AN: This will be my first Naruto story. It's gonna be Naruto/Anko story. Please read and review I will try to answer all reviews at the beginning of the next chapter or in a PM. If you see something grammatically or any typos you want changed tell me. I'll get on it. Also the training will move quickly until he becomes a genin.

Normal

Thought

Demon talk

Jutsu

Chapter 1: Not So Alone

Naruto woke that night with a start. Sweat was pouring down his body and it was obvious from the state that his covers were in that he was tossing and turning throughout the night. The young blonde boy was used to nightmares, these were different though. It's like they were real, all too real. He saw images of a great beast tearing through Konoha and of some strange man that he recognized as the Yandaime Hokage fighting against it. Naruto had no ideas of what these dreams meant, but they were getting more frequent, and more real. Sometimes during them he could swear he could feel the great power when it attacked, then it was almost as if it was trying to communicate with him. The scrawny boy would have normally told the Hokage about these dreams by now, but he brushed it off as too much ramen before bed.

With a groan he decided he wasn't going to get anymore sleep and sat up trying to get his eyes adjusted to the dark apartment. The apartment literally looked like a tornado had gone through it. There was trash, clothes, and Kami knows what else covering nearly every surface possible. Naruto couldn't even remember what the floors looked like. I suppose this was what happened when you let a six-year-old live by himself for a majority of his life.

Finally gathering enough energy to get up, he stood up with a yawn and a stretch before heading to the door. The sun wasn't out yet and this was Naruto's favorite time to go out. The majority of the villagers wouldn't be out yet and it was way easier for him to get around and enjoy what little of the village he was allowed to see. When he opened the door he noticed something very strange however, he was not in Konoha at all. In fact he had no idea where he was, all he could make out was a dark sewer looking passage with ankle-deep water. Deciding he was still in a dream he moved on to try to explore the darkness.

After what seemed like hours of exploring he finally saw some light, and when he arrived at the source of the light, there was a giant cage that had a paper seal in place of the lock. He didn't have long to stare before he heard a demonic voice and a giant red fox appeared. "So it seems that my warden has finally arrived eh? I guess the struggle trying to get you here paid off."

Naruto stared at the being in awe, he was suddenly feeling very weak in the knees and as if he should turn and sprint away. His legs weren't responding however and all he could do stare. It seemed like hours to him, but after a few moments he was finally able to stutter out, "W…who a…are y…y…you".

The giant creature suddenly looked as offended as a giant fox could. The look passed as quickly as it had appeared however, and was quickly replaced by the one of malice that he saw when he arrived. "What is this village teaching kids these days? I'm the kyuubi boy and I seem to have the misfortune of being trapped inside you. Since I'm here however we might as well get some things straight." The fox suddenly smiled in a too friendly sort of manner before he continued. "Since I'm stuck inside you and I've noticed that you seem to have your mindset on becoming a ninja…"

The small blonde boy interrupted the fox with unexpected enthusiasm as he said, "Not just any ninja! I'm gonna be the Hokage! Believe it!"

The kyuubi looked down at the child with annoyance. "Boy! Don't interrupt me again." The fox said while striking at the bars, which got the desired response of Naruto cowering in fear. "As I was saying before I was interrupted, I've decided to help you on your petty quest to become the Hokage, but there are some conditions. Firstly you are never to say 'Believe it' again." The let out an involuntary shuddered as he remembered the Naruto that he had seen in his visions of the future. "Second you will do EVERYTHING I say during training. No whining, no ifs ands or buts. Third we are NOT friends; I have merely decided that you will be more bearable to deal with if handled now than later. Also we will start training right about now."

Naruto didn't have any time to accept or deny the offer, or even move for that matter as he was forcefully kicked out of his dream state and found himself in the middle of what looked to be a training ground. It wasn't long after he appeared there that he once again heard the voice of the fox, still not sure if he was dreaming or not he decided to pinch himself. He let out a sharp yelp that confirmed he was in fact not dreaming. He started looking around to study his surroundings completely ignoring the growing voice in his head. "Boy... BOY... Boy I swear to kami you will answer me right now or I'll eat you and we'll both die!"

By the time he responded the fox was yelling as loud as it could and when Naruto finally started paying attention he let out an involuntary scream of surprise as his ears were ringing. "Where are we?" Naruto asked in awe as he finally saw the dark forest that was looming in front of him.

"This is training ground 44 also known as the forest of death, or your home for the next couple of months." The fox said in an amused tone, he seemed to know how the blonde ninja to be would react.

Naruto quickly found that his mouth had dropped in a mix between shock and terror. "WH…What?! I have to live in a place called the forest of death?! I'm six for kamissake!"

"You want to be the hokage right? If you're going to have to be in danger it might as well be now rather than in a couple of years when there are people trying to kill you. These boys are just animals, now you're going to go in there and stay the night. Tomorrow we start the fun stuff." The demon said with the same amused look.

Naruto was sure that this was the end of the road for him. He was going to go in the forest and be eaten by kami knows what. Even as detached from the village as he was he still heard stories about this particular training ground. He heard about the killer animals, and plants, and insects, and traps, and quicksand. To say that he was scared was a severe understatement.

Kyuubi as if sensing his doubts spoke quickly, "A bend in the road isn't the end of it Boy, unless you fail to make the turn."

Naruto sensed the wisdom in the ancient fox's words and proceeded to make his way into the forest, he still had his doubts, but if this was going to help him become the hokage he'd do anything nothing would stand in his way, BELIE…

"Will be eaten" Was all the kyuubi had to say to get him to stop his thought. He now realized that whatever he thought or saw, the kyuubi knew about, this was going to be fun. By this time he had made it far enough into the forest that he could no longer see the small training ground he originally appeared in. He stopped to say a prayer before he quickly ran as far as he could into the forest.

It had been a month since Naruto had originally entered the forest. The Kyuubi's idea of "training" seemed to be making Naruto run, then fight a wild animal, then run again, then fight, then run. Naruto wasn't even sure when the last time that he ate was. The only thing he knew was that right now about five very angry tigers were chasing him. So he was back to his favorite activity, running. The Kyuubi wasn't helping at all either. Every time more tigers would come after him he'd hear him laughing hysterically. At this point Naruto wasn't sure that this was even training at all. It was probably just a way for the Kyuubi to enjoy his time inside his "warden" as he referred to him.

Every time Naruto questioned the Kyuubi on his methods he would simply tell him "We acquire the strength we have overcome boy." Naruto on the other hand thought all of this was a load of crap.

Where does he even come up with all this philosophical stuff? His little moment of thinking stopped as his foot was snatched with a vine from a man-eating plant. Without missing a beat he cut the vine and continued running for his life. After a week in Naruto was used to what the forest would throw at him, Bordering on a month now, he was about as experienced as one could get in a death forest, and he knew it wouldn't be long until the Kyuubi told him to fight off all the tigers. Which had happened several times already, and every time he finished of the tigers it seemed like no more animals would come around him for the day. This made him more suspicious that the Kyuubi had something to do with all of this, but one thing was true he was getting stronger. At this point he seemed he could run almost double what he could at the start and while the first time he could barely kill one tiger, with the Kyuubi's guidance in his fighting he was now able to soundly kill three. Five's pushing it though. He sourly thought.

"Alright boy, kill these and you get to eat! Kill that fast enough and just maybe you'll get to sleep. Clock's ticking though." Naruto didn't even respond, it was just a waste of energy. When he complained the Kyuubi either threatened his life or spit more philosophical crap at him.

He quickly spun around and decided to take the tiger in the lead head on hoping he could quickly dispatch of it and pick off the other tigers while running. Naruto jumped at the front tiger and grabbed its head before it could make a move to kill him. He twisted it in such a way that he knew its neck would be broken and quickly jumped away before the other tigers pounced on him. He repeated this process for another tiger before the third caught on and swiped at him before he could grab its head. The swipe hit him in the chest and he was knocked on his back. He rolled dodging the leap from the other tigers and ran in the other direction. He managed to take a look at his chest and saw the blood that was now soaking his shirt. Yeah that's gonna hurt tomorrow.

He decided on another course of action and threw a large rock at the tiger in the lead. It hit it on the head and knocked it out, unfortunately the other two were now extremely close to him and he was forced to start running or they'd simply leap at him from behind. So he took out his makeshift spear, knowing that range would be his only advantage. As predicted both tigers leaped at him at the same time and he rolled away while stabbing on in the chest. He quickly pulled the spear out and began circling the other tiger before he finally took the initiative and threw charged at it, impaling the heart of the beast with the spear. He quickly finished off the unconscious tiger and sighed. He'd finally get to eat again.

The Kyuubi had long taught him about skinning and eating animals, along with fire making and most of the essentials of survival in a forest. At first he was hesitant about killing and eating animals, but he got over that the first day when he was nearly eaten several times. Naruto also learned many things about being a ninja, about hesitation being the seed of defeat, and how sometimes brute force wasn't the best option. Even though the tigers were stronger and faster than him, he was able to outsmart him and that was the key. In a roundabout way the Kyuubi was a really good sensei; his methods were just a little odd at times.

"Get some rest tonight boy, we'll be doing something different when you fall asleep, tonight we're going to activate your chakra." The kyuubi said as if he was telling the boy the biggest secret of all time.

Naruto now looked more excited than he had since the Kyuubi had revealed itself to him. "Really?! I thought you could only do that when you were older!" He said with the biggest grin he could give.

"Normally yes, but you're special, you have unusually large chakra coils, so the faster we act the easier it will be for you to control chakra later. That's what all this running and fighting has been for, without it your body wouldn't be strong enough to handle all the chakra and you would never have been able to mold it, now you've got enough stamina and strength to handle it."

Naruto could no longer contain his excitement and was no running around like a normal six-year-old with the world's largest grin on his face. Completely forgetting about the hostile place he was in. Luckily the Kyuubi would keep most of the animals away with his chakra until he thought it would be good to give Naruto more training. Naruto knew that to meet the Kyuubi in his mindscape he had to be asleep. It took some time but he finally calmed down enough to sleep and enter his mindscape.

That's it for the first chapter, the other chapters will be longer and I'm going to try to push out one a week that seems to fit my schedule best. Read and review! And don't forget to Message me or point out any errors to me. I tried my best to edit it, but I'm sure a couple slipped through.

-RantSulk