Morning arrived to Oto, nin country on the northern border of the Land of Fire. During the night the ice storm and heavy winds had transformed into a slow moving blizzard that blanketed the world in an impenetrable veil of white. Icicles hung from trees like daggers and under the thickening snow the ground was sheathed in ice.
Inside the cave, the boy had succumbed to a fever that left him in a heavily delirious state. His body twitched and shifted on the pile of rocks and debris eventually creating a small crater that confined him. How the boy could still be alive would have been a mystery to anyone without definitive knowledge of him. A stranger might deduce he was from Konoha by the symbol on his headband. He might even conclude that he was a shinobi from the weapons and his attire. But he would never-ever understand the subtle red glow that enshrouded the boy as he writhed on the ground.
If the stranger was a wise man, he would know that this boy was dangerous. He would know it, not from the weapons. Not because he was a shinobi of the Leaf. No, he would know it from the red slitted eyes that would occasionally open unseeing to the world. He would see it by the extended canine teeth and hands that were claw-like and lethal. Yes, a wise man would avoid this boy.
If the boy had known about the red chakra that engulfed him, he would have fought to constrain it. For the source came from a power that should not be in the world—a power that was demonic in nature and evil without conscience. It was that of Kyubi, the Nine Tail Demon Fox, the harbinger of doom and the most powerful of all the nine bijous. Over sixteen years ago, when the boy was only minutes old, his own father had sealed the demon inside the boy to save what remained of his village and his people. A desperate sacrifice to save not only a village but all that remained to him--his son.
Through the fuuinjutsu needed to imprison the fox, the boy's father traded his soul to the Shinigami, the Death God. Before relinquishing his claim on life he created two seals; one a curse, the other a gift. The first seal is a barrier cell that imprisoned the demon fox, cursing the boy to a life of hardship, loneliness and unreasonable animosity. The second seal, meant to be a gift, created a path that allowed the demon's chakra to pass through the barrier to merge with the boy's own chakra system.
How could the boy's father have predicted the end results? How could he have known the pain that came with the demon's power? How could he have known that the power would influence the boy? How could he have known all the terrible costs? There had been no choice and so had he known the costs, still he would have sealed the demon. His final request was that his son be spared the knowledge of his heredity and to be seen not as a pariah, but as a hero. He was granted the first, but not the later, and the boy grew up ignorant of his father, his heritage and scorned by the very village his body protected.
Not too long ago, the demon's power had passed beyond the boy's ability to control. His very body had been torn apart till virtually all that was left was blood and sinew. True, the very cursed chakra that destroyed his body would later heal it, but the pain of recovery and it's horrific memory are forever with him. If that was all, the boy could accept it, would use it—even knowing the cost. But there isa limit to what he can control and as his anger and desperation grow, so does the influence of the demon fox. Until it is a power without conscience, striking at all … destroying all. The last time it caused a very precious person to be hurt. What he had done and the pain he had inflicted on his teammate and closest friend were grievous to him. But what completely destroyed him was learning that had it not been for the former anbu Yamato, leader of their mission team, and his abilities and quick action, shewould have been killed.
He had not known. Could not have realized. There was no memory of the transformation. His ability to remain in control of the demon fox's power was limited. At three tails he was still able to control the demon's foul chakra. But at four tails … at four, it destroyed him ... his mind is shut from the world and he is consumed. He only learned of it later when Yamato had taken him aside, leaned close and said, "You were the one who hurt Sakura, Naruto."
Naruto swore himself to avoid using the demon's power. But the seal is like a membrane that is always leaking power into his chakra system. A side effect of this continuous leaking is it increases his body's ability to recover from even near fatal wounds. The Kyubi, locked mortally to the boy, does not control this, but to some extent it does control the amount. And now, while Naruto is gripped with fever, in a cave only slightly above freezing, the Demon leaks more and more of its chakra to his warden. Not out of love or kindness, but out of self preservation. For if the boy dies—it dies.
....
Far away in Konoha, a certain kunoichi with pinkish hair is just waking up. As she puts her feet on the cold floor, a shiver run's through her and, for some inexplicable reason, she thinks of Naruto.
