Author: My secret Darkness

Disclaimer: Of course I own Naruto. The moon, the Great Wall of China and the Eiffel Tower also happen to be mine, but for some reason people don't believe me.

Warnings: Refer to chapters 1-9

Beta: cutsycat (the one who works herself to the bones so you can read the gibberish I produce)

A/N: And once again another chapter. Say, have you ever read a story and thought: "Hey this is great!" and afterwards noticed that it is incomplete and the last update was, like, 3 years ago? I had this experience a while ago, and after lying around depressed for a while I vowed to finish this story, if I happen to survive university. (It is hell! Hell, I tell you!) Well anyways, I hope you like this update, I've been creative (O.O).

I rather like the way it is going now, and on another note, sorry that I didn't reply to the reviews you sent me. It eludes me how or why, but for some reason that lousy excuse of an electric device that some dare to call my computer simply ceased to show any and all signs of life, only after paying the bill for the repair service I was told that the hard drive of my computer caused a short circuit and totally fried the whole thing. After avoiding a heart attack by a hairs' breadth (don't laugh!) that angel of an electrician told me that the hardisk remained in tact, which is the reason you are reading this.

PS: Did anyone notice that my story is close to its 200 th review? Thanks everyone for being such faithful readers!

Enjoy!

Naruto groaned when he woke up, cradling his pounding head. He blinked a few times waiting for the blurred surroundings to come into focus.

Once his sight cleared he stood up, or tried to, because as soon as he tried to put weight on his legs they gave out. A wave of dizziness hit the fox while he slumped back on the bed.

After he opened his eyes again he noticed two things. One, he was thirsty as hell and two, the surroundings looked totally unfamiliar. Naruto raised his head slightly, propping himself on his elbows, but his neck immediately voiced its protest and Naruto moaned in pain. Deciding to just lie down and wait for the pain to fade, he inspected the room while he was waiting.

It was a rather finely furnished room; the bed he was currently resting on and the nightstand were both made from dark brown wood that gave off a slightly spicy scent, indicating that this room was prepared only recently. In fact, everything looked brand-new, from the furniture to the silk cover of the bed to the clothes right next to him on the nightstand, and if Naruto wasn't mistaken he could also detect the faint scent of fresh paint.

After a few more minutes when Naruto tried to stand up again he was successful, even though every muscle and bone in his body felt like jelly. After a great deal of effort, Naruto managed to stand upright and wobbled over to a small coffee table. A large pitcher was placed on the table along with two glasses, and right now the only thing that was on the fox's mind was that he had to quench his thirst, and fast.

Never in his whole live had Naruto been so thirsty. He downed the entire pitcher and spilled about half the water onto the table since his hands were shaking quite badly and simply refused to obey his mind. After he finally quenched his thirst Naruto felt sleepy again, he walked back to the bed falling asleep once again, too tired to further think about his whereabouts.

---

While Naruto rested a small group of individuals were busily discussing the recent events in a small, dimly lit room just down the hallway. Shino was among them, but after reporting how he came across the unexpected guest the hideout was now harboring he remained quiet, opting to just listen to the conversation and voicing his opinion once in a while.

Suddenly, the room went eerily quiet when someone knocked and then entered the small chamber. An old man with gray, thinning hair entered his room, coughing slightly to get the attention of those assembled, although that was totally unnecessary since everyone's gaze was already on him.

He slowly walked over to the small table in the corner of the room and set down his doctor's bag and took off his white coat, folding it and placing it next to his bag. He then slowly turned around and coughed, again, before he spoke in a slow, droning voice.

"The patient is indeed one of the rare nine tailed foxes, although his condition is quite bad, if I may say so. He seems slightly malnourished and, despite having gone through his heat and maturing fully he is still rather small, even for a fox."

"So basically, these humans have no idea how to treat him and screwed up." Shino summarized, but was interrupted by the old man.

"That's not what I said. It seems that he has seen at least one doctor who is quite well informed about a demon's general physiology, he sustained a serious, maybe even life threatening injury to the jugular but it has been treated accordingly and is almost completely healed, only faint scar remains and that should be gone soon too."

"So, these humans have been maltreating him…" one of Shino's men murmured. Just when the doctor coughed and wanted to speak again the door burst open, revealing a panting and wheezing guard.

"Doctor, he woke up!"

"What!? Captain we have to-!"

"There is no need to worry."

The doctor chuckled quietly behind his hand, waving to the guard and signaling him to leave. The guard, albeit confused, obeyed and departed, closing the door behind him.

"Don't you think we should check on him old man?" Another of Shino's men spoke up, warily eyeing the door.

The old man's wrinkly face split into a grin, and one could see that a few of his teeth were missing.

"As I said, there is no need for that. The fox has shown sights of slight dehydration, nothing serious, but he probably was very thirsty when he woke up. The pitcher you placed in his room was most convenient, really. I mixed my medicine and a strong sedative into the water; he'll be out for about four hours, if not more."

The old man continued to grin smugly, humming a quiet tune and altogether very content with the state of events.

Shino was also satisfied, now they had enough time to inform both the honorable Lord of the Sands and the honorable Lord of Fire.

Yes, things were progressing even better than expected; Shino figured that especially the latter of the two lords would be pleased.

He had been searching for another nine-tailed fox for a long time after all.

---

A few hours later Naruto woke up again, feeling notably better and without the pain he experienced last time, he was in a much better mood. A few hours rest and plenty of water had seemingly done wonders to the fox's weakened condition for he literally jumped out of his bed and stretched his muscles, now noting that there were a number of windows on the wall, and bright sunlight was shining through them. Naruto immediately stepped over to the window next to him a pulled at the handle, but the window unsurprisingly remained shut.

While Naruto noted that he was once again captured his gaze wandered to the scenery outside, or rather the lack of scenery.

Nothing but sand and sand and more sand as far as Naruto could see. This was definitely not Konoha! Naruto died a little inside when he realized just how impossible it would be to escape from this place. If he would so much as try to step outside of… well, wherever here was. He would either get a sunstroke or die of malnutrition or dehydration.

"NO! What have I done to deserve this?!?" Naruto screamed at the ceiling, growing more resentful and angry at his situation when the ceiling remained unimpressed.

Accepting his fate, at least for the time being, Naruto examined the rest of the room, noting the two doors at the opposite of the room. Choosing the right one, Naruto noted with delight that it wasn't locked and stepped inside, coming to face with an impressively large bathroom.

It wasn't as luxurious as the bathroom in Sasuke's castle, there was no hint of marble or gold anywhere, but instead everything including the tub was made from a strangely warm, sand-colored stone that was polished to perfection.

Naruto looked at the tub curiously; a bath would be really nice right now…

---

Shino was walking down the hallway to check on their "guest". The messenger he sent to the capital to inform the two emperors had been back rather quickly, and as expected his lords ordered him to get him to Genkakugakure as fast as possible, preferably today. They weren't that far away, so that should be possible.

It mostly depended on the willingness of their little guest anyway.

Shino entered the room and panicked a second when he found it to be empty, but relaxed when he heard water splashing and someone, most certainly the fox, laughing in delight.

And then he noticed that water was freely flowing into the room from the gap between the floor and the bathroom door.

He stepped into the bath and his eyebrow twitched when he noticed that the floor was literally flooded, and a very wet and obviously happy fox was noisily cleaning himself in the tub. The sight would have been cute but since he hit his recent growth-spurt Naruto had seemingly aged a few years, moving him from cute towards handsome.

Of course, that image was destroyed by the display of childlike delight courtesy of Naruto, who stopped washing himself and making a mess of the bathroom to openly stare at Shino.

"Would you stop your childish antics? You might have noticed that we are in a desert; therefore water is limited and a valuable item. I would greatly appreciate it if you stopped wasting it." Shino tried the polite approach since he wanted to keep Naruto in a good mood; they were supposed to reach the capital today and a moody fox would not make things any easier.

While the nine-tailed breed of foxes was almost extinct save for another one beside Naruto foxes tended to be rather vengeful when angry and they also liked to play pranks and were famous for their ability to weasel their way out of trouble. If they lost this one on their way to Genkakugakure their two lords would doubtlessly be most displeased.

"Now, please get dressed, we will be leaving soon."

"Hey wait, I don't even know your name, where are we going and why am I here? I'm Naruto by the way." Naruto began to ramble, but Shino decided to answer before Naruto could ask more.

"I'm Shino. All your questions will be answered once we reach Genkakugakure, the capital of the demon realm."

"I've never heard of it." Naruto responded, grabbing a nearby towel to cover himself before stepping out of the tub, yes, this bath had been just what he needed.

"That's a surprise, being a demon you should at least know the name. How long have you lived in the human realm anyway?"

"Well… I've lived there as long as I can remember, why? And would you please turn around, I want to get dressed. By the way, what did you do to my old clothes?"

"We threw those rags away."

Oh boy, we have a lot of work ahead of us. Shino thought while he watched Naruto out of the corner of his eyes. For some reason the fox was delighted that the shirt they put out for him was orange, though Shino couldn't comprehend why. Orange clothing was way too easy to spot, no wonder that that boy was caught by humans.

Naruto meanwhile studied his pants. They looked different from those he had to use when he still lived in Konoha. He held them up and turned them around to tear a hole in the back for his tails. Just when his claws connected with the soft material he noticed a fold that hid two buttons, when he unbuttoned them there was a gaping hole at the back of his pants, perfect for fitting his tails through it.

It was obvious that the clothes he was wearing were designed to fit any type of demon, the orange shirt he was now wearing also had two sets of buttons located above his shoulder blades. He looked over his shoulder, studying them. He figured that these were for demons that could grow wings.

While Naruto continued dressing he had time to contemplate his situation. He couldn't run away right now, that much was clear. He would get lost in the desert and die a slow and painful death or that guy would just hunt him down and drag him with him anyway. And going to the capital of the demon realm sounded promising, he would be out of that bastard Sasuke's reach and he'd get to know other demons!

When he lived in Konoha he always had to use illusions to disguise himself as a human, which sucked since Naruto wasn't good with genjutsu, or he had to stay away from humans completely and gather his food in the woods. As hard as he tried to remember he couldn't remember why he never left Konoha, who his parents where or when he was born. For all he knew the demon known as Uzumaki Naruto could have just popped into existence one day. The earliest memory of his life was how he tried to steal an orange shirt from a farmers' clothesline.

"These are comfortable, thank you." Naruto gave Shino a sunny grin, said demon just shrugged, walking towards the door. Naruto scowled, the guy was about as vocal and social as Sasuke.

Deciding that he had no better options right now Naruto just followed Shino through the door into the surprisingly bare hallway. He could smell fresh paint again, everything outside of his room looked unfinished and if someone was interrupted while building this place.

When they reached the end of the hallway Shino took a small torch out of his jacket and lit it. Naruto heard steps behind him and turned around to see other men with bags thrown over their shoulders coming down the hallway. Obviously Shino wasn't alone.

Shino opened the door to his left, revealing a narrow staircase. They went down the stairs carefully one by one, and Naruto was getting bored.

"Shino, the room I slept in… why was it so fancy?"

Shino turned his head just slightly, and Naruto suddenly felt uncomfortable.

"I-I'm not complaining, I was just wondering why-"

"This place was the hideout of smugglers and tomb robbers who kept intruding onto demon territory in order to steal the remains of dead demons and sometimes the gifts to the dead that had been buried with them. The prices for the bones of a demon are very high in the human realm, so I guess these men thought that they could make easy money."

Naruto suddenly felt queasy, he had a suspicion what happened to these men.

"It worked out for a while, but we managed to track them down and found their hideout. This place looks luxurious on the inside, but on the outside is is just a run-down, old house. You were on the east side, if you had looked through a window facing west you would have noticed that this house is located on the eastern border of an old human village that was left by its former inhabitants years ago. It is the perfect place for scum like that to hide. They just started "redecorating" when we found them, we killed most of them and hid their bodies in the desert, but a few escaped to Konoha. I hunted them down and finally located them in the same forest I found you in."

Shino was slowly beginning to feel annoyed that the fox was still staring at him, and when the fox's mouth opened again, undoubtedly to ask more questions, he glared at him through his sunglasses, and somehow Naruto must have noticed because his mouth promptly snapped shut.

"Oh, um yeah, thanks for telling me this, I suppose…" Naruto said hesitantly, he really didn't want to know what Shino did to those guys, thank you very much.

About five minutes later, when Naruto started to wonder just how deep that damn staircase was, they finally reached the bottom. The small group found themselves facing the gaping entrance of a tunnel, and when they entered Naruto realized that they would be walking for a while. He just hoped that they would reach their destination today. He was getting tired already. Naruto was just about to ask Shino how long this was going to take when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

A man from Shino's group noticed that Naruto was going to ask questions again and pulled him away from Shino, whispering into Naruto's ear.

"Please stop asking the captain too many questions; he doesn't like talking very much. We'll answer all your questions instead."

The rest of the small group nodded at Naruto, and the fox nervously looked back at Shino, who had obviously switched tactics and started to ignore them completely.

"Well, then what exactly is this tunnel, and where are we going?"

"The smugglers the captain told you about built this tunnel; it goes all the way from this place to the mountains separating the human empire from the demon realm. Actually the whole desert is considered the border between human and demon territory, only the part in the far east belongs to the humans because Sunagakure, the last remaining desert village of the humans is located there. We suspect that the humans living there found a way to access the water that lies deep below the desert and therefore they are able to continue living there despite the harsh weather condition, that part of the desert is well-known for its sandstorms. As for destination, were going to Genkakugakure, the capital of the demon realm. Our emperors specifically requested to meet you."

"Emperors? There is more than one?"

"Actually yes. Humans don't know about him, he's a nine tailed fox just like you. Whenever humans actually wish to talk to us only the lord of the sands meets with them. They have no idea that we have another lord, the lord of fire. Humans don't understand the concept of our society, and we surely aren't going to explain it to them. They think of us as uncivilized animals and to tell you the truth, that thought is mutual. A demon wouldn't be caught dead in the same room as a human if he can or she can help it."

For some reason Naruto felt a tightening in his chest, did that mean that the other demons would look down upon him for having been a human's pet?

"Half-breeds, albeit rare, have had a really hard life until only a few years ago a half breed was appointed general by the lord of the sands. There was a competitor who challenged him for the title, and the general didn't hesitate to completely tear him apart. Before that half-breeds were regarded as second class and weak, him proving the opposite caused quite an uproar." The man chuckled behind his hand, obviously quite amused by the mental image of demon nobles tearing their hair out over a measly half-breed that stole the title of general from their sons.

"But we're getting off track. Genkakugakure is a really nice village, you'll like it. And the palace, god, it's magnificent. It's greater than anything humans haveever or will ever build, the royal family has lived there for over thirty generations and it is the crown jewel of the entire demon realm and the food is great too. I was there one night because the commander was requested to meet with the emperors once. We were waiting in a hall that was usually used for banquets and fancy dinners and whatnot, and some truly lovely servants brought us food and the most delicious wine and sake. I'd die just to taste the meals they serve to the higher ups that are important enough to be invited to a banquet." The guard finished off his explanation in a dreamy sigh and Naruto, just as food obsessed as the guard, wondered just how heavenly the ramen at such a place must taste.

"I can't wait! Shino, are we there yet?"

"No."

"And now?"

"No!"

"Are we there now?"

"For the last time, NO!!!"

For the next hour Naruto was whining and asking the same question over and over again, until the guards collectively clasped their hands over his mouth to keep him quiet, Shino's patience with the noisy blond was starting to wear thin. The blond was a like-able type of guy, but he was definitely too loud.

"Guys, let go of him. Naruto, keep your mouth shut until I tell you otherwise."

The guards obeyed and Naruto grumbled about rude persons who look creepy with their hooded jackets and sunglasses. The guards were shuffling nervously while Shino sighed; this was going to be a long day.

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