Demon of the Rain – Prologue – Run Away

AU Facts:

Kyuubi attack and Naruto's birth come 4 years before the 'Rookie 9'; Graduation age is 13

Akatsuki is not a mercenary group; they are the elite of Amegakure

Uchiha Madara is not alive therefore no Uchiha Massacre

Disclaimer - I don't own Naruto.

Start:

A 10 yr old blond boy stalked quietly through the alleyways of the great village known as Konoha. Why would he be doing so? Well he was Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto, the most hated person in the village due to nothing more than being the person used to seal a great beast; the 9-tailed fox known as Kyuubi. Instead of being proclaimed a hero like his father had wanted, they spited and assaulted him.

Funny how they hail the father and damn the son … not that they knew.

It was because of these beatings that the boy came in contact with the fox at the tender age of 4 where his life was changed forever. From there he became the partner and student of the mighty demon lord. By day he trained his physical body as well as Kenjutsu, and by night he trained things like muscle memory and anything that didn't require physical strengthening, i.e. chakra control, Ninjutsu, and Fuinjutsu.

Another particular thing about the boy was his eyes. The once cerulean orbs were now a deep amethyst but it was what he was currently using that stood out. In both his eyes was a pink symbol that resembled the outline of a bird in the distance. It was his Dojutsu.

The Zettaigan, or Absolute Eye, that was even rarer than the Rinnegan, because this boy was the only one to ever manifest it. This was his gift from the Kyuubi. Upon eye contact he could send people in to a Genjutsu on the level of the legendary Tsukiyomi of the Mangekyo Sharingan. It also had the prediction and perception capabilities of the Sharingan to an even higher degree. It did not give him the memorization that came with the Sharingan however it did allow him to look through a person's memories if he were to put his hand on their forehead. It was perhaps even more useful in terms of learning jutsu that way. His eyes also allowed him to form an astral projection of things which was useful for spying or confusing the enemy.

'Almost out of here kit, we'll head to the Mist first so you can get your sword crafted,' spoke the Kyuubi in his mind. The mental connection was a good bonus.

Passing the final guards slipping into the forest surrounding Konoha he was in the clear as he took off towards the land of Wave in order to get a ride towards Mist. After about four hours of running he decided to take a break and get a good nap before continuing.

Upon entering the land of Wave he noticed that the country was impoverished. 'I thought they had a booming economy?' thought Naruto. They were supposed to be the centre of overseas trading. Perhaps capitalism was not such a good thing after all.

'There seems to be something going on in this country,' commented the fox in which he received a mental nod.

Stalking through town he was a bit out of place as the civilians didn't have the all black clothes he was currently wearing. The glowing pink sigil in his eye didn't help things.

"You! Who are you and why are you here?" demanded a group of thugs. The civilians looked scared and pitiful of his situation. Naruto raised an eye-brow.

"I am a traveler trying to gain passage towards the land of the Mist. Who might you be?" asked Naruto deciding to fish some information.

"Where are your parents kid?" barked one not even answering his question.

"I am an orphan."

They seemed to sneer. "The kid will make a good slave for the boss. He seems to be in good physical condition." The four laughed and everyone around them cringed. Naruto laughed as well which shocked them.

"I suppose trash like your selves actually think you can make me do anything? How foolish," commented Naruto. The thugs were about to retort and charge when they couldn't move their lower bodies. They looked down and gasped as they began to crystallize. Three of the four crystallized from head to toe in shock while the last went up to his mouth but the fear in his eyes was clear. Naruto went up and touched his forehead to see what was going on with country before he frowned. "I have no more use for you four." With that he snapped his fingers and they shattered in crystalline and blood. The onlookers were shocked.

'Gato is it … it looks like we will have proper funding for generations to come …' mused Naruto. The Kyuubi decided to take a fox-nap seeing as how his host should be able to handle himself.

Walking in a seemingly random direction he soon found himself upon a building labeled Gato Industries. Deciding to take the direct method he methodically killed the guards surrounding the compound before walking in. He frowned as he walked through the hallways, where the hell was everyone? Looking through the rooms most seemed to be sleeping quarters or inventory … that is until he approached a big metal door.

He was absolutely disgusted. Chained to the walls in a line were fifteen women as they were continually violated by what seemed to be forty men. At least he knew how Gato bought their loyalty. Forget assassination he was going to make sure they all died painfully. He kicked in the door and it flew off its hinges slamming into the back of three men. That got all their attention.

"What the fuck? Who the fuck are you kid?" yelled one as they all stopped what they were doing to glare at him. Instead of answering he simply held out his hand where a crystal dual bladed katana formed. He then charged effortlessly killing them as they scrambled to get organized. In seconds the forty were killed as he began freeing the women telling them to run away. They grabbed whatever rags they could after they thanked him profusely before getting far away.

Naruto continued to the top where he knew Gato's office was. Again he didn't bother to stay silent as he kicked the door in to see Gato at his desk with two thugs around him.

"Who the hell are you?" asked the short man.

"Your executioner," spoke the boy in monotone as he killed the guards to stare down the tyrant who was now shocked.

"Wai-wait! Why don't you work for me? I can give you anything you want! Money, fame, women, guaahahh," as he choked on his blood. Naruto simply read his mind to retrieve the pins of his various vaults. Once he took all the money he deciding to keep about 50,000,000 ryo for himself while returning the other 400,000,000 ryo to the people. To say they were overjoyed when he dragged the dead body of the tyrant back while giving them all the money and deeds to the shipping company was an understatement as they threw a celebration.

"My name's Tazuna and I'm the bridge builder around these parts. On behalf of the people of Wave we are forever indebted to you young warrior," as he bowed through tears while the rest did so too.

Naruto merely nodded slightly embarrassed. "If you want to repay me I need a way to get to the land of the Mist."

Tazuna nodded and told them to prepare for the accommodations as they escorted him over the waters in the four day journey.

In Konoha:

The Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen was sitting behind his desk enjoying his break by reading Icha-Icha as he was giggling perversely. All of a sudden the door opened and he almost had a heart attack.

"INU! What are you doing?" questioned the aged leader at almost being caught.

"Hokage-sama! I can't find Naruto anywhere! At first I thought he was just hiding or training but he hasn't showed up for days! There haven't been any signs of an attack either!" gasped out the Anbu member to show that he has been clearly running around.

The eyes of the old man widened before ordering a city wide search.

Back with Naruto:

Stalking through the moist lands had not been fun so far but he had a legendary sword smith to find. He was the same one responsible for crafting four of the seven legendary blades of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.

Naruto had been looking throughout the lands where he was last spotted for about two weeks now before his danger senses warned him for an incoming attack in which he narrowly dodged.

"You must be good young lad. Why are you in these parts by yourself," said the voice that Naruto turned around to notice it was an old man.

"I am searching for the sword smith responsible for the creation of some of the swords used by the Seven Swordsmen," answered Naruto. "You wouldn't happen to be him would you?"

The old man chuckled. "What reason do you believe that this person will actually make a sword for you if he is as legendary as you claim?"

Naruto paused for a sec. "I haven't thought about that yet. I figured that was future Naruto's problem."

The old man laughed. The kid was something else. Most people would just answer with some fabrication about how they were worthy or how it was a great honor. The kid didn't even have the thought cross his mind! "How about this, I will tell you where this sword smith you seek resides if you can last five minutes in duel against me. You have a very real chance of dying." Naruto nodded without hesitation forming a sword from crystal gaining the man's attention at the unique ability before he grinned.

They charged at each other and sure enough Naruto lasted five minutes with both only receiving flesh wounds, albeit Naruto received a lot more.

"Very impressive for one so young," complimented the old man with a chuckle, "I haven't seen talent like that in a long time boy." Naruto thanked the geezer as he followed. He almost lost his life several times. Maybe he should have activated his Dojutsu.

"May I ask a question?" Earning a nod from Naruto he continued. "With your ability to make swords by will, why do you want one crafted?"

"I believe it will be at least three or four more years that I will even use the sword if the man agrees to make it. I want the sword made for the future because I have a feeling I will not live anywhere close to normal. The crystal swords have a huge weakness. Good lightning affinity users can get past it quite easily," answered Naruto. The old man nodded sagely.

Reaching a humble sized cabin after a few moments Naruto began to have a sneaking suspicion. It was only confirmed.

"I am the man you are looking for young boy. You have earned my respect with your ability at your age. How will you like your sword crafted?" the man spoke with a smile that was returned.

"Well thank you," answered Naruto as he rises up his hand to form the crystal dual bladed katana that he used earlier. The blade was 42 inches with the handle being 16 inches. "If you can make it extra sturdy and able to channel chakra affinities that would be more than enough. Any other touches are up to you as you are the master."

The old man chuckled and nodded again. "Be back in three months and I will have your sword. I have a feeling this will be my best one yet." Naruto thanked the man and bowed again before going off and finding somewhere to live and train for the three months.

In Konoha:

It had been a month since Naruto had been reported missing. About 80% of the population cheered and threw parties celebrating that they were finally rid of the demon while some were indifferent and very few grieved. They had absolutely zero leads on whether he was alive or dead.

In the council chambers this matter was being discussed by the council over what his disappearance could mean.

One overly obnoxious civilian was currently speaking. "Who cares what happened? The important part is that he's gone!" he was cheered on by his fellow civilians while the others showed no emotion other than the Hokage.

Inside, Danzo was furious. He knew there were three scenarios. The boy was killed. The boy was kidnapped. The boy had left. All three scenarios resulted in the lost of a weapon for Konoha. It resulted in the loss of a weapon for him.

"Hiruzen, we can no longer afford to have our Anbu out looking for him. They must be used for other mission needs. At this point it is safe to assume that we will not find the boy," spoke Koharu with a hint of distaste in her words.

The Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen was a wreck. The only thing that he could think of was that he had failed again. He had failed when he didn't stop his ex-student from going over the edge. Now he had failed his successor who had given up everything for the good of Konoha. How did this happen? It was never supposed to be like this. He was supposed to be in retirement while Konoha was in the reigns of the strongest Hokage in history. What would the Yondaime say about the treatment of his legacy?

With Naruto:

Another two months passed where Naruto was able to get a good amount of training in with his shadow clone method. Technically in those three months, he had gotten the equivalent of 148 years of training.

He hadn't been able to go all out in training unless in his mind and it was great to let loose. His Kenjutsu style that he named the 'Midnight Wind' had easily improved. Muscle memory in real life was better than in the mind after all. All his jutsu were either seal-less or done in under eight one-handed seals. That was a lot considering he faced many A-ranked missing Nins and stole their knowledge resulting in him having more than three-hundred jutsu under his belt. He was seriously considering just walking up to one of the Kage and just doing it.

He laughed when he thought about his chakra affinities. He was the holder of the Bijuu whose primary element was fire … yet he had all primary ones but fire. Another thing was the Raikiri. Why make the Chidori when it was so useless in comparison? He reasoned that the Chidori must have been the one created first.

His sword was a master-piece. The blade was black with the edge silver with the guard being primarily gold but with a silver fox design in it with a black and silver diagonally checkered handle. He wondered if the old man knew about the Kyuubi.

The old man also wanted him to continue his legacy. The Shigure Soen Ryu was the name of the style with each apprentice adding on another stance, or perhaps even more. It was labeled the perfect style because there were multiple versions. The ones not worthy died out leaving only one indestructible style. Naruto had to admit it at least stacked up to his own so he agreed to learn the style. The sword the old man gave him was unique. It appeared to be a bamboo practice sword but in the hands of the worthy, it transformed into a legendary katana.

He had burned the scroll after learning all the techniques. It had taken him a week to master the eight attacks and he was told to develop techniques of his own. So now he had two legendary katana strapped to his back with handle just over the right shoulder.

He was currently on his way to an island with an ancient temple that had a special room rumored to have been used by the Jinchuuriki of the six-tailed slug in order to learn how to use his powers. The island only allowed those with youkai to enter which would give him the privacy he needed.

Arriving at the island he was immediately fascinated by the wildlife. It was only here and on an ancient island in Kumogakure that such giant animals existed. He only bought enough food for about three months so he would have to leave everyone once in a while.

After an hour he was approaching the middle of the island where the temple was located. The ancient runes told a story of warriors and priests that had failed or succeeded in the ancient eras. He was surprised how interesting it was to study the ancient runes and now he knew why Jinchuuriki naturally trained a lot more easily at this place. The Kyuubi was able to read the ancient runes and direct him to the room that didn't allow the outside world to sense youkai.

'Are you ready Naruto?' asked Kyuubi as he too prepared.

Naruto mentally nodded as the key to the seal appeared on his hand. The two had developed it by studying the seals as well as ancient runes since Fuinjutsu was based on it. With a twist the surge of power that appeared blinded him and sapping him of strength as he started the battle with the Kyuubi's malevolent chakra.

AN: The Prologue is a bit rushed since I didn't really want to go in depth about the training and such. This is my first story and I intend to use it as practice before posting another that I like the idea of. Updates are between 2-4 days. Expect roughly 20 chapters and about 80k - 100k words.

Please read and review.