Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the other things that may or may not have appeared by means of a crossover.
Spoken
thoughts
Kyuubi
kyuubi thoughts
I feel so disappointed I didn't get any reviews. Well here's the next chappie and as always enjoy and review
Chapter 2
A five year old boy ran down the street. Panting heavily, he rounded a corner. A crowd of people followed yelling death threats and throwing random objects in the hopes of hitting the boy.
The reason, he was no ordinary boy. The boy running down the street in front of them was the thing they hated most, the thing that had killed so many of their people five years ago, the thing that had practically destroyed their village. That thing was the damned Kyuubi.
Ten minutes ago
A festival was going on in the village. Noise, lights, and general merriment happening drew a small boy with blond hair to its center. He was amazed at what was going on. His head turned left and right as he walked so he could take in every little detail.
Wondering what was happening, he turned to a man and pulled on his pants. "Hey mister, what's happening?".
The man looked down at the kid and answered, "It's a celebration for the Yondaime. He died killing the Kyuubi five years ago. He was a real hero."
The boy looked amazed, until confusion crossed his features.
"What's a Kyuubi?". The man stared at the kid in shock, "You mean you don't know?"
Seeing that the kid had shook his head he explained. "The Kyuubi was a demon that attacked the village." Light shown in the boys eyes as he said that.
"Wow, Yondaime must have been really awesome then." Seeing that the boy understood he turned back to his drink.
The boy was walking along to see the other things until he bumped into someone. The man was really drunk and was raving about how could the people be so happy when the Kyuubi had cause so much death. He lost everything to the demon and people should be mourning.
The boy fell to the floor. "Oi, you looking for trouble?" the man slurred.
Getting back up, the boy said, "I'm sorry mister, I wasn't watching where I was going."
At this the man became enraged, "Maybe I should teach you how to pay attention then."
He reached out and picked up the kid by the clothing and lifted him to eye level. He drew back his fist in preparation to punch the kid when a flash happened.
Naruto had been shaking in fear when the man threatened him and let out a scream when he was lifted off his feet. The people nearby turned to see what was going on and immediately rushed to stop the drunk from attacking the child. Then the flash happened and they stopped to shield their eyes.
The man that was holding Naruto was shocked. Here in front of him was no boy, but a thing. A thing that had the ears and tail of a fox. He reflexively dropped the boy.
Naruto landed on his feet and scrambled his way out of the crowd that had been surrounding the scene. Everything became quiet as he ran to a safer place. Everybody still in the crowd was speechless. "It can't be..."
Whispers started to break out as people registered the scene they saw. A boy, a boy that had fox appendages was there. Suddenly an outbreak of noise was hear. "That was the Kyuubi!!", "How did it survive?", "Everybody after it so we can kill it for good!" The people scrambled to get any weapons that were available or make-shift weapons.
After running a distance, Naruto stopped to catch his breath. "Man that was scary. Why did he just grab me like that?"
While musing on the drunk man's reasons, he noticed something very odd with his shadow. There was this weird snake like shape moving around. Naruto turned around and saw nothing. Naruto thought that was weird and looked down at the shadow again. That weird shape was still there. This time he only turned his head and saw it.
He reached out for it and grabbed it. Realizing it was attached to him he yelled out, "WHAT IS THIS WEIRD THING COMING OUT FROM MY BUTT!!!" As he was taking a closer look at the tail, a bottle hit him square on the head knocking him down.
Sitting up and rubbing his forehead, he looked around for the culprit. As he looked down the street, he saw that a crowd was throwing things in his direction and screaming out things like "Kill the Kyuubi" Thinking fast, Naruto got to his feet and ran.
End the ten minute flashback
Turning another corner, he saw that he had run into an alley way with a dead end. Turning around to try to get out of the alley, the mob had corned him. Fear wove it's way through Naruto has he backed away. The fear increased when his back hit the wall, he had nowhere to go.
"Why are you doing this to me?" Naruto asked the mob.
"You killed everybody!!, You took away our family, our friends. You're the Kyuubi. We'll kill you." The mob moved closer and started to throw things at Naruto again.
Naruto was having a hard time avoiding them and was getting hurt pretty bad. "I didn't kill any one! How can I be the Kyuubi when it was killed by the Yondaime."
Naruto's cries fell on deaf ears as they continued to advance. "Help. Please anyone help. I don't want to get hurt."
"DO YOU WANT TO ESCAPE?" A voice sounded
Desperate, Naruto thought "Yes". The wind suddenly picked up and blew through the crowd. They stopped their advance to block their eyes from the harsh winds. Naruto couldn't hear anything over the howling of the wind and closed his eyes, hoping that someone had come to save him.
The howling had died down and there was only silence. Time passed and nothing happened. Naruto chanced a peek and opening his eyes slowly, saw nothing. Looking around, he saw that he was in a clearing in surround by trees.
'What happened, and how did I get here?' Suddenly Naruto was feeling light headed and dizzy.
'What's wrong with me?' he put his head in his hands to try to hold off the nausea. Feeling something weird on his hands, he pulled them away to hackle at them.
It was blood. Naruto was losing blood from a wound to his forehead. Feeling the nausea intensify, he quickly closed his eyes, but it was no good. His face had a meeting with the ground with a soft 'whump'.
Naruto opened his eyes and they were met with darkness. Taking a moment for them to adjust, he realized he was lying in a corridor that had water on the floor. 'What is this weird place?'
Getting up Naruto started to walk down the hall looking for a way out. He turned left, turned right, kept walking until he saw a fairly large room ahead that was well lit. Hoping his luck had changed he ran forward. When he reached the center he saw that bars had been fitted on one side of the room from floor to ceiling. Seeing a silhouette behind the bars, he approached to get a closer look.
Upon closer inspection, the shadow looming behind the bars moved forward to the bars. Naruto looked at it confused until, "I got it! I'm at a mystery zoo. This weird animal is really ugly."
The animal in question was a giant red fox. It's hackles rose at that statement and started growling. "WATCH WHAT YOU'RE SAYING BRAT. DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT?"
Jaw dropping Naruto replied, "WOW!!! It can talk. Can you do any other tricks. Mr. Bunny?"
The amazement slid of his face and was replaced with complete and utter terror as the 'bunny' had let out a loud roar.
"HOW DARE YOU COMPARE ME TO THOSE, THOSE, THOSE...THINGS. I AM A DEMON FOX. I AM THE KYUUBI"
Silence reigned until something clicked in Naruto's mind. "So you're not a bunny?" A roar knocked him onto his back. "I'll take that as a no."
Getting up again he realized something was off. "Hey wait, you said you were the Kyuubi. That's not possible because that man at the festival said the Yondaime killed the Kyuubi."
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. YOU THINK A MERE MORTAL HUMAN CAN KILL ME. THE ONE YOU CALL YONDAIME WAS FORCED TO MAKE A DEAL WITH THE SHINIGAMI TO SEAL ME INTO YOU."
"Then it's true what the people said about me. That I was the Kyuubi, that I killed all those people." Naruto slumped down onto the floor with a splash and started crying for the fact that he was a demon, a mass murderer.
"DON'T DELUDE YOURSELF KID. I'M STILL ME AND YOU'RE STILL YOU. THOSE IDIOTS ONLY THINK YOU'RE ME BECAUSE OF THOSE NICE LOOKING FOX EARS AND TAIL."
The facts reached Naruto ears and a great weight lifted off his shoulders. He wasn't a demon, he was just a regular kid...who happened to have a demon inside of him. Then the obvious hit him like a ton of bricks.
"What do you mean fox ears and tail?" Feeling his head he found the ears poking from underneath his hair and looked behind him to see the tail waving slightly in the air. 'So that's what that thing was.'
Panic followed soon afterward as Naruto started to run around in circles screaming at the top of his lungs. "AAAHHHHH, I'm a weird fox thingy."
Kyuubi getting tired of this troublesome kid quickly responded to his statement. "DON'T BE STUPID. FOXES ARE NOT WEIRD THINGIES. IT JUST SO HAPPENS THAT WHEN I TRIED TO ESCAPE WHEN I WAS SEALED INTO YOU THAT YOU ABSORBED SOME CHAKRA AS A SIDE-EFFECT AND BECAME A HALF-DEMON."
This didn't work as Kyuubi had planned and only served to panic Naruto more.
Meanwhile...
Back at the festival the screams and noise level had drawn the Hokage's attention while still in the tower. Wonder what was happening, he took out his crystal ball and looked for the problem. He grew pale at the sight that Naruto was running in all his fox glory and had projectiles thrown after him.
Calling his guard outside the door, he gave instructions. "Quickly, gather as much ANBU as you can and tell them to restrain all the villagers and move them back to the festival site."
The guard poofed away to do as he was told. Quickly looking again at the ball, he saw that Naruto was passed out on the ground. Fears running high that Naruto had been seriously hurt, Sarutobi rushed out the window to find Naruto.
Back with Naruto...
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH"
That was the only thing that Kyuubi heard as the kid panicked more. Opening his mouth to try to talk to the kid again, he paused sensing something approaching Naruto's real body.
"OI KID.", the fox shouted over the din that the small boy was making. "SOMEONE IS COMING TO YOUR BODY AND IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DIE, YOU'D BETTER WAKE UP BEFORE THEY SEE YOU AND THINK KYUUBI."
Skidding to a stop he looked at the giant fox and tilted his head. "How?"
Sighing to himself Kyuubi said, "DO I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING. JUST CLOSE YOUR EYES." Naruto followed the command and feeling a slight dizzy spell come on. When it stopped he opened his eyes to see that he was indeed back in the real world and lying on the ground.
Rustling leaves caught his attention. Remembering how the villagers had acted and Kyuubi's advice, Naruto rushed for some nearby bushes to hid himself. Turning around so he could see the clearing, he poked his face forward through some of the shrub to get an unobstructed view.
Stepping out into the clearing was the Sandiame with a frown on his face. 'Where is Naruto?' Anxiety growing every minute the boy was unfound. Seeing that it was the old man, Naruto ran out to greet him with a cry of "Ji-san"
Turning to the source of the noise, Sarutobi ran up to Naruto and enveloped him in a hug. "Are you okay Naruto. Are you hurt anywhere?" "I'm fine", Naruto answered.
Looking over the boy, he saw that he was unhurt, and for the most part fine. Standing up from the hug, he whistled. Moments later, an ANBU jumped from the trees and landed kneeling in front of the two.
"Yes Hokage-sama?"
"Please take Naruto back to my office and guard him. Don't let anything deter or distract you from this task."
Turning to Naruto, "I'll be there to talk to you later. I have something to take care of so just wait patiently." said Sarutobi. Naruto nodded and was picked up by the ANBU before he lept into the trees.
Seeing that they had gone, Sarutobi knew he was in for a rough night now that he needed to deal
with the village. Moving off the village, he hoped it would go alright.
Naruto was looking around the old man's office. The ANBU was standing outside the doors to stop anyone from entering and was confident that he could sense if anyone came in by other means.
Naruto found something curious that had moving things swirling around in it. It was a ball, but the weird thing was that it was showing the Hokage in the midst of a crowd with the ANBU backing him up. Surprise showed on Naruto's face as he watched.
Sarutobi was having a hard time in calming the crowd, trying to allay their fears. The fact was, he tried to explain, that the seal was still holding and that Naruto had in no way released or was possessed by the demon.
Roars of disagreement sounded as the crowd pointed out that he had a tail and fox ears. Sarutobi stood silent, arguing with himself whether to tell the villagers that the those features had come from the sealing. Seeing no other choice, Sarutobi cut them off and told of what he saw the day of the sealing, saying that it was not necessary to tell the public because it would incite panic over nothing.
However, the villager pushed for the death of the boy now, saying that if the demon nearly broke free before, what was to stop it from trying, or that the boy was actually the demon and was biding its time.
Sarutobi tried to argue back, but the villagers refused to listen. Calling on his ANBU to silence the crowd, Sarutobi set forth the law that speaking of the Kyuubi in any way, shape, or form was illegal and punishable by death.
Naruto watched on sullen faced as the event unfolded. The angry cries and faces of the villagers calling for his death etching itself into his memory. Naruto felt trapped, with no where to go.
Sarutobi came into his office and noticed that Naruto was sitting on the floor crying and in front of him was the crystal ball. He had forgotten to deactivate it in his rush. Stomach plummeting, he wondered how much had Naruto seen.
Moving to comfort the boy, Sarutobi knelt down next to him and reached out. Naruto pushed himself back, not wanting the Hokage to associate with him, not wanting the Hokage to get into trouble because of him.
Naruto had seen the people and how they reacted to the Hokage, Naruto cared too much about him to get him into trouble. In backing up his back hit the wall and Sarutobi had caught up to him and hugged him.
"It's going to be alright Naruto." he whispered over and over again. Naruto heard these comforting words and touch of the Sandaime and believed that it would be alright.
After waiting a couple of minutes, Naruto ceased his crying and. "Naruto, can you tell me what happened today?" Sarutobi picked up Naruto and placed him into a seat and went to get his own.
Seeing that the Hokage had returned with another chair and sat down Naruto began his tale.
Sandaime looked pensive through the story. 'He met the Kyuubi and it helped him? Why would it do such a thing?' Naruto had continued to stare at the Hokage looking like something was wrong.
"What's wrong?" asked Naruto.
"Nothing. It's just that I was confused why the Kyuubi was helping you? It doesn't seem like a thing a demon would do. Just be careful if you ever see it again."
Naruto nodded. "Now that this day is over I don't think it's safe for you to go back to the orphanage." At this Naruto mood dropped. "You'll spend the night here and I find more suitable living arrangements for you tomorrow."
Naruto nodded again and then was slowly drifting off to sleep. Looking down at the slumbering boy the Hokage really wondered if it was going to be alright like he said before. He rolled up his sleeves and prepared to seal the fox appendages again with an illusion like last time.
2 years later
Naruto was once again running from a crowd. Ever since that fateful day, none of the villagers cared for Naruto anymore. They yell at him, they refuse to sell him anything and if they did it was ridiculously overpriced, they threw stuff at him and attacked when he was alone.
The law that Sandaime had placed into effect had not suppressed their animosity, merely increased it and forced them to find new ways to hurt the demon carrier. None of the children were allowed to play with him as the other kids were told he was bad.
The worse part was that the apartment Sarutobi had found for Naruto, was constantly be trashed by villagers. Naruto could keep nothing of value and even then, he could barely keep anything at all because it would all be destroyed.
So once again Naruto was running. Emotions regarding the demon always ran high on the day that the Kyuubi was supposedly killed. They hated the demon. The fact that the demon was still alive was a mockery to the Yondaime and made the festival a hollow celebration.
Naruto had built high amounts of speed and stamina from his constant running from the mobs and that was enough to get away from civilians, but when the shinobi started to join in to get revenge fo their fallen comrades, it wasn't enough. Time and time again a voice sounded in his head asking him if he wanted to escape and the answer was always yes.
Naruto had met the Kyuubi and asked why he was helping him, but the giant fox merely responded that he was not the one that was helping him.
This time was no exception, Naruto was being run down by shinobi. 'Damn bastards.' A chuunin had put on a burst of speed using chakra in his legs and dashed past Naruto. Seeing this, Naruto
skidded to a stop because the chuunin had effectively cut off his path.
He wished he had not stopped because the rest of the shinobi had surrounded him. One stepped forward and pulled out a kunai. "Time to die, demon." The rest followed suit and all pulled kunai. Naruto looked frantically around trying to find some way out until
"DO YOU WANT TO ESCAPE?"
Naruto looked around to see if he could spot the owner of the mysterious voice, but all he could see were the chuunin and they didn't seem to have heard the voice. 'Yes'
Like always, the winds picked up until Naruto was forced to close his eyes. When the wind died down, Naruto found he was in one of the training areas. Moving to one of the posts there, he sat down with his back against it.
"Kuso, why am I so weak. I don't want to get hurt anymore. I'm tired of it, I'm tired of these stupid villagers. I'll never become a ninja if they kill me."
"Heard you wanted to be a ninja." Naruto snapped out of his thoughts and looked around and tensed his body to get ready to run if necessary. "Who's there?"
"I'm surprised you don't know. I'm all around you. I'm the one that always saves you."
Still seeing nothing Naruto called out, "I see nobody when that voice asks if I want help"
"Well then, what does happen when I save you?"
"The wind comes and ... wait a minute are you saying you're the wind."
"That's right kid and I heard you see that you looking for some training". The wind picked up blowing loose dirt around. Naruto brought up his arms to shield his face. "So do you accept?"
Looking out in front a man had appeared. He had red hair and green eyes. He wore a black shirt with two strips of with clothe that crossed over each other and baggy white pants the poofed out at the bottom. A blue clothe belt was tied about his waist and the excess clothe fell to his knees. He had black slip on shoes.
"You can make me strong? Strong enough so that the village doesn't mess with me?"
"That's right kiddo, so do you want to?"
Naruto regarded the man suspiciously. No one ever wanted to help him except Sandaime and even then with his job as the Hokage, they couldn't spend a lot of time together.
Naruto had grouped the villages and shinobi into different categories: indifferent, cowards who won't do anything, but give him a hard time, mob members, and people who go out of their way to harass him. The Hokage was the only exception, as even the children didn't approach him.
"Why are you helping? Why do you save me and why are you offering to make me strong? I don't even know your name or how the hell you can be wind."
The man looked at Naruto with something along the lines of pity. "Well then, allow myself to introduce...myself. My name is Jin and I am wind. Well not really the wind, more like the wind master because I have the winds working for me. As to why I am helping you, I was attracted...drawn to you for some reason ever since you were born. I have a few theories why, but that's for later. I watched as you grew up and I saw how the villagers started treating an innocent youth to be nothing more than a monster that he will eventually become. Tell me Naruto do you feel angry about how you've been abused?"
Anger flashed in Naruto's eyes. "I hate those damn villagers. They have no reason to attack me for something that Kyuubi did. The villagers are worse than Kyuubi."
"I don't want you to lose the innocence that you still have. You are only a child and should still have the time to enjoy yourself before you become a shinobi of the Leaf."
Jin gave Naruto a few minutes to reflect before breaking the silence. "So, will you accept?"
"Yes."
"Excellent, since you're a human, your control over wind will be non-existent at worse and moderate-minimal at best. You'll need special equipment for me to effectively train you. "
Jin put his hand out in front of him palm up and flexed as if he were holding a ball. Winds raced to that point and made a mini maelstrom, then gradually dissipated leaving behind a pair of gloves in his hand.
They were a forest green color that were fingerless. On the back of the hand it had a metal plate that was engraved with the kanji for wind inscribed in a circle. Jin tossed them to Naruto.
Naruto inspected the gloves before looking back at Jin.
"I'm not exactly a human."
"Ah..yes I forgot about that. Doesn't matter to me, as a fox hanyou, you won't reach elemental control until later. You can ask Kyuubi about that. I'm sure he can explain better than I can. Before you put those on, I want to put my theory to the test."
Jin reached behind his back and produce a small square piece of paper.
"This is something ninjas use to determine their elemental affinities. This kind of paper is made from trees that have been nurtured with chakra all their lives and will react to chakra. When chakra is channeled into it, it will be destroyed. Depending on how, determines your strongest
affinity."
Naruto took the offered paper. "How do I channel chakra?"
"Just relax and focus. Pretend that you are sending energy from you body into your arm and into the paper."
Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He pretended to 'see' energy flowing out of him and into the paper. Naruto opened his eyes as a warm, tingling sensation was felt in his arm and hand. The paper was split in two.
"Congrats. I guess you have some talent. Now for my theory. I believed that you had an affinity so strong for wind that I was drawn to you and here is my proof. The split paper show that you do have wind affinity and I actually felt it when you generate your chakra."
Walking up to Naruto, Jin ruffled his hair, making it more spikey and messy. "I'll be by sometime tomorrow morning to start your training. In the mean time, to use the fighting style I'm gonna teach you, you need quick reflexes and speed for attacks. So..."
Jin trailed off as he produced some weight bands. "Here. Put these on your wrists and ankles. I'm not expecting you to get used to them by tomorrow, but you know, go do some exercise of something to speed up the process."
Jin gave the weights to Naruto and stepped away. Wind started to swirl around him before it stopped.
"I almost forgot, don't try to channel chakra again. Until I am sure you can do it by yourself, there is a chance that you could end up hurting yourself."
A swirl of wind and leaves and Jin had disappeared.
Naruto stood in silence and deep-thought. 'This is my chance. To become strong so that nobody can mess with me anymore.' His chain of thoughts was broken when his arms started to be strained under the weights.
He dropped them and then put on the gloves and weights. The weights were moderately heavy for a person his age and weight, but Naruto figured he could wear them on a daily basis without getting to tired.
'This is as good as time as any to start my training.' Naruto started to jog around the clearing.
10 minutes later
'This is harder than I thought.' Naruto stopped his jog and sat down at the base of a tree. Catching his breath, he felt the exhaustion affecting him and making him sleepy. It was a few moments before he was snoring softly.
Naruto felt sore and felt that he was lying down. 'I must have fallen asleep.' opening his eyes, he realized that he was brought into his mind for another chat with Kyuubi. Following the path he knew that would take him to the cage, Naruto wondered what Kyuubi would want to talk about.
Naruto and Kyuubi had built up a friendship of sorts since the two had met. Kyuubi had felt that
because Kyuubi had turned Naruto into a hanyou, he felt a weird sort of attachment, not unlike an uncle of father.
Naruto accepted this as he was lonely and longed for someone to be with him. The villagers had taken their toll on Naruto's mental ability to cope with the sadness. When Naruto had seen Kyuubi, he broke down crying and spilled all his problems to the great beast.
Kyuubi felt the sadness coming off of him in waves and felt remorse that it was partially his fault. He accepted Naruto and guided him with small bits of advice when he was down or in desperate need of assistance.
In those two years, Naruto had taken to camping out in the woods, because he could buy no food and had no place safe to sleep within the village. Kyuubi had given him advice on how to catch food and basic survival skills.
Walking the final length of the corridor, Naruto saw the Kyuubi in front of him now.
"I NEVER EXPECTED THAT JIN WAS THE ONE THAT WAS SAVING YOU."
"Do you know him?"
"I'VE SPOKEN WITH HIM A COUPLE A TIMES BEFORE WHEN I GOT MY 5TH TAIL. ANYWAY I BROUGHT YOU HERE TO TALK ABOUT YOUR TRAINING. I CAN SUPPLEMENT YOUR TRAINING WITH SOME KNOWLEDGE THAT I HAVE IF YOU WANT."
"Thanks Kyuubi. That would be great. Oh yeah, Jin said something about elemental control for foxes. What's he talking about?"
"DEMON FOXES ARE UNIQUE CREATURES AND ARE RANKED IN TERMS OF STRENGTH AND STATUS BY OUR TAILS. EVERY TIME A FOX DOES SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT, A TAIL IS GAINED. THE FIRST TAIL THAT ALL DEMON FOXES HAVE ALLOWS US TO USE ILLUSION. THE SECOND IT TRANSFORMATION. TAILS THREE THROUGH SEVEN GIVE CONTROL OVER ELEMENTS IN ORDER OF AFFINITY. TAIL THREE GIVING YOU THE ELEMENT YOU HAVE THE MOST AFFINITY FOR. TAIL EIGHT IS THE SPECIALIZATION ONE. I AM A DESTRUCTION TYPE. THE NINTH TAIL IS COMPLETE MASTERY OVER YOUR ABILITIES."
"So can you tell how it's going to work for me?'
"BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T BORN A DEMON FOX, YOU CAN ONLY HAVE FOUR TAILS MAX, FIVE IF YOU'RE LUCKY. SO YOU'LL HAVE WIND CONTROL BY TAIL THREE AND YOUR SECOND ELEMENT BY TAIL FOUR."
Naruto thought about it and questioned something. "How long does it take for a fox to get tails?"
"IT CAN TAKE A LONG TIME. SINCE TIME BARELY AFFECTS KITSUNES, IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER. YOU'VE HAD A LONG DAY WHY DON'T YOU GO TO SLEEP NOW. TOMORROW YOU BEGIN YOUR TRAINING."
Naruto's form started fading from the room. Indeed, tomorrow would be a big day.