I was cruising FF.net reading Naruto fics when this idea popped into my head. Let me know what you think of it...
What if, at a young age, someone actually explains to Naruto why he is so hated and he decides he agrees with the view himself? That is to say perhaps a drunk, or a bitter old villager that's about to die anyway calls him the Kyuubi publicly and forces either Iruka or Sandaime to explain what the transgressor meant. Or perhaps even another shinobi who overheard things is cornered and nagged into explaining just to mix things up. The point will be that Naruto will understand before he's ever a full ninja that he is both jailer and prison to the Kyuubi.
The twist will be that he comes to hate the Kyuubi as fanatically as the rest of the village seems to, and takes his duty as a demon vessel as a sacred mission. When someone insults the fox, Naruto will either agree cheerfully with any disparaging thing they say and insult the fox himself, or get insulted if they direct the insult at him for mistaking him for his tenant and inform them they shouldn't insult him to get at the Kyuubi. After all, you don't insult the warden, or make fun of the prison builiding when you want to jeer at the person locked up, do you?
The concept would go so far as to have Naruto research ways to make certain the Kyuubi is even more secure, and asking village ninjas to help. I see this version of Naruto looking up the Byakugan during his research and asking Hiashi if he could find and close of the fox's tenketsu points for him, or finding reference to the seal Orochimaru used on him in the Forest of Death in canon and asking for someone to put it on him voluntarily to keep him further separated from the fur ball.
Of course the fact he's taking things so seriously would throw more than one villager off balance over the years as the insults they hurl at the child are either agreed with and added on to by him, or corrected to hate the fox rather than himself. It might also make more than one of the council shinobi sit up and take notice of the fact Naruto is bearing his burden with such responsibility and zeal.
So, comments? Criticisms? Cheeze whiz?
What if, at a young age, someone actually explains to Naruto why he is so hated and he decides he agrees with the view himself? That is to say perhaps a drunk, or a bitter old villager that's about to die anyway calls him the Kyuubi publicly and forces either Iruka or Sandaime to explain what the transgressor meant. Or perhaps even another shinobi who overheard things is cornered and nagged into explaining just to mix things up. The point will be that Naruto will understand before he's ever a full ninja that he is both jailer and prison to the Kyuubi.
The twist will be that he comes to hate the Kyuubi as fanatically as the rest of the village seems to, and takes his duty as a demon vessel as a sacred mission. When someone insults the fox, Naruto will either agree cheerfully with any disparaging thing they say and insult the fox himself, or get insulted if they direct the insult at him for mistaking him for his tenant and inform them they shouldn't insult him to get at the Kyuubi. After all, you don't insult the warden, or make fun of the prison builiding when you want to jeer at the person locked up, do you?
The concept would go so far as to have Naruto research ways to make certain the Kyuubi is even more secure, and asking village ninjas to help. I see this version of Naruto looking up the Byakugan during his research and asking Hiashi if he could find and close of the fox's tenketsu points for him, or finding reference to the seal Orochimaru used on him in the Forest of Death in canon and asking for someone to put it on him voluntarily to keep him further separated from the fur ball.
Of course the fact he's taking things so seriously would throw more than one villager off balance over the years as the insults they hurl at the child are either agreed with and added on to by him, or corrected to hate the fox rather than himself. It might also make more than one of the council shinobi sit up and take notice of the fact Naruto is bearing his burden with such responsibility and zeal.
So, comments? Criticisms? Cheeze whiz?