Naruto: The Birth Of Fenrir and his Keeper

Keitaro watched on from behind the grills in the vents, as the door closed behind Kazuki in silence. 

Once he was certain that there wasn’t anyone around, he began to crawl once more on his hands and feet in the direction of the testing area that had been marked on the map, but slowly came to a stop. 

His mind was racing and no matter how much he wanted to keep going forward, he couldn't help but hesitate about continuing on.

For a moment, his rational mind that had been screaming at him to quit while he was ahead, barely managed to reach him through the haze of anticipation that had been building in his mind towards the soon to be experiment.

He tentatively acknowledged that there was a very large possibility that he truly was getting involved in something that way over his head. 

The constant struggle between pushing forward no matter what and turning back now while he still had a chance to do so, was truly maddening but it was a choice that he knew might very well determine the trajectory of his future.

While Keitaro truly wanted to get an opportunity to interact with and be apart of the scientific aspects of the clan in preparation for his future plans, he also had no intention of making a bad impression on the people he would most likely be studying under in the near future by getting his hands muddy with such a high profiled case. 

He'd spent many days and nights over the last two years thinking about what he wanted to do with his new life, and while he had already decided on and had moved forward with the plan of becoming a powerful shinobi, there were many nights where he sat at the desk in his room struggling with the doubts that kept plaguing him.

Many times he found himself wondering if there really was a need for him to become a shinobi in the future at all, or if it would have been better to run away from it all. 

While he knew that his father would be disappointed if he chose to forgo the life of a shinobi, he was also certain that his father would still support his choice one hundred percent if he decided to go down another path. 

He would still be able to support himself in the future as he was certain to find decent work within the village and clan even if he forsake the life of a shinobi and he also wouldn't have to worry much about the only two people that he truly cared about either. 

With how united his family was, he was almost certain that he could convince them to move out of the village if given enough time to persuade them and they could hopefully avoid all the coming conflict.

Yet, even when he knew all of that, he was still willingly choosing to become a shinobi, and while he did so because he truly wanted to protect his family with his own hands, there was also a small part of him that wanted to prove to himself that he could become something more, become something extraordinary thought his own efforts if he truly put his mind to it. 

In his previous world the cards had always been stacked against him and no matter how much effort he put in, nothing truly mattered.

His hard work and dedication had never been rewarded before and he had grown to hate his life because of it. 

But things were different here. Here, his efforts had already started showing results.

As far as Keitaro was concerned, he simply refused to entertain the idea that he would become just another middling shinobi figure within the village, especially when he knew it was possible to become something so much more; and while it might be possible for him to climb up the ranks with hard works alone, he wanted to aim even higher!

He wanted to climb to the highest of heights possible and if given a chance, climb even beyond that!

The only problem though, was that if he wanted to truly reach the sky and break past the limit, then the only viable way that he saw to truly make him into an equal contender with the future powerhouses that were going to crawl out of the woodwork, was if he was willing to utilize any and every avenue that he had to increase his strength.

He had already decided on that day all those years ago that he was willing to go to any lengths and do whatever it took to gain power, but after listening to Kazuki, after hearing how callously he pushed aside the lives of his 'test subjects'... it made him wonder if he too would become like that if he chose to followed his current path.

On one hand, seeing how little autonomy Kazuki truly had over his life in the clan, even thought he was so well respected for his contributions and in spite of the value that he held as an individual, only served to further stoke his belief that without personal strength it was impossible to take your own destiny into your own hands.

No matter what, power was something that he was going to have to pursue. Though at the same time, he wondered about just how much his personal views would become skewed in the future while on his pursuit of power. 

His mind once more stumbled upon the name Orochimaru and no matter how he tried to push it away, he couldn't help but circle back to it again and again. Wasn't Orochimaru similar in a way? He had to have started somewhere in his pursuit of power and it definitely didn't begin with human experimentation. 

Maybe he started testing his theories on animals as well. Small critters that no one would miss either way. Maybe he started off slow, ensuring that the lives of his test subjects weren't jeopardized by the experiments he was carrying out. But as time went on, the importance of the lives of his test subject slowly took a back seat in favor of his results. 

It wouldn't have been strange for his thoughts and ideas about the value of a beings life to slowly become twisted and warped until he couldn't view human life any differently from the lives of the test subjects within his labs.

Add on top of all of that, the several wars that he had to partake in and it was no longer surprising that he ended up delving so heavily into human experimentation and no longer valuing human life as precious. 

Why should he value the life of a person when so many of them were willing throwing away their lives in pointless wars and fights that served no real purpose in the end?

Would Keitaro fall down a similar slippery slope if he was exposed to similar situations, and continued on his current path?

Keitaro closed his eyes and thought long and hard about what he stood to gain by continuing down these vents, but he also thought about what he might be giving up as well by continuing down this road. 

He wasn't sure yet, but he was certain that there was a chance that he would be crossing a line that he couldn't take back if he continued and while there were benefits to be had, he also didn't think that it was worth it. 

Keitaro opened his eyes and unlike before, they didn't weaver with indecision, but shone with a drive like never before. 

He had made his choice.

No matter what he would do in the future.

No matter what he might eventually become.

If it meant that he would be able to protect his family and loved ones, he would grab hold of and utilize anything to grow stronger.

But he wouldn't do things that would make his family disappointed in him. 

Whether he would also grow to the point were he would so callously brush aside the value of a life was something that he decided to tackle in the future, when and if he truly had no other way forward. 

For now though, he wasn't worried since he didn't have to go down that path just yet.

Without looking at Renji who hadn't yet left the room his father had left him in, Keitaro turned around and instead of crawling towards the testing area, he chose instead to head back to the hallway that he had entered the vents through.