Chapter 5: ? (Title at the End)

It's been a few weeks since Naruto started training with Itachi. Many things happened during this time, including more sightings of a certain Uchiha Matriarch along with a white haired youth. For those who have no inside information, the two would seem like siblings spending time or in the minds of those with no tact, lovers having a secret rendezvous. The reason for the second thought is due to both parties meeting at very odd times before they head to either a café or restaurant to have a meal during their conversations.

For those in the know, like the lady's family, they know it's just the woman using her free time to get to know about the youth as a friend, of sorts, since the youth is normally seen alone throughout the village whenever he is spotted without her. Surprisingly, Itachi never revealed it to his mother that said white haired youth is one Uzumaki Naruto nor did Naruto for that matter. Itachi's reason for doing so stems from him believing that Naruto will let her know whenever he's ready and it's not his place to tell. Naruto's reason was much simpler; it simply slipped his mind.

Currently we find Naruto in the academy at the back of the class reading yet another advanced book on sealing. These days he has more or less perfected the override seal. The only issue he has now is applying it to other advanced seals and giving the star points the required amount of control over the parts of the advanced seals it is used on. Before he could finish his current chapter, the bell for class sounded. Unlike when the bell is used to signify other classes, the bell this time around garnered cheers as it was used to signify outdoor sparring day to the rest of the students. This bell, on the other hand, caused Naruto click his tongue as this class had another meaning to him, especially considering today is day the students spar against the teachers to show how far they have come with their training. It's not that he's against it, but he knows damn well who his opponent will be and what to expect.

Flashback

It is the third Friday for the month. Today is the day for outdoor sparring against the teachers. At first everything seemed normal but Naruto could pretty much feel the hateful glare being sent towards him by the assistant teacher, Mizuki.

"Hey fox, wanna make a bet on which teacher I'm gonna have to spar against?" Naruto thought.

"Not unless I get to bet on Mizuki," responded the fox in a lazy manner.

"Next up is Uzumaki Naruto. Your opponent will be Mizuki-sensei. You pass as long as you are able to stay within the ring for two minutes or manage to take the blue ribbon off of Mizuki's person," said the scarred faced chunin, Iruka as he waved his hand showing a green ribbon.

"Oh joy. Let's get this over with," responded Naruto as he made his way towards the ring.

As he was entering the ring, Naruto saw the sly smile on Mizuki's face, which to a normal person, promised problems. Unfortunately for him, Naruto is NOT a normal person. As soon as the match started, Mizuki immediately went on the offensive, even though he was supposed to be dodging and counter attacking considering he was the teacher. This didn't surprise Naruto though as he expected as much. This, however, startled Iruka a bit as he knew what Mizuki was trying. He hesitated as he was supposed to stop this fight but ultimately he allowed it to continue.

Unknown to him was that Naruto saw his hesitation but he didn't say anything. Instead he started bobbing and weaving around Mizuki's attacks, all the while keeping an eye on the flag tied to Mizuki's right bicep. He didn't make a move for it yet as it wasn't the right time. Also, he wanted to see how long it would take for Mizuki to truly try to hit him out of the ring. Don't let Mizuki's current attacks fool you, they aren't meant to get Naruto out of the ring but instead to hurt him, a lot.

It was around when just 15 seconds were left in the match that Mizuki's normal attackss changed. Naruto immediately picked up on the subtle change in his rhythm and decided it was also time to make his move as well. Just as the 10 second mark hit, Mizuki immediately sent a sharp right towards Naruto's face followed by a jump back piercing kick with his left towards Naruto's midsection, sending him flying out of ring towards a tree. This all happened too fast and none of the students truly saw the full sequence of events. The only ones who saw what happened were Iruka-sensei and Naruto himself.

Just before Naruto was about to hit the tree back first, he made a sudden flip using the momentum of the kick, which allowed him to land on the tree feet first, after which he landed on the ground. From the time all the students saw Naruto fly from the ring and land on the tree, only ONE second had passed. Some were lost on what actually happened while others were gloating about how Naruto failed the test. Mizuki himself came over to Naruto himself with a gloating smile on his face.

"I'm so sorry about that Naruto-kun. It seems like I lost control of my strength there for a second there. And it was too bad too, just ten more seconds and you would have passed the test," said the man innocently while still maintaining the gloating smile on his face.

"Unfortunately I'm inclined to agree with him on this Naruto-kun, even though this was supposed to be a test where you were on the offense," said an irritated Iruka as he looked at Mizuki with an annoyed look.

"Are you sure about that Iruka-sensei? I remember you saying that in order to pass, I would either have to last two minutes in the ring with Mizuki-sensei or…"

"Or take ahold of the blue ribbon tied to Mizuki's person," Iruka finished as he looked at Naruto waving a navy blue ribbon in front of himself.

When Mizuki saw this, he immediately looked towards his right bicep where the ribbon was supposed to be, only to find it missing. This immediately got him pissed as he looked at Naruto in pure, unfiltered hatred.

Naruto himself looked unperturbed for the most part when he saw Mizuki's face. Instead, he looked towards Iruka and asked, "Do I pass Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka saw Mizuki's face as well as Naruto's reaction. All he could do was shake his head before confirming Naruto's statement before calling an end to that day's sparring event. Mizuki definitely wasn't happy with the outcome but before he could say or do anything, Iruka pulled him to the side and explained to him what just happened, which included when and how Naruto apparently took the ribbon, as well as what Naruto could have done instead, which includes snapping his spine in the center. When Mizuki heard this, he was even further incensed until Iruka told him he had all right to, as this was supposed to be a friendly spar which he turned into a full fight and if he did follow through, no one could incarcerate him as he was only defending himself from a "Sensei" which had gone too far.

As he explained this Iruka sent Mizuki a death glare which spoke volumes of how he felt towards Mizuki's actions. Seeing this, Mizuki had no choice but to give up on this issue, but he would not stop next time.

Naruto for his part just ignored them and went back to reading his book on advanced sealing. But not before consulting his resident fox on a delayed technique that he can continue to stack and can be activated a few years later.

Flashback End

Sighing to himself, Naruto put a bookmark on the current page of the book before closing it then sealing it into his arm. He learned it the hard way about leaving his items unattended in a room while in a school full of people who hate his guts. Note, he doesn't fear anyone in the school nor does he not know who originally messed with his gear, but this was just too petty for him to actually put any effort in actually getting even with the person.

Naruto then made his way out of the class with the rest of the students. As usual, they avoided him as much as they could, and likewise, Naruto just ignored them as he made his way to the outside class area. When they got the area, both Iruka and Mizuki started off the exercise with the students in alphabetical order. This made it so that Naruto would once again go last, just the way he liked it.

After going through the multitude of students, Iruka could see that each student was making steady progress with their taijutsu training. All that was left now was what both he and Naruto surprisingly hated; the final spar. This is normally where Mizuki would "try" to get the drop on Naruto during taijutsu spars, only to find out he failed miserably in his attempt. Don't let his lack of action fool you, Iruka knows damn well what Mizuki is trying to do. The only reason he does nothing is due to him wanting to see how far Naruto is skill-wise.

But this time, instead of allowing Mizuki to spar with Naruto, Iruka himself went into the sparring circle while telling Mizuki to be the judge. Mizuki kept a calm face but a careful look into his eyes would have revealed how much he disliked that decision but he couldn't argue against it as it was a decision made by the main teacher while he was just an assistant.

When Naruto saw that it was Iruka that went into the ring instead of Mizuki, he was mildly surprised before he shrugged it off and entered the ring as well. Seeing that both fighters were in the ring, Mizuki made the signal to start the match. Both fighters got into their fighting stances.

Instead of rushing towards Naruto like what Mizuki normal does, Iruka instead nods his head towards Naruto, signifying that he go on the offensive. Seeing that he was being allowed to attack for once, Naruto rushed towards Iruka with a few jabs towards his face and solar plexus.

Seeing the attacks coming, Iruka dodged the attacks and returned a fast kick towards Naruto's midsection. This caused the audience to let out bursts of surprise as they saw how fast the kick went towards Naruto but was even further surprised when they saw Naruto jump over the kick and landed on Iruka's leg briefly before retreating a few feet from him.

That earlier interaction caused Naruto to look at Iruka again wearily before he went on the offensive again. This time Naruto and Iruka both ended up in a somewhat serious fight (for a class spar at the very least) where Naruto was mixing in kicks within his attacks whenever he saw an opening in Iruka's counters. This match carried on for two minutes before both fighters had to stop, after which they both gave the other a slight bow of respect before walking out of the ring.

Mizuki didn't like it but he had to put down a pass for Naruto's grade. Meanwhile, Iruka was thinking about the spar he just had with Naruto. He was obviously holding back his abilities to that of a genin during that spar yet Naruto was still able to keep up and put pressure on him at certain points. What surprised him more was that near the end he realized that Naruto was also holding back and he wasn't sure how to treat that. He wanted to recommend that Naruto be put in a more advanced class or be allowed to graduate early but then dismissed that thought as he remembered the ruling the council gave on Naruto entering the academy in the first place. All he could do was sigh depressingly before dismissing the class for the day.

Konoha: Shopping District

After being dismissed from class, Naruto made his way towards the shopping district. Along the way he was getting cold glares from the villagers as he wasn't in his disguise at the moment. This was intentional on his part as he had to appear in front of the populace at some point or another, else he would arouse some suspicion. It wasn't that he was afraid of anyone going to look for him, but he would rather they see him on his terms and not theirs.

As he made his way through the shopping district, he noticed a familiar head of black hair within the crowd. Just as he was about to approach, he remembered that he wasn't using his disguise and approaching her out of the blue like that would not look good. Sighing to himself, Naruto started to make his way across the shopping district. Just before he managed to leave, however, he was stopped by someone. When he turned around and saw the person, he was slightly startled as he never expected that the person he couldn't casually walk up to without his disguise had instead approached him on her own.

Instead of acting somewhat familiar like he does in his disguise, he instead behaved like a polite youth and said, "How may I help you Miss?"

"Um…I was wondering…..Are you busy right now? I've wanted to speak with you for a while now but I never saw you again after that day at the academy," the woman said to the youth.

Naruto looked at the woman before him with a weird sense of Deja vu going through his mind. He paused momentarily before thinking to himself, 'Why does this remind me of the time we met while I was in my disguise?'

The youth then looked at the woman before him and replied, "Unfortunately I'm currently in a rush so I can't speak with you at the moment."

Hearing this, the woman made a face as if she was disappointed but this was quickly replaced with a smile after hearing his next words, "Instead, why don't we meet at the café across from the restaurant near the square in a few hours?"

"Sure, that would be great. I'll see you there in a few hours then," the woman replied before they both shook hands and the woman left.

It wasn't until she was out of sight that Naruto turned his question towards his tenant, 'Yo fox, you saw that right?'

"Indeed I did. It seems like she really does know you. I wonder why she wants to meet though…wait, didn't we have this conversation already?" the fox queried.

'Yup, seems like I'm not the only one who found this weird. Oh well, let's deal with it later. For now, we gotta get home,' responded the boy as he made his way home.

Unknown to the youth and his tenant was that he was currently being trailed home by two masked ninja. If the two had known, they would find it weird as neither was being picked up by the youth's negative energy sensor but if they knew that both masked ninja belonged to a certain disbanded anbu group they would have nodded their heads in understanding.

After making it to his apartment, Naruto deposited his school supplies, well, supplies he decided to study using school time while collecting his training gear. As he was making his way out the door, stopped to look at a lone scroll he left on a shelf. Remembering what was in the scroll; Naruto grabbed it then left the house to find the training ground both he and Itachi will be using for the day. Along the way he made sure to do his daily practice of his bloodline to keep his shapeshifting up to speed.

When he got to the training ground, he and Itachi gave each other a greeting before they started their usual routine of target practice followed by extreme charka control sparring.

Naruto's Apartment

Meanwhile, back at Naruto's apartment we find the two masked ninja that were following him earlier. They were currently searching the apartment. They were checking for anything useful that the boy could have in there while simultaneously setting up explosives all over it. If any explosives or sealing experts were currently in the apartment, they would realize that with the amount of exploding tags set up in the apartment and the formations the tags were placed in, this wasn't an explosion just to destroy the apartment and everyone in it but to level everything in a two block radius.

Worst of all even with all of this, the two masked ninja still seemed to think it was not enough. By the end of it they didn't find anything useful and decided to leave one person to stay and set off the explosion while the other went to report back to their boss.

These series of events sound like it didn't take much time but it took a whole two hours to set up everything like they did. They also had to make sure that no mishaps happened to set off the explosion ahead of time, even going as far as to have one of the ninjas stay behind and act as the trigger in case something unexpected happened.

Back at the Training Grounds

Itachi and Naruto are currently in the middle of their jutsu practicing session. Itachi is working on his fire techniques while Naruto is working on his clones. It was during this session Naruto remembered the extra scroll he took with him. When he took it out, Itachi stopped what he was doing and looked over curiously.

Seeing the action, Naruto turned towards him and explained, "I'm working on a new type of clone. The fox told me about the blood clone and I thought about making a slight adjustment to the jutsu, giving it an extra ability. It would more or less be telepathy if it works"

Hearing this, Itachi nodded his head in agreement towards the idea. It was then he picked up on some key words in the statement before saying, "What happens if the jutsu fails or the extra ability fails to surface?"

"Regardless of whether the ability itself manifests in the blood clone, the cost of this attempt will more or less destroy whatever chakra control I have now. If it's successful, my blood clone will basically have a telepathic link with the mind of my real body, which makes training faster and gives me the option of being in two places at once with no one the wiser. If it fails, either it will make a normal blood clone or the clone might fail to form at the final step, making me waste my chakra control for nothing. This is why ever since the fox and I thought up the idea I haven't made any effort in trying it out, thinking that either the chakra control wasn't up to scratch or I lacked the actual amount of chakra to fully go through with the jutsu," said a serious Naruto still looking at the scroll.

Hearing the explanation, Itachi was both intrigued and frightened at the prospect. Intrigued that such a jutsu could exist but frightened about the cost of even using it. He sat down and thought it for a bit before looking at Naruto and saying, "Why not try it out now. From where I stand, I don't think it's even possible for you to have any better control over your chakra at the moment with all the chakra control training you go through on a daily basis. The only issue you would truly have would be if you have the chakra capacity for it and since you've never used the jutsu before you don't know the amount needed. With the amount you have now, even if you fail to form the clone with the extra ability, you should at the very least still have the clone and that would give you an indicator of how much further you would need to go next time. Besides, doing it now while you have a training partner is much better than doing it alone where any mishap could cost you."

Naruto listened to Itachi from start to finish while he talked. After hearing everything, Naruto looked towards Itachi and asked, "You sure about this? Not counting you, your mother and the old man, everyone in this village pretty much hates my guts and wants me dead. If anyone finds out, they would accuse you of being a demon lover and traitor. You sure you're up to the challenge, Uchiha prodigy?" finished Naruto with a smirk.

"Don't chicken out now, Demon Container. I was introduced to a revolutionary new jutsu and I'll be damned if I don't see it before the day is out," replied the Uchiha prodigy with a smirk of his own.

"Fine. Don't say I didn't give you an out," Naruto said and shrugged as he opened the scroll and unsealed all of its contents. He then preceded to hand four seal tags from the scroll to Itachi before saying, "You mind placing these chakra suppression seals around the area?"

Itachi raised an eyebrow at this request as he took the seal tags. Seeing this, Naruto continued, "The fox's idea. Before you say it, no, there isn't any chance for the fox to escape in this process nor does he want to. It's best to not know the reason, less trouble for you in the long run. The reason is cuz the jutsu itself is gonna generate a whole lot of chakra and I don't need half of the Konoha populace to feel the surge of chakra and think it's an attack, or worse, see me doing something akin to a forbidden jutsu and decide that it's the perfect time to attack me while I'm unable to move."

Hearing the answer, Itachi shrugged before walking around the training area and placing the tags. While he was doing this, Naruto went through all the materials needed for the jutsu with the fox to see if there was anything missing. After both were satisfied after checking a few times and getting the same result of everything being in place, the fox then gave the green light for Naruto to start the jutsu.

Naruto then proceeded to unseal the required items needed to form the clone from the scroll. The aforementioned items include three jars of blood and six smaller scrolls which were labelled chakra storage scrolls.

Naruto then proceeded to draw the override seal on the floor and placed the items at their respective positions on the seal. Naruto then nodded to Itachi before he started a complex series of hand signs while building up his chakra. Seeing the signal, Itachi activated the chakra suppression seals around the training ground.

After flashing through over two thousand hand signs, Naruto then pointed towards the seal on the ground and shouted, "Override Seal Activate: Blood Clone Creation Justu!"

After his shout, the seal started to glow and all the items within the seal started to float in the air. The three jars of blood broke and all the blood fused into a sphere followed by the six chakra storage scrolls floating around the sphere. After circling the blood sphere for a few rounds, the chakra from the scrolls started to flow from the scrolls and into the blood sphere.

The chakra was split into three colors; red, blue and purple. Itachi noticed the colors and made his guess on where they originated from. Red was obviously from the fox and blue was definitely Naruto's, so could the purple be a fusion? If so, why was there a chakra storage scroll with purple chakra and why would he need that fusion in a scroll separately? Thinking up to here he then remembered Naruto's words about not knowing everything would be better for him.

After having chakra flowing into it for a few minutes, the blood sphere finally started to take shape; it started to turn humanoid and it was at this point Naruto released the breath he didn't know he was holding. He then proceeded to go through a few more hand signs before shouting, "Forbidden Technique: Uzumaki Style: Blood Clone Jutsu!"

Following this shout, the blood sphere turned humanoid started getting more defined and if one was looking close enough, they would notice that within the bloody humanoid one could see various types of muscle being formed.

While this was going on, Itachi had long activated his sharingan to see what was going on with that blood sphere and when he noticed the changes in the humanoid sphere he was quite shocked.

This continued for a few minutes before skin started to cover the now visible "muscles" on the clone, followed by hair and by the end of it a naked "Naruto" was currently being suspended in the air. With this now out of the way, Naruto then made one more seal which vaguely reminded Itachi of something the Yamanaka clan would use and said in a whisper, "Hidden Art: Mind Link Jutsu!"

After that whisper, a vaguely discernable blue line extended from the back of Naruto's head towards the clone's forehead. After making contact with the clone, the blue line disappeared from view but Naruto could still feel the connection between himself and the clone, likewise for the fox. The clone remained suspended in the air for another few seconds before it landed on the floor, following this, Naruto collapse from exhaustion, prompting Itachi to rush over towards him to help out.

Just as Itachi was about to shake Naruto and check if he was okay, he heard a voice behind him going, "Don't worry, my body is just tired from the massive chakra expenditure. Give it a minute before the fox's chakra restores its energy."

When Itachi turned around, he saw the "clone" standing up on its own and flexing its limbs. Itachi then looked back to the body in his hands then back at the "clone" and finally remembered what kind of clone technique this is. Thinking up to here he voiced his question, even though he already knew the answer, "So it was a success?!"

The clone gave him a simple nod before going over towards the main body and taking out a scroll before walking away towards a nearby tree to get dressed. After getting dressed, the clone then walked out from behind the tree and started speaking, "It's actually better than what I had planned since it has access to something I never thought it would get with this body."

Before Itachi could ask what that was, Naruto was quickly enshrouded in a cloak of red chakra. Seeing this, Itachi immediately thought the fox was free and immediately attempted to retreat with Naruto's body. Before he could do so, though, he was stopped by a few taps on his shoulder. Following the hand that tapped him, he realized that it came from the body he was currently holding. In his arms Naruto gently shook his head before struggling free from Itachi's arms. He then, groggily, made his way towards the clone who had by now allowed the fox cloak to recede back into its body.

When both Naruto's stood face to face, the only thing they did was smile before exchanging a punch to the face. Seeing this, all Itachi could do was shake his head before making his way over to the two Naruto's and examined them both with his sharingan. As far as he could see, both Naruto's are real. If he had to point out one difference, however, was that the seals on their stomachs were different, but that wasn't much since anyone who doesn't know anything about the sealing arts wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Seeing him examining them with his sharingan, both Naruto's waited until he was done before the main body started walking towards the chakra suppression seals and collecting them. When both Naruto's returned to Itachi's side, he noticed just how worn out all the seals were. This caused Itachi to narrow his eyes slightly, now realizing just how dangerous a situation both of them were in. He then thought about who he was with and shrugged his worries off.

Collecting his thoughts, Itachi then looked at both Naruto's and said, "What do you plan to do now?"

Both Naruto's looked at each other before giving Itachi a foxy grin, then proceeded to attack him with a flurry of punches and kicks. In response, Itachi was quickly forced in a defensive situation and wasn't having a good time since both Naruto's seemed to be coordinating very well with each other for a tag team that was just created. Then again, both are basically the same person so their thoughts would align perfectly when they want to suppress an individual.

This kept up for a few minutes until Itachi got sick of playing defense. After taking a hit that allowed him to gain some space, he quickly flashed through a few hand signs before spitting out a giant fireball at both Naruto's. This caused both Naruto's to have to split up by jumping in opposite directions in order to dodge the fireball. Immediately after dodging the fireball, both looked at where Itachi was last, only to see a few leaves scattering in the wind.

Seeing this, both Naruto's rushed to each other and went back to back in order to cover their respective blind spots with kunais drawn. From where he was hiding, Itachi made note of how quickly Naruto went to cover his back after losing track of him. This caused the Uchiha to have a ghost of a smile grace his face, before it was immediately replaced with a stern expression, usually seen on most Konoha Anbu's faces when they get serious.

Out in the open, both Naruto's immediately felt a chill run down their respective spines before they heard a whistling sound heading towards them. When they found out where the sound came from, they immediately saw a few rows of shuriken heading towards them and they immediately tried to dodge. Just as they both got out of the shurikens initial flight paths, they realized the mistake they made, as they could now see a barely visible wire connected to all the shurikens. It was only when they get this close that they realized what Itachi's plan was and immediately both did their best to try and salvage their respective situations as best as possible.

For the original, all he had to do was slash a few times to cut the wires threatening to tie him up. His blood clone, unfortunately, wasn't as lucky as the wires were too close to him when he noticed and he was already being wrapped up. To remedy his situation, instead of trying to fight the wrapping, it immediately made a ram hand sign and was instantly replaced with a log just milliseconds before the wire went taught on his body. About the same time as the log appeared, the clone showed up a few feet away from its initial position. It seems he wasn't fast enough and suffered a few minor cuts.

Seeing the results of Itachi's discreet attack, both Naruto's shared a look before immediately rushing towards the woods where the shuriken initially came from. That one attack left the clone injured so both Naruto's were not about to allow him to get off another sneak attack on them.

Upon finding him hiding in a tree not too far from them in the forest, both Naruto's began their attacks. The clone, funny enough, making ten clones and having them split up into teams to attack Itachi while it took out shuriken to throw at Itachi's figure, while the original took out a few kunai and prepared for Itachi's retaliation after the shurikens from the clone failed to get him.

Contrary to his expectations, the figure of Itachi in the trees didn't dodge the shurikens and instead got hit, or so it appeared. The shurikens passed right through it, signifying that it was normal clone. Realizing this, both Naruto's started noticing how the clones made by the blood clone started dying and that only both of them were left. Itachi then appeared before both Naruto's with a tanto drawn and his sharingan eyes spinning. Seeing that Itachi wanted to make this a fight between just the three of them, both clones rushed at him with their kunais.

This resulted in a half hour long battle between Itachi and the two Naruto's, by the end of which all parties had cuts of varying degrees all over their bodies. If there was anyone outside of the training grounds or near the forest in which the trio fought, they would have heard the clash of metal for the full half hour before it came to a stop, and this kind of fight wasn't light.

At the end of this fight, both Naruto's could be found leaning against each other while Itachi was leaning against a tree, all bleeding but having smiles displaying immense satisfaction on the spar they just had. It took them a good ten minutes before they got up and started clearing up the training ground of all their scattered weapons. This cleanup took another fifteen minutes and by the end of it the sky was currently tinged in orange.

It was only now that Itachi bothered opening his mouth, "fighting you and this clone will be hell for anyone else in the future. I don't want to be on the receiving end of this kind of thing ever again. It would be even worse if you managed to add even more of these kinds of blood clones in the future."

"You don't have to worry about that. With the conditions it takes to make this thing I kind of want to limit myself to only having one. Unlike shadow clones where I only gain the memory after they dispel, I kind of have to deal with the minds of both my original and the clone body and that's kind of taxing as it is. Any more and I'll have to give that to the fox and I really don't want him running around Konoha without supervision," Naruto joked while hearing a certain fox grumbling in his mind about not being allowed to have any fun.

"Got any plans for the evening fox boy," asked Itachi as he gestured towards the entrance of the training grounds.

"Not really. Just going to stock up on some groceries and supplies before heading back into town," responded clone Naruto as he changed his appearance to match his white haired disguise while original Naruto was aiding him in limping out of the training grounds.

"If that's the case, I'm going to head home to rest. Unlike a certain someone, we normal people need to rest for a while for our injuries and strengths to heal and recover. I'll see you in a few days for a rematch," said Itachi before he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Seeing Itachi disappear in his leaf shunshin, Naruto said out loud, "I really need to learn that technique."

"Only after you get your chakra control back up to scratch," responded the clone with the fox's voice.

"You mind not using that voice when taking over my clone. I really don't want anyone thinking you've possessed me."

"Can't be helped since I haven't had such a body to use in decades. My last two hosts didn't really let me out nor allowed me to speak through them," replied the fox through the clone.

"You voice still sounds a bit demonic but I guess it will pass for now. Anyways, you mind getting the groceries? You should know your way around Konoha enough to find a grocery store. In the mean time I'll use the time it takes for me to get to the weapons shop to practice my shapeshifting," said Naruto to the now Kyuubi possessed clone.

"Don't worry. I'll do my best to keep my head down and meet you back at the apartment entrance. Be quick, cuz if any of these people piss me off, I'll start attacking," responded the clone.

"You're the one currently wearing the disguise so I highly doubt that will happen. In any case, please don't cause any troubles for that form. I really like it and don't want to have to make a new one to go out in," deadpanned Naruto to the fox clone.

"Fine! In that case, how about this?" said the fox as he changed his form from the white haired disguise to a form showing a youth with red hair with black highlights, bronze skin and red eyes. The fox then tied his hair up in a ponytail, making him look vastly different from Naruto's other forms.

"That works. Have fun grocery shopping," said Naruto as he walked away, trying his best to adjust his skin tone but failing for the most part.

"Will do," responded the fox as he walked in the opposite direction towards the grocery store.

Both persons spent roughly half an hour to do their respective jobs before making their way back to Naruto's apartment. During this time the fox was looking around with a hint of curiosity in his eyes at some of the gadgets he was seeing on his short trip. Just as he was about done with his sightseeing he noticed he was already at the apartment and that Naruto was currently making his way there from down the road.

Seeing the fox in front of the apartment, Naruto sped of his strides and when he was in front of him, he gestured towards the door before asking, "So fox, how was the short walk?"

The fox took out his copy of the apartment's room key from his pocket and inserted it into the door. He then opened the door and walked in before answer, "Nothing much. Seeing some of the gadgets you…." The fox trailed off.

Not hearing the fox continue, Naruto was about to open his mouth to question when he was immediately sent flying over the railing in front of his apartment in the direction of the training ground nearby with a chakra enhanced kick. Before he could even question what was going off, Naruto immediately saw an explosion engulf his apartment which blasted his clone at point blank which sent a shockwave that slammed into him and pushed him further into the training grounds.

Just before he passed out from the pain caused by the shockwave of the explosion, he saw all the memories his blood clone had before it was killed. He saw the man who set off the explosion as well as the mask said person was wearing. Instantly that caused an unimaginable amount of rage manifest but since he passed out before it could be released, the only thing that happened to his body was that one of his eyes took on a permanent shape of beast's and that some of his hair turned permanently red.

The shockwave from the apartment explosion rocked the entire village which caused many of the on duty ninja to rush to the source. This included the Hokage himself as he felt that the location of where the shockwave originated felt familiar. As he got there, all that he found were a ruined apartment building and a badly burned body lying a few meters inside of the training grounds.

When he saw the body he immediately had a very bad premonition, especially when he remembered who lived in the apartment building that just blew up. When he approached the body and turned it over to check the identity, his face instantly lost all color as his bad premonition was proven true. The reason being; the face of the body, though badly damaged from the explosion and burns, still held traces, such as whisker marks, to prove that this person was one Naruto Uzumaki.

Besides the Hokage, two other individuals showed up at the apartment before rushing towards the training ground, a man and a woman. The man was slightly injured and if anyone was paying enough attention, they would have noticed that both persons had a fan mark on their collars, indicating them to be members of the Uchiha Clan. The duo was Itachi Uchiha and his mother, Mikoto.

Both had felt the explosion and had rushed towards the area. When they had both landed at the sight, they immediately activated their sharingan eyes to track down any clues, which caused them to notice a trail leading into the training grounds so they immediately followed. The moment they entered, they saw the body in the Hokage's hands and immediately they felt as though a knife was stabbed into their chests as they also recognized the person.

Mikoto immediately broke down in tears while looked away before punching a tree. Unbeknownst to either Uchiha, however, was that the stinging pain in their eyes was not just attributed to the sadness that suddenly enveloped them but also due to a change happening to their sharingans. Itachi's turned into a swirling three point kunai while Mikoto's took on the form of a six pointed flower petal.

That day was signified the start of many changes that were to take place over the course of the next five years in Konoha as it concerned both the civilians and shinobi alike. And this was all because with Naruto's death comes the release of the nine tailed fox from its human prison.

Title: Death(?) of Naruto Uzumaki

Author's Note: Sorry it took me so long to upload this for you guys but as I said on the other fanfic, I wrote, erased and re-wrote this chapter's ending a few times and still couldn't find something I like, so I just got sick of that and finally put something there so that I can move on. Honestly, I kind of regret making this chapter as I did but I need it like this for the next few chapters so I'll do my best to get over it. Anyways, sorry for the long wait and look forward to the next chapter...when I upload it. Anyways, comment and review as usual. Thanks again, later :)