Naruto had quickly found out that the sun did not affect him (thank kami) and he didn't sweat anymore. That could be viewed as a good side effect, right? For the bad side effects… Well. Naruto was a Hanyou now. He had red hair that was thankfully still his same beautiful locks as before. He had lost his beloved whiskers. He did have his blue eyes still, though they had slits for his pupils. His eyes were sharper, his nose stronger, his ears enhanced he could taste the dry desert air and he could feel every grain on sand underneath his bare soles. His body had compacted so that he couldn't even be damaged by anything short of the end of the world, and he'd probably end up surviving that.

Because, apparently, when he was becoming a hanyou, Shinigami had decided to step in and give some added touches. Such as the fact that despite he'd gone freaking months without water, he was AOK with that. What the hell? He wasn't starving either, so if Naruto had to hazard a guess, he'd say he was immortal. But his appearance had certainly changed. He did not look like Uzumaki Naruto anymore. He was, if he did say so himself, absolutely stunning. He could defeat Sasuke in a beauty contest hands down.

There were some drawbacks though. Like the fact that he had a tattoo of a Phoenix on his left forearm. A tattoo. Given to him by Shinigami he guessed, as well as a black collar around his neck (Maybe Shinigami was just trying to annoy him? He couldn't get the collar off, he'd tried). It was a typical Phoenix, you know, rainbow feathers and looks all pretty. What Naruto didn't get was why it was surrounded by six stones. The stones were grey, and looked very odd.

Whatever though, Naruto had bigger things to worry about. Such as clothes. And where the hell he was. He'd guess Suna but he'd been walking for days now and still hadn't found any civilisation. A loud explosion sounded and Naruto whipped his head up to see a red haired girl with ringed eyes to be looking at him.

Naruto felt his mouth drop open. It was like a female version of Gaara! Well, looking at him wasn't really correct, per se, it was more like glaring at him. And this Gaara seemed younger too, around twelve. Naruto himself was twenty seven, and was currently acting like a teenager by gaping at the tween. What the hell was the side effects that Kurama was talking about?

"Tell me who you are, or I will kill you," Gaara-girl said with that same tone that Gaara had used (well before he became Kazekage that was. And even after then, whenever Naruto was annoying him). Thinking fast, if this was some weird thing where he had been thrown into some alternate universe, it wouldn't be good to go by his true name.

So, when in doubt, make one up. "Yūbokumin Suzaku," he answered with a foxy grin.

"Nomad Phoenix?" Gaara-girl echoed with a raised eyebrow. OMGosh! This Gaara had eyebrows! For some reason this Gaara was feeling merciful and decided to let him live and instead took him back to her place to get some clothes and tea. It was just then that Naruto realised. This place had no ninja.

It was true, as he looked around, there wasn't a headband in sight. It was quite odd really, that everything seemed to be so similar and yet different at the same time. It made him wonder how Gaara-girl had been planning on killing him. The girl, who was in fact named Gaara, poured some tea for him. Naruto was now wearing an extravagant silk shirt and some nice loose pants that he'd rolled up as they were a bit too big for him.

"I do apologise," Gaara said sincerely. "You frightened me in the desert before. I am not usually that hostile. It's just, people have been trying to kidnap me to make my father and mother pay ransom. And I am sorry that the clothes do not fit very well," she said with a slight grimace.

"My father is a very tall man, and a very strict one. I do not think he would agree with me letting a stranger into our house without the guards."

"You're right, he wouldn't," a familiar voice said and Naruto turned around to see a female Kankuro leaning against the kitchen. "Don't you think he's a little too old for you?" Kankuro asked with crossed arms, an eyebrow raised underneath her make up.

Gaara blushed rosy red at the comment and Naruto laughed.

"I do think that she is a bit too young for me yes. But nevertheless I should thank you for your kindness Miss Gaara," he said with a fond smile. "You did me great kindness in bringing me here." He ran a hand through his red locks and sighed. "But I am afraid I must go before your father gets back. I do not want to know how he would react to you bringing a strange man into your house." And with that he got to his feet and left the building.

As he walked around Suna, he thought. This obviously wasn't his world anymore. It was strange, seeing something so familiar yet different. Kurama had said they'd be side-effects, though this certainly wasn't what Naruto was thinking. So now Naruto was apparently a hanyou that was tied to the six elements. At least Gaara and Kankuro hadn't seen his ears.

The six elements. That was what Naruto was stuck on. The Dimension one. What had Kurama said? Time, Space, Shadow, Life, Death, Reality… So he'd somehow mucked up with that one? "Better not to think about it," Naruto decided with a shake of his head.

He jumped when his left arm heated up. Pulling up the sleeve he exposed the tattoo and was surprised to see the first stone around the Phoenix was glowing orangey-gold. "O…kay? My day just keeps getting weirder and weirder," Naruto muttered.

He stole a black cap from a store and wandered around with his hands in his pockets, wondering what to do. Unfortunately, he didn't need to sleep either ever since coming on this…vacation. The Hanyou finally decided he would go test his luck in the casino, which turned out to be a brilliant idea. He ended up becoming a million times richer, probably thanks to the Kitsune side of him. Their luck was unrivalled.

A Kitsune never lost after all. With the money he hopped on the train, (Weird, they have a train) and went to Konoha. There he wondered around, a bit surprised to see that it was still the Konoha that had been there before Pain had destroyed it. Though, to be fair, he had seen Nagato walking around laughing with Jiraiya (Once again, they were both female). That had been a bit of a nasty shock. Still, Naruto was one to take things in stride and he bought himself an apartment with the money he'd won. Then, he tested out his chakra abilities to see what had become of them. And had almost fainted when he couldn't call chakra.

However, he could feel the energy inside of him and decided he must have become like Lee. Which saddened him, after all, he liked his chakra. He was startled when something spoke to him. Or well, spoke in his mind. "Well hello there," it purred and Naruto jumped before spotting a black fox on his window, looking at him with an interested expression on its face. "I believe I have found my master." That, Naruto decided, was slightly disturbing.

He cocked his head as the fox pounced and settled on his lap, staring up at him with an intense gaze of emerald eyes. "My name is Inari," it continued and Naruto realised it was a girl. "And I am a kitsune. However, you are special. I sense the power with in you. You shall be my master," the fox decided.

"Inari the kitsune huh?" Naruto said as he petted the fox, watching in amusement as it purred like a cat. "What is this 'power' you speak of?"

"I sense it, yet your power is uncontrolled. I will be able to help you a little with my knowledge, but seeing as I have not the power myself, I can only do so much and my knowledge is limited," Inari admitted.

"Well a little help is better than none," Naruto said comfortingly. "And what can you tell me about this 'power'?" Inari flicked her black tail as she thought.

"Well~ for one thing, it is in everything. The dirt, the gust, the river, the scorch, the sky scorch…" she trailed off with a frown on her fox features. "And the…being," she said finally, if not a little hesitantly.

"The being?" he echoed with confusion. She nodded her head rapidly.

"Yes, the being. It is hard to describe. It is like the existence and the not existence. Like the fake and…"

"And the reality," Naruto finished and she blinked in surprise before nodding her head.

"Yes, reality. The six components of the power create balance in the world. To master the power, you need to balance it within yourself," Inari continued. She placed a silver mitten-like paw onto his left forearm, where his Phoenix tattoo lay. "This draws on your power. Once you learn to control it, you shall be able to control your power instead of letting it control you." Naruto put that away for later thought as he addressed something that had been bugging him.

"How are you talking?" he asked curiously. "I mean, there seems to be no summons here – let alone ninja so I was wondering how you were talking." Inari just stared at him quizzically.

"What on earth are you talking about?" she asked. "You are speaking the animal tongue. Not that jibber jabber noise that the others of your kind speak," she said, a bit impatiently. She nudged his black collar with her wet nose. "That is what is making you speak it," she explained.

Naruto placed a hand on the collar. He was speaking a different language? He gasped suddenly as he felt his arm heat up and pulled up the sleeve again to reveal that a second stone was glowing. "You already have the dirt and the river," she said curiously as she peered at it, her emerald eyes glowing brightly with her interest.

"I'm going to get old of your way of speaking fast, aren't I?" Naruto muttered with a shake of his head. He got to his feet and stretched. "I may not need food but that doesn't mean I don't want any. Let's go to Ichiraku's!" he declared loudly and Inari cocked her head to the side curiously before shrugging her shoulders.

"While I do not understand humans, I do understand the call for blood." She licked her sharp white teeth. "Let us hunt."

Apparently, this Konoha had no problems with foxes as they didn't even give Naruto a second glance as he walked down the road with Inari trotting at his side. They walked into Ichiraku and beyond a disproving glance at having an animal inside her shop, Teuchi didn't say anything. Of course Ayame thought it was awesome. "Whoa! Did you train it?" Ayame-boy asked as he looked at Inari curiously.

"It's absolutely kawaii!" a female voice said from the door. Teuchi looked up and she waved her hand.

"Princess Naruto! Lady Minato! Lord Kushina! Welcome!" Naruto blinked before doing a doubletake as he saw the three of them. There was his father (as a girl), his mother (as a boy) and himself (once again as a girl) making their way to sit down. The girl version of himself bounded over and practically was nose-to-nose with Naruto himself.

Naruto blinked slightly as she stared at him with an intense gaze before exclaimed, "Your eyes are so cool!"

"Naru! Get out of the poor man's face!" Minato-mum chided her. 'Naru' blushed before bowing lowly.

"Sorry Mister," she said, brushing her blonde fringe out of her eyes. Kushina clapped Naru on the shoulder with his large hand.

"Sorry about my darling daughter," Kushina said sheepishly. "Uzumaki Kushina. And you are…?"

Naruto blinked before he answered with a small smile. "Well, my name is Naruto but you may call me by my title, Yūbokumin Suzaku," he said with an indifferent shrug, using his shinobi training to deal with the craziest in this situation.

"You're a Nomad?" Naru said with awe in her blue gaze. "I've never been anywhere before! Mama and Papa say that it's too dangerous for me to leave Konoha," she said with a pout.

"Gaara – she's my friend – gets to go everywhere."

"It's for your own safety dear," Minato chided as she flicked back her blonde hair her gaze soft but stern. "Because you are my daughter and I am the leader of Konoha, than you will be in danger from the other villages."

"Listen to your mother," Kushina added before smiling an apology at Naruto. "I apologise for my daughter's actions before Mr Suzaku. Please, allow us to treat you to a meal." Immediately Naruto was protesting.

"Oh, no, I couldn't be a bother," he said a bit uncomfortably. After all, it wasn't every day that you had a family dinner.

"Nonsense," Minato chided, crossing her arms. "It would be our pleasure! Get us four miso ramen please Teuchi," Minato ordered kindly.

Teuchi bowed her head lowly. "It would be my pleasure Lady Minato." Dinner was an…interesting affair. They ended up having a ramen eating contest (which Kushina won) before saying their goodbyes.

"Maybe we could get together tomorrow?" Naru said hopefully, wringing her hands a bit.

Naruto smiled. "Sure," he said as he put his hands behind his head. Naru blushed before mumbling something. Naruto's ears caught it though.

"I promise I'll come tomorrow," he said with a teasing smile as she jumped, her eyes widening in surprise.

"You heard that?" she exclaimed. Naruto grinned knowingly and simply turned and walked away, Inari on his heels. When they arrived back at the apartment, Naruto blinked as Inari transformed with a puff of smoke into a small girl of around twelve.

The girl had two twitching black ears that were tipped with silver, which were almost hidden inside her long messy locks of black hair. She wore a short silver dress that barely reached her knees. She had large innocent looking almond shaped green eyes, high cheekbones and her lips were a crimson that matched a rose. However, Naruto was drawn to the fact that she had a sleek tail sticking out the back of her dress. She smiled, revealing her still sharp fangs. "You're not a normal fox," he stated bluntly, not at all fazed by the change of events.

After all he was a ninja. "Kitsune," she began with a foxy grin. "Can refer to a common fox or an immortal fox spirit," she quoted and he groaned and put his head in his hands.

"My life is never easy is it?" he mumbled into his palms.

"Since when has life ever been easy Master?" she purred as she plopped herself into his lap. She pulled up his sleeve to reveal his tattoo, five of the stones were glowing.

"I thought I felt it," she mumbled as she stroked it with a pale soft hand. Naruto none so subtly shoved her off. Gently of course. She plopped onto the ground, not looking at all fazed by it, instead jumping onto his shoulders so she was perched on his head.

Surprisingly, she was extremely light. "Only being is left," she said as she pointed to the tattoo. "With that the power will control you once again." Naruto didn't really know what to say to that, so instead decided to stay nothing at all. Naruto pulled Inari off his head and placed her on the ground again.

He fixed his hat. "You should get some sleep," he said and she yawned before stretching out and curling up. As soon as she fell asleep, with a puff of smoke she turned back into her fox self. He shook his head. His life certainly loved to be as interesting as possible. Glancing at the glowing tattoo he sighed before he closed his eyes for some (unneeded) rest.

Naruto woke to Inari licking his hand impatiently, telling him to get up. Groaning, he rolled over and off the bed, almost squashing his familiar as he did so. "Master, please be careful!" she yelped as she did a barrel roll to the side to avoid becoming a pancake.

Naruto groaned again, but it was muffled by the floor. He managed to push himself up and then remembered he had a 'date' with Naru at Ichiraku's today. He blinked, and then realised that they hadn't set a time. Shuffling to his feet, he pulled on his clothes he'd bought (orange long sleeve, black cargo pants and the black cap to cover his ears. Unfortunately, he couldn't stand having shoes on his sensitive feet) with the money he'd stolen and reached for the door.

However, as he did so his arm heated up to be so hot it was unbearable and he gasped in pain. "Master?" Inari said worriedly before watching as his image seemed to flicker. "Master you're traveling!" she yelped in distress and tried to bump him with her nose, only to go right through him. Naruto felt the heat in his arm spread throughout the rest of his body before his world spun out of focus.

The sensation was familiar, though he had only experienced once before. Naruto landed once again in the middle of the desert (unfortunately naked) and felt the blistering heat of the sun against his demonic skin. He ran a hand through his red locks and looked at his left arm. There the tattoo sat innocently, none of the stones around the Phoenix glowing. His ears drooped down as he realised two things.

One, he'd broken a promise.

Two, he was all alone.

How he hated his weird chakra now.

Once you learn to control it, you shall be able to control your power instead of letting it control you.

"That's what I'll do Inari," Naruto said as he looked up at the sky. "I will come back and show you I have learnt to control it. I promise."

It was a promise that Naruto intended to keep.

He did not notice the eyes watching him with interest, hidden from sight.

The Shinigami smiled with anticipation.

He had chosen right for his heir afterwards.

And that is the end of the prequel to the Nomad series! The Series will be split into three groups which are Novice, Journeyman and Master Nomad. Novice meaning very little experience with travelling through the jumps, journeyman is semi-experienced and Master is a pro. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the series!

And yes. Naruto is immortal. I'm not going to have the main character of the series killed. If you don't like it, tough. Go read something else. I do not want your reviews.

But if you do like, please review!