Temptation of Aromatic Grass chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: Don't own Naruto or .Hack for if I did I would be quite wealthy.

Prologue

Fire. Everything was burning. His goddamn home was burning thanks to that damn monster fox. Internally cursing himself, he hated what he was about to subject his son to. Looking at the bundle, he couldn't help but marvel at how much the little guy looked like his beautiful mother, Kushina, tuft of red hair but with his startling blue eyes. Sighing, he took his son and prepared for the night in which he would knowingly condemn his little boy to scorn and hatred.

Around the village, various shinobi of many ranks ranging from genin, chuunin, jounin, and ANBU were busy evacuating the village and trying to combat the demon fox. All seemed lost until one chuunin brought the news that everyone was waiting to hear.

"Its Yondaime-sama! The Yondaime is here!" He cried.

Hearing his cry, many turned to see the blonde haired man racing on the back of a giant toad towards the great fox.

"Dammit! Hope this works! Fuinjutsu: Shiki Fujin!" The Yondaime yelled.

It was with these words that the cold feeling of death seeped in the night air, corrupting the forests and crushing stones. The Shinigami, in all his glory had been summoned to the mortal realm.

"Human mortal…Why has thou called me forth from the abyss of death?" The Shinigami questioned in a deep baritone voice. Regaining the feeling in his limbs, Yondaime spoke.

"Please, oh great God of death, I have summoned you to request a sealing of this great beast into my child". He gestured to the Kyuubi and then to the boy in question. The Shinigami pondered this before coming to a conclusion.

"Very well…but does thou know the price thy must pay for a sacrifice such as this?" The Death God spoke.

The Yondaime only nodded his head with his eyes looking at the sleeping boy in his arms. Without another word, The Shinigami performed the sealing as promised, thus ending the Yondaime's life. Before his vision faded completely, he took notice of a strange cat creature floating in the trees looking at his child. With a whispered 'please help him' the Yondaime's eyes lost their light.

The still summoned Shinigami looked at the cat creature before speaking.

"So…Macha The Temptress…it would seem that you are now responsible for this child. Does thou understand?" The Shinigami questioned.

The cat wordlessly nodded, picking up the bundle, gaining a squeal from its inhabitant who observed the cat curiously. In the babies vision, The cat was dressed in a wizard style getup and a wizards hat (for details, see Macha (cat) from .hack SIGN). The cat itself was made up of two different colours, white for the left side of its body and purple on the right. Also a purple star was visible around its left eye, which along with its right eye was a dark red. Finally, a white tail is seen swishing in front of the child's face, tickling him and causing him to laugh. Smiling softly, the cat known as Macha looked up at The Shinigami.

"I must confess, the technique that was used on the Kyuubi actually destroyed the beast but its foul energy remains in the infant. Thou must guide the child and aid him through the troubled times ahead. Does thou understand?"

Macha nodded wordlessly again before quietly returning the now sleeping child to where she found him, in order to avoid suspicion. Thinking quickly, she seemingly melted and fused with the baby, changing the whisker marks from three on each cheek, to a faded two on each.

A few moments later, the retired Sandaime arrived and quickly secured the sleeping child before heading to his home. This begins the difficult, yet strange life that young Uzumaki Naruto would face.

The Sandaime had returned to reclaim his position as hokage once more after announcing the death of the Yondaime, Minato Namikaze. After announcing the Kyuubi's sealing into an infant, the crowd began to spew in outrage, demanding the child be killed. This forced Sarutobi to seriously doubt what the Yondaime saw in these fools. Of course, he understood that the people needed a scapegoat but he would never condemn anyone to that fate. He sighed, looking down at the sleeping child, wondering what sort of life the boy would live.

Naruto's age: 5

Naruto happily skipped down the road to go to Ichiraku Ramen. The little orphan often went there, as not many other establishments would sell to him. No, they would either just glare at him till he left or yell at him. He stopped running and stood completely still with his red bangs obscuring his face from view. He never understood why he couldn't play with the other children or why they called him hurtful names like 'demon' or 'murderer'. It always stung him and he began to develop a strong hate and anger towards the villagers.

A subtle change occurred in him over the next couple of weeks. His hair had started to grow down to his shoulders and his eyes turned a darker shade of the once light blue orbs. Walking solemnly down the street, he kicked a can and sighed sadly.

Meanwhile Deep inside Naruto's seal…

Macha was making some noticeable changes to her host's mindscape and overall personality. Observing it overall, she smiled. The whole mindscape was a field with a mixture of red and white roses. Amongst the flowers, stood a large cherry blossom tree in the middle. Suddenly frowning, she turned and looked at a dead patch of flowers where an evil looking red energy was gathering and attempting to spread. Thinking this could pose a danger to her host, she sent two Guardians (Gold dumbbell creatures from .Hack SIGN) to regulate and convert the energy into a more pleasant substance. Smiling happily, she returned to fixing up the host's personality, slowly changing it to mature more quickly.

She suddenly had an epiphany. She couldn't defend her host without a physical body as she had used up a large amount of energy, which transferred to the host's chakra pathways, changing the host's chakra colour from a light blue to a light purple. Using a minimal amount form the host's body, she created a much smaller body to accommodate as a companion for Naruto. Her body shrunk to the size of a small white cat with purple tipped rabbit ears. The little cat's eyes opened up to reveal two pure red orbs. Smiling to herself, Macha escaped the mindscape and into the world the host resided in.

Naruto sat under a large cherry blossom tree and he didn't know why. He had a feeling something good would happen if he went to the tree so he waited…

"Meow!"

Naruto looked on in confusion as a strange looking white cat with long ears and red eyes bounded up to him and nuzzled his cheek. Laughing a melodious laugh he never knew he could produce, he scratched the little cats chin, eliciting a purr.

"Can you tell me your name?" He asked softly. The cat meowed in response and a name made its way from his lips.

"Mia…your name will be Mia…My only friend…" He finished softly.

The cat meowed in happiness and thus hung onto his shoulder as Naruto made his way back to the orphanage before he would get yelled at.

3 Years later… Naruto's age: 8

Naruto was a…strange child in the eyes of the new orphanage caretaker. He never interacted with anyone much except if he was in a talkative mood. Most of the time, she heard him mumbling to himself and that *shudder* Red-eyed white cat with long white ears and purple tips that sat on his right shoulder. She had come to associate it with the many strange oddities with him as it just appeared with him one day. Yes, Rin decided, Uzumaki Naruto was one of the strangest boys she had ever seen. It was a shame that he ended up that way, what with those ignorant villagers ignoring him, forcing him to isolate himself and confide in non-human friends. Even Sandaime-sama admitted that the boy was too isolated for his own good.

She felt saddened that she couldn't do more for her former sensei's son but she had a job to do and couldn't afford to show favouritism. She sighed and looked over at him sleeping under a large sakura (cherry blossom) tree with that cat. The boy, who was 8 years old, had bright, hazy blue eyes and two faded whisker marks on each cheek. He had long red hair reaching lower back with five white bell attachments at the ends, which was covered by a black beret-looking hat with three purple roses on the left side. His attire consisted of standard civilian clothes, which was a pair of blue sandals, black pants, and a dark purple shirt. She decided that he was a very feminine looking boy and it made her laugh when she caught other boys asking him out until they realised he was a guy, then threw up in the nearby trashcans. She could see this irked him by the small frown he sported during these types of confrontations. It also amused her when he was constantly swamped by females of all ages commenting on his looks. This was one of the few moments when he seemed happy, when women found him attractive…

At this thought, she clenched her fists and grinded her teeth. There was NO WAY in hell she would let him end up a pervert so she helped by giving him lessons on women and how to avoid becoming a pervert. Confusion was on his face at the time, well it seemed like it because his face always held that lost, dream-like look. Especially around the cat, Rin noticed. Sighing, she returned to the kitchen to make dinner for the children.

As we leave Rin, we focus on the young protagonist in question. The androgynous red haired boy opened his hazy blue eyes, stretched his arms, and then stroked the cat next to him in an affectionate manner. This caused the cat to run up his arm and land on his right shoulder.

"Good morning, Mia…" his dream-like voice echoed around the area. "It is yet another beautiful day…" The cat meowed in response and nuzzled his cheek.

Smiling softly, Naruto raised his left hand and tickled the cat's chin, which earned a purr. Naruto then moved gracefully back to the interior of the orphanage. He often wondered why he had to live here but never pondered further as he realised that Mia was all he needed or wanted. He didn't, however shun contact with humanity as he had come to care for the few whom treated him nicely.

The old man in red and white who came to visit him was rather nice to him, in ways similar to Rin. He always read books to him and played tag with him and Mia. He had been added to the list of his precious people alongside Rin, Ayame, and Teuchi. He didn't mind the ramen that they served as Mia often tried to drag him there. He laughed at the memory of Mia trying to drink the broth only to have the bowl fall on top of her. That, and it seemed that Ayame had become a big sister figure to him and Teuchi became a surrogate father as they never glared at him and were always nice to him. His smile turned into a look of indifference as he recalled those filthy ugly dolls called 'villagers' looking at him in disgust. He figured that they were just jealous that he had a companion to be with him forever and hated him for it. That was fine for him, as he didn't want such filth to ever occupy any region of his heart.

After reaching his room, Naruto decided to lie on the bed, holding a piece of Aromatic grass (or otherwise known as Foxtail grass according to the .Hack wikia) in his hand. Looking at it for a while, he placed it next to the sleeping Mia, and fell asleep, drifting into the world of dreams.

5 years later, Naruto's age: 13

Naruto awoke from his slumber, brushed a stray red hair from his vision, and looked around his apartment. It was surprisingly clean for a teenage male's home. It had a reasonably sized bed, a few pots filled with aromatic grass, Small TV, and a black leather sofa and armchair. He also had a nicely sized kitchen, which showed an interest in the art of cooking. After getting up and scratching Mia behind her ears, causing her to yawn loudly before falling back to sleep. Chuckling, he wandered into the bathroom to have a shower.

Some time later, he exits the bathroom and begins to change into his outfit bought for him from Rin. It consisted of a new beret, only black with white roses. His upper half consisted of a black light armoured shirt with intricate orange lining that had black fur cuffs. His lower half consisted of a pair of black pants with intricate orange lining that matched the shirt. He also had a strange white cape attached to the pants that reached to below his shins. On his feet was a pair of shoes that seemed to match the shirt and pants he wore, as they were also black and had orange lining, with the difference being a white fur attachment on the ankles.

(NOTE: If your having trouble visualising this, look at a picture of Endrance's outfit, but in black with orange lining and no red skirt thing underneath).

After brushing his long red hair and styling it with the black bell attachments Ayame-nee bought him, he placed the beret on his head and went to his kitchen to make a breakfast meal. Coming into the living room while carrying some toast slices, he sat at the table with a now awake Mia who was drinking some milk that Naruto had prepared for her.

Naruto sat in silence, going over the required jutsu he would need to pass his genin exam. This would be his first time seeing as he refused to go to the academy earlier. As he finished his calculation, he exited his apartment with faithful Mia on his shoulder. After wandering the street, he looked on as a group of villagers were trying to remove a piece of graffiti from a large wall.

"Hmph, how disgusting….trying to desecrate such a beautiful vision with filthy cleaning utensils…such ugly dolls…" Naruto complained in his dream-like voice with Mia meowing in agreement. The 'beautiful vision' in particular was a painting of a large sakura tree in full bloom. He never referred to his art as 'pranks' as the villagers 'lovingly' named them. The nerve of those dirty pigs! Was it wrong to make the world a more beautiful place? I mean okay, the 'vandalising' of the Hokage monument by giving them colour may have been a bit TOO excessive but it was all in the name of beauty! If only these fools could understand that…

Reaching the academy, he went inside to find the classroom. Entering the room, he could feel some of the female occupants staring at him with…hearts in their eyes. Of course, he noticed the remaining girls fawning over a black haired boy, who was brooding in the corner. Sasuke, if he remembered the boys name correctly. Shrugging, he went to the back of the classroom and sat next to a girl with dark blue hair, lavender eyes and a large beige coat. The girl turned an interesting shade of red and started to behave shyly as he sat next to her.

"Good morning, my dear hime" Naruto said while stroking a lock of her hair. "I hope that you are well today…"

The girl in question, Hinata, promptly lit up like a Christmas light at being called hime (also the touch), and ended up receding more into herself.

"I-I'm alright N-Naruto-kun" She managed to stutter out. Naruto looked at her sadly and sighed softly and tilted his head backwards slightly.

"Oh my dear hime, why must you wither yourself away like a dead flower?" He spoke and then cupped her cheek. "You have the potential to become beautiful, so please don't crumble…"

Said girl turned an extreme shade of red that Naruto turned slightly fearful for her health. Luckily she calmed down as the teacher, Iruka Umino, came in to announce what the test will be.

"Alright class, this is it. The big one" He said. "I hope that you have all prepared yourself accordingly, for this will test your written skills and your use of academy techniques."

Naruto tuned out the rest of the mans lecture in favour of looking at the sword attached to his hip. It had been a delightful gift to him from Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage. It was a rather elegant looking rapier that was completely pitch black. The handle had a cover that covered his hand and had a swirl pattern. After finishing examining his sword, he stroked Mia under the neck in the area she was fond off, receiving a satisfied purr in response. Smiling dreamily, his attention was drawn back to Iruka, who finally started calling names.

The written test wasn't that difficult but then again Naruto did not find any beauty in completing such a dull, boring task. Of course, he didn't do badly, he just written to get at least 70% in the test. After the test was over, Iruka announced that the jutsu test would be done alphabetically and that, in conjunction with the academy jutsu, extra credit would be given for those who used a non-academy jutsu as a fourth technique.

"Aburame, Shino!" He called. A rather tall boy, roughly the same size as Naruto, with a huge coat and sunglasses got up silently and made his way to the door. At this, Naruto decided to take a small nap, knowing his name was the second to last on the list.

Waking up, he noticed that only him, Ino, and the broody Uchiha boy were left. A few moments later in silence, another teacher came in. This one had long-ish silver hair hidden under a bandanna.

"Uchiha, Sasuke!" He called. The boy got up and made his way to the test area. He realised he was next when Iruka-sensei called his name.

"Alright Naruto, you have to do the three standard academy jutsus. These are: the henge, the kawarimi, and finally the bunshin. Please begin when you are ready." Iruka said with a smile. He often found Naruto's behaviour quirks amusing as it irritated a lot of the boys in class who thought he was a girl. He remembered when Kiba tried asking him out because he thought he was a 'pretty lady'. This resulted in a mental scar for Kiba who promptly realised he was a guy and got him laughed at by his sister, Hana. The dog boy avoided Naruto since.

"Henge!" Naruto called in his dream-like voice. In his place stood…a replica of a red haired woman with violet eyes in light armour. After dispelling the jutsu, he found Iruka looking at him in a questioning manner.

"She…was my mother…so beautiful…" He said in a lost voice. This prompted Mia to nuzzle his cheek to get him back down to Earth. Iruka winced, for he too knew the pain of losing a loved one.

"R-right. Please move onto the next jutsu for me, Naruto" His voice snapped Naruto out of his daze.

"Kawarimi…" And in his place was the flowerpot on the windowsill.

"Good job, Naruto. Now, for the final jutsu, the bunshin. I have heard from Hokage-sama that you have a disability regarding this particular technique and he said to use the move he taught you."

Nodding, Naruto made a hand seal and called out "Kage bunshin!" and with it, three solid clones appeared next to him. Iruka had moved to examine the clones, and thus told him to perform a non-academy jutsu since the kage-bunshin was only a replacement for the regular bunshin. Naruto nodded slowly before closing his eyes and pressing his hands together in a hand seal.

"Amatsu Kusabana Maisou: Ichiban Dankai (Imperial Flowering Plant Burial: First Stage)…" He whispered.

The effect was instant. A mixture of glowing red and white flower petals appeared from out of nowhere and circled the wooden test dummy, completely concealing it from view and raised slowly off the ground. After a few seconds, Naruto slowly raised his left had in front of him, Mia anticipating what was going to happen. He clicked his fingers and the literal flower coffin thrust from mid air, straight into the ground at an alarming speed. When the flowers cleared from view, an extremely damaged test dummy with various indents and cut marks became visible.

Iruka was stunned at the sheer force of such a technique. His face resembled a gaping fish until he realised what he was now supposed to do and composed himself, then smiled at the redhead.

"Congratulations Naruto, You pass. Here is your new hitai-ate. Team listings is tomorrow". Here, Iruka handed him a headband with a metal plate, symbolising the Konoha sign. Picking up the headband, he thanked Iruka and prepared to go home to play with Mia.

Outside, he took notice of the parents of children who passed the test. Looking at them with indifference, he moved away to avoid them and hurry home. He was unaware of the pair of lavender orbs watching him leave.

"Naruto-kun…" She sighed sadly, thinking he had failed.

Some time later, we find Naruto at home cooking dinner with Mia playing in the living room. Humming a tune, called Tasogare no Umi, he thus made his way into the living room to eat his meal. After finishing his rather delicious dinner, he noticed Mia was already asleep. Picking her up carefully, he moved to his bedroom and placed her in the little handmade basket he made for her. Smiling softly, he turned and looked at the headband he was given. Looking at it long and hard, he walked over to the sideboard next to his bed and pulled out a small key concealed in a fruit bowl. After collecting the key, he walked to his closet and pulled out hidden package from behind his spare outfits. Undoing the lock to the package, he opened it to reveal a rather expensive looking violin and a bow to play it with. The violin was rather old, as it had been a gift from Rin on his 9th birthday and she taught him how to play. He slowly picked up from where Rin left him and turned himself into a fairly competent violinist. Picking up the violin and bow, he opened the hatch on the ceiling that led to a small canopy on his roof. Sitting on the canopy, he brought the chin rest of the violin to his chin and brought the bow to the strings. Sighing peacefully, he looked out to the beautiful scenery of the Fire Country forests. He slowly began to play a melody. As he continued playing, Mia ran up the open hatch of the roof and jumped on Naruto's shoulder and started meowing softly to the song. Sighing in content, Naruto keeps playing. (NOTE: The song he is playing is Nightfall, from Naruto Shippuden OST).

Sarutobi had been having a good few years as returning hokage. Of course, he got back into the routine and tackled the dreaded paperwork. Oh how he loathed that unbeatable enemy who always kept respawning.

Sighing, he turned and looked at the pictures on the wall. From left to right was a picture of each hokage that Konoha had. The first was the Shodaime, whose name was Hashirama Senju and also the co-founder of Konoha alongside Uchiha Madara and famous for the Mokuton bloodline. Next was the Nidaime, named Tobirama Senju, brother to the Shodaime and a master of water techniques. Next was a picture of himself, albeit younger. Often called "Shinobi no Kami", he had mastered every jutsu inside Fire Country. Moving on he twitched at the picture of the last one, the Yondaime, Minato Namikaze. The boy was a prodigy who quickly rose through the ranks and was loved by many. It was a tragedy, when he lost his life sealing the Kyuubi no Yoko inside his own son, Naruto.

Sarutobi often felt guilty when it came to that boy, the poor boy who had isolated himself from people simply because they couldn't see past what he was. Of course, Sarutobi understood their mindsets, for the boy was an obvious reminder of what occurred that terrible day. His faded whisker marks (though he couldn't figure out why they had faded) had always served a constant reminder of the fox and thus they took out their anger and sorrow on him. Of course, while there were no attempts of physical attacks, he made sure of that, it still ached seeing that poor lonely boy isolated from children his own age and sitting by himself stroking that strange white cat.

That was another thing, where did it come from anyway? He was sure that they never had cats as exotic as that one on sale in shops in Konoha. When he asked, the boy just said that 'Mia found me…' and thus he proceeded to drop the issue. However, as the boy grew older, he noticed that he was always with that cat, constantly talking to it and playing with it. It had seemingly become the point of obsession for young Naruto, bordering on pure fanaticism. It was fortunate, that he was able to make friends in the academy, such as the shy Hyuuga heiress, Hinata and the Yamanaka girl, Ino, who appreciated beauty as much as Naruto did.

After looking outside his window, he cursed the Yondaime for leaving him with so much work. Smiling he lit his pipe and proceeded to stare at his great nation, while listening to the sound of a violin being carried throughout the village.

"The new leaves shall soon be born on the great tree, but the question remains…will they survive and thrive, or wither and die…"

Thus the night dragged on, and the violin ceased playing.

END OF CHAPTER

Haha! Didn't actually plan on writing this but I haven't seen many Naruto/. Hack fics on the site and decided to remedy. There will be no actual characters appearing from .Hack itself aside from the Mia from .Hack/G.U. You may have noticed that the Naruto in this fic is based off Endrance. I will say this once. There will be NO YAOI in this story, as I hate it. I am going to make the pairing NaruHina. Also, he resembles his mother, Kushina rather than his father Minato.

Oh yeah! I almost forgot! Macha's Avatar Form (.Hack/G.U.) might make an appearance but that most likely won't happen until much later, in the chuunin exams.

Thanks For Reading, Guys and Girls!

Chapter 2 will be up soon, well as soon as I write it anyway…

Naruto's stats: After looking at Narutopedia, I have decided to give an estimate on what his stats would be at the moment. This will be done here and after the timeskip that runs into Shippuden and to ensure people that he isn't perfect in everything. The stats will be measured on a scale of 1 to 5.

Ninjutsu: 3

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 3

Intelligence: 2.5

Strength: 2.5

Speed: 4

Stamina: 4

Hand seals: 2

Total: 23.5

Evaluation: A primary speed fighter, Naruto will rely on fast moves that are rather flashy and quick hitters. His Taijutsu isn't the best because he just goes into a fight with a 'get in flashy, get out flashy' mentality and uses a rapier sword, however he does have an okay Taijutsu form. Because he puts so much effort into being a speed fighter, he sacrificed a majority of his physical strength in exchange for high speed and stamina. He has built himself into a pure speed master and thus won't be an all-powerful brute. His Genjutsu is average, consisting of luring and mind altering techniques. Because Shinobi usually favour one style out of Nin, Tai, or Genjutsu, Naruto's forte will be in Ninjutsu he considers 'beautiful'.

Endo's Jutsu Corner: I will do this little segment at the end of each chapter each time an original jutsu (made by me) is used. Note: the jutsu listed will only be the ones used during specific chapters (e.g. jutsu used in chapter one won't appear in the corner in chapter). Also, other characters will use original jutsus later but for now its Naruto only:

Amatsu Kusabana Maisou: Ichiban Dankai (Imperial Flowering Plant Burial: First Stage) – This is a Ninjutsu technique used by Naruto. It creates small blades disguised as flower petals and proceeds to capture the enemy in a coffin-like container. The enemy is systematically cut from every angle and put into an unconscious state. A-rank Ninjutsu

Amatsu Kusabana Maisou: Niban Dankai (Imperial Flowering Plant Burial: Second Stage) – Unamed in the fic and an accompaniment to the Amatsu Kusabana Maisou. By clicking his fingers, the flower coffin will proceed to drag Naruto's enemy down into the ground at a fast speed, causing large body damage. A-rank Ninjutsu.