Kasek: Yo! Haven't seen me in a while, have ya? Or, at least, an update out of me… hehe. Well, this is a fic I've been working on while I've been bored at school. I broke my laptop a few weeks back (whenever it was… it was quite a while ago), and I'm a little paranoid, so I haven't trusted this desktop with any of my stories. There has been many a time when files would just mysteriously disappear from the face of the hard drive… and this thing seems to catch the virus of the week every week. But, since I've got a carbon copy of this latest one, I'll risk it.

Ok, so this is a One Piece Naruto crossover, barely. The basic premise is "what if the Devil's Fruit existed in the Naruto world?" This fic will be slightly AU; I'll change some of the stuff that I didn't quite like about the original, as well as outright state that the One Piece world and the Naruto world are one and the same. You'll see the changes as history goes by… I won't change anything from before the story actually starts, but since Naruto is, what, four-years-old at the beginning of this, few things are sacred anymore. Bwahahahahahahaha….. ahem. Anyways, this WILL be NaruHina. "Blah" to you who despise this pairing. Any other M/F pairings might be considered if you review me about them. Like I said, few things are sacred anymore…

If you see mistakes, TELL ME. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO CRITICIZE ME. Just don't outright flame me, alright?

Disc.: I do not own either "Naruto" or "One Piece" in any way, shape, or form (except individual pieces of merchandise and fanworks)

KITSU KITSU NO MI

CHAPTER 1: Taking a Bite out of History

In Konohagakure, it was a pretty normal day. The Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was even busier than usual, however; not only was he tackling a ninja's greatest enemy- paperwork-, he was also babysitting a four-year-old Uzumaki Naruto. Currently, Naruto was playing with a little fox plushie. Although Sarutobi was glad that Naruto was enjoying the stuffed toy- he knew that the little ball of energy would- the image of a fox brought some rather distasteful memories to the forefront of the wizened old shinobi's thoughts.

Minato… wasn't there any other way? This village is not the same without you… his thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. Now who could that be? "Enter." The door opened, and a familiar white-haired figure stepped into the room. "Well, hello, Jiraiya, what brings you here?"

A rather mischievous smirk appeared on the Sannin's face. "Well, first…" He reached behind his back and took out a small, orange book, " I came to give my biggest fan a free copy of my latest book!" Jiraiya tossed it, and Sarutobi quickly caught it and placed it in his desk drawer, a blush on his face.

"And…?" Jiraiya's smirk was replaced by a very grim look that was all business. He pulled out a very strange, orange and white fruit, covered in spikes and swirl markings, and placed it on the desk. Sarutobi looked at his old student quizzically, his expression alone asking Jiraiya to explain.

"From what I could gather, this is apparently a 'Devil Fruit'. Supposedly, if one were to eat it, they would gain an ability akin to a Kekkei Genkai, but in exchange, that person would be cursed by the sea." Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. "That is, a person who has eaten of the cursed fruit loses all ability to move when submerged in water, and they lose the capability to float."

Th elder of the two nodded. "But why a curse like that?"

"Well, these are supposed to be the fruits of the Sea Devil. Not only that, but the only place that they can be found is deep in the Grand Line, a chain of islands along the equator. All it would take to kill the owner of the Devil Fruit's powers would be to push them off a boat or something. And since the majority of these cursed warriors live life as a sailor of some kind, they're lives are in almost constant danger."

Hiruzen nodded again. " I see…"

"And since our nations are sperate from the World Government, they don't know anything about ninjutsu or genjutsu. I had a somewhat tough time with one of them, and he obviously wasn't a trained warrior; he solely relied on his abilities to get him by. Now, if I had a tough time with a non-ninja, imagine the possibilities of what a ninja could do. Cause that's exactly what Orochimaru's thinking."

Hiruzen's eyes widened. Orochimaru… "Does he have one of these Devil Fruits?"

Jiraiya nodded. "I don't think he has plans for using it on himself, though. My guess, he's gonna try and somehow replicate the fruit's powers while removing the curse."

"I see… what kinds of powers do these fruits give, anyways?"

"Well, there are three general classes of Devil Fruits. The first class is called 'Paramecia'; Paramecia fruits physically alter your body structure, allowing you to do things that even ninja can't do, such as separate your body parts like a nin-puppet, or turn your very limbs into blades. Then, there are Logia-class fruits, which give a person command over a certain element, as well as the ability to convert their body into that element, like fire or ice. The last class- the type that I believe this fruit belongs to- is the Zoan-class. Zoan-class fruits give the users the ability to transform into one of three different forms- their original form, a full-on animal form, and a hybrid of the two. The animal varies with the fruit eaten."

"Alright… what fruit is this?"

"I had it checked out, and this is apparently a fruit called the 'Inu Inu no Mi: Model Kitsune'(1). I like to call it the 'Kitsu Kitsu no Mi' for short. Oh, yeah, all of the fruits follow this weird naming system… how these people can even tell what powers you get from a fruit, I will never know… but anyways, this one should give the consumer fox-related powers."

Naruto's eyes widened. Unbeknownst to the two elderly shinobi, Naruto had been listening to every word. Sure, he didn't know what in the world most of those words even meant, but he was still listening. He got the gist of it; that fruit on the desk would give him fox powers if he ate it, but it'd be a real bad idea to go near water afterwards. Heh, if I eat that fruit, they won't be able to make me take a bath anymore! AND I get cool fox powers! I think I just got my moti… moti… reason to eat healthy! Stealthily climbing onto the desk, Naruto dashed for the fruit and grabbed it. Jiraiya tried to grab the fruit, but when he picked it up, Naruto was hanging off of it. Jiraiya tried to pull Naruto off of the fruit, but before he was successful, Naruto took a chunk off of the fruit and swallowed. The Sandaime and the Sannin stood there, horrified at what had happened. After a moment, Jiraiya regained composure.

"So, kid, I guess you were listening to us, huh?"

"My name's Naruto! Don't you forget it!"

Jiraiya thought it was rather cute that he was trying to be threatening. "Alright, Naruto, why don't you try testing out your new powers?"

Naruto, of course was more than eager to do so. Squinting his eyes in concentration, Naruto felt really weird for a sec, and then realized he was on all fours. Opening his eyes, he saw that he now had paws… and that everything looked even bigger than before.

"Huh, I was expecting him to turn into a bit more of a normal fox." Naruto quickly looked around, and ran up to the window, hoping to see his reflection in it. What he saw horrified him. He had turned into some tiny fox, with humongous ears. Not to mention clothes and very uncomfortable sandals.

"Wh-wh-what kind of fox is that?!" Naruto put a paw to his mouth. He had just talked. Normal foxes didn't talk. Heck, normal foxes didn't have big ears, either!

The wizened Hokage sighed. A Fennic? I guess Kyuubi must've influenced the choice of species… though he couldn't change the size. "That's a Fennic fox, Naruto. Not the biggest fox around, but when it comes to being a ninja, bigger is not always better."

Naruto turned around. "Wait, a ninja?"

Hiruzen nodded. "Well, it would be a waste to have someone of your uniqueness to live their life as a villager. Besides, I doubt you'd be happy as a normal boy, anyways."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, the normal kids are all mean and stuff. Who would want to be like that?"

Hiruzen sighed at the thought. Naruto's life was pretty much miserable, even at this age. "Few people choose to be like that… Naruto."

Naruto looked up at the Hokage, the eagerness apparent even in his very small eyes. "So, when do we get started? I want to be the best ninja EVER! All flying around and blowing stuff up and…"

Jiraiya laughed. "I think you have us confused with someone else (2). A ninja is silent, a ninja is swift, and most of all… a ninja is deadly."

"Oh! Oh! I can TOTALLY do deadly! Watch!" Naruto's fur bristled as he growled at Jiraiya.

"Sure, kid, sure, I'm paralyzed with fear. You're going to have to do better than that, Naruto."

Naruto closed his eyes in concentration. They said that he had three forms, right? After a moment, Sarutobi and Jiraiya were shocked when Naruto started growing… and growing… until he was taller than Jiraiya, at around seven feet tall. He was rather lean, with sandy-colored fur and a fox head… that had regular sized ears. Somehow, Naruto's clothes had changed size as well, although his shoes were now ruined, due to the shape of his feet. A bushy tail came out of his pants, swaying back and forth behind him. "Do I scare you now?"

Jiraiya sighed. "You almost had me there, kid. And then you ruined it with that voice of yours(3)." Naruto growled- which still didn't sound scary- and Jiraiya laughed. "I don't care how powerful you are- THAT will never be scary."

Hiruzen chuckled at the exchange. I guess he affected the size, after all... "Well, then, we best get you started with training, then, eh, Naruto? Some kids already have a head start on you when it comes to being a ninja…"

Naruto's jaw dropped in shock. "WHAT?! But… but… who's gonna train me? I don't have parents or anything…"

The Sandaime's eyes darkened for a moment, and then they returned back to their normal brilliance. "Hmm… Jiraiya, how long has it been since you've had an apprentice?"

Jiraiya put his hand up to his chin and pondered the question. "Hmm… well, not since Mina- Oh no. I am NOT taking him as my apprentice! I don't care what you say! The ladies might get the wrong idea!"

Hiruzen sighed. "Well, then, I guess I'll train you then, Naruto."

"Huh? But, you don't look like a ninja or anything…"

"Kid, he's the Hokage! That means he's the strongest ninja in the entire village!"

"Really?! COOOOOOOOOL!! Hey, wait, don't you have paperwork and stuff?"

A chuckle escaped from the old man's lips. "Don't worry, Naruto, I still have plenty of free time in my schedule, even though it might not look that way."

"Alright! When do we start?"

"Hehe… as soon as you want to, Naruto. Just not today; I'm particularly busy today." Naruto pouted, and returned to his normal form. "Why don't you go wait outside, Naruto? There's some more stuff I want to talk to Jiraiya about." Naruto continued pouting, but as he left the room, there was a smirk clearly written on his face. After he closed the door, Jiraiya started to say something, but then there was a loud shriek of "KITSUNE!!" from downstairs. Cursing loudly, Jiraiya almost ripped the door off of its hinges and ran down the hall. Hiruzen chuckled. "The future is going to be very interesting…"

Kasek: And that's the end of chapter 1. This actually turned out a lot different than my original version; I was going to have Jiraiya train Naruto, but decided that it might add more character to Naruto if he grew up in Konoha. Besides, without Naruto's horrible life experiences, he wouldn't be able to compare himself with Gaara…

For those of you wondering, I'll have the next chapter of WNDHI (he, that looks like Windy!) out either tomorrow or the day after (Monday or Tuesday). I finally came up with an idea good enough to cut it…

Well, read and review! Next chapter: Naruto meets Hinata, as well as gets the chance to show off his powers to an undisclosed villain…

(1): The giraffe-based fruit is listed as a cow-type fruit because cows and giraffes are in the same order. So I decided that since foxes, dogs, and wolves are in the same family (which is closer than an order), and that dogs and wolves are listed under Inu Inu no Mi, that foxes would be, too.

(2): Tell that to Deidara.

(3): A Zoan's voice remains the same regardless of transformations.