Disclaimer: If I said that I was Kishimoto, and that I owned Naruto, and that I am a sexy beast, I would be telling two lies. It is up to you to figure out which two the lies are.

Florida is very… cold this time of year. I had fun in Orlando, if anyone was wondering, but now I've drifted back to where there is a computer to use. This means that I can release more chapters. First up is my new fic. I really think that this one could be pretty special.

Summary: Heroes don't always win, and Naruto is about to find out how. One small mistake on his part and his greatest nemesis is making his worst nightmare come true. Naruto can only watch helplessly as his life is torn apart, and fortune is reversed. Can the most cunning of pranksters figure a way out of what can only be described as the most dire of situations?

Recap: The Kyuubi has taken over Naruto's body, and everyone's favorite prankster is trapped in his own seal. However, the curse seal will eventually kill them both if they are not separated completely. Kyuubi Naruto is currently in Naruto's house.

Reversal of Fortune, Chapter 3:

Playtime

Lying awake in the kid's bed, staring at the ceiling, the varied scents of the real world flooding his nostrils, it was easy for the Kyuubi to treasure his new situation. It had been a long time since he could smell anything, feel anything… The environment inside of the seal was isolated. Inside of it, there was only the Kyuubi, nothing else. Nothing to interact with, to touch, to eat. It was the very definition of loneliness.

Many would complain if they were simply isolated from others. They would miss having people to talk with. To befriend. To grow attached to.

However, even those who have no one take a lot for granted. They could never imagine what it truly is to be alone. But the Kyuubi knew.

For what seemed to be an eternity in the seal, twelve years in the real world, the Kyuubi had nothing. He had no room to rest, to lie down, jump around, even walk. He was forced to remain standing, completely still, crushed on all sides by the seal, only able to talk and move his claws slightly forward. Unfortunately, he had no one to talk to but himself, and he had no prey to clutch and eat.

The Kyuubi was forced to endure his torment inside the Four Souls Seal in complete stillness. Compared to that, being in the body of Naruto was paradise.

The Kyuubi enjoyed being able to lie on a pillow. Hell, he enjoyed being able to lie down at all. He breathed in deeply, appreciating the smells in the room. The smells themselves weren't enjoyable, rather, it was being able to smell something at all that he enjoyed. The Kyuubi appreciated being able to use senses other than just sight, it proved that he was really free.

Breathing out a sigh of contentment, the Kyuubi muttered "It is good to finally be free." He drifted off to sleep, enjoying another one of the things that he had missed out on for all these years.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

The next morning, the Kyuubi formed the mask that he would need to wear to keep up his guise as Naruto. Four years ago he developed the technique that allowed him to switch places with the boy, and for four years now he has been studying the boy's every movement, doing his best to learn what he would have to do to imitate Naruto. The Kyuubi got out of bed, using what he believed were the same movements that the boy used. Then he moved to the mirror. It was time to practice.

The Kyuubi started out with facial expressions, seeing if he could mimic every expression that the boy used. He started out with Naruto's infamous grin, shutting his eyes completely, grinning wide, scratching his head with one hand. He opened one eye to see if the expression was right. "Heh, perfect." The Kyuubi wasn't surprised that he got this one right. The kid had been practicing this one in exactly the same way.

After perfecting his facial expressions in the mirror, the Kyuubi decided it was time for hygiene. He climbed in the shower, and washed himself with the same combination of soaps that Naruto used. He made sure that even his scent would be unmistakably Naruto's.

He dried himself by shaking the water off, just like Naruto.

He brushed his teeth like Naruto.

He applied deodorant, like Naruto.

He clipped his toenails, ate breakfast, even dressed exactly like Naruto.

The way he walked, everything was exactly like Naruto.

But then the Kyuubi realized that the way he talked was wrong. "Hmmmm. It seems as though I lack the endless enthusiasm that the kit employs." The Kyuubi laughed to himself. "Well, I know that he fakes most of it anyways. I'll cross that bridge when I come across it. If anyone asks, my dog died." He burst through the door and left the room.

Walking through the village of Konoha with no discernable destination in mind, the Kyuubi was able to appreciate how beautiful it was. "Not a bad looking village at all." He snickered. "I guess its hard to appreciate when you tower over it and all of the trees look like toothpicks."

Stumbling through the thick crowds that were moving this way and that through the village, the Kyuubi saw the Hokage's tower rise in the distance. Seeing the tower in the distance instantly awoke memories in the Kyuubi of the man who had placed him in the hell that he had endured inside Naruto's body. "There!" He snarled. "I will find my way out of this body there!"

The thought that had now entered the Demon Fox's mind was simple. If the Shiki Fuujin was the jutsu that had put him in this situation, then it would only be through that same jutsu that he would be released.

"The previous Hokage used that technique to entrap me, but it must be preserved somewhere inside this village in its scroll. The scroll is probably kept in that tower." The Kyuubi thought to himself for a moment. "Its as simple as getting the current Hokage to tell me where that scroll is."

The Kyuubi kept walking in his present direction, deciding that the time wasn't right to go after the Hokage. "But he won't tell me anything while I am still a gennin. Perhaps, he would be more inclined to tell me what I need to know after I demonstrate my ability at the upcoming chuunin exam." The Kyuubi chuckled to himself. Then he began asking random strangers about the way to the nearest library. Most recoiled from him in disgust as soon as he addressed them. The rest just ignored him.

In the distance, three dark figures hid in the trees, quietly watching the Demon Fox's container ask the villagers about the library.

"Why are you so interested in this one, brother?" One of the figures was a woman, with blonde hair tied into four ponytails, touting an enormous fan.

"Isn't he that loser that barely defeated dog-boy in the exams? Why did you bring us out here just to watch him?" Another was dressed in all black puppeteer wear, with a puppet strapped to his back.

The third grunted, his sand-filled gourd strapped to his back. "There's something different about him. He has changed, since he last fought. He makes my blood boil!" He clenched and unclenched his fists. "I wonder what the inside of his veins look like."

The three followed the Demon Fox's container as he finally got the information that he had been seeking, they followed him as he made his way to the library.

Inside the library, the Kyuubi tossed a group of scrolls on a table and then sat down. All of the scrolls were on sealing techniques, and the Kyuubi believed that the information in these scrolls would be valuable when it came time to undue the seal on his stomach. 'I know that the Shiki Fuujin was used to seal me, but the seal itself is also important.' He unrolled one of the scrolls, quickly reading down.

He got to the bottom of the scroll and then tossed it aside. "Nothing on Four Souls Seal." he said. He unrolled another seal, and read down. "Nothing here either." He went through scroll after scroll, until he finally found what he wanted. "Here we are!"

The Kyuubi greedily read through the scroll's entry on the seal, discovering that the scroll did not even have a picture of the seal. It had some extremely basic information on the seal, nothing useful for someone who was interested in breaking it.

The Kyuubi made a move to close the scroll, but as he was doing so, he noticed a missing entry. A whole area of the scroll had been sloppily erased, leaving ink stains over a large section of the scroll. He looked where the title should have been, trying his best to decipher what had once been there. "Heh. Who would use genjutsu on a scroll?" He said, noticing that the image was flickering. "It's a very strong one, no less. It'll take a lot of chakra to remove this." The Kyuubi glanced around to check that no one was watching, and then dispelled the illusion, revealing an entry on the effects that changing the numbering of seals causes.

'I see.' the Kyuubi thought to himself. 'They made sure that low level ninja could not find out how to manipulate Naruto's seal. Probably because they didn't want an accident to end up weakening it.' He read the entry and discovered some small facts about numbered seals. If it's evenly numbered, adding an odd numbered seal on top of it strengthens it, and adding an even numbered seal weakens it. If its odd, even strengthens it, odd weakens it. In both cases, the new seal must be greater than the original in number to have any effect. 'Simple as can be.' the Kyuubi thought. 'Unfortunately, I don't know any sealing jutsu at all. This is definitely something I can look into, however.'

"Transformation Skill." The Kyuubi spoke. He changed the scroll into a coin, before placing it in his pocket. He left the other scrolls on the table as he exited the library. As he walked out, he was surprised by the person that was standing right outside the door. He smirked, "It's you I see."

Gaara of the Desert stood before Kyuubi/Naruto, in his usual pose. "We have business, you and I." He said. "Come with me, or I'll slay you right here!"

The Kyuubi chuckled through his newly gained, human mouth. "Hahahahaha. Alright then, I'll play with you."

Gaara and what appeared to be Naruto walked off, closely followed by Gaara's two siblings, to a nearby clearing in the woods surrounding Konoha. Here they were alone, and out of earshot from anyone who would intervene if one of them was injured.

"So, tell me." Gaara started, moving to one end of the clearing. "Are you like me?"

Naruto's body laughed. "I can smell the Ichibi, I know that it's inside you. Clearly, you can tell what is inside me." He took his own position at the other end of the clearing. "However, I can not have you telling anyone the truth about me. At least not until I remove this seal of mine, and set my demon free!" He began releasing his unique chakra, as his murderous intent began to fill the clearing. "You will serve me, Ichibi's container. Or you…will…die!"

Naruto rushed at Gaara covered in his unique red chakra, laughing maniacally.

Gaara, surprised by the murderous intent he was feeling, formed his sand into a defensive barrier, rather than attacking his foe, but it proved to be a very weak defense, at least against the flaming red chakra that his opponent was releasing.

The sand melted against the Kyuubi's chakra like bacon grease, as he burst towards Gaara and slammed his fist into the boy's chest. Gaara burst into sand, revealing that he had become a sand clone.

Naruto laughed. "Playing possum won't help you. I can smell you, kit! Hahahahahaha!" He slammed his fist into the ground.

Gaara was hiding in a tree, still surprised by Naruto's power. "He broke through mother… She can't protect me from him." He felt something hot grasp his leg. He looked down, seeing that his opponent's chakra had formed a hand, which was wrapped around his leg. He felt it's pull and couldn't help but grimace from the pain.

The Kyuubi's chakra had snaked through the ground and through the trunk of the tree that Gaara was standing in, forming a hand at its tip, that was currently around Gaara's leg. Naruto violently pulled the chakra tendril, whipping Gaara out of the tree and obliterating it in the process. Gaara was slammed into the ground, his armor of sand forming the only cushion that the boy received.

"My blood." Gaara muttered, seeing the unfamiliar red liquid pouring from a wound in his leg. He could tell that he had no chance of winning this battle, especially since the voice of the demon inside of his head had receded as soon as he felt the demonic hand grasp his leg. Even Shukaku was afraid of this enemy. "I concede defeat." Gaara spoke, still on the ground.

Naruto laughed. "Good. You will call me master for now on."

A.N.- If anyone reading this story is a registered beta reader, lemme know if you are interesting in beta reading it. This chapter is about as much as I'm going to edit before I send one to be betad, so it'll give you a perfect idea of what you'll be dealing with.

Next time on Reversal of Fortune, The Kyuubi still struggles to emulate Konoha's number one hyperactive ninja while preparing for and eventually participating in the Chuunin exam.

Oh yea, gotta love them beans. Here it comes!

"Holy Diver! You've been out too long in the Midnight Sea! Oh, What's becoming of meeee!

Like the Tiger! You can see the stripes, but you know he's clean! Oh, Don't you see what I meeeeean!

Gotta get away! Holy Diver!"