8

Disclaimer: I own Naruto.

/~/

"Heh. Who'da thought picking up some runt off the street would pay off so well?"

Zabuza's voice carried over the bridge effortlessly, even with the mist and its auditory amplification effects gone. The Kirigakure no Kijin stood over the headless bodies of Asuma and Haku, hunched over from exhaustion as he fingered the handle of his massive cleaver. Blood covered him, having spurted as if a fountain from the necks of his two victims. His black muscle shirt was stained with dark splotches that looked right at home on the man named the Demon of the Mist.

Kubikiribocho shone like the sun was bathing it in light, despite the clouds and low lying mist. Its presence made for a chilling picture when next to its blood drenched wielder.

An idle swipe of his hand removed his bandages. Blood soaked as they were, it was getting hard to breath. He tossed them to the concrete without a glance.

"And now for the brats," he former Kiri ANBU growled with a sinister snarl.

Naruto noticed none of this, however, so focused he was on the prone form of Asuma, headless in death. Blood flowed freely from the two parts that had once been his sensei, drenching he formerly grey concrete and dying it red.

Sensei? he thought weakly in his mind. His inner thoughts no more than a whisper as shock set in.

All at once, memories of the battle on the bridge assaulted his mind without warning. Naruto's eyes widened for but a moment as red hot needles threatened to break from his skull and spill out.

He gripped a kunai as the hunter-nin spun toward him, senbon in his good hand. The two blades met in the middle, the hunter showing a surprising amount of strength for such a lithe body, as Naruto noticed for the first time. Naruto used his second hand to bring a second blade to bear and slashed out, slicing the hunter's kimono as he spun away…

…"I don't want to kill you," the hunter spoke, voice sounding solemn. "But I will kill my heart in this case. You are far too dangerous. I am sorry."…

… Naruto's eyes gleamed as his kunai sliced through long black hair, and the hunter moved to make space. Not so fast! Naruto thought as he brought his leg up and out in vicious, chakra enhanced thrust kick. The hunter attempted to block with both forearms, but the kick proved too much as the shinobi was sent sailing through the air, directly toward the kunai Naruto had thrown before…

…"Heh, one hell of a kid, giving a chance like that. Sure can pick 'em."

Zabuza stood, cleaver in hand, a vicious smirk upon his face as he towered over the bodies of Asuma and Haku, their heads separated from their necks as blood flowed freely onto the bridge…

Blue eyes widened as Naruto was ripped from his thoughts by Zabuza's taunting voice.

"Is this the first time you've seen someone fall in battle?" the Demon asked, disgust dripping from his voice. He scoffed. "Greenhorn genin. To think, Haku had so much trouble with you. I suppose he was weak after all. The boy never could kill that heart of his."

Naruto, and Team Ten, was silent as Zabuza rambled. A scream threatened to break from Naruto's lips as his eyes stayed rooted on the rapidly cooling corpse of his sensei. This isn't happening. It's not true! he screamed internally.

It couldn't be happening. Not after everything they'd been through. Asuma just couldn't be dead.

The genin dimly realized that Zabuza was speaking again. "When I was your age, I already had blood on my hands. Liters of it, from dozens of kills…" the man trailed off, seemingly in fond remembrance. "'The Demon Zabuza', they called me. A boy who slaughtered an entire graduating class of Mist genin when he was only nine." A smile uglier than anything Naruto had ever seen broke across Zabuza's face. "And it felt so good!"

Naruto closed his eyes as the man's words washed over him. He was hearing them as if from very far away, his attention still focused entirely on Asuma.

Thump.

His heartbeat thumped out the seconds in his ears, overshadowing the Demon of the Mist's words effortlessly.

Thump.

The click of the handle of Kubikiribocho sounded as Zabuza hefted the blade to the level of his shoulder without effort.

"Until your names appear in my bingo book, you're not real shinobi in my mind." A short chuckle that sounded more like a cough escaped his throat. The man gently massaged his bruises that the Konoha jonin had left with him. "Heh, too bad you won't live long enough to get there."

Thump.

I'll never forgive you! Naruto yelled in his mind, his voice no longer a whisper in the dark. His eyes were squeezed shut, as if not opening them would make Asuma's death less real. Blood coated the underside of his fingernails as they dug into his clenched fists.

Images of a sewer, a great cage lined with hundreds of bars flashed in front of his eyes. Crimson eyes snapped open in the dark as if from a great slumber, and Naruto felt painful warmth wash over him, coating his muscles and bones as if from the inside.

It's about time.

"Too bad really," Zabuza was saying. "You kids've got talent. The battlefield's no place for children, though."

THUMP.

Finger and toenails sharpened into claws; muscles bulged for a moment before relaxing as lactic acid was flushed from them, chakra flowing at an accelerated rate through Naruto's whole body; chakra crackled like electricity down nerve endings, sending instantaneous impulses that impacted the adrenal glands, the chemical heightening Naruto's reflexes beyond anything capable by a shinobi of his age.

Whisker marks elongated and deepened along Naruto's face, and Zabuza finally took notice of the increase chakra output literally spilling from the genin. Black eyes narrowed to slits as he gripped his cleaver and leapt forward, his shinobi instinct to kill the genin before anything untoward happened overriding his curiosity.

It was too late.

Pupils slit down the center, red eyes snapped open as a wave of killing intent that brought Tazuna, Ino, and Kiba to their knees struck Zabuza like a hammer blow. His forward progress was halted abruptly as his eyes widened. What the fuck? No genin should be able to produce this kind of murderous intent!

Naruto, however, cared little for Zabuza's concerns, as his eyes finally left the prone corpse of his sensei, zeroing in on the object of his rage.

"I'll kill you!"

Concrete cracked, dust sprayed upward, and chakra exploded as Naruto burst forward toward Zabuza in a show of raw speed that his sensei wouldn't have been able to match.

Only instincts born of countless battles saved Zabuza as death soared toward him. A hasty duck and a thrust of Kubikiribocho put the massive blade in the path of the genin's new claws, and Zabuza's black eyes watched in shock as the tempered steel was carved into, the sound of metal cracking and scraping sending shivers down his spine.

He didn't know what the fuck had happened to the blond kid, but he knew that he had to make space fast.

Naruto, however, wasn't about to let that happen.

Clawed swipes that resembled punches tore through the air at Zabuza, the former jonin using all of his speed and reflexes just to avoid being rent in two. He wasn't fast enough, though, and Naruto's claws met vulnerable flesh with a sickening tear as Zabuza's pain sensors over rode his pride. The Demon of the Mist screamed.

The pain ignited his reflexes, however, and the former ANBU leapt away from Naruto with speed born of desperation, blood dripping from four gashes in his chest.

Naruto let him, his mind at war with baser instincts and rage that threatened to overwhelm him totally. Inside Naruto's mind, the boy knelt, hands clasped to his head as if in pain as red chakra swirled about in the sewer that was his mind-scape. On the outside, his body moved on instinct.

The boy shifted into a crouch for but an instant before he was gone from sight. Zabuza was far more ready for round two, though, the red corona of visible power surrounding the genin giving away his position through the rudimentary Shunshin long before Zabuza saw him.

Muscles screamed as Zabuza torqued his body more sharply than ever had before, Kubikiribocho's flat edge swinging in a wide arc that impacted the charging Naruto with a hard thump and a crack that heralded shattered ribs.

The blond genin was airborne before he knew what to do with himself, and pain assaulted him for but a moment before the healing abilities of the Kyuubi's youki asserted itself. He landed heavily on his back and stayed there for less than a moment, springing back to his feet from his hands.

The blow to his chest had done more than just hurt, however. Naruto's consciousness had awoken from its internal struggle, and the boy was finally back in control of his finer motor functions.

Naruto glanced down at his hands in detached wonder, and with more than a little fear, beholding the claws that had grown from his fingers. His mind was in three places at once, all wondering what the hell happened to him, before common sense and knowledge was reasserted themselves in his brain.

Kyuubi, was all he thought, though his inner voice was quiet and hard to hear over the pounding in his ears. It was all that needed to be thought, for it answered all of the questions the blond could have about what he was currently experiencing. No aches, no pain. Hell, he felt great!

The feeling didn't last long, as near precognitive reactions had him ducking backwards under a sword swipe that would have made him as headless as his sensei.

A swift, effortless back flip that revealed dexterity that Naruto hadn't previously possessed created space between the two combatants. Naruto was barely on his feet before he had retrieved and released a kunai from his hip pouch, accelerated reflexes working perfectly with his accelerated arm motion so as to make a perfect throw.

Zabuza raised his cleaver to block the knife, and it clanged off the tempered steel before coming to rest on the concrete of Tazuna's bridge.

Naruto paid it no mind as his body slipped into a goken stance, the result of nigh endless hours of mind numbing and knuckled breaking training making the shift effortless. One hand was clasped behind his back, the other in front, claws raised to the sky as Naruto stared Zabuza down, murder in his eyes.

The whole universe seemed to grind to a halt for a moment as the two shinobi locked eyes. No words were spoken, but then, none were needed.

Naruto exploded force with all the grace and subtlety of a hurricane as the world kicked into high gear once more. Zabuza crouched low and raised his left arm to block a telegraphed roundhouse kick that promised to break stone. The blow never came, however, as the blond merely passed through Zabuza's outstretched arm like a ghost.

Bunshin! the former jonin thought in alarm. A quick pivot saved his head, literally, as Naruto's claws passed mere millimeters from Zabuza's neck in a controlled swipe. Swiftly pressing his advantage, Naruto burst into Zabuza's guard with a furious flurry of punches and clawed slashes, determined, though not consciously aware of it, to keep the Kirigakure no Kijin in a taijutsu battle. He wanted no part of the man's ninjutsu.

Zabuza made to make space, and Naruto lunged forward before he distantly realized that he had been had. The Demon of the Mist pressed forward before Naruto knew what had happened, bringing his decapitating knife to bear in a reverse grip strike at Naruto's chest level.

Reflexes beyond human comprehension had muscles firing on all cylinders in Naruto's chakra enhanced body, and the genin was barely in control of his own motions as he planted one hand on the blade and pushed, using the momentum and direction to spin his body over the sweeping strike in a barrel roll. He landed on all fours, grabbed a kunai from his hip pouch, and buried it in Zabuza's right shoulder with a savage snarl.

Blood spurted from the wound, but Zabuza was both expecting and conditioned to the pain. The former ANBU ignored it, let momentum go to work, and simply kept spinning, planning to let his blade decapitate Naruto on the back end of his sweep.

His instincts didn't let him finish, however, and his spin was halted as he jumped deftly in order to avoid having his legs swept by the chakra empowered genin.

Naruto met the former jonin with reflexes and reaction time beyond Zabuza's comprehension, and certainly beyond what Naruto had been capable of before. A quick pivot on his hands and a thrust kick had Naruto shooting the Kirigakure no Kijin skyward as his blow landed on the underside of Zabuza's chin. The genin landed on all fours once more, before disappearing in a burst of red chakra.

The Omote Renge required speed and power almost unreachable by normal ninja, and the creator of it had compensated for it by opening the first of the Celestial Gates. Naruto was no normal ninja when under the influence of the Kyuubi's chakra though, and, while the technique was almost unusable in his hands under normal circumstances, being unable to open the Gates, the Demon's youki more than made up the difference.

He reappeared behind the prone and airborne Zabuza in a perfect Kage Buyo, before planting four of his sharpened nails in the man's exposed back. Using his grip for leverage, Naruto flipped and positioned his body so that his head was at Zabuza's feet. The genin locked his arms around the man's legs, his ankles snapping to either side of Zabuza's neck to keep him totally immobile.

Chakra exploded into a visible corona as Naruto forced his body to spin in midair as gravity went to work. The two combatants were an indistinguishable blur to any observing eyes as they fell, Naruto's chakra rapidly gathering in his feet.

That chakra exploded outward as Zabuza's head met the concrete, liquefying flesh, bone, and brain matter while simultaneously providing Naruto with a cushion. The impact was felt by everyone on the bridge as the two shinobi came back down to earth with an almighty crash. Dust was sent skyward and the force channeled by the supports rippled across the concrete, knocking Kiba, Ino, and Tazuna to their back as twenty foot radial fractures spread from the point of impact.

Naruto hopped off the now headless Zabuza without ceremony, red chakra still racing around and across his body as he silently regarded the corpse.

The genin was silent as his red eyes rose to meet those of his teammates'. Distantly, he felt sorrow for what their reactions would be to his big secret being revealed. It was overridden, however, by the blood pounding in his ears.

The smell of fear hit Naruto before the sound of clapping made itself known. The boy turned slowly to regard a small horde of mercenaries, a stubby man in a business suit at the head.

It was unmistakably Gatou.

"Well," the man began, his voice surprisingly steady as he strode forward with a swagger that belied his fear.

Fear that Naruto could smell.

"I had brought all these nice men with me today in order to deal with Zabuza, but you seem to have done me a favor, boy. Thank you." The short man laughed at the irony of the situation. "I never intend to pay any of the shinobi I hire, you see, they cost far too much. I let them do their work, tire themselves out, and then kill them off with numbers. It's a nice little operation I use." The man smirked viciously as he stepped over Zabuza's blade.

Disgust rippled through Naruto despite his detachment from his feelings. It was a testament to how much he hated this man that he could actually feel it through the pleasant yet painful haze of the Kyuubi's youki.

Gatou would die this day; he just didn't know it yet.

"Gatou," was all the rage fueled boy managed to grate out.

It seemed to please the man, though the guttural growl by which it had been delivered seemed to unnerve the man.

"Indeed I am, boy," the stumpy man said. "I'd ask for your name, but I'm not all that interested in dead people." The thugs behind him laughed menacingly, brandishing their assorted weapons in what they thought was a threatening manner.

Naruto was far from impressed as he began a slow march forward.

That only seemed to amuse the man further, though the smell of fear wafting off the man increased.

"Look at this one, men!" Gatou crowed as the assorted thugs laughed at Naruto's stupidity. "Don't try to be a hero, kid. It'll only hurt before you die."

Naruto said nothing as he continued his march, nearing the assembled group with palpable murder in his eyes. A kunai found itself in Naruto's hand and began spinning around his finger.

Gatou had stopped laughing as the genin got ever closer, taking a step back in apprehension as the boy refused to stop. He was an instant away from ordering his men to attack the crazy kid, but he never got the chance.

Naruto's kunai was buried to the hilt in the chest of the thug standing directly behind Gatou, having passed through the shipping magnate's exposed throat like a hot knife through butter.

The stumpy man dropped to his knees as if in shock, blood spilling from the gaping wound lie water from a broken canteen. Naruto paid him little mind as he shoved him aside, now at a full sprint, reaching down to snatch Zabuza's cleaver from its resting place on the bridge.

Neither the balance point, fine though it was, nor the weight registered in Naruto's mind. All that the boy cared about, however distantly, was that it channeled chakra like nothing else he had ever laid his hands on.

Disruptive wind chakra infused with youki crackled madly as it rippled down Kubikiribocho, and Naruto turned his body so that the assembled thugs could see his back. Coiling and uncoiling like a spring, Naruto hurled the massive decapitating knife at the crowd of mercenaries at speeds almost too fast to track.

The sword, spinning like a shuriken, passed through the first man unlucky enough to be in its path as easily as if he were made of water. Wind enhanced as it was, it didn't stop there, living up to its name as it cleaved through three more men before it escaped the four lines the thugs had formed at the entrance to the bridge, finally coming to a stop as it hit the ground, its momentum spent.

Blood spilled from the halves of the victims like water from a broken canteen. One poor soul had been unfortunate enough to be close to the spinning blade's path, but not close enough to have been granted the mercy of death. His arm lay on the ground, neatly sliced off above the elbow as blood flowed from the wound.

Another lay dead on the concrete, having had his chest tagged with disruptive chakra that splayed off the blade in rivulets.

The living man's screams drew the rest of the assembled thug's attention from the dead bodies as they turned as one to watch in morbid fascination as the man, formerly a samurai, quickly bled out.

Naruto paid no such attention.

Bursting forth, the boy left cracks in the concrete as latent chakra was forced into the bridge from Naruto's speed. A blurring after image of the blond was left in his place, so great was his chakra enhanced speed as he hurtled toward the small army.

Cracks and dust exploded from the bridge as Naruto stopped in front of the nearest mercenary, crouched with a hand on the ground and his foot poised to snap to the man's chin. One moment, the man stood, transfixed by the sight of the monster in front of him. The next, he was airborne with a sickening crack that spoke of a broken spine as Naruto neatly snapped a thrust kick to his chin.

The genin didn't even bother with the Kage Buyo in favor of moving on to his next victim. Naruto subconsciously slipped into Goken, the deadly and bruising style of a man whose tutelage had boosted Naruto to second in his class.

A spinning back fist shattered the skull of one mercenary. An improvised punch that sent claws forward instead of knuckles claimed the life of the next. Vulnerable flesh was rent effortlessly as Naruto literally ripped the throat out of one man unlucky enough to be in his path.

It took a total of six seconds and nine dead men to capture the full attention of the assembled mercenaries. Weapons were drawn hastily, hefted in front of them as an impotent defense against the miniature monster in front of them, poised to slaughter them all on a whim.

Naruto had stopped, however, directly above the still sputtering and paralyzed Gatou. A kunai slipped into his hand from his hip pouch and began to spin around one of his fingers.

It had a hypnotic effect on the small army, as the eyes of every man on the bridge was drawn to the small, spinning knife. They all knew what was about to happen, were powerless to stop it, and couldn't look away even if they had wanted to.

Without ceremony, without warning, Naruto buried the kunai hilt deep in Gatou's back, blood spurting forth from the wound in rivulets as the blade severed the aorta savagely. It was withdrawn just a brutally, red life water covering it and dripping down to the now liberally stained concrete.

The kunai began spinning on Naruto's finger once more, flecks of blood flying off in all directions, most landing on the right side of Naruto's face. Blood dripped off the boy's claws and splashed to the concrete, the soft noise all the more deafening in the silence of the bridge.

That was all it took for the dam to break.

All it took was a single man to turn and flee, before all the rest got the idea that they had a much better chance of surviving if they weren't anywhere near the blond ninja turned monster. Most of the men sprinted back toward the forested land that was Fire Country, while a few others dove off the bridge and into the water in their attempt to escape.

Naruto stood silently throughout the whole process, watching with a dispassionate eye as many men tripped over themselves in their haste. The fox's chakra was slowly leaving his chakra coils, the process seemingly instinctive despite Naruto not having any experience with it. Without boosting his system beyond human capabilities, Naruto once more felt every little ache and pain in his body.

He ignored them, however, in favor of watching the crashing waves that gave this country its name. His mental faculties had returned to full strength, finally. To think, he had thought of this country as beautiful just earlier this day; as someplace that he would love to return to.

Now, it would only be a memory. A bloodstained memory filled with sorrow, self loathing for all that he had done, and pain.

He would never return here.

Naruto himself turned, numbly, after several long moments that seemed to last an eternity and an instant all at once, and began moving back to his still shell shocked teammates, red eyes reverting to blue as the Kyuubi's chakra left his system. Sea foam blue and brown eyes regarded him as he passed in between the surviving member of Team Ten, past the quivering Tazuna, and to the limp and headless body of Sarutobi Asuma.

The stupefied eyes of Ino and Kiba watched silently as Uzumaki Naruto dropped to his knees in front of the man who had been the closest thing he had had to a father, and wept.

His body shuddered with emotion for a moment, before going limp, exhaustion finally taking hold of him.

/~/

Looking back, he supposed it was rather like a dream. You never know how exactly you get to where you are, but you're always there. Right in the middle of the action. Right when it matters most. There is no true beginning to it, or if there is, you never remember it.

The only thing that could possibly disprove the thought that it was a dream was the fact the he could remember it as vividly as anything. You can never remember dreams after the fact, at least not with any true clarity. He supposed that it could have been a nightmare, but he had lived through a nightmarish existence for the majority of his childhood, if it could be called that. He knew enough about them to know that this wasn't one, no matter how much he would have liked to believe it.

The red glow from farther down the long sewer in which he stood spoke of something sinister; something that Naruto, for the life of him, wanted absolutely no part of. The boy knew, however, that that very glow was exactly what he was here for, no matter how much he wished it wasn't the case.

With trepidation born of knowledge imparted on him by the Sandaime, Naruto started forward. Water shifted beneath his feet as he approached the crimson glow, chakra control exercises placing on its surface with nary a thought. The boy spared no thought for how he was supposedly controlling chakra within the seal.

Miniscule details like that didn't matter right now.

Only the palpable aura of murderous intent so thick it could be cut with a kunai mattered at present. Had Naruto not known it was coming, his knees would have buckled.

As it was, they almost did.

Naruto found himself standing on top of water that would have been up to his knees had he not boosted himself, facing a cage barred by steel beams two hundred feet high held closed, impossibly, by a slip of paper.

So that's the seal, he thought with a detached sort of wonder.

Without warning, crimson eyes fifty feet above Naruto's own opened, the pupils focused on Naruto's own with uncanny clarity, menace and hatred beyond the scope of his imagination held within the twin orbs. Then, somehow, the murderous intent became even more pronounced; thicker and heavier.

Naruto just barely kept himself standing, though he did sink into the water. He was suffocating. Hands rose to his throat by their own accord, trying to find something to unlatch to allow oxygen into his system.

That wasn't the problem though. There wasn't something coiled around his windpipe, restricting his access to air no matter how much he tried to breathe. Nothing was wrapped around his chest, crushing his ribs and lungs. He just couldn't breathe. His lungs wouldn't expand; his diaphragm wouldn't move; his own mouth would barely work to try to force air down his throat.

Just as he was about to lose the battle and fall, the pressure disappeared. It didn't recede or slowly reduce itself. It simply vanished as if it had never been there in the first place.

Naruto took gulps of air with all the vigor of a starving man given a feast to eat. His mind, however, was focused entirely on the monster looming in front of him.

Unknowingly, unconsciously, his respect for the Yondaime, which had taken a nose dive when he had learned of his situation, shot up to its old, God-like levels. How did he fight such a beast? Naruto wondered, in awe of the man who had not only fought the biju, but defeated it.

Suddenly, the idea of the Yondaime being acknowledged as the greatest shinobi in the history of the world wasn't so farfetched.

That though, mattered little at present.

"I would like nothing more than to devour you whole, boy, but that would defeat the purpose of this little chat," the Kyuubi spoke in a deep, gravelly, unyielding voice that brooked no argument.

"K-Kyuubi," was Naruto's whispered response. Internally, the genin cursed the waver of obvious fear in his voice, but was powerless to stop it. It was an instinctive, primal fear that asserted itself when faced with a being so obviously more powerful than he was.

A wave of hot air smacked him in the face, and Naruto realized belatedly that the fox had just exhaled. "Yes, boy. I suppose I should be pleased that you at least know that much. I had expected little from a human who had managed to turn his mind-scape into a sewer," the fox said with an audible note of sarcasm.

Naruto felt vaguely insulted, but conceded the point. There wasn't much he could do to refute it, in any event. He was standing in a sewer.

"So…" he began, his voice made steady through a force of will he hadn't known he possessed. "…what do you want?"

Another blast of air hit him square in the face. "What do I want, brat?" the beast asked, seemingly askance that Naruto would ask such a question. "What I want is to devour you where you stand! What I want is to break free from this prison and finish what I started in that pitiful village you call home! To set that hovel aflame with my power, devour each and every one of those fools who celebrated my so called "death", destroy every monument to your precious Yondaime, and find and torture the human who calls himself Uchiha Madara for the rest of eternity!"

Naruto was growing steadily more horrified with each passing word, his ability to breathe leaving him once more as the massive killing intent returned bit by bit, choking him all the while.

And, once more, it evaporated as if it had never been present.

"Unfortunately, boy," the beast said, its rant finished, "that is impossible at present." The huge eyes snapped to Naruto's own once more. "Unless, of course, you would be so kind as to remove that slip of paper." The phrase was said mockingly. The fox knew full well that Naruto would do no such thing. Not after that last declaration.

Still, Naruto shook his head. A deep rumbling that shook the very ground Naruto stood upon reverberated throughout the sewer that was Naruto's mind-scape. It took a moment for Naruto to realize the Kyuubi was laughing.

It wasn't a pleasant sound.

"I thought not." Red eyes bored into Naruto, making him fidget as fear took hold even without the monstrous killing intent. He was nothing to this being, and he knew it. Almost unconsciously, he brought his – meager – chakra to bear in a preemptive attempt to stave off what little of the fox's chakra he could.

The fox, however, simply ignored the life energy, not bothering to deign it with a response of every kind. It didn't even bother to mock Naruto.

"You asked me what I want, boy, and I told you. What you're here for is something different," the Kyuubi spoke. It had Naruto's attention. "I wish to deal."

Naruto's eyebrows threatened to take flight. "Deal?" he asked incredulously, working up some nerve to actually talk back to the monster in front of him. "Do you think I'm a fool, Kyuubi?" He hadn't been privy to many folk tales as a child, but he knew better than to strike a deal with a being that might as well be the devil.

That nerve promptly disappeared when the beast narrowed its eyes, though the killing intent didn't return. "You would be a fool not to, boy. You have seen and experienced firsthand what my power is capable of," the fox growled. "My chakra allowed you to reach a level of power you thought unimaginable. My power allowed for you to kill men against whom your meager skills would have left you dead."

Naruto shook his head quickly. Despite the truth in the words, truth he had been forced to acknowledge even as he had killed Zabuza with ease, he wasn't about to make a deal with the nine tails.

"I don't want your power, Kyuubi." 'I don't want your power beast' came to mind, but he decided against tempting the monster's temper.

The rumbling laughter returned. "Don't you, brat? I have been privy to your innermost thoughts since you were old enough to have them. Power is all you desire in this world, boy. The power to crush all of your enemies and leave them dead at your feet. The power to defend your so-called friends." The fox bared its teeth in a grotesque imitation of a grin. "The power to survive."

Naruto looked to his feet. He knew the fox was right. The past four years of his life had been spent trying to get stronger in what often seemed to be a futile attempt to survive against what were likely S-ranked shinobi after his life. Power was all that mattered to them, so it had become almost all that mattered to Naruto.

"I offer you all the power you would need and more. Power beyond what you had previously thought capable would be at your disposal. The very ability to crush those who would see you dead would be at your very fingertips," the Kyuubi said, its gravelly voice pouring golden honey into Naruto's ears.

Naruto's eyes clouded with doubt. There was little to refute the beast's claims, for Naruto indeed had been witness to the very power the beast spoke of. Having a source of chakra that would never run dry and which could boost his own abilities beyond anything humanly possible certainly wasn't a bad thing, especially given the very people who Naruto sought to destroy were so far beyond him.

It would be like the ultimate trump card.

Still though, he was wary.

"And if I say no?" he asked, his voice betraying the fact that he wouldn't, in fact, say no. it was a question asked simply for the sake of it.

The beast's head moved up and down in what could pass for a shrug. It imitated human idiosyncrasies quite well. "Imagine that same power you would deny turned against you," it said simply. Naruto looked up sharply. "That old man you bow to made you well aware of our relationship. My chakra passes through this seal and into you. You know this, so know that everything you hold dear, those very skills you bled for, can be taken from you on a whim. Know that everything you pride yourself on exists at my tolerance."

Naruto did what little he could in order to maintain his decorum, but was failing miserably. He knew that the Kyuubi's chakra passed through the seal, the Sandaime had told him as much, but he hadn't thought that the fox would be able to do anything with it once it left the seal. Even taken forcibly from the Kyuubi, it made sense that the beast would still be able to exert some control over its power. Much like how genjutsu allowed for ninja to use their chakra to manipulate their target's while in their own body.

Naruto nodded in acceptance of the beast's point. He certainly didn't want what the fox was describing.

"And if I accept your deal," he stressed the last word with regained nerve and emphasis. "What you receive in return? Nothing like what you're proposing is free." 'Not from a being like you' went unspoken.

The fox did not smile, though Naruto could sense that the biju was pleased. "In return, I ask two things." Naruto nodded hesitantly. That sounded rather reasonable.

"Firstly: that you would use the power gifted to you whenever necessary. You and I both know that when you die, I get dragged with you." An audible note of rage colored the fox's voice at this. "I have no wish for that to happen before absolutely necessary. You know about this…seal," the beast spat the word seal like a curse, "…from that man whom you bow to. Your own chakra reinforces it unconsciously, unless otherwise occupied." When Naruto looked up, askance as the beast's threat from earlier played over in his mind, the Kyuubi cut him off before he even got going, "Do not presume that I cannot follow through, boy, merely that it would be difficult." The fox pinned him with a piercing stare. "I believe neither you nor I wish for it to come to that," it growled.

Naruto nodded once more. He most certainly didn't wish to have the beast's power turned against him.

He had planned to use the power anyway, though he would only use the chakra as a last resort. Despite the obvious boons, there were also drawbacks that the beast had smoothly ignored. He knew that youki was poisonous to humans in large enough quantities – he had done some serious research on the biju after his secret had been revealed to him – and he had no wish to poison himself if he didn't have to.

"Accepted," was all he said in return.

"The second is a man by the name of Uchiha Madara." Naruto started at the name, though it had been mentioned once before. The fox nodded. "Yes, you've heard of him. I want him dead, boy, and painfully so. Since I cannot do this from my current lodgings, the task falls to you. It shouldn't present much of a problem, as you were already planning to kill him."

When Naruto opened his mouth, a question on the tip of his tongue, the fox interrupted once more.

"Information about that man will be revealed to you in due time, though there is little you need to know about him other than his rule over a group of humans who called themselves Uchiha, and that his chakra was more sinister than even my own." The Kyuubi shook its head. "My relationship with that man is not to be questioned. Is that clear?"

Naruto kept his silence as he pondered the deal; of course the sentiment was clear. He didn't question the Kyuubi's hatred of Madara, at least not openly. It was likely a sore subject filled with residual anger that Naruto wanted no part of. A small bubble of humor threatened to well up in him as he envisioned some embarrassing history between the two. The Kyuubi had obviously come out the loser in whatever conflict they had had.

The humor disappeared as soon as it had hit. That familiar bubble of fear, the one he had ruthlessly tried to crush over the years, when he thought of the man who was likely the mastermind behind Akatsuki's plot against him, rose up once more. If the man was good enough to get the better of the Kyuubi of all things…

Naruto didn't want to think about the kind of power at the man's disposal.

The boy's mind returned to the deal he and the fox were striking when another blast of hot air struck him in the face. The beast was impatient, it seemed.

It was a good deal, almost too good.

It wasn't about to stop him though, and the fox had said itself that it didn't want Naruto dead. There was no drawback to that.

Still, there was one sticking point. "With your power, I want to make sure that my mind isn't overshadowed like it was at first on the bridge. I need to be in control of my own body."

The fox hesitated for a moment, but nodded its head in acceptance. "Agreed, boy. Do we have a deal?"

Naruto took a deep breath, hesitating once more in the face of a choice that would likely change his life. He consoled himself with the knowledge that this power would allow him to better survive, a goal he had been working toward for years now.

If he had to, he would simply refrain from using the beast's power. With any luck, he would be able to properly avoid Akatsuki for a few years to come. That would hopefully be enough time to get to an acceptable level where he could at least hold his own. He would use the fox's power then, and only then.

Besides, it wasn't like he would be up against similarly powerful opponents anytime soon. A and S-ranked shinobi didn't grow on trees.

Resolve hardened to determination in Naruto's mind, and a single nod happened almost of its own accord.

"We have a deal."

The Kyuubi simply nodded.

Deep within the mind of the biju, hidden from Naruto by a force of will sharpened over a millennia, the fox smiled.

/~/

"So…what exactly does that mean?"

Naruto sighed for what seemed to be the thousandth time that day. It had been an unspoken, unanimous decision to stay and help with the cleanup effort after the battle on the bridge, despite the searing grief Team Ten was in. "It was what Asuma would have wanted," had been the rationale.

The previous day had been cleaning up the mess at the bridge – the majority of the city's population had turned out to help, not that Team Ten truly cared. The idea behind it, though unspoken, was to keep the minds of the genin off Asuma's death. Unfortunately, with the general population doing most of the work, it left Team Ten with nothing to do but sit, think, and talk.

That, of course, led to Naruto fielding questions about his mysterious near transformation back on the bridge, as the genin certainly had no wish to think or talk about what had happened to Asuma. The man's death would be an open wound for some time to come.

There had been more than a little residual fear of Naruto in his two teammates, rightfully so – it wasn't everyday that your blond friend went on a rampage. The fear had only disappeared when Naruto had sought to clear up the mess, assuring them that he was, in fact, completely in control of the power he had shown at the bridge.

It wasn't a lie, but they were still understandably wary. Somewhat optimistically, he noticed that they were far more contemplative than wary.

Having no wish to either deceive his friends or beat around the bush, Naruto had taken the direct route, outright stating that he housed the Kyuubi and that the beast's chakra flowing into his system had caused the minor and major changes his team had seen in him. It had been silent in the room for nearly a quarter of an hour since, only now broken by Kiba's question.

Naruto didn't exactly have high hopes about his friends' reactions, but they seemed to be taking the news well, all things considered.

"It means exactly what I said," Naruto said with a long suffering note in his voice. "The Kyuubi is sealed in my chakra system, and I have some limited access to its chakra and mind. Nothing more, nothing less."

Kiba was silent once more, the dog ninja scratching the ears of his partner in contemplation. Naruto didn't much care about the silence, it was certainly better than any screaming that might have originally resulted from his friends in his opinion.

He would be patient; this wasn't something that could be rushed, as he knew from his own experience. He had taken the better part of a sleepless night to come to terms with what the Yondaime had done to him, and he still had lingering questions, unanswerable questions, whirling about in his mind even now.

"How?" Ino asked softly. "How could someone actually do something like that?" the girl mumbled ambiguously, more to herself than to anyone else. Naruto remained silent as the girl met his eyes for the first time in twenty minutes. He held her gaze for what felt like an eternity, silently trying to convey the message that he was the same Naruto from three days ago; that nothing had changed in him; that he was the same Naruto that Ino knew.

He didn't bother trying to answer the girl's question.

After a few more minutes of oppressive silence, Naruto spoke once more. "From what little I know, there's no real way to kill a biju. They're chakra constructs given form through excessive human emotion. It's only possible to seal their chakra someplace." A sigh escaped his lips once more. "I just happened to be that someplace."

"Do you know why?" Ino asked gently, far more gently than Naruto had ever heard her before. She seemed almost afraid that he would break if she spoke too loudly.

"No." Naruto shook his head. "The Sandaime probably has some idea, but if he does, he won't tell me. To my knowledge, I was just born in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"But how can he not tell you?" Ino burst out. Naruto nearly jumped at the intensity in the girl's voice. Kiba looked up sharply from where he had been petting Akamaru. "I mean, it's your life, right? Who has more right to know than you?" she asked incredulously.

I've been asking myself that for months. "It's his decision," was the simple answer. He had long tried to rationalize the Sandaime's silence about both his condition and how it came to be, and that was the best he had come up with. The Hokage could do what he wished. Naruto simply had to live with it.

"Bullshit!" Ino was pacing now. It was a habit of hers whenever she got worked up. Naruto and Kiba shared a quick, unsure glance. "He has no right to keep something like that from you!"

Naruto weathered the girl's anger with stoicism he hadn't known he possessed. "It wasn't about what was right, Ino, it's about security. For all I know, I could have some nearly extinct bloodline that genetically predisposes me to holding the fox." Naruto's tone clearly suggested that he didn't think that was the case. "It's exactly why he didn't tell me about the fox until just recently too. Having known me when I was younger, do you think it would have been a good idea to tell me about something like that?" He let the rhetoric sit for a few moments. Of course it wouldn't have been a good idea! "The same principle applies to this."

"And you just roll with that?" Kiba raised an eyebrow. The dog boy had been surprisingly quiet about the whole thing, preferring to let Naruto explain and Ino ask questions to this point.

Naruto shrugged. "There's not too much I can do about it, really. I try not to think about it for the most part, preferring to just do what I can about what I can actually control." Naruto neglected to mention that this was only a recent attitude adjustment. "The info is distributed on a need to know basis only. It's why I didn't tell you guys straight out."

"So why does the whole village need to know?" Ino asked harshly, though it wasn't directed at Naruto, only the situation. The girl had unknowingly echoed one of Naruto's more frustrating questions from when he had first learned of the Kyuubi. "I assume that this is why you get all those stares back home?"

Naruto nodded as he met the Yamanaka's eyes. "Some people found out early on, and Sarutobi let the rest know so as not to start a mass panic due to a rumor. He created a law that made letting anyone in the younger generation in on the secret, myself included, punishable by death."

"S-class," Ino and Kiba murmured at the same time. Naruto gave each of them a nod.

Ino finally finished her pacing, whatever anger she had had either spent or reserved for later. Kiba had shifted back to playing with Akamaru. Naruto glanced at both of his teammates in turn, inwardly shocked and nervous at the lack of reaction they were having. Aside from the conversation, both Ino and Kiba seemed to be moving on like things were the same as ever.

"That's it?" the blond asked with trepidation. Both his teammates looked to him in surprise.

"What's it?" Kiba asked in confusion.

"This!" Naruto flailed his arms about, gesticulating wildly at the room and their group. "I expected a bit more of a…reaction," he finished. Of all of the scenarios Naruto had envisioned, calm acceptance was at the bottom of the "most likely to happen" list.

Kiba and Ino shared a quick glance, each a bit surprised at Naruto's outburst, but neither confused about it. They knew enough about their teammate to know that he led less than an ideal life back in Konoha, and that it was mostly due to the citizens who subtly ostracized him, even in front of their own eyes.

"Well," Ino started calmly. "It doesn't really change anything, now does it? You're still Naruto, right?" The Yamanaka shrugged. "You've had this thing for longer than we've been a team, so it's not like it's some recent change."

Naruto nodded hesitantly, not quite believing the words coming from his female teammate.

"What did you expect?" Kiba asked with an all too familiar smirk. "Give us some damn credit."

"We're not like them, Naruto," Ino stated. No explanation for who "them" was was needed.

Naruto sat back, his back pressing into the thin plaster walls of Tazuna's house. The boy barely kept a radiant smile from splitting his face as his teammates' acceptance washed over him. He had no idea of what to say, so he simply kept silent.

"You are still a dick, though," Kiba warned. Naruto snorted loudly, as did Ino, though the girl couldn't stop herself from smacking the back of Kiba's head.

The group degenerated into silence once more, each absorbed in their own thoughts. It wasn't a common state of inertia for Team Ten; they usually bickered in order to fill the silence, rather than think about their options.

Now, however, it was almost a given that they would be absorbed in their own thoughts. Three days ago, their sensei had been cut down, and none would deny the fact that they were more than a little lost without Asuma there to guide them.

"We're gonna have to move," Kiba said, uncharacteristically subdued. "We have to go back home sometime."

"Agreed," said Naruto. "Our mission objective is done. Tazuna's in no more danger now that Gatou's dead. Asuma needs to be brought back too," he finished, a small stutter at his sensei's name the only inflection in his voice.

Ino and Kiba nodded along with him. Neither was particularly willing to stay longer than necessary, the mission's completeness tasting like ashes in their mouths given the loss they sustained. It was a pyrrhic victory at best, and even then, the victory on the bridge hardly felt like anything resembling success. In the minds of Team Ten, the mission to Wave Country had been an unmitigated disaster.

Naruto's eyes flickered over to the lone storage scroll laying gently upon one of the pillows in the bedroom now shared by all three Team Ten members. It was impossible to believe that just three days ago, the team had been full, happy, if dysfunctional, and perfectly willing to believe in their own superiority.

Now, they were broken, the two parts of their sensei locked away in a storage scroll for easy transport back to Konoha.

It was in that instant that Naruto made up his mind.

"Pack up," he ordered. "We're leaving."

Ino and Kiba stared at him for one long moment, before they began gathering their belongings without question.

No explanation was offered; none was needed.

It had taken Team Ten five days to get from Konoha to Wave, but that was with Tazuna slowing them down. Without him, at full pace, the genin trio could make the journey in under eighteen hours. At full pace with linked Shunshins interspersed in the running, that time could be cut down to twelve. It was not yet eleven o'clock in the morning. Naruto planned to be back in Konoha by midnight.

He was getting the fuck out of this Kami forsaken country.

The team was packed and ready to go within twenty minutes of Naruto's unheralded order. The last bit to be packed was the storage scroll holding Asuma. The blond boy gently placed it in his back pack, right on top, fighting the urge to both cry and laugh at the fact that he was, quite literally, be carrying his sensei home.

What the fuck is wrong with me? he thought as he stifled a small chuckle.

Ino's light touch on his shoulder shook him from his thoughts, and he followed his two teammates out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

Tazuna's family was sitting quietly in their kitchen, all three members wearing black out of respect for the man who had taken their plight upon his shoulders with no prompting, and had paid the price with his life. Tsunami rose as the three genin entered, but said nothing as they passed through without a word. Even the normally expressive Inari, who had become far more positive in the wake of Gatou's death, had nothing to say.

The genin trio was halfway to the tree line surrounding the humble abode when Tazuna's voice rang out from behind them.

"Thank you," was shouted across the clearing, causing the three genin to turn as one to face the bridge builder. Regret was written over the man's face like it had never been before, true sorrow for what the ninja –children even – had been put through as a result of his actions. He made to say more, but choked on his words. "Thank you so much," was all he managed, voice cracking as he turned his gaze to the ground, unable or unwilling to meet the eyes of Team Ten.

The trio said nothing as they turned as one to the tree line, disappearing from the bridge builder's view as Shunshin carried them away from Wave Country in a burst of speed and chakra.

/~/