Warning – This is unbetaed. Feel free to point out all the mistakes you see.

Prologue

The Kyuubi no Youko was excited. He couldn't remember when was the last time he had this much fun. Towering over the Village of the Leaf, the Demon Fox swept his tails left and right, bringing down buildings and entire groups of trees. Slobber was coming out of his mouth and cascading over the tiny ninjas and humans running away or toward him. His frenzied red eyes looked down at them with mixed feelings of amusement and challenge as different kinds of jutsu stormed around his paws, tails, and occasionally torso, scratching his skin and rarely inflicting shallow cuts.

He let out a deafening roar, a painfully loud sound to the men and women now crowding him, before attacking them with a powerful blast of chakra from his mouth. Few of the targets managed to escape the destructive attack, and he was already persecuting them with quick bullets of red energy and an accurate use of his paws. The more shinobi fell, the more he felt powerful.

It was exhilarating.

Suddenly sensing something, he jumped, barely dodging the knife thrust at him from behind by a huge toad with a pipe, of all the things, just appeared out of nowhere.

Now, that could mean fun!

The Kyuubi landed neatly on the ground, crushing part of the forest surrounding Konohagakure. He grinned a wide grin as he turned around towards his new opponent.

The toad - a summon, he thought - was staring up at him hard, knife held to the side and kimono flapping at the wind. On top of its head stood a human, a determined expression on his face as he said something to his mount, which charged forward with unexpected speed.

The Kyuubi met them halfway through, narrowly avoiding a water bullet the toad sent his way. As the big concentration of chakra exploded somewhere behind him, he sank his fangs on the knife-wielding arm descending upon him, effectively snapping it with a jerk of his head. The marvellous taste of blood filled his mouth for only a second before he was forcefully pushed away by the summon's other arm. He wouldn't have let go that easily if the summoner himself hadn't surprised him by doing something to his right foreleg. It felt like a large, pointy object had pierced him deeply, but as he carefully took a couple of steps away from his opponents, he couldn't see any weapon in the hands of the tiny one. He wondered about that for a moment before dismissing the whole thing as some kind of jutsu, probably wind-based, though he was secretly impressed by the sheer quantity of chakra the ninja had to pour behind it to hurt him, even if just a little.

He observed the blond man for a long second, smiling at the look of horror on his face in noticing how the injury in his foreleg had already started to heal. The toad's right arm instead was still hanging limply at its side while the huge knife lied forgotten among the trees. Its face was also scrunched up into a pained expression, but its eyes were blazing with rightful fury. It barked something to the ninja who looked taken aback for a moment before barking something back, never taking his eyes off of him in the meantime.

The Kyuubi didn't know what they were saying, not having ever bothered in learning human language, but he understood body language well enough, and it was clear in their tone too that they were arguing about something. He didn't care much anyway, too excited about what had already been one of the best fights in a long time for him. Being as strong as he was, it was hard to find a decent opponent, and it was sad to think that even the most challenging ones could only hope to keep him entertained for some minutes.

The toad and the ninja weren't an exception. They were going to crumble soon. That said, he was glad he had met them. Letting the strange man with fancy eyes play his puppeteer-trick on him had been the right decision, after all. He would find him in no time, anyway, to thank him properly for this great occasion.

The next attack was as fast as the previous, and doubly as vicious. The Kyuubi shot forward with incredible speed and was upon his opponents in an instant. The Demon Fox ignored the feeble punch of the summon and shrugged off the lightning jutsu of the summoner as his clawed paws slammed right on the chest of the toad and three of his mighty tails batted on its head and face. The huge animal was launched off its feet, its pipe flying away together with a spray of blood, before landing heavily on its back. The ground shook under its weight in a deep rumble of protest as the Kyuubi looked on in anticipation, wondering if the summon would stand up again or would just puff away in a cloud of smoke.

Needless to say, he was delighted in seeing it slowly regaining its feet, stumbling forward as its legs threatened to give away. It was losing a lot of blood from numerous wounds on the chest, where his claws had easily pierced it, and he was shaking its head as if to clear it from a daze. The blond ninja was still on top of its head, apparently unharmed, and his expression was one of resigned resolution. Summoner and summon then sighed simultaneously and when the former said something to the latter, a grim nod was all that followed.

The Kyuubi waited. His opponents were concocting something and he really wanted to see what that something was. It had to be a desperate move considering their condition, and desperation often led to foolish but at the same time dangerous attacks in a fight, generally for both parts. He was really curious. He slowly approached the two, circling almost lazily around them like a cat would do with a mouse, his tails wagging a little in eagerness. And when the ninja started performing some seals he couldn't help but grin, wondering just what kind of jutsu he had in store for him.

And then he felt it, some kind of energy pressing at him, though it was hardly a pressure and more like a tug. It was as if something was pulling at him, and he didn't like it at all. He moved to the left and away from the man who was certainly the cause of this, not daring to attack him at this moment, though. He took a defensive position instead, his bended legs ready to spring to life at the littlest sign of danger.

It turned out that it was unnecessary, for the only sign of danger he noticed appeared when it was already too late. The Kyuubi no Youko had to blink repeatedly before even believing what his eyes were seeing. That wasn't a sight you happened to face every day.

A translucent figure was hovering right behind the ninja still atop the toad. He was wearing a flowing white robe, and though the Demon Fox couldn't see his facial features, a pair of dark eyes was threatening to bore a hole into his very soul from behind a curtain of pale hair. His ghostly hand was literally going through the man still performing seals, and stretching all the way to the stunned bijuu looking at it with abject horror.

The Death God.

Holy crap.

The Kyuubi was completely immobilized; even using chakra seemed absolutely impossible at the moment. All he could do was looking on helplessly as the blond bastard finished up the jutsu. The Demon Fox knew about it. He had seen the results far too many times in the past. All his fellow bijuu had suffered the same fate, ending up sealed inside a human, forever prisoner until the host died. He even managed to speak to one of them, the monkey idiot, and what he had discovered then had upset him more than he thought it could have.

When the host died, so did the bijuu inside him.

Death.

The Kyuubi roared, or tried to anyway, struggling with all his power against the Shinigami's grip, but it was all useless.

He was battling a God.

He stopped, seething inside, and just stared at the ethereal figure with intent eyes. He wouldn't die. Not now, not ever. He would find a way to escape his human host, or to outlive him. He would fucking make him immortal, if that was the only way!

And then he would laugh in the Shinigami's face.

He was already looking forward to that moment, when the ninja, unexpectedly, hesitated. He stopped in the middle of a seal and started saying something in between gasping breaths, while his hold on the bijuu linked to him weakened slightly.

It took him maybe two seconds before he resumed.

The Kyuubi had been almost too surprised to take advantage of it. Keyword being 'almost'. Feeling a mixture of panic and exaltation inside, the Demon Fox did the first thing that came to mind.

He howled.

It was high-pitched and loud, and the very air shook intensely all around him. A huge load of red chakra, barely a tenth of his total, came out of his muzzle as it was pointed at the night sky. It hovered there for some seconds, lighting up the whole horizon with a crimson hue, before exploding in all directions, countless stars of tiny size flying away at great speed in a bizarre rain of sparks.

The Kyuubi brought his eyes back to the Shinigami and the blond man who had summoned it, and the victorious grin on his face displayed a respectable number of sharp, pointy teeth. The grip of the Death God was once again keeping him from moving or calling up chakra, but it didn't matter.

He had already done all he could.

It was with this feeling of satisfied resolution that he witnessed the ninja completing his jutsu until he knew no more.

Author's notes – Well, here's my new story. As said in the summary, it is a slight crossover with Final Fantasy VII, although it is not strictly necessary to know the game to understand it. What happened in this prologue (mainly the last blast of chakra by the Kyuubi) is what makes and will make this story an AU. Till next time.

Uncle Stojil