Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto.

Chapter 3: An unusual childhood

The time after Naruto woke from his coma was an alternation of contrasts that couldn't be more different. A week in the orphanage was followed by approximately ten days with his parents in a steady rotation.

In the waking world practically nothing interesting happened. Naruto was generally isolated and bullied by the other children and treated with scorn and neglect that fell just short of outright abuse by the caretakers, but there was simply nothing to do for him other than live one uncomfortable day after another. It was impossible for him to leave the orphanage and do something productive. He would have loved nothing better than to shut it completely out, but his parents wouldn't let him. They forced him to retell each week to them in excruciating detail and prevented him from suppressing his memories. After some prodding by his parents he also paid more attention to the events around him. Youko and Daiki wanted to know what happened in the world, and he would try his best. Eavesdropping was surprisingly easy as almost everybody would ignore him provided he kept somewhat out of sight. Additionally, his hearing was more sensitive than before and kept slowly getting better.

Most of what he overheard was either completely mundane gossip or went completely over his head, but he reported it faithfully as detailed as he could remember. He managed to find two nuggets that interested his parents. Apparently during his time in the hospital some foreign shinobi had tried to abduct the young Hyuuga heiress and had been killed in the attempt. They had needed to execute and deliver the body of the Hyuuga who did the deed to avert a war. The other piece of news his parents found interesting was that certain trade goods were becoming increasingly rare. Naruto didn't really understood the significance of all this, but what made his parents happy made him happy too.

In the world of his parents things went much better. Loved and cared for, Naruto's time was spent with playing and learning things. He was a very inquisitive child, and his parents were only too pleased to provide him with answers. His education progressed to just short of the point where his body couldn't keep up with his mind. It was extraordinarily annoying to know all sorts of things but unable to do them, even if his body control was much better than a normal child of his apparent age.

Months passed and life was generally good (or bad, depending on his location). Then he thought to ask his parents a question after a particular fun afternoon spent playing tag and hide-and-seek in the meadows with his parents in fox form.

"What's it like to be a fox?"

"Well, it's hard to describe. You have really great hearing and a good sense of smell and some other stuff. Explanations don't really do it justice, you have to experience it."

"Can I be a fox too?"

His parents exchanged a glance before Youko spoke. "If you want to we can turn you into one for a time, little one. You can't do it yourself; you'd need to learn to use magic before that."

"Sure I want to."

"Well then, hold still for a moment."

Daiki's tail grew in size until it was large enough to completely wrap around Naruto who closed his eyes to prevent any hair getting into them. The change itself felt really strange, like his body was liquefying and flowing into a new form, but it was over almost immediately after it started. When he opened his eyes his perspective was much closer to the ground than before. His vision hardly changed, but his senses of smell and hearing were increased enormously. He could detect a lot of scents and noises he hadn't noticed a moment before. After taking a few careful steps to test his new four-legged form Naruto was surprised how easy it was, almost as if he already knew how to move. Soon the game of tag was resumed.

This transformation opened a whole new world for Naruto. His fox form was physically much more mature than his human body, and he was soon allowed into the nearby areas on his own. Instinct told him what to do, even if he could consciously disregard it. His first attempts at hunting were humiliating failures, but he soon figured out how to locate prey from the sounds it made and to judge the correct distance for a jumping attack. The first time he managed to catch a mouse on his own was immensely satisfying. Eating raw meat and insects was a bit icky at first, but he became accustomed to it after a while. From that point on, he spent a good deal of time as a fox. It also gave his parents something new to teach until his real body's development had caught up some more with his mental age.

This wasn't the only question with far-reaching consequences he asked.

"I'm always bored. Can't you teach me anything I can do in the orphanage?"

It had been more than a month since Naruto began spending time as a fox, and he still enjoyed it greatly. No, the problem was the waking world. The orphanage was just so boring. Eavesdropping on conversations and learning to be sneakier could only hold his attention for so long, and his breaking point was reached. There was only so much he could do if nobody wanted to talk or play with him, and he had become good enough at eavesdropping that it left him with a lot of free time on his hands.

Youko looked at him thoughtfully for a moment and answered his question with a counter question. "I think I have something for you, kit. Do you know what chakra is?"

Naruto shook his head. Since he began spending time as a fox himself his mother had taken to calling him kit. He supposed it was better than little one. He wasn't that little anymore.

"It's the energy shinobi use to get stronger, control the elements and do other things." she explained. "But in truth it is everywhere. Every living being produces chakra, and different forms can even be found in the non-living environment. It's a very powerful force that is composed of the energies of mind and body."

"Shinobi are the protectors of the village, aren't they? The Old Man often talks about them and the respect they get and how the village treats them as heroes; and how the Hokage has the most respect of all."

"That's a lot of half-truths."

"Half-truths?"

"Statements that are true, but important parts to get the correct picture are missing. What the Hokage said is not false, but misleading. It seems he wants to steer you in a particular direction. Play along, but never trust the man. Shinobi do indeed protect the village, but they do a lot other things, with some of them quite despicable. You don't get respect if you become Hokage, you need to already have it to get that position. Why anyone would want it I don't know, but let us return to the matter of chakra."

Youko held out her arm, and a red energy streaked with gold became visible around it. When she gestured in the direction of a loose stick at the other side of the clearing a tendril of the energy shot out, picked up the piece of wood and retreated back into her arm while depositing the stick into her hand. The stick held before her face, she breathed softly on it. Only instead of air a small stream of fire emerged from her mouth, setting the stick ablaze. She showed it to Naruto before dousing the fire with a small stream of water.

"Chakra can do a lot of things, but you need a lot of training to use it correctly. Only a fraction of all the humans in the world is even capable of utilizing it to any meaningful degree, and most of them become shinobi."

"Can you teach me to become a shinobi, mommy?"

His mother shook her head. "Sorry kit, but neither your father nor I know the details of shinobi training. We use chakra in an entirely different manner, but that is impossible to teach. You will probably learn that in a few years by visiting the shinobi academy." Seeing Naruto's dejected look she added "But we should be able to develop some exercises for you to do in the meantime that will give you an edge later. I'll have to talk with your father about it first, though."

"Thanks mommy."

Two weeks later Naruto was awaiting his first practical lesson about chakra. The time before had been spent with explanations and theory about the ethereal chakra system that permeated his body, the nodes from which chakra could be released into the external environment and what could be done with the chakra internally. He was sitting across from his parents in a clearing in the woods.

"Close your eyes and concentrate, kit, I will send some of my own chakra into you to help you draw on yours. Ready?"

Upon seeing Naruto's nod, a thin tendril of golden energy emerged from Youko's outstretched hand and made contact with Naruto's torso. At first nothing happened aside from a warm, comfortable feeling. Then Naruto felt it. It was a slight tug somewhere inside of him that he couldn't quite locate. After a few minutes the exercise ended.

"Did you manage to feel your chakra?"

"Yeah, I felt it, but couldn't quite get a hold." Naruto answered.

"That's no problem. You're very young to learn using your chakra, and we have a lot of time."

Over the next weeks, Naruto finally managed to learn some rudimentary control of his chakra. The exercises his parents had him do grew slowly more complex with time. At first he had simply to concentrate chakra in different areas of his body. His control of the internal chakra flow grew steadily better until he could even feel the individual major pathways. To his frustration he couldn't do any external chakra exercises in the real world for fear of being detected.

"Concentrate some of your chakra into a little ball in your body. Add more to it until you can feel it straining against the pathway. Just enough to be noticeable, if it grows uncomfortable immediately dissolve the ball. Now move the ball slowly around." Youko instructed. "Add more balls when you are confident that you can control them simultaneously. If you do that long enough your chakra capacity and control will grew enormously. You can also train the speed of forming and dissolving the balls. It should be possible to do that in the orphanage without anyone noticing as long as you don't expel the chakra."

"Yes mommy."

At first it was difficult to follow his mother's directions, but it soon got easier. It helped enormously that both his parents could sense exactly what he was doing with the chakra in his body. There were a lot of times in the orphanage when he simply had nothing better to do, and he used the time to train faithfully. It was better than staring at a wall.

Naruto had just celebrated his fourth birthday with his parents when he thought to ask a question that had bothered him for quite some time.

"Why does everyone hate me? I already asked the Old Man, but he said he didn't know."

Youko and Daiki looked at each other before his mother let out a heavy sigh. "I suppose it was only a matter of time for you to ask that question. It's partly because of me."

That confused the boy greatly. "I don't understand. You're so nice, and how do they even know of you?"

"Not to everyone, and certainly not before I met your father. Have you ever heard of the Yondaime Hokage?" Youko asked.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, the Old Man and the caretakers talk about him sometimes. They say he is a hero. One of the faces on the mountain belongs to him. He died after killing the giant demon fox Kyuubi."

"The Kyuubi wasn't killed, kit. Nothing a human can do can permanently destroy a tailed beast, of which the Kyuubi was the most powerful. No, it was merely sealed."

"What do you mean by 'sealed'?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Seals are a very advanced skill of shinobi. It's hard to explain, but they paint specific patterns onto an object and charge it with chakra. The most common applications are exploding tags, little strips of paper that can release their stored chakra in an explosion, and storage seals. They create an extra dimensional pocket to store things." Daiki explained.

"Extra dimenso what?"

"Let me show you. I'll be right back." Daiki left for a short time to retrieve a square bit of fabric from the storeroom. He showed it to Naruto. "See, it's a completely normal piece of cloth. Now watch this." The man fixed the fabric lying flat on the table with a stare while obviously concentrating. At first nothing happened, but then the surface of the fabric bulged downward. It seemed that the fabric now covered the bottom of a hole that was much deeper than the table was thick. It grew steadily deeper until Daiki relaxed his concentration. "You can touch it now, son."

Naruto didn't need further invitation. The hole was really deep; if he stuck his arm into it he could barely reach the bottom. When he moved the fabric he saw that the table was completely intact. He looked up to his parents. "That's strange."

Daiki chuckled. "That it is. But there are a few more things you have to see." With these words he picked the fabric up and spun it slowly around in his hands. One side had the hole, the other was completely straight. With the hole on the underside he put it on one of the cups of the table. The cup disappeared into the fabric without making any bulge on the upper side of the fabric. He turned the piece of cloth around, thereby showing that the cup was inside the pocket. "You see, this pocket doesn't really exist in the usual dimensions of length, width and height; it reaches into an extra direction. Storage seals do something different to create a similar effect. On the outside they have only the size of a scroll, but on the inside they can be much larger. They are used to comfortably transport items that are too big, or if there are too many of them."

"Back to the Yondaime Hokage, he was an expert in the sealing arts, and used that to imprison the Kyuubi. Like a storage scroll, but vastly more complicated. Now, the more powerful of the tailed beasts can't be contained by any random object, at least not for long. They have to be sealed into a human. Furthermore the shinobi villages began long ago to covet the power of the demons. The seals are not only meant to imprison, they enable the host to draw on the sealed beast's power. Humans marked in that way are called demon containers or jinchuuriki."

Naruto hung on his parents every word, but slowly a feeling of dread began to spread through him. Youko had obviously difficulties to continue, until Daki gave his wife's hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Naruto… You are such a demon container. The containers are usually feared and despised by other humans, doubly so in your case because of the causalities caused by the Kyuubi's attack."

Naruto was stunned. It all fit together, the glares, the unjust punishments. But his mother had said that she was partly at fault. He came to the logical conclusion and asked "Are you… the Kyuubi?"

"I once was, but I'm different now. You can thank your father for that, he came to me and offered to change me. If it had been otherwise, it would have been impossible to meet you until many years in the future, and I fear it would not have been pleasant. I wasn't the friendliest being around."

Thoughts swirled chaotically in Naruto's mind, the most prominent among them 'Mommy is the Kyuubi'. Even at his young age Naruto knew of the Kyuubi attack, not the least because it coincided with his birthday. The beast had caused severe losses among shinobi and civilians alike before the Yondaime defeated it. Defeated it by sealing it into him. It took the boy quite some time to come to grips with that revelation.

"Why did you attack Konoha?"

"I wasn't doing that of my own free will. At the time of the attack somebody else was controlling me, but to tell the truth, I may have tried to destroy Konoha anyway. In my defense, I feel that I have a legitimate grudge against the village. You weren't my first container; there have been two before you. Konoha has kept me imprisoned for more than half a century, most of the time in quite some pain, thereby earning my eternal hatred. Anyway, as soon as I regained control on that day I was already in heavy combat with the shinobi forces of the village and simply continued fighting until the Yondaime removed me from the immediate vicinity of the village and used his sealing technique."

"Why did he choose me?"

"He had his reasons, mostly bad ones we think." Tears that had threatened to fall now spilled from Youko's eyes. "Sorry, I need some time alone." she said before rushing out of the house.

Naruto was reeling from these revelations, but there still remained questions to be asked.

"Did you know my original parents? How did they die?"

Daiki shook his head. "I know of them, but never met them when they were alive. When I arrived in this world they were long dead. Youko did meet them, but bears them quite a lot of enmity. I must confess I too don't have a high opinion of them, not the last because of crimes they committed against you and Youko. The Old Man knows them too, even if he claims ignorance. They died for what they believed right, but I disagree. Your father might have lived if he had acted differently than he did, while your mother was already doomed before the attack got underway."

"Who were they? And what crimes?"

"Sorry son, but I don't think you're ready for this knowledge. The matter is complicated, and I don't want to tell you everything until you are old enough to understand it completely. You should be able to decide on your own if you can forgive them, not simply adopt our perhaps biased view. Can you accept that?"

Naruto was thinking hard. Daiki and Youko were always nice to him. Without them, he would be completely alone. The Old Man didn't count, he saw him perhaps one or two times a month, and he was lying about his original parents. So what if his mother was a monster, she was certainly nicer to him than the villagers. It wasn't that she asked to be sealed into him. He couldn't really fathom how long a decade was, but he too would be furious if he was imprisoned for such a long time. The days when he was confined to his tiny room in the orphanage were bad enough. It was only for a few years he was forced to live in there, and he certainly hated it with a passion. Memories of the long time with his foster parents came to the forefront of his mind. They had always acted in his best interest and loved him. Naruto gave that love right back. In short, he trusted Youko and Daiki. If they thought he wasn't ready for something he believed them.

"Yes, daddy, I'll wait until you think me ready."

Daiki smiled. "Thank you, son. You should talk with your mother; she feared you would hate her for her part in your mistreatment."

Naruto immediately headed out to follow Youko. He could never hate her. After he had assured her that all was well they went back inside. One additional question came to Naruto and he turned to his father.

"If mommy was the Kyuubi, what about you? You said earlier that you arrived in this world some time after the Kyuubi attack."

His father answered slowly, choosing each word with care. "That's right. I did not originally belong to this world, I came from… outside. My form was different from now, and I was in dire need of help. Youko provided that help, but it changed us both. Now we are the same and bonded for eternity. Does that answer your question?"

"I guess."

Daiki recognized that Naruto didn't sound very convinced. "Don't worry, when you're older I'll tell you more. Nothing will ever change the fact that we love you."

Months came and went, and Naruto grew more adventurous. He explored more and more of the land of his parents as far as he could travel in the limited time he was with them and saw sights like none he had seen in the waking world. The woods seemed to have no end to them, but the other direction proved more fruitful. The meadows changed to sparsely vegetated grassy plains after about twenty kilometers and stretched far beyond the horizon. Enormous grey mountains rose from the ground, their peaks shrouded in clouds or covered in eternal snow. Even further away was an ocean. Naruto had been speechless the first time he saw it. It was an endless expanse of nothing but water.

At the beginning of one of his visits things changed. His father wasn't present when he woke up.

"Where's daddy?"

"I'm not sure, kit. He said he was preparing a surprise, and we should come meet him at the sea shore as soon as you arrived."

"But that's almost a week of travel!"

"Hohoho, you underestimate your mother. You don't believe I can only turn into a tiny fox, do you?"

With these words, his mother transformed into a fox, but it was not her normal sized form. Instead she stood at a shoulder height of more than two meters, with nine long furry tails swishing through the air behind her.

"Hop on board, kit. I'll show you true speed."

One of the tails wrapped around Naruto and deposited him on Youko's back. As soon as she had verified that Naruto had a good hold, she started running. Naruto had always loved riding on his parents' backs, but this was an entirely new level. The trees were literally flying past and the wind threatened to pull him from his mother's back. He clutched her fur as tightly as he could while whooping loudly. They needed barely an hour to reach the mountain range where they made a short break.

As they continued in the direction of the ocean they came upon a wondrous sight. Large blocks of stone were carving themselves out of the mountainside, taking to the air and floating in a steady procession into the distance.

"Well, it seems your father is pulling out all the stops. What you see is a mighty display of magic." Somehow, his mother sounded annoyed.

Naruto only stared in wonder at the impressive sight. The blocks were gigantic, and they were floating in the same direction they were going. Following the trail, Youko and Naruto came upon the ocean. The land ended in steep cliffs more than a hundred meters above the water, but the blocks of stone continued moving quite a distance onto the open sea before forming a colossal vortex.

In the middle of the vortex Daiki stood on a piece of hovering rock, conducting the chaotic dance around him. With a swish of his arm hundreds of blocks were directed to their locations. At first it seemed as if they were simply plunging into the ocean, but soon enough the foundations of whatever he was building rose from the raging sea. Stone piled on stone, and the structure grew. Towers and walls took shape and formed a large castle above the waves. Windows and doorways appeared in the massive stone. At last a bridge emerged from the stones under the main entrance and elongated until it touched the ground immediately before Youko's front paws.

When the doors opened Youko took the obvious invitation and crossed the bridge while Naruto was still staring impressed at the castle. From some of his parents' talk and stories he had gathered that magic was powerful, but this? Wow, simply wow. After entering the castle they passed through a long corridor with colorful tapestries. Most showed only abstract symbols, but some displayed figures doing obviously magic stuff like conjuring creatures or controlling the weather.

Finally they reached a grand hall decorated with strange devices where Daiki awaited them. In contrast to his normal attire he was clad in flowing blue and grey robes.

"Welcome you two, I assume you got a good view of the creation of the castle?"

"Hi daddy. I saw everything. That was great." Naruto shouted before he dismounted and ran to his father to hug him.

"Hello dear. I concur that it was impressive, but I would like an explanation what this is all about." Youko said, gesturing with some of her tails to the surrounding castle.

"Well, you remember that we decided that Naruto was ready to learn more about magic? I thought his lessons needed a more sophisticated environment and the right atmosphere. A castle or tower is just the thing for that. The sight was spectacular, was it not?"

"It certainly was, but I would prefer to be informed beforehand if you plan something like this." Youko said in a dangerous tone.

His father was apparently oblivious to his mother's bad mood. "Ah, but then it wouldn't have been a surprise. Now come along, I'll show you something even more impressing."

When he turned around while Youko grumbled in the background he winked to Naruto, indicating that he was aware of Youko's mood but simply found it funny to tease her. After some wandering through different hall- and stairways Daiki led them to a balcony overlooking the ocean. A stiff breeze was blowing, but with a wave of his father's hand the wind subsided. He struck a lecturing pose.

"I will begin with a general lesson. We told you that this world wasn't completely real, but I don't think you really understand how much that means. I control this world completely. The building of this little castle, while certainly impressive, is nothing in comparison. Now watch while I use my phenomenal cosmic powers to change the landscape to my every whim."

Outwardly, his father wasn't doing anything, but something changed. The ocean… wasn't blue anymore. In fact, it wasn't even an ocean anymore. Where moments before waves had crashed against the shore an endless expanse of yellow sand stretched to the horizon. Seconds later, grass began to grow and trees sprouted until lightly wooded grasslands took the place of the desert only to be replaced by a swamp. Spires of rock rose from the ground, only to crumble and form an expanse of rolling hills. Then the sky began to change color. After it had cycled through all seven colors of the rainbow the sky shifted to black while the sunlight faded.

Stars of all colors appeared and formed figures that began to reenact the stories that his parents had told him on so many evenings. Naruto spied the master wizard who was betrayed by his apprentice and killed in a shape shifting duel, the dragon who was slain by thieves that coveted his treasure and many more. All too soon in his opinion the show ended. After everything had returned to its normal color as well as shape and the ocean was back, Daiki bowed.

Naruto clapped his hands in applause. "Wow, that was so cool. Can I learn to do that too?"

"Perhaps one day. You have to learn to walk before you run. Now for some simpler stuff we should better go indoors."

A walk through the castle later they entered a mid-sized room with some comfortable furniture and full of strange stuff like staffs, crystal balls and amulets. After they had taken their seats, or in Youko's case lied down on a massive couch, Daiki proceeded with his lecture.

"Now I'll show you some tricks that are much easier and require far less power. They are examples what the magic of humans in other worlds looks like. I already told you that magic is the power to reshape reality, but the manner to access it can be very different and sometimes even ridiculous."

His father then muttered something in a language Naruto didn't understand, and a lump of ore appeared on the formerly empty table. Following that he took a piece of chalk to draw a circle with some symbols around the rock. When he pressed his palms on the table the ore changed with a flash of light to a pile of gold coins.

Daiki took a long staff into his hand and hummed four notes. Each note evoked a glint of colored light from the staff. When the last note faded away, the gold was surrounded by a blue and gold glimmering light, obscuring his vision. After it cleared the gold had turned into straw.

Naruto couldn't believe his ears at first when his father began to sing a quite childish song about basket-weaving. His amusement faded when he noticed that the individual straw stalks began to dance and interweave in time with the music. After a short time they had formed a perfect replica of a cup. Daiki stopped singing and now waved his hands around in exaggerated gestures, upon which the replica turned into a real porcelain cup.

The cup morphed into a real live rat when his father tapped the cup with a short stick and said some words that Naruto didn't understand. Squealing, the rat tried to escape but was hit by a stream of sparkles upon which it turned into a bunny. The bunny managed to almost reach the door before his father pointed a finger at it and a thin green beam shot out towards the fleeing animal. Only a fine trace of dust remained.

Meanwhile, Naruto had stars in his eyes when he imagined doing the bunny trick to some of the meaner children in the orphanage. After he noticed that the show was over he turned to his father.

"That was great. You said this was an easier display, does that mean I can learn that quickly?"

"Certainly, if you invest enough effort. You won't be able to use it in the outside world though." Naruto's shoulders fell as his dream of the bunny revenge was shattered. "The magic of each world is different, and we don't know the correct way to access it there. Beings like your mother and I produce our own magic in large quantities, meaning we could simply wish for something to happen, push a lot of power into it and reap the results, but things won't work the same way for you. For that little display of human magic I had to change the underlying functioning of this world each time to accommodate for the different structure of magic. Surely you noticed how I didn't have to make silly gestures or use tools to make the changes outside happen. Depending on how things truly are in the outside world you may have to use something similar to these tools."

Youko cut in. "That leads to the next thing we want you to do. To learn what makes the world tick and precisely what the status of magic is. Your father can look out of your eyes for a short time when you visit us, but we need privacy for that. There might be some noticable sideeffects. You'll have to convince the Hokage somehow to allow you to live on your own. It's a long-term project, so don't rush things."

"Sure mommy."

Youko stood from her resting place and stretched before changing into human form. "I say we return to the cottage for a while. I don't find this castle very comfortable."

Daiki shrugged. "If you want. It's mostly empty anyway."

The three walked leisurely out of the castle before Youko stopped them. "It's getting late. I say we take the direct way home."

"Direct way?" Naruto asked.

"Just come along, you'll see."

They continued walking seemingly at the same pace for a few minutes, but suddenly Naruto noticed that they had already reached the mountainside that his father had used as quarry. Before he could understand how it was possible to traverse a distance that his mother had needed almost half an hour at a full run for they were already walking on the plains. Naruto tried to pay careful attention to the surroundings, but again they were amidst the meadows without him noticing the change. Soon enough the familiar cottage came into sight.

"How did we get here so quickly? Normally it would take a week, and we were walking even slower than normal."

Youko simply answered "Magic."

"Oh, come on. How did you do it?"

"Well, we could tell you, but that would take all the fun out of it. I give you a hint: It's not really anything you do, but the right mindset. Furthermore, it will only work in this world because your father set it up. Figure it out yourself; it is a test how far you've come. "

His father objected to that. "I don't think he will be ready for that for quite a while. Shelve that riddle for a while, son, and try again when you have more experience. You can't solve everything right away. No, we'll better start with a few basics. Even if the magic is different from world to world, there are a few principles that apply in most…"

In this manner Naruto's training in magic started, or at least the beginnings thereof. Mostly it consisted of meditating and facing strange things which were clearly not natural and were sometimes painful to look at. He also learned techniques to suppress and purge memories, keep his mind flexible and other mental exercises. His time was now split between general education, wilderness survival and hunting skills, chakra training, magic instruction and of course play time, even if the last one steadily decreased as he got older and could handle more and longer instruction.

Naruto felt content and at peace for the first time in a long while. At least while he was in the waking world, at the edge of dreams he could get all the peace he wanted. No more hateful caretakers and bullies to contend with daily. It had taken far too long for his liking, but finally he had his own apartment. Normally no five year old would be allowed to live on his own, but the Hokage had finally caved when Naruto had arranged for him to witness some of the frequent abuse he suffered at the hands of the other orphans and the caretakers. And by a whole lot of begging and pleading. He simply had convinced the old man to secretly observe him during dinner time. It had been really easy to arrange the abuse to be a bit more extreme than usual.

He getting a smaller portion than everyone else and the other orphans trying to steal his food were quite normal, but he had chosen his seating position in the relative vicinity of one of the greater bullies of the orphanage on purpose. The idiot couldn't resist the temptation to get a few slaps and shoves in, but this time Naruto had caused it to escalate into a full-blown beating by refusing to give up his meal and some innocuous sounding remarks that pushed all the buttons of the bully. After the caretakers broke up the scuffle Naruto's assertions of innocence were ignored as usual and he was sent to his room without food. That continued for several meals and different bullies. Sometime later the Hokage had finally relented and took him from the orphanage. The old geezer probably expected Naruto to need help very soon and would use that to send him back, but he was determined to keep his newfound freedom.

Naruto's three room apartment was not much to look at, but sufficient for his current needs. It had a combined cooking/living area, a bathroom and a bedroom. The building was located in one of the poorer areas of the village, and if Naruto was any judge it would soon lose a lot of tenants that wouldn't want to continue living in the same house as him. For now he was just lying on his bed and enjoying the silence and solitude. Relative solitude at last, there was still a hidden ANBU sticking to the ceiling in his living room. The woman was quite well hidden and Naruto would have overlooked her if it was not for his sensitive nose and acute sense of hearing.

While both were a far cry from what he had at his disposal as a fox, they were apparently much better than the human average. It had taken quite a while before he even realized that, it wasn't a thing that normally came up in the limited conversations he had with the caretakers or other children. Additionally he possessed an improved night vision which was quite useful even if he still needed some light to see.

Whatever technique the ANBU used to hide her presence, it didn't manage to completely suppress her smell and some small noises when she shifted her position. Naruto was content to let her stay without revealing he knew about her, her presence was expected. He supposed it would be some months before the Hokage would withdraw his close ANBU guard after he proved he could live on his own and no one tried to harm him.

As soon as he was unobserved he could finally get some training in and explore the village and its surroundings. He really looked forward to wandering in the forest. His guard detail and the Old Man would notice that he was mature for his age, but hopefully write it off to his unpleasant upbringing. For now he was content to lay low and work on his internal chakra exercises.

'Only three days until I can see mommy and daddy again.' he thought before going to sleep.

The ANBU Chipmunk invisibly followed her assigned charge as the boy made his way through the streets of Konoha. It had been a surprise to her that the child she had saved more than two years ago had been allowed his own apartment. In the normal run of events orphans left the orphanage permanently only when they were adopted or reached the age of seven when most began working in a job, or at least began their training. Some select few went to the academy to become shinobi. She had expected for the jinchuuriki to be enrolled as early as possible, but that was still some time off. Nowadays most children started the academy at seven or more commonly at eight years of age.

Anyways, the Hokage had decided to remove Uzumaki from the orphanage and provided an apartment. Naturally he had assigned an around-the-clock ANBU guard to watch over the child and protect him from possible attacks. Chipmunk was one of the ANBU who had been saddled with the job, not that she was complaining. It was light duty, and she could use a break. Her performance wasn't what it once was, and she knew her retirement was drawing near. A few too many life-and-death fights had left her with a constant ache in her joints that the medics couldn't quite cure. She planned to retire from ninja life entirely and move with her husband-to-be who would likewise retire to the capital of Fire Country. There they would open a civilian business with the nest egg they had accumulated and start a family, occasionally providing Konoha with interesting tidbits of intelligence that came their way. None of them had any relations left and they both had learned far too much about Konoha's dark secrets during their careers to want to stay in the village. Besides, she didn't want any of her children to become shinobi. That occupation had far too many hazards for her liking, and she wanted to die surrounded by a complete family of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in her old age.

Back to her current assignment, the boy was surprisingly mature in how he went about his life. Uzumaki seemed aware of his surroundings, avoided dangerous situations and generally was much more advanced than expected. The reports from the orphanage had painted the picture of a notorious troublemaker, but Chipmunk and her colleagues were seeing none of this. Instead the boy managed to competently take care of himself, even if the villagers gave him a lot of trouble. Most shops kicked him out, and unfortunately she couldn't do anything about it. The civilian council had managed years ago to pass a law that allowed shopkeepers the right to refuse doing business with any non-shinobi they didn't like. It wasn't even directed against Uzumaki, no, the law had been in effect much longer than the boy was alive. It was originally a measure intended to make life difficult for a particular group of new merchants that wanted to do their business in Konoha outside of the established trading protocols and families. As it didn't really affect the shinobi side nobody had opposed it at the time, and it had practically seen no use since then. The few merchants that did business with Uzumaki generally charged outrageous rates and sold him only sub-standard wares, but as in the first case they were allowed to do that. Prices were a matter of haggling, after all. The Sandaime was theoretically able to do something about the problem, but was apparently unwilling to spend the necessary political capital when it was required for other matters he deemed more important.

Chipmunk was somewhat sympathetic to the boy, but was simply too emotionally jaded to do anything about it. Guarding him was her job, not parenting. And if she was honest with herself, she too wouldn't want a jinchuuriki around her if it wasn't absolutely unavoidable. In spite of those difficulties, the boy got on with his life. He collected some edible plants from Konoha's green areas to add to his diet and was perfectly capable to cook a meal out of them. That had come as no small surprise, and when the Sandaime questioned the boy he said simply that he had often snuck into the orphanage kitchens to grab something to eat when he was denied food and learned to cook by observation. Other than that he had found a ramen stand whose owners were friendly to him, and after the Sandaime visited the stand a few times business lost because of Uzumaki's presence balanced with business gained because of the Hokage's patronage.

If she was any judge the ANBU detail would soon be reassigned. Uzumaki had shown in the last three months that he was perfectly capable of staying out of trouble, and the ANBU were needed elsewhere. There were always too few ANBU operatives to go around, and the four per day delegated to the guard duty posed a small but noticeable drain on ANBU's manpower. She would have to request retirement sooner than anticipated as she didn't really feel up to returning to heavier duty.

Naruto was cautiously optimistic when the ANBU guarding him left and wasn't replaced for several weeks. Their constant presence had irritated him to no end, but he couldn't even acknowledge their existence without revealing his increased senses. Now that they didn't watch his every step he could act with much more freedom. He still wasn't able to enact one of the more compromising plans as there was no telling when the Old Man would choose to spy on him with his crystal ball. It only happened at random intervals, but he noticed the forming chakra connection of the technique at least once per week. When he felt it at first in the orphanage he hadn't known what it was, but a visit to the Hokage's office solved that puzzle. The Old Man had believed Naruto asleep and used his crystal ball to spy on some people. After that event Naruto had connected the dots.

The spying of the Hokage was annoying, especially because he didn't know if the man had truly his best interests at heart or if it was all an act. Heck, the Old Man could even genuinely care for him but still make decisions that ended up hurting him, either knowingly for the greater good of Konoha, or unknowingly because he wasn't completely aware of all the problems and the consequences of his decisions. Unfortunately there was no way to tell, so Naruto had no choice but to treat the man as a potential enemy and only pretend that he saw him as a grandfather figure. He would really like to have people he could trust besides his parents. The closest thing to friends he had were the owners of the ramen stand he had discovered about a month after leaving the orphanage.

Most people tried to ignore him completely or were actually uninterested in his existence, while a few sent him hateful glares each time he ventured into the village. He had made a conscious effort of finding shops that were willing to deal with him. Most civilian shopkeepers refused to service him, either from genuine dislike or from the fear they would lose customers if it was discovered that the village pariah frequented their shop. Naruto had made careful note of which merchants were willing to deal with him at all, and which dealt fairly. It was a depressingly small number, but at last he had all his basic needs covered at an affordable price even if some of those shops had been quite hard to find. Combined with the gathering of the edible plants that a child could reasonably learn of in the orphanage it relieved the burden on his stipend quite handily.

The shinobi shopkeepers were generally indifferent to him, but practically all their stores dealt in goods they either wouldn't sell to a five year old that didn't even visited the academy or that were only of marginal interest to him. He still hadn't visited all shops in Konoha because he didn't want to let his minders get the idea that he was performing a systematic search. That would be definitely too much intelligence on part of a biologically five-and-a-half year old kid. Which meant he had to disguise his efforts as effectively random wanderings through the village.

On one such exploration tour of Konoha he had happened upon the ramen stand of Teuchi and his daughter Ayame who treated him well. The girl was about five years older than him and apparently found him very cute. After that initial meeting Naruto visited their stand one time per week and had become one of their best regular customers after making sure that the Hokage visited them too as often as possible to compensate for the loss of business due to his presence. Ramen had quickly become one of his favorite foods even if he preferred a more varied diet. His mother's lessons about dietary requirements of a growing boy had stuck, and he didn't want to risk the ire of his parents when they found out he didn't eat enough varied food. The threat of his father to make every food he ate taste like cardboard was enough of an incentive.

That was another thing he had noticed since he left the orphanage. Now that he could eat as much as he wanted, or rather how much he could gather and afford, a formerly constant pull on his mother's chakra had virtually disappeared. It proved that he had been somewhat malnourished before and had needed the extra chakra to stay healthy. The four months of full meals had done wonders for him, and he was now a bit above average in size for his age group when he had been on the small side before. In addition, he had found that his stamina was shooting through the roof and promptly used it in the limited physical training he could do at his age. He wasn't about to turn into a combat monster anytime soon, but he was definitely on the high end of his peers. As Naruto didn't know any taijutsu styles he aimed for a balanced training that would leave him all options open for later in his life.

Currently he was rummaging through the discarded products behind a store. Even if he could buy the necessities, it was much cheaper to pick up free stuff. He planned to create a disguise that would allow him to move more freely, but he still needed some makeup to make it work. The dumb whisker marks on his face would make it otherwise too easy to identify him. He knew shinobi used a technique to assume the forms of other people, but he didn't know enough to replicate it. Besides, he was pretty sure the shopkeepers employed some measures for detecting such a disguise. Otherwise it would have been far too easy for academy students to cheat their way through the shops.

With a glance at the sun he determined it was time to return home. Even if most people seemed content with ignoring him he didn't want to run into some drunks that had their inhibitions lowered by alcohol. That would change as soon as he was stealthy enough to avoid notice or quick enough to escape. On his way home he saw some children with their parents going about their business. Each time he felt a spike of sadness that his parents couldn't be with him the entire time like it was for other families, but at least he knew that there were people that loved him unconditionally. He maintained some level of stress the entire time because there was no one who would make him feel safe. Only when he was with his parents he allowed himself to act like the child he was. His apartment got him some much desired privacy, but it wasn't exactly safe. He would have to lay some relatively harmless traps to delay possible intruders and create some avenues of escape.

When he neared his apartment building a thought struck him. Most of his neighbors had already left the building, and the rest kept mostly to themselves. The floor below his own apartment had been empty for some time already. With some work he would be able to create a trapdoor into the apartment underneath and hidden doors into the ones on the side. Such an increase in living space would prove useful later when he had more stuff. The only question was how he could hide it from prying eyes.

Absorbed in his thoughts he had already entered his rooms without really noticing it. After a moment of indecision he decided to cook some stew. He had bought some dried meat and fresh vegetables earlier in the day, and some of his gathered herbs were nearing the end of their shelf life. When he stood on a chair to reach the pot on the stove he felt a chakra connection snap into place.

'Great, the old man is once again spying on me. That is the third time this week, this is getting really irritating.'

After about five minutes he felt the connection fade away. Or rather the effect the connection had on his own chakra. Naruto wasn't able to detect chakra sources outside his body, such a skill would need years of training to develop. His own large and still growing reserves would add some difficulty to that enterprise, but thanks to the internal chakra training his mother had invented he could unfailingly detect if something or someone interacted with his chakra. That had been an unexpected discovery for the methods had originally been developed with the goals of increasing one's reserves and control at a rapid pace, but the long-term usage of the training method gave one an acute sense of the chakra and the pathways it filled. If he used the method long enough it would give him nearly unbeatable detection abilities against genjutsu. He would not necessarily be able to dispel it, but he would know when he was caught in one. His parents had been pleasantly surprised when they discovered that effect.

When Naruto finished his meal and washed the dishes he idly pondered how much longer Konoha would enjoy the benefits of electricity. He heard a lot of people talking about how some things were breaking down with increasing frequency and some goods were becoming almost impossible to procure. The power lines were sometimes decaying at a rapid pace and had to be replaced monthly. If the supply of new lines ran out or whatever thing that produced the electricity failed things would get difficult.

'Maybe I should buy a stove that can run off wood while the prices are still down? And perhaps some oil lamps too.' Naruto mused while he got ready for bed. 'The fridge will be all but useless then.'

Tonight would be special. Instead of directly going to the world of his parents, his father would take over his body for a while. Not to do anything, no, but to observe the world around him. His body wouldn't even have to leave the bed. Now that his guards were gone his parents felt they could risk it. His father didn't expect anything obvious to happen, but an attentive human nearby might still have noticed something. They didn't need to start rumors that his seal was failing. The reason Naruto looked forward to it was that his father would try to make magic work. Magic was so cool and Naruto was eager to try it himself in the waking world. He hadn't learned anything practical since he had started studying, but was able to sense that magic seemed to be completely absent from this world. At his parents' place he could feel it everywhere after his initial training, even if the feeling changed depending how his father modified the world. He had warned Naruto that it would take years until he could manage casting anything, but Naruto was patient. One day he would be able to turn these bullies from the orphanage into cute little bunnies! He hadn't decided if he would feed them to some animal or make them a present to some girl that would pet and play with them and weave colored bands into their fur, but it would be a great revenge for making his life hell.

After a while he felt a gentle pull on his mind and let himself fall into the darkness. Instead of immediately waking up in his parents' world the darkness stayed and surrounded him like a protective envelope. He could feel some emotions of love and pride leaking from somewhere into his mind. An indeterminable time later the darkness lifted and he found himself looking into the smiling face of his mother. Naruto practically jumped to embrace her.

"Mommy!"

In the waking world, darkness congealed into bizarre abstract shapes that would have driven a human observer irrevocably mad. A halo of otherworldly light clung close to the resting body of the blond boy. After a few moments the light disappeared and the darkness was once again only the normal darkness of an unlit room. The body continued breathing slowly and deeply as when asleep, but it was anything but sleeping. Where normally the consciousness of an abnormal but still mainly human boy resided an ancient alien intellect now sent feelers into the world it had not been able to observe directly for more than two years.

It continued its silent observation until the strain on the boy's mind threatened to overwhelm the protection it had cast. The limit reached, it returned to the world at the edge of dreams to spend some time with its son. After a short while, the boy's mind returned to his now peacefully sleeping body. His face sported a content smile. From his perspective Naruto had just spent more than a week with his parents while mere moments passed in the waking world.

"Welcome back, kit." Youko said while cuddling with the excited boy in her arms.

They were sitting on a large pile of furs in the wooden cottage that had been the place of their first meeting. Although Naruto knew that his parents weren't human and they could rearrange the landscape pretty much on their whim, the homely house remained a place of emotional significance. The house and the surrounding woods were therefore kept stable and they had to travel to other places if they wanted to do some large scale environmental modification. It had become somewhat of a tradition for Naruto to wake up here and spend a day or two with his parents like a relatively normal family before starting the various activities that the world on the edge of dreams allowed.

After a short while an almost man-sized silvery fox entered the cottage and transformed into a black-haired man before joining them in the cuddle. After planting some kisses on his mate and son the trio sat in silence for some time, simply enjoying the others' presence. In the end Naruto's curiosity got the better of him and caused him to break the silence.

"Well, how did it go? How long until I can use magic outside? When do you teach me cool spells?"

"Patience, son, patience. I barely started to get a grip on the situation. The magic is there, it's just buried, for a lack of proper word."

"What do you mean by buried?"

"Hm, how to explain? Image a lake. Everyone is swimming on the surface, and for this scenario diving is impossible. Normally magic would be drifting in the water but not really intermixing like heavy oil, so you could reach into the water and pull some out. In our case the water is completely clear. If you go deep enough you reach the bottom of the lake. The magic in this world is somehow buried under this bottom and therefore completely out of reach. Do you understand?"

"I think I do."

"Good, but remember this is merely a simplification of that particular aspect. It's wrong in every other way."

Now Youko entered the conversation. "How long until you can set the magic free?"

"It will be difficult and time consuming. I will have to literally pierce the barrier and create some sort of leak. You and I produce our own magic, but because we're trapped behind the seal we can't really use it. Every little bit I want to use I have to channel through Naruto, and the more I channel the greater the danger for him becomes. During the possession I'm uncomfortably close to him in the mental sense, and I fear leakage of my thought processes and memories."

Naruto looked confused. "Why would that be dangerous to me?"

"There are different kinds of knowledge. Normal everyday knowledge that is essentially harmless like what grass is. Knowledge which is dangerous for others like knowing how to wield a sword. Then there is knowledge that can hurt yourself too if you use it. The most dangerous kind is the one where pure possession of the knowledge is enough to hurt yourself." Daiki looked Naruto directly into the eyes. "I love you as my son, but you must never forget that I'm not human. Sure, most of the time I'm wearing a human or animal form, but that is not what I truly am, and neither is your mother. I'm far older than the entire human race. If you came into contact with what I truly am without proper shielding, it would destroy you."

Seeing Naruto's incomprehension, he continued. "It's not that I would want to hurt you, it would simply happen. Think of a common earthworm. A simple creature, but quite well equipped for its chosen environment. What would such a being do with optical information, with colors and geometric forms? Would it be able to understand the concept of a starlit sky? In some respects you are like the earthworm. You have your familiar senses and human frame of reference, even if we're trying to expand that. There are far more things in the countless universes than you can possibly conceive of. You would have no starting point to understand most of my memories. The problem is that my memories want to be understood. If you would tap into them, voluntary or not, they would try to warp your mind until it fit the memory's requirements."

He sighed deeply. "A human mind is an incredibly fragile thing. It would simply shatter under that much pressure. Your mind is more stable than most, but far from sufficient. That is one of the main objectives of your magical training, to be able to withstand the onslaught of alien concepts and thought. Even when the magic is freely available it's only too easy to invoke or tap into something that would drive most humans instantly mad."

Naruto had grown silent during the explanation. He thought he understood most parts, but it was difficult to wrap his mind around the concept of knowledge that was dangerous out of itself.

'I suppose that's part of the problem. I can't understand it, but if I encounter it I can't simply shut it out. Like these cubes with more than six sides daddy showed me some time ago. Looking at them hurt, but I could always avert my eyes. If something like that is in my mind I can't do that. Memory suppression takes time, and by then it might be too late.'

The boy listened as his father and mother entered into a discussion about magic he simply couldn't follow anymore. His vocabulary and understanding was already greater than that of most normal ten year olds, but here he could barely understand one sentence in twenty. It only served to cement his desire to learn more.

'Someday I will be able to understand all of this, even if takes decades. That's a goal worth working for.'

Author's notes: My thanks to all my reviewers.

Yes, Naruto will learn magic, but he will primarily be a shinobi. Additionally, he won't be really good at magic until after the timeskip, if I should choose to keep it. Learning something in-depth when you have several other important time-consuming things to do takes a long while. No instant-powerups in my story!

In other words, this fic will be very, very long.