Hey everyone thanks for reading my first fic. Please point out any grammar or spelling errors that I may have missed. Aslo if some things are unclear don't be afraid to ask. I would love to recieve any constructive criticism, I won't get any better without it.

For those of you who want to, I have posted the link to my livejournal on my bio. Sometimes I post my ideas on their so check it out sometime if you get curious.

UPDATE: THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN EDITED AS OF 3/26/08. The information is basically the same, I just fixed it up a bit and changed the words around.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and I'm 99.9 percent sure I never will

Chapter 1

In the wreckage of a great battle over two powers emerged a lone survivor, a baby no more than a month old lay crying within his bundled blankets and the white cloak that was spread onto the floor underneath him.

The battle itself was a clash between titans. One fighting to protect and the other fighting in a haze to destroy. A human against a demon, both powerful among their own.

The difference between the two powers was too great however. The blond man's only option to save everything he hold dear was to seal his opponent away. At the cost of his own soul, the demon was imprisoned into the body of this man's only child.

The child was destined to walk one of many paths. Each in their own way would leave a lasting impact on the world. A savoir, a nightmare, only time would tell.

His father would never know what to expect when his performed the ritual. It just needed to be done, without it his home, village, people, and son, would not survive to live another day.

The Man's actions were still unknown to his village. In fact they had simply thought that he was once again at his home mourning the loss of both his deceased wife and a son that they hadn't known survived. It had been near a month since the supposed death of the man's future family, since then the man had only to finish his daily tasks, before leaving.

The Village's Council was currently in panic trying to find a solution to the probable destruction that would soon be caused by the Kyuubi demon. Not that they had anything to worry about anymore, but they still didn't know that.

Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage and preceder of the Yondaime, was looking on, watching the chaos. He still was of great importance to the village, personal advisor to the current leader himself, well former now. Sarutobi had a gut feeling there was more to the disappearance of his successor Minato Namikaze, and it was far too strong to pass off as simple indigestion.

No matter how much Minato was heartbroken about the death of his loved ones, he would not let that cloud his judgment for the well being of the village. The Sandaime had his fears that the man would go so far as sacrificing himself to rid the village of the threat before it came upon Konoha's Gates. The death of his wife and unborn child would be more than enough to entice him into the shinigami's open arms. The Old Man had no clue how right he was.

With a deep sigh he massaged his temples, with retirement all this was supposed to go away, but he should have known that the only escape was death. Reaching into his gray robes, he pulled out a bottle of Sake. It had been a few years now since he gave up his Kage robes and now he donned robes similar to the ones he had worn when teaching his students, although these were a lot more formal in lieu to his importance in the inner workings of the village. The sake however wasn't widely accepted to drink in front of the 'Honorable Council'. Well, the council could careless at the moment what their former leader was drinking and there was no way that he would survive this whole mess sane without the mind numbing effects of alcohol.

The clash had been over for hours, and the shrill cries and been reduced to soft whimpers. Countless dangers posed the child as he lay alone in the night. The warzone he had been left in was miles away from any form of civilization.

The destruction was all over and yet at the same time it had missed a lot of things that could have been hit. A den filled with fox cubs, a branch where oddly silent baby birds sat not chirping a peep, and various other potential targets were missed. All that was left of the two actual combatants was the once billowing coat of the famous leader of Konoha. It lay under the child, who was currently flailing its limbs in desperate attempts for anyone to take him into their arms. Dressed for warmth the child wore thick layers of a onesie, but in the center of his stomach the cloth was singed and burned into a an odd pattern of an eight pointed seal. The intricate design was starting to fade off the sensitive skin of the baby's flesh, but the evidence was in the clothing. On his cheeks were three whisker marks on each side, showing the world what he now carried inside.

If there was another human around they would feel the surging of chakra surrounding the whimpering infant. Its red glow came in periodic bursts lighting up the starry sky.

The Kyuubi no Kitsune lifted his heavy eyelids. Briefly he wondered what the hell happened to him, his memory was blurry, but he could he sworn he was fighting against a man with blond hair. Wait. Man? As in human?

He faded in and out of consciousness, trying to remember exactly where he was for the umpteenth time and where was the human he fought. Why was there a human around anyways? Demons haven't willingly made contact with their kind in over a hundred years.

The darkness was getting stronger, he was losing consciousness again. Did he go drinking? Why did he feel so week and frail? How was he on his back? What happened to his tails?

'Where am I?'

A young ANBU captain watched the rapidly growing chaos of the council chamber, his sensei should have had enough time by now. It had been exactly nine hours since he had left and now it was the dead of night, the baby would need to be retrieved soon if it were to survive.

He was Hatake Kakashi, sole son of Hatake Sakumo, the once famous White Fang of Konoha. Now he was the sole live member of Team Minato. A tear almost escaped his only uncovered eye, but he quickly suppressed it. Sensei wouldn't want him to cry, and he had a responsibility to fulfill as soon as the signal was given.

His sensei's son had managed to survive his traumatic birth, even if his mother did not. They had changed the information to show that both had perished during the delivery. Assassination would ensue if the boy's existence did not remain hidden. His premature birth had left him weak for the first few weeks, making him even more of a sitting target. Only two people knew of the boy's existance, the boy's father and his student Kakashi.

When word had reached Konoha of the Kyuubi, they had only three days before the estimated destruction of the village. Plans made by the council were either suicidal or not plausible. Minato's only option was to seal it away.

Kakashi had tried to beg his sensei not to do it, telling him that he would leave his own son an orphan, that the child did not deserve to be burdened and left all alone without the warmth that only a parent could possibly give.

There was an unspoken, 'you'll leave me all alone too' that hung in the air during his speech to his sensei. Minato had simply smiled sadly at him and put a comforting arm around the boys shoulders telling him that there was no other way and that neither of them would be alone as long as they had each other.

In his own way the Yondaime of the leaf had given Kakashi a silent request, 'Watch over him in my place'. His student's only outward reaction was the smile, visible even through his mask and the gentle grasping of the sleeping infants hand. A promise was made with those simple actions, and Hatake Kakashi would not break it without a fight.

He didn't stall his sensei any longer and the man left after explaining to the boy his part in the plan, and wished him happy life. Minato had not said goodbye, only a gave him a "We'll see each other again, but that better be a long time from now."

And hopefully they would meet, decades later when Kakashi himself would already be a wrinkly old crone.

Red eyes opened again. He could hear the dripping of water, from where though? He didn't know. It was dark, there was only a dim light allowing him to see the through the darkness a bit. The damp puddles of water made him wonder if he was in a sewer, but he quickly dismissed the thought, it didn't smell that bad wherever he was.

He tried to get up, but failed. Looking at his hand he didn't see the paws that he knew he had. Instead there were five clawed fingers. The hand looked almost human, but that couldn't be. Could it?

Kyuubi just lay there staring at the ceiling. His movements were limited to the turning of his head and the twitching of his fingers. Slowly it was coming back to him though. His lost chakra was coming back to him ever so slowly. In a few hours he was able to sit up, but relied on metal bars of the structure to keep himself upright. Was he captured? Impossible. Who would be stupid enough to do that?

'Just how much longer now till I can stand?. Pitiful, I'm reduced to nothing. Super regeneration my ass.' Growling in irritation he raised his head slowly from against the bars to look around again. There was a bit more light now. It was a shade of eerie red, like that of a dark room. The source he found was a piece of parchment in the middle of the cage doors.

A seal.

If only he could study it, perhaps he could removie it and escape.

The council had been carefully going over their options. Some thought it would be best to just charge the beast with every able shinobi. That plan was immediately marked as suicidal and only to be used as a last resort. Evacuation was another option, but it was impossible to move a village of their size in such a short time. Especially when their neighboring nations were still on rocky terms with them.

Soon aggravation set in and shouts were being exchanged.

That's suicide!

Impossible!

Where's the dam Hokage!

Restrain yourselves!

Right before punches would be thrown a toad hopped in from a window and landed in front of the now more than tipsy Sandaime. It was about three and a half tall with a scroll attached to its back. Half of the council noticed it the other half was in too much of a heated argument.

A very pissed off Akimichi clan head was about to charge at another man who did not only insult his proposal of evacuation, but his round stature as well. Before his enlarged fist made contact, a long elastic toad's tounge wrapped around it. Instead of crushing a skull the fist impacted a wall instead cauing it to crumble.

Succeeding in stopping the fight the toad released the man and looked about the chamber. His arrival had caught the attention of the others and there was silence. The toad dropped the scroll it had been carrying off its back and lifted it up to the Sandaime with his tongue.

The yellow and green amphibian gave the semi-buzzed man a mock salute before shifting his position. It squatted patiently waiting for his job to be complete.

The surging of chakra around the boy had started to dissipate and the wailing from the child had ceased a while ago. Blue eyes opened and met the night sky. The infant was oddly quiet for his age, perhaps it was the sealing that had taken all his energy, or that he just didn't have any tears left to cry.

There was no blood on the battle field oddly enough, the only indication that there was even fighting here to begin with was the destruction of few trees and shrubbery near where child now lay.

Breezes of the nightly air ruffled the infant's blond hair. The air was oddly warm and comforting, seemingly trying to lull the child into sleep. Slowly the crickets started to chirp again and the eerie quiet of a warzone was broken. The baby cooed and gurgled finding peace in the sounds of nature.

Nature responded to his voice by slowly rebuilding itself around the boy. A soft green glow could be seen in the darkness where the broken branches were repaired, and the singed earth re-grew green grass.

The battlefield was now just another clearing in the forest that encircled Konoha.

Sarutobi read the scroll once. Twice. Three times, and he still couldn't believe what it had said. The old man looked at his sake bottle oddly wondering if it had caused the obvious illusion. Though judging by the odd stares he was receiving from the council he was pretty sure that it wasn't a dream, he never had a dream that the figure heads appeared in, a nightmare once in a while, but not a dream.

It was to real to be a dream anyways, and in some ways to unreal.

Minato had left him behind a huge headache, not only did he have to explain this to just about everyone else in the village, but he would probably have to don the hokage robes once again.

He picked up his saucer and filled it to the brim with sake, before chugging it down in one gulp, not caring what the others thought. This whole ordeal would be easier to accomplish while not sober.

A silver haired ANBU watched the former Hokage chug the sake like water, and figured that it was a good as time as any to reveal his involvement. Removing his mask Kakashi stepped out of the shadows to face the music.

'I hope everything went well sensei'

Well everybody how'd that go? Please review and tell me if I missed any spelling or grammar mistakes or if anything I describe is unclear.

Okay now that you've read that here's are the real dilemmas I'm facing:

What to do with Naruto, I can see this going a billion ways, but I want to hear your opinions. Please try and think of things creative, not a 'Naruto gets adopted by (Hyuuga/Uchiha) clan and becomes super powerful, joins ANBU at 10.

Something rare, I'll try to stay away from OCs, but this story is already leaning toward the AU side so I won't make any promises. There will probably be OCs in the story somewhere but will most likely be minor characters that will most likely get killed off or something.

I was thinking Kakashi, Kyuubi, or something new. Kyuubi would be an interesting thing to do, not sure how I will make that happen yet but I'm open to suggestions. Kakashi is more common, but I sort of set up a background for that, it can still be changed though.

Another area I'll be needing help in is pairings, if I make Naruto grow up either inside or outside Konoha I'm not sure who to pair him with or if there will be any pairing at all. Reasons are that the character development will be a bit off, so I'll have a hard time making it seem believable. Because I'll have to scrap practically all the relationships he's built up with people and create my own and that means any potential romance will have to be built from scratch.

To troublesome….maybe I should just have no pairings. Well there a few things I can assure you what you will not happen. There will not be any romance until he is like…I don't know in puberty? I will not write about children thinking about/doing things that no one really does (well the majority of people) till they at least hit 12. The pairing will NOT be NaruHina, sorry to fans of that pairing but it's way too overused. Lastly it will not be a Yaoi fic, don't really know how or want to write one.

Well, I think that covers the basics for now. Please when making a suggestion elaborate a bit so I will have an easier time planning it out.

Oh and expect slow updates of this for now, as I made it obviously clear (I hope) that I'm still not sure 100 percent sure of the plot, or at least how to begin it.

One last thing…Beta readers…right not sure how they work exactly but I have a pretty foggy idea of how they work. If you want to be one, then be my guest but I need you to explain to me what they do exactly and be patient with me.

Thanks to anyone who actually read that and even greater thanks to anyone who reviews or helps me out.

-Nicx Vee