Legend of the Fox

Chapter One

AN: So I'm going to try my hand at this one more time. Since I left this fic I've had a few ideas and some new tidbits have been revealed in the manga so a little bit of rewriting was necessary.

Start Now:

It was a dull cloudy day in the Hidden Leaf Village, something that seemed to put a hamper on the moods of the villagers living there. Within the newly reconstructed Hokage Mansion 16 year old Namikaze Naruto could be seen sitting over a pile of scrolls within the mansions library. It had only been a few weeks since the end of the Fourth Great Shinobi War and things were slowly going back to normal. After the end of the war Naruto was among the first to be called back to the village from the warfront alongside the rest of his group.

In that time since he'd been home he'd once more delved back into his training with an enthusiasm to make Gai and Lee proud. Ninjutsu and Kenjutsu had been at the top of the list, the ninjutsu having been left to him by Jiraiya while the toads began teaching him kenjutsu. With all that training under his belt, due mostly to large quantities of Kage Bunshin, he finally felt that he was at the level Jiraiya had been on at his age. Unknown to him the toads and Tsunade had opted not to tell him he was actually stronger than Jiraiya was at the time as it gave him something to work toward.

At the moment however the blonde was sitting hunched over the ground carefully drawing characters onto it. Contrary to popular belief he had learned plenty during his time away training with Jiraiya. However they had actually spent majority of the time on fuuinjutsu something Naruto found had fascinated him barely a week into their training. Now the blonde was taking all that training and applying it to the something he'd had the idea for a while back, redesigning his seal. Sure things in his mindscape seemed different but it still had the appearance of a sewer only it no longer had the barred gate as part of its décor.

Changing the background of his seal was easier said than done. Despite what he'd done when he'd first taken control of Kurama's chakra he'd only altered what was already done swapping out the cage for the Tori gates. What he was about to do now however would change the very foundations of the seals make up and if he wasn't careful could have disastrous effects. Thankfully he and the fox were getting along now so he didn't have to worry about him doing anything reckless that would end up killing them. While he was doing this he was also rewiring the seal so that it didn't draw so heavily on his chakra, from what he'd been able to tell while he got his advanced healing from his own chakra, it wasn't as powerful as it was supposed to be. He had been thinking for a while and had discovered that most of his Yin chakra was going into powering the seal, so his chakra was about eighty percent yang chakra. By rewriting the seal he was hoping to even it out a bit more, hopefully it would help improve his control and maybe even let him use those badass chakra chains his mom had been able to use. Sighing the blonde ignored the sweat trailing off his face focused solely on finishing the seal in front of him. For over an hour he had been carefully drawing the characters needed along the floor so that he could finally apply the seals. Finally he got to the last one and slowly began drawing it putting the same amount of focus on this one if not more.

"Yo."

Jumping at least three feet in surprise the blonde had no idea he'd actually messed up on the last character, nor did he realize his chakra had spiked in just that instance.

"Damn it Kakashi don't do that." Snarled the blonde with a glare as he tried to catch his breath.

For but a second Kakashi froze as Naruto's form was replaced by another man's glaring just as heatedly. Then just as quickly as it came it was gone and Naruto was back in his place.

"Anyway what are you doing here?" questioned the teen calming himself and glancing at the man's feet silently telling him to get off his seal array.

"Actually Hokage-sama told me to come get you." Said Kakashi with an eyesmile.

"Why she knows what I'm doing and its importance." Said the blonde with a frown.

"Don't know. I just know she wanted to see every member of the 11. Also is that supposed to be glowing like that?" asked the masked jounin motioning to the floor.

Glancing down Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the seal glowing a bright green color.

"Shit."

The muttered word left the blonde just before the room was engulfed in light. As the light cleared Kakashi's eyes widened finding Naruto gone, the only sign of his presence being a scorch mark where he'd been sitting on a seal less floor.

"Tsunade-sama is not going to like this." Muttered the scarecrow his life flashing before his eyes before visions of his death.

When Naruto awoke it was to the dreary sight of his mindscape. Standing to his feet the young teen found the water now only reached to the middle of his shins and not his knees. Regardless of this he easily made his way through the labyrinth that was his mind walking on top of the water.

"Oi you awake Kurama?" questioned the teen as he entered the chamber that held the fox.

"This is quite the mess we've fallen into brat." Spoke a voice from the darkness of the shadows, a pair of slitted red eyes appearing in the darkness.

"What happened?" Questioned the teen.

Slowly a form stepped out of the darkness to that surrounded him. He had seen the Kitsune many times however what he was seeing now through him for a loop. As its form slowly came into view Naruto could see that the Kitsune was much worse for wear with patches of fur missing a bad limp in its left foreleg and a few of its tails practically half dead by the way they were dragging.

"Well as you can no doubt guess the seal activated when that sorry excuse for a teacher surprised you. However it didn't work exactly as you intended it to, this was due to a messed up character and an overload of chakra. While it did solidify it absorbed nearly all of your chakra doing so before I shot some of mine into you which it started feeding on, in fact the damn thing actually took nearly half my power and I just got it back!" Exclaimed the fox causing Naruto to wince.

Nearing the end of the war in a battle with the Jubi the original bijuu had launched a powerful attack composed mostly of Yin chakra at them. On instinct alone he had somehow managed to absorb the chakra and direct it into the seal. Of course having once been a part of the Juubi the energy had not affected Kurama negatively in fact it had actually managed to add to his power and jump start the regrowth of its own Yin chakra. While he obviously hadn't meant for it to happen the boost in power had actually helped them more than a little bit during the war.

"Thankfully I can already feel my regeneration kicking in and my chakra returning. On the other hand what the seal took was immediately absorbed into your body. My chakra however is composed of youki which that seal neglected to purify so I wouldn't be surprised if you turned into a hanyou." Said Kyuubi causing the boy to sigh.

Once upon a time Naruto would have had a fit if that had been said. However he had learned after fighting Obito and Madara, that he'd already been about one eight of a demon since the sealing, much like anyone living now with a kekki genkai. It was why he healed like he did since he actually regenerated if slowly and the reason he was still alive after losing all that blood for his four tail transformation, much less the eight tailed one he did when fighting Pein.

As such all being half demon told him now was that he was at the same level of those who first possessed bloodlines. Basically he may actually be in a position to start his own clan.

"Also all that chakra control training went out the window since you have more chakra than before. On the plus side the seal isn't drawing on your yin chakra anymore so you'll be able to get a few more tricks soon enough. That however is minor considering the fact that your seal imploded and we've somehow been flung into a different dimension." Finished Kyuubi causing Naruto to blink and stare at him in shock for all of five seconds.

"NANI."

Every person within the room winced at the dual screams from Tsunade and Hinata. Kakashi himself was on his toes as he eyed the murderous expression on the Godaime's face. At the moment Tsunade was using all of her restraint to not kill Kakashi at his idiotic move. She had told him quite clearly that Naruto was working on a new seal that he would be applying to the one containing the Kyuubi. She had gone further telling him explicitly not to disturb him until it was completed.

"Kakashi as of this moment you are hereby stripped of your rank and demoted to chuunin. Furthermore you are banned from ever seeing, touching, or reading another Icha Icha product. Every single one you own will be confiscated and burned while you will be strictly on D-ranked missions for the next 18 months." Hissed out Tsunade causing the jounin to pale.

"Tsunade-sama can't we discuss…"

"ENOUGH." Bellowed the woman slamming her fist into her desk and reducing it to sawdust.

"Because of your lack of focus Konoha may have just lost its strongest shinobi and I may have to organize a funeral for my son, the one I just had approved as my successor not even two hours ago!"

As these words were spoken every pair of eyes in the room widened, except for Hinata's the girl having fainted after her shout.

"Not only that but I have to explain to the Kazekage why his best friend is gone, explain to both the Queen of Spring and priestess Shion why Naruto won't be around to care for his children. I have to explain to the villagers why their newfound hero, the son of their beloved Yondaime no less, is gone and may not be coming back. I'll also have to tell Hinata that this wasn't a dream, and that Naruto won't be here to propose to her tonight like he had planned to. Finally I'll have to explain this to his children. I'll have to look into their eyes while I explain to those little girls why they won't get to see their father anymore and in one why she'll never get to know him all because one of my jounin would rather have his nose buried in pornography than listen properly to his Hokage!" Screamed Tsunade.

By now both Sakura and Shizune were holding onto Tsunade for dear life using the strength technique she'd taught them to keep her from killing the man. Kakashi himself was as pale as a ghost and everyone in the room was glaring at him in rage none more so than Hyuga Neji who'd become one of Naruto's best friends and was being restrained by both Choji and Lee while Shikamaru was holding him by shadow. At that moment everyone conscious in the room including Kakashi had the same thought; he'd better pray Naruto is still alive.

AN: That's it for this chapter. As you can tell it's really more of a prologue. Though I'm excited by the prospect of doing something so original I'm not sure when I'll put out the next chapter (after the first half of Devil most likely).