My darling, my prison, my seal. It’s been so long since I’ve been free. Now we are two in one, and my hopes of freedom dashed…by a boy. Naruto-kun, you are my life and my death, my survival and my imprisonment. I would give anything to be free of you, and yet, I am attracted to you.

In the beginning, I hated you. Centuries of free travel and destruction, brought to a halt by a single man and a baby. A wild, rampaging creature, broken down and locked inside a newborn child. Those were dark days, and I spent my time lurking deep in your infant’s soul, wallowing in dark depression and planning my escape. A human’s lifetime is a mere eye blink to an immortal such as me.

My sullen anger may have been your saving grace, for it kept your innocent soul pure, and untainted by my evil. But as I lived within you, I lived with you, and saw everything your poor heart had to endure. I see through your eyes, and I realize the pain. I have heard the insults and the lies, seen the gestures and the betrayal. And I have felt alone. Just as you have.

When you were very small, you would come home to your cold, empty house and cry yourself to sleep. Clichéd, but true. You had no friends, no respect, no love. I remember well the night you considered taking your own life. You had the knife ready, trembling over your skin. And yet, you could not bring yourself to do it.

Day after day of this torture began to wear both you and me down, as drop after drop of water can carve a hole through a stone. However, unlike myself, you knew no reason for their hatred, and in the end, you believed it was because you had no mother and father. You reached out to others, trying to find a replacement for the parents you did not have. One evening, you even followed a particularly maternal woman home, hoping she would take you in and adopt you as her son. Your hopeful thoughts were shattered when she cursed your name and tossed you out of her home, bruising both your body and your mind.

In unconscious retaliation, you turned to pranks and vandalism, performing any variety of tricks to get attention. It did not matter if it was positive or negative; it just meant that someone saw you. Someone knew that you existed, and that was enough.

I worried for you, and I do admit, much of my anxiety was born of self-preservation. I, like all people, am self-centered, and I would have gladly killed you if it would have ensured my freedom.  But the seal is tight, and our deaths would have been simultaneous. And somewhere, deep down in my wild heart, I have grown close to you, maybe even to love you, although I will not admit it to anyone besides myself.

Twelve years have passed in an instant, and you continue to grow and mature before my eyes. You have friends now, and strength. And we are one, my darling. In the past, you have felt alone because you did not…could not...recognize my presence. You are not alone, Naruto-kun. You were not, and never will be, alone.

Twelve long years ago, your life, and ours, began. Two became one, chained together by the power of Yondaime’s seal. I became a slave, with an iron collar welded around my neck and Yondaime handed control of me to you. You hold my chains, and although you do not know it, you could free me. Your own growth has already given me room to move and stretch, and now we are able to grow stronger together.

He trusted you, and believed in you. He wished his son to be a hero, to be revered. But you were hated by all but a few. I’m sure that he would weep if he could only see the mistreatment of you, Naruto-kun. It was not his wish for your life to be hell.

However, despite this hate and all their despising attacks, we will go far and achieve great things. We need each other. You are my fragile anchor to this world, and vain as it may be, I believe I am the source of your determination and strength. In a way, I think you may believe it as well.

For now, rest. Sleep sweet, my darling. Tomorrow, we shall continue to rise from our ashes.

Would you break our chains?


:devANoM: brought this to my attention: Yeah, there is some speculation up there. Yondaime is not Naruto's confirmed father, but I have a strong belief they have to be related in some way. I mean, think about it. Look alike, probably act alike, and a Hokage wouldn't have the heart to do that to anybody's child but his own in case the kid died or something. My point. And I'm done. No flames, thank you, thank you.