Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but I believe there is a reality where I could own Naruto! Though I doubt that would hold up well in court if I used it as a way to claim the series.

Crimson Legacy

Chapter 1: Seals gone wrong!


The Yondaime was at the end of his life. There was no other choice but to give his newly born son the Kyūbi.

He knew that at this moment he would bestow a curse, and at the same time, a blessing of divine power for his son. There was hope in Minato that his Jinchūriki son would be treated as a hero for having the Kyūbi after his own demise.

With last ounce of his strength, Minato sealed the Nine-Tails into Naruto. As he bid his farewells to Naruto and asked the Third Hokage, who was nearby, to look after his newborn baby for him.

As he closed his eyes, Minato didn't notice something very important. Indeed, something very important.

The seal that he placed onto Naruto was glowing in red light, almost as if something had seriously gone wrong. Even Hiruzen Sarutobi, a Ninja who had seen it all, looked in awe at what was currently happening. It seemed as though the red light was moving away from the little baby.

One second glowing red, and the next, it appeared to be moving further and further away, transforming into some sort of orange and red liquid, taking the form of another human.

What happened next was something that Hiruzen could never truly grasp; he couldn't comprehend what had really occurred. The black seal remained on Naruto's belly, but now there was another baby on the ground, who emerged from the seal.

The baby was clearly a female, as just like baby Naruto, she already had red hair, albeit very short, not even reaching the start of her neck, but it hid something peculiar. She had small red-furred fox-like ears on her head. Inside of them were grayish fur, which made it resemble the Kyūbi's ears even more.

"What the—" was what the Chūnin and Jonin who were coming that way said almost in unison.

The previous Hokage was utterly confused about what exactly to do. But one thing was clear: he must now preserve the secret and prevent anyone else hearing or seeing it. "Leave. NOW!" The elderly man said with an intense aura of command, and each Ninja left in a matter of seconds without any complaints or disagreements.

With a loud gulp, Hiruzen decided to take the young baby from the ground to place it between his arm and chest and do the same to Naruto on his right side. He had to keep it a secret for now, at least.

XxX

(1 week later)

A silence had engulfed the Hokage's office for as long as Jiraiya, Tsunade, and the elder Hokage, who seemed to be already back at his position, were sitting and thinking.

The babies weren't crying, as they had been asleep for quite some time. Truly, it was a blessing that Shizune was good with children as she was the one taking care of them.

From the tedious information tests and gathering on Naruto and the redheaded girl, they found out that half of the Kyūbi seemed to have remained in the boy, while the other half seemed to have... become her.

Jiraiya was the first one to break the silence, "Are you truly sure that your theory is right, Hiruzen-sensei?"

Hiruzen had his eyes closed for some time, but he finally looked down at his student with rather concerned eyes, which were almost never seen on the old man's face. "Yes. It seems to me that something had gone horribly wrong with the seal, and what came out of it…" Hiruzen couldn't really finish the sentence as he could still not truly believe it himself.

"What came out of it was the other half of Nine-Tails," Tsunade finished after seeing her former teacher struggle.

There was a long second of silence as they pondered what to exactly say next. There were so many possibilities, but the elder man was the first one to speak, "We must never let this information leave our ears."

He then glanced at Shizune, who quickly responded with a bow and a response, "Y-yes, Hokage-sama!"

At that moment, the black-haired girl couldn't help but wonder why she was exactly invited here in the first place. 'If they wanted to keep it a secret, wouldn't they avoid showing it to more people? Surely, they could've taken care of the babies themselves.'

She didn't notice, but the man who had just a few days ago put on his old Hokage outfit back was staring at her, pondering as to what exactly he should say.

"Shizune, from now on, you'll be responsible for the little Naruto," was the command that he ultimately gave.

Shizune almost fell backward and responded, "W-w-what? N-no way is that a good decision! I'm not fit to take care of a Kyubi!"

"That's not a suggestion. It's a command," Sarutobi responded a bit more harshly than he initially intended, but the stress was getting to him.

She once again bowed, but with a frown on her face, responded, "O-ok, Hokage-sama."

"Are you sure she's capable of dealing with such a bizarre situation? To take care of the two kids that were by no means normal?" To Shizune's happiness, Tsunade voiced her concerns.

Hiruzen smirked to his own surprise, considering the situation, "She's definitely not taking care of them alone. Didn't you hear me right, Tsunade? She's taking care of Naruto. You'll be taking care of… her." Tsunade's eyes widened at that information.

"Have you gone insane, Old man? Surely, you don't think I'd start taking care of that…" was the response she ultimately muttered.

"It's better this way. Naruto is still just a normal child, albeit the son of two very powerful ninja and a half-demon sealed inside of him," at these words, Shizune couldn't help but wonder whether he was being serious or sarcastic.

When he lit up his long pipe, Hiruzen continued, "The little girl, however, is a far different phenomenon. It's something that has never been recorded, despite my best efforts to find the information in my library. It's safe to assume that the best medic-nin in the world would be the most fit to take care of such a bizarre child."

Tsunade let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. She knew that the situation was serious, if it wasn't, her sensei would have never invited her in the first place. 'Do I really have to do it? Or a better question is whether I can really do it?' she thought to herself as she observed the infant girl with fox-like furred ears that were now seen because of the position she was laying in.

"What about me? Can't I take care of them both? After all, one is my godson, and the other was my student's mistake!" Jiraiya said, surprising everyone with how serious and calm he sounded.

Hiruzen let out a puff of black smoke from his pipe before saying, "Whenever you'd be back in the village, you can visit them both, if you want. However, we still need you in service, Jiraiya." Sarutobi couldn't let the most capable soldier start babysitting for days upon days.

Jiraiya grumbled, but knowing that he still could watch over his grandson let him cool down just a bit.

Shizune was in utter shock as to how exactly she got appointed to take care of the Yondaime's son. 'Weren't there better choices?' she thought as she was looking around the room.

Tsunade, on the other hand, went to the redheaded girl, who looked so calm, not knowing that there were some thoughts in their heads as to actually kill the little child right here and then. Tsunade took her in her hands and stared into her closed eyes.

"How should I call you?" the blonde woman said quietly. As she brushed her red hair with her fingers and touched her fox-like ears on top of her head, the baby shook and almost woke up. 'How about Kitsune?' Tsunade pondered as she thought it sounded nice enough.

XxX

"How's the tea, Tsunade-sensei?" Shizune asked.

"Fine," was the quick and short response from the blonde woman, who was looking at little Kitsune laying on the sofa with Naruto nearby.

As she took another sip, Tsunade asked, "How have the first few days been? I didn't get much sleep myself, but other than that, it was fine with the little Kitsune." Tsunade's response surprised the black-haired young adult who thought her teacher would take it far worse than that. Tsunade even looked more peaceful and a lot less spiteful than she usually was with her.

"If I had to be honest, I didn't get any sleep at all," she admitted with a slight smile as she looked at the smiling baby on the sofa. "But it seems that today he's in a better mood," she said.

Quickly after they finished their drinks, the newly made "moms" departed and the babies cried out loud after leaving one another.

'As bad as it is,' she lied to herself as she most definitely preferred taking care of the baby than to listen and follow her teacher around like a puppy. Shizune continued in her thoughts, 'it could be a lot worse, couldn't it?'

As the baby looked at her with comically serious eyes, since little Naruto was still angry that his friend left, Shizune pulled her arms upfront with Naruto now further from her and said, "Will you grow into a strong man, Naruto? Maybe even as strong as your papa?" She said smiling as she rubbed her forehead with the child's far smaller forehead.

XxX

(Near the academy; Years later)

"Wait up, Kitsune!" Naruto shouted at his childhood friend.

"No way I'm waiting for such a slow-ass like you! I'll be the first one of us to reach the academy," she shot back instantly.

However, she slowed down just enough for the boy to catch up a few moments later. "So, you'll always be behind me?" Kitsune asked with a smirk on her face.

Naruto, out of breath, responded, "As if I'd ever lose to you again! Shizune said that she'd start teaching me some new cool jutsu! No doubt, they'll put me above you in strength!"

"Don't be so cocky. You think I'll just wait around and learn nothing? My mother is the greatest medic-nin in the world, after all!" she bragged, putting her hands together near her chest as they continued walking towards the academy.

"Just wait and see! I'll be the greatest ninja there is and beat everyone and anyone who is against us!" Naruto enthusiastically exclaimed, and put his his hand in the air with thumps up.

The red-headed girl couldn't help but smile. Naruto was one of the few people who had seen her without her hat, which hides her fox-like ears. Just like she had, the ears had also increased slightly in size and height. The hat she was wearing was bright white with yellow stripes across it and resembled a boater in shape. She never could go outside without it.

As the young girl looked away from the blond boy, who was wearing his beloved orange jumpsuit, she looked at the academy, which looked only a few long steps ahead. The red-headed girl knew that her life was about to change, but no matter what, she was instructed not to show anyone her ears there. After all, both kids knew that they harbored something that was beyond little kids to understand.

As the girl was pondering her future, Naruto put his hands on her shoulders and said, "Don't worry! Let's just go, or we'll be late." Noticing that the girl's eyes were still looking down, and her facial expressions didn't show any signs of happiness, Naruto tried once again to reassure her, "If something bad happens there, you'll have the all-powerful future Hokage helping you! Surely, there's no one there strong enough to oppose us!" he grinned.

The girl let out a giggle at the boy's words and said, slightly embarrassed, "Promise me, Naruto, that if something bad ever happens to me, you'll be there with me." Her words were rather surprising, as the girl rarely ever tell him anything nice or asks him anything in such a pleasing tone.

Naruto smiled at that and put his right hand inside her hat and scratched her ears, which she says she hates when the blonde does, but she could never hide her giggling as it clearly pleasured her.

"Stop it! Fine, let's just go already. Can you act like a normal person sometimes?" she said in a joking manner, noticeably in a much better mood.

The academy was a place where most students' life's most important decisions were made. For most, it was a place of learning and ultimately a place where they'd meet their teammates and sensei, with whom they'd have to spend years together working on hard missions in hopes of becoming a step higher of genin.

It is a place where you grow up and develop skills to become independent in your future life.

XxX

(A few years later)

"You keep on promising, but you never teach me jack sh—" Naruto angrily said before Shizune glared at him, cutting off his last word before it could escape his mouth.

"I promised that if you get straight A's, I'd teach you. But you refuse to even open the scrolls and learn anything at home!" Shizune shot back.

Naruto grumbled and ran from the room, and went right into the streets of Konoha. The streets were as busy and bright as they always were. The number of visitors and people there never failed to amaze the young boy.

'Damn her. Does Shizune think she can boss me around? Nobody can!' he assured himself in his mind before noticing a store that had peculiar magazines.

As he glanced at the barely censored nudity on the magazine, a mischievous idea came into the blond's head. 'Let's see what Shizune says after I make such a jutsu,' he said in his mind before quickly taking the magazine, not glancing to see if anybody saw him stealing it.

Naruto always had trouble concentrating on things he couldn't care less about. However, whenever he was passionate, he could achieve things that would make prodigious talents look incompetent compared to him.

XxX

"Good job, Kitsune!" Tsunade genuinely smiled, seeing her adopted daughter save a fish. "You've got real talent, Kitsune. Don't let it go to waste like so many medic-nin do!"

The redheaded girl, whose dark red hair almost reached up to the upper part of her legs, had hair strands that looked rather sharp. Her hair looked rather unkempt, except for the hair on her head and hairline, which looked as if she brushed it every day, with each strand cleanly going in the left direction.

Despite having her fox ears, she also had regular human ears, which were hidden by the thick amount of hair around her head. However, she couldn't hear anything through her "human" ears. Thus whenever she wore her hat she had trouble understanding what people were saying around her.

"As if I'd ever let it go! I'll make you proud, mother!" she grinned at her mother, showing absolute confidence in her healing abilities.

Medical Ninjutsu is a complicated matter, and Tsunade figured out that the earlier Kitsune started to learn, the better. She was already at a level almost suitable for a beginner medic-nin, and once she graduates, she should be considered an already competent medic.

However, being a ninja is not only about healing others. The blonde woman knew that full well and it would be good to start teaching Kitsune things that would help her defend herself in battles.

"I had had a gift for you for a long time, waiting until you managed to heal a fish. Took you awhile, but here it is!" the woman pulled out a sword almost out of nowhere.

The black blade stretched over 2 feet in length and looked razor-sharp. It started to curve just slightly from the handle, and looked like it would cut through things incredibly efficiently. The sword's handle was pure white, which contrasted well with the pure black blade.

Kitsune didn't know much about swords, but it looked like it was a really expensive one at that.

"How should I name it?" the girl asked her mother as she was trying the thing out.

"How should I know? You must decide for yourself when you can think of a name," Tsunade answered. She never owned a sword, but everyone knew that each sword had a name that meant a lot to its owner.

Kitsune was given multiple books on how to effectively grip the sword and in what way to swing it. She had a lot on her plate, but undoubtedly, she'd be ready to fight for when she graduates from the academy.

XxX

Shizune was wondering why Naruto was grinning so much at the moment. However, she had an idea that it probably wouldn't be fun for her to see what he had learned all by himself.

"So, are you ready to see my-oh-so-cool jutsu that I created all by myself!" Naruto grinned even harder before finally getting into position to perform his hand seals. "Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Technique)!" Naruto said as a puff of smoke appeared around him.

Once the smoke dissipated, it left Shizune's mouth wide open. She was not sure what to do. She felt like killing him would make the most sense at the moment.

What came from it was a curvy woman with her hair pinned in twintails, and it had the same yellow hair as Naruto himself. She stood at 5'6, which was considered relatively tall and model-like in Konoha.

Seeing the angry look his mother was sending, Naruto couldn't help but stop doing what he considered sexy poses and scratched his head. 'Why am I getting the idea that she's getting ready to kill me,' he thought as Shizune kept getting closer and closer to him.

What came afterward wasn't pretty, but it made Shizune ponder whether it's better to teach him something or let him have his way of learning.

Obviously, she couldn't let Naruto embarrass her, so she had to actually start teaching him. 'But what can I teach him?' she pondered, remembering that Jiraiya should come in a week or two.

XxX

(1 month later)

Jiraiya wasn't a man who cared too much about being punctual, so it's no surprise that he came far later than what he had previously promised Shizune through a letter.

After he opened the door, he anticipated an angry Shizune, but what he got was a bucket of water on his head. How did he fall for such a lame prank was beyond him.

"How'ya doing, old man?" Naruto smirked as he came from his room and saw that his prank worked.

"Were you planning this on me, or Shizune?" The man with incredibly long and unruly white hair asked.

"Both!" he said as he sat down and looked at the elder man before continuing, "Sooo, what is the cool jutsu you're about to teach me?"

"I have one in mind, but you're too young to learn it," Jiraiya grinned as he knew the reaction that was soon to come.

"As if! I can swear I'd learn it in under a week tops!" Naruto shot back at an instant.

Jiraiya pondered whether teaching a child such a jutsu was ethical, as most could die from chakra exhaustion just from trying to perform it. But it was a child that even without half of Kyūbi would have chakra comparable to an actual Jonin, so the answer was obvious.

"Rasengan!" was the name of the jutsu that would take years for Naruto to learn. Considering he sucked at chakra control, this was an incredibly important step for him to take.

Every day, he tried exploding the water balloon and later a ball that had no water. Luckily, because of his large amounts of chakra, he could do this for hours upon hours testing what worked and what didn't.

Whenever Naruto didn't have enough chakra to train, his mother would take him to a forest, where he would get an easier exercise. Walking on trees and learning to walk on water, just as Tsunade did with Kitsune, was one of the basics that each respectable ninja had to learn.

It took him many years of tedious training, but he finally got the hang of "Rasengan" right before the academy's genin exam. As a gift, Jiraiya gave him a Toad contract to sign, which opened even more possibilities in his later life.

Naruto and Kitsune were, or at least thought that they were ready to become genins. And to be fair, they already had specific skills that went far above a normal genin, but their mental level was still that of a genin.

XxX

"Rasengan!" Naruto shouted as he thrust the blue chakra-molded ball into a tree, leaving Kitsune in awe.

"When the hell did you learn THAT!" she still couldn't believe what she saw.

Naruto wiped the sweat from his forehead and grinned, "I promised you, didn't I? I'll be the greatest Hokage the world has ever seen! Even greater than my father was!"

Right after his words, the tree fell down as most of the impact from the "Rasengan" took most of the balance of it.

A second later, after displaying his newly learned power, both friends went in the direction of the blond's favorite place in the whole village.

As they walked along the path in the forest, Kitsune asked, "How much do you and Shizune talk about the… Kyūbi inside of you?"

"It's there. I can't take it out. All I can do is to show my strength and hopefully conquer it one day," he said, not showing any fear about having such a beast inside his body.

"What about you? You rarely talk about your odd state that you can enter," Naruto asked as he looked around to see if there were any people nearby.

The state that the girl can enter at will makes her nails grow, and her teeth get sharper beyond what any human has. Furthermore, her hair starts to fly in the air, swaying in many directions depending from the wind. However, unlike the one-tailed state, which Naruto had practiced with Shizune, Kitsune is completely aware of what she's doing and can stop it in an instant.

Whenever Naruto enters that state, his eyes become red and animalistic. Kitsune's eyes are always red with a black star-like form in the middle of them.

Despite her mother's and Hokage's wishes, Kitsune refuses to train in that form. She is disgusted and repulsed by the main idea of that form, as it reminds her of the fact that she was created from half of a demon.

"I haven't been using it all that much lately," was all that she mustered quietly. Seeing that she didn't want to talk about that, Naruto changed the topic.

"What's with the weird outfit you're wearing?" Naruto asked, at which Kitsune looked at him with her crimson eyes and snorted.

The new clothes she was wearing were a grey mesh shirt with a crimson-colored kimono with short sleeves and a light blue sash that secured it all.

"As if a man like you without any sense of style could ever comprehend the true beauty of my style," she responded, annoyed at the boy's immaturity.

Naruto just laughed slightly at her reaction before glancing right, where the academy's entrance seemed to be. It seemed that there were only a few days left for them before they got assigned to a new team. There was a slight amount of fear for both of them, knowing full well that they were about to witness a far grimmer and different world than what they were used to after they graduate.


Just came up with this idea as I walked my dog (though I wouldn't be surprised if something very similar has been written before).

I thought about showing more of Naruto's training, but it isn't much different from canon, so why would I waste your time? Besides the fact that he managed to learn it without shadow clones, of course.

Any thoughts or questions? Leave them in the reviews.

Anyways, Dendras out