A.N. – Thank you very much Rose Tiger and Hee-Ho Master for their words of kindness and generosity that have boosted my Flames of Writing and Rhomulus for helping me see what was right in front of my face! No flames yet and I was so looking forward to burning those ugly orange jumpsuits that Naruto has with them, but no worries that will be happening sooner or later in the story. I hope to get more reviews, both good and bad, from my readers. Well you probably want me to shut up and get on with the story, so without further wait the next chapter of this here story.

"Speaking"

'Thought'

"Demon Speaking"

'Demon Thought'

"Nature Creature Speak"

'Nature Creature Thought'

Chapter 2:

Seeing the Light and Truth in Lies

The darkness was endless. He got up in great reluctance and looked around trying to find something in the endless night that would show him where he was. He chose a direction and began to walk. Hour passed as he continued while wondering if he would find something or someone that could tell him if he was going the right direction or not. He kept walking and walking, finally tired of it began to yell out.

"Where am I! Is anyone out there! Please help me!" He yelled.

There was no answer. He kept yelling and yelling until his voice broke. Finally he stopped, he knew that no one would answer or even hear and that he was alone and no one cares enough to help, even if he they did hear and he wasn't alone. With nothing else to do except walk he sat down and waited….and waited….and waited, and as he was waiting he began to think. He thought about his life and what the Fur-Ball said. He started to cry when he remembered being told that his Oji-san hated him too, he remembered all the things that they did together, from their trips to the parks with his real grandson, whose name he didn't really remember, their walks to Ichiraku Ramen stand to get something to eat, and the piles of paperwork that he heard him work through while swearing, a lot, and being was told not to say those words until he was older, or very injured. He noticed something in all his memories he never saw his Oji-san look at him with anything other than happiness and love whenever he looked up at him.

'But then why didn't he tell me about the Kyuubi, why didn't he tell me about me being a demon?' he thought becoming confused.

He began to think again and started to get a headache. (A.N. - Thinking too much will give you a headache trust me, I know) He thought back to all that times he was hurt by the villagers, which was easy since there were a lot of those times, and was able to recall a few times when he was out in the Market District the someone threw a rock at him and called 'Kyuubi Brat' and 'demon', but when one of the people in masks and black clothes came down and stopped the person, one of the few times that has actually happened, and took him away, he heard one of the villagers tell another.

"It's a shame. He could have gotten off with a night in jail if he didn't call that "thing" demon when he knew about the Third's law and that the ANBU, for God knows what reason, protect the boy. Well good thing it was only those five that bother to help the thing." She said while dragging her child away when he tried to help Naruto.

"That's right if there's a law that means that Oji-san must have made it, that means he must want to protect me, and not doing a very good job. I thought he said that the people had to listen to Hokage-Oji. Ugh, all this thinking is making my head hurt." He said. When he looked up he saw that he was getting closer to what looked like the entrance to the place where Kyuubi was held. He began to run to it so that he could at least be somewhere he was familiar but the closer he tried to get to it the farther it seemed to get. He stopped, fearing if he got any closer that the entrance would disappear for good. He sat down to think again, trying to figure out how to get to the entrance, when he suddenly realize that if the Fur-Ball lied to him about his Oji-san hating him then he could have lied about them being the same.

'That has to be true because why would the Yondaime use a jutsu to turn me into Fur-Ball, it would have been able to destroy everything anyway so why do seal it in me.' He figured. His head began to hurt worse, to the point that he was on the ground whimpering, but the thoughts kept coming, he couldn't stop them. Then with a flash of light that came from under his mop of dirty, messy blonde hair something that was placed on him since birth vanished and he was made whole.

'That means that not only did the stupid Fur-Ball not tell the truth, but can't do anything to me in this place.' He thought. Another realization came to him.

'The villagers must still be hurting from what happened back then. But that doesn't mean that they have to hurt an innocent kid, just because they can't hurt that stupid Fur-Ball. But at least I know now, what the truth is.' He came to realize. He looked up again and saw that he was in the tunnels again. A booming sound came sprinting down the corridor towards him, when he listened he knew that it was the fox's laugh.

"Ahaaaaa haaaaa haaaaaaa haaaaaa! I haven't had this much fun messing with someone's mind since that chick that thought I loved her 'cause I stole her 'firsts' before I killed her. He actually thought that the old man hated him too, I guess he is an idiot." It laughed.

'So he was lying. Maybe I can learn more if I listen in, call me an idiot will you.' He thought viciously.

"Maybe if I tell him about whom his father is? Naah. I'll leave that as a trump card if I need it, and if I don't it will be even more fun when I tell him if he ever defies me. Hmmmm, I wonder if that will work. I may have to get him to trust me first. That'll be easy, he's so stupid." It said as it began to laugh again.

'Maybe I can use this to my advantage. If I can get him to do something stupid that would help me out because he thinks I'm soooooooo stupid, then it might be easy to manipulate him into doing what I want instead of the other way around. Wow, I think I just came up with a plan that might actually work and it's genius too.' He thought.

"Hey fox! What are you laughing about?" he asked startling the great beast, which almost made Naruto laugh out loud, almost.

"Nothing, say kit how is it that you were able to get out of that darkness of yours'?" It asked?

"What darkness, what was that anyway?" he asked back while wondering what that was that he had just walked out of.

"That kit, was the darkness, your darkness. That was the place that your soul was sent to because you had surrendered yourself and given up to the darkness that was in you, and that darkness is all the hate, sorrow, pain and loneliness that you have felt since the beginning of your life, and let me say you have some of the most vicious and vast darkness that I have ever seen. I'm so proud of you. Who knew you had it in you." It answered unaware that it answered Naruto's question but he didn't answer it's own.

'So that's what it is. Hmmm. That looks like it would cause trouble if Kyuubi were able to get to it. I should probably make something that he wouldn't be able to get passed without setting off alarms that would be able to stop him.' He thought.

"So kit, is there anything that I could do for you? Since I'm stuck in you I should at least do something for you to show that you can trust me. So what can I do to help?" It said trying to get the young boy to trust him in order to get what he wanted.

"Well I don't know if I should, you did attack the village when I was born. Why should I trust you?" He asked knowing that he could ask for nearly anything and the fox would give it to him to get him to lower his guard or lose any chance of trust, and began to think about what he could ask for.

"Well like I just said, I'll do you a favor and that way you will know that I'm your friend, I won't hurt you. I give you my word as a demon that I will do you a favor." It said with a serious voice. One that Naruto would believe if he didn't know the truth already.

"OK Fur-Ball, if you mean what you say then I would like you to tell me how to get rid of my darkness. I wouldn't want it to end up hurting someone if something happened." He asked knowing that somehow his darkness was tied to something the Kyuubi wanted and that would not be good for his home, no matter if they had betrayed him or not.

The Kyuubi just stood there looking at Naruto with a blank look on it's face, disbelief clear in it's eyes. "Are you sure you wouldn't like something else? Say like some never before seen bloodline. Maybe you would like a fighting style that was thought lost in the sands of time. I know you want your own personal library of jutsu don't you?" Bribed the fox, it knew that if the child didn't choose one of those that he had offered then he would have to throw out his old plan and make a new one, and it had never had to do that before. No one has ever done something that had to make it make even the slightest change in it's plans since it began it's evil plots, save one.

He knew what the Fur-Ball was doing and he was sorely tempted to take one of the offers regardless of the price, but he stood firm. "Not really. But that would be so totally awesome. I don't think it is what I want, besides Bosh said that if I use the power that other people give me instead of earning it then I wouldn't deserve it." He said, trying to draw any suspicion away from him.

'Bosh? Hmmmmm. If he is around then something big is about to happen, and if it's something important enough to warrant him then I maybe able to use it to my advantage.' It thought. "OK then Kit. It's the darkness of your's that you want gone is it? Well then I'll have to have your help to get rid of it. You'll need to be able to forgive the person or people, or move on from the event that caused you to gain such darkness. So in simple terms you must let go of your hate and pain. Not forget it, just let it go."

"What do you mean? I'm not holding onto anything." He replied, confused.

"Foolish mortals, never see the truth because they blind themselves with the illusion of their false perfection. Kit, a person's darkness is part of them as much as the 'light' that they carry in their soul, everyone has both. The difference is the amount that they have which changes throughout their life, one can overcome the other at any time in a person's life and should one amount be greater than the other than the one will overcome the lesser and the greater will control that person's life for a time. If the darkness overcomes you then your life will decay and darken, but if your light strengthens then your life will prosper. If you rise to light it is easy to fall to the darkness, but if you fall to darkness it won't be easy to rise to the light. That is what is said to happen but that's a load of crap really. Trust me." It said.

Naruto wouldn't trust it farther than he could throw it. But it did make a lot of sense, no one at birth is good or evil they only become this way because of events in there life that causes it. He thought of all the pain and suffering that the villagers had put him through and could find that he could forgive them because trough their pain they could not see him as Naruto but as the Fuzz-Butt, he could do it but only once and then never again. While he chose decision, Kyuubi was ridding the boy's simpler formed darkness from him. The rest blew away like mist in the wind. When Naruto opened his eyes they were a light shade of blue, almost a bright sky blue, and a large smile on his face.

"Hey Fur-Ball! Thanks for the help. But just because you helped me get rid of my darkness, who's creation you led to, doesn't mean that I trust you. But if you happened to know who my father and why you were sealed in me specifically then I would be more inclined to trust you more." Said the intelligently stupid boy.

'Well I don't need to keep it from him anymore, it won't help me control him through his now 'non-existent' darkness.' "Well then the man that ruined both of our lives is the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and your father. Why, I do not know." Said the malicious, bestial demon.

Naruto just sat there and stared at the monster not fully comprehending what was just said. He had just learned that the man that he held the most respect for in the world, his role model and idol, was the one that committed his life to be hell on earth, was his father. His own father condemned his own son to a life of misery. Naruto did not speak, he did not move, but you could feel death itself roam the halls of his mind, waiting for the next person that comes by to pounce upon and tear to shreds.

"Are you telling me the truth?" He said in a low voice.

Even the great and powerful Nine-tailed Beast was hesitant to answer in fear of the response.

"Y-Yes." It finally said.

No reaction.

"Kit?" It asked, unsettled by the silence and lack of response. The next thing that it noticed was that it's cage was shrinking, getting smaller and smaller.

"Are you telling me that my own father did this to me? Are you telling me that I could have had a family if you had not showed up and attacked? ARE YOU SAYING THAT ALL THIS WAS YOUR FAULT? He yelled. "IF YOU HADN'T COME THEN I WOULD HAVE A MOTHER, A FATHER, A HAPPY LIFE! ALL THAT I COULD HAVE HAD WAS STOLEN FROM ME AND SO MANY OTHERS BECAUSE OF YOU! NOW YOU WILL TELL ME WHY YOU ATTACKED MY VILLAGE AND SHOULD YOU LIE OR SHOULD THE REASON BE ANYTHING OTHER THAN YOU WERE SENT BY KAMI HIMSELF FOR A DIVINE PURPOSE THEN THE LAST THING YOU SEE WILL BE THESE BARS BECOME A SOLID BRICK WALL!" The Kyuubi was fearful but he knew that there was nothing that he could say, no lie he could tell, that would get him out of this jam. But a thought came to mind, he knew that if this didn't work that he was screwed anyway.

"I would like to tell you but am unable to at the moment. The reason for this is because of the fact that if I told you the reason now when you are in a fury then you would be depriving me of justice in your path of unjust vengeance against me." The Kyuubi was crossing it's fingers, hoping to everything that was good and evil that he would fall for this if nothing else and it seemed that luck was on it's side.

"Alright Fur-Ball, I'll come back later to rip the answer from you when I've calmed down enough. But if you lie then what will become of you will be worse than what I have already told you." He said while calming down. He knew that even if the demon fox was just trying to gain time that it spoke the truth, regardless of the reasons. 'I probably would have torn into him if I still had all of my darkness.' He thought. The Kyuubi on the other hand was freaking out. He was cheering and parading around in his head in victory until Naruto's new threat hit him like a super-powered, anti-pervert, angry Tsunade punch. Now all that could be heard in his head was weeping and thousands of lies that could be told to the young and scary boy with failure hanging off them.

"Now how do I get out of here? I still have a nature test to pass." Naruto asked. The Kyuubi, looking to butter up the still slightly angry maelstrom of a human child, said.

"I could help." Naruto looked at the hulking fox knowing what he was doing but caring more about getting out.

"Alright Fuzz-Butt, get me out of here." He commanded.

Though angry with the name the beast complied. Naruto was shot out of his head and into the real world. When his head stopped spinning he looked up to see the ceiling of the hospital and knew that someone had found him and brought him back to the village. He looked around and spotted his Oji-san and gave him a stern look. The old man raised an eyebrow at the child and asked, "What's wrong Naruto? What's with the look?"

"Hokage-sama." The elder flinched back as if struck.

'What happened in the forest why would he not call me like he normally does? Oh my god! Please don't tell me he knows. If so then that may explain the look.' He thought.

"I would like to talk with you for a moment." He said with a tone that brokered no decline.

"Of course what would you like to talk about?" The slightly worried man asked.

"Alone. As in no ANBU." He replied. This caught the man off guard.

'How does he know that there are ANBU in the room?' "What do you mean Naruto there are no ANBU here. Why don't we just go ahead and start. It must be important." He said. But Naruto just stared at him for a long time before saying.

"Even when you know that I know you still lie to me." The Hokage cursed under his breathe at that sentence.

'Damn-it he knows.' "ANBU leave us." He called out, and four masked and cloaked ninja appeared before disappearing again. The two just stared at one another until the Hokage got up, went to the door, and after locking it made some hand signs that ended with a blue-green flash that spread over the surface of the room. The wizened old man sat back down and the first word out of Naruto's mouth was.

"Why?"

"I wanted you to have as normal childhood as you could before I told you." He said in a defeated voice.

"Yes, we all can see how normal my life has been up till now. What with all the beatings and the loneliness, because everyone knows that childhood is like that." Said the scowling boy. The village leader made a pained face.

"Yes I know that your life has been horrible and that I haven't really done much for you. But I could just put a burden like that on a child, no matter what he has been through in life. To tell a child that the very man that he looked up to and strived to be like was the one who condemned his life, that he condemned you to hold and endlessly struggle for your own body against the Nine-tailed Fox…." He said.

"Actually that is wrong. First you missed something, second it can't do anything to me. The first one is that he is also my father." He retorted. The Sandaime froze, unable to compute all that he said at once. He stared at the boy, wondering how he knew so much. Then it hit him he knew who his father was, he knew about the Kyuubi, he was able to keep it in check, and the most astounding, to him, is that he called the Nine-Tailed Fox, Fur-Ball and the only thing that he could say, the man the was named the 'Professer' and 'The God of Shinobi', was.

"Huh?"

Naruto smiled at the fact that he could do that to such a person. "Well, it seems that you've answered my first question and another that was on my mind. Now I will ask another, why did you not tell my about my father?" He asked with his stern voice. As the Hokage finally caught up with what was being said, he began to sadden again.

"This time it was your father. He asked me to keep the secret from not only you, but from everyone else, until you could stand against your father's enemies, which means all of Iwagakure and certain factions inside of Konoha, and to tell you now you won't be able to go to your family home until you are able to protect yourself against his enemies or until you make Jonin." He answered.

"I guess that I can forgive you, but in return I would not like to talk about anything that happened to me in that forest. Not only that, but do you think that I could get free access to it in case I need a place to hide during my birthdays or when I have a mob after me? Oh, maybe someone could build me a place near it for me to live since they burned down my old place." He asked with the Puppy-dog Eye Jutsu: Child Version.

'Must resist…Damn it. Curse who ever made that jutsu.' "To show that I'm sorry for everything that this village has done to one of it's heros, I'll do all of that and give you a surprise next time your birthday comes along. Okay?" He asked knowing that he had him hook, line and sinker with the birthday gift. He turned out right when the boy started to tear up. When he hugged the old man they both fell over and Naruto buried his face into his Hokage robes.

"Snifff, sniff. Hey Oji-san who was it that got me out of the forest?" he asked when he looked up.

"Ah, that's right. She wanted to be here when you wake up. She was impressed that you were able to survive the Forest of Death without any ninja training. You can come in Anko." He said aloud. When no one came in, he called out the name three more times each getting more frustrated.

"Hey Oji-san you might want to take that blue field down, she might not be able to hear you." Advised Naruto. The Hokage slapped his hand against his forehead and deactivated the Sound-sealing jutsu.

"Anko come in now." He spoke for the last time. The door opened and in stepped a lady that caused even the sexually traumatized boy to blast back with a nose bleed when she squealed and glomped him, his head between her breasts.

"So the gaki's awake. I guess he couldn't take the sex and beautiful Anko Miterashi." She said with a laugh. The Hokage looked at her with a dead-panned face. He saw someone behind her and stood to see him better. He was giant of a man, 7 and 1/2 foot tall pale man with a barrel-chest and dark brown, fur-like hair. He had a goatee and had a feral looking face. He was wearing animal furs from what looked like to be from many different carnivorous animals. He wore sandals but didn't look like he needed them because of his leathery looking feet. All in all he looked like more a wild man-eating beast than a civilized man. Before he could ask who he was Naruto began to moan and groan.

"Who was that? Oji-san I hope she lives in this village I'd really like to see her again, especially if I could keep getting greetings like that." he asked before he looked around. He heard a laugh behind him and came face to breasts with the one he had just been talking about. She had on a smile that could both turn a man on and cause him to fear for his life.

"Well, well, well. It looks like the kid is a bit more grown up than he looks. Play your cards right and you just might get your wish." She said. Naruto smiled and looked around her to the last person in the room.

"Who are you?" He asked, with a frown.

"Don't you remember me, Runt? I'm hurt. It's me Bosh!" And with that Naruto fainted.

A.N. Thank you, thank you. I hope you like this chapter. It was a task to write the end 'cause I was having a migraine while writing it. To anyone who sees any 'legitimate' problems to this chapter feel free to comment. Now that I am done here I'll go find my medicine. REVIEW OR I'LL SICK THE JUUBI ON YOU! BWHAAAAHAAAAA!