Naruto 1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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Engineered

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Chapter One

Maintaining his vigilance, he stared out over the still waters of the strait separating Wave Country from Fire Country, standing at the incomplete end of the bridge their client was building as the first rays of dawn drew closer to escaping the clutches of the far horizon. Although he was only 17, his life had been anything, but simple, let alone normal. On the night of his birth, Konoha had been attacked by the Kyuubi no Kitsune, only for the beast to be sealed away inside of him by the Yondaime Hokage. That very same night, while no one was paying attention, an enemy spy in Konoha kidnapped him and took him to their master, Orochimaru, who proceeded to experiment on him in his efforts to create a breed of super soldier while his chakra circulatory system was still fresh. In the end, Orochimaru succeeded, but only partially. Had it not been for the Kyuubi no Kitsune's chakra healing the young child, he would have most certaintly died, such a fact becoming glaringly obvious after twenty failed attempts to replicate the results without any successful results of any form. From the day he could understand words, Orochimaru had tried to manipulate and essentially brainwash the child into being an undyingly loyal weapon/subordinate of his, but no matter what he did, the man's efforts went without substantial result.

By the age of twelve, he had been found by Konoha shinobi when the current base they were in had been raided. Regarding the boy as a failed experiment, Orochimaru had left him behind and fled. Upon being brought back to Konoha, many things had happened to him. Among them were numerous sessions with two men named Morino Ibiki and Yamanaka Inoichi. It wasn't until after almost a year of being a, rather willing and obedient, prisoner of Konoha that he was brought before the Sandaime Hokage, where the two had spent a total of ten hours simply conversing about a great many things. Afterwards, he had been freed form his imprisonment and enrolled into the Academy by the Sandaime to under-go the 'manditory' procedure of becoming a shinobi of Konoha, something done as part of his 'rehabilitation' and 're-introduction' into society. While fully capable of graduating within the very same month he had been enrolled, he had chosen to remain with his class after a single chance encounter with one of the other students. Having lived a life suppressing virtually all of his emotions because of his training, he had found the event rather...curious. Thus, he stayed. Alongside his class mates, he had graduated from the Academy a mere month ago.

Now, he and his team were out on their first C-rank mission to a place outside of Konoha and Fire Country in general, but not by far. It was to a small cluster of islands known as Wave Country, situated just off of Fire Country's eastern coast. They were to escort and protect a bridge builder until the completion of a specific bridge being constructed that would connect Wave Country with Fire County. However, things had changed quickly on the first day when they were ambushed by a pair of rogue Kiri chuunin, immediately bumping up the mission classification to B-rank, only to go up to A-rank the day after when they reached Wave Country due to the presence of a rogue Kiri jounin, Momochi Kira...

"So _this_ is where you've been hiding..." A voice called from behind him, but he didn't turn to face them or verbally acknowledge them at first as the first rays of light shined from the horizon. "I've been looking all over for you."

Standing at 6'3", seventeen year old Uzumaki Naruto had spiky waist-length silvery platinum blonde hair that he kept pulled back in a pony-tail, dark blue eyes with three bright cyan blue circles evenly spread through his irises and a bright cyan blue ring connecting them together, and mildly tanned skin. Like he normally was, Naruto was dressed in a pair of grey pants tucked into dark grey knee-high combat boots covered with dark grey metal armor plating that was sectionalized properly for maximum mobility and defense, a grey long-sleeve body-hugging turtleneck, a grey cloth face mask pulled up over his nose, a dark grey face-less helmet of metal wrapped around his head with a metal band running along his jaw in a semi-circle while a curved horn-like protrusion stuck out from the middle of the band and reached up along the middle of his masked face until it reached where his hair-line would be while a small hole in the upper-back allowed his hair to stick out and trail behind him, a set of dark grey metal armor covering his body that was made for maximum mobility and defense with a thick armored raised collar around his neck and shoulders with snow white fur covering the collar completely, a pair of dark grey pauldrons of metal attached to the shoulders of his body armor that reached almost half-way down his biceps without limiting his movements, dark grey metal gauntlets covering his forearms and hands, a belt of dark grey armor plates around his waist with an ankle-length half-cloak of dark grey cloth hanging from it and a length of snow white cloth hanging down to his knees from the buckle in the front, and his Konoha hitai-ate hanging from his belt at his left hip from the end of a strip of light grey cloth.

In addition to his armor, Naruto had a pair of black metal kunai holsters attached to the back of his armored belt behind either hip for a total of four, a guardless tanto with a grey metal handle mounted to the back of either shoulder in a grey metal sheath that seamlessly blended together at the point of contact, a combat knife strapped to the side of either boot, three black weapon pouches attached to the back of his belt, three scrolls holstered to the side of either thigh, an arsenal of various items hidden in the shroud of dark grey cloth hanging around his waist, a number of gadgets stashed in his gauntlets and armor, and more. However, most of such items went unused due to his unique skills...

"I was unaware I was being sought out, Kurama-san." Naruto responded calmly and rather apathetically. Unlike what was considered 'normal', Naruto had a chakra circulatory system that contained nearly three times the number of 'veins' and roughly three times the number of tenketsu in addition to having a mental capacity and base reaction time almost four times the average male his age. He also had an artifical doujutsu of sorts that did not need chakra and could not be deactivated that acted similarly to the Sharingan with the exception to the fact he could not cast genjutsu with it, he could not 'hypnotize' an opponent, nor could he simply 'copy' techniques or see chakra; a 'failed' and 'diluted' cheap imitation of the Sharingan, in the words of Orochimaru. In return, however, it was impossible to entrap him in genjutsu, he had a very sharp eye for detail that allowed him to take incredibly accurate measurements of virtually anything with a mere glance, a perfect photographic memory, and the ability to 'sense' chakra on a far more advanced level than most Sensor-type shinobi, being one himself. That, however, was not what made him special; it was his ability to manipulate raw chakra on a scale often compared to the Nidaime Hokage's skill with Suiton ninjutsu, if not greater. "Is there something you need me to assist you with?"

"Must you be so formal all the time?" Kurama Yakumo sighed with mild defeat and disappointment at his response. The genjutsu prodigy had thought she had been getting through to him, having been his first and, so far, only 'friend' since he had first joined the Academy. "I thought I told you to just call me 'Yakumo'. And do I really need a reason to spend time with my friend and team mate?"

Seventeen years old and standing at 5'3", Kurama Yakumo was a very slender and lithe young woman with soft and heart-warming honey-gold eyes, skin the color of light cream, and silky waist-length light brown hair with long bangs that framed her face and hung down to frame her B-cup breasts as well, the left side having been pinned back slightly by her Konoha hitai-ate and braided at the end. She was wearing a black sleeveless turtleneck top that hugged her body like a second skin, black skin-tight pants, black closed-toe kunoichi boots, thin leg-warmers of white cloth wrapped around her shins and held in place by black string tied around her legs just above her knees, long strips of white cloth wrapped around her forearms, black fingerless gloves on her hands, metal bracers strapped to her forearms over the wrappings, a unique dark crimson robe that hung down to her ankles that she kept closed at the left side to leave her left leg completely exposed with only a right sleeve that ended at her elbow, a white body-hugging sleeveless and strapless top that held the robe in place on her torso, and a white sash crossing her body from her left shoulder to her right hip and wrapping around her waist before being tied in a small bow at her left hip, the two ends hanging down to her knee. The sash was thin with a black thorn-covered vine design running along its length.

"I am simply showing respect." Naruto answered while turning to face her, tilting his head slightly out of emotionless curiousity. Like usual, he had his forearms tucked behind his lower back in a semi-relaxed manner, something he often did when not standing at attention or in combat. "And why else would you seek me out if not for a particular reason?"

"Naruto-kun, think of it like this; if I needed a reason to see you all the time, we wouldn't be friends. Just associates." Yakumo explained while walking over so that she stood beside her team mate, who was now looking out over the water once more as she continued. "And to clarify, _yes_, we're friends. If we weren't friends, would I socialize with you without an actual reason that would require me to do such?"

"That depends." Naruto responded softly and a bit uncertaintly as he looked down in thought. "Some people associate with others due to some form of benefit to them, whether it's done consciously or subconsciously."

"..." The shorter female went quiet after that, frowning slightly as she looked to her blonde companion with worry. She knew of his past, both having exchanged life stories not long after becoming 'friends', and could only feel sympathy for him. She could not imagine a life without emotion, let alone one having been raised and experimented on to be a 'perfect weapon' as Naruto had been. She could barely even imagine how Naruto must feel, not even knowing what a 'friend' was. Then again, she had felt similarly until Yuuhi Kurenai had managed to help her learn to control her genjutsu abilties, allowing her to join the Academy at the age of ten, two years prior to Naruto's enrollment. They stood there in silence for several minutes as Naruto continued to ponder the concept of 'friendship' while Yakumo tried to think of a way to help Naruto better understand what she was trying to teach him.

"We should start heading back. Hatake-sensei will be wanting to issue our orders for the day soon." Naruto spoke up after several minutes as he turned and started walking back to Tazuna's home. With a slight sight, Yakumo followed after her enigmatic friend and team mate...

xXx

After only a few days of being in Wave Country, Naruto found himself becoming quite familiar with a certain emotion as the grandson of his team's client ranted. Without bothering to look up from his scroll on advanced raw elemental chakra manipulation while his helmet sat on the table beside him, Naruto didn't allow his steadily growing anger to show on his face or in his body language. To his left was Kakashi with Yakumo at the end of the table to his right while his third team mate, Uchiha Sasuke, sat across from him. Everyone, Tazuna and Tsunami included, apart from himself had been shocked into silence by the young boy's sudden declaration that they were all going to die at the hands of a greedy businessman and his rag-tag militia of common thugs and bandits...

"Be silent, you petulant child." Naruto remarked coldly and quietly as he calmly began to roll the scroll back up, sliding it back into the holster on his left thigh before looking up at the shocked visage of Inari. "You believe that just because you can not accomplish something, that no one else can? That is a foolish way of thinking."

"Shut up! You don't know anything about what this country is going through, yet you're all being so nosy! What the hell do you know about me?!" Inari yelled, tears still flowing from his eyes and gliding down his cheeks. "I'm not like you, acting all high and mighty all the time! You don't know what it's like to live a hard life!"

_'Oh, shit...'_ Was all Kakashi could think, having moved in an attempt to restrain his normally emotionless student, who was now far beyond the thresh-hold of just being angry. Kakashi had been too slow, his hands grasping only empty air long after his student had moved. Before anyone could react, Naruto had somehow managed to move to the other side of the table in an instant, his chair having been flung across the room when he stood up. Grabbing the back of Inari's shirt, Naruto swung the boy around while pinning him against the wall by the throat with his left forearm, his two-toned sapphire eyes glaring into the child's fearful brown, barely restraining himself from outright choking the boy in his moment of outrage.

"No, boy. It is _you_ that does not understand what a hard life is." Naruto hissed out calmly with such an intense cold fury that everyone believed he could flash-freeze a flame with his words alone if he tried at that moment. No one moved to stop him in their shock, even as Inari struggled to breathe. "You have a mother, a grandfather, a home. I knew nothing of happiness from the moment I was born, boy. I still don't to this very day. On the night of my birth, my parents were killed and I was cursed with a burden that I will be forced to carry until I die. I was taken as a newborn just days after and experimented on by a mad-man throughout the following years, raised to be a weapon for that man's madness. The village I was living in was in no better condition that Wave Country is now. It wasn't until just a few years ago that I was found and taken to Konoha, but even now, I still don't know many things. I can not remember what it is like to feel emotion, only just starting to refamiliarize myself with the _concept_ of it and because of your incessant whining, I am now growing more and more familiar with the emotion of Anger. I can not speak for the rest of my team, but _I_ am here to remove the cancer that has infested this country."

"That's enough, Naruto." Kakashi spoke up from his spot calmly, yet seriously. "Let him go..."

"..." Naruto didn't move or make a sound for several tense moments before stepping back and lowering his arms back to his sides, letting Inari fall to the ground while holding his throat, sucking in desperate breaths of oxygen between ragged coughs. Turning and heading for the door while grabbing his helmet, Naruto paused in the doorway just as he opened it, not even bothering to turn around as he put his helmet back on before he left a few parting words before leaving. "Be grateful for what you have, boy, and remember that there have been and always will be people that have suffered greater tragedies than yourself."

A moment later, the door was calmly shut, a silent and dark atmosphere left in his wake. Becoming worried about her friend, Yakumo moved to stand, only to be stopped when Sasuke suddenly, but gently, grabbed her forearm. Looking down at him, Yakumo was about to say something, but there was something in Sasuke's eyes that made her stay quiet, the Uchiha's eyes locked on the table in front of him.

Standing at 5'6", 17 year old Uchiha Sasuke had shoulder-length semi-messy black hair that fell about his head. Like he often was, he was dressed in a black skin-tight sleeveless top with a raised collar that hid everything on his face from the nose down and the stylized fan of the Uchiha clan decorating the back between his shoulders, black elbow-length fingerless gloves on his hands and forearms, baggy black pants held up by a black leather belt with a black sash wrapped around his waist over it while the leggings of his pants were tucked into black closed-toe knee-high shinobi boots, and a Konoha hitai-ate tied around his head on a band of black cloth. Strapped to either thigh was a pair of kunai holsters, a weapon pouch attached to his belt behind his right hip, a black-bladed and guardless straight-edge chokutoslipped under his sash and belt in a solid black wooden sheathe that bore a thin white stripe running down its length with the Uchiha clan symbol set where the handle and sheathe met, the handle blending in perfectly with the sheathe itself.

"Leave him be." He commented with almost as much apathy as Naruto's voice usually carried, his voice just barely above a whisper. Although feeling a bit defiant in her worry for her friend, Yakumo slowly eased herself back into her chair. With the task complete, Sasuke let go of her arm and slowly stood up, heading to the room given to him and Naruto to use while Team 7 was in Wave Country. As Kakashi talked with Tsunami and Tazuna in an effort to explain Naruto's reaction without giving away too much information while simultaneously running damage control, Yakumo couldn't help glancing back towards the door that Naruto had left through, worry and concern for him clearly present on her face...

xXx

Humming quietly to herself as she searched the surrounding area for specific medicinal herbs, Haku knelt down to pluck another of the small leafy plants from the ground when she noticed something rather unusual...and surreal. Sitting in the middle of a small nearby clearing was a rather handsome young man with pale blonde hair and mildly tanned skin. He was clad in only a pair of baggy medium grey pants that seemed a bit too long for him as the cuffs would doubtlessly drag on the ground a little bit if he were barefoot, a plain black leather belt around his waist to hold them up while a black sash was wrapped around his waist over it with one end hanging down to his knees in the front, a black skin-tight short-sleeve turtleneck, a medium grey cloth face mask tucked into the collar of his top and pulled up over his nose to hide the lower half of his face, a medium grey vest over his turtleneck with snow white fur lining the collar, white cloth wrappings around his hands and forearms that left his fingers uncovered, more white cloth wrappings around his feet, ankles, and calves that left only his toes and heels uncovered, and simple wooden geta on his feet. He was currently sitting in the lotus position with the knuckles of his loosely-closed fists pressed together in front of his stomach as his hands rested in his lap, his eyes closed. However, set over his ears was a set of solid black box-like cushioned headphones that had a wire running down the back of his vest that undoubtedly led to an interior pocket, the adjustable curved black band connecting the two speakers running along the back of his head.

_'Is he...meditating?'_ She mused curiously, yet cautiously. Narrowing her eyes slightly as she watched him intently, Haku couldn't help smiling a little, forcing back a slight giggle when she realized that he was actually sleeping. Slowly and a bit cautiously, Haku approached the figure, only for her instincts to warn her not to get too close. Her instincts proved correct when a leaf drifted down from above the blonde, only to make contact with a previously invisible hemispherical barrier of chakra, resulting in the leaf being ripped apart until nothing remained of it. Haku instantly froze, her eyes narrowing as she examined the young man more closely. _'Definitely has shinobi training. I don't see a hitai-ate, but that doesn't mean anything. I'll have to be careful.'_

"Can I help you?" He suddenly spoke up, startling Haku and making her jump slightly. Slowly opening his eyes and looking up at the young woman, Naruto subconsciously measured the female's figure and took note of her hair color, forming a perfect match with the previously unidentified masked kunoichi that had rescued Kira from Kakashi four days ago. Slowly removing the headphones from his ears and letting them hang around his neck, the rythmic pounding and reverberation of a heavy bass dubstep song was heard coming from them while he withdrew the chakra forming the simple defensive barrier around him and stood up. He didn't bother to turn his music off, being the only thing he had found to be a pleasing and most welcome past-time for him; even in its beginning stages, Otogakure hadn't been named such on a whim. While it had barely been an upstart village with some shinobi occupation, Oto's population had always held a love of music of all forms, a number of civilian businesses pertaining to music in some way via either selling musical instruments, selling recorded music, operating as music studios or night clubs, and various other things. There were even a number of Oto shinobi that used sound-based attacks and techniques because of their passion for music. Naruto had simply taken a fancy to dubstep and techno, the two music genres helping him set a very unique and ever-changing pace for his taijutsu training and practice. It also helped him with meditating since the music tended to drown out unneccessary thoughts and regulate his emotions properly, even if he didn't understand or recognize most of them anymore.

It was also the only type of music he had found that didn't provoke any headaches, strangely enough. He was prone to them due to his higher mental capacity being 'unnatural' along with his eyes...

"Sorry for disturbing you. I was just wondering why someone was out here so early in the morning." Haku responded with a sheepish smile, tucking her bangs behind her ear. It was only an hour or two after sun rise, the air still being a bit chilly with a mixture of morning dew and morning fog. "My name's Haku, by the way. And you?"

"Uzumaki Naruto. I was meditating last night and must have fallen asleep. As to disturbing me, I am a very light sleeper due to past experiences and felt your footsteps as you approached." Naruto answered calmly, his facial expression blank and emotionless. As he spoke, Haku felt as if she knew him from somewhere, but couldn't place her finger on it, the recognition remaining fleeting and vague for the moment. "And yourself? Why are you out so early in the morning?"

"Oh. My mother is sick and needs medicine, but there isn't any in town that we can afford. That's why I'm here looking for medicinal herbs." She answered with a bit of a sad smile and tone, but Naruto instantly saw through the response for what it really was in the time span it took to blink. Her vocal pattern was honest when it came to the emotion, but not the words themselves. Also, the herbs she had collected so far were meant for muscular paralysis and weakness, very common symptoms of being put in a death-like state through the use of senbon. Her so-called 'mother' was undoubtedly Momochi Kira and judging from the amount and specific species of medicinal herbs she was collecting, Kira was almost recovered; probably only a couple more days until the woman made her move again. "Would you mind helping me for a little bit?"

"I'm sorry, but I must be going. My friends are undoubtedly worried for me. Have a good day." Naruto remarked calmly before bowing at the waist slightly, using his new-found knowledge of 'friends' from Yakumo to adjust his 'escape plan', making it a bit easier on him without having to resort to fighting or revealing his actual identity, though it was possible that Haku had already figured it out. Without another word, Naruto turned around and started walking away, but once he was out of sight and a fair distance away, a Shadow Clone pulled away from his body, forming as his chakra left the containing shell of his flesh, making it seem as if his clone literally grew from his body. "Stay hidden and follow her. Once you know the location of their hideout, dispell. Now, go."

"..." Naruto's clone nodded once before taking off into the trees, the music from the clone's headphones going silent. Naruto, on the other hand, put his headphones back on and kept walking, consciously unaware that his head was bobbing almost imperceptibly with the music. Nearing Tazuna's home, Naruto reached up with his right hand and rubbed the back of his neck while channeling a hint of chakra, activating the compressed seal array staining his flesh at the base of his neck that was hidden in the form of a small quarter-sized tattoo identical to the design in his irises. A sudden burst of white smoke engulfed him a moment later, only to reveal him in his armor with his helmet over his head, his music silenced.

Jumping to the roof of the building, Naruto knew it would be a couple more hours before anyone was up and about so he decided to let his mind wander. Specifically, he thought about the village he had been 'raised' in; Otogakure no Sato. While he had developed a hatred of Orochimaru for what he had done to him, Naruto couldn't help believing the man to be a fool. He had taken a baby with the strongest of Bijuu sealed inside of it, turned it into a powerful shinobi, gave said shinobi access to a great many secrets, abandoned the same shinobi at the first sign of trouble, and did nothing to remedy the mistake. A small humorless smirk formed on Naruto's lips, remembering his time under Ibiki's and Inoichi's 'care'. In an entire year, neither could garner any information he didn't allow them to know; they didn't know where any of his laboratories were, what experiments he was conducting except for what he had told them, who his spies were in Konoha, and many other things. Not even Inoichi, the head of a clan of mind-walkers, could get anything out of Naruto's mind no matter how long he was 'inside' or however many sessions of it he performed...

Granted, his long-term association with Orochimaru made everyone, even the Sandaime Hokage, highly suspicious of him being a spy of the traitor's as well, but Naruto didn't care for that. He wanted nothing more than to kill the man for what he had done to him and countless others; emotionless, he may be, but he was still human. Truthfully, Naruto wanted to fix what the man had ruined. Otogakure had unlimited and untapped potential to become one of the greatest Hidden Villages in history, but Orochimaru had gone about it all wrong. Sure, allowing nuke-nin sanctuary boosted his shinobi forces, gave him access to jutsu of all sorts from all across the continent, and many new test subjects, but they were still nuke-nin; if they had betrayed a village once, who was to say they wouldn't do it again?

Granted, some of them might have been forced into leaving their villages for one reason or another, but still...

The entire internal structure of Oto's military was built upon lies, deceit, and distrust. No one respected each other nor did they trust each other as far as they could throw them. Not only that, but the Academy was a sham, teaching students only the bare minimum before practically throwing them to the wolves all in an effort to pump out more shinobi. Naruto had been disappointed when Orochimaru instilled such a program, going for higher quantity than better quality. Cannon fodder and pawns; that's all Oto's shinobi were to Orochimaru. Yes, there were a good number of skilled shinobi, but when compared to the rest of the ranks, they might as well have not even existed. That was something Naruto had wanted to fix since just before he had been 'rescued' by Konoha's ANBU when they raided one of Orochimaru's smaller and unimportant laboratories in Tea Country while they had been on a routine inspection of the place.

Even before he had been abandoned, Naruto had been planning how he would kill and over-throw Orochimaru, taking over his entire network of labs, spies, and such along with taking control of Otogakure and righting what had been wronged. That had been when he was only twelve years old and now, five years later, Naruto still felt the same. It would only be that much harder now, having been separated from his prey and practically forced into submission to work as a shinobi of Konoha. How? The Sandaime had somehow lured him into agreeing with silver-tongued sayings and mentions of his parents being powerful shinobi of Konoha. However, it was only a temporary set back. Soon, he would find his opportune moment and he would most certaintly take it...

_And to clarify, _yes_, we're friends..._

_'Yakumo-san...'_ Naruto thought to himself, suddenly recalling his conversations with the brown haired girl about emotions and friendship. As much as he wanted to help his true home, Oto, Naruto couldn't bring himself to lose the one thing he had come to cherish most; his...friendship with Yakumo. While it was still a foreign thing to him and while he didn't always show it, Naruto considered Yakumo his friend or at least the closest thing to one. To leave Konoha would be to leave Yakumo behind since he highly doubted she would agree to leave the village she had been born and raised in. That, alone, stalled his plans. Yakumo was quite literally the only good thing in his life; even in Konoha, people saw him in a worse light than Mitarashi Anko, the man's former apprentice, and treated him as such. No one trusted him, including Kakashi, and even the Sandaime Hokage was wary of him still.

Who wouldn't be when the source of their distrust could manipulate his own chakra to create virtually anything with little effort and no handseals? Who wouldn't be when that source could outsmart virtually everyone around him? Who wouldn't be when that source was a step below that of a Sannin? Had he said such to anyone, they would have undoubtedly laughed in his face, but they failed to understand one thing; he had been trained by one for the better part of twelve years. His two elemental affinities were incredibly powerful, having trained them to the point he could manipulate them just as easily as his normal non-elemental chakra. By sheer chance, he had managed to analyze, break down, and recreate the technique used by Senju Tsunade and the late Shodaime Hokage, Senju Hashirama; the only reason he was capable of such was due to the increased number of tenketsu in his body and his mastery of chakra manipulation and thus, chakra control. He didn't have a summoning contract, but he didn't need one. Yet.

_'I want to help them, to fix what shouldn't have been broken, but...'_ Naruto paused in his thoughts for a moment, detecting the movement of chakra signatures throughout the house, his attention focusing on one in particular. _'No, she wouldn't leave the village for me; especially once she has learned of my burden.'_

"I'm glad to see that you finally came back, Naruto." Kakashi responded as he sat down beside Naruto, letting his legs hang over the edge as he continued to read his novel. "Yakumo was worried about you, you know?"

"I see no reason why she would be. I am more than capable of taking care of myself." Naruto responded calmly without glancing at the man, choosing to stare out over the water. Standing up from his spot, Naruto gave the jounin a slight nod before jumping down to the ground and calmly walking inside. Kakashi narrowed his eye slightly as the young man disappeared into the house. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he kept getting this feeling that there was something..._off_...about the 'genin', something other than his total lack of emotion.

_'Just what are you hiding, Naruto?'_ The jounin mused before following after the platinum blonde...

xXxXxXx

"..." Kakashi could only watch in stunned silence as he watched Naruto train in the clearing below against a dozen of his own clones, an orb of blue chakra present in their hands that extended out in the form of a meter-long double-edged blade of pure chakra. Dancing amongst his dopplegangers, Naruto blocked and parried one strike after another, never once leaving himself open to attack and never slipping up in his foot work or stance. Naruto had been training with the same clones for the past four hours, their unusual chakra blades clashing and grinding with every passing moment in a constant and unrelenting assault, forcing Naruto to remain on the defensive. Normally, people would assume it was because Naruto, the original one, was either growing tired or wasn't able to find an opening to strike back. To Kakashi, however, the jounin knew that Naruto was doing it on purpose, wanting to better his defensive capabilities more than his offense, something he worked on quite often.

_'He's far stronger than he lets on...'_ Kakashi thought to himself, watching as Naruto purposefully ensured that his clones weren't destroyed amongst the chaotic whirlpool of chakra and metal. He watched as Naruto's right blade smoothly slid into a more reverse-grip position while he rose his right hand up to eye level, blocking the left blade of a clone that had attempted a reverse-grip swing at the original's neck. Holding the dead-lock for only a second as he parried a thrust from another clone, Naruto pushed against the other blade, only to shift the placement of his right chakra blade while adjusting the location of the chakra blade currently locked with his, allowing him to bring it up and around to block another clone's right chakra blade as the copy attempted to bring its blade down on Naruto's right shoulder from behind. A slight change in footing and manipulation of weight distribution allowed Naruto to gain enough of an advantage over them that allowed him to shove them aside and break the dead-lock, all while rotating his left blade so that it ran along the underside of his forearm, allowing him to block a slash aimed for his left bicep from yet another clone just to his left simply by raising his left hand. Sighing slightly as he got over his surprise at the blonde's unique and unusual kenjutsu style, Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck before dispelling himself, having only been a Kage Bunshin meant to check on the armor-clad young man while the original guarded Tazuna, the bridge-builder currently busy with supervising the construction of the bridge that would connect Wave Country with Fire Country.

Just a couple seconds after the clone dismissed itself, Naruto and his clones stopped what they were doing. He had known that the clone was watching him and it was irritating, but he couldn't let anyone know just how good his sensory abilities were. Or his true skills. Absorbing the chakra in his hands, something each of his clones did, Naruto calmly reached up and grabbed the handles to his two 'tanto', drawing them and revealing that they were actually full-length straight-edge ninjato swords with a flat, angled tip. The inside of both metal sheathes were covered in innumerable seals that created a sort of 'slip space' dimension that held and hid the true length of the swords, giving him a minor advantage of surprise over his enemies whenever he actually uses them.

"Now that Hatake is gone..." Naruto muttered quietly while flipping both of his ninjato into reverse-grips. His clones dispelled simultaneously before Naruto took off into the forest, heading straight for the hideout his clone had located yesterday. The journey wasn't long before he reached the conical 'tree house', coming to a stop on a high branch right where one of the thick suspension ropes help support the building's weight since it was built on the side of a tree instead of being built around the trunk evenly. Narrowing his eyes and concentrating, he detected the two proper chakra signatures inside the building; Haku and Kira. Jumping over onto the rope, he ran along its length before jumping when he was close enough, smashing through the window and landing in a roll, the senbon thrown at him missing because of it. Springing to his feet, Naruto struck Haku in the face before his feet could touch the ground, coming to a stop beside her as he turned around.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Momochi Kira...Succubus of the Bloody Mist." Naruto cautioned casually, the tip of his right ninjato hovering just millimeters from Haku's throat, the young woman still lying on the ground where she had landed, the right side of her jaw already starting to bruise slightly. Momochi Kira, who had been across the room, had been in the process of grabbing Kubikiri Houcho to attack the assailant while a barbed kunai shaped not unlike the tip of a harpoon was held in her opposite hand, having been readied to throw as a diversionary attack to create an opening. "I'm here to talk."

"Then you should have just knocked on the front door..." Kira growled out while dropping the kunai in her hand and taking a step away from Kubikiri, not wanting to risk the armored genin that had been with Kakashi to hurt Haku, who she had come to see as a daughter over the years.

She stood at about 5'11" with smooth shoulder-length black hair, pale skin, and honey-brown eyes. She was dressed simply in a pair of dark blue-grey pants that were snug around her broad hips and shapely rear while the rest of the leggings were baggy, a sleeveless and midriff-bearing dark blue-grey top with a low-cut collar that was stretched tight over her large F-cup breasts and looked like it barely fit her from the way the top was straining to contain her bust, dark blue-grey bicep-high fingerless gloves covering most of her arms, white cloth wrappings coiled around her neck and the lower half of her face in the likeness of a cloth face mask, and a Kiri hitai-ate tied around her head that was tilted a bit off to the side while pinning her bangs back so that they didn't get in her eyes. There was a rather obvious slash mark running across the metal plate, marking her as a missing-nin. She was Momochi "Kira" Kirara, the Succubus of the Bloody Mist and A-rank Kiri missing-nin, former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and current weilder of Kubikiri Houcho; she was also the second woman to ever make it into the Seven Swordsmen since its founding.

"This was the only plausible method to ensure no hostile actions from the two of you upon seeing me." Naruto explained monotonously, slowly turning his head to look at Kira fully. He then decided to venture into what he knew of 'sarcasm'. "So long as you play nice and keep your pointy objects to yourself, I'll do the same. Agreed?"

"...What do you want?" Kira demanded sharply, glaring at the young shinobi she had thought to be a genin, but his stance told her otherwise. He was more accurately gauged as a high-level jounin, possibly even above herself. When he didn't move or say anything, Kira grit her teeth in frustration, knowing she couldn't take him on in her weakened state. "Fine. Agreed."

"Thank you. My arm was starting to tire..." Naruto responded as he immediately withdrew his sword from Haku's neck, sheathed both weapons, and even held a hand out to help the fallen young woman back to her feet. Not feeling too friendly after being punched across the jaw, Haku glared at him while slapping his hand away, getting up on her own before walking over to where Kira was. "I came to talk about a possible alliance between us."

"You can take that 'alliance' and shove it up your ass, boy. I'm not being _friends_ with Konoha shinobi." Kira snarled, only to watch with shock as Naruto removed his hitai-ate from its spot at his hip and drop it beside him.

"Not with them. With me, but not as a shinobi of Konoha." Naruto corrected firmly, wanting to make sure the woman understood what he was trying to convey. "I may where their hitai-ate, but I never was nor will I ever be a part of Konoha. What I require from you is assistance with a personal problem."

"Let me guess...You want me to kill someone for you?" Kira retorted sarcastically, getting a slight shake of the head from Naruto. "Then what is it?"

"Soldiers. It doesn't have to be very many so long as they are all strong, preferably close to your level." Naruto began, his statement catching both women off guard and shocking them. "I seek to over-throw the leader of a new Hidden Village in Rice Country called Otogakure. However, I can not do it alone."

"Why the hell should I help you with that? What's in it for me?!" Kira snarled, not at all amused with the idea.

"A place of permanent residence and protection from hunter-nin squads, should you accept and we succeed in this endeavor. That goes for both of you." Naruto offered honestly, his tone never changing. The offer immediately had their attention, but they weren't readily accepting of it nor trusting of the blonde. "I will not lie; the possibility of dying during the coup itself is approximately seventy-nine percent. Especially for myself. Before I say any more, I _must_ have an answer now because when I leave, so does my offer, and I _will_ be the last person to ever leave this building alive. I am sorry, but I can not risk anyone finding out about my plans and alerting anyone to them."

"...Can we have a moment alone?" Kira inquired, recieving a nod from Naruto. As the two went to another room in the building, Naruto kept his attention on them by tracking their chakra signatures, which was accurate enough at this range that he could 'feel' the general movements of their bodies such as the movements of their arms or legs. While he could not hear what they were saying, he could tell from the natural uncontrollable fluctuations in their chakra that they were both caught between hope and hesitance, possibly even fear. Not surprising since he had essentially given them an ultimatum; join him or die. After several minutes, they returned, both looking excusably cautious. "We'll do it, but if we even _suspect_ that you don't intend to uphold your end of the deal...I'll kill you myself."

"Noted." Naruto replied calmly as he picked up his hitai-ate and put it back in its original spot before holding a hand out towards the door that led out of the bedroom. "Now, if it is not too much trouble, might we talk over some tea?"

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A/N: I'm sure some of my readers have noticed rather close similarities with this story and one of my other stories, Grey Ghost. Well, that's not a coincidence. This was actually the original concept I had in mind for Grey Ghost, but never followed through with it. However, I can't get it out of my head now. Thus, I decided to go ahead and start writing this in my spare time, but there will be nothing connecting Grey Ghost and Engineered at any level, apart from possible OCs or Naruto's fighting style and the like; it's NOT a sequel, NOT an actual spin-off of it, nothing. This is an entirely different 'Alternate Universe' of it, meaning a lot of shit will be different between them.

Now, I'm sure that there will be _someone_ that will claim this to be a God-like Naruto fic, so I'm here to stop those claims right now. No, it isn't. He's only _about_ Sannin-level, not _above_ it. As for him being capable of replicating Tsunade's strength? That is not as big of a boon for him as it seems, which will be explained at a later time in the story. Naruto isn't going to be unbeatable in this fic, but he will be a very difficult and powerful opponent for anyone from Kakashi's general level and up. Remember, in canon, Naruto couldn't beat Jiraiya and Jiraiya was killed by Pein, but Naruto beat Pein, thanks to a combination of Sage Mode and going berserk while nearly releasing Kyuubi in the process. At this moment, Naruto is just a step below Jiraiya's level, just without a Summoning Contract, Sage Mode, etc. I like to think of it as him being kind of like Itachi; always analyzing, always adapting, always learning. That's how I honestly believe that Itachi became so powerful. A monstrous learning curve...and the Sharingan. Really, even without the Sharingan, Itachi was a _beast_. He could use only basic skills against his enemies and use only a single kunai and he would still win; granted, against someone like Kakashi and up, that wouldn't do, but still...Plus, he always had a plan for something, no matter what happened. Even if a plan was 'foiled', it was instantly adjusted to circumvent the issue. Even in _death_, Itachi was still kicking ass and mind-fucking people with his plans!

Another issue I'm sure that will come up; Naruto's moral compass/allegiance. The best way to describe him is 'Solid Grey', and _no_, that's not a pun or reference to his armor. He holds no true allegiance or loyalty to Konoha nor to anyone else, for that matter. He's a rogue with a purpose, wanting to kill Orochimaru and rebuild Oto, the village he had grown up in for the first twelve years of his life. Now, just because he isn't loyal to Konoha and wants to 'repair' a, technically, rival Hidden Village, that doesn't mean he intends to burn Konoha to the ground or any other village. He doesn't _want_ war, but he will ensure that he can ultimately crush his enemies should it happen. He is manipulative with certain people, honest with some, and simply cares nothing for the rest. His one true goal is to fix Oto. Killing Orochimaru is more of a 'need to do _this_ before I can do _that_' kind of thing...Well, that and he wants revenge for being experimented on and pretty much royally mind-fucked by the man.

As for the brief mentioning of Naruto being prone to headaches? That will be better explained later in the story, but his higher mental capacity (reflexes, thought process, etc.) were a result of some of the experiments Orochimaru did to him. His eyes tend to add on to it due to being so sensitive from their enhancements. Because of them, he gets headaches quite often that can range anywhere between just being a slight annoyance or nuisance to leaving him bedridden with a slight, but very real possiblity of putting him in the hospital. Such severity is incredibly rare, but the potential for it is still there. That's one of the main reasons his helmet doesn't have any eye-holes, mildly limiting anything that might cause a visually stimulated headache. His 'medical condition' will effect him in all forms throughout the story at certain points, whether he's on or off the battlefield. As I mentioned a moment ago, it will be better explained later on in the story.

Since I can't currently predict any other possible 'important concerns/questions' my current and potential readers and followers might have, I will go ahead and end this Author's Note before I reveal anything crucial to the story. Thank you for reading this story and I hope you enjoyed it. Please, if you leave a review, make it an actual review and not just a 'This story is fucking retarded!' or a 'You're awesome!' kind of review. Also, if you notice an irregularity, spelling mistake, grammatical error, and/or a wrong/misplaced/missing word at any point in this story, let me know what it is and the context around it; I would like to know so that I can fix it. Flamers will be ignored. If you do not like this story, then do not read it and do not review. It is pointless and, honestly, rather stupid to do so...

-Winterfang


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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Engineered

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Chapter Two

While at Kira's hideout, Naruto had learned that Gatou planned on making a move against Tazuna two days from that point. He had devised a plan to feign exhausting himself from training too hard the day before the attack, but it was just his luck that he would be stricken with a rather nasty headache. It still worked with his plan, however, so he wasn't so bothered by it. That didn't mean he enjoyed it...

Groaning quietly as he slowly woke up, Naruto looked to the side at the clock with barely cracked open eyes before groaning again, closing his eyes once more as the mid-morning sun light stirred up the remnants of his headache from last night, but it was minor and, luckily, it would pass in a few minutes. Standing up and getting dressed, Naruto pulled his mask up over his nose and placed his helmet over his head, locking it in place before grabbing his armored belt and securing it around his waist. Making it down the stairs and near the front door while making sure he had all of his equipment on him, Naruto sensed two unknown chakra signatures, civilian level, making him look up and narrow his eyes slightly moments before a katana sliced through the front door. Instantly, twin orbs of cerulean energy formed in his palms before the door was cut down fully, causing the pieces of wood to fall to the ground as it was kicked in. A moment later, both orbs of chakra slammed into the chests of the two rounin undoubtedly sent after Tsunami by their employer, Gatou. Sprinting forward just as both men cried out in pain from the impacts that knocked them off their feet, Naruto got a running start before jumping up a little and slamming his palms down on their chests while they were still air-borne, smashing them both back into the wooden deck with enough force to break the boards under them.

"Trash..." Naruto muttered under his breath, not even looking down at the two dead men, their spines fractured and ribs broken. Instead, he was staring forward with an almost blank look on his face beneath his helmet as a Shadow Clone peeled away from him to stand guard over Tsunami and Inari, only for the real one to suddenly vanish from his spot with enough speed to kick up a small cloud of dust where he had previously been kneeling, his grey-clad body appearing as nothing more than a blur to any that saw him as he augmented his legs with chakra to move more quickly. Nearing the tree line, Naruto effortlessly kicked off the ground and disappeared into the branches, moving a little faster as he put all of his training into controlling his movements and pace to keep from wearing himself out too much.

Breaking away from the forest several minutes later, Naruto landed on the water and ran along its surface towards the incomplete bridge Tazuna was building. He could already detect well over three hundred civilian level chakra signatures, all of them standing in a dense horde at the incomplete end, a number of boats having been tied off to the support columns there. His team was present with Tazuna, most likely having just arrived a few minutes ago. Adjusting his course so that he was headed straight for the boats, Naruto retrieved a handful of kunai with explosive tags on them before throwing them at the boats, each one hitting its mark. Running up the nearest support column as he turned directly towards the bridge, Naruto set each of the tags off while drawing his swords.

"What the hell?!" One of the bandits cried in reaction to the explosions, only for Naruto to land directly in front of him in a crouch, his swords held in reverse-grips. The next moment, he was relieved of his head, along with several others. Twisting his body to the side without changing his footing, Naruto easily avoided the katana a ronin swung at him, only to flip his right ninjato into a forward grip and stab it into the man's throat, the blade gliding between two vertabrae in his neck and killing him almost instantly. Pulling it free and spinning to his right, Naruto raised his left sword and blocked the over-head swing of a large axe from another bandit, only to stab him in the thigh to cripple him as he shoved the axe aside and stepped back to dodge a spear thrust. Bringing his left knee up while dropping his right elbow at the same time, the spear shaft was snapped, the bladed tip sent flying from a spinning kick that caused it to impale another bandit in the head while Naruto's right sword beheaded the axe-weilding thug, his left ninjato being used to skewer the spearman between his ribs on his left flank, piercing his left lung and heart. He was moving again a moment later, his swords singing as they were bathed in blood once more...

As the one-sided slaughter continued, Kakashi could only watch the massacre with morbid fascination and disgusted awe. While the bandits themselves didn't pose much of a threat, their numbers did. He could handle himself, but he hadn't been so sure about Sasuke and Sakura being so capable against such great numbers, all while protecting their client, at that. So when he heard the explosions and spotted Naruto descending upon the mob of civilian criminals and common street thugs, Kakashi was caught between relief and suspicioun, but only because he didn't trust the boy. There was no way someone could be trained by Konoha's greatest traitor and enemy for so long and know nothing of the man's operations...

"Kakashi-sensei? Is that...Naruto?" Yakumo asked timidly, the symphony of screams and death rattles terrifying the young woman as she watched her blonde haired friend and team mate simply destroy them without a hint of mercy in his movements.

"It is." Sasuke answered in the jounin's stead, his eyes narrowed as he stared at the thugs, most having turned their focus onto the threat that had dove straight into the heart of the crowd. "Remember what he said the other day? He said he was here to 'remove the cancer that has infested this country'. That 'cancer' is Gatou..."

"Shouldn't we help him?" Yakumo urged, greatly worried for the blonde. She was shocked when both Sasuke and Kakashi shook their heads negatively. "But...he could get hurt! Or killed! We have to help him!"

"No. We will only get in his way." Sasuke responded, his onyx eyes still locked on the blood bath hidden behind a screen of bodies. Yakumo simply didn't understand that Naruto was on an entirely different level than what he appeared to be on. He had no idea just how strong Naruto was and it was incredibly frustrating for him to know that someone their own age was so powerful when he himself wasn't, but after having seen how Naruto moved in combat during Kakashi's bell test, Sasuke knew that they would only get in the way. "I do not know what he has experienced in his life, but he has become a 'Lone Wolf'. If we were to go in there to help, we will only get in his way. He's in the flow..."

"Lone Wolf? The flow? What are you talking about?" Yakumo questioned, but Sasuke didn't answer this time. Kakashi, recognizing those terms, decided to fill in the blanks for the young kunoichi, though he was curious as to how Sasuke knew them. Could Itachi have told him in the past, before he murder their entire clan?

"The term Lone Wolf is used by many ANBU and veteran shinobi to identify a ninja that fights on their own no matter how many enemies they are faced against. Naruto is one of them. The 'flow' is a state of mind that is common in Lone Wolves. They enter something akin to a trance that allows them to absorb information from all around them on the battle field in a single moment, keeping them fully aware of everything that's happening around them." Kakashi explained as simply as he could, his lone eye narrowing. "I have only experienced it once in my life when I was younger and it was only under extreme duress. Naruto, however...He has been _trained_ to do it. He can enter the flow at any time, no matter the circumstances...What for, I do not know. All I know is that an ally can easily get caught up in a Lone Wolf's 'flow' without meaning to. If we go in now, there is no telling what might happen..."

"..." Yakumo could only watch on, gently biting her bottom lip as she prayed for her friend's safe return...

"AHH!" A bandit howled in pain as Naruto's left ninjato stabbed through his left forearm, causing the man to tense his right hand out of painful reflex, which caused him to pull the trigger to his crossbow. The bolt shot forward and struck another bandit in the neck, killing him. Ripping his sword free, Naruto spun around the wounded man, beheading him as he did while simultaneously stabbing another thug, driving his left sword, still held in a reverse-grip, down into the soft flesh behind his left collar bone, cleaving his heart in two in an instant. Putting his foot on the bent knee of yet another common civilian criminal, Naruto kicked off and flipped over a katana-wielding man, causing the swordsman to slay the other while Naruto ripped his sword free of the previously slain thug. Landing on his feet, Naruto took a split-second count of his enemies.

In only a couple minutes, a force of three hundred strong had been reduced to a pitiful crowd of twenty and their numbers were still decreasing. He had yet to recieve a single scratch from any of them. His primary target was Gatou, who had somehow managed to get through the chaos to the back of the horde, having tried to escape in one of the boats. Only to discover that they had all been destroyed. Now trapped, Gatou had nowhere to go, something Naruto had no problems with. The less time he had to spend chasing down his target, the less energy he would have to waste. Spinning around while crouching, Naruto swung his blades out, cutting through the legs of several thugs, causing them to topple forward with cries of agony, but he didn't stop there. Halting his rotation, he quickly spun back the other way while standing back up, easily finishing off the handful of men around him.

Twelve.

Scattered all around the section of bridge they were on were hundreds of dead bodies, several missing limbs or their heads. His armor was doused in their blood, the original snow white fur lining the collar of his body armor having been died crimson by the life-sustaining liquid. Every movement he made sent droplets of it flying through the air, only for more to spray him down with every kill. It didn't bother him. He had been raised and trained...No, he had been _engineered_ to be a killer of a calibur never before seen. Glancing around him with a predatory slowness, Naruto noticed how the remaining men were hesitant to get too close to him, but too stupidly brave to run away. Not that it would do them any good. He would only pick them off with either his swords or with kunai before they could even make it ten feet.

_'If they won't bring the fight to me...'_ Naruto thought to himself before suddenly throwing his swords behind him, impaling two thugs in the chest as his hands went to the metal kunai holsters attached to the back of his armor, his fingers nimbly drawing several of the throwing knives. _'Then I'll bring the fight to THEM.'_

In a single fluid motion, Naruto swung his arms around him, unleashing a single kunai on each thug around him, his arms coming to a complete stop crossed in front of him, his hands empty and open. Simultaneously, each of the remaining ten bandits fell backwards after a couple seconds, a kunai lodged in their skulls between their eyes. Slowly lowering his arms, blood dripping from every part of his body, Naruto calmly turned around to face the cowering figure of Gatou.

"M-Mo...Monster!" Gatou gasped out frightfully as he started backpedaling, only to trip over his own feet and fall. "S-Stay back! Demon!"

"...Monster? Demon?" Naruto reiterated apathetically as he started walking towards Gatou, casually gripping the handles to his swords and pulling them from the rib cages of the corpses they were staked to as he passed between them. Calmly flipping them forward into a normal forward-facing grip, Naruto tilted his head to the side slightly. "I am not the one that has infected this country with fear and misery."

"N-No...Sta...Ge...No." Gatou could no longer form words properly, stammering and stuttering in complete and utter terror, unable to tear his eyes away from the blood-drenched devil calmly stalking towards him. Three hundred and fifty men. That was how many he had brought with him to finish off the Konoha ninja along with Kira and the girl with her to make sure he didn't have to pay them and to ensure that Tazuna was killed, but...Kira and that girl weren't here. His plan had failed. Tazuna was still alive. The Konoha ninja were still alive. All of his men had been slaughtered right before his eyes by a single person...No. Not a person. They were killed by an Angel of Death...

"..." Naruto said nothing as he caught up to Gatou as the businessman tried to crawl backwards to get away, putting his foot on his chest to keep him from going any further. Slowly crossing his swords and raising his hands, he brought them down in a scissoring motion, relieving Gatou's body of his head in a flash of steel. With an experienced and effortless flick of his wrists, he shed both swords of the blood that coated them before calmly sheathing them behind his shoulders. Glancing down at himself, Naruto sighed quietly with a slight grimace out of mild annoyance.

It was going to take a lot of work to clean off all of the blood...

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Two days. That's how long it took him to clean off every last speck of blood on his armor and clothing. He had to do it outside, too, since he didn't want to track any of it into the house. That and Tsunami forbid him from coming inside in such a state or for him to bring any of his armor inside until he was clean. On a much different note, however, he couldn't help noticing a definite shift in the team's dynamics since they left the bridge. Yakumo hadn't said much and had looked a bit ill the first day. Sasuke was as quiet as ever, but had taken to giving him odd looks every so often. Even Kakashi behaved differently, mostly circling around his suspiciouns of the blonde, but such behavior was ignored by Naruto; it was nothing new to him. Thankfully, their behavior mellowed back out to about what it used to be a couple months ago.

Now, roughly six months since their return, Team 7 had just gone their separate ways for the day and Naruto decided to visit one of the few clubs in Konoha that he liked; the Devil's Dance Floor. Touching the seal on the back of his neck and 'changing' into his casual attire, Naruto pulled out a pair of rather plain black-framed wrap-around sunglasses from a pocket in his vest and put them on to shield his overly sensitive eyes from the sun's light, leaving his headphones to hang around his neck for the time being with his Konoha hitai-ate hanging at his left hip. It wasn't a long trip for him, seeing as his team had split up just a few blocks down the road from the club, but it was not exactly a pleasant one. The entire way there, he could feel everyone staring at him and he could hear them whispering about him; nothing new, but it wasn't anything good either. Luckily, it didn't last long as he reached his destination.

Upon first opening the front door, the hypnotizing throb of undulating techno-trance music reached his ears, bringing a small smile to his lips. Although a regular customer that had miraculously befriended almost the all of the staff that worked at the Devil's Dance Floor, Naruto still liked to pay the cover charge even though he didn't necessarily have to since he would sometimes work there as a part-time DJ for the club whenever he wasn't busy with missions or training.

"Hello, Kenji. How have you been doing?" Naruto greeted with an eye smile, catching the attention of the man behind the front desk as he put his sunglasses away now that he was indoors.

Twenty-four year old Ryusaki Kenji was about an even six feet in height with a lean build, his shaggy and messy dark brown hair falling about his head and hiding his right eye, both being lime green, ending just beneath his shoulder blades. Like he often was, he was dressed in a pair of baggy black cargo shorts that ended at about mid-shin on him with dark grey tribal designs on the left pant leg, a baggy tan colored long-sleeve shirt with dark crimson around the collar and running down the sleeves from the shoulders to the cuffs along the outside, a pair of tan colored open-toe high-top shinobi sandals on his feet with dark crimson on the sides and heel of them, and a pair of black fingerless gloves on his hands. Although he was never an official ninja of Konoha, Kenji had enough ninja training from his parents that he could have been a chuunin, but his love of music over-rode that.

"Oh, hey! Long time, no see, man!" Kenji greeted with a beaming grin, setting down the magazine he had been flipping through as he stood and leaned against the counter. "Come to give Reikou a brake today?"

"No. Just here as a customer this time." Naruto responded with a slight laugh, honestly surprised by how comfortable he was around the Dance Floor's staff that he could so easily show his emotions. Pulling out the needed bills for the entrance fee, Naruto handed them to Kenji, who tossed him a blood red glow-stick bracelet; blue was for normal customers while red was for the VIP customers. He hadn't quite figured out how it worked, but even if someone took a VIP bracelet from someone else and put it on, it would turn blue if they didn't pay for it. It simply fascinated him. As he put the bracelet on, Kenji decided to entertain himself with some mild teasing, grinning a bit impishly.

"So, I heard you and Saiko went out for drinks last night...Is that true?" Kenji began, instantly catching how Naruto froze in place, caught off guard by the statement, and grinned even more fiendishly. It was no secret that Saiko, the only female DJ that worked at the club, was quite heavily attracted to him and had been crushing on him since he first came to the Devil's Dance Floor a little over a year ago.

"It was _one_ drink, Kenji. Do not exaggerate it because _nothing_ happened. Am I clear?" Naruto corrected while glancing at the man out of the corner of his eye. Now grinning sheepishly and sweating slightly out of nervousness, Kenji nodded. "Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to spend the rest of my day relaxing."

Heading into the club itself a moment later, Naruto let the loud, almost deafeningly so, music wash over him as he headed to his usual spot on the second 'floor', which was a balcony-like ring that over looked the rest of the club. It was strictly VIPs only and, thankfully, not many people spent much time in the VIP area. Sitting in a corner booth in the back, Naruto ordered his drink when one of the waitresses came by and after she left, he reached into another pocket in his vest to pull out a novel he had been reading recently when he heard someone call his name.

"Naruto? Is that you?" A young woman inquired as she walked over to him. When he looked up at her, she couldn't help smiling in surprised happiness. "It _is_ you! I haven't seen you in forever!"

She was seventeen, like himself, and stood at 5'4" with long black hair pulled back into a high pony tail that reached down to her knees and brown eyes, her skin a little on the pale side, but not unhealthily so. She was dressed in a pair of baggy black pants that looked far too big on her with a dark purple belt to hold them up, a black tube top covering her C-cup bust with mesh covering her shoulders and stomach, simple black flip-flops on her feet, dark purple elbow-length fingerless gloves on her hands and forearms, and a form-fitting dark grey hoodie over her top that she left open with dark purple bands around the sleeve cuffs. Tied around her neck was an Oto hitai-ate on a strip of black cloth...

"...Kin? What are you doing here?" Naruto asked curiously and cautiously, glancing around for a moment to check for anyone suspicious in the area that might be spying on him or something. Tsuchi Kin was one of the few Oto shinobi that Naruto had gotten to know and actively spent time with back in Oto prior to his 'indoctrination' in to Konoha. She was also one of the few that had real potential to become a skilled kunoichi.

"I'm here with my team for the Chuunin Exams. They start in a week." She answered as she sat down across from him, too excited to notice Naruto's nervousness. "Are you going to enter with your team?"

"Don't know. My sensei hasn't said anything about it to us..." Naruto responded, casting one last glance around to make sure they weren't being watched before focusing back on the young woman in front of him. "How's Oto?"

"It's...doing okay. Not much has changed, really." Kin mumbled out a bit disappointedly, frowning slightly. She knew how much Oto meant to Naruto and she honestly felt the same about how poorly the village was being run. "Sorry, Naruto. I don't really want to talk about that right now. Kind of a buzz-kill, you know?"

"No, it's alright. I understand." He reassured before sighing slightly; he had been hoping to hear better news about his home. "How have you been? Is your mother doing okay?"

"She's been great. She now owns and runs the weapon shop she had been working at since we were kids." Kin answered more cheerfully, not knowing just how glad Naruto was to see her smiling again. Her father had died not long before he first met her and it had been a while before she managed to move on from it. "As for myself, I've been doing pretty okay. I finally managed to finish making my own technique a couple months ago. I still have to work out a few of the bugs in it, but it shouldn't take much longer."

"So, how'd you find this place? They don't really advertise much around here." Naruto inquired curiously, muttering a quiet 'thank you' to the waitress as she brought him his drink; a simple bottle of sake and a dish. Noticing Kin's stare, Naruto grimaced slightly while pulling his mask down. "Don't start. It helps with my headaches. Besides, I don't drink much or very often."

"You still shouldn't be drinking..." Kin mumbled before focusing back on the question she had been asked. "Anyways, I passed by this place when me and my team got here the other day and I figured that since we had a week until the Chuunin Exams started, I'd do a little sight-seeing and check the place out. I know why you come here...It's like a little piece of home."

"Yeah...It's really the only thing that keeps me going these days..." Naruto mumbled softly as he poured some sake into the dish and gingerly picked it up. Sighing slightly as he thought about Oto, Naruto drank the alchoholic liquid and gently set the fragile dish back down on the table. "Why didn't you bring your team mates with you? I'm sure they would have liked it here."

"Eh...They're not exactly 'fun people', you know? Dosu isn't all too friendly and doesn't like crowds. As for Zaku, he's..." Kin trailed off with a grimace. "Let's just say, he's not much for being 'socially acceptable' in public and leave it at that..."

"Ah. Sounds like _fun_..." Naruto mumbled sarcastically, getting a half-hearted glare from his friend. Giving a small smile in return, Naruto relaxed into the cushioned back of the booth. A moment later, however, he suddenly winced in pain, squeezing his eyes shut. Leaning forward slightly while holding the side of head with one hand, Naruto felt Kin move around the table and sit beside him before gently massaging his neck near the base of his skull, relieving some of the pain from the headache. As it started to fade, Naruto sat up again and smiled softly. "Thanks..."

"How've your headaches been lately? They haven't been too bad, have they?" Kin asked worriedly, having seen just how bad they could get.

"Nothing too bad, but still irritating and inconvenient." Naruto answered quietly before wincing again, the pain being a little worse than before. "Damn...I think I should go home and rest..."

"Come on. I'll help you." Kin urged calmly, yet worriedly. As they headed back towards the front of the club to drop off the bracelets, Kenji noticed that Naruto wasn't looking all too good.

"Headache?" The man asked, getting a slight nod from Naruto as he put his sunglasses back on. "Alright, man. You take it easy, you hear? Yo, miss. Keep an eye on him for me, will you? He's like a little brother to me."

"I will. Don't worry about that." Kin responded kindly before leaving with Naruto. As they went outside, Kenji slumped back into his chair, pouting slightly.

"How does that kid always get the girls fawning over him?" Kenji mumbled, a little jealous of the blonde. "He needs to share his secret..."

xXxXxXx

A week later, Team 7 found themselves taking the first test of the Chuunin Exams. After being helped back to his apartment, Naruto and Kin had agreed to act as if they had never met before, mostly for Naruto's sake, just in case someone was watching him; Kin had called him 'paranoid' because of it, but he had good reason to be. It also helped that no one from Oto or anyone else under Orochimaru's employ had seen his armor before, seeing as he had made it after being released from his 'imprisonment' under Konoha's custody.

_'Another cryptogram...Expert-level.'_ Naruto mused with a slight frown, only for it to become a faint smirk. _'Too easy.'_

They had an hour to complete the written test and only twenty minutes in, Naruto was already on the eighth question. It only took him a couple minutes to solve the encrypted message before going to the ninth question; a two-part question. One part was to gauge the maximum distance a ninja could throw a kunai with a wire that was thirty meters in length with a weight of three grams per foot attached to the base-ring of the kunai from a height of ten meters and how long it would take for the kunai to reach that maximum distance. The second part was to explain the possible options of attacking an enemy within that maximum circumference with the same kunai and _only_ that kunai. It stumped him for only a few seconds before he had calculated the proper answer for it...

_'Hm...This question will be revealed fourty-five minutes after the test begins. Listen to the Examiner closely before answering...How odd.'_ Naruto thought to himself before glancing up at the clock. Twenty minutes until the tenth question would be revealed. His eyes narrowed slightly as he calmly flipped his test over and waited for the tenth question, pondering what it could be. That was when he spotted the silver haired Konoha genin they had met prior to the start of the test; Yakushi Kabuto. Closing his eyes and focusing his chakra sensory ability on him, Naruto suddenly snapped his eyes open. His chakra signature was almost the same as Kakashi's in terms of strength. He had also felt it once before in the past...

_'Seven times, he's been through this. His body language shows signs of mild stress and nervousness, but...not his chakra. He's acting.'_ Naruto analyzed, keeping his attention on Kabuto without changing his posture, just in case it might bring the attention of others onto him. _'I thought he looked familiar. He's Orochimaru's right-hand. He must be spying for the White Snake...but why would he risk being discovered after a track record of seven failed attempts to pass the Chuunin Exams?'_

As he tried to predict what Orochimaru's intentions were, Naruto caught a slight spike of chakra from Sasuke across the room. Suddenly, he was struck with realization. The Sharingan. The Snake Summoner has been fiending for the Sharingan for years, but with only two possible sources to get it from and with one of them being too strong for him, the only viable source would be Uchiha Sasuke. However, that brought up another question; how would he get it? He's too well known to simply sneak in and take the sole heir of the Uchiha clan that remains loyal to...

_'That's it. It is no secret that Sasuke desires power to kill Itachi in order to avenge the deaths of the entire Uchiha clan. Simply offering him power wouldn't do any good. Orochimaru would have to give him a taste of that power to properly entice him into joining him. I remember there being several different methods he could use to do that, but the most powerful of them was the Curse Seal. However, it has a success rate of only ten percent, meaning it was a very risky gamble on Orochimaru's part.'_ Naruto thought to himself, his eyes narrowing dangerously. After finally reaching the level of a Seal Master with fuinjutsu at the age of eleven, Orochimaru had tasked Naruto with studying the Curse Seal and everything tied in with it's application, how it worked, and what made it work. All in an effort to make it impossible to remove. He did not take into account that Naruto wasn't actually loyal to him and would sabotage his own work while simultaneously devising a way to remove it or to fully deactivate the seal. _'If he does take that risk, I'll have to work fast to remove it while it's still fresh. If Sasuke releases its power before I can...then there is no helping him. It would be impossible to remove the Curse Seal by that point without killing Sasuke in the process...However, I might be able to use that to my advantage to get back to Oto so that I can get close to him again in order to kill him.'_

The next moment, however, Naruto was snapped out of his thoughts when something suddenly crashed through a window near the front of the room. By sheer reflex, Naruto moved to draw his swords, but stopped himself just as he grabbed the handles. Giving the person responsible a bland look from within his helmet as he read the banner; 'The Sexy and Single Mitarashi Anko'. Her. Orochimaru's former apprentice and bearer of the Heaven Cruse Seal, one of the most powerful Curse Seals Orochimaru had created. However, she had never given into its power, resulting in it staying dormant. He'll have to keep that piece of information in mind for another day; he might be able to gain another ally later on down the road.

Things were finally starting to get interesting...

xXxXxXx

"Hm...No scroll." Naruto mumbled quietly as he checked the pockets of the lone Ame genin that had tried to restrain him. He had already sensed the genin's presence several minutes prior and had purposefully separated from his team to lure him out, baiting a trap within a trap. Since the genin was now dead, he no longer had to worry about their team passing later on; one down, twenty-four more teams to go. Glancing back down at the corpse, Naruto recalled the man's last words and couldn't help smirking faintly. "'Unlucky', indeed..."

Dropping an incendiary tag, something of his own creation, onto the body and setting it off, Naruto calmly watched as the body was quickly devoured by the flames, having already salvaged anything useful from the dead genin. After a few seconds, he headed back out to his team, who gave him suspicious looks for a moment. He simply gained a flat look, honestly insulted that they would suspect him of being an enemy in disguise. Well, then again...

"...Is this going to be common occurence?" Naruto inquired, irritated as he held up his left hand and formed one of his chakra blades. Instantly, his two team mates relaxed. "You two should know better by now. None of the genin in this exam have the skill necessary to defeat me."

"...Come on. We need to get moving again." Sasuke ordered, having taken position as the team leader. Not that Naruto or Yakumo cared. Naruto, being a Lone Wolf, just didn't care and would most likely do things his own way anyways and Yakumo wasn't confident in herself enough to take on the roll and the responsiblities that went with it. They only made it a few meters before Naruto detected a spike of chakra, chakra that was far too familiar to him. Eyes going wide, he attempted to warn his team mates, but he was too late, a blast of wind slamming into them with the force of a tsunami. Having been the only way that had been alerted to the surprise attack, Naruto had been the only one able to anchor himself to the ground with his chakra, his two team mates thrown further into the forest.

"My, my...I thought I would have gotten all three of you with that..." The unusual Kusa genin from the test briefing spoke up as the dust started to settle now that the wind had died down. Slowly turning his head to side to look at the long haired ninja, Naruto narrowed his eyes. He hated himself for what he was about to say, having sworn never to call him that again after being 'rescued' by the Konoha ANBU five years ago.

"It's been a long time...Orochimaru-sama." Naruto greeted calmly while turning to face the disguised figure fully. Eyes widening, Orochimaru stared at the strangely armored genin, a little confused by how the unknown genin had discovered who he was so easily and as to why they had addressed him as such. Until the boy formed a very unique and easily recognizable chakra blade for a moment. Only one person had been able to create something like that.

"Ah. Indeed it has, Naruto-kun." The traitorous pale-skinned Sannin responded, smirking cruely as a dangerous glint shined in his eyes. Naruto knew that look. It was one Orochimaru often gained every time he found himself a new 'toy'; a pawn for him to use to his advantage in the long run. What the man didn't realize was that this particular 'pawn' was the _true_ puppet master in the show. "I've been concerned about you all these years...I had begun to suspect that Konoha had executed you when you didn't make it back."

"An unforeseen event, yes, but like all intelligent dogs, they always seem to find their way back home sooner or later." Naruto remarked, internally grimacing at the foul taste those words left in his mouth. It was a taste he had unfortunately become familiar with back when he was still 'working for' the Sannin. Naruto tapped his Konoha hitai-ate, drawing Orochimaru's attention to it. "This one just so happened to get collared by another person against their will."

"Hm. We'll just have to fix that, now won't we? Come. We have work to do." Orochimaru commanded calmly, only to glare at the blonde when Naruto shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Orochimaru-sama, but I must play the roll of dog loyal to Konoha for the time being. Much like your spy...Kabuto..." Naruto answered slowly and casually, honestly shocking the man.

"How did you find out?" Orochimaru inquired, only to grin and chuckle darkly when Naruto tapped the side of his head; he had figured it out himself. "Nothing get's passed you these days, does it? Now I feel bad about calling you a failed experiment in the past..."

"Again, I apologize, Orochimaru-sama, but my team mates are headed in this direction as we speak. They will be here any minute now..." Naruto continued as he slowly reached up and drew his swords, flipping his left sword into a reverse-grip like his personal style usually required. "Might I suggest a summoning? I will feign difficulty with it so that you can play with Uchiha unhindered...That _was_ your intention to begin with, was it not?"

"How insightful of you, my dear Naruto-kun...Kuchiyose!" Orochimaru stated with a malicious smirk of amusement before calling out the name of his technique, summoning a rather large snake that was roughly five feet in diameter and about a hundred feet or so in length.

"I was expecting something bigger...but it will do." Naruto commented casually in mild disappointment, only for the snake to surge towards him at surprising speeds. Quickly sheathing his swords, Naruto grabbed the snake by its jaws at the top and bottom of its snout and anchored himself to the ground with chakra once more, but he was still pushed back several meters. Just as he did, his team mates broke through the brush and entered the clearing. Time to play his part. "Be careful! This guy has a Summoning Contract and he's stronger than he looks! I'll deal with this one! Just watch your backs!"

"Naruto!" Yakumo called out just as the snake lifted its head slightly while turning it to the side and kept pushing with all of its strength, disappearing into the forest with the armored blonde a moment later as Naruto lost his grip on the ground. Sasuke grit his teeth slightly and growned, narrowing his eyes on the strange Kusa shinobi in front of them, his Sharingan flaring to life with two tomoe circling the pupils in either of his scarlet irises. This was going to be a tough fight...

xXxXxXx

"Hm...I think we've waited long enough, Kyoku." Naruto spoke up from atop the head of the snake summon Orochimaru had 'sent' after him. Unlike the current holder of the Snake Summoning Contract, Naruto spent time with them in the past when he was still a young boy and studying the Summoning Arts. Orochimaru would sometimes summon one of the snakes for him and while studying both it and the scrolls he had access to, Naruto used to simply talk with the summoned serpent, should it have the capability to speak. Kyoku had been much smaller when they first met, being about the equivalent of a large anaconda at the time, and they had been the ones to get along the most, but he didn't talk much. Gently patting the giant serpents head, Naruto stood up. "Go ahead and return to your home. I'll take it from here."

"Hssss..." The snake hissed 'quietly' for its size before going up in smoke while Naruto jumped from its head down to the ground. Concentrating for a moment, Naruto quickly located his team mates roughly three hundred meters east of his position. Kneeling down, Naruto gathered a handful of dirt and smeared it on his armor in some places, wanting to at least make it look like he had a hard time with the summon. Once he was finished, he headed straight towards his team, taking only a minute to clear the distance. Landing not too far from them, he feigned exhaustion, breathing heavily and kneeling moments after coming to a stop.

"That summon...was stronger than I thought. What happened to Sasuke?" Naruto grunted out before standing back up and walking over to Yakumo, who was tending to the unconscious Uchiha. Before the genjutsu user could even open her mouth to respond, Naruto's eyes caught sight of the Curse Seal on the back of Sasuke's left shoulder near the base of his neck; a Heaven seal. He also took note of how Yakumo was trying to keep her mind busy to stop herself from freaking out over what had happened.

"I...I don't know. That Orochimaru guy suddenly bit Sasuke and he..." Yakumo answered a bit frantically, pausing to take a couple deep breaths to calm down a little. "He said that Sasuke would seek him out for power and disappeared...That's when Sasuke started screaming in pain. He just passed out a moment ago and he's starting to get a really bad fever...Just what is going on, Naruto? Who was he?"

"...That was Orochimaru, one of the three legendary Sannin. However, he fled the village shortly before the Yondaime came into power." Naruto answered while kneeling down beside Sasuke, focusing his chakra sensory abilities on Sasuke's body. At such close range, he could feel the flow of his chakra well enough to determine any possible internal problems such as a failing internal organ and the like, but nothing definite, only estimations and educated guesses. At the moment, the Curse Seal was only just starting to embed itself in Sasuke's chakra network where it was located, its dark and evil chakra leaking into the Uchiha's body and moving towards his mind; something Naruto liked to refer to as the 'Devil's Whisper'. It attacked the target's psyche, trying to convince the person to draw on its chakra. If he had arrived only five minutes sooner, Naruto might have had a chance to remove it without any problems, but now that the Devil's Whisper had started, he couldn't do anything until the process was complete. He could only hope Sasuke didn't draw on its power, because if he did, there was no helping him. "There's nothing we can do for him right now other than pray and wait for him to pull through, but we need to find a place to hide for the night. Come."

"H-Hai..." Yakumo answered hesitantly while Naruto picked Sasuke up and carried him as he jumped from the branch to a lower one before jumping to the ground. Once they found a suitable place amongst the roots of a tree, Yakumo decided to alert Naruto to something else that had happened during the fight. "Naruto...That Orochimaru guy, he...He took our Heaven scroll from Sasuke and burned it."

"Damn..." Naruto hissed out quietly, having not expected that to happen. Orochimaru really wanted to see how good the Uchiha really was, didn't he? "Alright. I'll go out and see what I can manage early in the morning. I'll take first watch for now and let you rest. Before I go, I'll wake you up. Agreed?"

"Hai. Just...Don't wait too long, Naruto. We only have four days until the end of the test." Yakumo reminded before lying down on the ground a couple feet away, propped up against one of the thicker roots. Naruto nodded slightly before kneeling down near the 'entrance' to their chosen camp site, his hands resting in his lap...

xXxXxXx

"Caught you just in time..." Naruto mumbled as he stood up from his crouch beside the dead Konoha genin, holding their Heaven scroll in his hand before slipping it into one of his weapon pouches. They had been about to open their scroll. If they had, it would have disqualified them and the scroll made useless. Detecting the presence of another team nearby, one that he had expected to encounter, Naruto calmly glanced over his shoulder, smirking slightly within his helmet. "Ah, Yakushi. I apologize if I happened to take down the team you were targeting..."

"Think nothing of it, Naruto-kun. We were simply passing through and happened to spot you." Kabuto answered with a kind-hearted smile while pushing his glasses back up, his team mates, Akado Yoroi and Tsurugi Misumi, standing on either side of him and a couple steps back. "Besides, we have no use for another Heaven scroll."

"Hm. So, a spy, huh? I was curious as to why you had entered the Exams six previous times and failed..." Naruto commented without turning around, instead dusting his hands off non-chalantly. Immediately, all three of them tensed while Kabuto narrowed his eyes dangerously. Finally turning to face them, Naruto held his hands up. "Relax. I merely wanted to make a proper introduction. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, an ever-loyal 'failed experiment' of Orochimaru-sama's."

"Watch what you say. There are-" Kabuto's hasty warning was cut short when Naruto reached into one of his weapon pouches and pulled out a bundle of wires.

"I have already disabled the surveilance equipment in the area." Naruto responded before stashing them back into the pouch they came from for later, and proper, disposal to keep anyone from discovering that he had sabotaged the cameras and microphones in the area. It would only draw more suspiciouns onto himself if they found any evidence tying him to it. He had been lucky that Orochimaru had done the same yesterday prior to ambushing his team. "Whatever is said or done here remains between us."

"It seems you are living up to your former position as Orochimaru's previous right-hand. To take so many precautions and to discover me so easily..." Kabuto commented, having heard about the blonde a few times in the past. "I must admit, you a quite skilled, but do not think that it will help you retake your old post."

"Do not think me to be so ambitious. I am merely trying to reestablish my connections and loyalties." Naruto corrected with a mildly sharp tone in his voice, not taking too kindly to the rather well-hidden threat in Kabuto's words. "I have had to deal with Konoha's pacifistic ways almost as long as you have and I'm tired of it. I have already been in contact with Orochimaru-sama and he knows of my desire to return. Unfortunately, it will have to be delayed for the moment. I must wait for the right moment to make my move and now is not that moment."

"And why should he even take you back? I was under the impression that he had abandoned you for a reason." Kabuto countered with a small, cruel smirk. It was gone in a moment when Naruto vanished from his place and reappeared behind Kabuto, gripping the silver haired spy's neck from his place with his right hand while gripping a kunai in his left hand in a reverse-grip, the blade tip gently pressing into the left side of his chest directly in front of his heart. Standing behind the blonde with their backs to him were two Kage Bunshin, their swords drawn and crossed with the edges resting on either side of the necks to both Yoroi and Misumi.

"Arrogance has been the death of many strong ninja throughout history, Yakushi...Do not make the same mistake as they did." Naruto hissed quietly into the man's ear. Releasing the Henge over the 'kunai' in his hand and revealing a scroll, Naruto held in front of Kabuto's face for a moment without releasing him before slipping it into the 'genin's' weapon pouch. "My..._resume_. For Orochimaru-sama's eyes _only_. Am I clear, Yakushi?"

"Hai..." Kabuto responded quietly and begrudgingly, his eyes having become slightly blood shot from his contained frustration at being cornered so easily. Slowly letting go of his neck and dispelling his clones as he walked back out in front of them, Naruto turned to face them again, tucking his arms behind his lower back with his feet spread to shoulder-width.

"I expect an answer within thirty-six hours following the completion of the Second Exam. Until next time, Yakushi..." Naruto stated calmly before suddenly going up in smoke, revealing him to be a simple Kage Bunshin.

_'How...How was he able to fool me like that? I should have been able to tell if he were a clone, but...'_ Kabuto thought to himself in shock and confusion, which only added onto his frustration. Forcing himself to calm back down, Kabuto adjusted his glasses before glancing over at his team mates. "Come on. We have to get moving."

As his clone's memories infiltrated his mind, Naruto smirked slightly as he headed back to camp, the Heaven scroll tucked away in one of his weapon pouches. Nearing the clearing, Naruto detected numerous chakra signatures in the area Yakumo and Sasuke were at. Narrowing his eyes, Naruto channeled a bit of chakra into his legs and started moving faster...

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx


End file.
