Chapter One: Giving Up.

It never failed, every single year for the past eight years, October 10th was a day when people's cruel nature showed up. But it was never in total daylight, most of the monsters waited until the night to become the true demon's they were.

They didn't care about the repercussions of their actions on her, so long as they didn't get caught by the authorities it didn't matter. They didn't care if they were destroying an innocent child's life, they saw it as justice for that night.

October 10th, the night dubbed as Kyuubi night. Eight years ago the peaceful village of Konohagakure was attacked by the chakra monster Kyuubi no Yoko, so October 10th was an infamous day, hundreds of people lost their lives, the village lost their Hokage to the beast, families were shattered by the deaths. And sadly a young child lost her own life because she was transformed from a normal child to a jinchuuriki for the feared beast. The Hokage sealed the monster into her body, making her his jailer. And despite the previous and current Hokage's orders that the child should be seen as a hero, people couldn't separate their hatred for the beast inside her, and ostracized her, stopping her from a normal childhood. And the darkest hearts decided to physically punish the child, like they did tonight.

They managed to break into the child's apartment on her eighth birthday that she was celebrating alone. She tried to flee through her backdoor but they were much faster and stronger than the eight year old. They threw her around the apartment, dislocating and breaking her bones, at one point they began using kunai and cut the girl, cutting her golden locks off, they left her huddled in a ball crying in pain, her skin cut up and bruised and broken.

After the stress the child passed out and that's how she appeared in front of his cage. Kyuubi no Yoko, who laid behind the bars that kept him in check, looked at the child for a few minutes before he slid a chakra tail out and pulled her inside the cage feeling something for the child that laid before him. He gently picked her up, holding her on his furry paw and nudged her with his finger.

"Hey, brat…. Wake up... " He said, but she didn't respond to it. He let out a huff and began to pour chakra into her, his red chakra creeping into her erasing the bruises, healing the breaks and cuts, making her like new again. He frowned as a feeling settled over him, feeling his power draining, he watched her closely to watch her body begin to fade ever so slightly. 'She's giving up..' He realized and stood up, letting one of his nine tails encircle the girl, he reared his fist back and slammed into the cage doors watching them break clean off in her state. He slid through the halls of her mind heading to the central nervous system watching it slowly change to gray in light of her giving up, trying to die. Despite the fact that he knew the second she died he would too, but unlike her, he would be reborn free, and yet, he looked at her and found himself unable to be happy with the idea.

He sighed, wondering when he got so soft, wanting to save the human that he was trapped inside of. He reached out placing his large hand on her central system and pumped his chakra into it, he watched the gray recede and the girl began to become solid once again, he huffed sitting down and looked down at her.

"You're not done yet kid."

The eight year old opened her eyes and looked around before getting up slowly and limping her way to the bathroom. She stripped her ruined clothes and showered, making sure to clean the healing wounds to prevent infections. She stepped out and looked in the mirror, her blue eyes now deep red, her normal thin lined whisker marks wider and darker due to his take over.

Kyuubi looked around her eyes checking her image and focused on the wounds and bruises watching them fade with his healing chakra.

'Tomorrow is the academy, but I need to get her life worked out, they won't notice if she's gone for one day..' Kyuubi mused to himself before controlling her body to go to bed and sleep. He laid down and looked at the child curled in his tail. 'Who'd a thought, Kurama the infamous biju, playing an eight year old child… tsk this is gonna be a pain..' He huffed, falling asleep himself.

When morning came, Kurama woke the child up and set about fixing her life up, he walked through the streets later in the morning, ignoring the glares and whispers thrown her away. He led her to the ninja supply store, one of the few where the child was not treated poorly. The elderly owner smiled as he saw her come in. "Hello there Naru-chan, what can I do for you?" He asked.

"I need some new weapons and outfits…" She said,

"My daughter can help you with the clothes, I'll see what new items I got in the back for supplies."

Naru watched his daughter who was in her mid twenties, with deep red hair twisted in a bun and green eyes wearing a simple kimono top and pants with a pen behind her ear, come out with a smile motioning for her to follow her through the doorway to their clothing sections.

Both walked around the clothing picking out items that were more suited to ninja life, especially as little orange as possible. Naru walked through to the other side of weapons and pouches while her clothes were folded and bagged, Kurama viewed the weapons closely for any flaws picking out things that would work for him and her both. After getting everything he believed she would need, he used the money she had pickpocketed over the years to pay for the order and left with a wave to the duo.

Dropping the clothes off at the apartment, he next set out to refill her house with edible food, not just instant ramen and milk like the child bought constantly.

Using a henge over her, she shopped in the grocery store undisturbed getting fresh foods and even some ramen. Kurama huffed as he couldn't prevent the want for the salty junk, it seemed she still had some control deep down. 'Maybe it's a genetic thing…' He mused thinking about how all of his jailers seemed to have an unwavering love of the dish.

Once home Kurama set to placing seals around the apartment for her safety, rigged with traps of all kinds. Once done he let her sit and huffed in exhaustion from using chakra so much, he snorted, he was out of shape, just sleeping inside her cage for years, he wasn't used to being in control again, it would take some time but he would get it done.

'She'll have to go to the academy tomorrow, maybe it's time for them to meet the new Naru..' He chuckled, planning to show these fools exactly who they were messing with…

-o0o-

20 year old Umino Iruka let out a sigh as he gathered his papers from his lecture to his class. The children talked with each other waiting for the bell to ring, sending them home. Iruka looked up at the back desk that was missing one student, Uzumaki Naru. Of course he never really interacted with her, being that he slightly resented her because of Kyuubi. Of course being an academy instructor, he was worried when the girl never came to class. She had never been absent after her birthday, she would come in usually bruised and sore, but never completely absent. 'If she's still absent tomorrow, I'll check on her..' He reassured himself in his mind.

-o0o-

'Naru' woke up early in the morning getting ready to return to the academy. She wore a black v-neck shirt with long sleeves and had baggy pants and sandals. She packed her bag of supplies and walked out biting into an apple as she headed to the academy. Walking through the streets she returned the hateful looks sent to her all the way to the large building. She walked to her classroom, the kids waiting stopped talking looking at her as she walked past them and sat at the back desk.

In front of her sitting by himself was the class heartthrob Uchiha Sasuke. A brooding boy who hated the whole world it seemed and thought everyone was beneath him. He normally tuned out all the chattering and girls giggling trying to catch his attention. But when everything went silent that morning, he tuned in and saw Uzumaki Naru waltz into the room exuding an aura like he's never noticed before from her. He watched her sit in the back ignoring everyone, he turned and looked at her, not a single stitch of orange was on the girl, she looked completely different. She opened her eyes and instead of the electric blue eyes she usually had, he was met with deep red eyes, she sneered at him before closing her eyes. Sasuke scoffed and turned back around trying to go back into his own world, but failed to get her out of his mind.

"Quiet, quiet students." Iruka said walking a few minutes later, the children moved to their seats, mostly near the front. "Good morning, let's start a roll call." He said with his warm smile and began to call out the names. "Uzumaki Naru."

"Here." She said, he looked up and gave a tiny jolt at the aura she had around her, he gulped feeling suddenly uneasy with her.

He blinked a few times returning to the roll call but mentally questioned who was this new Naru in his class.

"Okay everyone, today we're going to be doing drills, let's grab your weapons and head outside." He said with a clap watching as they grabbed their academy supplied shuriken and kunai lining up and waited for him.

Iruka quickly lined up the target boards outside looking at the various dents and cuts silently musing one day they would be snapped in half.

"I will call you up two at a time, you will stand here and throw your weapons, you must aim for the center, let's see what you've paid attention to and learned in class." He teased watching a few slackers shift in nerves.

Iruka called the students up two by two watching as some competed to get the most, most missing at least 4 or 5 hits.

"Alright, Uchiha Sasuke …. And Uzumaki Naru." He said with a small quiver in his voice, considering the last time he was nearly killed by her lack of concentration, he nearly messed himself in front of the students.

Both stood at the line, Sasuke held two shuriken and let them go with a powerful flick of his wrist, repeating until all 10 were in the targets, three of them fell to the ground and the rest were scattered on the target board.

The fangirls squealed loudly, cheering him on and feeding his ego. "Naru, your turn." Iruka said with a quiver in his voice once again. He watched in shock as she held the shuriken in her hands before throwing them with a powerful blow followed by two more. Iruka peeked open his eyes that he closed in fear, the students whispered in shock at the sight of the bullseye cracked in half due to her weapons hitting them.

"W...whoa.." He muttered, Naru gave a small snort leaning against the fence ignoring them while Kurama chuckled inside at their shock.

Iruka walked up to the board and flinched at the heat pouring from the weapon, realizing it was pure chakra creating that. 'I think I need to speak with Sandaime…' He thought to himself looking at Naru before moving along with the practice.

After grading the test he gave the students, Iruka gathered his files and headed to the Hokage's office, mentally fighting with himself, simply wondering if he was overreacting to the whole situation.

"Hello Iruka, what brings you here?" He jolted in shock seeing the elder Hokage about to enter his office.

"Sandaime-sama, I… Well I was going to ask for a meeting, if, I mean if you have time." He said with a bow.

"Come." He said leading the young chunin in the office, he sat behind his desk and motioned for him to begin.

"It's about Naru sir,"

"Is she pulling pranks?"

"No sir, I don't think this is…" He muttered before giving a head shake. "Today she came in and was a completely different person." He said.

"Different how?"

"She's giving off an aura of power, she's showing remarkable improvement. She actually snapped the target board in half with her shuriken, not missing one. On her test she answered them with near perfect solutions. She's not wearing a stitch of orange clothing.. I fear something happened…." He mumbled to the end.

"So Naru has done a 180. Hmm, thank you for bringing this to my attention Iruka. I'll investigate and see what could be happening."

"Yes Hokage-sama." He bowed and walked out of the office still thinking of the young girl. 'I really don't get it, why do I care? That thing inside her killed mom and dad. So… why?' He questioned himself.

Hiruzen turned in his chair taking a puff of his pipe and looked out at his village. Sadly he knew what Naru went through on a daily basis and despite his efforts he wasn't able to show them that Naru was a true hero. All he could do was hide the truth and watch from afar.

'Could it be the Kyuubi? Or something else?'

Hiruzen stood heading out of the office giving his intention of a stroll to his guards, then heading straight to Naru's apartment.