Disclaimer: Me not own. mumble but I'd steal it if I thought I'd get away with it.

The Fox Lord

Chapter 1- Bitterness

Naruto was going to die, and he found it very hard to care very much.

He had been on the run, a missing nin, ever since he had fully merged with kyuubi. The merging had given him double his amazing speed, strength, and stamina. He was slowly able to access the memories and technics of kyuubi too. Unfortunately, not all the changes were on the inside. He had fox ears on the top of his head, slight fangs, sharper nails, and a fox tail.

Tree's flashed by as he ran silently through the forest. He could feel the ANBU right behind him, and he could feel more ahead. Finally Naruto stopped, grimly satisfied that this was the spot he was looking for.

'How did everything go so wrong?' Naruto wondered darkly. Sasuke had turned to Orochimaru for power, betrayed their village, and thus became a missing nin. His other teammate Sakura had blamed him for not being able to bring Sasuke back, and turned her back on him. Kakashi-sensei ignored him, bitter from the betrayal of Sasuke he turned from his other two students. Once the changes came to Naruto the villagers went crazy, insulting him, and trying to hurt him every-where he went. Oh but it wasn't just the villagers, some of the ninja tried to assinate him. Driven by hatred, betrayal, and isolation, Naruto left the village. He felt nothing for the people except for one thing: A growing hatred of humans. He was no longer human, and certainly all the other humans agreed.

'Humans betray, and they ignore, they fear, and most of all, they hate. They all hate me, so why not hate them?' Naruto began to emminate an immense killer intent. The ANBU closing stopped in surprise for a moment at the sheer size of it. Then they shook it off and silently began the attack. Naruto, standing in the open in the middle of a circle of trees, doged the first barrage of kuni with an unnatural speed, even for a ninja. These professional hunters could not hit this whirling creature. Suddenly the fox eared boy disappeared completely. The ANBU felt tense, even though they were all hidden, they felt uneasy to loose sight of their target so suddenly and easily.

Then two words were uttered in a whisper filled with venom that they could all hear, from no one direction.

"My turn."

The ANBU were well trained and stayed silent and alert, even when bodies began to drop from the trees.

Naruto blurred from tree to tree, silently and emotionlessly dispatching the ANBU until there were none left. Finally Naruto stood alone in the clearing, blood splashed across his clothes and dripping from claws and hands.

He knelt and began to draw runes on the ground with the blood, occasionally dipping his hands in the numerous puddles for new blood. He ended up drawing the runes into a large circle. Naruto had chosen this place because it was a magical nexus. He had learned this from the kyuubi's memories which were now his. The added human sacrifices increased the power in the clearing, and it began to glow as he finished the runes.

As the light reached blinding proportions, a stillness filled the air. The clearing waited for a direction or destination to be spoken. Naruto looked around, his mind blank. He could go anywhere, even to other worlds, but he could not thing of a single place. He snarled, he was so tired of being smacked down, following rules, and being hated.

In a bitter tone Naruto said, "Take me to a place where dangerous and strange creatures live, and humans are not welcome." With a flash of light that lit the night sky, Naruto Uzumaki, the fox demon, disappeared from his world.

NozomiNozomiNozomi

Naruto appeared in a dark forest. He was in a defensive stance the minute the light deposited him. He jumped into the trees to survey his new home.

He used stealth and silence as he observed his new neighbors. The nexus had certainly taken him exactly where he had wanted to go. He found giant spiders the size of bears, strange half-horse half-human creatures, winged demonic looking horses that actually seemed to sense his presence, and not a human in sight. There were also the normal animals he normally saw in forests, yet some were...different.

It took him quite a while to reach the edge of the forest. The sight that met him made a viscous snarl escape from his lips. There was a large stone building that reeked of humans. How dare they live so close to his new home! Naruto's vision began to mist over with red as rage began to fill him. He hated humans, he should tear their home apart, drive them out just like they did to him.

Naruto's rage triggered a new transformation that startled him so much he fell out of his rage and his perch on the tree. He had made the full transformation to the nine tailed fox demon. He now was a nine tailed silver fox the size of a pony. He knew from memories that he could grow bigger if he wished, but this size was the one normally kept. His rage forgotten Naruto surveyed his new form.

'This is much better. Very well, I will go back toward the center of the forest where I arrived. Since this forest must not allow humans, I will ignore them.'

A large toothy smile slowly grew on the fox demon's face.

'Of course, if any human attempts to invade my forest they will be delt with. This is my territory now.'

Months passed while Naruto settled in. He had dug out a rather large den inside a large pile of stone toward the side of the clearing where he had appeared. The entrance was cleverly hidden, but once found it was large enough for Naruto to come inside in his fox form. Because it was the only thing he was raised to do, Naruto continued to train, in both forms. He was satisfied with the calm of the forest, and found a certain enjoyment in hunting for his food in his demon fox form.

It was six months since his arrival and Naruto was training in his human-hybrid form when he began his first interactions with the more intelligent denizens of the forest.

"You, human! How dare you trespass in centaur lands! This violates our treaty-" began one of the centaur border guards. He saw a young human shadowed by the trees, deep in Centaur land, and wondered how the human had gotten so far.

Naruto's eyes began to grow red with fury.

"How dare you call me human you stupid horse man." Naruto hissed with anger. He slowly transformed to his fox form, gaining size, teeth and claws. "Human's are not welcome here. If I find any, I shall tear them apart and eat them."

The centaur stumbled back with shock. What was this new creature that had taken residence in the forest? This was no human animagus, the magic was too different, more powerful, elemental. The council needed to be informed. With that thought the centaur turned and ran without another word.

With another snarl of digust, the pony sized fox took off for his den, muttering darkly all the way. His speed had greatly increased, especially in his fox form, so to most he was simple a silver flicker. He slowed when he heard a voice pleading for something not to eat it. Interested, Naruto silently tracked the voice to see what was happening. It wasn't human, he would smell them, and it wasn't like there was much else for him to do.

What he found was a very young fox cornered by a lion sized spider. Naruto realized the fox wasn't really speaking words, but was making small pitiful whining noises that he realized he could understand. On a sudden impulse he dashed forward and bit the spider nearly in half. The creature gave a short shrill scream, spasmed a little, and died. Naruto licked his muzzle and decided he liked the tangy almost bitter taste. He turned and surveyed the small awestruck brown fox.

Tumble marveled at the silver fox before him. One second an acrumantula food and the next this nine tailed fox god appeared and saved him! When the gigantic fox looked at him with piercing blue eyes the small fox blurted out, "Are you a Fox God?"

The large silver fox blinked as if surprised and let out an amused chuckle.

Idly licking the tasty fluid off his paws he amusedly replied. "Hmm, will I wouldn't say I'm a God, not quite, more like a high ranking fox noble or lord. My name is Naruto. Now, who are you small cousin, and what pray tell is this tasty spider thing?" After speaking he leaned forward to crunch on the spider thing. It really was delicious.

"I-I'm T-Tumble sir, um, Lord...Naruto" Tumble stammered, barely able to talk from his shock. "An-and that's an ac-acrumantula, milord." Tumble couldn't believe Lord Naruto was calmly nibbling on the bane of the smaller animals of the forest. The smaller animals ran from them and the larger animals fought or avoided the acrumantula, but no one actually ATE them.

"D-does it r-really taste good?" asked Tumble in disbelief.

"Mmm, yes. It has a sharp tangy flavor. Here, try some." Naruto gestured toward the dead acrumantula with a silver paw.

Hesitantly Tumble inched forward and looked up at Lord Naruto. The large silver fox just calmly looked back at him. Tumble gathered up his courage and took a small bite.

"Hey," said Tumble in surprise, "this is pretty tasty. This is so weird. Acrumantula eat us, we don't eat them."

Naruto looked down at the smaller fox, feeling protective of another creature for the first time in a while. He tilted his head thoughtfully and studied the now figiting Tumble. He was getting a little bored...

"Tumble, do you have any family or a safe place to stay?" Naruto inquired.

Tumble was stunned for a second before quickly answering, "No family milord, and...I have a place, and it's, okay. No place is exactly safe in the Forbidden Forest."

"Forbidden Forest?" inquired Naruto curiously.

"The humans called it that, so we just use it too..." Tumble's voice trailed off nervously and he inched backward as Lord Naruto's bright blue eyes became tinged with red.

"Humans..." Naruto snarled in disgust. "I do not like, humans." He spat out the word human as if it left a nasty taste in his mouth. He suppressed the negative flow of emotions and memories he associated with the word human. He looked down at the worried looking Tumble and tried to smile reassuringly.

"If you like, you may live in my clearing, none may hurt you there. It might be nice to have company little cousin." Naruto was no longer the bright social person he used to be, but despite his enjoyment of the quiet of the forest, and his cool exterior, he still craved companionship. Besides, he felt a kinship to this small fox cousin, and wanted to protect him.

Tumble beamed at Lord Naruto.

"I'd be honored to live in your clearing under your protection Lord Naruto!" he joyfully shouted.

With a bemused smile Naruto led the happy bouncing little fox to his new home.

'I wonder if he can ell me where I can find some more tasty acrumantula.'

Authors Note:

Ha, I bet you didn't know it was the Forbidden Forest! Okay, you probably knew from the summary, but I bet you'll never figure out what time period he's arrived in! And if my sister is reading this she better review!!