For some reason, I just had to write this. It's been bugging me for a while.

I think the inspiration was from some guy who made 'Shadow Fox', and the dude didn't update in like two fucking years!

Anyway, me no own Naru, thank Shinrin94-XIII, and on with the show!


Two shadows ran through the streets of Konohagakure, stopping only long enough to go through some of the trash they were looking through for some scrolls, and maybe some food. One was about a foot tall, with the vague shape of a baby fox with amber-colored slitted eyes. The other was a boy around twelve, with dark spiky hair and blue ocean eyes that stuck out from the shadows. In fact, they both almost looked like shadows themselves, since it was a minor jutsu made by the boy himself. The little fox was making growling noises to the boy. "We must hurry. It is almost dawn, and the villagers will not want to see you this early master."

They could speak to each other using the canine language the Inuzuka knew well, so they had no problem with most of the dogs in the streets. As long as one pack didn't interfere with another, there would be no conflicts. In fact, he got along with most of the Inuzuka dogs, despite his scent of a fox. They once growled something about, "Alpha.", but he didn't understand just yet.

The boy also made a growling sound, saying, "Don't worry too much, Akyo. The villagers are quite lazy on Mondays, so we don't have to worry about them for a few more minutes, perhaps another half-hour. But maybe we should return for a short nap."

The little fox, Akyo, yipped at its master, yawning as well from all the running the two of them had to do all night. They ran towards their apartment, ducking out of the way whenever a villager would pass by. Once in their apartment, they checked to make sure there wasn't any traps set up by the villagers, before letting their shadow jutsu drop, showing Naruto Uzumaki, the loud and obnoxious knucklehead of Konoha. He placed all the scrolls he found that night in a storage scroll.

"You know, Naruto-sama," said Akyo, "I sometimes wonder why you chose to be a loud and ridiculous fool as a disguise around the villagers. I understand that they would destroy you if you were to show your true strength, but why not be something a little more normal?"

Naruto smiled and said, "Well, Akyo, if you think about it, if I ever showed what my true strength was, the villagers would be after me with torches and pikes. I'm not sure why they hate me, but there are those that still care about me, and that's why I'll become more and more stronger. So it's better to stay hidden until I graduate this year, so once I become a shinobi, the villagers can no longer treat me as they wish. If they tried to harm me, they would be violating a fellow shinobi of the Leaf, making their attacks a bit difficult to get away from. Not only that, If I act stupid I'll be ignored a bit more."

Akyo gave a small yip to show it understood. Naruto-sama was the kindest person it had ever met, and if it weren't for him, the little fox would be part of a queen's coat or something for its rare black fur. She may not have been any ordinary fox, but she could still die like any other one if done right. All the humans had to do was pierce the heart, and the fox would die instantly. If they hit any other part, it wouldn't matter, since its body was almost made of the same substance a Shadow Clone was made of. It could blend with the shadows and expand its body into any shape and size. All it had to do was collect the shadows around it and it could turn into anything. It would heal quickly, but it was a bit painful.

"Well, off to bed now Akyo." Naruto said, and leaned down to pick up the little fox, holding it like a baby. Akyo yawned, showing its small but sharp teeth in its mouth. They both cuddled into the bed and closed their eyes, ready to sleep for a few hours before finally going to the academy.


In the morning, the alarm sounded, and Naruto fluttered his eyes open while turning the alarm off and saw he still had Akyo in his arms. As the little thing started to wake up and stretch, it then brought up its left leg to scratch its left ear before looking up at Naruto and yipping. Naruto smiled at his little companion and patted it on the head. In a second, Akyo turned around and walked straight towards the shadow of the couch in the direction of the door to be able to see anyone who tried to break into its master's apartment. Naruto smiled and tossed a doggy treat into the shadows as Akyo started munching on it while Naruto put on his orange clothes that he usually wore for the mask he wore as the knucklehead of Konoha. "Get ready world, here I come!" shouted Naruto, while inside he was saying, 'Soon, I can stop acting like an idiot and be myself.'

He smirked and started roof jumping to the academy to get a good head start on things. He couldn't make a regular Clone, but he thought if he made more than just one, he couldn't kill them from pushing too much chakra into simply one. He went to the class, and saw he was on time for once. He didn't care and took his seat, right next to the screaming pink-haired banshee. He hated it a lot, but as the mask he wore, he had no choice but to oblige to his destiny. He turned to look at Sakura, the biggest screamer in the world.

"Hi, Sakura-chan! You want to go on a date with me after school?" he asked, forcing his happy smile mask, while inside he was thinking, 'Maybe I should drop the mask now. Maybe she wont punch me anymore and then I'll just leave her alone. That'll be a nice solution.'

Sakura did the very thing he expected her to do. She turned to him and said, "Leave me alone, Naruto-baka! I'm trying to get Sasuke-kun's attention."

'See if I give a crap!' Naruto wanted to scream, but held his smiley mask in place. "Pretty please, Sakura-chan. You keep wasting your time with him all the time, and he'll keep ignoring you, so you might as well be with me, right?" This only got him a big bump on his head from being hit by the pink banshee. He wasn't that hurt, since he already had been tortured hundreds of times by the villagers, but he wasn't about to let Pinky know that, so he pretended to be knocked out cold, which was easy, since all he had to do was keep his eyes closed and look asleep.

He 'came to' after counting to two hundred, then just sat there, trying to get a date with the banshee. He noticed the sad and shy look of Hyuuga Hinata. She had a cute habit of stuttering and poking her index fingers against each other, which made her stand out more than anyone else, since she was the heir of the ever powerful Hyuuga clan. Next to her was the walking hormone, Inuzuka Kiba. On his chest, inside his coat, lay Akamaru, his companion. He was still trying to get a date with her, but she refused in the most polite way possible.

This of course, wasn't left unnoticed by Naruto, who gritted his teeth in annoyance. 'You just don't learn, do you mutt-face? I'll place you in your spot soon enough.'

He tried to ignore him, and thanks to Iruka and Mizuki coming into class, everyone was forced to sit down.

"Alright then, we're going to start the exams now. I'll call your names alphabetical order and you will each perform a Clone..."

As Iruka started calling out names, Naruto felt someone looking at him. He looked next to Iruka to see Mizuki-sensei looking at him with a glint of hatred in his eyes. Those eyes always made Naruto uncomfortable, so he laid his head down until the teme finally returned to his seat with the cheer leading fangirls and began to brood.

"Naruto Uzumaki." Iruka called out.

Naruto got up while listening to many say he wouldn't graduate. He just shrugged it off and made the right hand sign before in a cloud of smoke, three Naruto Clones appeared. The problem was they almost looked sick and pale, and were barely even standing. Naruto frowned when he felt that there was someone screwing with his chakra manipulation. He looked over to Mizuki, who looked like he was trying to suppress a smirk. Naruto wanted to say something, but Iruka said, "I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but you can't pass since you couldn't perform the jutsu right." He looked like he was in pain, and Naruto forced himself to cry as well. He knew that would be what Mizuki wanted, so he ran out of the academy.


When everyone else passed and started being picked up by their parents, Naruto was crying, but only through the mask. In the inside, he was making plans on making Mizuki-teme pay dearly. He wasn't going to show any mercy to the grey-haired bastard. He was about to leave when he felt someone grab his shoulder. He knew the chakra signature of the person, and wanted to punch him, but knew Mizuki wouldn't just come up to him to be nice. He turned around slowly and looked up at the smiling face of Mizuki, who mostly seemed to be forcing the smile.

"Come with me, Naruto-kun. I have a secret to tell you." he said, not dropping his smile that somehow turned into a smirk.

Naruto thought, 'What does he want?' He followed Mizuki until they were at the Hokage monument on the current Hokage's head. They sat down facing all of Konoha.

"You know, Naruto," started Mizuki, "you shouldn't blame Iruka-san for not letting you pass. The guy cares alot about you, so go easy on him." He turned to see Naruto nod. He turned back to the village and said, "What if I told you there was a different way to become a genin? It's quite simple, really. All you have to do is 'steal' a certain scroll. The 'stealing' part is to test your stealth. That way we'll see if you can sneak past enemies in the battlefield. Then you have to learn one of the jutsu the scroll has, and you're all set!" he gave Naruto a smile and stood up. "That's the only way I can think of to be able to help you, so sorry there wasn't much of a choice."

Naruto knew that Mizuki was tricking him, but he thought that if he read a few jutsu and copied them in his own scroll, he could learn about them later on.

"Okay, Mizuki-sensei, I wont let you down!"

Naruto stood up and headed home to get ready for his next 'test'.

Mizuki watched as the blond disappeared from sight before laughing evilly. 'Soon, I'll kill the stupid Kyuubi-brat and be rewarded by Orochimaru-sama. He'll be pleased when he learns the damn demon is dead.'Mizuki turned around and walked back to his own apartment to get ready.


In the night, Naruto couldn't believe how easy this was. He had a black ninja-to strapped to his back, which seemed out of place with all the orange. Sure, the place was guarded, but it was very easy to get past the guards. Once outside, a few yards from the tower, he looked into the scroll and saw it had hundreds of jutsu that he never heard of, and a few he did know. He read the first one and saw it wasShadow-Clone jutsu. After some reading on how it gives the user the strength in numbers, he learned that whatever his clones learned would be transfered to him when they dispersed. Seeing as Mizuki-teme wouldn't be here for a while, he decided to start training. He looked around and saw nobody around before calling out, "You can come out now, Akyo." The ninja-to on his back shifted into the form of a baby fox with black fur before leaping to the ground.

"This should be fun, Naruto-sama."


Meanwhile, Sarutobi frowned at what the boy was doing. Normally he would feel proud on him being able to steal the scroll without anyone knowing, but right now he was worried on what Naruto would do with the forbidden scroll's jutsu. He didn't even notice that there was a black fox next to Naruto, since it was the middle of the night.

'Naruto-kun, what in the world are you doing?' he asked himself. He decided to alert Iruka first before telling anyone else.


(Few Hours Later)

Naruto stood up from the ground, panting and sweating from the training. He had to admit, making Shadow-Clones was tough, but he finally made it. He went over to the scroll, which was being guarded by Akyo. The little fox had a scroll spread before it with a paintbrush in its mouth, a black ink canister next to the scroll. It was copying the jutsu, which surprised Naruto the first time he learned Akyo could write fast with just its mouth. When Akyo saw its master coming, it trotted over to him and canine spoke, "How did it go, Naruto-sama?"

Naruto smiled and said, "It went fine, though I hope I'm not too weak to fight Mizuki-teme should he show up. How much did you copy?"

"About half of it, and there are a few things that don't make sense to me, but I wrote it down just in case."

Naruto smiled at the little fox and brought out a dog treat. "Good job, Akyo." he tossed the pup the treat, which it caught happily, before turning to the scroll and rolling it up. He suddenly felt a chakra signature and said, "Akyo, turn into something nobody will notice, quick!"

Akyo, finishing her treat, turned into a snake and wrapped around Naruto's waist before turning into a black leather belt with a metal fox head on the buckle, its eyes glowing amber faintly. Naruto nodded and growled out, "Nice, Akyo. You look good."

"Thank you, Naruto-sama!" Just then, Iruka came into the clearing, while Naruto quickly put a smile on.

"Naruto! What are you doing with the forbidden scroll? Do you have any idea what you have done?"

"Of course I know!" said Naruto with a smile, "I passed! I'm a genin now!" Naruto pretended to look around confused. "But where's Mizuki-sensei? He said if I learned one jutsu from the scroll, I could become genin. Did he send you instead?" It was the easiest way to warn Iruka while not telling him directly of Mizuki being a traitor. Iruka looked confused for a moment before he realized what Naruto was saying.

That's when Mizuki finally came along and started talking and trying to make Naruto give him the scroll. Naruto was about to give it to Iruka when Mizuki said, "Don't you want to know why you're hated by the whole village?"

At this, Naruto froze and stared at Mizuki. 'He really knows why?'

Iruka shouted, "No Mizuki, that's an S-class secret, he's not supposed to know!"

Mizuki threw one of the Fumma shuriken strapped to his back and threw it at Iruka, who jumped out of the way. The shuriken impaled itself on a tree that was behind Iruka a second ago.

"It's because you're a demon!" shouted Mizuki, "You're the reincarnation of the Kyuubi, the demon that attacked the village thirteen years ago. The fourth didn't really kill the demon, he sealed it inside a newborn baby. You are that baby!" he grabbed the other Fumma shuriken and started spinning it. "Now," he said, rearing his arm back to throw the giant weapon, "you die!"

He tossed the giant star at Naruto, who still didn't have time to digest the information he was just given. Iruka saw this and jumped in front of Naruto, taking the hit as the shuriken hit his back, knocking Iruka over Naruto.

"Naruto," Iruka said in a low whisper, "don't listen to him... You're not a monster... You're a real child, and you're alot like me when you want attention... Take the scroll to safety, away form Mizuki... go!"

Naruto could do nothing more than obey, and scrambled out of there with the scroll on his back. Mizuki retook the first shuriken he tossed before turning to chase after Naruto. Iruka got back on his feet with a little effort before taking the giant shuriken out of his back and chasing Mizuki.


Naruto had tears in his eyes, blurring his vision. 'That's why they hate me. They think I'm the Kyuubi-no-youko! But Iruka-sensei said I'm not. W-what am I!'

He didn't realize Akyo returned to its fox form and ran beside him. The little fox was silent, but thought, 'Naruto-sama is the container of Kyuubi-sama? It explains why he has a fox-like scent, but he's nothing like Kyuubi-sama. Kyuubi-sama was a strong demon, but she wasn't evil. Why would she attack the village Naruto-sama protects. Something isn't right.'

Naruto saw someone catching up to him from behind and dove into a nearby bush, Akyo close behind him. Naruto saw that Iruka and Mizuki were suddenly battling. He saw Iruka was badly hurt, and seemed tired as he sat against a tree's trunk. Mizuki growled out, "Why do you protect that demon-filth? He'll eventually turn on the village and destroy it all! That's what monsters do!"

Iruka chuckled and said, "You're right, that is what monsters do... However," he started picking himself up from the dirt, "Naruto isn't a monster. He's a boy with dreams that are close to his grasp. I know he can become Hokage, and he will eventually."

Mizuki glared at him and said, "You're wasting your breath. Your last words should've been cursing the demon-brat on wasting your life!" He brought back his left arm, which was the arm holding the shuriken he still had, and aimed at Iruka's head. "Now die!"

As he was about to throw the shuriken when he felt a huge pain in his left hand, forcing him to drop the Fumma shuriken and look to where the pain was. "YOU!" he shouted.

Naruto was right next to him, blue eyes blazing. He was holding an elegant katana that seemed to be made of shadows in his left hand. It had silver wind-like patterns all along the blade, along with an amber pommel that looked to be in the shape of a fox's fang.

"Don't you dare hurt Iruka-sensei!" Naruto growled out, "Or I'll destroy you!"

He twisted the katana, making Mizuki scream in pain. Soon, black markings started spreading around Mizuki's body. When he felt it burn he turned again to Naruto. "What are you doing to me?" he shouted.

"I'm placing you under one of my favorite jutsu. You wont be able to move for a long time, Mizuki-teme. Shadow-Style: Black imprisonment!" Naruto said, his eyes still blazing, almost glowing.

Iruka could only watch in amazement as Mizuki's skin was covered by the markings until his skin turned pitch black, and his body slumped to the ground.

"I-is he dead?" asked Iruka, who thought he looked rather dead.

Naruto shook his head. "No, just paralyzed. He can't move until I release the jutsu."

Iruka nodded and wondered how a child around twelve could take down a chunin with a simple stab. He smiled and said, "Naruto, get over here." Naruto went over to Iruka, Mizuki's body forgotten. "Close your eyes." Iruka ordered.

Naruto did, and after some movement, Naruto opened his eyes to see Iruka holding his goggles and no headband on his forehead. Naruto gave a big smile when he felt his forehead and said, "Thanks Iruka-sensei!"

Iruka smiled at his student, feeling proud of him. He was about to say something, when the sword Naruto had melted into the shape of a baby fox with amber eyes. The fox turned to Naruto and gave a playful yip. Naruto smiled and bent down to scratch the back of Akyo's ear, making the fox's tail wag.

"This is my partner, Akyo. She's been with me for some time now." Naruto explained.

Iruka gaped at the little fox. "T-that fox... h-how can it... it was just..." Iruka stuttered, not sure what to ask first.

"I'll explain it to you on the way back to the tower." Naruto said, Akyo now on his head, riding the same way Akamaru did atop Kiba. Iruka simply nodded and followed the boy as he began explaining how he met Akyo.


(Flashback)

A seven-year-old blond ran as fast as he could from a pack of drunk villagers. He had blue shorts, blue sandals and a white sweater. Since the villagers didn't care what happened to the kid, they could use him as a punching bag whenever they wanted. Naruto ran and ran, dodging anything thrown at him. Bottles, bricks, knives, etc. He turned to the left in the next corner and rushed behind an alleyway going to the back of a clothes shop. He ducked behind the trash cans and watched as the villagers ran past him. He sighed, and was about to run somewhere safe, when he heard a yelping sound like a dog being tortured. He looked inside the clothes shop through the open back door to see a man holding a baby fox by the tail. The little thing was barely half a foot, and had black fur and amber-colored eyes that were slitted.

The man was quite muscular with a bald head and a bushy mustache. He was wearing a brown leather apron and brown boots with jeans and a white shirt under the apron.

"I haven't seen anything like you," mused the man, "maybe I can turn you into a nice scarf for some queen, little fella."

The little fox, still yelping, looked in the direction of Naruto, who somehow found a voice that said, "Please! Help me! I'll do anything you want! I smell someone with a fox's scent out there! If you can hear me, I beg of you! Help me!"

Naruto, like anyone seeing a baby fox being tortured, ran and punched the man right in the kiwis. The man buckled over and tried to catch his breath while Naruto and the fox started running like crazy. The man though one thing, 'Damn demon protecting his followers!'


Naruto ran and ran, the black fox running next to him. The streets weren't crowded, so Naruto didn't worry too much that the villagers would see him or not. When they finally reached his apartment, they entered quickly. The lady owning the place knew Naruto for who he was and not the 'Demon-filth' others thought of him. But they still got in sometimes, breaking some of Naruto's stuff and furniture. He closed the door as fast as he could behind him quickly. He turned around to face the little fox, which was surprisingly bowing before him. It made growling sounds, which, surprisingly, Naruto understood as,"Thank you for saving me. I am eternally in your debt."

Naruto blinked... then blinked again... then he shouted, "I CAN UNDERSTAND YOU!"

The little fox looked surprise as well. It barked, or yipped, which somehow sounded like, "You can!" Naruto nodded his head and the fox looked amused. "Interesting. I have heard of humans being able to speak to us, but never understand us. My name is Akyo, a shadow-fox demon. What is yours?"

"N-Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto." responded the scared little blond boy, still shaken by being able to understand the little thing. Then again, he has been hearing voices saying random things about bacon and meats when he was around dogs. Not only that, the dogs were the only things that respected Naruto for some reason.

"If you're a demon, w-why didn't you just kill that man t-that tried to hurt you?" he asked.

"Because like humans, we demons are not simply born with powers. We have to study and train to become more and more stronger to be able to fight back. Us demons and you humans are not completely different, Naruto-sama. We demons can die as well, but we're harder to kill, and we can stay alive for a much longer time than you can."

Naruto nodded, still a bit confused, then asked, "Why are you calling me Naruto-sama? I'm still just a boy, and I'm not Hokage yet."

"Hokage? Is that your goal, Naruto-sama?"

Naruto nodded his head and said, "Once I become Hokage, people will have no choice but to stop underestimating me and see me with respect. They'll stop hurting me and I'll be the strongest out of all the Hokages. Believe it!"

Although Naruto couldn't tell, Akyo was smiling. 'I believe you, Naruto-sama.'

(End Flashback)


It was times like this that Iruka wished he had helped Naruto more. Now he found out there was a demon helping Naruto out in his training and sneakiness. It might've explained how he could paint the Hokage monument in broad daylight with nobody noticing.

'If he can do that in broad daylight, who knows what he's capable of during the night! He could be the greatest spy using shadows!'

After explaining how he met Akyo, they both realized they now stood before the Hokage office. When they entered, they were met by old man Sarutobi, Koharu and Homura.

They didn't seem to notice the black belt he had on his waist.

"Explain yourself, boy! You have just stolen the forbidden scroll, so tell us what you were thinking besides being punished severely!" shouted Homura.

Sarutobi raised his hand and smiled at Naruto. He fished a scroll out of his Hokage robes and tossed it towards the surprised blond.

"Congratulations in completing your first S-rank mission, Naruto-kun. I'll see to it you get the payment for completing it, and a bit of a bonus for acting as the fool to help us see Mizuki for the traitor he is. I have sent ANBU to pick up the body of Mizuki-san. You didn't kill him, did you?"

Naruto shook his head and smiled then said, "He's paralyzed, Jiji, so you wont have to worry about a thing!"

Hiruzen nodded, while the other two old councilors could only gape at the boy. "How can he complete an S-rank mission? He's not a ninja, and shouldn't even be one ever!" demanded Koharu. Sarutobi sent her a look before pointing with his pipe at Naruto's forehead.

"I see he has a Konoha headband, so I can only assume he is a ninja by the looks of it, am I right, Iruka-kun?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama. Naruto-kun has passed a test much harder than that of the one taken by the other students, and is now a genin of Konohagakure." Iruka stated proudly. He gave a smug grin to the two seething councilors.

They were red with anger, and all of it was directed towards Naruto, who seemed oblivious to the hatred shown by the two. While he was jumping up and down, he was thinking, 'Take that, you fleshy old bags!'

"Now then, I want you to go to and get those wounds healed, Iruka-kun. I don't want you to die now at such a young age." Sarutobi said with a smile. Iruka returned the smile and bowed before turning around and walking out of the office to begin his walk to the hospital. Then Hiruzen turned to Naruto and said, "You're free to go now, Naruto-kun. Go and rest for tomorrow to meet your team and jonin sensei. Dismissed."

Naruto nodded and ran out of the office, ignoring the glares the council elders sent him as he ran all the way home.


Tell me what you think. Think I should continue?