Author's Foreword:

I have a weird relationship with Naruto. I never really cared much for it, I prefer One Piece. However, I just really like to read Naruto fanfiction for some reason. Because of this, my knowlede of the series is limited to what I actually whatched, a few spoilers from friends and what I've read on fanfiction.

So, this fanfic is writen by the point of view of a guy with limited (and yet not really) knowledge of Naruto, which led me to write an Alternate Universe where some fundamental things are changed for my own sake and get rid of the need of relying too much on the original material.

Think of it as what Scooby Doo Mystery Inc. is for the Scooby Doo franchise.

I'm writing this for people who don't have a lot of knowledge of the series while making nods and references for the people who do, without making it boring for them.

Anyway,

I've put a few rules for myself for writing this. Keep these in mind:

1) I'll not use OCs, I'll use the billion characters that Naruto has to offer for any situation that I need and I'll try to use non-canon locations as sparingly as possible. I don't like it much when it happens in other fanfictions, why should I do it with my own?

2) I'll try to stick as much as I can to the canon personalities, although I'll say upfront that I prefer lighthearted stuff, so maybe some changes will happen.

3) The use Kage Bushin is gonna be limited and nerf'd. It's too OP and storybreaking for what I wanna do with this. I've toyed with the idea of not having it at all, but it's such a remarkable characteristic of the series that it would be a waste to not have it.

4) I'm more of a "When All You Have Is A Hammer" kind of guy. What I mean by this is that I prefer powers that are seemingly simple, but with a lot of uses if you're creative enough (half of the reasons of why my favorite series is One Piece are this). So, don't expect people to have a lot of different jutsus because that is not gonna happen. It's gonna be like Pokemon games, but a bit more flexible.

Okay, we good?

Let's start this show then.


Chapter 1 – The Meeting

The Old Man said that he should not wander the village, he would not want a repeat of what happened last year. However, he couldn't help himself, being restricted to an enclosed space was suffocating.

He needed to feel the air gently stroking his fur, entering his lungs while filling his nose with interesting smells!

Therefore, he did just that.

Bypassing his caretakers wasn't a great challenge, he could trick anyone with his mastery of disguises. Once he disguised himself as a potted plant for some hours, which led to him being witness to some very funny dialogues while the Old Man and his ninjas looked after him. However, this time he used a simpler idea: he disguised himself as a little mouse, escaping the tower through the ventilation ducts and cracks in the walls.

However, he still took care to not be seen by the villagers, especially because it was still broad daylight and if any of them even caught a glimpse of yellow and orange, he would be in big trouble.

So, he wandered the streets disguised as a child version of one of his heroes: The Fourth Hokage.

It seemed to be a good enough disguise, as even if some people mumbled stuff about the leaves on his head, nobody could actually figure out who he actually is. Conclusion: the disguise was a success.

God! It was so good to just walk the streets and seeing the people, the animals, the plants!

Perfect.

That is, until some screams caught his attention.


Hinata was scared.

Being shy and nervous about her future is her usual estate of being, but "scared" was no estranger to her. Those bullies sure where pushing her buttons.

Comments about her "strange white-eyes", the coldness of her clan or even her supposed "superiority" where made, each meaner than the other. She needed to get away from them, she needed to power through it.

"J-just l-let me go…" she pleaded.

"J-just l-l-l-let m-m-m-m-me go!" the older of them mocked.

"Awwww, the little princess don't wanna play anymore?" The shorter said. "Too high and might to play with plebs like us? Is that it?" He emphasized it with a push.

"N-no, that's not…!" As she tried to explain herself, she is pushed once more, with more force, sending her to the dirty floor of the street.

She cried while they kept taunting her. "Well, princess, it's time that someone put you down of your high horse! And there's no better way to do this than making yourself acquaintance with the the streets of Konoha!" the middle one grabbed her hair and started to push to her face towards the dirty.

That is until they heard a snarl.

They paused, trying to see the source of the sound.

The shorter one suddenly felt a clawed hand grab his head. He screamed as he was dragged to the nearby alley. His friends snapped their heads while they only caught his feet up in the air, disappearing on the darkened street.

The middle one still held Hinata as he cautiously called his disappeared friend. He heard a muffled scream and he was suddenly alone. He looked at the little girl's eye, following the path they observed: the roof just above them.

He caught a glimpse of his friend's frightened face as he disappeared.

"W-w-what is happening?" the only boy left screamed. He turned to Hinata, screaming at her face. "You! You've seen what happened, r-right!?" She nodded. "What as it?"

"A-a-a-a fox with nine-tails…!" She whispered with fright.

"Y-YOU'RE JOKING! YOU CAN'T B-B-B-BE SERIOUS!" He started to push her again, this time against the wall, suspending her grabbing her collar. "YOU'RE JUST SAYING THAT SO I WILL LET YOU GO!"

He heard another snarl.

This one uncomfortably close to his ear.

He smelt the breath of an animal, something similar to that of a dog's. "You will let the girl go… and then you'll get to see your friends again… with all their limbs." A voice so soft that sent chills down his spine said. He turned around, letting Hinata go.

His eyes widened in fear. An enormous fox looked back, with slits eyes and shining white pointy teeth.

He screamed about the return of the Kyuubi while he fled the street.

The fox observed the boy go and disappear when he did a turn on a farway street. Only then he turned to the girl dropped on the dirty street. She observed her trembling with the same fear in her eyes that the boys had. The fox approached, she flinched. The fox sniffed her, she closed her eyes, waiting for her certain death.

She listen to a poof and a soft boy's voice speaks. "You ok?"

Hinata opens her eyes, to see blond boy with a wild hair full of orange leaves. She observes his face for a while, noticing the whiskers on his cheeks. "Y-you… where the fox…?"

He scratched his cheeks, a nervous smile on his face. "Hahah, yeah, did you like it? I'm quite good at transformations!" He said with a bright and proud smile.

She blushed a little. "Y-yes, you're pretty good at the Henge technique… Who taught you?"

He appeared confused for little while. "Henge…? OH! Oh, yeah! Henge! That was totally it! My Old Man taught me, y'know?"

She smiled a little at the nervousness of the boy. Somehow, discovering that she wasn't the only one that was a nervous wreck around other people kind alleviated her own stress.

He smiled more genuinely too when he caught her gentle smile. Then his smile grew again, showing his white, pointy teeth. "Well, I should go before someone comes seeking the fox, can't let them get me!"

"W-wait!" Before she got to ask his name, he made a hand sign, transformed into a rat, and ran into the sewer, disappearing without a trace.

She observed for a while the small hole the boy turned into rat disappeared into. She didn't know for how long she kept watching the same spot, but one thought kept repeating itself.

"But… Father said that Henge is just an illusion, not a true transformation…"

She went to her house, for a moment thinking about confirming her knowledge with her Father, but ended up deciding to keep it to herself. It wouldn't do to ask another "stupid question" to anger him.

She just hoped that she would see the fox boy again.


Through the same way he came, the boy entered his room on the Hokage Tower. It was dark and quiet, but he didn't notice anything wrong until the lights blasted his small rodent eyes, which prompted him to transform himself back into a boy, although now mixed with his fox appearance from earlier. He used his two tails to protect himself from the light, while his long fox ears listened to someone approaching him.

He opened his eyes as he felt the Third Hokage's gaze over him.

"Naruto, where have you been all day?"

The boy sent a nervous smile to his adoptive grandfather while his ears flopped to the sides. "I just went to walk on the village streets, Gramps!"

"And what is that about the 'the nine-tails' appearing on the streets that the ANBU reported to me?" He said with a stern tone on his voice. The boy got more nervous and looked a bit to the Hokage's feet.

"Y'see, there was this girl with white eyes that was being picked up by some bullies, so I decided to play a prank on them so they would stop being mean to her!" He explained, shifting his mood through his story from shy, nervous, angry and finally boastfully proud of himself.

Sarutobi sighed. That matched the reports he received from the testimonies that his ninja collected and the Hyuuga Heiress' story that she reported to her caretakers, who reported to her Father.

He sent a gentle smile to the boy and put a hand over the boys head, scratching between his ears. "Well, you certainly did some good today, Naruto."

The fox-boy smiled with shines on his eyes.

"But I have to repeat: Don't go to the village, if people notice who you actually is..." he said with a seriousness that put off the boy, but he suddenly felt brass again.

"But I went to the village disguised and nobody noticed! I bet that I could even fool the academy and get to be a ninja like you and the Fourth!" he screamed with a confident smile.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed again, having heard the wishes of the boy to be let into the academy many times before. Sure, it makes sense that a boy his age would feel a need to meet other kids, but if they ever discovered that he isn't even human, chaos would certainly spread through the village at best (and he didn't even want to think about the worst...)

Although, this time a thought hit him.

If this gamble paid off, Konoha would have a very bright future with the Last Uzumaki as a very important figure of it.

"Well, then if you can sustain your transformation even while sleeping, I will let you go in the academy." He smiled at the surprised face of the boy.

Naruto smiled back with confidence and a spark of mischief shone in his eyes.