A/N: wow, these reviews make me happy, I had no idea how many I would get, but I figured most of what I would get is hate mail from the angry fan girls (do you sense a pattern here), I didn't think I would have some many people enthusiastically agreeing with my rants. Some people seem to be concerned about the whole "Naruto in the sound village" thing. Well, like I said, this will not be an evil Naruto fic; however I don't want to say much because I don't like to tell how things will turn out. He believes that he is a missing nin, he doesn't really have anywhere else to go, and as he wanders he just kind of ends up there. Anyway, I appreciate the reviews and now, on with the story.
Shadow Fox
"Who the hell are you?" Naruto asked, his speech hardly comprehensible due to the fact that he had just been woken up.
Neither ninja answered as they both appeared to be looking him over, practically appraising him.
It was a short while into this appraisal that Naruto finally noticed that they were wearing headbands that signified them as ninja.
"……SHIT, are you two from Konoha." Naruto asked as he readied his hands to form a seal.
The ninja rolled their eyes as one of them spoke up.
"Look at our headbands, does this look like the Konoha symbol to you." The ninja said as he pointed to the musical note.
"I guess that makes sense, but still, who the hell are you? I have never seen that symbol before."
"We are both from the hidden village of the sound, we are a fairly new village so it is not surprising that you haven't heard of us. But anyway, what about you, it seems to me that you are probably a missing nin from Konoha from the way you reacted towards us a second ago."
Naruto cursed his impulsive questioning. Barely two months after he left, and now he was probably going to be executed, but he wasn't just going to let them take him that easy. He began to form the seals for his shadow melt jutsu, a jutsu that let him merge into the shadows, much like the shadow fox did.
However, before he managed to finish his jutsu, one of the ninja had appeared behind him and grasped his arms to interrupt the hand seals.
"Now just hold on a second, we are not your enemies here." The Ninja that held his arms told him.
"Bullshit, you just want to eliminate me to get the bounty, why should I listen to you." Naruto spat out towards his captors.
At the moment, Naruto really didn't care much about what they were saying, he was just trying to hold their attention, for the ninja had focused do much on him, they had forgotten about a little black fox which they felt was nothing more than a common fox of a different color. The little fox kit had managed to merge with the shadows and was set to strike these ninja when the opportunity arose.
"You don't have to believe us if you don't want, but we can offer you a home."
"What do you mean, I am a missing nin, what reason do you have to let me in your village."
"Kid, you don't know much about the hidden sound village. The village accepts missing nin and gives them a home, they in turn fight for us and we become stronger. We have let in far more powerful missing nin then you, so why would we worry about letting you in."
Naruto thought this over in his head for a moment. He had nowhere to go, and as far as he could tell, he had nothing to lose from this. He could not see any hint of lying on the faces of these two ninja, but they were ninja, he couldn't be sure. However, he felt that he had one ace up his sleeve. Hardly anyone knew about the shadow fox clan, so felt that he could have his partner follow him in the shadows, and if anything went wrong, he could strike and escape through the shadows.
"Well, I suppose that if you guys are offering me a home, then I suppose that I can't refuse."
Naruto gave a look and a nod towards his partner as he walked off with these two ninja.
He soon found himself in front of a small gate for a medium sized village, so different from the large city of Konoha with its large gate. The atmosphere seemed much more peaceful here and Naruto was thankful for it. While he still held some of his past energy, his training with the shadow fox clan had made him appreciate the calm and tranquility of this smaller town as opposed to his old home.
"Follow us to meet our leader, he will explain more about this village to you." One of the Ninjas told Naruto, and so they continued on towards the sound equivalent of a kage tower.
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Meanwhile, in said tower, Orochimaru was contemplating as he stared out of his window. The Chuunin exams were going to occur in a few months, soon he would have his revenge, along with his new host body. Oh the power that he would obtain after possessing the Sharingan, he could hardly contain his evil cackle.
"Finally, after all of these years, revenge shall be mine."
Before he could start his evil cackling, however, as he was soon informed that one of his subordinates had a matter to discuss with him. Usually, he could have cared less about some random subordinate wanted him for, but today he was feeling especially giddy (scary thought huh?), plus, he just had a feeling that something else good was going to happen today.
"Orochimaru-sama, we have a matter which calls for your decision." The random sound ninja said as he got on one knee and bowed down before Orochimaru, for while most villages don't need to bow down like this for their kage, the sound ninja did for fear that they might be sacrificed to his snakes.
"And what is so important of this matter that you need my involvement" Orochimaru said in a stern voice. He may have been happy, but like hell if he could let his subordinates know that, he was Orochimaru dammit, he could not be portrayed as happy.
"We have found a ninja within our borders. He appears to be a missing nin from Konoha based on his actions towards us. He has shown an interest in joining us here in the sound village."
Now while he may not have looked it, Orochimaru had a bit of a soft spot for missing nin from Konoha. Not much of one, but a small one. He was rarely hesitant to accept any missing nin from Konoha, however, once they were part of the sound, he was as cruel towards them as he was towards others, but at least they had refuge from the hunter nin. Besides, it was always nice to have ninja with hatred towards the leaf village to join in the attack. He began to feel another evil cackle building up.
"Send him in to see me."
The ninja bowed again and left the room. Orochimaru smirked as he saw the ninja return, but his smirk was replaced with a look of annoyance as he saw that this missing nin was nothing more than a child, probably no higher than a genin.
"What is the meaning of this, you waste my time by bringing in a child. I should offer you up to Manda right now for this insolence!"
Naruto began to wonder whether or not joining this village was really a good idea as the ninja who brought him in cowered back in fear.
"Forgive me Orochimaru-sama, I merely felt that with the 'upcoming situation' we could use as many ninja as we could muster, regardless of rank."
Most of the sound ninja were not yet aware of the upcoming war, so as to prevent any possible information leaks, however the two ninja who found Naruto happened to be ninja assigned to look for missing nin and convince them to join the ranks of the sound to build up their numbers. The ninja didn't really believe that Naruto would be of any use, and Orochimaru caught on to what this ninja meant as he listened to his pleas. He was saying that they could use Naruto as cannon fodder during the attack. Orochimaru thought about this and figured 'what the hell, why not. Having more ninja, no matter how weak, couldn't really hurt.
However, Orochimaru was unsure of whether to trust this boy or not, because as the boy entered his office, he felt an extra presence in his office. He felt that this boy might be being used in order to discover something, and that this extra presence was to ensure that nothing happened to him. He decided that he would play along for now and wait for the right moment to make this other intruder reveal himself.
"I see your point. So tell me, what is your name boy."
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, missing nin of the leaf. I was told that this village happens to house missing nin such as myself." Naruto replied as he gave a small bow to Orochimaru. He didn't really like bowing to this man, something about him just didn't feel right, but he needed a place to say, and so for now, he would show respect.
'Uzumaki Naruto, that name sounds familiar for some reason.' Orochimaru thought to himself as he gazed into the boy's eyes. His face suddenly froze with a sudden realization. 'Those eyes, they are just like his. The hair color is wrong, but I suppose if he is a missing nin, he may have dyed it to change his appearance. Kabuto did say that he managed to find reports that he had a son in the records of Konoha, if that's the case, then he also…..'
"Naruto, I need you to take off your mask and let me see your face."
Naruto hesitated for a second. This man was a kage equivalent, so he was probably well informed. He might be able to figure out what he was if he took off his mask, and then he would be sent right back out into the woods…if not killed.
"If it is not asking too much, I would rather not."
"If you want to stay in this village, you WILL take your mask off so that I can see your face."
Naruto gave a sigh of resignation as he reached up towards his face and pulled his mask down, reveal a set of whisker marks on each cheek.
'It IS him, this boy, he is the kyuubi vessel. This is a much greater find then I first anticipated. The villagers in Konoha must have run him out. He will inevitably have a great hatred towards them.' Orochimaru thought. He was getting very excited again, there was no way that Konoha would ever survive an attack from 2 demon vessels.
"Well Naruto-kun, I am glad to see that you wish to join our village, but one problem still remains." Orochimaru said as he pulled out a kunai and hid it from Naruto's view, his back facing Naruto.
All that was left to discover was the identity of the unknown presence in his office that had followed Naruto. He quickly turned around and hurled the kunai towards Naruto's chest. Before the kunai hit Naruto, a wall of shadow suddenly shot up in front of him, effectively stopping the kunai. The wall of shadow quickly swirled back downwards and once more took on the form of a fox. Orochimaru's eyes widened in shock as he looked upon this new development.
'There's no way, he also poses the assistance of the shadow fox. This boy is indeed impressive, he has the ultimate potential in stealth thanks to the shadow fox, in strength thanks to Kyuubi, and in speed thanks to him (really, has anyone NOT guessed this by now). He would make an excellent vessel, but as long as Kyuubi was in the boy, that was not possible. Damn, how come all of my first choices of vessels are flawed so that I can't posses them. First Kimmimaro and his sickness, and now Naruto, GRAHHH. Well, at least I still have Sasuke-kun, at least I can posses him. Still, it would have been nice to destroy Konoha using his own son's body.'
"You will not hurt Naruto." The fox stated in a low growl.
Orochimaru held up his hands in a pacifying manner in an attempt to calm the two down. Now that he knew what power Naruto truly possessed, he couldn't let him get away.
"Hold on a second, give me a chance to explain myself. I know that it was wrong of me to throw a kunai at you like that, but you really should have told me about your partner here in the first place Naruto, when I sensed his presence, I thought that you might have been a spy."
Naruto thought about this for a moment before he decided that it was a logical conclusion for him to draw, he was hiding the fox from them in case things went wrong.
"Forgive me Orochimaru-sama (he picked up the name from the conversation earlier), but before I had come here, I had not met you and was not sure if I could trust you, he happened to be my escape plan."
Orochimaru laughed at this and replied "Well, I suppose that you did have no reason to trust me, but tell me, how did you manage to gain the trust of the shadow fox, much less find them. Did Kyuubi help you with that."
Naruto flinched, the man knew about the Kyuubi, what should he do, the man didn't seem like he was upset, but he couldn't be sure.
Orochimaru sensed Naruto's panic and tried to calm him down.
"Do not worry Naruto, you may have had a hard life before, but here you will find people here much more understanding about things like that. We respect power, no matter what the source. However, if you are still worried, then I can make sure that no one knows about the Kyuubi inside of you."
Naruto relaxed at those words, he wondered if he could finally call a place home.
"I would rather that you kept this a secret for now, I have not met the people and thus would like to see for myself what they are really like before I let them know anything."
"That is understandable, I will keep your secret until you say otherwise, now could you please tell me about the shadow fox, no human has ever seen one for over 30 years."
"Well, you're partially correct in your assumption, the Kyuubi led me to where the Shadow fox were staying, but it seems that they took a liking to my personality, so after some training, they agreed to help me."
"I see, I don't suppose you would lead us to them to help our village?"
The fox scoffed at this and replied "The Shadow Fox clan will only assist Naruto and any of his kin (heh, ironic)."
"I am sorry Orochimaru-sama, but I promised that I would not give away their location to anyone, that is why I didn't stay with them, I didn't want the hunter nin from Konoha to find them."
Orochimaru was slightly upset, but figured that the boy would not tell him.
"That's alright Naruto-kun, I understand. So now that we have had this meeting, how would you like to stay here and become a sound ninja."
Naruto smiled at the offer and replied "I would like that very much sir."
"Very well, I will arrange to have you put on a genin team, a will send a ninja to pick you up tomorrow morning to take you to where you will be trained. Right now I will have one of my ninja lead you to where you the apartment that you will be staying in."
A short while later, another sound ninja appeared to take Naruto to his apartment. Naruto gave a bow to Orochimaru and then left with his fox partner in tow.
Once Naruto had left, Orochimaru turned back to his window with a large smirk on his face. The leaf stood no chance of survival now, and now he didn't have to worry about the sand turning on him someday and using their demon against him, for now he had his own, one with the utmost potential in every area. He could no longer hold his evil cackling back, and the whole tower was filled with the sound of evil cackling "kukukukuku."
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A/N: Ah, yet another chapter. This one was not very exciting, but I had to explain some about his acceptance into the sound village. Sorry to those of you who think Orochimaru may be a bit too cheerful and not evil enough, but he knows that he needs to keep up an act to get Naruto to stay. And for those of you who wonder if Naruto will be getting the cursed seal so that he can be controlled, the answer is no. Orochimaru is an arrogant twit who is convinced that Naruto left the leaf because of the villager's treatment, so he believes that Naruto hates the leaf and thus does not need to be controlled. Next chapter, Naruto will meet his new team (guess who they are…..no really guess, there is only one known team, and I am not good with OC's) the little shadow fox will get a name, yea.
Now normally I disapprove of voting because 1. It hinders the author in writing and 2. Voting is usually for pairings, and thus ends in Naru/Hina AGAIN. However, since you have all been so nice in your reviews, I will let you all make a small decision. I don't like to give things away, so I will simply tell readers that they can vote for 2 things. 1. You can vote for fire or ice, not saying what for, just choose which one you like more. 2. vote for a weapon.
Hell, since there aren't too many people to respond to for reviews, I'll even do that for now right here
Isisoftheunderground : You were my first reviewer and I am glad to see that I am not the only one who feels the way I do about my rants, so thanks.
LeweL : I do occasionally read Naru/olderwomen, but I just don't get any ideas for any stories like that. If I do one, then I would probably make a Naru/Tsunami just so that I can be the first I believe.
Conlan0414863, Ibozun and sieraneru: Well,there isn't really much else to say other than thanks, so that's why your responses are grouped together.
Demon-sword : I think I have answered some of your questions at the beginning of these notes. I also like Naru/Ten and Naru/Tema fics. I have some idea for a Naru/ten fic, and my ideas for a Naru/Tema fic changed into this with a naru/kin.
AznAltron : yet another person to agree with my ranting, thanks for the review.
Nonesofar : ummmm, I don't really understand your review, but ummm, thanks anyway…I guess.
Onikami : yes, there are very few naru/kin fics, and I know the other one of which you speak, I have not yet seen a long, finished naru/kin, so that is what I am attempting, and yes, I also wondered when people say that Kyuubi shows Naruto hand seals.
Well, thanks to you all and I hope you continue to read this story. I'll try to update often enough, but I just kind of write whenever, so who knows.