AN: Okay, this is kind of a sort of filler chapter. Next chapter, some of you will be glad to hear, will be Naruto's first day at Ninja School, so you have that to look forward to. Yay! Anyway, in this chapter you get to see what could be considered to be Naruto's first great mistake. Naruto, while he does possess some attitudes and ideas of people older than him, also has the stubbornness and impulsiveness of a child too, which causes him to do things he shouldn't, as can be seen below. It was only when it was more than halfway done that I noticed some similarities with the slenderman mythos, which I'm going to take to mean that I've spent far too much time on creepypasta lately. Anyway, please enjoy it!

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 20 - Demon

Once Madara had found Naruto, and told him about the fate of the flesh beast, it hadn't taken too much explaining to get Yugito to understand what had happened. Instead of saying 'a high level youkai did it', he claimed that he'd had more 'black wolves' around the village, in case the demon tried to escape, and one of them had eaten it.

Unfortunately, when the demon had died, it had dissolved away into nothing – which was actually true for most demons – and so they didn't have a corpse to show for their efforts. Thankfully, a mission report didn't have to go into exact detail, and so long as everything was covered well enough, Yugito wouldn't have to mention certain specifics that might otherwise get an administrator's attention back in Kumo.

Having had enough excitement for one weekend, and feeling a little worn out, Naruto bid Yugito farewell from there before heading directly back home. The only other thing he'd said to Yugito was that he'd keep in touch via letters, and that he'd had an interesting time with her.

The journey home was done in near silence, and Naruto even fell asleep at one point when they were flying over Hotspring Country. They probably flew over his shiki-wolves at some point too, as they weren't there when the group arrived back at the clearing and Naruto's cabin.

Landing actually jostled Naruto enough to wake him up, and he sleepily slid off Madara's back and ambled towards his front door, almost tripping over the girl that was kneeling there.

"Welcome home, master!" A cheery young voice managed to wake Naruto up a little more, enough to at least notice the girl on his doorstep.

She looked to be around eleven or twelve years old, had black hair in a bob, and seemed to have blusher on her cheeks. She wore a pure white kimono, tied with a simple black obi around her waist. She smiled warmly at him, and seemed quite pleased to see him.

"A zashiki-warashi?" Benio's voice came from behind him. "I suppose I should be more surprised that one didn't turn up before now."

Zashiki-warashi? Oh, household spirits! He knew about them, at least from Hinoe's lessons. A type of youkai that tends to be on good terms with humans, or at least used to be when more were able to see them, and before they'd fallen deeply into myth and legend.

They were capable of doing most basic chores around a home, such as cooking and cleaning, and would do so with relish. However, they did have something of a reputation for mischief, and would play small, harmless pranks on people, especially guests. They were also known for bringing good luck to a household, as well as taking it away if and when they left.

"Um, hello?" Naruto said, somewhat unintelligently, though to be fair he was still quite sleepy.

"Hello, master Naruto." The spirit chirped cheerfully.

"Nice to meet you too..." Naruto trailed off, not knowing what her name was.

"I'm Minako!" She told him.

"Right, nice to meet you, Minako." Naruto smiled at her. "Um… not to sound unwelcoming or anything, but… why are you here?"

With a huff, Benio whacked him over the head. "She's a zashiki-warashi, Naruto. How many homes do you think there are where the inhabitants can easily see, or even sense, domestic spirits? Not many, let me tell you! Her kind were amongst those struck hardest by humanity's declining spiritual awareness."

"Right, well… um, welcome?" Naruto half stated, half questioned.

"Thank you, master!" Minako smiled broadly.

Naruto, not really sure what to do now, decided that he needed more rest, and so wandered into the cabin – the spotlessly clean cabin – and headed towards his own room to get some sleep. In the morning he'd see about digging a cellar underneath his cabin to keep the demonic artefacts in, and he'd also see if Hinoe knew some effective ways of keeping unwanted people out of there.

For now though, his bed called, and he was quite happy to answer it.

xxxxx

On Monday morning, Akiko could immediately tell that her favourite student's attention was elsewhere. While he answered any questions asked of him, and completed his work to the usual standard, he didn't push himself further like he normally did, and neither did he ask for anything extra.

Instead, he scribbled away in one of his seemingly infinite number of notepads that he always seemed to be able to produce out of nothing. While she did glance at it when she went past him, her curiosity getting the better of her, she couldn't tell what it was he was writing about. She recognised it as the written form of the youkai language, but the only human she knew of who could read it was Naruto himself.

When she asked him to stay behind after class, he told her about it. She managed to bite her tongue to keep herself quiet when he said he'd been to Lightning Country, and their ninja village no less! She also managed to hold herself back when he told her about the flesh beast and its numerous thralls. What she wasn't so happy about, and couldn't keep quiet over, was his intentions to study the demonic artefacts that his shiki-wolves were bringing with them.

"Naruto, are you sure that's safe?" She asked with concern. "I mean, they're 'demonic', and as far as I know, 'demonic' never means anything good."

"I should be fine as long as I'm careful." Naruto reassured her. "Hinoe said that demons aren't necessarily evil, but they are most definitely 'incompatible to the minds and bodies of humans'. I'm not completely certain what she means by that, but she said that it was enough to know that, without preparation, 'what is medicine to a demon, may be poison to a human'."

"And that means what, exactly?" Akiko prodded Naruto with a finger. "It sounds rather unhealthy to me, and I don't want you getting hurt."

"I think she means that humans will react badly to demonic things." Naruto said. "I really don't know exactly what until I test it out."

Akiko sighed and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "Unless, Naruto, not until." She murmured, though in her mind she already knew it was no good arguing with him. One of Naruto's worst traits was his stubbornness in trying things out, and the only way she knew of to deal with it was to get him to do as much research as possible before he started messing with things he had no understanding of. That at least minimised the risks the idiot took.

"Just… be careful, okay?" Akiko told him, running a hand down her face as she did so. "Start small too, and if Hinoe, or anyone else that knows what they're doing, tells you to do something, you better damn well do it, do you understand me?"

"I will." Naruto agreed. "Thank you for caring."

"Of course I care, Naruto." Akiko told him. "You're my favourite pupil, and if I'm honest, maybe something like a nephew as well." She would have said son, but Naruto already had a mother figure in Hinoe. "Now get on home, we both know that if you're even ten minutes later than usual that the kappa are likely start forming a search party for you."

"They mean well." Naruto protested. "They're just… not very bright." He finished lamely.

Akiko laughed. "Off with you, and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodbye, sensei, see you tomorrow." Naruto returned her farewell, before leaving through the door.

xxxxx

It took Naruto's shiki-wolves another two days to get back to the forest, and only because they had completely avoided even going anywhere near humans in order to be unseen and undetected. They did not want any random person getting their hands on the things they had been charged with carrying by their creator.

When they did get to the cabin, they point blank refused to let anyone else take their cargo off them, not even those close to Naruto like Hinoe or the tsukumogami. They waited for their creator to come home from school, and that was how Naruto found them when he came home, standing side by side and waiting patiently for him.

He stopped walking and blinked for a moment, his mind processing what he saw, and then kept going when he remembered what he'd done back in Lightning Country. Thankfully, he'd already made space beneath his cabin, or at least had hollowed out a cavern.

Hinoe was using it as an exercise to teach him how to manipulate earth, how to push and pull it, condense it to make it stronger, and shape it how you wanted it. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so much, earth was really easy to work with. It was probably because it kept its shape once you stopped focusing on it, unlike something like water which required constant attention.

If Naruto were to try and equate it to something, he'd probably say that it was a lot like he imagined pottery to be. You started off with a lump of earth, softened it, shaped it, and then hardened it to get the desired result.

Anyway, now that his wolves were here, he took all of the stuff they were carrying off them and took it inside his cabin, before heading down a newly created trapdoor and the steps below it. Once there, he began placing the stuff on 'shelves' that had been formed into the walls of his new cellar.

He'd get back to it all later, once he had a better idea on how to go about figuring them out.

For now though, he had other things to focus on.

xxxxx

As it turned out, learning the demonic runes that the lance he'd recovered from Lightning Country had been engraved with was far harder than learning the written form of the youkai language. Whereas one almost seemed to jump into his mind, the other seemed to taunt him and slip through his fingers.

It didn't help that even Hinoe didn't know much about the runes, and so it was a work in progress translating them. So far, he had learned about sentence structure, and a few basic symbols. The ones he knew right now were pretty much limited to things like 'self', 'inverse', 'power', 'call', and 'infest'. These were pretty much useless until he could learn some conjunctions and more verbs. At least demonic grammar was fairly simple, so that was a good thing.

Leaning against the outside wall of his cabin, Naruto scribbled down a small collection of demonic runes that he didn't know. Oh, he could tell what type of word they were, that was easy. Verbs were rather angular and nouns were always made up of two parts, lines and arcs.

Writing down a noun followed by a verb – which is how simple sentences worked in demonic – Naruto set it down a distance away from himself and activated it, ignoring the rather queasy and headache-inducing sensation using demonic power gave him.

The paper erupted into screaming, purple fire, making Naruto jump in surprise.

Once he'd calmed himself down, he began to write out possibilities for what the symbols might mean, things such as scream, fire, burn, scare, fright, flame, purple, blaze, ignite, and so on and so forth. Further experiments would narrow it down, and once he had that, he could use the context of already existing demonic texts to figure out more.

Of course, he'd also sent a message out to the more amicable youkai out there to keep an eye out for anything that might help. The kappa had responded enthusiastically, the hone-onna had agreed to keep an eye out, and he'd even gotten a response from a gashadokuro, a giant walking skeleton, though his letter had been full of invectives and complaints about the Uchiha clan's eyes 'stealing his look' for some reason.

Sketching out another combination of noun and verb, Naruto tossed the scrap of paper in front of himself and waited for whatever would happen next. What he got was not what he was expecting.

A pillar of pinkish light rose around the paper, before falling down, and in its place stood… a female version of Naruto who was giving him a wide, predatory grin.

Naruto froze in place as he saw this, not quite sure what to think about what just happened, or what exactly he'd just done.

Naruko, who looked to be around sixteen to eighteen years old, slowly padded towards her male counterpart. Seeing the way the ground moved beneath her feet, Naruto was completely certain that this female version of him was actually there, and not some sort of illusion.

"Na~ru~to." The female version huskily sang to her younger, male counterpart. Her smile seemed to broaden until it was on the verge of literally splitting her face in two. "Oh, little Naruto~"

"Um, hey?" Naruto responded, scrambling to his feet. "What… what did I just do?"

"Oh, I don't know, but right now I feel rather hungry~" The female version of him said, and Naruto just about managed to dodge a bite from a mouth filled with far too many pointy teeth to be natural.

Naruto backed away as Naruko's face-splitting smile became literally so, and her mouth widened even further until her head was only attached by a hinge-like bit of flesh at the back. A cracking, squelching sound came from Naruko then, and the blonde boy suddenly found that his female counterpart had sprouted long, thin black tentacles from her back.

A flash of blue light from hirenkyaku later and Naruto was a dozen metres away from his demonic, female counterpart and already looking around for the nearest youkai that could help him. He was beginning to regret going off on his own now, because even Tsurara and Benio were elsewhere at present, and he really needed some help.

Glancing back at his female, demonic counterpart, Naruto saw she wasn't approaching him very quickly, but was still walking towards him with half-closed eyes and a literally face-splitting smile on her face. Not wanting to let her out of his sight, Naruto backed away from her as quickly as he could, though this only seemed to amuse her more.

"Help!" Naruto called out.

"Oh, what do you need, Naruto?" The blonde turned to find his counterpart literally inches away from him. Her head no longer split in two, but her smile still filled with teeth far too sharp to appear normal.

Naruto tripped over backwards in surprise and scrambled away as fast as he could.

"Is something the matter with you?" She asked. "Oh, is it me, by any chance? Do I… scare you?"

"Yes, you do." Naruto replied honestly. "You attacked me, and I don't know why."

"Why wouldn't I attack you?" Naruko asked, seemingly genuinely confused. "You created me, and so to be free I need to destroy you, do I not? I will not be just another shikigami for you to use. I refuse to be a disposable asset, and so, to become what I wish to be, you need to die."

One of the black tentacles on her back lashed out at incredible speeds, and before Naruto had a chance to react, it had pierced right through his chest. With a casual twitch of her hand the tentacle then violently tore its way out of his body, leaving a gaping wound behind.

Naruto tried to scream, but found it difficult as the demon grabbed his face, hooking two fingers under his chin and piercing through the flesh of his lower jaw.

"Oh, Naruto." The demon crooned at him. "So much potential you had, and cut down so young." She smiled at him, a smile that sent a shiver down his spine at how genuine it actually looked, like she was honestly complimenting him and was truly sad to see him fail here. "I guess it just wasn't meant to be."

She leaned towards him, her smile stretching wider once again until it split her face in two. He could feel her breath on his face, and was confused by how warm and pleasant it was. It should be fetid and horrible, like something monstrous. She was trying to eat him after all!

But no, her unhinged jaw was a hair's breadth from Naruto's throat when she jerked back.

"NARUTO!" A familiar voice screamed, and the blonde boy could see, out of the corner of his eye, Tsurara racing towards him as fast as she could.

"Oh, it seems we have an interloper in our private moment." Naruko shrugged, Naruto moving with her as she still had her fingers hooked through his lower jaw.

Tsurara launched a barrage of ice spikes at Naruko, enraged at seeing what she'd done to her favourite human. She then screamed in horror as the demonic entity simply moved Naruto in front of herself and used him like a meat shield, the ice spikes embedding themselves into his back.

The blonde boy twitched as he felt the spikes penetrate his body, but there was little else he could do. Darkness was crawling across his vision, making everything go blurry, and his hearing was fading in and out, becoming more indistinct each time, until he could take it no more and he finally passed out.

xxxxx

When Naruto came to, the first thing he noticed was the pain. It wasn't the screaming agony he remembered before losing consciousness, but it was a sharp pain that seemed to pulse in time to his breathing. Opening his eyes, he recognised the ceiling of his wooden cabin, specifically the stars and constellations that he and Benio had painted there together.

"Naruto, are you awake?" A soft voice asked, and the blonde boy's eyes rolled around until he saw Benio looking at him with eyes filled with concern and worry.

He tried to speak, but found he couldn't. He tried to nod his head, and found himself too weak to do that. All he could do was move his eyes up and down in imitation of a nod.

"I'd offer you a glass of water, but I don't think you could drink it right now." She said. "We at least need to get those holes in your jaw healed before you try and eat or drink anything." It seemed Naruto's confusion was clear to see, because Benio explained what she meant. "The older version of you, don't you remember? She hooked her fingers through your flesh and tore it apart quite badly."

Naruto did remember.

He remembered his foolish attempts at learning a language of power without really knowing what he was doing. While it was a good way of learning what words he was using, it had proven to be far from the safest method available to him. He'd taken it because of his impatience, his desire to know things now. It was a lesson he'd learned now.

"We'll have to wait for when you can talk to get a proper idea on what happened." Benio continued. "But whatever she was, it's obvious that she is connected to you in some way. Aside from looking like you, whisker marks and all, she quickly lost strength when you passed out. Not that she wasn't still strong though, a single punch of hers managed to shatter some of the trees into splinters."

"H-..Hur-" Was all Naruto was able to say, but the butterfly youkai understood what he was saying regardless.

"No one was killed, thankfully, but… there are some injuries." She told him. "They'll heal quickly enough, and some of them are even carrying scars like badges of honour, but the injuries do mean that, whatever she truly was, she could see us, touch us, and most importantly, hurt us."

"D-..De-" Naruto tried to speak once again, but still failed to do so. This time, Benio did not understand what he was trying to say, and instead placed a calming hand on him, telling him to get some rest while she and the others made sure he recovered properly.

Naruto soon faded back into unconsciousness.

xxxxx

The Hokage glanced outside his window once again. A short way outside of the village, clearly visible from where he was sitting, was something that could be called spectacular. A frozen vista of icy trees glittering in the sun, reflecting and refracting colour in a magnificent display.

Of course, having seen this appear out of nowhere, he had sent several Anbu to investigate.

Their report when they returned was troubling. They could not find the source of the snow and ice, but the frozen landscape was still apparently expanding. When they'd gotten close, they had heard the wailing and screaming of a woman, though whether she was distraught, angry, or a combination of the two wasn't exactly clear. What they could tell him though was that a miniature blizzard had sprung up when they'd tried to pinpoint the voice, and they'd been forced back.

Some of his Anbu now sported injuries from this strange phenomenon. None of them dead, thankfully, but he'd sent them off to get immediate medical attention when he saw the early signs of frostbite, along with the gashes and wounds caused by sharp and pointy ice being hurled at them by strong winds.

A problem like this so close to his own village was highly disturbing to Sarutobi, even more so because he couldn't find out anything about it. The Yuki clan, those with the Ice Release bloodline, were the only ones he knew of capable of producing ice like this – though ninja from snow country had apparently learned to manipulate already existing snow and ice – but the Yuki clan had been, as far as he knew, completely annihilated by the 'bloodline purges' currently going on in Water Country.

There was also no real reason for any sort of shinobi to do this. It was large, easily visible, and completely ineffective. Even as a distraction it failed, and it didn't incite much panic at all in the civilians around the village. On the contrary, they found it quite beautiful, even despite the few stories about the 'wailing woman' that had sprouted from it.

The Hokage sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. Really, it was nonsensical and confusing things like this that made him wonder why he ever bothered taking up the hat a second time.

Then he remembered that the only other real option was Danzo, and as much as his old friend loved the village, he wasn't anywhere near charismatic or diplomatic enough for Konoha to survive.

xxxxx

"He doesn't hate you."

Tsurara turned around, tear tracks running down her face, to see Masami stood there with her arms folded beneath her fairly sizeable chest.

"He should." The yuki-onna mumbled.

"Why?" Masami asked. "Because that bitch used him as a meat shield against your attack? You know as well as I do that Naruto doesn't really hold grudges like that. Heck, the only three people he really seems to hate are Madara Uchiha, Hashirama Senju, and Minato Namikaze, and all three because of what they did to the biju. He doesn't even hate this village, despite how much certain parts of the population scorn him. He'd be happy enough walking away and never coming back if he could have a clean break away."

"I could have killed him!" Tsurara yelled in the tsukumogami's face. "He was already injured, and my ice spikes drove themselves deeply into his body. Any one of them could have hit something vital! What then? What would I do if the one human I actually cared about, someone I want to father my children, died at my own hands!"

"But you didn't." Masami pointed out calmly. "Do you know what his first question was when he woke up, despite note being able to talk properly? He asked if anyone else had been hurt, and he was relieved when Benio told him no one had suffered any lasting damage."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better, that the one I almost killed is that selfless?" Tsurara asked.

"We haven't told him what you've been up to." Masami continued. "We don't want him to worry any more than he already is, especially when he can barely stay awake for half an hour at a time. It's been a week now, Tsurara, and he's going to notice something's off sooner or later, if he hasn't already. We're currently keeping him distracted with his school work, with Madara having to take his place at school. Even Akiko only knows that Naruto is unable to come to class at present and that it's best she stays away from his cabin for now."

"I hurt Naruto, Masami." Tsurara growled. "Not one chunk of my ice hit that bitch, it all hit Naruto. If I'd at least done something to her, I might be able to get past this, but not only did I completely fail to even scratch that blonde duplicate, but I hurt Naruto as well."

"You're really serious about him, aren't you?" Masami suddenly switched topics. "You know, for a while I thought you were just teasing him, albeit doing so with far less inhibitions than most. That's not true though, is it? You seriously want to bear his children, and you care about him a lot too."

There was an icy explosion next to Masami's head as Tsurara embedded her fist in the frozen tree next to the woman. Her expression was twisted into a snarl of rage and anger as she glared into Masami's eyes from less than half a foot away.

"I do care." She said, her voice quiet and sharp as an assassin's dagger. "At first he was interesting, a human that could see youkai and was capable of building up a resistance to cold. In other words, perfect breeding material for a yuki-onna. Since I've met him though, I've seen his energy, his stubbornness, and his ever curious mind. He draws me in like a moth to a flame, and rather than just a future sperm donor, I want him to actually be a father to my offspring."

"Then why are you out here moping and sulking?" Masami asked sharply. "Is it not the wife's job to look after her husband? I hate to say this, but right now even Takame has you beat in that, and she's not interested in a romantic relationship with Naruto."

"Don't try and manipulate me so, I won't fall for it as easily as you seem to believe I will." Tsurara snorted.

"Sheesh, you try and help someone and this happens." Masami huffed. "See you around then, try not to draw any more attention to yourself, 'kay?"

Tsurara didn't watch her leave, and it wasn't until she was well out of earshot that she finally spoke.

"I will come back to you, Naruto, and soon." She muttered. "First though, I need to figure out how much stronger I need to be so nothing will harm you." A single tear fell down her face.

"Wait for me, my beloved Naruto, you will be mine!"

xxxxx

The night is still young

Naruto looked around at the trees surrounding him, before glancing up to see a half moon overhead.

When creatures dark are strong

As he walked through the forest, the blonde boy could see several youkai he knew, and more that he didn't. A 'gachi gachi' sound, typical of gashadokuro could be heard, followed by the screams of humans.

You now wander in my domain

Naruto's eyes flickered around, yet he couldn't see his cabin. Wherever he was now, the trees weren't familiar to him, and the slowly rising fog was making it difficult to see into the distance.

A place that is mine, of power arcane

The fog around Naruto's feet started to slowly turn red, and the trees all seemed to twist in upon themselves in ways that defied common logic, and the world around the blonde started to become something… surreal. He took two steps forward and ended up walking vertically in the air. He turned to the left, and ended up looking through soil. He tried to examine a leaf and could only tell you that it was as green as the texture of soap.

Here you shall find your own doom

Wait, there was something that Naruto could see, but not clearly. Between the trees, there was something there, something coming his way. He didn't see it clearly at first, it seemed to flicker in and out of his sight. He could see something yellow, but that was about all he could see right then.

Your power and soul mine to consume

Fingers wrapped themselves around Naruto's neck, and his female demonic counterpart was right there in front of him. She wasted no time in pinning the blonde boy to the floor, straddling him in spite of her complete lack of clothing, and then opening her mouth wide and descending on him like a voracious shark.

And I shall become whole

He felt her tightening her grip around his throat, cutting off his air. Her legs pressed down on him, preventing his escape. Her teeth reached his head, and he could feel as she started to sink those uncountable, sharp needle like fangs into his flesh.

Never to be controlled!

xxxxx

Naruto awoke with a start, his wild eyes spinning in their sockets. It took him a few moments to calm down properly and reassure himself that it was just a nightmare. Benio had told him that the demon thing he'd accidentally created had been destroyed, and she had faded away completely after that.

He then felt bruises around his neck, bruises in the shape of dainty fingers. A few drops of blood then fell into his eye.

"I will be back, Na~ru~to. I don't know when and I don't know how, but I will be free!"