I own nothing.

Against All Odds

Chapter 1

What can I say about my previous life? I was a loner, with next to no charisma and even less motivation for anything grand. A nobody, really.

Motivation and ambition, however, are not the same thing. I definitely had some of the latter—the desire to do something great with my life. Yet, I never committed to anything.

The world is a scary place. My parents' fears manifested in me; harsh rules to do no wrong and to be normal made me an incredibly paranoid and anxious person. That's why, when a voice rang in my mind, I accepted its bizarre presence without thinking too hard about what it said. It was my only escape, I thought.

The voice, or whatever it was that reached my brain while I slept, simply stated, "Do you want to escape this reality to another?" There was no hesitation in the dream-like place I was in. I was sleeping, that's for sure, but I was more awake than I had ever been.

"You'll have no one. Nobody will know you there, but everyone will be out to get you. Your whole identity will be erased from here, and you'll enter another already established human being."

"I accept whatever terms you want me to," I stated calmly.

One second, I was in my dream, the next, I was in a dimly lit room with one candle on the table that emanated next to no light. It was quiet. Too quiet. Everywhere I went, there was constant noise—angry shouts, cars beeping, and other actions that always took my attention. Nothing of that sort here.

"You're awake."

I squinted my eyes. I could see nothing at all. "Who, and where are you?" I asked. He laughed dryly, and I accidentally laughed too. Why did I ask his name if I didn't even know my own name?

Realization quickly sank in. I had lost my memories. Not the usual stuff like how to cook eggs, walk, or read and write, but the most important information that I doubt I'll ever get back. My parents, siblings, friends, acquaintances, and even myself had been erased from my memory.

"That is no concern of yours right now," the man barely managed to say, finishing the sentence with heavy breathing. I focused on him again as he did something that caused a few more candles to light up, revealing my surroundings. The man had wild gray hair and hollow eye sockets that made him look barely alive. The more I looked at him the more I realized that he was one foot away from grave.

"What's my name?" I asked instead.

The man was puzzled for a second as he eyed me warily before he nodded to himself. "I didn't expect memory loss from this. Well, I didn't expect you to survive either, Akito."

Hmm. That didn't sound quite right. I had no recollection of the new body I now inhabited either.

Time passed before I asked him another question. He didn't answer. Instead, he answered my question with one of his own. Though they were basic things that I saw no problem in answering him. Whenever I asked him another question, he shot it down without hesitation for no understandable reason. Perhaps he just couldn't be bothered with me.

I didn't know whether I'd gain something by lying. Or, I guess more accurately, I didn't have anything to lie about. My height? It had no importance and I didn't know it myself, so he had calculated it himself. My hair was as pitch-black as it gets, with spiky strands going around my head to the right side. I looked very young—about 10, I guessed given my round and young face features and height befitting of such age.

It took him an hour to question me. He could barely breathe by the end of the session. "You're my last hope," he said, and then he left the room.

Whatever that meant, I understood that something has probably been done to me. Nothing good, I'd wager.

"Guess I'll dress up," I said to no one in particular. Surprisingly, standing up felt as normal as breathing. I decided to throw a few punches by boxing the air, and my coordination was somehow better than before. I think.

I put on what I was handed: a simple black sleeveless shirt and dark gray pants. Neither were even close to how dark my hair was, but they suited me.

I sighed and laid down, staring at the ceiling. Where have I gotten myself into, I wondered. One of the few clear memories of my personal life that I remembered was the dream and why I wanted out of my life.

This was the point of divergence; I could change my life. "This is my last chance. I can't screw this up!" I told myself. The old man didn't bother to knock, and I shot to my feet in an instant.

The same man dropped a few books onto my bed and angrily motioned to them. "Read. You'll be sold soon, so you better learn a thing or two."

I did. Finally, some of my confusion dissipated about just where I had been sent to.

Some weeks passed, and I learned a lot of the basics of this world. Eventually, they came. Two men with animal-like masks covering their faces, and dark hoods shrouding them. Even I could feel the aura they eminated despite my lack of chakra control, something I had just learned existed.

"Where is the money?" Shinno, the man who was apparently my father, half-asked half-shouted at them. The masked men looked at each other and nodded. He was desperate to get it quickly.

A case was handed to him. As he was about to open it, my vision blurred as one of the men took me into their arms. The shack I inhabited exploded into bits. "Dead?" one asked. The other nodded.

"Just who are you?" I asked, panting.

It took a long second for him to answer, "We're here for you. You're going to Konoha." I didn't expect an actual answer, so I was pleasantly surprised. "Let's go," the other told.

Was I sociopathic, I wondered? I felt nothing for my father's death, though I guess he did sell me to some secret organization. At the very least, we shared that trait then.

They placed me in what looked like a backpack for a 10-foot human and took off. Despite seeing nothing, I knew we were moving at unseen speeds. It only took a couple of hours before they opened the view. Did I sleep? Did they do anything to me, I couldn't tell. I was in a building—a massive one at that, it seemed. I felt out of place after sitting in practical darkness for 2 weeks.

I opened the wooden door with hesitation. One of the first things I learned was that Kages were the real deal in this world. Fortunately (or unfortunately), I had to see one now.

"Come on in," the wrinkly old man said calmly. He eyed me, probably sizing me up. "Do you know why you're here?"

I shook my head. Looking around, the table and mostly empty space seemed deliberately arranged to make one feel isolated, perhaps. Despite that, the man had a calm and empathetic tone, not making it look like an interrogation. Mixing the uncomfortable and comfortable, it'd be hard to lie without sweating.

"You're the Zero-Tails carrier. And there cannot be a soul that knows of your existence besides me and my men."

I stared, my eyes widening. "But there are only nine-tailed beasts."

"We thought so too, until your father sent me a letter describing each minute detail. The seal isn't very well made, so I can feel the thing inside of you. I'll fix it in a minute and I hope you understand why some things had to be done, right? Tailed beasts are hated. Besides, how many villages would wish to get their hands on you to experiment on? A demon that somehow had just appeared would attract more eyes than you could handle."

"What will be done to me?"

The man took a pipe and placed it in his mouth, puffing out smoke. "It depends on how cooperative you plan to be," he stated.

I wasn't the least bit afraid, I realized. Maybe because I had nothing to lose, I was brave. "How cooperative I'll be depends on how I'm treated here. I want a house, not an apartment. Free food, obviously. And to top it all off," I smiled aggressively, "a personal shinobi teacher!"

Was I acting like a 10-year-old would? I doubted that. I was certainly older before.

The Third Hokage smiled. I wondered if anything I said had changed anything. "You'll be getting most of it for a few years," he stated. "Those privileges will be removed once you become a genin."

I probably should have expected that, but I didn't. Guess I just can't do whatever I want without working for it.

"Have a good night," he said. "Try to keep a low profile. Tomorrow morning, you'll get the instructor you asked for."

Everything went a lot smoother than I thought it would, and I was led to my new home. The Third Hokage organized it in a couple of minutes. That sort of power would be nice.

I slid my door wide open and inspected the house; it wasn't big, but it could probably house a small family of four. A kitchen, toilet, and two bedrooms, all tidy.

For some reason, despite the sun having already set, I was not the least bit tired and found some books on the shelves. I don't want to end up dead like my father.

I heard a knock, and I opened the door to find a man with a bandana and dark glasses. He was a good foot taller than me.

"You're the... thing I'm supposed to teach, right?" I nodded, and he came in without asking. He seemed to want to ignore me, but he really just couldn't. "You'll address me as Ebisu-sensei, is that clear, Reibi?"

He didn't look special. Like, at all. I'd expected some high-profile shinobi since I was a big deal, right?

"Fine by me," I said, placing my hands on my shoulders. "I'm not a demon, by the way. Name is Akito. Anyway, what will we be learning?"

"Basics. All there is to know about the world... and you, Reibi Jinchuriki." Huh, I still didn't even know what the beast inside of me looked like. What sort of information my father gave them was left unsaid.

"How does the Reibi look?"

"Nobody knows for sure. From reports, it's like a brown or purple snake with a mask on its face. We'll focus on that once you become a proper shinobi. I'm not qualified, nor do I want to spend time with you on that." From his tone, I doubted he wanted to spend any time with me at all.

He placed a thick book down. "Basic science. History. Aim. Taijutsu. Ninjutsu. And perhaps some basic Genjutsu. All of it must be learned if you want to become a shinobi."

Did I want to become one, though? It sounded troublesome, but having nothing to strive for in life is worse than training, I guess.

With that mindset, I slowly flipped through the pages. Meanwhile, Ebisu read something of his own.

"What are you reading?" I asked. He glared at me before going back to his book. Looking at the cover, I probably shouldn't have asked. "Pervert," I muttered, not loud enough for him to hear.

That went about as well as I expected my small talk to go.

"If it were my decision, I'd lock you up in prison," said Ebisu, as calmly as one could say to imprison a child.

I slammed the book down with a thud. "What exactly did I do to you?" I asked, frustrated. Somehow, I could feel the hatred emanating from him. "Why are you getting on my case?"

His mouth was open for a bit before he fixed his glasses. "I'm sorry. It was unprofessional of me to say that."

I sighed loudly. I doubted that I'd have any fun learning with him around.

Years passed, and despite our disagreements and general quietness most of the time, Ebisu eventually stopped blatantly insulting me with his glares and words.

Besides the basics, we learned that I had a different type of chakra inside me. However, the seal on me was tightened by the Hokage himself, and he asked me to avoid using any of it for the time being. I complied and mostly stuck with learning the simple stuff first. I wasn't the brightest, but I knew better than to lie or go against the man upstairs.

We did some tests with my unique chakra type, and they deduced that I would need at least Jonin-tier chakra control. Yami no Chakra was fed by the negative emotions of people around me, which I quickly learned when it went out of control once when many of the Anbu were nearby. I expected that, to be honest—most people wouldn't be a fan of me.

The first time I realized I had something different about my chakra was when I told Ebisu that I could feel his hateful emotions. I could probably find him in pitch darkness just by sensing that. But that was a long time ago: there wasn't much negative energy he now had around me.

The demon inside me was dangerous, both to me and everyone else. I've yet to talk to it—I don't even know how to.

"Let's go, Akito," Ebisu said.

I nodded and followed him out of my house. It was midday, and the streets were crowded with people. Back when I first got here, it was hard for me to ignore the hateful chakra I felt all around me but now I didn't even notice it.

It was a long walk to one of the training fields that had been abandoned for a while; he called it Training Area 13 despite it not having a given name. The grass was knee-high there, but I didn't care in the least. In fact, I sometimes liked throwing kunai while lying on the ground with less visibility due to grass.

He fixed his glasses, despite them needing no fixing whatsoever. Ebisu had a habit of that. "This is a test/lesson I thought of. Technically, you already passed—barely—but you passed to become a genin." I smirked, making Ebisu sigh. "You're fit to be a genin, but not to be a genin with a demon inside you."

The first day I met Ebisu, he probably would've just told me that a demon like me couldn't be a genin if we were standing from back then.

Another man with long, wild gray hair appeared seemingly out of nowhere behind me, smiling playfully. "Life never ceases to amaze me," he said. "There's not a thing written about Reibi, yet here stands a boy with it."

"Jiraiya?!" I instantly recognized the sannin and bowed in respect.

"Don't be so formal, kid. Today we'll be learning a thing or three with the thing inside of ya!" he said, his smile not fading in the least as he inspected me. He raised my black shirt and inspected the seal. "Complicated stuff. Hiruzen-sensei's best work, I'd say. Any... weird things happen after the seal was strengthened? Have you ever gone wild?"

"Not really," I replied. "What are we doing today?"

Ebisu chimed in. "Jiraiya-sensei will be opening your seal. Not fully, obviously, but enough to show something from the demon. We avoided doing anything with you so you'd be ready when the time came."

"I don't feel ready," I said honestly. Did I even really have it inside me? I sometimes wondered. There was never a moment that I felt like I did.

"Nobody would, kid, but once you go outside the village, things could get messy," said Jiraiya. "So, are you ready?"

"Yes," I replied hesitantly. Jiraiya looked over the seal once more before placing his hand on it. A few seconds later, I could feel it—dark energy flowing inside me.

"Guh." I dropped to my knees, coughing up something. It felt like it was sliding through my veins, almost crawling outside of my skin. And it was partly true to my feeling, as my limbs, still retaining their human color, shape-shifted into something resembling a leech's tail.

How sane was I? I couldn't tell. My vision spun left and right, blurring with each motion. Despite that, I could sense people miles away from me as clearly as day. Some, I recognized, were near the academy—strong ones. I wondered what was happening there.

My thoughts were disrupted as I heard a voice in my head. "Wake up to reality. See the world for what it is. The world is awful. Embrace the awfulness." The sound was sardonic but very human-like. The being couldn't form long sentences.

"Embrace your evil!" it screamed, making my eyes bleed. Even then, I saw Ebisu trying to come closer, only for Jiraiya to stop him.

I tried pulling at my black hair to calm the headache I got from Reibi. It hurt, but I felt powerful. Power hurt more than I imagined.

"How long can you fight me?"

"Embrace me!"

"The anger deep within."

"Join!"

Time passed, but the pain did not. One second I was crying, the next... I attacked my teachers?

This was the last thing I saw before my vision blurred to still darkness.

Ebisu jumped back swiftly, avoiding the demon's limbs. One after another, he managed to stay out of its reach, leaving Jiraiya alone to face it.

"Stay back!" Jiraiya ordered. "I'll handle this alone!"

It no longer resembled a boy. At first, Akito's eyes had turned red, then his limbs had changed. But that was nothing compared to what he had become now. Jiraiya observed the true demon before him. The Reibi looked repulsing.

It was a mass of blob, with fat protruding in various places, unlike anything Jiraiya had seen before. It had a face, with an ever-present wicked smile on its mask. The hands were constantly attacking, trying to capture him, but to no avail.

Is this its full power, Jiraiya wondered. Sure, Ebisu—or most Jonin—couldn't handle it. However, it wasn't a village-shattering threat. Perhaps the myth of the tail count being in order of strength from weakest to strongest was true, Jiraiya mused as he made hand signs, ready to defend himself by blowing a giant gust of fire at one of its arms.

Then again, the beast literally consumed dark energy, so perhaps if someone truly evil was fighting against it, it would be stronger?

Jiraiya couldn't tell, and for the time being, he didn't care. He needed a strategy, and he came up to do it the old-fashioned way—going headfirst to cut through the monster and strengthen the seal on Akito.

He ran at full speed, a jutsu ready. "Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!" he shouted, and suddenly, a swamp formed beneath the monster, causing it to sink. Before it could somehow pull itself out with the hundreds of hands sprouting from its body, Jiraiya made more hand signs and started spinning forward with knife-sharp hair, like a hedgehog.

He slashed through the hands coming at him like butter, carving a bloody path to its head before reverting to normal and prying through its body to reach Akito and strengthen the seal. "Not so tough, are ya?" Jiraiya taunted as the beast screamed and thrashed in all directions, furious.

Jiraiya, with Akito in his arms, landed with a backflip. "Didn't even break a sweat," he said, panting.

"You are as great as they say," Ebisu remarked in genuine wonder. That was about what you'd expect from a Kage-level shinobi.

"Thanks! It was a lot easier than I thought it would be," Jiraiya said confidently. "Guess you could call it training before I face the Nine-Tails in my godson's belly. We didn't learn as much as I hoped, but as they say: slow and steady wins the race."

Ebisu nodded in agreement. "Can't learn everything in the first go," he added, removing sweat from his head. "Good luck, kid," Ebisu said and placed forehead protector on Akito's forehead.

I lay in a hospital bed, feeling drained. No injuries, but I felt awful all around. I felt just as hopeless as I once was.

That said, I wore my new headband proudly on my forehead. If I had any parents, they'd be proud.

As if on cue, Ebisu, the closest thing I had to a father figure, walked in. "I'm sorry, Akito," he said.

"What for?" I asked, confused. It was something that had to be done, I knew.

He shook his head. "It was my idea to test the beast out. It didn't go as well as I thought it would," he said before bowing. "I'm truly sorry."

Back in my old life, I feel like I would have been even less social than I was at that moment. I wondered how badly I would have taken his apology back then.

"Ummm, yeah, okay," I answered, scratching my head. He sat down, looking out the window.

Ebisu then looked straight at me, his eyes full of mixed emotions. "As a graduation gift, I'll tell you a story."

I looked at him as if he were a clown. "...Do I look five?"

He laughed, though sadly more than anything. "No, but you're still young. Very young," he emphasized, "So this is a story I know you need to hear more than anyone else."

"There was once an adult living beside the sea. He liked rowing, but he never went anywhere himself; he only followed the directions given to him by others. The rower could row better than anyone, but didn't. He just rowed with the flow of the sea whenever commanded to do so.

"A mindless machine, some called him. But he wasn't mindless at all; he was weak-minded, but his head was full of ideas. He wanted to row around the world! But that required courage and leaving his comfort zone. He never went rowing and died as he lived—rowing from one place to another."

"That's depressing," I said, not really getting the point of it.

"Indeed," Ebisu said, before sighing. "And I'm afraid that's exactly what's waiting for you; just going with the flow will never make you happy."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "I'm doing fine. Really, I am. I've learned so much in the past few years."

"Yes, but just going with the flow won't get you anywhere. You have to find a purpose, so you're not just doing the bare minimum. That might work for some, but I see you're frustrated with yourself."

That made me consider: have I changed at all? I keep telling myself to change, and at times I do, I think. But only at times.

"I'll do my best. Maybe I'll find some ambition," I stated simply. I couldn't find a grand ambition here or in my previous life. "What's yours?" I asked Ebisu.

He smiled, almost evilly. "It's quite simple, really. To collect and read every erotic novel there is!"

"Really? That might literally be the dumbest thing I've ever heard," I said, facepalming myself.

Surprisingly, Ebisu agreed with me. "It is dumb, yes, but it still makes me very happy. There are around 1,000 novels on my shelves, and there are so many more pieces that I haven't collected yet! Just the thought of finding more of them makes me happy."

Perhaps he is right.

I have to find something to strive for.

. . . Just something that isn't as lame as that.

AN: I don't think I've ever seen a Zero-Tails jinchuriki used in fanfiction, though the Zero-Tails here is quite different from how it was portrayed in the movie. Anyway, there will be lore changes, incorporating elements I liked from filler episodes and movies, and much more.

By that, I mean it will be really different. The ideas are still in the process of being realized, but here's a glimpse of what might be coming: Otsutsuki are not simply aliens. Myths and religions will be more mysterious and less defined than in canon. The Bijuu will be actual mystical beings.

Anyway, until next time. R&R.