Naruto 1. Chapter 1

Curiosity

Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

There is one question that is asked by every intelligent being at some point in their existence. "Where did I come from?" There are some who would answer that they came from where all beings came from: Their mother. There are, however, many more who delve deeper than that, asking where they had truly come from, because it would be impossible for every mother to come from a mother because there could have only been a single mother in the beginning. This mother was Kami, and even she had asked the same question.

It was that question that had led Kami to create Lucifer, a being that was exactly like her in all but two ways. The first way was gender; Lucifer was male. The second way was that he lacked the power of creation, and gained the power of destruction. Because Lucifer was not the same as her, Kami knew that Lucifer had failed to show her the answer to her question. Kami then created animals, which had a diminished power of creation, in which they could only create more of themselves. Lucifer, who was angry to be called a failure, bestowed the power of destruction on the animals, which from then on needed to devour each other for sustenance.

Kami saw the change Lucifer had caused, and formed a theory. What if she had changed from something else into what she was now? It was thus that Kami created a being of unlimited potential: the human. She gave humans the ability to learn and better themselves. By doing this, however, she also gave them a sense of self, as well as the ability to rebel. Most humans did not want to shape themselves into Kami's image, because by doing so, they would be giving up their sense of self. Some embraced her, however, and became angels. Lucifer, still angry at Kami, forced the power of destruction upon the remaining humans as he had done to the animals. The humans, angry at being cursed so, shunned Lucifer as they had done Kami. This went on for centuries, both Kami and Lucifer trying to sway the humans to their respective causes.

Slowly, humans that refused the greater beings grew in power until they became demons, who used their new combined power of destruction and creation to help their weaker brethren refuse the two greater beings and grow into demons themselves. Kami had her angels attack and destroy the demons while Lucifer swayed the animals to do the same. The weaker humans saw their protectors being destroyed and did what should have been impossible; they brought forth a new power from inside themselves, and they called it hope. Hope gave the humans determination, and they harnessed the power of the universe itself, which was far older than even both Kami and Lucifer. They called this science, and they used it to turn the elements against Kami and Lucifer. The two beings quailed against this new force and were pushed back.

Thus, humans and demons enjoyed several era of prosperity, until the demons slowly began to die out from old age. Seeing that no new demons were being created, because the humans no longer needed such power, the demons became fearful of disappearing. Lucifer, realizing he could use this to his benefit, offered the demons eternal life in exchange for joining him. The demons agreed and laid siege upon the humans, who fell to the assault of their once trusted allies. The demons ravaged the earth in their war against the humans, and it was then that something no one could have foreseen happened. The universe lashed out, destroying all but a few humans and even fewer demons. Kami and Lucifer, horrified that their respective sources of purpose were so close to extinction, called a truce and began to help the lesser creatures rebuild. Several hundred years later, the Naruto universe was as we know it, and a great demon was sealed into a small human child. Though no one knew it, Kami's question would soon be answered, and nothing would ever be the same.

A/N: This is an experiment of mine. If you like it, tell me, and I shall update.


	2. Chapter 2

Curiosity

Chapter One

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

The Shikifuuin was not a containment seal, as many believed, but actually a contract between the Shinigami and his summoner. It was complex in its working, but simple in its results. In exchange for the summoner's soul and eternal service to the Shinigami, the Shinigami was to fulfill a single wish chosen by the summoner, which could not be manipulated to backfire on the summoner no matter the circumstances. In this case, the summoner's wish was for the Kyuubi to be sealed into his young babe. Normally, the Shinigami [1] would have no problem with such a request.

But the summoner had unknowingly added on to his wish, though he had not voiced a second request. The summoner had inadvertently wished for peace between the humans and demons, with the sealing as a metaphor. The Shinigami, being death, did not want for this to happen, but had been forced to comply with it despite his misgivings. It was thus that the Shinigami sat upon his throne, staring down at the impudent soul of the summoner. After some thought, he decided that if the demons and humans would have peace between them, he could give them a common threat.

Minato silently wondered what he had gotten himself into this time.

* * *

Kami had watched as one of Lucifer's greatest servants fell to the greatness that was her humans, and couldn't help but swell in pride. Though they were misguided and resisted her will, they were still her creations; her greatest creations. Technically, Lucifer was too, but he was a mistake; he was something that should have never come to be.

Banishing the thought of her despicable adversary the back of her mind, she pondered the progress she had made thus far. Her angels were closer to her than the humans were, she knew, but they were still not the same. She had to continue to search the humans that shunned her for the one that might answer her question. So she sighed, and thought of how much easier things would be if they would simply submit. [2]

She then turned her interest upon the one that the demon had been sealed into and voiced her question, "What would happen if he ascended?"

* * *

The Sandaime Hokage was a jaded, but kind old man who bore the weight of the world on his shoulders day by day. He was strong, hailed as the God of Shinobi and once known as one of the greatest ninja in the elemental continent. People respected and admired him. Many feared him. There were times though, that for all of his skill and strength, he had no idea what to do. Staring into the bright blue eyes of the two-days-old Uzumaki Naruto, he decided that this was one of those times.

Sarutobi held the child gently in his arms, thinking over the situation in his mind. Minato had wished for his son to be known as a hero, the great jailor of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, but Sarutobi had seen the grief and frustration in the faces of his people, and knew that the knowledge of the demon's fate would be ill received. He also knew that if the child truly held the great demon inside him, there would be no way to keep the secret for all of his life. There would be something; a flare of demonic chakra, physical changes, strange behavior, something too suspicious to make up an excuse for. The whisker marks on his cheeks were telling enough already!

He thought for hours, until he finally decided that it would be best just to keep it secret for as long as possible. It would at least give him more time to search for a solution to the problem.

* * *

Naruto had been six when it happened. He and Hinata had been asleep in the Hyuuga compound when the Kumo ninja had silently stolen the girl from her bed. The small noises were enough for Naruto's advanced hearing to pick up, and he had awoken to see his friend being slung over the intruder's shoulder. A kunai had lodged itself in his throat before he could scream, and they were gone. As he lay there bleeding, he had wonder why everything was going red instead of black.

_He stood in front of the massive cage, two huge gleaming red eyes staring down at him. All was silent, apart from the breathing of the creature in front of him. A wall of red rushed through the bars and all around him in an instant. For a moment, he felt as if he were drowning, then the red was pushed back into the cage and the beast's roar of rage shook the ground from beneath his feet, and he fell._

When he woke up, he would learn that he had chased down and killed the Kumo ninja in a blind rage, red chakra shrouding him and negating all of the ninja's attacks. This, combined with the familiar feeling of the Kyuubi's chakra spreading throughout the village, had led to his secret becoming common knowledge. He had spent that day crying into the Hokage's chest while the old man tried to console him. Hiashi would later formally thank him for saving his daughter, and tell him that he could consider the Hyuuga compound a safe haven from anything the villagers could throw at him. Unwilling to see his friends suffer for his problems, Naruto never took him up on the offer.

A/N: Alright, so this is a little more backing to the main events of the story. The next chapter will be much larger; I'm going to shoot for ten pages. You can expect it late this Sunday. I beg of you, nag the crap out of me until then, because my work ethic sucks and I need people to yell at me for things to get done.

(1) Lucifer took on a new name with the coming of the New Age, because it would be easier for him to manipulate the humans if they did not associate the "Shinigami' with 'Lucifer'.

(2)The humans refuse to become angels because they do not want to lose their sense of self. This is the ability to change; Kami and her angels will never change throughout all of their existence. Their ideals, thoughts, and desires are caught in a continuous loop. This is what allowed her to pursue the answer to The Question for so long without becoming sidetracked. When her question is answered and this loop is broken, no one knows what will happen.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

It wasn't supposed to be a simple task. Naruto had known from the start that extracting the Forbidden Scroll from the Hokage's own office would be extremely difficult to do without being caught. He supposed that it was like that for a reason; he did have to make up a whole year's worth of slacking, after all.

It was after extensive planning that Naruto set foot into the Hokage Tower. After putting up a simple henge, he set his plan into motion. Ironically, the sneakiest approach was to walk in right through the front door. Every other entrance was guarded by ANBU; the main entrance at the base of the tower was only guarded by two measly chuunin, who were easily distracted by a bit of ruckus across the street. Tricking a woman into thinking a passerby had groped her wasn't that difficult.

So while the two chuunin tried to calm the raging female and interrogate the confused male, Naruto quietly pushed open one of the large double-doors and looked around. A single attendant sat at the front desk, looking over several papers. He walked over and calmly asked to make an appointment with the council to inquire about expanding his ramen franchise into Konoha. He was promptly given several documents which he quickly falsified and handed back to the attendant. He was then told that the council would see about scheduling a meeting and that he would receive a notification in the mail. Naruto then sheepishly asked directions to the nearest bathroom, and the secretary giggled a little while she gave them to him. He walked down the recommended hallway and then promptly split off of the path she had explained to him and made his way up. Several minutes later, he found himself in the top floor of the tower.

He examined the plain white hallway before him, searching for anything out of the ordinary. He had dodges several shinobi patrols on his way up, and he held no doubt that there was more than met the eye about the area around him. He noted that the lighting was dim; dim light meant that trip wires wouldn't be easily visible. Forming a single seal, Naruto performed on of the many nameless jutsu that the academy taught; this one created a single flame on the tip of his finger, meant to light fires. The yellow light of the flame glinted off of several metal wires that criss-crossed the hallway in front of him, and Naruto grinned a little, thinking that this was his own brand of genius.

He positioned his feet against the walls on either side of him and slowly climbed to the ceiling. There was just enough room for him to pass over them, if he didn't fall in the process. So he moved slowly forward, keeping enough pressure on the walls so that he wouldn't slip. It took several long moments to reach the end of the hallway, and by the time he was able to drop back down to the floor, he was sweating. He created another small flame, and felt slight relief that the next hallway wasn't filled with snares. He silently made his way to where he knew the Hokage's office to be, and was startled to find himself in a dead end. He quickly realized that a genjutsu was hiding the door from him. He couldn't dispel it, so he just felt at the wall until he grasped the knob of the door and opened it. The old oak door seemed to phase out of the wall, and Naruto smiled to himself as he walked through the non-existent barrier. The office was thankfully empty, as Mizuki had said it would be.

Naruto closed the door behind him and paused to congratulate himself on getting so far. He took a quick glance around, and sighed heavily when he realized that finding the scroll wasn't going to be easy.

He knew that the scroll wouldn't be out in the open, so the first thing he did was search the walls for a hidden safe or door. When he didn't find one, he moved on to searching the floor. After a bit of groping, he caught the edge of a loose board and gave it a yank. It came up easily, but there wasn't a scroll to be found. Instead, there was a small black notebook. He almost put it back, but a few words scrawled across the front caught his attention. 'Property of the Yondaime.' Grinning a bit, he stowed it in one of his jacket's hidden pockets.

He set the board back into place before standing up and glancing over the room again. After a moment's deliberation, he walked around the large desk and popped one of the drawers open. He almost laughed when he saw the small scroll with the word 'Forbidden' stamped onto it. He reached in and grabbed it, but nearly fell over when it sextupled in size with a large poof of smoke. Regaining his balance, he strapped it to his back before walking over to glance out of the office window. He didn't see anyone, but he knew there would be ANBU lurking about.

The only way to get out of the building with the scroll was if everyone was occupied with something else. Reaching up to scratch the back of his neck, Naruto frowned. He couldn't create a distraction outside the room, because he had no accomplices.

With a grin, he decided that he'd just have to make a distraction in the room. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small slip of paper. The paper was inscribed with several kanji characters, and when Naruto slapped it on the wall with a generous application of chakra, the kanji began to glow. He slipped out of the room quickly, racing down a random hallway and dodging into another room. A resounding 'BOOM' signaled the detonation of the exploding note, and he waited a few moments before he forced open a window and jumped.

He free-fell several meters before he grabbed a guardrail on the side of a balcony. His shoulder wrenched slightly, but it was bearable pain and he was soon over the rail and several floors down from his previous position. He flitted down stairwells and rushed through hallways on his descent, avoiding straggling shinobi who hadn't yet made it to the site of the explosion with great amounts of stealth and luck. After a few moments of panicked sprinting, he reached the bottom floor. The front desk was void of the friendly secretary he had talked to on his way in, and he sped across the lobby unseen. He slipped out of the entrance door, taking in the empty street before him. He had hoped to be able to use crowds to his advantage, but it seemed that he wasn't quite that lucky.

The ninja wouldn't expect him to make his escape through the streets instead of over the rooftops, though, so he took off without much fear of being noticed. It took him half an hour to reach the edge of the forest without being spotted. Relatively home-free at that point, Naruto didn't bother to hide his tracks as he made his way to the meeting spot. He reached the clearing in a relatively short amount of time, and unfurled the large scroll on the grass near the small shack that served as a landmark. The first technique listed on the scroll was Kage Bunshin.

He scrunched his nose a little but looked over the description, warnings, and footnotes all the same. He was glad he did. It seemed that Kage Bunshin required little control, but a lot of chakra. The idea of a solid clone caught his interest, but the possible other applications had him hooked.

It was with that mindset that Naruto began practicing. He had made several attempts by the time he actually produced a substantial, if useless clone. Several more led to limited mobility and thought, and even more led to solid, thinking clones. After deciding that he had the jutsu down, Naruto sat down with his back against wood of the shack. He had barely had his eyes closed for a few moments when the light crunch of a person landing on the leafy ground signaled the arrival of another.

He cracked open a single eye and grinned, expecting it to be Mizuki-sensei. It wasn't. The woman before him wore a simple white combat dress, like he often saw in the front windows of kunoichi-clothing stores. The only difference between the combat dress and a regular dress was the material and the slit near the bottom of the dress for mobility. What set her apart, though, were the two white wings that grew out of her back and wrapped around her like a protective shield. It was only when she spoke that Naruto realized that he'd been caught.

"Uzumaki Naruto, I presume." She spoke in a soft tone, not what he'd expect from someone who had arrived to inform him of his failure. He sighed lightly before he responded.

"Yeah, that's me." Then he grinned, because if she hadn't told him he'd failed yet, that probably meant he had a chance to run. Just as he was preparing to speed off, though, she spoke again.

"I'm here to extend an invitation to you." He tone was still soft, but he could now distinguish the dull neutrality behind it. He didn't trust her, and not just because she might be here to capture and fail him.

"What kind of invitation?" He responded reluctantly. She seemed to rock forward slightly, and a small smile spread across her face. When she spoke again, however, the neutral tone was still there.

"I'm inviting you to ascend. Kami wishes for you to join her cause." Her smile grew wider, but Naruto found it more creepy than comforting. The fact that he was obviously talking to a nut job didn't make him feel better.

"Um, lady, this isn't funny. And I'm the best prankster in all of Konoha, so believe me, I know funny." He slowly edged himself into a position to break for it. The woman blinked, as if surprised.

"I don't see how you could relate humor to the subject at hand, Naruto-san. This is a very serious matter. Will you join Kami and her angels on the side of Light?" The woman's tone took on a questioning tinge.

"Look, Miss, I don't know what you're talking about!" Naruto yelled, but his attention was ripped away from the winged woman as someone else landed in the clearing. Naruto made out the form of Iruka-sensei in the dimming light.

"Naruto, do you have any idea what you've done?" The chuunin's voice was loud and angry, not like the woman's voice. The thought led him to glance back over to the woman, but he was surprised to find her missing.

"Look at me when I'm speaking to you, Naruto!" Iruka's yelling drew Naruto's attention back to him.

"Yeah, Iruka-sensei! I learned a jutsu from the scroll, and now I can pass and become a genin!" When he saw the dumbfounded look on Iruka's face, Naruto's danger-sense went off. His gaze flitted over the clearing, and the glint of metal caught his eye.

"Iruka-sensei, look out!" Iruka barely dodged the volley of kunai that would have otherwise pinned him to one of the many trees.

"Shit! Naruto, I need that scroll!" He easily recognized Mizuki's voice, and he placed his hand on the scroll.

"No! Naruto, don't give it to him! He's turned traitor!" Iruka's shouted warning made Naruto pause in his actions. He processed those words for a split second, then stood up and placed his hands into a cross-shaped seal.

"Kage-Bunshin." He said the words quietly, and with a few soft poofs, three copies of him stood by his side. Each had their own scroll. All four Narutos bolted in different directions, leaving Mizuki to curse and Iruka to smile in relief. Unknown to either, the original Naruto crouched on a high branch, looking down on the scene. He growled when Mizuki moved to attack Iruka with one of his massive shuriken, but was startled when a soft voice came from beside him.

"So, what is your answer?" The woman from before asked, looking at him in favor of the situation playing out below them.

"Now's not the time for this!" He growled lowly, turning his attention back to the battle.

"But it is. Your decision is more important than anything else right now." She told him. He turned to her with a snarl on his face.

"No, then! I don't have time for this right now! I need to help Iruka-sensei!" He growled out. She stared at him for a second longer before she responded.

"So be it." And like that, she disappeared. Then was nothing to mark her departure, she just wasn't there anymore. Naruto looked back down to the battle beneath, and was horrified to see Mizuki standing over his other instructor, over-sized shuriken in hand. Placing his hands into the cross-shaped seal once again, he shouted out the name of the jutsu.

"Tajuu Kage-Bunshin!" In an instant, the clearing was filled with Naruto clones, all of which immediately began their assault on the traitorous sensei. Surprised, he didn't have time to fight back before he was over run. The clones beat him into unconsciousness before dispelling with a massive poof of smoke. The real Naruto slid down the trunk of the tree he had been perched in and rushed over to Iruka.

"You okay, sensei?" Naruto asked. The instructor chuckled.

"Yeah, I'm fine. These are all superficial wounds. I might need some help getting back into the village, though." Iruka put his hand up, and Naruto promptly took it.

"No problem, sensei!" He grinned as he helped the older man up. Iruka seemed to fumble a bit before he spoke.

"Hey Naruto, close your eyes." Naruto did so, wondering what Iruka would do. A few seconds later, Iruka told him he could open his eyes, and Naruto grinned widely when he saw his teacher's bare forehead.

-----------------

Kami dismissed the female angel and sighed. Really, why were humans always so stubborn?

A/N: Not the ten pages I was shooting for, but it will do for now. I wanted to get it out before I made you all wait too long. This is the second longest chapter I've ever written. Anyway, R&R. I might come back and revise this some if it needs it.


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