A/N: This story includes a loooot of Japanese mythology (which is expected, seeing as one of the main characters is a God). While doing my research, I have repeatedly sighed and rolled my eyes, because you can't even imagine the number of names Kishi has borrowed from Japanese mythology - dude, like 95% of the Naruto-verse techniques (plus some characters) are called after some deities, gods and spirits. As a result, I was struggling to find names & titles for this story.
But never mind my rambling, this story was definitely a piece of cake to write; you can probably just skip some of the bits in this chapter which concern Shinigami as it doesn't affect the plot - it's just me being a bit philosophical... or something, but I felt the need to make it clear that Shinigami is ancient and wise. And what best way to do so if not by including some boring-ass philosophical stuff? Remember, kids: show, don't tell (my English teacher would be so happy with me right now).
P.S. Excuse some swearing which you will encounter in this chapter - I try to be smart with it and use as little of it in my writing as possible (meh, that's what I tell myself anyway - I swear a loooooot more in real life than characters in my stories do, so there's that). Thanks for the amazing response, guys!
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Chapter Two
~Inside Naruto, unbeknown to him: on the night of Kyuubi's attack~
It was mere minutes after he was called to the human world and Shinigami didn't know where he was. One minute he was consuming Minato Namikaze's soul and the next he was sucked into some sort of vessel. He lived for such a long time and he was used to complete darkness and sometimes he even had to stay without light for years, but it didn't mean that it made Shinigami's experience any more pleasant. Despite what people thought, darkness was worse than death. Death meant the end of one's short life but darkness, darkness meant nothingness - complete silence and isolation.
For him, darkness wasn't anything good because there weren't any souls that he was able to consume; humans called him through a jutsu and he ate two souls (or more, if the one that called him used Shadow clones) at no cost for him - what more could a god ask for? All the other gods that he knew or met even once carried out a very different existence to his and most of them, like Hachiman - his distant relative - had to spent a lot of their time watching humans, unlike himself who spent his time far, far away from humans. It was easier this way - humans were loud and they constantly thrived to fight and kill, enduring into a never-ending hurricane of drama, passion and blood. Most of the souls he ate belonged to those warriors (or ninjas, as they called themselves nowadays) so he knew a lot about their motives and goals.
Some time passed by and the darkness began to slowly dissipate. Shinigami found himself standing in the middle of a long dark-green corridor with hundreds of doors on each side. Looking down, he couldn't see the floor because it was covered in thick smoke. It looked nothing like the temple that he lived in for so many years; the temple that he had a hard time to obtain and take away from a bunch of ignorant spirits. No, his temple was a work of art after he began living there and made a few small changes - it practically screamed 'the God of Death resides here', what with countless shadows all over the place and whisper, constant whisper that would scare off anyone with even a tip bit of sanity left over. Shinigami liked to keep his possessions to himself, and his temple was no exception.
He began walking straight, his long white hair flying behind him as if searching for something. In reality, his hair, just like the rest of his body, was filled with power and it acted as his sensory field, looking out for anything remotely alive. Humans had 'chakra' but Gods were much higher than that - their powers didn't have a label, for they were so diverse and so magnificent that not a single human being would be able to fully comprehend them. Or control them, for that matter. And now, just like always, Shinigami's hair was trying its hardest to find something that would get him out of here. Although he was able to teleport himself out of here in a matter of a second which he did on countless occasions, he wasn't certain about the distance and just how big this building really was.
He kept walking, though he didn't know for how long, not that time mattered to him anyway - it was only a thing created by humans to measure how much of it they have left. Shinigami has noticed long ago that humans were too picky and curious for their own good and they just had to know when, how or where - Gods didn't have those needs due to their immortality. When you are immortal, time is only a concept that would tell you approximately how much is left until your next meal, and Shinigami was no different. He passed by hundreds of doors, his mind at complete ease and his legs moving on their own accord; maybe, a few days passed by, maybe a few weeks, but as some point in time he was finally able to reach something. And this 'something' turned out to be a pair of tall and golden gates with a seal in the middle.
Shinigami wasn't stupid - and he wasn't human, so impatience wasn't in his nature - so he stood good twenty meters away from those gates, his hands at his sides and his eyes set straight on the seal. He knew a lot about them and this seal looked fresh, like it was put in place quite recently, but he could only guess what was hidden behind the bars.
A strong wind from behind interrupted his concentration and made him look up: something was moving behind these bars after feeling this wind. Or, rather, someone.
At first, there was a loud, animalistic roar which shook the ground that Shinigami stood on. It was followed by a strong wave of chakra and Shinigami was certain - this chakra didn't belong to a human. Oh no, he knew this chakra very well: it belonged to a creature that was blessed by Rikudou Sennin, or as he was called by his parents - Hagoromo Otsutsuki. He refused to call it the same way as Hagoromo has named it, for the Nine-Tails didn't deserve to have a name - it was simply part of the original Ten-Tails and had no right to be referred to as a separate being.
Now Shinigami could recall what happened before he found himself in that dark corridor. That human, Namikaze Minato, called him to human world and, by diving the Nine-Tails chakra and placing the Yin half in himself, was in the process of placing the Yang part in his own child - Shinigami knew that because, moments before consuming Namikaze Minato's soul, he could read his true thought and sense his feelings. His sense of guilt didn't seem to have an end, for he was going to seal off a tailed beast inside his own son, and Shinigami could almost taste how delicious his soul would feel on God's tongue, but that's not what happened. Instead, he was pulled forward by some force, and by the looks of it he was sealed off inside this child's body along with the Nine-Tails.
Before trying to free himself, Shinigami decided to check what could be done about the demon fox in this cage. He didn't mind demons, but there was just something about those tailed beasts that made him instantly sick - he just couldn't look at them without thinking about wiping them off the Earth's face. Perhaps it was because they somehow resembled him humans: under all this chakra, there were feelings that couldn't be controlled and sometimes took over the tailed beasts. Shinigami knew very well what the Nine-tails was under its layers and layers of chakra: pure anger and hate. A long time ago, the Kyuubi was full of agony - it was weak and wasn't stronger than its 'brothers and sisters', but then something happened; something that turned its existence upside down and made the demon fox stronger than any other tailed beast.
"Nine-Tails, show yourself," Shinigami said, loud enough so that the Kyuubi would hear him. For some time, there was no response and no chakra, as if the Nine-Tails was concentrating it to the point of where all of its chakra became a burning ball that would destroy everything around.
Shinigami took a few steps closer and stood right in front of the demon's cage, his palm placed safely on the seal and his gaze set straight on it. It wasn't as complicated as he had thought it would be and it would probably take him a few hours or so to remove it, if he wished to. However, that's not what he desired in the least as freeing the Nine-Tails meant inevitable problems. First of all, they had to talk and he had to find out if there was an easy way of getting out of here.
He blinked, and when he opened his eyes, Shinigami stared right into a big red iris with a thin pupil. The demon's mouth was distorted in a mocking sneer which showed his sharp fangs. The Nine-Tails turned out to be far bigger than Shinigami remembered him to be, but it was expected, for he hasn't seen him since the day that the Ten-Tails was divided, and back then Kyuubi was a mere baby, his eyes wide in wonder and his ears always up, curious and listening. No, there wasn't much left from that version of the Nine-Tails, apart from his reddish-orange fur.
"I see that you aren't afraid of me," Shinigami noted coldly and sneered right back at him, thus revealing his own fangs; he hid his left arm behind himself and held tight onto his sword. He knew that the gates will prevent the Nine-Tails from jumping right at him, but a little cautiousness didn't harm. And just in case the tailed beast was getting cocky, in which case he would just cut his tails, one by one.
"If I were to meet you while we were still out there, absolutely free and having our powers with us, I would be," the Nine-Tails admitted out loud and casually laid down right before he case, placing one of his paws over another as if he was relaxing. Perhaps he was, but that didn't make any sense to Shinigami. "As it is, I am here and you are there, so you can't touch me and consume my cha-"
"Why aren't you angry?"
Kyuubi snorted and orange bubbles around him that were filled with chakra began bursting, one by one. So Shinigami was right - Kyuubi didn't lose all of his chakra and, along with having the bigger part of it reside within him, the Nine-Tails could produce small amounts of it outside his body and control it.
"I've been here for week and not to say that I got accustomed to it, but I decided to save my anger for later. I already used up too much of it in the first two days; you can't imagine how awful these gates looked right after my attacks!"
But the things was that Shinigami could imagine it; he had a vivid imagination and he could almost see how all of Kyuubi's angry attacks were directed towards these poor gates. He shifted his right palm from the seal and moved it over the golden bars, his long nails scraping the perfectly looking gates - it seemed that the seal had the ability to recover itself and, if he didn't know better, Shinigami would have assumed that it was only put in place a few hours ago.
"So they do get affected by chakra," Shinigami whispered to himself and licked his lips in deep concentration.
"It would be unrealistic for them to be resistant to all sorts of chakra," the Nine-Tails grumbled with annoyance and scraped his paw over bars from his side. "But it doesn't matter: I will wait and get out of here quite soon. What about you? The question is, have you figured out how to get out of here, seeing as I have no intentions of helping you, cheap imitation of God."
Shinigami gave out a deep, throaty laugh, though it resembled a sound of chains being dragged against each other. He let go of his katana and instead spread his arms like one would do to embrace someone, but the venomous smile on his face didn't mean anything good for the Nine-Tails. Instead of giving him a proper response, Shinigami clenched and unclenched his fists, and a strong wave knocked the Kyuubi right over, despite his weight and the overall magnificent size.
"Say what you like, demon fox, but nature is on my side," he sneered and let his arms drop. "These gates mean nothing to me, so you better answer my questions before something happens. You should know that I can pour God's powers into that seal and make sure you never get out of here."
"You can't do that," Kyuubi growled at him, picking himself up and no longer looking as relaxed as he did moments ago. "You are trapped here, just like me, which means that you don't have your full powers with you."
"On the very contrary, I do. Are you begging me for demonstration? The wind that knocked you off was nothing but a child's play, Nine-Tails." Shinigami began walking alongside the bars, lightly scraping them with his nails, and his face was no longer as demonic as it was seconds ago. "By now, you should have already realised that half of your power - the one that was placed inside the Yang part, that is - was taken away and placed inside Namikaze Minato. You, however, have no chance of regaining it when, or if, you get out of here, seeing as I have consumed his very soul."
The Nine-Tails no longer looked that arrogant - on the contrary, his eyes were finally showing the first glint of anger. A little push in the right direction and the Kyuubi will lose his cool and will run inside his cage like crazy, hitting the golden bars and burning himself in the process. "Lies, you can spill his soul - Hagoromo Otsutsuki installed everything that he knew inside our heads and I know that the Death God can spill one's soul like it's nothing, especially if it hasn't been consumed that long ago."
Shinigami shook his head, his mind finally at ease. The damn Kyuubi didn't seem to know how to get out of here, despite his false statement, or he knew but it would take a long time; although the Death God didn't care about time, he preferred to spend it somewhere else and free, given the chance.
As it was, there was only one thing he could do if he planned to stay here without getting crazy because of the demon fox and his chakra: he had to consume him, just like he would consume a usual soul. The only disadvantage in this seemingly perfect plan was that he had never consumed a demon's soul before, for they didn't have souls per se - they had twisted forms of spirits that didn't fill him up and humans would compare it to a taste of bleach, or something along these lines. There was also a fact that, quite naturally, he never tried consuming a tailed beast before - 'never had an occasion' is what he would say if one of deities would ask him on the topic. Did it taste the same as demon's soul or did it have a note of human-like soul inside? Was it that easy to consume a Kyuubi to begin with?
He likes his lips once again, stopped striding and slowly turned around, his face mere centimetres from the beast's cage. Shinigami was going to be the first creature to ever consume tailed beast's soul - truly consume, though it was only its half; seeing as Minato sealed off the Yin part within himself, however, Shinigami thought that it was accurate to assume that it meant that the Yin part resided within himself, too. Of course, it was only his assumption, but the laws of space meant nothing to him. Even though the Yin part wasn't directly consumed by him, Minato's soul within him meant just that. So, it was only fair that the Yang part was going to join it and 'complete the picture'.
Without missing a beat, Shinigami clasped his hands and rose them in a praying-like manner. He then began to vigorously chant something under his nose and the look of deep concentration on his face made the Nine-Tails squint: he tried to read what the half-assed God was mumbling under his breath. It took him a few seconds to realise that it wasn't some harmless praying and another few seconds to back away, to the furthest point of the cage, roaring and hitting everything around him uncontrollably.
In times like this, the Kyuubi was taken over by his raw emotions and instincts; after dividing the Ten-Tails into nine different tailed beasts, each adopted a particular human trait - unwillingly, of course, as they were assigned to them by their so-called father Hagoromo. And, quite unfortunately, Kurama was the last one to be named, thus the last one to adopt a character trait, and while his 'brothers' and 'sisters' were lucky enough to adopt somewhat harmless ones, he was left with 'anger'. So now, when he knew that there was no way out of here - not with a God that wanted to consume him - he resorted to the one emotion that he all about. Anger.
He trashed himself against the walls, not caring enough about his physical body and knowing damn well that the bruises would be healed in seconds and his bright orange fur will grow right back on; it always did. The Nine-Tails knew that it was pointless, but he began hitting his tails against the nearby walls in the darker corner of his cage, which made sparkles and the mere grains of his demon chakra fly in all possible directions, but never flying behind the bars and never coming anywhere near the goddamn seal.
"Look at you, the supposedly strong Nine-Tails that destroyed villages and killed thousands of people," Shinigami said when he finished his whispering and bared his fangs in a semblance of a smile. "It is far better to be a fake God than it is to be a small fox that doesn't know it's place, Kyuubi. Are you certain that there is nothing you want to tell me before I eat your soul, which will mean that I will know everything that you currently know?"
The Nine-Tails, however, has lost his ability to think rationally and didn't pause even for a second, repeatedly hitting the walls and producing large amounts of chakra without realising. Even if his true self thought about cooperating, the anger that was sealed off inside him prevented the Kyuubi from clearing his mind and negotiating with the almighty Shinigami. Thus, the choice was made, and Shinigami took a few steps back, his sword out of the sheath and pointing at the Nine-Tails.
"Let's dance, demon fox," he said and guffawed and his cackling didn't mean anything good for the Nine-Tails.
Before Kurama knew it, Shinigami took off, his sword and his white garments swirling as he was getting closer to his target. The Kyuubi wasn't certain, but he could swear that he saw a series of cursed sealed on Death God's arms before he, quite unexpectedly, went right through the gates.
"These flimsy bars right here? They mean nothing to me if I don't want them to," Shinigami said before raising his sword and cutting off one of the Kyuubi's tails in a blink of an eye. For the Nine-Tails, everything was a blur; he thought of attacking his opponent, of slicing him into many pieces with his chakra - or his tales, whichever one was more useful - but his physical shell refused to comply. His mind and body didn't act together, and the Nine-Tails could only assume that it was all Shinigami's fault and whatever it was that he chanted made Death God's target completely useless.
Nonetheless, this didn't last for long, for Kurama's anger reached its peak and nothing could have even the slightest control over his body. He struggled to jump and eat the Death God alive just yet, though his mind was full of colourful images, all of which included Shinigami's lifeless body between his teeth, Kyuubi's sharp teeth slicing right through his stomach and his garments being turned to mere shreds that were picked up by wind and were thrown all over the place.
For now, he was only able to use his tails - his remaining eight tails - so he made all of them attack his target at once. Shinigami avoided his attack, jumping over his tails and using their tips as his support in doing so. This was the most frustrating thing about fighting a god: because, like demons, they didn't possess bodies as weak as humans did, gods weren't affected by demon chakra and they weren't burned alive at the single contact with it, instead treating it like a gush of warm water that felt really nice on one's skin.
Kurama swore under his breath and this time made his tails spiral and attack Shinigami from eight different sides, but this turned out to be pointless, too, when Shinigami used his sword as some sort of a magnet and, by pointing right in the middle - where demon's tails wouldn't reach him in time - pulled himself forward, thus ignoring all of the attacks and getting out of the trap just in time. The Death God proceeded to take out tanto in the process of jumping down; when he was centimetres away from falling to the ground, he was able to maneuver and turn himself upside down, aiming for Kyuubi's foot. This made his sword pierce deep into Kurama's right foot and all of his weight rested on the arm that was holding his sword. While the Nine-Tails cried out - it was a cry full of wrath, rather than pain or anything else - Shinigami used his other hand that held tanto to push himself upwards and fly off his foot, leaving his sword behind, good forty centimetres inside the beast's foot.
For Shinigami, it was a matter of being quick enough and cutting off all of Kyuubi's tales before the latter one was finally able to move. When all of his tails were gone, the Death God will be able to consume his soul without the threat of being attack and thrown to the side - which, he knew for a fact, Shinigami wanted so much. And so, he smirked to himself and rushed towards his enemy's tails, his hand holding tightly onto the old-fashioned tanto.
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After he invaded the temple a few thousand years ago, Shinigami decided to keep the very few books that he found inside different rooms to himself. As far as he knew, most of them were written by humans who lived here long before he step his foot inside this temple, for they were long since gone, afraid but smart enough to understand that it no longer belonged to them, and even agnostics and atheists accepted that it was now occupied by someone far more magnificent and stronger than them. He disliked most humans and he didn't think there will ever be anything that will change his opinion about them, but books shone some light on what exactly those human beings were.
They were curious, first and foremost, and this curiosity has meant death for many. They were also rather reserved, and preferred to keep their own thoughts to themselves, although this was becoming less and less true with each century as innovations and ideas became welcome.
But the one thing he did like about these books was their detailed description of humans and their minds; what else would the books, found in temple, be about, really? Cooking?
No, most of them described, albeit quite vaguely at some times and with too many details at other times, human's spirit and how it was connected with one's mind. Shinigami could recall himself chuckling when he flipped through the first few pages of one of these books, having found them absurd for their extremely abstract nature: there was no evidence supporting their ideas and believes. Essentially, humans lived their lives, believing in something that they made up, and then claimed that they understood the world that surrounded them, based on these inaccurate assumptions. It wasn't only the spirit and mind: it was also their concept of time, space and freedom, with the latter two being too complex for simple human minds to even begin comprehending.
Over time, however, he decided to pick another book and began skim-reading, looking for something that would catch his attention. And there it was. The old religion - the one that emerged long ago, centuries before the creation of the so-called chakra - was, for the lack of other words, chakra's birthplace. This religion's ideas and concepts were what later came to be referred to as 'ninjutsu' and 'genjutsu', both of which were simply emerging from chakra. Not only this, but that book also explained - in maximum details - what would happen to the world if chakra were to disappear one day, and Shinigami took a note of it, storing this bit of information for later.
And so it happened that this 'later' was now. He already figured out that he was sealed off inside a little human boy - that is, from consuming the Nine-Tails, which made all of demon's memories and knowledge transfer to him. The seal that was placed on the demon fox was nothing, comparing to the one that the one Namikaze Minato accidentally used on him. Oh no, this seal was eternal. This seal ensured that he stayed inside his boy until his very death and even after that, spending the rest of eternity in his corpse, even after there was nothing left of this human but bones: he would forever be stored in this 'mind hallway', or sorts.
Humans had a saying which implied that humans die but their minds and ideas don't, and Shinigami had a right to say that this was highly accurate: because of this seal, he will always stay inside this particular hallway, although after this human's death it will no longer remain physical, and only the remains of this seal.
As a result, there were two ways to go around this seal: wait until the boy grows up, has kids and all that other stuff that people wanted to have in their lives, and then dies, thus meaning the loss of the physical constrain, so he had one less barrier to worry about and had slim, but a chance nonetheless to break out of here. Of course, he would have to wait until the boy dies in a natural manner, as he simply couldn't kill him from this place in boy's mind - he didn't have enough control over the rest of boy's body.
Another exit from this situation was trickier, but required less time, though it was also quite risky. After consuming the demon's soul (and proving himself right: indeed, his soul tasted like bleach, but like a bleach that was set on fire), there were small remains of chakra inside boy's body, just enough to ensure that he is breathing and his whole body is functioning correctly. In a perfect situation, Shinigami would be able to access all parts of this body, but right now he was residing within boy's mind, thus was only able to more or less control his brain and everything inside it, which included chakra. If he went around this corridor and visited every single room in boy's mind - and there were plenty of those, mind you - he would be able to suck all remains of chakra in boy's mind, which would likely lead to brain death, thus boy's death - exactly what he needed. The only danger of this plan, besides the fact that it would take him at least ten years to go around this whole corridor, was that, by sucking all of this chakra inside himself, he will be left poisoned by the time he gets out of here. Chakra wasn't something that was practiced by Gods, therefore their bodies weren't used to receiving large numbers of chakra all at once; eating souls was a different thing altogether - the God didn't receive any of his victim's chakra as it was lost somewhere in the process of consuming a soul.
However, before doing anything else, he had to go and thoroughly explore the place that he was stuck in for quite some time, starting now. Shinigami hid his sword and tanto, stepped over the lifeless body that once belonged to the Kyuubi and made his way out of the cage by simply going through the gates like there was nothing on his way.
He didn't realise it before - or maybe it happened after he consumed demon fox's soul, he couldn't tell for sure - but this room was flooded with water that would reach average human's ribs; for Shinigami, however, it was nothing more but a little puddle, though he felt the ends of his garment soaking and it was quickly getting annoying. Not that he let his emotions take over him, but he held no desire in having his only piece of clothing soak in some muddy water.
Shinigami left the room, only to stand in the middle of the corridor once again, and began walking, all the while whistling some tune under his nose and occasionally scraping his nails over the walls. His hair stayed down the whole time, so the Death God was certain: he was the only one here, and he could only hope that the boy's mind will expand and reach these corridor's sooner or later.
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~Back to present, Naruto is 4 1/2~
"Eeeh? You have a voice inside your head that keeps talking to you?" Kakashi asked, just to make sure and even stuck his pinkie in his ear as if he was clearing out all the dirt out of it. He was turning nineteen in a few days - which made him one year closer to legal age, thus he could drink and read porn whenever he felt like it - but then again, it wasn't like he wasn't doing all of these things already. There weren't many people who were brave enough to stand up to him and tell him to stop doing those 'immoral' things, so he 'lived his life to the fullest', as some would label it. In reality, though, here he was, an attractive (he knew that much about his physique) ninja that decided to go back to being a jonin a few weeks ago (being an ANBU was just too tiring), so where were all attractive females that kept throwing themselves at him, like they did in Jiraiya-sensei's book? None, nada, exactly ZE-RO. Instead, he was sitting here, completely alone, before a four-years-old decided to join him. Yep, that's what he got for all these years of hard work: some loudmouth kid instead of hot females - not that he was interested in pursuing any, for that matter, it was only to boost his ego. Bah, he knew that he sounded like some creepy old man, but he just couldn't help himself; instead, he blamed his own bad traits on Icha Icha series.
"Tsss, don't shout about it!" Naruto whispered angrily and quickly turned his head around, making sure that no one heard Kakashi's words; he didn't need more glances from adults who thought of him as a low-life as it was - making them think that he going mental wasn't going to make situation any better. "Yeah, I don't think that he's going to harm me, though. He sounded really nice and friendly."
"Mmm-hmm, and so do paedophiles," Kakashi whispered under his nose and took another shot of sake, his vision becoming a blur and he practically slurred his next words - he was already half-drunk when Naruto arrived here and began waving his arms and shouting something like 'wake up' and 'I have to tell you about something huuuge'. Well, that's what he got for being so close with boy's godfather, though receiving sighed copies of Icha Icha before anyone else was a big bonus which made him get used to the idea of having some white-haired kid around himself. "But Naruto, you should understand that it can't be Shinigami: he's the God of Death. He can't be captivated within some human."
"You think that I'm that stupid, Pervert Kakashi?!" came boy's response, which made Naruto eyes widen and he quickly covered his mouth with his hands. He didn't mean to let Kakashi know about the name that he has given him inside his head. Not that he was afraid of punishment - after all, Kakashi wasn't the one to talk or gossip, especially if it concerned telling some that some four-years-old called him a pervert right to his face. The worst case scenario was Jiji finding out, and that wasn't so bad, too. Maybe, a week or so without ramen, no big deal.
Oh, God. What had he done.
"If I was a bit more sober," Kakashi finally let out with a hiccup, "I would have simply turned around and left you alone, calling you a freak or something. But because your godfather writes my favourite series and I don't want to get on his bad side by stealing you away and leaving you in the middle of a big forest, I will ignore it. Just this once, though."
Naruto waved his hand as if it wasn't a big deal, though his insides were screaming 'yahoo' and 'finally having Jiji as my old man led to something besides constant beating from females'. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Are you going to help me, then? What can it be, if it's not a Shinigami?"
Kakashi clicked his tongue and ran his fingers through his hair, which made his grey locks look even messier than before. Ladies would call it 'bed hair', but he resorted to referring to it as a 'I'm-really-drunk-and-I-probably-fell-down-my-chair-a-few-times' hair.
There were a few possible explanations as to what this could mean. He was one of the few who were informed of everything that has happened before and after the Nine-Tails was sealed off inside Naruto, so he knew of what the present Hokage - Sandaime-sama - saw, and that was Shinigami being sealed off inside Naruto along with the demon fox because his own teacher made a few mistakes in hand seals. The council even forced Hokage to run a few tests on Naruto when he was as young as seven months since his birth. Some of them were nasty, and some of them were completely harmless, but they didn't detect anything that was wrong with Naruto, apart from the fact that... he didn't have any chakra and there was a big, black hole inside him.
That said 'hole' was sucking in every bit of chakra that his body was producing, from what a group of Hyuugas could tell, but they weren't completely certain. It seemed that Shinigami was consuming Naruto's chakra, but for what reason? Did the Death God need chakra in order to survive? No one truly knew, for no one has encountered real gods in the last hundred or so years, apart from calling Shinigami via a very specific jutsu.
So maybe there was a Death God inside this kid, and maybe he was beginning to communicate with Naruto through their mental link, but who knew? Maybe all of it was Naruto's vivid imagination. Maybe the Shinigami got away long ago, and only left a small portion of his power behind. Only time and patience will provide answers to those questions, that's what Kakashi thought.
There was also a possibility that it was all Kyuubi's fault, and, instead of showing himself to the poor kid, he decided to communicate with him by pretending to be someone else and thus gaining his trust.
"Perhaps, you felt lonely and your brain decided to create an imaginary friend for ya," was his final response and blinked a few times to stay awake. He knew that it was incredibly tough and unfair to the kid, but Jiraiya, Sarutobi and the other old men in the council prohibited him - and the rest of the village, for that matter - from telling Naruto about the Nine-Tails, or even mentioning it. The Academy and other civilian schools weren't allowed to teach their students about the attack four-and-a-half years ago; council made sure that no history book included this incident, and to a by-passer it would look like the village decided to hide its biggest spider under the rug, pretending it wasn't there although most were aware of it and were told to simply ignore it. When asked about what happened to the Fourth Hokage, parents would patiently explain to their children that he died on a mission. This was the kind of mess that Konoha got itself into.
"I'm serious! And if so, why didn't your brain decide to create a bunch of imaginary friends for you, seeing as you don't have any?"
"Touché," Hatake replied with a smirk and even put his hand over the place where his heart was. "I was hurt right into my heart and don't think that I will ever recover and live a normal life again."
Naruto frowned and tucked white strands of his hair behind his ear - it was getting in the way and he just had to have a haircut, though finding a good barber was rather problematic. Maybe he will have to do what he did last time he need a haircut and Jiji refused to pay for it, claiming that he could do it for him better than any barber. Rather annoyed with his old man, Naruto stole kunai from Jiraiya's pouch and cut his own hair, to the latter's terror. The front of his bangs looked absolutely awful and he had to wear a hat for a few weeks to keep people from staring at him any more than they already were.
"I don't think that you take me seriously, Ka-ka-shi, so I will have to find someone else to talk to about it," Naruto said with a sigh and was just about to leave when he felt steps right behind him and then someone sat on the free chair right next to him. The young boy didn't think that he even needed to turn his head, for his peripheral vision already picked up on the bright-green colour. "Gai-san!"
"Naruto-kun, long time no see!" he exclaimed with the widest smile anyone could master, which earned him a few side glances but he didn't seem to notice them - or he simply didn't care. "I was passing by when I saw you two sitting here like best friends and chatting without me. Now, it is my duty to find what you were talking about and join you! Kakashi, what were you talking about?"
Kakashi resisted the urge to roll his eyes and decided to play safe, "We were just talking about how amazing your green jumpsuit is and how Naruto wants to get a hold of one, but he can't seem to find his size."
"Oh, is that so?" Gai asked with a sincere concern in his voice and then patted Naruto's head in a fatherly manner. "But worry not, Naruto-kun, I will look around and I will find you one of these jumpsuits, or I'm not Maito Gai! And if I won't find any, I will make it myself!"
Naruto gave him the look that would make anyone uncomfortable, but apparently not him. The boy liked Kakashi's 'rival' – in fact, sometimes he asked his godfather to hang around with Gai whenever Jiraiya left for missions and was looking for someone that would babysit Naruto, never mind the fact that Gai has turned eighteen not that long ago. Then again, he was the best option in all categories: he wasn't a pervert and a drunk head like Kakashi was, he wasn't always busy with paperwork like Sarutobi was, and, in the end of the day, he was more responsible than most babysitters in Konoha.
And as much as Naruto wanted that green jumpsuit (damn, it would make him look so great and strong!), he didn't find the needed support from Kakashi, so he had to look for someone else. There weren't many adults that he knew besides these four, plus Inoichi and Noriko – oh, and the owner of Ichiraku: the old man which should have won the award for being the nicest guy years ago. Seriously, he was like a saint!
He jumped up from his seat and, blabbering something about going back and checking how's Jiji doing, left the place in a hurry. As always, he had to concentrate on his task at hand and not on the jerks that kept throwing dirty glances at him; he noted long ago that most of them were young mums and it made no sense whatsoever. Did he do something to their kids? Seriously, what was their problem?
As he was nearing the Ichiraku stand, Naruto thought about other adults he knew, Fugaku and Mikoto – Sasuke's parents; he could recall Mikoto dropping buy a few times in the last year, but only for a tea and she usually left in a hurry. She only brought her husband with her once, and Naruto hoped that she never did it again: the guy was the equivalent of an ice cube! Forget what he said about baka-Sasuke and his stuck-up attitude, he could clearly see who Sasuke picked up on! Oh, he wished that Sasuke was more like his older brother – he was so gallant and nice to everyone, always holding back what he really thought, but because he was so strong no one dared to say a bad word about him. And Naruto liked it! He wished people around him were more like Itachi.
But there was no way in hell he was going to Uchiha's district and seeking out Sasuke's parents! Mikoto was so gentle and understanding, so she would probably help him, but what about her husband? He was probably off to work by now, but Naruto didn't want to try his luck. Besides, in order to reach Sasuke's house, he would have to pass by many Uchiha compounds, which meant evil looks from a lot of Uchihas.
"Hiya, old man, got some ramen for me?" he shouted at the top of his lungs and landed on the only free seat: today seemed to be a busy day for Ichiraku.
"Sure thing, Naruto," Teuchi said with a thumb-up and turned his back to him. "The usual, right?"
"Yep," Naruto replied with a wide smile and began waving his legs and looking around for familiar faces. To his utter disappointment, there were none: everyone seemed to be quite busy lately, and he supposed that it had something to do with the upcoming chuunin exams. Heck, he was excited about seeing them, too! Jiji promised to take him there, but only if he behaved.
"Did he really say that?" he overheard someone say but didn't turn his head, instead listening as inconspicuously as he could and looking straight. "Fuck, he keeps treating us like dirt!"
"Not only us – the Uchihas, too. Have you heard of the recent conflict between the head of Uchiha clan and Sandaime?" another man said with a dark chuckle. "Trust me, it was something! I swear, if there wasn't a bunch of ANBUs standing nearby, they would have already attacked each other. I wonder what that bastard Fugaku is going to do about it… and don't even get me started on his older son! So I have a friend in ANBU and he told me that Itachi treats everyone like shit, completely ignoring their request, and only listening to what Ibiki and Danzo say. It's crazy, I'm telling ya. If it continues like this, I will be the one that ends those arrogant Uchihas-"
"Shhh, don't be so loud! What if someone overhears you? If Sarutobi finds out, you will be most likely captured and you know damn well who's in charge of Konoha's police…"
"Yeah, these Sharingan-obsessed dogs… I don't care who hears me, us Hyuugas are much stronger than Uchihas. Who do they think they are, practically wiping Hokage's ass, patiently waiting for the day when he allows them to take control over the whole village?"
"Now you are just being crazy…"
"Say what you want, but if it continues like this – and remember my words, Uchihas will make their best to get on Hokage's side after recent incident – Sandaime will say something like, 'Well, you have been a great help and I think that you should own this village now.' Or something. I wonder if it's old age that made him so soft."
"And what did Hiashi-san have to say about it? I wasn't present on yesterday's meeting."
"Oh, you know him. He just blabbered about how the main branch should keep together and be strict on the other branches. Nothing new here, exploitation and inequality right there!"
Naruto looked away when the two men shifted and, putting a wrinkly bill on the table and thanking the chef, slowly left. The boy could only look over his shoulder when he was sure that they were gone, his mind buzzing with what has just occurred. Surely it was all just talking without actions, right? Sure, he knew the pure basics of Konoha's history, just as he knew about two clans that were always on edge with each other, but wasn't this a bit too much?
Should he tell someone about what he just heard or was it really all harmless?
Many years passed since Hyuugas and Uchihas went into war and killed as many members of the other clan as they could. Naruto naively supposed that it was just history now, covered in dust and hidden somewhere, so as not to harm others. He tried imagining what it would be like if the two clans decided to go into war with each other once again, and shuddered. The mere thought made him sick: no, surely that wouldn't happen, what with Sarutobi around and everything, right?
"Here is your miso, Naruto," Ichiraku's owner finally said with a wide smile and put a bowl right in front of Naruto. When he didn't hear an excited 'yoshaa, this is the best meal ever, itadakimas', Teuchi raised his eyebrow. "Naruto, is something bothering you?"
The latter only shook his head and stretched his arm to pick up a pair of chopsticks from a wooden cup. "Well, yeah, but you are busy right now."
"You can ask me anything you want, you know that, right? And you can share whatever it is that is bothering you."
Naruto huffed and divided his chopsticks, "If… if you have time during lunch break."
Teuchi nodded and about two hours later he sat opposite Naruto and began carefully listening to his story, occasionally nodding and asking questions.
xxxx
The fireworks turned out to be amazing. Naruto hasn't been to many of them before, so attending one was a big treat; well, that and ice-cream that he was happily eating now – all thanks to Jiji.
He sat on the hill and looked up, with bright green, blue and red reflecting in his dreamy eyes. It was moments like this that he didn't think about the hating gazes on his back, and thoughts like 'just tell them that you are Hokage's son' plagued his mind. Jiraiya told him about a year ago that he can't tell others who are his real parents, though he didn't elaborate why. Maybe it was because public would laugh at him, not believing his words and claiming that Yondaime didn't have a son? Or maybe it was to keep him safe from jealous kids who wished to have parents like his? Still, he was sure that if only he were to tell others about his real parents, they would stop mocking him, and the hatred will stop.
Oh, and there was also that bastard Sasuke. The said guy, by the way, sat a few meters away from him with his family, with his back turned towards Naruto; unlike the majority, he kept absolutely quiet and stared at the skies without talking to anyone. Not that Naruto was staring or anything.
"Oi, Naruto, we didn't see you today," he heard someone say behind him, so Naruto looked over his shoulder and smirked.
"I'm sure you spent the majority of the day eating in one of the take-outs," he replied with a chuckle and barely dodged the hit that was going his way. He almost dropped his ice-cream in the process, and yelled at Choji for almost making him drop his treat. "Hey, do you know how much this ice-cream costs?!"
"Certainly less than the amount of meat that Choji consumed today," Kiba snickered in response but began quickly waving his hands in front of his face, defending himself from Akimichi's angry gaze. "I'm just joking, just toking! Eat as much meat as you want!"
Naruto snickered and quickly finished off eating his ice-cream. He then stood up and him and Kiba began running from angry Choji, leaving a tired and annoyed Shikamaru behind.
The two of them kept running without looking back, and it wasn't long before they reached the quiet part of the city with small alleyways; besides, most people were out in the park, watching fireworks and spending their free time with their loved ones. At the cross, Kiba waved at Naruto and signalled him that he was turning right and motioned Naruto to turn leftwards. The latter one nodded and did as he was told, not stopping for a second – he enjoyed living and didn't want to dispose of his own life any time soon, thank you very much!
However, it wasn't long before Naruto began slowing down and looking around. He knew most of the small alleyways in Konoha, and this one wasn't an exception, but sometimes he got lost in them – like right now. He forced himself to stop and look around, but there were four possible directions. Which one was he going to-
Before he had time to finish his thought, he was abruptly kicked right into his back and he fell to the ground without having to chance to stretch out his arms.
Naruto looked over his shoulder, but that 'someone' kicked him in the face before he got the chance to see his attacker. He coughed and tried grabbing his opponent's leg; all was fruitless – the unknown person kept hitting him over and over again.
"You are a demonic bastard and you should know your place!"
Oh, so it was one of the guys who hated him just because he had horns… The boy was used to been sneered at and people who threw evil glances at him just because of his horns, but that was usually as far as it went: most people were too afraid to lay a finger at him because they knew of his godfather and what he was capable of. The very few, however, that were stupid enough to attack him from time to time usually kicked him a few times and ran away, while he never mentioned it to Jiraiya: he was no snitch.
This, however… this was on the whole other level. This was a full-time beating which he didn't think he deserved in the least. Sure, he wasn't the quiet and nice type, and he would occasionally burst out and shout at people for being so arrogant and rude, but he felt that this beating wasn't about that. No, he was only hit because he was different.
Hit. Another. Again.
The beating continued for another fifteen minutes or so with that guy – and his pals, it seems – hitting his back with their shoes. They didn't even hold him down – and there was no need to, after all, for their hitting was harsh enough to make him lay on the ground and move as little as possible.
Naruto coughed and could no longer control his own arms and legs. The fingers on his right hand kept trembling when he tried to clench them into a fist; his left hand felt absolutely numb, for one of these bastards stepped on it and kept denting it to the ground. The boy couldn't miss the sound of his fingers cracking, and he knew that it wasn't possible, but he could swear that he could feel his blood slowly seeping out of his left hand.
Strong metallic smell hit his nose just as he felt his eyesight blur, and Naruto wanted to choke once again: four-years-olds weren't used to the smell of blood, and he was no exception.
He didn't whine or cry out for help, not anymore. He couldn't find it in himself to struggle anymore, so he simply laid there and felt as his blue eyes began to slowly close.
"A freak with white hair and horns! Demon!"
It took him a few seconds to realise that there was a trail of blood running down his cheek, and by that time he was already on a verge of fainting. There was no one around that would help him, even if he still had power to shout.
'I can help you.'
That voice again… Naruto closed his eyes as tightly as he could and called out for Shinigami.
'How can you help me? You are inside me, so you can't attack them, right?'
'That's true but I can control your body for you and beat them to a bloody pulp. How would you like that?'
'Jiji said that I shouldn't-'
'Forget what your old man said – there isn't a better alternative than to answer to hatred with hate. We don't live in a loving a peaceful world, kid – it's full of pain and suffering and the best we can do is fight right back instead of taking the blow and not hitting back. In a fight, you hit your opponent, right? You should do the same thing in your life. You should fight without holding back, because the moment you do… you are dead.'
Naruto's eyelids lowered, his mind buzzing with whether or not he should allow some God – actually, the Death God himself – to take over his body. The darker side of his mind finally awoke and had no intentions of leaving him alone, whispering awful thing into his ear.
But you want them to suffer. You want them to pay for this beating. Why do they get to get away with it over and over again? And what if their beating will result in you not being able to use one of your limbs anymore? Or worse, you will be in come? Is this what you want? Be a 'nice guy' and allow them to continue their stupid and pathetic lives like they didn't just beat the hell out of some innocent boy? Is that what you want?
No. He didn't want that. He wanted to become stronger and become like his Jiji, so his future plans didn't include being beaten up by a group of some messed up kids.
The boy opened his eyes, his lips barely moving.
"You can take… over my body…"
Shinigami smirked to himself, because everything was going as he planned. It was lucky of him to be able to communicate with Namikaze Naruto when he was still so young as so easy to persuade. The Death God didn't doubt that if their 'connection' formed much later, it would lead to inevitable consequences - for both of them. Maybe - just maybe - he didn't need to kill the kid in order to get out. Oh, yeah, he could work with this...
"For now, sleep, Namikaze Naruto. You need to rest..."
When he woke up an hour or so later, he was surrounded by a pile of unconscious bodies, all of them beaten up so much that Naruto doubted they would be able to move any time soon. Not having enough power to get up, he decided to close his eyes and lay there for a little longer, his mind completely ignoring the burning in his knuckles that were used to nearly kill those kids.
xxxx
A/N: Ya, as you can see, in my Naruto-verse humans need chakra to survive, which makes the whole 'chakra-drained' concept mega serious, and can eventually lead to death.
I like it this way.
P.S. I wrote the end of this chapter while listening to 'SNK – XL-TT (Colossal Titan Theme)'. It's pure goodness, guys, but I'm sure most people are already aware of it.
Reviews are always appreciated and welcome!