Naruto 1. Driven into insanity: A monster is born

**Chapter 1**

Sarutobi Hiruzen could feel himself aging as he sat here listening to another pointless council meeting that had nothing to do with himself or the various clans of Konohagakure that were present for the meeting. All of them were forced to listen to the current civilian plight that the citizens of Konohagakure thought they needed to voice to the leadership of the village. The person that was currently speaking was an overweight man with greasy black hair tied into a traditional pony tail. The man was dressed in a very expensive looking kimono which was dripping with sweat, as he had to exert himself to remain on his feet as he talked.

To be completely honest Sarutobi wasn't even listening at this point, he had heard every possible complaint in the book and he simply no longer cared as much as he used to. To keep his mind away from the mundane buzz in the council room, he busied his mind by thinking over how he should be enjoying his retirement by now. He was old and tired of this shit, but unfortunately he had no one that he trusted to take up the mantle at this point. Sure there were several candidates, such as Danzo, who was always putting the village first and was constantly trying to make the village better, but he was a war-hawk and only saw peace as being stronger than your opponents, so you could control them. Hatake Kakashi was a possibility in a few years, but he needed to learn to let go of the past and stop blaming things on himself. Tsunade, one of his students, had the similar issues as Kakashi along with a serious gambling and alcohol problem. Finally, there was Jiraiya but Sarutobi didn't want to get into his issues. Which in retrospect might have been caused in part by him.

Sarutobi looked over the council room and thought about how bland the civilians were, like a herd of sheep they all seemed to be the same. They dressed alike, talked with that similar arrogant tone because they were rich and to be honest he didn't know any of their names. They were thirty representatives for the civilian part of the village and most of them came from powerful merchant families and yet there was nothing extraordinary about any of them, and to make matters worse they seemed to be some of the most annoying people ever born. These people had no actual clot in the running in the village but thought themselves important because they held so much power among the civilians. Thesse people in a vain attempt to gain more power had appointed themselves the civilian council of Konohagakure. It was pathetic really but for some kami forsaken reason the rest of the civilians in the village seemed to listen to them and even backed the idea of a civilian council. Even going so far as to petition to make it part of the actual village council.

The shinobi council, however, was a different story, made up of all the clan heads of Konohagakure: the Aburame, Akimichi, Hyuuga, Inuzuka, Nara, Uchiha, Yamanaka, and of course his own, the Sarutobi clan; they made an interesting group of people that stood out in any crowd. Each had their own characteristic and were proud to be different. There was also places at the table for the Senju, Namikaze and Uzumaki clans. Unfortunately these seats were vacant as the only remaining Senju was Tsunade and the other two clans were believed to be gone but the seats were kept as a form of ceremony and respect to the Yondaime and the Uzumaki clan respectively.

The last part of the council was the village elders and Hokage's advisors, Homura, Koharu, and Danzo, his old teammates and former best friends.

Over the years they had become more and more distant until it got to the point they hardly ever said more than a few words to each other unless it was business. Danzo was against him at every turn in the council and Hiruzen felt a pang of regret for that. They used to be the best of friends, but now it was like they were little more than strangers that shared a past. Hiruzen knew that the distance started the minute he had been chosen to be the next Hokage, but at the time didn't know how much damage the title would do to their friendship.

It was while he was reminiscing about his old friends and the different parts of the council that he noticed for the first time that all of the Civilian Council seemed nervous. In fact, they seemed beyond nervous and they were border lining on anxious to be anywhere but where they were. As he observed them, he started picking up all the little things that had alluded earlier in his boredom; the way that some of them kept looking from the clock to him, the nervous whispers between two or three group members, and the fact that they all seemed to be sweating. His instincts were screaming at him and he tried to figure out why. He knew something was wrong, terribly wrong, but couldn't put a finger on why.

Then it hit him, like a punch from the taijutsu expert of the village, Might Guy. How could he be so stupid?

The air in the room began to fill with killing intent as Hiruzen Sarutobi became truly and utterly angry. With his hat covering his eyes, he began to stand as the civilian spokesperson fell silent.

"What have you done?"

His voice was barely above a whisper, yet in the silence that had settled in the room, it might as well have been a scream. He watched as his simple question caused most of the civilian council to flinch and become very nervous, while they all tried their best to avoid eye contact with the enraged Hokage. The room was completely silent, nobody wanting to be the first to break and risk the wrath of the man that could, without a doubt, kill all of them with minimal effort; Having proven that fact in the three Great Shinobi Wars.

Surprisingly, it was a member of the so call Civilian Council that broke the silence. He looked like any other male middle-aged civilian; he had brown hair, brown eyes and dressed in a simple, yet expensive, grey kimono. He stood up slowly, as if he was scared of making any sudden movements causing the Hokage's rage to be unleased upon him. The eyes of the room moved from the still enraged Sarutobi to him as he addressed the Hokage.

"What do you mean Hokage-sama?"

She stuttered out while shaking like a leaf, having had the focused killing intent of the Hokage set upon her.

Hiruzen laughed and said in a voice that held a sharp edge.

"Did you honestly think I wouldn't notice? Did you honestly think I wouldn't realize something was going on? I may be getting old but I am far from senile. So why not just tell me what you have done!?"

During his speech, Hiruzen had gone from a soft whisper to shouting at the collection of wealthy civilian. The very walls seemed to be shaking at the unbridled rage in his voice. Slowly he moved so he stood in front of his desk, not raising his head to look at the terrified men and women in their seats; his eyes hidden in the shadows of his Hokage hat.

Homura, Koharu, and Danzo all looked at their old friend in both fear and surprise. It had been many years since they had seen Hiruzen with such a commanding presence, in fact the last time he had been this commanding was during The Third Great Shinobi War.

Finally, after a few more minutes silence, Koharu spoke.

"Hiruzen, what's wrong?"

It was at this point that Sarutobi finally lifted his head so that all present could see his eyes. They were not the soft, caring eyes of the old man that so many had come to know. They were as hard as steel, the pupils of his eyes black pits of death and rage. These were the eyes of someone that had seen battle, that had witnessed the lives of countless people end, both friend and foe. These were the eyes of the God of Shinobi, the eyes of The Professor, one of the most feared ninja to ever walk the Elemental Nations. At this point in time, his eyes were fixed firmly on the members of the civilian council. Many on the civilians looked away, afraid to look into the eyes that felt like they were staring into their very souls looking for misdeeds.

His voice as cold as ice, Sarutobi spoke.

"Why are we here, why are any of us here? These aren't shinobi matters or matters that are urgent in any way, shape or form. So far all we've heard is nothing but civilian affairs that could have waited until the next official council meeting where civilians could voice their grievances. So, why are we here? I was told that there was an important matter that must be discussed and yet we have been here for four hours and all you have talked about is basic information of no real importance. So I ask you, why are we here?!"

Nobody dared to speak as even the clan heads were shifting uncomfortably in their seats. Nobody moved in the group of civilians due to the gaze of the Hokage still pinning them in place. But the tension in the room was becoming more and more intense with every passing minute as the civilians got more and more nervous at the gaze and killing intent that the Hokage pushed upon them.

It was then that he asked a question that had a unique effect on the room.

"What is the date?"

Those four words froze all those in the room, the civilians in fear and the shinobi in sudden realization as the topic of conversation became clear. Everything was quiet. Then the killing intent in the room seemed to increase tenfold. All the shinobi clan heads and, surprisingly, the three elders added their own killing intent to the Hokage's and focused it at the Civilian Council

Suddenly, not being able to stand the killing intent in the room any longer, one of the civilians stood from her seat to address the gathered people; a woman in her late twenty's, with pink hair; which is a common trait among the Haruno merchant family, and an expensive looking white kimono with the image of a sakura tree in bloom. The fear she felt at the combined killing intent making her voice come out high and shaky.

"We did what you were afraid to do! The Kyuubi is dead, all the people it killed that night have been avenged and the garbage that has plagued our streets has finally been done away with!"

It was then that an extremely pissed Inuzuka Tsume shot to her feet practical frothing at the mouth and shouted back.

"You are fools and are so blinded by your hate that you actually believe that a six-year-old boy is the Kyuubi! Did it ever occur to any of you that if what you say was true, then we'd probably all be dead by now due to the Kyuubi flattening the village?!"

The clan heads nodded in agreement with Tsume's logic and continued to stare down the Civilian Council.

Despite what many would believe, many of the shinobi in Konohagakure didn't hold a grudge against the boy. Some did, but they were mostly teenagers that lost everything in the attack six years ago. Even the ninja that did hate Naruto never acted beyond glares and harsh words. Every now and then a ninja would join in with the civilians if there was a mob, but those ninja that did participate never stayed ninja long after Sarutobi Hiruzen found out. If they didn't drop out of the shinobi program they always seemed to be killed in action while on a mission.

Before anything else could happen, the Hokage decide he had wasted enough time on the civilians and moved to the door of the chamber.

"I don't have time for this, I need to try and stop whatever is happening before it's too late."

That was all it took to snap the attention of the people in the room as the clan heads and elders all quickly moved to the doors, but before the Hokage pushed the doors open, he paused; looking back at the members of the so called civilian council, he left them with one more thing to think about before he left to stop whatever they had planned to do to Naruto.

"If anything has happened to Naruto, anything at all, I will come back here and kill every single one of you. Anbu! Make sure none of these worms leave this room before I come back."

Five animal masked ninja appeared in the room, positioning themselves in such a way that any and all possible exits were blocked off. With that he pushed the doors open, only to stop dead at the sound that assaulted his ears. A scream unlike anything anyone in the room had ever heard echoed around the chamber.

Hiruzen absently made a mental note that someone must have applied a silencing seal to the door and windows while they were in the room. It was the only way to explain why none of them had heard the bone chilling scream that seemed to echo across the entire village. Hiruzen rushed out of the room, flanked by the clan heads and the village elders, intent on ending whatever the villagers were doing. They managed to arrive quickly and when they got there it appeared the villagers were celebrating around a bond fire. But locating the source of the scream Hiruzen's stomach dropped as he realized that it was coming from the fire. Hiruzen quickly ran through a series of hand seals before he called out his jutsu.

"Water Style: Liquid Bullet"

The water bullet hit the flames and doused them with ease, the Hokage then rushed to the pile of smoking wood to see Naruto without any skin on his form. Muscle was showing all over his body and he appear to be charred. The Hokage turned to the clan heads and said in a grim tone, barely restraining his rage and killing intent.

"Kill them all, I don't want survivors, any person that would do this has no humanity."

The clan heads nodded and smirked as they turned on the civilian crowd that was watching them, the crowd stood no chance against the leaders on the various clans of the Leaf village.

As blood began to spill, Hiruzen stood up and body flickered to the hospital. He appeared right outside the hospital doors and quickly walked in holding Naruto in his arms bridal style.

"I need a stretcher and several doctors now!"

The nurses looked at him before they moved into action to do as their pissed off Hokage had ordered.

XXX

(Flashback: Hours earlier)

Naruto sat on his bed in his apartment, staring at the floor blankly. Today was his sixth birthday and, like all his previous birthdays, he was spending it completely alone. He had no friends or family to spend what was supposed to be one of the happiest days of his life with and it caused knots to form in his stomach.

His apartment was made up of just two rooms, the main room, which had his bed, a table and a small kitchen which he didn't know how to use. The once white wallpaper that cover the walls of the room was peeling off due to age and neglect, cracks covered most of the walls in the room where villagers either threw Naruto against the wall or broke it themselves using whatever they had on hand and the carpet was covered in reddish-brown stains from all the times the villagers had broken in and beaten him to a bloody pulp, there was even places where the carpet had been torn up and showed the sub-floor underneath. There was one window that looked out over the street, but it had several cracks and missing pieces of glass from where people had thrown rocks into his room.

The only other room was what the old man said was supposed to be his bathroom. It did have all the basic things that one would find in a bathroom, a toilet, a sink, it even had a shower. The problem however was that he never had any hot water, so whenever he took one it hurt because it was so cold.

He also learned that before he moved in someone, after hearing that he was moving in, had disconnected the water pipe that went to the toilet and sink. This meant that he needed to put water in the holding tank himself when he wanted to flush the toilet. The problem with that however was that he could barely reach the top of the toilet. This room also was not immune to the rage of the villagers, as the mirror above the sink had cracks all over it from a villager punching it. The sink had a chunk missing from a villager hitting it with what Naruto assumed would be a pipe or bat.

Naruto looked around his small apartment and even with the issues he felt he was lucky the old man could get it for him. Sure it was small, but it's not like he had much stuff anyway and the stuff he did have was old and, in most cases, moldy and it was far better than when he was living on the streets. The apartment at least gave him protection from some of the harsher elements that Mother Nature could dish out as well as provide a place to call home.

Two years ago, on his fourth birthday, the orphanage had told him that they didn't have room for him anymore and threw him out, literally. One of the care workers had thrown him out by the scruff of his neck right into a pile of rotten food. The first few weeks had been hard as he had no food or place to sleep, but he learned rather quickly which bins would have food and which alleys would have boxes that he could sleep in. He even learned to avoid people at night, as if they saw him they would take away whatever he had managed to scrounge up or would stomp on the boxes he was going to sleep in. But to the villagers that wasn't enough and that's when the beatings had started

Luckily, the old man had found him. He didn't trust him at first, it wasn't the first time someone had tricked him into trusting them, but over time his weariness of the kind old man in the strange clothes eased away. Sarutobi had been careful when he saw him, shocked as well. But after getting over it he took a shivering Naruto to the hospital and, after getting him looked at, brought him to the apartment in which Naruto now lived.

His distrust of people stemmed from one instance that he remembered, one time a 'nice' old lady had invited him into her house to eat when she found him looking through her garbage bins for food. The moment he was inside her door she locked the door and proceeded to beat him with her walking stick. Screaming and yelling at him, something about how he had killed her only son. Only after about ten minutes of cowering on the ground as she beat him, was Naruto finally able to get away from her by jumping through a window. He received several large gashes from that incident and learned to avoid the kindness of others, or at least to be wary of it.

It was also the first time he noticed that he healed very fast. When he had gotten far enough away he had stopped and looked at his arms, which were filled with shards of broken glass from the window he had leapt through in his desperation to get away. Then, right in front of his eyes, the glass was pushed out of his skin and the wounds started to heal. He didn't know what to think, but just assumed that it was the same for everyone and, putting it to the back of his mind, didn't think about it again.

That was about a year ago and since then he never left the apartment, at least not willingly. All his food was brought to him so he never needed to. Not that it stopped the villagers.

The old man would visit him every now and then, but he hadn't had time as of late. Naruto didn't know what he actually did but he knew it was important as he had seen several of the villagers give him respect.

Lost in his thoughts he didn't even realize that he had started singing to himself, his small, weak voice barely above a whisper.

"Happy...Birthday...to me...happy... birthday... to me... happy birthday... Naruto...happy...birthday...to...me...happy…birthday…dear…Naruto…happy…birthday…to me."

By the end of the song Naruto could feel the tears falling down his cheeks, but he still didn't make another sound. He just stared off into empty space, twin lines of water falling freely from his eyes. The tears washing away the grim on his face showing the clear lines on his face where the tears had fallen.

Why did he have to be alone?

Why did the villages hate him?

Why did they hurt him?

Why did no one love him?

"Why...why...why...WHY!?"

As he asked himself these question again and again out loud, Naruto barely even registered he had started to punch the wall next to his bed, his small hands bleeding as the skin split and the wall cracked, only for the wound to heal moments later.

The sadness finally became too unbearable and Naruto threw himself on his bed and sobbed into the bare mattress, as the villagers had taken the sheets and pillows the last time they had attacked him.

Meanwhile, Anbu Captain Hatake Kakashi was looking through the window from his perch on the building across the street from the small boy's apartment. He watched a six year old boy sing to himself as he cried, and punch a wall over and over again until his hand broke.

His heart ached at the sight and he wanted desperately to help the boy more than he had. No one should have to go through what that boy had, and defiantly not as young as Naruto.

Kakashi had been the boys guard ever since the Hokage had found him in a back alley. Naruto had been found half frozen from the cold and little more than skin and bones. It had been a miracle he was alive when the Hokage found him. When he had first seen the boy in the hospital the silver haired jonin thought he was actually dead and, after spending about an hour just staring at his weak form, the Hokage had called him straight to his office and told him what had happened. In fact the doctor said that any normal child would have succumb to starvation at the point in which Naruto had been found.

Originally, he had wanted to adopt him, but the civilians had argued that because Kakashi was an Anbu captain, his job was far more important to the village then looking after one child. The ninja council had refused his request, as they felt that the civilians had appoint. They believed that they couldn't show Naruto any sort of favoritism due the fact that he was supposed to be one of the hundreds of orphans from the Kyuubi incident. Of course the real reason was not to emphasize the fact that he is the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no kitsune, which was supposed to be an S-class secret.

So instead he had volunteered to be the boy's bodyguard, a job the Hokage had agreed to but had to set certain rules. The boy was still a civilian after all so he couldn't officially be given a guard. So they had come up with a solution. Kakashi spent almost all his spare time watching the boy; if he wasn't on a mission then he was on the roof across from Naruto's apartment. This meant he could stop anyone that tried going after the boy while he was here. The only problem with this was that he still needed to go on missions so nobody would realize that the boy actually had protection and not just a passing Anbu to help him.

Kakashi knew who the boy's parents were. Really, you would need to be completely blind not to, he had his mother's last name and hyperactive nature for a start and as for his father, well just look at him, he was a carbon copy of the Fourth Hokage. The only difference between the two was the malnourished frame and whisker marks on his cheeks.

So caught up in his thoughts, Kakashi didn't notice the black clad figure behind him and by the time he did it was too late. Kakashi felt a sharp pain in the back of his head, and then nothing.

After an hour or so of crying Naruto had finally fallen asleep, his dreams full of faceless people, villagers. There was one thing they all had in common; they hurt him, they always hurt him. Why did they always hurt him?

His dreams were always the same, at least when he could get to sleep. It was very rare for Naruto to sleep more than an hour at a time in part due to the paranoia and fear that dominated his life. He didn't know why; he just didn't seem to really need it, his body was just full of energy like it was constantly being pumped full of energy from some unknown source. He knew it was strange due to his time in the orphanage, the other kids just seemed to be able to go to sleep whenever they felt like it, but Naruto always felt like he was ready to go.

But on the rare occasion when he did manage to get to sleep it was always the same.

He would always have nightmares. Some of them, like the one he was having now, were of all the times he was beaten by the villagers. Other kinds of nightmares he had were of strange creatures, odd things that one would assume someone in a mental institution would dream up. Some of them didn't even seem to have a shape, nothing more than shades in the shadows of his dreams. Hiding at the edge of his mind, lurking in the shadows...waiting...watching.

The thing that scared him the most though was when he had a dream about it. He didn't know why, but it was always the clearest thing in his nightmares and it was the one thing that was always there. Whenever he slept, no matter what he was dreaming, it would always make an appearance.

A large fox, bigger than any building he had seen in Konoha, bigger even then the Hokage monument. With its blood red fur and teeth larger than a full grown man, each a giant spike that could easily pierce metal, it was the most frightening thing he had ever seen. But the most terrifying thing about it was the eyes.

Large red pools of moving liquid fire ringed in black, with a black vertical slit down the middle. It was like the two colors were fighting for dominance, a never ending battle between light and dark.

It was the eyes that haunted Naruto in his waking hours, they held no real emotion. No malice, no happiness, nothing, just a primal instinct, primal need, yet they shone with an odd intellect. The intellect of age, of things long past. It was like the fox was both a raging beast yet it held an intelligence as vast as the world.

Naruto was woken when he heard loud banging at his door. Instantly he knew what was going on, it happened all the time. Sitting up in his bed he just stared at the door...waiting…listening to the door strain against its assaulters. He knew from experience that there was no point in hiding, they always found him. He knew he couldn't run as they would track him down and he really couldn't outrun some of the adult in the crowd.

It didn't take them long to get through the door, as it had taken abuse before and was already partially broken, when they did Naruto saw a large number of people crowded in the corridor outside his room. He recognized some of them from previous mobs, the middle age fat man that had no hair, the old man with the long white beard and one eye.

Then Naruto's eyes landed on one of the most prevalent figures in these mobs, the woman with the pink hair, she was a regular when it came to his mobs, hell most the time she was the leader. With her pink hair and green eyes she normally stood out in a crowd. She wore an elegant red dress with a strange white pattern and looked like she was going out for a night on the town, not leading a mob to beat a small boy. They just stood there in the doorway for a moment; the pink haired lady had a smug look on her face, just staring at him.

"Take this piece of filth outside."

Her voice was cold and without sparing him a second glance, turned around and went to wait outside. With those three words she had broken the flood gates. The men lurched forward and roughly grabbed the six year old. Naruto could smell the alcohol on their breath, which was bad, it was always worse when they were drunk. After they dragged him outside Naruto saw more people. This was very bad, as there had never been this many people before.

For the next half hour the mob proceeded to beat, stab, and bludgeon the small boy until it seemed there was nothing left to hurt. Even through the pain Naruto found himself making mental notes of what was happening.

He was stabbed more times than he could count, but that wasn't saying much considering he was never taught past ten. He was bludgeoned with lead pipes, run through with farm equipment, kicked, punched, and slashed. Throughout the whole experience, Naruto never made a sound, not even to scream. He wouldn't give them the satisfaction. Even now he had his pride and he wouldn't let them take that away

This just seemed to make them angrier, but as soon as they stopped he started to heal leaving nothing more that faint silvery scars on his skin. Unfortunately after he was healed the mob would begin again. He didn't know how long they beat him, it could have been hours or minutes for all he knew. Every time Naruto was completely broken they would stop, wait a few minutes for him to heal, and then start again repeating the torture over and over again.

Eventually the pink haired woman came back into view, though it took him a few minutes to identify her because his eyes had needed to re-grow after they were stabbed and a rusted spoon was used to pull them out for the fifth time that night, not that Naruto knew they were doing this, as far as he knew he had just lost consciousness for a few minutes.

"Tie him to the post."

Naruto was hurled up and dragged to a post someone had stuck into the ground, a pile of wood lying around the base. Naruto could smell accelerant in the air and as they approached the post he realized that all the wood was soaked in it. Now, Naruto might be young and uneducated but even he could see what was going to happen here. If he could have put up a fight as they tied him to the post, he would have, but he was still weak and was currently healing from the last round of the beatings.

When he was secured to the post with ninja wire the mob moved back and five people clad in black hoods, stopping anyone from seeing their faces; stepped out of the crowd and stood there, surrounding the unlit pile of wood.

When the crowd had quieted down the pink haired woman stepped forward and stared at him with an empty expression on her face. After a minute of looking into his eyes she smirked, her eyes becoming filled with sick glee and turned to address the crowd.

"Tonight, we right the wrongs that have been done to us! Tonight, we take our revenge on this...creature!"

At this point she threw her right arm out towards Naruto. The crowd began to cheer as her words got more and more heated. Someone in the crowd got so worked up by this that they through an empty sake bottle at the beaten boy. After waiting for the crowd to settle down again she continued where she had left off.

"Six years ago, the Kyuubi attacked this village, destroyed our homes and killed our families! Tonight we take our revenge! This thing has the Kyuubi inside of it, therefore it is the Kyuubi! The Hokage may be fooled by its facade, but we are not! We see it for what it truly is and tonight we finish what the Yondaime could not! Tonight, we kill the Kyuubi no Kitsune!"

At the end of her tirade she turned to look at the boy, her face full of arrogance, self-importance and joy.

Naruto was shocked, he didn't understand, he was the Kyuubi? That was impossible, wasn't it? His thoughts flashed to his nightmares, to a giant red fox. What if it was true? What if he really was the Kyuubi? It made sense, he realized, the glares, the beatings, the hate; it was all because he was the Kyuubi. But if he was the Kyuubi why didn't he remember? If he had killed all those people he would remember, wouldn't he? All these thoughts and more passed through Naruto's head, but before he had time to think the pink haired lady raised her hands and looked at each of the five people around the fire.

"Light it up!"

With that the five hooded figures started to make hand seals. When they finished five voices could be heard calling out.

"Fire Style: Grand Fire Ball Jutsu!"

Five balls of fire simultaneously struck the wood, and lit it instantly due to the accelerant. It didn't take long for the heat to become too much for Naruto. He tried not to scream, to keep to his personal vow of silence, but he just couldn't. The pain was too much for him to bear and with one deep breath...he let it out.

All the years of pain that these people caused him, all the things they had done...he just let it all out.

He screamed...he screamed so loudly that it actually made them stop cheering for a moment, but then the moment passed, and they started again. Soon he started to feel his skin bubble, melting off his body. It was indescribable; he was in so much pain as the skin slid off his body. Then he noticed, in his pain fogged mind, that he was healing while he was burning, the thing that had kept him alive was at work trying to heal him as fast as his body burned. For three hours he screamed as the torture continued, but to him it seemed like a life time, a life time of burning, writhing in agony...nothing but him, the flames, and the sound of laughter from the crowd that enjoyed his pain.

Eventually, he felt the fire stop, but that just caused a new pain to arrive, he felt cold, very cold. He had become so used to the heat of the fire that he couldn't stop shivering and the more he shivered only caused him more pain as the nerves screamed at him to stop moving. The last thing he saw before he was finally able to slip into the abyss that was his mind was the old man, looking down on him with a look of absolute horror and rage on his on his face.

XXX

When Naruto next woke he didn't know where he was, and frankly he didn't care, there was no more pain. He was numb, as though he had been sitting out in the cold too long; he felt nothing. He started to notice his surroundings, though his head was still a little foggy. Wherever he was, it was huge, some kind of underground cavern, solid stone walls all around him and a barely visible stone roof. To one side he noticed a giant gate in the place of a wall, but that wasn't what was weird about it. The strange thing was that it seemed to be held shut with nothing more than a piece of paper. Naruto also noticed that there were pipes running along the walls coming from the cage.

As he stood up he realized that he was knee deep in some kind of strange water, which seemed to be flowing out from the cage. It took him a moment before he recognized that it wasn't water at all, it was blood.

Yet Naruto still didn't care as he'd seen blood many times in his life and held no fear of it, especially since he dreamed of becoming a ninja and knew the harsh reality of his chosen career path.

It was then that he heard it, a low rumbling sound off in the distance. At first he thought it was thunder, but then remembered he was underground or what he thought was underground. Whatever it was, it was getting louder. Turning towards the gate he grasped what he was hearing.

Growling, very feral growling.

How did he figure that out? Easy, by looking at the giant red fox on the other side of the gate. Naruto stared up into its face, into its fire like eyes, the eyes that had haunted his nightmares for as long as he could remember. For the first time they didn't scare him, he felt empty…a shell…numb.

The two just stared at each other for what felt like hours, until finally.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

It was strange to see a fox laugh; its voice was so deep he could feel the vibrations all around him.

"I have lived for thousands of years, seen civilizations rise and fall, but I have never known a human, a child no less that could look me in the eye without fear. Maybe you won't be such a bad host after all. For you must be either as foolish or as brave as they come. Hahahahaha!"

Naruto just continued to look at the giant beast before him with a blank expression on his six year old face, showing no sign that he had even heard or cared about the fox's words.

"...So it's true. You being here must mean the things the pink haired lady said were true. Though I can't tell where we are, it does seem oddly familiar..."

His words made the fox's laughter stop instantly, a look of mild surprise crossing its face. The boy's voice just sounded...wrong, it held no emotion, no feeling. It actually sent a shiver up the Kyuubi's spine to hear such an empty tone in a child's voice. It was then the fox took a good look at the boy.

Naruto had on a plain white t-shirt that looked like it had come right out of the trash, a pair of black shorts with too many holes in them to be considered usable. His spiky blonde hair going in all directions, and three whiskers on each cheek that gave him an innocent but feral look, not that it had helped him with the villagers. But what really caught its attention were his eyes. His large blue eyes that were normally full of life no matter what life threw at him, eyes that could brighten up the room just by being there, were now dead.

They held no light in them, no shine of happiness, no flash of anger...nothing. They lacked the spark that one would see in the eyes of the living. Now…they were like the eyes of an old man that had seen too much and had given up, waiting for death to come and take him away.

The Kyuubi didn't know what to think of this. It had seen eyes like that before, but only in people that had lived their lives and had endured great loss. Kyuubi had never seen it outside of that situation, especially not in the eyes of a six year old boy.

"...We are in your Mindscape, a place in your subconscious mind. At the moment we are using it as a...well you could say a bridge of sorts, in order for us to communicate. What you see around you is a representation of both our minds."

Naruto thought about that for a moment, seeming to be getting his thoughts in order as he took his time looking around him.

"I see, I'm guessing the blood is you, which means that my mind is a sewer…or a boiler due to the pipes running through it? Interesting."

That made the fox laugh again, it was starting too actually like this kid.

XXX

Naruto just stared at the giant fox in front of him, his face completely devoid of any emotions as he met the beast's burning gaze without fear.

"Why?"

The fox just looked down at the boy in front of it with an amused gleam in its eyes.

"It would amuse me, what other reason do I need? Let's face it, you need all the help you can get. You're weak, it pathetic really."

"I'm six how the hell am I supposed to be powerful at this age."

"...whatever, in your circumstance you need as much power as you can get to protect yourself."

"So you'll just give me a new bloodline with no strings attached?"

The fox looked thoughtful for a moment before its eyes took on a slight glimmer.

"Well I guess you'll just have to owe me one, won't you?"

The fox paused here, to see how Naruto would react. All it got was a blank look for several minutes before...

"That's it?"

"That's it."

Naruto thought about it for a moment then agreed, what harm could it do?

"Okay."

With that the Kyuubi sent as much of its chakra through the bars of its cage as the seal would allow, slowly it made its way towards Naruto, who stood there, staring into the fox's eyes, seeming to ignore the bubbling red chakra as it slowly started to climb up his small legs, and after a moment covered his entire body.

After a few minutes it started to soak into his body until nothing was left.

"It's done."

"So what can I do?"

"You can be anything."

Naruto looked at the fox for a moment.

"Isn't that just crap parents tell their kids to make them feel better?"

The fox looked at the boy, trying to tell if he was serious, a large sweat drop appearing at the back of its head.

"Well...yes...it is, but in his case it's literal. I gave you the ability to shape shift, its only limitations are your imagination and size. The bigger or smaller the thing you change into, the more chakra it will take."

Naruto thought about that for a moment, it did sound useful to be able to change into practically anything...

"How does it work?"

"It's simple enough; just picture the form you want to change into in your mind, and channel chakra through your body."

"I can be anything?"

"Pretty much...oh, I should probably warn you that if you're not careful you could lose control of the form, and go on a killing spree, slaughtering everything in sight. Sounds fun right? I personally hope that happens at least a few times."

Naruto just stared at the fox for a moment. It made sense, and he didn't really care one way or the other anymore.

"...That seems like a fair enough trade off."

The fox just stared at the boy in front of it for a long moment, before bursting out in laughter.

"Hahahahaha...they...haha...they really did break you didn't they...ha. Kami this is the most fun I've had in centuries...hahaha. I mean, I thought the Romans and the Mongolians were brutal but this village just topped them"

Naruto just stood there, staring at the fox as it continued to laugh. When the Kyuubi calmed down enough to stop laughing it turned back to the boy.

"Thanks for that...woo, I needed it. Anyway I think it's time for you to wake up, see you later kit."

Before Naruto could reply he felt dizzy, and fell back into the water. When he opened his eyes he could see the old man leaning over him.

XXX

Sarutobi Hiruzen had been sitting at Naruto's bedside for three days straight; luckily, his old friends had stepped up to run the village for a few days. He had been skeptical at first of letting Danzo anywhere near his office, but it turns out he wasn't against him as much as he had thought. He had been, in his own words, 'trying to bring back his Will of Fire'.

It seems that he had taken it onto himself to try and challenge him, hopping that by going against what he believed in it would force him to regain the fire that he lost at the end of the Third Great War. Sarutobi had been so happy when he heard that, that he actually hugged the old cripple. Danzo still didn't agree with his ideals, but he did admit that he respected them, even if he couldn't believe in them himself.

Homura and Koharu apparently knew about this from the start, but not having the heart to do the same, started to distance themselves from him, not being able to see him that way. When the three had seen the look in his eyes at the meeting they had seen their friend again, the man that had lived through wars and countless battles. They had come to him the same night of 'the incident', as it was now being called, and told him everything. Since then they had been handling everything while he waited for the boy in front of him to wake up.

They had caught most people from that night, at least the ones that were left after he let the clan leaders take the crowd down, but some had still gotten away. They had stopped four of the five ninja that had been involved and they had been nothing more than a few no-named chunin that had lost their families in the Kyuubi's attack six years ago. The rest that they had caught were just civilians, mostly drunk, and had all been sent to Ibiki and Anko in T&I.

Three days...three days, and there was still no response from Naruto, not a twitch or a groan, nothing, he was completely and utterly dead to the world, if it wasn't for the heart monitor Hiruzen would have thought Naruto a corpse.

Hiruzen heard the door to the room sliding open and turned to see Hatake Kakashi entering the room.

XXX

Kakashi had been in a deep depression ever since 'the incident'. He wasn't wearing his Anbu uniform any more, only his normal attire of a black body suit, his mask, his flak jacket, and his left eye covered by his forehead protector.

It was all his fault, if he had been paying attention this wouldn't have happened...and to have been jumped by some no-name chunin. If nothing else this whole experience had shown him that he had become arrogant, relying on the Sharingan and letting his other skills fade, which had left him vulnerable, and now Naruto was the one to pay the price.

By the time he had come to it was too late, the damage was done.

He had woken up just in time to see the Hokage go berserk, slaughtering the many people gathered around the burning six year old. He was found a few minutes later on the same roof he had been sitting watching over Naruto, with his hands tied in ninja wire, by one of the ANBU that had been gathering up the few villagers that had gotten away.

After discovering what had happened, and a quick talk with the Hokage, he had come to the Memorial Stone, and just stood there, staring at the names of his old teammate, and sensei for three days.

"I'm so sorry Minato-sensei, Rin...Obito, I've failed again."

He whispered to the air. He decided that it was time to see if Naruto was awake; turning his back to the stone, he took off towards the hospital.

XXX

The first thing Sarutobi thought when he saw Kakashi was that he looked even more tired than he did, the bags under his visible eye only seemed to emphasize this fact. His clothes were a mess, and his hair, which would usually be sticking up, was flat against his head. His shoulders were slumped towards the ground, he slowly walked in to the room, and stood next to the Hokage, looking at the boy lying in the bed.

"I don't blame you Kakashi, it wasn't your fault. They got around all of us and you couldn't have known other ninja were going to come for the boy."

The silver haired ninja didn't react to the Hokage's words; he just stood there, staring at Naruto. Eventually he replied, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I appreciate that Hokage-sama...but it was my fault. I let my guard down. I became complacent and he paid for it. I will never be able to make this up to him."

Sarutobi was afraid this would happen. "Kakashi they tricked us all, including me. At least we don't have to deal with those damn fools anymore."

It was true, while Naruto had been in surgery Sarutobi had gone back to the council room, and repeated the actions of the clan heads when they had found Naruto. The only difference being that he killed them all. Since then not a single civilian had approached the Hokage as word had spread of the massacre and the civilian part of the village was in no rush to organize a new group of advocates to go to the village council.

Kakashi still didn't move his eyes from Naruto's form.

"...I guess..."

Before another word could be said between the two of them; one of the machines connected to Naruto started beeping rapidly. Startled, Sarutobi shot to his feet, and leaned over while Kakashi ran into the hall shouting for a doctor.

"Naruto!? Naruto, can you hear me!? Naruto!?"

Slowly, the young boy's eyes started to open. When they did, Sarutobi's, Kakashi's and the just arriving doctor's eyes all widened in a mixture of horror and shock, all three of them taking a step back, not even realizing it. They were the eyes of a corpse, lifeless, without the slightest hint of emotion in his once bright blue eyes. They were still the same shade of blue, but something was just...missing.

"Dear Kami, Naruto...what have they done to you?" whispered Sarutobi under his breath.

Getting over his shock the doctor quickly made his way over to the boy's bedside and, after taking a moment to check the many different machines that he was hooked up to, shone a small light in his eyes to test their reaction, trying to figure out what was wrong with them. When that was done he stepped back, shook his head, and then turned to the other two men in the room.

"He's conscious, and there's nothing physically wrong with his eyes. I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do at this point seeing as he is at full health."

With that he left, leaving the men in the room with the poor boy.

A few minutes later Naruto started to whisper something; it was so quiet that the two shinobi in the room had to lean in towards the boy to hear him.

"Why...didn't you just let me die? Why?"

Those words broke both men's hearts, to hear such words coming from a six-year-old boy was just wrong. Not able to stand it anymore, Kakashi left the room without a word, though the old Hokage could clearly hear the sound of something being thrown against a wall out in the corridor.

"Probably going back to the memorial stone."

Thought Sarutobi.

XXX

It was a week later before Naruto was discharged from the hospital. He didn't say a word to anyone, not even the Hokage after that first sentence, just stared off into empty space. It worried Sarutobi greatly. There was also the fact that he hadn't slept at all for a week straight, and didn't show any signs of changing any time soon.

Kakashi hadn't come back.

As Sarutobi lead him to his apartment Naruto absently noticed that the people were still glaring at him whenever the old man wasn't looking. He was covered from head to toe in bandages again, although there was now an opening for his mouth and eyes. The old man had found him some basic clothes to wear on the way. Ironically, they were the same clothes he had when in his mindscape talking to Kyuubi, only new. Sarutobi had tried to talk to him about the Kyuubi several times, but Naruto would just stare off into space, not saying a word.

When they got to the apartment the old Hokage stayed with him for an hour or so, making sure the boy was ok. Naruto just went about his business as if Sarutobi wasn't even there. Moving around the room, picking up the things that had been knocked over when the villagers had dragged him out, throwing away what they had broken and trying to fix what was salvageable.

"At least one good thing came out of this."

Thought the Hokage, He finally had the drive and complete power to do anything he wanted to help Naruto.

Meaning, starting tomorrow night, Naruto would get a full Anbu guard watching over him twenty-four/ seven. He had asked Kakashi to be the team leader, but the man had refused, saying that he couldn't look after him anymore when he had let him down and had caused him so much pain.

Eventually, Sarutobi had to go back to work; he had been away for too long as it was, so saying goodbye to the unresponsive boy he left the apartment, shaking his head at the thought of what had happened to the boy.

XXX

As the day turned to night you could find Naruto in the same spot as the night when they had come for him, just sitting on his mattress staring into an empty corner of the room. He didn't know how long he had been sitting there, and he didn't care.

It was at this point that his door opened, he hadn't locked it, he didn't see any point, it never stopped them before, and it wouldn't now. He just kept staring at the wall. After a few minutes of nothing happening he slowly turned his head toward the door, still showing no interest at what was going on around him.

Stood in the doorway, an insane grin stretching across her face, was the pink haired lady. It seemed that she was one of the few that gotten away from the old man. For a few more minutes he just sat there, staring into her wide, deranged eyes. Then he saw the knife in her hand. It looked like a simple eight inch long kitchen knife, the same thing someone would use if they were preparing dinner.

"Why didn't you just die!? It was all planned out; I was going to be the one to lead the people of Konoha to the destruction of the Kyuubi! I was going to be a hero, but you just wouldn't die!"

Her voice was high, almost a screech, and as she was saying this she had moved further into the room. By the end of her speech, he made a mental note that she seemed to really like monologues for some reason; she had stopped right in front of Naruto, and stabbed the boy in the chest. He felt the pain as the blade pierced his skin, slipping through his ribs and puncturing his lung as a cold sensation started spreading around the wound; but Naruto didn't react at all, he didn't flinch, he didn't blink, he didn't even gasp. He just kept staring into her green eyes. This just made the woman angrier, so she kept stabbing, each time repeating the same word over and over again.

"Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!"

It was while she was stabbing him over and over that something inside Naruto just snapped.

Before the woman could stab him again, he grabbed her by the wrist seizing the hand that held the knife, and with the same emotionless expression he had been wearing until to that point, broke it in one quick movement. She was in such shock that she stood there, staring at her wrist for a full minute, before she started to scream.

Before she could get to a decent volume Naruto leapt from his mattress, and pushed her to the ground, placing a hand over her mouth to silence her. Slowly leaning down so that his mouth was right next to her ear, Naruto made the first sound he had in a week.

"Shush...shush…shush…"

When he pulled away again, his hand still placed firmly over her mouth, she looked up into the young boys eyes; what she saw made her stop struggling, and instead she froze in terror. His eyes weren't empty anymore. They were filled with predatory glee at what was about to happen.

Then he started to giggle, then chuckle, then laugh until it reached full blown hysterics. After about a minute of laughing, he stopped and once again leaned down so that he was next to her ear and said, in a voice so full of childlike innocence it made a cold shiver run down the pink haired lady's spine...

"Will you step into my parlor? Said the Spider to the Fly."

And with those words, the small boy's body started to change before her eyes.

XXX

He could feel it, the way his body shifted to his will, his muscles ripping and knitting back together under his skin. The way his bones were breaking, stretching and reforming into something different. The way his clothes just melded into his body, as if they were never there. It was excruciating, almost as painful as the feeling of being burned alive for hours on end, but more than that it was euphoric. He had never felt so alive.

When it was done he stood up and stepped back from the pink haired woman; she was so scared of what was in front of her that she couldn't scream. Standing in front of her, in all its eight foot glory was...she didn't even know what to call it, something out of a nightmare maybe?

If only she knew.

It actually was from a nightmare, one of Naruto's to be precise. His very skin was covered in an ivory white shell, the only clothing he had was a torn black cloth that covered his waist down to his knees, held up by bandages tied to his waist, his body covered in muscles reminiscent of a body builder. Long spiky blonde hair went down to his feet, and strange red markings covered his entire body, huge hands with long, boney fingers tipped in vicious scythe-like claws. He had what seemed to be white spikes with red tips growing out of his shoulders pointing in random directions and a long tail coming out the base of his spine, the end of which was a deep crimson, as if it had been dipped in fresh blood.

But what really scared her was his face and chest.

A demonized skull like mask covered his face with long, sharp teeth spread in a horrifying grin with more of the red markings on the left side of its face. Cold yellow eyes ringed in black with a sickening glee shining in them as they stared down at her, and a hole in the center of his chest where his heart should be.

Naruto just stood there a moment to admire himself in the reflection of the broken glass that was in his window. This was one of the creatures he had seen in his nightmares, right down to the last detail. He laughed, he couldn't stop himself. He absently noted that his voice had a strange echo to it, as if more than one voice was talking at the same time. The irony, for years this creature had haunted his nights; now it would be the image he would use to haunt others as well.

Without saying a word he bent down and grabbed the pink haired lady by her throat, lifting her up easily with one hand above his head and, with no effort at all, threw her through the broken window onto the street outside. Jumping out after her, he then slowly made his way over to her broken body.

She was covered in cuts and glass shards from the window, both her arms were bent at odd angles, obviously broken in several places; she was still conscious, if only just. He couldn't have that; he wanted her fully aware for what he was about to do. Quicker than most eyes could see he speared her through the abdomen with the end of his tail, and held it there for a moment, listening to her gargled screams as blood rose in her throat.

It was music to his ears.

He then sent a small pulse of his chakra through his tail and into the woman on the ground at his feet. Instantly her eyes shot open; she started to scream as loud as her abused lungs would allow her, causing Naruto to stop yet again to listen to her screams. When he had enough of that he lifted up his right foot, and brought it down on her, mostly uninjured, left leg, shattering the bone.

He tilted his head to the side in fascination as her screaming changed pitch, so he did it again with her right leg, then each of her already broken arms. Each time he did this she made a new sound.

XXX

A platoon of five Anbu that had heard the screams and came to investigate, were watching in stunned silence as they saw some…thing, mutilating a woman; but what shocked them more was that it was the woman they had spent the last week looking for. She had somehow managed to get away on the night of 'the incident', and had avoided them ever since.

A cat masked Anbu turned to another with a dragon mask, asking in a clearly feminine voice.

"What should we do, captain?"

The now identified captain remained quiet for a moment, staring at what was happening in stunned silence, before replying.

"You go and inform the Hokage, we will stay here, and try to subdue it, hurry." With that she was gone in a swirl of leafs.

The four remaining Anbu jumped off the building they were stood on, running towards the creature.

Spotting them out of the corner of his eye, Naruto grabbed his limp prey by the throat and held her to his chest to use as a human shield as he turned to face the Anbu, still cackling insanely. They stopped in their tracks, not expecting the...creature to have seen them coming. Stepping forward the dragon masked Anbu spoke.

"Drop the woman and get on the ground, do you understand me?"

The creature just laughed at him.

Then, slowly reaching around the woman's stomach dragged his free hand; Naruto used the claw on his index finger to slowly cut a line across her stomach. For a moment nothing happened before a red line appeared, followed by a burst of blood, and the pink haired woman's intestines fell onto the floor with a wet squelch.

The Anbu were shocked at the act of brutality, but what was even worse was that the woman was still alive; but not for long, just before the light left her eyes, the creature reached a hand around her neck, and with one quick jerk, pulled her head from her shoulders. What little blood was left in her body spurted out of the hole where her head once sat, covering Naruto's face.

What he did next shocked the ANBU as, in his echo-like voice, he started to... sing?

"Ring, a round the rosie,

A pocket full of posies,

Ashes, ashes,

You all fall down!"

At the end of the song he started to laugh again, the sound of his voice, echoing across the village as he threw his head back, and laughed.

One of the Anbu, a large man in a bear mask, ran forward.

"No! Stop! We have to take it together!" called out the captain, but it was too late.

The bear masked Anbu started to run through hand signs as he ran straight towards the beast, but before he could finish, the creature appeared in front of him, grabbing his arms just below the shoulders. The Anbu let out a scream as the hands got tighter and tighter; the arms falling to his sides limply, getting number by the second until, with a quick jerk, both his arms were pulled off just below the shoulder; but before he could get over his shock at the loss of his arms, Naruto used the one in his right hand as club hitting him in the face so hard his head exploded in a shower of blood and gore; his laughter never letting up for even a second.

Without further ado, the remaining three Anbu sprang into action.

"Wood style: Tree Binding"

Instantly long pieces of wood shot out of the ground and wrapped themselves around the beast's arms, legs, neck, and chest.

"Fire style: Great Fire Ball"

"Wind style: Great Breakthrough"

The two jutsu joined together, the fire being fuelled by the wind, turning white from the increased heat, stopping the laughter as soon as the attack hit. The Anbu released a sigh of relief, only to take a step back in fear when the laughter started again, if weaker than before.

Nothing had ever survived that combination, nothing.

When the smoke cleared they could clearly see the creature still standing, if only just. Its body was covered in what seemed to be cracks; as they watched the shell-like skin started to move, like millions of maggots were curling under it as its body started to shrink.

The Hokage arrived with the cat masked Anbu, just in time to see the beast before it disappeared, leaving an unconscious Naruto with a large crazy grin on his face, his small body almost completely covered in blood. Looking at the bloodbath before him, then to the six year old boy, Sarutobi Hiruzen could only say one thing.

"Dear Kami, Naruto what have you done?"


	2. Let the chaos begin

**Chapter 2**

**(Time skip: One year later)**

Sarutobi slowly made his way down the dark corridor, a man in a long white doctor's coat just a few paces behind him with a clipboard in hand.

Sarutobi wasn't in a rush; honestly he didn't really want to be here at all as the place filled him with an odd mixture of sadness, remorse and regret. With a poker face developed through years of war Sarutobi asked the man behind him.

"Has there been any progress in his condition or mental state."

The man didn't even slow down as he looked down at the clipboard in his hand.

"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama, there has been no change in his condition since the last time you were here, he has shown some new shifts but that is just an example of his seemly endless creativity at work."

Sarutobi just gave a nod and kept walking towards his destination.

The Institute was a depressing place, it was built underground and was designed for the express purpose of housing and rehabilitation of shinobi that couldn't cope with the stress or responsibilities of the job.

Those ninja that had let their guilt or grief overwhelm them, or that had had given into their bloodlust. If a ninja had a mental breakdown, of any kind, they were sent here to be treated and contained.

Because this place was designed to contain shinobi it had the highest level of security possible, Built underground in the forests surrounding Konohagakure there was only one entrance in and out and it was manned by at a minimum of five chunin or higher level ninja. On both sides of the corridor were solid steel doors with heavy locks and a small window so the workers and doctors could see into them. At the bottom of each door was a small locked hinged door, these were used to push food through.

When he came to the last door in the corridor he stopped. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves he looked through the small window in the door.

It was more or less the same as all the other cells, white walls with a simple cot in the corner that was screwed into the floor to prevent the occupant from doing anything with it. What made this one stand out however was that the walls, floor and roof were covered in blue glowing seals, they were the only source of light in the cell and made it look like something out of a drug induced dream gone wrong. Another thing that made it stand out from the other cells was the fact that there was dried blood on the walls and floor along with the seals. Finally, the other thing that set this cell apart from the others was that it was the only one that didn't have a shinobi. This was the room of one Uzumaki Naruto.

After what had happened with the Haruno woman Sarutobi had done all he could to help Naruto. Sarutobi had him watched constantly and had Naruto visit therapists under armed guard but Naruto always managed to slip his guard. It was during one of those time in which he went missing that villagers started to go missing or were found dead. Naruto was later found with the blood of the deceased all over his person

Sarutobi had no other choice after this had happened several times, but to put him here in this depressing prison for the insane.

The seals were applied by his old student Jiraiya, who had been beside himself with rage when he heard that his godson had not only been treated like something less than human, but had been driven into insanity. On that day it took a lot of convincing but Hiruzen managed to keep the sannin from waging war against the village. Hiruzen shuttered to think of the damage Jiraiya and his summons could do before being taken down.

The seals were designed to do two things according to Jiraiya. The first was to strengthen the walls of the cell to keep Naruto from using his shifts and advanced strength from damaging them and the second was to constantly drain as much of Naruto's chakra as possible to attempt to keep him from hurting people.

It turned out that because of the amount of healing the Kyuubi had done to it Naruto's body had been practically saturated in its chakra. This had resulted in Naruto gaining chakra reserves far beyond what was thought possible even for a Jinchuriki. If anyone other than Naruto was to go in that room with the seals active, they would be killed in a matter of seconds. As it was the seals only seemed to make him slightly tired and Sarutobi made a mental note to recall Jiraiya to the village to increase the power of the seals.

When the boy had first been admitted they had sent a Yamanaka to try and assess his mental state. That had been a mistake. He was now in a white padded cell next to Naruto's raving like a lunatic about nightmares, monsters and darkness.

A few weeks later a doctor had gone in to try a talk to the boy and that was the source of the dried blood on the walls and floor as they weren't willing to risk another life to clean up the mess.

Looking into the room Sarutobi started to panic when he didn't see anyone in the room. He was about to turn around to asked the doctor where Naruto was when he jumped back from the door, heart beating a mile a minute when a face appeared just on the other side of the glass. But it wasn't Naruto's. The face in the glass was that of a pale girl with long messy neon green hair that had grim visible in places. She was so pale she had an almost blue glow to it from the seals. She had dark rings around her mouth and glowing orange eyes with silted pupils, a small smirk on her face as she looked at Sarutobi.

Just looking at her sent shivers down the old Hokage's spine.

"Stop playing games Naruto, I'm not in the mood for it today."

The girl's smirk turned into a full-blown grin at the old man's words, showing her slime covered black teeth that appeared to all be filed to a point.

"Aww, you don't want to play with me? That's not fair. The doctors are boring; they've seen most of what I can do. But you, I've got so much I can show you."

Her voice sounded so innocent, like the tinkling of small bells, it didn't seem right that a voice like that would come out of something so twisted.

The Hokage didn't say anything, just stared into her bright orange eyes with no fear or emotion. Eventually, after the two had stared at each other for a few minutes, the girl broke eye contact and pouted. As the two men watched they could see the face change into that of a blonde haired, blue eyed boy. His face covered in bandages.

"You're no fun old man."

Turning his back to the door Naruto walked away and jumped onto his cot in the corner.

This gave Sarutobi and the doctor that was accompanying him a good view of the boy.

He had grown; when he was first brought here he was barely 3'5" and very malnourished. Now, he was 4'6", and still growing. He was still very thin, but no matter what the doctors gave him he wouldn't put on weight. He was wearing a modified black strait jacket with a hood attached at the back of the neck, the sleeves hanging down past his arms, almost touching the floor. Plane black trousers going down to just above his bandaged feet.

No skin could be seen due to the bandages that covered his skin. He just lay there, staring at the reinforced concrete roof of his cell. Every now and then he would break out into chuckles, as if someone was telling him jokes that only he could hear.

If only they knew.

"How have you been Naruto?"

He didn't answer straight away, but when the Hokage was about to ask again he spoke.

"I am how I am and I'm not how I'm not." More laughing.

Sarutobi sighed again, he was used to this, getting round about answers that didn't really tell him anything. He was about to turn away when he heard Naruto call him back.

"Hey, old man."

"... Yes, Naruto."

As he looked back at the boy he could see him trying to hold back more laughter.

"What has no legs, no arms and goes AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Naruto..."

"Guess."

"Stop it Naruto"

"I said **guess!**"

Sarutobi was slightly taken aback as Naruto yelled at him in a demonic voice.

"I... Don't know Naruto, what is it."

At this point Naruto finally took his eyes off the roof and locked eyes with Sarutobi.

"A villager after I've pulled their limbs off."

They kept eye contact for several more seconds before Naruto started laughing again.

Without another word Sarutobi turned around and left, the sound of Naruto's insane laughter following him down the corridor.

XXX

**(Time Skip: Five years later)**

Six years, it had been six years since 'the incident'. Six years since Naruto had killed those people and have landed himself in the institute.

Sarutobi had visited Naruto once a week for that entire time and had talked to him at least briefly. In that time Naruto had never improved.

During this time life in the village returned to normal and many villagers celebrated the incarceration of the demon child. A few became neutral when detail of the incident were released, they still didn't like the boy. But after what had happened, they were at least neutral and weren't able to push the Hokage.

He couldn't believe he let Danzo talk him into this, it was a big risk, but if it worked, Naruto would have a chance to be outside the Institute once again.

Making his way down the corridor towards Naruto's cell he couldn't help but hope the boy would agree with his proposal.

Looking into the room it still surprised him just how much it took to keep the boy contained. When he was younger it had been easy enough, just the seals around the room could stop him. But as time went by they found out that there was a side effect to the seals. Since the seals were on all the time, Naruto's chakra coils had been under a constant strain for six years. This had the result of his already unbelievable reserves growing even larger and larger.

So every year they needed to increase the security as it constantly took more and more to keep Naruto from being able to escape at will. The walls were the same, covered in seals and dried blood, but now there was no cot in the corner.

Naruto was kneeling in the center of the cell, a thick black metal collar around his neck was bolted to the floor with thick, black chains. Naruto's hands and feet were cuffed as well and the cuffs were chained together and to the floor to limit his movement as much as possible. All the chains covered in the same seals as the walls.

The boy looked up when he noticed Sarutobi standing at the window to his cell. Naruto didn't say anything, he just stared at him with that insane grin that Naruto had become so well known for among the staff.

"How have you been Naruto?"

"I am how I am and I'm not how I'm not."

This had become a routine for the two; it was almost enough to bring a smile to the old man's face. It was one of the few things Naruto did that didn't have any malicious intent behind it.

"I have a proposition for you."

At the mention of the proposition Naruto got an odd look in his eye, this was new.

After making sure he had Naruto's full attention Sarutobi continued.

"You can't spend the rest of your life here and a majority of the council agrees as they believe you to be an asset to the village. So we have decided to offer you a chance to become a ninja of Konohagakure."

There was a moment of silence before Naruto's grin spread even wider.

"I'm listening."

You would need to behave. No killing or mauling any, civilian, clients, classmates, teammates, teachers or other shinobi of the leaf."

"... I _think_ I could do that."

This brought a smile to the old man's face. Naruto had agreed and that is all Sarutobi needed.

"Good, I will be back soon to take you to the academy to meet the other genin, as you don't know the academy Jutsu you will be allowed to skip the exam. Seeing as you are, well you. I don't think you will have a problem with ninja life."

As he turned to go and fill in the necessary paperwork he stopped when Naruto asked him a question.

"Hey, old man… I can still kill other ninja right?" at the end of this he was starting to chuckle to himself.

Sarutobi thought about that for a moment before saying.

"Yes, Naruto, you can kill other ninja so long as they are not allied with us."

With that Sarutobi left. Sarutobi listened to Naruto's laughter and thought about the effects of what he was about to unleash on the shinobi world.

XXX

As Umino Iruka stood in front of his class, he could already feel the headache coming on. It was the last day of the Academy and they still wouldn't be quiet. Taking a big breath he did the hand sign for his infamous '**bighead Jutsu**'.

"SHUT THE HELL UP YOU BRATS!"

Instantly everything went quiet.

"That's better. Now as you know today is the day you are sorted into your three man teams, the problem with this is that we are one person short. However, the Hokage has found a suitable candidate and will be bringing that person here in a few minutes. So I want you all on your best behavior."

At hearing that there would be someone new the class burst into whispers. Whoever it is, if they were handpicked by the Hokage himself then they must be strong. It even got the attention of one Uchiha Sasuke who thought.

_"__Finally, someone that might give me a challenge__"_

It was at this point that Inuzuka Kiba decided to share his thoughts.

"Wait a minute, what about the exam. We all took it; it's not fair if this new guy doesn't have too!"

"Calm down Kiba, there are special circumstances that not even I know about. But when they get here you can ask the Hokage yourself."

That seemed to satisfy the boy and the rest of the class for the time being.

It was a few minutes later that a knock was herd at the door. The class fell silent again as Iruka went to open it.

"Welcome Hokage-sama, thank you for taking the time out of your day to come down here."

"It's no problem Iruka."

After the old Hokage walked into the room the class could see the boy that stood behind him. He was tall, very tall, and skinny. At 6'-3" he was the tallest twelve year old any of them had ever seen. But because of the way he stood slightly hunched over it was hard to tell his true height.

He had on a strange black jacket with what looked like steel buckles all over it, a hood sewed into the back of the neck and sleeves that went down past his hands and to his knees. He had a long spiky blonde haired mane that went down his back to just above his waist and bandages covering any place flesh could have been exposed. The only parts of his face that could be seen were his blue eyes and his mouth that had a huge grin on his face.

His appearance unnerved everyone in the class a little.

It was at this point that the kids saw their teacher Iruka; he was backed against the wall, staring at the boy in front of him with wide fear filled eyes, this caused confusion in many people's minds but they dismissed it for now

Seeing his reaction Sarutobi addressed the now clearly terrified man.

"Don't worry Iruka, Naruto has promised me he will behave himself."

This did calm the man a little; if there was one thing known about the boy it was that he has never broken his word. It was a mystery; no matter how insane he was he still had some kind of moral code, it baffled the Yamanaka clan immensely as they have never run into a situation like that before. Unfortunately nobody knew what most of the code was with the acceptation of the boy and maybe the Hokage to a limited extent. But Iruka was still not sure that it was a good idea.

"Are you absolutely sure, Hokage-sama?"

"Very, you have nothing to worry about, isn't that right Naruto? Naruto?"

When the boy didn't answer the old man turned to face the boy. But he wasn't there. Quickly looking around he spotted the boy crouched on a desk staring down at Sasuke, their faces only inches apart.

The class and Iruka were stunned; they hadn't even seen him move.

When Sasuke had gotten over his own shock he asked in a clearly irritated voice.

"What are you looking at?"

Naruto just kept staring. When Sasuke had enough he was about to ask again and that was when Naruto asked.

"Did you know you have a duck's ass on your head?"

At this the class burst out laughing, all except for the Uchiha and a few of his fan girls.

But when Sasuke made a grab at him he was already back next to the Hokage.

"Naruto... you said you would behave."

Naruto turned his face to look at him and replied.

"No, I said I wouldn't kill, maim or permanently break them, you never said anything about _behaving_."

The class was shocked at his words, to talk about such things without any hesitation. What the hell was wrong with this guy?

Sarutobi took a deep breath, then let it out slowly and thought

_"__At least he didn't kill anyone... yet__."_

"Just introduce yourself so we can move on please."

"Whatever old man."

Shocking the class yet again at his disrespect.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I like what I like and I hate what I hate, though... nothing I hate seems to be around for long when I hate it."

After saying this he broke out into giggles.

"I don't have a dream or goal in my life, because quite frankly, I don't actually have any will to live!"

After seeing their faces when he said this he couldn't hold it in any longer, he laughed and laughed.

With the introduction out of the way Naruto just sat on the floor where he was, the Hokage having quieted him down.

Deciding to humor him the Hokage nodded to Iruka to continue with the team placements.

"Right, well then. Team 1 will be comprised of..."

It went on like that for several minutes.

"Team 7, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Inuzuka Kiba under Hatake Kakashi."

When Iruka had said her name Sakura had jumped up screaming about true love.

It was then that Naruto saw her, and grinned wider, she reminded him of the pink haired lady. When Sakura had calmed down Iruka had continued.

"Team 8, Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino and Uzumaki Naruto under Yuhi_Kurenai__, _and finally, team 10, Akimichi Choji, Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino under Sarutobi Asuma.

When he finished reading out the names he put down the list and said.

"I want you to know that I am proud of all of you and that I expect great things from you all, and remember, you are all shinobi of the leaf now. That is a big responsibility. I trust you to act accordingly. Your new instructors will be here soon to pick you up."

With that done both Iruka and the Hokage left the room, Iruka looking back over his shoulder as he went out, then closing the door behind him. Leaving the class alone with Naruto. They all looked at him for a moment and he just looked back with that huge grin on his face and thought.

"_I think I'm going to enjoy this._"

XXX

Yuhi Kurenai was a beautiful woman, no one could or would argue with that especially the men that hit on her. She was an average height for a woman at 5'6, with long brown hair that cascaded down her back and a wonderful hourglass figure that was the envy of almost every woman in Konohagakure.

Her clothes were made of what appeared to be bandages, with one red sleeve, white shorts and a mesh under shirt. She wore almost no makeup since she didn't really need it, just some red lipstick and blue eye shadow and with her exotic red eyes she was without a doubt one of the most beautiful ninja in the village.

She was also very nervous. She had been called into the Hokage's office ahead of the normal jonin sensei meeting time and she really didn't know why.

She was shown into the room and stood nervously in front of the village's leader waiting for him to address her. The Hokage finished signing a document before he put down his pen and looked up at Kurenai.

"I am glad you are here and I am sure you wondering why I asked you here early."

Kurenai nodded

"I am just concerned I won't be getting a team this year."

"You will be getting a team this year you don't have to worry about that, the reason I asked you here is to talk about who will be on your team."

"Alright but why couldn't that have waited for the normal jonin meeting sir?"

"Because frankly I am giving you a very…special student this year."

Alright, who will I be teaching then?"

"I have made your team into an information gathering and infiltration team with an element of frontline assault for when the mission become fucked up beyond all reason. You will be training Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino and Uzumaki Naruto."

"Hokage-sama, you can't be serious. That boy is dangerous."

Kurenai had an incredulous look on her face, maybe the old man's age was finally catching up to him? She knew of the boy, hell everyone knew of him. She didn't blame him for being the Kyuubi container, if anything she felt sorry for him.

But he was put in the institution for a reason.

"Kurenai, calm down, I know what I am doing. Do you think that I would put you or your other students at risk? Despite what many think he is not as dangerous as the villagers would like you to believe."

"With all due respect, he was put in a crazy house for broken ninja for a reason. He killed innocent people. How could you say he is not as dangerous as they say?"

Sarutobi looked at her for a long minute before he sighed.

"Kurenai, I'm disappointed in you."

Those words shocked her, but before she could say anything he continued.

"As a ninja you should always look underneath the underneath. And as an intelligence gatherer you should know better than to listen to hearsay from a group of bitter villagers especially when they have never had anything to back up their claims. Did it ever occur to you that if those villagers were innocent that Naruto would have been put to death?"

Kurenai's eyes widened at the implications.

"But... if that's true... I don't understand. I thought you put him in the Institute because he was dangerous?"

"I did, but at the time there were too many holes, too many things that didn't add up, so I looked into it further. It turns out that Naruto; in the few weeks leading up to him being put in the Institute never technically did anything wrong."

Kurenai was about to object to this but again the Hokage continued before she could.

"In the case of Miss Haruno, self-defense, there was never any doubt about that, it was the way that Naruto handled it that set off alarms, but the others..."

Here Sarutobi took out his pipe and lit it, taking a deep breath before he continued.

"The three men, self-defense, turns out they were drunk and attacked him. The two men in the ally, it was later found out that they had been attempting to rape a young girl, Naruto stopped them and even took the girl back to her house. The orphanages care workers, we found out they were selling children into slavery outside the village. Every one of the people Naruto killed was later found to have either attacked him first or found guilty of crimes against the village that carried a death penalty anyway."

Kurenai didn't know what to say. How could she have been pulled in by the villagers so easily?

She prided herself on her ninja skills.

But this was a huge mistake on her part. But then something occurred to her.

"But Hokage-sama, if this is true then why was he kept in the school, surely he should have been released when this was found out? Why did you leave him there?"

At this question the Hokage got a sad look in his eyes.

"Because he asked me to..."

Again, Kurenai was shocked. Nobody asked to be kept in such a horrible and isolating place as the Institute.

"But... why?"

Sarutobi took another deep breath from his pipe before letting it out again.

"At that point Naruto still had some semblance of his old self. He still does, though it's buried under a very thick layer of insanity. In a moment of lucidity he realized what was happening to him. He could see what was happening and knew that if he didn't get away from people for a while he could lose himself completely. So he asked to be left in the school until I thought he could be trusted. I have watched him over the years, and I can honestly say that although he is the most insane, dangerous, and fucked up person I have ever met, he is also one of my most trusted people."

At seeing the confused look on the young woman's face he elaborated.

"It is true that Naruto is insane, but he has still kept what makes him a good person. It is what makes him different from many that lose their minds. He has morals, they can be hard to see, but they are there. He never hurts children; scares them, yes, but never hurt them. He also has a respect for women, which all things considered is a miracle. He also will never break a promise once it has been made, but he rarely will give you his word or he will word his response to allow himself some leeway."

Kurenai didn't know what to say. Naruto just didn't make any sense to her, but that wasn't really surprising since Naruto didn't make sense to anyone.

"However..."

This made her stop her train of thought.

"There is a problem that you need to be aware of with Naruto. He can't control himself when he kills, when he goes into fight mode he won't stop until he decides that there is no longer any threats in the area to kill. He will make anyone that he deems worth killing go through extreme pain before he will let them die. He has been known to scare Anbu with his methods, both psychological and physical. Too be honest Anko and Ibiki have watched Naruto to learn new ways of getting information out of people. I was even at one point letting Naruto out just so he could help train Anbu."

That worried Kurenai, Anbu were trained to be fearless, to not let anything bother them, and they are the best of the best. But for his methods to interest spark interest with Anko and Ibiki means he had to be extremely good. If Anbu were scared of what a twelve year old boy could do then he had to know what to do to get under people's skin

Taking a deep breath, Kurenai asked.

"Can you tell me anything about his abilities, as far as I know this kid has never had any sort of training? If he is going to be on my team I need to know what to expect."

This made Sarutobi smile as she was willing to give Naruto a chance.

"He has enhanced senses far above that of an Inuzuka, enhanced strength, reflexes and he is able to process information at an astonishing rates. He has been out of the school for only two days and has been at the Konohagakure library the entire time reading. I have been testing his progress and comprehension on the books he has read since he started and he went from being unable to do math to doing basic algebra, his reading speed and ability has shot up from that of a six year old to that of someone easily in there twenties. He has already read through the entire academy curriculum and I have tested him on it, he got a perfect score for the information portion. While he is not reading every book he is certainly gathering and learning information that he feels he needs and if he continues to act this way, I am considering giving him access to the village technique vault just to see how many techniques he can read, practice and master although I might have to restrict him to the lower level techniques until he makes chunin."

This surprised Kurenai, to be able to read and understand so much information in such a short time was truly amazing.

"He also has a bloodline; it has been designated as Shape Shifter as he is able to become almost anything, if he can picture it in his mind he can more than likely become it. It is similar to the Transformation Jutsu. But unlike theTransformation Jutsu he physically changes his body."

The implications of this were spinning through Kurenai's head. To be able to become anything, the potential was practically limitless.

"However there is a catch, the longer he uses it the harder it is to keep it up or in some cases, to come back. From what he has told me he is currently able to hold a basic shift, as he called it, for three days, but the more complex it is the harder it gets. He said a basic shift is anything that keeps the general humanoid shape and isn't any bigger or smaller than his current size."

This made perfect sense to Kurenai, with every bloodline there was always a weakness.

She also now understood why he was on her team. With a bloodline to change into anything he could make a great intelligent gatherer, and with his heavy hitter abilities, he could cover the rest of them if they needed to retreat or escape from a tough situation.

She was broken out of her thoughts when the Hokage stood up from his chair.

"I'm sorry Kurenai, but I need to go and check on him now, before he decided to put some of the information that he has gathered to use and moves on to something else that would not be as beneficial to the village. I hope I can trust you to teach your future students to the best of your ability."

Standing up from her chair, Kurenai did a small bow to her leader and replied.

"Yes Hokage-sama, I understand and I welcome the challenge."

XXX

Kurenai waited outside for the rest of the jonin and the meeting went on without any problems as everyone was given a team to teach and train. After the meeting the jonin went out for lunch. She was now on her way to meet her team with the other sensei's and just couldn't stop herself from feeling nervous, only for all the jonin to stop at the door when they heard the voices inside the room.

XXX

They all sat in silence for a few minutes, just staring at the strange boy in front of them. He was just sitting there, looking around the room with that creepy grin on his face.

Eventually Kiba, being the hyperactive loudmouth he is, took it upon himself to break it.

Standing up from his seat he made his way to the front of the room where Naruto was sat, smirking to himself , not seeing Akamaru shrinking back into his hood and shaking slightly.

"So... You're the guy that was too good to go to the academy like the rest of us, you don't look so strong. I bet you don't even know any Jutsu."

Naruto just sat there for a moment, looking up at Kiba. Slowly, standing up, he looked Kiba in the eyes and asked.

"What's a Jutsu? Wait now I remember reading about that. Unfortunately, no, I do not know how to perform any of those yet, just haven't had the time to try out the ones I read about."

The other children in the room looked at Naruto incredulously, what kind of ninja didn't know how to perform a Jutsu.

Kiba started laughing and pointing at Naruto, and then so did the rest of the class.

"You... you... you don't even know how to use a jutsu, ha. Where have you been for the past few years?"

"Locked in a cell lined with chakra sapping seal inside a mental institution for dangerously insane ninja."

That turned the laughter into shocked silence. Was he serious? What the hell!

"You're joking... right?"

"Nope, the people there were really boring. Hey did you know you need a bath? You smell like dog piss."

This got to Kiba. Nobody embarrasses him in front of his class, nobody.

"What did you say? I am going to fucking kill you!"

In his rage Kiba charged at Naruto without thinking.

But before Kiba could lay a hand on him Naruto had his right hand on the back of Kiba's head and was slamming it into the ground, or so it seemed. Just before Kiba's face connected it stopped.

Bending down, Naruto said to him, loud enough for all to hear.

"I have killed people for attacking me, and the only reason I haven't killed you is because I promised the old man I wouldn't. But know this the next time you try to do that you won't be able to walk away. Think yourself lucky I left you unscathed this time."

And with that he let Kiba fall to the ground, his grin still on his face.

Kiba shuffled away as quick as possible, and then made his way back to his seat.

The room was quite again, no one knowing what to say after that, hell no one even want to look towards Naruto after that.

What no one expected though was for Sakura to slowly get up from her seat and make her way over to Naruto, Ino trying to tell her old friend to come back.

When she was in front of him she asked.

"You said your name was Naruto?"

At his nod she continued.

"My dad said that if I was ever to meet you to say that we are sorry for my mother's actions to you and to ask for forgiveness, but he never said why..."

She let the question hang, hoping he would explain.

Naruto just gave her an odd look for a minute, before his grin faded into a genuine smile.

"Thank you, and tell you're farther that there is nothing to forgive, her actions were her own, and I hold no grudge against you or your family."

At hearing this Sakura let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"As for what she did, I can honestly say that your mother made me what I am today."

When he said this, his grin returned in full force and he began to chuckle. It sent a shiver up her spine, as well as all those in the room, but before anyone could comment further on this the door opened and a group of people walked into the room.

One by one they introduced themselves as the leaders of their respective teams and took their respective teams out of the room.

"Team 8, I'm your Jonin sensei, Yuhi Kurenai. Please follow me."

Shino, Hinata and Naruto followed her out of the room.

XXX

Hinata, Shino and Naruto said nothing on their way to the training ground, all lost in their own thoughts. Shino and Hinata didn't know what to think of the boy, he seemed strong, but from what they had seen he was completely out of his mind.

Naruto was staring at his hand intently as a beetle had landed on it and he was smiling the whole time it was there. To anyone watching him it would appear as if that beetle was the most interesting thing in the whole world.

This caught Shino's attention as it was his beetle that he had sent out, he had put one on Hinata as well but he didn't need to test her. Shino wanted to see if Naruto would kill it but Naruto just seemed fascinated by the creature. He even noticed that Naruto began to push chakra into his hand to let the bug eat it. This really caught Shino off guard.

Kurenai was trying not to smile. She had heard everything that had gone on in the room and was happy to know that he didn't hold a grudge. Or kill the Inuzuka boy for that matter. But she didn't notice Naruto feeding his chakra into Shino's beetle as she didn't know all the ins and outs of the Aburame clan's bugs.

And Naruto was thinking.

"I wonder what I can do with this beetle and I wonder if it eats wood. Hmm I wonder what wood tastes like. I bet it tastes like starch. Wait, what does starch taste like…"

When they had come to training ground 8, Kurenai motioned for them to sit down.

When they were all seated she spoke.

"Right, my name is Yuhi Kurenai; I am twenty-four years old and am going to be your new sensei. I specialize in genjutsu and traps, I like reading and training, and my dream is to prove that women can be just as good at being ninja as men. Now who wants to introduce themselves next?"

Shino raised his hand and began to speak in a stoic monotone.

"My name is Aburame Shino and I am twelve years old. I specialize in my clan's Jutsu, I like studying new insects and training with my hive, and hope to prove that my clan is not weak just because we use insects and to surpass my father as a ninja and as a clan head by being able to control and hold more hives than him."

Nodding at this Kurenai turned to Hinata.

"I-I-I-I'm H-H-Hyuuga Hinata, I-I-I-I am t-twelve years old a-and I sp-specialize in my cl-clan's Jutsu. I h-hope to o-one day u-u-u-unite my clan by g-g-getting rid of the caged bird seal."

Hearing the stutter Kurenai made a note to introduce the girl to Anko, if anyone could break her of it, it would be her.

Turning to her last student, she was surprised to see him tuning a beautiful black violin that seemed to have designs carved into it. Where the hell had he got a violin?

After a minute he seemed satisfied and spoke.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I am twelve years old. I specialize in infiltration, torture and I am a chakra powerhouse. On top of that I am currently learning several other things as well. I enjoy learning new things and using my bloodline. I have nothing I wish to accomplish as frankly I have nothing to live for but I figure that while I am here I might as well explore the world around me and fight some of the more powerful people I run across."

At hearing that he was learning other things Kurenai got interested.

"What other things are you learning?"

Looking back up at her from his violin he said.

"Well, I am currently looking into weapon crafting, seal making, Jutsu making and a few different taijutsu styles that I plan to merge together into my own personal style as well as studying up on kenjutsu. I think I will also be reading up on the The Hyuuga and Aburame clans to understand my teammates fighting styles better."

Kurenai and the two genin didn't know what to think. Most ninja picked a specialty and stuck with it, but here was Naruto looking at several different aspects like it was nothing. If he mastered even half of what he was learning then he would be a force to reckon with in no time. If they only knew what he could truly do.

While they stared at him, Naruto had started to play his violin which, considering his hands were still covered by his sleeves was impressive.

Kurenai didn't know what he was playing; it started off slow but was slowly getting quicker.

It was then that Kurenai felt it, the feeling of someone casting a genjutsu. Naruto was channeling a huge amount of chakra into the violin which caused the carvings to glow a faint blue. The instrument acted to cast a wide scale genjutsu.

Smiling to herself she discreetly cancelled its effects on herself, but not the others. Naruto was doing her job for her. Her test was to see if they could detect and dispel a genjutsu anyway, so why not let him do it.

As she watched she saw Hinata and Shino fall into some kind of trance.

A few minutes later Shino was the first to notice something was wrong, his bugs telling him that he was in a genjutsu. Calmly putting his hand on Hinata's shoulder he broke them both out of the genjutsu.

When she was sure they were both out of the genjutsu Kurenai said.

"Good work Shino, and well done for helping your teammate out, but I have to ask, Naruto, why did you try to put us in a genjutsu in the first place?"

When she asked this Naruto stopped playing and looked at her strangely.

"What the hell you talking about, I can't cast a genjutsu to save my life. I've got too much chakra to control even the most powerful of genjutsus. If I wanted to actually use a genjutsu then I would have to cast one with an area effect of the entire village."

This surprised Kurenai, he was right, he did have too much chakra to do genjutsu, but she had assumed that was why he was using a violin as a means to control and as a catalyst. But how he was doing it without even knowing it, she didn't know. She would have to talk to the Hokage about this.

"Naruto, are you saying you didn't know you were channeling chakra through your violin while you were playing it?"

"Of course I was, it's something I read in a book about chakra control. This is actually my fifth violin in the last day, they kept exploding because I was pushing to much chakra into it. Had to put a reinforcement seal on this one that is what all these carving are actually."

The casual way that he said this made her laugh. As if exploding violins were normal, although, this was Naruto after all, who knew what went on in his head?

Hinata and Shino were confused, so asked.

"W-w-w-what do you m-m-m-mean Kurenai S-sensei?"

"I agree, I don't understand."

Turning to face the two Kurenai said.

"It's quite simple really, Naruto here was channeling chakra through his violin and it acted like a catalyst for a sound based genjutsu which I would like to point out are more powerful than normal genjutsu. But the interesting thing is he did it without knowing he was doing it, the genjutsu acted on its own and hypnotized us."

None of the genin knew what to say to that. Then Naruto started to laugh.

When he had calmed down Kurenai told them.

"Now, normally this would be where I give you your true genin exam, but seeing as Naruto beat me to it you all pass. Congratulations, you are all now official genin of Konohagakure. Meet me here tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. and we can start your training."

With that the three genin left to do their own things.

Letting out a deep breath Kurenai stood up and left to report to the Hokage.

She never noticed that Naruto had come back to the training grounds.

Walking up to the tree he had seen earlier he pulled a branch off and bit into it.

"Yuck! Tastes like wood!"

XXX

Meanwhile Shino was walking home when he sensed the beetle that he had placed on Naruto returning to him. The second the beetle returned it had started mixing with the hive he immediately knew something was off, The beetle seemed stronger, and it seemed that any beetle that was near that one started to get that boost of strength. Shino quirked an eyebrow before thinking

"Interesting it seems that something about Naruto has made my kikaichu stronger. I will have to either talk to him about this or observe to see what about Naruto is doing this."

Shino not one to disregard an advantage started to cultivate his hive to have the advanced traits shown in the enhanced kikaichu that had returned from Naruto.

XXX

It had about a week and the new team eight had settled into a nice routine they would train for the first half of the day and then in the afternoon they would get a mission but whenever they went out for a mission things would get interesting

Kurenai was at her wits end, this was her team's fourth D rank and Naruto was driving them all crazy. Their first mission had been to paint a civilian's house, it went ok at first but the problem came when the client's wife came home and saw Naruto. By the time her husband had calmed her down and took her into the house nobody noticed that Naruto had painted the house bright pink instead of the white the client had supplied them with.

They still didn't know where he got the damn paint.

The second mission had been to weed an old ladies garden; this had gone fine until she refused to pay Naruto. While Kurenai had been arguing with her Naruto had replaced all her plants with cannabis which while legal, was frowned upon. This was another thing that baffled the team as they still didn't know where he got the plants, though Kurenai was more worried at the thought of a high Naruto.

The third had been to catch Tora, this had actually gone ok. Seems Naruto had a way with animals, he had been the first ninja ever to just walk up to Tora and pick him up. The problem had come when he left with the little beast for an about an hour. Nobody knew what he did but after that mission it became a lot harder to catch the cat whenever it escaped from its owner. One genin team had claimed that they had seen the demon cat jumping through the trees like a ninja animal.

The mission had been simple, get the shopping done for a woman that had broken her leg. The problem had come when she had given Naruto a dirty look. At the time the boy had just ignored her but his team had got to know him over the past few weeks and knew he was going to do something, he never let something go. This was why Kurenai was watching him like a hawk. So far everything was fine. They had just gotten back to the clients house without incident and were just waiting for their pay. When the client had been paying them she had gave Naruto another dirty look and tried to give him half what she owed him. The feeling of dread that had increased when Naruto didn't say anything, just stood there grinning like the madman he was. A few minutes later they had gotten the money and were on their way to report to the Hokage when they heard a scream from inside the house. Rushing back inside they had arrived to see the woman sitting on the floor, covered in bright red paint. Naruto had somehow put a paint bomb in her shopping bags when they weren't looking. Letting out a deep breath Kurenai and the other two genin started to help her off the floor and to a chair in the living room, the whole time Naruto was laughing his head off, rolling around on the floor. It took them an hour to calm her down.

Now here they were stood in front of the Hokage in his office. For a full minuet he said nothing, just sat there looking at Naruto with his pipe in hand.

"I thought we talked about this Naruto, you can't keep attacking clients."

Naruto just stood there, giggling.

"Well... technically she wasn't a client when it went off, we had finished the mission."

None of them knew what to say to this, he was right. They had finished the mission.

Sighing to himself Sarutobi just waved a hand for them to leave.

"Whatever, I'm getting too old for this shit, just go."

With that they left to go to the training grounds.

XXX

It had been a few weeks since the disaster week of missions and Team eight had decided to hold off on doing missions as a team for a while, but Kurenai had encouraged Hinata and Shino to continue to do them solo when they had time, at least until they could stop Naruto from being well Naruto.

Kurenai, Hinata and Shino were currently waiting for Naruto at training ground 8.

It was one of the more secluded training grounds, with a large lake and small wooded area it was a good place to train.

Today Kurenai was planning to teach Hinata and Shino how to water walk, she would have been teaching Naruto it as well, but he was having...problems with tree walking.

The last time he tried he was blown off so hard he not only broke the tree he was trying to walk on, but three other trees as well when he flew into them.

For some reason Naruto was always a few minutes late to team training.

After waiting for a little longer they decided to start without him.

It was half an hour later when Naruto walked into the training grounds, a strange bundle on his back.

This put them all on edge. Though Naruto had never done anything to them they were still cautious. When he got to them he put the bundle down and waved.

"Hey guys, I got you something!"

Slowly making their way over the group looked at the bundle on the floor nervously. Seeing their faces Naruto laughed.

"Don't worry so much, it's not going to explode... at least I don't think they will."

He said with a thoughtful look on his face. This did not fill them with confidence. Reaching down and unfolding the package Naruto took a step back and looked at them all expectantly.

"So…what do you think?"

They didn't really know what to think.

On the ground before them were the most bizarre yet beautiful weapons any of them had ever seen. The first was what looked to be some sort of launcher. It had a long barrel but it didn't seem capable of firing kunai. It was encased in a leather holster. The weapon itself was also covered in strange markings that they soon realized were seals carved perfectly into the metal.

The next was a long metal pipe, about three feet in length, with a small needle like point. On closer inspection they realized that it was hollow and that there was a small hole in the end. This was also attached to leather straps and was covered in similar seals as the first.

The last was a pair of elegant gauntlets. The metal was white and the middle finger had a sharp, pin like point in the end. They were designed to go up to just below the elbows and had seals all over them.

After a while Kurenai looked at Naruto and said.

"They are beautiful Naruto, but where did you get them and why did you bring them?"

Naruto gave her one of his rare, sincere smiles when she asked that.

"Well, remember when I said that I was looking into weapon making?"

They all grow shocked looks on their faces when he said this.

"You mean you made these?"

"Yep, I made a deal with a smith in the village. I get to use his workshop and I let him look over some of my designs and use the ones he likes so long as I get a percentage of the profits. Nice guy, open minded."

Naruto seemed to get lost in his own mind

XXX

Flashback

XXX

Naruto was in a good mood, things just seemed to be going his way today.

He had just met his team and successfully became a full ninja and he had a feeling that his team would be fun to be around. They all seemed like good people, so he wouldn't need to kill them later on, which was a plus and they all were interesting, which means Naruto wouldn't get bored.

But the thing that really that had put him in a great mood is the fact that he just successfully snuck into the Anbu headquarters and dyed all their uniforms bright orange. The look on their faces was priceless and he was glad he brought a camera.

Naruto was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't realize he had wondered into a back alley of the market district of Konoha.

When he did take notice of his surroundings he found himself outside a small shop. It had an old wooden sign in the shape of a kunai hung over the door, the universal sign for a shinobi shop. The windows were so dirty that he couldn't see inside. He couldn't see a name anywhere and there didn't seem to be any other shops in the area.

His interest peaked; Naruto pushed the door open and went inside to see what they had to offer.

The inside was the same as the outside of the shop, dark and dirty. There was just enough light to see without bumping into anything. But beyond that the shelves were stocked with an assortment of different weapons from kunai to swords, they looked to be of very high quality, but they all had a thick layer of dust coating them. In one corner of the store Naruto could see ninja clothes and armor on display.

If he had to guess, Naruto would say that this shop hadn't had a customer in a long time. Smiling to himself at the thought Naruto made his way to the back of the room in hopes of finding someone that he could talk to. Maybe the owner and he did.

There, at the back of the room leaning on a counter was a large middle aged man. He was big, almost 7 foot tall with huge mussels and large hands. He had on a fine grey sleeveless shirt under a thick leather apron and thick pants. The top of his head was shaved and he had a thick black beard. Scars littered the man's skin showing of past battles and time round weapon

When the man saw Naruto he stood up and looked at the boy with hope in his eyes before saying in a deep voice.

"Please tell me you want to buy something."

Naruto wasn't surprised at the pleading tone; it seemed he was right about the shop not having much business.

"You make the weapon here or do you order everything from a producer?"

The large man was surprised at the boy's question.

"I make the weapon in here using the forge in the back, why?"

When the man said this Naruto's grin stretched even bigger.

"I've been looking for a forge to rent out, so I can work on a few projects of mine in peace."

This got the man thinking, if he let the boy use his smithy he could charge him and make a bit of money, Kami knew he needed the money.

"Names Higashi, and if you can pay then I don't see a problem with letting you use my workshop."

Taking the man's outstretched hand to shake Naruto replied.

"Uzumaki, Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto had expected a lot of things when he told Higashi his name, insults and shouting being at the top of the list. But what happened was enough to shock even him.

Higashi's eyes widened at his name and he let out a small gasp. Without letting go of the young boy's hand the muscular man pulled him forward and hugged him.

Naruto stiffened at first, thinking he was being attacked, until he felt water falling onto his face. Looking up at the mountain of a man Naruto was shocked yet again when he saw the tears falling down his face.

"Thank you, thank you."

When Higashi let the shocked blonde go he let out a hearty laugh and explained.

"I never got a chance to thank you for what you did for my family. You might not remember about six years ago you saved a girl from being raped in an alley not far from here. That was my daughter, Tenten; I've been waiting for years to thank you."

Naruto just tilted his head to one side in thought.

"Short girl in a Chinese style dress with buns in her hair, looks kind of like a panda?

Higashi just laughed again and nodded his head.

"Small world, how's she doing nowadays?"

"She became a ninja, graduated last year. She'll be glad to see you, no one knew where you disappeared to, and she was worried something had happened to you. Where you been for the last five years."

Naruto just shrugged and said.

"Place called the institution, and from the look on your face and the scars on your skin I'm guessing you are an ex-shinobi because that's the only way you could know about it."

True to his word, at the mention of the insane asylum Higashi went deadly pale before a sad look came onto his face. Nodding his head the large smith said no more about it.

After a few minutes of silence Naruto asked if he could see the workshop.

Nodding his head again, Higashi led the young boy to a door behind the counter and down a corridor past several rooms until they came to the workshop. It was a good sized room, about twenty feet by twenty feet and a lot like the shop in front. It was dark and dusty and again, Naruto could tell that it hadn't been used for a while. The tools were all neatly arranged on hooks on a wall and the furnace was good. The work counter was full of old broken kunai and swords. On a wall at the back of the room were several different designs for weapons Naruto had never seen. He couldn't help but be impressed.

Seeing what he was looking at Higashi made his way over to the blonde.

"These were all my ideas, I had planned to make them one day, but after the Kyuubi attack, my first shop was destroyed. When it was finally rebuilt I ended up back here and nobody even came. I found out that one of my old competitors had bribed an official on the planning council to have me put here to get rid of me, so I never had the money, to move to another location or to advertise."

Nodding his head Naruto reached up and took down some of the designs.

There was a double bladed axe, a zanbato, and several more complex designs that he could just barely comprehend. Putting them down Naruto pulled out several pieces of paper and handed them to the old smith.

Curious, Higashi took the offered paper and looked over Naruto's designs. They were ruff around the edges, and some of them wouldn't be possible due to the characteristics of metals, but he was impressed at the ingenuity and creativity that the designs held.

Turning his gaze back to the blonde boy Higashi asked.

"You make these?"

At his nod the man grinned.

"Impressive. So what do you know about weapon crafting?"

"Strong theoretical knowledge, but no practical experience to back it up."

Nodding his head at Naruto's words, Higashi looked back at the designs in his hands.

"It shows, in the designs. What would you say to me going over some of these designs with you, when we've got the bugs ironed out I'll show you how the furnace works, and maybe we can teach you how to actually make some things, sound good?"

Naruto just grinned and nodded in agreement

XXX

For the next few hours Naruto and Higashi were in the work shop, leaning over the designs he had brought and the ones on the wall.

It felt good for the old man to actually work again; he was always at his happiest when he was working on a new project. He had missed the feel of the paper and the satisfaction of seeing his work coming to life as he molded the metals.

As the hours passed Higashi was more and more impressed with the blonde boy. The way his mind worked allowed him to think outside the box, to think of things no one else had ever considered. That creativity partnered with Higashi's years of experience they found that time flew by without them even noticing, just simply bouncing ideas off each other occupied the men for a while.

Higashi quickly figured out that the boy was off his rocker, there was no doubt about that, especially since he had been put into the institution. But it was that touch of insanity that made Naruto's designs stand out.

At one point during their time together Higashi had made a shadow clone to make them tea. The jutsu had caught Naruto's attention and he asked the old man what it was. After a quick explanation of the jutsu and a demonstration they spent the next hour working on the shadow clone Jutsu. It surprised Higashi that it didn't take longer for the boy to do it, but what really shocked him was that he made so many on his first try. The room was filled with clones. The amount of chakra needed to make even one clone was substantial, but from the looks of it Naruto had just made thirty like it was nothing.

Deciding to put this unexpected gift to use Higashi had the clones go around and clean the work shop while he and the original went back to the designs.

This was the sight that greeted Tenten when she came home. She had just finished a hard day of team training with her hyperactive teacher and was nearly dead on her feet.

Hearing her farther in the workshop surprised her at first; he hadn't set foot in there for years. So trying to be quiet she gently pushed the door open only to see a sea of blonde haired boys that looked about her age moving around the room cleaning.

Slowly making her way into the room Tenten found her farther stood at the workbench leaning over the shoulder of another of the blonde boys.

He was one of the oddest looking boys the girl had ever seen, with his long blonde hair and black straightjacket. But for some reason she could have sworn she had seen him before. Shaking the thought out of her mind, Tenten walked over to her farther and looked over his shoulder, the fact that he didn't even notice her there showed how engrossed he was in his work; he never took his eyes off the papers in front of him. Taking a better look at the paper she realized that they were weapon designs, complex weapon designs. Without realizing it Tenten had been leaning forward to get a better look. It was then that Tenten's farther noticed her.

"Oh, Ten-chan, when did you get home?"

"Just now, who's this and why art there so many of him, and while I think about it why is he even in the workshop?"

Tenten didn't miss the slight shine in her father's eyes when he turned to the boy at the desk that didn't even lift his head when she asked about him.

"That my dear Ten-chan, is Uzumaki Naruto, you've met him before, he came to ask about using the workshop, we got to talking, and I guess we lost track of time. As for why there is so many of him I showed him a Jutsu from back in the day, he seemed to take to it quite well."

When her father said she had met the boy Tenten got confused, sure he seemed familiar, but she would remember someone so strange.

Seeing the look on her face Higashi laughed and tapped the blonde on the shoulder to get his attention.

It was then that she finally got a good look at his face and was unable to stop the gasp that escaped her mouth; all the clones had their heads turned away as she walked in the room so she didn't see his face until then.

His face was covered in thick white bandages, similar to the ones Lee always wore on his hand. But it was his sky blue eyes and huge grin that jogged her memory of that night five years ago.

She could feel the tears starting to run down her eyes at the thought of it, if it wasn't for the boy that had come to her rescue she didn't want to think what would have happened. It was the words he had said to her that night after he saved her that made her want to be a kunoichi.

"I might not be around next time, so you better learn to save yourself. The world is full of damsels in distress; we need more women that can look after themselves."

To never be a victim again, that was her ninja way.

Tears still running down her face, Tenten through herself at the still seated blonde and pulled him into a hug.

This time it didn't shock Naruto as much as when Higashi hugged him. Locking eyes with the man Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"I'm starting to see a pattern here."

This just caused the older man to laugh at the blonde as he was struggling to breathe as Tenten's grip around his neck tightened.

Deciding to take pity on the young boy Higashi put his hand on his daughters shoulder.

"Ten-chan, I think you should let the poor lad breathe."

At her father's words Tenten released Naruto from her death grip and took a step back with a blush.

"Sorry."

Naruto fell to the floor and made a big show of sucking in big gulps of air before rolling around laughing at the girl's reaction, which caused her to blush even more.

"Don't worry about it, anyway I better be off, I'm starting missions tomorrow. I'll be back some time tomorrow so we can start working on my designs. Goodnight."

At that Naruto got up and left, leaving a blushing Tenten and a smiling Higashi behind.

XXX

Over the next few weeks Naruto had taken to going to the workshop every day after his training and under both Higashi and Tenten's tutelage Naruto proved to be a quick learner.

It wasn't until a month into his lessons that Naruto was finally comfortable with his ability's that he attempted to combine his research of seals with his weapon designs.

It wasn't long after that that he had combined seals into his designs that Naruto made weapons for Shino, Hinata and Kurenai.

XXX

End Flashback

XXX

Naruto shook his head for a moment before he continued.

"Anyway, I brought them here because I made them for you guys. We've been a team for a while now and I made you these to compliment your fighting styles. "

Here he bent down and picked up the gun like weapon and, taking on a lecturing tone that was so out of place coming from Naruto, started to explain the weapons.

"This is for you sensei. Now I know that when you cast a genjutsu you can't move from one spot without disrupting your flow of chakra. So I made you this. By channeling your chakra through the grip you will be able to fire a magazine of specially made bullets with your chakra. It will take a lot of practice as compressing your chakra right to get the bullets to fire is difficult but when you master it you should be able to cast genjutsu and kill your enemies without having to rely on someone to make the finishing blow and as a bonus this gun makes no sound when you fire it because it is condensed raw chakra."

Kurenai was speechless; Naruto had made this just for her? It was perfect. He had made her the perfect weapon after only knowing her for less than two months. Before she could thank him he moved onto the pipe.

"Now this is for Shino and, if it works out, your family. The pipe is made from a strong metal to compensate for it being hollow, and can retract so it can't be seen. It goes on your arm under your sleeve. The idea is that you can have some of your bugs fill the pipe and when you stab someone you can inject them into your opponent so your bugs will be able to take your enemy from the inside. I know that your clan can't fight in close combat because of your bugs so this should help. The gift I gave your beetles should also help, but I think we will have to talk to really maximize the results on that end."

Shino was deeply impressed with the weapon. He guessed that he shouldn't be surprised; it would take someone with a mind like Naruto's to come up with something as unorthodox as this. But it surprised Shino as he knew about his new beetles, he had yet to approach Naruto about the subject as he didn't see a reason to since Shino knew he had other areas to improve in before he really had to worry about his hives strength. Kurenai and Hinata looked at Shino for explanation but he remained quiet and stoic. Naruto continued on not worried about the information he had let drop.

"And last but certainly not least, this is for Hinata. Like the others I made it to go with your family's fighting style. They are mostly designed for protection, but they can, in theory, enhance your gentle fist. By channeling chakra into the needle it can give your chakra a boost. If it works like I think it will, you will be able to actually destroy or pierce someone's chakra points."

This actually shocked Hinata. Her family had been trying to improve the gentle fist for years to the point that they could destroy a person's chakra points, and here was Naruto, the most insane ninja anyone had ever known, solving what her entire clan couldn't.

It was then that he explained the seals.

"Now as for the whole not sure of them exploding thing, the seals are your basic strengthening seals, with something of my own thrown in. Chakra channeling seals. I made them to help you channel your chakra through the metal. The only thing is I haven't... what's the word, tested them."

This surprised Kurenai more than the weapons, she knew that he was looking into seals, but never thought he would come so far in so little time.

"This is great Naruto, but why did you go to so much trouble?"

Naruto just looked at each of them for a moment, then said.

"Why the hell not?"

That marked that serious Naruto was gone and random Naruto was back.

When they had gotten up after face planting, they each thanked him and asked if he had made anything for himself.

His grin took on an unnerving glint and he reached behind his back and pulled out two wicked looking, Katana, hidden behind his long hair.

The handles looked like they fitted his hands perfectly and were wrapped in black leather.

The blades themselves were stained a deep black that seemed like it didn't reflect any light, and the edge a deep, blood red, with jagged teeth offset to each side of the blade instead of being straight. They had the same seals as the other weapons etched into them, but they were almost impossible to see. The blades actually sent shivers down there spines just looking at them. They held a terrible beauty that left no doubt that they were made to take life and rend flesh from bone.

"These, are my blades."

No one said anything for a few minutes, the blades seeming to weigh down the area with their own killing intent. Which was promptly broken by Naruto falling over and laughing so hard it looked painful. When she saw he had finally calmed down Kurenai spoke.

"Hm hm... well, thank you Naruto, these are all great, but I think Hinata and Shino should finish the water walking exercises before learning how to use them. The extra control will help I'm sure."

Shrugging his shoulders, Naruto just put his blades away and ran to a tree. Only to fly pass them and into the water when he was blown off again. As they watched him get up and do the same thing over and over again, Shino summed up their thoughts perfectly.

"It's hard to tell if he is a genius or an idiot sometimes."

Nodding their heads in agreement they all turned back to the lake, their new weapons in place and started the excise again.

Naruto's laughter echoing around the clearing as he was continually blasted off the trees.


	3. Insanity Loves Company

**Chapter 3**

It had been a month since team 8 had gotten their weapons, end ever since then they had been exceptionally close. Shino, Hinata and Kurenai were now more at ease with Naruto and his odd behavior became very normal to them. It took them a while to realize that Naruto wasn't evil per say he was just random and took enjoyment out of lie where he could.

Hinata and Shino had finished water walking in record time, wanting to start training with their new weapons as well as taijutsu, and ninjutsu to a limited extent. Kurenai would have Shino and Hinata spare each other while Naruto went against herself, Kurenai discovered quickly when she first matched Naruto against Shino that her other students couldn't keep up with Naruto in a straight fight, he could move faster than most chunin and he hit as hard as jonin. Thus Naruto spared with Kurenai as she was able to put Naruto under enough pressure that he actually had to try. Not to say Naruto ever seem tried because no matter what she had Naruto do he was never winded, he had stamina and energy in spades. Kurenai was also helping her students develop there weapon styles while she wasn't well versed in weapons she was able to direct them to people that could help.

Kurenai herself was starting to get the hang of her weapon as Naruto had decided to call it the Straight Shooter. She still had some work to do before she would be able to use the weapon effectively, but she was getting better at handling the recoil and was starting to be able to fire the bullets using her chakra. She also had to practice quite a bit to learn how to accurately shoot the thing.

Naruto didn't name the other weapon, saying that Shino and Hinata could do it themselves with their families.

Speaking of which, both the Hyuuga and Aburame clans had been very impressed with the weapons, so much so that they had requested for more to make so others in the clan could use them. Shino and Hinata had come to Naruto and asked him to make more but Naruto told them that they could get the weapons from a small ninja shop owned by a man named Higashi. It turned out this was the man Naruto had made the deal for the use of his forge in exchange for Naruto's designs. Naruto had given him the designs after he made them encase this happened, as long as he got a nice ten percent cut of the profits and that he tell nobody who made them, Higashi could remake and sell them to the two clans. This even applied to the other clans as well. When Kurenai asked why he didn't want anyone to know he made them she could have sworn he was channeling his inner Nara when he said.

"Too bloody troublesome."

It turns out this was more than sufficient, as the Aburame and Hyuuga clans were paying a small fortunes for each weapon that they wanted. After all seals work is expensive due to the limited number of seal masters and the tedious work required to carve them into the metal.

The Hyuuga had named Hinata's weapon The Hands of Kami, as they believed their eyes were a gift from Kami herself. The Aburame had been a bit more modest and named their weapon Wasp Point. Higashi and his daughter Tenten were making so much money from Naruto's weapons they were thinking of expanding the shop.

Naruto, after many times of being shot off the trees like a cannon, had finally got the hang of tree walking. He even managed to learn water walking. He was by far the most advanced in taijutsu followed by Hinata. Kurenai also let all of them train on their own from time to time and Naruto was seen practicing with his katana.

XXX

Eventually team 8 started doing missions again, Kurenai couldn't put off giving them field experience and experience for dealing with clients. Thankfully Naruto had not done anything to the clients, seems the word had gotten out about what Naruto does to people that cross him and no one dared to do anything to raise the boy's ire or they never did it to his face or while he was working for them.

Team eight were currently stood in the Hokage office, after just returning Tora to the daimyo's wife for the fifth time.

The Hokage was looking at their mission record to decide if they were ready for a C rank mission.

"Well everything seems to be in order, I see no reason not to give you one."

Before he could finish the doors to the office slammed opened and Kiba stormed in, followed by the rest of team 7 walked in.

"Hey, Hokage-sama, can we please get a C rank mission now. These D ranks are driving me and Akamaru crazy!"

After an apology from Kakashi for Kiba's rudeness, team 7 noticed team 8 stood in the room staring at them. Kakashi's eye lingered on Naruto for a moment before moving to Kurenai.

"Sorry Kurenai-chan, hope we didn't disturb you."

Before Kurenai could answer she was drowned out by Naruto.

"Duck ass, Dog piss, Pinkie, and Inu-san how you been!"

Everyone in the room sweat dropped at this with exception to the three genin, who were silently steaming at the names. Kakashi was shocked a little as Naruto had just called him by his anbu codename.

"How much does he remember and how much does he know?"

Thought a suspicious Kakashi.

When they had calmed down the Hokage spoke.

"Well team 7 does have the necessary number of D ranks to take a C. So how about this, I was just about to give team 8 here a C rank, what would you say to a joint mission?"

The two sensei's looked at each other for a moment before nodding.

"Very well, seeing as team 8 were here first Kurenai will be team leader. The mission is to protect a bridge builder named Tazuna while he travels to wave country and until he finishes his bridge. The client will be here shortly."

No sooner had he said this, an old man walked into the room on unsteady feet, he had a beard, glasses and smelt like sake.

He looked at the genin and scowled.

"I pay good money for a ninja guard and you give me this? And what the hell is the mummy grinning at?"

At these words four loud smacks were heard. Looking around the room team 7 saw the Hokage, Kurenai, Shino and Hinata with their hands on their faces and Naruto's grin taking on a sinister edge. The gears in his mind working as thousands of possible plans formulated in his twisted mine.

Team seven was confused but Kakashi pressed on not seeing any real option at the moment.

"Well let's meet up tomorrow morning at the front gate where we can check out your gear before heading out to wave country. I would recommend packing a long term mission as this mission could last more than a month. Everyone nodded before they headed out to prepare for the mission

XXX

Both team 8 and 7 were stood at the front gates of Konohagakure, waiting for Tazuna to show up so they could leave. Both Kurenai and Kakashi had checked their team's equipment and had cleared them to go on the mission.

After what Tazuna had said the day before the Hokage had quickly dismissed them and told them when to be here to go.

The two teams were keeping their distance from each other, mostly because of Naruto.

Speaking of Naruto, both Kurenai and Kakashi were worried what he would do, his track record speaking for itself.

They knew he wouldn't actually kill Tazuna since he promised the Hokage he wouldn't, but beyond that they didn't know, Naruto came up with the most unorthodox ways of getting people that anything he did could be a way to prank you.

They didn't have to wait long; right on time they could see Tazuna heading their way. He had the same clothes and smell as the day before, but he was able to walk in a straight line. His eyes were red and he was clearly suffering from a monster hang over.

As he approached Kurenai cast a nervous eye over to Naruto. He was just stood there, grinning at Tazuna. Not breaking his stride the old man walked right past them and through the gate. Nodding to their teams Kurenai and Kakashi followed after him.

They were about an hour away from the village when Naruto started to walk next to the old drunk. They spoke in low voices for a moment when Naruto pulled out a small silver flask. Handing it to Tazuna, he took the lid off and had taken a swig before anyone could stop him. Giving the flask back to the boy he stood there a moment, all eyes on him. Then his eyes went wide. He opened his mouth and they could all see smoke coming out. It was shortly after this that all the strength left his legs and he fell over. Bending down and lifting the old man onto his shoulder, laughing the whole time Naruto started to continue heading towards wave.

Walking up to her student Kurenai asked.

"What the hell was in that flask Naruto?"

This caused Naruto to laugh louder, before answering.

"Don't worry; he'll wake up in ten minutes. I gave him my home made hangover cure. Ha-ha, did you see the smoke?"

All the ninja present just sweat dropped at the insane boy's antics.

"Naruto, if this is to get rid of his hangover then why in the name of Kami is he unconscious? What the hell is in that stuff?"

Turning around and walking backwards so he was facing them Naruto got a thoughtful look on his face.

"Well, let me think. A few herbs, some spices, wasabi, chili powder, oh and some strange fish I found in the lake at the training grounds."

They all sweat dropped again at Naruto's description of his cure. Luckily for them they were getting used to Naruto, well as used to him as one could get anyway. They were actually surprised when, exactly ten minutes later, Tazuna's eyes shot open and he started to run around holding his throat. After being given water, he turned to Kurenai and said in a dry voice.

"What the hell, what did the mummy give me to fucking drink?"

Shaking her head, she just said.

"You don't want to know."

It was then that Naruto made his appearance.

"So drunk, how is the head feeling."

Turning to face the boy to yell at him, Tazuna suddenly realized that his hangover was gone. Without saying anything Tazuna started walking again, not looking at Naruto. As he passed Kakashi they could all here him mumbling about stupid mummies and not warning him.

XXX

The group had walked the whole day and about an hour before the sun had complete set the party brook to make camp. That night they had decided to set up camp in a small clearing about thirty feet away from the footpath. Not much had happened since Naruto had so kindly helped, Tazuna with his hangover, though the old drunk had refused to say anything to Naruto since.

It was shortly after they had finished setting up their tents that they noticed that Naruto didn't set one up for himself. Sakura, being the ever curious person she was, took it upon herself to ask him where his tent was. The answer shocked them all and even got Tazuna's attention.

"Don't need one. My body produces so much raw chakra that it converts any I don't use into energy. I don't actually need to sleep more than an hour or so a week if I don't use chakra."

None of them knew what to say to this, to have so much chakra that you didn't need to sleep was unheard of but what was really scary was the amount of free time that Naruto must have.

"Just how much chakra do you have exactly, Naruto?"

Thinking for a moment Naruto considered how best to answer.

"Well, according to the old man, about thirteen times more than any kage known to have ever lived. But I can't actually use most of it because I lack the level of control needed to use it effectively. So adjusting for the amount I waste when I cast any sort of technique I would place my reserved at high chunin to low jonin"

Even Tazuna was shocked at this. He might not be a ninja but even he knew not to mess with a kage.

After a brief moment of silence Sakura spoke up again due to her curiosity into what made Naruto tick.

"So if you don't sleep what do you do with all the time that most people would be sleeping?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders before looking up at the sky.

"I do a lot of things really, I tend to read anything I can get my hands on, I also have been practicing my fuinjutsu and I usually work on my various projects a little or train when the mood strikes me."

They all sat in silence after that, staring into the smokeless fire, no one really knew how to respond after that.

After a few more minutes of this, Naruto reached behind his back and pulled out his violin.

Without looking at any of the others in the clearing he started to play.

The music was soft and gentle, calm, the complete opposite of the one playing it, Naruto's face taking on a serene look as he played. They sat and listened to the boy play, watching the fire as it seemed to dance in the night.

They were spellbound, none could move as they listened.

But as the night went on they knew that they needed to go to sleep. One by one they all got up and went to their tents to sleep. The last one to head off to sleep being Kakashi, but before he went into his tent he pulled out a jutsu scroll and placed it next to Naruto who was still playing with his eyes closed.

"This technique should help you master anything you want faster if you can figure out how to use it"

Kakashi turned and went into his tent.

The sound of Naruto's violin the last thing they heard as they drifted off.

None of them saw the single tear that trailed down Naruto's face as he played into the night.

XXX

The next day they had all woke up to the sight of Naruto, leaning over a small pile of dead rabbits that Naruto had skinned the carcasses and was in the process of cutting up the meat in pieces to be cooked over the fire. After they ate breakfast, which was a surprisingly good rabbit stew, the group packed up camp and were on their way.

The atmosphere was a lot calmer today, they were spread out in a loose formation and you could hear Sakura talking to Tazuna about wave country. It was then that the two jonin noticed the puddle in the road ahead. The sight of it made Kurenai's blood boil as it was such a poor attempt at a genjutsu that the genin should have been able to see through it. Looking at each other, the two sensei silently agreed to let the genin handle it. They didn't have to wait long; as soon as they passed the puddle two men in brown cloaks jumped out and wrapped a battle chain around them. The genin and Tazuna turned around just in time to see their sensei fall to the ground in bloody pieces.

"Two down"

"Six to go."

After saying this, the two ninja started to run toward them, chain at the ready.

Team seven froze at the sight of the jonin falling and didn't know what to do. Luckily, team eight did as Kurenai had desensitized death from Shino and Hinata by having them kill baby rabbits, Naruto didn't need any pushing to kill as Kurenai had found out when he had simple ripped the head off the rabbit he was given without blinking an eye, in fact he had just stared at Kurenai the entire time with a neutral expression.

Shino and Hinata were in front of Tazuna as soon as they saw what happened and Naruto had moved to intercept, pulling out his katanas from on his back as he went.

Before the two ninja had went two meters towards them Naruto was on them and made a slash at them. The demon brothers jumped back to avoid the slash and both Naruto and the demon brothers paused to size the other up. With his back turned to the others they didn't see Naruto's grin turn predatory and downright evil, but the demon brothers did. In fact it stopped them in their tracks, they had seen this grin before and it scared them that a boy had the same grin as him.

They were brought out of their thoughts by the insane giggling and words laced in killing intent.

"Let's have fun, try not to die too quickly, it has been ages since I had any real fun."

That was all it took to anger the brothers, who did this kid think he was saying that he was going to beat them!

Yelling in rage, the two ran straight at the boy, intending to wrap him in their chain.

But before they could a kunai pinned it to a nearby tree.

As they struggled to get the chain free Naruto turned to Sasuke who had managed to break out of his daze.

"Don't interfere with my fun! Do that again and I will rip out your precious eyes and shove them up your fucking ass until you can cough them up!"

None of the genin knew what to say. They had never seen Naruto like this, his grin was still in place but his voice was hard, cold and dripped in killing intent. But that wasn't all. When he turned to face the group they all saw his features taking on an almost demonic look. His teeth had taken on the appearance of fangs and his eyes sank had become red silted pits that had sunken back into his head.

Turning back to his prey Naruto was just in time to see them detach the chain from there gauntlets and charge at him again.

What followed was one of the oddest, kenjutsu battles any of them had ever seen. His grin stretching painfully large, Naruto switched the katana in his left hand to a reverse grip and disappeared in a flash to appear behind the brothers. Naruto slashed making a small cut appear on both of them. The brothers moved to avoid Naruto but Naruto was fast and would appear where ever they moved to deliver another cut. Every time one of the brothers got within Naruto's striking range they would be pushed back and before long the demon brothers were on full defense No matter how fast the brothers seemed to move Naruto was faster and small cuts started to appear all over the demon brothers' bodies and there movements started to get more and more sluggish. Ten minutes into the fight and the demon brothers dropped to the ground, there entire bodies littered with small, paper cut like marks covering their bodies. Their clothes had been shredded and they like a book had attacked them as every cut appeared to be no more serious than a paper cut.

When he saw that they couldn't fight anymore Naruto stopped in front of them, he was a bit unsteady on his feet for a moment but quickly got over it, put his katanas away and tied them up with ninja wire.

Seeing that Naruto was finish with the enemy, the two thought dead sensei stepped out of the woods. They explained how they had gotten away with a substitution jutsu before they turned to congratulate Naruto, only to see him positioning the brothers in a way that they were facing each other tied to trees.

When they were about to ask him what he was doing he spoke.

"Now, which one of you is the brain of this partnership?"

The brothers were silent but Naruto really didn't care, he turned to the older of the two brothers.

"You look like the man with the plan. So, you going to tell me why you attacked us?"

The only answer he got was the man was him spitting on the ground at Naruto's feet.

Naruto's grin turned malicious and without saying a word he turned to the other brother. When he was within arm reach he spoke again.

"I was hoping you would say that."

Lifting his hand up for all to see he made his fingers change, turning into long, thin, worm like tentacles. Seeing what the boy was planning Kurenai quickly cast a genjutsu on the genin and Tazuna so they went blind. But in her rush she forgot to make them deaf as well, so they could all hear the man's muffled screams as Naruto lowered his hand to his head and the tentacles made their way into his mouth, nose and even under his skin. Kakashi and Kurenai watched in a sick fascination as they could see the man's skin start to move as the worms spread under it.

Staring in horror at his older brother the ninja could only watch as the lines moving under his skin seemed to go into a frenzy. Then, without warning, he stopped screaming and his entire body except for his head exploded in a shower of blood. Turning back to the, now terrified ninja, Naruto slowly made his way over to his other captive, grinning insanely.

"ALL RIGHT ALL RIGHT! I'LL TELL YOU ANYTHING YOU WANT!"

For the next few minutes he told them everything, about Gato, Zabuza and everything he knew that he could think of came spilling out.

When he was done Naruto took out one of his katana, walked up to him and slit his throat in such a way that it took him several minutes to die from drowning due to blood filling his lungs. When the light left his eyes Naruto used his blade to cut off the head. When he was done Naruto took a sealing scroll from his bag and sealed both the severed heads into it along with the gauntlets the men had worn.

When Naruto was done he stood up and started to walk back towards everyone else, the blood on his clothes seemed to melt into them and within minutes he was clean. Before Naruto made it back to the group he stopped at the tree that had the barded chain pinned by a kunai. Pulling the kunai out Naruto examined the barbed chain quickly before coiling it up and attaching it to his waist.

Kurenai and Kakashi just stared at Naruto, not sure what to think. It was the first time either of them had seen Naruto's bloodline in action, and it scared them what he could do with it. Kurenai now understood what the Hokage meant when he said Anbu were scared of his methods. Kakashi was the first to recover from his shock and walked past Naruto who was currently admiring one of the Demon Brothers gauntlets and did a quick fire jutsu to get rid of what was left of the bodies.

Kurenai snapped out of her shock when Kakashi called his jutsu and waited until there was nothing left before she released her illusion. But the smell of burned flesh lingered.

After that the jonin talked with their charges and explained what had happened leaving out the details keeping in very general, then they had quick talk with Tazuna. After Tazuna pleaded for their help they decided to continue the mission as they couldn't allow a country to be oppressed like that and since they had two teams with jonin on the mission they felt that they were more than equipped to handle anything that could happen.

XXX

For the next few hours as they continued the trek towards wave the and before they set up camp for the night no one said a word. Every now and then the genin would sneak glances at the blonde in the group when they thought he wasn't looking. None of the genin knew exactly what Naruto had done since the jonin refused to tell them anything beyond general information but they knew from the screams it was bad. Kiba could still smell the blood that clung to Naruto like a blanket.

Shortly after they finished setting up camp Naruto left by simply walking into the forest. About an hour later he came back, hair wet and with a dear slung over his shoulder, the smell of blood still strong but from the deer instead of him.

They all watched quietly as Naruto sat down on a nearby rock away from the fire and started to skin and prepare the meat from the dear with a small knife he had got from his bag. Every so often throwing a scrap piece or organ into the woods to unseen animals that had been attracted by the smell of blood. It was a clear night and the moon was full, casting an eerie glow on the insane boy as he did his work, humming to himself as he went. When he finished that he went on to stripping the bark off of several branches to cook the meat over the fire.

Not being able to stand the silence anymore Kiba spoke in a quiet voice, drawing the attention of all those present.

"What the hell did you do to them back there? They only had small cuts. Why did they stop fighting?"

Naruto, turning to face the dog like boy, his usual grin in place, answered.

"Have you ever got a paper cut?"

Seeing the boy nod his head he continued.

"They hurt don't they? Something so small, yet they can hurt as much as a kunai to the gut. Imagine having your entire body covered in them, your face, arms, legs, torso... small cuts all over your body. What do you think would happen?"

It was Sasuke that answered first.

"It would start to slow you down, then the more cuts you get the more pain. You can't fight if you are too focused on the pain."

Turning his grin to Sasuke, Naruto nodded in approval.

"Exactly, and when the pain gets too much your body stops on its own, leaving you completely vulnerable."

This time it was Kakashi to ask the question.

"Where did you learn that? I've never heard of anyone fighting like you did, the speed was well insane as it appeared you were flashing from point to point, and the precise aim so you only broke the skin when you cut. It seems like the perfect style for capturing an opponent while causing the most amount of pain, while at the same time it could be turned into a full on offensive at a moment's notice, capable of quickly overpowering anyone that doesn't know how to counter the style."

Naruto just nodded at the assessment of his style.

"Yep, sounds about right. I'm still working a few bugs out of it, but that pretty much sums it up and I didn't learn it, I made it. I took the idea from a technique and an old style of kenjutsu. Working in conjunction they create a truly hard to counter style."

This didn't surprise team 8 as much as the others, they had gotten used to Naruto and the way he seemed brilliant one minute and like an idiot the next.

Nothing more was said for a while after that. Team 7 were a bit confuse at Naruto's somewhat, subdued, attitude. In the short time they had known him he had never been this calm.

He still let out a giggle from time to time, but other than that nothing. While they had been talking Naruto had put the meat on the sticks and started to cook them, the smell filling the camp.

When they were done Naruto handed them out and sat back down on the rock from earlier.

When he had finished his own meat he put the stick down and pulled out his violin again.

He had just started playing when Sasuke spoke.

"Can you teach me your style?"

Naruto didn't stop playing, levelling his gaze on the young Uchiha.

Kakashi was about to tell Sasuke that he was being rude when he was stopped by the blonde.

"Sure, why not. We'll need to get you some weapons to use until I can make you something but I don't have a problem with it. Actually, I think I have something here you can use."

Putting down his violin and reaching into his bag, Naruto pulled out a scroll. Unrolling and putting his hand on one of the seals, a moment later there was a puff of smoke and in his hands were two beautifully crafted katana.

The blades were only two foot long, with seals carved onto their length from tip to handle. They had no guard and the handles were wrapped in a fine red silk. The sheaths were made out of wood that had been stained black.

After giving them a quick inspection, Naruto through them over to Sasuke.

Catching the blade Sasuke's eyes widened at the skill shown in the making of them.

He turned back to Naruto when the boy started speaking again.

"They were one of the first things I made and it was the proto type to the katana I have now. The seals make the metal strong and the blade shape should work for you just fine."

Sasuke just stared at the weapons in his lap. Looking up at Naruto he nodded and said just two words.

"Thank you."

Naruto just nodded at him, then, picking up his violin started to play again.

Just like the night before, they all fell asleep to the sound of Naruto playing his violin.

The next morning, after they had finished the rabbits Naruto had killed, the two jonin sat the group down and explained about Zabuza. Needless to say, Naruto was the only one grinning at the end.

"S-so you're saying he's a demon?"

Asked a slightly shaking Sakura.

Turning to his student Kakashi replied.

"Pretty much"

An air of depression started to leak out of the genin.

But this didn't last long.

"Potato!"

This caused them all to sweat drop. Turning to Naruto Kurenai asked.

"Should I even bother to ask?"

"Probably not"

Shaking their heads they returned to the conversation.

"Anyway, as we were saying. When Zabuza shows himself you all stay with Tazuna while Kurenai and I fight him. You will not engage Zabuza, if something happens to us you run, understand."

The last part was directed at Naruto.

"That's stupid."

Raising his one visible eyebrow Kakashi motioned for Naruto to continue.

"If this guy is as strong as you say then how can we outrun him if he kills both of you?"

That stopped both of the older ninja in their tracks.

He was right.

After that they started to plan what to do if both the jonin failed and continued on their way to wave.

XXX

They had crossed the water way into wave about an hour ago and so far everything was going fine. At least no one had tried to kill them on the way across. Naruto had taken to walking on his hands instead of his feet shortly after they got off the boat. Ever since the demon brothers they had started to be a lot more formal in the way they guarded Tazuna. Currently they were set up in a circle formation around him, Kurenai and Kakashi at the back, Naruto at the front and the others at the sides.

"Naruto, I think you should walk on your feet again, we could be attacked at any minute."

Pouting, Naruto did as he was told and started to walk normally.

It was a few hours later when they found themselves in a thick mist that made it hard to see more than ten foot in any direction. They knew instantly that it was Zabuza; Hinata could see the tiny particles of chakra mixed in with the mist and Zabuza was known to be a master of the silent killing technique. All that they were waiting for Zabuza to show himself or for him to make his move. The mist caused a big problem though, not only did it make it hard to see, but according to Kurenai it made it almost impossible to cast her genjutsu, something about the chakra in the air messing with it the chakra she would use to cast.

This meant that when he did make his move, Kakashi was on his own since Kurenai wasn't amazing at taijutsu, she could hold her own but Kakashi and Zabuza are well above her.

They continued on their way, pretending that they weren't waiting for an attack.

Then Kakashi heard it, the sound of something moving though he air at high speeds. Grabbing Tazuna he yelled.

"GET DOWN!"

Instantly everyone hit the deck, heads down. Everyone except Naruto, who had jumped up instead of dropping to the ground.

As he was coming back down instead of landing on the ground he found himself spinning through the air on a giant sword. Naruto laughed as if he was riding a carnival ride. Eventually he stopped when it struck a tree and got stuck.

"That was fun!"

Getting off the sword he wobbled for a moment, but before he could regain his balance he was kicked hard in the back towards his team.

"Hey! That wasn't nice!"

"Tell someone who gives a dam."

Zabuza was tall, as tall as Naruto, but unlike Naruto he was covered in muscles. He didn't wear a shirt, just grey and black cameo pants, grey arm warmers and his slashed head band slightly tilted to one side. His voice was low and slightly muffled by the bandages that covered his face.

But Naruto only saw one thing.

"Dude! What happened to your eyebrows?"

Even with the current situation all those in the area face planted in the ground.

When Zabuza picked himself up he had a tic mark on his forehead.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST SAY YOU MUMMY!"

"Your one to talk!"

The two stared at each other for a moment, and then both burst out laughing. None of the others knew what to make of it, one minute they were at each other's throats, and then they were laughing together. When they had both calmed down Zabuza wiped a tear from his eye and said.

"You're all right kid, for a genin. But I've got a mission to complete so hand over the old man and you can all walk away."

"No can do, no brow I got a mission as well."

Silently nodding his head at the boy Zabuza turned to Kakashi.

"So are we going to do this? Or do you want to trade insults for a bit."

Taking out a kunai and lifting his head band, Kakashi just stared at the missing ninja. Without saying anything else the two met in a clash of steel, Kakashi with his kunai and Zabuza with his zanbato. It was a few minutes later that Zabuza gained the advantage. Sending Kakashi into a nearby lake that none of them had seen through the mist and trapping him in a sphere of water. He then made twenty water clones and had them charge the group.

Running forward so that the real Zabuza would be in range Kurenai sent three shots at Zabuza at high speed.

Unfortunately without using genjutsu it was easy for the missing ninja to dodge the bullets and appear behind Kurenai only to kick her on to the lake as well. Before she knew it, Kurenai was in the same predicament as Kakashi, only this time it was a clone that had her trapped. At a silent command from their creator, the clones went speeding towards the genin and bridge builder.

This time, unlike with the demon brothers, none of the genin froze, Naruto and Sasuke ran to meet the clones before they could get to the others while the other genin stayed to protect Tazuna. Pulling his katanas from his back Naruto met the clones and started to flash from place to place. Sasuke, not having the chance to use the swords fixed to his back, chose to use a kunai in each hand.

As he watched the two boys finish off his clones, Zabuza sent a curious look at the blonde. He could tell there was something different about him, if he was honest with himself he reminded him of himself. It was this thought that made him laugh.

"I've got to say, I didn't think you wimps in Konohagakure had it in you."

He could just hear Kakashi's reply.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't bullshit me Kakashi; I know what it looks like when someone has had their mind broken. That kid has the same look in his eyes that I did at his age. The skills, the attitude, even the smile. You people have the makings of a true monster in that boy."

He got no answer to this, which made him laugh again.

But what he didn't realize was that he was so caught up in his conversation with Kakashi that he didn't see Naruto flash his way over to him and his captive. Just before one of the katana slit his stomach open Zabuza jumped back away from the young psychopath.

As soon as the Jutsu was released Kakashi sent a kunai at the clone that held Kurenai, destroying it, before he turned to resume his fight with the real Zabuza. Before the two could start again Kurenai grabbed Naruto by the hood on the back of his straight jacket and jumped back to the group. The fight didn't last long after that, both ninja sent a water dragon at each other and Zabuza was sent flying into a tree.

Slowly making his way to the downed Zabuza, kunai in hand, Kakashi prepared to make the finishing blow.

He never got the chance. Before he could finish what he started three senbon were seen sticking out of the missing ninja's neck. His eyes widened before going blank. Putting the kunai away Kakashi stepped to the body and checked for a pulse. When he found none, he turned his head to a random tree and said.

"Thank you for the assistance, hunter-san."

Before anyone could ask who he was talking to a masked ninja jumped out of the tree and moving towards the body.

The hunter had on a sage blue battle kimono, with their long brown hair tied up in a bun.

The mask was mostly blank, except for the eye holes and the Kiri sign on the forehead. Nobody noticed the grin on Naruto's face stretch wider as the hunter passed him. Nodding at Kakashi the hunter bent down to pick up the body and, without saying a word, body flickered away. Pulling down his forehead protector to cover his eye, Kakashi turned to the group.

"Well done you guys, great team work, and thanks Naruto, you saved my life. Now, if one of you could carry me the rest of the way to Tazuna's house, I'm going to sleep for a bit."

The second Kakashi said this he fell to the ground, unconscious. Running over and checking her fellow jonin, Kurenai let out her breath and said to the others.

"It's all right; he's just suffering from chakra exhaustion. A few days and he will be fine."

Before anyone could say anything, Naruto walked up and grabbed Kakashi by his feet. Before they could ask what he was doing, Naruto started to drag him the way they had been going before Zabuza attacked.

When he was a few meters away he turned back to the group. They were all just stood there, staring at him.

"What? What I do?"

XXX

About an hour later they arrived at Tazuna's house.

Kakashi was being carried by Sasuke and Kiba, who had taken him after Naruto had wanted to drag him all the way there. They were all sat around in the living room of the house. Kakashi, had been put in a spare room in Tazuna's house and he had regained consciousness a few minutes earlier. He had just finished telling them about how his eye used a lot of chakra, which was why he had chakra exhaustion when he brought up Zabuza.

"At least now that Zabuza is out of the picture, I doubt we will have any more ninja of his caliber to worry...about... Naruto, is there a reason you're laughing like that, or is it just you again?"

Part way through his talk Naruto had started to roll around on the floor, banging his hand on the floor and holding his sides as he laughed and giggled.

"Hahahaha…you actually believe... hahaha…that Zabuza is dead... hehehe!"

This confused the others in the room, when Naruto had calmed down Kakashi asked him what he meant. All he said was.

"That wasn't a hunter ninja."

Both Kakashi and Kurenai's faces took on a contemplating look. Then, something clicked in to place. Kurenai slapped a hand to her face and Kakashi just said.

"Shit"

Turning to the still confused genin Kurenai explained.

"Hunter ninjas' are required to remove the head and destroy the body of any missing ninja they kill at the site of death, no exceptions outside of a battle field."

Nodding his head Kakashi continued.

"But the one that took Zabuza's body didn't. They took him away. We can only assume that they were working together and the fake hunter put him into a near death state. This means they will be back."

The genin got scared looks on their faces at his words.

"Naruto, if you knew about the hunter, why didn't you say anything?"

"You were dead on your feet, Kurenai still couldn't use her genjutsu, the rest of us are genin, and if Zabuza trusts this person to pull his ass out of trouble they have to be good enough to be a threat. So why do you think I didn't say anything? Besides this just gives us another shot at them where we can be better prepared for an attack."

Nodding his head at the logic, Kakashi moved on.

"Fair enough. Now, we need to discuss what we are going to do. From the injuries he gained from our fight and the stress from being put into a near death state, Zabuza should be out of commission for about a month. Tazuna, how long will it take for you to finish your bridge?"

Thinking on it for a moment, the old man said.

"A little over a month as long as work continues at the pace it has been going."

Nodding his head, Kakashi went on.

"Right, which means we are almost guaranteed to run into him again. We have a month. It's not much, but it's something."

Nodding her head, Kurenai spoke.

"From now until then, we will be taking shifts, two of you will be training with me and Kakashi, two will be guarding Tazuna and the other two will be guarding Tazuna's family. We can switch every two days."

They all nodded their heads at this.

"Potato!"

Again they all stared at Naruto, who just shrugged. Shaking his head at the strange blonde, Tazuna said.

"I just want to thank you for all you're doing for us, if it wasn't for you I would never have made it this far."

"Don't worry about it you old drunk, if we didn't help you then we wouldn't be any better than Gato."

Everyone in the room nodded at this, agreeing with the crazy genin.

XXX

They were all sat around a table in Tazuna's house with his daughter Tsunami, and her son Inari.

Tsunami was a beautiful young woman in her late twenties with shoulder length black hair and a gentle smile. She had an amazing figure for a civilian and was very welcoming to the guests in her home

Inari on the other hand, had an air of defeat surrounding him. He had a plain white shirt underneath a set of green overalls. His brown hair was covered by a white hat and his skin was very pale, obviously he didn't spend much time outside. He also gave all the ninja the cold shoulder.

No one said anything as they eat the small meal. They felt a little bad that they were eating so much of the family's food when they had so little. As soon as he finished, Inari ran upstairs to his room without saying a word to his mother.

Turning to the ninja, Tsunami apologized to them all.

"Sorry about him, he was never able to get over Kaiza's death."

Seeing the questioning looks on their faces, Tazuna explained about how Kaiza had opposed Gato and had been publicly executed. Kaiza was also really close to Inari and Inari saw him as his surrogate father. It was a sad story, and it got to all of them, even if they didn't all show it. After a few minutes of silence Naruto stood up and went to the front door.

Seeing he was going Kurenai asked.

"Naruto, where are you going?"

He didn't turn to face them, just looked over his shoulder with his usual grin on his face.

"The roof."

Without saying anything else he left. Those left in the room said nothing. Then they heard it, Naruto's violin.

Like all the other times they heard him play it was a soft, sad melody. Tsunami was shocked, this being the first time she had herd the young boy play. It was a beautiful sound and very well played, but it didn't seem right to her for someone that hadn't stopped smiling since he had got there to play a song that held such sadness and pain.

"Why does he play such sad music, he seems like such a happy boy."

All the other people in the room stared at her for a moment before Kiba said.

"Happy, he's fucking insane!"

They all nodded their heads in agreement at this, which caused Tsunami to frown.

"That's not a nice thing to say about someone."

Shino took it upon himself to explain what they meant as it appeared Kiba's came off more as an insult than a fact.

"I'm sorry Miss Tsunami, but I think you misunderstood. We weren't insulting him. He is actually insane. He spent the last six years of his life in a mental institution built to house insane ninja. He was released a few months ago to become a ninja."

Both Tsunami and Tazuna were shocked to hear this. But it was Tazuna that asked the next question.

"If he is insane then why the hell is he a ninja, isn't that I don't know unsafe?"

Both jonin shared a look before Kurenai said.

"There are certain things that we are not at liberty to saying, I'm afraid this is one of them. But let's just say Naruto isn't a threat to his allies but I would hate to be his enemy."

With that said they all just sat there for a while listening to Naruto playing. Naruto continued to play well into the night and he was still playing when they all went to bed.

XXX

The next morning when they woke they were all surprised at what they found Naruto doing in the kitchen with Tsunami.

Like when they had been travelling Naruto had been hunting while they slept, but whereas before he had caught a few rabbits and a dear, last night he had caught what seemed like the entire forest that surrounded the area.

The room was full of dead rabbits, about twenty different birds and five dear.

The two were in the middle of skinning and plucking the carcasses and cutting up the meat.

None of them knew what to make of it. They all just assumed that when they got here he would stop hunting.

When he saw them all just stood there staring his grin grew.

"What?"

Stepping forward, Kurenai explained their confusion.

"Naruto... why did you go hunting? I could understand when we were travelling but why now?"

He just started laughing.

"Ha ha ha! Gato has a stronghold on the whole island and controls what supplies get onto the island due to his shipping company, Tsunami here hasn't been able to shop for decent food for a while and now that we are all here she didn't have enough food. So I went hunting to compensate for us staying here."

Again, none of them knew what to say to this. It had never occurred to them that Tsunami couldn't shop for food.

Tazuna was nearly in tears at what the blonde had done.

For the next hour they all sat and helped, except Kakashi and Inari. While they were doing this Kurenai thought about the plan. She realized it was not a good idea to leave any of the genin unsupervised.

So as there were working she told them all her changes. They would still be in teams of two but she would go to the bridge with Tazuna's guard, while Kakashi would supervise the training. The other thing was that Kakashi would need to stay within hearing distance of the house encase anything happened.

They all agreed and the jonin told them the teams for the foreseeable future and what they would do first.

Kiba with Shino would be the first to guard the bridge with Kurenai, Sakura and Hinata would be the first to train with Kakashi and Sasuke along with Naruto would look after Tsunami and Inari.

About an hour before they set off for their respective assignments, Tsunami asked if it was okay for her to go into the village to try and find any vegetables that she might be able to buy.

After considering it for a moment Kurenai agreed that Naruto could go while Sasuke stayed to watch the house and Inari.

This did not sit well with the Uchiha, but he just nodded his head and agreed.

An hour later Tazuna and his guard for the next two days set off for the bridge while Kakashi took Sakura and Hinata just inside the woods for their training.

The three stayed in the kitchen to finish as Inari sulked in a corner of the room.

When they were done with the animals Naruto took all the organs that they couldn't use outside and dumped them in a circle around the house.

Watching him Tsunami asked what he was doing.

"Feeding my friends, I met a small pack of wolves when I was hunting and made a deal. I spread out some food for them and they will help guard the house. Nice bunch, after they tried to kill me they were very sorry. Hehe."

"You can talk to wolfs... wait did you say they tried to kill you!"

"I can communicate with most animals, with my bloodline to change my body all I have to do is alter my vocal cores and a few parts of my brain, simple."

"What's a bloodline?"

"Something that only I can do thanks to a genetic trait."

"And the trying to kill you part."

Naruto just shrugged and started doing back flips until he hit a tree.

"Ow"

Giggling as he stood up Naruto went back into the house.

"See what we meant last night when we said he was insane?"

Looking behind her Tsunami saw Sasuke a few paces away. Not saying anything, she turned to head back to the house with a worried look on her face.

XXX

Naruto and Tsunami were walking down the road towards the village. They hadn't really talked much since the whole wolf conversation. She just didn't know what to say to the young boy. Over the last few years she had seen a lot of things, like men and women killing themselves and their families just so they wouldn't suffer. Or on the rare occasions that Gato and his men returned one of the women they took and they came back as empty shells.

But Naruto was different.

He had this aura around him. At first she had mistaken it for happiness, but after she talked to the other ninja she realized that it was his insanity.

Whatever made him like this it was so bad that you could practically see it.

It made her sad to look at him; he seemed like such a nice boy, a little... ok a lot strange, but still nice.

He was walking a little way in front of her, hands folded behind his head.

A few minutes later they were entering the town.

A lot of people had lost their homes over the last few years because of Gato.

Many of the houses were falling apart, or in some cases already fell down.

The streets were full of people, both young and old, and if you looked carefully you could see some of them were dead.

Tsunami tried not to look around at the people lying in the street.

Naruto on the other hand looked at everything with a smile on his face.

After wondering around for a while they finally found a stand that had some only _slightly_ out of date products.

It was then that Naruto said something that shocked her.

"This reminds me of when I was little, rotten food at high prices, the smell of hopelessness in the air, or that might actually be that guy over there. I think he's starting to go out of date too."

Tsunami didn't know what to say to this. Konohagakure was supposed to be the nicest and wealthiest place to live in all of the elemental nations, how could this remind him of his childhood?

Before she could ask him what he meant Naruto had walked away.

XXX

It was on their way out of the village that Naruto noticed a building that stood out from the rest. Unlike those around it this building was not in disrepair, and the general populace seemed to be avoiding it. The building wasn't very good to look at seeing at is was basically a giant box and lacked any sort of creative flair, but it was in one piece, had a fairly new paint job and a front door, which was more than could be said for most of the buildings around it.

"Hey, Tsunami-san, what's in there?"

Following his line of sight her face took on a mixture of hatred and fear.

"That's one of Gato's buildings. He made it for his thugs. It's were they take the women they find in the village that they take a shine to and..."

She didn't finish, she didn't need to.

Then she saw a strange look on Naruto's face, it was like he was struggling to keep his grin.

Without saying anything he started towards the building with a slow walk, leaving her where she stood as the people around then all watching on silently as he crossed the street towards the building.

When he came to the door Naruto picked up his left foot and slammed it into the closed door, which flew off its hinges, and walked inside.

The inside was nothing but a big room with sofas and beds. To one side of the room there were several women chained naked to a wall of all ages, the oldest looked to be in her late thirty's and the youngest being around his own age.

Even though it was the middle of the day the room was full of men that were probably in Gato's employment, about fifty, all with a woman.

The air reeked of sex, fear, alcohol and cigar smoke, it was almost enough to make the young boy gag if he hadn't smelled far worse.

After the thugs got over their shock they started to get up and surround Naruto. When they had him covered on all sides a very large, very fat man stepped forward.

"You've got a death wish or something?"

His words were slightly slurred, he was obviously drunk.

It was then that the thugs saw something that hadn't been seen in years.

Naruto stopped grinning. His insane grin slipped into a cold stone poker face that kept what he was feeling hidden.

The air in the room seemed to get colder and all the thugs took a step back.

He didn't say anything, just stood there, looking around the room with cold, calculating eyes.

When nothing happened the thugs started to get their confidence back, the fat man from before walked up to Naruto, but because of the young boy's height he was only a few inches taller than the boy.

"Maybe you didn't hear me. I's said, you've got a death wish"

He never finished.

As soon as the man had gotten close Naruto had thrust his hand forward and through the man's stomach.

He was still alive, but in a lot of pain. All the thugs in the room were shocked.

Leaning forwards Naruto put his mouth next to the man's ear and said loud enough for all of them to hear.

"You. Have. No. Idea."

Without saying another word Naruto gave a sharp pull and ripped out a long white object from the man's body. The man gave one last shuddering breath, and then fell over.

In Naruto's hand for all to see was what was left of the man's spine and yet Naruto didn't show any reaction, his face stayed impassive the whole time, until he dropped it.

It was like someone had thrown a switch in his head. Slowly a smile grew in his face, and then it turned into a grin.

They could hear the giggles in his throat as they became full-blown laughter.

Then he started to change.

XXX

Outside a small crowd had gathered, but they couldn't see inside because none of them dared to get closer.

"Tsunami!"

Turning around to see who called her Tsunami saw her father running to her side, Kurenai, Kiba and Shino right behind.

"Dad!"

"What the hell's going on, one of the villagers came to the bridge screaming about something happening."

"It's Naruto, I don't know what happened. One minute he was here and then he was kicking the door down."

At the mention of Naruto, Kurenai pushed Tazuna out of the way and grabbed Tsunami by the shoulders, her eyes wide.

"What is in that building?"

With a shaking voice Tsunami told her what she told Naruto.

Kurenai's eyes widened even more in understanding.

Then they heard the laughter, followed by the screams of terror.

"Shit!"

XXX

It was like every other time he changed, the pain, the feeling of every cell in his body screaming in agony.

Oh how he loved it.

As the men watched Naruto started to get thinner and taller, but his body stayed the same size. His arms and legs seemed to be stretching. His clothes melded into his skin and turned into a patchy brown, cloth like material. His eyes changed into big, round, black buttons that looked like they had been sewn onto his face. Lastly his mouth sewed itself together into a malicious grin that stretched across his whole face.

When he was done changing he towered over all the thugs at about eleven foot. His arms as long as he was tall and trailed along the floor.

The only way any of them could describe him was a giant ragdoll.

They could still hear him giggling, although it was muffled by his lips being sewn together.

No one in the room moved until the doll reached behind its back and showed them all the black, serrated scythes it now held.

When it moved it was like watching a puppet show, its limbs were boneless, turning its head a full 360' to look at each of them.

The dam broke and all the thugs through themselves at their weapons.

What happened next was a mass of flying limbs and blood. The ragdoll seemed to be just that, a ragdoll, it could bend in any way it wanted, twisting and bending around the thugs as they tried desperately to kill it.

It never stopped giggling the whole time they fought and with each swing of its arms another thug would fall with limbs missing, but none of them were dead.

Before long there was only one thug left standing, he was nothing special, brown hair and eye's that were filled with fear.

The doll was covered in blood from all the other thugs that lay around them and there was a pool of blood covering the floor.

He was frozen to the spot as the doll made its way over to him on wobbly legs.

But it didn't even turn to him.

It walked over to the girls chained to the wall. They shrank away from it in fear as it reached out, only to cut their chains with its scythes.

One by one the doll cut the girls free and watched as they ran out the door with all the others.

The thug saw his chance when it had its back to him and ran forward and stabbed it in the lower back with his knife.

The ragdoll made no sign that it could feel the knife.

Slowly it started to lean back, it leaned so far that its head was in front of the thug upside down.

Falling back on his ass the thug tried to crawl away but stopped when the dolls mouth started to force its way open.

"Tell... Gato... I'm... coming... for... him."

Its voice was ruff, like dry leafs rustling together.

The thug just nodded quickly and ran out the door in a panic.

Standing back up straight the doll looked around at the men lying on the floor groaning in pain.

Seeing them suffer brought another giggle to the dolls throat.

"Naruto?"

Turning its head again the doll saw a crowd gathering outside the building, stood at the front was Kurenai, Shino and Kiba, along with Tazuna and tsunami.

Turning the rest of its body to face the group the doll slowly made its way over and stopped a few feet away, its head tilted to one side as it stared at Kurenai with its button eyes.

"Can you still understand me?"

Nodding its head slowly at her Kurenai let out a sigh of relief.

"Good, now I need you to cancel your shift, okay?"

She spoke slowly, making sure each word was clear.

It nodded its head but before it changed back to Naruto it turned to the thugs in the room. Forcing its mouth open again, but this time, instead of speaking it blew out a thick, black ash with embers floating in it.

Kurenai could feel the heat coming from the ash, from where she stood in the door way as it filled the room. They could all hear the screams of the thugs as they were burned alive by the heat, then nothing.

Turning back to the crowd the doll made its way towards them and out the door. The crowd all backed up when they saw it walking towards them.

When it was out of the building they could all clearly see the thick layer of blood that coated its body.

Slowly it started to turn back into Naruto. All the people stared at the boy in shock. Like the doll he was covered in blood from head to toe and had almost the exact same grin on his face.

"I regret nothing."

With those three words he fell face first into the road.

XXX

When Naruto woke up he found that he was in a small room, the same one that they kept Kakashi in when he had fainted.

Getting up he found that he was in a clean white shirt and black pants. He still had his bandages on, thankfully, but he still wondered where his clothes were.

Heading down stairs he found all the Konoha ninja along with Tazuna and Tsunami, who was holding his freshly cleaned clothes.

Taking the clothes from the woman with a nod he went back up to change.

When he came down a few minutes later they all just stared at him.

Looking at each in turn he said.

"One fine day in the middle of the night,  
two dead men got up to fight;  
Back to back they faced each other,  
raised their swords and shot each other."

They all face planted.

After getting back up Kakashi spoke.

"Naruto, what you did was reckless. You could have been killed."

Naruto just laughed at this.

"I wish it were that simple to kill me."

The room went deadly quiet at his words, until Tsunami asked.

"What do you mean you wish? Don't you even care if you live or die?"

"Nope but honestly it would take quite a bit of force to kill me"

Tears filled her eyes when he said this.

"So how long was I out?"

Kurenai was the one to answer this time.

"Two hours."

"Why did you do it?"

They all turned to Tsunami again, they all knew what she meant by **it**.

Turning to face her Naruto got one of his rare real smiles.

"Some people need to die. What they were doing was wrong, I hate people like them."

Turning to face the genin Naruto continued.

"It's like I said, the things I hate are never around for long."

After saying this, his grin came back. Nodding to himself Naruto headed for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"Roof."

Without another word he left the room.

And just like the night before a few minutes later they heard him playing his violin.

Getting up Tsunami wiped her eyes and turned to Kakashi and Kurenai.

"I don't know what happened to make him like this, to make him wish for death, but I think I have an idea. Did you know that people say that Konohagakure is the best place to live in the elemental nations? If that was true then why when we were walking around town did he say that it reminded him of when he was young?"

Everyone in the room was shocked at this, except Kakashi and Kurenai.

Both jonin looked away, unable to meet her eye.

"That's what I thought. I saw your face today Kurenai–san, when I said Naruto had gone into that place I saw the fear in your eyes. I don't know how things work in a ninja village, but whatever that village did to him... well I hope you are all ashamed of whatever it was, because that boy has done more for this village then anyone since my husband died."

It was then that Kakashi looked up at Tsunami, his eye was so full of regret that it made her gasp.

"You have no idea."

XXX

Hardly anyone spoke to each other the next morning, none of them really knew what to say. Naruto and Tsunami were talking in the kitchen about different ways to cook the meat he had caught during the night.

The older woman was going out of her way to learn as much about the boy as possible. She didn't ask about his past, not wanting to bring it up encase it scared him off.

"So Naruto, how do you know so much about hunting?"

"It's what I do in the village for food."

Tsunami stopped washing the dishes to look at Naruto when he said this.

"What do you mean?"

All the others in the room looked at him from the corner of their eyes waiting for an explanation.

"Well I am not particularly liked in the village and since I was release I had to find a place to live. Due to the village hating my guts no one will rent me an apartment so I live in a forest. Nice place really, no one goes there because of the fence around the place and I love the feel of nature around me."

Everyone looked at him in shock for a few moments before Kurenai and Kakashi decided to take their temporary teams. Leaving Naruto and Sasuke alone with Tsunami and Inari.

After what had happened the day before Kurenai decided that it would be best for them not to leave, which everyone but Naruto agreed with.

At some point, through unspoken agreement, Naruto was put with Tsunami while Sasuke would guard Inari. Sasuke didn't have a problem with this because Inari never left his room.

For the entire morning Tsunami would ask Naruto questions. Sometimes she would get answers, other times Naruto would remain silent. One thing she did notice was that when he explained something he got very serious and took on a more lecturing tone. There was the occasional mad moment, like when he started juggling knifes, badly, but she soon got used to it. If there was one thing Tsunami learned it was that Naruto was smarter then he looked, the way he explained things in such detail. It was amazing.

But there was no denying he was insane. Sometime she would hear him talk to himself under his breath, or he would just start laughing at nothing.

At one point she could have sworn that she saw him cut himself on the arm with a knife out of the corner of her eye. But when she turned to look at him fully there was no sign of there ever being one.

It was the afternoon when Tsunami finally asked him about the day before. She wasn't planning on bringing it up, but something had been bothering her.

"Naruto, can I ask you something about yesterday?"

Seeing him nod she continued.

"What was that thing you became? I've never heard of a ninja doing something like that, it looked like something out of a nightmare."

Turning to face her completely he grinned.

"That's _exactly_ what it was."

Seeing that she didn't understand Naruto just laughed and went on.

"Remember when I said I had a bloodline, something that only I can do? Well that was it. I can become anything. The only limitations are my chakra and my imagination, that and a high healing factor. The thing you saw yesterday, that creature, was from one of my nightmares."

Tsunami was shocked. To be able to do something like that was incredible.

"Why use a nightmare, why not an animal or something like that."

"I use my nightmares as inspiration. I let my enemy's feel true fear before I kill them. Besides why not share my fears and let those that oppose me fear them too."

Tsunami really didn't know what to say to that.

"Can I see?"

Nodding his head Naruto lifted up his hand. Slowly, the bandages melted into his flesh and were replaced by thick, wiry black fur. His fingers stretched and his hand grew to about the size of his head. Thick, claws grew at the ends of his fingers curved at the tips into hooks. When it stopped Naruto's hand was completely changed into an animalistic claw.

Tsunami just stared at it for a long moment; she didn't actually see him change the day before and was fascinated.

Reaching out her hand she stopped just centimeters from touching it.

"May I?"

Again he just nodded his head, never taking his eyes off her face.

Closing the distance between their hands she was slightly surprised by how soft it was. It felt just like a dog's coat. The claws were razor sharp, perfect for tearing flesh from bone.

The whole time she was looking at her hand Naruto was watching how she would react.

"Does it hurt?"

He grinned insanely at her question.

"It is the second most painful thing I have ever felt."

With that he pulled his hand back and started to walk away to do a perimeter check, his hand changing back to normal as he went.

Before he left Tsunami asked one more question.

"What was the first?"

He just laughed and went outside.

XXX

They were all at the table for dinner. Naruto made it and had used the meet from several different animals to make something he called 'game stew'. When hearing it was Naruto's recipe the others were a little scared to taste it.

At first Tazuna refused to eat it until Tsunami threatened to force it down his throat. He could still remember the burning in his throat from the hangover cure. But Tsunami assured them that the stew was good.

No one but Naruto and Tsunami were eating; they all just stared at the bowl of lumpy liquid in front of them.

Seeing that they weren't eating Naruto put his spoon down and looked at all of them.

"Eat it or I'll dye all your hair different colors while you sleep, take picture and have them posted all over Konohagakure."

They instantly grabbed their spoons and swallowed a mouth full before they could think it through.

All their eyes widened at the taste. It was good. The meat was tender and melted in the mouth, the seasoning was perfect and the broth was delicious. Seeing their reactions Naruto laughed and started eating again.

None of them spoke as they ate; even Inari seemed to be enjoying the meal.

When they were all finished they all stared at Naruto before Kurenai asked where he learned to cook like that.

"Trial and error, first time I tried cooking I couldn't shit for a week. But I have actually been refining what I know by watching Tsunami cook."

Nodding their heads weakly they all went to the sitting room while Tsunami washed the dishes, except Inari, who went to his room.

A few minutes later Naruto pulled out a small orange book from his back pocket and started flipping through the pages at a fast pace. When he didn't stop Sakura asked what he was doing.

Without taking his eyes away from the book he said in a flat tone.

"Reading"

The pink haired girl was confused when he said this.

"But you're just flipping through the pages."

He didn't respond to this and kept flipping.

It was then that Kakashi noticed the title of the book and his eyes widened.

"Naruto... where did you get that book?"

"Your bag"

Oh, this was so not good.

Turning to Kurenai, Kakashi shrank back in fear; she was staring at him with fury in her eyes and a dark aura surrounding her. But before she could kill him for corrupting her student Naruto closed the book after finishing it, got up from his chair and went over to Kakashi, book in hand. For a moment Kakashi thought he would be like any healthy man and get down on his knees and cry tears of joy.

What he didn't expect was for Naruto to slam it down on his head so hard he saw stars.

"If I catch you reading this smut again I'll strip you naked, hog tie you, tattoo pervert on your chest and throw you into a kunoichi only bathhouse. Understand."

To emphasize his point Naruto kicked the one eyed jonin between the legs, causing all the other males in the room to wince. Kakashi's eye went wide and he let out a high pitched scream as he curled into a ball on the floor. Nodding his head in satisfaction Naruto went to the door and left. When he was gone Sasuke walked over to his sensei to make sure he was ok.

Turning to Kurenai, Shino asked.

"What exactly is in that book?"

Shaking her head and looking down at Kakashi, Kurenai wondered if it would be overkill to kick him herself.

"Something that if any woman sees you reading they will kick your ass. Though I am glad Naruto seems immune to the rotten thing."

Nodding their heads Kiba, Shino and Sasuke backed away from Kurenai.

XXX

The next day found Kakashi, Sasuke and Naruto at the edge of the forest that surrounded Tazuna's house.

Today they would be training, the girls would be with Tazuna and Kiba and Shino would guard the house.

Turning to face the two boys Kakashi told them what they would be doing.

"Ok, since Naruto agreed to teach Sasuke his fighting style I thought we could work on that."

Nodding his head Naruto gave Kakashi a piece of paper.

"What's this?"

"A list of things I need to start teaching him."

Shrugging his shoulders Kakashi skimmed over the list.

"Erm... Naruto, why do you need a rope, a rotten fish and a bucket?"

Naruto just grinned and made his way towards a tree.

Ten minute later after kakash had gathered what Naruto needed Sasuke was starting to regret asking for the blondes help. He was currently hanging upside down with his arms and legs tied so he couldn't untie himself and a rotten fish tied to his head. He could feel the blood rushing to his head and was starting to fell ill from the smell of the fish.

Walking up to the Uchiha, Naruto looked over all the knots and placed the bucket under his head. Kakashi was off to one side watching with a critical eye.

"Ok, everything seems to be good, now we can start."

Grabbing Sasuke's arm Naruto started to walk around slowly spinning him until the rope wouldn't turn anymore.

Having enough of the blonde making a fool out of him Sasuke yelled.

"How the hell is this supposed to teach me to fight you fucking asshole?!"

"Calm down duck ass, you want my help or not?"

"I'm not sure anymore."

When he said this Naruto smacked him in the back of the head.

"Shut up, now the reason we are doing this is because you need to get so dizzy you puke."

This made Sasuke's eyes widen in sudden fear. He looked at the rope and then at the bucket underneath him.

"What the hell!"

"My style is all about insane amounts of speed and using the momentum you keep building to increase your attack and defense. You saw when I used it I seemed to flash from point to point well you need to be able to handle at moving at high speeds before I teach you how to move that fast. Since the drawback to this is that it makes you dizzy and nauseous when you use it and especially when you stop, I'm going to start with building up your tolerance to motion sickness."

"Then why do I have a rotten fish on my head?"

"I made a bet with Shino that I could get you to smell like a rotten fish, but that's not important now, and remember to aim for the bucket."

Before Sasuke could yell at him again Naruto let go of his arm and he started to spin.

As soon as he let go Naruto darted away and stood behind a tree. Kakashi, seeing what he was doing asked why.

Naruto just grinned at him and pointed to the screaming Sasuke. As he turned Kakashi was hit in the face with Sasuke's puke.

"Ah... that's why."

When he turned back to the insane blonde he was rolling on the ground laughing.

When Naruto had calmed down and Kakashi had cleaned himself off with a low level water Jutsu the two turned back to Sasuke. He was very pale and his eyes were unfocused, but as soon as he was back to normal Naruto did it again before he could speak.

This continued for the next 3 hours straight until Sasuke stopped puking and was able to yell at Naruto while he was still spinning. The bucket was full and the surrounding area now had several puddles of sick. Kakashi had learned his lesson the first time and was able to avoid being splattered again.

Finally satisfied that Sasuke was used to spinning at high speeds and wouldn't get sick easily Naruto went and cut him down with a kunai he had gotten from Kakashi. What he forgot to do however was move the bucket. As soon as he cut the rope Sasuke fell face first into the bucket, which caused Naruto to fall on the ground and laugh yet again.

When Sasuke got up and couldn't get the bucket of his head Naruto started having trouble breathing.

After a few minutes Kakashi took pity on his student and pulled the bucket off. The young Uchiha just stared daggers at the blonde rolling around on the ground at his expense.

It took a full ten minutes for Naruto to calm down and he still couldn't help the odd giggle here and there.

"Right, now that you got use to feeling sick I think I should explain more about my style. Like I said earlier it requires you to move at insane speed to build up momentum but makes you sick, when you stop, which is why I spun you around for the last 3 hours. It is because of this I named this style the drunken flash step. Ok, now there are three ways to counteract this style, one is to move faster than your opponent to build up more momentum, another is to move at the same speed your opponent and the last way is to get the person using this style to stop completely, with me so far."

When they both nodded he went on. They had all sat down during the explanation, Kakashi because he knew it would be long and Sasuke because he was still a little shaky on his feet.

"Now the longer you are able to handle the level of speed I am talking about the longer you can fight using this style, but if you use it continually for too long it will take a while for you to get over the dizziness. There are three forms to my style, the first is all about attack, the second is all about defense and the third is about subduing the enemy."

Again they nodded.

"Now the way I used it on the demon brothers was the third form. It is a more advanced form that requires great kenjutsu skill and accuracy to insure you only break the first layer of skin. I will not be teaching you this form."

At this Sasuke shot to his feet in anger and yelled.

"What, why not!"

"It wouldn't suit your style."

This calmed Sasuke down instantly, this Naruto he could stand to be around, calculating and serious. If he said this he would have a valid reason. Nodding his head for the blonde to continue Sasuke sat back down on the ground to listen.

"The way you fight is all about power, you use your strength, speed and jutsu to overpower your opponents as quickly as possible."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No, actually it is perfect for a ninja; kill quickly and efficiently, in and out. But I made the third variation as a way to prolong the fight, causing the most amount of pain but not killing them. In essence it is a capture technique and a torture technique."

Sasuke thought about what Naruto said for a moment before nodding his head.

"I see what you mean, but then what are you going to teach me, the first?"

"Actually I'm going to teach you a bit of the first and the second; you never know when you will need it just in case."

This time it was Kakashi to nod his head in agreement.

"He's right, knowing both will only help you in the long run. You can still focus on one but even if you only know the basics of the other it might mean the difference between life and death later on."

"By the way, I will only teach you the basics and mechanics of the style."

This time Sasuke kept his calm.

"Why"

"Because if I show you the basics, you can build it up and make it your own. The Flash Step is a lose style. It's all about quick, flowing movements and if I show you all the ways I use it, it might not be as effective. This way it will be perfect for you. I said I'd teach you a style, well I changed my mind, and I'm going to help you make your own."

Both Kakashi and Sasuke were a little shocked at his words. He was not only willing to let Sasuke use his style, but was going to take the time to rework it just so it would work better for him. Then he said something that made their thought process come to a complete stop and their eyes to go wide.

"You know... now that I think about it this could be the perfect style for you, I mean when you activate your Sharingan you can process movement better right? So in theory you could skip the side effects completely, or at least they would be less of a problem."

Both their minds when back into overdrive, he was right; when Sasuke's sharingan activated this could be the perfect style. It was a powerful style and the only thing that would be a problem was the after effects. But something was still bugging Sasuke.

"Why are you doing this? You created a powerful fighting style and now you're doing all this for me. We don't even know each other; actually, I don't even like you. So why are you doing this."

Naruto thought about that for a moment and when he came up with a good reply he answered.

"Because you asked me to."

"That's it, because I asked you to?"

"...Pretty much, but you're right. We don't know each other that well and I can tell you don't like me, not many people do for some reason... But I can tell you are full of pride and so for you to ask me for help must have been hard for you. And as for why I'm putting in so much effort to help you, well, if you have a strong fighting style then it looks good on me for helping you create it."

This made sense to the Uchiha. By teaching Sasuke this style Naruto could say he helped make it.

"Plus this is a good lesson for you. When you have your sharingan you will be tempted like so many Uchiha before you, to rely on it too much. This way it shows you the benefits of hard work."

Sasuke didn't know if he should be grateful for the help or angry that he insulted his family. Fortunately he didn't have to decide.

"He's right, Sasuke."

Turning to his sensei Sasuke just stared at him waiting for an explanation.

"Take it from someone whose fell into that trap already. I became complacent with my skills and relied on the Sharingan too much. It made me arrogant. Because of this I made a mistake that I can never take back..."

Sasuke didn't see Kakashi looking at Naruto out of the corner of his eye when he said this, but Naruto did.

The three of them said nothing for a few minutes, lost in their own thoughts, Kakashi of the past, Sasuke on his family and Naruto wondering if he could pat his head and rub his belly at the same time while balancing a kunai on his nose. When the moment past Naruto stood up and looked down at the two.

"Anyway, like I was saying, I will teach you the basics of the style and let you do the rest yourself. But I think you should do something else for the rest of the day. You still look ill. So I'll leave you with Kakashi and go do my own training. Later."

He was gone before Kakashi could say anything.

Letting out a deep breath Kakashi turned back to Sasuke. He was still a bit pale, his hair had sick in it and for some reason he was still wearing the rotten fish.

"Ok, for the rest of the day we will be doing the tree walking exercise."

"Why the hell will we be climbing trees?"

Kakashi sighed at his student's lack of knowledge before he launched into an explanation of the exercise

XXX

They didn't see Naruto until it was time to go back to the house. When the blonde came back into the clearing it was to a tired Sasuke and Kakashi quickly hiding his book behind his back.

When they got to the house they were the last to arrive, as they came into the sitting room all eyes turned to them, or more specifically, Sasuke.

Without saying a word Shino walked over to Naruto and gave him some money.

Confused by the exchange Sasuke suddenly remembered what Naruto had said earlier about a bet with Shino.

Trying to be inconspicuous, Sasuke made his way over to a window and through the rotten fish into the lake outside, then turned back and glared at Naruto.

XXX

The next day training went more or less the same as the day before, but without the rotten fish and instead of tying him up Naruto just had Sasuke spin on his feet in one spot.

When he had been doing that for a few hours Naruto showed Sasuke the basics of the style and how to wield a sword. After another couple of hours of this Naruto decided that it was time to call it a day and set out to do his own training while Kakashi had Sasuke doing the tree climbing exercise again.

At one point Kakashi had tried to find the blonde to see if he could help him in whatever it was he was training in, but couldn't find him. Giving up he had gone back to supervise Sasuke as he tried over and over again to make it up the tree without success.

It wasn't until just before the sun went down that they saw Naruto again. He didn't even seem tired, but then again he never did.

Heading back towards the house Kakashi tried multiple times to get Naruto to tell him what he was doing and where he had been but every time the boy would just smile at him without answering. It was a little infuriating on Kakashi's end but he had no authority over Naruto and Kurenai seemed to let the boy do what he wanted so long as he showed up again at some point.

After dinner all the ninja met up in the sitting room to discuss what had happened in the day and what they would be doing tomorrow.

The bridge was going well, but if Tazuna lost any more workers they would start to fall behind.

Kakashi gave a quick summery of how Sasuke's training was going but explained how Naruto would go and do his own training and couldn't report on the blondes progress.

When Kurenai didn't say anything Kakashi guessed that his theory about this happening regularly was correct and it wasn't just him.

At some point while they were talking Shino and Hinata took out their respective weapons and started to clean them for something to do.

When Kakashi and his team took notice of this they all moved forward to see. They had all heard about the new weapons of the Aburame and Hyuuga clans, but not many people had actually seen them. They marveled at the elegant tools of death and how much care had gone into the making.

Kiba, seeing his chance to ask about the weapons for his clan stepped closer with a smug look on his face.

His mother had been trying to find out who the craftsman was ever since they had been shown at a council meeting. All she was able to find out was that they were connected to a small ninja shop owned by a man named Higashi.

But despite numerous attempts at getting the old fool to talk he refused to say anything. His mother was desperate, as were the other clans of Konohagakure, to have their own weapons made by the mysterious weapons maker known only as the 'Faceless Blacksmith'.

"So these are the new famed weapons of your clans. They don't look like much, Shino's looks like a pipe. What harm could they do? I bet the guy that made them was just a fraud."

Both Shino and Hinata raised their eyebrows at the dog like boy's words and resisted the urge to look at Naruto in the corner of the room.

Standing up from his seat Shino went over to the log pile next to the unlit fireplace, picked up two large pieces of oak and made his way into the center of the room. Putting the wood down for a moment the bug user fixed his Wasp Point to his arm.

Without saying a word, Shino threw one of the oak logs into the air and, with speed Kiba could barely follow, thrust his arm forward. The pipe like weapon shot out of his sleeve and pierced the log. What shocked the young Inuzuka was that the log started to disintegrate before his eyes. When there was nothing left they could all see the bugs flying back to Shino from the pile of dust on the floor.

Turning to look at Hinata she gave a small nod and stood, her Hands of Kami already on. Bending and picking up the other piece of wood Shino threw it at the waiting girl.

All Hinata did was raise her right hand, which had a light blue glow trailing along several of the seals carved into the metal, and tap the wood as it flew towards her which caused it to explode in a shower of splinters.

They turned their attention towards the shocked members of team 7 and Hinata explained.

"Both our weapons are designed to increase our clans fighting styles."

Getting over his shock Kiba got a contemplating look on his face. When he was done thinking he looked at them both with determination in his eyes. Forgoing being polite Kiba asked them straight.

"Who made them?"

This time it was Shino to answer.

"We are not at liberty to reveal the identity of the 'Faceless Blacksmith'. It was a condition made when we received the weapons, only our clan heads know who he is and are allowed to divulge his identity."

At his words Kiba lost his temper, slamming his hands on the side of his chair and shooting to his feet he stormed over to the quiet boy and grabbed him by the collar.

"Listen here you freak! It's not right that both your clans get special attention and it's not fair that you don't tell the other clans who the creator is. You think that you can keep him all to yourselves? We all want a weapon made for us, now start talking or I'll fucking beat it out of you."

"I would suggest you release me. As I said I am not allowed to tell you anything and-"

"It's ok Shino, dog piss; if you don't release my friend in the next three seconds I'm going to strangle you with your own intestines."

Turning to face the blonde in his rage filled mind Kiba barely heard the threat.

"Shut your fucking mouth Uzumaki! This has nothing to do with you!"

Naruto's grin just widened at the dog like boy, as Akamaru ran away from his partner and hid under a chair. Walking over to Kiba the blonde, without saying a word hit him in the face, sending him across the room, the shock snapping him out of his anger.

"That's where your wrong pup. I'm the Faceless Blacksmith shit for brains. So I would show some respect. Unless you never want to see weapons for your clan."

At his words all of team 7 turned shocked expressions towards Shino and Hinata. When they reluctantly nodded their heads Kiba went very pale and stared at the insane blonde that was grinning down at him and said the only thing that he could think of.

"Fuck."

XXX

Flashback

XXX

After he had given his team their completed custom weapons. Hinata and Shino had gone back to their clans with the new weapon and showed their parents otherwise known as the current clan heads the new weapon.

XXX

Hinata walked slowly back from training ground eight, all the while admiring the craftsmanship and beauty of her new weapons. The seals that littered the surface of the metal just seemed to enhance the elegance of the weapon making it a piece of art. After Naruto had given her the gauntlets he had explained to her quickly how to use the weapon. Kurenai had then allowed her to test it against a training dummy. Naruto had told her to channel chakra to the tip of the pointed finger instead of her fingertips. To say the results were shocking would be an understatement. The second the metal tip touched the wood of the training dummy it exploded in a shower of splinters.

But now she was approaching her clan compound and was beginning to get nervous, Hinata wasn't sure how the clan would react to the existence of the weapons as they prided themselves on having a perfect style that couldn't be improved. But as usual Naruto had blown that out of the water with his out of the box thinking. Hinata turned the corner and the gate came into view along with the two branch members guarding the gate. Hinata walked by them giving each a nod of acknowledgment before heading into the compound. Once inside she walked to her father's office where she stopped outside and knocked gently against the door.

"Come in."

Opening the door Hinata walked inside and sat down on the pillow opposite her father while he continued to look over papers pertaining to the clan. After a few moments Hiashi put down the papers to look at his eldest daughter.

"What can I do for you Hinata, you know that I am busy."

"Yes father, I am here to show you a new weapon that has been given to me by a member of my team, he claims that it will be able to enhance our gentle fist strikes to actually destroy a person's chakra points."

Hiashi looked at her for a moment before holding out his hand.

"Let me see these new weapons, please."

"Yes father."

Hinata quickly took out her gauntlets from her bag and handed them to her father. Hiashi went over them with a critical eye noting the high quality craftsmanship, materials and the complexity of the seals. Hinata waited patiently for her father to finish before he looked at her and put the weapon down on his desk.

"Have you tested this yet?"

"Yes father, I have tested it and it greatly enhances the power of a strike. I could show you but I think that I will need to practice more before I am become completely proficient with it."

"Alright then let's go to a training field I would like to see what this thing an do in person."

Hinata nodded and followed her father out of the office to a nearby training ground within the compound. Hinata put on her gauntlets and stood in front of a training post in the opening stance to the gentle fist. Hinata looked at her father who was standing to the side, seeing him nod his head, Hinata rushed forward and quickly struck the post several time. Each point of contact exploded outwards leaving a crater. After the combo Hinata backed up so her father could see and she looked at him for his appraisal. Hiashi was in a word shocked, the weapons that Hinata had seemed to increase the power of a single strike and whoever made it seemed to know what they were talking about.

"Hinata, where did you say you got this weapon?"

"A member of my team gave it to me."

"Would it be possible get more of these for other members of the clan."

"Father before I tell you more first you have to agree with a few conditions. One you can't tell anyone where I got this weapon or who was the original creator. The next condition is you can't hound him to make more."

Hiashi thought for a moment before nodding

"Good, the person that made this weapon was my teammate Uzumaki Naruto, and he told me that you can order more of these from a little weapons shop known as the Rusty Kunai."

"Alright then, before I do anything else I believe the council has to be alerted to this development and I think a demonstration to the clan might be in order."

XXX

Shino entered his family's home and moved swiftly and efficiently towards his father study and lab. Coming to the door Shino knocked twice and waited. Shino heard some movement before the door opened to show Shino's father and the current clan leader, Shibi Aburame.

"Hello father I must speak with you about a recent development."

Shibi nodded and moved away from the door towards his desk. Taking a seat he motioned for Shino to sit a well.

"Tell me of this development"

Instead of talking Shino simply placed his new weapon in front of his father. Shibi picked up the weapon and examined it closely.

"Hmm…it seems to be a weapon for close combat use, but what does it have to do with anything."

"This father was made for me by a rather eccentric friend of mine and claimed that it will help to enhance our fighting style and reduce our weakness with upfront confrontation and fights. My friend said that this will allow us to inject our beetles into enemies thus allowing them to attack from the inside out."

Shibi nodded slowly before speaking once again.

"Would it be possible to secure more of these weapons?"

Shino nodded and said, "Yes under a few conditions."

"Those being?"

"You are not allowed to tell anyone who created this weapon which was my teammate Naruto Uzumaki. You have to purchase more of these from A weapons shop in the village called the Rusty Kunai as they are the only people able to make the weapons besides Naruto and You are not allowed to ask Naruto to make them for the clan."

"These terms are acceptable and I will make sure to secure and test this new weapon for myself before I continue with introducing it to the clan.

Shino simply nodded and took his new weapon from his father. He then got up and left the room intent on training with his hive.

XXX

Things became very interesting after that as not only did the Hyuuga and Aburame find Naruto's weapon useful and impressive but the weapons had definitely got the attention of the other clans in the village. Word quickly spread among the shinobi and civilians of a mysterious new blacksmith working out of the Higashi's shop otherwise known as the Rusty Kunai.

But things got increasingly interesting when the Hyuuga and Aburame clans announced their weapons to the public using an exhibition of their new weapons, the other clans were in attendance along with many civilians. They were shocked at the power the new weapons elevated the user's attacks to and they became very determined to find the maker and get their own custom weapons

Ninja were began flooding the shop asking for custom weapons and buy the weapon on the shelves. Higashi and Tenten had to work almost around the clock to keep up with orders and Higashi even pulled Naruto in to help when he had time. Higashi also hired a person to handle the front of the store while he worked in the workshop. Business became so good that Higashi bought out the store next to him and expanded the shop so he could have a larger workshop and display area.

During this time Higashi and Tenten were constantly questioned about the 'Faceless Blacksmith' as he had come to be known, something that had amused the three of them greatly because of Naruto always wearing bandages to cover his face. They always answered the same way telling who ever including clan heads that they were not at liberty to say and that the Faceless Blacksmith would reveal himself if he chose too.

XXX

Flashback End

XXX

The room was deadly quiet, no one knowing what to say.

Kiba was still frozen in place, staring at Naruto in shock. Kiba know that he might have just ruined his families chance to have weapons made for them.

Running up to the blonde Kiba through himself at his feet and practically shouted.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean anything by it, really. I just wanted to help my clan, please make us a weapon."

Looking down at the groveling boy Naruto's face went hard, he still had the smile on his face, but it didn't reach his eyes anymore.

"Get up dog piss, I said show respect but this is stupid, show some pride. For Kami's sake have some self-respect, you're a future clan head. Don't bow to anyone but the Hokage. As for the weapons, give me some fucking time will you. Do you know how much effort and time it took to understand the Aburame and Hyuuga clan styles to make those weapons? I had to study Hinata and Shino for the better part of a month before I understood some of the nuances to their families' style, I've been studying all the clans of Konoha for months trying to learn as much as possible so I can make the perfect weapon for each clan."

When Kiba heard this he raised his head to look at Naruto's face in confusion.

"You mean you were going to make something for my clan the whole time. But then why didn't you just say something to the clans, they have been desperate to find out who the 'Faceless blacksmith is for months!"

Shrugging his shoulders Naruto regained his normal grin.

"It was funny watching them all run around like headless chickens, plus then you guys could pester me to hurry up with the weapons. If you didn't know who the creator was then you couldn't force them to make something for your clans."

This caused all those in the room to sweat drop and see the wisdom in his words.

XXX

The next day it was Naruto and Sasuke's turn to guard Tazuna at the bridge.

It went without saying that the two boys were impressed with the sheer size of the bridge.

At some point in the day Naruto had taken to helping the workers by moving heavy rocks and equipment that would have needed to be moved with a makeshift crane.

Several people had left during the day saying that they had to think of their families. Tazuna wasn't happy, but he could understand.

That night, like every other night they all fell asleep to the sound of Naruto playing his violin.

XXX

The next morning was odd. There was no sign of Naruto for one thing, which was never a good thing. The weather was good, if a bit windy, and they were all in a good mood. Tsunami was in the kitchen preparing breakfast; Inari was sulking in a corner. Shino, Hinata, Kiba and Sakura were talking in the living room and Kurenai, Kakashi and Tazuna were discussing the progress of the bridge.

Then something happened that none of them would ever forget. It was one of those moments that engraves itself into your mind and you're never able to forget it. That moment was when Sasuke Uchiha, one of the most uptight people any of them had ever met, came down the stairs in a yellow sun dress, with his hair is curls.

The room was filled with stunned silence, no one knew what to say. Then, to everyone's shock yet again, Sasuke walked through the front door with a pile of chopped wood in his arms.

Sasuke and the imposter stared at each other for a few minutes, still no one saying a thing. Then the Sasuke holding the wood uttered a single sentence

"What the fuck is this shit."

The Sasuke in the dress fell to the floor and started laughing at this. Before their eyes the Sasuke on the floor started to ripple and change. When it was done there was Naruto, still rolling around on the floor.

"Hahahaha! Y-y-y-you should of haha s-s-seen your faces! Hahah."

XXX

It had been two weeks and the bridge was almost complete; Tazuna said that it would be done in about three days.

Sasuke's training in Naruto's flash step style was progressing well; he was now actually using the katana and could fight, not very well yet, but he could fight. Naruto was actually impressed with him.

Kakashi was completely healed and it was decided that for the rest of the mission they would all be guarding Tazuna at the bridge. Kiba had asked what they would do about Tsunami and Inari, but the jonin had assured them all that if Gato was going to try anything he would have done it by now.

They were currently all sat around the table eating dinner. They were all talking about how their training had been going and planning what to do depending on the situation. Everyone was stressed, Zabuza would be making a move any day now and the wait was getting to them all. Well, except Naruto, he was as happy as ever.

It was then, in the middle of the meal, that Inari stood up and started shouting.

"Why do you even bother? You're all just going to die anyway! No one can beat Gato, you should just leave!"

By the end of his outburst Inari was in tears and his voice had started to waver. They all stopped talking and stared at the young boy. After a moment Kakashi got up and walked over to him and placed his hands on his shoulders.

"Look, I understand that it may seem like that, but people like Gato are nothing more than cowards that hide behind their money. He may have a small army of bandits, but compared to a ninja they are all but useless."

When he finished talking Kakashi gave him one of his eye smiles and moved to sit back in his seat, until Inari through his food at the back of his head.

"Shut up! What would you know about our pain! In your big fancy village, sheltered from the outside world! You know nothing of suffering!"

The room went deadly quiet, all the genin turned to the enraged Sasuke. But before anyone could say anything to prevent the young Uchiha from leaping at Inari, Naruto started laughing. It wasn't his normal, slightly insane yet pleasant laugh; it was a full blown bat shit crazy, call the people in white suits with the big needle kind of laugh.

Without saying a word Naruto stood up and turned towards Inari. Kakashi, worried that he might lash out at the boy moved to stand between them. But Naruto didn't move from his spot, instead he slowly reached up to his head and started to unravel his bandages. When he was done there was a long trail of white bandages going from his neck line and piling onto the floor. The ninja all stared at Naruto's face in horror, except Kakashi, who got a sad look on his face and Sakura, who ran to the kitchen sink to throw up. Tazuna stared wide eyed at the blonde and took a long drag from a bottle of sake he had hidden under the table while Inari lost all color from his face.

Tsunami didn't know what to think, at first she had stared in horror like the others, but that soon changed into a look of sadness. Naruto's face was nothing but one big scar; almost like it had been melted off and what was left of his skin was a bright red and white mess. You could see his teeth and gums through the two holes that used to be his cheeks and most of his nose was gone.

He said nothing, just stared at Inari with what now became a horrifyingly disfigured grin without the bandages to cover his face. Then something else occurred to the middle aged woman, something that brought tears to her eyes. When she had taken his clothes to clean them, she had seen that he had his whole body covered in bandages.

Satisfied that they had seen enough, Naruto started to re-wrap his bandages. When that was done the blonde turned to them, grin still in place. Sakura had come back, but still looked pale.

"On my sixth birthday a mob came to my house. They dragged me outside, tied me up with wire and beat me for I don't know how long. I was stabbed, strangled and beaten. I had my throat cut, my stomach slit and my eyes ripped out of my head. But do you want to know the best part of all of that, you want to know what the best part was? I never lost consciousness and I healed almost as fast as they hurt me. Then, to finish everything off once the civilians were getting tired of beating me, I was tired to a log in the middle of the street where they had built a bond fire."

Here his grin stretched wider as he watched their eyes widen in understanding. Letting out a dark chuckle Naruto continued.

"Yep, that's right. After a nice little speech by the leader of the mob, five ninja with their faces covered lit the wood on fire around me. But yet again that wasn't the best part. You see, it turns out that my advanced healing factor works at the same speed as a human body takes to burn. I was burning for three hours straight before the Hokage came and put the fire out and finally freed me from the pain."

Naruto then turned to Tsunami and laughed.

"The most painful thing I have ever experienced. But don't just take my word for it, if you want more information you could always ask Kakashi, after all, you were there."

As he said this he turned to the masked man, whose eyes widened in shock before they became filled with sadness and regret.

"So you knew I was guarding you that night"

At his words everyone but Naruto gasped and stared at the one eyed jonin in shock.

"Of course."

Letting out a sign, the Cyclopes jonin locked his eye with Naruto's deep blue eyes.

"That day was one of my biggest regrets. I got sloppy; let someone get the jump on me. By the time I came to it was too late. I'm sorry. More so then you can ever imagine."

At the end of his explanation Kakashi averted his eye to look at the floor.

"If I blamed you for what happened, I would have killed you the first moment I saw you."

Shocked at his words Kakashi turned to look at the boy, only to find him walking towards the door.

"Where are you going?"

He didn't get an answer until the blonde got to the door, stopped and turned to look over his shoulder at them all.

"To release some stress. Oh and sad sack, if you don't get your act together, I'm going to tie you upside down to a tree and show you how I started duck ass's training."

If it was possible Inari would have gone even paler, but instead he just went and hid behind his mum. Grinning to himself Naruto turned to go, but stopped again and turned to face Sakura.

"You once asked me why your dad asked for my forgiveness. Your mother was the leader of the mob, actually she was the leader of almost every mob that attacked me."

The young pinket's eyes went wide at his words and she ran back to the sink to be sick again. But when they all turned back to Naruto he was gone.

Turning back to Sakura, Kurenai went over to comfort the girl as she cried on the floor. Trying to help the girl pick up the shattered image of her mother.

XXX

Naruto was running through the forest to try and calm himself down. The boy had gotten to him. He knew that. The problem was that he could feel how close he had come to losing himself. He needed to get out, get away from people.

As he ran he could see the shadows of the creatures that ran with him, they were the only living things that stayed in the area as he ran. All the other animals had run away when they felt his presence, his killing intent, his rage.

They made no noise and stayed in the darker parts of the trees, away from the moon light. Every now and then he could see breath flashes of black fur, or yellow eyes.

He finally came to a stop in a fairly large clearing. It was then he noticed the moon was full and there were no clouds in the sky.

Turning back to the tree line his throat and head rippled for a moment, leaving his face looking even wilder, almost wolf like.

"_Merry moon night, my brothers."_

Without making any noise seven of the biggest wolfs stepped out of the shadows. They all stood at the blondes shoulder in height when they were on all fours and had black fur; there well-muscled legs showing that they were built for speed and power. The only exception to this was a slightly thinner and smaller wolf that had a pure white stripe running down his back from the top of its head to the tip of its longer than normal tail. It was this wolf that stepped forward.

"_Merry moon night pup, what makes you run so?"_

"_I needed to run._"

The wolf just nodded its head and turned away.

"_Will you hunt with us tonight?"_

"_Not tonight brothers, my head is not right, it would not be good for me to hunt with you."_

"_I understand...may the moon smile at you."_

"..._May the moon smile at you as well."_

Without saying another word, the wolves all turned and ran back into the shadows and Naruto let his face return to normal.

For the next hour Naruto just stared at the moon, every now and then he would hear the cry of the wolves in the distance, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them and started screaming at the moon, which morphed into a terrifying roar.

XXX

The next morning found a young girl walking through the forest with a wicker basket under her arm. She had a pretty face and long black hair. She was wearing a pink yukata that hid most of her figure and her soft brown eyes were scanning the ground around her as she walked.

Then she heard it.

At first she needed to strain her ears but as she quickened her pace it got clearer and clearer. The most beautiful, yet mournful music she had ever heard. She could feel it in her heart, the pain and the sadness that reflected in those notes. Haku soon found herself running in the direction of the music, desperate to find the source of the sound. But slowed to a walk when she came to what used to be a part of the woods. Some of the trees looked like they had been pulled out of the ground, while others had claw marks. She had never seen anything like this, but the music was still calling to her. So, getting over her shock, she made her way through the wreckage. A few minutes later Haku came to what looked like a natural clearing and stopped in her tracks. There, sat in the middle of the clearing playing a violin, was the blonde boy Zabuza had been talking about.

Not knowing what else to do she made her way to the center of the clearing and sat next to the boy. He didn't stop playing, didn't even show any sign that he knew she was there. But Haku knew he did. So she just sat there, listening. Eventually the music came to an end and, with slow movements, the strange boy put the violin away, though she didn't see where he put it, and turned to her with the same grin on his face she had seen the day they met.

"You play beautifully."

"You're a bit out of the way, for a civilian, so what brings you out here?"

Thinking quickly, Haku decided to tell a half truth.

"I'm looking for medicinal herbs for my friend, he was hurt and I have been taking care of him."

Nodding his head Naruto stood up and looked down at her.

"I think I saw something that might help you."

Getting up Haku was surprised when the blonde started to walk on his hands, then do flips, then back to walking on his hands. She couldn't help the giggle that came from her throat.

"What are you doing?"

Looking at her from his upside down position Naruto looked at her, confused.

"Handstand."

Giggling again Haku elaborated.

"I can see that, but why are you doing a handstand?"

"Why not?"

When he said this is grin spread wider over his face. They didn't say anything for the next few minutes until they came to another, smaller clearing filled with different flowers, walking over to a patch of small purple flowers Haku turned to look at Naruto over her shoulder.

"My name is Haku, what's yours?"

"Naruto"

"That's a nice name."

Turning back to the flowers, Haku started picking the leaves off.

"Tell me, Naruto-san, are you a ninja?"

"Yes"

"Do you have a precious person back at your village?"

Seeing that he didn't understand Haku explained.

"I believe that for a person to be truly strong, they need someone to fight for, to bring out their inner strength. Do you have someone like that?"

Naruto laughed at this, taking a full five minutes to calm down before he could answer.

"I have no one, I have no true purpose. There is no one in that place that I would truly fight for. I would just as soon kill them as I would save them."

Shaking her head sadly Haku went back to picking the leaves.

"I see that's sad to hear. You must be very lonely."

Nothing was said for a while after that, Haku would move to different patches of flowers from time to time, taking different parts, until Naruto broke the silence.

"This friend of yours, is he your precious person?"

Smiling to herself Haku turned back to the blonde.

"Yes, he is very special to me."

Nodding his head, Naruto's grin stretched back over his face.

"Your friend is lucky to have such a beautiful girl such as yourself taking care of him."

He couldn't help but laugh as Haku's face turned red and she started stuttering. It took several minutes for her to calm down, but even then she still had a light blush. They talked for another hour before Haku left to get back to her friend and Naruto to guard Tazuna.

"I hope to meet you again Naruto-san."

"I'm sure we will."

Turning her back to the boy, Haku missed the mischievous look that came to Naruto's face.

"I'm sure we will."

XXX

Naruto went straight to the bridge to meet up with the others, knowing that they would have already left for the day. When he got there he went straight to Tazuna and asked what he could do to help.

He didn't miss the looks he was getting from the others. Or that the old bridge builder couldn't meet his eyes.

So, in true Naruto style, he walked up to Kiba and hit him in the face with a fish, then turned away to start working. No one knew wherehe got the fish, or why he hit Kiba with it.

Getting up off the floor, face red with rage Kiba got right up in the blondes face.

"What the hell!"

"What?"

"WHY DID YOU HIT ME WITH A FISH YOU FUCKING HEAD CASE!"

The innocent look on Naruto's face didn't fool anyone.

"I don't know what you're talking about; I don't even have a fish."

That was when they realized he was right, the fish was gone.

Screaming, Kiba lunged at Naruto in an attempt to claw what was left of his face off. Faster than any of the other genin could see Naruto grabbed the dog like boy's arms, stopping him in his tracks, much to the shock of Kiba and pulled him into a bear hug. Kiba was so shocked that he didn't even notice that Naruto had walked over to the edge of the bridge and dropped the young Inuzuka into the water below. Clapping his hands together and smiling as Kiba shouted curse after curse at the blonde he turned to the others on the bridge and shrugged.

"I kept telling him that he smelt of dog piss; now he smells of wet dog instead."

Shaking their heads everyone got back to work. It wasn't until an hour later that anyone thought to help Kiba out of the water.

XXX

The next day when the two teams set off for the bridge there was no sign of Naruto, so they just went ahead. Tsunami was going around the house cleaning when she heard someone at the door. Putting down the duster in her hands she made her way to the door, only to have it broken down just before she made it. Stood in the doorway were two men with swords. One of them, the smaller of the two had on a purple hat and a cocky smirk while the other had no shirt and had multiple scars over his body. Stepping forward the smaller of the two drew his sword and pointed it at her, the smirk never leaving his face.

"Gato would like to have a few words with you."

Backing away from the two men Tsunami made to run out the back door but wasn't quick enough. Grabbing her by the arms the two men dragged her outside kicking and screaming. Hearing his mother in trouble, Inari came out the house with a knife.

"Let go of my mom!"

The two men looked at each other for a moment, then the man with the hat stepped forward, sword in hand. Tsunami was screaming for the boy to go back inside, but he just kept running straight towards the man. What happened next was so fast that she almost missed it. Just as the sword was about to cut Inari's head from his shoulders a shadow came running out of the wood, shortly followed by six more. Before they knew what happened the man in a hat was rolling around on the ground screaming as he clutched the blooded stump that had once been his arm. It was then that Tsunami heard a low growl behind her. Slowly turning around Tsunami came face to face with the biggest wolf she had ever seen, and its maw was covered in blood.

The thug holding her arm backed away as quickly as he could and raised his sword in a poor attempt to defend himself, never seeing the other wolf that was running at him from behind. The wolf was on him instantly, jumping on the thugs back and biting into the back of his neck, and with one quick shake the man went limp, his spine broken. The thug with the hat was soon dealt with in a similar way and the area was filled with nothing but silence. Tsunami ran to her son and pulled him into a hug while shielding him from the wild animals at the same time. Then Inari said something that made her eyes widen in realization.

"Naruto was right."

That's right, Naruto had said that he met a pack of wolfs and that as long as they gave them scraps of meat they would help them. She couldn't help the laughter that escaped her throat as she cried into Inari's hair, thanking the blonde in her head over and over again.

XXX

The first clue that something was wrong was that the closer they got to the bridge, the thicker the fog became. The second was that when they got to the bridge, there was a pile of unconscious workers. Reacting quickly they all moved into formation around Tazuna, weapons drawn at the ready. Sasuke took out his twin short katana and getting into a low crouch with his feet spread apart, ready to start his rotation. Hinata checked the straps on her gauntlets while Shino kept his hidden in his sleeve in case of a surprise attack and at the same time sending out his bugs to assess the area. Kurenai took out one of her kunai, having learned in their first encounter with the Demon of the Mist that her Sharp Shooter was not as effective without her genjutsu to support it. Kakashi and Sakura both took a kunai in each hand while Kiba got into his clans stance with Akamaru.

They stayed like this for several minutes, waiting for Zabuza to make his move, the mist swirling around them as they stood as still as statues. Just when the tension was getting too much for them to take they saw two shadows appear in the mist, calmly walking towards them. The closer they got the clearer they became, until finally they were both fully visible, revealing them to be Zabuza and the Hunter-ninja from before, standing together and confirming their suspicions.

The two opposing forces stared at each other for a moment, sizing each other up, until Zabuza stepped forward and locked eyes with Kakashi.

"This can all end now if you just hand over the old man."

The way in which he said this showing that he clearly didn't expect them to comply.

"It could also end now if you both leave."

No one moved throughout the short exchange of words, and they stayed like that for some time. Shaking his head the Demon of the mist turned towards the young hunter-nin standing next to him and gave him orders.

"The blondes not hear, so pick another brat to entertain yourself with while I fight Kakashi."

"I understand."

The reply that came surprised the Konoha ninja, not the reply itself, but the fact that it was clearly female, and without another word they both vanished into the mist.

Sasuke, getting inpatient with the games, ran after them in the direction that he had seen both ninja disappear in an attempt to catch them before they could get too far, blocking out the shouts that followed him as he ran, but he was too slow.

He heard the sounds of battle behind him but before he could run back to help the others a senbon needle found itself imbedded into the lower part of his right leg. Gritting his teeth in pain, he pulled out the needle and turned around in an attempt to find the one that had thrown it.

But before he could find them another needle shot into his left forearm, then another into his right, realizing that he was a sitting duck when he stood still, Sasuke started to pour chakra into the air. It wasn't easy, the needles didn't stop and it took him a full minute to build up enough chakra to start countering.

One of the first things Naruto had taught him when he had gotten used to being nausea was how to block. It wasn't like most styles, were each time you block a strike you come to a brief standstill, this kind of blocking required you to just skin the opponents weapon in order to redirect where it would hit. The blonde had taught him this by throwing rocks at him until he could block.

For several minutes Sasuke continued to flash from point to point and block most of the senbon that were being aimed at him. Then it stopped, just in time because the young Uchiha couldn't keep up this level of chakra output for much longer without stopping, and the hunter-nin came into view.

"Impressive, I see you have not been idol in the last few weeks. But it will not save you; you are not strong enough to defeat me at your current level. If you surrender now I will spare you."

The calm tone in which the hunter-nin said this infuriated Sasuke, it was the same tone he used.

Sasuke didn't notice that his eyes had flashed red in the moments after what the hunter-ninja had said, but Haku did. Taking that as her answer, she shook her head sadly and lifted her hands to perform hand seals.

The speed in which the hunter-nin preformed seals was enough to make Sasuke worried, he could barely see them. But what truly scared him was when the water on the bridge started to rise and formed into a dome of perfect mirrors made out of ice. Her Jutsu complete, Haku stepped back into one of the mirrors and disappeared.

Slowly walking up to the closest one to him, Sasuke reached out his hand to examine one, only to jump back into the middle in surprise when an image of the hunter-nin appeared in the mirror. As quick as he could the raven haired boy rushed through hand seals and shot out a good sized fire ball at the mirror in front of him. Then his eyes widened in shock when the smoke cleared.

There wasn't a scratch on the mirror.

Slowly the image of the hunter-ninja appeared in all the mirrors and Sasuke was getting a very bad feeling.

"These mirrors are a product of my bloodline; I call it 'Demonic Ice Mirrors'. No one has ever escaped. You will be no different."

Before he could reply Sasuke found himself yet again being peppered with senbon. He tried his best to block them but they were faster than the last time and he couldn't get out of the way to block.

When they finally stopped Sasuke slumped to the ground, his legs no longer able to support him. His body was full of needles, hardly any flesh left unscathed.

Then he heard something that made him think that he had lost too much blood. In the distance, but getting closer every moment was a low whistling. He didn't recognize the tune but there was no mistaking that it was getting closer. Then out of the mist someone that made Sasuke both happy and caused him to slap himself in the face at the same time, of all the people that could have come to his rescue, why did it have to be him There, stood in all his glory with his usual manic grin on his face, was Naruto.

"Hey duck ass, you look like shit. Why did you let her hit you with so many pointy things, or are you just into that shit?"

Gritting his teeth Sasuke practically yelled.

"Shut the fuck up! Just help me already!"

The blonde brought his index finger to his lips and made a thinking face, then walked up to the still injured Sasuke.

"Ok."

Hitting him in the back of the neck, forcing the boy to fall face first on the ground. Picking up the limp boy with one hand by the back of his collar Naruto then proceeded to throw the boy in the direction of the other people from Konoha, hearing a scream when the boy landed near them. Nodding to himself the still grinning blonde turned back to the hunter-ninja that had come out of the mirror to watch the exchange.

"That was a very brave thing you did, getting your friend out of harm's way."

"I told you already Haku-chan, they mean nothing to me, and I just needed him out of the way. Now, are you going to take off that mask so I can see your pretty face or not?"

Haku froze when the blonde used her name, but reached up and removed the mask none the less.

"How did you know?"

Naruto's grin stretched even bigger.

"Your smell, you smell of wild flowers and herbs. I knew you weren't a hunter-nin the first time we met. They always smell of blood."

Haku just nodded her head in satisfaction at his answer.

"So what now, I don't want to fight you, but I will for Zabuza."

Again the blondes grin stretched even bigger across his face.

"We don't need to fight, were about to be on the same side."

Seeing her confused face Naruto laughed.

"Did you really think someone like Gato would pay you? He's leading a small army here now to kill us all after we tire ourselves out fighting each other."

Haku's eyes widened at the boys words. She did have her suspicions about the man but Zabuza needed the money for his dream, so she had kept her mouth shut.

Before anything else could be said between the two the mist suddenly vanished, causing Haku to gasp. Turning to where they could hear the fight between Kakashi and Zabuza, the two were greeted with the sight of a badly hurt Kakashi running at an equally hurt Zabuza, who was being held in place by a pack of dogs, with a lightening charged fist.

Without thinking Haku crossed the distance and was stood in front of Zabuza, shielding him from the lethal blow and closed her eyes waiting for the pain.

It never came. When nothing happened Haku opened her eyes and gasped at the sight before her. Naruto had followed her, but instead of getting in the way like she had he grabbed Kakashi's arm, stopping it inches from her chest. The lightening was all around him and he must have been in great pain, but he didn't let go. He just stood there, holding the shocked Kakashi's arm and grinning at her.

When the Jutsu finally ran its course the still stunned Kakashi stepped back and stared at Naruto in shock. Who then let out a loud burp, along with a large amount of smoke and laughed.

"That's a spicy meat-a-ball!"

If it was anyone else they would have been worried.

As Haku gently lowered Zabuza to the ground Kakashi turned to Naruto.

"I hope you have a very good reason for this Naruto."

"Gato and an army of thugs are on their way to kill us all after we tire ourselves fighting each other, including no-brow and Haku-chan. They are no longer our enemies."

All but Haku was shocked at his words.

"Are you sure?"

"Yep, saw them with my own eyes. Their either drunk or retarded because they were talking about how it would be so easy to kill us."

It was at this point that Zabuza started to use every swear word ever used.

"That fucking little shit stain! When I get my hands on him I'm going to cut his balls off and make him eat them! How dare that midget double cross me!"

Looking at the still downed Zabuza the blonde boy bent over his head and locked eyes.

"I just told you how, he's bringing an army. You should really learn to listen."

If he wasn't injured Zabuza would have strangled the blonde. But before anything else could be said Sakura let out an ear splitting scream. Turning to see what she was screaming about they were all shocked. Standing next to Zabuza was Haku, with an arrow sticking out of her back between her shoulder blades. Catching her as she fell to the ground Naruto set her down on her front so as not to make it worse. She was very pale, almost completely white and had started to shake.

They all looked in the direction that the arrow had come from to find a short man with grey hair and sunglasses, stood in front of a small army of thugs. He was wearing what looked like a very expensive suit and the smuggest look on his face any of them had ever seen. He turned to address the man stood next to him with a bow in hand.

"You missed, I told you to hit the blonde."

Stepping forward a few more feet, but not leaving the safety of his thugs, Gato turned back to face them, or more specifically, Zabuza.

"I knew you couldn't do it, some demon you turned out to be."

Turning his attention to Naruto he grinned.

"So you're the little pest that has been causing so much trouble. You killed my men and let those women go free."

It was then that the short man made the biggest mistake of his life.

"But no matter, I'll just take these three lovely women as compensation. I'm sure my men would enjoy a celebration after this is all over."

The cheers from the men were short lived. The air suddenly grew thicker and was getting harder and harder to breathe. The Konoha ninja backed away from Naruto as his killing intent became visible as a dark aura surrounded him. His head was lowered so his hair was shadowing his eyes and the grin on his face looked so wide it must have been painful.

Zabuza was as shocked as everyone else at first, but then he let out a chuckle, and then that chuckle turned into full blown laughter.

"You did it now."

His voice shaking in fear, Gato turned his attention to Zabuza.

"W-w-what the hell are you talking about?"

"You wanted to see a true demon, well you got it!"

As Zabuza said this Naruto through his head towards the sky and let lose a roar. There was nothing human about this roar; it was too deep, too guttural. No human could make a sound like the one Naruto was making. It sent shivers down their spines and several of Gato's thugs turned and ran at the mere sound of it. His eyes seemed to glow with an eerie blue light and his pupils had become fin slits. Then, still roaring, he put his hands together into a cross shaped hand seal and with a large burst of smoke the bridge was filled with Naruto's, there were to many to even attempt to count, and one by one they joined their voices together with the original and roared. As quickly as it had started all the creatures stopped as once, leaving the bridge in complete silence. No one moved, no one breathed.

The words that left Naruto's mouth scared them all.

"**Parade of a Thousand Demons**."

He said it in no more than a whisper but they all heard him as clearly as if he had yelled it. Without another word the clones of Naruto all started to ripple. They became creatures of all shapes and sizes, big small, fat and skinny. Some didn't even seem to have mouths. The rag doll was there, giggling. There were half animal and half humans as well. Things like tigers and wolves, and for some reason a small rabbit with sharp teeth and glowing red eyes. There was a huge, grey skinned, mammoth of a man that stood at over fifteen feet. Its entire body rippling with so much muscle it had trouble moving. A pink, human shaped thing, it walked on its hands and feet but had no fetchers. No face or definition to its body at all, almost like a blob in a human shape. There were creatures flying in the sky above their heads, some with scales and some with feathers, some that even had both.

They were everywhere, no matter where you looked there was something looking back at you with hungry eyes. And they were all giggling and laughing, as if there was a joke that only they could hear. At the front of them all, like a general stood at the forefront of his army was something that made all that looked at him shrink away in fear. It was a young boy, no older than six, with bright blonde hair and the bluest eyes any of them had ever seen. On each of his cheeks were three black whisker marks. He was wearing a tattered white t-shirt and a pair of equally tattered black shorts. He was the only one that wasn't laughing, he wasn't even giggling. He just stood there, staring at them with eyes that were too old for a boy.

More and more of Gatos men were losing it, but were too afraid of the monsters to run.

Then, as if they heard an unspoken command they all fell silent, no more giggling, no more insane laughter. Just absolute silence.

_"Ring, a round the roses,_

_A pocket full of posies,_

_Ashes, ashes,_

_You. All. Fall. Down."_

His voice was as soft as the chiming of bells, pure, innocent. Yet at the same time just as demonic as of the monsters that surrounded them, and at the word down, hell was unleashed. It was like a dam broke, in one big surge the horde descended onto the thugs with the force of a tidal wave. Those that could fly swooped down and plucked the screaming men and carried them high into the air before dropping them back into the slaughter below.

The red eyed rabbit was sprinting from person to person, ripping the throat out of any it could get its teeth into. The grey skinned hulk was tearing men apart with his huge hands, roaring like a wild animal as the blood fell on it like rain. The pink blob was making quick work of anything that touched it, absorbing them into its body and getting fatter and fatter with each new person that it ate. Limbs were flying everywhere and blood was falling like a heavy rain. At the center of it all, was the small boy, walking in a straight line towards Gato, who had been untouched by the creatures that had massacred his men like they were nothing.

By the time the boy stood in front of him they were all dead. All that was left was a few body parts and blood, so much blood.

Kneeling before the boy, Gato begged, pleaded for his life.

"I can give you anything, money, power, women, anything you want!"

The boy cocked his head to the side, as if thinking about the offer.

"Anything?"

Seeing his chance, Gato stood up and moved closer to the boy.

"Anything!"

The boy slowly lifted his hands and put them on the frantic man's head, then leaned in closer so that only Gato could hear.

"I want your head."

All Gato could do was widen his eyes in horror before the boy gave a sharp pull and his head was pulled from his shoulders and as the body fell to its knees a fountain of blood erupted from the neck, spraying the boy and ground surrounding him. The monsters all disappeared in a burst of smoke, leaving the boy standing alone in the middle of what was left of Gatos army. Turning, with the head of Gato still in his hands, the boy faced the shocked faces of the Konoha nin's and the villagers of wave, who had shown up sometime during the bloodbath.

As he walked toward them his body started to grow, until the original Naruto stood before them, still covered in blood. He stopped a few feet away and tossed the head at the feet of the villagers.

"Some people need to die. I regret nothing."

With those words his eyes went blank and he fell, landing between Zabuza and Haku.

XXX

They all just stared at the young blonde boy that lay on the floor in front of them. All had pale faces and some of them had been sick, but the shock didn't last long. Walking forward towards the decapitated head of their tormenter, Inari bent down and picked it up with trembling hands.

All watching thought he was about to be sick like so many others, but were surprised when instead he turned to the crowd, kicked the head in the air, over the side of the bridge and into the water below. All the while yelled in joy. Soon others joined in and before they knew it they were all cheering and hugging each other.

While they celebrated the Konoha ninja moved to look at the downed Naruto. He was breathing and if they didn't know better they would have thought he was asleep.

Haku was still alive, but hurt, from what they could see the arrow had missed her heart. Kurenai had applied a basic healing Jutsu that she had learnt to help stop the bleeding until they could get her properly treated.

Zabuza had sat up to watch the slaughter and they could see he was grinning through his bandages.

"To think, for years I thought I was a demon, this kid is something else."

Walking over to sit next to the missing ninja Kakashi looked at the still cheering crowd.

"So what are you going to do now? You can't keep running, especially since the girl is hurt."

"What choice do I have? I can't go back to my village until that monster is dead and no other village would have someone like me, I'm wanted for trying to kill my Kage."

Something Zabuza said got the silver haired jonnins attention.

"What do you mean by that monster?"

"The Misukage went crazy and started killing whole families because they had bloodlines. My country is in the middle of a civil war. I was working as a missing nin to help the resistance, I've been giving them all the money I earned."

This surprised Kakashi. Zabuza, the demon of the mist, was trying to help people. Seeing the surprise on the man's face made Zabuza laugh.

"Look beneath the underneath, isn't that one of Konoha's favourite sayings."

"True, but for someone who killed an entire class of academy students, it seems odd that you would want to help anyone."

"And for someone that spends all their time reading porn you haven't been staring at any of the bouncing tits only a few meters from your face."

When he said this Zabuza motioned towards the crowd of villagers.

"How did you-"

"Your reputation precedes you."

They both laughed at that. Sighing to himself Zabuza turned to look at Haku on the ground, being tended to by Kurenai.

"I did it to prove a point."

Seeing the questioning look he was given Zabuza continued.

"Do you know what happened after I killed them all? They stopped using the traditions of the bloody mist. By killing those few, I saved hundreds."

Kakashi had never thought about that. It was true that after the incident with the young Zabuza they had changed the final exam.

"You could come back with us."

Both men jumped in surprise at the voice and turned to see Naruto sitting up and staring at them, grin and all.

"When the hell did you wake up?"

"Who said I was asleep."

"I really want to kill you."

"Join the club; I hear they serve dango and red bean soup on Tuesdays."

As the two continued to banter Kakashi decided to stop them before they destroyed anything.

"Naruto, what did you mean before."

Stopping mid insult Naruto turned to the masked jonin and laughed.

"Section 42, paragraph 9 of the dealing with missing ninja laws of Konoha state that in the case of a country in civil war a missing nin may seek refuge in Konoha and work out of the village until such a time as the war has been decided. He can come to Konoha and still be a ninja of Kiri."

Both men stared at the blonde in shock. Looking the boy up and down Kakashi finally asked.

"Where did you learn something like that?"

"I read the Konoha library."

"You mean in the library."

"No, I mean I read the entire library"

Without another word the blonde got to his feet and walked towards what was left of the thugs. The people seeing him stopped cheering to watch what he was doing.

Moving through the remains Naruto would stop and pick up a head or an arm and throw it into a pile. No one questioned him on this, just waiting to see what he would do. When he was done there were two piles on the bridge, one that was made up of the heads of the deceased thugs and the other of everything else.

Satisfied that he was done, Naruto turned to the forest and howled, no one seeing his face changing as he did. Within moments they heard a reply and turned just in time to see the seven wolves walking out of the tree line and towards the grinning boy.

The smaller of the wolves with the white stripe stepped forward and the two seemed to communicate. All any of them heard was growls. Seeming to be finished with his talk Naruto turned towards the villages, face back to normal. As he addressed them the wolves moved towards the pile of random body parts and started eating.

"Give them a rabbit a week each and they agree to stay and look after you."

None of them new what to say, it seemed too good to be true. They quickly agreed and Naruto passed on the message.

Stepping forward Tazuna asked.

"What are you going to do with the ...heads?"

Narutos grin became sinister as he turned back to the other pile.

"Send a message to the world"

XXX

For the next few hours Naruto walked around the village and placed each head on a stick. He did this until he ran out of heads and had surrounded the entire village. No one complain, and after a quick explanation from Kakashi they were actually glad.

It turned out that Naruto was performing an old ninja tradition. From what the masked man explained, Naruto was claiming the village as under his protection, meaning that if anything happened he was legally allowed to intervene. The reason he was placing the heads around the village was as a show of strength, showing others what would happen to them if they attacked. All that was left was for Naruto to make a signature and put it in the village. He did this by painting a smiley face on the village hall in red paint. The thing that made it stand out was that the smile was a grin that stretched across the whole face and instead of normal teeth it had fangs.

The idea was that as he became better known throughout the ninja world the safer they would be, and with the wolves moving into the area permanently they were sure that someone like Gato would never come into power in their village again.

Zabuza had thought a lot about what Naruto had said and agreed to come back to Konoha with them, mostly because Haku still needed medical care that he couldn't provide himself. She would be stable enough to move but they would have to be careful.

Sasuke had regained consciousness and was less than happy with Naruto, but was more than happy when he found out that his sharingan had activated. For the rest of the mission he could be seen activating and deactivating it to get use to how it felt.

The other genin and Kurenai had been helping clean up the bridge and finish its construction, which had been speeded up by the workers Tazuna had lost coming back now that they didn't have to worry about Gato. When it was finished Tazuna had announced that it would be named the bridge of heroes and a plaque was made with the names of all the people Gato had killed, including Kaiza.

The day after Gato's death the villagers raided Gato's buildings and took anything of value. Expensive works of art, sake, anything that could be used was taken and the buildings themselves had been set up as temporary homes for those that had been living on the streets.

The night before they were set to leave for Konoha there was a huge celebration. The village was covered in decorations, from hanging lanterns to balloons of every color. The air was filled with the sound of music and the streets were full of people. It seemed like the very air they breathed was full of joy and happiness and was spreading it around like a disease.

It was also on this night that they all learned a very important lesson, neverlet Naruto drink. They thought he was bad normally, but that was before they saw him drunk. It took a lot to get him drunk, he had drank about three tankers full of sake before he started acting strange, and by then it was too late. Kakashi and Zabuza had gotten the beating of their life's the next day for encouraging the blonde to drink so much.

Unlike most people when they get drunk he didn't get dizzy, he didn't slur his words and he was as aware of his surroundings as he was when sober. He did; however, seem to lose any sense of limitations he had, which until that night they didn't know he even did have. In one night he had painted the entire village bright orange, stole the clothes of every man in the village and replaced them with pink tutus, each with a small message on the back. Things like 'my other body is a temple' or 'takes five to party'. He dyed everyone's hair purple and used some type of permanent paint to paint all their faces like clowns. He had also super glued a rubber duck to Sasuke's head.

When they found him he was upside-down in a tree hanging with a rope tied to his ankles, the only thing stopping them from seeing him naked the bandages he wore to cover his skin.

They had needed to stay an extra day just to get the village back to some semblance of normality.

When they did leave the whole village had gathered at the bridge to see them off, Tazuna, Tsunami and Inari at the front of the crowd. Both mother and son had tears rolling down their faces as they said their goodbyes. The only thing that stopped it from being a completely heartwarming moment was that they had found out that Naruto had burned all the clothes he had stolen, meaning that all the men were wearing pink tutus. And they all still had the paint on their faces.

Throughout the whole exchange Naruto had never stopped giggling.

Just before they set out they all heard the howls of the wolves in the distance. They didn't see them, but they could all tell they were close. Stopping his giggling they all watched as Naruto's face took on a more bestial appearance and answered the howls with one of his own. After that they all set out towards Konoha.

XXX

It took a lot less time getting back to Konoha then it did getting to wave. Without having to pace themselves for Tazunas sake they could move at much faster speeds. They still needed to pace themselves because of Haku, but it was still faster.

Kakashi had sent a message ahead with one of his nin-dogs Pakkun, a small pug like dog with a Konoha headband tied around his head and a blue vest. The first time they had heard him talk in his deep tone Naruto had picked him up and started turning him over in his hands. When the small dog had asked him what he was doing the blondes answer was that he was looking for where the batteries went. This had sparked a small argument between the two as to whether Pakkun was a real dog or a toy.

When that was finally over Kakashi had given him a scroll to deliver to the Hokage, explaining about Zabuza and Haku so they wouldn't be killed on sight. It took them two days to get back, and as soon as they were in sight of the village a full ANBU patrol surrounded them. One of them took Haku and disappeared in a shunshin while the rest stayed to escort them through the village. They received many strange looks as they were led to the Hokage tower, some people going as far as to point at them and laugh. The reason for this was that the paint Naruto had used still hadn't washed off and Kakashi, Sasuke, Kiba and Zabuza were all wearing pink tutus. Lucky for Shino, he had been able to hide one set of his ninja clothes from the drunken Naruto.

The message on each of their backs seemed to inspire many a laugh from the people that watched them as they passed.

Kakashi's was 'pervert and proud'.

Sasuke's said 'I like ducks' with an arrow pointing up at his head.

Kiba had 'just got neutered'.

And Zabuza's was 'has anyone seen my eyebrows?'

By the time they got to the relative safety of the tower they were all glaring at Naruto who was close to rolling around on the ground in laughter. They were both surprised and mortified when instead of being led to the Hokage's office they were taken to the council meeting room; the entire shinobi council was present. As they walked into the room they were met with stunned silence, but it didn't last long. As soon as she saw her son and the words on his back Tsume Inuzuka burst out into laughter.

When they had calmed her down the meeting started.

They explained everything that had happened on the mission, except the reason for their current state, and ended with Zabuza formally asking for asylum in Konoha for himself and Haku.

When they had finished Sarutobi stood up and addressed them.

"First of all, on behalf of all of us, I would like to congratulate you all on a successful mission, which due to unforeseen circumstances has been upgraded to A-rank. Second, we as a council except both you, Zabuza and your young charge into our village, provided you agree to a 6 month probation, you will be monitored 24/7 and will not be allowed out of the village during that time. Is that acceptable?"

Thinking for a moment Zabuza nodded his head.

"Very well, now there is just one more thing I would like to ask you. Why the hell, do you have your faces painted like clowns? And why, in the name of Kami, are you four wearing tutus?"

The six ninja looked at each other, then at Naruto, then back to the Hokage. Taking the initiative, Kakashi stepped forward.

"The night we were supposed to leave there was a small celebration, during which sake was provided. Long story short... Naruto got piss ass drunk."

The room was completely silent. Then all at once, they all started laughing, Naruto joining them, even the normally stoic Hyuga Hiashi was banging his fist on the table in laughter, much to the shock of his daughter.

It took them ten minutes to finally calm down and stopped laughing. Standing back up, Sarutobi turned back to the seven ninja in front of him, still giggling.

"I see... well that will be all, you can go."

Nodding their heads they quickly left, hearing the people in the room burst into laughter yet again.


	4. Gifts

**Chapter 4**

The paint faded after a week, much to the relief of team 8, 7 and Zabuza, who had to walk around for a week looking like clowns.

Haku was doing well. The doctors were confident that she would make a full recovery and would be allowed to leave in a few days. Much to the relief of Zabuza, who had not left Haku's side the entire time they had been in the village.

Also to the relief of Sasuke, not that he would tell anyone. He had been spending all his spare time with Haku, whenever he wasn't training he was with her and, because he never left, Zabuza.

Team 8 were currently at their training ground, working on teamwork. Kurenai had told them about the chunin exam the day before and they were all looking forward to proving themselves. They all signed the forms instantly and now had two months to prepare, and they weren't wasting a moment of it.

It was while they were training that something strange happened that, for once, had nothing to do with Naruto.

Out of nowhere a ball shot into the training ground and exploded. When the smoke cleared it revealed a large banner that was being held up by to kunai stuck into two separate trees. The banner read in large bold letters 'presenting the sexy and single Mitarashi Anko!'

They could all hear Kurenai grown in exasperation. Then a blur landed in front of the banner. Hinata's face turned a bright red and smoke could be seen coming out of her ears. Shino just stood there, not moving, but they could all see the blood stain that was growing on the front of his collar.

Naruto however just laughed at his teammates reactions. Standing before them was a beautiful woman; she looked to be in her early twenties or late teens, had purple hair and pupil less brown eyes. But the thing that drew the most attention was the way she was dressed. She was wearing a tight mesh body suit and a burn orange skirt that barely covered her womanhood and over it was a light tanned trench coat. All in all, she was hot and wasn't trying to hide it.

Smirking at the gennin she frowned when her eyes landed on Naruto. Walking up and getting right in his face her frown deepened and she turned to Kurenai.

"Hey nai-chan, your kid is broken."

Kurenai just rolled her eyes at her friend's antics.

"Did it ever occur to you that he just isn't a pervert?"

Anko gave her a blank look.

"No."

Turning back to the boy Anko walked in a circle around him, looking him all over. Naruto just stood there, giggling to himself. When she finished looking him over Anko walked back in front of him and put her face inches away from his own.

"You gay?"

"Nope, you?"

Anko just grinned.

"Don't get fresh with me brat, do you know who I am."

"From the sign I would guess Mitarashi Anko, snake mistress of Konoha. If you're going to ask that question you shouldn't make a big sign with your name on it."

They could all see the tick mark that appeared on Anko's forehead.

"What would you know? When you're someone as great and sexy as me you need to announce it to the world!"

"But if that was true then why would you need to point it out to people, they should already know."

The two stared at each other for a long minute. It was then that Anko took notice of the kunai in the blonde's hands. It was longer than the normal standard kunai, and was made of a lighter metal. Trying to think of where she had seen it before it hit her like a ton of bricks.

It was hers!

Grabbing the kunai out of his hands and cradling it like a newborn baby, Anko sent a suspicious look out of the corner of her eye.

"When the hell did you take my kunai! And for that matter why didn't I notice!"

The grin that came over the blondes face worried even Anko for a second, but it didn't last long.

"Did you know you forgot to put on a shirt today?"

All those in the training ground except Naruto and Anko face faulted.

Turning to her friend again Anko very loudly asked.

"Is he an idiot or something?"

"I really don't know, your guess is as good as anyone else."

Turning back to the blonde Anko gave him another suspicious look.

"What's your name brat?"

Again, Naruto just grinned and pointed to her sign, which now read '**The Sexy and Insane Uzumaki Naruto**' with a drawing of a chibi Naruto grinning and giving a peace sign. They all looked from the sign to the blonde several times, wondering when he had changed the sign. Then, out of nowhere, Anko burst out laughing. She was soon joined in by Naruto. They stood there laughing for a good ten minutes, but what scared team 8 the most was the fact that Anko had a similar laugh to Naruto. It wasn't exactly the same, but it was enough for them to be worried.

Finally getting a hold of herself, Anko patted Naruto on the back.

"You're alright kid, hey nai-chan, why didn't you introduce us earlier?"

Shaking her head the red eyed jonin locked a blank look on her friend.

"The Hokage, council and all the jonin of the village agreed that it was safer for the village if you two never met."

Both raised an eye brow at that, and then grinned at each other. So people didn't want them to meet, this could be fun.

Getting a bad feeling Kurenai quickly changed the subject.

"So why are you here Anko, I thought you were working with Ibiki all day."

Facing her longtime friend Anko pouted.

"Old scar face said I needed a vacation, so I thought I would come and see you."

Walking up to her, Anko through her arm around Kurenai's neck.

"Tonight you, Hana, your three brats and I are hitting the town."

Anko was curious when she saw three of the four people stood around her pale.

"NO!"

Anko was a little taken aback when they shouted at the same time, casting scared looks towards the blonde, who just grinned back at them.

"Okay, that was weird."

XXX

They still ended up going out that night, even after they explained what had happened in wave. If anything it seemed to make Anko more eager to go. Hana couldn't make it so it was just the five of them.

Team eight kept giving Naruto worried looks throughout the night, counting how much he drank and ready to run the second he did something.

But nothing happened.

For the whole night Anko and Naruto could be seen laughing and talking. They had been thrown out of several bars for starting fights with other people, but nothing overly crazy happened.

The two talked and laughed long into the night, even after the others went home.

And the next morning the village awoke to the sight of the Hokage monument painted.

They had all been painted to look more real, but each had a little ...quirk.

The Shodaime had a picture of a naked woman next to his head and his eyes closed and a blush across his face. The Nidaime and Sandaime both had perverted looks on their faces and drool falling out of their mouths and the Yondaime was looking the opposite way at another picture of a naked man with a curious look on his face.

The villagers were outraged at the blatant disrespect shown towards the Hokage's and demanded that the ones responsible were punished. They all knew it was Naruto, and after Kurenai talked to the Hokage, Anko, but no one could find them. It also soon became clear that they had used the same paint Naruto had in wave. No matter how hard they tried it wouldn't come off.

Throughout the day several people were caught victim to traps set around the village, from pit falls to paint bombs. It took the ANBU most of the day to find and deactivate the traps.

However they didn't seem to mind it, when the Hokage asked them why an ANBU in a bear mask and a white hooded cloak answered.

"The fact that they got around us and set the traps shows we need to improve internal defenses. If they were an enemy they could have planted exploding tags instead of paint bombs."

Seeing his point Sarutobi agreed to let them rearrange the village defenses so they could avoid it happening again.

But they still couldn't find Naruto or Anko.

XXX

Nobody saw much of Naruto for the next few weeks. He would show up to team training but other than that he was hardly seen. Kurenai had gone to Higashi a few times only to be told that he had just left. She, Hinata and Shino had tried to follow him several times but he always gave them the slip.

They would have asked a villager if they knew where he was but the only answer they ever got was harsh glares and a few murmurs about stupid demon brats, so they stopped trying.

Team 8 were currently in the Hokage office, Sarutobi looking at them with a worried expression on his aged face. They had been called because of something that had happened during their mission to Wave that they didn't know about until now.

Apparently one of The Silent had witnessed the battle at the bridge when Naruto had massacred Gato and his men. The Silent were a neutral organization ran by people that worked for all the daimyos in the Elemental Nations as scouts for the bingo book. They would travel around the Nations observing ninja and whenever they found someone of note they would send their information to be printed in the monthly updates. The reason that they were called The Silent was because no one had ever actually seen one. Nobody knew what they looked like and nobody would know they were there until the bingo book came out. They were both feared and respected by all the Shinobi villages for their skills. As no one has ever found one, their base of operation had never been found and it had been that way for as long as the group had existed and that had been since before the first great shinobi war.

The problem was that The Silent that had witnessed the fight at the bridge had thought Naruto impressive enough to add him in the latest update. Shortly after they had arrived Sarutobi never said a word and had simply taken out the book turned to a specific page and handed to Kurenai to show them.

At seeing the entry in the book Naruto had just laughed with a grin that reached from ear to ear.

**Name: **Uzumaki Naruto

**Age:** 12

**Alias: **Horror of the Bloody Leaf, True Horror of Konohagakure

**Village: **Konohagakure

**Rank: **Genin

**Status:** Active

**Skill Level: **High B

**Taijutsu: **Unknown

**Ninjutsu: **Unknown

**Genjutsu: **Unknown

**Kenjutsu: **Unknown

**Sealing: **Unknown

**Description: **_Uzumaki-san showed great power and skill with an unknown Jutsu and is believed to be able to use a, until now, thought to be impossible ability to physically transform his body. It is unknown if this is by the use of a new bloodline or jutsu. He is also able to perform the Shadow Clone Jutsu to a degree far beyond what was believed to be possible._

_During observation he was seen making a thousand Shadow Clones and transforming them into an army of 'demons', which he named as the "Parade of a Thousand Demons". The result of this was the complete slaughter of 984 bandits that were in the employ of one Gato, from Gato shipping company and the man himself. At one point just before the battle he was also seen stopping a Chidori from the famed Hatake Kakashi with his bare hands and suffering no ill effects._

_After the incident he was seen removing the heads of all the bandits and put them on pikes surrounding the village and claimed it as under his protection._

_It is believed that due to his actions observed during and after the incident that his mental state should be in question as he appeared to be enjoying himself while he killed. This was deduced from the laughter that was heard._

_In conclusion, Uzumaki Naruto has proven himself dangerous and is believed to have no regard for human life. It is advised for anyone under Jonin level not to engage until more information has been gained or he is approach in a group of 9 chunin. Any less in rank or number should run instead of engaging._

At the top of the page was a picture of Naruto, which looked like it had been taken just after the battle when he had changed back to normal. It showed him covered from head to toe in blood, surrounded by what was left of Gatos thugs and a dark, insane grin on his face with his hair covering the top of his eyes. In his hand they could see the decapitated head of Gato still dripping blood on the ground. It seemed to fit the blonde perfectly, the way it caught his grin and the look in his eyes, the fact that he was surrounded by the dead.

It just fit.

It also showed a picture of Naruto's mark, the demonized smiley face.

After reading the entry Kurenai had taken to having the same worried look on her face as the Hokage. It was rare for a genin to be added to the bingo book and most chunin didn't get as high a skill level as Naruto now had, the fact that he had been given a do not engage was also rare.

The problem with this was that it would generate a lot of attention, the fact that it said not to engage if below jonin would mean nothing to most. They would come looking to challenge Naruto to prove themselves. The only good that would come of this would be that the village would get a lot of publicity. The other thing that worried Sarutobi was the names they had given him. 'The True Horror of Konoha' and the 'Horror of the Bloody Leaf' hit a bit too close to home for the aged Hokage.

It was just before he was about to send them out that Naruto spoke.

"Oh, old man before I forget, how soon can you arrange a meeting for the shinobi council?"

Looking at the blonde curiously the old man checked a few papers on his desk before turning back to him.

"If its important then I can arrange it for this evening, but if not it might be hard to get them to come."

Naruto just grinned.

"Tell them the Faceless Blacksmith has made the clans a present."

This made all those in the room grin along with the blonde.

XXX

It was easier than Sarutobi thought to get the clans to meet. The second he had mentioned the Faceless Blacksmith they had been all to ready to agree. Tsume had arrived at the training ground Naruto had asked them to meet two hours ago.

By the time Sarutobi got there himself he was the last to arrive, even Shikaku had come early.

"Right, well you all know why we are her-"

It was here that Tsume finally lost her temper.

"For the love of Kami get to the point Hiruzen!"

Nodding his head at the dog like woman Sarutobi turned towards the trees at the edge of the training ground.

"You better come out before Miss Inuzuka breaks something."

"Spoil sport."

From behind a large oak tree came Naruto, a large scroll in his hands.

Without saying a word the young blonde walked over to the group and looked at the shocked faces of the Inuzuka, Yamanaka, Akimichi and Nara clan heads.

The first to get over her shock was Tsume.

"You, you're the Faceless Blacksmith?"

"Yep"

"You mean that it was you the whole time?"

"Yep"

"And you're only telling us now!"

"If I throw you a stick will you shut the hell up?"

"What the hell did you just say!"

"I said if I throw you a stick will you shut the hell up, why the hell do people always ask me to repeat myself?"

Before Tsume could leap at Naruto and try to strangle him, Sarutobi decided that it was time for him to intervene.

"Enough Tsume, Naruto asked you all here for a reason, or at least I hope he did."

The last part was more for himself then the others.

Pouting like a child the brash Inuzuka stepped back, mumbling under her breath.

Putting the scroll on the ground in front of him Naruto opened it out for all to see the storage seals inside.

"Let's see, which to show you first..."

Running a finger over the many seals on the scroll he came to a stop at one in the middle.

"Here we go."

Quickly applying chakra to the seal they all waited for the smoke to clear, and when it did all their jaws dropped.

In the blonde's hands was the most beautifully carved bow they had ever seen. It was five foot in length and like all of Naruto's weapons had a maze of complicated seals carved into it. The wood was stained a dark, almost black brown and the ends had small, one sided kunai like blades and were made out of a silver metal that caught the light of the afternoon sun. The middle of the bow was wrapped in a silver colored leather and printed on it was the symbol of the Yamanaka clan.

Walking up to his fellow blonde Naruto adapted his serious face and handed him the bow.

Inoichi marveled at the bow in his hands but that soon turned to confusion. Seeing the look on the older man's face Naruto explained.

"Let me guess, you're wondering why there are no arrows?"

At his nod Naruto grinned and went on.

"You don't need them."

Taking the bow back from Inoichi Naruto pulled back the string and took aim at a log in the middle of the training ground about twenty feet from where they were all standing.

They all gasped as a glowing blue arrow made from what looked like pure chakra appeared in Naruto's hand. Letting the arrow go they all watched as it flew towards the log, only for it to disappear midflight. Suddenly a small, deep hole appeared in the wood. Lowering the bow Naruto turned back to the shocked face of Inoichi.

"By channeling your chakra through the seals on the bow it automatically shapes it into an arrow, as soon as you let it go it fades from the view of the naked eye, although a Hyuga would be able to see it and someone with sensor ability could probably feel it coming. Also, I made it work in conjunction with your family Jutsu, by adding chakra into your clan seal it has the same effect as hitting someone with your Mind Derangement Technique or Mind Body Change Technique, and will increase the distance your Jutsu can travel. You will need to verbalize the Jutsu though."

His eyes widening at what he was being told the older blonde took the offered bow.

Turning back to his scroll Naruto again trailed his figure along the seals until he came to the one he was looking for.

When the smoke cleared this time it was to reveal a long metal chain with a head sized steel ball at one end and a hoop at the other. What surprised them was that the chain itself also had seals carved into each link that made it up and at the center of the ball was the clan symbol of the Akimichi.

Stepping towards Naruto, Chouza took the ball in one hand and the chain in the other to examine it.

"Impressive, but the ball on the end is a bit small don't you think?"

Grinning Naruto told the large man to channel his chakra through the chain and into the ball. Doing as he was told he was surprised when the ball tripled in size, yet didn't seem to gain any weight.

"I took the basic idea of your clans Expansion Jutsu and applied it to the ball and chain, it only seems like it hasn't gained weight because it's your chakra that's making it grow, and if you dropped it on the floor it would more than likely leave a good sized dent. I don't actually know the limit on how big it can get but if you go full sized it should change with you."

Without giving Chouza a chance to respond Naruto turned back to his scroll and released another seal.

Walking up to Tsume Naruto presented her with a pair of gauntlets. They were made of a strange black metal and had been molded into the shape of wolf heads with their mouths open and fangs barred, the detail was so good they almost looked alive. The seals that covered them were just as intricate as the others and the Inuzuka clan symbol was etched into the eyes of the wolf.

She took the gloves from the blonde and without a second thought slipped them on her hands and channeled her chakra through the seals. As soon as she did this the mouths of the wolves closed shut with a loud snap.

"As you can see, the idea is that you can use them to grab your opponent. They close with enough force to snap bones in one go. Also, you can slip them back up your wrist so you can use your hands for your clan Jutsu."

This time, before he could turn back to the scroll he was grabbed in a bear hug by Tsume, who then proceeded to give the blonde a deep kiss on the lips.

The eyes of all those watching widened and they suppressed there laughs that threatened to erupt from their throats at the shocked look on Narutos face. As soon as she let him go he backed off so he was out of reaching distance and mumbled under his breath just loud enough for them to hear.

"If _she_ hears about this she'll cut my nuts off, _again_!"

Realizing he said that out loud, Naruto quickly moved back to the scroll and released the next seal. What surprised them was that when the smoke cleared there wasn't a weapon but clothes.

There was a long sleeved shirt, ninja pants; socks, sandals, gloves and what appeared to be a mask without eye holes. They were made of a thin, black material so dark that it seemed to draw in the light around it like a black hole. The only color other than black was the seals, which had been sown on in a deep blood red, and on the back of the shirt was the symbol of the Nara clan.

Shikaku looked over the clothes with a critical eye before letting out a sigh.

"I give, what are they for?"

"Put them on."

Shrugging his shoulders the scared Nara took off his jonin jacket and sandals and walked over to the pile of clothing. After he had put everything on, including the mask that he was surprised to find didn't affect his vision. When the suit was on the seals all connected and the separate pieces of clothing seemed to meld into one.

Nodding his head in satisfaction, Naruto released another seal on the scroll picked up a smaller scroll and handed it to Shikaku. If they could have seen his face they would have seen his eyes go wide at what was on the scroll, but they could still hear the gasp that escaped his mouth.

Turning to face Naruto he spoke in barely a whisper.

"Do you know what you have done?"

The blonde just grinned at him, not saying a word.

Worried about his friend Chouza walked over to him.

"What is it Shikaku?"

He didn't get an answer; Shikaku just kept staring at Naruto for a long minute, then walked over to a tree and stood in its shadow, then made a single hand seal.

"Shadow Step Jutsu!"

What happened next was both shocking and amazing, taking a step back Shikaku actually _melded _with the shadow of the tree, only to emerge slowly from the shadow of Chouza. Shikaku rose from the shadow they could all see black wisps of smoke like tendrils clinging to his body like he was coming out of the darkest place in the world.

Seeing the shocked faces of the people in the clearing made Naruto laugh.

"Your faces are priceless... ha!"

Taking off the mask Shikaku took deep breaths, his face was red and his eyes were wide, he looked like he had just run around the village five times.

"That... was... incredible! It was... like I just... stepped through water... and then I was there."

Getting serious again Naruto walked over to Shikaku and handed him a soldier pill, which he took with a nod of his head.

"The more you use it the less chakra it will take, after a while it shouldn't take any more than your clans Shadow Possession Jutsu."

Stepping forward and clearing his throat, Sarutobi addressed the two.

"Would you be so kind as to explain what just happened."

Turning to look at them all Naruto let a smug look cross his face.

"The Nara rely on their superior mental condition to think up complex strategies in order to trap their opponents. Because of this, I had a hard time making a weapon that would fit their style. The suit allows them to slip through the space between spaces. All shadows are connected; you just need to be able to open the door. With the Nara bloodline to control shadows this door was always open to them, but they couldn't survive the trip through the shadows, could you Nara-san?"

They all turned to see Shikaku, his face looking better now that the soldier pill was taking effect.

"He's right, we have known about the shadow space for years, but until now it was unsafe to travel. The last Nara to try came out frozen to death, the time before that the pressure was too much and crushed them, eventually we stopped trying. But how did you know about it?"

"Hm... oh I broke into your clan vault and read all your scrolls, don't worry I didn't take anything, just read enough to understand the mechanics of your jutsu. I couldn't really design a weapon that would be beneficial if I didn't know how everything works."

"I know that I should be angry, but all things considered I don't have it in me, it would be too troublesome."

Shaking his head Sarutobi let out a deep breath.

"So let me get this straight, with the suit Naruto has made for you, you are now able to travel through shadows?"

"Pretty much, but only for short distances, the longer the space between shadows the more strain it would put on the body. Stick with a few feet at a time until you can build up a resistance to the shadows."

Shikaku just nodded his head, understanding what Naruto meant.

Letting out a deep breath the aged Hokage turned back to the grinning blonde.

"I give up; I don't know if you're a genius or just fucking insane. I'm getting to old for this shit."

The clan heads nodded in agreement with their Hokage's statement before thanked Naruto for his contribution to the village and walked away, Tsume was the most adamant in her thanks and even hugged the blond again much to the shock of the other people preset. Naruto was the last to leave the training field and after everyone was gone he disappeared to go train.


End file.

Naruto, Adventure, Humor