Arc One: Prelude to Darkness

Chapter Three: Childhood

One Year Later

One year had passed since Naruto had started living at Training Ground #46, and he had recently celebrated his sixth birthday. For the first time in his life, he had no reason to fear the mobs, partly because of the layers of security seals on the area, partly because of Itachi's and Ebisu's reports that people had assumed he had either died or ran away from Konoha. With only five people knowing of his location (Naruto having asked Itachi to ask the Hokage to tell the ramen stand owner and his daughter of his ultimate fate), people simply couldn't come after him. His birthday had been a fairly quiet affair, Itachi gifting him with a wooden ninjato resembling the weapons the ANBU used, having noted that he would soon show him the basics of kenjutsu, and Ebisu giving him a couple of books on the lives of the four Hokages. The Sandaime had been unable to visit for his birthday, considering it was the same day as the Kyuubi Festival (though he had been unable to visit for the past two years, at that), but he had sent along several dozen ramen packets.

Ever since his fifth, he had been training to his limits every day. He had put on ten kilograms over the past year, the result being a growth spurt bringing him up to four foot two, his colour gaining some tone, his skin no longer wrapped around his ribs, and his hair gaining its sun-kissed colour after being bleached for so long. The life had truly returned to his cerulean eyes, and it brought hidden delight to the two men that he had taken to calling his nii-sans (to their undying embarrassment) to see him grow like had had.

Itachi had discreetly taken him out of the grounds once to go see a seal master that he trusted, and had a gravity seal applied to Naruto. The seal started out at 1.1x the normal rate of gravity, and would slowly increase over time as his body got used to it with his muscles and bones strengthening to withstand it. A normal person wouldn't ever be able to go beyond 4x in their natural lifetime, but Itachi estimated that Naruto could push upwards of 8x. Additionally, Itachi had moved beyond simple exercises into more elaborate training sessions

Ebisu had gone through most of the history material he had wanted to teach Naruto, the process sped up thanks to the wonders of Kage Bunshin. Because of Naruto's age, he decided to hold off some of the more complicated manners of shinobi, such as the politics of the Hidden Village, and instead began to teach him more general material, such as a basic understanding of the maths and sciences, as well as social interactions with other people at different levels. This, he assured Naruto, would be important if he ever became a shinobi; he had on more than one occasion ranted about two opposing ninja fighting straight-out when one could have simply trapped and assassinated the other beforehand. Finally, with the gain in height and weight, as well as his expending vast amounts of chakra daily before his system could overflow, Naruto's chakra flow began to stabilize, allowing Ebisu to be able to get somewhere with his chakra control. He had recently mastered tree climbing, which was an arduous process: Ebisu hadn't allowed him to consider the exercise as a whole mastered until he could engage his black-clad sensei in a mock fight for half an hour while jumping back and forth from tree to tree, using their surfaces as a fighting arena, and not falling once.

Unlike his two human senseis, however, the Kyuubi had stayed fairly impersonal in his attitude towards Naruto, not really demeaning him aside from the constant use of 'gaki', but more seemingly treating him as an uncommanded servant of sorts. The fox had, at his own request, changed Naruto's mindscape to resemble that of a fox den, and the seal to nine tail rings, one for each tail, something to which the jinchuuriki readily gave permission for, easily understanding why the kitsune wouldn't want to live in the cage and sewers. Naruto didn't complain about the Kyuubi's attitude, however; the tales the kitsune regaled him with of his own clan in the world of Makai intrigued him, and he understood quite well that he was possibly the only human living who would know some of the stuff the Kyuubi told him about. He also learned about much of the rest of Makai, and the norms of demon society. To be truthful, while it still hurt to remember past incidents of people hurling various insults at him, the scars left by the word 'demon' had since faded thanks to his understanding of what exactly made a demon. While he understood people meant to use the term to demean him, he was no longer mollified by it, since in his own odd way he had found the concept of a demon as comparable with a human, and the indifference of the single demon he had come into contact with was far better than the cruelty inflicted by the vast majority of humans he had met.

In the meantime, Naruto had time and again thought to ask Kyuubi about his reasons as to why he attacked Konoha, but each time refrained from doing so. He had enough tact not to ask: the kitsune demon probably had his reasons, otherwise he would have told Naruto soon after their second meeting without needing to be asked. Naruto had his suspicions about whether or not Itachi and Sarutobi knew the real truth, considering how they were letting the Kyuubi teach him. He brushed it up to a matter of his age and hoped that the fox (even if he knew the technical difference, he still had a hard time not thinking of him as a fox) would eventually reveal things in time.

---

Itachi was nervous. It wasn't because he was fighting off several skilled enemies, or having large amounts of paperwork to fill out in his role as an ANBU Captain (even with Kage Bunshins at his disposal). No, he was anguished because with rising security problems and border conflicts with Ta no Kuni and the recently formed Otogakure, as well as the alliance between Konohagakure and Sunagakure running into problems thanks to the foolish daimyo of Kaze no Kuni, the Hokage had recently ordered him to live at the ANBU HQ on a permanent basis. This was so he could focus some more on his regular duties and to have him in the village proper in case of an attack. While he could deal with reducing his training time with Naruto, he didn't want to leave somebody who had begun to feel like a second otouto to him to live on his own again. What really galled him, however, was having to admit to himself that Naruto was perfectly capable of living independently, despite being only six.

Fine, he could deal with that. But what he couldn't deal with was the possibility of Naruto's reaction being negative. He had practically spoiled Sasuke rotten when his blood brother was born, and Sasuke had returned the favour by both worshipping him, and at the same time seeing Itachi as something he had to surpass, so he could emerge from the shadow of the Uchiha Prodigy. He was perfectly fine with that; even he realized that others would surpass him, but he would not make it easy for anyone to do so. But Sasuke didn't have the same values as he and Naruto possessed, those of hard work and the will to succeed, and he didn't want to screw up Naruto by disrupting the fine equilibrium of his life. But it had to be done, so he would say it and get over with.

Still, it was difficult, when he had to approach Naruto about it. "Naruto, I need to talk to you about something." As soon as the words left his mouth, he was mentally hitting himself for them, but he kept his stoic poker-face on all the time. To his own credit, Naruto could immediately tell something was up, but allowed Itachi to finish what he had come to say. "The Hokage has ordered me to relocate my living space back to the ANBU Headquarters."

Even a few months ago, while still emotionally vulnerable, Naruto might have been kicking and screaming over Itachi no longer living with him. Now, however, he took a few seconds and thought over the exact nature of Itachi's words – while Itachi had said that he was no longer living with Naruto, he never said anything about not training him. "But Itachi-niisan, he never said anything about you not training me anymore, did he?"

Itachi allowed a small smile, contrary to his stoic nature. Truly his otouto was growing up finely, already being able to look behind the words in some small measure. "Yes, that is correct. As for my reasons, in his teachings, has Ebisu kept you up-to-date on any very recent happenings in Fire Country?" A shake of the head indicated no. "Well then, there are two things that are going on that are unstabilizing political relations, and so ANBU is taking precautionary measures by strengthening security and increasing border patrols. I am an ANBU captain, and while the Hokage's orders to train you are still in effect, my time with you must be cut down to dedicate towards my regular ANBU duties. Furthermore, the Hokage hasn't ruled out the possibility of a direct invasion or infiltration of Konoha proper, hence I am needed to stay there in the case of an attack. While I enjoy living here, the half hour it takes to go between here and Konoha at my top speed is twenty-five minutes too late for an emergency response."

Naruto could indeed accept that. However, much like all six-year-old children (and especially once who carries a thousand-year-old kitsune tailed demon in his head), he would get out as much as he could from the situation, so he slumped his shoulder and allowed his head to fall, looking down at the ground. Unfortunately for him, he was facing an ANBU captain, trained in all manners of deception, who knew very well what he was doing. Nevertheless, Itachi played along as a last solace. "Now now, don't do that. Tell you what: pick up the mood and get onto your exercises, and I'll go get pick-up for some ramen for dinner tonight, from Ichiraku."

That picked up Naruto's mood immediately, who with a short "Yatta!" hopped off to the small lake, intent on furthering his ability to stay on top of water's surface. The day was a windy, cool one in comparison to the usually calm, warm days that summer in Fire Country had to offer. As a result, the water was more turbulent than usual, so Naruto had a difficult time at first, his feet falling underneath the surface twice, before he managed to right himself and stay on top. Itachi merely chuckled to himself as the sun-kissed lad sat down, and started doing pushups on the water, hand occasionally dipping into the cool lake. Moments like these, he thought, were at least worth the hardships that life brought all of them.

---

The mask-clad ANBU captain refrained from letting out a sigh as he walked over to Ichiraku Ramen after having met with the Hokage, along with Ebisu. The old man had been pleased with his report on Naruto's progress, but things were coming to a standstill: what were they to do with Naruto? Between him, Ebisu and the Kyuubi, he had proven himself to already be beyond the level of most Academy graduates, sans for his actual physique (hard worker or not, a six-year-old simply didn't have the same physical strength as a twelve-year-old would). Thanks to a very demanding training schedule and the wonders of Kage Bunshin and Kyuubi's healing yokai, as well as shaving off some of the more unnecessary parts of the academic material, Itachi estimated him as already being a mid-level Genin, and with another year he would definitely be approaching low Jonin levels. By the time he was eight, he would definitely be skilled enough to be a member of ANBU. But that was what troubled them all: should they let Naruto continue to progress and become a ninja early, or allow him some semblance of a normal childhood?

Itachi had nipped the argument of giving him a childhood in the bud fairly quickly, simply by pointing out that Naruto never had a real childhood, he never would have a normal childhood, and the past year so far was his childhood. Another two to three years of training would be the only childhood that Naruto could possibly have, and he had been sure to drive that argument home with the Sandaime. Finally, he didn't really think Naruto could make it on a normal three-man Genin team; his sponge-like habits in terms of learning and the side-effects of Kage Bunshin practically demanded a private trainer to keep up with his training pace.

So absorbed in his thoughts he was, Itachi didn't even register his unconscious movements as he threw aside the curtains that barred the full fury of the midday sun from the inside of Ichiraku Ramen. As such, when a voice interrupted his thoughts, he was completely unprepared for what he saw.

"Excuse me, ANBU-san, what can I get you?"

The originator of the voice was a pretty young girl with long, light brown hair, two bangs curving out from her forehead forming a widow's peak. A white bandana was tied behind her head to keep her hair together, and she wore a white robe/apron hybrid, the color presumably to hide the flour that stained it all over. Itachi idly identified her as the twelve-year-old Ayame Ichiraku, daughter of Teuchi Ichiraku, the owner of the stand.

So engrossed in marvelling over her Itachi was that he was again brought out of a daze by a flustered Ayame, who had coughed lightly but made it distinct enough to once more obtain his attention. Itachi had the decency to look apologetic, before making to order, "Ah, my apologies, Ichiraku-san. I would like for takeout three orders each of chicken, beef, and miso."

Ayame let out a low whistle at the size of the order, acknowledging his request before turning around and preparing nine bowls of ramen. Given that Itachi was the only customer in the shop, she decided to make small talk with him to pass the time. "Nine orders, eh? Can't say I get many ANBU here this time of day, they usually prefer to come in either early or late at night. I suppose it's understandable, since they like to keep secret while out in public." The conversation was one-sided, but she continued on in hopes of getting a response out of him. "I suppose you're either an Akimichi or know one considering the size of your order."

"Actually," Itachi drawled, snapping out of the minor hypnosis cast by the soft and gentle tones of his fellow conversationalist's voice, "This order is just for two of us, I'm an Uchiha, and my friend is a little maelstrom of chaos." He punctuated his words by taking off his mask to reveal the trademark onyx eyes and black hair of the Uchiha head family. He wasn't on duty so he wasn't required to keep his mask on.

Ayame quickly recognized the maelstrom reference, and spun around to interrogate him. She quickly dropped her spatula in shock at seeing the heir to the Uchiha clan in her family's ramen shop. Realizing her actions, she blushed and squawked at the same time, and scurried to throw the now-contaminated spatula into the sink and obtain a replacement. Turning to Itachi, she began to apologize, only to be cut off by the Uchiha prodigy, "No need to apologize there, and please, no formalities. Just call me Itachi."

Ayame took heed to his request, "Alright then, Itachi, but can I ask how Naruto is doing? I haven't seen him in nearly a year. The Hokage has been kind enough to provide us with updates from time to time, but he hasn't sent us any of his handlers, or mentors I guess. Is he being too much of a handful for you? Does he still devour ramen at an unprecedented pace, and eat with the manners of a pig?" She excitedly rushed out while preparing the ramen.

Itachi nearly sweatdropped at the sudden shift from a shy, timid girl to a bubbly, upbeat girl. He was just glad that she wasn't descended from the Haruno clan, of which he had recently learned had a large family history of schizophrenia and bipolar personalities rivalling some of the madness that was inherent in the Uchiha clan's own history. He made an involuntary shiver that was missed by the ramen waitress as he remembered his talk with the Kyuubi a year past, when the nine-tailed fox had commented on how a 'sinister' quality of the Uchiha seemed to be less present in him than usual. Itachi idly began to wonder if this was related to the insanity that seemed to be prevalent amongst the shinobi and police forces.

Ten minutes later, Itachi walked out of the ramen stand with his weasel mask on once more, toting a large bag of ramen in his left hand. He suddenly froze as a thought occurred to him. Kami, I hope Naruto doesn't kill me when he comes back if he sees me and Ayame having as pleasant and relaxed a conversation as that again!

---

Ebisu's sunglasses were off.

Ebisu never took his sunglasses off in public, so they only came off when he retired to his home for the night, losing them in a fight, or from shock. The circumstance in this case was the latter of the trio. It had come from a mock spar with Naruto while fighting on water to help the latter get used to movement on water. During the spar, Naruto had used a quick Henge to increase his height and the length of his arms to better counter the advantage Ebisu had in his much longer reach. Ebisu had in the flicker of a half-second decided to hit Naruto square on the chest, dispel the Henge, and then lecture Naruto on the properties of the Henge; namely, that it created an illusion, and didn't actually change the physical qualities of the user.

That didn't happen, however. True, Ebisu did manage to sock Naruto on the chest and send him sprawling across the water onto solid ground. What didn't occur was the Henge disappearing. While Ebisu was still gawking at the scene, his glasses floating on the water underneath his feet, Naruto groaned as he picked himself up, brushing the grass off his shinobi pants. "Neh, Ebisu-niisan, did you hafta hit so hard?"

"N-Naruto," Ebisu stammered, "Uh, Naruto-kun, I need to check something for a second." Naruto complied with the request, even if he found it odd, as Ebisu walked over and grabbed his arms. He slid his fingers all the way from the shoulder to the hand, still not quite believing it. Bending his knees, he prodded the younger's feet and thighs, mumbling all the time, "Can't be possible...a true physical transformation...could be a bloodline, not much information on the Uzumaki clan...they originated from Whirlpool, which was destroyed a decade ago...or possible the Kyuubi's power...kitsunes are renowned for their transformation powers...hmm, Hokage-sama might know...interesting indeed..." All the while, Naruto tried to interrupt Ebisu's train of thought, until he heard the phrases 'bloodline' and 'Kyuubi's power', and promptly shut up, leaving the black-clothed man to his ramblings.

Ebisu paused as he brought up his right index and middle finger to push his glasses back up onto his nose, only to realize the lack of glasses to sustain his habit. Turning around, he grabbed his floating glasses out of the water, used his shirt to dry them off, then put them back on. Turning back to face Naruto, he continued, "Naruto-kun, do you know exactly what a Henge does?"

Naruto blinked, surprised at the question. "Uh, yeah. It basically allows you to transform into something else." He was confused at Ebisu's asking of such a basic academic question.

Ebisu just sighed. Leave it to Naruto to completely skim over the most important function of a given jutsu in his studies. "You are half-correct there, Naruto-kun. The Henge is supposed to give off the illusion of a transformation." Seeing the slightly confused look on Naruto's face once he began to piece together the conflict between a proper Henge and his usage of it, Ebisu continued, "The Henge is in a sense more genjutsu than ninjutsu, as you do not actually physically change form. Instead, you give off the impression of being whatever you changed into to your opponent, and the only way to dispel that illusion is movement, sending out a chakra pulse or physical contact when the person using the Henge. Because dispelling an opponent's Henge doesn't follow the exact same methods as one normally would do to dispel a genjutsu, that is why the Henge is categorized as a ninjutsu."

By this time, the black-clad man was pacing back and forth, causing a minor cloud of dust to form underneath his sandals. "You, on the other hand, defy that completely. When you used what you thought was the Henge, you actually increased your height, and your arms did in fact become longer. The why to that is something I am not 100% sure about. The Sandaime professes to having no knowledge of who your parents were, so I doubt that it is an effect of a kekkei genkai." He then stopped, and peered closely at Naruto who was standing shock-still at the news that he had effectively bastardized a very basic jutsu with interesting results. "It occurs to me, however, that the lore that surrounds kitsune demons suggests that they are masters of illusions and transformations. You do not have any real proficiency for genjutsus, but that seems to be because of your poor chakra control, rather than any lack of chakra control; hence, I am assuming that your ability to physically change form is a result of the kitsune lord being sealed into your navel." Having completely laid out all the possibilities he could think of and dissecting the only two probable possibilities, he concluded, "You speak to the Kyuubi from time to time, I believe." A frown crossed his face at this. The Sandaime Hokage wasn't willing to tell him what exactly the reason behind the Kyuubi attack was, but only said that it wasn't the Kyuubi's own fault. While he trusted Sarutobi, it was still a bit hard to get over his own natural fear of a being of such immense power. "When you talk next time, please find out what you can."

Dumbfounded, Naruto just nodded, ensuring that he would get to the bottom of this newfound ability.

---

"Of course, gaki," the Kyuubi said in response to Naruto's questioning about his ability to physically transform. "You did not think that those whisker marks that adorn your cheeks and regenerative powers were the only things my presence would grant you, did you? I took a look at what your mentor said, and he was correct on his theory."

Naruto shrugged, nonchalantly. To be truthful, he had never really thought about it. "Well, I can accept that being the case. But now that you mention it, why exactly does all this occur, and what other surprises will I be getting in the future?"

The giant demon, who was currently laying down at the time, got up and stretched his rear legs. "To answer your first question, your chakra has, in a sense, begun to imitate my yokai over the years. The most noticeable point is regeneration; while not nearly as strong as my yokai in that manner, your chakra alone will be able to regenerate cuts, bruises, and shallow wounds and very small fractures, and it will get stronger in that effect in the future. At the same time, each demon clan has individual traits to their yokai. The kitsunes obviously had an inherent strength at illusions, and so again your chakra tries to imitate this. The nekomata clan has unparalleled control over fire, and so forth. As for what other traits you might gain, gaki," and here the kitsune paused, "I really don't know."

Seeing Naruto's jaw drop, the demon quickly cut him off before he could begin. "I do not know because I believe I am the first kitsune to have been sealed into a ningen." Looking closely, Naruto swore he could see a slight red tinge cross the nine-tailed's already crimson face. "At the least, I do not recall any kitsune crossing over from Makai in the last two hundred years. There is another aspect to your situation, however; I have nine tails of power. No-tails that get sealed only really give off maybe a physical trait to their vessel, a minor boost in chakra, and minor regenerative powers. With the tailed beasts, they provide more yokai to their hosts, therefore the effects of their yokai becomes more pronounced, and more so as the number of tails increases." The fox made a motion that seemed akin to a shrug. "The Hachibi was sealed about twenty-five years ago for the first time, but I only met his vessel in his early childhood, and the only characteristics that had begun to emerge at the time were great physical strength and a near invulnerability to lightning. The Shichibi was first sealed about two hundred years ago, but every time it was freed it has been quickly resealed, causing a drain on her power, and I have not gotten around to finding her or her current vessel. The Rokubi tends to stay in Makai, and by the time you get to the Gobi and under, they simply do not have as much raw strength."

The fox leaned in close, pushing out his front legs as he stretched out his spine, tails pointing rigidly upwards. "You did not actually get those whisker-like marks the moment I was sealed into you. Rather, they replaced your regular skin tissue on your cheeks over time, and my guess is that they will probably deepen over time. The only other physical trait you might gain are your pupils turning into slits. Your personality might shift a bit to being somewhat of a prankster, as we kitsunes love our tricks, although I can already tell you are at least decently clever; that also includes a carefree nature." The nine-tails paused in a slight hesitation before continuing. "You know though, you are not actually completely human."

Naruto flinched at that. While some of the psychological scars of the past had since faded away, it still did pain him a few times to think of himself as inhuman. Yet, the kitsune had broken the news relatively lightly, detailing several effects as a result of the seal; after learning how his chakra was beginning to imitate the demon's yokai, he wasn't too shocked. Still, he needed more clarification. "What do you mean by that, though?"

Kyuubi looked slightly annoyed. "I mean exactly what I meant, gaki! I just told you that all that yokai flowing through your body since your day of birth caused some changes to your body. Oh, calm down! The amount of yokai that goes through your body at any one time is too minimal; combined with the absorption process, you will be at the most one-eighth demon fox, so your human side will still be dominant."

"Hmm," was all Naruto had to say in response, satisfied that he would still be mostly human and not allow ignorant bigots to actually be vindicated, although thinking about it, he wasn't wholly uncomfortable with the whole idea. Deciding to mull it over later, he requested a leave, considering the chat as the lecture of the night.

One Year Later

A heavy, frantic knock rang off the mahogany door that linked the Hokage's personal office to the rest of the Hokage Tower. The four ANBU, one in each corner, tensed slightly in case of a possible threat, and failed to relax when Sarutobi issued a "Come in" to the knocker. He was surprised to see an Itachi Uchiha enter with emotion on his face, in particular worry and fear. Itachi Uchiha never looked worried or feared. Sarutobi raised an eyebrow at this apocalyptical omen, but before he could ask what was wrong, Itachi rushed out the words he wanted to say, "Hokage-sama, I have an update on the Amegakure conflict!"

The Sandaime narrowed his eyes. A few weeks ago, info from Jiraiya's spy network came in on Amegakure. Ruled by Hanzo the Salamander for over two decades, it was the most isolated country in the Elemental Nations despite being the geographical center of the continent. Knowledge of the going-ons in Ame simply did not come in or out, so it had been a surprise to hear that Amegakure was in a civil war. Obviously, any new information other than there being a civil war was something that was justifiable by barging into the Hokage's personal office.

But Sarutobi knew that Itachi was talking about the Ame to throw off the ANBU in his office. In reality, the Uchiha captain shouldn't have garnered any new information pertaining to the situation with Hanzo's domain, as he was supposed to be staying in Konoha for a week to prep his squad for a month long mission up north; therefore, he was using the Ame situation as a cover. Having sensed the deception, he motioned to his subordinates to temporarily leave the office. Putting up a privacy jutsu to block off all sound and vibrations from leaving the room, he stared at Itachi, his look telling the young prodigy to start talking.

Itachi took the prompt and started talking, "Forgive me for deceiving you, Hokage-sama, but this is of a matter greater than the Amegakure conflict." Seeing that his leader had already figured as much, he continued talking on, "It's about the Uchiha clan, Hokage-sama. From the information I have gathered, my father Fugaku and the clan elders plan to overthrow the Hokage

That only elicited a sigh from the Third Hokage. He had suspected that something was going on with the Uchiha clan ever since a year ago: it had begun with a few inconsistencies had begun to show up in the police department management. Since then, the number of Uchiha ninja out on missions had begun to dwindle, with those in Konoha either staying within the city walls entirely or being sent out only on short, minor missions or temporary patrols. Fugaku, the clan head himself, had requested that Itachi return from his 'undercover mission', a request Sarutobi was forced to grant due to political pressure. Itachi was one of Sarutobi's most trusted retainers, but had consistently deceived the Uchiha clan into believing he was an Uchiha first, a citizen of Konoha second, an attitude that was unfortunately prevalent in the Uchiha clan. Fortunately, since Itachi's return, he had been drawn into the more internal affairs of the clan, something that boded well for Sarutobi, who desperately needed a mole to find out more about what was happening with the Uchiha.

Itachi continued, "From the information I have gathered in the past week, currently they plan on smuggling in large amounts of explosive tags over the next two years, and recruiting all able-bodied Uchiha above the age of twelve and training them on the various security protocols the Leaf has in place to bypass them."

The Hokage paled at this news. The Uchiha clan had over three hundred people, and while a good majority of them were civilians, elderly or children, there were still at least a hundred shinobi in the force, and another hundred policemen. Additionally, while the Konoha ninja forces dwarfed what the Uchiha had to offer, they could always strike when most higher-ranked ninja were out of Konoha. With Itachi supposedly on their side, they could deal with an remaining ANBU and jonin, and the Hokage, no matter how powerful he was, would be vulnerable. Sarutobi mulled over the situation, then came to the conclusion: he would try to make peace overtures with Fugaku. If that failed, then he would have to go for a more drastic maneuver. Before that occurred, however, he needed more information. "Very well. For now, please find as much information as you can on any illicit dealings within your Clan. Make recordings of any proof that you find, but do your best to make it seem you're on their side."

Itachi's lip curled down in a menacing scowl, and Sarutobi knew that there was something else that he had found. The white-cloaked man beat him to the punch, however. "In fact, I have. On no less than six occasions the Uchiha clan has hired assassins, all for the same target: one Uzumaki Naruto."

The monkey man clenched his hands together and relaxed his chin on his finger joints, distraught from the news. "I see. Under what reasoning do they feel they need to send assassins after our young prodigy here? And do you have any damning evidence, or was it only hearsay at your meeting?" Although he had an idea of what the motivation was, he wanted to be positive instead of making an estimate at the Uchiha clan's reasons.

"They haven't been targeting Naruto because 'he's the demon', if that is what you are thinking, Hokage-sama." Itachi sighed, another thing he rarely did. In fact, if it were just news of the coup d'etat plan, he would have been calm, but it was mainly the attempted assassinations of Naruto, somebody that he indeed had begun to consider his otouto that had his emotions volatile. Ayame was another concern: in the last year since he had first met her at Ichiraku Ramen, he had gone back constantly on his own free time and often talked to her. Although they weren't exactly boyfriend/girlfriend, they were getting close, and he didn't like to think of the hellish life a 'commoner' would live under the reign of the Uchiha. "Rather, they see the sheer amount of power that he wields as a threat to their own power, with enough potential to surpass even me." He said that with disgust. Between keeping Naruto from being adopted and trying to assassinate him, he was beginning to despise the clan. He and Shisui were the only ones that tried to test their limits and then surpass it, while the rest of the clan wallowed in their own arrogance and pre-emptively tried to put down anything that had a possibility of overwhelming them. He nearly shuddered, thinking of what Naruto might have been like if it were not for the combination of factors that allowed him to finally escape into the thralls of Training Ground #46. He might have ended up as a loudmouth dead-last who wore semi-bright orange jumpsuits while going around shouting out nonsensical phrases like "Dattebayo!"

There was more to what he had to report, however, and Itachi didn't find it pretty. "Unfortunately, all I have is hearsay. The exact line one of the elders said during the meeting was, 'I can't believe that demon brat escaped our last six assassins!' Fortunately, they do not yet have any idea as to where he has been during the last two years, which has confounded them, despite having two people working full-time looking for his whereabouts." A frown finally crossed his face. This last piece he definitely didn't like. "Sadly, I have grounds to believe that the Hyuga clan may have cooperated with one of the attempts."

That caught the Hokage's attention. Having heard the Uchiha clan's motivations, he guessed that it was the same for the Hyuga clan, but it would be a lot more difficult for to ascertain the identities of the perpetrators amongst the Hyuga. Meanwhile, the ones he already suspected – the clan elders and Hyuga Hiashi, who had called for the boy's execution at his birth – would be difficult to dig up any incriminating dirt on. He sighed. What a troublesome job this is becoming. Corruption so rooted in some of the clans that they are constantly trying to assassinate a civilian boy simply because he might threaten the status quo.

Pushing his reading glasses up on his nose, he ordered Itachi, "You are dismissed, captain."

"Hai," responded the weasel-masked ANBU, who turned around and left the office.

The Hokage got up out of his chair, and disabled the privacy jutsu surrounding the office. With that gone, he went over to a storage cabinet and obtained a new quill pen and a blank scroll. Setting both of them down on his desk, he got to writing a letter, addressed to one of his wayward former students, before summoning a monkey summon to deliver it by sending it off to the toads in the realm all the summons resided in.

---

"Um, Ebisu-niisan?" Came the petulant whine from the blond jinchuuriki.

"Yes, what is it Naruto-kun?" Ebisu asked, hoping for a good question. After all, some of the questions Naruto had when it came to training had often forced him to think them over before answering, a slight embarrassment resulting from not completely knowing the answer, a slight tinge of pleasure from becoming more knowledgeable.

"When doing handseals for a jutsu, is there any way to skip a handseal for a jutsu?"

Now that was an excellent question, and it was something that Ebisu had indeed put a bit of research into in the past. "Well, Naruto-kun, it is in fact possible to skip a handseal in a seal sequence for a jutsu. With enough practice, you could even pull of a jutsu without once using any handseals whatsoever." Seeing the look of awe crossing the wide-eyed boy, he continued. "Allow me to elaborate. When you do your Kage Bunshin, is there ever a distinct feel to your chakra?"

Naruto thought it over, then put his hands in a cross shape, creating a pair of Kage Bunshins, before dissipating them, leaving nothing behind but for a whiff of smoke. "Now that you mention it, there is. It feels somewhat like a burst of chakra that travels up from my feet up my body before exiting out the top of my hand."

Ebisu allowed a smile, and then nodded. "Correct. When you perform handseals, each handseal causes a small manipulation to your flow of chakra, and the series of manipulations is what makes up a jutsu. If you can internally force this manipulation, then you don't have to do its opposing handseal. The Kage Bunshin will actually be one of the easier techniques that you know to do sealless, simply because it has only one seal and you have had lots of practice with it. Other jutsus are a lot tougher. For example, the Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu has forty-two handseals to it, but you know what? If you can skip even six of those handseals, you can finish it a half-second quicker than somebody going through the full forty-two handseals. If you can skip even one handseal, you can completely negate the copying ability of the Uchiha clan's Sharingan. "

"But let me give you another example. Take your basic Kawarimi. Most people never really think about how it works, they just use it. Your handseals don't actually replace you; rather, they create a chakra string, which you then attach to a nearby object. Using the properties of the chakra string, you switch the ends of the chakra string. The physics of how it is done does not really matter that much, but the important part is the chakra strings: while most rely on handseals to make chakra strings, they can actually manually be created. Suna is famous for its puppeteers, who use ten chakra strings, one for each finger, to manipulate a puppet. Then, if your opponents do not see you do the handseals for Kawarimi, they won't be expecting to hit a block of wood."

Ebisu waited a few minutes for Naruto to take in all this new strategic information, only to nearly facefault when the latter cheekily started off with "Sugoi!"

"Well, in any case, Naruto-kun, I highly recommend you never try to experiment with skipping handseals with your own physical body. As you might imagine, a single error in manual chakra manipulation can backfire. The potential is there for any backlash to fry your chakra system, crippling you from being a ninja even with regenerative powers, as well as the possibility of death. Always use a Kage Bunshin to experiment." With his warning said, he walked over to his pack, grabbing some scrolls, ready to start the next lesson of the day.

A few weeks after Ebisu had impressed on Naruto the importance of not using his physical body for chakra experimentation, the Kyuubi had an odd proposal for Naruto.

When Naruto had entered his mindscape, he was expecting another impromptu discussion on the kitsune clan or the bijuus, but what he hadn't expected was for the nine-tails to be sitting on his haunches, tails swishing about, with a contemplative look on his face. It was apparent that he knew Naruto was there, but other than that, he seemed to be off in his own little world. As the minutes passed, Naruto's patience evaporated. Fed-up as he was, however, he still managed a calm tone as he asked, "Kyuubi-dono, is something wrong?"

To his credit, the past year of training helped as he jumped back as opposed to stumbling when the Kyuubi lunged his neck at him, jaw snapping in a vile hiss. The jailer put his hands up in a submissive gesture, unsure as to what was bothering his prisoner, but was sure that he would soon find out. "Quiet, gaki! I am trying to think here!" In truth, the Kyuubi had already decided what he was about to do next, but was currently mulling over the ramifications it could have for the future. Deciding to think it over later while he didn't have company present, he turned his attention to his vessel. "I have a request to make of you, gaki."

Naruto swallowed a deep gulp, a lump forming in his throat. The nine-tailed kitsune demon wasn't exactly a friend and most definitely was not a niisan, but he was still an odd sort of acquaintance that had at least been helping him out, so if the request was reasonable, he would fulfill it to the best of his abilities. Truth be told, he would do it anyways regardless of their camaraderie or not; the past year had done much for his psyche, and Naruto wanted to live now, and he most definitely wanted to live past his fourteenth birthday as well. "What would you have me do, Kyuubi-dono?" He managed to force out through his fear of a possibly angry Kyuubi.

Whatever doubts the vulpine demon had, they were vanquished as he restrained a smirk at how utterly whipped his container was. While it was an embarrassment to have been sealed away in a newborn infant, especially the son of the one whom sealed him, he had plotted to salvage the most out of the situation, and at this pace it looked like his plans would come to fruition without a hitch. For now, he would further an aspect of his scheme by influencing the gaki's mentality. "It is actually a simple request. You understand to a degree that the nature of the seals that protects your residency prevents any who have not made a proper blood sacrifice from entering this area, correct?" A small nod indicated a yes. "However, the seals that bar others from this area only works on humans, meaning that animals can come and go without restriction." A dumb look on Naruto's face showed his desire for the Kyuubi to get to the point. "Even in my prison here, I have had a minor sense of the outside world, and the kinship I can feel with my counterpart species still holds strong. Recently, a small family of foxes has taken residence in a nearby cave. I want you to, for lack of a better term, raise them."

The young blue-eyed blond let a blink slip, with a second blink moments later, before he allowed himself to gape as the Kyuubi's request/demand made itself clear. He tried to work up a coherent response; unfortunately, all he could come up with was a shrill "NANI?!"

The Kyuubi snapped back at him, "I do not literally mean to raise them as pets. Rather, I want to you to watch out for them. Konoha has not treated foxes well in the last six years, and I have felt the local population dwindle to a tenth of its original population. What I want you to do is watch out for their well-being. Bring them food during the drier months or when the females are in heat, kill off any predators, increase the comfort of their den and its security. Anything you can do to promote the growth of the family and decrease the mortality rates." Letting out a sigh at the fate of his non-demonic kin in the greater Konoha area, he continued on. "I will have to ask permission of you to be able to communicate with you while you are conscious on the outside so I can direct you once you hit the den. In return, while they shouldn't run away from you because you smell like me, you will still have to channel some of my yokai to get them to accept you."

Naruto nodded at that last comment, accepting the inevitability of the situation. He had found out a few months earlier that if he were to ever channel the kitsune's yokai, normally it would cause the seal to loosen, but that there was a single loophole in the seal where the Kyuubi could allow him to use a small amount of without weakening the seal at all. Kyuubi himself was originally planning to use this loophole for himself in a few years, but once he found out this secondary effect, gave Naruto the chance to try the yokai out a few times in practice for if he ever bit off more than he could chew and needed a trump card.

Now, an external observer might think that the Kyuubi would want the seal to weaken. However, the vulpine was cautious, and had examined the seal that held him many times. While he understood its inner workings and understood it for the most part, he had also realized that the seal merely gave instructions on the imprisonment of the fox and its rent conditions, while the Shinigami's power was the enforcer of these instructions. He didn't want to find out what would happen if the instructions were to disappear while he was still imprisoned in the young Naruto Uzumaki, so he erred on the side of caution and let it be.

Naruto didn't know about all this, however, nor did he really think about it. All he knew was that the seal depended to a degree on his own willpower; hence, he could give the Kyuubi some degree of freedom by simply willing it, and already had by allowing the fox to manipulate the manner of his cage and Naruto's own mindscape, as well as full access to his own memories. This all paled to the first thing he did for the fox, however, which was allowing the Kyuubi to pull him into his own mindscape. This allowed him to skip meditation at night, efficiently entering his mindscape as soon as he went to bed, and he trusted the kitsune not to abuse that power. Having already done this, it would be reasonable to let the fox communicate with him mentally on the outside world, and if he became annoyed or needed his thoughts to be private, he could always shut the fox out. "Very well, I will allow you to communicate mind-to-mind with me while on the outside world."

While Naruto made a hasty exit from the mindscape, his already ghost-like image fading away into a mere misty apparition, the Kyuubi bared his teeth in a cocky grin. Yes, with this latest success he would definitely get something worthwhile out of this whole fiasco of being sealed.

End chapter author notes here (wow I didn't start off with 'whew'!). I originally intended to do a chapter every week, but due to me being a deadbeat and university exams coming up very quick here, I'm delaying it to once every two weeks (with the next one in particular not coming until the beginning of May thanks to time shortages). In any case, sorry to leave you guys on a bit of a cliffhanger there, but I was on writing burnout and didn't want to leave people hanging for another month for any content.

In any cases, a few notes again for this chapter.

The first thing is a little bit of a rant: at the beginning, I have Itachi place a gravity seal on Naruto that increases the feel of gravity on his body to 1.1x normal gravity. This causes all his bones, muscles, tendons, etc. to strengthen themselves to get used to the extra gravitational force acting on them. 4x was a rough estimate given an assumed average body weight of 100 lb (at least as far as all manga and animes like to estimate their characters at; seriously, twelve-year-old kunoichis weighing 60 lb or less?); while there are certainly 400 pound people walking around, most of them will have their legs give out sooner or later, but somebody whose body has strengthened gradually to that point (and still keeps the right body shape, aka gut not hanging out) wouldn't have that problem (much). Of course thanks to regenerative powers h4x Naruto can do up to 8x. I like to feel this is a lot more realistic than some fanfictions where I see them be all "ok let's randomly add 100 lb to each limb never mind the fact he only weighs like 70lb".

During the part where Naruto and Ebisu talk about handseals and 'hand-clenching' seals as opposed to 'finger moved' seals, I invite you to take a look at the diagram of the twelve main handseals.

Some seals, like monkey, dog, boar and rabbit basically are just clenching your fists together with maybe one or two fingers interlocked in a straight manner. Meanwhile, all the others would be far more difficult to execute (Ox being the only easy one) because of all the various positions the fingers would be in. So if a ninja was doing handseals, it's the remaining seven handseals that would be a pain in the rear end to do because they're just not as simple.

Ebisu's whole explanation on skipping handseals and chakra manipulation is also important. For one thing, it puts in a whole new layer of complexity on chakra and jutsus beyond 'just do a bunch of handsigns and get a powerful jutsu', and to a degree applies some actual logic to how they work. Something I'm doing in this story is drilling in the point that the best weapon of a shinobi is deception and surprises (in this case, surprises). The examples Ebisu provides are exactly what I'm talking about here.

In any case, I also fixed up a few lines in the first chapter regarding my somewhat AUish version of Kyuubi's seal to clarify a few technicalities that'll be fairly important overall. The power of the Shinigami keeps the Kyuubi in the seal, but that doesn't mean the seal itself is impenetrable. Therefore, if the seal were to just dissolve at random all the effects the seal causes would be gone, but Kyuubi wouldn't be free from Naruto (so none of that 'oh my I'll summon his soul out via a Kage Bunshin' crap), which is why. One more thing to note is that the power of the seal is based to a degree on the vessel's willpower, so if Kyuubi wants to change the mindscape and Naruto says yes, he can do that (as is done in this chapter). This isn't too important right now, but in a few chapters it'll be a key point.

Also, yes, Naruto's going to become a bit more acquainted with foxes, yes, there's implications of Kyuubi having schemed to get something out of being sealed, yes, it's all a bit fluffy. Naruto in canon has always had a bit of a 'kitsune'-like personality, being a prankster. Since he's an orphan, it also means there isn't really any pressure on him either, meaning he's free to do what he wants. If one associates elemental chakra with a user's personality, then you can probably say Naruto being a wind user means he's fairly carefree and laid-back, as well as being a bit of a free spirit, comparable to Sarutobi Asuma (though of course not as lazy). Again, in a couple of chapters things will come to a head, tying together several points so far along with the story title. For now, you can speculate away, though I've probably left enough clues for a general idea of what'll happen.

Other minor notes: the Kyuubi was sealed away using the Shinigami's power, so some people might have wondered just how the hell the Hachibi was sealed in canon if he had near the same amount of power as the Kyuubi. In a future chapter I'll explain my own version of how Hachibi and Shichibi managed to be sealed in the first place even with eight/seven tails of power. By the time you get to Rokubi with six tails of power, I figure that regular shinobi are able to actually defeat the tailed demons without any extenuating circumstances, albeit still with sacrifice.

Lastly, next chapter I'll finally start responding to any reviews of interest at the beginning of each chapter, so review away (particularly since I have like 75 Story Alerts and only 14 reviews )!