AN: Author notes are at the end, or in mid text where I deem them necessary. If they are in the text they will occur in parentheses, and be denoted by the [AN:] as the one here at the beginning or the ones at the end.

AN: (5/23/14) Cleaned for your reading pleasure. Courtesy of yours truly.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any related copyrights, trademarks, properties, or characters. I am in no way profiting from this literary venture except from the comments and reviews that I receive, which will only help me improve my writing.

"Midway upon the journey of our life/ I found myself within a forest dark,/ For the straigthforward path had been lost./ Ah me! How hard a thing it is to say/ What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,/ Which in the very thought renews the fear." - Dante Alighieri's Inferno, Canto I

"Speech"

"Thoughts"

"Non-human speech"

"Non-human thoughts"

Uzumaki Naruto was running away from the mob of civilians who, in their usual fashion, were chasing after the poor child brandishing clubs and fists. Presently he turned a corner and ran, and ran, and ran; crossing three streets until he finally ran into a dead end. The Konohagakure street planners must have been stoned when they were drawing up this area because all the surrounding streets twist and turn at random intervals in this district of town, making it easy to shake someone unfamiliar with the area, but impossible not to get lost if you don't spend much time in the district.

Naruto reached the wall and had to put out his hands to stop himself from running into it: jamming his wrist and rendering escape by climbing impossible. He turned to face the mob of villagers and resigned himself to yet another beating as they approached, slowing down once they realized that the boy was cornered, and had nowhere to go. "I just want to go home, I don't want any trouble." Naruto started as he pressed himself flush against the wall. "I haven't done anything to-"

"Shut-up Demon brat," one of the villagers cut him off, "You jus hav…haven… haven… Ain't done anything recently!" another said, stumbling over his words, obviously quite drunk. "I mean jus today ya bump inna me and make me spill my sake. I had ta buy a whole nother bottle jus cause you di' that." These idiots were not just drunk, but thoroughly wasted, and quite obviously didn't give a damn about the consequences of their actions. After all, it was just the 'Demon Child' and everyone knew that he (and the village at large) would be 'better off dead' (Naruto, not the village at large. Then his death would be an exercise in futility; after all, how could his death be forgotten if there was no one around to not mourn him?)

"Well shit," Naruto thought, "There's no reasoning with these pe-" His thoughts were interrupted by a solid blow to the back of his head and the resulting starburst across his field of vision. Distracted by his temporary blindness, the young Naruto could not move out of the way of the flurry of blows that was directed at him. He endured the ministrations of the mob of tormentors a full five minutes before he gave in to the sweet void that is unconsciousness, knowing that with his Kami-forsaken luck he would wake up again to endure another beating. He just didn't know when.

"Boy!" Naruto heard as he began to stir. He was laying in about two and a half inches of water, and it was very uncomfortable. "Get up, boy!" the voice held authority, and sounded like it was used to being listened to. Naruto (wisely) chose to stand up.

"What? You want to beat me while I'm standing up?" Naruto snapped, hiding his fear of the voice. Becoming aware of his surroundings (a sewer), Naruto asked "Why am I in a sewer? Are you a pedophile? Because if you are I'm 'sposed to run away…."

"NO DAMMIT I AM NOT A PEDOPHILE! NOW GET YOUR DUMB ASS OVER HERE, SO I CAN HELP MYSELF BY HELPING YOU!" The voice, quite obviously, didn't like being called a pedophile. Naruto shivered, he didn't trust the voice. He thought that the old man had told him something about not trusting disembodied voices once… then again he also had nothing better to do, and thus he went to find the source of the voice. Luckily (or unluckily) he didn't have to go far.

He arrived in a large, boxy room with three walls being about as normal as the walls in any other sewer, he guessed, and one being that of a large cage. Said cage-door-wall-thing had a tag with seal written on it right smack dab in the middle. Inside the cage were two big, red, slit-pupiled eyes. "Ah, you've finally graced me with your presence…" it paused obviously waiting for a response.

Naruto picked up on this, and since it wasn't saying anything else he said "You were expecting me? The Old Man told me not to talk to strangers, and I'm pretty sure that applies to floating pairs of red eyes too. Especially in a sewer..." Naruto stopped, with an expression that said he was quite obviously lost in thought.

"I'm not a stranger, I've known you all of your miserable life… LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU BOY!" With a start, Naruto snapped back to reality (this is debatable) and immediately gave the eyes his full attention. "Now pay attention, I'm about to teach you something that could very well save your life. Come closer."

Naruto walked closer to the cage, "Wait, how do you know me? I've never met you before, I'm pretty sure I'd remember-"

"SHUT-UP BOY!" the voice cut him off, "I'll tell you eventually, but right now we have things to do. This may sting a bit." The tip of a tail pressed against Naruto's forehead, causing an incredible amount of pain to radiate out from the point of contact.

It was the worst pain that he had ever felt, moving out from his forehead, towards the back of his head, and then down through his skull. The pain moved from his head down the length of his spine, all the way to ends of his extremities. It was a burning, tearing sensation and beyond that the pain was indescribable.

"It feels like my body wants to turn itself inside out" he thought to himself, and succumbed once again to unconsciousness. He was to be disappointed, however, when his eyes opened and bloody tears began to flow from them. "MAKE IT STOP!" he screamed, "MAKE THE PAIN GO AWAY!" He reached out his hand and grabbed the ankle of his nearest aggressor and shrieked.

When Naruto made contact with the skin on the man's ankle all of the pain flowed from his body into his unfortunate (and unintended) victim's. The last thing he heard before he went out was the man screaming; music to his ears.

Minutes later, two masked ANBU were on the scene, and what they saw there could only be described as a charnel alleyway, and if it had been indoors, it would have easily rated charnel house. Naruto was lying on the ground, beaten and bloody, harmed, but not mortally. Knowing what had happened to him before, they knew that he would pull through. He, however, was not all that unusual; what was unusual was the quivering mass of flesh that his hand was embedded in.

It was gruesome. Wet and pulsating; lymph, bile and blood leaked out in small amounts all around the 'body,' if it could even be described as such. Judging by the steady beating of what looked to be a human heart, the rapid inflating and deflating of a couple of fleshy looking sacks that were probably lungs, the sound of muffled screams coming from inside the ball of flesh, and the flow of chakra through the 'body,' it seemed to be very much alive.

"What happened here?" the ANBU who was wearing a dog mask asked.

"I don't know, but we should probably get Naruto and the," he shudders, "the 'body' to the hospital." The other ANBU replied, this one was wearing a weasel mask.

"Right, I'll grab Naruto, you grab the 'body.'" Dog said.

"Hai." They both grabbed their respective burdens and stood up. When Naruto's hand left the 'body,' the flow of chakra into it ceased, but it still didn't 'die.' Not to say that it was still alive. "We must inform Hokage-sama of this as soon as possible. It is imperative that he know what happened."

Dog nodded, and they both shunshined off in the direction of the hospital. All that was left behind was a small pool of bodily fluids, and a swirl of leaves.

Konoha Hospital, 9 hours later

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage, was sitting in Naruto's hospital room waiting for the boy to wake up. He had to figure out what happened, and who or what did this or else Naruto was going to be the subject of even more abuse. "I mean what's more demonic than turning someone inside out? As it stands right now, this does not bode well for the boy." He moved towards Naruto's hospital bed, and stopped short. The boy twitched, and then started to moan as if in pain. "This does not bode well at all."

This child, who had the misfortune of not only being an orphan, but being hated by the vast majority of the villagers for reasons beyond his control, had experienced more than most of his veteran shinobi, and he had yet to see his seventh birthday. As it stands, this incident was likely to draw yet more of the villager's ire his way; something neither he nor Naruto needed. The Hokage sighed, there would probably be some kind of incident report over this that he was going to have to deal with. He was supposed to have time for his favorite little orange book (by his favorite student) today, but now? Now that wasn't very likely.

He let out another sigh. Hopefully Naruto would have some idea of what happened. Otherwise this could lead to something horrible.

"Ah, boy, you're back. I see my 'lesson' helped." Naruto looked up, and saw the same pair of red, slit-pupiled eyes as the last time he was there. He picked himself up off of the ground and walked towards the eyes once again. "I don't even have to ask him this time. I guess if there's one good thing about the kid he learns fast."

Naruto stopped in front of the cell door and stood there, looking the eyes straight in the… well eyes. He thought for a second and then spoke up, "What's your name? It's kinda hard to talk to you when I refer to you as a pair of eyes in my head. So what's your name?"

The eyes seemed to be a little surprised at this, he didn't know if it was because the boy was asking for his name, or if it was that he didn't already know who he was. He, being a fox, and therefore inherently deceptive, hid his surprise very well. "I am the nine-tailed fox, the Kyuubi." It stated. The Kyuubi waited for the boy's response, not really knowing what to expect since he wasn't displaying the same degree of fear that most did when in his presence.

"Alright fox, what the hell did you do? You said you were going to help me, but that thing you did to my forehead hurt more than all the beatings I got from the past year combined! How the hell did you help me?" Naruto demanded, he was breathing kind of hard and had grabbed the bars of the cage. He was about to continue when the fox tapped the bars, calling for silence.

"Simply put, I allowed you to defend yourself. What you did to the one instilled fear of you, and what you can do to them in the many; a great being named Machiavelli once said it's better to be feared than loved, and I whole-heartedly agree with that sentiment. I'm sure you will find out what we did when you return to the waking world." The fox said, taking some of the wind out of Naruto's sails. He sat for a few seconds, and let his words sink in. "Is that satisfactory? I would like to go back to hating you, and you are making that rather difficult."

Naruto thought for a second, wrapping his mind around what the fox had just told him. "Wait, so you're saying that the villagers are going to fear me even more now? Why would I want that?" The boy inquired, "And who's this Machiavelli character? Was he a great ninja?"

The Kyuubi laughed at Naruto's question. "Boy, the villagers fear you for what I did nearly seven years ago, but after word gets out about the events of last night they will fear you for what you are capable of."

"Yeah okay, I get that. Now tell me who Machiavelli is!" Naruto said, obviously a bit impatient. "please," he added as a sort of afterthought.

"How polite of you. Fine I'll tell you but only because you said please: Nicholai Machiavelli was a great scholar that predated the Sage of the Six Paths. He literally wrote the book on how to be a successful politician. Something you may want to read if you actually want to become Hokage." The fox said, "Now, if you're done I'm sure you have some business to attend to in the waking world."

Naruto nodded his head and closed his eyes. He faded away as he left his mindscape and returned to the waking world.

Naruto tentatively woke up to a soft(ish) bed, and dry clothes. He slowly opened his eyes and found, to his mild dismay, that he was in the hospital. He looked around the room, noting the lack of a window large enough for him to escape out of, a couple of chairs, and to his mild surprise, the Hokage. "Hey Jiji-san, what happened?"

"Ah! Naruto-kun, you're finally awake." The Hokage said, "Are you feeling alright? Does it hurt to move?" The concern in his voice was a tangible thing, it was obvious that the Old Man was quite concerned for the child.

Naruto nodded, "I'm fine Hokage-ji, but you still need to tell me what happened." He sat up, and moved his legs off of the bed, so he could kick them over the side.

"Well, we were actually hoping that you could tell us." The Hokage said, motioning for Naruto to stand up and follow him. "I'll show you what we found." He stated, as they left the room.

"Oh, so it's a surprise? I wonder what it is? Where is it?" Naruto excitedly asked as they set off in the direction of the ICU. They walked for a few minutes before stopping in front of a door with two ANBU operatives guarding it. They stopped for a moment.

"Dog, Weasel, we're going inside. Follow us." There was a chorus of "'Yes, Hokage-sama's" and the quartet entered the room. What they saw was still shocking to the three older men who had already seen it umpteen times that day, but there reactions paled in comparison to Naruto's.

Naruto's face paled, and his breathing got a little shallow. He started to retch, and then dry-heave as the nature of what he saw in front of him struck him. It was a wet, glistening ball of flesh, with organs and some bones on surface. It was sitting on a table with all kinds of tubes and machines hooked in to it, and a puddle of what looked to be bloody water radiating out from it. Naruto nearly fainted from the sight of the horror in front of him.

The Hokage, seeing the look of abject terror on Naruto's face, grabbed his shoulder and steadied him a bit. He shook the boy to get his attention, and to get him to take his eyes off of the 'body,' though they had figured out by now that it was very far from dead. "Naruto, you're fine. We're not going to do anything to you." Hiruzen turned to Dog, "Explain what you witnessed to Naruto."

The ANBU nodded and related what he had experienced the night before to Naruto starting from when he heard him scream, until they brought him to the hospital. "So you see, because your hand was in the 'body' when we found you, the most logical conclusion would be that while the mob was beating you, you somehow turned this man inside out using some kind of previously unknown jutsu." He finished

Naruto stood there for a moment, completely silent, and then he started to giggle, and then chuckle, and then he fell into a full blown laughing fit. "What? What's so funny? Was it something I said?" Dog questioned with an inquisitive look on his face, albeit it was underneath the mask.

After a few minutes Naruto calmed down, then after another couple of minutes he caught his breath. "No Dog-san, it wasn't anything you said. It's just that the fox was right. It is better to be feared than loved, especially if I can do something like that." Naruto grinned happily, not realizing the significance of what he had just said. "Hey, Jiji-san, do you think I could learn how to do that whenever I want? I bet then people wouldn't beat me up anymore."

The Hokage just stared at the boy in awe, "I-I'm sorry Naruto, did you say fox?" The Hokage asked rather hesitantly.

"Yeah, I was getting beat up by a mob of people, and then I got hit in the head a few times and I blacked out. When I woke up I was in this sewer with a big pair of red-eyes, and the eyes told me that they were going to help me and then they tapped me on the forward with the tip of a tail, and I fell unconscious again. Then when I woke up I was in really horrible pain, so I grabbed the closest person to me and the pain went away and I blacked out again. Then I woke up and the eyes told me that they were the Kyuubi, and then I woke up in the hospital." Naruto recounted his memories of the events of last night/this morning to the other three people in the room. Amazingly, he said all that in just one breath, leaving the two ANBU awestruck, and the Hokage with a jaw that would not respond to his commands to close.

After what seemed like a rather lengthy expanse of time, but was actually only a few moments, the Hokage regained his composure. "So, we can reasonably say that you did this to that person?" the boy nodded. "And that this is a skill you would have come in to anyway, since the Kyuubi said he 'taught' you how to do this?" To this, Naruto nodded again. "Right. Dog, go find Ibiki and tell him to meet us in my office. Weasel, you shall escort Naruto and I to the Hokage Tower. Naruto, here is a change of clothes, go get dressed." He said. He handed Naruto the clothes, and the boy changed into an orange t-shirt with the leaf symbol on it, and a pair of black pants, and put on his sandals.

"If everybody is ready," the Hokage received a trio of nods, "Then let us be off."

Dog popped in at T & I headquarters, and went to Ibiki's office. "Yo. The Hokage needs you in his office at the tower ASAP." The ANBU operative stated.

Morino Ibiki is a tall man, topping out at about 6'3" and weighing in at about 180 lbs. he cuts an impressive figure, even before you take in to account the way he dresses. Ibiki wears standard grey fatigues and a black high-collared trenchcoat. His face is thoroughly scarred, and his scalp is covered in all types of scars from your standard lacerations to burn scars to screw holes; thankfully his hitai-ate is a bandanna that he uses to cover his scar collection. All in all Ibiki is an imposing man, made even scarier when you take in to account his position as the head of the T&I department. He is not one to be trifled with.

"I'll be there soon." Ibiki stated.

"I think it is rather obvious why Naruto could be an asset to T&I in the future, especially if we can find finer ways for him to use his 'Nikuton.' Imagine how fast someone would crack if they were skinned alive?" The Hokage asked rhetorically. He knew how fast someone could break from torture like that, he had done it to an enemy shinobi during one of the wars. He shuddered; it was not something he wanted to remember. "I would consider it a personal favor if you looked after the boy, and helped in his training to bring this Nikuton under control."

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama, but let me clarify something here. Naruto has a bloodline that allows him to manipulate peoples flesh?" The Hokage nodded, "He can use this turn people inside out?" another nod, "You want me to look after the boy, I would assume you want me to become his guardian?" yet another nod, "You want me to oversee his training in a style that none of us really know anything about?" one more nod, "Will I be drawing extra pay for this?" you guessed it, another nod, "Okay. I understand. However, there is one last thing I want to know: how do I know that he isn't going to turn me inside out while I'm training him?" Ibiki finished his string of questions.

The Hokage began to nod and then stopped mid-motion. He had a thoughtful look on his face before he turned to Naruto and asked "Naruto, will you promise not to hurt Ibiki-san if he agrees to train you?"

Naruto looked at The Hokage like he was crazy, "I promise not to hurt Ibiki-san if he agrees to train me. I don't think I could do much to him anyway, he's too big and scary." Naruto looked at Ibiki and smiled, although we will probably never know why.

"Ibiki-san, is that sufficient?" Hiruzen asked, looking at the mentioned Tokubetsu Jonin.

"Yes Hokage-sama, I accept this mission. I agree to look after the boy, and oversee his training." Ibiki said. "You owe me big for this old man, and it isn't my fault if the kid gets screwed up from living with me. It was, after all, your idea."

"Wait, Hokage-ji, so Ibiki-san is going to be my friend now?" Naruto asked, with more than a hint of enthusiasm in his voice.

The Hokage nodded, "I would recommend that you go and get Naruto's things from his apartment before the villagers learn about his new 'gift, ' and decide to vandalize his apartment again." The Hokage suggested/ordered.

"By your leave then," The Hokage nodded, and Naruto and Ibiki left the office.

"I honestly have no idea what I've just done." Hiruzen said to himself.

"Ibiki-san, you're a ninja right?" Ibiki nods, "Then how come I've never seen you around the village before?" Naruto asked.

Ibiki gave Naruto an appraising look, "I work in the T&I department, I spend a lot of time there, and I live on the other side of the village from your apartment, so it isn't really all that surprising that you haven't ever seem me around before. To be fair, I'd only seen pictures of you before today, with capture on sight orders for when you pulled larger scale pranks."

"Eh? I rated capture on sight? Really?" Ibiki nodded, "Awesome!" Naruto smiled from ear to ear.

It was infectious, Ibiki also started to smile, which terrified any and all villagers that saw him and created a bubble of space around him and Naruto for them to move in. "This might actually turn out to be a mutually beneficial relationship" Ibiki thought, and his smile widened much to the dismay of the villagers.

"Oh, hey! Ibiki-san we're almost at my building! Then we can get my stuff and we can go to your apartment!" Then he got a thoughtful look on his face, "Thank you for agreeing to train me Ibiki-san." Naruto bowed after he said this.

"Let's just get your stuff so we can get to my apartment. I'm getting hungry, and I can't just go to the T&I cafeteria like I usually do this time of day. So let's move!" Ibiki said. Naruto's enthusiasm was rubbing off on him already. This just scared the villagers around them even more; they began to just completely avoid the two of them.

They arrived at Naruto's apartment complex, and Naruto opened the gate. They proceeded up the stairs to the boy's floor and turned towards his door. When they got to his door, Naruto opened it and standing inside was a civilian with a can of spray paint vandalizing Naruto's apartment. Written on the walls were such eloquent phrases as "Demon Child" and "Fox Boy" and, this was a new one, "Demonic Sake-Bottle-Breaking Punching-Bag."

"Hey, Ibiki-san this is one of the guys that was beating me last night." Naruto said. On hearing Ibiki's name the man flinched. "Are we gonna do anything to him?"

"Now Naruto-san, one of the things you should know about me is that in these situations it isn't a question of what I'm going to do, but what I'm not going to do." Ibiki had a sadistic grin on his face, "Now pay attention, I might test you on this later."

"And that, Naruto-san, was your first lesson in the fine art of torture and interrogation. Now not only do we know who his friends are, but we have also punished him for vandalizing your home and brutalizing you yesterday." Ibiki finished. Naruto had a pad of paper and a pencil out, and he was taking notes and hanging on Ibiki's every word. He would be prepared for that test, by Kami, or his name wasn't Uzumaki Naruto.

"Ibiki-san, when is the test?" Naruto asked, "I want to know how long I have to study."

Ibiki looked over at Naruto and saw his notebook, pencil, and the amount of notes he taken and his jaw-dropped. "Oh? You thought I was serious? Good! I will be giving you a test on the first three lessons after you have learned them, so until then you can study." Ibiki stated. "I didn't think he would actually take that seriously, now I have to make a written test and devise some sort of lesson plan. More work than I need."

"Well then, let's get to it so we can leave!" Naruto exclaimed as he set to work gathering up his posessions. "Then we can get something to eat and go to your apartment."

Ibiki found himself smiling for the third time that day, well second if you don't count the sadistic grin.

They left Naruto's apartment building, and were in the middle of a heated discussion about where they were going to eat. Naruto was firmly rooted in the ramen camp, whereas Ibiki was entrenched in dango city. Seeing as there weren't any good restaurants in Konohagakure that served both, this was turning in to a protracted battle of wills. This could not end well for the village.

Ibiki paused for a second, "Wait, I have an idea. Does Ichiraku Ramen do take out?" Naruto nodded his head, "Well then we can have dango AND ramen, and neither of us will have to cook!"

"Really?" Ibiki nodded an affirmative, "Then what are we waiting for, I'm hungry!"

Ibiki's apartment was rather spartan, with little furnishing aside from your basic couch, bookshelf, table, chairs, and kitchen, at least when you walk in that's what it looks like. There was a hallway that lead to the bathroom, and three bedrooms, one of which he had converted in to a study. Being the head of T&I paid well, and although it wasn't very obvious, the fact that he had two bedrooms and a study made it rather clear to see.

The apartment was in that comfortable state of disorganization that any single man is familiar with, where anyone who had never been there before would wander around and wonder how you ever found anything. Ibiki didn't get visitors very often, but that didn't mean that he minded having them in anyway. Most people just found him rather off-putting, and so he suffered thusly.

Presently the two new companions entered the apartment, and Naruto was astounded at the interior. He looked around and saw the color of the walls. "Ibiki-san, were the walls painted forest-green when you bought your apartment?"

"What? Uh yes they were." Ibiki lied, he didn't want the kid to think he was soft. "Wait, it's not even been a day, and the kid's opinion already matters to me?" he thought, "Come on, Naruto-san, let's eat."

Ibiki lead Naruto to the table and they unpacked the dango and the ramen. He got out a few dishes and some chopsticks and they proceeded to enjoy their meal. Both of them acknowledged that the others preferred food had its merits, though neither of them admitted it out loud. After they finished the meal, Ibiki gave Naruto a tour of his apartment.

As he lead Naruto down the hall, he pointed out the doors, "The door on the right is my study, at the back of the hall is the bathroom, the door next to the bathroom on the left is my room, and then this door," he pointed to the first door on the left, "is now your room."

"Eh? So I really get to stay here?" Naruto asked with quite a lot of incredulity in his voice.

"What have I gotten myself into?" Ibiki asked no one in particular, then to Naruto he said "Yes, you get to stay with me from now on. The Hokage thought it would be a good idea for me to see to your training and well-being since I can teach how to use your special skill set to its fullest as a tool for torture." He handed Naruto the storage scroll that they had put all his things in, "unpack and go to bed. Tomorrow we stop in at T&I first thing in the morning, and then your training starts."

Naruto could only nod, because the sadistic grin on Ibiki's face honestly scared the living shit out of him.

End Chapter One

AN: So that was the first chapter of my first excursion into Naruto fan-fiction, and second ever story I've started. Ibiki is going to be OOC, and obviously Naruto is too. I don't know about my pairing yet, but I do have a couple in mind (NarutoXKurenai and NarutoXFemHaku being my favorite pairings) but I don't think I will be having any lemons. Unless I get a really good beta that is willing to do that for me, in which case there might be lemons late, late, late, late later on. So review please, since this is my first time writing a Naruto fic, and I could really use a beta, so if you're interested in that, send a PM my way please. Oh, and if you want me to update with any semblance of speed, you really ought to review.

Thank you,

E E Merica