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If you were to ask Naruto when he met Lady Uzushio, he would say he didn’t know. Not because he forgot, but rather that Lady Uzushio had always been an important person since, well forever ! She, like the Anbu who always stayed in the shadows, has always been there. So has the mostly grumpy fox that resided in his head.
He had been six when they met. The villagers, that he managed to avoid for the past six months by staying nearby Iruka-Nii and the Uchiha police officers (One of them even gave him a lollipop once !) had eventually caught him. And this time he knew no help would be coming. (ANBU Inu, having used hand signs, told him that he and the usual group of ANBU who look after him would be going on a mission that they couldn’t refuse .)
Naruto opened his eyes. Only to find himself floating in murky sewage water.
“EWWW!” He yelled disgusted.
‘Get yourself together Naruto!’ Said a voice that sounded a lot like Iruka-Nii.
‘What is the first thing you must do when you are in unfamiliar territory?’ The voice continued.
‘Look around for enemies, check your arsenal, take a note of your surroundings, and follow a road if you see one. Just not directly ; take the trees if there are any.’ He responded.
A road suddenly appeared shrouded in trees.
‘Well, that was easy.’ He followed it and stopped in front of a gigantic cage. A seal was somehow holding closed.
“ So my jailer finally comes to visit…...wait how old are you?!” A deep voice starting out drawling but ending up sounding panicked.
“Six! Are you the Kyubbi? That so cool! I’ve been waiting to meet you for like forever! Lady Uzushio speaks highly of you and your siblings. Who knew all I needed to do was get beat up in an alley?”
“ ……What? Explain!”
And that’s how he got a slightly (read overly ) protective, grumpy ,gigantic fox who everyone in the outside world thought was a demon (he wasn’t) to talk to .
(Kurama the Kyubbi who would probably deny that he even liked the kid. It just ……he was just so stupid when they met! Who goes around and starts gushing to the being that ( unwillingly ) killed their parents ?! It made no sense! {‘Thank the Gods for Iruka.’ He couldn’t help think. No one else would willingly spend that much time with the kid. (Lies, he would later find out when he went through Naruto’s willingly handed memories. The ANBU was swiftly added to the list of people who he approved of.)})
*Age 7*
“I made a new friend today.” Naruto stated as he flopped on the now grassy floor of his mindscape nearby a cage-free Kurma. Kuruma opened one eye.
“By friend do you mean that Nara brat level of friendship who bearly knows nothing at all about you, or an actual friend ?”
“Oi! Shikamaru is a good friend; it’s not his fault that I don’t tell him everything!” A rumble of laughter.
“You are so mean Kurma!” A slightly longer rumble of laughter.
“You haven’t answered my question yet.”
“Yeah well, I think it might be an actual friend!” Que sparkly eyes. Kurma opened his other eye as well.
“ Really now? Tell me about them.”
"You know Sasuke-Teme right? Well, Lady Uzushio told him about The Plan; yes, with capital letters.”
“Interesting. Do you know why?”
“She said something about us going to end up in the same genin team, so we might as well be friends now rather than later.”
“I see.” (It took all of three days for Uchiha Sasuke to be added to The List. ‘That child,’ Kurma couldn’t help but think unwillingly (he wasn’t supposed to get attached dammit!), ‘is the saddest child I’ve ever seen.’)
*Age 10*
“I made another "actual" friend today.” Naruto would say some years later flopping again on this time cherry blossom covered ground .
“It wouldn’t happen to be that Sakura girl would it?”
“How do you know?”
“It’s been basically snowing cherry blossoms for the past like 5 hours!!!”
“Huh. Cool.”
“No! Not cool! Look at meeeeee! I’m covered in these things! I’ll be pink soon! Naruto? Naruto stop laughing! This is a very serious matter!”
*Age 13*
“I failed Dattebyo! What do I do????” Wailed Naruto.
“What about the extra credit test The One That Smells of Hate spoke of?”
“He was obviously lying, and you always scold me about going head first into danger what changed?”
“We will be able to kill two birds with one stone. Get him in trouble, and it’ll be no doubt dangerous so that would be a great time to tap into my powers and use it to save the day. After that they would have to allow you to pass!”
“Ok then. Let’s do it!”
“Not without preparing you’re not!”
“Fine what will I need?”
Naruto climbed out the window of the Hokage tower, making sure to not trip the alarms.
‘ Once that old man awakens, he will have ANBU and other nins out to find you. You got that scanning seal?’
‘Yup! And the scroll I’ll scan it on, as well as where to hide it once it's scanned.’
‘Good. Head to that forest.’
‘Annnnnd done! Wait until I tell Sasuke about this!’
‘He will want to use some of those Jutsus you know.’
‘I know. There are even some medical ones for Sakura to learn!’
“Narutooooo!”
‘And there goes your older brother/Sensei. He’s going to kill you.’
“Ahhh, Iruka-Nii?” Naruto asked after the fight with Mizuki was over. The both of them was in Iruka’s hospital room, he got an ordinary one that didn’t have bars on the windows as he never found it necessary to escape the hospital .
“Yes Naruto?”
“I have something to tell you. Promise you won’t get mad?”
“Out with it.”
“Iknewaboutthekyubbiforaverylongtime.”
“Mind speaking slower?”
“I knew about the Kyubbi for a very long time.” A sigh.
“Of course you did. Have anything else world shattering to tell me?”
“I may or may not have copied off the Forbidden Scroll.” A heavier sigh.
“Of course you did.”
“…...You aren’t mad at me?”
“For what? Striving to learn more knowledge? For keeping something that could have caused problems if I didn’t practically raise you? No Naruto I’m not mad. Just let me see what Jutsu you will be using so I can supervise.”
“Yes sir!”
“Did you get me anything to eat? Hospital food stinks.”
“We got ANBU Inu as our sensei.”
“Huh. What’s his name?”
“Kakashi Hatake.”
“He got wild looking white hair even though he’s young?”
“Yah know him?”
“Not really , he’s one of your dad’s students. He should have some pretty good stores of your parents.”
“That’s great!”
“But you know what that means right?”
“What?”
“You and your teammates have got to impress him.”
“I guess we should plan then.”
“Yup. Be sure to use a level 20 prank on him.”
“We won!”
“ Naturally . I didn’t spend all that time helping you and your friends plan for you to fail.”
“WHY IS IT RAINING DUCK FEATHERS?!? NARUTO YOU HAVE TO STOP THIS! FIRST CHERRY BLOSSOMS NOW DUCK FEATHERS? WHAT’S NEXT HUH? DOG FUR???”
“The old guy is lying.”
“Yup.”
“What should I do?”
“Pack for everything.”
“They called themselves The Demon Brothers.”
“That’s outrageous! Those two were worse than those demons who take contracts with children even though they are invalid .”
“What is your problem with that by the way?”
+
“Gee sorry I asked.”
“Kurma said to tell you guys that the so called “Demon Brothers”, yes with quotation marks, are an insult to demon culture .” Naruto told team seven the next day.
“Why is he so insulted when he isn’t even a demon?” Sakura questioned.
“He says that there are no other nine tails foxes so they follow him. Essentially they are his loyal minions. He’s also says that they have a summoning contract and he wants me to sign it.”
“And were would this demon contract be?” Kakashi asked.
“In the Uzushio storage seal Iruka-Nii has of course!”
“ I feel like we are missing the important part here!” Sasuke (for him) half-yelled.
“And that would be?”
“Demons Naruto! Demons!” Sasuke retorted.
“Most of them are actually harmless.”
“Then what is the point of holding the contract?!” Sakura demanded.
“So I can summon The World Destroyer!”
“NARUTO NO!” All three yelled.
“Aww! But why?”
“ I think you are forgetting the fact that we live here?!”
“Oh, right. I’ll just summon the normal Destroyer.”
“….You know what? You be you. I’m going to go take a nap; no one told me that getting a genin team would be so exhausting.” Kakashi said tiredly .