Chapter one
xxx
"HOKAGE-SAMA!"
Sarutobi sighed as he put his pipe down and turned to the Jounin that had just burst into his office, screaming. Even on the night of the most celebrated holiday of the year, his work never ended... he nodded at the man to continue, idly trying to place a name to his face... one of the Hyuuga anyway.
"Hokage-sama... there has been a large disturbance reported..."
"Of course there has." He sighed and rubbed his old temples. "Tell me... what have the villagers done to the poor boy this time and what's the excuse for not intervening this year?"
The Jounin stood up straight, carefully looking anywhere but at the Hokage.
"As ordered, guards were stationed around the apartment complex Uzumaki resides in to prevent such a conflagration as last year. Unfortunately, reports show that the mob formed several blocks away and herded Uzumaki away from his building of residence."
Naturally. 'Guards' and 'Reports'. Nebulous figures without names that he couldn't penalize and chastise. He groaned at the thought of what Naruto had looked like the last time he ran afoul of a mob... They'd actually had to amputate his left arm. Fortunately the boy's burden had stepped in and grown it back before he came out of the coma.
"Continue."
"Yes sir. From what we can tell, Uzumaki evaded pursuit for approximately an hour within the residential areas before heading for the nearest training ground. From there reports are sketchy, but it appears that the mob combed the training grounds for Uzumaki for another half an hour before suddenly fleeing, screaming about a monster killing a monster and blood. We've examined the area... there is a corpse but it's not the boy's."
Sarutobi's eyes narrowed as he drew himself out of his chair and to his full height.
"Bring me there."
xxx
Naruto slowly came to and glanced around himself, crinkling his nose at the smell. He was...
"In a sewer...?"
He stood up and glanced around, confused. Where was he? How had he gotten here? He shook his head and started pacing determinedly, hoping to find a manhole leading out of this disgusting place.
After what seemed like hours of endless tunnels that all looked alike, he finally found himself in a larger room, cut off by bars and a large paper tag labeled 'Seal'. But if he squinted and peered into the darkness inside the cage, he could barely make out a gargantuan form.
The form of a nine-tailed fox.
He didn't have time to voice his confusion as the surroundings faded to grey and dissolved.
"Kid! Wake up!"
Naruto sat straight up, eyes wide and gasping as a ratty blanket dropped down off his chest. Was that... just a dream? Or something more...
"Oh... you're up. Well it's about time."
Naruto sighed at the unknown voice. Then his eyes widened and he clutched desperately at his throat, only to freeze, finding no mar or blemish.
"But..." he muttered, "I thought that the corpse bit...?"
The unknown voice coughed.
"Corpse? Well I've been called worse I suppose. Still..."
Naruto turned his head, finally getting a good look at this new person. Female... A good bit taller than him, but then again few weren't... Extremely pale blonde hair, almost white, hanging down past her shoulders... an impressive figure he noted, fighting down a flush, garbed in... was that decomposing leather? Eew. He grimaced, noting that she had begun to talk again.
"I suppose I owe you an explanation of some sort. But first, given recent circumstances, I believe introductions are in order. Seras Victoria, Childe of Alucard."
Naruto stared at her. Surely this was a joke? He doubted there was a single soul in Konoha that didn't know the name of the 'cursed demon brat'. Even so... nobody had ever introduced themselves to him like this either. Maybe she was new around here? Either way he decided to play along.
"Uzumaki Naruto... and I'm an orphan."
"Well at least that settles one problem..." Seras muttered under her breath. "Several more to go. In any case, I've promised you an explanation, and you'll get it... but first I'm going to find someone for you to eat."
Naruto blinked as she stepped out of the room, then shook his head and decided that he had misheard.
xxx
Sarutobi grimaced down at the corpse.
"The wound was definitely caused by something with very sharp teeth. I'd say some sort of large predator. A wolf maybe, or a bear. However, aside from that one wound the body is other wise unmarred... and while the corpse seems to have lost nearly all its blood, there are only a few spatters here and there on the ground. Hmm..."
The two Jounin on standby kept quiet, leaving their Hokage to work on the puzzle on his own.
"I can only conclude that either he wasn't killed here, or whatever killed him did something with his blood. There are no signs of his body having been moved. The wound seems to have been caused by some sort of animal, but a dumb beast would have either continued to savage the body once he fell or moved on to another of the mob... and yet he was the only victim. And what happened to his blood? If it was a beast, it would have left the blood to spill into the dirt... if it was a man pretending to be a beast, then why would he remove the blood? What would the point be?"
He leaned back against a nearby tree to stroke his beard and think, never noticing the corpse's eyes slowly opening and focusing on him.
"HOKAGE-SAMA!"
The scream snatched him back to awareness, eyes widening as he leapt to the side to dodge the slavering corpse's advance. It turned slowly, empty, dead eyes once more locking on the Sandaime as it brought its arms up for another shambling rush.
"Uuuuuuuuuuun."
"Pin it to the tree!" He yelled.
One of the Jounin nodded, drawing a sword and hurling it point first at the monster. The sword passed easily through the dead flesh, thunking deeply into the tree behind the thing.
"A monster..."
Sarutobi shook his head and his eyes narrowed.
"Kill this... thing... and bring me someone who saw what happened here. Someone sober!"
xxx
Naruto had managed to stagger out of his makeshift cot to get a better look around the area. Not much to see though. Crates, crates, and look! Over there in the corner! a stack of still more crates. As far as he could tell he was in the basement of some sort of warehouse. How odd. He hadn't even known that warehouses had basements. Seras slowly phased through the wall behind him, completely ignoring the door she'd left through. Something was wrapped in a tarp and slung casually over her shoulder, and she set it gently down on a crate before announcing herself.
"Hey kid!"
Naruto blinked, eyes widening as his gaze shot from the door to Seras and back again.
"But... That's the only door. When did you."
"Nevermind. Now tell me... what do you remember?"
"Ah? Well I had this weird dream just now, about a giant fox in a sewer..."
"Baka! Before that."
"Ah... I'm not sure. I remember running from the mob and hiding in a hole... there was a corpse... And it BIT me! But... that's not possible. It's not..."
"Isn't it? Look at me."
Seras paced forward and sat on a crate, staring into Naruto's eyes. He stared back, confused, but unblinking. Then he felt it. A niggling prescence in his mind, speaking with her voice.
'I suppose I owe you an apology.'
His eyes widened. How had she...?
"... Yes. I owe you my deepest, sincerest apologies. Choices... I believe they have the greatest of values, more than gold or jewels... and with that hunger-crazed act I stole away many more choices than you could understand, and for that I may never be able to ask your forgiveness."
"Nani? I don't get it, I'm fine. It must have been... a nightmare or something, because see? Where I thought I was bit, there's not even a mark."
"Yes... Vampire bites heal extremely quickly if the victim is turned."
"Huh? Vampire?"
Seras sighed and shook her head, leaning back against the wall as she considered this.
"You have never heard of vampires? That's odd... Even given how long my body slept, I would think that there would be some recollection of our kind... even if only in myth and campfire tales. In any case... that is what we are. I for centuries, and you... you have become one of us through that cursed bite. Now... I think an exchange of information is in order. I have knowledge that you will desperately need, to adjust to what you are now... and for the moment, you are the only one I can question."
She scowled heavily, anger shifting the color of her now-gleaming eyes. Naruto swallowed a gulp as he finally connected the dots.
"Wait... that means... that thing... IT WAS YOU?"
"Keep it down brat. And yes. Now..."
Her eyes seemed to flare, and any further protests died within his throat. Upon realizing this, her eyes softened lightly, maternal instincts kicking in despite her nature.
"I'll make it simple, kid. I'm... not where I'm supposed to be. While I was... in hibernation... I was moved quite a bit, and that left me in stasis for far longer than I'd expected. I need to know as much as you can tell me about the history and geography of this town and the surrounding countryside."
She sighed at his obvious look of confusion with her bizarre request. Great. Just her luck that her first Childe wouldn't be the sharpest tack.
"Nevermind. Just hold still, and I'll borrow the information from your head."
xxx
"Alright now, I'd like to ask you to remain calm and explain just what happened out there."
"Of course. Ah... Hokage-sama? I'd just like to make it clear right now that I have nothing personal against Uzumaki-san. After all, he was due to begin in the academy in a few days... It's simply that had I refused to join the revelers, they would have begun with me before moving on to hunting down the boy. They were large and drunk, and outnumbered me by two-dozen to one. Also, while I'm no medic-nin, I do know a few healing Jutsu and fully intended to hang around until everyone had left and insure he made it to the hospital."
"Of course Mizuki... I never doubted you for a second. But if we could get back to the matter at hand?"
"Of course. Thank you, Hokage-sama."
Mizuki leaned back into the wall, brow furrowing as he assembled his thoughts.
"After the rabble assembled, we began following him through the lower residential districts. I have to hand it to him... Uzumaki-san is excellent at evading pursuit. It was like an hour long game of cat and mouse before he was forced to leave the district to seek shelter elswhere. An old man with a cane let us know which way he had left and we followed the trail to a nearby training ground, where it went cold. The mob spread out and searched the training ground until a scream erupted from nowhere, leading us to a small cave that had been previously overlooked. They assembled, surrounding the opening, but were reluctant to enter, fearing a trap. Then..."
Sarutobi gave the shuddering man a minute to compose himself before setting his pipe down and leaning forward.
"Then what, Mizuki? This information could be important. Speak."
"Then... It came out. It was...!"
The Sandaime instantly knew something was wrong, as Mizuki's eyes widened and his sentence broke off into a strangled gasp, staring behind him. Tensing his muscles in preparation to defend himself, Sarutobi slowly turned his head.
xxx
"What the devil...?"
Seras looked around and grimaced. This place was... ugh. She focused, extending a tendril of power into Naruto's active mind and leaving him only a moment to be shocked at the unexpected contact before dragging his consciousness to her side. There was a near inaudible huff of air being shoved aside before he appeared and dropped heavily to the grimy floor.
"Dammit, that hurt!"
"Be quiet and look around kid. A good long look. Seen enough? Now tell me... Why, of all things, is your mindscape a reeking sewer? Most people have nature scenes, or empty cities. A few, who have gone through great trauma, manifest fortresses or dungeons."
"Mind-what?"
Seras sighed and began to explain, not noticing that Naruto, used to his questions being ignored completely, was staring raptly at the walls instead of listening.
"There are two stages of the telepathy I use. The first is more basic, I simply send fleeting thoughts and messages into your head. The second, advanced stage, brings one or both of us directly to your mindscape while giving the illusion of slowing down time in the real world. The setting of the mindscape is heavily dependent on the personality and mental state of the person. For instance, a very young girl's mindscape could be reminiscent of a dollhouse, while a young boy's could be a playground. People with darker personalities typically- ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME!?"
"It's here... that dream..."
Naruto darted off in a seemingly random direction, causing Seras to bite off a curse as she followed somewhat more sedately, muttering under her breath.
"I swear... I wouldn't have dared act like that if my Master was explaining something to me. Then again Master Alucard rarely explained anything, he just told me what to do and expected me to do it on my own... and the poor kid can't even be ten yet, so maybe I should cut him some slack."
She sighed lightly as she turned around another corner, then arched her eyebrow at the sight before her. The kid had collapsed to his knees, staring into what looked like a huge cage. Peering in herself, she had to muscle down a grimace.
"I really have the feeling that I do not want to know how that got in here. It's huge... If the wildlife grows to that size around here... I miss my Harkonnen."
Naruto was beginning to shake lightly as the beast withing the cage began to ever so slowly turn its head and glare at them. Oddly enough, the thing's entire demeanor seemed to scream of fatigue and depression.
"What do you want, two legged leech? Come to gloat?"
After the many things she'd seen and killed, Seras wasn't surprised in the least that the giant fox was talking to her. Naruto, however, brought his shivers to a whole new intensity.
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't follow you."
"You... don't know."
A rasping noise came from deep withing the beast's throat, and after a moment of confusion she realized that it was chuckling darkly.
"A few short decades until my freedom... perhaps a century... all gone. And you have NO IDEA of what you have done... the sheer... overwhelming irony... It is almost too much to bear."
The fox rose to its feet, turning to leer menacingly at them.
"I am the Demon, the great Kyuubi no Kitsune, and now I must suffer this insolence for all eternity! And it's all thanks to you, leech. I do hope you're proud of yourself."
At this point Naruto finally got control of his shivers and spoke up.
"This... this can't be real. You're dead. The Yondaime killed you when you attacked Konoha. You're dead!"
"Foolish kitling... you know nothing. History is written by the survivors, who always paint themselves and their 'heroes' in the best light. I had no reason to attack Konoha... my interests lay elsewhere at the time. But humans are flighty creatures, and fear what they do not understand... they easily leap to incorrect conclusions. Sit down and listen, and I will tell you what really happened that day... You, leech. You may leave... this conversation does not concern you, and what you seek is behind that door."
One of the foxes tails came up, pointing in the general direction of a door, obviously waiting for Seras to leave. She shrugged and didn't bother to even waste time opening the door, phasing through it instead and being instantly swept up into a rapid slideshow of everything Naruto had ever seen and heard.
"Killed your mother... I would trust this to no other... no one deserves this more than you, bastard."
"Demon spawn! Get out! Out of my shop!"
Lying broken, as drunks pissed on his corpse.
Dodging a falling timber... Oh god, it burns.
"You see that boy, honey? I wan't you to stay away from him. He's a very bad boy. If he comes near you, throw things at him until he leaves. The bad boy deserves it."
Wave after wave of sights, sounds and emotions pounded from his brain to hers, pain, all at once, enough to drive a grown man into insanity. She didn't even flinch, waiting for it to finish and then leaving.
"Huh... Impressive. She's no run of the mill leech. Hmph, no matter. Get comfortable kit, this may take a while.
To understand, you have to know a little bit about the nature of most demons. Contrary to human belief, the word demon did not origionally equate to an evil entity, but to a planar traveler. Demon is actually a derogative of the word 'Dimension', making a demon 'one who travels between dimensions. Picture a realm of infinite possibilities... planes of existence where different things happened. For example, say Konoha was origionally founded in the next valley over. Not much would change, but it would still be different, no? That's the most basic example of multiple dimensions. On a different level are the planar types of these dimensions. Human planes, where it is easiest for you humans to thrive, Infernal and Celestial planes for my kind and what you humans termed kami respectfully, Then there are the various elemental planes, and planes of Order and Chaos. For an example, I'd say that somewhere there is a village, very similar to this one, populated only by minor demons, where something similar to the battle I fought here happened... but with a high-level Celestial entity in my place. But I'm of track... in any case I would be classified as an Infernal Demon. Not sure about the leech... you'd have to ask her about her home dimension yourself, as her kind are common on multiple planes.
Now remember... not all beings that hail from Infernal planes are evil. Just like not everything from the Celestial planes are automatically good. It depends on the individual entity. For example, one of my acquaintances, Ichibi no Shukaku, is one of the most foul beings to come into existence. Similarly, Nibi no Nekomata's main powers come from death and Necromancy... but outside battle she's like a sweet, naive three year old. I've also come across some Celestials that can give Shukaku a serious run for his money in sheer absolute evil.
Now we've established demons as beings outside their home dimension. There are three ways for this to happen. First, a being could find a way to traverse between dimensions on its own... an unlikely prospect at best. Second, an entity may be summoned from its own plane to another... like your ninja summons. However, the summoner must always do something in exchange. Sometimes it's as little as signing a contract... although some of the more evil kind demand sacrifices. And third... once in a very long while something will happen that tears an individual entity or group of entities from one dimension to another. That is how I, and the rest of the Bijuu found ourselves in the elemental lands... with our abilities severely lessened. For one... we were locked in our largest forms.
Now you should know that there are three things that almost all entities need to survive. Some form of rest, water, and... food. When we could take smaller or humanoid forms this was no problem, because we would eat in our smallest form and that could satisfy us. Locked in our greater forms though... food became scarce. For some, this was no problem... Shukaku and the Orochi had no qualms with raiding human settlements for food. Those of us that had no taste for humanflesh... we had to move often to keep from over-hunting areas. If you were allowed in the library, you could go look up dates and you'd find that only a week before I passed through the area there was a sudden increase in wildlife"
The Kyuubi shook its giant head before continuing.
"Naturally I could not pass by such a banquet. I chose a route that should have made it obvious that I had no intentions of attacking the village, but I could not go too far out of my way either. Even so, I was most astonished when wave after wave of ninja flooded out to attack me. I held my temper in check for some time... a difficult thing to do with hundreds of sharp, pointy bits of metal richocheting off of you. Frankly, however, targeting my genetalia was the last straw."
Naruto slowly cocked his head to the side.
"What's a genetalia?"
"COUGH cough hack... Er... No questions, just listen to the story. Anyway... once the impudence became simply too much to bear I began to fight back. At first I tried my best to keep the unneccessary death to a minimum but... after a while my hunger and bloodlust took over. It had been several weeks since my last meal, and my anger had begun to get the better of me. I came to the conclusion that if these humans were so desperately suicidal, then they might as well make themselves useful one last time... providing me nourishment."
Kyuubi paused in his story to glance at Naruto, who'd gone rather green.
"Why are you so upset about... oh. I see... what the leech said still doesn't make any sense to you, does it? Well... that's not really something for me to explain, is it? Let the leech tell you about what that bite did to us. Now, back to the battle. Where was I... oh yes. After filling myself a giant toad with a man riding it entered the battle. Gamabunta... one of the summons I mentioned earlier. The battle was long, and I marked him more than once before it ended... in my enraged state not even wondering what the human on Bunta's head was doing... or why he had brought an infant to a battlefield.
So now you know. The truth of what happened on that fateful day. The only question is what happens now. Will you reject the truth, leave and forget this entire conversation? Will you do your best to deny it, striving your hardest to pretend you're just a normal human? Or will you accept it... learn things that only I can teach you about how to use your power. Typical shinobi can teach you how to use your chakra... to a degree. But as long as I am here, your chakra will never be completely human. That will make learning human techniques far more difficult for you. A large handicap... but perhaps you can overcome it on your own. Perhaps you will achieve your dream of ruling these humans with no more than the few things you will be able to memorize and force to work for you. But perhaps not. A true ninja would not make such a foolish gamble.
Don't answer now. This is a monumental decision... one you could regret making on the spur of the moment. Leave and think on it... take as long as you need. Don't give me your answer until you're completely sure... because once you have, there's no turning back. Now go... It seems the leech has started her meal without you."
The surroundings seemed to blur and swirl as they faded away and left him gasping as he returned to control of his body... and bit off a strangled scream as he caught sight of Seras, fangs buried deep within the throat of the passed out drunk she'd brought in earlier.
xxx
It had been surprisingly easy to convince the boy to feed off of the waste of society. While he panicked, Seras had cupped a small amount of blood in her palm and flung it directly at his face, shocking him into silence. A small rivulet trickled onto his lip, and he licked it off. An automatic reaction. After that instincts kicked in, and he eagerly sank his own fangs into the drunk. She'd probably have to deal with all sorts of crap later for cheating that way, but she'd deal with that later. For now, she had to talk with this Hokage person who apparently ran the village. She grimaced as she thought about how useless Naruto's memories had been. The kid was unschooled and uneducated... he knew extremely little, most of which only meant anything within this particular village.
She'd have to look elsewhere for information.
She slowly faded through a final wall, catching the tail end of a conversation that broke off in a strangled gasp. The old man he was talking to slowly turned his head to stare at her.
"H-hokage-sama! It's her, the thing from the cave that killed Uzumaki!"
She didn't see the old man move... not even a blur. He was just there, sitting in his comfortable chair one second and standing in front of her in a battle posture while nearly a dozen of those ninja throwing knives thudded into her chest the next. Gah... flashback to Paladin 'Bayonet' Anderson.
"Well that's a polite welcome. Should I assume that you are the 'old man' that the kid seems to like so much?"
Her words were meant to put the men at their ease, but if anything it had the opposite effect. The old mans grip on the knife in his hand tightened as his eyes went steely and hard, and the other man began to very slowly edge towards the door.
"Naruto? Where is he? If you've hurt him then so help me..."
"Whoah. Easy old timer... the kid's just fine. I would have brought him here, but he was right in the middle of a meal when I left. And while I can promise that I haven't intentionally hurt him... Perhaps it would be easier if I just gave you the information rather than trying to explain it out loud."
Sarutobi's eyes unfocused the slightest bit as Seras sent the relevant information directly to his brain. He spent a moment analyzing it and considering before sitting slowly back down. He nodded at Mizuki, and the petrified Chunnin took that as his cue to scamper off in a panic. He let out a deep sigh... by tomorrow evening there would be hundreds of rumors flying around and none of them would be right.
"So..." He began slowly. "Shall I take it that Naruto will indeed be enrolling in the Shinobi Academy come next week?"
"Well that depends, doesn't it. Do they have night classes?"
"Ah... the sunlight thing. Well I'm sure we can come to an arrangement. Are you sure you can't...?"
"He's only just been turned. For the next few months the light of day will be fatal to him... he's fortunate. Most of our kind can never face the sun again. For him, it will only take a few short years before he can tolerate direct sunlight. It won't be pleasant, but he'll be able to. Now if you'll excuse my, I have to go fill in my Childe on the dangers of his new existence. He must learn to beware of garlic, sunlight, silver, and all that is deemed sacred or he will not survive for long."
She turned and faded once more through the wall, leaving the Sandaime to his thoughts as he slowly puffed away at his pipe.
xxx
Seras slowly faded into the basement, where she was greeted with Naruto's teary eyed, bloodstained face.
"What have you... What have you done to me?"
Slowly she let out an aggrieved sigh as she wrapped her arms around the sobbing boy... her Childe.
Outside, the first faint glimmers of the sun's rays began to peek over the horizon. And somewhere, somehow, an entity in a black suit was watching.
And he was most amused.
xxx
A.N.
Wow. This is actually a lot longer than I'd intended to write it... at first I'd intended the Kyuubi bit to be maybe half the size it is. I just started typing, and Kyuubi kept rambling on and on... Even so, I like it. Anyway, next chapter will probably skip right to graduation from the academy, with a few flashbacks now and then. Speaking of which, I'd intended for him to have the canon team, only to swiftly grow sick of Kakasi favoring the Uchiha and seek instruction elsewhere. I'm debating over it now though. It may still work with him on another team.
Oh, and check out 'Hateful begining' by Horific Albel Nox. The summary isn't as good as it could be, but I like the story... especially what he did with Ino and Shino.
And now, the Omake! Granted, they aren't much.
:Omake 1:
Naruto slumped in shock as he continued to stare into the cage. It was insane... he'd come down into the sewer with Alucard and found something completely unexpected... the dreaded Kyuubi no Kitsune, king of demons.
Against all possible sanity, Alucard had immediately leapt into the fray, disengaging molecular cohesion and reforming himself into his familiar, a gigantic multi-eyed hellhound.
They had been fighting for hours now, and neither showed the slightest sign of slowing down, leaving Naruto to sink into a state of shock outside the cage.
:Omake 2:
Alucard slowly faded into the basement, where he was greeted with Naruto's teary eyed, bloodstained face.
"What have you... what have you done to me?"
Alucard casually slapped him out of the way, crashing into a pile of crates, and started feeding off the second hobo he'd drug down here. The impudent brat would get over it soon enough... either that or he'd slip into a nervous breakdown and either kill himself or do his best to kill Alucard. Possibly both.
Meh... no biggie.