It was early in the morning and the sky was dark when Naruto awoke to the sound of shuffling. A single eye cracked open and fell upon the kitchen of his studio apartment on the other end of the room. There, a foreign shape moved between cupboards in search of something. At the end of her search, she sighed quite femininely. It was a woman.

Naruto reached for the kunai he kept at his bedside, and in a flash, he crossed the distance between them. It was a inch away from her temple when the woman pivoted on her food and sent a fist into Naruto's gut with enough force to steal all the wind from him. He gasped and fell to his knees. The shadowy assailant followed up with a foot to his back that planted him into the hardwood floor.

"What the shit is this?" the woman glowered, pointing an accusing finger down at him. "All you have is ramen. I want candy, you hear me? Candy!"

"D-Don't...have...crazy bitch," Naruto ground out.

The woman snorted, pulled her foot off Naruto, and made the mistake of turning her back to him. He was up in a second. His hands dropped and his eyes fell to his chest where a horizontal line opened. Blood began to pour. He collapsed onto the floor.

The woman gave the spear in her hand a couple of spins before it vanished from sight just as quickly as it had appeared. Without any apparent concern for Naruto's health, she flicked on a nearby light, instantly illuminating the room. The attacker was a short and limber woman, with a chest as flat as a washboard and clothes that were anything but modest—a tight leather bra matching her gloves and boots, a miniskirt just barely long enough to cover the subject, and a collar with a few links of chain. But what scared Naruto more than the dominatrix get-up was her face. Her eyes were red and menacing, and that mischievous smile promised nothing but pain and suffering.

The woman stepped over Naruto's body and welcomed herself to a seat by the window. "I went to a lot of trouble finding you," she said. "I'm looking for minions to help me become Overlord, you know? Then I hear about this demon fox from another world. Which world? How do I get there? Such a pain in the ass."

Naruto grit his teeth and forced himself to stand. His knees quaked and he needed one hand on the wall for support, but he managed it.

"Name's Etna, by the way. Beauty Queen Etna," the woman said, touching at her two red ponytails.

"What do you want from me?" Naruto wheezed.

Etna raised an eyebrow. "The fox, stupid. I want to make it my minion. Can you hand him over, or do I need to carve it out of you?"

"Sorry, but it's stuck," Naruto explained. Steam began to rise from his open gash, and demonic chakra quickly flowed. With a hiss, the wound closed and Naruto felt strength anew. The Kyuubi stirred within him, aware of the impending threat. "You can kill me, but you won't get the fox that way. We're stuck together."

"Pfft," Etna chortled. She rose from her seat and stretched her arms over her head.

The movements Naruto couldn't see before were so much clearer now. A spear crafted of blood-soaked bone appeared in Etna's hand. She crossed the room and thrust the tip at Naruto's chest. The demon-container quickly brought his hands together, catching the spear a good foot before it ever touched him. Etna smirked, keeping one hand on the shaft of her weapon as she applied more force, but Naruto kept her at bay.

"Pretty strong," she complimented. "I bet you'd live even if this went clean through ya."

Naruto lifted his right hand off the spear. A Rasengan took shape in his free hand and he moved to bury it in Etna's skull.

Etna batted Naruto's arm out of the way, sending the Rasengan into the floor where it continued to expand after leaving Naruto's hand, destroying everything in its path several floors down. Etna sacked him and drove the butt of her spear into his throat for a killing blow. Naruto reeled back onto his knees.

"You keep kneeling to me. Shouldn't you just admit I'm superior?" Etna asked.

The bones in Naruto's throat quickly repaired themselves and he was back on his feet, claws bared.

Etna shrugged and lowered her weapon. "You know what? I believe you. I guess I can't have the just the fox."

Naruto's eyes narrowed "Giving up?"

"No," Etna chuckled. "I'm still taking you with me. YOU'LL be my pawn instead."

Etna turned sharply towards the window behind her, cocking her hips to execute a backslash with her bone spear. A wave of raw purple energy exuded off her small frame, blasting through the wall of Naruto's apartment with contemptuous ease. Three shinobi between an adjacent building and Naruto's were caught in the wake of the blast. They spasmed violently as skin and bone melted. Ripples from the attack carried over to buildings nearby, stripping concrete and shattering windows. What remained of the three shinobi fell to the empty streets below.

"Alright, fun's over. Let's go." Etna said.

Before Naruto could protest, Etna set a gloved hand on his shoulder. A small charm twinkled in her hand, and everything went white. The last thing Naruto saw of his home was an early morning Konoha and the destruction his captor had caused.

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When Naruto materialized moments later, the backdrop was entirely different. A cold castle layered with gray stone and statues of gargoyles and other demonic beings lined the corridor leading deeper inside. His eyes lowered to his feet where a blue seal flickered on the ground, bristling with the remnants of energy used to call him away from Konoha.

The stone charm in Etna's hand crumbled to pieces and the light began to subside. The demoness sauntered forward, stifling a yawn. Naruto noted the tiny black wings on her back—he'd missed those before.

"Prinny Squad assemble!" Etna cried.

A moving cloud of dust approached from the end of the hallway, stopping a few paces from Etna. When the dust cleared, an entourage of blue penguins stood at the ready, hands to their forehead in salute. They were her obedient servants, but from the sweat trickling down their foreheads, Naruto gathered it wasn't by choice.

"Awaiting your orders, Master Etna, dood," the front-most Prinny declared.

"We're going to the Dark Senate to pass a bill. Get this gate going again!" Etna said.

Naruto clenched his fist. "Hey bitch, this isn't over!" he growled. The Kyuubi's chakra was beginning to reside, but there was still enough left for one final attack.

Etna waved her hand at him without bothering to turn around. "Give it up already, I own you now. You can't get back without me, and even if you could, I'd just kick your ass and make you mine all over again."

"You get used to it, dood," one of the Prinnies offered.

"Screw that!" Naruto raged. "I have to leave for three years training! I have people to protect!"

Naruto charged forward as he gathered chakra to his palm. Suddenly Etna shot her hand out to one of the Prinnies and threw him to the ground in front of Naruto. The penguin demon flickered red briefly before its body exploded in a blast reminiscent of an explosive note. Naruto instinctively shielded himself with his arms and tried to use chakra to buffer the blast, but when the smoke cleared, he was marred by burns.

"Master Etna! Please stop doing that!" A Prinny wailed.

Etna ignored her servant in favor of Naruto. Her eyes narrowed and the line on her mouth thinned. "You're really starting to piss me off. People to protect? You can't even protect yourself. You forfeited your life to me the moment I bent you over and flogged your ass with my mad skills, so you can either keep taking it and get to go home once I become Overlord, or you can die!"

The burns on Naruto's body receded, as did the Kyuubi's chakra. If he didn't stand a chance before, it was doubly so now. He glared at the woman, trying to hate her to death, but to no avail. He thought of trying again anyways; he could make a couple hundred clones, maybe throw a few of those explosive penguins at her. He was the number one unpredictable ninja. But then the image of Sakura flashed before his eyes, and the promise he had made to her. Team Seven had to be mended, and for that, he needed power. These were demons, or so it seemed, and this was a world he had never known. Etna herself had said she had come from another world, and while she was quite obviously insane, he was beginning to believe her on that one.

The tension lifted from Naruto's body. The boy let out a deep, troubled sigh. Acceptance washed over him.

Etna's lips curved into a sadistic smile. "Good boy," she said. "I hope you have some fight left. You'll need it where we're going."