Chapter Nine: The Darkness Within

The woman cried as she hugged her young daughter to her chest and hid. The two were hiding in an alley where the attack started since she believed they wouldn't go back to an area they already slaughtered. Both her and her daughter's clothes were splattered with blood in many places as they huddled behind some rubble from a building to stay hidden.

Where had these monsters come from was the woman's thought, for there was no doubt in her mind that they were monsters. No human could possibly come out of nowhere and slaughter an entire village in such a bloody manner with smiles and laughs for no reason at all. All of them were dressed similarly in black clothes and all carried a scythe of some sort while a few carried black pikes. She didn't even know if they were shinobi either since none of them wore any headband with a village mark anywhere for her to see.

A sudden sound alerted her that a couple were likely close so she whispered for her daughter to be quiet as she clutched her closer to her body and tried to be as small and silent as possible. Her hopes were dashed when one ran past her with a laugh and faced her while pointing a black scythe dripping with red blood on it at her. "Ha survivors! I knew I could sense life over here!" He shouted. However before he could kill the two six more leapt out and surrounded the woman and girl, all with bloody weapons and sadistic grins. They just stood, waiting while one walked forward. This one was different in that he didn't carry a scythe, just a couple black pikes in each hand. He looked down at the two before looking up.

"As promised to Jashin-sama, his great Apostle shall offer the last of this heathen village in bloody glory to his name." All the others lowered their scythes and got down on one knee, still with their vile grins that made the woman sick across there faces. She expected the man in front of her who had made the announcement to attack however she was surprised and confused when he knelt down like the others, eyes still looking up above. Then she felt something drip on her head and looked up to gasp at the sight.

Above her, standing on a wall was a young boy, no older than four or five at best holding a bloody scythe. He had spiked black hair that was matted down with blood and glowing purple eyes. The scythe was black with a glowing purple gem on one end and a golden circle with a triangle embedded into it on the other, the red blade coming out of the side of the strange symbol. The boy only wore a pair of torn and bloody black shorts, being without any footwear or shirt of any kind. His chest and arms were covered in various scars but what scared the woman the most was the large black pike stuck through his chest, the wound leaking blood even as she could see the other end of the pike sticking out of his back. The boy merely gestured the scythe that had dripped blood on her upwards with a grin as he spoke, a dead and cold yet sadistically happy voice that spoke a single sentence. "Jashin-sama thanks you for the offering." The last screams of the night immediately followed.

"Sin? The fuck kind of name is that?" The Suna sin shouted as he took a step back from the clearly insane boy. The bandits weren't doing much better as they had no idea how to handle someone that could have a giant hole in his chest and still live.

"It's the name I chose for myself. Why? Is there a problem with it?" He asked rhetorically. Kurai, or rather Sin, spun the scythe in his hand as his normally gray eyes took on a purple glow. The scythe blade began to glow white as he continued spinning it. "Tell you what; if you don't like my name then you can die first. After all there so many others here to play with and offer to my lord."

"L-lord?" One of the bandits stuttered out as they all started to back up, preparing to run. Fuck their ninja boss's orders, they were not going to stay and face this monster in human flesh. Sin nodded with a grin as he stopped spinning his scythe, raising it above his head with one hand.

"Jashin-sama, I gleefully offer the blood of these heathens in your glorious name! Engetsu!" (Crescent Moon) He shouted as he slashed down, the white glow becoming a glowing white blade of energy that flew towards the Suna ninja at a high speed. It was only the mans' shinobi training that saved him as he rolled to the side and looked back to see the white spectral blade carve through three people behind them, killing them instantly. He quickly looked back to see the boy charging towards the nearest person and slashing at them, cutting open chests and removing limbs with sadistic glee. The Jiton user quickly noticed that whereas before his fighting style was skilled and refined, now it was little more than a brawler with a 'swing-and-hop-I-hit' mentality. While he could take advantage of this to easily kill him now, the problem was that wouldn't work since he had already landed a fatal blow on the boy and he survived. As such he felt the only option left was to retreat. So while Sin was occupied killing his men the Suna nin prepared to run, only for the blond he was facing earlier to appear in front of him.

"And where do you think you're running off to?"

"Sensei, what the hell's going on?" Hikari shouted to Kurotsuchi who was stoically watching from the sidelines as Sin ruthlessly slaughtered the bandits. The older woman sighed but kept her eyes on the glowing eyed teen as she answered.

"Kurai wasn't born in Iwa. A few jonin found him with that scythe around five years ago on the border of Tsuchi no Kuni alone when they went to investigate a village that had been slaughtered. He was the only one alive so they brought him back to see if he could tell us what happened but he couldn't remember. Or best interrogators went into his head to try and sort through his memories but they couldn't. We've never had any mind readers as skilled as the Yamanaka of Konoha after all. All they could figure out was that the boy was repressing part of his memories and personality so he was given a place to stay and some counseling to try and help him through everything. Instead what happened was Kurai grew more and more emotionless while the repressed part of him came to take on a life of its own, which started calling itself Sin. Where Kurai is emotionless and efficient, the epitome of what a shinobi is supposed to be; Sin is brutal and sadistic, nothing more than a mass murderer in the name of some occult god that worships death, pain, and bloodshed. Tsuchikage-sama decided to try and put Kurai to use by enrolling him in the Academy to be a shinobi and Kurai blazed through it, completing a four year course in just two and quickly rising to become one of Iwa's top genin." Kurotsuchi paused as Sin sliced off a head and then grabbed it from the air and chucked it a fleeing bandit to knock them over.

"Okay, but what the hell is going on now? How did this happen?"

"Because Kurai started bleeding." She responded while Hikari turned away from the scene that was getting just a little too disturbing for her when the boy literally ripped the intestines out of a man after cutting his gut open. Sure the girl was a little sadistic; it was all but a requirement to be a shinobi, the willingness to harm others without remorse. But that was starting to be a little much for her. "Normally Kurai is in control and fine, however it was discovered that making him bleed, even in the slightest of amounts makes him go into shock. Shock that Sin uses to assert control over his body and do what he wants. The best psychologists in Iwa were only able to get one goal out of Sin before he had to be restrained. Sin wants to slaughter the world in the name of his god. Friends, family, any and everybody; Sin cares only for pleasing this Jashin character in the bloodiest manner possible while Kurai just wants to serve the village that gave him a home and purpose. Tsuchikage-sama saw this and felt it could be somewhat useful; hence the boy is still a shinobi despite the obvious risk to his own teammates. It's wrong and cruel to everyone else but nobody can deny that Kurai is strong. Or that Sin isn't effective as long as you stay out of his way."

"What do you mean? I mean, besides the obvious crowd killer here."

"Imagine it for a moment Hikari. You're fighting an enemy that at first is emotionless and efficient. That puts people off somewhat as it's by reading emotions and responses that most high level shinobi fight so well. Now as you're struggling against such a foe, you finally inflict an injury of some sort to him. Instead of getting to feel some small pride and hope for that fact, the boy changes into an insane bloodthirsty zealot that charges you with an unending passion. Most people are so shocked by the change that they stumbled or freeze up, which gets them killed. The ones that can fight through that will instead start to find that no matter what wound they inflict on him, he keeps laughing and coming straight at you. Fatal wounds that had served them well for years in their career are suddenly worthless, their best jutsu are nothing more than stumbling blocks for the immortal they're fighting. Most would lose moral and quit right there while others would run or go insane trying to stop him. As long as someone's around to subdue Sin after his fights, he's considered a perfect psychological weapon against the enemy in addition to a mighty force for our army."

"So you can subdue him?" Hikari asked. Her sensei nodded so the girl let out a slightly relieved sigh since she had no idea how to fight an enemy like that. She had her clan techniques but she wasn't sure they'd do more than slow him down from Kurotsuchi's description. That was when they both noticed the lack of one sarcastic and slightly sadistic comment that would normally be made. "Wait, where's Naruto?"

"I'm going to kill that boy one day…"

"Come on now, where's the fun you gave me earlier?" Naruto taunted as he backhanded the missing-nin to the ground. The man spat out a tooth that had been broken and stood back up before rushing the blond with two kunai. Naruto pulsed some chakra into his gauntlets to bring out the blades as he dueled with the jonin. It was obvious to Naruto that he wasn't very skilled in close combat, instead it seemed like he relied on his control over his shuriken with his bloodline to batter down an enemy from a distance and then swing in for the kill when he had to. While Naruto was one of the best close-range combatants out of all of Iwa's genin, he should not have been able to hold his own against a jonin so easily. Naruto crossed his blades to block a downward stab from the man before pushing up and making the man stumble back a step. Before he could react Naruto shot chakra to his legs to increase his speed and blurred from the Suna nin's sight. As Naruto reappeared behind him the man felt multiple slashes appear all over his chest as he collapsed in a bloody heap. "So weak. Maybe you should've stayed in your village and trained because you suck." Naruto was about to walk back to his sensei to see what to do about Kurai when his instincts screamed for him to move so he did, just as Kurai's scythe whipped through where he just was and impaled the struggling to stand Suna nin in the head. Naruto's eyes widened at the bloody weapon now stuck blade first in the man's head as he fell back to the ground dead as Kurai walked up calmly and retrieved his weapon with a small tug. "Huh, well thanks Kurai."

"Kurai? Did you not hear my name earlier?" The teen asked as he turned to face Naruto, a strangely blank look on his face. Naruto was slightly confused as while he had heard him call himself Sin, he had ignored it. He also hadn't stuck around Kurotsuchi to hear her explanation but rather had left to fight the Suna nin the moment he saw him trying to escape. As such, while he was somewhat creeped out by Kurai's shocking change into Sin, he didn't see much of a threat since they were teammates. The knowledge he had killed his old team was ignored as well as he felt they must've gotten in his way. In reality Sin had hunted them down after the target and killed them himself on purpose, not that the blond knew that. "I am Sin."

"That's nice." Naruto remarked dryly, both loving and hating this new side to his teammate he was seeing. Right now he just wanted to head home since the mission was over. "Anyways, let's get going. I'm getting kinda sleepy out here so let's go."

"Oh but we can't…" Naruto had just turned to leave when he suddenly spun around and blocked the scythe inches from his face with his gauntlets. "There's still people to offer to Jashin-sama around here!"

"What the fuck are you doing? We're teammates you ass!" Naruto shouted as Sin let out a laugh and grinned.

"Just because you work with that pathetic shell I share this body with means nothing to me! That fool is too weak to do what Jashin-sama requires so it's up to me to spread his glorious teachings of pain and blood across the world!" Sin shouted as his scythe began to glow again. "As Apostle to his great glory, I kill all in his name! Engetsu!" He yelled as he leapt back and swung out a new crescent blade at Naruto to attack him. The blonde rolled to the side and pushed chakra into his gauntlets to bring out the blades for a third time as he began to deflect the attacks.

"Naruto duck!" The boy did just that as Hikari came in over his now bent body and dropkicked Sin in the face to send him back while she stood at the ready next to her sane teammate. "We've gotta hold him down so sensei can put Kurai back in control."

"Oh great, no problems there." Naruto quipped but stood at the ready as Sin stood up and grinned sadistically towards Hikari.

"Oh goodie, the other young sacrifice offers herself up rather than fighting her fate." Hikari snarled and made hand-signs as she glared.

"Fuck you freak." She then sunk into the earth as Naruto rushed forward to battle the boy. The two began exchanging blows at a rapid pace, surprising Naruto slightly. Whenever he would spar with Kurai, the boy would struggle to get past Kurai's impeccable guard with his scythe while also avoiding any tricks the gray eyed teen would use to manipulate the blade portion of his weapon behind Naruto to strike from his unguarded back. When Sin had taken over and slaughtered the bandits, he had gone with a very brutal but sloppy style, befitting his seemingly new personality quite well. Now though, Naruto was fighting a mixture of the two. It seemed that Sin only used that brutal and bastardized style earlier because he could get away with it. But now that he was fighting someone with skill he was using a more brutal but just as skilled and efficient version of Kurai's normal style, which is to say it was hard for Naruto to keep his guard safe while trying to disarm or injure the boy.

"Damn man, I'm not sure whether I love or hate this new side to you. You're not some stupid drone but you can't tell friend from foe. Can you switch to a half-and-half sort of personality?" Naruto joked to try and hide his growing frustration at how Sin was fending him off while keeping Naruto on his toes. The boy just sneered in response before managing to snap a kick to Naruto's chest to make him stumble back. As he was about to lash out with his scythe he leapt back as Hikari came up from underneath trying to impale him on a kunai.

"Too slow!" Hikari's eyes widened as Sin lashed out in what would surely cut her in half from the waist when blond filled her vision and Naruto stood in front of her with his back facing her, taking the blade in his side though making sure to grab the shaft of the weapon to keep it from cutting all the way through him.

"N-Naruto…"

"You… you alright Hikari?" Naruto asked as he coughed up some blood, keeping a firm grip on the scythe to make sure Sin couldn't drive it further into him or pull it out of his side.

"Yoton: Sekkaigyo no Jutsu!" (Lava Release: Quicklime Congealing Technique) Kurotsuchi called out from behind as she struck Sin's upper body and legs with the gray substance before running through a few more hand-signs. "Suiton: Mizurappa!" (Water Release: Water Trumpet) From her mouth came a high pressure stream of water that mixed with her first jutsu to harden it into concrete that held Sin in place. As the boy struggled to get free she made another set of hand-signs and placed her hand on his head. His eyes widened before he slumped in his captured place, unconscious from the genjutsu Kurotsuchi placed him under. With a sigh she then turned to Naruto.

'Kyuubi, damage assessment.'

"It nicked your kidney and stomach but mostly got just muscle. As soon as you remove the blade I'm gonna shove some of my chakra through you to heal you up fast enough not to die instantly. Just cause you can regenerate from just about everything doesn't mean you can be so reckless you moron. I don't wanna die here dumbass."

'Oh just shut up and heal me.' Naruto shot back as he yanked the blade out of him with a grunt and began coughing up some blood. His eyes turned red and his whiskers thickened as Kyuubi's chakra ran through his body to speed up his healing enough for Naruto to survive. Hikari was still staring in shock at how Naruto had leapt in to take the blow for her while Kurotsuchi let out a small smile at seeing the wound in Naruto's side close up.

"N-Naruto?" Hikari questioned as she stood up and walked over to Naruto's wounded side. "Are… are you going to be okay?" The blonde let out a deep breath and grunt as he nodded, still holding his side as though it was healing, it still hurt. "Why?" He closed one eye as he glanced her with the other with and eyebrow raised so she explained what she meant. "Why did you take that attack for me? You could've died."

Naruto closed his open eye as he thought about why he had risked his body for the girl before answering. "Cause we're friends. I mean, sure I could always get some other teammate or I probably could've stopped that attack some other way but I just reacted when I saw you about to get killed. I can't really say much more than that I guess." Hikari was silent for a second before smiling lightly.

"Well thank you Naruto… kun." Naruto's eyes went wide as Hikari turned and started walking back towards the village where they would inform the town that the bandits were gone. Kurotsuchi had broken Kurai's unconscious form out of her concrete mix and had bandaged the wound up enough so that it wouldn't bleed before tossing the boy over her shoulder and walking off herself, leaving Naruto there alone for a moment before he shook his head and followed. Unseen to the rest, a small smile came over his face.

"So we've just gotta wait for the bastard to wake up before we can head home?" Naruto asked as the group was in a hotel room Kurotsuchi had gotten for the night. To be honest, it was doubtful they'd even be there the whole night but they had wanted a place to rest and clean up while waiting for Kurai and a hotel fit nicely. The three conscious Iwa nin and each showered and changed into a spare set of clean clothes that they each kept sealed in a scroll with other supplies for any possible long term missions. Kurai was bandaged up and lying on one of the two beds without moving while Kurotsuchi was leaning against the window and Hikari and Naruto sat next to each other on the bed.

Apparently after calling the girl his friend openly and saving her life, she started calling the blonde Naruto-kun so he responded in kind with Hikari-chan. Kurotsuchi noted it but didn't bring it up as she had no problem with the two getting closer. She also vaguely remembered Deidara saying they were together or would be so eventually and found herself thinking it actually would be a good thing for the blond. His sarcastic and somewhat bloodthirsty personality complimented her slight sadism and dark sense of humor. Not only that but their fighting styles meshed well and the two did enjoy each others company, as well as having similar views on many subjects. While the two weren't a couple yet, Kurotsuchi was starting to see what Deidara did. It had apparently just taken a life saving experience to get it started.

Kurotsuchi nodded her answer to Naruto's question and looked at the unconscious boy. The genjutsu she put him under would wear off in a few minutes and then after he cleaned up they'd either leave or stay the night, depending on if Kurai felt up to travel with his wound. She made sure to actually close it up and make it so the hole wouldn't bleed so that Kurai would actually remain himself when he awoke, otherwise she'd have to put him back under because Sin would come out. "He should be up any minute now and if he's up to traveling then we'll make the trip home to report our success. If not then we'll just leave tomorrow morning."

A groan caught everyone's attention as Kurai's eyes flickered open. He rubbed his chest slightly before pushing himself to a sitting position and looking around to see all eyes were on him. He looked down to see he was without his shirt and jacket and that his chest was bandaged before looking up at Kurotsuchi. "Sin was released again?" He asked, his voice the monotone Naruto and Hikari were used to. Kurotsuchi nodded.

"You took a large shuriken to the chest and that got you bleeding. He came out, killed the rest of the bandits and the missing nin before trying to kill Naruto-kun and Hikari. They're fine and I stopped you before you could do anything else. We've just been waiting for you to wake up to see if you felt up for the trip home or to wait for the morning." Kurai nodded his understanding before stretching his arms to return feeling to them before getting off the bed and grabbing his shirt and jacket that were placed next to him.

"I feel fine sensei. We should return to Iwa as soon as we can." Once his clothes were back on he turned to his two teammates. "My apologies for what Sin attempted to do to you." Naruto and Hikari couldn't tell if he was saying it because he meant it or just to be polite as his empty voice betrayed nothing. Hikari just shrugged, already having forgiven the boy since he wasn't in control while Naruto just shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. I'd probably do the same if I lost myself to Kyuubi." The boy didn't respond but merely looked to their sensei to see if she would accept his claim of being well enough to travel. Kurotsuchi eyed him for a moment before nodding as they all left the room to return to their village.

"Welcome home, Hikari-sama." One of the clan servants bowed as the girl walked onto the clan compound and headed straight for her room. It wasn't long since they got back to the village and gave their report. Kurotsuchi had dismissed them and Kurai headed home like usual while neither Naruto nor Hikari actually felt like getting food so they all just headed home. She was sure once word spread about her being home either her father or the elders would call on her, either for a report on what she did on her mission or to inform her of another challenge to her heiress position. As such the girl was not going to even bother telling anybody she was back or doing anything besides going to her room to rest a bit.

To be honest she hated her clan. While she loved Iwa, she hated her clan. There had only been one person she could actually claim to like out of everyone and that had been her grandmother. Since her mother had died in childbirth, her grandmother had stepped in to raise Hikari and teach her about the world and what it was to be a woman. The old and kind woman had never believed in the clans backwards thinking about woman being inferior to men and had passed that on to Hikari. When Hikari's training had begun and she was discovered to be a natural prodigy in just about everything, she had told the girl to always do her best so that when she became clan head, she could change the clan. The elders and more stubborn members of the clan would fight it but the clan was run by its head. The elders were advisory and any who attempted to leave the clan were dealt with strict measures to ensure clan secrets stayed secret, even going so far as to kill if needed. As such Hikari became a headstrong woman that excelled in the shinobi arts and most of the women in the clan either looked up to her (the younger generation of Hanamaru) or eagerly awaited the day she would be clan head so that she could get rid of the sexist policies the clan employed.

Hikari was drawn from her thoughts as a servant knocked on her door to tell her the clan elders had requested a meeting. Hikari scowled as she knew just how much of a 'request' it really was and got off her bed that she had been relaxing in to go see what her most hated people wanted.

"So it's Hikari-chan now, huh gaki?" Deidara asked as he and Naruto sat in a ramen shop eating. Naruto had been confronted by his 'nii-san' shortly after they split from reporting a successful mission to the Tsuchikage and offered some early dinner. The younger blond hadn't been planning on it but agreed anyways so he followed while chatting about random things, like Naruto's recent mission.

"Yeah, so? We're friends, I just saved her life, and she started throwin' –kun to my name so why can't I add –chan to hers?" Naruto asked in between bowls. Deidara shrugged with a slight grin as he ate his own at a slower pace.

"I don't know. I was just messin' with you anyways un." Deidara leaned his head to the side to avoid a salt packet that had whipped at his head, courtesy of his 'otouto'. "So, a question. Do you like Hikari?"

"Huh?" Was Naruto's blank response so the bomber chuckled.

"You know… do you like her at all?" Naruto was quiet and set his empty bowl down as he thought for a moment.

"I… don't really know. I mean, I like spending time with her after training and missions and she's definitely beautiful. You'd have to be blind to miss that. But right now… I don't know. I think of her as a friend but I… I think I could see us getting together one day. If she wants to I wouldn't really have a problem with it I guess. But I don't think that would happen for a while anyways." Naruto answered while another few bowls were brought out for him. Deidara had watched the boy's face silently as he spoke before inwardly nodding to himself. It was there, no doubt at all. The small attraction just hadn't grown into anything serious yet though so he'd wait. Let the kid figure out his feelings on his own before ripping into him with taunts and jokes that would get him flustered and mad. That's what older brothers were supposed to do anyways. "So what about you and Kaa-chan? Still failing to keep it secret?" Deidara choked for a second as Naruto brought up his own relationship that the two were hiding from Onoki. Naruto started laughing at his red face while he worriedly looked around to see if anyone heard him. He knew the blond was trying to embarrass him just as Deidara was waiting to do to him once he got into a relationship. The older blond sighed as that bit of irony hit him.

Oh yeah, that's what younger brothers did too.

"Sir, we've just received a message from the leader of Otogakure saying he thanks you for accepting his proposal to meet and that he will be in Iwa to discuss things with you in two days." An Anbu reported in front of the shortest and oldest kage alive spoke. The small man nodded and waved him off before going back to the paperwork that was the bane of all kage's in existence. He had accepted Oto's proposal of a meeting merely because he wished to see two things. One being what the minor village could want from Iwa. If it was an alliance then Oto would have to offer something beneficial to Iwa or the most he'd do is offer a small non-aggression treaty with the smaller force. That's just how things went, you don't ask the major force for a long term helping hand unless you can offer something to aid them in return. The second reason he had accepted the offer was to see if it was possible to bend the leader to his will. If he could somehow get the leader of the minor village to obey his orders then Iwa could slowly and silently sweep in and take over, thus expanding their influence and the borders of Tsuchi no Kuni. So long as Onoki avoided war, their daimyo could care less how the midget ran his shinobi.

As Onoki turned from his thoughts about his upcoming meeting with Oto's leader, they turned to Naruto instead. The boy was progressing admirably. He was well above his graduating class and most of the genin overall. In pure taijutsu, only the best genin could keep up with him. He also back in the academy would frequently defeat the chunin instructors that were teaching his class. While they weren't experts at the hand-to-hand portion of shinobi combat, it still showed that Naruto could handle himself well in a fight without chakra. Then when chakra was added to the mix the boy became a powerhouse far above his age group. Kage level reserves thanks to his jinchuriki status as well as the deadly and powerful wind element. A shame Onoki was too busy running the village to actually focus on training him in the subtleties of the wind, but seeing as he was only one of three wind users in Iwa and the other two hated the boy it had to happen. He still had given Naruto a few jutsu of the element as well as giving him a basic exercise to enhance his control and ability of it. A step the boy had almost completed. His control of the Kyuubi was currently at three tails in both the shroud and blood cloak versions of the state. Roshi wouldn't let Naruto move up to the next tail until he could fully control and fight in both levels of the tailed state and it was actually a good move. Because while the boy actually never went passed three tails, Roshi had privately informed him that the blood cloak version was significantly harder to control and that Naruto truly could go up perhaps five of the basic shroud and retain control. Roshi just wouldn't let him so that his control would be better overall and to help ensure Naruto wouldn't accidentally draw on too much.

The blonde's only weak point seemed to be his horrible aptitude for genjutsu. If the illusion was too high level or too subtle the boy wouldn't notice and that could cause his death. He knew from a couple small messages with the Raikage in Iwa that a jinchuriki with perfect control was immune to all but the highest level of genjutsu, something only a Sharingan could apparently conjure so as long as Naruto stayed away from the Uchiha clan he'd be fine once he mastered his tenants' power.

However Onoki had plans for Naruto to be even stronger. As the son of the Kiroii Senko, he had to be able to learn the technique that was considered the bane of Iwa, it was in his blood. Also, as one of Uzumaki lineage Naruto was going to learn fuinjutsu eventually. Iwa just didn't have many experts and the Uzumaki put them to shame anyways. Onoki knew that there had to be some kind of inheritance in Konoha that the boy was supposed to get, it didn't make sense not to. Now he just had to figure out a way to get them without starting a war and while preventing Konoha from trying to take Naruto back. It was going to be difficult but once he had that inheritance, Naruto would quickly rise to a level only Onoki himself would be able to match. Exactly how he wanted it as well.

For now though he had to focus on other things, like the paperwork. But eventually Naruto would be his greatest weapon. And that was when Iwa would strike. That was when Iwa would destroy Konoha and conquer all threats. When Iwa would rule the continent.

Omake – Beginners Luck

"Ha! Pay up Onoki-sama!" Kitsuchi yelled as he revealed his hand of cards. The midget groaned but waved his hand at the pile of ryo that had been building at the center of the table. Sitting with the two were Deidara and a couple jonin all in the kitchen of the Tsuchikage mansion. "I'm on fire tonight!"

"Keep shouting and I'll make that a literal fact." One of the jonin grumbled as he took a swing of sake. The others chuckled while Kitsuchi just ignored him in favor of collecting his cash. As another hand was dealt out they all heard a loud yawn and looked towards the doorway to see Naruto standing there holding his fox plushie while rubbing his eyes wearing nothing more than some pajama bottoms for sleeping in.

"What's everyone yelling for oji-sama?" Naruto asked as he walked in. Onoki sighed while one of the jonin and Kitsuchi scowled.

"We're just playing a card game Naruto. Sorry for waking you. Go back to bed." In all the excitement of possible money, they had all forgotten the boy was sleeping. Luckily Kurotsuchi was on a mission and not set to return for a couple days or she would've tried melting them. Onoki's words however didn't make the boy leave. Rather his attention had been caught by the first sentence.

"A game? Can I play? Please?" The young blond begged. Onoki grumbled under his breath and pinched his nose and was about to say no when Deidara spoke up.

"Sure gaki, but you've gotta have money to play un." Naruto's face lit up.

"I've got some of my allowance left over! I'll go get it!" He then quickly rushed out of the room while everyone was staring at Deidara like he had grown a second head.

"Why the hell did you do that? You know Kurotsuchi will kill you if she finds out you got him gambling at that age." Kitsuchi growled. Deidara shrugged.

"Hey, you know the gaki wasn't gonna leave once Onoki-sama said 'game' so this way he'll get to calm down a bit and when he starts losing his money he won't ever want to play ever again and it'll turn him off from gambling period un. Honestly I think it works better than never letting him try and then one day getting blindsided and addicted to it." The elder blonde explained. While Kitsuchi and one of the jonin got his reasoning and figured it'd be fine Onoki snorted.

"Like the incident with ramen?" Deidara shot a glare at his midget leader just as Naruto ran back into the room holding around fifty ryo. He didn't spend his money much since Kurotsuchi got him anything he really needed or wanted and he received five ryo a week.

"So how do I play?" Naruto asked as he grabbed a chair and sat between Deidara and Onoki. After his nii-san gave him a quick explanation of the rules they dealt out the cards and started playing. A couple rounds of betting and card draws and then it came time to reveal their hand. Deidara and one of the jonin had folded while Onoki, Kitsuchi and Naruto were still in. They all believed Naruto was in just because it had been shown the boy didn't know how to quit.

"Three of a kind. Beat that." Kitsuchi smirked as Onoki threw his cards down and glared at his son. He was about to reach for the money when Naruto cheered.

"I win!"

"Huh?" Everyone looked and then went wide eyed as the boy revealed a flush.

"Wow… uh not bad gaki." Deidara spoke out as all were shocked at Naruto's win. "Well, that means the money's yours un." Naruto beamed up at the older blonde and reached out and took the money before looking at the older men at the table.

"So can we keep playing?" He asked with childish innocence. The others looked at each other before shrugging and shuffling up the deck to keep playing, attributing his win to nothing more than beginners luck.

Later than night the two jonin and Deidara had gone home broke while Kitsuchi and Onoki were pissed. Naruto on the other hand went back to sleep with a huge smile and a thousand ryo. When the story spread that the young blond had cleared out the Tsuchikage and the rest at poker, they were all the laughing stock of Iwa for weeks.