A/N: To anyone who read about halfway through this chapter and quits thinking that it is another "Kyuubi trains Naruto" fic, then you are wrong, so don't think that. That's all I really have to say right now, enjoy.
Bold: Kyuubi
Bold and italics: ?
Shadow Fox
Naruto was rather annoyed at the moment. Sure, leaving the village seemed like a good idea at first, but it was soon after leaving that Naruto realized that he had nowhere to go. And that was how he found himself aimlessly wandering through the woods, thoroughly pissed.
"WHERE THE HELL AM I!" Naruto's scream tore through the forest, scattering many birds and small animals.
"Heh, maybe I should just stay here and wait for the hunter nin to come after me and finish me off."
With his thoughts darkening, he decided that wandering through the forest aimlessly was not going to get him anywhere, so he found a place to set up camp, and soon fell into sleeps blissful embrace.
He awoke to find himself not in the forest where he fell asleep, but in a damp, dark sewer (who could have guessed). He looked down the foreboding corridor and thought that it would be best not to go down it, but as he turned around, he noticed that it was a dead and. With a sigh of resignation, he began his trek down the corridor.
After a short while, he was getting fairly tired of walking down this corridor, so he was very glad to see that the corridor was beginning to expand into a room. He ran into the room, but soon stopped as he saw a rather large set of bars separating where he was from the other side of the room.
"Just great, I spend all that time walking down that path to get to this room, and now I CANT EVEN KEEP GOING." Naruto was once again beyond pissed. "A dead end behind me and a giant set of bars in front of me, how the hell am I supposed to get out, and more importantly WHERE THE HELL AM I."
"Bah, stop yelling pathetic human, you hurt my ears." A booming voice could be heard from behind the bars.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU AND WHERE AM I." Naruto continued to scream. He approached the bars and looked inside, only to be met with a giant red eye. "GAAAHH, WHAT THE HELL."
"Didn't I tell you to stop screaming, to think that I have to spend all of my days trapped inside an idiot like you." The voice retorted in a not too pleased tone.
"…..Inside me?" Naruto may not have been the brightest of all of the students his age, but he was beginning to figure out what exactly was going on "…your Kyuubi, aren't you."
"Well what do you know, the fool finally begins to figure it out on his own, not bad for a primitive monkey. Yes, I am the Almighty Kyuubi, Lord of all Youkai."
Naruto did not take very well to being called a primitive monkey, he would not let anyone get away with something like that, even if it was the "Almighty Kyuubi"
"Primitive monkey? Who are you calling a primitive monkey, we humans are anything but primitive, I bet that the "Almighty Kyuubi " didn't even have electricity in his "Great Kyuubi Lair."
"Quiet monkey, I know all about your human electricity, however a fox has no need for electricity, and I call you primitive because your knowledge pales in comparison to my millennia of knowledge."
"Pssh, yeah right. Well, who cares about you "millennia of knowledge", we humans have something that you will never have"
As Naruto said this, he was knocked back for the force of the Kyuubi's laughter.
"Are you going to tell me that that one thing that you have that I don't is a soul, because if that's the case, then I have heard that many times before."
"No, actually, I was going to say opposable thumbs"
Kyuubi's face froze in shock as he looked down at his paws and growled something that sounded suspiciously like "Stupid humans lording their opposable thumbs over me, I'll destroy them all."
Naruto was trying hard to fight back laughter at this point, the almighty Kyuubi had a sore spot about not having opposable thumbs, this was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
"Man, how can so many people be afraid of a demon that lacks opposable thumbs, hell, even Pandas have opposable thumbs, a simple Panda is more advanced then the 'Lord of all Youkai.'"
"SILENCE BRAT, I WILL NOT STAND FOR ANYMORE OF THIS. I am a demon lord, I shall be shown respect."
"Pipe down furball, just tell me what I am doing here already."
Kyuubi grumbled at the lack of respect "If it weren't for this damn seal, I would kill you, however as it stands, if you die, I die, and that is unacceptable. I brought you here because I heard your little pity party about waiting for those hunter nin to come and kill you, so I brought you here to tell you to shape up and move on, because I will not be letting you die."
Naruto got a mischievous smirk on his face that he carefully hid from the kyuubi as he spoke up.
"Gee, I don't know Kyuubi, I am really depressed right now, hell, I may even kill myself" Naruto was trying desperately to conceal his smirk at this point.
"I will not let the happen whelp, so get these suicidal thoughts out of your head."
"I don't know, it is hard Kyuubi, I feel so sad now I don't think that anything can cheer me up…..On second thought, there may be one thing that could cheer me up."
Kyuubi rolled his eyes, he was a demon, he was not supposed to cheer people up, but this was for his survival, so he swallowed his pride (which was quite a mouthful) and spoke "And what would that be?"
"Well, I might cheer up if I saw the mighty Kyuubi, king of all Youkai dance for me" The smirk on Naruto's face could no longer be suppressed.
"NOT A CHANCE IN HELL." Kyuubi may have been willing to swallow some of his pride, but this was just asking far too much "There is no way that I will dance for some primitive monkey."
"Well Kyuubi, now I have nothing to cheer me up from my depression, I guess that I will just have to kill myself."
"You wouldn't kill yourself over something as trivial as this."
"Hey, I am depressed, you never know what I will do."
Kyuubi looked for any signs of lying on his face, but could find no traces of lying on the boys face. God he hated this, but he had to live, and he would do whatever it took to survive, and so, Kyuubi began to shift his weight slightly back and forth in a clumsy rhythmic motion.
"Kami this is humiliating." Kyuubi growled under his breath.
Naruto couldn't take it anymore, seeing the Almighty Kyuubi's clumsy dance was just too funny, he was rolling on the floor, finding it difficult to breathe through the laughter. By this point, Kyuubi had stopped dancing and was mumbling death threats.
"Well, let it be known that Naruto Uzumaki has the power to even command the great Kyuubi to dance for him."
"SHUT UP FOOL, if you continue like this, then I will not share with you the power I planned to help you obtain."
Naruto instantly sat up at this prospect. He really wanted to get stronger so that he would be able to protect himself and others, something he didn't have the strength to do before.
"Alright, I am sorry fox, now what is this power you want to help me with, is it yours?"
Kyuubi scoffed "You can hardly handle a fraction of my power, it would rip you to shreds. No, I plan to find another means of power for you at this time."
"And what would that be" Naruto was hardly able to contain his excitement at this prospect.
"You will find out when you get to where I am sending you, After you used some of my Chakra fighting on that bridge, I can now keep a short term mental link to give you quick instructions, when you wake up, I will tell you where to go."
"That's great…but how do I wake up?" Naruto asked.
Kyuubi sighed and sent Naruto back into consciousness, he awoke to find that it was now morning and wondered if it was all a dream.
"No" the booming voice of the Kyuubi sounded through his head "Now go where I tell you."
And so, after 3 days of travel, Naruto finally arrived at the place specified by the Kyuubi. As he wandered around the clearing, he wondered what was here tat would help him gain more power. It was then that he noticed the small cave beside the clearing. He went to the cave and looked inside, but as he did so, he felt his legs unable to move. He looked down to find his legs wrapped in shadows and held tightly to the ground.
"WHAT THE HELL" Naruto yelled, he was both confused and angry about the fact that his legs were now held in place by shadows.
"What does a human want with us." Came a voice from deep inside the cave.
"I am not sure yet, mostly because I don't know who you are or what I am here for, I was just told to come here so I can get stronger." Naruto answered, wondering what indeed he wanted from them, not knowing who they were.
As he was thinking about this, he began to take notice of something emerging from the shadows, it was a fox, but not like any fox that he had ever seen, this fox was a dark black color with only a small bit of white on its tail and its face.
"Few humans even know of our existence, so we would like to know how you found out about us." The fox asked him
"HOLY HELL, THE FOX JUST TALKED"
"Idiot, have you forgotten that you spent a whole night talking to a giant fox sealed inside of you."
"Heh, oh yeah, I guess that talking foxes aren't as uncommon as I thought" Naruto grinned sheepishly as he scratched the back of his neck.
"Kid, who the hell are you talking to." The black fox asked curiously.
"Heh, sorry about that. I guess I can trust telling you who sent me since you yourself are a fox. I am the human vessel for the demon lord Kyuubi, he told me to come here so that I could get stronger."
"Well, that's a fairly interesting turn of events, however, it seems the Kyuubi has forgotten that we shadow fox have left the demon fox clan." The black fox said with a scoff.
Naruto was very confused now "What the hell is a shadow fox, and why would you have left this 'demon fox clan.'"
"Well, to answer your first question we shadow fox are a race of demon fox, and as for what we can do, look down at your feet."
Naruto looked down at his feet, only to see that the shadows that had bound his leg melt away, only to reform as more black foxes.
"HOLY HELL"
The black fox that he had been talking with merely laughed at the boy's reaction and spoke up again "as for your second question, you should ask Kyuubi about why we left."
Kyuubi, having heard this spoke up in Naruto's mind "The shadow fox were a race of demon fox, part of the demon fox clan led by me. However, the shadow fox began to get attached to a clan of human ninja and soon began to assist them in their endeavors, much like that Inuzuka clan back in the leaf village and their dogs. This act did not sit well with the rest of the demon fox clan, and so the shadow fox were given the choice to stay with us or go with them. They chose to stay with the human clan, and so were exiled from the demon fox clan. However, soon after the left the demon fox clan, their human clan was attacked and all of its members were destroyed, and so the shadow fox were left with nowhere to go."
"Well, that kinda sucks, so why did we come here"
"I was hoping to convince them to help you much the same way they did with their old human clan, they may have left us, but they were still rather strong, their bodies makeup is very similar to those kage bunshin of yours, so they can melt into the shadows rather easily, as well as other shadow techniques they posses."
"Kick ass, that sounds awesome. So how do we get them to help me."
"That is your problem not mine, find some way to do it, I can't hold the mental link much longer, so your on your own."
Naruto grumbled about a "useless fox" but decided to move further into the cave.
"Why are you still here" asked the shadow fox that seemed to be the leader.
"Kyuubi told me about the way that you all used to help out a clan of humans, I was wondering if you could reach a similar arrangement with me."
The shadow fox in the cave began to laugh as the leader turned towards Naruto.
"We had a great deal of respect for our old human partners, you are nothing like them. You come here and ask us to give you power without doing any work. You want everything given to you. We are no longer bound to the Kyuubi's command, so he can not force us to help you. Besides, how can you hope to be one with the shadows when you when your clothes and hair and excessively bright."
Naruto was pissed now, who were these foxes to judge what he wanted to be given.
"Shut the hell up, I came here to ask for your help because Kyuubi told me to come here to get power, so I came here and asked, if you want me to work for it, then I will do whatever you tell me to do to gain your help. And for the record, I've never been handed a damn thing in my life, unless you count the hatred of a whole village. You think that a village would be kind to a child with a demon inside them? No, I lived with constant hatred, I've been alone for almost my whole life, so don't you dare tell me that I want to be given everything. And as for my clothes, this is all that I was given as a child, no one would let a 'demon child' have a decent set of clothes."
The shadow fox began to look at Naruto with a bit more respect, and they all turned to face their leader.
"I apologize for my words, however we still don't know how hard you will actually work, so I purpose this, you let us begin your training here for 2 months, and if you show your determination to get stronger and to continue our training wherever you may go, then we will agree to help you.
"No problem, if I can get make the 'Almighty Kyuubi' dance for me, then I can handle this training."
Naruto suddenly felt a pain in his stomach and he looked down towards his seal "you settle down fox, don't get so upset."
The shadow fox leader saw this exchange and began to chuckle along with the rest of the shadow fox.
"I think that we are going to get along just fine boy, what's your name."
"The name's Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto stated proudly
"Well Naruto, let's get started on your training then, shall we?"
"Yes sir." Naruto called out, happy to begin his training to get stronger.
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Two months had passed, and those who had known Naruto once before would be hard pressed to recognize him now.
As part of his training with the shadow fox clan, Naruto had agreed to a change in wardrobe and the dying of his hair. He now wore long black pants and a simple black ninja gi (I'm not big on clothing descriptions, don't even technically know if this is real, but the point is, he wears all black, you can picture his clothes however you want). On his face he wore a black mask to cover up his face from his neck to slightly above his lips. His hair had also been dyed black, in fact, the only bright aspect of his person was his shining bright blue eyes which stood as a hauntingly sharp contrast to the black which covered his very being. During his training, he had been accompanied by a single shadow fox to a village to get his hair dyed and an all black outfit.
Naruto's training had been not so much about strength, but more about stealth. He was trained to become quieter, to make his presence less known, but mostly, he was trained to work with the shadows in a manner similar to the shadow fox clan. The leader of the shadow fox had saved a scroll containing the shadow techniques of their old human partners. He was no longer the loud and exuberant boy that he had once been, he was now well on his way to, as the shadow fox clan had called it, "being one with the shadows."
However, his training was now over and he had left to wander the countryside, for while he enjoyed staying with the shadow fox clan, he may now be a missing nin, and he did not want the hunter nin to find the shadow fox clan. The shadow fox had deemed him worthy of their help, and as such, they sent him of with the company of a young shadow kit as his helper, he was told that it was best if he worked with a new kit so that they could develop their cooperation more easily.
He had been traveling for a number of days and was growing very tired of wandering. He was had traveled to exhaustion and soon collapsed on the ground.
As he lay on the ground, asleep from exhaustion, he was soon discovered by two ninja. The ninja approached him, only to be faced with a growling black fox kit. At the sound of his partners growling, Naruto awoke to see the two ninja, both of whom had headbands the symbol of a musical note.
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Well, now the shadow fox are revealed. I always enjoyed in fics where Naruto used shadows or where he used foxes, so I just decided to combine the two. So now Naruto has been found by the hidden sound village. No, this will not end up as an evil Naruto fic, so don't sorry about that. And now that Naruto is in the sound village, we can start with the Naru/Kin scenes. I also tried my attempt at humor with his Kyuubi exchange, but I don't know how many people will actually find it amusing. I was just always amused at the thought of kyuubi being upset about not having opposable thumbs. Random, but who cares. Also, the fox accompanying Naruto will have a name, i just planned on having a flashback later. Anyway, no ranting for this chapter, so the fan girls can have a break from the insults.
I don't need reviews for this story, but I would like to know if people actually like it. I won't stop writing it if I don't get reviews, but I would just like to know if people actually enjoy this story