Beta-reader: Terror-Of-The-Crimson-Night

Chapter: One – Uzumaki, Naruto

Type: Story – Incomplete

Word Count: 910

Disclaimer: If you've heard of it, it's obviously not mine.

..:Xx0o0xX:..

The first time I saw him, I immediately felt like I knew him.

Him being Uzumaki, Naruto.

I didn't though, and that should have been obvious. But it wasn't. My first reaction was to walk up to him, wrap my arms around him and kiss his cheek. And that's exactly what I had done. In reaction, he blushed then looked at me funny. To recover, I asked if he wanted a friend. He'd immediately answered yes with over flowing excitement.

That's when it had occurred to me that this five year old boy didn't have any friends. And I would be his first. I was the first to not care about what the others did. About the fox. What ever that was. But Naruto had said that people didn't like him because of the fox and called him a demon for reasons unknown to him. Me being only five didn't know either. I hadn't been told, and neither had any other kid. But our parents knew.

Mum was furious with me for making friends with 'a demon'. Did I care though? No, not really. Why should I? I would go play with him, without telling her and I'd always get in trouble for it. It wasn't like I cared about that either. Sometimes she'd catch me with him and would yank me away from him, calling him a monster and telling me I wasn't to be around him. Every time I glimpsed at his defeated face. So the moment I could, I'd get away from her and find him. Wrapping my arms around him and kissing his cheek like I had the first time. And all would be well again, until Mum caught me and the situation was repeated of course.

I never 'learned my lesson' though, I kept to what I saw fit. Besides, whatever this fox was, it wasn't Naruto and so I didn't see fit to treat him like some monster. And plus, foxes aren't monsters or demons. They're simply foxes. They don't treat foxes like they do Naruto. So why do they spit at him and call him a fox? Why do they tell him to go die and such? It's not fair. And I won't let them so long as I'm around.

And so Naruto and I were friends.

Eventually, Naruto learned to ignore their jeering words, even if I didn't. I would still threaten every one of them with a fist while glaring right at them. I'd been told multiple times, including by my own Mum and Dad, that my glares weren't ignorable. It was like having nature itself glare at you. I never understood how scary that would seem. Not until I got lost in a forest and feeling as if the trees were all leering down on me. Not until I looked into a greenish lake for the first time and saw the threat it posed. Then I understood that my glares were like facing off with the powers of nature and knowing that you'd undoubtedly lose. The thought never failed to send shivers racing up and down my spine every time. It truly was unsettling and scary. But that didn't mean I stopped glaring at them when they couldn't keep their hurtful opinions to themselves, no I just put as much anger and steel into them as I could manage.

Then I ran into someone that glared back. Uchiha, Sasuke. He'd recently lost his family to the Uchiha massacre. But he glared at anyone who dared to bother him, including Naruto and I. It had been our first day at the academy and Naruto had decided to sit by the brooding boy and against my instinct I followed Naruto. Instantly the Uchiha glared at us both and was about to move to an emptier part of the classroom, but the teacher had come in and he had to stay put. That had been the beginning of the rivalry between the two young boys. But it was a two-way rivalry with no place for me in it, besides, my gut wouldn't allow it and my gut was always right, so I stayed neutral. That is until I thought Naruto would be seriously hurt beyond his normal bumps and bruises that both obtained from their quarrelling, then I'd step in and tear the two apart. Neither ever appreciated my two cents when I put them in, but that never deterred me.

But the feeling of familiarity that I'd felt when I first saw Naruto never went away. A new familiarity had squeezed itself beside the first one, but it never took over. It was like a part of me was recognizing a part of him that I couldn't identify. That part was Naruto – who else could it be? – yet at the same time it wasn't him, but someone else entirely. Which made no sense whatsoever logically. Because Naruto wasn't two people at once, he couldn't be. Yet that's the way it felt. And that feeling didn't fade or even falter no matter how much I tried to rationalize with it. And Inner simply wouldn't budge on the matter. She only told me that I'd figure it out when the time was right. She'd always been so outgoing and upbeat that it was a surprise that she could be so ominous.

Thanks for reading, sorry shortness, review please, criticism is forever welcome