Naruto 1. Chapter 1

GIFTED

Chapter one

"**Demon"**

The demon child was an outcast of society, the village hated him and the hokage did little or nothing to aid in his daily torments, the old man had his hands tied behind his back thanks to the council of konoha. The most the old man could do was invite him to get a cup of ramen every now and then, but despite every thing the little boy excelled at living as best he could, he knew the teachers were sabotaging his studies, so he worked extra hard to get the job done. Every one was out to get him he knew this, so he worked harder than every one else, he tried harder than every one else and despite failing he knew that his extra hard work was paying off.

He studied more, he exercise more, he practice his ninja arts more, he practice and practice and practice until he could practice no more, all he did was train and study, because he knew that no one would give him a break, that if he wanted to achieve something then he would have to do it on his own, he wasn't going to get charity from any one, no one was going to help him, if he wanted something he would have to work hard to obtain it.

Even something as simple as getting a meal was hard for him, but this made him stronger, buying clothes or mundane things like that was always difficult but that was okay because he knew that unlike every one these experiences would only serve to aid him in the long run. Life was hard, he had found that out when he was 3 years old and an old man slapped an apple out of his hand only to step on it and spit on his face, he knew that he was hated, he knew that he was nothing but waste to the village but that had only served to fueled him.

He had matured harder, he had to if he wanted to survive he had to kill his childhood and grow up fast, that is why when he was five he had completely change who he was, the kid died on that day and naruto found himself looking at things differently, he saw how he was treated and knew that he was some one who was as vile as the trash they threw out. But he didn't break when that realization dawned on him; instead it made him stronger and a resolve grew within himself, a resolve to become strong, stronger than all of the ninja in this so peaceful village.

He would show them, they would all see what he was capable off and then they would all see that he was something more than trash, that he was some one that deserved a place in this world that he existed. This had been his resolve and the only thing that had kept him going for 7 years, but despite every thing he still had a problem.

"I can't do regular clones"

He had sought out the old man, because there was nothing else he could do, the academy had been no help at all and with no one to give him a hand he had to seek the only one who seem to be willing to aid him. The hokage for the most part simply nodded, he knew about the kid is chakra capacity and knew that for him making a regular clone would be an impossible task.

"I have read on the clone technique and I know there are other variations of the technique, so if I can't do the regular clones, perhaps I can do others"

The hokage smiled and nodded, he was quite impressed with the boy is performance in this, he had figured out what the problem was with no help at all and not only that he had also reached a solution to his problem.

"Why are you un-able to do a simple clone naruto?"

"I have little control over my chakra and to be quite honest I have too much of it, I have made several attempts at depleting my chakra reserves and have found it to be quite hard to run out of it"

"W-what?"

This came as a surprise to the old man, he didn't know that naruto was this smart or that he went so far as to do experiments to come up with a solution to his problem, taking the blond a bit more seriously the old man leaned forward onto his desk he took a close look at naruto. This kid was something else, he didn't want to be patronized nor did he want to waste his time answering silly question that is why he had divulged so much to him, to make him see that he was not just wasting the old man is time.

"I have massive amounts of chakra in my system, this is a blessing and a curse, I can't do simple techniques because of it; but I don't have access to more advance techniques because I am only an academy student"

"Perhaps you teachers"

"They will be of little help, I want you to help me or I will be stuck in the academy for the rest of my life"

The hokage closed his eyes and nodded, he had no choice, he knew that naruto was right; the kid had hit the nail in the head when he had told him about his situation, and if nothing was done to solve the problem then he would be stuck in the academy for another year.

"As you know my hands are tied, I can't give academy student access to advance techniques"

Naruto frowned and closed his eyes, he was hoping that the hokage would be able to bend a few rules but it seem that the old man was more of a stickler than he let on, despite that he knew that his plan had little chance of success, he wanted to get an advance clone technique while also getting the chance to graduate from the academy. Now that his plan didn't work he had to go with option and the old man wouldn't grant him access to a higher clone technique he had no choice but to go with plan B.

"Very well I request to be tested in another form"

"Naruto…"

He knew what the loop hole was, but how naruto knew of it was something he didn't want to dig to much into, the kid seem to know a lot more than he was letting on right now. Hell at 10 years old naruto shouldn't be having this kind of conversation, or know so damn much about ninja techniques and regulations.

"A battle proficiently exam, I will battle whom ever you chose, if I win I graduate if I lose then I get stuck on the academy for another year"

"Naruto you cant possibly…you know that"

"I know what will happen, I don't mind"

I order for him to have this chance he would have to best a chunnin, not an easy task, not for any aspiring academy student wanting to become genin, few students ever took this course of action and little ones excelled at the task. If he let this happened, then the council was going to see this as an opportunity to take a shoot at the kid, the perfect way to take him out, if naruto got hurt or killed then it could be written as nothing more than as simple accident.

"Please reconsider this, if you take this course of action"

"I am well aware of the risk; I know what can happen, just make it happened old man"

With that said he smirked and walked away from the office, but before he could step outside the office he felt the old man is hand on his shoulder.

"Naruto, this might be the hardest"

"Life is hard old man, this will just be another hard test life throws my way"

With that he pulled his shoulder away from the old man is firm grip and walked out the door leaving a very worried hokage behind, sarutobi took a deep breath and closed his eyes, there was no way that he could put this challenge off, if naruto was right then this was the only way that he could graduate and move on from the academy, despite every thing, despite having the odds staked against him the boy kept going, never giving up or taking a step back. Every day the old man saw how the villagers treated naruto and saw how that made the boy grow stronger, but his determination could also be a curse, it could keep get him into trouble.

This whole test was a perfect example of how wrong this could go for him, with every thing staked against him he had to take a more dangerous course to achieve his goal, he could get killed in this test and all to become a genin, to become a servant of the village that despised him.

"Good luck naruto"

Was all he could say.

Hours later the council was summoned, before them sarutobi explained what the situation was, one academy student named naruto uzumaki wanted the right to challenge a chunin for the right to become a genin, such law or loop hole in the rules had not been called upon since the village first formed yet now it seem that the demon boy was summoning this law. He wanted this opportunity to finally become a konoha ninja, for many this was an opportunity to finally take out the demon boy, for others this was an outrageous idea for the demon boy to become a ninja, it was madness, not only would he be trained by a jounin but he would also gain more power and the means to have his revenge upon them.

As expected the little uproar of the council made sarutobi frowned, the council was calling for an execution and others were plotting his death in the exam, all in all it was exactly what he had expected to happened, the only ones who didn't seem to be speak out were those whom knew the child is parents. The inuzuka and hyuuga were the only ones who were privy to the secret, but just like him there hands were tied, neither could speak about the boy is lineage, if they did then they could be exposing the child to far worse things than simple old angry council men.

"I forbid this, if the child is allowed access to ninja material he could become a danger to this village!"

Fugaku uchiha is voice was controlled but behind it there was a silent threat, one that the hokage knew would be carried out, the man was becoming more and more unstable and paranoid as time passed by, the decimation of the uchihas during the nine tails attack had left all uchihas with a sense of dread, for such a powerful clan to be decimated like was both shameful and embarrassing, specially since they were the once who held the contract with the very fox that turned against them.

"Afraid of a child fugaku?"

The head of the hyuuga smirked and glanced at his long time adversary, the decimation of the village had also hurt his clan, but unlike the uchihas they had managed to rebuilt and lost only some of the branch members, so while the uchihas were hurting they were thriving.

"Did you forget that half your clan was blinded by that beast?"

"By the nine tails yes, not by the demon within the child"

"This is getting us no were!"

The head of the Nara clan stood up and glared at the two bickering clan heads, he had been tired of the bickering or even about the silly notion that the child could become a ninja, shikamaru had told him about the boy and he was nothing more than a loser child who couldn't perform the simplest of ninja task.

"Agreed, the simple thing would be to let the child perform this test, it is highly unlikely that he will pass it"

Aburame shshio looked at them and frowned, this was beyond ridiculous how could they all get so riled up over a simple test, one that the boy couldn't possibly pass, and he was just an academy student, not a very good one at that. It was a ridiculous notion to believe that he could best a chunnin.

"So sure are you?"

The yamanaka clan head spoke and smirked, they were all underestimating the blond boy, and they were all forgetting that he had the nine tails sealed within him, who knows what the boy could do.

"Do you think he has access to the demon is chakra?"

The head of the akimichi clan looked worriedly at his friend who simply nodded, once more the rest of the council exploded in anger, sarutobi closed his eyes and frowned, such implications would only cause more trouble for naruto in the long run. If the boy managed to pass the test then it would mean that he some how had access to the demon is chakra, which would lead the clan heads to call for his death.

"Am I the only one seeing what we have here? If the boy can access the power of the demon then he could become one of our greatest ninja?"

The head of the inuzuka clan simply shakes her head and stands from her sit, she has had enough of this ridiculous discussion, there is only so much crap she can take in one day, her kid knows naruto and has hung out with him on occasion. he has not seen any indication of the demon or of any real talent in the boy, to worry about it would be ridiculous and if the kid could indeed summon the demon is chakra then they could have one hell of a weapon in there hands.

"Were are you going?"

Sarutobi looked at the woman with a frown, she however simply smirked and walked out of the council chambers, but before she left she turned towards the council and the hokage and smiled.

"I am done with this meeting, my vote is, let him have his test"

With that said, she vanished and the hokage turned towards the rest of the clan members, he smiled when he saw that both the akimichi and yamanaka head nodding in disapproval. Looking at the rest, he could see that the hyuuga nodded in approval, while the uchihas were rejecting it, the aburames simply nodded also in approval and finally the last of them shakes her head in the negative the Nara clan was against it too. He smirked when he rasied his hand and included his clan in the proceedings.

"The sarutobi clan votes in favor of the test, since we have tied the decision falls in the hands of the hokage, so the motions has passed"

They were gathered to witness a rarity or sorts, this little loophole had been exploited only a handful of time since the village is formation that it was a rarity for some one to call upon it, add that the fact that it was so obscure that no jounin knew about it and you know that if you did not witnessed this event you would be missing something extraordinary. So when the word spread around that an academy student wanted to challenge a chunin for the right to become a genin every one gathered, they all wanted to see who had the gall to make this challenge, when they arrived in the training field they were some what surprised and disappointed to see the blond demon brat standing in the middle of the field.

Naruto looked at all the attending and frowned, he didn't know that this little test was going to turn into something so out of hand, he knew some of the ones gathered and could see why they needed to be here, but the rest were not necessary, the instructors at the academy and a council member had a right to supervise this, but the rest? Looking at the form of the hokage approaching him he could see that the man was afraid for him, his eyes betrayed his demeanor and posture.

"You still want to go trough with this?"

Naruto nodded and cracked his knuckles, the hokage frowned at the overconfidence in the boy, and he was smiling as if waiting for this to get under way, as If his life was not in danger right now.

"You bet, only want to know why so many attending?"

"Did you think the council wasn't going to make a big deal out of this? If you fail they want you to be humiliated and broken"

Naruto is smile faded and crossed his arms, he nodded and glanced at all the attending and frowned, they wanted to see him fail they all were here to see his spectacular demised, they were going to be so disappointed.

"After this is over they will be the ones who are disappointed"

The hokage was taken back by the boy is words, yet he could see the determination, hell it was almost palpable. The look him had changed, he was no longer a child he was so much more, he was ready for this, but more than that the hokage knew that this naruto was not a kid, he was some one who had lived a hard life and one that had not been broken by that hard life, instead he had thrive upon this life, he had been challenged and he had risen up to it, meet it head on and it had made him stronger.

"For your sake I hope that you are right"

Naruto nodded and then some one appeared in the field before him, the hokage frowned and shakes his head, of course his old teammate was going to have a hand in this, facing a chunin would be hard for any one, but facing the gengutsu mistress would be near impossible to beat. Naruto on the other hand simply smiled and looked over at iruka and mizuki who had appeared along side the mysterious black haired woman.

"We are here to assess naruto is performance and this will be his opponent"

Mizuki pointed at the woman beside him and the woman frowned, she wasn't happy to be here, but an order was an order.

"I am yuhi kurenai"

"Naruto uzumaki"

Now that the introduction were over the hokage and the two chunin instructors left the small field and naruto smiled at the red eye woman, she seem to be bored already, if her eyes were any indication she was just like all the other haters that resided within the village, they all hated him because of it. Oh he was well aware of were his unlimited supply of chakra came from, he knew about the little demon on his belly.

"You sure you want to do this kid? Being a chunin is hard work"

"I am used to hard work"

The woman is eyes flashed red and then before naruto could see what had happened she had vanished, he was already trapped in a gengutsu, closing his eyes he took a deep breath and extended his chakra all around his body, if he disrupted the technique then he would negate the purpose of what he had planed. He didn't know who he was going to face, but he had come prepare for every thing, all of his arsenal would be laid out for whom ever came to face him.

The challenge was going to be hard he had no illusions that this would be an easy victory, but he also knew of what he was capable off and if any thing were to go wrong then he could always call upon the demon is power. Looking around he sent chakra to his eyes and found a shadow walking towards him, it would seem that the over confident one was the red eye woman.

For the most part yuhi kurenai was annoyed and angry at having to do this, she had done a good job of avoiding the little demon and keeping out of that mess all together but now she was pulled into this because of his weakness. The instructors at the academy all reported the same thing to the council members, he was weak against gengutsus, so they called the best there was in the field to take care of there little problem. She knew who the demon was and knew what the rules were, that is why she had kept her head low and avoided the kid, because if she ever had a chance she would murder him on sight.

The demon had devastated her life and ruined her, when the demon had attacked it had ruined all of her dreams and ambitions, it had basically crippled her, but she shouldn't complained she wasn't the only one affected by it there were other like her. You see when the demon had attacked it had done something to members of the uchiha clan, it had placed a cursed upon them, no one knew why but the demon had taken the uchiha clan is precious sharingan. Those who were present in the attack were immediately stripped of there sharingan, those who were born after were with out it, a genetic abnormality the doctors would say but the clan knew better.

They had defied the beast and in doing so they had cursed there clan, there eyes would not grow back, they would become common ninja and there clan would cease to exist. Of course, this would not be a sudden thing; despite there decrease in numbers uchihas were still being born with the sharingan, but as the years went by less and less kept appearing. So they were thrown out, exiled from the clan and no longer uchihas, she was a second generation out cast,

Born in a second-class clan; know as branch members, if the hyuugas had a branch family why shouldn't they? After all what was better than to have lap dogs at your disposal. Fury burned in her veins, this boy he was the one responsible for every thing' he needed to die!

"Die"

A tree sprout from the ground and wrapping naruto is body with its vines, leaving him completely immobilized. The blond looked up at foliage on top of the three and smiled, she was merging out from the three with a kunai in hand, her hand descended upon him and when it connected his chakra electrocuted her. Kurenai screamed in pain and dropped to the ground, naruto made a move and rushed towards the fallen chunin and threw a punch to her face, but the woman jumped away and flipped out of harm is way.

The audience looked on surprised and shock at what had just happened, kurenai had concealed herself in a gengutsu and attacked all at the same time, but when her attack had connected it had hit some kind of energy. Not only that the boy was also detecting her while she was concealed in an illusion.

"Most interesting"

Hyuga hiasi looked on with a small smirk on his face, being a hyuuga had its advantages; his eyes had seen what the little blond had done and it was quite impressive to say the least, the boy had surrounded his whole body with chakra and simply waited to the attack to come knowing that his chakra would repel any kind of attack. The hokage who sat beside him hear the small whisper and turned to the clan head with a raised eye brow.

"What did you see?"

"He covered his body with chakra charging it, so when the kunai was used it repelled the attack, by the looks of it, it also shocked the chunin"

"Shouldn't that have drained him of chakra?"

A silver hair jounin appeared beside them and despite talking to them his gaze was fixed on the battle in the field, hiasi smirked and looked at the hokage with a knowing gaze, despite the silver hair jounin unnecessary question every thing seem to be going all right. Well as all right as they could be with all the clan members witnessing the boy is potential, all around sarutobi could see the look of surprised and anger on many of the present.

"The boy is more than capable of replenishing his chakra reserves if needed"

Hiasi smiled and the jounin nodded, beside them the elite looked on in surprised, a man in green spandex was screaming about such a powerful display of youth, while a woman with a long trench coat simply glared at the blond, her friend was the best and yet here she was getting here ass handed to her by a kid.

"What is she doing?"

She exclaimed in anger and the man beside her smiled, the interrogator expert just shakes his head and looks on at the scene with amazement.

"That kid is stronger than he looks"

"Oh?"

A cigarette smoking man looked at the man with a surprised look, but the man wearing a long black trench coat smirked.

"I have seen the boy live, I know what he has been trough and I know that it has only made him stronger"

The silver hair man turned towards ibiki morino and raised his visible eye brow in a questioning matter.

"How strong?"

"That boy there, he will never be broken, will never give up and will face any challenge head on, kurenai has just been given the hardest fight of her life and she doesn't even know it"

The jounin elite turned towards the field and saw the blond boy dodging and blocking invisible attacks that seem to come out of thin air, and then he kicked and punched at an invisible opponent. The silver hair jounin uncovered his eye and saw that kurenai was battling with every thing she had and was still being matched by the blond boy. Then her hand did a series of hand sings before she vanished and was replaced by a clone, the clone continued to battle the blond all the while the real kurenai came from behind him.

Naruto felt a spike in chakra from behind him and frowned, there were two opponents now, the one he was facing in the front and the one who was coming up behind him, he needed to put some distance between himself and them or there combined attack would place him on the defensive. Thinking quickly he put chakra in the soles of his feet and pushed upwards, the two kurenais stopped there attack and looked upwards, but the blond vanished and appeared beside them, his hand quickly connected with the clone kurenai puffing it out of existence.

"Impressive, he surrounded his body with chakra and condenses it to make it heavier than air, which is why he fell so quickly to the ground"

Kakashi is eyes squinted and saw that trough out this whole mess the boy is body continued to be covered in chakra not once had it wavered or faded, it was a constant flow and he could manipulated it as he saw fit, make his body denser or lightens, it also made his body a lot lither than he normally was, how much of it he didn't know.

"Kurenai could lose?"

Anko asked and kakashi nodded, the kind of chakra control the boy had was astounding to say the least, he was able to do thing with it things that shouldn't be possible, not to mention the fact that he was not losing any chakra, anko frowned and clenched her fist tighter, this couldn't be happening.

Kurenai glared at the demon that sent a punch her way, she managed to dodge it but when she dodged his punch her face connected with one of his knees making her stagger backwards, her cover illusion vanished and she re-appeared on the field.

"H-how did you…?"

Looking at the boy she could see the small smile on his face and frowned, something was messing up her chakra network, but that was not possible, only the hyuugas were capable of messing with a ninja is chakra network and yet.

"I sent a slight chakra impulse trough your system; it canceled out your own chakra, so your illusion technique was disabled"

In truth his technique did more, not only did it disrupt what ever illusionary techniques the user had done but it also messed up there chakra network, that way no matter how hard they tried they would be unable to do any kind of jutsus until the charged left there system and returned to normal.

In the audience the rage was mounting, the demon was showing more skill than they had first believed him to have, for some there chances of killing him in this test had already gone up in smoke but for other they were beginning to realize that they might have a problem with the boy. Sarutobi could read all of them and knew that some one was about to make a move towards the boy, when an uchiha jumped trough the crowd and headed straight for naruto he was about to act but saw that the blond was already looking at his un expected attacker.

Kurenai looked in surprised as one of the members of the uchiha clan jumped from the stands and headed straight for them, but what surprised her even more was the fact that he was heading towards her, his red eyes stared at her and she saw her death behind them. Of course he would be angry for nothing finishing the mission; he was doing this out of retribution, because she couldn't kill the demon, she knew that she would be first and then the blond.

"You fool; it was such a simple task!"

The man pulled a kunai, kurenai was about to move but found herself unable to do so, she was going to die, but before the kunai connected with her face a hand appeared in front of it, the kunai pierced the hand and blood splattered over her face. Following the hand she saw that it was connected to the blond she had just been fighting, the uchiha looked surprised and then before he could do or say any thing he on the ground with a kunai to his neck.

"Should I kill you now or let the hokage handle you?"

"You are going to die demon!"

The blade pressed harder on the man is throat, before it could cut deeper the hokage is hand was placed on naruto is shoulder, turning towards the old man he smiled and pulled away from the man, as two anbu appeared to pick up the uchiha.

"So do I pass or what?"

Kurenai looked on as the little blond boy smiled fondly at the old man, it was as if the incident hadn't even happened, but what surprised her the most was the fact that the hokage seem to return the smiled with a proud and warmth tone to it. Who ever this kid was he had the hokage is approval; there was no doubt about that.

"You…save me?"

Both turned to look at a startled kurenai looking at the blond is hand, naruto looked at his hand and began to wrapped a small cloth over it, he didn't want any more enemies just because he had the healing powers of the demon. The woman how ever looked at the boy and frowned, why would he save her? Every thing she had heard made him out to be some kind of demon in disguised.

"You're a konoha ninja"

The hokage smiled and patted the boy on the shoulder, there was no other motive or reason for the boy to save kurenai, he didn't know her, so why save her? The answer was quite simple, he saved her because she was an allied ninja and that was all that was needed, those words in themselves spoke volumes of what kind of ninja naruto could become.

"Now that this test is over, naruto uzumaki you are a ninja also"

The blond smiled up at the old man who handed him a head band right there on the spot, the people in the crowd or more precisely the council members were about to shout in anger when a single look from the hokage made them settle back down. Naruto for the most part simply looked at the headband and smirked, he was getting closer to achieving his goal, all he needed now was to get stronger, stronger than any other being in existence and then he would be able to fulfill his dream.

"No genin team?"

"No, you far exceed the rank of genin my boy you, you will be a special case"

The hokage smirked and vanished dragging naruto along; leaving behind the stunned audience behind.

2 YEARS LATER

Genin Naruto uzumaki looked at the man before him and smiled, this would be his second team he did a rotation with, but this one was different than the other, this time joining the team would allowed him to take the up coming chunnin exam. After a year in probationary duties that included joint mission with other genin and lone mission within the village he was finally given a unit to work with.

"You understand the mission?"

"Keep an eye out for Fugaku uchiha is son, sasuke and the Haruno heir"

The uchihas had expressed quite the concern over the fact that there son was being targeted by an S-class missing nin, according to Jiraya the frog hermit the snake sannin Orochimaru was after the sharingan eyes, his target the son of the leader of the uchiha clan. According to the Intel, the mad man believed that the strongest sharingan eyes belonged to the son of the leader, Sasuke, this reasoning came after being defeated by none other than itachi uchiha.

"Tell me old man, why didn't itachi finish off the snake?"

"He was not alone; he was paired up with another S-class missing Nin"

Sarutobi hated to be so bland about the organization that orochimaru belonged too, but he had no other choice, the boy didn't need to know that the organization was targeting him and that is why itachi had faced off against the snake to begin with. The demon within naruto carried a huge burden, one that the boy was not ready to be deal with hence why he was being so aloft about the subject.

"Which is part of an organization right?"

"Jiraya will handle that organization, you need to focus"

Naruto frowned; his attempts at pulling more Intel on the snake is organization from both Jiraya and The hokage had resulted in nothing but failures. both of them were tight lipped about the whole thing, and from what he had been able to find out they had given strict orders to whom ever was involved in the itachi, orochimaru fight to keep there mouths shut. Despite months of looking for any thing he had come up empty handed, no one talked and no records were kept.

"Fine so according to the info, orochimaru wants sasuke is eyes, because he is the second son of the clan leader and has the strongest uchiha blood on him right?"

"Yes, he believes that since sasuke is brother is itachi, the boy will posses some of his brother is qualities"

Naruto nodded, that made sense, in a twisted kind of way, sure he knew that the two uchihas were related but just because they were related didn't mean that they were going to be equally talented. There skills were as different as water and oil.

"The girl is the problem here"

"Really?"

The hokage nodded and threw a letter to naruto, opening it he frowned, another letter from the harunos, looking at the hokage from the letter he rolled his eyes and crumpled the thing up then threw it away.

"I know is ridiculous naruto, but you must remember that they are quite the influential family in the village"

"Hiratake Haruno & Izami Haruno, wealthy bastards that treat there daughter like a spoiled little princes, yeah I know them old man, question is why do I have to put up with them?"

"They are a strong source of income for the village, and just because there daughter joined the academy to be close to her crush does not mean…"

He couldn't go on, the girl was a ridiculous thing of a ninja, only entering the program to be next to a boy was a horrible way to start a ninja career, but then again she was no worse off than the daughter of he Yamanaka clan, she was as spoiled as the pink hair girl, the only difference was that one came from a respectable ninja clan and had the possibility to exceed in her training, the other did not.

"I'll watch over her old man, just don't expect me to cuddle her"

"Just keep her alive all right"

"Gotcha"

With that the boy flashed out of the room and the hokage smiled, naruto was just like his father, so much so that he had even created a similar technique that resembled the thunder flying god technique his father was famous for.

"If you could only see him now"

The old man smiled at an old picture of the forth.

Outside of the building a silver hair man looked at the blond boy and frowned, he remembered watching him a couple of years back participating in a once in a life time battle proficiently exam, an exam in which he had excelled and showed that he was no ordinary ninja. He was a ninja whom is skills had only improved as time went by, one whose is skills were unmatched by any ninja currently residing within the village. He had seen a sparring match between the blond genin and the pride of the uchiha clan, itachi, the battle was one of the best fights he had seen and what was more surprising was that the blond had fought the uchiha prodigy to a stand still.

Itachi had ran out of chakra before he could finish off the boy, as for naruto he had used a fighting technique that had the uchiha guessing every move, there was no way to counter or copy naruto is techniques, the blond didn't follow normal rules of fighting he was just threw punches, kick and techniques out of no were, hell the blond had not done one hand sign trough out the fight, but he had been casting Justsus trough the battle when asked how he had done it he had simply smiled and told them it was an uzumaki secret.

"You want to say something to me?"

Kakashi smirked under his mask, of course he knew the blond had detected his presence, no matter what they did he always seem to sense whom was near him, a skill that naruto had acquired out of necessity, after all if he hadn't acquired this skill the boy would be long dead by now.

"We have a team meeting tomorrow"

"You want me to come? I am not a part of your team kakashi, I'm on assignment remember"

"Maybe so but you still have to attend"

"Is that an order?"

Kakashi jumped beside the blond from his spot on the roof and naruto turned to face him, ever since he had passed the proficiency exam there had been some slight friction between him and the other jounin, from those who didn't like him at all and opposed his promotion, to those who simply didn't think he should be a genin at all. Kakashi was still a mystery to him, he didn't fit any of those categories and that bothered him, what ever the problem or uneasiness he felt when ever kakashi was around he couldn't determined were it came from. Kakashi distrusted him and was weary of him, the copy cat always hid something, and that was enough to keep naruto on his guard.

"A suggestion, you should know them before the exam"

"I'll be there…but tell me why the haruno girl is such a failure?"

"Ummmhhh…she dwells more on the uchiha clan than on her training"

"Have you done nothing to change her views?"

"She will not change"

Naruto smirked, so it came from both teacher and student, if the teacher was reluctant to teach and the student was reluctant to learn then there would be no progress made, it seem that the fault lied with the teacher as much as it did with the student.

"I see, ok then ill see you tomorrow bright and early"

"On training grounds 7"

Naruto smiled and vanished, kakashi is expression immediately changed when he saw naruto is technique, the boy with out knowing it had created a technique that resembled his father is own, it was not as great as his fathers technique but it was a close second to it, the advantage it had over the old one was the fact that he didn't need a point of origin. Naruto could teleport any were within his range as long as he thought of the place, he didn't need specially marked kunai, he just flashed to were ever he wanted to go.

Bright and early, yeah that was kakashi all right, he had arrived at the designated training grounds and had found kakashi is students standing there waiting for there sensei to get there. Poor bastard would be waiting for a while, fortunately he had other plans, he wanted to get to know them better and this was the perfect chance to do just that. Flashing before them he smiled when the pink hair girls jumped behind the uchiha and the uchiha stand defensively in front of the pink haired girl.

"Greetings young genin, I am naruto uzumaki and I am here to test your skills!"

Sasuke was about to ask him what he was getting at when suddenly another naruto popped out of thin air, sakura eeps from behind him and he frowned, this was going to difficult, he couldn't go up against two opponents and also defend sakura, naruto lifted an eye brow and frowned, was this all the girl did? Hide behind others?

"Whoa whoa, hold up a sec, your thinking of taking both of us on?'

"Yeah, I don't need any help!"

"Wait, what is she going to do?"

Naruto pointed at the pink hair girl and sasuke frowned, what was she going to do indeed, she was going to do nothing, she never did.

"She is…back up"

Naruto groaned and shock his head, this was kakashi is team? They were pitiful, there was no way that they were this ill prepared, sasuke couldn't take on two opponents all the while protecting sakura, taking a deep breath the dispelled his clone and sat in front of them, there was no way they were this ill prepared.

"Who the hell are you!?"

Sakura screamed at him and naruto frowned, so big mouth and little to no skill, looking at sasuke he could see that he was used to her, but still was annoyed by her, mighty decent of him to not point out how annoying she was.

"I am Naruto Uzumaki and I wanted to see how well kakashi had trained you"

"We didn't fight"

Sasuke was confused, this guy was all over the place, first he appeared to be attacking them then he seem confused and now he was disappointed, disappointed in them no less, frowning the uchiha stepped forward glared at the teen, how dare he be disappointed in him with out him being tested fairly, naruto could see that the kid was beginning to get angry, he had a reason to be, he was being judged and the outcome was not to flattering.

"You didn't need too, you are a team and as such I wanted to test you like one, but while you might be prepare to fight, she is not"

Sasuke frowned and closed his mouth, he couldn't argue with the blond teen, how could he when he knew that he was right.

"Hey I am a haruno pal so"

"So what? He is an uchiha and he knows that being a ninja is serious business, what if I was a foreign ninja and wanted the pride of killing an uchiha, what if I had attack him what would you have done? Call for kakashi?"

"Sakura is well verse in…"

Naruto frowned at sasuke; it was good that he was standing up for his friend and team mate, not so good when you didn't have the means to defend them with.

"What has kakashi thought you since he got you?"

"To climb trees"

Lazy bastard, he had taught them nothing, climbing trees was a good skill but were was the ninjutsu training, the genjustu training and every other things a ninja needed to learn. This was unbelievable, how could he be a jounin instructor and not teaches anything to them? Taking a deep breath he stood up and smiled at them.

"All right you lot, first things first I am naruto uzumaki, jounin level ninja and since I am this young and a jounin you know that I am good"

"Yeah right!"

"Sakura please!"

Sasuke was interested, he knew that what the blond teen was saying was the truth, itachi was young and was an anbu, if this teen was a jounin then he was indeed strong. Sakura frowned when sasuke quiet her down, but was really surprised her was the attention sasuke was placing on this blond jerk, from the near by threes kakashi smiled and looked on at his student, it seem that naruto was not interested in taking the role of a student, the blond had settle into a nice role as a second instructor to the team, which was fine by him since this would give him a lot more time to spend reading his icha, icha paradise collections. He was about to relax and leave the three people in the field to get acquainted when he felt something land behind him, he smiled when he recognized the chakra signature, it was one he had not felt in a long time.

"You mission finally over?"

"Yes, I came as soon as I could…I-is that him"

Kakashi nodded to the red headed woman, he could see the small smile on her lips.

"You should be proud of him, a jounin at his age, in a time of peace he is quite the ninja"

"So I heard"

Kushina uzumaki looked on at her son and wondered how he would react to her sudden re-appearance.

Continued…..

I got an idea and I couldn't get it out of my head, so I had to put it down before it went away, here is what came out of it.


	2. Chapter 2

GIFTED

Ch2

"MOTHER"

"His clan legacy lives on... in him more so than in myself"

Uzumaki, the name had been cursed and despised trough out the world, once they were powerful and nothing stood in there way and then the hidden villages began to form and the world changed. The unification of clans to one single side made them weak but even when they were few they were still feared, it took the might of all the known clans to eradicate them and even then some had managed to escape; sadly the were hunted down and one by one they fell until there was only her.

"History might have buried the truth but you son is a reminder of how powerful the uzumakis were"

"And just like his father he is rising from nothingness to greatness…"

Kakashi looked at the woman and frown when he saw the tears falling down her face; he couldn't even begin to imagine what she was going trough. Right before her eyes stood a proud young man, who is life had been a hard one and yet he had thrived upon that harshness and had become one of the strongest ninjas in the history of the village.

"What will you do now?"

She shakes her head, what could she do, Go to him and tell him she was sorry, that she had a good reason for leaving him?

"I don't know…"

"You don't know?"

Kushina looked at the copy nin with a small glare, that question was un-called for. he knew better than any one else on the village what it meant to put every thing aside in order to fulfill a mission, he had no right to judge her. However, looking closely at Kakashi she could see that he was not happy with her response and if he had reacted so badly to her response imagine what Naruto would be like. That boy, her son…he had suffered and she was un able to do any thing but watch. She had enemies her husband had enemies both within and outside of konoha, it was easier this way, that is what they had said and she had believed it, she had to believe it because if she didn't…there would be no excuse for what she had put her son through.

"What do I tell him?"

"You're asking me? The hell should I know!"

"Tell what who?"

Both Kakashi and Kushina froze at the sound of naruto is voice, it was not coming from the field, looking over towards the training field all they saw was Sasuke and Sakura walking away from it, it seem that while they were in there little chat Naruto had dismissed the meeting with his new team. Kakashi managed to compose himself sooner than she had; the man simply gave the blond boy one of his classic grinds and opened his perverted book.

"Not polite to spy on others Naruto"

"Same applies to you Kakashi and to your friend"

Kakashi looked at kushina and saw her frozen, this was going to be harder than he thought, and if the woman didn't snap out of her stupor soon he was going to have to drag her away from Naruto.

"My team Naruto, I wanted to see how they react towards you"

"Right. But speaking of said team, what is the matter with you? Tree walking?"

Naruto looked from the red haired woman towards kakashi and gave him a small glare.

Kakashi chuckled and scratched the back of his head, he knew that he wasn't training his team as he should but what could he teach them? Sasuke was from an elite clan and the Haruno girl had no intention of training, hell every time he tried to teach her something she simply rolled her eyes and walked away. Naruto frowned when he saw how lightly Kakashi was taking the situation with his student; this was a serious matter. Looking from the silver hair man to the red headed woman, he could see that something was very wrong, she had not move or said any thing from her spot, glancing back at Kakashi he raised an eyebrow and nodded towards the woman.

"She ok?"

Kakashi looked at Kushina and frowned, she was taking deep steadying breaths, she was trying to compose herself and say or do something but she was in to much of a shock to do any thing, frowning slightly he turned towards Naruto and shock his head.

"No, I think I'll take her home"

"I-I'm fine…I was just startled"

"Startled?"

Kakashi blurted out and Kushina flinched, Naruto shock his head, of course, she was startled, he had just appeared behind them and he was the demon fox. Even now after every thing he had accomplished as a ninja he was still reminded that no matter what he did, no matter how much he accomplished he would always be the demon to others, ninjas and civilians alike, there was just not changing how some people viewed him. Taking a deep breath, he nodded towards Kakashi and took a deep breath.

"Naruto…it's not that"

Kakashi saw the change in the blond is face and immediately recognized the sings of realization; he knew what the blond thought when she had said she had been startled. He wanted to control the situation but it was too late, Naruto had been already turning around getting ready to leave.

"Its not you!"

Naruto stopped and turned towards the red haired woman and eyebrow raised in wonder, she had sounded desperate, and now that she had turned around to face him he could see her pleading gaze locked on him, something was very wrong with this picture, she was either really polite or she was one of those eccentric Jounin, like Gai.

"Oh?"

"I…it's just…"

"She just got back from a mission, a long mission"

Naruto looked at kakashi and saw the seriousness in him, there was no way he was lying. He had placed his book back on his vest pocket, while his demeanor had done a complete reversal, instead of being laid back and carefree like he usually was, he was tense and serious, what ever this woman had done or whatever mission she had come back must have been one hell of an assignment. turning towards the woman he could see something in her, she had a pained expression on her face all right, but what surprised him the most was the way she kept looking at him, it was a sight filled with sadness and pain. The woman pried her eyes away from him and took a deep breath. He was just like his father, every single cell in her body was telling her to just rush over towards him and give him a hug, to tell him how sorry she was and that she was his mother, she wanted to plead for his forgiveness, but she couldn't.

Her mission might have ended but she still didn't know how to tell him, how to approach him, hell, she didn't even know were to begin, what could she say to make him understand. after all she was the one who had had left him behind and despite having so many reasons for doing what she did she knew he would never understand her, none of those reasons would matter to him, because the bottom line was that she had abandoned him. She had left him behind.

"I see…"

He looked at the woman and smiled slightly, he knew how difficult missions could be and that some times the ninjas assigned to long term missions were affected mentally but seeing it right before his eyes he was beginning to realize that as he grew older and missions got harder he could end up just like this woman. The woman nodded at his words and continues to advert her gaze, she couldn't allow herself to look at him again, and if she did, there was no telling what she would do or say.

"I meant no disrespect…I was just startled…"

"Damn, that must have been one hell of a mission"

"It was the hardest….thing I had to do…."

"Oh?"

The blond smiled and raised and eye brown willing to listen to her story but she couldn't reveal to him the truth, kakashi nodded towards her as if signaling her to continue, telling her silently that this was as good a chance as any for her to reveal who she was. Kushina closer her eyes and shock her head, she couldn't do this not right now. She was prepared she believed that she was but seeing him right in front of her, she couldn't tell him any thing, she had to get away, making a few hand signs she vanished before there eyes and Kakashi frowned, she still had a long ways to go. Turning towards Naruto he just shrugged and took a deep breath shacking his head, Naruto smirked and took a deep breath, it seem that the woman was not completely there any more, that mission had done something to her.

"You should get her some help Kakashi"

"Yeah I should"

Naruto waved and left the clearing.

Kushina rushed away from the forest clearing and away from the training grounds, she continue to mentally curse herself, she had the perfect chance, would he care about what she had to say? Would he be willing to listen to her story? Taking a deep breath she stopped half way trough and turned back towards the spot were naruto is chakra signature was fading away.

"…..Naruto…."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Uchiha Clan Compound~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sasuke Uchiha entered his home and frowned when his mother rushed towards him, he had been home later than usual so she had a right to be concern, more so when she saw the state her son was in, he was covered in bruises from head to toes. Itachi appeared moment's later trough the same door sasuke had come trough and stopped when he saw the scene before him, there was his mother hugging and crying a very worried sasuke. Looking at his little bother he could see why his mother was acting the way she was. Clothes torn, scrapes all over his body, it appeared that sasuke had been trough a hard fight. Sasuke looked at his brother and pleaded with him silently; the elder uchiha smiled and pried away his mother from his younger brother.

"He is fine mother"

The woman turned from her youngest son to her oldest and frowned, pushing sasuke towards her brother she began to point at all of sasuke is injuries while itachi raised an eye brow in surprised, this was the first time he had seen his little brother so beaten up.

"Itachi! I am glad your home, look what happened to your little brother! Oh, who could have done this?! Was it the hyuuga!?"

Itachi frowned and send his mother away to get the family is healer, turning his gaze back at sasuke he gave him a small smirk and sasuke frowned.

"Got beaten didn't you"

"Shut up! The guy was way weird! Stupid blond!"

"Blond?"

"Yeah as in yellow hair! Duh brother!"

Itachi chuckle and smiled, it was weird, in all his life Sasuke had never seen his brother smile like that, besides that his brother never smiled, but then it dawned on him why he was smiling.

"You know him!!"

"I know him all right, you are lucky to have him on your squad"

"Why?"

"He is the only one in the village who can stand up to me in a fight"

Sasuke froze, Itachi was the best in all the village second only to the hokage and still the blond he had meet earlier was a match for him!?

"Don't be ridiculous itachi you are the strongest in the village!"

Itachi is smile vanished and turned towards his father, both of them shared a look that made sasuke tremble in fear; both of them were glaring at one another with such hate and resentment, almost as if they were bitter enemies. Fugaku looked at his eldest son and sent chakra to his eyes; he needed to remind his son just who was the one In charge of the clan. Itachi frowned and unveiled his own sharingan sasuke could see that itachi only obeyed his father because he was the clan head, and because as much as itachi wanted to unleash all of his hate towards the man he couldn't, he was still his father. Sasuke looked at the stern gaze on his father is face and wondered what was so bad about itachi admitting that there was some one out there as strong as he, wasn't it good for the village to have powerful ninja?

"I am not, Uzumaki will surpass my skills, it will only be a matter of time"

"Do not speak of that filth within these walls! Do you hear me!"

Itachi smirked and looked defiantly at his father.

"Very well father, I shall take my leave"

"Were are you going big brother?"

Sasuke looked at itachi while fugaku simply glared at his eldest son, he knew were he was going.

"I am going to meet with a friend of mine"

"With that little whore no doubt"

Itachi saw red and just as he was about to attack his old man a blur appeared in front of him and touched his right shoulder as soon as that happened itachi was gone. Sasuke frowned and turned towards his father, but when he saw his stern face, he knew that he was not going to get any answers from him. His father despised him because he was so different from itachi. While itachi was the strong and smart, he was a mere uchiha.

"Shouldn't you be training?"

"Y-yes…f-father"

Outside the house itachi pushed the figure away from him and the figure smirked, it was times like this that he liked being Itachi is friend, there was always certain benefits to it, like saving his butt from getting in trouble with his dad whom also was the uchiha clan leader. Looking at his best friend he could see the glare sent his way, it seem that itachi was finally fed up with his father and the way he was ruling the clan. As next in line for the position of leader of the clan, Itachi always stood up to his father in matters that would affect the clan as a whole. However, the elder always found a way to over rule itachi is decision and suggestions; claiming that itachi is lack of inexperience might lead the clan down a path to self-destruction.

"Obito"

"If you are going to challenge the old man you should do it formally"

"Why don't you?"

"I am not his son, you however are"

The one eye man looked as itachi is mood change, despite being one of the strongest ninjas in the village and the next in line to lead the uchiha clan he was one depressed young man. Itachi frowned at the one eyes man and took a deep breath, he was right, the only one who had the right to challenge fugaku for the position of clan leader was the first born son, him.

"It is easier to say than do…you know what is happening"

"Civil War looms over us, I know but I also know that you father is being manipulated just as the council is"

"We should talk in private then"

"Meet me at the forest of death in an hour itachi, maybe we can work something out"

"Perhaps"

Obito the one eye fool who is sacrificed had made him the scorn of all the uchiha clan, the man had willing given his sharingan eye to Kakashi in order to save there teammate's life. Looking at his fading form he closed his eyes and wondered what his options were, he couldn't stop the up coming civil war that his father was planning and the council was going to reach a decision on what to do, one that he would not like one bit. Closing his eyes he remembered what another one eye man had told him, about the power he would require to prevent it all, a power so great that even the great demon fox bowed down too, the magenkyo sharingan and all he had to do was kill his best friend.

The forest of death, in an hour the sun would have set and he would have the perfect opportunity to acquire his power and stop this disaster from happening, but could he do it? Could he kill his best friend just so he could save the village and his clan? A small sacrifice for the greater good, the decision was clear.

"I am sorry Kurenai…I wont be able to meet you tonight"

Obito rushed away from the uchiha compound and smiled, things were working out well, he managed to get itachi to his side and with any luck, he might just avoid an all around tragedy, if itachi became the uchiha clan head he could stop all of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~W/NARUTO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nighttime had come and with it, naruto is favorite time, there was just something about the night sky and the way the village fell into darkness, most villagers had gone home already and those who were out were usually the kind of crowd that didn't mind who he was. It was the only time he felt normal; or at least had some sense of normalcy. Walking towards his favorite ramen place, he smiled when the old man had a bowl of ramen waiting for him.

"Hey naruto how was your day?"

"Hey old man, no big, same old same old"

"Good to hear, but that isn't for you"

"What?!"

The old man pulled the bowl of ramen and slides it over towards the same red haired woman whom kakashi had been with; he smiled at her and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Sorry about that, but me and ramen"

"He is an addict, just like minato used to be"

Naruto raised an eye brow, and the old man continued to chuckle with out even noticing the surprised on the red haired woman is face, quickly the old man handed naruto his own bowl of ramen, the woman just stared at him and at how fast he was inhaling the food.

"Surprised? You should have seen my face when he did that the first time"

Kushina looked at the old man and smiled; she nodded and turned towards naruto.

"You were right he is quite addicted to it, just like minato…"

Naruto stopped slurping his meal and turned towards them, that was twice now he had been compared to this Minato guy.

"Who is Minato?"

"I now you didn't like school naruto but even you should know the forth is name"

Kushina frowned at the old man, she knew that he couldn't possibly know what he was doing to her but still it was hard to process all of this.

"You knew the forth?"

The incredulous look naruto gave the old man made the woman smile; he had so many mannerisms that reminded her of Minato. she chuckled at the way the old man is outrage exploded onto the blond who was equally outrage at the fact that the old man had kept the fact that he knew the forth from him, as the discussion with him and the old man escalated she couldn't help but let out a soft chuckled. The two arguing men turned towards her with frown on there faces, the old man is frown how ever quickly changed into a huge grin and pointed at her.

"She was his wife!"

"WHAT?!"

Naruto looked at the woman who suddenly froze at the accusing finger and at the incredulous look the blond was giving her; naruto chuckled and shock his head.

"Yeah right"

Her eye twitched and she frowned, it seems that minato is habit of annoying her was passed down to the blond.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well if you were the forth is wife shouldn't you be like super famous or something?"

"I was on a mission, highly classified so I had to remain incognito!"

"Oh right, sorry about that…so ah you feeling better?"

She smiled and nodded, there was no need to bring up her little incident, it was better to dismiss it and forget about it all together. Naruto smiled in understanding and continue to eat his ramen in peace, much to the surprised of the old man, but then again this was naruto, the boy had read the woman is expression when they had talked about the forth and had figured out that it was an uncomfortable matter for her to discuss so he simply dropped it. Over the years, the old man had seen how much naruto had grown and had matured and despite being proud that he was like this he couldn't help but feel sorry for him, the kid had lost his childhood way too soon.

"So naruto heard you got paired up with a genin team is that right?"

Naruto nodded at the old man, it seem that the rumor was spreading faster than he had first believe to spread, it was not a demotion by any means but there was always those who would seek this chance to ridicule him and mock him.

"Heard about that did ya?"

"You know how people and ninja are naruto"

"Yeah well I did, I can't always be a genin now can I?"

"Huh?"

"I just got assigned to them because I need to pass a chunnin exam to become a chunnin and since you need 3 man teams to participate I got stuck with a two man team, that way we are not left out"

"Oh, here I thought they were finally giving you some time off"

Naruto smirked and shock his head, there was no way that this was easy, the assignment he had been given was of the out most importance, protect two spoiled little kids and maybe die in the process, yeah time off all right.

"You are not a Chunnin?"

The two males turned towards the woman who just sat in confusion staring at the blond, naruto shock his head in the negative.

"My skills are beyond that of a chunnin but I am still ranked as Genin"

Kushina could see the frown and hear the bitterness in his voice, looking at the old man she cold see the same exact frown was placed on his face.

"Fools don't know what they are missing; this here boy is one of the best ninjas the village has seen in a long time"

She raised an eyebrow at that and naruto simply chuckled at the old man is words; she knew that she was missing something but she couldn't quite place her finger on it, there was something to there words and expression, a hidden meaning that only the two of them knew.

"Shouldn't you have been tested by the hokage or elders? If your skills are"

"That is what I been telling him!"

Naruto looked at the woman and smiled, at first glance he had believe her to be another one of those ignorant villagers, but now that he took a closer look and saw the confusion on her face he saw that she was nothing like them. She was genuinely confused about his ninja status and if he could take a wild guess, she was also concerned.

"Not in my case, I am a nobody"

Her eyes widen and then she nearly jumped out of her seat when the old man slammed his hand on the counter's top, his eyes were glaring at the blond boy and naruto was smiling nervously at him.

"What did I tell you about that brat?"

"Sorry old man…I…."

"N-nobody?"

Teuchi closed his eyes, crossed his arms in front of him, and grunted in annoyance.

"Stupid boy can't get it in his head that despite not having any one out there for him he is somebody, it don't matter if you have a clan, a father or mother, all that matters is that you know who you are and that you can prove them wrong by doing things they thought you couldn't do"

She clenched her first and closed her eyes, a nobody, some one with out a clan, some one who had no family; he had no one that is why they never took noticed of him and why he was still a gennin. Despite that Sarutobi should have done something, the man should not have just sat idly by and watched as naruto was being ignored.

"Besides that you damn brat what are we? Huh?!"

This time naruto showed some sings of embarrassment.

"Sorry old man…I know I have you and ayame but…"

"No buts brat we might be civilians but we are still with you 100% ya heard!"

"Yes sir!"

Naruto smiled and gave him a sloppy salute, the man behind the counter smiled and nodded; it seems that this was not the first time something like this had happened. Excusing herself, she got out of the small shop and immediately teleported herself over to the hokage is tower, she had been given nothing but half-truths. if naruto was so well off then why did he look so bitter and frustrated, why did that old man cared so much about him and why did naruto relied so much on that old man to keep himself from thinking such dark thoughts. There was something very wrong with her son and the old man was hiding something from her.

The hokage looked up from his paper work and saw her standing before him, something was clearly bothering her and he knew that his little story had ran its course. He had tried to ease her worry for her son by telling her all the positive things he could about naruto and his ninja career, what he neglected to mention was how the villagers and every single member of the villager saw him as nothing more than a wolf in sheep is clothing.

"You neglected to tell me something didn't you old man"

Letting out a small breath he didn't even know was holding he simply nodded at her, this could have gone worse, a lot worse, he had seen this confrontation in his mind a 100 times since she returned and not one of them showed her like this, calm cooled down and composed. Oh no all of the time he had imagined her had been with her holding a Kunai and demanding things from him, that or she killing every single one of them for the things they had done to her son, he had lucked out. What ever she knew it was bad but not bad enough to turn her into a ball of rage and anger, so he still had a shoot at this.

"What do you know?"

Her eyes harden and the room dropped a few degrees in temperature.

"Why does naruto think he is a nobody?"

"He is an orphan"

"My husband is last wish was for him to be seen as a hero not as another orphan of war! Or have you forgotten what he carries within him!? What we had to sacrifice in order to save this village!"

The hokage closed his eyes and took a deep breath, he had not forgotten, he remembered all too well what Minato had done for them and what the woman had sacrificed in order to keep the village safe.

"It was for his…"

"BULLSHIT! Don't feed me that line! You know damn well why I left the village and why we left him here, he was to be seen as a hero so you lot could guide him and prepare him to deal with the consequences of being what he is!"

None of that had happened, she could see it reflected in his demeanor and in the way he avoided her gaze, neglect was not the only thing that her son had endured.

"What are you hiding from me old man? WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM!?"

The hokage simply took a deep breath placed his hands on his head and shock it, he couldn't lie to her he couldn't keep this from her, the hell with the consequences.

"nothing…"

Her eyes widen and she shock her head, that couldn't be true, some one had to have aided him, some one had to have been there for him, he was to mature he was too strong, if no one was there for him then how did he…

"Then…."

"We have done nothing for him, nothing but blame him for something he never did, hate him for something he was not responsible for, he is the village is escape goat and the focus of all there hate and anger"

Before any more words could be uttered or he could take another breath of air Sarutobi found himself pinned down on the back wall of his desk with a kunai on his throat, the two anbu guards that appeared were soon being battling two of kushina is clones.

"How bad"

The words were spoken in a hiss and the hokage closed his eyes.

"I am sorry…."

She closed her eyes and shock her head, no words to describe it….damn them.

"I want his file now!"

He tilted his head and she saw a small box on the side of the old man is desk, dropping the old man she turned towards it and opened it. Inside was a thick stack of papers all labeled with her son is name on them, she gave the hokage one last glare and jumped towards the window, but she didn't leave taking a small pause she turned towards the old man and closed her eyes.

"We are Uzumaki old man remember that well"

With that, she dispelled her clones and rushed off, the two anbus were poised to follow but a single sing from the old man made them stop.

"Sir?"

"If we anger her any further we might not survive"

"Who is that woman?"

"Her name is Kushina Namikase the forth is wife….but before she was Namikase she…she was Uzumaki Kushina the red death"

15 Years it had been that long, and now her little boy was all grown up, he was a ninja in the proud service of his village, but looking at him now all she could see was a life that she had long abandoned, he had raised himself and become quite the accomplished young man. Did he need her? Would be welcome her back or accept her? Could she be forgiven for her past mistake and for leaving him behind? So many questions and no answers to give, how could she face him when she knew the kind of life he had lead. Isolated from the rest, growing up hated and scorn by the village he protects from the most powerful demon to ever walk the lands, he was not a young man, he was not a child any more and according to his file he had never been one, he was always to mature for his age. He had grown up fast so fast that he had sacrifice his childhood in order for him to survive.

Her son had survive every thing the village had thrown at him and even now, when the council members, when the ones who wanted him dead sent him on what should be suicide missions he came back alive. He succeeded in every mission, to prove to every one that no matter what the odds were he would always come up on top. Countless time he had come back alive from missions he should have never been given, and had proven that Naruto Uzumaki was some one to be feared and respected.

But what he had gone trough as a child had been a living hell.

CONTINUED…..


	3. Chapter 3

GIFTED

Chapter 3

"HIS LIFE"

Kushina looked at the sky and wondered if it was worth it, her mission was an important one. Exterminate all those who knew of her existence and her connection to minato, investigate how much the other villages knew of this and to seek and destroy any and all of those who could possible be a problem in the future for herself, the village and her son, that is how they had first come across Akatsuki. After killing or incapacitating almost every one who knew whom she was and knew things they should not, She had set her sights on the biggest fish in all of this, orochimaru, the snake knew every thing there was to know about herself and minato and about naruto, the bastard was the hokage is favorite student after all. Joining up with Jiraya is network was easy enough getting a hold of the bastard snake was a whole other matter.

The bastard had been recruited into an S-class brotherhood of unknown origin and power, the first time they had battled he had been with another S-class missing ninja, some shark looking guy with a big ass sword, bastard thought his sword was the greatest thing in the world; stupid ass had never fought an uzumaki. Kushina smirked at the memory of the bastard is surprised look when his little swords stopped working, the smile how ever quickly faded. Jiraya and herself had barely made it out of there alive; those two were in a completely different level that was for sure.

"I knew I would find you here"

Kakashi looked at the red head and smiled, he knew that she would run straight to her old home, but the smile quickly faded when he was slammed into the old house is wall a kunai pressed to his throat, looking at kushina he could see the hate and anger in her eyes.

"I saw the old man today kakashi, so tell me why didn't you tell me?"

Kakashi is eyes widen and when he saw the files behind her.

"So…you know"

"Why didn't you take care of him? Were the hell are your teammates?!"

"We couldn't do any thing….the council….."

"BULLSHIT! YOU COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING!"

"I am no longer an anbu because I did something; obito is no longer a konoha nin and rin was vanished because of what she did!"

Kushina is eyes widen in surprised, team kakashi had been disbanded because they wanted to protect her son? How could sarutobi allow this to happen, the old man was the hokage for god sake, kakashi seeing the question in her eyes took a deep breath and pushed the kunai away from his throat.

"We knew about sensei is son and we all wanted to help, but the hokage has lost to much power to the council, they pretty much run the place now, all the hokage does is over see ninja affairs and is in charge of konoha is military force, he no longer has power over civilian or clan matters"

Kushina frowned, the old man was really, old man now, all of his powers had been taken, and all that was left was a glorified general. Kakashi hated the look of disgust that crossed the woman is face, but he couldn't exactly defend his leader when all power had been stripped from him and given to fools with over inflated heads.

"I read the files of my son, is it true that Tsunade took care of him for a while?"

"When he was younger yes, but it was after the demon attacked, she was sent on an easy scouting mission, Dan and a few others volunteered to accompany her, she was to scout the surrounding areas near konoha to see if any of the other nations would attempt something…"

**____________FLASH BACK____________ **

Tsunade smiled when she saw the old man playing with naruto, it seem that the kid had the most powerful ninja in the village wrapped around his little finger, the baby just giggled at the professor is funny looking hat. She had brought him in for one of his regular weekly inspections of his seal, this had started when doubts began to form in the council is head, what if the seal weren't able to hold the beast, what if it malfunctioned. Such questions were often brought up, so despite the old man is unwavering faith in minato is work he had schedule a weekly visit to check on little naruto is seal, this was so he could spend some time with the kid and keep the council from doing something drastic.

"It would seem that he is in perfect heath"

"Appearances can be deceiving, the boy is riddled with a number of afflictions, the demon is chakra is eating away at him, if it weren't for minato is seal he would be dead by now"

The hokage nodded, he could see that the baby was not as strong as other infants, and was not growing at a normal rate; it was as if his body was spending all of its energy keeping the boy alive.

"Nothing serious I imagine?"

"Nothing I cant handle, but orochimaru and myself had gone over some figures and we think it will take the body about a year to adjust to the demon chakra, after that the brat should be perfectly normal, more so than normal according to what orochimaru says"

"Ah all the better news, now I have a request for you"

"Oh? I thought taking care of the brat would keep me off the field"

"Smart as ever I see, yes well this is nothing serious. I just want you to patrol around the village scout for possible threats and such, after all we are being closely watched by our neighbors, and while having orochimaru here is a bonus, showing that we have two of the three sannin here in the village would discourage any ideas they might be getting"

Tsunade smirked, easy enough mission, all she had to do was strut herself around, show whom ever was watching that despite there little incident konoha still had the power to fight. Not a bad ideas seeing as how the demon had weaken them some what, this way the other nations wouldn't get any bright ideas, the last thing the world needed was another ninja war.

"Sure thing old man, but were is jiraya? Shouldn't he be here also?"

"He…left, said there was nothing holding him to konoha any more"

Tsunade frowned, he had left and hadn't even said good-bye to her, sarutobi seeing the anger behind her eyes took a deep breath and handed her naruto.

"His seal is fine, you should go"

Tsuande glared at her old teacher, she knew what he was doing, he was trying to distract her, it seem that something had happened between himself and jiraya, the two had never gotten along, what with sarutobi favoring orochimaru above jiraya and all.

"When is he coming back?"

"He is not coming back"

"WHAT!?"

The exclamation scared the child in tsunade is arms and the baby started crying, quickly handing young naruto to her apprentice shizune she signaled the girl to wait outside the office, the 13 years old nodded and awkwardly walked out of the office with baby naruto in arms. Sarutobi looked at Tsunade with a frown, she was ready to demand some answers.

"You should understand his wishes"

"What about his friends?! What about me!? He didn't even say good bye old man!"

"You know why he didn't say good bye"

Tsunade closed her eyes and looked away from the old man. It was a simple rejection but even she knew it was much more than that, after all out of all the women that jiraya could chosen to fall in love with he had fallen in love with her, and despite how many times she had rejected him he still kept going after her. Stupid moron would shout to the whole world that one day he would win the slug princess is heart; that was until the slug princess found her prince, after that he pulled away from all of them.

"We were still friends last I checked old man"

"Yeah, but how would you feel if the roles were reversed? If you were forced to hang out with Dan and his woman?"

She flinched at that, it was quite simple actually; she would not stand for it. She knew that jiraya put on a brave front when ever he was around them, but she didn't know he thought like that, after all he had started publishing that stupid book right after he had given up on her, so how hard could he have taken the news. But if she thought about it she had seen the signs, he wouldn't be around her as much and as soon as Dan showed up he made some lame excuse to be some place else, hell even orochimaru had seen the changes.

"It was too much for him huh?"

"You have Dan and Shizune, orochimaru has his research and anko, he lost you and Minato, as strong as he is, I doubt he could handle living here any more, to many what ifs"

"Stupid jerk, if I ever see him again!"

"I am sure you will make him pay, now run along and get ready for the mission, hatake kakashi has volunteered to accompany you"

"Nah, no need I can handle things on my own"

"You know protocol, if you don't want kakashi then take your pick, but we only have a limited supply of ninjas within the village, the rest are off doing missions"

She nodded and left the office, that night she spoke to Dan, and he decided to accompany her. Kakashi, rin and obito were the other part of the team; they were sent to show that minato is strength live on in his students, as the team left they joked about what an easy mission hey would have. Rin would flirt with kakashi causing obito to scream and shout about how he was so much better than kakashi and all the while tsunade would see mirror images of herself and her teammates reflected on minato is team. Kakashi was like orochimaru a blasted genius and one hell of a ninja, rin was her in every sense of the word, she would flirt with kakashi, just like she did with orochimaru and obito would lose his cool just like jiraya used to do.

"You okay?"

She smiled at Dan and pointed at the three kids in front of her.

"They were just like we were, orochimaru, jiraya and myself"

Dan smiled and placed a hand around tsunade is shoulders, the woman blushed and smiled at him.

"Oh? Should I be jealous of a certain snake genius?"

"Not one bit, I have my……"

She stopped when she saw the spear coming out of Dan is chest, kakashi and the others quickly jumped into action, but it was too late they were surrounded from all sides. Obito activated his sharingan and frowned when he saw all the chakra signatures, there was no way they could face them all, turning towards the others he could already see five clones of kakashi going into the forest, while rin rushed to aid tsunade.

"Guys we have a problem here!"

Kakashi and Obito turned towards her and frowned when they saw tsunade frozen with fear, obito frowned and rushed beside them, while kakashi covered his back.

"Kakashi we need to get out of here now!"

"Right, but leave Dan, he will only weight us down"

Obito froze and so did the others, what the hell did kakashi mean leave Dan behind, he was still alive and could possible be saved, they had rin and tsunade for god sake; he could be saved.

"The hell with that, tsunade please snap out of it we need to get dan out of here"

"I…y-your right"

The sannin finally snapped out of her stupor, picking up dan she rushed away from the clearing and into the forest, obito looked at kakashi and frowned when he saw that chakra signals rushing towards them, it was no use, even if they ran they wouldn't be able to make a clean escape.

"Leave me, go with them I will hold them back"

"You're not that good"

Kakashi froze when he saw obito smiled and walk right beside him, his eyes looking at the clearing, kakashi frowned and shock his head, the idiot was disregarding ninja code, he should be focusing on the others instead of him, tsunade was more important than him. Every ninja is duty was to safe guard a village is most important assets, right now they should be safe guarding tsunade she was more important than him.

"You have to go help them! Tsunade is more important than me, the mission has changed, our priority now is to safe guard her, it is what is best for the village if we don't do it we will nothing but trash"

"I WONT LEAVE YOU BEHIND, WE ARE FRIENDS AND IF I WERE TO LEAVE YOU HERE I WOULD BE WORSE THAN TRASH!"

Obito is hands began to flash trough a series of hand signs before coming up to his mouth and releasing a massive fireball. Within minutes the whole forest before them was covered in flames, with that distraction they managed to follow tsunade and rin, obito cursed, that damn jutsu always took to much of him, he could barely move and keep his sharingan activated. Kakashi saw the fatigue on obito and frowned, this was bad that fireball was huge; it had to have taken up a lot of chakra, and with his sharing on active obito was in bad shape, following the chakra trail the finally found tsunade and rin.

"Status rin!"

"Kakashi!, we managed to stabilize dan, but we need to get him to konoha fast"

"Right, we….what the hell is wrong with her?!"

"She spent almost all her chakra healing dan, I never seen any thing like it"

"Damn it all"

Kakashi turned to obito and frowned, there was no way he would be able to fight, obito frowned and turned towards rin, she could fight but was not really a fighter type, kakashi was the only one who really knew what he was doing. The enemy was close and if they did not do something fast they would be slaughtered.

"I don't have enough chakra to fight properly but if me and kakashi team up and you do that weird jutsu of yours we might be able to survive this"

Rin frowned and shock her head, there was no way they could pull this off, kakashi couldn't use that jutsu with out leaving him blind to his opponents is attacks.

"You know he can't used it in combat, when he does it leaves him open for an attack"

"Not if he has one of these"

Obito pointed to his eyes and both rin and kakashi gasped in surprised, there was no way.

"Are you insane, you know how…"

"Is either this or we die, you chose"

The sharingan was extracted and with it the copy cat of konoha was born, obito used his remaining sharingan to copy kakashi is lighting blade and with it both of them were able to take on the on coming ambush.

"I quit"

Tsunade handed the infant to sarutobi, the forth could only stare at her retreating and frowned, she had been broken.

"The job, just keeps getting worse and worse"

__________________END FLASHBACK______________________

"Just like that she left did she? What happened to naruto afterwards?"

"Me and rin, hell even obito tried to helped the kid, but suddenly we were all quietly removed from any position of power, I was kicked out of anbu no explanations given, rin was sent to some out post in the far regions of fire country and obito well, he is in the branch family of the uchiha clan"

"Orochimaru?"

"No one knows what happen to him, one day he was to take the position of hokage the next all hell broke lose, he attacks the council members and tries to kill danzo"

"He went rogue?"

"With no explanation what so ever? He spoke about how a worm would always rot the fruit from the inside out"

Kakashi saw the surprised look on kushina and frowned, something in his words had triggered something in the red headed, kushina remembered her fight with orochimaru and kisame, and how they were able to escape.

"I meet orochimaru before, he is part of a secret organization formed of S-class ninjas, jiraya and I fought him and one of his companions but we were un able to defeat them, jiraya mentioned something about snakes and how they shed there skins"

"Why do they always speak in riddles I wonder?"

"I think I know why, you said orochimaru attacked the council and danzo the old war hawk, why did he snap? And why only danzo?"

"Unknown, but why were you fighting orochimaru and this S-class ninja?"

Kushina froze and pulled away from kakashi, she couldn't be mad at him, she was naruto is mother and yet she had done nothing for him, she had left on a mission to keep the boy safe, and look how it turned out. The kid practically raised himself.

"I was trying to keep naruto safe; I should have realized that the biggest dangers were here in the village not out there"

"He turned out ok didn't he?"

He had but he had lost his childhood and there was no telling what kind of psychological effects growing up like he did would have in the long run, walking towards the files scatter trough out the back yard of her home she points towards one and signals kakashi to join her.

"That file tells of his abilities, but who trained him?"

"No one trained him"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FLASH BACK~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No one would teach him, no one paid attention to him, he had to find a way to learn but every time he tried to ask a question, every time he was interested in a subject, he was denied and outright denied his education. He would often be used as nothing more than the punch lines of mean, hateful words and used as an example of what a ninja shouldn't be like, he became by no fault of his own the class outcast and as such no one would socialize with him, but that only made him realized that he had been right. No one in the village wanted him, they would sooner have him dead than aid him in some form of manner. So he came to the startling conclusion that if he were to learn any thing at all it would have to be done in secret, he would hide he would listen and would become better than all of those who looked down upon him.

Slowly he devised a plan, one that would allow him to remain inside the classroom during important lesson. One that would aid him in learning and in achieving his goals, he would pretend to fall a sleep in class, he would listened to the explanations other students got and he would paid attention to every thing and any thing that the teachers were teaching. He would ignore the instructions given to him by the teachers and would watch how other kid did them, he would see the difference and quickly change his own to resemble that of the other student, all of this was kept in secret, every thing he would memories and would later practice on his own.

That how ever did not get him very far, he was still lacking in many areas, and while others were on there way he would always remain behind, the teachers would sabotage him in every turn, he had to come up with a new way to pass, to achieve a successful grade. He struggled every day of his life until he was aided by the most unexpected of sources, a techniques was taught at the academy one designed to calm one is self and to force the body to relax and release stress, the teachers called it mediation. He doing as he always did followed the instructions to the letter, but what surprised him was the fact that when he closed his eyes and began to do the exercises given, he was immediately transported to another realm.

The place looked like an abandoned building with old rusted tubes coming in and out of the walls, the whole place was dark and damp and before him, giant gates with the words seal had appeared. Curiosity getting the best of him made him walk over to the bars and reach for the seal, but before he could rip the small seal sign, his hand was stopped by a blond man wearing a long white coat with flames covering the bottom of part of the strange coat.

"W-who are you?"

The man is blue eyes looked at the young boy and smiled, he had not expected his son to reach this level of awareness on such a short amount of time, the boy had reached for the seal out of curiosity not out of desperation and as such had triggered the seal is safe guards and awakened his message.

"I am the forth hokage and this is the seal which hold the nine tailed demon fox"

Naruto is eyes widen in surprised and the elder blond smiled.

"You are it's container I sealed the demon within you, and what you see behind me is the seal I used to trap him, I am here because you activated one of the many safeguards I placed upon the seal before my death"

"W-why?…..I-is that why…"

He could not say or do any thing, all the five year old is mind could do was simply try to understand this and not go insane. The forth hokage seeing the conflict within the small child did what any father would do when there off springs are in chaos, slowly he knelt before the boy and wrapped his arms around him.

"Shhhh, its okay, every thing will be okay"

The forth closed his eyes and saw the life of the five year old flash before his eyes, he felt and saw every thing the boy had endure and wondered if he had done the right thing.

"H-how c-can e-every thing be okay?"

"Because naruto, fathers know these things"

Slowly he pulled away from the small boy and smiled, part of his soul might lie within the shinigami, but a small part of it still resided within the safeguards. He had done this just in case his wishes were ignored, so all that remain was the whole worth of his knowledge, but that was enough to aid his boy in achieving his goals and become that which the villagers hoped to destroy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~END FLASHBACK~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kushina stared the copy nin in surprised, no one had aided her son? How could that be?

"Are you sure?"

"Far as we know he simply went up to the hokage and asked him to test him in another form. The bushin test was designed to keep him in the academy and once he failed a third time, there would have been no risk of him every becoming shin obi, but naruto had seen this laid out plan and had found a loop hole in it"

"He was tested in a battle proficiency exam? He defeated a chunnin"

"Quite easily, were he gained his mastery of chakra, his skills or any thing is beyond our knowledge"

The red headed woman frowned, could the demon be responsible? He was sealed within her son is self, but if that were so why would a demon such as the nine tails aid her son? It didn't make any sort or sense, kakashi smiled when he saw the woman deep in thought, she had found out exactly why her son was more hated and feared now more than ever.

"That is why they want him dead?"

"The uchiha that was apprehended refused to answer any questions, and once the clan turned there backs on the guy the matter was closed, just another person trying to get revenged on the demon that almost destroyed us 13 years ago"

"Smart of them to have a escape goat handy, it eliminates any kind of involved from there part"

"So the hokage is hands were tied, even if the apprehended uchiha talked and confirmed the clan is involvement there was little to do"

Kushina nodded, he was right, if the hokage had pressed the matter than the whole uchiha would have turned on the village, and then who knows what might have happened. She had seen what civil wars did to other nations and villages, she had seen with her own eyes what could have been the out come if the hokage had pressed the matter. How much had her son suffered for the sake of the village? She was beginning to realize that the village owed naruto a debt it could never hope to pay.

"The old man did the right thing, but he should have aided him better"

"Not with the council breathing down his neck, besides I think your kid turned quite all right"

"How mentally and emotionally damage is he?"

Kakashi remained silent, that was the thing. They didn't know. The kid plastered on a shield around himself keeping ever one at arms length, he couldn't afford things like trust or let his guard down for fear that in one of those instances it would cost him his life. As a result, he always wore a mask; he always was the perfect little ninja and always, always played things close to the vest.

"Unknown"

Kushina figured as much, there was no way that those reports could be accurate, they depicted her son as a well adjusted ninja who is goal was to be loyal and reach the ranks of hokage or anbu, that didn't sound like the boy she had read about. The boy on the files had been an isolated one, one who sought shelter in loneliness and isolated himself from others; the boy was not a social person nor would be ever be one thanks to the effects of his childhood. So why had he chosen hokage? Anbu perhaps, but hokage?

"You people are lucky he didn't turn into a self fulfilling prophesy"

"It's still too soon to tell"

Kushina smiled, so they were still worried, good, they needed to be worried, because if she were in naruto is shoes she would have laid wasted to the village before her as soon as she were able.

"I need to think"

The copycat smiled and vanished.

~~~~~~~~~~ITACHI~~~~~~~~~

Itachi Uchiha look at the figure before him with a frown, there was something different about him, something about him was off his whole demeanor was screaming at him, warning him about something, but he could not tell why he was like this. His surroundings didn't betray any thing, there was no one here the forest of death was the ideal place to have this meeting and yet something was off. Obito looked at him with dead eyes, eyes that did not belong to him, frowning activates his sharingan and just as he suspected there is nothing wrong, every thing is as it should be and yet.

"You asked to meet me here; you tell me what this is about"

"The clan is in turmoil, we both know that they have become quite displeased with how things are run in the village"

"I am well aware of the situation obito; tell me what is it that you propose?"

"We take back what is ours; the village should be ours the uchiha clan should be the ones to rule"

That set it off, obito ducked and jumped away a wave of kunai, itachi once more activated his sharingan and glared at the figure. Obito turned towards itachi and smiled but the smile did not belong to him, itachi quickly noticed this and frowned, if it was some one in a henge then he should be able to see trough it, but he focusing more he saw no sings of an active justsu no nothing.

"Confused?"

Itachi is eyes narrow in anger while obito is smile grew even more.

"Who are you?"

"I am obito old friend; I just had an eye opening conversation with your father"

Itachi cursed and clenched his first in anger; his father is sharingan

The perfect hypnosis the way to control any and all of those who's gaze fell on them, it would seem that his father had been aware of there little meeting and had intercepted obito before there meeting. He glanced at his surroundings when he sense a huge chakra signature emerging from within the darkness, there was some one else here, but how had he been able to hide himself from him.

"Who is there?"

Obito smiled and from behind him, a figure wearing an orange masked appeared, one eyehole in the mask showed a sharingan spinning around, the man was clearly and uchiha but he had never seen him.

"You are such a disappointment itachi, you could have been a great allied"

"Who are you?"

"I am madara uchiha and along side your father we will bring a new age to this pitiful village"

"So your are the one who is behind all of this"

Uchiha madara was alive, and he had always wanted to rule the village. It made a whole lot of sense that he would once again unite with the uchiha clan in order to spur on a revel ion against the village; that had according to the elders turned them into nothing more than obedient little followers. This was far beyond him. Madara had taken fought against the first hokage and if he remembers correctly that he was damn near invincible, now he was being helped out by his mentally controlled friend.

"The uchiha will once more reclaim that which we have lost"

"My father is a fool for trusting you"

"Maybe so, but I extend an offer to you itachi, if I aid you in the annihilation of your clan and you swear your allegiance to me I will aid you in there destruction and spare the village"

Itachi froze, if he destroyed his clan then the village would be safe, but if he defied madara, he would die right here and now, odds were that he wouldn't be able to beat madara, nor obito, he had no other choice.

"I…"

"RASENGAN!"

Madara frowned when he saw the swirling ball of chakra rushing towards him, blue eyes and spiky blond hair made him hesitate, and that cost him. The rasengan connected sending him sprawling towards the ground, itachi seeing the surprise on obito rushed forwards and managed to knock the man out with little effort.

"He is still alive; what ever made him hesitate wont work twice"

"You are right, it will not naruto namikase"

Itachi is eyes narrowed at the figure, the rasengan was one hell of an attack and yet madara had only suffer minimal damage, something told him that even with the blond by his side this wouldn't be an easy fight. Naruto pulled a kunai and glared at the masked man, this guy he was the reason that every thing went wrong so long ago, looking at itachi he could see him thinking, trying to come up with something, to stop this guy. Madara looked at his wound and frowned, he had been careless, the blond brat did not only surprise him by the attack he had used but also by the way he looked.

The brat could not be older than 13 and yet he knew how to use that attack, what was worse was the fact that the boy was holding no ordinary kunai in his hand. That little demon was holding one of his father's legendary three-prong kunai, Itachi picked up the small movement on the man is eye and turned ever so slightly towards naruto. He was surprised to see the weapon in the blond is hand but smile nonetheless, if naruto knew how to use his father is techniques then maybe they had a shot at this.

"Naruto we can"

"No this guy, he is something else the only reason the first kage was able to stand up to him was due to his kekegenkai, we need back up"

"You have me at a disadvantage child, how do you know so much about me?"

Naruto glared at the man and rushed towards him, there was no way he was letting this guy know what he knew, throwing the kunai he saw the man jump away from the kunai much to the surprised of naruto the man simply ran trough a couple of hand signs before unleashing a massive fire ball towards them. Itachi jumped away from the on coming attack but naruto simply held out his hand and another rasengan formed, the fire immediately was engulfed by his attack and the fire dissipated. Itachi smiled and turned towards madara, the man seems surprised by the turn of events, and forming a couple of hand signs he unleashed a fireball of his own.

"To slow!"

Madara appeared behind itachi and slashed with a kunai of his own, the attack connected by itachi simply puffed out of existence, madara frowned when he realized that itachi had used a substitution jutsu to escape him.

"GRAND FIRE BALL JUTSU!"

Madara is eye widen, from within the smoke a massive fire ball was rushing towards him, itachi had substituted himself with one of that brat is three prong kunai, the fire ball rushed towards him but nothing happened, the attack simply passed right trough him. Itachi is eyes narrowed, what ever had happened, what ever madara had used it was not ordinary jutsu he couldn't even trace, detect or see any thing, one minute he was tangible the next he was not.

"NARUTO CAREFULL HE CAN TURN HIS BODY INTANGIBLE!"

"You are a smart one itachi, such a shame you have to die"

Itachi froze when madara is voice came from behind him, that speed, he had failed to see him move, one minute he was there the next he was behind him, it was impossible, turning around he unleashed a blow to madara is head only for it to go straight trough. Madara smiled, and unleashed a slash of his own, a kunai straight towards itachi is heart, but before it connected, he was sent flying sideways by a hit to his side.

"HOW??!"

The scream was uttered in disbelief and in surprised, itachi himself could not believe what had seen, naruto was beside him in a flash, it was a just like his father is jutsu.

"How did you?"

"I filled the whole area using shadow kunai jutsu, with it I was able to replicate the three prong kunai my father made, and I hit madara with a bursting rasengan"

Madara clenched his teeth in anger, he had been careless, he had focused on making his head and body intangible, but that damn kid had burst his rasengan right before it made contact. The shock wave of the bursting rasengan had hit him with the force of a hurricane and had nearly blown his arms and legs off, turning towards the blond boy he could see the focus and fix look he gave him, this child was not to be underestimated, he had managed to hit him twice in battle. Itachi was scanning him with his sharingan and he knew that it would only be a matter of time before the two brats came up with something.

"Enough of this"

Madara is eye narrow, freezing both naruto and itachi on there place, the wave of power and killer intent that washed over them was overwhelmingly strong. Naruto cursed when he saw the man move right before appearing beside itachi sending him crashing to the massive trees behind him, one minute the man was in front of them the next he was kicking itachi into the forest and naruto is face slamming into the ground. Activating the flying thunder god technique he vanished and re-appeared in another part of the forest only to be hit with a neckline that nearly decapitated him in the process, falling to the ground he saw the man rushing towards him.

"The hell is he?! **(Unleash some of my power) **You got it!"

Madara once more hesitate but this time he only did it to noticed how the child before him summoned the fox is chakra, naruto is red eyes focused on him and the uchiha could tell that this kid was in complete control of the demon is power.

"You are fill with surprises aren't you naruto-kun"

"Yes I am"

Naruto is voice came from behind him but madara had been expecting this and had turned his whole body intangible, naruto cursed when his kunai slashed right trough him, this guy wouldn't fall for the same trick twice. Doing a quick back spin kick towards naruto he sent the blond flying right before it busted in a puff of smoke, cursing at the blond is proficiency in using shadow clones his sharingan did a quick scan and spotted the blond not far from him, but surprised him was that he was aiding itachi.

"SUMMONING JUTSU"

Madara looked behind him and cursed, thee was so many shadow clones running around the place he couldn't tell which was the real blond, was he even fighting the real one? Turning towards the sound of the voice, he cursed when he saw the massive fox towering over him.

"**Hello master"**

Madara jumped away and slashed at the massive fox, after a series of hand signs the earth beneath the giant fox began to open and naruto cursed.

"Earth prison jutsu!"

The ground under the fox opened up and like a massive mouth tried to swallow the massive summon, naruto cursed and jumped away from the summon before dispelling him, no point infighting this guy if he could open the ground and make it swallow his summons whole. Madara turned towards the blond and jumped at him but was quickly reminded that he was not fighting one opponent but two; itachi had jumped towards him unleashing a barrage of kunai and shuriken.

"Secret arts, chakra suppression jutsu"

Naruto smiled when he saw the kunai and shuriken rushing all around there area, this attack was one of itachi is favorite ones, creating a seal type design on the ground with the shuriken and kunai he was able to create a field around the area that suppressed any one is chakra. Madara landed on the ground and cursed when the weapons laid all around him began to glow, this technique was a dangerous one.

"Such a magnificent attack, you are talented"

Naruto landed behind him and itachi before him, leaving the orange masked figure in the middle, naruto looked at itachi and saw his sharigan spinning, something was wrong.

"AMATERATSU"

Before naruto or itachi knew what had happened, a huge explosion of black flames came out of no were, the massive explosion sent them crashing to the ground, naruto cursed when he felt his arm beginning to burn.

"Naruto!"

"DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME, GET THAT BASTARD!"

Itachi turned towards madara, who seem to just come out of the dark flames, he cursed and rushed towards the masked uchiha, madara frowned when he saw itachi is eyes begin to morph.

"(They are trying to evolve but how?)"

"Shadow strike jutsu!"

Madara is eyes spun and he was able to dodge the attack of his own shadow. Itachi had move so fast his sharigan was unable to copy the attack or see what he had done, narrowing his eyes he saw itachi is eyes once more try to morph, they were shifting from the regular shape of the sharingan to there more advance form. Itachi panted and cursed, he had thought that for sure he had got him that time but no such luck, he needed to end this fast, madara didn't look the least bit tired and he could already feel his chakra running out, not to mention the fact that his eyes felt like they were burning. Glancing towards naruto he could see the blond holding his arm and was surprised to see that the flames had not advanced, they were simply stuck to his arm.

"Your eyes, they are evolving….how can this be?"

Itachi turned towards madara and frowned what the hell was he talking about?

"You managed to create an illusion of yourself attacking me, but you were not attacking me were you? You have not move from your spot since naruto got hit with my ameteratsu"

Madara could see the confusion on the boy is face and smile beneath his mask, it seem that itachi had yet to realized what was happening to him, but what was worse was that he, the great uchiha madara didn't know what was happening either. The only way to acquire the second phase of the sharigan was to kill your best friend or brother, to kill who ever was closest to you, but itachi, he had done nothing and yet his eyes were clearly evolving.

"Illusions don't fool the sharing an eye, yet you…how is it possible?"

"REVERSE ATTACK JUTSU!"

Naruto is voice rang out and madara could only look on at as his own amataratsu attack was re-directed towards him. The black flames rushed towards him and he couldn't help but wonder just who had trained this brat, both of them were impressive yes, but the boy the blond brat knew things that no one should, and those attacks of his. Naruto looked on as his attack rushed towards the orange wearing man only for them to fade right trough him, itachi turned towards him and naruto smiled.

"Your eyes are growing itachi"

"W-what?"

"Focus more chakra to your eyes and focus"

Itachi took a deep breath and closes his eyes, turning towards madara he focused on his target, he focused on his eyes and released the breath he was holding, once he opened his eyes he knew what had transpired and madara knew that this fight had gotten a lot more complicated.

"Magenkyo Sharingan"

Madara cursed his luck, there was no telling what the young uchiha could do with that power, not to mention that the blond brat is chakra seem endless and despite him trying to lock eyes with him he had no such luck, the brat seem to know what his plan was. The only way to get that damn fox under control was for him to go into the blond is mindscape and repress the demon is chakra; unfortunately, he was unable to lock eyes with the blond. Fortunately, for him he did not have to continue with this little battle, the village is screams had already reached them.

"It would seem that your father is quite the impatient person"

Itachi glared at the mask man and naruto narrowed his eyes, this guy had done his job well and they had fallen for it like amateur ninja. He was wondering why no one was coming to there aid, Madara had unleashed some pretty powerful attacks and he had even access the fox is power that alone should have the whole area filled with Anbu. Cursing at his own stupidity, he looked over at itachi and saw him nod in understanding.

"He's only been playing with us, kept us busy and away from the village"

Itachi nodded, he could see the sky above konoha being illuminated by the fires that were set, and the explosion that the uchiha clan were clearly responsible for, they had been battling this man with every thing they had and yet he was merely playing with them.

"The attack has already began"

"Right you are, and as such my job has been done"

With that that Madara simply vanished in a swirl of chakra, itachi turned towards naruto and then towards the fallen obito.

"We are fools, what made us think we could stand against some one like madara"

"Arrogance perhaps, but that doesn't matter right now, obito will be fine and the village needs us, so let's go"

Itachi looked at naruto and shook his head, he couldn't defy the clan.

"I can't I, I can't side against my own people naruto"

"The hell you can! Those idiots are going to laid waste to the village we need to do something!"

"They are my clan's men! What would you have me do!?"

"FIGHT! Stake your claim now, become the new head of the uchiha clan and end this madness!"

Could he stand against his own? Looking at the sky he could see it turning a bright red color, the color of blood, if this continue on then the uchiha would be whipped out and the village would suffer greatly because of his father is arrogance, yet he couldn't help but feel afraid, would he stand against his own?

"Not all uchiha are behind this itachi, what of them? Will you forsake them?"

Closing his eyes he shook his head, no he couldn't do that, they were others whom did not share his father is ambitions, there were others who would side with him and there were those whom were innocent in all of this, opening his eyes he smiles at naruto and naruto nods.

"I will end it"

CONTINUED……

Next time: "SILENCE"


End file.
