Back in Konoha, Naruto always used to wonder: What would it be like to have a real family?
A mother who loved you. A father for a role model. Maybe even siblings to play and squabble with. It was so far from his own experience that all he could do was wonder.
Well, he had his answer now.
A family could be the greatest thing in the world. They could also be really, really, annoying.
"Where do you think you're going?"
A three year old Naruto was crawling as fast as his little limbs could carry him, only to be promptly scooped up by his mother, hugged fiercely, and carried back across the room, ultimately getting deposited back in a crib.
Ravel, his twin sister, grabbed his arm as soon as he was in range, cuddling against him. Lady Phenex cooed and squeezed herself.
"You two are the CUTEST!" she said. "Though… I don't know how you keep getting out of the crib, Naruto."
Keeping his name was Naruto's greatest achievement yet. Apparently, in devil families, it was traditional not to name a child until the age of one. Parents were supposed to watch them and pick a name that truly fit them, instead of guessing while the kid was just a bump in mommy's tummy.
Naruto had an advantage over other babies: he spoke a language. Apparently devils had translation software built into their heads, so it felt like his family spoke the same thing that he'd grown up with in Fire Country.
That had let Naruto deploy his ultimate weapon: Tactical cooing.
He would repeat the same few syllables, trying not to make it too obvious. "Na, ru, to!"
He made himself especially clear whenever the topic of names had come up. Eventually, they took the hint. Which he was damn glad of, because before that the front runner had been Raven Phenex.
Even emo Sasuke wouldn't have wanted a name THAT edgy. Thinking about it now gave Naruto shivers.
Now that he'd shared the greatest accomplishment of his new life, it was time to talk about his biggest failure.
He couldn't get. A single. Second. To himself!
Phenex's had a few special powers. By far the most important was the ability to heal from any wound as long as they had demonic power. But until the age of six, demonic power would fluctuate, making abilities unreliable.
If Naruto cut his hand, it could stay cut. Ravel was in the same boat. Both of them would grow out of it, but that was the situation for now.
It scared the shit out of their mom.
She never let them out of her sight. Phenex's weren't used to the sight of blood. Once, when Naruto was two, his fingernail tore and didn't heal right away.
When Lady Phenex saw his finger, he thought she was going to pass out.
She watched the twins like she was a prison warden. When she was asleep, she had one of the family's many servants watch over them. When she was gardening, Ravel and Naruto would be strapped to her back. When she read, she did so in the same room as them. There was no escape. Sometimes, Naruto suspected she was reincarnated too and hiding a Byakugan somewhere. How else could she tell when he was running with her head turned?
He wanted nothing more than to get away and experiment with his powers. He could still feel it there: his chakra system laying underneath the skin. With a bit of work, he could feel like a shinobi again! And his curiosity was KILLING him to see what state his skills were in.
If he could just give his mom (even after three years, calling her that still tripped him up) the slip.
X
A three and a half year old Naruto rolled quietly off of the countertop. When he hit the floor, he was going to spring forward and crawl out of the kitchen faster than you could say: "Escape!"
There was a flash of light. Lady Phenex's ladle, which she had been using to stir soup, hit the floor when Naruto was supposed to. She had crossed the room in less than a second, her fiery red wings sprouting from her back, catching him before he could touch down.
"Careful! You could have gotten a bruise!" she said.
X
At four years old, Naruto carefully turned the dial of the shower. He made sure the water was hitting the empty bathtub as hard as it could be, making as much noise as possible. Then, he crept toward the window.
Still fully clothed, he sprang toward the glass and flung it open. He fled out into the night sky, using his wings to fly.
"Ahem!" Lady Phenex said.
Somehow, she had headed him off, floating with her arms crossed and her own larger wings out.
"No play time until you've showered," she said sweetly, smiling with her eyes closed.
X
Naruto was only a few months off of five, and by now, his patience had gotten as thin as the clothes the female devils wore in the magazines Riser kept under his bed.
He had to get a little bit of time to himself or he was going to go crazy. Which meant it was time to bring out desperate measures.
Ravel was sitting on the floor of their room playing with dolls. Lady Phenex had stepped out of the room for a minute, but that didn't fool Naruto into thinking he could just walk out.
She knew. She ALWAYS knew. Seriously, she MUST'VE had a Byakugan.
Feeling a teency bit bad, Naruto pressed himself to the wall next to the door into the room. He stayed there, out of sight if anyone ran into the room too fast. Ravel looked at him, a little bit curious, before deciding that her dolls were more interesting.
"Mom!" Naruto shouted. "Ravel's bleeding!"
Ravel stopped playing, looking down at herself.
"No'm not," Ravel said.
It was already too late, as Lady Phenex had arrived on the scene.
Naruto knew she'd rush in. He knew she would go straight to Ravel, giving him time (hopefully) to get out of the door and get away.
There was just one thing he overlooked.
He expected her to use the door.
A portion of the wall collapsed into liquid as Lady Phenex burned straight through it, just so she wouldn't have to take a few more steps to get to the entrance. She paused on the threshold, scanning the room to locate Ravel, immediately going toward her daughter.
Her scan also showed her where Naruto was, who froze for a millisecond at her unexpected place of arrival.
Realizing his time was vanishing, Naruto sprang toward the door.
His ankle was caught, hauling him back into the room. Lady Phenex had checked on Ravel faster than he could process and was smiling at him now.
REALLY smiling. Like, scarily wide.
"Naruto, honey, there are some things we don't joke about," Lady Phenex said. "Sit down. We're going to have a LONG talk until you understand."
X
Naruto was five and out of luck.
All his best tricks, plots, and schemes had failed to get him enough unsupervised time to dig into his abilities. And asking to test them was off the table. If Lady Phenex couldn't stomach the idea of him getting a little cut, she was never going to let him try and summon a Rasenshuriken. It was just out of the question.
So he had to fall back on this. His utter last resort. The worst thing was, he was pretty sure that it was going to work.
There was exactly one day out of the whole year when Lady Phenex left him and Ravel alone. Devils lived seriously long lives, so they didn't consider five years as a long time. Lady Phenex didn't even think twice about doting on her kids for that many days in a row; it didn't chafe on her or make her feel like she was missing anything, since she'd lived for over a hundred times that long and wasn't even old yet.
Which brought Naruto back to the one day she stayed away from them. March 15th, for the last two years, she didn't show her face to them once. Their brother Ruval was on babysitting duty.
So what made Naruto uncomfortable about this day?
It was the fact that he knew EXACTLY what Lady Phenex was busy with.
March 15th was their parents' anniversary. That's what made it special. And from morning until late at night, with all the vigor of a clan who had healing abilities baked into their very DNA, certain SOUNDS filled the mansion.
Namely screaming. The, uh, happy kind.
There were also thuds. And if you went too close to the wrong part of the mansion, you might hear some squeaking bedsprings.
Naruto and Ravel were sitting on the floor of their room, Ravel hopping around telling stories to their older brother. Ruval listened with a smile, though it bordered on a wince periodically as the noises from elsewhere got especially loud.
Ruval was the heir of the clan. He was the eldest son of Lord and Lady Phenex. From what Naruto pieced together, he was already the strongest devil in the clan. At over 200 years old, he was more than three times as old as Konoha.
Thinking about devils' ages made Naruto's brain hurt.
Ruval was a powerful young devil (and yes, he was considered somewhat young by their standards) on the cusp of reaching Ultimate Class, the highest class of devil other than the four ruling Maous.
But for all his power, Ruval still basically felt like a young man in his late twenties or early thirties. He lacked the superpowers Lady Phenex had that clued her in to wherever Naruto was at all times. Plus, Naruto had a secret weapon.
"—and then the princess married the prince, and they lived happily foreeeeeeever!" Ravel said, winding down a fancy story that her dolls had undergone.
"That's great! I love a happy ending," Ruval said, smiling at his sister. Naruto pulled on his sleeve, and he turned. "Yes, Naruto?"
"Ruval, where do babies come from?" Naruto asked.
Ruval's jaw dropped. He stuttered and started to gesticulate, slowly finding his words. "Well, there is a huge phenex—not like us but an actual bird—and it carries a huge pouch, or… maybe a sack, or… Anyway it's full of babies! Like you and Ravel." Ruval chuckled nervously. "When a male and a female devil love each other enough, the phenex flies over and gives them one. And then they live happily ever after, just like Ravel's toys!"
Ruval smirked, proud of his performance. Naruto cocked his head.
"I thought they came from sex," he said.
Ruval's smile disappeared in an instant.
"What's sex?" Ravel asked.
"I… I… I'm going to have a talk with your brother!" Ruval announced.
He fled from the room at his top speed. Naruto briefly considered the fact that he might have just gotten Riser killed, given that their teenage brother had a habit of talking about risque things regardless of the company, and it was pretty clear where Ruval was placing the blame for all of this.
But really, if Riser learned a lesson about his actions having consequences, that was for the best, right?
Even if the thing he was being beaten up for was something he never did.
"What's sex?" Ravel repeated, asking Naruto.
"Something you'll learn when you're older," he said.
"Hmm. Okay," Ravel said. She went back to her toys. When Naruto didn't join her, she looked up. "Where are you going?"
"Out," Naruto said, stopping in the doorway.
"We aren't supposed to go out," Ravel said.
"It'll be quick," Naruto said.
He ran, disappearing like he'd never been there. For the first time in this life, he truly stretched his legs to the fullest. When he got to the first window, he hurled it open and jumped out, scaling the side of a tree to get down to the lawn of Phenex Castle. He might not be able to walk on trees yet in this body, but canopies would always be his home; it was as simple as breathing to scale one and get to the ground.
Once he was on the lawn, Naruto ran hard, quickly reaching the forest. There were no dangerous animals here, just stocked game that his older brothers and father sometimes hunted. Naruto got far enough that he wouldn't be immediately discovered and grinned.
It was time. Finally, finally, FINALLY time!
There was only one way to start this.
Making a plus sign with four fingers, Naruto shouted, "Shadow Clone no Jutsu!"
He was treated to a puff of smoke, along with a feeling like being punched in the gut. Naruto gasped as he felt his chakra deplete. That was new!
A grin still formed on his face. When the smoke cleared, three identical faces were grinning back at him.
"How ya doin!" Naruto and his clones said, thinking of the same greeting at the same time. They were all him afterall.
Naruto stuck his hands out, and his clones high fived him one at a time. They were all completely real and solid; true shadow clones, just like he'd been summoning since the age of eleven. Which was actually older than he was now, but… You get the point!
"I did it, dattebayo! Once a ninja, always a ninja!" Naruto celebrated.
His clones cheered.
Still, his fighting style was definitely going to have to be adjusted. Naruto looked down, touching his stomach with a melancholic expression.
It was Kurama's chakra carrying his already gifted reserves that had allowed him to create entire armies of clones. When he was born into this world, he kept a lot of things, including his foxy birthmarks on his cheeks, which his mother loved to pinch.
But Kurama's chakra was gone, leaving Naruto with "nothing" but the amount of chakra he would've had as a normal Uzumaki.
He could still summon three shadow clones, a feat most ninja would consider heroic, but he couldn't do many more than that. MAYBE he could summon five at the same time, but that wouldn't leave him much chakra to work with for other things.
"Oh well. At least I've still got a few of you bastards!" Naruto said.
His clones cheered again.
As much as he liked their positive reinforcement, Naruto dismissed them so that he'd have more chakra to run tests with. He sat down and crossed his legs, going still and reaching out with his senses.
There was natural energy here. So much, in fact, that even gauging it scared Naruto, making him worried that he'd make a mistake and start turning into a statue. He quickly sat up and pulled his senses back to himself.
The natural energy here was different from what he was used to. And… He was different from what he used to be. Both of those things would take time to adjust to. Experiments with Senjutsu were best done slowly and carefully, to avoid the worst case scenarios. Especially without the toads to cover for him.
Some things hadn't abandoned him, though. Still sitting down, Naruto turned his palm upside down and summoned a swirling blue sphere.
"Rasengan," he whispered, his face lit with its light.
He should have canceled it once he knew he could make it, so that he didn't cause a commotion and get discovered, but c'mon. After this long, was he really going to not use his baby at least once?
Naruto hopped to his feet, turned around, and buried the Rasengan in the trunk of the nearest tree. There was a grinding sound and a boom, followed by the whole tree coming down. Naruto MIGHT have laughed maniacally.
"Naruto Uzumaki is back in business, baby!" he said, although his shout came out squeaky since his five year old voice hadn't dropped.
There was just one more thing he really wanted to test while he had the chance. The bedtime stories Lady Phenex told him and Ravel spoke of Clan Phenex's special abilities.
First, there was their healing, which they were most famous for.
Then, there were their flames, which were some of the hottest in the Underworld.
Finally, they had a third skill that most people didn't pay attention to. They had one of the best affinities for wind out of all devils.
Fire was Sasuke's thing. Naruto would learn it in this life, since he'd been born into the devil equivalent of the Uchiha (at least as far as their potential as pyromaniacs) but he didn't know how to use that NOW.
Wind, on the other hand?
Naruto sprung to his feet. "Alright, I haven't used this one since I was traveling with Ero-sennin. I think it was Ram, and then Horse? Or…"
After a few seconds, Naruto recalled the right hand signs. He faced deeper into the forest and sped through the chakra molding steps.
"Wind Release, Air Bullet!" Naruto cried out.
From his mouth, he spat a concentrated projectile of air that was a little bit bigger than his torso. It was an ordinary C Rank ninjutsu. Naruto performed it exactly how he remembered.
He didn't remember getting these results.
The bullet traveled with enough force that it actually ripped up the ground underneath it while it flew. When it hit a tree, it tore through and didn't stop. It took two separate trees to stop the technique, making it even more effective than in Naruto's past life.
"Mom wasn't kidding…" Naruto realized. Phenex's really were gifted with wind.
It got him thinking. Wind and fire worked well when used together, as he and Sasuke had done a couple of times. But now, Naruto apparently had access to both at the same time, right?
Sure, he hadn't used fire much before other than his wings, but that probably wasn't too important.
He could test one more thing.
Surely it wouldn't be a big deal.
Quickly, Naruto created one clone. They looked at each other and nodded.
Naruto called on his chakra and formed another Air Bullet. Meanwhile, his clone gritted its teeth and called out fire.
It wasn't a jutsu, but the clone managed to bring out flames. They came out of its hands, naturally responding to his desires.
Naruto fired his Air Bullet. The clone shot fire along with it.
The two combined in the air, and Naruto watched as an entire wedge of forest in front of them was utterly torched.
"Whoa," Naruto and his clone said, the light from the fire dancing on their faces.
They looked at each other, then back at the mansion, knowing that discovery was imminent.
"Time to go!" Naruto said.
His clone leaned forward to get dismissed. Although the original could cancel the jutsu, it was marginally faster for him to just give his copies a good hit.
Naruto threw a right hook. He didn't have his normal power in it, since he was only three and a half feet tall, but it was more than enough to dispel a clone.
Naruto's punch hit his clone straight on the cheek, making a hole in its chakra body.
He turned and started to run, just for something to grab his shirt. Slowly, Naruto turned back around.
His clone was looking at him with wide eyes. There was fire burning over its cheek, right where Naruto had punched. The flames eventually faded, and the clone was left in perfect health.
"Oh, shit," Naruto and the clone both said.
He was so stunned that he almost forgot to run, until he heard voices coming from the direction of the mansion. Dispelling the clone the proper way, Naruto fled as quickly as his little legs could carry him.
Despite the scolding he'd get if he was caught out here (or even if he wasn't) Naruto couldn't shake a broad grin.
Oh, yeah, he already had SO many ideas on how to use this.
Provided his mom didn't lock him in his room for the next hundred years.
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