By the time Naruto was three he had permanent fangs and deep whisker marks that made him unmistakeable as the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki.

"Perfectly normal," a doctor said, "considering the effect chakra has while in the womb and in early childhood." Their eyes are eerily blank. "Perfectly normal."

The Hokage and Naruto met once a month or so, for lunch and a quick chat. Seeing the boy so often made the Hokage rather blind to the changes that should have been obvious. When Naruto was five however, the Hokage had to note that the boy had rather… well... red eyes. One of the matrons at the orphanage declared it was time for a 'check up' and everyone was taken to the doctor the very next day.

"Seems just fine," the doctor said with an unconcerned air, "it's pretty common for chakra to have an impact on colouring. You might want him to try genjutsu if he's going to be a ninja." Naruto was silent. "Chakra changes in the eye seem to indicate an increased ability in using them." The matron gestured Naruto out of the room and didn't notice the sweat gathering at the back of the doctors neck.

When Naruto was six he got into a fight with another orphan and broke his arm. The most severe damaged happened when Naruto's chakra, bubbling off of his skin, gave the other boy third degree burns in the shape of feet and fist. Naruto started at the Ninja Academy less than a week later.

"There's a reason his mother was called the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero." The doctor said after consultation, "Boys will be boys, the problem is just that he has so much more chakra than his opponent." The Hokage chose not to see the doctor's racing heart. (It was was Naruto, the boy was basically his grandson. There was a reason shinobi were supposed to be devoid of emotions.) "He wouldn't be able to do the same to a trained shinobi." The doctor assured. The Hokage allowed himself to let it go. Be relieved. Be content in the knowledge that in the worst case scenario the boy didn't stand a chance against ANBU.

Naruto graduated the academy Dead Last. He had lost every spar, failed every test, and took at least a week longer than anyone else to learn the academy ninjutsu. He faded silently into the back of every class. No one noticed when the widow opened and closed next to a sleeping Naruto twice a lesson.

"I'm not surprised." The civilian parents said, entirely too loudly, "everyone knows that monsters are stupid." They stood huddled together like a pack of overly cocky prey. Their children sneered at the boy.

The shinobi parents said nothing.

Kakashi Hatake was alarmed. Naruto did not smell like Minato. He didn't smell like Kushina. He smelled like blood and flesh and sweat. He smelled like an animal.

"I'm not surprised," The Hokage says, ignoring the wave of unease that sat deep in his bones, "Naruto trains hard and seems to prefer meat to all other foods. He can eat an entire barbecue himself whenever we have lunch."

They pass the bell test by the skin of their teeth. Naruto insists that Sasuke use fire ball jutsu which Sasuke had been planning on doing anyway.

Sasuke Uchiha was unhappy at being placed with Dead Last. He was even more unhappy when he had to go to the hospital after their first spar when Dead Last broke his leg and stabbed him in shoulder. (The kunai nearly went through his neck. It was so, so close.)

Sakura Haruno had almost cried with happiness when she heard she would be on the same team with Sasuke. She was starting to think it wasn't worth it.

"He fights like an animal." Kakashi said, face ANBU blank. "He nearly killed his teammate in a spar."

"If I was trying to kill my teammate he would be dead." Naruto said, crossing his arms with a stubborn look on his face. His eyes are dead and the pupils are nearly diamond, well on their way to animalistic slits.

Naruto completed each D rank with an air of efficiency that is… strange. Unexpected.

Their first C rank is still an escort mission to the Land of Waves. They still meet the Demon Brothers. Naruto laughed bitterly at the title. The mission is almost a success. Technically they did succeed. Sasuke Uchiha returns to the village in a matchbox - dead from a senbon to the heart. (Haku is dead, it might have been him. You can't prove it wasn't.)

Kakashi doesn't have the words to explain why Naruto is making the hair on the back of his neck rise. On the way home he asks Naruto if he's 'doing okay'.

"That was my first kill ya' know." Naruto says casually, presumably referring to the way he slaughtered Haku after seeing Sasuke fall. Kakashi nodded, it made sense that the boy would be a little bit off, he had leaned over Sasuke's body while Kakashi had finished Zabuza, had felt as his body cooled. Perhaps he needed a therapist.

"How does that make you feel?" Kakashi asks, repeating the words the therapist in Icha Icha uses. Then he stiffens because Naruto is leaking killing intent.

"It was… new." Naruto hisses out of clenched teeth, Sakura is pale and shaking from ten feet away. The look on his face looks angry, frustrated, tense maybe? Kakashi can't tell which is just as strange as the rest of it.

Three weeks later Naruto is found by ANBU. His hand is in a civilians chest, the man has claw marks on his arms and chest. The ANBU members who first saw the scene of the crime are oddly blank forever afterwards, only able to swear up and down that there was nothing wrong with Naruto Uzumaki.