Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Aliens. Oh yes, I went there.

A/N: I know what you're thinking…oh god, not another of those damned movie spinoffs. But oh no, I'm not doing that to you. Why? Because the new movies SUCK. No, I'm drawing from the comics (Aliens and AvP), three movies, the books, and the first two AvP games for my Aliens, I'll even draw from that AvP P2 strat game, if that thing had a skirmish mode I'd still be playing it… Why not the last game? Because they went off those damn AvP movies for some reason. I will say I had a lot of fun in the Aliens campaign, but I just couldn't get into the Pred. or Marines sides of the story, it sucked. And yes, I need story to play those games properly. I loved dropping in as a Pred. and just listening to the humans and their rather entertaining stories before finishing them, same with the Alien. Now, for this tale, it's actually a way of me to take up Mr. WriterWriter's challenge of 'what else is in the scroll' so this will be a bashy fic, probably have him paired with at least Haku, and will be going to town on Team 7, Neji (prick) Kiba (I don't know why, I don't like him, I love the rest of his family to death, but not him). Now, one thing you will learn eventually, these bugs are far from normal. As shown in the other stories of Aliens depending on what the bug latches onto they change. In Alien 3 you got the runner from the dog. In the comics you get all kinds, the most well known being the pred. alien. In this instance the chakra in the ninja will affect them differently, altering their bodies as well as thoughts and memories. That said, I want to let you all see it over the next few chapters. Naruto will change, not radically at first, but he will definitely be…unique.

On another note, I liked the first half of this story a lot, and I may end up recycling it for other versions of this challenge, one where he ends up meeting an Arrencar, however, that is the extent of a bleach cross, I don't want Naruto suddenly becoming a Soul Reaper, like in so many tales, I just like some of the baddies...

Light's Last Gasp

Chapter 1, Naruto's New Pet

The sun was just beginning to set as a young boy moved throughout the back alleys and darted under the eaves of stores. His task was simple, and yet it was going to be one of the most difficult he would have to do in his short life.

His task? Steal the 'forbidden scroll' that rested in the God of Shinobi's personal library. He had seen it before; on one of the many times he had been allowed to stay in the tower while his surrogate grandfather had meetings to attend to. He had always been told never to touch it, and now he knew why, apparently if you took the scroll you were allowed to bypass the academy and become a shinobi of the village without all the hassle of the final tests and dealing with so many of the other students.

It made sense, if you were good enough to get in and take it, you must be good enough to become a ninja.

He bit back a snicker as he climbed onto a rooftop that came within a mere ten feet of the outer walls of the Hokage Tower, something he always thought was foolish, even a first year student could toss a grapple that far and have it stick. Instead he aimed a bit higher, hooking one of the eves of the tower itself before he secured it to a chimney and began to shimmy across. For a moment he cursed his choice of clothing, but if he was going to get the scroll to his teacher in the required timeframe then he was going to have to hurry, so no time to change.

Glancing over the edge of the overhang he noted the animal masked guards that were idly standing watch over the front entrance, not for the first time he had to wonder how it was these guys got their ranks, he had no doubt that they were tough in a straight up fight, but even he knew that if things were being done right then you would never fight in the first place. Idly he looked over the pair and marked where the best places would be to put a kunai to either kill or disable the guards, putting to practice one of the many target and anatomy classes that he had attended, well, that he had spied on after being kicked out.

Kunai to third lumbar vertebrae, shruiken to the subclavian artery, kick to the femoral artery, the list went on, even when looking at what looked to be a young woman from behind he saw something of an overlay of targets, something that just seemed to come naturally to him after so much practice. Over twenty places from his current vantage point, while he doubted he could kill her at his skill level, he bet he could disable her.

Putting those thought out of his head he moved up to the plaster wall of the tower, the smooth surface was pristine and he ran his hand over it in appreciation before he moved on. Taking a moment he pulled out a small roll of ninja wire as well as a pair of kunai and took the time to tie them to his feet before pulling another pair. Holding his blades in his teeth for a moment he reached into one of his jumpsuits many pockets into a small pouch of chalk dust he had squirreled away and rubs a bit on his hands before taking the blades and with two sharp thrusts the blades held. Taking a moment to moved the kunai around in the hole a bit, widening it before he kicked his right foot hard into the wall at about knee high and began his accent, doing his best to make the strikes as irregular as possible, just in case anyone paying a bit more attention would wonder at the strange sounds of steel on stone.

Not for the first time he felt the urge to laugh, the kunai had been developed originally from a masonry tool, and while he didn't consider it to be the most efficient of weapons, you couldn't deny the results when you applied them back to their original purpose. Slowly the boy reached the third floor of the tower, for experience he knew that few guards patrolled up this high, most of them having been on the first and second floors, after all, if you have gotten up that far, then surely the first of the guards are dead already, right?

Slipping a small mirror from his sleeve he peered over the windowsill and had to quickly bite back a yelp of surprise as the Hokage himself moved past the window and looked to be heading down the stairs. He cursed himself for not checking earlier when he would leave the tower, after all, he had been here that very morning after he had painted the monument and could have asked then, of course at that time he didn't know he would be doing this…

Giving himself a slow count of twenty he eased back up, doing his best to ignore the burning in his thighs at the exertion of hanging on the wall like that, before he pitched himself into the tower and held a handstand for a moment so that his feet wouldn't make too much noise with the blades. Slowly he righted himself and removed the knives before slinking down the hall to his goal, the Hokage's office.

Taking a moment to spray a small amount of oil from a skin in one of his pouches on the hinges he ran a kunai along the seams of the door to check for wires before he eased the door open, the oil keeping the normally loud door silent as he moved into the dimly lit room. He moved quickly over to the study's door, thoughts of stealth forgotten for the moment as he knew that the guards would come to the outside of the door soon, now that the Hokage was headed home. Spotting his target he snatched it off its perch and just as he was about to turn he hear someone clearing his throat.

"Well well, Naruto, what could bring you to my office at this hour?"

Naruto felt a cold sweat breakout over the whole of his body as he turned slowly to see his Jiji standing before him, his arms crossed before him with his face screwed up into a glare.

"E…eheh…um…you see…. Oiroke no Jutsu!"

Naruto was panting heavily as he made his way into the forest outside of the walls of Konoha, his lungs burning from his mad flight from the tower after disabling the Hokage, not for the first time he wondered what would happen if he had worked for another village with a skill like that…and shuddered, the old man would never stand a chance…

Whipping the sweat from his brow he placed the scroll on the ground and carefully unrolled it, Mizuki-sensei said he had to bring him the scroll, he never said anything against him learning something from it before then. Taking a rock from behind a tree he used it to hold down part of its thick, heavily weathered parchment before he sat down and began to go through it.

"Let's see…Shadow Clones…damnit…my worst subject…I don't have time for this…" He further unrolled the scroll and began to skim, mumbling to himself the whole time, "'Soul Eater? I don't want my soul eaten! Pass... Egg of the King? Lame, next... Kamehameha? Who would want some dumb turtle hermit's attack? Flash Sword? That sounds neat...but I don't have a sword...though the scroll did have that dumb reverse blade thingy, never mind....Spirit gun? What the hell's a 'gun'? Next..."

The young boy was debating on giving up he jumped several entries ahead, simply looking for something that piqued his interest, as he moved through, the large scroll steadily getting smaller and smaller when he spotted it, his lips curling into a grin as he read it aloud, "The Dragon's Egg…forbidden item said to-blah blah blah…I want a DRAGON!" Seeing the seal close to the bottom on the rather lengthily explanation he bit his thumb, recognizing a blood seal when he saw one and smeared his thumb across it while channeling a bit of chakra.

With a dull flash and a puff of smoke the young man was blown back slightly by the surprisingly large item that appeared, it was a large egg, something that easily reached his waist and was as big around as his shoulders, admittedly his shoulders were not very large due to poor eating habits, but that was hardly his fault. He eased a bit closer to what looked to be a large, deep green, almost black, egg. Naruto reached out cautiously to the egg and gave it a slight poke and gasped, it didn't feel like any egg he had ever felt before.

The egg felt more…fleshy, eggs were supposed to be hard right? Then again, he had never seen a dragon's egg before, so who was he to judge. Moving a bit closer he ran a hand gently over the odd surface, seeing that at the top of the egg there seemed to be four fine lines, like seems. As he was about to get a bit closer, knowing that you had to keep a egg warm the thing shuddered Naruto jerked back for a minute before a massive grin spread across his face, he could see something through the 'shell' wiggling inside, soon he was going to own a dragon!

Seating himself once more he leaned against the large egg and began to whisper quietly to it, telling it how he would take care of it, that it would never be alone like he had been, that even if everyone else hated it he would love it for as long as they were together. Almost as if in response to his soft-spoken words the egg shuddered again making the genin hopeful smile and let out a happy laugh. "Don't worry little guy, it's going to be great, I promise, and I never go back on my promises, believe it."

To this the egg seemed to move again, this time worse than ever before and as he gazed at the egg he saw the top….open? The egg didn't crack, it didn't shatter, like it should have, something wasn't trying to push its way out like with a chicken, no, the top of the leather-like egg opened of its own volition, showing a strange, white/grey mass inside that seemed to be quivering, "Awww….he's scared…"

Suddenly a good bit of the substance seemed to be sucked into nothingness to show a rather boney looking structure, but as Naruto was reaching out to take the baby into his hands he saw it twitch and seem to lunge slightly, making Naruto fall back in shock as the dragon leapt out of the egg, and latched onto the face of the man who had been sneaking up behind him. At first Naruto had simply been confused, then he spotted the glint of steel in the man's hand, a kunai. He knew from long nights in the city that if someone was behind you with a knife, it was rarely good... If his new pet hadn't acted, he would be dead….

He saw the silver haired man struggle for a moment, his hands clawing at the thing on his face before he seemed to go far too still. Naruto edged closer to the man and had to bite back another scream, his teacher, Mizuki, looked to be asleep with some…thing latched onto his face. At first Naruto wasn't sure what to make of it, it looked a lot like a spider, each of its long, multi-segmented legs had a firm hold on his sensei's head. However, that's where the similarities ended, he didn't see anything like eyes, this creature had a long, snake like tail that was wrapped around his neck and seemed to tighten now and again as Mizuki gave the odd twitch, beyond that, the whole thing was a flesh color, not a deep brown, black or green like other spiders. Taking a moment to give Mizuki an experimental jab but he didn't react.

Knowing better than to leave an enemy with weapons he quickly pulled away the kunai and the large shruiken that were strapped to the man's back, securing them and hiding them nearby so that he could maybe comeback later for them. Looking around he cursed slightly, having noticed that he was somewhat in the open and started dragging Mizuki deeper into the forest, careful not to disturb his savior, assuming that he could get it off when it was done with whatever it was doing. Running back quickly he pushed the flaps back close on the egg and swiped blood onto the seal once more, making the egg vanish before he rolled up the scroll and moving back to his new pet.

Reaching out a hesitant hand he gently touched the back of the 'spider' only to have it tighten up on Mizuki once more before it seemed to relax, seeming to know that the boy wasn't trying to pull it off, "I…I don't know what you are little guy, but he would have killed me if you hadn't jumped on him…thanks…I…I just hope that when you get done that Mizuki-teme doesn't kill us…

Naruto sat beside the still form of his teacher for what felt like hours, just calmly watching the steady rise and fall of the chunin's chest as though he had been hypnotized. He knew from the shouts coming from the village that he would be caught soon, he was just helping that it wasn't the dog masked ANBU…that man had been assigned to 'guard' him a few times only to seem to sit there with his book while a group of civilians had their fun with him. Every time he claimed that he had gotten away from him and he had come too late, and every time the other ANBU would believe him without question. He pulled his knees to his chest and shuddered at the thought, the dog, Inu, wasn't the only one…at least he didn't join in, but it had still been hell for him, knowing that the one that the old man trusted didn't care…

Before he could delve deeper into his thoughts he noticed a flurry of movement from Mizuki, he saw the odd spider unwrap its tail before it started to move away, only for Mizuki to grab it and throw it off of him with a scream of terror. "W-What the FUCK is that thing!" The chunin looked around franticly before it's eyes settled on Naruto and narrowed, taking a moment to wipe the drool and slime from his mouth he was on Naruto before he could so much as blink and had torn off his jacket and began to run through his pockets before pulling out a plaster covered kunai. "YOU! You little FREAK you caused that THING to attack me!" Mizuki lunged forward, intent on ending the boy's life when he seemed to freeze and clutch at his chest, stumbling and falling to his knees before looking up at Naruto through his bangs, "W-what did you do! What's happening!"

As Naruto crab-walked away from him franticly he ran into something, looking up with terror filled eyes he almost cried out in joy, "Iruka-sensei!"

"Naruto, what the hell is going on! Why did you steal the scroll!"

"He…he said…said I could"

"I-Iruka…help me…the demon…he…" suddenly his voice was cut off as he vomited, a surprising amount of blood mixed with the bile.

"N-Naurto, what did you do?"

Naruto scrambled behind his teacher as Mizuki started for the pair once more, still unable to get to his feet, "He…he tried to kill me! Then my…my friend jumped on him and knocked him out, now he's trying again…Sensei, don't let him get me!"

Iruka winced slightly as the pure fear in Naurto's voice rang true, he had known how brave he was, how he would never back down before anything or anyone, but having someone he trusted like Mizuki turn on him like that…"It's OK Naruto, I won't let him do anything to you, but you have to know, it's your word against his…it doesn't look good…"

Had Mizuki been in a proper state of mind he would have smiled, played along, but the odd motion in his chest, the pain racing through him, was far too much, "D-Demon…scum, what did you do! What did you do Kyuubi!"

Naruto and Iruka both froze, Naruto's mind racing at what his former teacher had said, even while Iruka's mind had ground to a halt. The secret was out, the box had been opened. Turning slowly he saw Naruto on his knees shaking while looking at his hands, "Na-Naruto, you have to understand-"

The boy looked up into the man's eyes, someone he considered a brother, if not a father, his eyes filled with betrayal and pain, "Y…you knew?"

The teacher dropped down to one knee and placed his hands on his shoulders, part of him noticing that the boy's frame seemed far too small, "Naruto, you have to understand, the Fourth couldn't kill Kyuubi, so he sealed it into a baby to protect the village, he had no choice, and you were the only one born that night."

Now it all became clear to him, why he was attacked on his birthdays, why he was thrown out of stores…why he was hunted, "W-why didn't anyone tell-tell me I was the Kyuubi…"

Naruto's world erupted in pain as he looked up at Iruka in shock, the man had slapped him! "Naruto! You are not the Kyuubi, you are prison, like how the scroll there holds so much, so do you!"

That seemed to snap him out of his stupor, he dashed past Mizuki who had curled himself into a ball while coughing and groaning in pain, Iruka looked from the traitor to his young charge for a moment before running after the boy, it looked like Mizuki wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. He found the boy searching franticly through the bushes and undergrowth, seeming to become more and more frantic as he searched, "Nauruto…what are you looking for?"

He dropped limply to his knees and stares blankly into the night for a moment, "My friend…the one that saved me…he's gone…"

"Naruto, what friend?"

"My pet spider…"

Iruka never thought he would hear that from Naruto of all people, he knew that he had been friends with Shino in school, but to have a pet spider? Well, at least that explained why Mizuki was in so much pain, spider venom was far from pleasant. Taking a moment to help Naruto collect Mizuki's weapons as the boy shouldered the scroll again, taking a moment to scrub at his eyes, before they moved back to the downed chunin.

"Alright teme…let's go, if you're lucky the Hokage will let you go to the hospital before the venom gets you." They got nothing from Mizuki, Iruka sighed in annoyance, the bastard must have passed out, he knelt down and moved to pick up him up in the fireman's carry only to fall back and scramble away with a scream of horror, Naruto was little better as the pair looked down at the body of the former teacher, the man's face was twisted in a pain ridden death mask as his hands were curled into claws that seemed to be trying to grab his chest. There, just over his heart, was a large hole, two palms wide that looked as though something had punched through him from behind, his ribs and flesh hanging sickeningly from his torso. The pair were so shocked at the gory display that they failed to notice the bloody, snake like trail that lead away from the body into the undergrowth.

"N-Naruto…what kinda spider was that again?"

"I-It came from the scroll…"

Iruka's blood ran cold as he looked up at Naruto in horror, he had pulled something out of the scroll, and now, whatever it was, it was loose.

"Naruto, explain this to me again…from the beginning…"

Naruto was fidgeting in the overstuffed chain in the Hokage's office while Iruka stood beside him, a comforting hand on his shoulder and a small smile, while he didn't feel the smile reach his eyes; he knew he had to put on a brave face for him. Naruto took a shaky breath and launched into his story once more, by the end both the Hokage was eyeing the scroll with a bit of fear. There was a reason that the scroll was forbidden, it contained a number of things that reached back to before the founding of the village, no one knew what the scroll held in its entirety. He knew what he himself had put in there, but the Fourth, Second and First? He had no idea, he didn't have the courage to look himself, he had been told specifically by his sensei not to, and he had heeded those words more so than almost anything else in his life.

"So this…spider, it jumped on Mizuki and knocked him out, then later on it seemed to run off, and several minutes thereafter Mizuki was dead. Is that correct?"

He gave a hesitant nod as the Hokage lit his pipe and took a deep puff, the somewhat comforting sent of cherries and cloves filling the air. "Naruto…I'm not going to say that listening to your teacher like that was wrong…but you must learn to look beneath the beneath. I've told you before not to touch the scroll, and while Mizuki may have told you otherwise, you need to listen to your Hokage over a Chunin."

He winced at that, when you put it that way…he was an idiot… "S-sorry…I just wanted to graduate so bad…and I only failed because of those stupid clones…"

Iruka gave a sad smile while Sarutobi looked confused, "Naruto, what do you mean you have trouble with clones?"

Naruto demonstrated and at once a sickly, if not dead duplicate of himself was slumped on the floor, "See…"

The Hokage arched an eyebrow at that before looking to Iruka, "Why haven't you corrected his mistake yes, Iruka-kun?"

The teacher looked at him in confusion, "Sir, I've checked Naruto's handsigns a dozen times, their perfect, honestly, I don't know what he is doing wrong."

"And you never thought to come to me with this, considering his condition?"

That gave him pause, could it be the fox? "Sir?"

He let out a dry chuckle before tossing Naruto an odd card. "Naruto, do me a favor and channel some chakra into that card, and I think we can fix your clone problem."

The boy's eyes lit up in joy as he pushed his chakra into the paper, way too much chakra at that, at once the card flew from his fingertips only to start fluttering to the ground again, the paper slitting in half before both parts dropped to the floor with a wet 'plop' Iruka and Sarutobi's eyes widened in shock before looking back to Naruto who looked confused, Iruka mused his hair with a grin before patting him on the back, "Congratulations Naruto, you already have two affinities! You'll be a Jonin in no time!"

Naruto looked up to the man in confusion, but before he could speak they heard a hiss from the paper, the trio looked at it to see the water evaporating before they burst into flames, the blaze reaching the height of the desktop before Sarutobi doused it with a water jutsu before laughing, "And it seems a very high affinity for fire…we can assume your tenet is responsible for that, Naruto-kun."

It took him a moment to shake off the shock of seeing fire come from water like it had, but the mention of his…burden, snapped him out of it, "H-Hokage-sama…" That made the older duo freeze, Naruto never showed respect like that… "Why did you lie to me…about why they hated me…"

He let out a heavy sigh as he tapped out his pipe in a small ashtray, "Naruto…if I had my way you never would have found out…I wanted you to grow-up without having to bear that burden…for as long as you could. I made a law when you were born in hopes of you living a normal life…but you have seen how well that ended."

Naruto felt the familiar sting of tears in his eyes as he stood slowly from his chair, "I-If that's all Hokage-sama…I need some time to think…"

"Naruto…come to the tower when you're ready…I teach you a clone that will let you pass the exam, alright?"

He gave an almost invisible nod before walking from the room and heading back to his home, Iruka turned to his leader with a frown, "That could have gone better…"

The Hokage gave a weak smile and leaned back in his chair, pulling the hat from his head and running a hand over his head, "Indeed…however, you have to admit, Naruto-kun deserves his headband, clones or no, he still snuck into the tower unseen, disabled me, and escaped with the scroll…should he have been an enemy I would be dead, and the village would have its most dangerous weapon in enemy hands…"

Iruka hadn't thought of that, and the year before they had passed a boy that couldn't use any of the jutsu required, even if he had done much better on the other areas of the test. Naruto may not have done well, but he has still done two of the three required jutsu. Hopefully in a few days they would have one more genin, one of the most promising at that.

Naruto dropped his coat onto the floor with a sigh, not caring about hanging the damaged garment as he trudged through the little apartment, bypassing his three-legged sofa and moving to the bathroom, absently running through his nightly routine before he fell into his bed, rolling over and letting a tear roll down his cheek, wondering what tomorrow may hold for him.

As sleep took the young man he failed to notice the open window.

He never heard the slight skittering noise.

He never saw the shadow move slowly onto his bed.

He never felt the weight on his chest.

The small, snake like creature looked at the being curiously, its short life had been an interesting one thus far. It had memories, memories of things that didn't make sense to it, but it know, on a fundamental level that it would understand, in time. It did know that there should be more of its kind, it should have been in a position to feed of its 'mother', yet there were others there, things that were not like it, so it ran.

The little creature curled up on itself, it was alone. Somehow it knew, from the way this one was acting in the woods that they were similar, his sent was one of earth and blood, not unlike its own. While it didn't understand the words the being had spoken when it had found it's 'mother' it could sense an affection in its actions, a lack of hostility, and if anything, concern for its wellbeing. Part of the creature knew that it was a mistake to be here, that it was a risk until it was able to feed again, at least off of more than that furred creature it found in the woods.

The thing on its ear was fun to play with though.

The serpent rose slightly as it looked to the window to see the spindly legs of its creator moving into the room, called by the one it had given birth to. Silently the snake moved up to the 'spider' and looked into its body, seeing the last of its kind that it was carrying in hopes of depositing, one last time, before it would die. Its 'father' was already on its last minutes, it had little time. Looking into it it's mind, into it's very body the instructions were simple, 'live'.

The last thing Naruto knew of that night, was a horrible nightmare.

A nightmare of smothering.