A/N: This story was actually supposed to be a Calvin and Hobbes crossover, originally, but then I thought, "This would make a much better match for this particular franchise!". And so, here we are! And I know that I've been posting a lot of new stories recently, but I can't help it! Every time I get a new idea that I really like, I have to write it down and upload it, otherwise I can't focus on anything else! Forgive me! But anyway, I won't keep you for long, so let's get ready for this thing! Read on and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or So I'm A Spider, So What?.
"I think, therefore I am! My new motto!" = Talking
'I hate vegetables.' = Thinking
"Insolent mortals!" = Demon/Summon Talking
A Family Reunited In Death!
In the Hidden Leaf Village all was quiet for the moment. People were going about their day as they worked, did their shopping, or picked up their children from the various civilian schools. But at one school in particular, the Ninja Academy, there was one child who was currently still in the building even after classes had let out for the day. And he is about to embark on a great journey that will lead him to find his true destiny.
Although, he doesn't know it yet.
The boy in question is known as Naruto Uzumaki, the resident Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox, even if he doesn't know it at the moment. And he is currently sitting in the classroom where he had been forced to write the phrase 'I will not prank the village' one thousand times on the blackboard as punishment for using a prank jutsu on his sensei. A chunin ranked ninja named Iruka Umino.
But Naruto, being a brash and rebellious boy, didn't even get halfway through this punishment after Iruka left to see the village leader who had summoned him.
"Che, making me write down that I won't prank somebody a thousand times. Hmph! The day I stop pranking anybody is the day when cows fall from the sky!" grumbled Naruto. "Ah, but what do I care if I go home late or not? It's not like there's anyone at home waiting for me."
Naruto sighed in exasperation as he leaned back in his chair and looked back to the manga that he had been reading to kill time until Iruka eventually got back. It was a story about a man who ends up getting stabbed to death before reincarnating in another world where he embarks on crazy adventures that Naruto himself dreams of having. It's one of the reasons he decided to become a ninja. Not just to become the village leader, the Hokage, and earn the respect of the villagers who have scorned and hated him practically since the day he was born, but also so he could experience life beyond the walls of the Hidden Leaf Village.
"I wish I could experience the freedom and adventure that you do in my book, Rimuru. Maybe then I wouldn't have to be alone and hated all the time." Naruto silently said to himself.
But no sooner had he said that did he notice a bright light outside. And it was getting brighter and brighter by the second. Naruto barely had time to look up before there was a great, big explosion that rocked the village as the Ninja Academy and everyone in it were wiped off the face of the Earth!
"Kit? …Kit! …Kit, wake up!"
With a gasp, Naruto woke up and saw that he was in some sort of never-ending white void. He slowly stood up to get his bearings as he tried to remember what had just happened. And as he looked around, he saw an enormous cage with a red colored Chakra coming out from between the bars, the sight and feeling of which put him on edge. On the cage's lock was a sheet of paper with the kanji for 'seal' written on it.
'What is that?' pondered Naruto.
That's when the same voice he heard before spoke to him again.
"Come closer, child." said the deep, rumbling voice.
Now normally, due to how he was treated all of his life, Naruto would be more cautious than to go straight towards an unknown voice that was telling him to come closer. But today was not one of those days for him to be cautious, it seemed, as he slowly walked towards the gate. But just as he got an inch away from the bars… a giant pair of eyes suddenly opened from within the darkness!
Naruto gasped and fell back as he scrambled away from the bars while a big, booming laugh echoed through the void.
"BA-HAHAHAHA! Oh, that was good! You should have seen the look on your face!" laughed the voice.
Unamused, Naruto exclaimed, "Hey, that wasn't funny! And who the heck are you?".
"Who am I?" the voice asked as it stopped laughing. "Use that tiny thing in your head that you call a brain and think for once. What did your precious Fourth Hokage give his life to defeat?"
Naruto closed his eyes as he thought for a minute… and came to a horrifying realization.
"It can't be…!" gasped Naruto.
The malevolent red chakra formed an outline within the shadows of the giant cage, illuminating the silhouette of a giant fox with red-orange fur, long ears, hands that looked distinctly humanoid, and most of all, nine long tails that were currently resting on the ground.
"You're the… the… the Nine-Tailed Fox!" gasped Naruto. "But how can you be here? The Fourth Hokage killed you!"
Naruto was shocked, scared and, understandably, very confused about the situation. But then another thought broke through his currently rampant emotions.
"Speaking of which, where is here?" he asked.
The Nine-Tails simply shrugged and rested its head on its forepaws and replied, "To answer your questions in no particular order, as well as to be blunt, we're both dead.".
"DEAD?!" screamed Naruto with blank, white circles for eyes.
"Remember that flash of light that you saw while still in that classroom? I don't know what it was or where it came from, but it was powerful enough that it not only destroyed the building that you were in, but it also instantly, and painlessly, vaporized you." the Nine-Tails explained. "Also, your Fourth Hokage didn't kill me that night. I am a living mass of Chakra, so I can't be killed. Even if my physical body is destroyed I will just reform after a number of years… under normal circumstances. However, thanks to the actions of the Fourth Hokage, that is no longer possible for me."
Despite his lingering fear and festering confusion, Naruto actually sat still and listened as the fox explained its situation.
"I will acknowledge that your Fourth Hokage was a strong human, but he wasn't strong enough to destroy my physical form. Rather, he used his mastery over the sealing arts to literally split me in two, sealing my Yin half within himself, while sealing the Yang half, that's me, within you. And because of the nature of the seal that he used my soul is bound to you which means that if you die, I die with you. No reforming, just a one-way trip to the Death God's belly for me."
Naruto sat there as he took in this information.
The Fourth Hokage, the man who had been his personal hero, didn't kill the demon fox like everyone was led to believe. Instead, he had sealed it away. Inside of him. The Fourth Hokage had condemned him to a life of isolation and suffering at the hands of the very people he gave his life to protect. A life that he had been condemned to, maybe not even seconds after his birth!
"I… I can't believe this…" Naruto said as he slumped to the ground.
Kyuubi said nothing. It knew that this was a lot for the child to take in. It would probably react the same if it were in the kit's shoes right now.
"Why…? Why would he do this?" Naruto asked. "I mean, I get that he had a duty as the Hokage to protect the village and its people, but… out of all the children in the village, why me specifically?"
Kyuubi laid its head on its paws and replied, "There are two reasons why he did this. The first being that you were the only child born early enough. Jinchuriki like you are typically formed almost immediately after the baby leaves the womb. This is because their chakra coils have yet to truly develop, and so, their bodies can adapt to the immense chakra that forms Tailed Beasts, like myself. And in my case, this is the only vessel that can hold me. An inanimate object such as a shrine or an urn wouldn't be able to hold me for long, and I would just break out and start rampaging all over again.".
Naruto nodded, somewhat understanding what the doc was saying, though only really understanding that the Fourth could only use a newborn baby for the sealing.
"And the second reason, well… he couldn't ask any other parents to sacrifice their own child for the sake of the village. But he was extremely reluctant to do so. After all…" Kyuubi paused before asking, "What kind of parent would willingly condemn their child to a life as horrible as yours?"
Naruto was taken aback as the implications of the demon's words hit him like a rampaging bull.
"Wha… What are you saying?" Naruto asked, barely above a whisper.
"He's saying exactly what it sounds like." says a voice from behind Naruto.
A voice that made Kyuubi enraged as it took in the appearance of two people who it never wanted to see ever again.
"YOU!" Kyuubi bellowed.
Naruto turned around and saw two people standing there, one of whom he recognized right away. But the other was a woman who was completely unfamiliar to him. And yet, at the same time, he feels like he's seen her somewhere before. A very long time ago.
She has straight, long red hair that falls down to her thighs, healthy pale skin, violet eyes, and was wearing a long yellow dress with a green apron, and blue ninja sandals. She was also very beautiful.
"Y-You're… Lord Fourth…!" gasped Naruto.
"My, look how much you've grown, Naruto!" said the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.
Kyuubi smashed against the bars of its cage, practically foaming at the mouth as it tried to get to the object of its ire.
"FOURTH HOKAGE! COME CLOSER SO I CAN RIP YOU TO SHREDS! YOU AND THAT TOMATO BITCH, KUSHINA!" Kyuubi bellowed in rage.
But the Fourth Hokage, Minato, simply smirked at the tailed beast and replied, "Now, why would we do that? I think I speak for both of us when I say that we prefer to keep our limbs where they are, thank you very much.".
"AND DON'T CALL ME A TOMATO, YOU GIANT SCARF!" yelled the red-haired woman, her hair standing up and seeming to form nine, thrashing tails.
A sight that made Naruto shrink back in fear for some unknown reason.
'Now I understand why Shikamaru is so scared of his mom…' he thought to himself.
He was broken from these thoughts when Minato chuckled.
"Quite the noisy fella, ain't he? Kinda wish we could go someplace quiet to-"
But Minato couldn't finish that sentence because he, Kushina, and Naruto were all comically flipped off their feet when Kyuubi yelled louder than it had before, sending them flying from the sheer volume alone.
"YOU INSOLENT MORTAL! DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT ME AS IF I'M NOT HERE! AND ABOVE ALL, DON'T CALL ME 'HE'! I'M A FEMALE!"
After taking a minute to wait for the ringing in their ears to stop, it suddenly registered what the giant fox had screamed at them.
"Wait a minute, you're a girl?" Naruto asked.
"And just what is so hard to believe about a powerful entity being a female?" Kyuubi asked with a raised eyebrow, daring him to say something stupid.
"Well, no, but how the hell do you expect me to know you're a girl if your big, booming voice makes you sound like a dude?" Naruto snapped back.
Kyuubi was silent for a moment before she relented and said, "Point taken.".
There was a flash of red light as Kyuubi shrunk down and changed from a giant fox into a beautiful woman. She had light skin and long red hair like Kushina, but her hair was a darker shade, appearing dark red instead of crimson red. She wore a simple, light-blue kimono and geta sandals, and had her hair done up in a bun held together with decorative chopsticks. But that's where the human look ended as she had some noticeable features from her fox form. Specifically, instead of human ears, she has a pair of pointed fox ears growing from the top of her head, nine long tails covered in red fur with white tips protruding from the base of her spine, and her eyes were red with vertical slit pupils. Yet, in spite of these features, she too is very beautiful. In fact, one might say that she truly embodied the phrase Yamato Nadeshiko, if it weren't for her fox ears, tails, and her red eyes with slit pupils.
"Well, does this prove that I'm a woman now?" she asked, her voice now sounding feminine.
"Uhh, yeah." replied Naruto.
Minato leaned over to Kushina and commented in a low voice, "To be honest, I didn't see this coming.".
"Me neither, and I was her jinchuriki before." replied Kushina.
Naruto turned around to face the Fourth Hokage and the red-haired woman, Kushina. His hair was casting a shadow over his eyes, so neither could really tell what he was thinking.
"It's been a long time since we last saw you, Naruto." Minato said, attempting to break the ice.
But instead of getting a verbal response, he was met by a surprisingly powerful punch to the gut from Naruto! Minato staggered on his feet and held his stomach in pain. His son hits like a bull! That's one more thing he got from his mother. Now, normally Kushina would have scolded Naruto for punching his father, but she knew that this was a long time coming. She had a feeling that he would have a lot of pent-up anger that he would need to vent.
"You…!" growled Naruto as he looked up with tears in his eyes as he screamed, "HOW COULD YOU CONDEMN YOUR OWN KID TO SUCH A LIFE?! WHAT KIND OF FATHER JUST USES HIS KID AS A SACRIFICE AND THEN LEAVES THEM TO BE TORTURED BY EVERYONE AROUND HIM?!"
As Minato recovered from his son's punch, he looked on in sorrow as the poor boy let his tears fall as he finally released twelve years' worth of pent-up sadness and frustration. As a Hokage in his previous life, Minato knew that he had a duty to protect the village and its people from all manner of threats. But as a father, he had never wanted to abandon his son to the life of a jinchuriki, knowing that such a life was a literal hell on earth. All he could do was offer a sad smile and hope that it wasn't too late to set things right.
"Tell me, Naruto… how old are you now?" Minato asked.
Wiping his tears, Naruto replied, "T… Twelve…".
"Wow, twelve years old, huh? I'm so sorry that you had to live such a terrible life. I had wanted you to be seen as a hero by the villagers, but I guess I put too much faith in them." said Minato.
"And Jiraiya didn't even stick around to raise you in our place." Kushina commented with her arms crossed. "We should have known better than to make that slimy frog letcher your godfather."
"To be fair, neither of us had really thought that through when it happened." Minato said to his wife.
Kushina simply puffed up her cheeks as she pouted, knowing that her husband was right but refusing to say so out loud.
"My godfather?" Naruto asked with a confused tilt of the head.
One that made him look like an adorable fox kit to Kushina who inwardly gushed at how adorable her son is.
Minato raised an eyebrow and put his hands on his hips as he said, "You don't know? But we left Jiraiya and Hiruzen very specific instructions to tell you about us when you were five years old, and for Jiraiya to raise you should anything happen to us… unless…"
Minato's eyes slowly widened as he trailed off, realization setting in that his old sensei and predecessor had absolutely no intention of ever telling Naruto of his heritage, if ever!
"I told you those two couldn't be trusted, ya know!" exclaimed Kushina in anger with blank, white circle eyes.
That last phrase she said caught Naruto's attention.
"Ya know?" he asked.
Realizing what she just said, Kushina laughed sheepishly as she scratched the back of her head. This action confused Naruto even more, and yet he knew this behavior to be very familiar to him. In fact, he remembers doing that a lot whenever he was caught by Iruka-Sensei after one of his larger pranks.
"Yeah, I was born impatient. Sometimes I think so fast that I just blurt out whatever's in my head." Kushina explained. "I hope you came out okay… without any weird quirks like mine?"
Naruto's eyes went wide for the umpteenth time as he asked, "Then… does that mean that…?".
Kushina simply crossed her arms under her chest and said, "I had a feeling that the old coot and his pervy student wouldn't say anything to you! Probably planned to take the secret of who Minato and I are to their graves.".
Tears once again began to pool in Naruto's eyes as his lower lip quivered.
"I'm…" Kushina started to say.
Only to find herself wrapped up in Naruto's arms as he held onto her for dear life. She smiled as she looked down at her son, wrapping her arms around him and offering the love and comfort that only a mother can give to her child.
"I… I wanted to… to meet you for so long, ya know?" sobbed Naruto.
"'Ya know', huh? You really are my child." commented Kushina.
Minato smiled at the scene and quickly joined in on the impromptu group hug. And although Kyuubi would rather get to the heart of things right away, she decided to let them have their moment. After all, it isn't every day one gets to witness such a heartfelt family reunion.
***...To Be Continued…***
Ending A/N: So, as you can probably tell from the title, Naruto will be reincarnated as a dragon in this particular story. What, you thought he was going to be reborn as Naruko and become an orange Taratect? Nope! I have plans for that particular spider, but you'll just have to find out in the next chapter! Thanks for reading, and I'll see you all next time, my hatchlings!