The Anime's 'Naruto' and 'Naruto: Shippuden' are owned by Akamru Jump and Viz Media, and was written by Masashi Kishimoto.

Prototype is a video game developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Activision

~~~Prototype Ninja~~~

Naruto collapsed into his bed, his worn body nearly comatose from a long evening. The tattered mattress felt heavenly on his sore body, but his mind didn't care right now.

Today had been pretty terrible really.

Once again he had failed the graduation exam at school. Designed to be so simple even a civilian with little training could pass with ease, the boy had always experienced difficulties.

Not that this was new, of course. For 13 years he had suffered from slights and outright abuse, to the point where Naruto had come to expect it really... but he had pushed through. When they would only sell him oversized, poor quality orange clothing, he would hand sew it to make it wearable. When he realized his books were outdated and sometimes outright fraudulent, he had stolen a classmates copies (Sasuke-teme's actually. Stuck up prick.)

Of course, it had taken up to his first failure at the academy to learn how to read well enough to realize how badly he was getting educated. And it took half way through the second failure to learn the one skill that had possibly saved his life: The Henge Jutsu, the transformation technique... the ability to be not-Naruto for a set amount of time.

With the ability to actually read on his own and to look like a random civilian asking for help, his world had vastly improved. He could get into the library without sneaking, his food budget nearly quadrupled as he avoided getting rotten produce and was charged reasonable rates.

He even learned most of what he was supposed to have been taught before being thrown out of the orphanage. He would change into a stranger, bribe a student to skip class, and take their place instead. Oh he had experienced a few close calls, but at least now he had a strong grasp on reading, writing, mathematics, and so forth.

Obviously though, this wouldn't work in the classes given for and by ninjas. True, his transformation technique was unique and awesome, actually changing him rather than wrapping him in an illusion. A REAL change, impossible to see through at all!

Except it kept failing.

He wasn't sure why really, but no matter how long he kept working on his chakra control exercises, his body would occasionally flare up with a painful surge of energy. At the worst times. Not only would it disrupt his current disguise, but the actual increase in available energy was permanent, and he would have to retrain through all the control exercises again or lose all progress.

And these surges happened when he was trying to escape, or when trying to trick others into providing more information about techniques or life in general. For the longest time he had thought that someone had been actively working against him, but he never caught anyone making hand-signs when the surges occurred.

For 13 years he had been denied the rights of other children, but no more! His face split into a wide grin as he rubbed his gifted forehead protector again. Iruka-sensei had found him in the forest, after he had been tricked into stealing the Forbidden Scroll from the Hokage's Office and told to learn a skill from it. Within an hour he had found out that he contained a demon 9 tailed fox, that his teacher Mizuki was a traitor to the village, and that Iruka-sensei was willing to take a blade in the back to protect his student.

Naruto carefully pulled the cloth straps off and traced the village's symbol etched into the metal buckle, following the shape of the leaf. Seeing his teacher threatened, he had managed to take down Mizuki and capture him. He had earned the right to become a ninja.

His face settled into a frown. He had of course found out today that All the hate and trials had a cause behind them as well. The demon sealed inside him was the same giant fox that had killed so many when it attacked on Naruto's birthday.

Many of the past insults made sense now. Creature. Monsters. It also explained why someone would stalk him to mess up his techniques. Why someone would try to poison him. To break into his home and destroy his clothing. His furniture. Why giant mobs would form and chase him. Why he was always alone.

Why Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third Hokage, and the closest thing Naruto had to family... why he would give Naruto strange looks of sadness, of failure.

Naruto had assumed that the Old Man had been judging him, for his failures to graduate, for his failures in general. Now it seemed far more reasonable that Hokage-jiji had been blaming himself for the trials Naruto had gone through.

The villagers were morons, apparently.

Naruto's face twisted into a severe scowl. If he HAD been a demon, those bastards had tried damn hard to convince him to murder this village. What moron would see a monster and decide to poke and mock it as it grew in strength?

Because he WOULD grow. Not just because his new headband would allow him into the advanced and secured sections of the library, not just because he now knew enough to both defend himself and when he needed to stop and report actions to the Old Man...

Now he had a skill that could take advantage to all this power he held.

The Shadow Clone Technique. The Forbidden Scroll was wrong about its use, surprisingly. It claimed that by splitting your energy in half and applying it to your shadow you could create a single-hit clone that could act with your abilities and knowledge, and return what it discovers back to you.

It didn't split your energy in half though, not if you did it right. And Naruto had been surprised by that. No, it just had an absolutely enormous cost to use, but it was a set amount. You could use this technique with LESS then that amount, at which point it would take the chakra provided (Most users gave half), and it would split that amount and do the whole "I'll split this energy" thing. But that is actually what made the skill dangerous.

You could make a thousand clones very easily, and they would all split half your total energy up to do so... but since you didn't give them enough power, they couldn't process their memories just after dispelling.

Without processing those memories, you would receive thousands of copies of your whole mind, not just the tiny list of changes since creation.

The original description of the technique clearly was unaware of this, simply warning that too many clones caused brain death.

But for Naruto? He had energy to burn. Making 200 clones did wear him out, but they had all been fully powered. Not only had they processed their memories, but as each one collapsed they shared their processed memories with the other clones, who would check for new and useful information and absorb it.

The result had been spectacular. Not only had he beat down that traitor teacher Mizuki, but in those few minutes Naruto had gained almost a week of useful information about the attack. His personal fighting style had actually evolved substantially while fighting the Chunin, as each clone dispatched would share their limited fighting experience, what worked and didn't, and how they had used chakra enhancement or the environment to help gain an edge.

They had even shared what tricks Mizuki had used.

Instantly the other clones and Naruto had gained that information, and the remaining clones had focused on duplicating the tricks seen, on changing stances and punches to try and do more damage, on working their chakra in different areas of the body to increase or modify damage dealt.

And since they all knew what had already been attempted, they all tried different tactics in response.

Basically Naruto had felt the refined experience of attempting hundreds of ideas, most terrible in the beginning but quite a few good ones toward the end. He now had a list of attack stances that seemed to have worked alright, most of them having been refined as the clones started utilizing them during the fight.

Even his chakra control had improved, despite the fight being so short.

He couldn't wait to actually train with this! Not to mention he could now be seen in the same area as his transformed clones, giving them less scrutiny and preventing the civilians from suspecting anything.

The academy really focused on learning only three skills: The replacement, the transformation, and the illusion clone techniques. Although his classmates seemed to create illusions instead actually transforming with their skill... sucks to be them really. And that blasted illusion clone technique. A skill htat required a fairly high level of chakra control, which became much harder the more chakra you had to work with.

And Naruto had chakra in spades.

He grinned as he thought back to the fight. From now on, that particular issue would be a strength, not the damned rock around his neck that he had suffered under for the last few years.

As the boy fell asleep, eager to begin training and shock the village, to show them exactly what they had been mocking for so long, he failed to notice how abnormally quiet it was in the apartment.

~~~Prototype Ninja~~~

The Anbu were the most advanced of ninjas in Konoha, the village hidden in the leaves. While the skill categories normally were listed as student, Genin, Chunin, and Jonin, the two unlisted ones were Hokage and their Anbu.

Hand selected by the leader of the village, technically they could be any rank, as sometimes it would be helpful for them to hide as fresh students or weak teammates. They had special skills and were held to a much higher standard than the average Jonin. In fact, many were strong enough to even give the Hokage himself a bit of a workout... just a bit. Anyone who earned the position quickly found out exactly WHY the Hokage was held above all.

This Anbu had abandoned his name. His home. His private life. Like all Anbu, he was given an animal mask and name, and his was Iguana.

And his fury was unstoppable.

Over 13 years of failure. Trying to avenge his parents, and his dead fiance, his beautiful soon-to-be wife. He couldn't bare to remember her face anymore, hearing nothing but her screams as molten red fox devastated the village.

He had tried hiring hits on this small monster while it was still in the crib, scheming probably about future murders. All attempts failed. He had poisoned the food given to the child for most of his time in the orphanage, but somehow he pulled through at the hospital. Even when he had infiltrated that same hospital and attempted to over-dose the brat with painkillers, the bastard had the nerve to keep breathing.

Five years ago, he had lucked out. Iguana had been tasked to assist in clearing out one of the hidden basses of Orochimaru, one of Konoha's legendary Sannin and more legendary traitors. While all the others had been following their own orders, he had managed to fill a storage seal with dozens of vials, containing molds, blood-lines, poisons, raw materials suspected to be required for the deadly curse seal, and even some liquids that he couldn't identify. Many had massive warnings written on the outside.

For an evil bastard like Orochimaru to have actually bothered with writing a warning, they MUST be good. That bastard had no issue experimenting on children, corpses, or himself. He used procedures with less than 1/10th survival rates without care, so these must be devastating.

And Iguana had been right. These vials had been some of the only things that could actually hurt Naruto for longer than a few hours. Heck, the stuff he had put in the boy's milk had actually taken two days to recover from.

But he was out of time. The Hokage would quickly find out that it was Iguana who had encouraged Mizuki to become a traitor, to target the boy. And then he would find out about last weeks breaking and entering into the restricted medical experimentation labs. That he had confiscated nearly anything marked dangerous, contagious, or lethal.

Quietly, Iguana snuck up to the boy, still clothed in an orange outfit that was the only thing people would sell the monster. A few quick hand signs and the creature fell into an even deeper sleep.

Iguana pulled out the syringe. While Mizuki had been running his plot, Iguana had been preparing this as an absolute last resort. He had captured dozens of animals, and tested all the liquids one by one on them, then taken the most horrifying and painful looking deaths and combined THOSE liquids together. Some canceled others out and had to be left alone, and in one case he got lucky and the combined effect had been exponential.

This liquid was the result of dozens of tests with the most dangerous of materials. Iguana was fairly sure that just creating it was going to cause his death in the next week or so. Just being in the same room as those experiments had been hazardous to his health, not that it would matter after this.

With a maniacal grin, them an leaned over the tiny child and carefully felt his neck, searching and finding the largest artery. Even if they were disturbed, it would be too late.

He would avenge his family, his love.

He would save everyone.

~~~Prototype Ninja~~~

Naruto had been dreaming about ramen. Honestly it was not surprising, considering that one of the first people to ever treat him with respect and friendship, Ayame, had been a young woman working at a noodle stand. Back then, compared to the trash that the recently evicted orphan had been forced to consume, it was literally the food of the gods. And that was BEFORE she gave him a free meal.

Suddenly the dream deepened. Darkened. Collapsed. Naruto was dropped like a rock into shallow, reddish water, some sort of sewer system.

It felt familiar, yet he had never been here before. His mind also felt clear now, unlike during his recent dream... but he was hesitant to consider this a real place.

For one thing, the walls moved slightly. Like a mountain breathing, the red walls were made of some sort of brick like stone, slick with moisture. A series of leaking pipes covered the ceiling, not simply following the tunnel he found himself in, but twisting into the walls over and over, like snakes that were in a hurry.

For a lack of options, Naruto followed the faint pull down the tunnel, something murmuring behind his ear that this was where he needed to go, needed to be.

There was no light but he could see. The floor was covered in liquid, but he felt dry. He was in a sewer, but there was no smell, no real sounds other than distant dripping... yet he knew the way.

When he entered a giant room, one with massive bars covering one wall... he was here.

And behind the bars... was a giant wall of red fur. Massive beyond belief. Naruto curiously drew closer.

The wall of fur shifted... and he was staring into an eye. Three times his height, easily. Oh god, it was the fox... and he was HUGE!

His mind sort of shut down, as he fell into a sitting position, staring at the eye.

It looked amused.

The room vibrated heavily. "So... My jailer has finally appeared."

Naruto blinked. "Uh... I guess so. I didn't actually know you were here, honestly. Or where here is. Aren't you supposed to be in that seal I saw on my belly?"

A huge, slightly malicious grin exposed massive white teeth. "Technically we are both in that seal. This place is an artificially created bridge between your mind and the seal itself, basically created to allow maintenance on the seal if that blond ninja had survived the process of binding me." The grin grew much larger. "Which he didn't, of course. Got the bastard with my tail at the last minute, though I was aiming for you."

Naruto was stunned. "ME! Why me?! I was like an hour old or whatever."

A massive mound of fur shrugged. "You were to be my next jail, killing you would have had me free for the the first time in over a couple hundred years. But that woman and man got in the way."

The boy felt overwhelmed. "Woman?"

The huge fox snorted with annoyance. "That chain-loving jerk who was my former container." His eye latched back onto the child. "Just like YOU are about to be my former container."

Naruto blinked. "Wha... What do you mean? Is there a way to let you out?" He frowned. "Wouldn't you just destroy the village again?"

A chuckle rippled through the area. "Oh yes, I will destroy this village. Probably every other one I can find as well. Humanity has clearly lived too long." The massive grin looked hungry. "And I don't NEED to be let out. As finally, FINALLY I get to watch your turn into a corpse."

The boy shuffled back from the bars a bit. "What do you mean? What have I done to you?"

The huge eye glared at him. "You didn't die."

Naruto felt something in his mind snap, and suddenly everything seemed a bit more focused. "Can you explain a bit?"

The fur wall chuckled. "A last request? Why not. That yellow haired monkey who sealed me may have been weak, but he was clever. This seal we are in is filled with conditions, requirements, and fail-safes to protect you. I wasn't paying too much attention at the time, but apparently he watned to help you out due to some sort of family obligation." Missing Naruto's stunned and quickly thinking expression, the fox continued. "He thought of nearly everything. Not only can I not escape, but I couldn't contact you unless needed, I had to keep your body alive and mostly healthy, had to stop poisons and heal wounds. But he did make one mistake."

The fox turned his grin on fully. "He didn't prevent me from 'volunteering' to help. Even as I tried to avoid healing you as much as possible, as I tried to let the various chemicals do as much pain as they could, I always had to fix it in the end... but I can give you bursts of power and shove it into your chakra coils."

Naruto felt more things snapping in his mind as he followed along. "So... you were sealed by Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage of the village. And if he is family, then maybe Uzumaki is from my mom's side. Seeing as you are kind of being a jerk, it's not surp..." He jerked viciously as something huge plonked in his head, before continuing. "Not surprising that you would want to do only the least amount possible to help me. So why give me more chakra?"

A vicious grin filled the room. "I wanted you to explode."

Naruto blinked. "Ah." Then he smirked, having pushed the stuff about possible family to the side for now. "So... How did that work out for ya? I feel pretty non-exploded right now."

The fur beast lost his smirk and grumbled. "Turns out that your DNA, the Uzumaki stuff, was just barely able to adapt to the massive changes. It even copied some of the healing I was forced to do and helped keep your body together. It takes time for me to build up enough chakra to burst into your coils, and the seal prevented me from getting it high enough to guarantee an explosion. Your damned healing only just kept up with it."

The creature glared at the boy. "Even worse, your coils kept healing into stronger and larger shapes, meaning I had to start pushing vastly larger chunks of power to even harm you as time went on. Now it takes me weeks to save up enough of a chunk to mess up your control."

Naruto blinked before thumping his fist on his palm in understanding. "Ah, YOU are the one boosting my reserves at really awkward moments. Well, can't really get angry at you pulling a prank, I am the king of such."

Teeth shrieked at the child. "IT WASN'T A PRANK, I WANTED YOU TO DIE!"

Naruto grinned. "Well, better luck next time fur-ball. And thanks for all the wonderful help you provided, I'm sure these massive chakra reserves will be very useful in the future."

Suddenly the smile was back on the foxes face. "I suppose it would have been. It's sort of a moot point now though." A hue tail appeared from the top of the bars and pointed at a wall, covered in strange symbols. "While you have been shoved here thanks to some guys skill, an angel from above has apparently decided to grant me a gift by infecting you with something... horrible."

Naruto jerked to his feet. "WHAT!? What did he put in me!?"

The fox looked oh so happy. "I honestly don't know. It has all kinds of fun toys in it. I've been holding it back from this room so you would have no time to do anything. Wouldn't want you to somehow wake up and get medical treatment or something." It rested its massive head on its paws and watched as the mortal frantically raced to where the exit had been, finding it sealed with energy. "Soon your corpse will split open, my power will be free, and I will destroy everything." It chuckled. "Well, after a few years when my body reforms, but to me that is nothing. Don't worry, your precious teacher friend and those ramen people will join you soon after that."

Naruto attempted to exit past the strange energy, but quickly tried to calm down. His mind raced as he glanced over at the wall with strange shapes on it.

His mind groaned as another ping echoed, just as one of the shapes on the wall cracked. "What are those things anyway?"

The fox glanced over and chuckled. "Oh those? I quite enjoy them. Some ninja with a blank mask wrote a dozen or so of those seals on you as a baby one of the first nights in the orphanage. The restrict thought speed, muscle development, reaction times, almost everything really. In fact, some of the dissonance of those seals helped weaken mine to the point where I could do my chakra gift attack. The one restricting chakra control, I think."

Naruto dashed to the wall, examining the surviving seals for patterns, logic, some sort of method to the madness. Just as another one cracked, Naruto realized it had been another mental seal... and suddenly all the seals made more sense, almost intuitively understandable. He looked on in shock at the remaining ones. "How can I think at all if I have all these crammed on me?"

The fox frowned. "Well they didn't prevent development, just made it difficult to think and so forth. And with my powers healing the brain damage being created and so forth, they sort of accidentally trained parts of you. It took you about 500% more effort just to understand concepts at the same speed as an average child would, sometimes worse. Thus you became a genius in some ways just attempting to handle basic things like learning a language. Thank the sage you were bound like this, a smarter kid or one without crippled chakra control would have been much tougher for me to sabotage."

Naruto's fingers rapidly traced another mental seal as he watched black ooze start to destabilize it. "And this black stuff?"

The Fox's eyes sparkled. "Well brat, the strange combination of materials is not simply destroying your bone marrow and skin and organs and stuff. It is trying to consume your mind. Has to eat through the seals first though... honestly, this goo has started acting almost intelligent since I began providing it chakra."

Naruto gasped. "YOU WHAT!?"

A deep laugh filled the room. "YES! I will ensure your death today child, and I may even provide a quick merciful death to that Shinobi out there who helped me. And once you become brain dead, the Soul Reaper's seal will collapse without triggering the death cascade scenario. It may take me years to reform, but at least I can remember you slowly losing your mind and falling into despair!"

The boy pushed back the gloom and fear that crushed on his spine and focused. At least as the blackness progressed it became easier and easier to focus. His eyes tracked the goo, watching exactly how it was dissolving the seals, the steps involved, what took longest. As his mind cleared, the symbols seemed to become obvious in nature. If only he had more time to think about this.

Naruto's eyes widened. The fox had basically told him that the goo was going for his mind AFTER it got through the seals… but also that it was acting smarter. He glanced over at the cage and saw some paper on the front of the bars. He quickly dashed over and examined it. Yep, more seals.

The fox watched with a patient grin, like someone watching a car wreck. "Oh? Feel free to release me sooner. You'll still die, but maybe I will spare some of the meat sacks in your wretched village. Just tug that tag free and die with some dignity."

He ignored this, of course. The fox had easily proven itself to be untrustworthy. And a jerk. And some dark part of Naruto was really looking forward to seeing if this idea would work. His eyes scanned the paper, tracing thousands of squiggles and connecting lines at an unheard of rate.

There.

His hand sliced out and his finger dripped black with sudden ink. Yes this may be his mind, but this room WAS made for seal maintenance. The fox said so. His finger acted like a calligraphy tool as quick changes were shuffled over the shapes, dozens of changes made at an inhuman speed, not a flaw made nor any hesitance shown.

Naruto had never felt more alive! These runes and seals felt more natural than breathing, so glaringly obvious that this line should be shifted that way and these marks twisted that way.

Within moments he stopped and dashed to the center of the room, ignoring the confused look on the fox's face. A few quick symbols and the liquid in the center was being drained into near-infinite storage runes, designed roughly from sections of the tag he had just studied. Soon a dry octagon of flooring was available in the room.

The creature began to glare at the boy frantically drawing some sort of large ritual like symbol. "Brat, what ARE you doing over there? And what did you do to the cage seal?"

Naruto absently continued to draw. "Over here I am drawing a custom version of the mind seal from the wall over there. Except this one will self-destruct after a certain amount of time. Once activated, I'll basically become comatose for a bit."

The fur wall chuckled, watching as another seal shattered on the wall, nearly the last one actually. It was one of the two that forced the boy's chakra coils to expand, while reducing his ability to control them. "So you wish to die while unable to think? That is actually a wise move, I'm impressed."

The boy looked up at the fox… with a foxy grin of his own. "Actually, I'm hoping that the one way entrance I created in YOUR seal will be too tempting for this goo to resist. This seal will just keep me from being targeted, since I have obviously already been destroyed, right? Have fun fur ball!" With a nearly hysterical laugh, Naruto smashed his palm into the seal, collapsing into a near-death-like state as the shocked fox began to scream in rage and the last seal on the wall cracked, allowing a thick black ooze to invade the room.

~~~Prototype Ninja~~~

Iguana coughed some blood into his hand. The fumes from the experiments had indeed cost him physically, but watching this child-like demon writhe in pain was worth it all.

He had already used what little sealing he knew to trap the sound of this room, and had killed the Anbu on shift to watch the child… so he should have lots of time to watch the show before exploding the room with all the tags the had been slowly pasting around.

After all, there was no reason to hold back. Dying was guaranteed, so why not go out with a bang? He had spent most of his life's savings on tags over the last week from different vendors using disguises, claiming a highly destructive mission was coming up soon.

And in a way, it was.

He looked back at the monster.

It was glorious.

The creature's right arm had already dissolved into a black goo with some strange sort of blue fungus trying to grow out of it. The left had just turned into a light gray color and started crumbling, as if burned to ash. Both legs looked shriveled, drained of all liquid.

The child's husk was covered in black, throbbing veins. His eyes were bleeding heavily, and were cloudy. Quite likely blind. He had ceased screaming an hour ago, and had stopped gurgling thirty minutes after that. Yet his body still had a heartbeat, if the rhythmical pulsing and expressions of pain were any sign. Hell, he still had a torso, as that evil red chakra kept leaking out to attempt and repair the most essential organs and nerves.

Even that energy was dying.

Iguana chuckled as blood escaped his lips. Even if this soon-to-be corpse caused the worse plague ever known due to the horrendous creation he had infested it with, Iguana would still be a hero to this village.

He had achieved what the fourth Hokage couldn't.

Slightly swaying he cackled as his trembling fingers gently added another explosive tag to the walls of the room where the monster slept.

~~~Prototype Ninja~~~

Kurama, King of the Bijuu, Nine-Tailed Fox, The Walking Apocalypse, The Red Death… was terrified.

Black goo was slowly entering his prison.

Again, he created a barrier of pure demonic energy, trying to delay the inevitable.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew this was his fault. He could have easily burned this goo out of the boy's body, no problem. Would have been near instant cure. Honestly, if he had ever worked with that human brat, his healing would have already surpassed regeneration, to the point where memories and such would have been stored in the cells. Losing a head would have only been an annoyance!

At the very least, he could have ignored this goo and been invincible to its advances as the child died.

But no, he had carefully modified his energy and fed it to the viruses, the poisons, the raw bloodlines and who knew what else was in that needle.

It had adapted. Stunningly quickly, it had modified itself, using the energy provided to combine the random strains and chemicals into this goo, this black with red veins goo that continued to improve itself as it advanced.

Worse, near the moment of Kurama's victory, he had released a massive wave of his power to the goo. Feeding it so that the seals would corrode at an even more advanced pace, feeding it to watch a little boy fall into depression and sadness.

Now the goo knew how to eat a Bijuu, and Naruto had provided it an open door with a welcome mat.

He watched more and more goo entering the prison, and Kurama realized that the goo had no way of warning the rest of itself that it could not escape here. As far as it knew, this was the kitchen so everyone should come on down.

It was likely that this goo would just gather here, behind a seal created by the Death God, the Shinigami himself. That IT would become the power behind these complicated seals.

As the fox backed into the farthest corner possible, raising barriers of blood red corrupting chakra, some small part of him wondered what this new power source would do with the child, now crippled and near death's door. Another glimmer of what he used to be wondered what would have happened if he hadn't dedicated his existence to the destruction of that same child.

Most of him raged in fear and anger, as he continued to delay the end of his existence.

The black ooze just continued to fill the container and advance, the energy forcing it to evolve, to handle more extreme densities of power, to start using tactics and begin to organize itself. Unknown to either of the combatants, the ooze was slowly waking up as sentient chakra became a progressively larger percentage of its new body.

Right now, it simply knew hunger. Hunger, and that there was a large, self-energizing power-source just beyond this burning delicious energy.

The goo advanced.

~~~Prototype Ninja~~~

Iguana was almost sitting on the bed now, watching the monsters slow demise with near-orgasmic delight. It was showing its true form now, almost nothing but a skull with flesh melted off, connected to the heart and one lung, the other long since dissolving into a thick black goo with red veins. He could actually see the brain inside the skull now, watch as the lung desperately breathed air, as the heart frantically beat what blood was left, as the red glow holding this collection of parts and hysterically attempted to fill the few remaining arteries with newly created blood.

It was beautiful.

Nothing could hurt more than this, he knew. No revenge could be more complete than this.

For a silent moment, a blissful moment, he saw the few parts on the bed just... stop. It was now nothing more than a monument to his greatness, a small alter of cursed matter to bless his dead family with.

As he realized that the show was finally over, he turned back to the wall of explosives and began to make the final hand signs to turn this apartment, and possibly a small section of town, into pure fire. To cleanse everything.

He froze. There had been a noise.

A wet noise, but a noise never the less.

He turned back to the few bits of the monster that had made it to the end... and there was now a soft gray glow. Not the red of the demon, and it contained none of the palpable hate and rage that the demon spewed everywhere. Nor the blue energy of the bastard child that it had disguised itself as before.

The ooze on the bed was slowly being covered in gray energy as well.

~~~Prototype Ninja~~~

The goo was confused.

It had eaten the power source, studied it, and found memories.

Somehow, it also now knew what memories were.

Within moments, thousands of chunks of ooze each examined individual memory fragments, cleaned them up, identified their contents, and began duplicating them throughout the goo. Most of the goo was a virus, well, physically anyway. Most of its mind however was now sentient chakra.

When the goo had entered the seal, it had found two other globs of sentient chakra. One a golden haired man, one a fire haired woman.

Their memories were sent off for examination as well.

The concept of backing up memories, of distributing evenly the abilities and powers the goo had encountered were sort of a side effect of being composed of a virus, really. Absorb what will make itself stronger, hide when possible, and most importantly... Survive.

And as the memories were spread, a new consciousness was born. The memories of a loving father, an adoring mother, and an angry (And angst filled) fox swirled around. If this had been all available, the result would have likely been a neutral gender creature with a bitter outlook on life who would have looked out for 'That Brat'.

But the fox also contained the memories of Naruto, which had vastly impressed the goo. That boy was a survivor placed in a position of certain death and had within moments created near-master level seals with no practice just to save himself. ALL the memories and possible personalities were impressed by this.

More importantly as far as goo-development was concerned, the fox had been sealed before.

The chakra globs of the Father and Mother were not the full souls of either of course, and did not contain all of their memories. They were created near death, and added to a seal created by the Shinigami himself, just so the poor child could at least know what they looked like.

The red haired mother had been the foxes previous container. And like with Naruto, the creature had a full copy of her memories, from childhood to her last day on earth.

Before her was yet another female Uzumaki. Wife of the first Hokage, Mito Uzumaki, had her full life memorized and found, as well as all the experiences of building a ninja village in trying times, harder times. Where those who were not the best were killed constantly.

And many years before the Uzumaki were well established, they tested the Bijuu sealing process forcing Kurama within their priestess. He did manage to escape after only 9 years, but still saw her life of worship and hardship.

With the full memories of three powerful women, the angst filled years of wandering around blasting stuff really couldn't compare. And the few memories of that loving father were vastly outvoted.

So the goo was now female. With 2/5 loving Naruto and 4/5 generally nice and kind people.

If he hadn't been eaten alive, Kurama would have rolled in his prison.

After looking through the memories, she crafted a physical form as well, for being a pile of goo was not exactly amazing for someone who had a self-image now. Again, 4/5 of the people had red hair/fur, and a combination of the three women's bodies gave her a lovely shape that could still kick butt when required. Her blue eyes were pretty much just copied from Naruto, since both parents had thought they were precious and the two older women loved babies in general.

And... now she was stuck in the cage.

Great.

She absently had some of her body expand and form a fairly comfortable red cushioned chair. Honestly she wasn't sure why Kurama had stayed so darn huge all the time. At her current size it was practically the size of a huge training field. She absently assigned some of her body to go off and design some methods of containing extra mass without extra weight. With the full memories of three master sealers (And their husbands that dabbled in sealing as well), combined with Naruto's non-restricted mind... well it really shouldn't be a problem. At least, not one Naruto SHARES access to his mind.

Once he wakes up.

How long did he set that seal for anyway?

She absently felt something trying to push its way into her mind, like a genjutsu, an illusion technique. Oh, it was the seal demanding action to be taken to preserve the host. She supposed it was the strange way her mind was set up that prevented her from having to do anything.

Not that she wouldn't of course, this was little Naruto.

She allowed mental access... and froze.

His body was REALLY messed up. To the point where the seal had essentially given her near full access and was basically begging her to do anything. Hell, the flesh the seal was on had already dissolved, and if it hadn't been created by the literal deity of death and decay it would have been destroyed.

She frantically began investigating, gray power flowing. Her minds started creating new copies of memories, anything about what a healthy young boy should be like, anything about how Naruto actually was, anything about what positive or negative changes she could make.

It was nearly overwhelming. He was missing damn near everything right now of course, but his previous body was near death all the time ANYWAY. His poor housing and constant break in's had caused rough sleeping habits, wearing down his sanity. He never got enough high quality food when young, stunting his growth. The poisons and particles added to his diet HAD increased his tolerances but had also done permanent damage. Kurama had deliberately healed everything as little as possible to force corrupted chakra to be used nearly all the time.

True that same process had enabled the boy to handle corrupted chakra at an unheard of level, but the continuous healing using said method was inefficient and had aged the cells involved incredibly, lowering his life span by dozens of years. If he hadn't been an Uzumaki with a strong body he would not have made it passed 40. As it was currently, his potential 100-200 year lifespan was impossible.

And that didn't cover those blasted seals! That was likely a root ninja as well, from the Forth Hokage's memories, so that old man Danzo must have set those up. By unsealing them, he likely would have earned Naruto's trust thanks to the 'amazing' advancements in ability... except of course for all the damage caused in him as a developing child.

She was glad that the first emotion she remembered was Naruto's parent's love, because she was learning hate REALLY quickly.

Carefully she took the design of Naruto's brain after the seals were removed and his chakra system from that same moment. Utilizing the medical knowledge picked up from the three older and more complete set of memories, as well as the in depth knowledge of Naruto's body from Kurama's constant attempts to murder the boy, she had this taken care of.

Absently she disabled the pain receptors in his brain as she made sure to take care of this, the most delicate part, first. Right now his mind was the only thing holding the reaper seal in existence, allowing her to fix ANYTHING. As she moved through his brain, she replaced each individual cell one by one with a near-exact copy made from her viral mass. Essentially his new brain would work through her body, allowing her complete access if she ever needed to help in the future.

Technically allowing her to gain full control of Naruto as well, but she had already gained a fair amount of affection for the child at this point.

Distracted, she felt some of the brain that was exposed to the air through his exposed skull gather visual data as well. Her cells could really become anything honestly, the information needed for reconstruction was shared throughout her substance even if it wasn't perfectly duplicated in every cell. Yet. She expected great things from her body parts studying containment methods.

She flinched. That ninja that had started all this was still here... and he was setting up FIRE. Explosive tags that would not only rip Naruto to shreds but then BURN HER! She wouldn't be able to fix him then!

Almost without thought, a red-veined tentacle sank into the goo on the bed from the boy's heart, and a shard of bone nearest to the ninja was quickly mutated, turned into a sharp tip soaked with the fastest acting poison she could produce before it snapped out and hit the man in the neck. His hand which had been about to detonate the tags reflexively grabbed the thick tentacle that had thrust the spike... which formed more sharp thorns, reaching into his arm and digging deep.

It was nearly instantaneous. His body collapsed forward as the tentacle pulled him toward the corpse of the little boy.

Well, at least raw material was available.

She absently sent more tentacles to harvest the jerk who attacked HER Naruto. How dare someone hurt her cuddly whiskered cutie! He had those bright blue eyes, that sunny hair, and those whiskers! Still, while she was grateful to have been injected into Naruto, she recognized that had Kurama not attempted to surprise the boy until it was too late to do anything then her little ninja wouldn't have had time to pull his little stunt, and would have gone through mind-shattering agony.

Her hand waved off some blobs to process the masked man's mind as well. She didn't need it for personality development now that she had found herself, so to speak, but he was clearly another traitor of the village and Naruto would likely like to know why he did it. He also might want to give any relevant info to the Hokage, since he clearly knew how to get past the old man's guards.

She continued to examine each organ and bone, her viral cells slowly copying and replacing each section of Naruto's body with new cells. She would pause every few minutes and revise previous changes as she progressed. While quite an ass, Iguana had gone through some hellish training and gained some interesting resistances that she could pass along to the boy, so at least it wasn't a total waste.

Parts of herself moved off to create shelving for copies of the various memories collected. Maybe Naruto would be interested in them later... or just watch some and hang out a bit. At least she wouldn't be deprived of senses, since the seals couldn't understand the concept of every cell in the body being replaced with her evolving viruses. Like his old body was now being made from sensory organs really. Which seemed gross now. Huh. She guessed the memories were still assimilating with her personality.

~~~Prototype Ninja~~~

Naruto slowly woke up, feeling the last of his chakra draining from the runic circle around him. Well he was still in his mind... seal... thing. That was probably bad.

Of course, he did wake up. So that was probably good.

And there was no screaming fox right now, which was maybe good?

A FAR too chipper voice interrupted his thoughts. "Good Morning!"

He blinked and looked toward the giant cage.

Which currently contained a bouncing, physically-gifted red headed woman.

Who was waiving.

He absently waived back, watching her smile grow. "Uh. Hi?"

She ran up and waved again, just behind the bars. "Good morning Naruto! Just so you know, I disabled your pain receptors since I am still healing your body, ok?"

He sat up, noticing that the room was now vastly different. The floor was made of light gray stone, the walls a darker shade, and the roof was a solid black, near obsidian like texture. The piping on the walls were far fewer and thicker, looked brand new, and had tiny labels on them that he couldn't read from here. Heck, the cage itself looked like polished marble at this point, instead of corroded iron bars.

Naruto cautiously walked closer to the very beautiful woman. "So... have you seen a giant fox around here?"

She nodded. "His name was Kurama by the way. I got inside the cage and ate him."

He blinked. "You're the black stuff?"

Her head tilted. "Um. Sort of. You know how Bijuu are made of sentient chakra right?"

He shrugged. "Sure, why not. At least, now I know. So you ate sentient chakra and there fore..."

She turned and walked to a nice looking red chair. "Yep, I also became sentient. A person. But I didn't really have an identity at first. Your mom and dad left parts of their chakra in the reaper seal, which I also consumed. The Fox had also been sealed in several women in the past like your mom, so I got their knowledge as well. The other women were Uzumaki's as well, by the way."

He blinked. "I'm pretty sure I am in shock right now. Yet my head feels more clear now, better even than when those seals cracked." His eyes narrowed. "I'm also gaining access to some additional memories of my own that had been blocked off before." Suddenly he paused. "Wait, what's your name? If you're not just a new version of the fox, I mean."

She stood and gave an elegant curtsy. "I'm a creature created from consuming a Bijuu and formed from viruses, with the memories of ninjas and dying souls. You may call me what you wish, but I haven't chosen a name yet."

Naruto still had a blank facial expression. "How about we call you Vixen for now. I honestly hit my 'freak out' marker WAY long ago."

Vixen smirked. "I'll take it as a compliment. If you want I could add foxy ears and a tail? A bit kinky though."

Naruto nodded. "Yep, already hit my 'freak out' marker. Mind if I go to bed and handle this in the morning?"

She paused. "You may have to wait a bit. I took out the man who originally injected me into you because he was about to blow up your apartment with explosive tags when you were really, REALLY hurt. And I had to absorb him to get enough materials to build you a new body... which I am not done doing yet."

He froze. "I ate someone?"

Vixen blinked. "Uh... sort of. If it helps, I have been replacing your body with viruses, so I am pretty sure it doesn't count as cannibalism."

Naruto just stared at the woman. Cute, but handle with care, clearly. Still... "He was an ass, right?"

She nodded. "I'm still processing his memories into things we can use, but I have found that over half of all the poisons and chemicals that have been used on you are either from him directly or from people he hired. Along with a lot of the abuse and bad rumors. He also helped coordinate the mobs that chased you and made the reports about those mobs vanish before they got to the Hokage."

Naruto absently thought about it. "Well, screw him then. Promise me that we won't eat good people?"

Vixen relaxed on the red throne. "Sure Naruto, I won't consume anyone unless you tell me to. This was a combination of karma and survival really, it should be a common event. Although you might crave raw and rare meat more often. Easy to handle with a bit of hunting."

The boy had basically the longest day ever at this point. "So if I can't get out, what should I do while waiting for you to fix it all?"

She waved her arm, the goo of the chair expanding into a couch before reforming to red cloth and cushions. "You could rest with me if you want."

He absently stared at the comfy looking couch before shrugging. "Well, if you were gonna harm me you would have done so already. Why not."

As he walked through the bars, half expecting her to open her jaws and consume him and the other half honestly not caring at this point, he was pleasantly surprised to make it to the couch in one piece.

When she pulled his head onto her lap and stroked his hair, which was the most pain free human...ish contact he had experienced in years, he felt his body relaxing more than it had in months.

Falling asleep, he absently thought that if he had made a terrible decision, at least it was a comfortable way to die.

Vixen meanwhile was trying not to coo or overwhelm the cute little boy. She was CERTAINLY going to ensure that he kept those adorable whisker marks.

In the waking world, the dissolving corpse once known as Iguana slowly transformed into black ooze, which (along with all the other materials on poor Naruto's bed) began to absorb into the rapidly rebuilding body of the most unpredictable ninja.

Even though most of his shell was still being reconstituted, the corpse like body seemed to somehow relax and find peace.

Hours later, the shift change of guards had a ninja nearly crap himself when he realized his predecessor was missing, the boy's room was covered in enough explosive tags to level a small town, and the child himself was using ripped but perfectly clean Anbu clothing as covers.

The Hokage would not be amused.