The Village Hidden in the Leaves, Hidden Village of the Land of Fire, one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, known as the greatest of the Five. Our story begins here, on October 10, the Nine Tailed Fox Festival, the day where the Leaf Village remembers the sacrifice of the Fourth Hokage and celebrates his victory over the Nine Tailed Fox.

One person, however, was not celebrating, even though he had more reason to celebrate than others. Today was his birthday, you see. His fifth birthday, in fact. He woke up that morning to a small gift outside his apartment, an oddly cute sleeping cap, and things just went downhill from there. After a cold shower and a small breakfast of instant ramen, he left his small apartment on the top floor of a run-down, abandoned building and made his way to one of his hiding spots to wait out the day.

He chose the top of the Hokage Monument. He didn't know why, but he always felt safe and relaxed on top of the stone head of the Fourth Hokage, his hero and role model. He had been coming here every day for a year and a half, ever since he could make the trip from the orphanage and, later on, his apartment.

He had been kicked out of the orphanage that he grew up in, for reasons unknown, a month after he turned four, and the Third Hokage had helped him get his apartment a month later. The Third was one of the few people who had been nice to him in his short life. He didn't know why, but almost all of the people of the village didn't like him. Most just ignored him, however there were a few who hated him outright, and told him so to his face. He didn't like those people.

He spent a lot of time on top of the Fourth's head, mainly because it was a haven away from his bad life. He had found a few fruit bearing trees within a few minutes' walk from the cliff, and ate from them sometimes when he didn't have enough food for lunch, which was often, and was the case today. So he ate a few apples for lunch and continued to watch the festivities across the village with a small, sad frown.

As the sun was setting, the festival began to wind up to its finale. The village would grow dark as the sun set, and would stay dark in a moment of silence before fireworks would go off and bathe the village in their light. After the fireworks ended, the noise and light would fade into nonexistence before the entire village would be lit up and the festival would basically be over. It was an amazing sight, really. Especially when seen from the top of the Hokage Monument.

Unfortunately, he wouldn't be there to see it.

"There he is!"

"Block the path down so he can't get away!"

"Alright, boys, let's go fox huntin'!"

Our young blond hero, upon hearing this, jumped up and ran. He had enough experience to know that 'fox hunting' was a sport that some of the adults of the village engaged in, and this sport almost always ended up with him running for his life. So he ran. Away from the cliff face, and away from the people. He didn't know where he was going, but he knew he couldn't stay where he was, he couldn't go back down, and he couldn't go over the edge. So, he went into the woods that surrounded the one or two buildings that were built up there as evacuation shelters.

The Hidden Leaf Village got its name from the large forest that surrounded it. The forest is thick and fairly monotonous, and thus it's fairly easy to get lost in it. Our young blond hero, wearing only sandals, shorts, and a t-shirt, took off into the woods on the Monument hoping to lose the crowd that began chasing him.

He was mostly successful, as all the civilians and most of the few ninja who were chasing him lost him in the undergrowth. However, one chunin level tracking ninja was able to keep up and follow him through the woods.

The young boy ran and ran, until he could run no more, and he collapsed. As soon as he did, the chunin caught up to him and laughed darkly. "So, the mighty demon finally falls." He continued laughing as he pulled out a kunai. "I can't believe that no one has killed you yet."

Our hero watched, frozen in fear, as the chunin inspected his kunai before stepping towards him.

"This is going to be easy." The chunin raised his kunai and swung it down for the kill…

Only to be interrupted by a red-orange blur. The blur intercepted the kunai and tackled the chunin to the ground. The chunin yelped in surprise, before letting out a gurgle and ceasing movement. The blur approached the boy and revealed itself to be a fox. The fox stopped in front of the boy, just within his reach, and stared at him curiously, head tilted to the side. After a moment, the fox began to walk out of the clearing, glancing back at the boy and gesturing with its head in the direction that it was going.

The boy stood, with some effort, and followed after the fox as it led him through the woods. The fox stopped in front of a rather nondescript bush. As the boy arrived, the fox gestured towards the bush with its head. The boy looked on for a second, confused, before realization struck. "You want me to look in there?" The fox nodded, so the boy stuck his head into the bush. There, in the hollow around the stems, were two young fox kits. The smaller of the two, red-orange body with black face and paw marks with a white tail tip, was curled up right next to the stems. The larger, mostly black with patches of pale orange down its sides and a white tail tip, was standing between the smaller kit and the boy, teeth bared and in a protective stance.

Confused, the boy pulled himself out of the bush and turned to look at the fox that led him there, saying, "What do you want me to…" He trailed off, realizing that the fox was no longer there.

The boy glanced around the area in case the fox had moved, but still couldn't find it. He turned his gaze back to the bush and thought aloud, "What do I do now?"

As if in response, the boy heard a distant voice from behind him, so distant that he couldn't make it out. He turned around to see if he could make out whoever was yelling at him. Seeing nothing, he shrugged and was about to turn back when he heard the same deep voice from behind him again, only slightly closer. The boy turned again, now looking back over top of the bush, and still saw no one. Confused, he called out, "Hello?" After a few moments without a response, the boy shouted again. "Is anybody there?"

He heard the voice again, behind him again, but this time he could make out that the voice, definitely male, was calling the boy's name. "Naruto!"

Turning away from the bush again, Naruto looked around for a person to go with the voice. "Who's there?"

"You can hear me? Good." As the voice was speaking, Naruto heard it get closer and began to spin trying to locate the source of the voice. "Stop spinning!" The voice picked up a hint of desperation. "You won't be able to see me. I'm inside your head." Naruto stopped spinning in confusion and opened his mouth to retort when he was interrupted by the voice. "I'll explain it to you later, but right now that kit needs help."

Naruto nodded. "What do I need to do?"

"Okay. Go back in the bush and get the larger kit to let you help them."

Naruto nodded and went back inside the bush, saying, "I'm not gonna hurt you, I wanna help you two."

The fox kit stared at him suspiciously for several moments, before seemingly coming to a realization and stepping to the side and growling lowly. The voice began again, and Naruto swore that the owner of the voice was nodding. "Good, now listen to me and do exactly as I say." Naruto nodded. "Ask the kits to come out into the open." Naruto did and they both followed him out of the bush. "Now, have the younger one lay on her side with her head to your right." Again, the voice's instructions were followed, with the other kit watching warily. "Now, place your right hand on her shoulder and your left hand on her side." Once he did, the voice continued. "Now push chakra into her through your left hand and say 'Joining of Two Lives'."

Here, Naruto paused. "What?"

The voice sighed, and Naruto felt it was shaking its head. "You don't know what chakra is, do you?" When Naruto shook his head, the voice sighed again. "I don't have time to teach you that now, so I need you to give me permission to take over for a moment."

Naruto, confused, nodded and said, "Sure, I give you permission."

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a pull on the back of his head and was unable to fight the sudden sensation. After a short period of discomfort, his world became numb except for sight and sound. He felt a powerful feeling rise up from his gut through his left arm and left his body through his left palm. As he felt himself say "Joining of Two Lives," the kit underneath his hands bent her neck and bit his wrist. He felt the pain, but could do nothing about. As quickly as the pain came, it left, leaving behind a sensation of warmth that spread from his wrist down his hand and up his forearm.

The warmth continued for several moments before it began to increase and become nearly unbearable, yet still Naruto was unable to do anything. Naruto watched as a black tattoo began to take shape on the back of his forearm and spread from the site of the bite. It took the shape of a fox with the head on the back of his hand, jaws open and ears towards his thumb, and the body curling around to have the tail at the crook of his elbow.

The heat died down and the kit let go. Naruto felt himself withdraw his arms and inspect his right arm. He noticed a matching mark on underside of his arm, the ears again towards his thumb and the tail ending just below his elbow. Naruto felt sensation return to his body and began to make sure everything worked right, flexing his arms and hands. The voice returned, now reaching the volume of a normal conversation. "Sorry about that, kit. Now, take these two with you back to your house. I'll explain everything when we get there."

Naruto nodded and picked up the kit that was laying on her side in front of him and gestured to the other, telling it to hop up on his shoulder. Once it did, Naruto stood and made his way back to his apartment, his fatigue from earlier having washed away.

The group made it to their destination with little trouble and Naruto set the smaller kit on his bed and the larger kit jumped down next to her. Naruto watched them settle down for the night before moving to his kitchen table and got comfortable before saying, "Alright, mysterious voice in my head, what's going on?"

The voice chuckled. 'Well, first off, my name's Kurama, not 'mysterious voice'. Secondly, you don't have to talk out loud for me to hear you, you just have to think it at me.'

'Like this?'

Kurama chuckled. 'Yes, like that. Now, I'm going to pull you into your mindscape, and we'll be able to talk for a while without losing that time in the real world.'

Naruto nodded. 'Okay.' He felt the same pull on the back of his head, and the next time he blinked, he opened his eyes to find himself in a large dank sewer. He looked around, taking in the scenery. The walls appeared to be made of concrete and there were several inches of standing water covering the entire surface of the floor. Along the ceiling, there were three pipes: one was a deep, luminescent blue, the one in the middle was a very pale, almost grey, blue, and the last one was a deep, menacing red and was significantly larger than the other two but was not nearly as full. The pipe in the middle was flowing in the opposite direction as the other two.

"Kit, follow the red pipeline to its source."

Naruto glanced around, looking to see if Kurama was anywhere to be seen. "Kurama? Where are you?"

Kurama chuckled. "Just follow the red pipeline to its source, kit. I'll be waiting for you there."

Naruto nodded. "Alright, I'm on my way." He began walking and began thinking about everything he had gone through that evening when something stood out to him. "Kurama? Why do you keep calling me 'kit'?"

There was a relatively long period of silence before Kurama spoke again. "I'll tell you when you get here."

Naruto paused, having heard Kurama's hesitation, but ignored it for the moment and continued through the sewers.

Naruto turned a corner and entered a large room. The floor was still covered by water, but the walls were now much farther apart and the ceiling was much higher than it had been. Three of the walls were the same concrete as before, but the far wall seemed to be one side of a cage. What appeared to be steel bars bigger around than Naruto was tall stretched from the floor to the ceiling, and the light that had been present the entire time Naruto had been there didn't reach past a few feet behind the bars.

As Naruto crossed the threshold, an intense feeling of foreboding washed over him and he froze, looking frantically for some relief.

"Calm yourself, kit," Kurama said, his voice floating from the darkness past the bars. "I will not hurt you."

After a moment, Naruto gained control of his breathing and nodded. Kurama continued. "Come closer to the cage and we can talk."

Naruto nodded before making his way across the room. While walking, he wondered aloud, "Why are you in a cage?"

Kurama sighed. "I'll explain all this in a moment. Just sit down and get comfortable." When Naruto got right up to the cage, he sat down and propped himself up on his hands, the standing water covering his legs. "Alright. First of all, my name is Kurama, which I have already told you. However, you are one of the very few who knows my name. To the rest of the world, I am known as… the Nine-Tailed Fox."

Kurama paused, waiting for a reaction from Naruto, who was currently frozen in shock. After a moment, Naruto opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, the darkness lifted and the Fox was fully revealed to him.

Kurama sighed, once again. "I'm not going to hurt you. You have nothing to fear from me."

Naruto was still having trouble forming words, but was staring at the giant fox with rapt attention. "How…? Why…? What?"

Kurama gave a small, sad chuckle at Naruto's floundering. "I was sealed inside you, hence the cage, by the Fourth Hokage on the day of your birth. I was controlled by a man with the Sharingan and forced to attack the Leaf Village. By the time I came to my senses, I was already sealed inside you. Do you understand?"

Naruto scratched his head. "Kinda?"

Kurama chuckled again. "Well, it's a start. We can talk about it more later once you understand more about the ninja arts. Now, I've been watching the world through your eyes for the past several months, and I've looked into your memories, so I know a lot about you. I also know why the Village doesn't like you."

Kurama had not intended to pause there, but he was interrupted by a loud cry of "You do!?" from Naruto. "Will you tell me? How can I fix it? What-"

"Kit!" This cut Naruto off so that Kurama could continue. "I know, and I'll tell you. I am the reason why most of the Village doesn't like you. They know that I am sealed in you and don't want anything to do with me because I attacked them a few years ago. They don't know that I was being controlled, so they think that I did it of my own free will."

"So they blame me for everything you did?" Naruto wondered innocently. "When they shouldn't even be blaming you?" Kurama nodded and was about to respond, but was cut off. "That's so stupid!"

Naruto was about to continue but was stopped by the fox's deep chuckle that soon escalated into booming laughter. After he calmed down, Kurama began again. "Thank you for that, kit. It's been many years since I laughed so hard." Naruto began to retort, but Kurama raised a hand-like paw to stop him. "I'm not laughing at you. Your response was just too innocent, and it made me laugh. While that is true, you can't really hold it against them. They don't know that it wasn't me." Naruto nodded, but still seemed annoyed. "Now, let's move onto your new fox siblings."

"Siblings?"

"Yes, the two fox kits that you brought home. I will not let you consider them pets, and you're not old enough to be their father, so they'll be your brother and sister. The younger of the two, the female, was too young to be away from her mother, that fox who saved you. In order to keep her alive, I pushed your chakra into her using a jutsu called 'Joining of Two Lives'. This jutsu basically merges the life forces of two beings and gives each party some abilities of the other. In case you hadn't noticed, you now have two ear-shaped tufts of hair sticking up off the top of your head. You also gained enhanced senses, you can understand fox-speak, and you will be able to channel chakra to your fingers and grow claws. The little kit will now be able to transform into a human form, use chakra like you will in both forms, and may be able to speak human language eventually." Naruto nodded, slightly overwhelmed. "After you leave here, you should think about names for the two." Naruto nodded again.

"Now that I've finally made contact with you, I plan on helping you get stronger. Would that be okay with you?" Naruto perked up and nodded vigorously. "Good, now, we'll talk about that tomorrow. Right now, you should get a good night's rest. You'll need it for tomorrow." Naruto nodded one more time and the next time he blinked, he opened his eyes to see his apartment.

Glancing around to see that nothing had changed, Naruto stretched and stood to get ready for bed. After going through his usual routine, he changed into his pajamas, a simple white t-shirt and black shorts, and crawled into bed, his fox sister immediately curling up next to him.