Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Inevitable ❯ Salvation in a Stranger ( Chapter 1 )

The Inevitable

-Shimerao Alkardi

 

Chapter 1

-Salvation in a Stranger

 

Blonde hair spilled out across the ground as the small child lay still, the only sign of life his heaving chest as he fought the exhaustion, which sought to overcome him. Uzumaki Naruto was his name, small and undernourished, un-loved and hated by the village, he had spent three days training without a break to prove to them that he was worth acknowledgement. A small smile spread over the whiskered face. He was not yet out of chakara, not nearly. His fingers formed the seals to the jutsu he had been practicing for nearly a week, but before he could summon the lighting dragon, a hand fell over his, stopping his movements.

 

“Even moves which you may think only use chakara, actually use physical strength, Naruto-kun. You need both to do any kind of ninjutsu.”

 

Naruto looked up to see a man blocking out what little sunlight came through the dense leaf canopy of the Konoha forest. He took the food the grey-haired man gave him and wolfed it down gratefully, smiling his thanks.

 

“You know my name?” He asked after he had finished and handed the paper wrapper back to the stranger.

 

“That I do, many more things beside.” He paused to look Naruto over, noting the diminutive structure of the blonde child as well as his empty eyes. “My name is Kabuto.”

 

Naruto grinned up at him. “Uzumaki Naruto, but I guess you already know that.” A moment of silence stretched between them as they admired the forest around them.

 

“Why do you hide, Naruto-Kun?” Kabuto asked quite suddenly, breaking the unintentionally formed serenity.

 

“Hide?” Naruto looked genuinely confused at the other man's question.

 

“I can see it in your eyes. You hide yourself away from the village, put on a mask of happiness. I have been watching you throughout this entire exam, Naruto. Even if you did not notice me, I have noticed you. This is not how you feel attal is it?”

 

Naruto was shocked for a minute. Was he really that easy to read? No one else had ever seen through his mask before, but to have it's existence thrown at him made him think perhaps it was obvious. Who was this man anyway? To suddenly just appear out of no where and tell him he was un-loved? At last he shook his head, confirming Kabuto's question.

 

“I thought not. I know a place, where you can be accepted for who you are, for what you are, even if no one else will ever accept you, I know a man who will, a village, which will accept you, whatever.” He looked around at Naruto and saw the boy watching him intentley before continuing. “You would be welcome there, Naruto-kun. You would be trained to use the deamon inside you to your advantage, you would be trained in all ninja techniques, far more effectively than anyone here can.”

 

Naruto sat, dumbstruck for a moment, before the message really sank in. There was a place out there that would accept him for who he was, for who he was, not some mask he put forth to hide behind. Should he go? There was no reason not to...

 

Kabuto stood once he could see Naruto thinking it over. He knew that the blonde would give him a chance, after all, what did he have to loose? “Think it over, Naruto-kun. Tell me in the morning.” With a swirl of leaves, he disappeared, leaving Naruto staring at the spot where he had been sitting.

 

 

Naruto pushed the door closed behind him and sank onto his bed, the springs digging into his back as he lay down. “Hey, Kyuubi?”

 

“Mmm?” Came the sleepy response, evidently he had just woken the deamon up.

 

“What did you think about Kabuto's offer?”

 

The fox was silent for a moment and seemed to be thinking it over. “I think you were right, there is nothing for you to loose going with him, alternatively, there may be nothing for you to gain, but it can hardly be any worse than this place can it?” As if to prove his point, a bedspring chose that particular moment to poke into Naruto's back. “See? Here you don't even have a proper bed. I'm sure Kabuto's master will give you a proper bed at least, if not better training than you can get here.”

 

Naruto nodded, even though he knew that the fox couldn't see it. It was true, no one taught him anything here, not even Kakashi. His eyes narrowed as he thought of his silver-haired sensei. The pervert was always training Sasuke, telling Sakura how wonderful she was, and ignoring him. Teaching Sasuke new jutsus, training Sakura in chakara control, and telling him to keep out of the way. He let out a growl of annoyance at the jounin and turned his attention back to the fox inside him.

 

“Even though he seems like a nice lad, I wouldn't trust him.”

 

“Eh?” Naruto asked the fox after realising that he was being spoken to, still to enraged about Kakashi's annoying habits to listen properly.

 

Kyuubi sighed in frustration. “I said, don't trust him.”

 

“Oh, ok, that makes sense.”

 

Kyuubi rolled his eyes and continued, now that he knew he had his vessel's attention. “Well, what I was about to suggest was that I merge with you...”

 

“Merge with me??” Naruto interrupted, suddenly horrified at the idea.

 

“Yes. Now shut up and listen. If I were to merge with you, it would give you my chakara control, as well as my chakara and an affinity for fire jutsus. You already have an affinity for lightning justsus from your family line, and your own skill with earth. That alone gives you a head up above most other ninj-“

 

“Kyuubi, you talk too much. Just tell me what you want me to do.” Naruto sighed, knowing from experience that the fox could ramble on for hours left to his own devices. “I'm tired and I'd like to go to sleep, so if you have anything useful to say, say it, otherwise shut up.”

 

Kyuubi let out a growl of annoyance, which caused Naruto to roll his eyes behind the closed lids. “Fine. I need you to get down here before I can do anything so I'm about to knock you out, just so you know.”

 

Naruto barely had time to acknowledge what had been said before he found himself in front of the giant red fox's cage. Kyuubi sat up and glared down at Naruto before motioning to the front of the cage with his nose. There was the piece of paper, which had been there the first time he had come, the single word upon it still `seal'. The edges were beginning to singe slightly and one corner looked like old burned parchment.

 

“You need to burn it.”

 

“What?” Naruto looked up at Kyuubi in surprise. He wasn't going to remove the only thing that kept the deamon lord from killing everyone!

 

Kyuubi sighed again, becoming inpatient at the human in front of him. “Use my chakara to burn the seal. It won't let me out, it will simply allow me access to your body and I can merge the rest of the way then. This seal only seals me inside this cage, the seal on your stomach is what's stopping me from getting out.”

 

Naruto nodded, cautiously but he couldn't feel any sort of malicious intent coming from the fox he had got to know so well over the last few years. Pushing all thought of the fox getting out to the back of his mind, he gathered the deamon chakara he could feel pulsing around him and forced it into a fire-ball which set light instantly to the already singed seal.

 

As soon as the paper was burned sufficiently that it became detached from the cage, a blast of searing hot chakara engulfed him. He tried to scream out, but the heat was spreading through him, burning it's way into his veins and arteries, through his nervous system and down his spine. He tried to scream, but the demonic chakara flowed into his mouth and silenced him. His back arched in pain and he wished for it to stop, to die rather than go on. His flesh felt like it was melting, his eyeballs shrivelling in their sockets and his teeth growing in on them selves. His entire body was being stretched, his bones breaking and reforming, growing too quickly to be comfortable, and then it stopped. The chakara recoiled and he fell into the warm arms of unconsciousness.