Disclaimer: I own nothing manga or anime related. All characters belong to their respective owners. Good day to you sirs and madams!

This is a slight Naruto + Ushio and Tora crossover:

Naruto Uzumaki was feeling down today. Check that, he felt down most days despite his mask of happiness that he wears on a daily basis. The reason behind this was that he was in a constant state of loneliness. Now most kids at the age of seven would maybe have a friend or two and would most likely have an adult guardian of some sort who would be with them on a daily basis. Naruto was not most seven year olds, however, because he had found out early in his life that most adults would ignore him for the most part, save for the occasional insult thrown his way. The adults, in turn would tell their children to avoid him at all costs, saying things that he was a bad child that would hurt them if they got to close.

This was not true, however. The reason behind why the adults seemed to want nothing to do with the boy was because, on the day Naruto was born, a terrible monster called the Nine Tailed Fox Demon nearly destroyed the village. The village's current leader, the Fourth Hokage, had to seal this beast away into the infant Naruto, as killing the Fox would only delay the destruction until he formed again in a few years. The sealing cost the Fourth Hokage his life, but before he died he asked that the boy would be treated as a hero for containing the demon. The villagers, however, mostly ignored this order due to the mental scars held from the Fox's attack. While the people of Konoha did not do anything to physically harm the boy, they made sure that he would not feel wanted by basically ignoring his existence since before he could talk. None of the children knew that Naruto held the Fox, thanks to a law that the Third Hokage passed after he retook his mantel after the death of his predecessor. However, as previously mentioned, the villagers were able to find a loophole in the Third's law. While they could not directly tell their children about why to avoid Naruto, they settled for telling them to stay away from the boy and trusting that the children would obey their parents.

Because of this, Naruto has spent the majority of his young life alone, with the exception of visits from the Third Hokage, who Naruto had come to view as a surrogate grandfather figure, as well as Ayame and Teuchi Ichiraku who owned the ramen stand that he frequently visited. There was also Iruka-sensei, who while at first seemed to act wary of the boy, had later seemed to warm up to him somewhat and actually answered his questions at the academy, as opposed to the other teachers who just ignored him like the rest of the villagers. Even with these few people in his life, Naruto found most of his time alone because the people that were nice to them couldn't fit time outside of their busy work lives to constantly be with him. There were some students at the Academy who seemed friendly enough, namely among the clan heirs, but a majority seemed to act indifferent to Naruto's presence. Early in his life, Naruto had discovered that acting sad didn't make his problems go away, so he made up a mask of a happy-go-lucky goofball who pranked a majority of the villagers at one time or another. This did not, however, alleviate the heartbreak he felt whenever he saw other children playing with each other in the park or whenever he saw happy families going through town together.

Today was different from the usual emotional pain, however. Naruto had just left the Academy after being thoroughly beaten by the class's top student, Sauske Uchiha. While the loss itself had hurt, it was how the other students laughed and mocked him that really got to him. While he might enjoy doing the occasional prank to get people to acknowledge him, the fact that the students were laughing at his failure weighed heavily with his other emotional baggage. The thing that really got to him was that there wasn't a single sympathetic face in the jeering crowd to give him some comfort at his loss. Well, there was one, but Naruto didn't notice this as the pale lavender eyed girl lowered her head in a shy manner the second he looked her way. Naruto was wandering through the dense forests surrounding the village of Konoha, trying to clear his head from the torrent of depressing thoughts.

"I wonder if I'll ever have any friends," Naruto thought sadly, "Maybe this wouldn't hurt so badly if there was someone I could truly relate to."

So caught up in his thoughts that Naruto completely missed the root in his path until he tripped over it and tumbled into a hidden hole off the side of the path he was walking on.

"Oof!" Naruto cried out as he hit the hard stone floor of the hole he fell through. "Oh great, as if this day wasn't bad enough as it was already!" Naruto whined as he picked himself up and shook the cobwebs in his head. "Where am I? I've never seen this place before. It almost looks like it was built!" Naruto noticed as he looked at the carved walls and floor with the little light provided to him through the hole in the ceiling. "Whoa, this place is kinda freaky looking. It almost looks like something out of a cliché horror anime that Old Man Hokage sometimes let me watch. I better get out of here before something else happens! Wait a second, how am I supposed to get out?!" Naruto yelped as he then noticed that there were no steps or way to climb out of the hole he fell through 10 feet above his head.

"Well isn't this just awesome, first there was that match against Sauske-teme and now I get trapped in some hole in the middle of the frickin' forest!" Naruto grumbled out loud. "Well, no sense sitting around here better sees if there's another way out that I can actually reach! Man, I hate being short!" Naruto reasoned as he started looking through the deep hole he fell through, careful not to stray too far from the light so he wouldn't become even more lost.

Suddenly, Naruto's hand felt a switch along the wall and, being the curious child that he was, decided to press it to see what would happen, regardless of the consequences. A door panel to his right immediately shot open, and Naruto could make out a dim light at the end of the tunnel. Thinking it was a possible way out Naruto carefully edged his way down the corridor. He jumped with a yelp as the door panel suddenly slammed shut behind him! Trying to prevent his beating heart from jumping out of his chest, Naruto took a nervous gulp to swallow the lump in his throat and continued his way down the tunnel. When he reached the light, Naruto gapped at what he saw. It seemed he had found his way into some old abandoned temple of some sorts. There were old scrolls and books lining up the walls and the ceiling was made of a beautiful painted glass that gave off a mysterious glow, despite the fact that it was obviously underground and there was no sunlight present to explain where the light was coming from. Naruto looked around the room, hoping to find some form of an escape route. Finding none, he sighed and then decided to look through the scrolls. While Naruto normally did not enjoy reading, he reasoned that he might be able to find a map of this place so he could figure out where the exit was, or at least find out wherever "here" was! After an hour of searching Naruto was starting to lose hope that he would ever find a way out of this place.

"I wonder how long it will be before the Old Man realizes that I'm gone," Naruto muttered, "What if nobody finds me down here, or worse, what if no one even bothers to come looking for me!" Naruto thought with a start.

Just as Naruto was about to break down and cry, he noticed a scroll that was slightly above the others on the shelf. What stood out about this scroll was that it was incredibly thick with decorative handles sticking out of both sides, and the fact that it had a necklace of some sort wrapped around it that had six magenta beads in the shape of comma marks surrounding it. His curiosity perked, Naruto took the scroll off the shelf and started into a coughing fit as the dust from the shelf poured right on his face. The first thing he noticed was that the scroll was incredibly old, but wasn't brittle at all despite the obvious age the parchment carried. As Naruto carefully unfurled the scroll, he also took note that the words written in them were clear as day, but were written in a very old dialect. It took Naruto a good thirty minutes, but he was finally able to summarize what the paper said. In its contents it stated:

"To whoever finds this place; let it be known that those with ill intent can never use the contents of this room, for there are special seals placed at the entrance that prohibit anyone but the purest of hearts from entering. As for whom I am, my name has long since been cast aside for my quest, but most people have taken to calling me the Sage of the Six Paths, and these are a recollection of my life. Some say that I am the father of modern ninjutsu, and while that is true to an extent thanks to the power I possess called the Rinnegan, I did not learn my abilities on my own.

A few years after I had unlocked the powers of my eyes and had started to master the energies located in myself and every living being, called chakra by some, I had discovered a group of races that live outside our dimension. These beings are similar to the animals of our world; however they all possess intelligence equal to or greater than humanities. I have found out that these beings also have an understanding of chakra, even more so than my own. I felt that there is much to be gained by working with these different races, so I went to study under the multitude of different animal clans: from the Toad sages to the healing Slugs and the violent Snakes, they all have a different fighting style and philosophy on life itself. It was through them that I was able to learn as much as I did, if they were not around to guide me on the ways of chakra, it would have taken me many more years than it did to learn all that I now know. The clans told me of a technique called the Summoning Jutsu that by going through a certain series of hand seals allow us to summon them to our dimension and vice-versa, all that is needed is a contract sealed in blood to mark our partnership. If one performs the hand seals and does not have a contract, they will instantly be summoned to the realm of the animal they have the greatest affinity to. I myself had written a contract with most, if not all the species, and am able to summon any of them at will. They also informed me that anyone possessing by Rinnegan will also have a contract with all the animal clans.

There was one clan, however, that stood out among the rest. This species was known as the bakemono, and they were one of the most powerful clans in existence. They had perfected mastering chakra to the point where they not only could manipulate the elements better than the strongest ninjutsu, but they possess a number of abilities that few humans could ever hope to match such as flight, lightning like speeds, claws stronger than steel, the ability to become invisible to the naked eye, near immortality, and strength that few could match. It was with a certain bakemono that I had formed a contract with, for unlike other summons, the bakemono only do individual contract summons due to their belief in hunting alone. Also unlike other summons, the bakemono can stay in this realm for an infinite amount of time while other summons must head back to their world after they are either called back or run out of chakra. This certain bakemono decided to follow me because, in his own words, "It would amuse me." We went on many adventures together that are further detailed in this scroll, including in his help in defeating and sealing the Jubi into me.

As I am nearing the end of my life, my bakemono friend suggests placing his contract into this scroll located at the bottom of this insert. All that is needed to activate it is a little blood to be smeared across and for chakra to be placed into it. There are also details on the hand seals required for the sealing next to it. The reason that I am telling you this is because the reason you have gotten this far into this chamber is because the sealing wards I have placed have deemed you pure of heart and worthy enough to carry out my mission after I am gone: to bring peace to this world. The bakemono would most certainly help you in this but be warned: the bakemono are a proud species and will most likely test you on your worthiness to work with them. He would most likely kill you if he finds you unworthy, so you can sign the contract at your own risk. Best of luck!"

The scroll went on, but Naruto ignored the rest in favor of staring at a seal placed dead center in the scroll just after the ending of the first insert. Right below it was a detailed description of the hand seals required, which were just like the ones Naruto learned in the Academy. Naruto's mind was racing through different thoughts. His first thought was on how cool it was that he discovered an article from someone who shaped the ninja world into what is was today. Another was that he now realized that the scrolls and books filling the room were research scrolls the Sage of the Six Paths left behind, and that they undoubtedly held many secrets and awesome techniques he could use! Naruto's main thoughts were on the sealing scroll before him though.

"Do I really want to sign this?" He mused, "I mean it would be awesome to have such a cool summon like the bakemono, but the Sage says that this one would kill me if he doesn't find me worthy enough! What should I do?"

Naruto thought about it for a grand total of three and a half minutes before he reached his decision. He was Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage of Konoha! If he was scared over something like this, how would he be able to become the village's strongest ninja? He also reasoned that the bakemono would accept him no problem thanks to how awesome he is! So, tossing caution to the wind, Naruto bit into his thumb and placed the blood across the seal, focusing his chakra into it like how Iruka-sensei taught him to open a sealing scroll. There was a small poof of smoke and when it cleared there was another large scroll on top of the other one. He opened up the scroll and saw that you were supposed to place your name and hand print by comparing what the Sage did, however the Sage's name was mysteriously blotted out. After signing both his name and placing his bloody hand print on the open space on the seal thanks to his still bleeding thumb, Naruto slowly went through the hand seals described on the other scroll so he wouldn't mess up. After he was certain he did them all correctly, he focused his chakra and yelled, "Summoning Jutsu!"

There was another, though much larger, puff of smoke that filled the room and as it cleared, Naruto could make out a shape taking form in the smoke. It was then that a deep growling voice called out to him, making him nearly have a heart attack for a second time that day. The voice said, "Well this is a surprise, never thought another human would summon me to this world."

AN: All righty then! So this is one of the stories that I've been thinking of posting for a while, however I'm not 100% sure how to continue it. The main idea is to have Tora from the old anime Ushio and Tora to be Naruto's personal summon and will help him become a better shinobi. For those of you who don't know Ushio and Tora is an older manga/anime that was finished back in 1999 I believe. I've really loved Tora's character and I thought he'd make a really cool summon animal for Naruto. I'ld highly recommend the anime/manga to those who haven't watched it before. Now this story won't be updated as much as 'Chimera Luffy' but it will update sporadically if I can think of how to continue it. If anyone has any ideas please PM me. Thanks so much and as always Read and Review!