Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto. New Kitsune is just a fanfic and nothing more.

Naruto stared blankly out from the prison cell, muzzle resting on his paws while he swished his tails in the water, making sloshing sounds, partly out of pure boredom partly because he couldn't get rid of a growing itch back there. His tepid fur was beginning to get to him.

Inwardly he mused. I guess now I know why Kyubi was always in a foul mood.

For once, Naruto was glad for the many hours spent meditating on his sage training. It helped with his patience. Otherwise, he was skeptical about what sort of trouble he would've gotten his host. He had discovered, somewhat unsettlingly on his first day here, that the massive imposing iron gates of his cell for some reason did nothing to hold him back.

He sighed morosely at his predicament as he recalled the events that led to this.

"DOBE! Look out!"

Naruto barely managed to avoid a beast ball from one of the many tailed beasts surrounding Madara and narrowly missing being crushed by a giant appendage, which he thinks, came from the Rokubi. He'll have to remember to thank the Teme after this. Catching his breath and recovering his balance, his sage-mode enhanced toad eyes looked grim as he surveyed the situation.

He had fought Sasuke right after mastering his Rasengan in Jinchuriki form. The battle would have been rather one-sided had it not been Itachi's parting gift to Naruto, which had nullified most of Sasuke's implanted Mangekyo abilities.

So after a long chat comprising of a lot of punches, kicks and earth shattering jutsu later, he had finally managed to fulfill his promise of a lifetime to his team mate and turned his stubborn friend to their cause.

The two had lain on the devastated countryside of Frost, exhausted and covered in numerous injuries, but to Naruto, it had been worth it. All it matters was that Sasuke finally came back to his senses. They'll deal with the details later.

Then when Madara had shown up and decided to join the fray.

Naruto and Sasuke had only moments to recover from their fight when the ancient Uchiha decided that he had played along enough. Between the two, they had barely managed to outmaneuver Madara and fatally wounded him. It was supposed to end there.

But they didn't know he could use Izanagi. One accursed forbidden technique later, Madara was standing before them again, free of wounds and fatigue apart from a closed off sharingan. Which he soon replaced with one of the many Sharingan he had gathered. They had been too exhausted to continue when Kakashi, Killer Bee and some members of the Shinobi alliance army arrived as reinforcement. Their despair had turned into elation. But that was also when things started going down hill.

Madara, in a last gambit had unleashed all seven captured bijuu onto the battlefield.

The rest of the Shinobi were forced to just trying to stay alive and not be trampled. Even the Raikage, A was called to the frontline to help deal with the beasts. Killer Bee himself was tied down in a battle with the Nanabi, Gobi and Yonbi.

Naruto sighed as he felt the last dregs of his senchakra running out. Steeling himself, he decided to switch back to Jinchuriki-mode before he had gotten too low in chakra to make full use of it.

Kakashi and Sasuke had jumped in again trying to buy some time for him to come up with a plan. Naruto quickly gathered the required chakra for a beast ball Rasengan. Hurling it with all his might, he managed almost nail Madara in the back when he slipped away to the far side of the clearing using his Space-Time Migration technique.

Naruto cursed inwardly. Damnit, I can't do Rasenshuriken and the Beast Ball isn't fast enough in this form. If only I had time to master the beast-form…

'NARUTO! ' A loud snarl barely containing its anger broke him out from his thoughts. He was about to look for the person who called him out when he realised it was Kyubi talking. 'What it is it, Kyubi?'

'While I still do not acknowledge you as my Jinchuriki, I shall concede just this once. I shall allow you to take on my form and in return, you WILL CRUSH Uchiha Madara until he is nothing but a bloody smear.'

Naruto was stunned at the fox's sudden willingness to lend his power. He quickly felt the fox for any deceit and found none save all its hatred directed at Madara. Not about to look a gift horse in the mouth, he focused as Killer Bee had taught him and transformed.

It was exhilarating as he felt for the first time, his full junchuriki form. He now understood why Bee enjoyed using his eight-tailed form somewhat recklessly whenever he has the chance despite its risks and blatantly ignoring Raikage's order. Then again, the ox and Bee were in good terms.

With a few swish of his tails, he managed to send the Ichibi, Sanbi and Rokubi flying. AWESOME! It was then he realised again how much power the Kyubi held and it was sealed inside him for all these years. He thought he felt a smug snicker from the fox. Perhaps this might be enough to finally put an end to this war. Quickly, he dashed towards where Kakashi, Sasuke and Madara were fighting, gathering chakra for a fully powered beast ball.

Noticing Naruto's approach, Madara used his Space-Time Migration to move out of the way again and only to fail. At first, he looked accusingly at Kakashi who seemed as puzzled as he was, then he saw Sasuke's smirk at his outrage and disbelief. His right eye was closed. 'Izanagi? Since WHEN?' Then he realised. Orochimaru and Kabuto. He cursed their names as the fast approaching pitch black and red tinted ball neared and he realised there was no countering this one.

Madara screamed as the fully powered beast ball from Naruto smashed into him, blasting away the entire mountain behind him and beyond. Naruto's Kyubi form grinned satisfactory as he saw Madara's burnt and smoking form at the centre of the crater, his mask broken off. Despite his hatred for the man, he had to admit Madara was pretty impressive to have his body still this much intact after taking a full burnt from the beast ball. The grin faded when He saw Madara begin to move again. Fearing another Izanagi, he charged up another beast ball with his tails.

"Kakashi-sensei! Sasuke! NOW!"

Apparently, the two had been thinking the same thing. Unfortunately, the Izanagi as well as the previous fight took out too much from Sasuke and he couldn't get there in time. Kakashi decided to chance moment to use Kamui directly on Madara's eye.

At the same time, as Madara was about to heal himself with Izanagi, he felt Kakashi's Kamui on his eyes. He was about to Migrate out of the way when he felt his delayed Migration technique from Sasuke's Izanagi kicked in, trapping him in place with 3 space-time techniques, as well as Naruto's second beast ball fast approaching.

Realizing he was fast running out of option, he summoned all the surrounding Bijuu as a last ditch effort to block Naruto's beast ball.

To the surrounding observers, it was as if the world had slowed down as they held their breath and watch as the Bijuu dashed towards Madara, shinobi from each side of the conflict dreading for the worse or hoping for the best.

It ended in a blinding flash when the ball exploded.

The Shinobi alliance cheered, as the Bijuu were a few steps too late from blocking the beast ball.

Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke were about to let out a relieved breath when they heard an almost inhuman scream. They saw Madara. Or at least, what was left of him. It was a grotesque sight, a battered and bloody body with an empty right eye socket bleeding profusely while the Rinnegan seemed to roll around in his left. He let out another inhuman screech that sounded like "FOOLS! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

Naruto and Killer Bee had started on another beast ball and Kakashi had Raikiri up while Sasuke prepared his Enton when they hear Madara screamed again and his flesh was ripped from his torso and sucked into a gaping hole where his Sharingan was.

The stunned shinobi watched as the legendary Uchiha's body was fast being ripped apart and it was being sucked into a fast growing hole that was his eye. Without warning, the hole grew bigger at an exponential rate and its pulling force increased proportionately. The surrounding bijuu were quickly being sucked into the gaping hole.

A had grabbed both Sasuke and Kakashi and pulled them away from the crater the moment Madara started screaming.

'As much as I had enjoyed seeing his flesh being rended up close, this would be the end of us if you don't GET OUT OF HERE YOU FOOL!' Kyubi ranted inside of Naruto's mindscape. Despite his attempt to sound condescending, Naruto felt a lot of fear from Kyubi. That, in his book was not a good thing.

Naruto was struggling to break free from the pull. Even with Kyubi's claws and tails, he was being pulled towards it. That was when the ground beneath his claws gave and crumbled. He cried out in dismay as he was his massive body was lifted off the ground.

"GOTCHA NINE! RIGHT ON TIME! JUST HOLD ON TIGHT WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT!"

Naruto never thought he'd be glad to hear those lame rap when half of Bee's tentacle held fast onto him while the other half were firmly anchored around an entire mountain. Wasting no time, he gripped firmly around Hachibi's tentacles, hanging on for dear life, hoping the rift or whatever it is would come to an end soon while he tried to pull himself towards Bee.

Unfortunately, it did the exact opposite; the wind around them starts tearing the ground apart. Naruto's giant fox form was being suspended in mid-air with only Bee holding fast onto Naruto. Hachibi's tentacles strained to hold Naruto in place as half of his other tentacles pretty much gouged deep gashes on the mountain Bee hung onto. Naruto winced as he heard tissue tearing as Hachibi's tentacles were gradually being torn from the stress.

"MOTHA FUCKA!"

A final snap and Naruto found himself still entangled with Hachibi's tentacles flying straight towards the rift. He wasn't sure if that was Kyubi or himself as he let out a frightened whine.

Througout the chaotic tumult, he thought he heard his friends.

"Iiya, Naruto!"

"IZANAGI!"

It had been weeks now since Naruto woke up in this place. He had been confused at first, followed by a massive freak out session when he found he was stuck in his beast-form, but after the first day, he felt strangely calm.

He understood that somehow, he had become the replacement of Kyubi. He was in for more surprise when he seemed to 'remember' many things. Like how to 'see' through his host. He had filed it away as some sort of instinct unique to the bijuu.

From what he had gathered so far, he had ended up in some alternate dimension of his five year-old-self where he had been born a girl. Much to his chagrin his host had looked hauntingly like her Oiroke no jutsu, a smaller and scrawnier version with shorter hair.

Through his observations, he had noticed some other differences between him and her aside from gender. She had darker blue eyes instead of his sky blue ones and that her whisker marks were thicker and more prominent. They looked almost like tiger stripes. She showed a little bit more respect to the old man based on what little interaction between the two he had witnessed. This Naruto was also so much more endearing where he had been brash.

In a way, he was relieved that little Naruto was still five year old, hence still undeveloped. Though he had little doubt that given time, she would probably mature into a fine woman.

Thinking about his host he sighed again. Interestingly he had learned, bijuu's form takes on the gender of their hosts, and possibly some other traits of their host. Just like how some of the host might take on certain traits of their bijuu. Like Yagura with his scarred eye, Roshi with his excessive body hair, Gaara with his tanuki-like eye rings, Kushina with her hair splitting into nine 'tails' when angry. And when he first calmed down enough to examine himself, he had thought that the reason Kyubi was so reluctant to let him use his form was because it was a she.

He was glad that to learn that there was no need for biological functions while sealed. Of course, that made him puzzle over the need for gender. Was it something to do with the host's sub-consciousness perhaps? Thinking about it made his head hurt so he decided to file it away at the back of his head. Deep behind shelves and shelves of ramen.

That thought also made Naruto uncomfortable. There would come a day when little Naruto would meet her tenant, and it would be so messed up on so many levels.

A sudden influx of stress and growing fear from little Naruto jolted him out of his train of thoughts. As curious as he was concerned at what would cause his host this much distress, he linked himself to his counterpart.

October 11th, 1:59am.

Inside a small apartment, Little Naruto had been lying as still as a log in bed, cuddled under a thin blanket for the past six hours. To her, it had been the longest day of her life, as each second seemed to pass by agonizingly slow. The first few hours had been the hardest as she listened to the fanfare outside.

The delighted cries of children with their family, laughter of friends, delicious wafts of festival treats, followed by the sound of fireworks and smell of smoke and gunpowder. All of which made her heart pang and her stomach growl. Jiji had apologetically told her earlier that morning that he would be working late into the night. Although he had given Naruto a small gama plushy and wished her Happy birthday, caressed her head lovingly and asked her to be a good girl and stay out of trouble today.

Despite wanting badly to simply doze off blissfully, she had forced herself to stay awake, ears straining to pick any stray sound while unconsciously filtering out the hypnotic ticking of the clock and her faulty kitchen sink.

2:00a.m.

Naruto held her breath for the next few seconds. Dreading and hoping at the same time, it was pure torture. Ten seconds passed. She exhaled. Maybe her fears were unfounded. They must have been as tired as she was now she thought. She allowed herself a soft smile at her own silliness and also being glad to finally able to sleep. She hugged her gama plushy tightly. I hope Jiji had finished his work by now.

2:12a.m.

Naruto cringed when she heard loud banging and clamour of the mob coming from her door. Her eyes opened wide in fear. Why hadn't she heard anything?

She scampered out of her bed at speeds that would impress a Jonin to the kitchen and clambered fearfully onto the kitchen counter, nearly giving herself a cramp in the process. Pulling up the stool after her, she pushed up the wood fiber panel of the dropped ceiling, releasing a short length of frayed rope, heavily knotted at the end to give it more weight.

The banging and noise at her door grew more violent. Out of fear and panic, she slipped from the stool but fortunately managed to grab hold of the short end of the rope.

Naruto whimpered fearfully as she climbed into the space between the ceiling and the roof, closing the board behind her seconds just before the door gave at the hinge. Allowing herself a second, her pupils became slightly more elongated as her vision got used to the darkness.

As silently as possible, she crawled on her belly across the fiber wood with the rope as her guide. Mucus filled her nose as the sharp odour of rat dropping and mould greeted her sensitive nose. Just a little bit further. She increased her pace as she neared the stack of boxes she had prepared.

"There! Up in the ceiling!"

No! Desperately, she climbed onto the boxes and pushed through the roof just as the mob started stabbing up at the wood fiber with whatever implements they had.

Naruto shielded her sensitive eyes. Even the full moon seemed to glare at her. Wasting no time recovering, she climbed blindly onto the roof, only to slip and fall. Her derrière slid painfully down the tiles. Her foot caught in the rain gutter, the moment flipping her over, causing her to crash fall face first into a tree. Luckily the branches slowed her fall, but not without badly scratching her in the process.

But she soon learnt that Fate and Lady Luck were cruel mistresses. Unfortunately, her descent had caused enough noise for someone to notice. "Down there! She's getting away!"

Naruto hadn't really heard the exact words, but the shout alone was enough motivation for her to get up and start running. She knew from experience, despite her 3-storey head start, they would catch up to her soon. A fearful sob escaped her lips.

She ran as fast as her small bleeding limbs could carry her. She ran out of fear for her life.

To say Naruto was shocked would be an understatement. The moment he had connected to his host, the amount of hatred and resentment he picked up was massive, at least 20 different sources. And it was all directed at him, or rather his host. "Run!"

He was glad Naruto shared his sentiment, bolting from her bed at record speed. When she barely grabbed onto the small knot of a rope, a sinking feeling in his stomach told him this wasn't her first run in with a mob. Apparently, his gender wasn't the only thing that was different in this life.

As far as he could remember, the worst he had endured during his childhood was the severe ostracism from most of the villagers. Making him the attention-starved idiot he was today.

Still, to be that prepared either spoke of experiences which he didn't think he want to know of or that she had more potential as a ninja then he did at her age.

Naruto grimaced when she fell from the roof. That had got to hurt. The lights in his cell flickered slightly and the water seemed to start flowing. All throughout the mindscape, water began to trickle in. He decided that he didn't like this one bit at all. Naruto carefully flared his chakra out like he did with all his previous training with Bee, trying his best to stop or at least slow the flow of the water.

2:21a.m.

Her first thought was to get to the safety of her Jiji, instinctively she ran towards the Hokage tower. But that changed instantly when she smelt rather than saw few drunks loitering near the main street. She rather not chance running through them. She had learnt drunks on October 10th weren't her fans. Besides, she reasoned, at this time of the day, it would be a miracle if the guards would let her through.

Taking the left instead of right path, Naruto ran at the opposite direction of the village towards the gate. She took in a ragged breath and redoubled her efforts when she started to pick up the cries of the mobs again. Wiping off the tears from her eyes, she fixed her sight at the giant gates of Konoha. Gates to her, that seemed so close and yet so far out of reach.

A lone patrolling ANBU happened to chance upon the mob. He cursed inwardly when he saw the target of the mob. Some people just never learn. Performing a quick shunshin, he only hoped that he was fast enough.

Naruto was starting to get really worried. At the rate Naruto was running, she was not going to make it. He had been subtly pumping his chakra into her chakra pathways, hoping it would give her the boost she needed.

Sarutobi Hiruzen sat in his office, holding his pipe with one hand while rubbing his temple with the other as he read a report. Chi-chan, why are you doing this? Letting out a smoky sigh, he pulled another report and raised an eyebrow in surprise. Interesting. Kumo wishes for an alliance? I must be getting tired if I'm that happy reading this.

Leaning back onto his chair, he rubbed his eyes tiredly. I'm getting too old for this. He looked up at the portrait of his successor as well as predecessor. "Minato… you really left behind a lot of things for me to pick up after you." He smiled fondly as he picked up a photo frame next to that of his own family. It was a picture of him and Naruto on their first visit to Ichiraku. Heh heh, Kushina, she shared your love of ramen. Definitely take after you personality wise.

He had felt guilty over not being able to spend her birthday with her today, but with the recent unrest within the village, his workload had been endless. It broke his heart to see her downcast eyes when he had told her he wouldn't be available for her. He had gotten her a frog plushy both as a birthday gift as well as apology. The way her eyes lit up instantly with happiness made his heart clench. How much segregation and abuse had she endured for such a simple gesture to mean so much?

He was interrupted when an ANBU entered his office. "Hokage-sama!" Noting the urgency in his tone, he gave the man his full attention. "It's Uzumaki-san. She's being chased by a mob of what I gathered to be forty odd people. Maybe more."

Hiruzen felt his heart break over the misplaced faith in his villagers. "You have my permission. Taka, Kame and Hebi, gather the required personnel. I want all involved detained. Go."

Four blurs shot out of his office. He took out his crystal ball and activated the Tomegane no jutsu. Minato, Kushina. How would you two feel about your sacrifices if you two were to see this?

2.34a.m.

Naruto was breathing hard now. She was getting dizzy and nauseous. Her lungs were aching. So were her hands and legs. Unbeknownst to her, she had started running unconsciously on all fours a few minutes ago. She has yet a quarter of the way towards the main gates.

"Look at that! Clear as the day, it's just like a beast!"

"I can't see why the Hokage insist on being so kind to it!"

"How could he not tell what it is?"

"He was bewitched! That's how!" "Their kinds are whores!"

"The only thing it deserves is death! I don't care how, just DIE!"

Naruto's tired mind barely registered what was being said, but on a subconscious level, each sentence pierced her soul like a burning blade. In her tired state, she failed to pick out a small squarish piece of rusted iron on the ground and her hand slammed right onto it.

Naruto let out a wounded scream and collapse onto the ground from sheer agony. The rusty steel jaw had bit deep into her forearm cruelly, almost to the bone. Tears blurred her vision as she saw the mob closing in on her out of the corner of her eyes.

"Who put that there?" A bewildered person asked

"I did!" Came a smug, almost proud voice.

"You idiot, Jiro! What if we had stepped on it?"

Naruto took a sobbing gasp. They hate me that much huh? Enough to risk hurting themselves to get at me…

She didn't even have the will or the energy to brace when a hoe swung downwards.

Naruto was panicking. The water gushed from the pipes and the light seemed to be flickering more frequent now. He was outraged when Naruto stumbled onto the gin trap. Despite having forgived them from the depths of his heart back in his own dimension, he felt so betrayed by their actions against his counterpart.

By instinct, he felt for the wounds around the forearm and cursed. The trap had bitten deep. It had cut through much of the muscle tissue, severed the median nerve and both the Radial and Ulnar arteries. Had it been anyone else, the limb would probably suffered permanent injury and possibly amputation not to mention excessive bleeding.

Naruto tried his best to restrict blood flow for now. There was little he could do with the rusty jaws of the trap still tightly clamped around the wound.

An angry snarl escaped his muzzle when the water suddenly burst forth from the sewers. His slitted pupils widened when he 'saw' the brutality of the villagers.

Damn those bastards! Forget being Hokage. There's no way he would put his life on the line for the people of this village. He cursed Madara for making his… well, her life hell. Cursed Kyubi… wait, wasn't he the fox now? Confused and upset, he set about trying clumsily to reverse any damage done to his precious host.

The ANBU was dismayed. The mob had stopped at roughly three clicks from the gate. It can only mean they failed to make it on time to prevent injuries. A missed window, he only prayed that they had not missed the last.

"On the Double!"

Two score of ANBU following his lead picked up their pace.

*Clack*

A black bo staff blocked all of the farming tools that were raining blows after blows down on the poor bruised and battered form lying on a small pool of blood.

The mob fell silent. They recognized the Hat and robe of their Hokage instantly.

Scores of ANBU appeared, surrounding the mob. "Hokage-sama. Forgive our tardine…" A raised hand from Hiruzen cut him off.

"I want all those involved here detained." A murmur of protest resounded through the mob. "SILENCE!" The crowd obeyed.

Swiftly, the ANBU secured them all with flex cuffs. Just as the ANBU were about to lead them away, Hiruzen held Kame back by the shoulder "Make sure to get a confession out of Jiro Asado on his use of banned traps on a fellow civilian. I want the necessary paperwork ready for legal procedures against this sorry lot first thing this morning."

Kame gave a curt nod before heading off with the group.

Hiruzen turned around. His heart ached at the sight of the small battered form and a mop of bloodstained blond hair. Hebi carefully removed the gin trap and bound the wound tight before helping lift her onto Taka before all three shunshin off to the Hospital. The last few ANBU started cleaning up the small pool of blood on the ground.

Turning to the ANBU that had alerted him to this mess. "I want you to patrol the area from here back to Naruto-chan's apartment. Make sure she'll be safe and that there's no one suspicious lurking around."

He nodded. "Hai." And he too disappeared into the night.

Naruto gave a relieved sigh and slumped exhaustedly when he finally managed to restore everything back to normal. Not that he actually feel physically tired. This is still so weird. With hindsight, he almost appreciated how much Kyubi had gone through with his recklessness towards his own physical well being. Almost.

Kyubi had his own agenda for keeping him alive after all.

Naruto jerked back up into a seated position when his peripheral vision caught sight of a small orange figure. When did she get here? For reasons unknown to Naruto himself, the thought of her seeing him filled him with trepidation.

Holding back his breath, he prepared for the worse.

Silence.

Peeking out of an eye, he felt relief as well as plenty silly as he noticed little Naruto was lying unconscious in front of the cage. Despite the earlier events, he allowed himself a chuckle. Unconscious within one's own consciousness. Man, this place is messed up.

Naruto lay down on his chin, for the first time, he felt the glaring differences between himself and his host as his reflection mirrored on the water's surface next to his host as he had a good close up view of her.

Damn, she's so tiny…

It wasn't an understatement. If she stood up and did water walking, she was nowhere near his bottom lip. Even his shortest whisker was many time her size. It was quickly followed by realization.

Man, I guess I really am the fox now huh…

Naruto had thought he had come to terms with his condition over the past few weeks, but deep inside himself, he had always been hoping of finding a way to escape, to return to how things were.

Seeing his host now here before him in person made him realise one thing.

He was bound here. Jinchuriki and bijuu. That was their relationship now. If she dies, he dies. If he was extracted, she dies.

Perhaps the thought of his life dependent on something so small, so fragile and vulnerable was trying to tell him something. But after tonight's event, he only wanted to continue protecting her.

Naruto was about to reach out to her when he stared at his raised giant paw and paused. The heck with this! All right, if this is how it'll be then I'll be the world's number one most awesomest bijuu, Dattebayo!

With that thought in mind, he send out one of his tails to pick the small figure off the tepid floor, gently laying her to rest on top of his head while the tail curled around the small figure protectively. He would've purred in contentment when he remembered why he was in such a pissy mood the last few weeks.

God Damned itch!