A/N: As decided by the pole on my page, here is my next story. It's NARUxANKO, and will contain lemons in later chapters. Strong Naruto fic, if you don't like don't read, but it's your loss. Enjoy.

Snake and Fox.

Uzumaki Naruto sighed in frustration and weariness. It had been two weeks since he had finally graduated from the ninja academy, albeit in unorthodox fashion, and his life was not what he had always hoped and dreamed that it would be. The first blow had been when the teams were announced and he realised that what he had hoped would become his new 'family', consisted of two teammates who either hated or disregarded him and a sensei that wasn't much better than them.

He had pulled himself out of that slump by reminding himself that all he would have to do to escape the dysfunctional team, would be get strong enough to enter the next chuunin exams and advance in rank. After that he would be reassigned and his life would be back on track. This consolation lasted approximately fifteen minutes into the "team's" first training session. His "sensei" was blatantly favouring the Uchiha like he worshipped the damn ground the stuck up boy walked on, his other teammate on the other hand, actually did. Naruto had actually caught her hugging a bench that the "genius" had sat on, as if she were hugging him by conjunction.

After managing to shake off both his rage and disgust (seriously, that bench thing was sick), Naruto had been resigned to training by himself as he always had. This too, seemed to be too good for the blonde, as he was quickly reprimanded by Kakashi for not following his instruction of "Wait over there, I'll deal with you when I'm done with Sasuke."

Which brings us back to his current position of sighing. That training session was ten days ago and every day since then Naruto had arrived at the training grounds at the allotted time (since he'd been reprimanded when he was five minutes late one day), waited the two hours for his sensei to show up whilst trying and failing to block out the incessant chatter of the pink haired banshee, when Kakashi did finally arrive, he would move the twenty or so paces to "his spot" where he would sit for the next four hours and watch the Uchiha and his brown nosers train.

Finally, after no recognizable signal, he snapped. 'Fuck this. I don't care if that lazy, Uchiha loving son of a bitch does report me to Jii-san, I'm out of here!' he declared internally before getting up and running off. Not that anyone even noticed.

He had left training ground seven an hour ago and since then had been wandering around the village looking for a free training ground or even park where he could try and figure how the hell he was going to teach himself to become a powerful shinobi. He chuckled bitterly at the thought. 'Cause everyone knows that all the best ninja trained themselves.' He thought sarcastically. 'Maybe I should go see Jii-san for help…no he'd just send me back to Kakashi and the Uchi-ass brigade.' The young blonde's thoughts came to a halt as he stopped in front of a fence that seemed to be surrounding a large, dense forest. "Training Ground 44. Doesn't look like anyone has been in here in a while. Oh well, that suits me all the better." He declared as he leapt over the gate, ignoring the graffiti scribbled under the sign, "The Forest of Death. Do Not Enter."

Naruto couldn't hide the bright smile that adorned his face as he gracefully leapt through the he trees of his new training ground. 'This place is perfect!' he thought happily, before suddenly coming to a complete stop. "What's that noise?" he whispered out loud as he tried to discern the nature and source of the strange sound.

'It sounds like someone is crying.' He realised as he got closer to the sound. The sound was painfully familiar to the blonde, bringing up a multitude of images visions of crying himself to sleep at night, of being alone and afraid with no one to help him, of the desperate overwhelming yearning for the comfort of another.

Shaking his head to rid himself of the painful memories and feelings, Naruto increased his pace and soon found himself in a clearing, about a hundred yards across with a stream flowing down one side. Sitting against a tree, with her legs pulled tightly to her chest and her arms wrapped around them, was the sobbing form of a woman. Her shoulder length violet hair was strewn about her head as her body convulsed violently from her weeping. Her position brought on another torrent of memories within the blonde, this time of him as an eight year old. He was huddled in the back of his closet, curled in the foetal position and trying to keep the mob that had burst into his apartment from hearing his frightened whimpers. But it was for naught, soon he heard the footsteps drawing closer and the horrifying click as his closet door was opened.

He once again shook his head as he tried to forget the events that had occurred on his eighth birthday, he looked to the hunched figure and steely resolve filled his sky blue eyes. 'She won't have to suffer alone like I did.' He promised internally as he approached the woman slowly.

When he was finally within arm's reach of the woman, he was about to wrap her up in a hug, when the sound of a twig snapping echoed throughout the clearing.

Before Naruto could even blink, she was up and facing him with kunai in hand. "Who are you? What the fuck are you doing here?" she yelled, her tone loaded with killer intent despite her tear stained and puffy face.

Naruto raised his hands in what he hoped was a pacifying manner, "Woah, relax. I was just walking around when I heard your crying and decided to come find out what was wrong."

He was going to continue, but was cut off when he felt himself pinned against a tree with the woman's kunai at his throat.

"I don't know what the fuck you're trying to pull kid, but I am Mitarashi Anko, feared interrogator and special jounin, and I do not cry! You got that punk!" she roared, sending all the animals within a mile fleeing.

99 times out of a hundred when in his current situation, Naruto would have been quaking in fear and saying his prayers, this however was not one of those 99 times.

With how close the two now were to each other, he couldn't help but look into her eyes.

They were a strange golden-brown colour and didn't appear to have any pupils. But what really caught his eye was the depth of sorrow and loneliness that they held just below the shallow mask of anger.

'They're the same as mine, only with a different mask', he thought to himself.

Unknown to him was that the woman was having similar thoughts, 'Who the hell is this kid? His eyes have even more pain and loneliness than mine.' It was then that she noticed the whisker-like scars on his face. 'Oh, the Kyuubi brat, that explains it.' She thought with a mental sigh, but was pulled out of her revelry by a sudden movement from the blonde.

Naruto, having noticed that she had blanked out, chose to take advantage of the opportunity and quickly lent forward, outstretching his arms and pulling her into a tight hug.

Anko was too shocked to say anything or offer any resistance as the boy pulled her into a loving embrace.

'What is with this kid?' she thought to herself, whilst trying to work up the will to escape the unfamiliar, intimate moment. Despite everything in her telling to resist the hold, she couldn't help but get caught up in the comfort and warmth of the boy's innocent gesture.

Anko was once again pulled from her thoughts, though this time it was by a low gurgling sound coming from the kid. "Perverted bastard!" she yelled as she quickly freed herself from his grasp and leapt back taking up a defensive stance with her kunai again, surprised to find it covered in fresh blood.

"Oh fuck." she exclaimed quietly, slowly looking back to the boy. What she saw made her heart stand still, he had collapsed against the tree holding his throat, which was now sporting a gaping wound and gushing blood like a fountain.

She quickly dropped the knife and leapt to his side, frantically trying to stop the bleeding.

"Fuck kid, I'm so sorry I wasn't paying attention and my body just moved when you came at me like that. Oh god kid, please don't die." She pleaded desperately, watching in horror as the light faded from his eyes. "Fuck I've gotta get him to the hospital quick!' the frantic kunoichi exclaimed as she picked him up and vanished in a swirl of leaves, praying to whoever would listen that the kid would pull through.

Naruto awoke to find himself in a dungeon or leaky basement of some kind, laying in a puddle of what he seriously hoped was water.

"Ah so the brat finally makes an entrance. And here I was starting to think you were never going to pay me a visit." taunted a deep, almost demonic sounding voice.

Naruto sat up to find himself in front of a huge pair of gates, which appeared to be held together by a piece of paper with the word 'seal' written on it.

"Oh shit." Naruto cursed under his breath. The fox just chuckled at the boy's reaction.

"Do you know who I am little one?"

"Y-yeah y-you're the nine tailed fox, lord of all the demons." he stuttered back as a reply.

Kyuubi gave an amused snort, "Not bad kit you're smarter than I thought you'd be."

Naruto shrugged, having decided the fox apparently didn't mean him any harm, he started to relax. "Eh, when you learn you have something sealed inside you, you tend to wanna learn about it, so I read some books on you that I found one time when I snuck into the library disguised as the Uchi-ass."

Kyuubi laughed deeply, "Ah yes, if I remember correctly, you checked out some books on 'how to come out of the closet' under his name, one of my favourite pranks."

Naruto laughed at the memory, then realised something, "Wait, if you know about that, does that mean that you have access to my thoughts and memories?" he asked worriedly.

"To put it simply...yes i do." Kyuubi answered plainly.

"What the fuck? So you just sit here all the time looking through my private thoughts and memories? That's just plain sick!" Naruto yelled angrily, feeling thoroughly violated.

"Relax kit, I never go into your more personal stuff... when I can help it." The demon replied almost nervously.

"What do you mean 'when you can help it'? What have you been looking at fox?" the blonde demanded.

Kyuubi sighed, he really didn't want to get into this with the kid, "Look long story short, as a form of punishment designed by the fourth hokage, the seal allows me to experience some of what you are going through on the outside. The catch is, it only lets me feel the negative things, so whenever you're sad or have been hurt I feel the same thing." he just trailed off after this, as if he was remembering a particularly horrific memory.

"I'm so sorry kit. In your short life you have experienced more pain than the rest of this god forsaken village put together. And all of it is because of me. I'm so sorry, Naruto." the fox then lowered its head to the ground in an act of submission.

Naruto could only watch totally speechless as the most powerful creature the world had ever known, bowed to him as if asking him forgiveness, for all the suffering he had caused.

"Look to be totally honest, I don't know if I'll ever be able to trust you, let alone forgive you, but I can promise you that I will try."

The fox quickly raised its head to look at the boy, and Naruto could have sworn that he saw a tear run down the giant fox's cheek.

"Thank you Naruto-sama, I will do everything within my power to try and make up for the pain I have caused you." Kyuubi declared vehemently.

"Glad to hear it fox, but drop the Naruto-sama crap, it just doesn't seem right coming from someone like you. Besides, it's gonna be hard to be friends if you're always bowing and shit."

Kyuubi chuckled lightly and nodded its huge head. "Sure thing kit, now, if you don't mind, I've got some work to do."

"Work? What are you up to fox?" Naruto asked, somewhat suspicious and very curious.

"Can't tell, it's a surprise. But just wait, I promise you're gonna love it." The enormous demon declared with an amused smirk as he turned around and ejected the young man from his mind.

End Chapter 1

A/N: Well, there it is, the first chapter of my first multichapter fic. I have the story completed but it needs heavy editing, will post the next chapter when it's ready. Review and tell me what you think.

Mr Chunk