Red Sands

And, here we are!

This is a bit different, as this is not an archive. I actually do intend on continuing this one at some point in the near future, so hooray for that. Besides that, go ahead and enjoy.

Chapter I

[Konohagakure – Five Years after the Kyuubi Attack]

"Get back here you brat!" Naruto ignored the cry from the vendor as he ran away, a single apple in his hand while he ran as fast as his feet would take him. He wove through anyone in front of him and never looked behind him as hunger guided his actions. Fueled by adrenaline and fear of being caught, he went even faster.

"Turn right…" Without thinking, he obeyed the Voice. It had helped him more than a few times. If not for the Voice he would have been caught during some of his attempts to have food or actual clothing. Such as what he currently wore. He had on a red shirt with the same blue spiral symbol the Jounin uniforms had, a pair of red shorts and wore a black cloak to keep out the mid-October chill. As his crimson hair slightly obscured the vision of his violet eyes, Naruto moved it out of the way with his free hand.

"The trash…" Naruto didn't even hesitate to follow the instructions as he saw multiple trash cans and climbed atop one of the full ones, using it to gain enough height to climb onto a low overhang one of the shops had. His next target was the roof itself. Placing the apple in his mouth, he jumped up and grabbed it, pulling himself up with a little trouble but rolling onto his back as he did so.

Not a second later, he could hear the fruit vendor come down the alley he was in not a moment ago and held his breath. "Damn brat disappeared…" He muttered angrily. "I'll find you, you hear me! You'll learn not to steal if it's the last thing I do!" As the man left, Naruto let out a sigh of relief and bit into the apple.

"I hope you're enjoying yourself." Naruto jumped up, looking around until he spotted someone standing and looking down at him. The woman herself was tall, standing even above the loud man who wore green spandex shouting about youth if Naruto had to guess. She also had red hair the same shade as his own, flowing long and down past even her waist. A pair of crimson orbs with slit pupils stared right into his, freezing him where he stood.

She wore a cloak that obscured the rest of her body lined with what appeared to be red fur, though her hands – tipped with five long, sharp nails the color of dried blood – and bare feet were visible. The most defining trait to this woman, however, was that she had nine, flowing fox tails swishing behind her back at seemingly random intervals. Her full lips rose into a toothy smirk as she saw him realize who – what – she was. Her ivory flesh contrasted deeply with the dark look of glee in her eyes. "Do you realize what the voice was this whole time now?" She asked in an almost playful manner, like a sister who had pranked her younger brother.

"You're... the... Kyuubi?" Naruto asked between frightened gasps. He had heard more than a few frightening tales of just what the Kyuubi could do. He thought that they were just stories that the adults used to scare the kids. Yet, the very being they spoke of was not only standing before him, but admitted that she had been whispering in his mind since he could remember.

"Calm yourself, I'm not going to eat you, or whatever it is those crackpot villagers have put in your mind. Honestly… take the form of a gigantic monster fox a few times and everyone thinks that you're a man eater…" She sighed. "Stand, for Sage's sake. It's not exactly in my nature to look down my nose at someone prostrate in front of me. I do have honor, unlike those that live here."

Naruto slowly stood up, muscles tense as if to run but the woman didn't try anything. "How did you get here…?" Naruto asked, causing the kitsune to chuckle but nodded.

"Well, you're pretty young but I suppose I can explain that to you. You see, when a daddy sage and a mommy deranged princess turned demon hate each other very much…"

"I meant here, on this roof with me." Naruto interrupted. Even as young as he was, he overheard some of the older boys at the orphanage – and even some girls – talk about things he slowly realized he shouldn't have overheard. Sometimes, he was a bit too smart for his own good.

The Kyuubi paused as if figuring that out and grinned. "Of course that's what you meant! Well, that particular story starts five years ago today, on the day you were born, Naruto-chan." The redhead widened his eyes slightly.

"How do you know my name? And what started when I was born?" Naruto demanded.

"Well, the second I'll explain later, but I know your name because of a certain hot-headed kunoichi and her clan messing with me in ways that never should have happened. I suppose introductions are in order though. You could keep calling me Kyuubi, but that's more of a title. It would be like me calling you Orphan all the time. Would you like that?" Slowly, Naruto shook his head. "Well, my true, Sage-given name is Shiyore."

"How did you get here though?" Naruto asked. "You said something about the day I was born?" Shiyore nodded as suddenly a chair appeared under her, she crossed her legs and a book fell into her lap. Placing a pair of reading glasses on, she coughed into her hand.

"Five years ago, to the day, this village was the strongest in the Elemental Nations and nothing could stop it. The citizens grew cocky knowing that, until the night of October 10…"

[Reverse Timeskip – Five Years Ago]

"Minato, the seal is brea-AGH! It's breaking!" Kushina breathed out heavily as she breathed heavily, gripping tightly into the railing on either side of the hospital bed she lay in. Kushina was a fair-skinned woman with silky, red hair that fell loosely to her waist and shining, violet eyes. She was adorned in a hospital gown, legs spread and in the process of childbirth.

"Just focus on Naruto, Kushina. I've got the seal, don't worry!" Minato replied. He had three-inch spikes of sun-golden hair and a pair of cerulean orbs for eyes scrunched in worry. He happened to be wearing a Konoha Jounin uniform and his signature white trench coat with flames licking the edges and 'Fourth Hokage' in kanji down the back.

Minato kept his concentration as well as he could with Kushina's pained and raspy breathing and periodic rants at him to "Keep the seal from breaking, Minato!" or "Don't do that! You'll break it!" Those were, quite honestly, the hardest and longest minutes of his entire life.

"Congratulations, you've got a healthy, baby boy!" A brunette, brown-eyed woman in her late 50's said with an aged smile as she held a crying red-headed infant with faint, whisker-like birthmarks on either cheek. When he opened his eyes, they were a deep violet, darker than Kushina's.

"L-let me hold him, Biwako-san…" Kushina begged of the nurse, who complied and migrated the boy to his mother's arms. "Oh, you're so handsome, Naruto-chan… you'll make all the girls go wild, I can already tell…" Minato smiled to Kushina, stepping beside her and placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Maybe one of those girls will be half as great as Kushi-chan… then you'll have to marry her. Someone like that only comes once a lifetime." The Yondaime Hokage couldn't help the tears welling up in his eyes. "I can't believe we finally have a family of our own, Kushi-chan…"

"Minato…" Whatever Kushina was about to say was silenced by the strangled cry of Biwako before she collapsed to the floor, now nothing more than a lifeless heap of flesh and blood. Both of the ninja looked over to see the perpetrator that invaded this secure room somehow.

He wore a black cloak, hood up and his face covered by a white mask with a single eyehole to see through. Around either hand were metal bands that were connected by a thin chainwhip behind the man's back. In his right hand, the masked man held a kunai that disappeared into his robe's sleeve. He stepped over the woman's body as if she was in his way before stopping in front of the couple.

"Who are you?" Minato demanded, two of his signature kunai appearing in his hand as he took a stance. "How did you get in here?"

The masked man didn't answer, but instead rushed forward to the couple. Minato reacted on instinct and met the man in the middle of the room, quickly teleporting both of them to a different location away from the room.

Kushina held Naruto, hating that she couldn't move to help them in her current condition. Gritting her teeth, she decided to do what she could and closed her eyes, her vision changing as she entered her mindscape. Looking up at a large construct she narrowed her eyes.

On a large globe of flowing liquid an immense creature was chained up and pinned to it with several stakes through its hands, tails and even its abdomen. The titanic creature itself looked very much like a fox with two, long ears and almost human-like fingers on each hand with claws longer than she was tall tipping each of those fingers. A pair of burning red eyes with slit pupils glared down at her as the snout of the creature turned into what she assumed was a snarl. "What do you want, woman? Are you here to torment me some more with your 'love' talk? Or perhaps you want stab me with another shaft? Maybe go for my head this time?"

"I'm going to give you a deal, Kyuubi" Kushina said evenly. Within her mind she was perfectly healthy and able to do anything she could before she was pregnant. She just needed that freedom outside her mindscape as well. "I'll change your seal to a cage and you never have to deal with this seal again, no matter who the host is."

The titanic fox-like being narrowed its eyes at her. "What sort of deal? You've never wanted anything like this before…" The redhead smiled, seeing she had piqued the creature's interest.

"I want some of your chakra so that I can help Minato against whatever this threat is. He attacked while I was in birth. It could be a coincidence, but I think whoever this person is has a goal involving you. It's my job to both guard the village against you and to also guard you from other villages. That's what a jinchuuriki does. So, help me and I'll free your constraints a little and give you a cage instead of the Great Shackles of Heaven. Do we have a deal?" The Kyuubi glared but nodded.

"You can have some of my chakra, ningen. You must be in a truly desperate state to want some of it though. You've never once wanted to tap into it before." Kushina frowned but didn't say anything. A chain sprouted from her back and shot right for the beast, impaling its stomach mercilessly. The Kyuubi growled in pain but was shocked into silence as the normally golden chains turned a bright red, the chakra tainted with its hatred being pulled to Kushina and healing her wounds and fatigue of childbirth after being purified with her own, blue chakra.

The chain was, by this point, blue on Kushina's end, red on the Kyuubi's and purple where they met. The two types of chakra fought for dominance until the pure chakra from the Uzumaki overpowered the Kyuubi's crimson youki, purifying the chakra even as it came out of the nine-tailed fox. Around the Kyuubi's stomach, it even glowed blue, showing her chakra had seeped into its body before the chain dissolved. "That should be enough." Kushina said to herself as the constraints on the Kyuubi dissolved and reformed themselves into a cage that ascended far above sight before the beast could catch its breath.

Kushina opened her eyes again, holding Naruto close to her with a smile as she stood out of bed. "Now that that's done, maybe I can do some damage if the need arises. But I have to make sure to keep you safe, Naruto-chan… Minato-kun can handle himself if it comes down to it."

She could not take even a single step before the masked man appeared once again before her and his single eye showed something Kushina knew very well. "You're an Uchiha…" Kushina mumbled even as the Sharingan he wielded spun very fast, signifying he was probably trying to cast a genjutsu. Gathering her enormous chakra, Kushina readied herself to break any illusion he placed her under.

It was for naught as her focus was too split to understand his true motive. Before she could blink, he had warped in front of her, a sealing tag placed over her stomach and activated. Even if she had the Kyuubi's purified chakra running though her, there was only so much she could do with her mentally exhausted state.

When the seal did activate, the man warped away again, Minato appearing a few seconds after to see Kushina on her knees, holding Naruto close to her chest. The Yondaime Hokage quickly rushed to her side. "Kushi-chan, what happened!" Minato begged to know.

"Mask… released the seal…" Kushina barely breathed out. If not for taking a large amount of chakra from the Kyuubi, she had no idea if she would be able to even talk that much. Feeling her chakra move through her body, she slowly stood, holding Naruto closer as she looked out the window where a titanic kitsune with nine tails causing destruction each time they swayed and an evil grin looking down on the village that had imprisoned it for a century. "Minato-kun… it has to be stopped…"

Minato widened his eyes considerably. He had not anticipated that this was the goal of the man behind the mask. He assumed he was a shinobi of another village here to steal the heir to the Namikaze and Uzumaki bloodline. This was infinitely worse for the village. A single glance at Kushina and he knew she wouldn't have the strength or life force to hold the bijuu a second time. She could probably survive in her state given her enormous – even among the Uzumaki – life force if they used someone else, though. "Kushina… you know what has to be done."

The redhead Uzumaki matriarch held her newborn son gently but securely as she looked down at his whiskered face. It was not something she wanted to ever happen. She was supposed to hold the Nine Tails for her entire life so her children could be spared. Maybe even her grandchildren as well, just as Mito-sama did before her. This… masked man had ruined it completely. He had released her of her burden but given her one infinitely harder to bear. She had to… she would have to assign her former fate to that of her newborn child. At least she knew what she was getting into when she became a jinchuuriki. Naruto-chan would be forced into the life as an innocent soul, never able to know normalcy that other children would take for granted.

"I don't like it Minato-kun… we shouldn't force him to do it… it's not fair…" She closed her eyes, gently rocking her baby boy. "He's not even ten minutes old. That's a fate far worse than any torture your ANBU could come up with and you're forcing it on our son!" She glared at the Hokage, all of her frustration and anger at the situation being firmly placed on her husband.

The blonde understood her emotions. Well, he understood them as well as any non-jinchuuriki could. He showed no anger, no frustration and nothing but care for her as he laid a hand on her shoulder, looking in her eyes. "Kushina-chan, do not worry. I know the life of a jinchuuriki is hard, but he will surely be seen as a hero to everyone this night. I am confident in the people of my village being competent enough to understand just the sacrifice he is making."

Kushina widened her eyes and pushed him away. "No! They can't know what he is! You don't understand, Minato-kun! Normal humans could never understand a jinchuuriki. What humans don't understand, they begin to fear. Fear turns into hatred. They must not know that Naruto is a jinchuuriki! You have to promise me that! I'll hate you forever if you don't!"

Minato was taken aback at her words. Surely she had more faith in her fellow man, right? These were the people she lived with and worked with in the village. She held that much distrust for them? Well… he did want people to see his son as a hero, but he was forcing such a horrible burden on the boy against Kushina's wishes… "I'll promise you that… but I have to act quickly or more people will die."

Kushina looked down at Naruto one more time before slowly handing him over to Minato. "Give me three of your kunai. I may not have mastered it yet, but I can use the Hiraishin well enough for one jump. I'll restrain it and then get one of these close enough to the Kyuubi for you." Minato smiled at her, nodding once as he handed her a trio of his infamous tri-pronged kunai.

Feeling better as the chakra coursed through her system and healed her fatigue, Kushina opened the window. Jumping out the window as she had so often done as a teenager whenever she ended up at the hospital, she landed on a roof across from the hospital and about five meters below. Jumping from roof to roof, she finally got close enough to the bijuu to see what carnage was unfolding.

Kushina had fought in the last war, so death was no new experience for her to witness. She had even been present for Minato's infamous massacre of Iwa shinobi. Nothing could possibly have prepared her for this however. It was utter… chaos.

Buildings were crushed, humans were mutilated with large holes in their bodies or turned into red paste on the ground from the sheer weight of the monster ransacking the village and fires spread through over a quarter of the village already from an unknown source. Tens of thousands of her fellow villagers were already lifeless from the creature's rampage. She had only just given it a little more freedom and then suddenly it was granted total emancipation. Hypothetically, where she had given Kyuubi an inch, the masked man gave him a mile.

With new resolve in mind, she took the first two kunai and threw them on opposite sides of the great beast while the last one she kept. Jumping to the floor, she quickly made her way in front of the bijuu, looking up at it. The beast obviously didn't see her yet. That worked to her advantage. Gathering her chakra and compressing it, she shot several chains not at the Kyuubi, but at the two kunai to either side.

When the constructs of her chakra hit the seal of each kunai, they reappeared at the other kunai before arcing up high and wrapping around the titanic fox. On the downward descent, they once more warped through the kunai and this time shot for the tails, constraining them. As she had before, Kushina channeled her unique and pure chakra through the legendary technique of her clan, giving them a bright, blue aura.

By the time the Kyuubi realized what was going on, it was crushed to the ground, completely immobile. Its murderous glare was centered right on the minuscule human that had imprisoned it all of her life. "You! How dare you do this to me right after I get out! I won't be so easy to contain now that I remember the feeling of freedom!" Deadly red chakra spread along the chains, tainting Kushina's own chakra. She glared at the beast, pulsing her own chakra as the chains sprouted deadly spikes along each link, stabbing into the furry monster.

"I will not allow you to bring any harm to my beloved family!" She shouted at the beast, the chains constricting around the Kyuubi further, each spike embedding and penetrating into the beast's 'flesh' to its full length. The enormous being growled in pain and tried to lash out and eat the woman who dared restrain it.

"I will destroy you!" It screamed at her, the thunderous echo actually causing the buildings and ground to shake with such force to simulate an earthquake. Tiles fell from the roofs, foundations caved in and windows shattered just from the Kyuubi's voice at such proximity. Kushina held her ground as the chained became completely blue, squashing any attempts at rebellion the Kyuubi's dark chakra might attempt.

Pulling the third kunai out, Kushina threw it high in the air above the Kyuubi. "Summoning Jutsu: Food Cart Destroyer!" A voice called out as an enormous cloud of smoke appeared. From the smoke, an enormous toad fell atop the fox. Minato stood atop its head, holding Naruto with black ink covering the infants body. The Fourth Hokage held the his son tenderly even as his free hand went through hundreds of one-handed seals.

"Get off of me, you overgrown gecko!" The Kyuubi demanded. The toad croaked in indignity and stomped on one of the beast's many tails.

"Watch your tongue, you're in no position to make any commands you Furball. Just sit there quietly so you can be sealed up nice and tight." The toad almost wore a grin at the concept, causing the Kyuubi to widen its eyes and thrash wildly.

"Gamabunta, I need to focus! Please do not rile up the Kyuubi!" He begged of the Toad. The monstrous amphibian sighed and unsheathed a sword from his back. In one motion, it pierced through the Kyuubi's spine, pinning the monster to the ground. "Thank you." On the last handseal, Minato jumped from atop Gamabunta's head in front of his wife, staring right at the Kyuubi.

"Summoning Jutsu: Shiki Fujin!" Minato called out. The Kyuubi widened its eyes as an apparition appeared behind Minato. The apparition wore a demonic mask with a blade between its lips and flowing robes over its body. Through Minato's and Naruto's body the apparition shoved its hand. The ethereal appendage finally reached the Kyuubi, grabbing hold of the bijuu. "Leave now Gamabunta! Any chakra touching the Kyuubi will be sealed with it!"

Hearing that, Gamabunta pulled out his blade and jumped up, disappearing in a cloud of smoke that blotted out the full moon for a moment. The Kyuubi let a grin slowly form on its lips. "If I'm going to be sealed… it won't be alone!" It shouted as both hands reached ever so slightly and held tightly onto the chains still connected to Kushina just as the ghastly hand reached the beast.

It was too late that Minato realized just what Kyuubi meant. He turned around to look at Kushina who seemed to be shocked. "I-is that the Shinigami?" She asked. Minato and Kushina, both being sealmasters in their own right understood the implications immediately. Only the Summoner and the target for sealing could see the apparition of the Death God and since Kushina didn't incite the technique…

Turning back at the grinning Kyuubi, Minato felt tears gathering in his eyes. He had been too rash… there must have been a different way to handle this… "I've killed my wife and cursed my son…" He whispered just before the Shinigami pulled Kyuubi, the chains and Kushina's chakra into Naruto. As Kushina dropped lifelessly to the floor, Minato could only look into the grinning face of the Shinigami.

"An eternity of nothingness trapped in your stomach is probably what I deserve for that anyways…" He said to the apparition. He knew there was a certain amount of time he had before the Shinigami trapped him, so Minato quickly noticed the corpse of a woman on the floor and walked to her, setting Naruto in her lifeless arms. "Be strong for your parents Naruto… I will not break my promise to Kushina-chan. You'll start as an orphan, just like me… I just hope you can do better after you find your own path.

"When the time comes you may need my help. I will do my best for you. I don't know how the Kyuubi and Kushi-chan both being absorbed will affect them, but I truly hope that it somehow protects you. I'm sorry for failing both of you. I had thought she would be able to raise you. I truly only want the best for you, my son." He could feel the cold grip of the Shinigami's fist clenching around his soul and jumped away from the infant.

"There's no connection between you and I so maybe you'll be placed in an orphanage and remain unbothered. I hope that you can live free of the discrimination Kushi-chan did. I hope you can live free of any influence of me. Most of all, make us proud, Naruto. Whatever you do in life, if you do it for what you feel is right, I'll be proud of you." As if letting the man finish, the Shinigami only cut his soul after that, swallowing it whole. The Hero of the Third War drew his last breath and fell to the floor, lifeless.

[Present]

Shiyore closed the book, allowing it to disappear into thin air as if it was never there. "I'm pretty sure I got that right anyways. My memories get a bit fuzzy regarding that night since that's the day when those two melded together and made me." She explained with a toothy grin.

"Does that… make you my mother?" Naruto asked her. Shiyore held up a hand to the boy, shaking her head.

"Of course not! I'm just as old as you are, so that's impossible! Technically the old Kyuubi and Kushina are both right here." She poked his stomach. "I'm just one of the results of them being sealed together. They're both asleep inside you right now." Naruto furrowed his brow in thought.

"Then how are you out here?" He wondered curiously.

"That's an easy one!" She exclaimed. "I'm using a genjutsu! Only you can see, hear and feel me unless I choose to allow someone else or if your chakra is connected to someone else. As it stands I've roughly got the memories of both the Old Fox and Kushina so I actually can explain some things to you. That's how I was able to tell you about that night." Standing up, the chair disappeared and the book reappeared. "This right here is a tome containing all of their combined memories for me to access."

Naruto tried to remember what a genjutsu was from what he had heard from the older kids. As he recalled, it was some sort of illusion using chakra. "You have my kaa-chan's memories?" He asked curiously.

"Isn't that what I just said?" Shiyore asked.

"You could tell me about her and my dad then, right?" Shiyore nodded. "And only I can hear you?" She nodded again. "W-will you?" Shiyore tapped her chin in thought.

"Maybe, but you have to do something for me first." Shiyore said. "Sometimes I get these strong feelings when something synchronizes between my 'parents'. That is to say, when the old Kyuubi and Kushina have some point of agreement in their emotions, I can just innately tell. I'm getting two of them about you."

"You want me to do those two things and you'll tell me about them?" Naruto asked, to which she nodded. "What are they?"

"Let's see… Kyuubi wants a 'strong host' and Kushina wants to see her son 'strong enough to protect his precious people'. So it looks like you have to train and become strong as quick as possible."

"If I can find someone to make me their apprentice I can do that!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly. He'd always wanted to become a ninja anyways, so if he did as she said it was one of his goals anyways. Though he didn't have anyone precious to protect yet…

"The second is… Kyuubi is of the opinion 'Konoha is the bane of my existence' while Kushina says 'the villagers will never understand Naruto, I just want him happy…' so it looks like we'll need to leave the village as well!" She stated cheerily. Naruto widened his eyes at that statement.

"You want me to leave this place?" He asked her quietly.

"Well, do you want to know about your parents and maybe even about the old Kyuubi too?" Shiyore asked with hands on her hips. "That's what you asked me, isn't it?"

"I'm not strong enough to leave the village yet though!" He tried to argue. Shiyore smiled.

"Well, that means we have a plan then. I help you get strong enough to leave the village and then you get stronger and find someone to make you their apprentice! I'll start telling you things after we do all that and the stronger you get the more memories I'll share with you! Everything works out perfectly for Kyuubi, Kushina, you and me!" Naruto tried to argue but Shiyore spoke with such finality he couldn't even form words.

Then she simply disappeared.