Disclaimer: I own nothing related to the Naruto universe.

Prologue

Namikaze Naruto sat on a high tree branch and stared absentmindedly at the unnaturally dark night sky. The clouds were particularly annoying, as they blocked out the moon and the stars making it incredibly difficult to see much of anything. It was going to rain soon.

A chilly wind hit him right in the face, sending him into a small fit of shivers and also blowing the hood of his cloak off his head.

A full head of long and untamed blonde hair as well as three whisker mark scars on each side of his face came into view. The boy's azure eyes narrowed in annoyance as he pulled the hood back over his head.

In the distance he could make out the faint lights coming from Konoha, and his anger for the village nearly made him break out of his sulking.

'Why can't they realize that it's all a lost cause?'

He had gotten tired of living in his annoying clan house and decided that it would be best if he went out for a short walk in the nearby forest. Said walk ended up turning into a run that brought him within a mile of the strongest shinobi village in the world. And now, he found himself sitting deep in enemy territory. Chances were he'd be killed if a Konoha ninja managed to apprehend him.

For a few seconds he wondered if he'd rather live in Konoha than with rebels. According to his family, Konoha was once a beautiful village when it was ruled by the Sandaime. It was still beautiful, but now it had an undertone of...darkness around it ever since Danzou became the Hokage. His godfather told him that everything slowly changed for the worse once Danzou took over. The people became vicious; the shinobi were brainwashed and became ruthless; the laws became intolerable.

He put his thoughts aside and took one last look at the night sky. He knew that he should be leaving soon unless he wanted to get caught by the ANBU- or his own villagers for that matter.

He looked down from the branch that he was sitting on. He couldn't see the bottom, no matter how hard he squinted. A smile played itself onto his lips as he started adding chakra to his feet.

Without thinking, he pushed of the branch and went flying through the air. His cloak billowed behind him as he picked up more and more speed. The cool air hit his face sending a jolt through him and throwing away all traces of drowsiness that were trying to sneak up on him.

He landed in a crouched position and winced from the pain that ran through his body. Not even chakra could have fully protected him from the force of the impact. Naruto sent a glare at the tree. 'So much for making a cool exit.' Good thing that no one was there to see him…

He froze.

There were people nearby, and they were circling around him. He couldn't see them, but he could distinctly feel them.

Was his luck really that bad?

He tilted forward slightly to get into a more comfortable position and put his hands on either side of him. He could feel the foreign ninja getting closer, their arrangement faultless and their movements impossibly quiet. He had to move before he was trapped. He would never be able to win against all three of them.

He pushed off the ground with his feet and sprinted into the darkness, managing to get some distance between his enemies. He was lucky enough to have gotten through an opening in their guard, but otherwise he knew that that was the only advantage that he had.

He ran past the thick trunks of the aged trees, twisting and turning in random directions, hoping to lose the people that were hot on his heels. Naruto scolded himself in his mind. He should have kept a tighter watch on his surroundings. He was so close to Konoha- of course there would be patrols nearby. He was an idiot for not realizing that earlier.

The annoyingly familiar sound of steel cutting through air brought Naruto back into reality and forced him to all but dive to his left. A kunai whizzed past him, just barely grazing his cheek. Naruto's eyes narrowed as he picked up his pace and ran even faster than before.

He muttered a string of curses under his breath. He seriously needed to pay more attention to his surroundings. At some point during the chase, Naruto found himself jumping from branch to branch. He barely managed to keep his balance, but he managed to move just a little bit faster.

He needed some sort of plan, something to get those guys distracted with, if only for a little while. Unfortunately for him, it was difficult to even think while knowing that he had a team of enemy shinobi on his tail.

Naruto dared to take a look at his pursuers. One small glance later, and he was running faster than he'd ever ran in his life.

Three ninja in jet-black cloaks were speeding towards Naruto. But that wasn't what freaked him out- it was the white masks with various animal faces that did...

ANBU.

'This just isn't my day.'

Naruto took a sharp right turn where the trees seemed particularly crowded, in hopes of throwing his pursuers off. It didn't work, and he just ended up losing some of the precious distance between him and them.

He was started growing desperate and frustrated. There were ways that he could have escaped this ANBU team and disappeared into the darkness of night, never being seen by a single pair of eyes…But that would mean that he would have to rely heavily on his bloodline. He tended to not use it in front of anyone other than his family. 'And if Osamu ever found out…' Naruto ruthlessly sent those thoughts to the back of his mind. Those were the last things that should be on his mind!

His legs were starting to hurt from the overexertion; it wasn't often that he ran around an entire forest at full speed, now was it? Actually, the chase was sort of turning into a pattern. Right turn, left turn, right turn…well you get the idea. Don't forget about the occasional kunai or jutsu being shot. Naruto decided to add some spice into the chase and tried something new.

He put his hands into a seal that was taught to him by his godfather and whispered, "Kage Bushin." Nine solid clones appeared on either side of him, and Naruto performed a Kawarimi with one of them. Then, he ordered the clones to split up and run in different directions. That should buy him some time.

Naruto looked around and saw that two of the ANBU members started chasing his clones. It seemed that they had started using lethal techniques because he felt a small portion of the chakra that he used to make the clones returning to him. One of the clones just died.

But something was off. It took a moment for Naruto to realize it, but when he did, his heart skipped a beat.

The third ANBU member…He was gone.

Naruto forced himself to calm down and to think straight. Why could the ANBU have left? The first reason that Naruto came up with was that the ninja split from the group before the blonde used Kage Bushin, in hopes of ambushing him. For some reason, Naruto had trouble believing that.

The second reason seemed much more likely, and Naruto felt the familiar emotion of fear that he tried to suppress come back at full force.

The ANBU member must have gone for reinforcements.

The panic was making him reckless. At first he wanted to make a dead-sprint towards safety, but then he realized that it would be a surefire way to get him and the people in his village caught.

He didn't know how many ANBU teams, if any, would come. What he had to do was create a diversion large enough to distract three ANBU level ninja, for a short time at least, while he escaped to safety. He needed something big, loud, and explosive if he wanted to lose his pursuers. Naruto's eyes narrowed mischievously as he began to plot…

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The plan that Naruto came up with was risky; some might have even called it idiotic. But unfortunately, his mind wasn't working at one-hundred percent when he created his three special clones. Bakuretsu Kage Bushin was the name of the jutsu. Its purpose was simple- as soon as he ordered, the clones would explode. Naruto packed as much chakra into the clones as he possibly could without losing control, and with him having near limitless reserves, that was a lot. It was a tedious process and he was left exhausted when he was done.

The blonde tried his best to ignore the beginning symptoms of what he thought was chakra exhaustion. With what little energy he had left, he sent the clones in the same general direction. If he remembered correctly, then there was a checkpoint area for ANBU teams somewhere in the area. He hoped that his clones could find it in time.

Naruto's plan was simple; it would have been troublesome if it was complicated. His clones would get as far away from his position as they possibly could. One would go east and two more would go west and try to find the checkpoint. Once it was found, the clones would all meet up, and they would explode, causing citizens and shinobi alike to believe that their homeland was being attacked.

Naruto wasn't too far away from Konoha, but he wasn't exactly close either. However, he knew for sure that the explosion that would come would be big. It would be enough to alert the shinobi in Konoha, at the very least. The shinobi would be busy either investigating the explosion, or preparing for what they would believe was an incoming fight. If all went well, then everyone would just forget that he even existed.

Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Under no circumstances could he be recognized. Members of the Namikaze clan all had golden blonde hair and striking blue eyes. Naruto was pretty sure that the Namikaze were one of the only clans in the shinobi world that exhibited such traits. The Namikaze clan was at one time renowned in Konoha as one of the village's greatest clans. Unfortunately, Konoha also believed that the Namikaze clan was totally wiped out, with the final member being his father, Minato. If Naruto was discovered, it would lead to a whole set of unpleasant circumstances.

It was with that knowledge that he prepared himself to begin the plan. He could feel that seven of his Kage Bushin were already destroyed; only two remained. Nevertheless, they had fulfilled their purpose in distracting the ANBU members, if only for a short amount of time. It was quite the useful jutsu.

Naruto landed in a particularly dark and unruly part of the forest and leaned against a thick tree. What he was about to do next required some concentration. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to soothe his raging emotions.

When he was ready, he tried to feel the chakra that was running through his body. It wasn't hard, as he had been forced to do this exercise countless times.

His chakra felt like a beating heart. In fact, it beat alongside his. His godfather once pointed out that everyone felt their chakra differently; some people might have seen it in a corporal form, while others may have felt it in the form of an element that they had an affinity towards. It was a different experience for everyone.

Naruto focused even harder on the beating sound, until he could finally see a ball of light blue energy. He was deep in his subconscious; this was the center of his chakra system. The concept was a tad complicated to explain as he had never cared much about the theory side.

As he looked closer at the shining blue ball, which was about the size of his fist, he saw three nearly transparent silver-blue strings coming out from it and extending into the nothingness that surrounded him. That was his connection to the three Bakuretsu Bushin. Naruto frowned when he noticed that the connection to his final two Kage Bushin was destroyed. This had to be quick.

Naruto softly grabbed the first string and his eyesight immediately blurred, instead making him see through the eyes of Bakuretsu Bushin number one.

The clone had apparently found the checkpoint. The entire place was surrounded by barricades that were at least as high as Naruto was tall. A small, wooden shack stood at one corner, and the rest of the area was filled with large campfires. Naruto could see through the clone's eyes that the security was incredibly tight. He could just barely make out five Jounin guards walking around, patrolling the area in and around the barricades.

Everything depended on how the whole thing was played out. As soon as the clone was right by the barricades, Naruto sent a mental command for it to explode in thirty seconds. He quickly grabbed hold of the other two strings, and upon finding that the clones were also near the checkpoint, ordered them to do the same.

Naruto snapped himself out of the trance and stood as quietly as he possibly could next to the tree that he had just leaned against. Soon after, he heard an explosion, closely followed by two more.

And then, there was silence.

There was absolutely nothing there worth noting. Naruto heard no more noise, and there were no chakra signatures that he could sense. He waited a little bit longer for some other reaction, but nothing came. He was sure that at least a couple squads of ANBU would go to investigate the explosions, but no. He felt no one's chakra signature moving towards the checkpoint.

Naruto slowly walked out from behind the tree that he was leaning against, and listened to whether or not there were any screams or shouts coming from around the village. Silence was all there was. He brought his head up to take a quick glance around the forest, but he couldn't see far in the darkness. He was alone, and that created a new sort of fear inside him.

What the hell was going on?!

He started running again, only this time on the ground, not over branches. One or more teams of ANBU could have been searching for him, and he wasn't sure whether or not they were affected by the explosion. But this time, he had the advantage- they didn't know where he was. If they wanted to capture him, they would have to look for him first.

Naruto sped through the forest, weaving around the trees as if he had been trained to do so his entire life. He avoided any clearings where he thought there might be activity. He used a minimal amount of chakra so as to not alert anyone. He ran faster than he had ever run in his life. He was free, and no one could catch him.

He was nothing more than a blur.

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HIs arrogance turned into his downfall. When he was almost a mile away from the safety of his village, he let go of the viscous reign that he had on his chakra and let it flow freely through his body. The concentration that it took to suppress it was unimaginable. It was the price that he had to pay for having such large reserves.

He also started running faster. It felt like he had an enormous weight lifted off his shoulders when he felt his chakra returning. He ended up making just a little bit more noise.

Only when Naruto felt a sharp, stinging pain in his left shoulder did he realize his mistakes. His eyes widened marginally before he turned around, desperately searching for his attacker.

All he saw was darkness.

Naruto added some chakra into his legs and jumped onto a high tree branch. Quickly but carefully, he took out the kunai that was lodged in his shoulder. It stung like hell, but the adrenaline running through him made him forget about the pain. All the while, his eyes searched the ground for any sign of movement.

The sound of soft, barely audible footsteps snapped Naruto back into reality. He dove to the right, falling off the tree branch, yet narrowly dodging the sharp, steel blade of a katana.

As he was falling through the air, he forced his body to turn, hoping to at least to catch a small glimpse of his attacker.

An animal mask was all that Naruto could make out before his thoughts were overrun with anger. He rapidly ran through a set of hand-seals and gathered chakra into his lungs.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu."

An enormous fireball shot out of Naruto's mouth, incinerating everything that it touched and spreading heat into the otherwise chilly night. But by the time it hit the branch that the ANBU stood on, it was too late. The ANBU member was already gone.

Naruto performed a Kawarimi and substituted himself with a broken branch, just barely avoiding smashing into the ground. What was he supposed to do next? It was dark and he was having trouble seeing. The ANBU member, on the other hand, seemed to know exactly what he was doing. It looked like he was used to working in the dark.

The true weight of the situation just hit Naruto. His heart started beating even faster than before and a sense of hopelessness awoke inside of him. He couldn't keep up with this ninja…

'I could be killed…'

Or even worse, he would be caught and tortured- tortured to the point of insanity, but never past it. He would be denied that wonderful bliss where pain meant nothing. No. Instead they would heal him, nurse him back to health, just too slowly break him up again. The ninja of Konohagakure no Sato were ruthless. They would do anything to get the information they needed. That was what Naruto had been taught his entire life. He had grown up hating yet fearing this village at the same time.

He was broken out of his thoughts when he felt a hard, steel blade rest on his neck. The only thing separating it from Naruto's delicate skin was the thin fabric of the dark cloak that he was wearing.

"Don't move," whispered a soft, monotonous voice.

Naruto's eyes widened more from surprise than horror. His mind started racing through ideas, strategies, and jutsu- anything that could get him out of this situation. But nothing came up. His teachers always told him that if an enemy had a blade rested on his neck, then he would be dead in the next couple of seconds.

'Does that mean that I'm lucky to be alive?'

The ANBU member held the katana in one hand, and used the other to pull off the hood of Naruto's cloak. He was met with the sight of Naruto's spiky, blonde hair. Naruto was sure that the shinobi was surprised because as soon as the blonde's hair came out from under the cover of the hood, the ANBU grabbed him with his free hand and roughly turned him around. The ANBU was met with Naruto's blue eyes staring straight back at him.

As if in slow motion, Naruto saw the ANBU's body tense, and the grip that the masked shinobi had on him was released. The ANBU took a step back, shaking slightly.

"Namikaze-sama!" he exclaimed as if he had just seen a ghost.

It was through instinct alone that Naruto reached for a kunai, and with speed that he never knew he had, threw it at the stunned ANBU. Naruto aimed for the chest but at the very last second the ANBU jumped, and the kunai hit him in the stomach instead. Again he disappeared into the night, but this time he wouldn't be hard to find.

Naruto took out another kunai and added some chakra into his ears so that he could hear better. It was not long after that that he heard someone's raspy breathing, followed by the occasional cough. Naruto had hit him hard.

Naruto followed the sound until he came across his enemy leaning against a large tree, his head down, with one arm holding his bloody stomach, and the other searching for something in his ninja pouch.

Naruto didn't think about what he did next; he was too scared. He held his kunai up high and dashed towards the injured shinobi. The ANBU must have heard Naruto's footsteps because he raised his head, and Naruto got a full view of his mask.

It was a picture of a cat- at least that's what Naruto thought. There were dark markings near the edges, along with three thin, horizontal lines on both sides of the mask. The area around the slits of the mask was painted in a dark green color.

Naruto concentrated on the mask. It felt much easier to kill a simple animal rather than a human being.

As the blonde reached him, the ANBU unsheathed his katana and both ninja exchanged blows. The ANBU's moves were slow, and his style was sluggish. Naruto was relieved that he wouldn't have to do anything fancy; he was pretty sure that his reserves were damn near empty. The previous fire jutsu made him use up most of the chakra that was restored during his run through the forest.

The ANBU's strikes were slowing down after each move he made. As soon as Naruto noticed this he swiftly struck the shinobi's wrist with the blunt end of his kunai. The katana fell with a soft clank and the ANBU was left defenseless.

Naruto's hand trembled when he thought about what he would have to do next. By now the ANBU was barely standing and looked to be only half-conscious. He couldn't do this with a kunai- it would be too messy for him to handle. Instead, Naruto picked up the katana that lay on the ground and pointed it at the ANBU's chest. He closed his eyes tightly and pushed his arms forward…

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There was no struggle in the end. There were no screams, no resistance, not even any fear on the ANBU's part. For all Naruto knew, the shinobi welcomed his death with happiness.

Naruto looked on at the lifeless body lying in front of him and felt bitterness.

It was pathetic. The way that ANBU died, the surprise that he felt when he figured out Naruto's identity, the way that Naruto took advantage of that situation. It was all pathetic.

Was that it? He had just killed a person, a person that seemed to respect his clan. Why was it that he only felt bitter inside? Naruto had just won a battle by using the lowest form of deceit. Was that what the 'glorious' life of a shinobi was like?

But another voice, a much colder one told him that what he did was necessary. If he hadn't killed the ninja, then the ANBU would have captured him.

Naruto shook his head to get those thoughts out of his head. He was tired and scared. He didn't need anything else bothering him.

Naruto took one last look at the fallen warrior before he started forming hand-seals. He closed his eyes and prayed to Kami-sama that he had enough chakra left for this one last jutsu.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu," Naruto whispered again, all the while gathering every last bit of chakra that he could find in his body.

The result was a fireball, smaller than the boy had envisioned, but still large enough to do its job. The fire hit the body dead-on, and for the next minute Naruto watched the body burn. Not once did he even think about taking off that mask.

Soon it was all finished, but Naruto still stood in the same exact place. Only then did he notice the soft, peaceful rain that had begun to fall.

The rain started to gradually get stronger as he stood in the same exact spot for nearly half an hour. He knew that he should have been running, but he just couldn't bring himself to care.

Naruto raised his head to feel the rain hit his face. It was relaxing and did wonders to relieving his stress

He brought his eyes to the charred remains of the body, only to see that they were slowly being decimated by the rain. All that was left was the katana and a few spare kunai that must have been hidden somewhere on the ANBU's person.

Naruto picked up all of the weapons and started to dig a hole with his bare hands. The ground was soft from the constant downpour of rain, but Naruto's mind didn't register that. His body was moving on its own accord.

When he finished digging the hole, he carefully placed the ANBU's weapons inside. Naruto stared at them for a short while before he started to refill the hole.

Time sped by without him noticing. He didn't know what was happening around him, nor could he hear or smell anything but the rain. Everything that he saw seemed to blend into one color. It was like his mind had left him, and he had to figure out what to do without it.

But there was one thought that it had left behind as a souvenir.

'Home.'

So that was where he went.

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AN: I edited this chapter so that it is now in 3rd person instead of 1st. Excuse any of the 1st person references that you see here because I probably missed them when I was revising. I'll probably fix the errors at a later date. Enjoy!

All Reviews are greatly appreciated.