A/N: For those who've noticed it, yes, that IS how I'm picking Sages. The timeline is fun, and makes sense in an odd sort of way.

Trigger warning: Child violence. Extremely graphic.

Review responses:

Onijutsu: This chapter should help assuage your gripes – it is decidedly full of Naruto developments.

Alektas: Between Danzo, Baku, and the mystery man posing as 'Madara', there's quite the stir-up in Itachi's life. Add to that his newfound perspective, garnered from the words of the Last Great Sage as passed to his Uchiha progeny, and he's in for a tizzy. Sometimes shady backroom deals with the devil that destroy your extended family are the best you can hope for? As well, there's a small handful of surviving Uchiha children, as well as Itachi's ladyfriend. Sasuke has Itachi's Mangekyo. Itachi has Sasuke's eyes, Mangekyo now as well. This skips that largely tedious area of drama where Itachi and Sasuke basically spend 200 chapters doing nothing for nothing's sake.

TigerzzTail: The last line implies exactly what it seem to – someone else is on their tail! Someone is meddling, I wonder who?

"Normal Speech"
'Normal Thought'
'"Talking within mindscape"'

"Tenant Speech"
'Tenant Thought (rare?)'
*"Tenant Outside Speech (probably never, just setting precedent)"*

"What would you do if all of your dreams came true?
If all your accomplishments were at the tips of your fingers,
and the world was yours to shape as you saw fit?
Is there a chance that this world, hanging in the void,
is the result of such a question?"

- Sage Suzumia

Naruto wondered how his birthday could get any better. 'Presents, training, food, and I didn't even get beat up!' With a change of clothes and some dirt to accentuate his henged hair, face, and height, no one would be able to tell him out from the crowd. 'I wonder if you can get addicted to this?'

'This,' of course, referred to walking down the streets of Konoha, having vendors offer you fried snacks, and watching fireworks without someone trying to shoot them at you.

After leaving Iruka at Ichiraku's, Naruto had gone home to change. He perfected his henge in the mirror, before heading out towards the market district. It was there that he found himself playing a game of tag with the children in the street. Naruto was immensely satisfied when no one came to shoo him off. The smiles he shared with his new friends were bonus.

When a glint caught his eye from an alley, he signaled his egress from the game to the other kids. If what he'd seen wasn't an illusion - 'I wonder... no, it can't be-' It was. His prize lay, sitting on the ground across the street. No one else seemed to notice it - a present from the world, to him.

He scurried as quickly through the crowd as his focus would let him – whenever someone touched part of his henge, it would push on his Chakra. 'I thought it was hard to keep this thing up during tag - and mine's supposed to be sturdier than most?'

If he wasn't careful it could dispel. On top of that, the streets were busy with merchant wagons - and their guards. Besides his delicate henge, he had to make sure none of them thought he was a pick-pocket. It was no small feat, when his disguise was one of a street urchin.

Naruto let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. The blonde had reached the alley, where he'd spied his quarry, without incident. "Well well well, what do we have here? Aren't you a little young to be out all alone?" Naruto spoke to his find as if it were a lost child. 'An entire brace of kunai - "Ouch!" - And they're sharp, too!' He'd seen them fall off a policeman's holster, as the ninja rounded a corner and bumped into someone.

"I'll make sure you find a good home, my preciouses! Right between that Sasuke-teme's flaccid buttcheeks!"

Naruto turned to plot a course through the bustle once more, intent on rejoining the group he'd just left. He remembered a noise behind him, and then darkness.

"Just do your part. I got you the boy, I got you the money. Do not disappoint me."

His vision swam in and out of focus, but Naruto could have sworn that that had been Cat's mask. It was around this time that he noticed an uncomfortable sensation at the back of his head, a dizziness and nausea that gripped him to the core. He lost consciousness once more.

When he awoke again, he was upright - and he couldn't move. Panick set in, and his adrenaline-fuelled struggles drew the attention of the man that not-Cat had been talking to. The guy smirked, in a way that reminded Naruto of Mizuki, right before the silverette did something particularly nasty.

'I gotta get outta here – what can I do? What can I DO?' Naruto scanned the room for anything – anything he could use. The kunai were gone, as were most of his clothes – just his underwear remained. The rest of the room completely devoid of anything – just floorboards and an empty fireplace. The man had been sitting on a chair, but he'd moved closer while Naruto conducted his fruitless search, obscuring it from the blonde's blurry vision.

"Did you know that fire can kill a Demon?" The man's stare seemed to burn a hole into Naruto's forehead. He moved slowly, deliberately towards the blonde - his smile fading as he went. "It's not the only thing, I'll grant you, but it's the best us simple folk can conjure." He pulled a cigarette from his pocket, sticking it in his mouth and lighting it with a match.

The man took a long drag, starting at Naruto as the match burned down. The stench of Sulfur filled the air. "I don't recon you're a demon, kid. But I know you've got one in your gut – and I'll be damned if it gets the rest of me, orders or not." It was then that the blonde noticed a few things – One, he was strapped to a wooden pole, arms splayed and feet buried in tinder. Two, the man was missing an arm. And three, the man with the missing arm had just thrown a match at him.

The fire began slowly, and Naruto's struggles reached a frenzy. The man left wordlessly, a tear falling from his chin. The blonde screamed for help - his voice raw and terrified. Then, the tinder caught - and Naruto's world burst into flame. Time crawled to a stop as the first few seconds of agonizing pain destroyed anything resembling coherent thought for the jinchuriki.

Small snippets of the events that followed are all Naruto remembered afterward. It was mostly blinding pain, bitter resentment, and loss - unimaginable loss for the blonde who's life had finally taken an upward swing. He felt his last remaining strength ebbing away, the world dimming as smoke filled his lungs, and the skin on his legs blistered.

And then, a spark of resistance – perhaps some leftover adrenaline, some desperate reserve – a sudden clarity burst through the shroud of fog in his mind.

He took stock quickly, unsure of how long he could remain conscious, but grateful for the time he had. 'I can't feel my legs. My arms are still bound, so hand-seals are out. There's nothing in the room but a chair. Can I?' He gathered the Chakra. He knew the shape he needed - for he thought of the molding process in shapes - but with the seals inhibiting his reserves gone, he didn't think he had the control.

Regardless, he tried. "Kawrmi!" his voice was horse, and blood from his lips dribbled over his chin. He cried from the pain of splitting skin, but still, he tried again. Forcing Chakra to his lips, imagining the shape of the word as he spoke it. 'It's useless if I can't get the name out properly. Without the seals, it's the closest I can get to a focus!' He bullied his mouth into the movement it needed to make, cajoled his lungs into one more cry. 'I need this – I can't give up! I can't fail!' "Kawarimi!"

The chair wobbled, and he felt the tug around his navel that signaled he'd almost had it. His tears evapourated in the heat, but he swore on the Hokage's Hat he'd do it. "DAMNIT! KAWARIMI!" Chakra exploded from him, extinguishing the fire in a smothering blanket. His arms ripped from the rope bindings, lacerating his burned wrists.

His feet followed, embers exploding from where they'd been buried under the wood. He collapsed on the ground where there had once been a chair, now kindling as it smashed against the thick post that had held the blonde.

He lay twitching, as his body began to mend.

'Wh... where am I' Naruto had awoken in a drainpipe, and claustrophobia had immediately kicked in. He'd struggled to breathe, struggled to move – his arms were bound by his sides, paralyzed by the pipe's walls. His nose was crushed, and his mouth partially blocked by some trickling liquid.

As he thrashed, the walls gave out - ever so slightly at first, but then growing out to his fingertips, out beyond his reach - expanding to a comfortable space he could rest in. He sat then, for a time, in the trickle of water that seemed to come from somewhere ahead.

In the small bulge of pipe that he'd somehow created, Naruto took stock of his situation. For maybe five minutes - it could have been five hours - he regarded the cold steel surrounding him, the rivets and joints that bulged at his touch. Then he set out. Something instinctual told him that this was not somewhere he should be, not somewhere natural or wholesome.

At first, he had to enlarge the pipe ahead of him - it was too small to crawl through, and the water was little more than a trickle. Pipe and water both grew, however - and soon he didn't have to do anything in order to walk comfortably. Towards the end, the pipe's ceiling was well beyond his reach, even if he jumped - and many smaller openings branched off from it.

A sound like a heartbeat reverberated through the air, echoing from the pipe ahead. Naruto stopped, for with the sound, a ripple had gone through the water – and from up ahead, a raging wave cascaded towards him. When the water finally caught up to his tactical withdrawal, it was barely knee-high and only knocked him off his feet for a second.

Still, he felt drawn in the direction he'd just ran from – and after timing a few more waves, the blonde managed to make his way to a large chamber by ducking into branches, or hiding in quickly-created alcoves as the rushing water passed.

His pipe ended in an opening along the side of a smooth black wall - a chamber, circular and immense in its proportions. This wall was lined with white Kanji, each as tall as a person. He could barely see the other side, only a thin white line on the horizon giving it away.

The floor was similarly black, reflecting no light. The ankle-deep lake above it was crystal clear, and gave the impression of walking on glass over an endless void – further supported by the lack of ripples as he waded towards the chamber's most interesting feature.

At its very center, larger than a mountain, impossibly monumental, sat a cage that could hold a training ground, and still have room for a mansion. Its bars were pure gold, its body was of a deep red wood, creaking in a way that spoke volumes about its strength.

And in the very center of its barred face, where two great hinged doors met, an impossibly tiny tag sat. The tag merely contained the Kanji for "Seal", seemingly mocking the unbridled power within.

For inside the cage was the source of the waves.

No words exist that can put voice to the pain-cries of the Nine-Tailed Fox. To say, "It screamed," or, "It howled" would not even be factually accurate, in any case, for it did neither of those things. As Naruto would later describe it, 'He was letting the World know how to express his anguish.'

One thing anyone could agree on, however: the noise was deafening. Even at the edge of the chamber, it seemed to split Naruto's ears open.

From the cage, a dome of energy pulsed outward, erecting a wall of water in all directions. Naruto quickly found the floor of this chamber to be as malleable as the piping – and erected a crude lean-to in his defense.

As if a switch had been flipped, the noise stopped. The waters settled.

"WHAT IS IT, JAILOR? SHOW YOURSELF!"

Naruto nearly blacked out. The words had not been spoken, had not been noise like before. Instead, they had been etched into his brain, as if by a particularly large and sadistic claw. The blonde could only stare - at first in fear and shock, and then in pity - as a mountain shifted to face him from inside the cage. Without having moved, Naruto found himself right in front of the beast. Glimpses of something played through his head.

Each strand of fur, spun gold.

Each tooth, red with the blood of its enemies.

Claws, filed by supplicants and encrusted with rare gems.

And nine tails, nine harbingers of unimaginable destruction.

He shook his head, vision returning to the present. Now, the Fox lay low to the cage's floor. Its fur, patchwork and melted. Each tooth, stark white in contrast to its tight, blackened skin. Its claws, broken and smoking, its tails skeletal and limp. Naruto couldn't see its legs, but assumed they must be in pretty rough shape.

"YOU DARE COME HERE TO GLOAT, PEASANT? TO BASK IN MY PAIN EVEN AS YOUR OWN IS EASED AT MY EXPENSE?"

Finally, Naruto rallied. "'Excuse me?'" It was then he remembered that he had just been burned alive - at a stake, none the less. "'How come you're all jacked up? How come I'm not? Is that what you meant by 'easing my pain'? Can I do anything to ease yours?"' The blonde's innocence was not lost on the beast, nor was his ignorance.

To his credit, the Fox played his hand smoothly. "Just remove the seal, kit. I can't get it with my claws, and the pain..." Though the words in his head were pleading - mesmerizing, even - they still put Naruto on edge. Besides, somehow, Naruto didn't think he could remove the seal, even if he could be convinced that it would be a good idea. "'Err... I was thinking more like some ice for those burns maybe? Sorry, I'm not very good with booboos, I usually heal before I need medical attention."'

He scratched his neck as he spoke. It had begun to prickle as the Fox's gaze bore into him - and then scrambled backwards, his fear remembered once more as the Fox reared and stood, tails wrapped around it in a dome of pure power.

"FOOL!"

Naruto was forced to recreate his cover from the floor, as the noise - and the waves - resumed. They were joined by a nexus of wind in the center of the chamber, stirring water up into a spout that never managed to travel far from the cage.

Eventually, Naruto rolled himself up in the darkness, using the floor like a blanket, and fell asleep to the rhythm of crashing waves and whirling winds.

A/N: Please review or PM :) I love talking with my readers.