Things Change [Naruto AU]

2

««« A/N - A tip for this story is that Iruka stopped Mizuki before he told Naruto about the nine tailed fox. »»»

A boy with blonde hair and cat-like whiskers etched on his face walks down an empty road. The boy, Naruto Uzumaki, is about 13 years old and while everyone else is inside their homes, safe, the boy is not. This is mainly due to the lack of safety he feels at his 'home'. He turns to go down one of the dark alley, which may not have been a good idea. The boy peers through the dark only see angry looking men on the other side and blocking his shortcut. He checks behind himself and sure enough, more men are there too.

It is not long until the group collective gang up on the smaller boy and beat him mercilessly. Naruto is a ninja in training, someone with knowledge in combat, but he does not fight back fearing the backlash his actions could have. Despite being called stupid and a dead-last, sometimes Naruto thinks ahead. The men had lost loved ones when the nine tailed fox attacked Konoha and assumes, as most people do, that the boy is the beast. Although Naruto is unclear for why they target him for the assault that happened so long ago, he bears the burden of ignorance.

As being so reckless in their rage, the men bring the blonde right to death's doorstep.

In a jolt from his haze, Naruto awoke in what looks to be a sewage pipe. This pipe had two directions that both lead to darkness. A loud bang and splash from the end on the left forces Naruto to follow, the crushing fear of unknown and uncertainty is too much. At the moment Naruto would gladly take confrontation than being left to his own devices in who knows where.

Eventually, Naruto reaches the creator of the noise. The being is placed in a very large cage that goes from the top of the tunnel to the bottom. Curious, the boy walks to the cage and touches the thick metal bars. Inside a large beast–a fox–moves to stare at him. Taken back Naruto jumps away with a shout and freezes.

"Haha... Did I scare you?" The fox asks. Its voice is low and deep and echoes around them until Naruto gains the courage to speak again.

"No. You just startled me. Where am... wait, are you the... the nine tailed fox?" Naruto asks as his gaze finally settles on the swishing nine tails behind the large fox. The fox must have felt the question was normal since he did not show much emotion while Naruto was having trouble trying to not panic.

"I am," the fox replies lazily as he lowers himself onto the water flooded ground to sit.

"But... The... the Fourth Hokage dealt with you, didn't he?" The blonde asks as he tries to comprehend the situation before him.

"He did. Minato sealed me away. More specifically, you," the fox continues as he huffs.

This only amounts to confuse Naruto even more than before. "Why would someone put you inside me? Even the great Hokage, why?"

"I'll show you why. Come close." Cautiously the boy did so as he tries to hide his shaking limbs.

The fox touches him lightly on the stomach with an extended claw through the cage and shows him the night when the beast was forced to attack Konoha. Even though the fox shows Naruto the truth he wants, it is a fracture part. As sly as the being is, the fox does not show Naruto the love his parents had for him or even their last words for him.

Naruto lashes out at the fox after the memory. "You've been inside me all this time. You're the reason why they hate me. Why no one loves me. Why didn't anyone tell me? They kept you a secret all this time, even I didn't know and you're inside me!"

The fox stays silent and deals with the torrent of loud words. As most jinchuuriki are, Naruto is ridiculed and deals with the abuse of many tormentors.

"You're dying," he states out of the blue and in the middle of Naruto's rant. The boy looks up. "You're bleeding out. This is your mindscape, outside of it you are hurt and bleeding to death."

"Oh, yeah, the villagers." After the realization of death hits him, Naruto starts to go crazy. "What do I do?!"

"Here, I will heal you for the time being." The fox gives the boy a small amount of his chakra that sent a burning sensation over Naruto's body as it heals his wounds. Despite the undesirable feeling, the after effect left Naruto wanting to covered in the same warmth again.

Then he finally awakes in the alley, alone this time. He runs home and locks the door. Inside of his somewhat secure apartment, he thought of what just happened to him. If the fox told the truth, then no one had told him the truth. Not even that old man he called grandfather or his own sensei. Did his friends know or his classmates? Probably not. If they had then their name calling would have been much worse.

"What do I do?" Naruto mumbles under his breath. He sits and thinks for a long while. In all actuality, Naruto is fairly smart but this is much different and harder for him to rationalize at the moment. Could he even trust the village anymore? What else is the village hiding?

An idea pops into the teenager's head. It is, in all reality, a very stupid plan and incredibly dangerous, but else had he been through that wasn't already dangerous. All Naruto knew, is that needs the truth. If not for himself, then he will get it for his friends.

Ah, my friends... comrades, Naruto thinks before he is about to leave the small apartment. Would they like to know as well?

Well, his stupid plan does need more people to execute and their team had actually gotten quite close since the day they were assigned to be together. 

««« End of Chapter 2 »»»

A/N - Sorry that this one's a little short. Some chapters may be similar in size.

Hey, I made it longer... yeah...