I recently came into contact with a positively incredibly show called Dexter, and as a result this morbid teaser came straight from my usually muse with that same annoying itch that accompanies all my stories. Honestly I think I'm cursed. Anyway to all my viewers, this fic will be MATURE and probably won't have a pairing of the kind people are normally used to seeing. As none of these peace-breed-bitches (Rookie Nine girls, sorry the muse refers them to that when I think of this fic), will have the balls to stay with Naruto. Or at least as they currently stand. So enjoy because I know I did…
"Talking"
'Thoughts'
Naruto's Narration
Naruto: Dark Messenger
Chapter One: A Different Kind Of Naruto
--
"I thought we had an agreement Naruto?" the Hokage asked as he looked down on the preteen boy sitting calmly in front of him. Although his tone was grave, the Hokage could tell that Naruto considered this conversation as he considered a lot of things; as consequential as a conversation of the weather. It was annoying for a man of his position to be regard as such, but moreover it was unnerving.
It was as if he was talking to a corpse…
"Things changed jiji," Naruto replied with the same cool and collected wit he always exhibited, it was an 'endearing' trait he had picked up after the 'incident'.
The Hokage was always like this. A part of me thinks he's ashamed of his decision in regards to my current state of being, but what's done is done. I followed his code and only took a deserving life…
"I'm sorry you feel that way Naruto, but we have an agreement Naruto. I allow you to channel your 'urges' through a constructive means only when you come to me first and tell me of the intended's crimes. That's how the system works, that's how it's always been!" the Hokage stated with a slight rise in his voice. At least Naruto had the nerve to look almost shaken. However the Hokage knew it was all a façade, the boy hadn't shown any emotion since that faithful day nine years ago…
"I'm sorry but as the times change so must our system. My reason for deviating was simple. One the offender had met the requirement laid out by you: he had taken a citizen of Konoha's life. Coming to inform you of his miss deed would have wasted precise time; time in which the offender could have acted again," Naruto countered, his rapier like logic cutting Sarutobi's objections askew.
I have always worked under the 'Code' I have no intention of changing that now…
"That aside your actions were in clear contradiction of our agreement and you have undermined my authority. Such actions are treason at best and punishable at death in those instances. However what makes this incident particularly vexing is the fact that I was confronted by the Uchiha Council demanding I allow them to such the village for the murderer of one of their own; a murder I was particularly unaware of! This alone makes three Uchiha in a week and this the second I had no knowledge of. My protective aegis is only as strong as my support from the council and as of now their patience has run incredibly thin, and the ramification of your action may…,"
"Leave me all on my own. However before that day comes I will be glad to remind them that, slave trafficking is a crime that should be dealt with by Anbu, and is certainly not my area of expertise. Making it awfully curious how I was able to complete a job even the most elite of the elite hadn't even caught on to it yet? Not to mention much of the incriminating evidence I found linking many of them to the 'deceased's' donations list. Imagine Konoha's finest and brightest brushing shoulders with a man who sold girls younger than me to enemy countries? However it wasn't until he killed a citizen for his eyes, that I stepped in; a fact that will ring prominent in the ears of those trying to use me as a scapegoat to the public if this were to ever get out. So believe when I say this jiji, I understand the full ramifications of my actions," Naruto cut in finally showing some semblance of emotion.
Irritation, Anger, and Anxiety… is that all I'm capable of feeling? I guess sitting in a puddle of my own blood at the tender age of three really did a number on my mind…
Naruto's musing brought dry chuckle to his throat and a smile on his face. One that he knew he had masterfully crafted after years of carefully study and consideration. His upward turned lips may look like the expression of a carefree, bright boy but what they belied was a dark void that had been made when that carefree boy had been killed and slowly bled on his own bathroom floor.
Interesting how the world works. My murderer was for all intents and purpose completely contradictory to the 'Code' and his chase didn't even bring half as much ire to our Lord Hokage as my law abiding actions…
"Well it seems as though I may have to reconsider our previous arrangement Naruto-kun. You have grown far beyond any expectation I could have set for you, and in a way it makes my old heart proud. However this is a dark, and grimly business we delve ourselves' in; so take care not to ever lose your core values. For if they are gone you will lose yourself," the Hokage advise before dismissing Naruto with a wave of the hand.
Interesting words coming from the man who allows a thirteen year old to murder unabated as long as the murdered themselves' have murdered…
Once again Naruto musing gave way for a 'bright' smile, and his façade firmly in place Naruto was off to school…
--
The academy is a strange place…
Naruto mused silently as he stared blankly at the theory of chakra written out on the blackboard in front of him. He had long since mastered the remedial skill of creating chakra and his control was well on its way of being noteworthy, a skill that was in particular demand given his current trade-of-business. However that wasn't what irked Naruto's curiosity.
It is the fact that out of this whole ninja academy, a place where instructors are suppose to be actively weeding and training the future protectors of our nation, only one chunin, Umino Iruka, suspects me of being something more than a bumbling idiot…
Sure the Inuzuka were always on edge around Naruto, but given their strong connection to their dogs, the blond figured that they must pick up some residual vibes of his 'darker' activities. The only one that slightly worried him, other than the Iruka, was Shikamaru. However given the boy's current work ethic, him tracking down all the clues leading to Naruto second life was as likely as an Akimichi going vegan and living out the rest of their lives in culinary moderation.
"Naruto the results from your collective tests came in and you have unfortunately failed, however…," Mizuki started and that was when Naruto started to tune the man out. Mizuki had been an assistant instructor under Iruka for years, and in all his time at the academy the man's track record was completely spotless. Not to say he was innocent, as years of harassing under-aged girls would be a social sigma no one could overcome; but as an shinobi instructor he could get away with it under the simple explanation that he was preparing them for the rigors of the 'real world'. A technicality at best and no that had been overlooked for far too long, but that wasn't the reason Mizuki irked Naruto so…
This man has been nothing but a smear to my village's name, and with the murder of one of the chunin guards charged with protecting the location of the forbidden scroll he is in direct violation to 'Code'…
So not only was Mizuki a murderer but he was also a thief, or at least premeditating thievery, not a trait punishable by death but even the treason that accompanied it Naruto figured that he was only doing his civic duty in dealing with the traitor himself. As for the actually murder, Naruto mused he would have to tell the Hokage to stop delegating work with such sensitive information to unfitting candidates and at best stop being lazy and hide the damn scroll himself.
Oh what fun that conversation will be…
"- However given your positive test scores in both the practical and tactical skills, Iruka-sensei and I are willing to give you a second chance," Mizuki baited, and too his part, Naruto acted like a fish hooked by its gills. It was an act he had mastered long ago, along with his stupidity façade, and murderer mask. The only one who truly knew Naruto was none other than the Kyuubi…
'Now the bait has taken, but unlike that fool believes we are the anglers and he is the foolish fish slowly being reeled in to his destruction,' the fox commented in his usual voice. For years Naruto had debated whether the voice in his head was an illusion, crafted during the shattering he endured a scant nine years prior. However after one very surprising dream Naruto realized that the voice in his head was none other than the very demon that condemned him to his fate of isolation, save him from his death.
A conundrum that took a greater part of a year to settle, fortunately we were about to work around that when the urges started to kick in…
'Yes, but now we have pressing matters to deal with,' Kyuubi urged Naruto, as the blond silently listened to all the instructions the academy instructor gave him. For the fox demon the place it stood with helping Konoha was entirely neutral, much like it had been before the attack. However what made it choose Konoha was always ambiguous fact that could never be fully understood. Despite the bitterness of being sealed, and partially because of the ignorance leading up to the event, the Kyuubi's need to kill periodically was met when the same urges mysteriously manifested within its container. A trait that satisfied its own urges as well. So over the years the boy was taught to kill effectively while at the same time the Hokage taught the boy to cover his tracks, forming a sort of mutual understanding between the demon and the village leader.
As ironically twisted as that may seem…
"Okay Mizuki-sensei, I'll get the scroll," Naruto replied dumbly as he sprinted off towards the Hokage's Toward, not missing the self-satisfying smirk that the chunin donned once he thought he couldn't see him.
Arrogant prick, he'll get his soon enough…
Acquiring the scroll was an incredibly simple task. The process hadn't taken more than a few minutes, and it was then that Naruto realized how lax the security was around the seal. Putting his thoughts on security aside the boy soon realized the position he had been placed in. In his hands he held all the secrets of his village, things that if fell into the wrong hands would spell doom for his village and moreover violate the code set onto him by none other than his patron Hokage, Sarutobi.
It is my duty to uphold the Code first and foremost…
With that in mind, Naruto rationalized that to protect the secret of his village he would first need to know the secrets of his village. And so the blond boy delved into the Forbidden Scroll, sparing no expense to analyze every small detail and nuance the weather paper had inscribed onto it.
If it were possible to take in, understand, and adapt to information faster than it was to actually read it; Naruto was one of the few able to do it. The ability extended from his love for puzzles, a taste he'd acquired after his proverbial 'bloodbath'. This love for puzzle had done him a lot of other good as well, for because of that Naruto was able to ingrain a photographic memory into the inner workings of his brain. The picture perfect memory was put to good use as Naruto read the Forbidden Scroll, ingraining every stroke of the brush to memory.
Among the myriad of jutsu that were inscribed in great detail in the scroll, each of the previous Hokage had written a personal chronology of their life and accomplishments. In a way the great leaders of old were trying to reach out to generations they would never meet, and in their messages hope to guild them, and their village, through trying times. It was the most noble of endeavors, and would have remained so if not for one Hokage…
"October 10 the Kyuubi will arrive soon and the blasted Namikaze who took my position will finally be dead..."
These some of the first words inscribed by Konoha's current leader, Sarutobi…
--
Naruto couldn't believe his eyes, after thirteen years of living in a hellhole of a village Naruto finally met something that floored him.
Other than a kunai across my trachea…
The village's honorable leader had in fact, planned the death of his successor. However that was just one leaf in a forest full of lies and deceit. As Naruto read and read, more atrocities were burned into the back of his mind forever each one more despicable than the last.
Organ harvesting, bloodline experiments, black market dealings… All these things done and endorsed by Hokage, yet we the people haven't suspected a thing…
A fear shock Naruto for the first time in nine years. The man he'd looked up to as a grandfather had planned his assassination, after he failed to rally the village's against him with poisonous propaganda that convinced the 'sheep' that he was the Kyuubi incarnate. All because the man was drunk off the power he'd managed cumulate after years and years of serving and protecting the very village he now extorted.
Extortions that range far and wide, from as petty as embezzled money to planting hypnotic urges that have twisted the minds of all those around him, including my own…
Oh the Hokage's many 'black handed' tactics, mind altercation seemed to be one of the most prominent. Whenever a council vote didn't go his way, activate a few previously ingrained impulses in a few councilmen's' heads and presto, he'd have majority for his appeal. However if the situation required a bit of a firmer touch, he'd sent the accused to Ibiki, and an eyewitness to his crimes either 'forgot' about them or their minds were broken entirely. The most heinous of this mind crimes though were commit on him, a child nonetheless. Having a few of the more skilled Yamanaka seers delve into his mind after the failed attempt on his life, the Dark Fire Lord implanted a kill-switch like compulsion in the back of his mind the replicated the mentally of the demon within him. The damage would be near irreparable without the help of an equally skilled seer, and until then Naruto was hopelessly addicted to the primal urges he'd been unrightfully subjected to.
Now Naruto understood why the security around scroll was so lax, for if anyone uncovered these secrets they would immediately be subject a compulsive mind wipe and won't remember a thing. As for foreign intruders they would have a better chance of taking the scroll in a full scale invasion rather than capturing it in an infiltration mission, taking into full account that Konoha could probably beat all the of great elemental countries in a free-for-all battle. No Sarutobi's rule was absolute at this point, and as such the uncovered betrayal Naruto had witnessed as absolute…
However what burned hotter in the boy's mind than the need for revenge was the intense mourning of the loss of his childhood. Sarutobi had always told him he was an orphan from another country, a refugee taken in on the sole account that one of the greatest kunoichi to grace Konoha happened to be from the same place. Little did he know that woman was his mother, Uzumaki Kushina, and her husband and his father was the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, were his parents; and that the man they trusted must, the one to forever bind them together in marriage, would stab them in the back all for his own gain…
The 'animal urge' in him howled for Sarutobi's blood as it howled before for any flesh. However in this case, just like most cases, Naruto honed that killer instinct onto a target and he would fully commit himself to that target until they were dead. Only thing was in this case his target was the man who held all the chips and was currently untouchable.
This makes challenging game. A game I want to play; very, very much…
--
'I just need to find the demon and then I can be promoted to jonin over that wimpy prick Iruk…,' the hateful line of thought Mizuki was brooding over cut off as a hot spike dug into his neck. Instantly all the chakra he had been molding in order to propel himself to the next branch collapsed, just like his legs did from out of under him, and Mizuki found himself tumbling to the ground below. The forest floor was unforgiving, and with what little energy he could muster Mizuki looked up to his silent attacker.
"Naruto!" the academy instructor spit like a expletive. He could feel a hate welling up inside him just as it had done when the Kyuubi killed his sisters and mother. His father had died on minutes before trying to protect his family, a noble act and something that Mizuki would always remember as an astonishing act of selflessness and bravery. However that wasn't what scarred him with such burning hatred for the Kyuubi, and anything related to the nine tailed beast. No, watching his trapped sister and mother slowly burn to death in the youki imbued fires as he struggled to lift the roofing that collapsed over them was what killed him inside.
"In the flesh Mizuki-sensei, and I must say admirable plan. Well thought out and completely foolproof… Something that is way above your level, now tell me who put you up to this?" the blond container asked as he summoned a shadow clone to hoist the motionless teacher to his feet. Naruto already had his suspicions, but he could never rule out random acts of hatred against for that was one of the Hokage's greatest weapons, utilizing the anger the public had for him an untraceable ways.
"As if I'd tell you," Mizuki spat, nearly catching Naruto in the face with a flying glob of saliva.
The hard way it is then. I'm no Yamanaka but from the technique in the scroll this should set off any compulsion the Hokage may have placed on this guy...
Molding chakra onto the tips of his right hand's ring finger and thumb, Naruto snapped his fingers creating an echoing waving of chakra that would register specifically with any sound based mental anomalies in the victim's mind. Sure enough the Mizuki's eyes went glassy, and before Naruto knew it the man was under his control.
This could prove useful later…
And with that Naruto release Mizuki of his hold, rendering the man unconscious. Having a clone bind the man, as he was no longer under his control, Naruto began to appreciate the near infinite usage this one technique would have as he headed for the Hokage's Tower himself.
The trip to the tower was short and familiar, but the thoughts in Naruto's head were as foreign as happiness and compassion to his heart. How bad was his mental scarring that he couldn't comprehend what it even felt to be happy was like? How much could his once Lord Hokage be held accountable for? With such morbid thoughts maintaining his usual mask of faux cheeriness was much harder than normal, especially while in the presence of his tormentor. Naruto persevered nonetheless, remembering his new roll and the new 'code' he abided by.
Destroy the Sandaime by any means necessary…
"Naruto you have completed mission with an expertise not even my Anbu could easily replica. You are truly an Anbu among Anbu!" and it was then that another fact rang true in Naruto mind. Sarutobi saw his father as a threat, and for good reason because due to popular demand Minato was able to unwittingly usurp the corrupted Kage before meeting his untimely death. So rather than facing that problem yet again Sarutobi choose to make the best of the situation - after killing the man's son failed – and create the boy into a pawn that only could control.
A decision that would be his undoing…
"Thank you Hokage-sama, I live only to serve the 'Code'," Naruto said behind a lying mask. Outside he was the obedient pet killer the Hokage crafted when all else failed, but on the inside he was a seething animal just waiting for the right opportunity to strike. That strike would be a long time coming, but as the wise say "revenge is a dish best served cold"; and Sarutobi would never know what hit him. In the meantime though, Naruto found infinite humor in let bits of his resent flow unfiltered in words only he understood.
Instead of the 'Code of Sarutobi' it is now the 'Code of Uzumaki'…
"Yes about that Naruto… Why leave Mizuki alive? You were in all your rights to take the man's life, why the sudden change now?" the Hokage asked, baiting Naruto. From what the blond could tell this was all a test. On one hand Sarutobi was testing to see if Naruto's repressed emotions were starting to resurface, and if appropriate action would need to be taken, namely a mental block installed by a few Yamanaka. In contrast to that Sarutobi was testing to see if Naruto had somehow betrayed him, which would either result in an more intense version of the last punishment or worse death… So with careful forethought Naruto offered the best answer he could.
"The target is still alive on the sole reasons that I if the public were to ever use this incident against us, we have his mind as a memory, and two, I took into consideration your words from earlier. Undermining your authority was must unbefitting of a subordinate," Naruto spieled with false-cheerfulness. The words made his stomach twist, but had the desired effect. Sarutobi had totally bought into the blond's act.
"Thank you for considering our words Naruto, and as you have I considered your words as well. So in order to protect you from ever having to make decision such as those again I am allowing you to graduate with a genin team. Do not worry you will still have time to channel your urges through the 'Code', and as a genin you will be given other outlets to do so," the Hokage explained, throwing a wrench into Naruto's plans. Destroying the Hokage's establishment would take time and mobility, and both of which would be cut into if he had a genin team.
Arguing with the Hokage wouldn't be the answer. No some circumvention will be necessary…
"Hai Hokage-sama, who are my new teammates?" Naruto asked as he devised ways to make better use of his time.
"You will be under one of the most prestigious jonin Konoha has. Hatake Kakashi, as well as teamed with the two highest scoring students of your year Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke who are the mentally and physically brightest, respectively," and among all the thoughts that entered into Naruto head, only one rang prominent.
Fuck this is going to be harder than I thought…
Read and Review:
Interesting start to say the least… The narration makes for a cool change of pace and I look forward to tinkering with it more as it adds another layer to the story with 1st person critique on 3rd person situations. I'll admit though half way through the chapter my idea took a drastic shift when I asked myself "If I want to make an Evil!Sarutobi fic then what would show the man's evil?" Well how about killing his successor and turning his seed into a homicide-addicted sociopath? However I can save Perfect Lionheart's Partially Kissed Hero has had a profound effect on my way of viewing a supervillian, especially one the hero works under, so expect Sarutobi to fight back. For it only so long before the old man begins to suspect something and from there the games can begin lol.
Anyway let me reiterate myself, REVIEW no feedback is negative (except blatant flames) and I want to know what you guys thought. I'll be back soon with some update, just don't know which one yet, but till then…
Black Saint