Inheritance: Chapter 4: Awakening Part 2: Fated Meeting

I own nothing

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Demon/Summons Talking"

'Demon/Summons Thinking'

`Jutsu`

*Sounds*

## One Year Later ー Konoha##

One year has passed since Naruto discovered his father and heritage and training couldn't be going better thanks to Kyūbi's help. Now six years old, Naruto has been able to escape the villagers with the only exceptions being when trained shinobi are among them. Even at those times, even if he is caught he's able to fool them and escape.

Kyūbi had Naruto primarily train in chakra control, since a benefit of having a Bijū sealed inside of a human is that it gave that person ungodly amounts of chakra and almost unending stamina; however, when you mix the Kyūbi with what may be called the Uzumaki kekkei genkai you get trouble. It wasn't exactly a real kekkei genkai but many people called it the 'Tailless Beast Curse'. Members of the Uzumaki clan had unmatched amounts of exceptionally dense chakra with a regular chunin having chakra equaling that of a kage. Due to this, Naruto at six years old had enough chakra to match most jōnin.

The downside of having so much chakra was that chakra control was extremely difficult. In the beginning, Naruto kept overloading any jutsu he tried with chakra, causing it to either fail or blow up in his face. The first jutsu that he learned was the `Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Technique)` that allowed the user to change their appearance.

~FlashbackーOne Year Ago~

"Hey Jiji, can you teach me the `Henge`?" Naruto asked.

"Why do you want to learn it, can't you wait for the academy to start?" The Hokage asked to which Naruto replied, "Well, ever since I found out who my father was I have been wanting to train and grow stronger, but to do so I need to enter the library and unfortunately they won't let me because they think I'm the Kyūbi."

His answer caused the Sandaime to lower his head in shame that he was unable to convince the villagers that Naruto wasn't a demon nor was he able to protect him. "I'm sorry Naruto, I've tried my best to protect you."

"No worries, just teach me the `Henge`. It will help me get into the library and not get thrown out of or overcharged at stores." Said Naruto.

"Very well, it's very simple. The hand seals are Inu (Dog)-Inoshishi (Boar)- Ram, then you release chakra to cover your body and think of the image you want." The Hokage explained. Naruto tried to perform the technique and transform into the Sandaime, but the result looked like something from a cheap horror film.

"Go train now, I have work to do." The Hokage said.

"Okay, thank you, I'll catch you later." He replied.

~End Flashback~

With the `Henge` at his side his life got significantly better. Although he hated to pretend to be somebody else, he managed to enter the library and get good food for normal prices. What surprised him was that the villagers were friendly and good people, the hate for the Kyūbi simply having clouded their judgement. This caused Naruto to promise to himself that one day he would get their acknowledgement and if that wasn't possible then they would at least respect his power. He didn't want people to fear him but it would be better than being discarded as trash.

Even though he wouldn't be able to access the shinobi section of the library since he was a civilian he still tried to gain access by `Henging` into one of the shinobi, which ended up working to his surprise. Since the librarian didn't have shinobi training she was unable to detect Naruto and so like clockwork he would scour the shinobi section of the library for what he wanted such as 'Introduction to Chakra Control', 'Basics of Chakra', and several scrolls for the basic forms of the academy taijutsu.

One of the best things he could have ever hoped for was his sharingan. Thanks to the week-long training in his mindscape with his father, his sharingan was fully matured with three tomoe in each eye. Anytime he found a shinobi in one of the training grounds he would watch with his dōjutsu to try and learn what he could. Thanks to his eyes being fully matured he was able to observe and copy several jutsu such as the `Kawarimi no Jutsu (Substitution Technique)`.

One night, Naruto decided to sneak through the village into the Namikaze Compound. Biting his finger to draw blood, he pressed the bloody digit against the main gates to unlock it. There was a small poof of smoke before Naruto opened the gate and entered the compound. The compound was small, much smaller than the Hyūga's or the Uchiha's. At first he considered moving into the compound bit knowing he couldn't let anyone see him he discarded the idea in favor of waiting until he could reveal who he was.

Looking around the compound, he found it had five bedrooms, three bathrooms, three living rooms, and a couple of storage rooms. However the biggest room was the library which contained numerous scrolls on taijutsu, ninjutsu, a few genjutsu, books written on fuinjutsu by his father and others, and dozens of Uzumaki Clan kenjutsu were also many journals and diaries belonging to the Uzumaki and Kaguya Clans. His father must have collected all he could about the Uzumaki and Kaguya which he stored here with his mother due to the both of his mother and father being the last of the Uzumaki and Kaguya respectively. Since the Namikaze were never a shinobi clan, only civilians, his father had hoped to start his clan along with the Uzumaki here in Konoha.

Minato had never actually named his taijutsu style but it appeared to be a combination of the Hyūga's Jūken, Uchiha's Sekkendou (The Way of the Intercepting Fist), and Muay Thai (The Art of Eight Limbs). The style was designed to predict, avoid, and counter an opponent using punches, kicks, elbow and knee strikes on the pressure and weak points on the human body. One strike of the style can cripple, paralyze, and even kill an opponent.

Naruto's training program was killer thanks to help from the Kyūbi guiding him. He started his training in the morning and worked all day long every day. Though one day Kyūbi had forbidden Naruto from constantly eating ramen and forced him to eat vegetables and a balanced diet. That was a very dark day for him indeed.

Along with his training regimen, Naruto had taken to wearing weights to increase his speed and strength, but only a couple of pounds so it wouldn't stunt his growth. After all, he was only six years old though already at Genin level. Unfortunately, he was still unable to produce a basic Bushin (Clone). The minimum amount of clones he could produce was one-hundred, which wasn't very helpful when he only wanted one. On the bright side however, this would confuse the enemy to no end.

He had also begun learning several weapon styles. Currently, he was furthest along with his Bōjutsu (Staff Techniques), followed by Shurikenjutsu, Kenjutsu, and Tessenjutsu. Currently, Naruto was on level 2 of 5 in Bōjutsu thanks to having asked the Sandaime for some scrolls due to him being a master when it comes to the use of the Bō. It also helped when he blackmailed him with the threat of telling his wife where he stashed his Icha Icha books. For his Kenjutsu, Naruto had gone to Orochimaru since he was skilled with a sword. This had caused an unforeseen event.

~FlashbackーTraining Ground 44~

Naruto was heading towards Training Ground 44, also known as the Forest of Death, in search of the Snake Sannin Orochimaru in hopes of getting some help with his Kenjutsu. He had heard that Orochimaru had been frequently staying in the forest to train his apprentice Mitarashi Anko.

Naruto soon arrived at the gate to the forest and began looking around for any sign of the Sannin and his apprentice. Taking in his surroundings, Naruto's instincts kicked in, causing him to roll out of the way of a kunai. Jumping to his feet he tensed at the feel of cool metal on his cheek and the appearance of a female body pressing itself against his back.

"Now what's this? A little gaki all on his lonesome at the entrance to one of Konoha's most premier and dangerous training grounds." A young female voice said. Once the girl backed off, Naruto turned around to get a look at his attacker. Standing there was a girl that looked around twelve years-old standing at 4'3", She had purple hair tied back into a spiky pony-tail that resembled a pineapple, brown pupiless eyes that glinted with mischief, and a mischievous smirk on her face. For clothing she wore a beige shirt and black ANBU pants over a mesh bodysuit with the bottom of her pants taped close and a kunai pouch strapped to her upper thigh. Finally, around her neck was a Konoha hitai-ate.

"My name," began Naruto, "is Uzumaki Naruto and I'm looking for Orochimaru-sama for some advice on kenjutsu." At this, the girl who he guessed was Anko raised an eyebrow at the idea that a kid who looked to be around six years old wanted training advice from a Sannin.

"Right. Your what, six/seven years old gaki; why would you need training advice, much less advice from one of the Sannin, at your age?" Anko asked skeptically.

"Simple, I want to get stronger, I need to get stronger, so that I can prove that I'm worthy of other people's respect and so that I can protect myself and those precious to me." Naruto explained with a serious voice and determination in his eyes.

"*Kukuku*, well that certainly sounds like a good reason to become stronger Naruto-kun." A voice suddenly spoke from seemingly nowhere.

Looking around in shock, both Naruto and Anko watched as the Hebi-Sannin faded into view, a smirk on his face and his arms crossed in front of him. Orochimaru was currently wearing a black polo and ANBU style pants with a kimono-style jacket and gray ninja sandals. At his waist was a double-edged jian with a bandage wrapped hilt, a guard with a snakeskin pattern, and where the blade met the guard was a purple magatama marking. The blade was in a black sheath that was connected by a purple rope-belt..

"Orochimaru-sensei!" Anko exclaimed. "How long have you been there!?" She said in disbelief that she hadn't sensed her sensei so close.

"My dear Anko-chan, you still have a long way to go before you'll be able to sense me. And to answer your question I have been here from the beginning of your little encounter." Orochimaru replied and gave Anko a look that promised they'd be talking about her little stunt later. This caused Anko to blush in embarrassment before giving a pout at the thought of the lecture she'd no-doubt be receiving about attacking six year-olds.

"Now then Naruto-kun, what exactly did you want to know?" He asked the red-headed blond. After-all, it wasn't everyday that the six year-old son of you two close, dead friends came looking for advice on how to wield a sword.

"Well," He began, "I'm hoping you can give me some tips on how to start my training and what kind of sword you'd think would fit me." He finished. As Orochimaru began to hum in thought, Naruto found his eyes being subconsciously drawn to the jian at the sannin's waist. The six year-old didn't know what it was, but something about the blade that seemed to call to him.

Orochimaru, noticing Naruto's attention being drawn to his sword raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Drawing his sword from his waist, he proceeded to raise it out to Naruto, until it was a little over a foot away. The entire time, Naruto's eyes never left the sword as he seemed to enter some kind of trance. Now really curious about the red-headed blond's behavior, Orochimaru beckoned for Naruto to take hold of the hilt.

Reaching his hand out, Naruto slowly took hold of the hilt. The moment his hand fully closed around the handle, both Orochimaru and Anko's eyes widened in surprise as the jian rippled and morphed into a white snake that proceeded to wrap itself around his arm and sink into his skin, leaving behind an intricate tattoo in the form of a eight-headed, eight-tailed serpent.

Orochimaru and his apprentice stared at the tattoo in fascination before several puffs of smoke drew their attention. As the smoke dissipated, three entities were revealed. There before them were the Hebi-Summon boss Manda, the Ryū-Summon boss Moerukaze, and the Sanshōuo (Salamander) Summon Boss Naitohantā. Moerukaze was a western dragon with gold scales along with golden eyes with slit pupils (Basically Smaug from The Hobbit when he was covered in gold). Naitohantā was a massive dark-purple near black colored salamander that was as large as Gamabunta (Think the Salamander that Hanzō stood on when he faced the Sannin).

"So, it has finally happened." Manda hissed, with the other two boss summons nodding in agreement. Looking confused, Orochimaru decided to ask the three boss summons what was going on.

"Pardon me, but would one of you mind explaining what exactly is going on here?" Ask Orochimaru as he looked between the three bosses.

It was Moerukaze that answered. "To put it simply hebi summoner, we are here due to the completion of a prophecy given by the original boss of our three clans, the Yamata no Orochi. This prophecy was given right before Yamata no Orochi disappeared, and said that the successor and future summoner of our clans would be determined by the Kusanagi no Tsurugi. This person would be able to summon from all three of our clans and would bring us to new, never before seen heights." He explained. Orochimaru and Anko were stunned by his explanation and proceeded to continue questioning the three bosses for several hours.

~Flashback Over~

When Naruto had finally come back to his senses, the three boss summons had left and Orochimaru had explained everything. Now Naruto was occasionally being taught by the Hebi Sannin along with his summons everything he needed to know regarding how to utilize his new summons as well as how to use his new sword, the Kusanagi which had the ability to extend to great lengths, cut through nearly anything, be imbued with Fūton and Raiton chakra, and was coated in a poison that changed with every swing of its blade.

But what surpassed all of these developments was his tactical mind. It may be due to having a kitsune sealed in him that caused him to be extremely cunning and skillful with traps, which combined with the mind of a prankster guaranteed the next few years would be dark times for Konoha.

One day Naruto was walking through the village, and because his `Henge` wasn't up he received the usual glares and the occasional empty bottle thrown at him which he simply dodged. Naruto was going for his weekly ramen meal since Kyūbi only allowed him to eat it twice a week, which was better than not at all. 'Stupid fox and his accursed vegetables.' He thought to himself.

"Ungrateful gaki, if you only eat ramen then you'll end up being a midget. Your body needs proper vitamins and nutrients if you want to grow." Kyūbi said. In the last year the two of them had grown closer, or as a human and several hundred foot tall fox can. If you ignore the constant bickering and death threats, you'd be able to tell how much they liked and respected one another.

'Fine, I get it fur ball.' Naruto replied as he continued walking to Ichiraku's. He wasn't really paying attention to anything while walking until he heard a couple kids arguing about something. Feeling curious, he went towards the sound where he came upon the scene of three kids around ten years old, most likely academy students, that were messing with a little girl. She looked around his age with neck length dark-blue hair and the trademark white eyes of the Hyūga Clan that had a hint of lavender. Deciding to help her, Naruto ran up to them.

"Hey, leave her alone." Naruto yelled in an attempt to get the bullies away from the girl.

"Oh, if it isn't a kid playing hero. Get lost before we hurt you too." What he assumed the leader said. This caused Naruto to jump in front of the girl to shield her as he pulled out his Bō and adopted a defensive stance to show he meant business. The stance consisted of his left leg slightly ahead of his right, knees bent and both hands grasping the Bō in a downward facing position. Seeing his stance caused the other two bullies to hesitate.

"He's just trying to scare us." The leader said, getting the other two to regain their courage. "Let's teach him a lesson." He finished as the three rushed Naruto. One of the boys sent his right arm forward in an attempt to punch Naruto, who responded by using his Bō to divert the boy's fist out of the way and then flipped his staff, striking the boy's chin in an uppercut. Another boy tried to hit Naruto from behind, to which he ducked out of the way before striking his leg causing him to stumble forward into Naruto's knee strike which made the bully fall to the ground in pain.

Naruto turned to the last boy and the lead bully who froze in his tracks after seeing his friends being effortlessly defeated. Making up his mind, the bully picked up his two friends and ran away before he also got hurt. Seeing this, Naruto turned to the girl and asked, "Are you okay, you aren't hurt are you?"

"N-No, I-I'm fine. T-Than-nk y-you for h-helping m-me." The girl stuttered. Naruto wasn't sure if she was afraid of him at first, but after a moment guessed that she was just shy. "No problem, I'm Uzumaki Naruto, what's your name?" He asked after introducing himself.

H-Hyūga H-Hinata" She replied while looking at her savior. Even though she was still young she couldn't help but blush and look down. Naruto may have only been six years old but he was quite a good looking boy.

"Come on, let me help you get up." He said, grabbing her hand and gently pulling her to her feet while noticing that she didn't have the Hyūga Sōke no Juinjutsu (Hyūga Main Family's Cursed Seal Technique) also more commonly known as the Kago no Tori Juin (Caged Bird Curse Seal). Remembering about hearing that the Hyūga Heiress was his age, he realized that Hinata must be the Heiress which meant that she was basically Konoha's little princess.

"Hey, I'm going to Ichiraku's to get some lunch. Want to come?" He asked, to which Hinata slowly nodded. Walking together, Hinata saw how the villagers were glaring at Naruto and wondered why. Their walk was otherwise calm, except for the glares, and quiet due to Hinata being too shy to talk with her savior. Soon enough, they arrived at the ramen stand where Naruto ordered two bowls of chicken ramen for the both of them.

"Oh, so is this your girlfriend then Naruto?" A young girl behind the counter asked in a teasing tone of voice. Her name was Ichiraku Ayame, a twelve year-old girl with brown hair and eyes along with a pretty face. She was wearing simple clothes over which was a white apron.

"N-No, nothing like that. We only met a couple of minutes ago." He replied with a blush. Though even if they had just met, he could see that she was actually very pretty and would without a doubt grow up to be a very beautiful woman.

Hinata didn't say anything as she blushed brightly before turning away so no-one could see her face. After Ayame was done teasing her surrogate little brother the two children talked a bit during their da… erm… meal. When they were finishing their food, a Hyūga member appeared and looked at Hinata. His name was Kō, a branch house member and Hinata's bodyguard.

"There you are Hinata-sama, your father is waiting for you." He said before taking her hand and started to lead her away.

"B-Bye Naruto-kun. I-It was nice to meet y-you." She said, to which Naruto responded by giving her a foxy grin before turning back to finishing his meal.

"Looks like you've managed to get yourself a little vixen kit." Kyūbi said with a chuckle. 'She's not my girlfriend." Naruto angrily thought.

"You say that now, but we'll see in a couple of years." Kyūbi snickered.

'Ero-kitsune (Perverted Fox).' He thought. After he finished his meal and paid, Naruto left to continue his training for the day.

##A Few Weeks Later##

Naruto was walking back to his home after finishing his training and just like any other day, it left him sore all over. During the last few weeks he had increased his taijutsu and kenjutsu training and had started increasing his shurikenjutsu difficulty. He could now hit a target with kunai and shuriken with deadly accuracy at forty meters thanks to the aid of his Sharingan.

During his walk home he picked up two chakra signatures making their way through the woods. Feeling curious, he placed two fingers on the ground before focusing on their chakra. He quickly found one of the signatures to be his new friend Hinata that he met a few weeks ago. Wondering what she was doing out this late he went in search of her.

When he arrived near her signature, he saw a shinobi with a Kumo hitai-ate on his forehead. Naruto recognized him instantly as Kumo's ambassador that had arrived to form an alliance between their two villages. Noticing that he was carrying a sack on his back that had Hinata's chakra signature emanating from it, he immediately realized that she was being kidnapped.

Acting quickly, Naruto threw a couple of shurikens at the shinobi who promptly deflected with ease. Turning around to face his attacker, the Kumo-nin was surprised to see it was a little kid.

"Kid, you better run off now before I decide to kill you, I'm a jōnin, you're no match for me." The man said arrogantly. Naruto knew he was high genin level, but to beat a jōnin he'd need to be cunning. He also knew that he needed to alert someone to give him some backup.

"Kit, switch with me. I'll send up a fireball into the sky to alert the ANBU." Naruto quickly agreed and switched with Kyūbi who proceeded to go threw hand seals before calling out `Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)` and releasing a large gout of fire into the sky.

The Kumo shinobi was both surprised and impressed. A six year-old shouldn't have the chakra necessary for a C-rank ninjutsu. Naruto, knowing he needed to stall for time, activated his sharingan behind a genjutsu covering his eyes and summoned his Kusanagi. He didn't care if some of his secrets got out, all that mattered was keeping Hinata safe. The Kumo shinobi quickly engaged Naruto to kill him and get away before reinforcements arrived.

Throwing a couple of shuriken, the Kumo-nin yelled out `Shuriken Kage Bushin no jutsu` causing the shuriken to multiply into several dozen. Knowing he couldn't deflect them all, Naruto jumped to the left where the enemy was waiting and gave him a hard kick to the stomach and punch to the face, causing Naruto to fly back and collide with a tree. Thinking that the kid was done, the Kumo-nin walked forward to finish him off. When he was close enough, Naruto's head and arms shot up as he called out `Sen'ei Jashu (Hidden Shadow Snake Hands)` which cause four large snakes to shoot out of each sleeve that proceeded to wrap up and bite the Kumo-nin, paralyzing him.

With the enemy disabled, Naruto sealed away his sword before walking over to the sack that contained Hinata. As he was walking he noticed that everything seemed sharper and clearer than usual, even with his sharingan activated. Deciding to look into it later, he stopped channeling chakra to his eyes, causing the sharingan to turn off and everything to go back to normal. Arriving at the sack that contained his friend, he opened the sack, releasing Hinata. Hinata looked up and saw that her savior was the blond red-head kid she met a few weeks ago.

Jumping forward, Hinata engulfed Naruto in a giant hug before bursting into tears. "*Shhh* it's okay, everything will be okay. You're safe now, and I'm not gonna let anyone hurt you." Naruto whispered in a comforting tone as he rubbed her back. Hinata was still hugging him when reinforcements arrived led by Hyūga Hiashi, Hyūga Clan leader and Hinata's father. Seeing his daughter hugging the demon brat and the Kumo ambassador paralyzed while wrapped in snakes, he deduced that the brat was the one who saved his daughter; though that didn't stop him from yanking the demon out of his daughter's embrace.

"Stay away from her; though I'm grateful for what you did, I'd prefer it if you kept your distance from her." Hiashi said in a cold, hard tone. Grabbing Hinata's arm, Hiashi began dragging her away while saying, "You're still too soft and weak, which led to you almost getting kidnapped. You're proving yourself unworthy of being the heir of our clan and if you don't shape up then I'll replace you.", as they left with Hinata being unable to say goodbye to Naruto.

A few minutes later the Sandaime arrived and ordered a report on the situation. After an ANBU finished his report and the Sandaime noticing Naruto standing off to the side he ordered the ANBU to take the ambassador to Ibiki and Inochi in ANBU T&I before moving over to speak with Naruto.

"Naruto, are you alright? How are you feeling?" Asked Hiruzen in concern. From what he heard, Naruto had taken some hard hits and was in very real danger of dying.

"I'm alright, only a couple of broken ribs and a bruised jaw but the furball will take care of it. I'm just happy I was able to stop him from making off with Hinata-chan. Though I'll probably increase my training regimen so I don't have to rely on luck next time." Naruto replied with a weak smile that the old hokage caught.

"I understand, and don't worry. Now, tomorrow come and see me and I'll give you the payment for an a-rank mission for this." The Sandaime said as he ruffled Naruto's hair. Even though he was in great danger of dying, he still managed to incapacitate the enemy, save Hinata and receive credit for the completion of an A-rank mission.