Naruto Ōtsutsuki-Namikaze was an energetic five year old boy. Even among ninja-born children, who were healthy and energetic by nature, Naruto could just go on and on. Aside from that, and aside from his odd appearance, he was a fairly normal child.

Well, normal if one ignored the fact that he'd often stop, stare blankly for a moment as he listened to something only he could hear, and then giggle. Or that he would always refer to his father as "Minato-tousan" and someone no one else could see as "Kurama-tousan." Or the fact that he often whined about being "hungry" for something no food would satisfy, but couldn't quite say what it was that he hungered for. Or the fact that he radiated enough demonic chakra at all times to have the presence of a chūnin that never bothered with hiding their chakra.

So in that regard, he wasn't actually all that normal. Not that it mattered all that much to his father. Minato smiled as he thought of the eternally upbeat boy, who with barely any effort could make anyone, even the most depressed of individuals, happy. His smile really was quite infectious.

That smile was smashed off his face as one Itachi Uchiha burst through the door. "Hokage-sama! Something's wrong with Naruto! At the Uchiha Compound!" The last syllable had barely finished emerging from Itachi's mouth before a strong hand grabbed his shoulder and flashed them both to his home.

They arrived to find Mikoto holding down Naruto, who appeared to be having an epileptic fit, while a crying Sasuke looked on from a short distance away. Red chakra bubbled around Naruto in two distinct layers, both of which were burning Mikoto's hands. "Naruto!" his father exclaimed.

"Minato-sama! I don't know know what's going on!" the distraught woman exclaimed.

Minato pushed her aside and grabbed his son's arms. The burning pain was staggering, but Minato grit his teeth and struggled through it. For a second, Naruto relaxed, allowing Minato an instant to adjust his grip. In that moment, he placed his hand on the very visible seal on Naruto's abdomen. "Kurama!"

"Let go, you idiots! Naruto needs this, and you're only hurting yourselves!"The Kitsune's disembodied voice reverberated through Minato's head loudly enough that Minato complied without hesitation. The moment he did, Naruto stopped struggling, and a second later, the outer, thicker layer of chakra vanished.

Then, an instant later, Naruto screamed. His back arched and his claws dug into the ground. His body stretched and grew, tearing through his small clothes, while from his shoulders, four more arms sprouted. On his head, hair receded from the back of his head and two more faces took its place. In each of their mouths, his teeth, especially his canines, elongated into fangs. His ears, now three in total, stretched out into elongated points. And from the base of his spine, a thin, barbed, lizard-like tail erupted out.

All of that would take a while to say, but in actuality, the entire transformation lasted less than a quarter of a second, and the moment it finished, the remaining chakra around the boy vanished as well. Naruto groaned, opened his eyes, blinked his six eyes once, then twice, and then looked up at his father. "Oh, hi Minato-tousan!" He paused. "My voice sounds weird."

To the people around him, it did sound weird, as it was spoken with three different mouths facing three different directions, all talking in perfect sync, while the voice coming out of each mouth sounded like that of a twelve year old, not a five year old. But to Naruto himself, it was even weirder, since he was hearing it with a different number of differently shaped ears.

Minato brushed aside the shredded remains of Naruto's shirt and placed his hand once more on the seal. "Kurama."

The bijū paid the Hokage no mind, and instead addressed their son. "Congratulations, Kit. You've awoken your true form. I'm so proud of you! How do you feel?"

"Heheh! Thanks, Kurama-tousan! I feel really good!" Naruto replied in his head, which his human father heard through the seal.

"Good? Are you sure?" Minato asked. "You looked like you were in a lot of pain."

"No, it felt good!" Naruto assured him.

"For demons, regaining their true forms after a long time is quite pleasurable, much like that of a lonely man and his hand," Kurama replied. The bijū snickered as he felt Minato seeth at the fact that he was using innuendo inside of an "innocent" child's head, only for Minato to then recoil at the fact that Naruto was laughing as well. "Oh, don't look so aghast, Minato. Your wife told you how dirty my tales were, and I'm not going to censor myself in front of the only appreciative audience I have. I already made sure that he knows the ins and outs of sex, pun completely intended. If anything, you should be happy that I saved you the trouble of giving him 'the talk.'"

"Ugh," a disgusted Minato said, "Ignoring the fact that you're corrupting my son worse than Jiraiya-sensei ever could, and we will be talking about this later, what just happened and how do we reverse it?"

"Reverse it? You don't reverse a demon's awakening. Sure, he could learn to transform back into a pure human form, but that would be... Hang on." Kurama paused for a second. "Minato, I want to confirm something real quick. Meanwhile, let Naruto-kun up so that he can explore his new body. In case you've forgotten, you are pinning him to the ground at the moment." Minato, realizing that he was, in fact, pinning Naruto down, stood up and then helped his suddenly larger and six-armed son up.

Naruto, for his part, took only a few seconds to get used to the vastly different perspective and weight distribution before he was suddenly running towards Sasuke as if he'd always been that way. "Sasuke! Sasuke! Look at these!" He waved all six arms around in a way that made the onlookers wonder how he was coordinating all those limbs.

Meanwhile, Minato looked over at his late wife's best friend. "Mikoto, your hands? Are they alright?"

"Yes, they don't hurt..." The Uchiha matriarch trailed off, realizing what she was saying. She lifted her hands up and found none of the blisters that had been there only a minute ago. Looking at the Hokage's hand's, she saw that he too had hands in perfect condition, despite the flesh being cooked off by the corrosive chakra of both his son and the kyūbi. "Now that is interesting."

"I would still advise getting your clan medic to look at them," Minato advised. "I'll be having my own hands checked as well."

"If that's what your boy has in him normally, imagine his enemies when he turns his power against them," Mikoto replied.

"That won't be for a while yet," Minato remarked. He glanced at the two young boys, who had somehow dragged Itachi into helping Naruto play three games of cat's cradle at once. "He hasn't even begun chakra training yet; I've been hesitant, seeing as strange things like this could pop up at any time."

"Really?" Mikoto asked, surprised. "I was under the impression that he'd already started chakra training."

"Kurama," the Fourth muttered. Pretty much since square one, Minato had felt that Kurama had been treating raising Naruto as a game. Who could teach Naruto the most? Who could make him the strongest? Who could tell him the best stories? Who could be the best father?

Who could make Naruto love them the most?

It felt like another man had barged into his life and was stealing from him the only piece of his wife he had left, the son they had together, and in a sense, Minato was right, and rightfully jealous. Minato knew that. Minato also knew that Kurama was obsessed with making Naruto as strong as he could, in every way possible, so that the child could guarantee his own happiness. If Minato ever did something in his jealousy that hurt Naruto, he knew that the fox would do everything in its power to rob him of Naruto.

Of course, if he ever did anything to hurt Naruto, Minato knew that he wouldn't be able live with himself, nor face Kushina in the afterlife.

Minato was suddenly pulled out of his musings by his son's voice. He looked over just in time to see four of his son's six arms retract into his body and the extra faces to disappear. Then they reemerged, and then vanished once more. "Look what Kurama-tousan showed me!"

Minato smiled. "Oh, good job, Naruto!" He walked over to the boy and placed his hand once more on the seal.

"Minato, I was right in my theory. The extra arms and faces are a modified part of the Asura path of the rinnegan, which has been incorporated as one of his three demonic abilities. He can add and remove extra body parts at will, and modify them into organic weaponry. The only changes here that are a part of his proper demon form are his increased size, his teeth, his tail, and the various internal changes," Kurama explained. "And I can teach him how to hide those as well."

"I see," Minato replied, quite honestly relieved. Though he had no illusions that Naruto would one day become a ninja, and that even now, his chances of having a normal childhood were slim-to-nothing, Minato still wanted one for his son.

Naruto, however, picked up on a different part of that explanation. "I have three demonic powers?!"

Kurama chuckled. "Yes, Kit, although I'm not too sure what your others are yets. I'll find more out as you grow up."

"Aww..."

Minato pulled his hand away. To the three Uchiha's, he said, "It seems that everything's under control now. Mikoto-san, Itachi-san, Sasuke-kun, I ask that you keep discreet about what you saw here today. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," the three replied.

"Good. Now hang on one second." He vanished in a flash, and then returned a moment later with a bundle of clothing. "Naruto, here's some of my clothing. It'll be really big on you, but at least you'll have something to wear," Minato remarked, motioning to the tatters of his son's clothing.

"Nonsense!" Mikoto exclaimed. "I'll just let him borrow something of Itachi's for now."

"Thank you very much. Then I must be off for now. Mikoto-san, I'll be back to pick up Naruto at six, like we planned."

The Uchiha matron crossed her arms. "Are you sure you don't want to stay for dinner? You never say yes, even though you're always welcome."

"Sorry again," Minato replied, flashing her an embarrassed grin before vanishing in a literal flash.

"That man..." She shook her head. "Come on, you little monsters. In you go," she motioned for the boys to go into the home. When Itachi tried to leave, she snagged his clothing. "Where do you think you're going, Itachi-kun? You haven't been spending enough time with Sasuke-kun; he's been missing you." Itachi didn't say a word, nor did he change his expression. He instead just turned and walked towards the house alongside his mother, yet she could feel him eagerly pulling ahead, if only slightly.

As for Naruto, as he was walking into the home, he could hear his demon father whispering into his mind. "Naruto, I lied to your father. I do know what one of your other powers is, and what the third might be. I lied because they should be your secret weapon. All great ninjas have secret weapons. To train them, we're going to have to get you away from Minato and the other ninjas, a challenge in and of itself. Do you think you're up to the task?"

Naruto gave his silent agreement. He was ready, and he trusted his fox-father.

Despite Kurama and Naruto's best efforts, it took a whopping four years to train up the latter's body and cultivate his reputation enough that they actually could make a feasible getaway. Four years of setting increasingly elaborate pranks, four years of causing trouble, four years of running every which way through the village, four years of mapping every last nook and cranny in the village so that he could give his pursuers the longest chase possible until he was eventually caught. He wanted the ninjas of the village to think that they could actually catch him without needing to involve his father every time, and he needed his father not to respond instantly to every reported incident.

Then, when Naruto started the academy, he started skipping whenever possible. He never skipped test days, so that he could at least maintain his grades, but at every available opportunity, the young demon ditched class. Between his own efforts, the efforts of a cheerful Kurama, and the labors of an irritated Minato, Naruto managed to keep his grades in the low-middle range of students — nothing spectacular, but clearly in no danger of failing, either

But that was all according to plan. He could have been the top of his class, the shining example of a prodigy with all the power his lineage granted him. Instead, as Kurama put it, he was "a true ninja. One that excelled at making others look away and not look underneath the underneath."

And so, one day when Kurama's supernatural empathy told him that their pursuers were having a particularly bad time with all the traps they'd set, the great fox gave his son the all-clear. Naruto, grinning, put on a burst of chakra-enhanced speed and headed towards the village wall.

The moment he was out of sight of his pursuers, he ducked around a corner, made a single hand seal, and then resumed his mad (and highly visible) dash to the wall. Or rather, his clone did. The real Naruto also made his way to the wall, but under a henge and taking a slightly different route which ran parallel to the clone's.

When they arrived, the clone set off the final trap: an itching powder smoke screen. Using that as a diversion, the real Naruto dove into a hole his clone had been carving out in secret and shifted into his demon form. With his extra limbs and strength, he quickly burrowed under the wall while sealing the path behind him. The moment he popped out on the other side, Naruto banished the extra limbs, henged into a non-descript adult, and zipped into the forest as fast as his now longer legs could carry him.

Meanwhile, his clone allowed itself to be caught. Unlike a normal shadow clone, the original Naruto knew this in real time. Because he was a demon, every bit of his chakra was still "him," meaning that, technically speaking, the clone was just as much the real deal as Naruto was, and if Naruto's flesh body was killed, he could continue living on as a living chakra construct, like his father. But that also meant that he had to see through the clone's eyes at all times. And while the clone was autonomous enough to move without hitting things, it did not possess a true copy of his consciousness, meaning that Naruto had to control it like the puppeteers of Suna.

That by itself would be fine; Naruto found that he could easily control up to five clones at a time before they became too much for him to handle. But, if he or any of his clones grew their Asura faces, each additional face meant that one clone had to be sacrificed. If both he and one other clone went all out, that was it; Naruto had a maximum of only a single fully-capable clone at a time. Thankfully, because of the sheer density of his demon chakra, that one clone felt just as solid as he was, and could probably have a limb ripped off without dispelling.

Minato, of course, knew none of this. He didn't even know that Kurama had taught Naruto the shadow clone jutsu. But that too was part of the plan. How would they get away if Naruto's blood father thought there was more of them out there? Both he and the clone had a hiraishin marker on their backs.

So, as the demon and the bijū escaped the village, the clone stayed behind to be lectured at by Iruka-sensei, then get dragged back to class, and then to fall asleep next to Shikamaru, as usual. To all the world, it appeared as if one Naruto Namikaze was being his usual, troublemaking self. It was all according to plan.

Naruto, the real one, was flying high in the sky using a combination of the chakra jets and the fleshy wings the Asura path allowed him to grow. Together, they let him travel at hundreds of miles an hour, and with his father lending him chakra, Naruto could hold this flight for hours.

He didn't, however. Upon finding a small, remote village, barely a tenth of the size of Konoha, Kurama ordered Naruto to land nearby. Naruto nodded and complied. As soon as he touched down, the boy unsealed a brown cloak and a bamboo hat from a storage scroll he'd brought. Both were sized for his demon form, which now stood slightly taller than the average adult, and the cloak had more than enough room for all six of Naruto's arms to comfortably fit inside.

As he changed, he asked his father, "Are you finally going to tell me what my demon powers are, Kurama-baka? I've been waiting three years for this!"

"Quit your whining, Kit. Yes, I am. The only reason I didn't tell you sooner is because you would have been tempted to use it in the village, and a single slip up would spell disaster for us. You need to have the first completely mastered and the second at least controllable before I let you back into the village. And that also means that your clone cannot use these at all until we return. Is that perfectly understood, Naruto?"

The blond-haired demon nodded.

"Good. From what I know and from what I have observed, these are your powers: Emotional Projection and Power Absorption."

"What! That first one sounds lame!" Naruto whined to the demon fox.

"Quite the contrary; given enough time, I think that it could be your most devastating ability. Demons have powers that are corruptions of their parents. I can sense emotions from all the way across the continent, and at close range, I can nearly read someone's mind based on their emotions alone. I think you might be able to project your emotions just as far, and at close range, have something akin to mind control."

"Wait, really? That's awesome, dattebayo!"

"Except that you live in a village full of psychics - the Yamanakas - who not only might be able to sense it, but counter it. Thus, we need to train you in power, skill, and most importantly, control, as fast as possible."

Naruto nodded, realizing how much trouble he could get in if people knew about his secret techniques. "Plus, you always said that a good ninja is one that makes you look the wrong way. If they never know I can do something, they'll never investigate further!"

"Exactly." Inside the seal, Kurama nodded sagely, though his massive grin mirrored his son's. "And when I'm done with you, you'll be able to grab Lady Luck by the breasts and motorboat your way to good fortune, and she'll be happy to let you!"

Naruto snickered. "Or maybe even Tsunade-baasan."

The kyūbi echoed his son's snicker. "Or even her. Now, your emotional projection ability has a passive effect, which grows stronger when you're in your true form, and an active effect. The same is true of your power absorption, which is a bastardized version of my power amplification ability. I amplify myself, you take others' power for yourself. The thing is, I don't know the extent of it, or how it will manifest when you actively use it. So far, you've been passively munching on my chakra since you were five, and it's been growing your reserves and giving you a stronger fire and wind affinity, but beyond that I have no idea. Well, maybe some ideas. I can tell that there's an association with your hands and mouths, but I feel nothing else."

Now fully dressed, the adult-sized Naruto strolled at a civilian's pace towards the town. Despite being only eight years old, his demon form could, without the aid of disguises, pass as a feral-looking eighteen year old. But, if one were then to get a good look at his ears or teeth, they would likely say that he looked more like an oni than a human, for his both sets of features were long and pointed. They'd be totally correct in that assumption, too; Naruto was indeed an oni.

As he entered the town, Naruto's purple eyes, henged to look red, sought out a good location for him to practice. Kurama instructed him that he needed to be out in public. Finding a dango stand on a fairly busy street, Naruto ducked inside while mentally cursing the fact that it wasn't ramen. Still, it would suit his needs. On Kurama's instructions, Naruto readied his chakra and set out trying to manipulate people into giving him as much free food as he could eat.

Back in Konoha, the clone drooled on his desk. It was in part because he was tired and didn't want to listen to Iruka lecturing something his fathers had already covered, and partly because he could taste the food the original was gorging himself on, and yet wasn't having his own hunger satisfied. In fact, it got so bad that his stomach roared loudly, interrupting the class.

Blushing in embarrassment, the clone sat up and wiped the drool off his face. Chōji, who was sitting on the opposite side of Shikamaru, silently and without prompting, slid the clone a bag of chips. Naruto picked them up — barbeque flavor — and nodded his silent thanks to his big-boned acquaintance.

"Now, if someone is done interrupting," an irritated Iruka quipped, causing most of the class to snicker, "We can get back to the Second Shinobi World War."

Naruto, the real one, was honestly surprised at how effective his technique had been. Not only did he get all the food he wanted, but by the end of the day, he had several women (and the occasional man) draping themselves all over him trying to please their "Oni-sama." Although, the way some of them were saying it, it sounded like they were calling him their "big brother" — oniisama — rather than an oni as he'd introduced himself. Naruto found it weirdly pleasing, while Kurama ended up laughing his ass off. And everywhere Naruto went, good cheer followed, eventually growing into an impromptu party, and then city-wide festival.

Of course, all good things must come to an end. In this case, it was Kurama who ruined Naruto's fun. "If we did this in Konoha, you'd be in so much trouble. You have no control. You have no subtlety. Everything you did ended up feeding back on itself. I wouldn't be surprised that if you dropped your pants, the whole town would end up in an orgy. That'll get you killed or sealed."

And just like that, the entire city ground to a halt as a wave of fear and paranoia crashed down on them, originating from Naruto himself. Emotions, being the contagious, self-perpetuating things that they were, only grew stronger when people of similar emotional states came together. A city in fear tended to exacerbate its own fear, and within second, people were starting to scream and panic.

"Kurama-tousan!"

"Calm them down, Kit. Think happy thoughts!" the fox demon yelled in Naruto's mind. However, he too was affected by Naruto's power, and his own panic, combined from the radiant panic of everyone in Naruto's range made the kyūbi nervous as well. Naruto heard that nervousness in Kurama's voice, and it did nothing to help calm him down.

Instead, Naruto bolted. With chakra-enhanced speed, the demon sprinted out of the small village and hid among the trees. Only then did he start to calm down. "What the hell was that?" he asked aloud.

Kurama, also calmer, answered, "You were still channeling chakra when I told you that. I think you may have accidentally hit yourself with your own technique. Come on, let's move to another village. There's no way that that's not going to be discovered by the leaf ninja; we don't want to be here when they find out. Meanwhile, make your clone visible in Konoha. Solidify your alibi."

Naruto muttered that he understood. Shedding the cloak and hat he wore and storing them away, Naruto then grew and spread his leathery wings. He shot up into the sky, and didn't look back.

That was hardly the last time Naruto had escaped from the village. In fact, his real body often spent more time away from the village than it did inside it. He liked the freedom of flying through the air, going wherever his whims guided him. Lately, his home village seemed more and more restrictive.

Currently, the twelve year old demon was prowling the streets of Tanzaku-gai as the dusk gave way to night. He was in his demon form, as usual, though he was henged into the form he had dubbed the "Party Demon," which shared his true height of a whopping nine feet tall. After a few close-calls, Naruto also kept his limbs limited to two, having vowed never to use the Asura path abilities in sight of another.

He'd gotten better at covering his tracks as well. With a clone at home listening to his father and snooping around whenever possible, Naruto had a good idea what the ninja thought of him, and what they knew. He also knew which towns to avoid, and when to lay low.

They were searching for him, Naruto knew. People didn't like it when the found that they had been manipulated out of food, drink, goods, and services that they should have been paid for. Even if he did leave them feeling good, theft was theft. Not to mention, he'd stolen quite a lot of money from the yakuza and criminal businessmen like Gatō.

But all that paled in comparison to the last reason. If the villagers of Konoha could live with a clan of mind-readers, they could probably live with a mind-controller. But this? They'd be after his blood. Whether they wanted to slay him for his crimes or lay him for his babies, Naruto wasn't quite sure. But at the moment, he didn't care.

He was hungry, and he was going to feast.

Spotting a few men in the distance hanging out under a street lamp, Naruto spotted his chosen targets. Two arms sprouted, one from each shoulder, and slid together under his cloak, where they formed an upside down, modified snake seal. Silently, he activated his first personal technique (Demonic Art: Silver Tongued Bastard) and then strolled towards the men. "Hey there, guys!" he called out.

The men turned to look at him. In a second, his jutsu took hold. Their faces brightened, as if they were seeing a good friend for the first time in years, completely ignoring the fact that they honestly had no clue who the giant of a man they were looking at was. "Yo!" one of them replied back. "Come and join us."

"I'd love to, but I'm actually in a little bit of a rush with something. I know I'm really in no position to ask, but could I trouble you for some help?" Naruto grinned when they agreed. Under the effects of his jutsu, people never suspected that he was lying to them, nor did they bother thinking of reasons why they shouldn't help the man they (inexplicably) thought fondly of. Naruto's power meant that he didn't set off their subconscious alarms. "Thank you so much! This way."

He lead the three men into a secluded alleyway that was dark and hidden from prying eyes. Naruto licked his lips. "I'm so glad I found you. I'm just so hungry."

The thirteen year old genin known as Naruto Ōtsutsuki-Namikaze wanted to hurl. However, he didn't let it show on his human form's face. Any shown weakness, and Inoichi Yamanaka would pounce. He'd only become an official ninja that morning, so there was no chance in hell that he'd make a fool of himself now.

He'd been sloppy, far too sloppy, and now he was as good as caught. Mentally, he was kicking himself, while in the seal, Kurama fumed. And it was all because of his power.

Demonic power absorption, the ability to steal physical and spiritual strength from a target by devouring them whole. With every person he'd devoured, his demon form grew bigger and stronger, while his chakra grew more and more potent. He couldn't steal bloodlines, jutsu, or memories, just their raw strength, and in doing so, he satisfied a deep, primal hunger at the core of his very being.

But he'd been sloppy. He'd revisited the same town one too many times, killed once too often. They didn't know it was him, not yet, but they'd pulled him in for questioning. He couldn't even use his powers; Inoichi would know.

"And you're sure you know nothing about this man?" Inoichi asked, pushing an image towards Naruto.

"I already told you, I don't know anything, Yamanaka-san" the young demon calmly replied. This was the third time he'd been asked that question. He was just glad it wasn't Ibiki or Anko asking the questions.

"Very well." Inoichi scooped up the picture of the "Party Demon" and put it back in the folder, along with a scarily detailed report of his comings and goings, as well as a report on the "Eraser," what they'd dubbed Naruto's predatory persona. From the short glance he'd gotten, no doubt intentionally allowed by Inoichi, they were fairly certain that they were the same individual. "That'll be it for now, Naruto-kun," Inoichi dismissed him.

As Naruto left, he realized the only two upsides to the situation: first, they didn't suspect him to be the killer, only that he'd snuck out and happened to be there at the same time for one of the disappearances; and second, it almost sounded as if they wanted to recruit him, rather than hunt him down. Naruto figured that to be likely; they were ninja, after all, so why kill a killer when you could get them on your side?

That thought did nothing to ease the paranoia of the bijū in his gut, who, as Inoichi left them, remarked, "He still doesn't trust us. I suspect he and Minato might try to get into your head tonight, while you're sleeping. But don't worry, I'll protect you, my Kit."

And true to Kurama's prediction, the two blond adults snuck into Naruto's bedroom. Without a sound, Inoichi stuck out his hands, made the seal, and activated the mind-body switch jutsu. As his soul left his body, it slumped to the floor where Minato caught it and eased it down.

Then, to Minato's horror, Inoichi opened his crimson eyes. "Minato-baka. I knew you and the foolish mindwalker would try this eventually," Kurama-in-Inoichi remarked. "Did you honestly think that we wouldn't have some sort of defense? Baka. Naruto sleeps on my tongue; when your little mindwalker showed up, all I had to do was spit and swallow. Don't look so frightened, Minato, I'll cough him up eventually. Right now, though, we need to talk."

"Then talk," Minato demanded.

"I've never hid from Naruto my loathing of this village. Only the fact that you love this village and I respect you enough as much as I do keeps Naruto loyal. But he can hear the whispers. The village as a whole might not know that he's my jinchūriki, and even fewer still know that he's my son, but the rumors are there. Kitsune child, fox-crazy, demon boy. True, yes, but the staring isn't pleasant. And what happens when it comes out that Naruto is a demon? 'The little fox is just disguised as the Fourth's son. It's not really his.' That's what they'll say. That's what they already say. So know this, Fourth Hokage-sama, Naruto's loyalty to this village is exactly as strong as your trust in him. And this? Well, heheheh..." The fox-possessed Inoichi closed his eyes.

The body twitched, and then the eyes flew open again. They were blue once again, and Minato knew that he had his friend back. His friend, however, didn't look at all happy. "Never. Again. I will never set foot in that boy's head again, and I will be forbidding my clan from using any and all mindwalking jutsu against him. That was the single worst thing I have ever experienced."

Minato raised his hand to shush the irate Yamanaka, but he needn't bother — Naruto was already awake, and frowning at the two of them. His nightcap, normally perched on his head, was tossed aside.

"I'm sorry, Naruto," his father offered pitifully.

Naruto snorted and rolled over in bed without speaking a word. He'd heard everything Kurama had said, and while he was mildly offended by how little Kurama seemed to think of his loyalty, it did give him an idea for a revenge prank. And so, despite the fact that he really wasn't that mad with his father or Inoichi, especially since Inoichi hadn't actually learned anything, he let them think that he was. Internally, Naruto grinned as he imagined the face of his human father when he came down for breakfast and acted as if absolutely nothing was wrong.

They say that the best mask you can wear is your own face; let it not be said that Naruto was not a prankster at heart.