FicWad

Naruto
The Rise of the Jinchūriki
Prologue:

Humanity is said to be the most intelligent species compared to any other creature in the world. If that statement means we are the only species that has learned to build then that statement would be accurate. However, if that statement was directed towards an emotional or philosophical viewpoint, then it would be completely false. While humanity is the only species that can build tools and cities, they can also build weapons and destroy cities.

I have watched as humanity has built many great civilizations only to destroy them after a time. I have seen humanity at its best and its worst. I have seen good hearts care for the weak and the starving and the poor. I have seen the powerful and the strong dominate the weak and the helpless. I have seen peace, I have seen corruption, I have seen utopias, and I have seen genocide. Humanity might be the smartest species on the planet, but I have seen wild animals more ‘civilized’ than humanity itself.

My tenant, who had been asleep for the last century, awoke and began to pester me. Wanting me to leave the cave that I had made my dwelling. After a week of endless nagging I relented and so we began our pilgrimage. We traveled the world; most of it was nothing but land and ruins from a civilization that was nearly annihilated. We came across some small areas where humans had formed villages, towns, even a few cities but none were as large as the large cities or nations of old. Some of these colonies were quite nice, the people were warm, welcoming, and were good people. The others were the exact opposite, they were corrupt, and power hungry. These corrupt colonies all tried to either kill me and my tenant or use me for something or other… these colonies are no longer around.

As I neared the end of my global journey, I came to an area on the continent that was once known as Asia. This area once belonged to several countries that I had visited in my youth but now they were different geographically and politically. This area was now known as the Elemental Nations; a small cluster of countries that ventured no further than a veil-like cloud that seemed to surround the entire Asian territory. Some of these countries had element names while others had names based off of their geographical features: Tea and Grass Country for example. My tenant and I noticed how these people were similar to us, like their ability to manipulate the elements (maybe not like we could but it was still elemental manipulation) some of them could even manipulate other things outside the elements with unique traits that in my day would have been classified as mutations. Which brings us to the present, and what my tenant and I were seeing in the ninja village called Konoha which resides in Fire Country…

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A lone figure stood on top of the roof of a large dome-shaped structure looking over the village that was called Konoha otherwise known as the Hidden Leaf Village. His 6’ 2 frame was covered by a large trench coat with a high collar covering the lower half of his face and a large hood shielding the top within its pitch black shadows. The coat was zipped up from belt line, to the bottom of the high collar, the lower half of the coat fluttered behind him in the breeze that seemed to always blow through this village. Black boots covered his feet and were holding the bottoms of the legs of a pair of pitch black cargo pants. Two holsters were strapped to each leg between the hips and knees, each held a black, custom desert eagle and two collapsible batons that could partially extend to one or two feet or fully extend out to three feet. The only distinct marking was the work ‘Immortal’ written in silver kanji on both his shoulders. Currently he was observing a festival that seemed to be honoring a fallen hero who defeated some giant fox with nine tails.

He watched while children laughed and played, teens trying to catch the attention of other teens, ninja walking around making sure everything was alright, and a drunken mob chasing a boy that seemed to be no older than five years old…

Wait… That wasn’t right…

But his sense of sight didn’t betray him… there was in fact a large mob chasing after a little boy who seemed to be wearing an orange jumpsuit that looked like it went through a paper shredder, and had yellow hair. As he watched, the mob seemed to grow in size as men and women, both civilian and ninja alike were joining the mob… some even throwing things at the boy.

Rage filled his mind and body as the boy was hitting the leg by a throwing knife and went down, only to be swarmed by the mob, who began to beat him with anything they happened to be holding which included a wide variety of weapons and tools, even glass bottles and metal pipes.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING SLADE?! STOP THEM!” came a shout from within his mind as his tenant became enraged by what it was seeing.

Without hesitation the figure jumped from his perch with a deep but soft grunt…

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Little Naruto was in so much pain; the villagers had not held back like they usually do when it came to beatings. This time they seemed determined to kill him; beating him with broken bottles, metal pipes, hammers, crowbars, clubs, and one ninja even carried a staff. As he lay beaten and bloody on the floor surrounded by the mob, fireworks began to go off, illuminating the sky above and the scene below with blue, red, purple, green, and white lights. One particularly large white firework exploded above the scene giving Naruto a clear view of the crowd backing away as an ANBU ninja wearing a dog mask stepped forward holding a kunai knife in his hand in a reverse grip.

“Now you die demon,” came the hollow voice of the dog masked ANBU as he raised the knife above his head, preparing to stab the boy in the heart.

Naruto closed his eyes and awaited the pain that would, no doubt accompany the blow, but instead he heard an odd clanging noise and the sound of a blade landing next to his head, followed by gasps from the mob.

“Attacking an innocent child for no reason… disgraceful.”

Naruto opened his eyes, only to see a tall man dressed in black standing over him with a strange rod held out to his left side and at a downward angle. The kunai knife that the ANBU had held in his hand lay next to him and the ANBU was standing a good six feet away from the two, clutching his mauled right hand to his chest.

“How dare you attack one of our ANBU! He was going to kill the demon once and for all!” shouted one of the villagers.

“I see no demon… I see an innocent child being beaten by a drunken mob.”

One of the other ANBU, with a rat mask, stepped forward, “If you defend the demon then you will die along with it.”

Without waiting for a reply the ANBU charged forward with a katana raised to slice the man down the middle. There was a blur of movement and the baton in his left hand blocked the downward slash form the ANBU. A desert eagle was now in his right hand pointing right at the ANBU’s face.

“My name is Slade… and you all have just pissed off the devil,” Slade said as he pulled the trigger.

The fireworks overhead hid the sound of the gun firing, discharging a .50 caliber AE round straight into the ANBU’s head, right between the eyes at point blank range. The hollow-point slug punched clean through the mask and the front of the skull and blasted a hole big enough for someone to put a brain in the now empty cavity that was the ANBU’s skull. Before the body had even hit the ground Slade was already in motion and several members of the mob fell to the ancient weapons. Some were bashed across their skulls by the baton he had in his left hand, while others fell to the desert eagle in his right. As more and more people began to fall dead, the mob began to panic and scatter. Slade retracted his baton and drew his second desert eagle, unleashing bullets in every direction, gunning down anyone that was part of the mob. It wasn’t until the last person, a woman who had beaten Naruto with a metal pipe, had been sent to hell without most of her internal organs, did Slade holster his guns and turn to the boy still lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood. Naruto had seen the brutal attack this one man did to the entire mob and had passed out from a combination of blood loss and pain before the last person was killed.

Slade knelt down to see if the boy was still alive, and after feeling a strong pulse he sighed quietly before picking the kid up in his arms and took notice of the open wounds healing before his eyes, “This child is special… kind of like us in a way… Slade, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
‘I hope not… because if I am then there’s going to be more blood spilt by my hands over the course of the next few years,’ Slade simply stated before getting to his feet and leaping to the roof of the nearest building before running straight to the village’s hospital.

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Slade burst through the doors of the hospital carrying a bleeding and unconscious Naruto in his arms, “I NEED HELP!” That got the attention of everyone in the reception area, until they saw who it was he was carrying then everyone began to ignore him. Slade noticed this and instead of trying to force these people to help he decided to leave the hospital the make for a place he knew would have people that would help him. Nobody noticed as he ran at high speed out the main gate of the village and headed in a north-northeastern direction, the boy still in his arms.