Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, plain and simple.

Chapter 1: The Test

Like a shadow, an orange fox dashes through the forest, swift as a hawk and silent as a mouse. Weaving in and out of broken branches and fallen leaves, the small kitsune works its way towards a large wall. Not taking any time to stop its progress the fox dashes up the wall without even so much as faltering or changing its pace. As it finally makes its way over the top of the structure, the fox pauses and looks intently at way lays beyond. Konoha, the village hidden in the Leaves.

'Man, what a pain," the fox, 'why does this test have to be so damn annoying?'

Flashback

"My son," a giant nine-tailed fox says in a booming voice, "the time has come for you to set out on your own. However, there is a test you must first pass before you can truly be called a fully fledged demon."

"Father, what is this test that you speak of," a much smaller, one-tailed fox asks.

"You must go into the world of man, and once there you must obtain a name. Now this name must be original and must be given to you by a human. However, you must keep the first name that the first human calls you, and there can be no substitutions and no acceptations," the large fox explains.

"But why father," complained the smaller fox, "Why must I use a name given to me by a lowly human? Why does it have to be the very first name I obtain?"

Sighing the larger fox spoke again, "You see son, a name is everything to us demons, which is why over time we obtain several. There will come a time when a demon ceases to exist, and all that remains are the tales of his exploits, his deeds are attached to his name. A human must give us our name because it is by those names, not the ones we give ourselves, that we are remembered for. As for why you must keep the first name you obtain, it is test to see just how far you are willing to spread a name given to you, no matter how ridiculous it may seem. Also, you must influence the one whom gives you the name the most until you are deemed worthy of having another name. Now go my son, and obtain a name for yourself, and make it great."

"Yes father," the small fox says, gives a slight bow, and disappears in a puff of smoke.

Sighing, the fox leaps over the edge of the wall. Landing smoothly on all four feet he ventures further into the village. 'Thankfully it is night time,' he thinks to himself, 'this way I can scout out the village and find a human likely to give me a good name, and not give me something stupid.' He runs though the village taking in all the sights around him with a curious glance. Humans are very curious things he thought to himself.

As he turned the corner he found what appeared to be a large estate. 'Hmm,' he pondered, 'this appears to be the den of some rather important humans. I bet there would be a great candidate to become my name giver here.' So with a great leap he bounds over the gate and enters the grounds of the estate. Looking around he notices that many of the buildings have what looks to be yin-yang signs on them. 'Must be there symbol or something,' he thought to himself as he snuck deeper in. Eventually he came to what appeared to be the lair of the alpha-male, if all the guards were any clue towards it. Being careful not to be spotted, he snuck in through a nearby window.

Looking around the room he came to the conclusion that this would be the resting place of a child, considering the toys and small lump under the covers of a futon nearby. He carefully snuck towards the door only to suddenly jump when he heard someone speak. "What are you doing here Fox-san," a soft and gentle voice asks as he spun around only to see that the voice belonged to the lump from the futon. A girl, no more than 3, maybe four years old with pearl white eyes and short blue hair sat there, gazing at him couriously.

'Oh no,' he thought, 'I need to get out of here before she does anything like cry for help… or worse, give me some stupid childish name like chibi-kitsune.'

"It's ok fox-san," the child speaks up as she walks over to him, "I won't hurt you."

Being careful not to make any sudden movements, he looked up into the girls face. It was gentle and cute… for a human that is. What was most amazing was that he found himself, almost at peace under her gaze. The girl knelt down and stretched a small hand towards him. He started to pull away but quickly stopped as the girl petted him. He purred… wait a second… PURRED?!?! Fox's don't purr! But he couldn't stop himself, he just enjoyed the gentle caress of the girl. Soon he found himself curled up in the girls lap while she petted him and started talking.

"You really are a nice fox aren't you," she asked innocently.

He was tempted to growl at this, demon's aren't nice, but once again he found himself… purring… at her very touch. "My name is Hinata," the girl said, "What's yours?"

'Uh oh,' he thought, 'getting into dangerous waters here, I need to get out of here!'

"How silly of me," Hinata giggled, "fox's don't talk, so I guess I need to come up with a name for you. Hmm, I know, daddy was reading me this story about the a brave ninja, and I really liked the name so I guess since your sneaky like a ninja, I'll call you by that ninja's name. From now on your name will be Naruto."

And with those dreaded words, the fox… no… Naruto was trapped. There was no escape for him as he was bound to that name, Naruto ,and bound to this little girl, Hinata, who gave it to him.