Naruto sometimes dreamed of being normal.

Not like normal normal, heavens no. Just without the demon and all the weird side effects that came with. But the only method at any chance of a refund would be via a nasty extraction—something he's honestly thought hard about a handful of times in his short years, moreso after meeting his mother.

It would never happen though, he thought. Even if he really wanted it. Because Jiraiya is ocean deep, and there's seldom in the world who knows the hand signs to achieve it, even fewer with knowledge of the complexities concerning his seal.

So it's natural to assume it'll never happen. That he would never attain what he thought would be normality.

Then of course it happens.

He is blind sided by a blow bullseye'd straight at his abdomen, beautifully hand delivered by none other than the patriarch of Uchiha arrogance and oh my god, it's actually happening?

Turns out it's a rather unique feeling in all the wrong ways. A soul deep, emptying pain unlike any other he's felt before (except that one time Sakura said he couldn't keep a duckling that followed them on a mission, reasoning that it was best for it's sake that he really really shouldn't).

Every cell in his body ached terribly. Nothing reaches him. Not the feeling of his back cushioned on the pile of floating sand that Gaara trustfully supplied to break his fall. Not the stench of death that permeated the humid air around them. Not the heartbreaking calls of his comrades, to please not to leave as yet so soon.

Because whether he liked it or not, it was unmistakable: his very DNA had been taken from him, DNA that was orange furred with copious amounts of hot energy and a hellish attitude to go with it... all jarringly absent from within. The nine tails has always been with him, until now. Instead, an arctic cold feeling moves in to replace the warmth he's always known, simply leaving him lifeless.

'Bastards,' Naruto thinks uselessly, his conscious descending towards darkness. 'If this is what normal feels like... then I'd rather stay a monster.'