AN: The only thing that I hopefully own is all your approval.
So my devious mind came up with more challenge stories for you mere mortals to ponder over! BWAHAHAHAHA! Ahem, sorry. So this story is a cross between Naruto and Kong the Animated Series, but only certain aspects of the show. As such, the story will be placed under my Bloodlines and Ramen story as I'm not sure how popular Kong is on this site plus I want to try and get some more attention to my other challenges under this story. As for the story itself, it will start out like the other two in that Naruto gets attacked by a random drunk during his Anbu guards switching shifts. After being beaten, Naruto finds a random stray animal (I'm thinking dog but just for fun it could also be Tora the cat). Hoping to find some companionship in the animal that he hasn't found in humans, Naruto starts petting it. Thinking that animals might have it better than him, Naruto suddenly wishes he was born an animal instead.
Little did Naruto realize, he'd been born with a dormant, never before seen bloodline that activated due to his desire. His bloodline breaks him down to the cellular level and allows him to merge with any animal, making a human-animal hybrid. One aspect of the bloodline is that the merged being will be both bigger and stronger (not to mention able to use chakra) than either of the two beings it stemmed from. Later in the story, Naruto finds that he can also merge with more than one animal to make something completely different (like combining with a cat and a scorpion to make a manticore), as well as being able to merge with the DNA of extinct animals. Finally, he can do a reverse merge that allows Naruto to take on animal like traits (flexibility, strength, heightened senses, etc.). The only downside is he can only stay merged for a few minutes at a time before the animal DNA rejects him, though it gets longer with practice.
After merging for the first time, Naruto gets understandably freaked out and goes on a miniature rampage, but is quickly subdued by the Anbu who arrived just in time to see what happened. Later, once Naruto figures out how to demerge, the Third sets it up for him to get training from both the Inuzuka and Aburame clans, both of which have experience with animal based jutsu. Same concept as my other stories for pairings as I prefer Naru/Hina but accept others as long as they're believable.
Once more with feeling: CHALLENGE people! That means no matter how much you beg, or plead, or cry, I'm most likely not going to continue this story. That means, if you wish to see this continued, consider adopting it yourself or asking someone else to do so. Until then, enjoy!
Village Hidden in the Leaves (Konoha)
A distraught eight-year old Naruto headed back towards his apartment while trying to beat the approaching night. It had been a bad day for the whiskered blond, though that was close to every day unfortunately. He'd spent most of the day at the park, trying to find someone who'd at least talk to him. But most of the kids either flat out ignored him or hurl out insults to him. The real sad part most of those who yelled at him were the adults. It was a few months until he'd be enrolled into the Ninja Academy, yet with how things were going for him Naruto couldn't help but wonder if he'd be treated any differently than how he was now. If only something could happen that'd change his life for the better…
Little did Naruto know that tiny changes in one's destiny can bring monumental changes. In one world, the one we all know, Naruto went home for the evening with no problems whatsoever. In this one though, things took a different turn. Naruto decided to head down an alleyway to take a shortcut home. Unknown to the blond, this particular alleyway went behind a bar, where a certain nasty drunk had just been thrown out of. Also unknown to the boy was the Anbu guards who watched over him every hour of the day to make sure no one said or do anything to the jinchuriki that they'd regret, were switching shifts at the moment and for approximately five minutes no one was watching over him.
Naruto went down the alleyway, ignoring the rats and occasional stray dog that littered the area as he kept his head down. So caught up in his gloom, Naruto didn't see the large, smelly man in the middle of the path until he lightly brushed up against him. The drunk, who shall remain nameless, was about to yell at whoever it was that ran into him. That was, until he saw that it was the demon holder, the one who held the same fox that destroyed his home and business that day eight years ago. Now if the man was sober, he'd simply yell at the kid and stalk off before his anger made him do something that was sure to get him arrested or worse. But in his inebriated state, the drunk didn't think about nor care for the consequences for his actions and sent a vicious kick at Naruto's unprotected ribs.
The blond child gave a startled yelp in surprise, pain, and fear. He landed in a nearby puddle with a splash and he looked up at his attacker with wide, scared eyes. While most adults had made it clear they didn't want anything to do with him, and some seemed to downright hate him, no one had ever gone as far as to physically attack him before. Naruto found the experience to be especially terrifying.
"Stupid demon brat," the drunk slurred as he stalked towards the blond and raise his leg for another kick, "the Hokage shoulda killed you the second you were born!"
With that, the kick connected with Naruto's chin and he saw stars as a razor sharp pain made itself known. The whiskered child tasted blood as his lip split. Whimpering in pain, not even able to cry out due to the pain in his face and bruised ribs, Naruto curled up into a ball in the dirty puddle water to try and make a smaller target of himself. Instead of backing off, the drunk seemed to get angrier at, in his mind, the demon's attempt at playing innocent and proceeded to ruthlessly kick the child in any place he could reach. Naruto gasped in pain and fear as the assault continued, screwing his eyes shut in a feeble attempt to block out the pain. This went on for what felt like hours for Naruto but in reality was only a minute or two. Then the pain stopped and, risking a glance, noticed that the scary man was gone now. What Naruto didn't know was that his Anbu guard had finished their shift switch and, when they saw what was going on, quickly apprehended the man who got a one way ticket to the Torture and Interrogation Department. Doing a quick check over the boy to see that no serious damage was done to the boy while he was cowering, the one Anbu who stayed to guard the jinchuriki quickly hid himself into the shadows. While they would have preferred to go and comfort the boy, it was necessary for his protection that it not be known he had a security detail.
Holding back tears, Naruto got up in a sitting position and held his knees to his chest. He just couldn't understand it. Why did everyone seem to hate him so much? While tonight was one of the most extreme examples, Naruto could tell by the looks in their eyes that other people wished to do something similar to him. Hearing a crash, Naruto looked up startled, thinking that the drunk had come back. Instead he saw a small cat, probably only half a year old, slinking out of the garbage cans that lined the alley's walls. The cat seemed to sniff around for a bit before setting it's lamp-like blue eyes on Naruto. Cautiously, the cat sneaked over to the hurt boy and, after sniffing him for a minute, started to rub it's head affectionately against one of his hands.
Giving a weak smile, Naruto took the invitation and started stroking the cat along the back. "Heh, looks like we're both on our own, huh fella?" Naruto asked as he started to scratch the cat behind the ear, getting it to purr contently. "You're pretty easy to please aren't yah? Just a few affectionate words and a scratch behind the ears and you're all set to go. Y'know, sometimes I envy you animals. I mean, no matter how nasty people get to you, you always seem to bounce right back as happy as ever. Plus, most people seem to like animals no matter what. I wish…I wish I was born an animal sometimes!" Naruto stated with conviction.
What Naruto didn't know was that his body was going through an interesting transition at that point. You see, thanks to the mixing of both his parent's genes caused the formation of a never before seen dormant bloodline to form in the boy. For the rest of his life, he could have had this bloodline and never be aware of it, eventually having it die out over time. However, thanks to several factors, this bloodline was about to awaken. You see, one of the factors was having access to his chakra which he could now do thanks to the Academy. The second factor was the Kyuubi's chakra that was mixing in with his regular chakra to help fix the injuries Naruto got from the attack which acted as a defibrillator of sorts for the bloodline, allowing it to be momentarily active unless acted upon. The last factor was will and desire. At this exact moment, Naruto's desire coupled with his strong enough will, allowed the bloodline to take corporal form (1). The desire was: to be like animals.
There was a bright flash of light and the remaining Anbu who was watching the scene had to momentarily cover his eyes. When he could open them again, he could only gape at what he saw. There, standing where the blonde boy and the cat once were, was now a giant 40 foot tall beast! The creature itself looked like a cross between a cat and a human, as it stood on its hind legs and had a human shaped torso and arms, but the rest was distinctly animalistic. The legs were double jointed while the hands and feet were tipped with knifelike claws. A long whipping tail sprouted from his spine and its head was distinctly cat-like while the entire body was covered in tan fur.
The beast, instead of attacking or doing anything that one would expect from a creature of that size and appearance to do, instead let out a confused whimpering sound as it looked around (2). When the creature looked down, it's eyes widened in shock and it let out a large meow like yelp as it stumbled back on unfamiliar legs and fell on its backside. The cat creature looked at its clawed paws in a panic as it made several sounds that almost sounded like hysterical babbling. By that point, other members of the Anbu arrived as well and, after quickly getting over their initial shock at seeing the strange beast, moved in to either capture or kill the potential threat. The first Anbu on the scene, however, quickly intercepted the other black ops agents and ordered, "Stop! Do not engage! I repeat: do NOT engage! Form a perimeter around the area while someone get me Lord Hokage! NOW!"
Even though the platoon looked hesitant, they did as their higher ranking officer asked. Turning back to the still sitting beast, the original Anbu member removed his mask to show another masked face, one with gravity defying silver hair. "…Naruto?" the man whispered.
The creature turned to face the man, its sharp sense of hearing catching the man's words. Hesitantly, the creature seemed to nod causing the man's one visible eye to widen. Hesitantly, the man went over to the now revealed transformed boy and noticed that the tip of his head didn't even reach the beings naval while it, no HE, was sitting down. Awkwardly, the Anbu member reached up and started patting the cat-boy's knee, the highest point he could really reach at that point and said in a calm voice, "Don't worry Naruto, everything will be okay I swear. We'll find out what happened and how to fix it, alright?"
Just then, there was a rustling of leaves and the two turned to see the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, standing in the area flanked by two Anbu guards. The old man's eyes were wide and alert, but he kept a clam presence as he saw one of his most trusted Anbu near the odd and threatening looking creature without fear. The other two Anbu meanwhile were tense and ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.
"Kakashi, explain to me what is going on. Where did this creature come from, and why isn't any of your squad with Naruto right now?" the Third questioned.
The now named Kakashi hesitated, uncertain of how to explain. Finally he said, "Well sir…the thing is…" Before he could figure out what to say, there was another big flash of light behind the man. Once it was over, all present gasped quietly at what they saw. Sitting right where the creature was just a second ago was a confused Naruto Uzumaki with a stray tan cat on his lap. The cat sped off while the boy looked around confused for a second before the exhaustion of the day's ordeals caught up with him and sent him into a state of unconsciousness.
Scene Break
Hiruzen Sarutobi stood outside of a hospital room door with a gloomy expression on his face. Yesterday evening's events played through his mind as he tried to piece together what happened. When he asked the boy's Anbu guards what all happened the previous night, they explained that they were currently switching shifts for the night and that had created a blind spot for a few minutes, so they were unable to see or prevent what happened when a drunk attacked Naruto. That was a serious mistake that Hiruzen planned on correcting, but first he had to deal with more pressing matters such as finding out exactly what happened, as Kakashi was confused as well on what happened afterwards. One moment there was a boy, the next there was some sort of catlike monster that after a few minutes became a boy again.
The Third was brought out of his musings as a med-nin came up to him. The medic gave the aged leader their report on their one patient who had still not fully regained conscious. "The boy was found to have bruising on his ribs and had a nasty cut on his chin, but both healed within the hour," the two looked at each other, both having an inkling as to what caused Naruto's miraculous recovery. The medic continued, "No other significant injuries were found. However, blood tests on the boy have indicated," at this the medic paused, which worried the Hokage.
"Indicated what?" Hiruzen asked in all seriousness.
The medic took a deep breath and looked the Professor straight in the eye. "The blood test show the unleashing of a previously recessive bloodline awakening, most likely brought on by the stress of whatever happened before the events of last night. But that's not all, Lord Hokage," the medic said, catching the Hokage's attention since he was caught off guard from the news. As far as he knew, neither of Naruto's parents had bloodlines, however it wasn't unheard of for them to skip several generations and be unlocked under extreme situations. It wasn't, however, a bloodline he'd ever heard of, and in all his years as Hokage he'd seen close to all known ones. The med-nin continued in a serious tone, "We've compared the data of the bloodline to all known to us and have found no match. Neither has there been anyone like this in recorded history. The only hypothesis we can gather is that the boy has unlocked a new bloodline."
If Hiruzen was stunned before, he was shocked speechless now. He'd never actually bared witness to the birthing of a new bloodline before! Of course this sort of thing had to happen from time to time in order for bloodlines to be made, but there hasn't been a new bloodline found in several decades (3)! And, judging from what he saw, the bloodline young Naruto had was impressive if the muscles, size, teeth and claws weren't just for show.
The question was, what did the bloodline actually do? That is what the elderly Hokage next asked the medic. The man went through his charts before explaining, "Well Lord Hokage, from what we've been able to study from samples taken from Mr. Uzumaki, along with eye witness reports, we've determined that this bloodline takes the users body and binds it with another creatures body at the molecular level. Once the DNA is bound, the two bodies take on a form that can most suit the two, which explains the sharp increase in both mass and height. From the MRI we took of the boy, it also seems to take a toll on the users mind, most likely a side-effect of two minds sharing one body, but the damage seems minor and would likely to become even more minimal over time. Also, the strain on the user's chakra seems great as Mr. Uzumaki was nearly completely depleted of chakra, but we're speculating it could be due to this being his first time using the ability, plus the fact that the separation between him and the cat seemed forced. Honestly though Lord Hokage, most of this is just hypothesis since we have no samples from when he was actually using the bloodline."
Hiruzen nodded along to this, still trying to process everything that he'd learned. Everything kept going through his mind as he made his way back to his office. Being able to merge with the DNA of an animal? That sounded like an even more advanced version of the Yamanaka's strongest mind transference jutsu. It would be a remarkable asset to have on the field if one was able to master it. The side effects were worrying though. Hopefully with some time and more tests, they'd be able to find out more about what the bloodline was capable of and how to avoid anything harmful to the child he saw as a second grandson. But there were other things that needed to be done first. The most important thing to do was to make sure that the events of last night, and by extension Naruto's bloodline, be kept a secret for as long as possible. There was no telling what certain elements, both inside the village and out, would do once they discovered Naruto's bloodline. Both Orochimaru and Danzo came to mind at this. Then there was the fact that the majority of the civilians in Konoha were sill uncomfortable around Naruto which last night's events reinforced that opinion. There's no telling what some fool would do when they found out that Naruto could actually BECOME a monster instead of just the monster that was in their heads?
The next thing to do was to comfort Naruto and let him know what happened. Hopefully, the old man could calm the boy and tell him in a way that would not upset him further, but also show him the severity of the situation. That led to the next problem: how to get Naruto to control his new bloodline? Whenever a bloodline is awakened, it's always necessary for the wielder to learn how to use it to avoid hurting themselves and others. It wouldn't work to have Naruto simply ignore the bloodline, because that could lead to severe physical and mental problems such as activating his abilities against his will like last night.
What Hiruzen needed was a teacher for Naruto, but who? After carefully considering his options, there were only two clans that came to mind with any experience in animal-based jutsu. Fortunately, both clans resided in the Hidden Leaf.
Paging his secretary, Hiruzen said, "Please contact Tsume Inuzuka and Shibi Aburame. Tell them I'll need their assistance and to be discrete when coming here." With that, the elderly leader sat back in his chair and wondered about what all the future would bring.
1. Think of Naruto's dormant bloodline as a stem cell. It had no real bases to form off of until it latched onto Naruto's subconscious thoughts, then formed to suite them like how a stem cell will form to match its preferred surroundings.
2. I know you were all probably hoping for a big monster rampage scene, but I went with this for several reasons. One is that I wanted to keep this a short challenge chapter, and writing out an elaborate fight scene doesn't fall under that category. Two is that, while being both young and confused, Naruto was still trying to cope with what was happening around him. Finally, because he's so young I can't imagine him being able to hold up an ability like that for too long, even with his enormous chakra reserves, do you? That will come later with practice.
3. I can't imagine new bloodlines popping up out of nowhere is very common, otherwise Orochimaru would have had many more bloodline users under his employ then he did in canon.