"Smile, Naruto Uzumaki. And if anyone is ever foolish enough to forget that a predator baring their teeth is a threat, then sink your teeth into their throat to remind them. Never go down without a fight. And never let them see you shatter, Naruto-chan. Smile. Not because it doesn’t hurt but because you refuse to give them what they want. And they want to hurt you, little kit. They all do. Don’t let them.”
Naruto Uzumaki has always lived her life unwanted, uncared for. Even when she is given freedom, she can still feel the collar of Konoha and the Hokage choking her. But when she gets a chance for true, real freedom and a family that loves her, she'll hold onto it no matter how hard she bleeds.
A Fox's Skulk
is a Naruto fanfic that looks at a Naruto who finds herself living along the red-light district of Konoha and quickly becomes enmeshed into its world while facing the threats of the shinobi that want her for their own means. Currently, only one part is out, Building a Den in a Nest Full of Vipers, which covers Naruto's childhood leading to the beginning of Part I.
A Fox's Skulk contains examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptational Gender Identity: Naruto is a trans girl here rather than a cis male.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
- Naruto and Kurama quickly gain a familial relationship here opposed to their adversarial relationship for most of the canon series.
- Naruto no longer treats the Third Hokage as a grandfather-like figure, instead resenting him for how much he has had to make her suffer in the name of Konoha.
- Ambiguous Situation: As of the end of Nest Full of Vipers, it is unclear as to whether or not the Ino of the Genin 9 is the same Inoko that Naruto knew as a younger girl.
- For Want Of A Nail: Naruto traps Mizuki in a chain-binding technique as opposed to beating him up using the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
- Son of a Whore: While not her birth mother, Fuyuka, a prostitute in the red light district, eventually becomes Naruto's mother figure, with Naruto even calling her "kaa-san" later on.
