A/N: Okay, as of the 1st of Oct this is the final version of chapter one. I HAD to change a detail in the first conversation that Naruto and Akari had to coincide with a plot point in chapter 16. Yeah crazy but I did it. I have also changed a part of Akari's conversation with Toshiro in chapter 5, just in case you are a veteran reader.

Also, in general I will use English over Japanese except in terms that sound better in Japanese. Like Rasengan or Chidori. Who goes around crying One Thousand Birds? Crazy.

Chapter One

A dull throbbing pain in his head was the first thing that young Naruto registered while coming to from the depths of unconsciousness.

'Ugh,' was the first thought that came to his mind quickly followed by 'Why is my head sore?'

"You're finally awake. It's about time,"

The deep rumbling voice took Naruto by surprise. He opened his eyes and found himself sitting in shallow water. Looking around Naruto didn't recognise any of his surroundings. In front of him was a large cage and high above a large red eye was staring down at him.

"I would not have drawn you to your mindscape unless I had to. I'm not sure how but you were taken from the Leaf village."

This was a lot of information to take in. Naruto knew that he was smarter than other six year olds and he was clued in enough to realise that he probably shouldn't showcase this intelligence otherwise the villagers might find a new reason to hate him. 'Not that I know exactly why they hate me. I only understand that people seem to hate me since a demon attacked the village on the day I was born.'

Naruto got to his feet but didn't move any closer to the cage. "Who are you? What do you mean by mindscape?"

"I am the Nine Tailed Fox. Your consciousness is currently here, in your mindscape. It is the only way we can meet face to face. "Time" flows differently here since we are essentially operating at the speed of thought. This means that barely any time in the real world has passed since we started talking."

When Naruto heard this, he knew this was an excellent chance where he might be able to get some answers. "How are you here? Are you inside me? Why did this happen?"

Kurama thought hard, 'I don't think explaining everything about the seal now is a good idea. He seems like a good kid, at least from what I have managed to see through his eyes but knowing that I share his pain would give him too much leverage over me. Perhaps if he earns my respect I can trust him with the truth.' Even though his former host, Kushina Uzumaki's love for her family had managed to rekindle a small amount of compassion inside him, Kurama was still too wary of trusting humans with the truth, let alone his name.

Instead Kurama answered, "I was sealed inside of you on the day you were born by the Fourth Hokage. I was trapped here against my will and you are my jailer. You should release me from here because it's the right thing to do."

Naruto raised his right hand to his chin, deep in thought, 'He says the Fourth sealed him inside of me against the Fox's will. However I know that the Fourth was a great hero and wouldn't do this without a reason.' A sudden brainwave struck and Naruto's eyes widened in realisation. 'I have the Fox sealed inside me. The villagers call me a "Demon Child" and always seemed to hate me. On the day I was born, a demon attacked the village and lots of people died. I think the Nine Tails was behind the attack and that's why everyone hates me. Now, all I want to know now is why the Fourth chose me.'

Naruto looked up at the Fox accusingly, "Don't lie to me. I've figured it out; you are the one that attacked the village. I'm guessing the Fourth stopped you by sealing you inside me. I don't know why the Fourth chose me but if I let you free you that means the Fourth picked the wrong person. He's a hero and I can't let him down."

Naruto had grown tired over the conversation and wanted to leave his mindscape. No sooner had he thought about leaving when a strange feeling began in his belly and Naruto opened his eyes, finding his body sitting on dry ground, slumped against a wall behind him as if he had been sleeping.

xXx

The sound of footsteps could be heard and Naruto raised his head. Looking up in the dim light, Naruto could see an imposingly tall woman with shoulder length brown hair. She was separated from Naruto by thick steel bars. She wore full length black combat pants with a mesh armour shirt underneath a gray combat vest. A thin scar ran from the left corner of her mouth down to her chin.

"Listen up brat, my name is Akari and I am in charge. You will do what I say or I will hurt you," The lady's voice was rough, almost as if she yelled a lot.

Naruto nodded in fear. While the villagers' eyes had always held traces of anger or even fear when they looked at him, they never had the predatory look that this lady was giving him. As if she wanted to stalk him in the darkness and kill him. 'I have no idea where I am but I really need to get back to the village. I'll take angry looks over this lady any day.'

Naruto looked around. It looked like he was in a cell, just like the ones in the Uchiha Police Station. A small bed of straw was in the left back corner with a small toilet in the right. Other than that, the room was bare and small; Naruto could probably cross it with six large steps.

Suddenly the combined stress of being kidnapped, being in fear of Akari and the alarm that his life had been completely changed and that no-one would care that he was missing became too much and he started to cry. His wails echoed throughout his cell and greatly annoyed Akari.

"Stop crying, it won't work on me and the sound of it is irritating," ordered Akari.

When Naruto didn't stop, she sighed than formed a Tiger hand sign. The floor beneath Naruto quickly heated at an accelerated pace and Naruto gave a sharp cry of pain as parts of his body got burned. He quickly got to his feet as tears poured down his face, in an attempt to escape the searing stone that was the floor of his cell.

He couldn't help it; the pain had shocked him to his core. Naruto continued crying but at an even louder volume while hopping on his right foot, trying to escape the heat.

Akari let out a very annoyed huff; "Look!" she said sharply, "Stop crying! Now! If you keep making a racket I'll just leave the floor as it is permanently. Do you want more pain brat!?"

Naruto stiffened upon hearing her question. 'That really hurt but she says she will leave it like that? I have to try and be quiet.' Biting down on his lower lip to muffle the sobs, Naruto covered his mouth with both of his hands. Tears were running thick and fast but barely a sound could be heard from Naruto now. With Naruto quickly quieting, Akari realised her Fire jutsu and the floor returned to a normal temperature.

Akari gave a thin but humourless smile, "Good, that's a lot better. Now you need to know that you are my prisoner. Our shinobi took you away from Konoha without a trace. Now I'm going to ask you some questions and I need you to answer with the truth got it?"

Naruto nodded again, eyes downcast and still teary.

"Good you're a fast learner. Now tell me your name, age and how many friends and family you have," Akari said in response.

'So they don't know anything about me, or do they and want to catch me lying? I guess I'll give some answers but not everything, I should try and lie a little bit.'

"My name is Naruto Tanaka and I am six years old." Naruto replied softly.

"And your family?" asked Akari.

"They are ninja. I don't know where they are but they'll look for me."

Akari let out a positive hum "Well that's good news, hopefully that means any rescue attempts will be minimal at best. We just have to worry about concerned family members; we deal with them all the time. Here's the gist brat, you are in 'The Pit'. It's an underground fighting arena where prisoners face each other in combat to the death. Once you start a fight, the only way to win is to kill your opponent. That's it. Any questions?"

Naruto's mind was working at a mile a minute but thought, 'I have so many questions but I don't think she will answer all of them. What is the most important thing right now?'

"How did you manage to get passed the Leaf's security to kidnap me? Also will I be able to get my freedom?"

"Well I can't see any harm in telling you, I doubt you will live through your first fight. Most newbies don't. Our top ninja for kidnapping is Mako. He is highly talented in infiltration but that's about it. However he is a man of, how do I put this delicately? Unusual tastes. Which is why he targets children, and other people of similar tastes exist everywhere and he is able to contact them when he needs a favour.

"As for your freedom, no you will not be able to earn it. If a member of our audience takes a liking to you, they can put forth a bid to buy you but you won't be a free person again, unless the powers that be decide otherwise."

As Akari finished speaking, she reached into a pouch on her belt and pulled out a key. Stepping forward, she unlocked Naruto's cell door and swung it open.

"Your first fight is now. Remember the only way out is by killing your opponent." Akari gave him savage grin as she pulled Naruto to his feet and marched out of his cell and down a corridor.

They came to a large area that had some benches and long tables. It looked like a place where some people might gather and eat but Naruto wasn't able to get a good look before he was roughly directed to his left and through an open doorway into The Pit.

Soft earth was before him and several rows of seats were arranged in a ring above the fighting arena. The Pit was around thirty meters in circumference with a three meter high concrete wall separating the stands from the Pit. The seats that housed the audience looked to be around half full, maybe housing around one hundred people or so.

On the other side of the Pit, Naruto saw his first opponent. His opponent looked to be a little older than Naruto, maybe a nine or even ten year old boy. The sound of metal grating upon stone grabbed his attention and Naruto turned, seeing thick steel bars lower over the doorway he had just been forced though. The call to fight was announced at a loud volume, which was met with cheers from the crowd.

xXx

"Hey Naruto, I can help you here. There is no kid in the world that is able to match me. Let me fight and you can save yourself a lot of pain." Kurama said, a little careful in his wording so that he wouldn't spook the boy who was far smarter than he looked.

Naruto was dubious, 'You already tried to trick me into freeing you, which goes against what the Fourth would've wanted. I'm not going to listen to you.'

Naruto's opponent charged straight away, pulling back his right arm ready to punch Naruto in the face as he crossed the distance. Naruto quickly rolled to his left to avoid the punch but his roll was sloppy and gave his opponent time to catch up to him. Naruto felt arms circle his waist and was suddenly thrown to the ground hard on his back. The wind left his lungs as he instinctively brought his arms up to protect his face. Still trying to figure out how this had happened, a sudden knee slamming into his sternum made Naruto cry out in pain. He tried to roll to his left to retch but the weight of his opponent weighed him down. A small amount of bile rose up and splattered onto the chest of the boy on top of him. The boy gave a grunt of disgust and pulled off him to avoid anymore mess.

Naruto used this opportunity to roll onto his left side into a foetal position gasping in pain. He was savagely kicked onto his stomach and felt his right arm wrenched around behind his back and Naruto's whole world exploded into pain.

"You are going to pay for spewing on me worm. I haven't seen you around here so this must be your first fight. Too bad for you, I've won six fights, no one is going to kill Joshirio!" declared the boy arrogantly while flexing Naruto's arm even higher up his back. "I'm going to make you suffer before I kill you!"

Naruto was already screaming at the top of his voice in agony, eyes clenched in a futile attempt to escape the pain. He struggled desperately but Joshirio was too strong for him to move. Almost impossibly, his arm was forced to go even higher and Naruto thought he was going to die from this torture.

Abruptly the pain vanished and Naruto opened his eyes in shock. He was lying in shallow water. 'Great, back in my mindscape,'

"So have you changed your mind yet kid?" asked the Fox. His tone sounded even but it wavered ever so slightly.

'Well he is strong. He has to be to fight and kill the Fourth Hokage. I don't know how to fight at all. I need his experience but I don't know if I can trust him.'

"What, are you going to tell me how to fight? I can't get out of this arm hold that I'm in." asked Naruto.

"I can help train you to become stronger. It is only fitting that my jailer becomes strong. We both benefit here. I do have a reputation to uphold after all." the Nine Tailed Fox said.

'There is something else but I don't know what. Surely if I die, he gets free. I need to figure out what it is but right now I have no other choice. I can't win without his help.'

"Fine, let's work together. I know you are hiding something but I hope you are being honest when you say you want to help me. So long as you don't try to harm me or anyone I call my friend, we can work together."

The Nine Tails grumbled a little bit. This brat was trying to play him but that wasn't really important. While in time passed differently here compared to the real world, the fact was that Naruto's body was still in pain. The entire time Kurama had been trying to ignore the agony from his host's body but not having much success.

If it had been his own body, Kurama wouldn't have even felt it but this pain was all Naruto's which meant Kurama's pain was both mental and proportional. His own sanity would not last much longer at this rate.

"As long as you agree to not intentionally harm me in return, I agree!" Kurama stated in a growl. Hiding this pain was harder than he thought it would be.

A brief light flashed around the mindscape and suddenly Naruto was back in the real world. Pain exploded into his conscience when red chakra engulfed his body and Naruto's struggles to get free became much stronger. Jerking his arm free, Naruto could feel the Fox's presence in his mind.

"Quick, flare my chakra outward to make that brat fly away and get some space," the Nine Tail's said urgently.

'I don't know how to do that. I don't even know what chakra is.' thought Naruto.

There was a pause than the Nine Tailed Fox said "We have a deal to not hurt each other. I also agreed to help you. If you let me have control for the rest of the fight I can save us. After that I will explain everything I can."

'I agree with that,' replied Naruto.

Naruto could feel his body moving in a detached kind of way, like he was far away from it. The Fox flared out his chakra and Naruto felt Joshirio's body fly off him. Quickly getting to his feet, Naruto felt himself turn and run towards Joshirio's still recovering body. With the Fox strengthening his muscles, Naruto picked up his opponent turning Joshirio to face away from him, than wrapping his left arm around Joshirio's throat, Naruto began to squeeze. Joshirio began to panic and had both hands on Naruto's arm, trying to loosen it to get some air. However the Fox had made Naruto too strong for the young boy and soon he stopped his desperate actions and went limp.

As soon as Joshirio had died, the Fox had returned control to Naruto. Naruto realised that the weight was too much for him to hold and dropped Joshirio's body. Pain still lanced through his right shoulder and he felt himself fall to his knees in shock. Naruto looked at the body next to him, staring into his lifeless eyes. 'That's not normal. His eyes shouldn't look like that there should be, something there. Is he really dead? Oh my god he is, what have I done?'

His thoughts got cut off as he once again vomited but this time in disgust. Before he had time to feel any worse, the sound of clapping could be heard. Naruto looked up, the crowd was applauding him. He felt sick with them and with himself. The events of everything he had suffered today caught up to him and he fainted.

Finding himself back in his mindscape, Naruto sat shivering in the water. "Alright kid, I guess I will have to explain some stuff before trying to teach you."

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A/N: Phew, okay. Added some rather important details in chapter 16 that needed to be addressed, so I edited chapter 1 and chapter 5 to reflect this. Hope you understand.

As usual, please review, I live for constructive criticism, I always strive to improve my work.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.