Disclaimer: Guess what! I don't own the rights to the Naruto and/or Devil May Cry franchises! (Big surprise, huh?) I do, however, retain rights to any OCs that appear in this fic.

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Prologue- Takes One to Know One

Two men met over the body of a hero. One looked old and weary. One looked young and proud. The old one was carrying a baby in his arms. The young one was looking at the old one like he was utterly insane.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" the young one yelled. He had bleach white hair and wore a red trench coat that was opened, revealing a mostly bare chest, except for the brown leather strap running across his chest, black, fingerless gloves, dark brown, baggy pants, and black boots. Two holsters hung from his belt, both carrying strange looking contraptions he called 'pistols'. And on his back was a rather elaborate looking set-up of leather straps that held his special claymore, Rebellion.

"Please Dante, take a minute to consider…" began the old man.

"No way, Sarutobi!" Dante interrupted. "I hunt demons for a living! I can't raise a goddamn kid! Not even for you," he added with conviction.

Sarutobi sighed. He had been expecting this reaction, and had come prepared to play dirty. "Do you know exactly what the Yondaime did to the boy?"

Dante raised an eyebrow. "He sealed the Kyuubi in the kid."

The old man looked him in the eyes. "It's true that the sealing method could have worked. But what happens if the seal gets broken? Or breaks open on its own? Or the boy succumbs to the whisperings that the demon would use to seduce its jailor into releasing it. Minato thought that there were too many variables. So, he did something far more permanent." Sarutobi gave Dante a meaningful look.

The young man sucked in a breath. "Impossible…"

Sarutobi smiled sadly. "Minato did always hate that particular word. He had done all the research on sealing, and had even designed a seal powerful enough to get the job done, before deciding to see if he could find an alternative.

"You see, his seal worked on the understanding that he would be using a newborn child, so that its underdeveloped chakra coils could adjust to the presence of the Kyuubi's chakra. The seal would leak the demonic chakra into the child's own system, converting it to human chakra along the way, and adding it to the stores of the child. And, if need be, the container could draw upon the Kyuubi's own chakra directly. Unfortunately, as this chakra would be coming straight from the demon, it could use it to alter the child's mind, perhaps in subtle ways, but probably not.

"And then he met you, Dante. A half-demon. Someone who possessed demonic energy that doesn't change them when they use it. Because there's nothing behind it trying to change you. It's not a demon's borrowed power. It's your power. He felt he'd found his answer.

"Using his seal as a basis, he began researching and experimenting ten times as furiously as before. He barely ate. He didn't sleep. He wasn't there when his own son was born… or when his wife died." Sarutobi's expression was solemn, as was Dante's. There was a moment of silence.

"He was devastated when I told him. But he told me that he'd done it. He'd found a way to… 'create', for lack of a better term, a half-demon. He said he took the most basic part of the seal, the one that did the actual sealing, and… tweaked it."

"Tweaked' it?!" Dante blurted.

Sarutobi smiled a little as he nodded. "He said that instead of sealing the Kyuubi into the depths of the boy's mind, he would aim for the boy's soul instead. From there, he just needed to add more power, and he would be able to actually merge the Kyuubi with the child's soul."

"But the amount of power needed to do that…"

"That's why he died, Dante. Right before he rushed out, he took five soldier pills, and opened all eight Celestial Gates. He died to save not only the village, but the life of his son as well." Sarutobi looked at Dante with a pleading look in his eyes, causing Dante to wince. "Please, Dante. You're the only one I can trust with him. The villagers have seen so much death today. I'm afraid of how people would react. And no one could help him deal with his power here. But you can. Please."

Dante sighed heavily, and looked at the infant in Sarutobi's arms. The little guy had been asleep the entire conversation. Dante held out his arms. The old man smiled at him, said, "Thank you," and handed him the child.

"What's the kid's name?" Dante asked.

Sarutobi smiled. "Naruto."

As Dante adjusted the baby in his arms, he noticed the three marks on each cheek that looked kind of like whiskers. Then the baby began to stir, and suddenly Dante was staring into eyes colored crimson, and with pupils that were slit ever so slightly. They may of sounded a little menacing if he were to describe them to someone, but they were completely filled with the innocence of a newborn child, lit up by the smile that now adorned the baby's face. It mad a few happy baby noises, yawned, and promptly fell back asleep.

Dante blinked a few times, and looked up at Sarutobi, who stood there with a warm smile on his face. The old man then turned to leave, saying over his shoulder, "I would like to know how he's doing from time to time, if it wouldn't be too much trouble."

Dante blinked a few more times, looked back down at the infant in his arms, shrugged, and turned to head back to his home in the West, wondering what the hell he'd just signed up for.

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Author's Notes: Well, that takes care of that. Now I can move on to the actual story. Just to prepare you, there's about to be a major time skip. Don't worry your little (or not so little; I don't judge) heads about, though. All important happenings within the scope of the time skip will be revealed through flashbacks and the like when relevant. And so, without further ado, onto Chapter 1…