Untitled Naruto Project Ch. 2 (Naruto AU) (Patreon)

(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)

A/N: Everything is different now.

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The Container wakes up. He did not expect that, truth be told. Especially when the last thing he remembers is failure. Why is he still alive? Did his master come for him, to save him? Did the Demon Goddess spare them both for some inexplicable reason?

None of these thoughts feel like the ‘right’ answer, though to be fair, he feels strange altogether right now. His back is against cold marble flooring and he stares up at the ceiling of a large temple rather than that of the cave he last remembered being in.

Where is he? Why does he still draw breath? What-

“I know you’re awake. Don’t think that lying there quietly will save you from my wrath.”

Blinking slowly, the Container turns his head to regard the most gorgeous woman he’s ever seen. She’s sprawled upon a couch on the other side of the large, open chamber, her voluptuous form barely covered by the robe she has on. The twitching fox ears atop her head and tails splayed out around her give away her identity.

Slowly, the Container rises to his knees. Then, he leans forward and presses his forehead to the cold floor in front of him.

“This lowly one greets you once more, Great Fox Mistress.”

The Nine-Tailed Fox responds with a scoff and a snarl.

“Cease your feigned kowtowing, worm.”

It is not feigned. The Container fully recognizes the gulf between them. He acknowledges her as his better. Still, in the same vein he acknowledges he cannot argue with her on this matter. And so he lifts his head and settles back on his knees, staring at her blankly.

“… Why am I still alive, Great Fox Mistress?”

The Nine-Tails pauses at that. She looks at him with eyes narrowed into slits.

“Are you mocking me, worm?”

He shakes his head in response.

“I am not. I expected to die for my failure. Instead, you have brought me to this place and saved my life. I do not understand why.”

There’s a stillness in the air… and then the Nine-Tailed Fox in her humanoid form is right in front of him. The Container looks up and sees everything, her robe doing a very poor job of hiding her body now that she’s looming over his kneeling form. There is a stirring… but the Container is more of a container than a man and it is only that… a stirring and nothing more.

She stares at him with blazing red eyes filled with fury.

“You did not fail, you fool. You succeeded! We are within your mind, imbecile! Imprisoned here because of your little ploy!”

… What?

The Container stares up at her blankly for a long moment. Long enough for her to snarl and attempt to strike him. That’s when it happens. Thick black chains that look suspiciously like inked versions of the seals scarred into his body manifest from nothing at all and lash out, latching onto her arm and yanking it back before her claws can make contact with him.

This does not seem to surprise the Nine-Tailed Fox, though she does get angrier. Howling in outrage, she goes for a kick that would have taken off his head if not for more black chains latching onto her leg and dragging it away as well.

In an instant she retakes her proper form, showcasing her full glory as she did back in the mountain. Hulking and massive, towering over him, her jaws snapping in his direction. The Container watches her massive fangs close over him with a blank stare, only for more of the black chains to muzzle her tight and drag her fully back across the floor of the temple.

She’s soon locked down completely, more and more chains joining the collection the more she tries to fight back and struggle. Until the Demon Goddess in the form of a massive Nine-Tailed Fox is completely and utterly immobilized in the center of the chamber.

The Container stares, baffled, for several long moments as she glowers at him with bright red eyes. Then, he turns her previous words over in his head. He… hadn’t failed? They were in his mind? She was… imprisoned within his body?

He had succeeded?

It sounds impossible. The last thing he remembers was that it was too much. So much chakra. So much power. His body couldn’t contain it and he’d passed out.

… But apparently it could contain it. If he’d survived, then he’d succeeded. More importantly, his master had succeeded. This was excellent news, was it not? The best possible outcome!

So then why does he feel so guilty when he looks to the Nine-Tailed Fox, bound and muzzled across the chamber? His lips press together into a thin line and after a moment, the Container reaches out and… and wills the chains away. They dissipate piece by piece, releasing the Nine-Tails from her bondage. Until eventually the Demon Goddess is able to rise again, standing on all four legs and staring at him silently.

Then, just as quickly as she’d tried to attack him, just as swiftly as she’d transformed into her massive, hulking, mountain-sized form… the Nine-Tailed Fox retakes that beautiful humanoid shape complete with ill-fitting robe from earlier. And she collapses back onto her couch with a huff.

“I hate you.”

The Container understands. Even if he himself does not feel emotions such as hatred anymore, he knew going into all of this that if they succeeded, the Fox would despise him with all her being. He honestly hadn’t expected to care… and yet, were it not for his master, he would already seek to free her. Imprisoning such a majestic creature… he’s not sure why, but it upsets him.

“I am sorry.”

The Nine-Tailed Fox scoffs, not dignifying that with a response. Meanwhile, the Container finally rises to his feet. He looks around the temple room he finds himself in curiously. It’s like nothing he’s ever seen before, which surprises him. If this is supposed to be his mind… his soul, even… then why does it look like this?

“Confused by the décor? I did a little bit of work while you were unconscious. This space was abysmal before I got started.”

Blinking, he turns to regard his… guest once more. She flicks a fox ear at him, sneering. He just keeps staring at her blankly… until finally, she deigns to explain.

“When I first woke up here, this place was a dark, disgusting sewer and I found myself stuffed in a cage. But the cage didn’t have a lock on it, so I was able to break free with relative ease. Unfortunately, the cage was just for show. The rest of you… that’s the true cage. Still, you’re in such a sorry state that reworking these surroundings is well within my capabilities.”

Here, she glowers at him all the more aggressively.

“Try to change any of it and I will find a way to make your life as hellish as possible.”

The Container doesn’t quite know what to say to that. So he says nothing at all. Instead, he takes a moment to take in his surroundings again… and realizes why she’s so uninterested in letting him change anything. It’s not just a large temple that he finds himself in… rather, it’s a temple with one specific purpose. The veneration and worship of the Nine-Tailed Fox.

Now that he’s not so focused on her, he sees statues and frescos of her all over the place in her variety of forms. Each and every one captures her likeness in some epic or awe-inspiring way, invoking a variety of emotions. Or rather, he thinks they’re supposed to invoke emotions. He feels… something as he looks between them, but those feelings are muted, as they have been for him much of his life.

Finally, he looks back to the Nine-Tails and nods.

“I like it.”

She looks enraged by that, but remembering her previous humiliation, she doesn’t try to attack him again. Meanwhile, the Container looks around, furrowing his brow.

“Ah… how do I… leave?”

The Nine-Tailed Fox’s eyes widen before narrowing all over again as she scowls.

“Why the hell would I help you do something like that?”

Hm. That was fair enough. The Container nods agreeably and begins to look around some more. You would think exiting one’s own mind would be easy… and yet…

After a few minutes of this, her voice rings out again.

“You’re really just going to leave? Hmph. Weren’t you going to bed me? Make me your woman?”

Pausing, the Container looks back to see her gazing at him challengingly. Not provocatively he doesn’t think, though her very body itself is provocative. No, it’s more like she’s daring him to try. Though he’s not sure what she thinks she would be able to do to him if he did… in the end, it matters little.

“No. I have no intentions of touching you Great Fox Mistress. I apologize for the implication, but it was necessary to invoke your wrath and trick you into attacking me as you did.”

The Fox’s mouth opens and closes at that… and then she’s right in front of him again, growling.

“Seriously?! You fucking… you little… grah!”

She throws her hands up into the air instead of trying to attack him this time. This does… interesting things to her chest, but he barely pays it any mind. She doesn’t fail to notice this.

“… You’re serious, aren’t you? You aren’t even remotely interested in this body?”

The Container slowly shakes his head, meeting her eyes.

“No. Not nearly as much as finding a way out of here so that I may find out what my master next has in store for me.”

There’s a pause at that, and then she crosses her arms over her chest.

“Your ‘master’. Is he the one who has left your mind in such a wretched state?”

The Container tilts his head to the side.

“… I am my master’s tool. I am nothing but a Container. My one and only purpose for existing in this world was to capture you for my master. I have succeeded and now I must make sure he reaps the benefits of this success.”

Her mouth opens and closes wordlessly again. It is strange that she keeps doing that. Finally, she sneers once more.

“Pathetic. You truly are pathetic. But your master is even more so… to go this far, to challenge me like this… I will free myself from you, ‘Container’. And I will track down your master and rend him limb from limb.”

That would be bad. But truth be told, the Container does not think Master Orochimaru will let that happen under any circumstances. He is quite the versatile shinobi, his master. And so long as she is trapped within him, she cannot escape to do harm to his master anyways.

“I will not let that happen. I will continue to fulfill my purpose. I will keep you contained.”

Red eyes glare at him, furious as ever. And then the Nine-Tails whips around with a snarl, transforming back into her massive, full fox form.

“Worthless! Utterly worthless! I can’t even seduce my way to freedom, that’s how useless you are!”

Ah… was that her plan? Was that why he’d woken up to her in such an appealing form? Hm… he would be lying if he said he did not miss it already. And yet… she’s right. She cannot seduce her way to freedom. He is not so weak or base as to betray his master’s trust for the touch of a woman.

With a sigh, the Container drops down into the lotus position and closes his eyes to begin to meditate. It stands to reason that if he wants to find a way out of the prison his mind has become, he needs to focus on his mind itself. Of course, normally meditation also comes with circulating his chakra… a tall order given he cannot feel his real body and therefore cannot circulate chakra through it right now.

And yet… that actually proves to be the key to all of this. Because he’s meditating in his mind, all of the chakra he’s trying to circulate… is going right to his brain. Flowing through his skull until… the Container opens his real eyes.

A part of him wonders what the Nine-Tails’ reaction to his success will be. More outrage, no doubt. But the far larger part of the Container is more occupied with the situation he finds himself in when he ‘wakes up’. He is still in the cave, of course. Still in the Nine-Tailed Fox’s den.

… He is currently floating in midair in the Nine-Tailed Fox’s den, with a storm of corrosive chakra swirling all around him, chewing through his surroundings in a massive radius. He… can’t control it.

The Nine-Tails is contained within his scarred body by the seals written in blood and flesh across his skin. However, her chakra is not so thoroughly contained. Instead it lashes out all around him, destroying everything within reach. Almost like it has a mind of its own.

Or…

“Fall.”

The Demon Goddess’ reverberating voice echoes in the Container’s mind as the chakra storm suddenly cuts out at her whim. In an instant, he falls nearly sixty feet through the air, just barely able to circulate chakra into his legs so that he lands semi-properly rather than breaking bones.

“Tch.”

Judging by the sound of annoyance in the back of his head, she was trying to do serious damage with that move. Though that makes him wonder why she didn’t simply do it before he woke up… could she not do anything to directly harm him, perhaps?

Ah… his was not the place to ask questions. He existed for one reason and one reason only. Unfortunately, Master Orochimaru is nowhere to be found. More than likely the powerful shinobi had felt the Nine-Tails’ chakra and assumed the whole experiment to be a failure. He’d probably left by now.

… The Container would have to climb out of the cave and find out where his master had gone so he could report the good news.

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A/N: Throw me a comment if you can but please leave a Like if you don’t want to, it’s the main metric I use to track whether a story is doing well or not!

Also in case it wasn't obvious, YES this vote is for the title of this fic!

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Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eb7kJ6CgE9tYU3RLAMIFC4UcZVJYCvdB1Kz8qXqPD9U/edit?tab=t.0