked then how could it possibly be bad? The logic of other people confused the young blonde sometimes.

Naruto was aware he was different, he didn't know how or why. At first he'd assumed that it was because he was an orphan, but even other orphans got more pity than him. It wasn't like people physically attacked him regularly, one time a drunk had been about to when he'd wondered too close to a bar near closing time but even then it had only taken one sober adult to de-escalate whatever the drunk had been rambling about.

However Naruto could tell people just looked at him differently, he didn't understand why but he presumed they hated him. He acted like a clown to get some kind of attention besides being ignored but he couldn't understand why he was treated the way he was.

He also did not consider himself particularly stupid, he handled his own finances and he may make mistakes but he thought he was doing pretty well for his age. As he was considering this the small tunnel he had been crawling through opened up, sloping down one way and up in the other.

The main reason people thought Naruto was stupid stared him right in the face, kanji. Naruto could not read kanji, he had some important symbols memorized but he had effectively never actually learned how to read and write kanji.

Iruka had a class of roughly thirty wannabe shinobi, teaching the class clown how to read kanji was at the bottom of his to do list. At least Naruto assumed it would be if the man knew, Mizuki seemed vaguely aware and gave small concessions or asked him to clarify things sometimes but it really wasn't enough but the young blue eyed academy student didn't want to be ungrateful.

Naruto considered just going up but he knew shinobi, especially Iruka, would still be looking for him. He was already late to class and didn't feel like getting scolded so he went deeper as his mind returned to pondering his own intellect.

The boy was aware that he was not academically inclined, he had no delusions about that, but he was quite proud of his abilities regardless and he preferred to train than to study. As proof of his abilities he had defaced the Hokage monument with crude paint in the middle of the morning.

Sure everyone was too busy being mad to be impressed now, but surely once they got over being angry at him they'd see how impressive it was for Naruto to pull off such a stunt. Painting a public mountain face in full view of the village in broad daylight and not getting caught until he was as good as done? He'd like to see top scoring students like Sasuke or Sakura pull that off.

Naruto stopped patting himself on the back as he took in his new surroundings, he hadn't been so deep in the tunnels beneath Konohagakure no Sato before and he had no idea they went so deep. He felt out of place, like he was trespassing for some reason.

It took him a moment to realize the reason for that feeling was because he could see, because the walls were lined with small lights that dimly lit the stone halls. Naruto frowned as his hackles raised, he felt like he probably shouldn't be there and looked around for anyone watching.

Trusting his gut the blonde went deeper into the maze of corridors until he found a dead end with a locked utility closet, he wasn't sure why but he was certain someone had followed him so he pulled out a lock pick from his pouch and got to work.

The blonde was not great at picking locks, but after some work he managed to force it open and slip into the small room beyond before shutting the door. His heart was pounding in his chest, he wasn't sure if he was being followed or just being paranoid.

Naruto closed his eyes and tried to focus, he heard nothing and glanced around. The closet he'd entered was small, darker than the halls outside for it had no lights. The young aspiring ninja felt around in the dark and noticed with some surprise that the back wall was false, but the opening had been partially filled.

The realization that an adult would not be able to follow him normally filled the young boy with some relief, an escape route calmed him even if he had no idea where it went.

Then his heart rate spiked, "Child, it is dangerous-" a voice began from outside the closet. The voice was monotone but it set the alarm bells ringing in Naruto's head, the boy leaped into the crawl space to get away and crawled deeper.

Soon the small tunnel sloped downwards, clearly more natural than the halls behind Naruto but he saw no reason to view that as a bad thing until he crawled into a wet patch and found himself sliding deeper into the earth.

Naruto was not expecting there to be a light when he started sliding down a natural tunnel, but where it spat him out in a cave he saw the signs of humans having been there before, torch sconces. He looked around and wondered why people would come here.

The architecture looked strange too, and as Naruto looked around he realized why. Some of the stone looked like people, twisted and strange but faces that were almost human, or at least looked like they had once been human.

Naruto was disturbed by this as he crept around, curious enough to explore but cautious of getting caught, he had no idea where he was except that he was under the village but he had no idea there were caves under his home let alone such an extensive underground system.

He had been below the sewers before, and that had been a mystery, so wherever he was now was a mystery even deeper than that. The thought made the boy excited despite his dangerous situation, then he saw the way forward went even deeper.

"Just how deep down does this place go?" Naruto wondered, he noticed there were actual stairs too, albeit ruined, so the place had definitely been seen by humans before. So why had Naruto never heard of it?

The thought he was trespassing on secret ninja stuff occurred to him, but he really wanted to see what the secret was in that case, and if it was an enemy secret that threatened his home then he practically had a duty to find out what was going on.

Naruto continued to sneak forth and down deeper into the strange catacombs he'd found, at the bottom of the stairs he saw them at the end of another hallway. Corpses, if the blood was not red he would never know they were fresh from the look of them.

The young boy had been wearing his jacket around his waist, a white shirt with the symbol for Hi no Ishi with some paint on it was not the stealthiest thing even compared to the bright orange of the rest of his outfit so he pulled his jacket up over his shoulders.

Before he could zip up the jacket he saw movement, from a door at the end of the hall came a massive dog. Bigger than Naruto at least, it looked mangy with long fur matted with blood and its head turned instantly to the blonde as it rounded the corner.

Naruto could tell the dog had killed those people, but that seemed wrong somehow. He had no time to think as it barked and began to run at him, he pulled out a kunai and gripped it firmly with his right hand as he braced himself.

Unfortunately Naruto was not much of a fighter and could not think to do much effective against a hound bigger than he was, but he was fast enough to evade its lunge by diving to the side of and behind the beast. He rolled off his shoulder to his knees and tossed his kunai, the thrown blade flew into the side of the hound and sank deep.

"Yeah!" Naruto cheered, proud of himself for the shot. The dog growled, barked, then snapped at the blonde who yelped and stumbled back to avoid being bitten. Thankfully for the young human the crazed hound was wounded enough to be wary and held back a moment, however all that served to do was let the boy see just how much blood lust was contained in the eyes of the hound.

Naruto stumbled back as the beast leaped again and the boy tripped, he fell on a pressure plate and a massive heavy blade suddenly slammed down to bisect the dog. The blonde was surprised by the trap, the sudden death of the beast threatening his life, and the fact a spray of blood had covered his face, front of his shirt and some of his jacket.

Naruto became very aware that he definitely should not be down where he was, he heard other things now, movement deeper in the catacombs he'd stumbled into that he could only imagine the source of. Thankfully he didn't hear much coming in his direction, but he was still panting and looking around frantically for a place to hide.

Then a tall man with a wide brimmed hat and a long coat rounded the corner and Naruto wished he'd just let Iruka catch him, "Oh? A child? A normal human child down here?" the man asked.

Naruto could barely see the face of the stranger, obscured by wide brimmed hat, beard, and round shaded spectacles, why the man was wearing such things in such dim light was something the blonde decided he didn't care about as he nodded to the question, silently hoping the man would help him.

The strange man hummed to himself as he looked around, moving corpses with what appeared to be a metal cane, "Not your doing here, no, except maybe the dog but clearly an accident." the man muttered almost as if to himself, "No matter, we'd best get you somewhere that won't kill you for now." he said and motioned for the boy to follow him.

Without any better options Naruto followed the strange man, "What is this place?" he asked, more quiet than he usually was, the shadow of a massive spider at the end of a tunnel he glanced down while following the stranger had more than tempered his bravado.

"A dungeon." The man answered plainly, "One of many, this one is relatively close to the surface, I think you've already come deeper than the others dared, though I only saw two from a distance." he rambled.

"Who?" Naruto asked.

The man shook his head, "I know not, a white haired man with intense eyes, a pale skilled man with golden eyes and dark hair. Neither came deep enough to find anything of value and both were warned off by the threats here." he explained.

Naruto frowned, he noticed the man was leading him deeper, past more corpses even, "So, why are you down here?" he asked.

"I've always been down here, I hunt." The man answered before he sighed and shook his head, "Even after all these years I still know not what this place truly is." he muttered as he slid open a metal gate to lead the blonde into what looked like a medical tent had been placed in a small cave, "It changes, it's alive, blood flows up and down."

Naruto was pretty sure he should not follow the clearly crazy man into the bloody surgical theater but the sound of some growling beast snapping at something else out of sight not far away in the labyrinthine halls was enough for the blonde to choose the lesser evil.

As the man inspected the blade of some strange looking hand saw Naruto wondered if he had chosen the lesser evil, "Fear the old blood, but the older blood makes us strong, a conundrum." the man muttered, "Maybe some new blood, but he will need a taste of old blood if he is to be of use," the man rambled as he searched his shelves, "yes, that may work." he muttered.

Naruto was distinctly uncomfortable with what words he could hear the man rambling, even without the words just looking around he could tell the strange man was obsessed with blood. Vials of the stuff in various states of congealment lined the shelves of the strange 'hospital room', most of it far too fresh to be normal.

The blonde had no idea about anti-coagulants or how blood was supposed to look in such amounts so all he had to go on was a vague sense of unease, "Boy," the man suddenly addressed him, "what brought you down here?" he asked.

Naruto frowned, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, y'know!" he introduced, the man didn't even react to his boisterous verbal tic, "I was hiding after I pulled a prank," he confessed.

The man interrupted by chuckling, then laughing, "You stumbled into these ancient damned ruins hiding after a prank?" the man asked, incredulous, "Just what is your goal boy? Long term if you can even think like that."

Naruto scowled at the insult, "I'm going to be Hokage y'know!" he insisted angrily.

"What's a Hokage?"

Naruto stared at the stranger in shock, wondering how someone could live under Konoha and not know that even if they did live under most of the rocks in the village. Then he had to consider how to answer that as the man returned to searching through his vials.

"The Hokage is the strongest ninja in Konohagakure no Sato."

The man hummed with interest, "So you want to be strong?" he asked rhetorically, "I might have something for that." he mused as he held up a vial, "A blood transfusion that can make you stronger and faster than normal, and you'll dream." he said the last part wistfully.

Naruto was suspicious of the man, he was pretty sure the man was crazy and that letting the man shove weird blood in him was only going to make him sick. However he was also aware that his only way out was filled with dangerous traps, beasts, and who knew what else, and that the strange man clearly survived down here and seemed physically healthy at least.

Still the blonde held some caution, "I kind of just want to go home at this point." he confessed, he was sure he hadn't been down too long but by now he'd have missed a whole day of the academy by the time he got back.

The man cocked his head to the side, "The blood can help with that, it can do many things, nothing I have can help me dream anymore," Naruto was certain the man was insane, "but I have something more potent than any who came before you would have seen, nothing that last one found could help with whatever research he intended to do." the man was rambling again.

Naruto raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, "What exactly does this blood do." he asked.

"It makes one divine." Definitely insane, "Immortal," super insane, "capable of seeking greater insight to understand the world in ways most can only dream of," Naruto didn't even want to do that, "and it heals all wounds." now the blonde was sure the man was probably some kind of insane scam artist.

Only if that were the case the man would probably have lured him into a fungus farm and insisted he try mushrooms, and Naruto couldn't help but be a little curious, "How does it do all that?" but he was still skeptical and cautious.

"It is old blood, it has power the world above has forgotten, that mortals cannot comprehend." The man insisted, hurrying Naruto to lay down upon an operating table, "The original divine panacea, ambrosia, vitae, it is life in liquid form."

"I have no idea what any of those words even mean." Naruto argued as he resisted being put on the table for a moment, if he could get a straight answer out of the coot he might be willing to try it. The blonde may insist he wasn't stupid, but his medical expertise boiled down to that the blood needed to be inside the body and sharp things making the blood be outside could kill people.

He knew there was more to it than that, but he didn't really care why or how his fingers moved as long as they did. The man did at least notice his hesitance and seemed to be considering how to word things, so he probably wouldn't have to physically fight the man off.

"This blood is magic."

Naruto wanted to laugh at the man, say he was crazy, maybe run away, but a small part of him that wanted to believe made him hesitate and give the vial of unassuming blood a skeptical look.

The man showed the vial for Naruto's closer inspection, "It has made me nigh immortal, although truthfully I confess it is a conditional immortality and I fear I am failing those conditions after all these years." he explained, "Should you accept," the blonde was not aware he was allowed to refuse, "then you will have to find your own insight."

"Why?" Naruto asked, then he remembered he was asking the crazy man to explain his insane logic.

"Some things must be learned by oneself," The stranger answered cryptically as Naruto sat down on the table, "unfortunately I will not be able to help you, too far gone, too old, too long." the man suddenly looked ancient and tired, almost seeming to physically age before Naruto's eyes.

Naruto was still cautious, but he was curious, "What could you tell me?" he asked.

The man locked eyes with him and the blonde was suddenly aware they had slit pupils behind the shades, "Seek the paled blood." he said cryptically, "Tell the doll I said hello." he added more fondly as if the boy had already accepted.

Naruto was curious, and he figured that it probably wouldn't kill him. The fear it might make him as insane as the old man occurred to him, but he needed to get home so it was probably, maybe, worth the risk. He hoped it was worth the risk as he lay down on the table and the man took this as consent to the procedure, setting up the vial with a mercifully clean looking intravenous drip.

"Not to worry, Naruto," The man said and the boy was not sure if he liked that the man remembered his name, "I've learned much of blood ministration down here." he assured as he expertly set up the IV to drip foreign blood into the blonde boy's veins, "Oh don't you worry." he tried to be soothing but the young 'patient' was not calmed or relaxed at all, "Whatever happens, you may think it all a mere bad dream." he finished but for some reason found that idea too funny to say without laughing.

Naruto's vision was going blurry, he wondered if receiving blood was supposed to make you feel sleepy. The old man had said it made him more powerful but that guy was crazy, the blonde took a moment of lucidity to appreciate how stupid he was for letting himself get drugged.

When Naruto forced his eyes open again after what felt like seconds it seemed like far more time had passed, the room was even darker than before and he was alone. He was also paralyzed, he started preparing his verbal defense for anyone who called him stupid for getting caught like he was before he wondered why anyone would try to capture him.

Something moved in the peripherals of his vision, Naruto's eyes shifted unconsciously to the movement and saw blood on the ground. The blood would be normal by now if a massive wolf twice Naruto's size, minimum, was not emerging from the puddle as if it was far deeper than it looked.

Naruto's breath hitched but he couldn't move, the beast crawled towards him, it was hard to see but he realized it had no skin, or it was inside out. The thing was horrifying to look at and it extended a five fingered paw to his defenseless form.

The presence of a thumb caught Naruto's attention before the hand of the beast caught fire as it came within inches of the boy, the beast shrieked and pulled back, away and into the shadows. Naruto was still terrified since it was still there, but that it wasn't looming over him was a small comfort.

Then he saw more movement, little white things, humanoid in a way. A chill went down his spine as he mentally compared them to the strange almost human statues and corpses he'd seen but these were too small and slightly different somehow.

There were a lot of them though, they'd also surrounded him and were starting to hold him down, the last thing he heard before he blacked out again was the far off sounding voice of a woman, "Oh, you've found yourselves a ryoshi."

Naruto opened his eyes again and thought he knew what the man meant by a dream, but he hadn't expected it to be so vivid. Hesitantly he got up and slowly crept to the exit, he was alone, like in the dream but he tried not to think of that weird nightmare.

He heard things moving in the halls beyond, most of them not even trying to be stealthy but many of them not bothering with each other. The boy frowned as he remembered how much the old man had talked up 'the old blood', but Naruto didn't feel any stronger or faster.

Deciding to cut his losses the shinobi-in-training began sneaking out of the strange dungeons beneath Konoha, doing his best to angle himself upwards but he came across something that froze him. His moment of hesitation cost him and as the wolf-like beast turned he realized it was not inside out, but it was still far too similar to his nightmare for comfort.

The beast snarled, then it charged. Naruto attempted to dodge but a hand, something no beast should have, too opposable to be compared to a bear, a hand with claws caught Naruto on the shoulder, the claws dug in and the boy was pulled into the maw of the beast.

Naruto gasped as he scrambled into a sitting position, on the verge of hyperventilating he looked around to get a grasp on his situation. The fact he was not in the blood stained operating theater was of little comfort since he was not in his bed either, instead he was in a graveyard.

After the nightmare he just had, the blonde was very uncomfortable with waking up in a strange graveyard. There were white flowers the boy could not identify, tombstones, some trees and shrubbery, a shack, some big chalice tucked in next to one of the stairs going up to the shack, and a doll left slumped in a chair.

The doll was the size of an adult person, dressed in a plain grey kimono tied with a white sash, a head dress held long white hair out of a mostly unpainted face, the lack of make up seemed off, and on the feet were white socks under wooden geta.

Naruto stood up as he took all that in, he recalled the crazy old man mentioning a doll and scratched the back of his head, "Uh, hi?" he said to the doll before he felt foolish, "I mean, the old dude said to say hello for him, but-" he shook his head to stop himself from talking further just in case someone was listening.

The blonde knew it was just a doll, but it was so lifelike that he couldn't help but feel bad for it even if he was having some weird bad blood induced fever dream. That being said he was curious about what kind of dream he was having now, his current location was completely new to him, and he'd never seen anyone like the doll before.

Naruto stepped closer to get a better look at the fair skinned and white haired imitation of a human woman, then he jumped back when more of those strange white humanoids he'd seen in the first dream appeared, "Oh crap am I still dreaming? Or was the one in the middle a dream? Are these all dreams or did I actually die to that wolf in between two dreams?" the boy rambled in a panic as he clutched his head.

The blonde noticed he was not covered in blood, a point for him currently being in a dream, he tried to calm down with that. Naruto tried to think, his best case scenario was that everything he'd seen so far since he'd been drugged with strange blood was a dream.

Once Naruto collected himself he noticed the strange white little humanoids were trying to offer him something, his first impression was that of a saw, but he saw there was a bit more to it. The handle was almost as long as the blade and was dangerously close to an edge of the blade that had seemingly no reason to be sharp.

Then there was the mechanism where the handle connected to the blade, Naruto did not understand enough about engineering to know what he was looking at, "This seems really complicated for something my subconscious came up with." the boy mused as he crouched down to get a better look at the offered weapon without accepting it, "What a weird dream." he muttered before he noticed movement and turned to see the doll standing up.

Naruto's jaw dropped as pale yellow glassy eyes turned to look at him, "A dream it is, but not just yours, good ryoshi." she spoke with a voice that was oddly familiar, as if he heard it in a dream once, "The little ones are trying to offer you a weapon for when you go back, they'd like you to defend yourself, but you seem so small." she said with a frown.

Naruto's jaw snapped closed into a snarl, "I'm strong!" he insisted, "I'm going to be a ninja!" he insisted even though he still couldn't perform the Bunshin no Jutsu. He was however suddenly very aware that the doll was tall, probably taller than Iruka even.

The doll cocked her head to the side, "A ninja? Very well, but you are ryoshi." she said and the blonde frowned as he wondered why she thought he was a hunter and put off by her manner of speech and uncanny body language, "You should be armed either way, should you not?" she asked.

Naruto turned his attention back to the offered weapon, it was a crude looking weapon with bandages wrapped around the hilt, "What's with this thing?" he asked with a point to the odd mechanism.

"Squeezing that lever and flicking the weight of the blade will activate it."

Naruto was pretty sure that did not tell him what activating it would actually do, but he wasted no time in testing it out. At his age and size the young academy student needed both hands to accomplish the instructions, with the blade of the strange weapon extended he understood why the back edge of the saw was sharpened like a cleaver.

Extended out the weapon was like a strange flat topped short sword, with a saw blade for a back edge and an absurdly long handle. Naruto felt the handle was a good length for him to wield it though and now that he was actually holding it he was beaming at how cool he thought the weapon was.

He tested the mechanism again and the weapon snapped shut, it did not hurt but the sudden snapping motion and the swift motion of a sharp blade towards his fingers had the blonde dropping the weapon with a yelp.

Naruto flushed as he glanced at the doll, she was watching impassively, "So, uh, this is a dream right?" he asked to distract from his own embarrassment.

The doll nodded, "It is as much a dream as a place, that tombstone will return you to your body." she assured.

Naruto paled as he recalled the nightmare, "W-what if something happened to my body?" he asked, worried he might actually be dead.

"Then you will grow a new body where you rested and are safe."

Naruto blinked, "How?" he asked.

The doll tilted her head to the side again, "It depends on the status it is in," she began and he shuddered at the way she talked about his corpse, "and the status of your blood." she finished calmly.

Naruto frowned at the return of the topic of blood, "What's so important about blood?" he asked as he picked up the strange weapon he'd dropped.

"You need blood to live," The doll began with the obvious that the blonde already knew, "the will of this blood I can channel into your strength," she continued with information the boy did not understand, "you hunt the beasts and I embolden your sickly spirit."

"My spirit is not sickly!" Naruto protested hotly with a stomp and a glare, the doll seemed taken aback before she smiled fondly.

"Oh, good ryoshi, I mean no offense." The doll assured, "I mean only to help." she promised with a bow, "You are unlikely to have Chi no Isshi now," she said as she retrieved a small metal bell and offered it to him, "use this bell when you wish to return from the waking world without dying, and I will let Chi no Isshi become your strength." she promised.

Naruto frowned and narrowed his eyes, "Why?" he asked, "Why help me?" he clarified.

The doll frowned, "You are ryoshi and I am a doll." she said as if it was obvious, "My place in this dream is to look after you, honorable ryoshi."

Naruto fidgeted, the motherly affection from the uncanny doll and the odd way she praised him while speaking was making him less hesitant about accepting regardless of how creepy the situation was, so he reached out and took the small silver bell from the doll.

The blonde felt some things were still wrong, "I thought I died, but then I thought it was a nightmare," he began hesitantly, his voice breaking slightly, "now I find out this is the dream, that the bakemono did get me, but that I can just wake up from this dream and be fine even thought I died?" he asked and the doll nodded, "Am I crazy?" he wondered.

The doll frowned again, "This is a dream, a dream for those touched by certain blood," she began and the blonde thought he understood what she meant for a moment before he realized just how little he understood, "so it is a dream for you too, yes? That is why you wake up here when you die, as if it was for sure a nightmare."

Naruto did not think that explained the implied immortality but he nodded hesitantly as the doll herded him towards the tombstone that apparently lead him to him, the text was unreadable to him but it glowed. The glow of the light intensified until it seemed like a bright door he could walk through, and the doll urged him through.

Naruto woke again in the bloody operating theater, his new exotic weapon gripped in his right hand as though he'd always owned it. He wondered if the blood had driven him insane, he wondered if he was dreaming right now or if in fact none of it had been a dream.

Fluidly the boy turned and slid from the operating table to his feet, no grogginess to indicate he had been drugged or asleep. Naruto looked around, everything looked clear, in detail, real. He recalled the graveyard with the white flowers, the shack he hadn't explored, and the doll.

That had seemed very real too, although much fuzzier at the edges, he had no reason for not being able to tell what was outside the graveyard so it stood to reason that was the dream. Except that he was holding the weapon he'd gotten there, but he tried to mentally reason the old man could have left it with him before running off.

The very idea that none of it had been a dream was enough to bring unbidden to his mind the image of those large teeth coming for his face, claws digging into his back and pulling him in. Naruto took a shuddering gasp at the memory of his death, then he insisted to himself that it was just a nightmare.

He realized he was covered in blood again, long dried, from the dog back before he'd been driven insane by some weird old blood. The boy decided that was the least of his issues but didn't dare drop his weapon to zip up his jacket either, even if a kunai was in arms reach he'd felt how helpful those were.

Naruto shook his head to shake the haunting memory of dying and turned his focus to his new weapon, it was an exotic design at least. It was almost small enough to fit in his tool pouch, if it wasn't for the fact it would rip the bag to pieces he could probably hide it in a backpack.

He wanted to hide it, to hide the evidence that the dream had been real because if the dream was real then what did that make being awake? Naruto wasn't sure if he was flitting between nightmares and dreams or if being awake was mixed in there too.

A sudden clarity struck and Naruto realized he was close to where he had been killed by a monster the last time he had awoken, whether that was a nightmare or something prophetic he would be foolish to test fate and he readied his weapon.

The exotic weapon made a metallic sound as the mechanism worked to bring the blade out to its full length, extended as it was the weapon was almost as long as a katana. Naruto wondered why the weapon shifted like that, but for now decided to leave it extended so he had some extra reach on all the things that were bigger than him.

With that thought in mind he began to creep towards where he last died, relieved to not find any large wolf-like monsters with hands. What he was less than relieved by was the blood on the ground where he had died, they way it had splashed and pooled as well as where it was cemented that he was losing his mind.

Naruto tried to stay in denial but he fell to his knees next to the site of his own death and stared into the blood, his blood, too much blood. He shuddered, the doll mentioned he would need more, he wondered if this was why.

He heard something coming and scrambled to his feet as he turned to face it, another dog, this one much more like the first. Strangely the blonde could swear they looked more monstrous when he first encountered one, but now it seemed mundane in comparison.

It noticed him and charged, giving a single bark before it leaped. Naruto lifted his weapon and brought the straight edge side of the blade down to intercept the beast and knock it to the ground, the blade sunk into the shoulder and back of the hound as it keened.

The sound was attracting more, the blonde was ready to turn and run when he noticed the smell. Had fresh blood always smelled so much better than blood left out? Or did animal blood smell sweeter than human blood? He recalled the blood of the last dog had not smelled so sweet.

Naruto frowned as he saw something from the blood flow through the air, like a haze in the air he could barely see was sinking into his clothes, his hair, his very skin. Then he saw the shadow of a spider and the boy turned to run, yanking his weapon free of the corpse he had made as he went.

He didn't have time to mentally process anything that had happened, he wasn't sure he wanted to, as if accepting what had happened would make it real when he wished it was not. He raced past a coffin and his heart skipped a beat when the door to the coffin slammed open behind him.

Naruto saw the stairs, the corpses were gone but his eyes spied the pressure plate and he managed to hop over it as he ran as fast as his burning legs would carry him. He heard something chasing him and didn't stop or turn back, but he was reaching uncharted territory when he heard the blade fall as something stepped on the trap and died with the sound of a blade sliding down the wall and a high pitched shriek.

The blonde almost went back for more sweet blood but he knew more monsters would be called to it too, then the fact that he was drawn to the blood occurred to him and the boy felt ill. He looked for a hiding spot or a way out, and eventually he found a ladder.

The ladder was wooden, old, and it looked like it would fall apart. Naruto shifted his weapon back to its smaller form before he began to climb, he was in a rush and he knew he could go faster climbing with two hands but the weapon had become something of a lifeline for the young boy.

At the top of the ladder he found a closed iron gate that he could see more stone halls beyond, thankfully it wasn't locked but he took a moment to realize it opened upwards for some reason. It did at least stay open so he extended his weapon again and hesitantly ventured into the next hall.

Naruto's eyes spotted more traps as he explored, he tried to avoid any further enemies but one blocked his path to a set of stairs going up. The sight of it confirmed that indeed, those strange desiccated husks had been fresh corpses. Or at least as fresh as the corpse-like man holding a sword, not any kind of sword the blonde had ever seen but he was getting used to seeing things he'd never seen before by this point.

The blonde boy slowly lifted his own weapon with both hands on the long handle, straight edge pointed at the thing he charged. The creature turned to look with its too human face but before it could attack Naruto slammed the blade of his weapon into the left side if its chest and shoulder, cleaving down into the ribs with a cracking sound.

Naruto panted as the thing that looked like it may have once been a human fell backwards to the ground, its blood smelled sweet so the boy assured himself it must not be human. His weapon was red and sticky with blood where he had struck two living things to make them stop living, he shook his head and continued, ignoring that strange haze that entered him as he walked past the corpse he'd made.

At the top of those stairs was another gate, this one led to a small chamber of a room with a lever. Naruto looked around cautiously, he did not want to find out how immortal he was even if the comforting weight of his weapon felt like an assurance that the dream had been real.

He saw another pressure plate built into the stone and signs of scraped metal going down the wall next to it, so he looked up and sure enough hidden by the shadows he saw a slight sheen of sharp metal in the stone ceiling.

"I hate this place." Naruto muttered to himself, he did not want to make a habit of talking to himself but he excused himself as he did seem to be going insane. The thought that if a young pre-genin could find the traps despite the shadows then they must not be good occurred to him, but he'd almost missed it and the traps definitely caught the monsters that lived down here.

The boy continued past the pressure plate as he considered that the traps must have been built to kill the monsters, so he concluded that perhaps the dungeons were built to contain the monsters. They were scary so he hoped they never escaped as he opened the gate.

He reached up with his weapon to close the gate behind him just in case, he then flicked the blade closed to get a feel for the movement required with a flinch. Naruto held it one handed again to carry it as he grabbed the lever with his left hand and pulled it into the other position.

The thought that could have killed him didn't occur until the floor started moving, then he realized it was taking him up and he sighed in relief. Naruto shivered and reached his left hand up to his blood stained shirt, he could feel his heart hammering in his chest so he was still alive.

Naruto wasn't sure how long the elevator went up, but it stopped at another iron gate, this one being guarded by figures Naruto had never been more grateful to see. He did not care why Anbu were guarding something down here, he didn't care he was on the other side of it, and he did not care that the two had turned to him as the stone elevator loudly brought him to their level.

Naruto licked his lips as he could see stairs leading to a more normal, more modern, metal door at the end of another stone hall, "I'm ready to apologize for painting the Hokage monument now." he said, although he sounded more terrified than apologetic.

The two signed silently at each other for a minute, Naruto barely knew the hand signs he used for jutsu let alone whatever sign language the Anbu were using but he was tired of being underground and in the dark and cold and hunted and hunting.

Naruto opened the gate, the two stopped and turned to him but the boy just stepped through, flicked his blade open to pull the gate back down, then flicked his blade closed again. The two Anbu didn't react for a moment.

One of them pointed at the blonde, "Naruto Uzumaki, come with me." he ordered and turned to lead the young boy away from the entrance to the dungeon, the boy followed without complain.

Naruto was relieved to finally be somewhere with light, it wasn't sunlight and it was still dim by most standards but the blonde was beyond relieved that he could actually see the corners and edges of the room clearly and to his surprise he spotted another two hidden Anbu.

Weirdly he thought all Anbu had animal masks, but these guys had plain white masks with a kanji he didn't recognize on the forehead. He supposed their job could be specifically to guard that dungeon, that was a good idea, he approved of that idea.

An old man entered the room but not the one he expected, "Who're you?" Naruto asked, his eyes narrowed as his hackles raised. The old man had short dark hair and was covered in bandages, covering one eye and his left arm was wrapped in a cast and sling.

The man raised an eyebrow at the rude preteen, no one had taken the boys newfound weapon he noticed, "I am Danzo Shimura, a retired shinobi, I used to work with Hokage-sama." he began carefully.

"I've never heard of you." Naruto retorted rudely as the man sat at the desk, the boy realized it was probably the man's desk. The blonde felt justified being testy, he was still covered in dried and drying blood.

Danzo sighed, "I'll cut to the point, the place you went down into is not meant for civilians, we keep shinobi from going down there." he began, "One man spotted you near a mostly sealed up tunnel, the next time a shinobi sees you is the main entrance to that place with a weapon no one has ever seen covered in blood with a haunted look in your eye."

Naruto flinched, "I do not." he denied the last part, his grip on his weapon tightened.

Danzo sighed and leaned back, perhaps another approach, "You are not in trouble." he said calmly to the incredulous blonde, "That place is closed off because it is dangerous, because people die in there, the fact you came back alive is a miracle."

Naruto did not feel like that nightmare had been a miracle, but he kept it to himself.

"Some might say what you were forced to endure down there is punishment enough," Danzo mused and the blonde silently agreed, "however few know of this place and many might think that weapon a reward." he continued and the boy tightened his grip on the weapon.

Naruto had no idea how to explain anything, "Let me go." he demanded quietly.

Danzo frowned, he could tell the boy was traumatized but he couldn't let him go with that weapon, "Try to understand-" he began.

"No." Naruto rejected the idea before it was fully voiced, "I need this, and I need to leave, and no one should ever go down there." he insisted.

Danzo considered the young bloodied boy before him, the eyes were as hard as one of his own Ne operatives, a blooded one no less. So he sighed louder than necessary, "Very well, but Hokage-sama will want to talk to you about that weapon eventually." he agreed with a warning, "Now, I remind you this place must remain secret so no fools go down intentionally, so let us get you a shower, clean clothes, and something to hide that weapon from the general public." he offered, suppressing a smirk at the way the boy opened up his posture slightly.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was not having a good day, Naruto had painted the monument and then gone missing. Some were still angry but when the sun set he had grown worried, as had Iruka, so he had little patience for whatever Danzo wanted.

The two old man stared at each other in the Hokage office for a moment before one of them spoke, "From the way you haven't asked yet, I presume you have not yet learned that I found Naruto Uzumaki." Danzo guessed.

Hiruzen had not expected the man to come clean about that, "Where was he?" he asked quickly.

Danzo expected this question and had considered how to answer it, "He found his way into one of the ruins under Konoha," he said cryptically, knowing the Hokage would assume the boy had gotten into an abandoned Ne compound, "thankfully he is unharmed, but he tripped some security measures and is a bit shaken by the event." he confessed.

Hiruzen deflated looking at once relieved and tired.

Danzo continued before he could catch his breath, "It would also seem some wild animals were down there, the boy hasn't said what but I presume a feral dog could have been living there." he continued, "Naruto killed it with an abandoned weapon he, ahem, liberated from an abandoned armory."

That caught the Hokage's attention, "You left a weapon behind in an armory?" he asked for clarification, that was not like Danzo.

"Specifically my employees left it behind," Danzo lied smoothly, "I never even noticed it missing since we were discontinued and I had no use of it, I forgot it was even being built, an odd prototype, the brain child of a weaponsmith who died a few years after you had me disband." he continued to lie.

Hiruzen found it odd that Danzo covered so many angles, he knew the man was meticulous but still, "Describe it." he requested.

"Well, imagine a hand saw with a mechanism that can flip it into a sword."

Hiruzen blinked, "Why?" he asked bluntly.

Danzo did not shrug, no matter how much he wanted to, "Well, like I said, an odd prototype." he answered vaguely, "Regardless the boy seems quite taken with the weapon and does not wish to return it, as I left it on public property that should have been better secured I feel remiss in taking it from him." he explained while maintaining the lie.

Hiruzen stared at the man, "I'll talk to him." he said, it was not a promise but a demand.

Naruto missed his jacket, the spare clothes he'd been given were plain black and boring. Thankfully they let him keep his new weapon, he didn't like the idea of being disarmed right now. He knew a shinobi was technically supposed to be always considered armed, but he felt justified.

Unfortunately he was disarmed in a way when one of the odd plain masked Anbu stored his weapon in a scroll with fuinjutsu, if he wasn't so distraught over his weapon being in a scroll he'd probably find it cool.

Naruto clutched that scroll tight as he followed Danzo, he was surprised by how late it was, and by the fact he wasn't tired. The moon was up and the stars were out, the sun had set long ago judging by the lack of people around as they walked to the Hokage tower.

A few ninja looked at him on the way up the tower to the office, but fewer than usual sneered. Naruto didn't meet anyone's eyes though, for some reason he felt like he shouldn't. He recalled those slit pupils he'd barely caught a glimpse of.

Hiruzen frowned when the young blonde was brought into his office, as Danzo had mentioned the weapon was stored in a scroll. He was curious about it but he saw how the boy clutched it, like a lifeline, "Naruto-kun," he began, "first of all I am glad you are safe, as will be Iruka-san." he assured, "Second of all, your punishment for defacing the monument is to clean it starting tomorrow after academy lessons." he finished sternly.

Danzo was surprised the topic of the weapon was being left alone, but the blonde nodded. The Hokage's frown only deepened though, Naruto was worse than implied if he was simply silently accepting punishment.

Suspecting something was being covered up, Hiruzen spoke up, "Is there anything you would like to speak about regarding what happened?" he asked.

Naruto licked his lips and shook his head, he didn't want to say anything about the blood, or the monsters, or the dream, and especially nothing about how he died and the weapon came to him in a dream that was real.

Hiruzen nodded and the boy was allowed to return home.

Naruto couldn't sleep, he had another shower, a longer one with hotter water, and changed into his pajamas but that didn't help either. He set aside the borrowed clothes so he could wash them separately in case he needed to return them.

The scroll containing the strange weapon from his dream was still there, he was paranoid it had been switched out and opened the scroll. The array looked the same but he couldn't be sure until he felt it, felt the weight.

After fumbling with his chakra for a bit the blonde was holding the increasingly familiar weight of his weapon, he felt much better just holding the weapon. He still wasn't tired though, he attempted laying down with his eyes closed but that just made him need to fidget from staying still too long.

His apartment was too dark, Naruto got up and turned on all the lights, his weapon held in his right hand as he did. It occurred to the blonde that he had no idea how to put it back in the scroll, that might be a problem.

Naruto set the weapon on his counter and started to make himself a cup of instant ramen. He looked to a digital clock, almost an hour past midnight and he still wasn't tired.

Hesitantly he checked his pants, the blood stained orange ones he'd been wearing in that place, the stone dungeon beneath Konoha. He pulled out a small silver bell, further proof besides the weapon that the dream had been all too real.

Naruto supposed he probably had some of that 'Chi no Isshi' the doll was talking about, but he was unsure of what to do. The sound of his kettle steaming reminded him of ramen and he dropped the bell into the chest pocket of his pajama top.

He poured the boiling water and set the lid, he wished he didn't have to wait for the ramen to cook. When he was done eating he still wasn't tired, he reached up to feel the outline of the small silver bell in his pocket as he took his weapon to bed.

The bell was supposed to take Naruto back to the dream, so that meant it would put him to sleep right? He was hesitant to acknowledge the possibility, he wasn't sure if he wanted it to work. The blonde got up and paced a few times, he felt some comfort in his weapon.

Danzo had said the Hokage had been told about it, so the old man had just let him keep it. He decided to have some more ramen.

Five cups of ramen later it was nearing five in the morning, the sun hadn't risen and the entire time Naruto had not gotten tired. He had to go to the academy today and then he would have to clean the monument of his graffiti.

Naruto looked at the weapon in his hand, he probably should have left it in the scroll. He had no idea how to put it back but he didn't want to let it go, he shook himself. There were no monsters above ground, the dungeon made sure of that, the Anbu guarded the dungeon.

That was what Naruto told himself as he hid the weapon under his bed and had a shower. The blonde boy wanted to wear his orange outfit, a sense of normal after the nightmare.

They were still blood stained though, he had spare orange pants, he ignored the blood stain on his shuriken holster and tool pouch, chose a black shirt and gathered up his bloody clothes to put in the laundry. He supposed he should put something on over the shirt, but that was his favorite jacket that was in the wash.

With a sigh Naruto put grabbed his keys and left for the academy.

Konohagakure no Sato was a shinobi village, so Naruto's shuriken holster, tool pouch, and sandals having faint blood stains did not go unnoticed. Nor did the way he avoided civilians on his way to the academy, he was earlier than he'd ever been.

The blonde boy sat on a swing with a sigh, his hair drifted down into his line of sight. He hadn't even noticed he'd forgotten his goggles, with some concern he realized he couldn't remember where he'd put them.

Naruto was pulled from his thoughts by movement, his head snapped to the direction and the stride of the other student faltered. He knew the other boy, vaguely, they'd ditched classes together in the past but didn't hang out much besides that.

Shikamaru Nara, a brown eyed boy with his hair tied up in a spiky ponytail wearing a short-sleeved grey jacket with green-edged sleeves with the symbol of his clan on the back of it, a mesh armor shirt underneath that, dark brown pants, and a small pair of hoop earrings.

Naruto decided he should get some armor too, he had some money saved. He was surprised to see Shikamaru, the other boy was almost always asleep by the time he arrived though so he guessed the Nara needed to arrive bright and early to get started sleeping through class.

Shikamaru was frowning as he approached, "What happened to you? First you paint the stone faces, then you disappear, and here you are looking like you're being hunted." he said it sarcastically, as a joke.

Naruto tried not to wince, he forced a chuckle, "Uh, yeah." he agreed nervously, "I uh, I guess I wondered into somewhere I shouldn't have, shinobi only y'know." he muttered.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, normally the blonde would be ecstatic over having found something like that but the boy was clearly shaken. He considered the possibilities, it seemed most likely that Naruto had seen something disturbing.

Shikamaru decided he was better off not knowing, he nodded, "Alright, see you in class." he said before he waved and walked off to the academy proper.

Iruka was worried about Naruto, he had been ever since the boy went missing, then from what the Hokage had said he might have seen something. The details had been vague, but the implications had been bad.

The way Naruto checked the room as he entered only cemented that he'd been traumatized, he surmised that the young blonde must have somehow found his way into an Anbu obstacle course with the way he checked for traps.

That didn't explain the blood though, or that the Hokage seemed to think Naruto now owned a new weapon he was supposed to keep an eye out for. For all Iruka knew that weapon was in Naruto's tool pouch in a scroll right at that moment.

Still, he couldn't go too easy on the blonde, "Naruto Uzumaki, since you skipped class yesterday, you can demonstrate your Henge no Jutsu now." he ordered.

Naruto dragged his feet from his seat to the front of the class, "Who am I turning into?" he asked.

Iruka was glad the boy wasn't doing anything to act up, but the morose attitude of the blonde was noticeable enough that even the other students were starting to notice, "Just me." he clarified.

Naruto made the ram seal with his hands, his chakra flared into a visible aura around him as he used far too much chakra for a simple henge. The ninjutsu worked though, a cloud of chakra smoke appeared and dissipated to reveal a disguised Iruka.

The real Iruka was impressed, the scar across his face was well detailed, very few things out of order, "Good work." he praised, "Not perfect, but better than your other attempts, improvement." he added.

Naruto had not started out good at henge, his early attempts had been almost as abysmal as his recent attempts with bunshin. Iruka was pretty sure the only reason the boy had gotten better at it was for a ridiculous purpose he'd prefer not to think about or remind his student of.

The blonde returned to his normal state in another cloud of smoke with a frown on his face, "Yeah." he agreed, Iruka raised an eyebrow since that was not a normal response to praise from anyone let alone what he knew of Naruto.

The uncharacteristic attitude of the boy was starting to be noticed by his other classmates, the other chunin instructor, Mizuki, shared a worried glance with Iruka. He wasn't sure how much the other chunin knew, but the scarred faced chunin turned back to the blonde, "You can return to your seat." he added.

Naruto was all too eager to get back to his seat, there was less acting up, he wasn't wearing his goggles or favorite jacket, and his tools were stained with blood at the very holsters. Everyone noticed something was wrong.

That the boy was occasionally reaching for his shuriken holster and checking the exits was a red flag Iruka did not like to see, whatever had happened Naruto did not actually feel safe in the classroom. Illogically the boy seemed to expect to be attacked, as if someone would attack the academy at any moment.

Naruto was glad no one bothered him during classes and lunch, but he could feel their stares and heard whispers he couldn't make out but knew were about him. He wanted to be able to act normal but every tell he'd given away had been subconscious and he couldn't bring himself to act like a clown.

He realized he still wasn't tired as they lined up for shuriken throwing practice, he was glad for the distraction. Behind him in line Shikamaru, in front of him was Sakura Haruno, a pink haired girl in a red quipao.

Naruto thought she was pretty, and she had been nice to him once so he sort of liked her. She did not reciprocate, but he couldn't ponder that as the girl cut herself on the shuriken she was about to throw.

A shallow nick, barely more than a scratch. Naruto could faintly hear Ino Yamanaka, a blonde girl with blue eyes dressed in a purple blouse and matching apron skirt, mocking Sakura for the blunder but he couldn't make out the words.

The blood smelled sweet, Naruto paled since he thought only the monster blood smelled sweet. He stumbled back, he didn't want to be near Sakura while she was bleeding, he didn't trust himself. He visibly shivered and began to sweat as he stared at the drop of blood.

"Uh," Sakura noticed his strange behavior, "Naruto are you okay?" she asked.

Naruto was too busy panicking over how sweet her blood smelled to be happy that she cared about him in some way, he could practically taste the sweet coppery scent on the back of his tongue. He shook his head.

Iruka frowned, a newly developed fear of blood was another red flag and crippling to someone who wanted to be a career shinobi.

Kiba Inuzuka snorted, "It's just a scratch, you're all making a big deal out of nothing." he insisted, "I'd just toss my throw even if I did make a mistake like that." he added with a mocking smirk at Sakura.

The boy who spoke wore a furred hoodie and had a puppy on his head under the hood, the little white dog had been staring at Naruto for a while now. The Inuzuka had markings on his face but otherwise had plain dark eyes and short brown hair.

Naruto's mouth felt dry, the blood smelled sweet, it called to him. He took another step back, his own blood had not smelled sweet had it? He pulled out a kunai with his right hand as he lifted his left hand.

His left hand was shaky, but before anyone could stop him he lifted his knife and slid the blade up across the edge of his wrist away from any veins of arteries. The blood smelled sweet, it had been dead down there in that nightmare.

"Naruto!" Iruka scolded, his voice more startled than stern. Others were talking too, but Naruto couldn't make them out, his class backed away from him as the chunin took his knife away.

Naruto stared at his cut, "I'm alive." he said before he started laughing, his heart was still beating, he was alive. He just didn't know if he was human anymore.

The only other thing I feel I should say is that I do of course change things from how the world works in both Naruto and Bloodborne because this crossover could be called an alternate universe where the themes of those settings blend, obviously certain things can't or won't crossover but I'll be doing my own interpretation and add a bit of mystery to how everything is going on.

This will probably be very slow burn, Naruto will learn things slowly and there will be hints of information that those who are familiar with the lore of both settings will almost definitely notice. I'll also lend more towards how the manga worked and lean into the original Japanese texts of certain Bloodborne terms, such as 'blood echoes' being called Chi no Isshi, which would translate more to 'dying wills of blood' and felt very appropriate to use given the Hi no Isshi present in Naruto's existing canon.