Disclaimer: *Beep* Hello, readers, Jarvis here. Mr. Tommy B would like to inform you he does not own either the loveable manga Naruto nor does he own my employer, Iron Man, or myself. Jarvis, signing out. *beep*

Iron De-Man

1: Forged

"I...I win, dobe!" a black haired teenaged boy panted out as he pulled his hand from a blonde teenage boy's chest. The black haired teen was dressed in a navy blue shirt with a somewhat high collar and white shorts. On the back of his shirt was a red and white fan, the family crest of the infamous Uchiha Clan, making this teen the famed 'Last' Uchiha Sasuke, younger brother of his clan's murderer, Uchiha Itachi. His red eyes filled with tears and his three tomoed red eyes, known as the Sharingan, changed into solid black irises and the pupil mutated into a red atom shape.

On the ground dying from his wound, laid his best friend, Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto clutched aimlessly at his chest, taking in large gasps for air and tears streamed down his whiskered cheeks. His blindingly orange jacket was torn and drenched with his own blood. Choked gasps came from his mouth and blood followed the raspy gasping. His hetai-ite, similar to Sasuke's with a metal plate and a swirl forming a leaf-like shape only there was not a giant slash through it, remained on his head only due to the fact he was lying on his back.

"W...Why?" the blonde managed to gasp out, his bright blue eyes quickly dulling as his life left him. The raven haired teen looked down at the dying boy with emotion vacant from his expression.

"Because...you're my friend," Sasuke said quietly, closing his eyes and clutched his friend's unmoving arm, "And I need power to kill my brother."

Naruto only watched with saddened and broken wide eyes as Sasuke slowly dragged him to the water. Too exhausted to even scream in outrage, he aimlessly drifted back to the thoughts concerning their third teammate, Haruno Sakura. The pink haired, enlarged forehead and equally enlarged anger issued girl would probably never forgive him for failing to return Sasuke back to their village.

His cerulean blue eyes widened in realization that he would never be returning home. He'd never see his lazy and perverted white haired, Cyclops of a sensei Hatake Kakashi (despite the fact he never taught him anything aside from tree-climbing) or his father-like academy teacher Umino Iruka (who always took the time to treat him to a bowl of ramen). His first friends in the Ichiraku ramen makers...never to eat their ramen again, the thought scared him. The boy's eyes widened when he realized he'd never see his motherly 'grandma' Tsunade or his sister-like friend Shizune and more tears began to fall as he faintly felt himself drift down the water.

"Goodbye, Uzumaki Naruto...you fought well, but the better man won today," Sasuke said quietly as his friend's corpse floated away. He then turned and walked away as the rain began to fall, cleaning him of the blood belonging to his best friend. He pulled the slashed headband from his forehead and tossed it to the ground, effectively abandoning his former home.

A little while later, a white haired man wearing the Konohagakure standard jonin garb appeared with a small brown pug wearing a Konohagakure no Sato headband and blue vest with a smiley face on it. The man blinked and looked around, scanning the area through the rain, but shortly became distraught when he couldn't find anything. The pug found something, and in a deep voice said, "Kakashi!"

Kakashi turned towards the small dog and approached, finding him sitting on a Konohagakure headband. The man looked at the pug with a worried glance and the dog said, "It's Sasuke's...I can't find the blonde kid's scent...It ends at the bay. I'm sorry."

Kakashi clenched his hand around the headband and looked down to the ground. He shut his one visible eye and thanked Kami for the rain to conceal his tears as he thought, I've failed you, sensei...I've failed again...

~~Kyuubi's Seal~~

"Insolent mortal!" The great demon lord snarled to the very much unconscious teen before it as it gave him more and more chakra, "Do you not understand that I wound you each time I heal you? That my abilities do far more harm than good?"

Receiving no response from the unconscious teen, Kyuubi snorted and continued speaking down to its unconscious host, "Then again, you are nothing but a fool. Perhaps I should heal you fully, let my chakra poison you, and then take this form as my own!"

Upon thinking of doing exactly that, the seal glowed brightly once and a shock of pain coming to the Kyuubi. The giant beast snarled at the small tingle of pain and looked back at the boy with a scowl.

Even now, while unconscious, you refuse my power. Impressive...Perhaps there is something to gain from this development, the Kitsune lord thought as a sinister smile came over its' face. I believe it's time I try a new form of 'living'. And this way...I will get you, Madara!

~~A River Bordering Kaze no Kuni~~

Ah...another miserable day in the miserable heat, depressingly thought an middle-aged man with greying red hair before a small smile came over his face and he twitched his fingers, causing the wooden and metallic figure behind him to skitter along to his side, Just how I like it!

The man was none other than Sasori of the Sand, the fabled puppeteer of Sunagakure no Sato. While originally believed to have bastardized himself into some living puppet, that would actually be his illegitimate son, Sudoku of the Sand, who had stolen many of his puppets, including those of his mother and father (something that severely irked the puppet master) and even sealed his own heart into a piece for a puppet!

"I swear, if one more brigade of Suna Hunter Nin appears at my cave, I'll return to my old ways!" the redhead grumbled before a bright orange along the river caught his eye.

"Hm? What's this?" the puppeteer muttered as he approached the bank of the river. His eyes widened when he saw it was a young blonde boy floating down the river, his chest burst open in a large wound that seemed cauterized. Acting quickly, the redheaded puppeteer sent his scorpion-like puppet, not at all humanoid but built to look like a large Giant Scorpion, to save the boy. The scorpion quickly placed the boy on his back and skittered back to the Puppet Prodigy.

"Good job, Goliath!" Sasori complimented the puppet with a smile. He had actually given the puppet its own personality...which for some reason was that of a loyal dog. You know what they say about the desert heat, after all.

"Now, let's get back to the cave, shall we?" Sasori asked his puppet, jumping onto its back, adjusting the other passenger so they both fit comfortably on the back of the puppet. Sasori formed another set of chakra strings for his other hand and removed some from the hand he had been using before cracking them like whips, "Ya!"

Goliath skittered along quickly before soon enough they made it to the cave Sasori had reformed into a small home with enough room for three people, or a puppeteer and a human guest. Sasori had Goliath lay the boy on the couch before sending the puppet away to the corner of the room. The puppeteer then went to his work bench, occasionally rushing back and forth between his shelf and the boy, not really noticing his scorpion watch, the subtle jerking of its head from left to right being the only sign of the puppet's movements.

~~Kyuubi's Cell~~

The Fox grinned. This human, Sasori if it recalled correctly, would definitely be able to properly bond the meat sack to the Kyuubi. All Kyuubi had to do now was wake the damn gaki up!

Blast...nothing I try works!Kyuubi thought, irritated that its constant taunting and jeering at the boy did nothing to rouse him from his rest. An idea occurred to the Kitsune that it felt was ridiculous it hadn't tried before.

"Well...I wonder..." The Kitsune muttered, tapping a claw on its chin before it shrunk down to a human's size. The fox morphed again, forming a woman with long red hair, gorgeous maroon silk kimono and a very enormous bust size, bordering on H cups. With a smirk on 'her' ruby red lips, 'she' held her hand out and willed her chakra to create a bowl in her hand. Thinking back, Kyuubi changed her mind and simply chucked the bowl behind her before forging an illusion, packed with the power of THE Demon Lord's chakra, Kyuubi smirked.

If this doesn't do it, nothing will, Kyuubi thought before crouching and slipping her hand through the bar, surprised she hadn't been shocked, and said, "Ki-i-i-it...I have some Ra-a-a-a-a-men..."

The boy's left leg twitched and she smirked before blowing the 'steam' from the 'bowl' directly into Naruto's nostrils.

In a flash, Naruto was awake and reaching for the ramen. Had Kyuubi not been aware of her container's speed when he wanted Ramen, she would have lost the illusion in her hand and a yelling match would have already begun.

"Gimme! Gimme, gimme, gimme!" Naruto chanted, reaching for the bowl before leaping for it. Kyuubi giggled, amused at the boy's actions, recalling a time not so long ago when another lifetime's kits had acted similar.

"Ah, ah, ah," the Kitsune Lord chided, putting two fingers on the blonde's forehead and causing him to stop leaping and reaching as his eyes went from the bowl to her own ruby orbs, "You didn't say please."

"GAH!" Naruto exclaimed, leaping back and grasping his chest. Upon doing so, he remembered the fight and began examining himself, finding only burns and scratches before narrowing his blue eyes and looking at the woman standing behind the bars.

"Hello, Kit," she purred, flicking her wrist and causing the illusion of a fresh bowl of ramen once in her hold to vanish, "About time you woke up."

"What are you doing, Baka-Kitsune?" the blonde replied, suspicion in his eyes as he stood defensively, "Trying to control my body again?"

"What? Oh, heavens no," the Kyuubi said, her smile doing nothing to make the blonde believe her, "But...I still want my own body...outside of this...wretched place you call a mind!"

"Well forget it!" Naruto shouted, flicking the Kyuubi off and keeping a glare locked on her, "I'm not gonna let you out, EVER!"

"Never?" Kyuubi asked incredulously.

"Never ever," Naruto confirmed.

"Never ever, ever?"

"Never ever, ever, ever, NEVER!"

"Well...that's an awfully long time being stuck in you," the woman said with a sigh, "But we'll have to make due, I guess. Wake up!"

~~Reality~~

Naruto shot up with a gasp as he woke. He immediately doubled over in pain and clutched at his chest, where a gaping hole still remained.

"Ah! Baka-gaki!" a voice said as shuffling earned his attention, "Your wound isn't healed! Stay down, baka!"

A hand gripped the blonde's left shoulder and shoved him to his back. Naruto yelped in pain at the movement, silently cursing the teme back home for doing this to him. For the first time in a long time, genuine tears came to the blonde's eyes, falling as the pain was unrivaled by anything he had ever felt.

"I said be still!" the voice said with urgency, "I've almost got my Chakra Stabilizing Converter ready. You really should be honored, gaki. You'll be the first human to have a puppet's heart within you."

"A-A-A W-What?" Naruto struggled to ask with coughs between his words. A pinch in his shoulder made him grunt in pain. He managed to turn his head to see a middle-aged man sticking a needle into his shoulder.

"Silence, gaki, just rest..." the man said with a small smile as the blonde's world faded into darkness.

A few hours later, Naruto groaned as he sat up. His chest hurt and his body felt like it was on fire.

"Ah, sleeping beauty finally awakens!" the man's voice from before said, making Naruto look in his direction. Sitting at a table tinkering with some sort of glove was a redheaded man with a small goatee on his face. Near him was a set of sake glasses and a bottle.

"W-Who are-Ah!" Naruto grunted as he clutched at his chest. He felt a smooth circular indent in his chest and the blonde looked down to see a glowing red orb between his teenaged pectoral muscles. Naturally, Naruto freaked out, "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?"

The man laughed at the blonde's reaction, making said blonde look at him and ask, "Where the hell am I? Who in Kami's name are you? Why won't you fucking answer me?"

"Calm yourself, gaki," the man said with a grin, "My name is Sabaku no Sasori as I am formally called, but you can call me Sasori-san or Sasori-sama, whichever you prefer. And might I say I'm impressed you have such a vast vocabulary."

"As for where you are, you are in my home," Sasori continued, easing the blonde's worries little by little, "And that device in your chest is keeping you alive. If you want me to remove it though..."

"No, no, no, no!" Naruto quickly replied, shaking his hands as human instinct to survive coupled with the angry ranting of an enraged demon echoing in his head made him accept this development, "I...Thank you, Sasori-san."

"Bah, think nothing of it," the esteemed puppeteer said with a wave of his hand before he poured himself a drink of sake, "Sake?"

"I'm too young," the blonde deadpanned. Sasori barked a laugh out and poured an extra glass anyway.

"Bah, no shinobi is too young for a drink! Old enough to kill, old enough to drink, they always say," he said before gesturing to the chair, "Come. Sit. I wish to discuss to you some things."

This intrigued the blonde, making him arch a brow in curiosity as he hopped off the table and stumbled over to the table, as though he hadn't walked in over three hundred years. Naruto sat with a grunt of relief, making the puppeteer grin as he offered the drink to the blonde, who steadily took it. Sasori raised the glass, gesturing for Naruto to do the same, before he continued.

"First, a celebration is in order," the redheaded man said with a grin, "To long life!"

"H-Hai," Naruto agreed before they both took a drink. Naruto coughed violently at the burning liquid that seemed to cool his body, Sasori laughed at the blonde's first encounter with rice wine. The blonde scowled at him before something occurred to him, "Are you related to Sabaku no Gaara?"

This made Sasori blink out of his laughter before rubbing his jaw, "Herm...Name sounds familiar, but I don't recall anyone in my family with that name. He might be a distant relative...unless we're discussing the jinchuriki of Shukaku."

"That's him!" Naruto said while pointing at the puppeteer master. Sasori laughed and took another drink.

"Ah, that little bugger...humph, he might just be my nephew. I don't know," the puppeteer admitted with a shrug, "Hadn't been to Suna in over...was it twenty years now?"

"Twenty years?" Naruto repeated with wide eyes. Sasori shook his head.

"That's not important right now," the man said before looking at the blonde with a serious face, "What are you doing all the way out here, Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, why aren't you at Konohagakure no Sato? And why in Kami's name were you near death?"

Naruto's eyes widened and instinctively he reached for his kunai, when Sasori continued, "Whoa, whoa, whoa there gaki. I'm only curious; your biju chakra was interrupting the procedure of inserting the CSC. Hench why your CSC glows red...I think. Besides...in case ya haven't noticed, I've completely stripped you of your weaponry...and clothes, but for medical purposes only!"

Naruto blinked and looked down at himself, finding the machinery in his chest to be fascinating and yet horrifying, before noticing he was only clad in his green boxers, which were a little soggy still.

"Y-You saved my life?" the blonde asked before looking up with suspicious eyes, flashing them red unintentionally, "Why?"

"Oh-ho, a boy who's figured out the secret to jinchuriki control, eh?" Sasori chuckled out, raising a hand in an effort to calm him, "Nothing like controlling you, trust me. Been without company for so long that I was just happy to have a chance to make a friend."

Naruto blinked in confusion and jumped out of his seat when a puppet in the far corner skittered along the floor and appeared next to the redheaded man. Sasori chuckled and patted the puppet on the head, "Ah, I'm sorry. Goliath, meet the Kyuubi Jinchuriki. Kyuubi-gaki, meet my favorite puppet, Goliath."

Naruto blinked as the puppet skittered to his side and rested its head on his lap, the tail waving in excitement. Hesitantly, the blonde placed his hand atop the puppet's head, shocked when it released a guttural purr and its tail thumped on the floor.

"Never seen a puppet like Goliath, 'ave ya?" Sasori asked with his head leaned back and his mouth open, before it turned into a smile, "Good! Means he's original. Can't have any copycats out there now can we?"

"N-No...I, um...I guess not-ah!" Naruto hissed and clenched his teeth while grabbing at his chest. Sasori acted quickly, sending Goliath to the side of the room before picking the blond up and assisting him in his short walk to the bunk.

"There's been far too much excitement for you, my young friend," Sasori murmured as he helped the blonde onto the bunk, "Rest. You're still recovering. You're going to need your full strength if you want to be able to be a shinobi once again."

"Ne? W-What do you-?" Naruto started to ask before a blanket was pulled over him and the redheaded man tucked the blonde teen in. A pat on the head was given by the slightly heat-stricken puppeteer master, and Naruto felt warmth grow in the pit of his heart. The blonde closed his eyes and yawned, succumbing to the exhaustion that was overcoming him. Before sleep fully claimed him, another familiar voice echoed in his mind.

Rest my container, Kyuubi purred out, somehow making him feel at ease, For I have big plans that require you.

~~Konohagakure no Sato, Hokage Office~~

"What do you mean you didn't find him?" Tsunade growled as she looked at the ANBU team that had been sent out to find Naruto. The ANBU commander, a man wearing a cat mask but named Tora, stepped forward.

"I looked as well as I could, but I couldn't even find a trace of the Kyuubi's chakra, Hokage-sama," Tora said, bowing his head, "I fear...the worst."

Tsunade frowned and waved her hand as she bowed her head, not allowing the tears threatening to show appear until she was alone with her pupil, Shizune, who stood at the side of the room with their pig, Ton-Ton, in her arms. The ANBU all bowed before vanishing in blurs, and Tsunade closed her eyes.

"Shizune...hold a memorial for the lost members of Team 7," the Godaime Hokage said as a tear fell before her eyes opened, narrowed in rage, "Because when I find that Uchiha, I'm going to kill him!"

AN: Here it is, as promised! The Iron Man/ Naruto crossover I mentioned months ago! Sorry about that wait, BTW, had a lot of drama going on what with my brother starting Freshmen year, getting into college, ya know, stuff for my 'future'. Thanks for reading...

...NOW REVIEW, FOUL SWINE!