The Protagonist System

I opened my eyes and chaos surrounded me. Blood, gore, and the sounds of fighting. Normally, I would be flooded with new memories when I inserted, except this time was different and for a specific reason. That reason? I paid extra to arrive at a controversial point. Naruto's birth. I also paid to keep my adult mind inside a baby's body.

It cost a lot of points to maintain my power level and to keep my base divine body's properties, too. It was worth it, though. I didn't want to have to deal with being weak physically and not having access to my full power set or having to grow into them. It also took a lot longer to work out a deal with both Death and the Shinigami.

Apparently, he was only an associate and not a true aspect of herself, so there was a small dominance fight there. Needless to say, the Shinigami was quickly humbled by the true cosmic being. He agreed to the deal, as long as he was fed a good amount of chakra to keep himself strong in exchange.

Since I already had my own way to forge contacts and contracts, thanks to the abilities I gained from Worm and High School DxD, giving the former Otsutsuki a small energy tap through one of Glaistig Uaine's spectres was as easy as asking her spirit to allow it. In fact, she looked quite pleased by the deal and gained knowledge in return.

I glanced around with my eyes and saw my mother Kushina as she struggled to hold her chakra chains special move to restrain the nine-tailed beast while my father Minato used his skills with Fuinjutsu to use the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style to seal the raging chakra beast inside of my belly.

Well, half of it. He was also putting one onto his own belly to split the beast's power, knowing he was going to die from his wounds. That was not viable for me, not with what I had planned. No, he was not stealing half of that power, only to be resurrected later by the big bad and possibly releasing a second nine-tailed chakra beast onto the world.

Since he had already finished his seal and was working on mine, it took almost no energy at all to erase the chakra ink on his skin. He didn't notice, probably because he was dying. As far as I could remember about the whole situation, both he and my mother die after activating the ritual. My mother because the beast had ripped its way out of her as she gave birth to me and my father because he fought the beast and used the last of his chakra for the ritual.

I also knew Minato had made his own deal with the Shinigami. Even if I healed him, he was going to die anyway, as his soul was already bargained away. I felt out for Kushina and she was also using the last of her life force to keep the beast contained. I tried to share some energy with her and it hit a barrier around the altar, making me sigh. I wouldn't be allowed to heal either of them.

Minato finished his work and placed his bloody hand on the altar with a look of triumph on his face. “Eight Trigrams Sealing Technique!”

I saw the Shinigami appear over the man's shoulder and nod after Minato activated the final part of the ritual. I smiled and nodded back, shocking Minato, then saw his soul be yanked out and consumed by the Shinigami. He was not going to be brought back later.

The Shinigami watched as the full power of the nine-tailed beast was funnelled into me and not split like it was supposed to be, then he appeared behind Kushina and took her soul, too. That hadn't happened before, which meant changing deals with the Shinigami had unforeseen consequences.

As I lost consciousness, which I assumed was part of the ritual to let my body start to adapt to the Kyuubi's chakra, my last thought was that at least my parents would be together for eternity inside that foul creature.

*

Hiruzen Sarutobi gazed over the devastation caused by the beast's rampage. His thoughts about how to fix things were at the forefront of his mind, as was having to don the hat of the Hokage again. He had retired for a reason and thought Minato Namikaze had been a wonderful replacement. Now he had to take up the responsibility for the village once more.

His eyes went to the unconscious baby on the altar and knew that he would have to defy Minato's last wish for his son to be treated like a hero. There was too much pain and anger for anything less than to vilify the boy for killing his parents and so many other people, civilians and shinobi alike, even if he hadn't been responsible. He was the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails and that would be all anyone would ever see him as, S-Class secret or not.

Hiruzen sighed and picked the baby up and cradled him in his arm. He looked down at Minato and held in his sigh at the blood on the Hokage hat. He picked it up anyway and walked along the street and gathered the remains of the ANBU guard and ordered them to spread the word. The Yondaime Hokage was dead and the Sandaime Hokage was back in control.

As Hiruzen walked, more people gathered to follow him and carried babies, too. There would be a lot of them, civilian and shinobi, and there were not enough intact families to take them all. Several orphanages would need to be constructed to handle them all and the old man hoped that some of them would be chosen by the clans to pad out their now lacking numbers.

He looked down at the sleeping baby in his arms and knew the boy would have a hard life, no matter where he lived, so perhaps it was best if no one adopted him. Living with all the other children would be better than suffering under a harsh parent that would definitely take out their anger at him for causing so much death and destruction.

*

The best thing about being forced into unconsciousness was that I could access my system without having to pause the world. The first thing I did was check to see if the echoes of Kushina and Minato were locked into the seal with Kurama as guards. I was sure they weren't, not after the deal I made with Death and the Shinigami, so it was a relief they weren't there.

With them not available to protect me from Kurama's influence, it also allowed me to do the same thing I did with Ddraig back in High School DxD as soon as I had access to the Boosted Gear. I sold Kurama's ass to the system and gained 200,000 Karma Points, or ten times more than what Ddraig was worth.

Why was he worth so much more? It was because he was a massive chakra construct and produced a nearly endless amount of energy. Also, removing him from the world guaranteed that the Akatsuki can never fulfill their organization's goal of uniting all the tailed beasts together to create the fabled Ten-Tails, a destructive being that is the embodiment of the God Tree that seeks to consume everything.

Becoming a baby again and doing what I did, was the only way to stop them. If Minato had succeeded in taking his half of the Nine-Tails, then the Ten-Tails could still be constructed when Minato was resurrected. Thanks to my interference, Minato couldn't be brought back and he didn't have Kurama's Yin energy, so right from the start I had changed the fate of everyone on the planet.

It was a relief, actually. There was still tons of danger from all those rogue ninja, since they didn't know their plans were ruined, which meant I had a lot of work to do when I was old enough to move around without anyone noticing. Then again, no one would suspect a baby. The thought of handling some of the most fearsome ninja in the world as a baby, using sneak attacks against them, made me laugh.

I felt myself waking up and I opened my eyes. I wasn't surprised to see that I was in a tiny room all by myself. It was an old crib with peeling paint, a broken clasp holding the side on, and the mattress I was on smelled like week old urine and other things that I didn't want to think about. With a sigh, I cast a cleaning charm on the mattress and the smell reduced to only a whiff.

I was tempted to clean and repair everything, just so I didn't have to smell anything else and could remove the hazard of paint chips getting into my mouth or on my hands, then shrugged. I couldn't give away that I could do things for myself or let on that I didn't need to stay wherever it was the Third Hokage dropped me off.

Although, technically he is also the Fifth Hokage, since he retook the office after the Fourth died. Maybe they don't count it if you're not appointed or chosen? No, I'm sure they only count the people in order and not how many times they are put into office. That way, Hiruzen will always be the Third Hokage.

The creaky door opened and a mean looking woman stood there in the doorway. She must have had something set up to detect movement, because I hadn't made any sounds and only moved my hands to cast the spells.

She stepped into the tiny room and glared down at me. “I've been ordered to feed you and I'm not allowed to poison the milk.” She said and held up an old crusty bottle that looked like it hadn't been cleaned. Ever. “I hope you enjoy the taste of day old rancid formula!”

When her hand rushed down to shove the dirty bottle into my mouth, I made my eyes glow red and caught her hand with my own. She gasped and tried to pull her hand back, and she couldn't.

“L-let... let me go! LET GO!” She yelled and kept pulling, to no effect.

I cast a tracking charm on her and heard a set of running feet. I let the older woman's hand go when a younger woman appeared in the doorway and looked inside the room. The older woman jerked back and swung around, as if to flee, and stopped when she saw the other woman.

“What are you doing?” Her younger counterpart asked and her eyes dropped to the dirty bottle and off-colored milk inside. She frowned at it and looked back at the older woman's face. “Did you just try to poison a baby after the Hokage himself warned you not to?”

“It's not a baby! It's a demon!” The older woman shouted and motioned towards me. “His eyes glowed red and he stopped me from feeding him!”

“You'd say anything to get him out of the orphanage.” The younger woman said with a scoff. “He's just a baby.”

“He isn't! He's strong and...”

The younger woman grabbed the dirty bottle out of her hand and stepped aside. “I'll inform the Hokage about what you tried to do.” She said and pointed out into the hallway. “Don't expect to come here to work tomorrow.”

The older woman clenched her hands into fists. “You are going to regret this.”

“I already regret letting you take responsibility for him, just because you're older and have more experience taking care of children.” The younger woman said and pointed at the hallway again.

The older woman made an odd sound in her throat before she walked out of the room and didn't look back. I was sure she would have and I was going to give her my best innocent look to unnerve her. Oh, well. If she ever comes back to finish me off, I'll deal with her then. The tracking spell would stay on her until I dispelled it.

The younger woman sighed sadly at that encounter and walked over to me. I opened my eyes wide and my mouth as I giggled like a baby should and I tried to reach for her. She looked surprised for a moment before she held up the bottle. I wiggled my fingers, as if grabbing for it, and she smiled.

“I just need to go get some fresh milk, okay? I'll be right back.” She said and reached into the crib.

I let out a little coo sound when she pet my head and I closed my eyes as she ran her fingers through my blond hair. It was not spiky like it was supposed to be, either. I liked having normal hair, thank you very much.

She waited for a moment before she left and went to prepare me a proper bottle. I kept my eyes closed and used my X-Ray vision to watch her and see if she really was getting a fresh bottle. She did, to my slight surprise, and she didn't add anything to the milk or did anything bad to it, like spit in it.

When she came back, I did the same grabbing thing for the bottle and she softly chuckled. She went to the crib and deftly picked me up and almost dropped the bottle. I caught it and she laughed, then she tucked me into her arms and helped me put the tip into my mouth. I started sucking and pretended to keep slipping as I tried to hold the bottle.

It kept a smile on her face until the bottle was empty and then she put me over her shoulder. She started patting my back and I realized she was helping me burp. Since I didn't need to, I had to fake it to ease her worry about me possibly throwing up. One ventriloquist trick coming right up!

*BRAAAAAP!*

She jerked and almost dropped me, then she pulled me off of her shoulder and hugged me tightly as she laughed and laughed. She had tears in her eyes when she finally calmed down and eased her hug to look at my face.

“You are definitely not a demon after making me laugh like that.” She said and I giggled. She put me into the crib and reached for the dirty blanket to tuck me in and sighed. “I have a lot to do to fix what she didn't do for you.”

I giggled for her again and she smiled at me, pet my head again, then she stripped me of my dirty clothes and took the sheet, blanket, and pillow. She left for a few minutes and then came back with a small pan of water and gave me a sponge bath. I was dressed and then tucked under a clean blanket.

“You need to nap and rest, okay? I have a lot more work to do as I take care of all the other babies.” She said and pet my head once more.

I knew I couldn't answer verbally, so I closed my eyes and pretended to fall asleep. She let out a happy sigh and turned the light off as she left me in the small room. I also heard the lock click, so I was glad she was stopping anyone else from entering the room.

Now I had a bit of a wait before she would be back to feed me supper, aka another bottle. I didn't really need it, since my divine body could eat normal food and process it properly. I couldn't let that be known so soon, though. I would have to stick with the average times those things happen in a child's growth, that way I didn't stand out.

I knew I had a long five years before I'm declared independent, given an allowance, and arranged to have an apartment in the worst part of the village. After that, it was only another year and I would be allowed to join the ninja academy.

I just had to decide if I should interfere in one of the major events that happened in the village during my stay in the orphanage, then I chuckled.

Oh, who am I kidding? Of course I was going to interfere. I started my life here as a baby for more than one reason. I had things to do and people to save.