The Fox and Boar

Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto or make any money off of writing this story.

A/N: Read, review, enjoy.

‘XXXXX’ – Naruto’s mind


The Transition

The moment the seal was removed, the Kyuubi rushed forward, as if trying to get past his jailor. For a brief moment, Naruto panicked. He thought that the kitsune had betrayed him, although it shouldn’t have been a shock if he had. The demon had made numerous death threats in the past…

But the Kyuubi knew what he had to do. He strode directly into Naruto, not slowing for a second. The moment that their spiritual bodies touched, an explosion occurred. Not just in Naruto’s mind, but outside as well. The shockwaves shook the mountain. People in the distance felt the tremor strike through the earth, wondering what just happened. In her office, Tsunade looked up from her nap, shaken by the mild earthquake. Something deep down told her Naruto was behind it. That was their chakras combining. Unlike in the past, when it was only temporary, this new power would last a lifetime.

As soon as the initial shock wore off, Naruto started convulsing uncontrollably. His eyes were opened wide staring at the cave’s ceiling. The demon’s energy synthesized a spark throughout Naruto’s body. He felt it roll over his limbs, out from his stomach. It crossed over his heart, around his lungs, starving him of oxygen, even though he was breathing somehow. He still shook. The pain was unimaginable. Not even the dream of the Akatsuki could amount to this. It was nothing more than an annoying gnat when compared to this new pain. It was torturing his insides.

Blood dripped from his eye sockets and nose. He coughed as he kneeled over. More of the crimson liquid splattered on the white stone as he struggled to stay alive. His innards felt as if they were melting away. Naruto fell to the ground, collapsing in a heap while the evil chakra ate away at his own. Then something new started moving in his body. Something familiar yet terrifying.

If the boy thought the atmosphere was heavy during his training, it was nothing compared to what it was now. The energy smashed small pebbles and stones into the ground around him, creating miniscule craters. Now a dome was being created. It was smaller than the one caused when he used the fourth tail, but lethal nonetheless. Anything near him was disintegrated into ash, leaving a circle around as the wind was dragged into the small vortex of terror. Leaves, branches, stones all of it was destroyed instantly when confronted by the chakra. His body was still being attacked by the Kyuubi’s powerful energy and the pain just refused to subside. His muscles were torn and repaired, then torn again, only to repeat the cycle.

Naruto flailed on the cold ground, blood still coming up when he took a breath. He lost what little was on his stomach in the process. All of his energy was drained as his body still sent small ripples in the rock. The cave couldn’t take in much of the chakra, forcing Naruto to feel it put more pressure on his skin. Maybe it would have been better to have stayed deeper inside… At least then the air didn’t have to be so concentrated.

For over twenty minutes, Naruto was unsure if he was alive or not. Everything was so…white. So pure. So innocent. It was surreal. He tried desperately to stand. To move around or even flip over, but it really was useless. His body wanted to give up so much. But his willpower, his spirit refused to surrender into the darkness that threatened to cloud his vision. Chakra was purged from his near lifeless form as it tried to heal every part of his damaged body. Almost everything was aching. He still couldn’t open his eyes…

The Kyuubi faced only darkness. He knew something like this would happen. It was so cold and desolate, but for a demon, it seemed comforting. Unlike Naruto who wanted the best for others, the kitsune couldn’t care less. Had the fox not been foretold that he too would have perished, he wouldn’t have even brought up the prophecy to the child. Yet he somehow began to feel this need to help him build up over time. He knew that his life was unimportant to fate, if there was such a force. Kami would punish him as he or she saw fit but the demon didn’t care. He was immortal, until that night when a man locked him away into a mortal being. Such a pathetic life form could only do so much, but this punishment was worse than the fear of somehow being punished by some imaginary person. He could die. Fear of death was always a good punishment.

In both of their paths of vision, they could make the other out. Naruto saw the mammoth form of the Kyuubi, his tails waving malevolently in the gray sky. The Kyuubi saw a rodent, a piece of scum that should be eliminated from the face of the earth. But it never moved, it never died, it never left him alone. Anger grew in the beast. The fact that a lowly human could toy with him like this was pushing his patience to no end. They saw each other across the deserted field perfectly. Then suddenly both beings converged. Another chaotic burst of energy erupted from the body of Naruto in the real world. This one, although not as large, was still powerful. Where the first one sent red and blue chakra into the air, this one released white and black.

After that moment, everything settled down. All was calm and tranquil for the first time in almost a month inside the boy’s mind. Too bad he wasn’t conscious to comprehend this.

The strain on his muscles, being mutilated and recreated several times over hit Naruto full force. At least he retained one of the Kyuubi’s more useful traits. But now, his head was searing with pain. The vicious chakra had made cuts over his flesh, each stinging as the protective bubble of red energy fell, allowing the wind to move over it. Slowly, the cave was taking in the chakra. It didn’t matter, Naruto had lost all sense of feeling and where he was long ago. The only one of his senses that seemed to be working normally was his sense of pain.

All of the noise vanished. Naruto sat on a white floor. There was nothing near him. He was alone. For the first time in over fifteen years, he was alone. Then a dark spot form on his unblemished floor. It was repulsive to him. Something that shouldn’t be allowed to defile his perfectly clean place of solitude, but it did. The room divided into light and dark, white and black. Naruto still sat in the center, watching at the colors began to sway, dancing around him. Both stopped simultaneously, creating a balanced circle.

On one side, there was the dot that appeared just before the sudden divide, and on the exact opposite sat a white twin. Yin and Yang.

Before when Naruto’s mind had been a sewer of doubt and fear, now there lay a balanced circle of unity. Each side gave and took, completing the heavenly system.

In the real world laid the body of Uzumaki Naruto, a boy who had just merged his body and mind with that of a demon to help protect the people he loved. The boy, not even an adult, clung to life as his body fought to accept the new breed of chakra that pumped throughout it. On both shoulders, half of a Taoist symbol was inscribed upon the skin. Each side held limitless power and unknown weaknesses. Across his stomach, the orb of unity was complete.

---

Naruto woke up several days later. All of his body felt like it had been burned then frozen. The pain lingered but it was far less intense. He moved one finger; energy pulsed up and down his arm. It was different. Not exactly comforting but at the same time it wasn’t agonizing. He pulled his body out of the cave. Each movement left him nearly exhausted but he carried on.

The moon hung overhead, illuminating the area. The dirt had strange waves in it leading from the cave. Naruto kept moving, ignoring the oddity until he was under a tree. Here he could breathe easily. The mineral inside the cave had done a number on him, it must have overloaded on his chakra by now. He propped himself up, looking into the dark entrance.

“How long have I been out of it…?” he asked out loud. He half-expected a reply from the Kyuubi but wasn’t sure if he was still able to communicate with him. The weakened blond looked at his body. All of his clothes were tattered, missing entire sections in some areas. He felt different. Something new was inside him, and although his natural curiosity urged him to find out what, he wanted nothing more than to sleep. So he did.

XXXXX

The Kyuubi was surrounded by darkness again, this time it wasn’t as homey. The seal had been removed, that much was a given, but now what was containing him inside the brat? It wasn’t any type of normal sealing method from what he could tell. Naruto was still too inadequate in that field of ninjutsu to pull off something of this magnitude. The most the idiot could accomplish was summoning and storing. Then what was it?

The ferocious beast looked up into the somber sky. Gray clouds overcast the area, creating a perpetual nighttime. It felt as if the clouds were part of this place. As if they were part of the ceiling or the floor. Everything unified seamlessly into wherever the demon was. All of it was connected, including him.

He called out, only to find that he was silenced. No sound was given off.

‘Where am I?’ The Kyuubi asked himself internally. It was obvious that this was Naruto’s mind, but it wasn’t the same as last time. He couldn’t impose his will on his host with his fearsome chakra. He wasn’t even certain if the dunce could hear what he said, if he could manage to speak something aloud.

XXXXX

Naruto felt sunlight bathe him in warmth. He opened to eyes to see a partially lit up mountain side. He didn’t think to bring a watch and his ability to judge accurate time based on the sun’s position in the sky was lacking. It didn’t matter, anyway. He felt great. At least great compared to what he felt before. The throbbing had stopped and his muscles no longer burned or ached in pain. The scrapes along his arms and legs were healed.

Then he fully remembered what he did. It all came rushing back to him. ‘I merged with the Kyuubi.’ From what he could tell, everything seemed to be the same as before. He examined every bit of his body, looking for any new…modifications. Then he felt it. His left index finger grazed over his right shoulder. A twisted semi circle was defined on the tanned appendage. He reached over with the opposite hand and felt the same, just reverse.

‘Something’s not right here…’ Naruto wondered to himself. It was definitely odd to have a prominent marking like this. It could be a seal or something that hindered his chakra. It reminded him of the cursed mark that Sasuke bore after Orochimaru’s attack. He just hoped it didn’t have similar powers…

The blond ran towards the south. For some reason he could hear water nearby. All of his senses must have been enhanced by the Kyuubi. He could hear the small stream trickle a meager amount of water down the hillside. In the clear water, Naruto got a better look at his ‘tattoo.’ On each side there was half of a Taoist circle. On his left, white, the right, black. Both sides curved up along his skin. The small shape was no longer than his thumb but it still confused Naruto as what it represented. The symbol was so entrancing. They way both flowed smoothly to coincide together, even if they were separated on either side of him.

Naruto looked into the clear sky. He could sense something amazing about his power. He hadn’t even gotten the chance to test it out, which really irked him. Damn distracting tattoo…

He charged his legs with chakra and gave it a little test drive. The results were astonishing. His speed had improved greatly, although that could have been from his training place. Still, he made it back to the mouth of the tunnel with a frenzy of leaves and dirt flying behind him. He’d probably better not do that in close areas again.

‘Time to get back to work, I guess.’

He entered the cave, his eyes instantly adjusted to the light. That was new. He went to where he had set camp, wondering what he should do. There was no telling how long he had been out of contact with the village, he thought of maybe checking up on them. In the end though, it was a stupid idea. He had very little time to waste.

‘Maybe I should try some of my old techniques…the last time I used a Rasengan this far into the cave, it dissipated too quickly to really test it out.’

He pulled up a summoning scroll and imbedded a weak amount of chakra into it. A new uniform popped out. He changed, throwing his old clothes to the side for now. He heard a sizzling sound coming from his arms. Looking down, he found the source of it, his markings. Each side glowed with its respective color and cleared the cloth out of the way in the shape of a small circle, despite there not being the other half to completely fill the empty hole.

‘That was weird…’ Now that he thought about it, there was no cloth covering the shapes when he first woke up. Maybe it would be best to leave it alone for now.

He turned his attention back to his task at hand, creating a new Rasengan. He moved the chakra through his coils and made it spiral in his palm. All of the Kyuubi’s chakra control exercises made it perfect without a clone now. Possibly the Oodama Rasengan too. ‘I’ll have to try that soon…’

Naruto noticed something weird. Since he was only making it in his right hand without the assistance of his left, the sphere grew darker as more chakra was being added into it. He completed the technique, marveling at the little potential hell storm in his hand. It was intimidating even for him to witness, and he’d mastered the jutsu years ago. ‘But that was with my old chakra…’

The chakra held strong, refusing to die out under the demands of the cave. Even when Naruto quit pushing the chakra into the ball, the Rasengan maintained its form and power. It was a self sustaining weapon of destruction now, unlike its predecessor which gave out after a few seconds of chakra starvation. ‘This will be useful. Very useful.’

‘I wonder if the other hand does the same…’ Naruto forced the technique to stop, now focusing on the center of his left palm. He imagined another sphere as his body sent chakra to create a new devastating ball of death. This one started off small but soon flourished as more energy was pumped into it. Unlike the other one, this Rasengan grew lighter in color, giving off a much more benevolent aura about it. It was soothing, and much nicer to maintain. The last one seemed like it wanted to devour more chakra to make it stronger while the present seemed content with what it had.

‘What’ll happen if I use both hands to shape the chakra…?’ Of course this new idea needed to be tested, otherwise this ‘practice’ couldn’t be considered done. Instead of placing chakra into the already round ball in his hand, Naruto dismissed the jutsu into the air. Now he placed both hands in front of him, allowing each one to dangle idly until he was ready to begin. Slowly at first, the chakras combined in the space between his fingertips. It shifted in the air and smoothed over. The sphere was growing in size with each passing second. Inside the orb, the light and dark were fighting for dominance. Each had equal ground, but the chakra from either hand was spiraling around unevenly. He focused on the ball and soon it equalized, forming yet another perfect Rasengan. This one was neither light nor dark in color though, but clear. That confused Naruto, since he was knew for a fact that white and black made gray.

An idea struck the genin, why not test the strength of his new creation? He ran outside and looked around, careful to not let the spiraling orb in his hands disappear. This one needed attention; otherwise it threatened to collapse on itself. The other two worked fine when he quit feeding it chakra, but this one desired more to keep its power. He spotted a boulder in his peripheral vision and launched the ball at it, making sure to keep it in both hands.

The winds changed as everything was sucked into the vortex created by the newly improved Rasengan. Anything within a twenty foot radius was blown back, or destroyed, depending on how close it was. The gray cloud sent up was unsettling. It was as if a bomb had just gone off in his hands. “Whoa! That was AWESOME!”

Even though the explosion was remarkable in power, Naruto felt nothing from it except the initial blast. But there were no burn marks, no scrapes from the deadly chakra, nothing. Even a fully charged normal Rasengan would leave some type of mark or something, but this one left him unscathed. Then again, this newest one was a watered down version. But still, the combo Rasengan was truly remarkable.

Naruto pulled himself out of the crater created in the ground. ‘Damn that was powerful. Good thing I don’t have to worry about getting hit with one of those.’ The blond chuckled softly to himself. Then he fell down into the dirt. This new chakra would take some getting used to…