"A Change in Development"

By Quick-n-Popular

Disclaimer: "Naruto" and its characters are properties of Masashi Kishimoto-sama. I own only those I introduce and the story I've concocted.

A/N: Although there are similarities between this and "The Nidaime's Heir" by adrien skywalker; the plot and the circumstances toward Naruto's heritage should be evident and thus this should NOT be considered a knock-off or plagiarism of another author's work.

Chapter One: Something unexpected

When Naruto and his team and begun leaving the Land of Waves, his mind had been in an upstream of mixed feelings and confounded ideas of what it actually meant to be a ninja.

Though his sensei hadn't said it openly, Naruto could tell that throughout his experience he didn't have an answer for it either, as he had so humbly explained to the group after Sakura's question earlier after the deaths of Zabuza and Haku. His only explanation to them that the answer was to be made by them, individually, as they grew and became more and more immersed in their profession.

Naruto felt that was a cheapened explanation, yet at the same time, it did seem right.

Naruto placed a hand on his stomach as he began to think about his "other" problem and what it signified to that mysterious path as well. Being the jailer of the Kyuubi that had terrorized Kohona twelve years ago and subjected Naruto to the village's contempt, made Naruto wonder if any "normal" path to becoming a ninja still remained far out of his reach or if it was just obscured due to his current role.

Naruto sighed as he glanced up towards his sensei who was leading the way. He dared not ask this lingering question openly and instead put it aside to ask Iruka-sensei when he got back.

They arrived in Kohona as the sun had settled over the horizon. Kakashi made his farewells and his teammates had did also, leaving Naruto alone by himself.

Naruto glanced around and noticed that practically everybody was departing the streets and were going home for the day. Taking advantage of the fleeting street goers, Naruto cheerfully went to his favorite ramen stand in the hopes that Iruka-sensei might be there to greet him.

Much to Naruto's disappointment, he wasn't. However, there were only two occupants at this time, a boy with a weird bowl-cut hairdo wearing green spandex and a girl with her hair tied up in buns on to of her head.

Naruto blinked a couple of times at the pair, having never seen them before coming to his favorite meal spot, he shrugged it off and decided to join them as his stomach reminded him of what it wanted the most.

Upon sitting down and ordering from Teuchi, he leaned his head on a propped up arm as he listened in on the pair's conversation.

"Just you wait and see, Tenten, my Power of Youth will be at its strongest tomorrow and I'll be able to defeat Neji!" The bowl-cut said, proudly.

The girl sighed and set down the kunai she had been twirling around between her fingers as she, then, patted her companion on the back.

"Of course you will, Lee. But, don't give your hopes up if you don't."

Lee, whose eyes seemed to be a creature of their own due to how impeccably shaggy they were; narrowed as he thumped his chest.

"Never! The flames of the Power of Youth, shall never die pout! Why, I'll go around this village fifteen times doing a handstand, should I fail!" He then thumped his chest once more. "Never mind that, I'll do it anyway! Tenten, time me!" He shouted as he then leapt from his stoll and landed on his hands and then went off in a surprisingly high speed.

Tenten sighed as she then went back to her barely touched pork ramen.

"Was that your teammate?" Naruto asked.

Tenten turned to Naruto and took a moment to look him over as to try to remember if she knew or not before sighing.

"Yeah, he is. Although some times I have to remind myself." She then looked at Naruto again. "I've seen you around, haven't I? You're the one who defaces things."

Naruto paled at that last bit. Although usually being proud of his pranks, the way she said it sounded like she was trying to get something foul out of her mouth. He nodded, casting his head down.

Tenten, realizing that her tone wasn't the way she had meant it, cleared her throat.

"I'm sorry, that came out wrong, didn't it? I'm Tenten and you are?"

Naruto brightened a bit as he took her outstretched hand. "Uzumaki Naruto." He said.

Tenten nodded. "Did you just come back from a mission or were you training?" She asked, noticing the state of Naruto's orange jumpsuit.

"A mission." Naruto said. He was just about to go on a long story about it when he felt the same misguided feelings about it as before and just simply smiled. "We went on a C-ranked mission that turned into an A-ranked one."

Tenten's eyes widened. Her team had only been given the chance to go on a few C-ranked ones, nothing higher than that.

"What was it like?" She asked eagerly. "Was there danger involved?"

Naruto felt himself feeling slightly better as he nodded and then began to tell her of his adventure with his team in the Land of Waves...

Soon, when both of them were done with their meals and Teuchi announced he was closing for the night, Naruto offered to escort Tenten back to her home and the two walked through the streets with Tenten giving Naruto her explanation on how the teaching at the Academy for Kunoichis was terribly gender-bias.

Naruto simply smiled as he nodded along with what she was saying, only adding his input in a few places. Soon, they had arrived at her place and he bid her farewell.

Naruto felt he was going to get the best night's sleep after the little pick-me-up from his conversation with Tenten. He reached into his pockets to get his keys to his apartment when suddenly he dropped them.

Naruto starred as his hand began to shaken uncontrollably.

'What the hell?' He thought and soon he clenched his teenth as a pain came from his stomach. His first thought was that maybe he shouldn't have over-indulged himself at the ramen stand, but that thought became null as he realized the pain was not only coming from the inside but the outside of his stomach as well.

Naruto paled as he keeled over and he then lifted up the bottom of his jumpsuit to expose the skin of his stomach and the seal on it.

The seal was converting back and forth from its usual red color to a black and inky luminescent tone. It went this way over and over again.

Naruto panicked as a thought came to mind as to what this could possibly mean.

'T-The K-Kyuubi! N-No!'

Naruto looked around in sheer terror and then he looked longingly at the Hokage Tower.

'I need to get tot he Hokage1 I need-' His thoughts were interrupted as he felt the skin of his stomach being pulled outward accompanied by an even more excruciating pain.

Naruto's eyes widened in terror as what this may imply. He then settled on the thought that the Kyuubi was indeed trying to come out! He knew that should it come out, it would mean disaster for the village. With that in mind, Naruto limped painfully away from his apartment and trudged along, leaning against the sides of the building for support, as he made his way to the gates leading outside of the village.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Tenten growled as she left her home. She couldn't believe she had left her favorite kunai at the ramen stand. She silently berated herself as she walked down the darkened street.

Her thoughts took another turn as she caught site of the ramen stand to earlier when she had that conversation with Naruto. She found it pleasant to find a boy who wasn't trying to use his bloodline or clan for superiority or have a weird sensei-worshiping complex. From what she could tell, he was a rather down to earth person and he really seemed to be interested in what she had to say about her misgivings toward her training at the Academy.

Tenten smiled. It was nice to have finally met someone who listened as opposed to her doing all the listening.

Upon reaching the ramen stand, Tenten spent about seven minutes searching in the darkness before her fingers had found her precious kunai.

Sighing out of relief as she held it tightly to her chest, her elation was quickly lost as she heard a voice shout out in pain.

Looking, and listening, she could hear it coming from the outside of the gates.

Normally, she would have ignored such a thing seeing as how it was outside and she knew that two Chuunin guards were there that could see to it, but curiosity getting the better of her, she decided to go see what the commotion was about.

Walking to the gate's entrance, she could hear the voice more clearly now as it seemed to be coming close by from the woods. Tenten then edged on forward and looked to see if the Chuunin were there and, to her surprise, they weren't.

Frowning, Tenten cautiously continued on walking to the source of the noise and as soon as she came upon it, she froze.

Twisting and writhing on the ground, his eyes alive in panic, was Naruto.

"Naruto!" She cried out as she dropped to her knees and put her arms on his trying to get him to hold still. "What's wrong?!"

Naruto didn't answer her as his body seemed to have a mind of its own as his back arched and his legs contorted into bizarre angles as he continued his shouting of pain.

Tenten didn't know what to do. Never once had she been trained for this sort of thing, nor had she any instruction on what to do. Instincts told her to run back to the village and get help.

However, just as she was about to rise, she noticed Naruto's eyes roll back inside his head and then he went completely still.

Tenten turned pale and her voice trembeled. "N-Naruto?" She reached out her hand to touch the boy in hope that she'd get a response and that this wasn't what she feared.

A deep resonating growl caused her to retract her hand and she started to back up farther and farther till she was leaning against a tree when a red gust of energy started to seep out from Naruto's stomach and slowly come out.

Tenten starred, her bottom lip trembling as her mind went into a terrified state of confusion at the site that beheld her.

The energy came out in vast amounts and became as large as the trees that surrounded her and Naruto and then larger. The energy soon began to take shape as the last of it came out of Naruto's body.

To Tenten's horror, it was that of a fox. Her mind soon began to reel back to when she was little and of the stories her father told her of the infamous Kyuubi that had nearly destroyed the village twelve years ago. The demon that had killed the Yondaime and, supposedly, had killed it as well.

The fox-like thing looked to be staggering and, to Tenten's surprise, whimpering like a wounded animal.

Tenten was even more confused. Her confusion over-warped her fear but it soon became panic as the beast then fell onto it's side resounding a terrible crashing sound that caused an updraft spanning out in all directions.

Tenten threw her arms over her face as the gust of air hit her roughly. Moments later it had dissipated and with it she could see, through a gap between her arms, that an eerie red, chakra-like air filled the area around her and Naruto that slowly dissipated and then was gone.

Her heart still beating rapidly, Tenten waited for about five minutes before getting to her feet and cautuously surveying the area.

'What was that?' She wondered. She half-expected the red beast to jump out again, but seeing as how it was relatively safe, she turned her attention back to Naruto who still lay motionless on the ground.

Tenten gulped as she walked back to him and, once again, got down and put her hand on his chest, shaking him slowly.

"Naruto?"

There was no response. Tenten then placed two fingers to his neck and sighed in relief.

There was a pulse.

Suddenly, at that same moment, five figures appeared around her. One she recognized as the Hokage, the others being Iruka-sensei and the other three were ANBU.

"Tenten! What are you doing out here! What happened?!" Iruka asked.

Tenten, still overwhelmed by what had happened tried her best to speak but stopped as she saw the Hokage raising his hand.

"It's alright, Tenten. Come with us and try to regain yourself."

Tenten nodded, slowly and then accepted the offered hand of Iruka-sensei as the other two ANBU picked up Naruto and soon the all of them were headed back to the Hokage's Tower.

To be continued.....

A/N: This is an experiment of mine, not sure how it'll pan out. The next chapter will come out soon, so be patient.

Q-n-P