Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Prototype 1 or 2.

"Hey"- Human Speech

'Hey'- Human thought

"Hey"- Jutsu/Demon speech/Blacklight Technique

'Hey'- Demon Thought

Let's begin

Sakura was watching over her unconscious teammates after setting some traps, Naruto and Sasuke having passed out from the pain of receiving Curse Marks from the snake Sannin, Orochimaru, though she didn't know that; she was unconscious herself during the whole situation. Her fatigue was getting to her, as she swayed slightly, in dire need of rest, but she knew she couldn't sleep. Looking outside of the tree hollow, she threw a kunai, seeing someone getting too close, only to find she scared a little squirrel. Looking in the distant forestry, her eyes widened when she saw three shadows heading her way. Getting up and standing outside defiantly, brandishing twin kunai as she took her Hebi stance from Anko's training.

The shadows showed themselves to be a team from the newly-founded Otogakure. The apparent leader had bandages wrapped around his head, save for his left eye, wore a lavender long-sleeved tunic, and had some shaggy thing on his back. To his left was a boy with hair like Hatake Kakashi's, only black, and he wore some odd headgear that framed his face, and wore a yellow short-sleeved tunic with the kanji for 'Death Death.' His opposite was the only kunoichi of the team, a girl with insanely long black hair tied in a lavender ribbon wearing a zipped-up flak jacket and a grey-camo scarf around her neck, brandishing some senbon. "We're here for the Uchiha and blonde gaki; stand aside and you won't get hurt... much." The bandaged one offered.

Sakura merely glared at him defiantly and threw her kunai while sending a Sen'eijashu towards the kunoichi, only for the kunai to be blocked and the snakes to be dodged as the kid with the headgear pointed his open palms at Sakura, showing small tubes in his palms. "Zankuha!" He yelled, massive blades of wind shooting out of the tubes, heading for Sakura, who only smirked and cut a hidden wire, setting off a trap that made a large log swing down, blocking the airwaves, only for the leader to stop it with his hand, the sleeve falling back to show an odd contraption on his arm. Channeling chakra to it caused the log to explode in a shower of splinters.

Sakura felt fear creep into her mind as her traps were thwarted by the Oto team, especially when the leader, Dosu, pointed out her poorly-hidden pitfall trap. Just as she was about to be killed by another attack from Zaku's air tubes, she was saved by a green blur slamming a sandal-clad foot into the side of his face, throwing him into a nearby tree.

Her savior showed himself to be Rock Lee, Handsome Green Beast of Konoha! The jumpsuit clad teen announced his intent to save the 'beautiful, helpless maiden' from 'unyouthful people.' While Sakura still found his overall look creepy, she was happy to see the taijutsu freak come to her rescue, as she retreated into the tree hollow to tend to her teammates.

Only for her savior to be easily tossed aside by Dosu's Melody Arm and its assault on his inner ear, throwing off Lee's equilibrium and causing nausea and blurred vision as blood leaked from his ears and he fell to the ground, unconscious. Again, Sakura felt fear grip her heart as the Oto team closed in on her, unimpeded, as no one else came to her rescue. Just when she resigned herself to death, an oppressive chakra exploded in the area, and she dared to turn her head, only to find Naruto, standing straight up, bathing in a typhoon of crimson aura. "That sound... that terrible sound. Who is making all that sound?" Naruto breathed out, loud enough for everyone conscious to hear. Due to holding Kasai, his hearing was much better than other humans, so he was extremely sensitive to the sound-based techniques of the Oto genin.

Zaku decided to answer. "We did. Whaddya gonna do about it, blondie?!" He questioned, smirking arrogantly, even when Naruto shifted his arms into his fully-evolved Claws and raised up his right arm. He watched as the blonde shoved his transformed hand into the earth, and his instincts allowed him to survive the surprise attack from below, massive spikes jutting from the ground where he once stood. His team joined him in the impromptu dance number as Naruto repeatedly stabbed the ground with his claws, causing more nests of spikes to explode from the ground around them, tearing up the earth and trees. Once they stopped jumping around like monkeys, Naruto decided on a rather odd combination of mutations, channeling Tendrils and Muscle Mass together. His arms grayed and bulked up, but the notch formed under his wrist this time, and it had a hole in it. Flicking his wrists, grey tendrils slithered out and embedded themselves in the ground with the force of his whim. Smirking at the implications of this, Naruto snapped his arms up, pulling the tendrils from the ground and swung them towards the Oto genin, only for them to dodge, but the tendrils slammed into some overhanging branches, splintering the bark with ease. Aiming for the arrogant fuck who told Naruto they made that damnable noise, Naruto swung his arms in a wide arc towards Zaku, who saw no way to dodge them since he had jumped and decided to block, bracing himself for the immense pain. A tendril caught his arms blocked to the side, the force bringing him down to earth, kicking up a dust cloud as Zaku screamed in pain. Withdrawing his tendrils and shifting his arms back to normal, Naruto saw that he had broken both Zaku's arms from the blow. "Hand over your scroll and leave us or I'll do more than break your arms." He threatened Dosu, who completely believed he could do so, and merely nodded, reaching into his scroll slowly to not piss him off, and put his scroll on the ground, picking up his damaged teammate and leaving with the remaining kunoichi.

Naruto merely glanced at the scroll and picked it up, pocketing it as he walked towards Lee, using part of the Byakugan to scan him. His inner ears had burst; nothing a little biomass could fix. But the Byakugan also picked up his splintered and fractured chakra network. Deciding to kill two birds with one stone, he set about healing his ears and his chakra network, youki-infused biomass putting the broken pathways back together, as the biomass infected him like it did Sasuke, turning him into another Evolved, as James said. He stepped back once the change began, the mutation focusing on his arms.

It was like Muscle Mass, but the limbs were leaner, like Lee's own arms, but no doubt as powerful, and it gave him four extra limbs, giving Lee a total of six arms. Watching Lee stir, he kneeled down to the boy as he rubbed his head, only for him to jump in surprise at the condition of his arms, and the fact he had six. "I fixed your ears when that mummy-dude broke them, but I also ended up making you something called an 'Evolved.' As such, I also fixed your chakra network; you can now use chakra and jutsu." Naruto explained.

Lee looked to Naruto, tears in his eyes at the sound of being able to use chakra, and nodded. "Thank you... Naruto-sama." He said.

Naruto merely chuckled. "No need for formalities. We are equals; brothers as geniuses of hard work." Naruto said, putting his hand on Lee's shoulder(s?) as they stood up.

Lee nodded. "Yes, Naruto-kun, we are both geniuses of hard work. Now... how do I turn these off?" He asked sheepishly.

"Just will them to disappear." Naruto offered, watching as Lee nodded and closed his eyes, his new limbs erupting in biomass and shrinking down to leave his two normal arms. "Now go to your teammates before they get worried." He reminded Lee, who nodded and gave a farewell as he disappeared in a burst of speed. Naruto then turned to his unconscious teammate and went to him, kneeling down and putting his fingertips to the Curse Seal of Heaven on his shoulder. Sensing that Orochimaru's vile soul was still within, he channeled a bit of youki-infused biomass into the seal, continuing the process until he felt it shatter, leaving Sasuke with the seal, but none of Orochimaru's will, as his body erupted in the same flame patterns Naruto did before, and he ascended to the Second Level, his skin turning dark grey, his hair lengthening into a mane and turning a shade of blue, as a four-point star formed on the bridge of his nose and large wings shaped like hands burst from his back.

Sakura, to the side, was shocked at what she just witnessed; Naruto just came out of nowhere and beat one of those Oto genin without a sweat, healed Lee but infected him with his 'Kekkei Genkai', and did something to Sasuke-kun, and now he looked, save for the giant wing-hands, kinda hot! Maybe Naruto's powers weren't so bad...

She sighed as Sasuke's features faded from his body, showing his normal seal again. Shortly after he reverted to normal, he began to stir, and sat up, his eyes slowly opening. "What happened?" He asked, looking around and rubbing his head.

"Orochimaru gave us Curse Seals, but my Blacklight purged his soul from it, gave me another power, and upgraded my Armor, then some Oto-fucks came in, battered around Sakura and that Lee kid, I beat one of them and made Lee an Evolved like you, and purged Orochimaru's soul from your mark but you keep the power and Second Level without the seal draining your chakra or causing waves of pain." Naruto explained. "Oh and I got us the other scroll." He added, brandishing the Heaven Scroll they needed.

Sasuke merely blinked rapidly at the influx of information. "O...kay." He said slowly, just deciding to take it all in stride; Naruto just being Naruto. "Let's go to the tower, then." He offered, getting up.

Sakura was just left out of the loop as her teammates headed on without her. Snapping out of her shock, she quickly ran to catch up with them. She didn't bother asking Naruto what just happened, knowing he was too tired to explain, as was she. What happened to the blonde baka that followed her around like a puppy? While she was glad he stopped that, she didn't truly understand his whole new situation, but perhaps it was for the better. While she loved Sasuke to death, a small part of her knew he was cold towards everyone; whatever Naruto did, it warmed him up, and now he was more open. And their recent 'upgrades' made her realize her own weakness, which she rectified through Anko, however crazy she was. Looking back, she realized she was sort of a bitch towards Naruto, and somewhat understood why Alex did what he did; she didn't like it, but she understood why. In this moment of darkness, she saw a small light, and she was slowly but surely walking towards it.

After running through the forest and making their way into the tower, finding they had the second best time, but still beat the previous record, as Gaara's team finished first, they went to their appointed rooms to wait for the remaining teams to appear, Naruto going to the training area to test some of his new mutations. He trained in the few forms of Nature manipulation he could think of, mostly an axe on his arm, jet boosters on his elbow and back for a boosted jump/charge, a piston out of his elbow, and extending his arm on ridged segments, similar to the Whipfist, but much more limited in range, and it ended in his hand, not a blade or claw, though the nails were sharpened. Deciding on trying something new, he willed the mutation powered by nature chakra to form spouts out of his back, similar to the one's Sasuke could make. Moving his arm to one side, the spouts on the same side following his movements, pointing to the side. "This is awesome!" Naruto yelled excitedly.

"Sure looks awesome, gaki." Anko commented from the doorway to the large room.

Naruto yelped in surprise, the spouts blasting out chakra, damaging the wall, as he slowly turned to look at her sheepishly. "Oh, hi, Anko-chan; you scared me." He said, rubbing the back of his head as the spouts retracted.

"So I hear you can destroy Curse Marks?" She offered seriously.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "I guess Sasuke told you about our confrontation with Orochimaru?" He asked.

Anko nodded. "I'm impressed you managed to send him packing, I'm proud of you, gaki. Now can you do the same for me?" She asked somewhat desperately.

Naruto's eyes widened. "You have a Curse Mark?" He asked, never knowing.

Anko nodded somberly and began explaining the second half of the reason she was hated by civilians: she carried a Curse Mark of Orochimaru, and thus the people saw her as a possible sleeper agent that could activate at any time on Orochimaru's whim to destroy them all from the inside.

Naruto frowned at that and held her in his arms, agreeing to purge her of Orochimaru's soul. Channeling youki-infused biomass to his hand, he settled it over the mark that was in the same place as Sasuke's. When he felt the biomass leave him and enter the seal, he took his hand away and stepped away, waiting to see if anything would happen since the seal was dormant and a prototype. He felt the telltale snap of the soul fragment being purged from the seal, but watched as the same flame-shaped markings spread across her body. Like Sasuke, her skin turned grey and a four-point star appeared on the bridge of her nose, her lips taking a purple sheen like she put on lipstick, as her hair turned a couple shades lighter, broke the band that kept it in its trademark peacock-tail shape, and lengthened to an attractive mess of hair, similar to her friends Kurenai's, on her head, two fang-like bangs framing her face. From her back grew ten snakes, which formed eerily similar to biomass appendages taking shape, as they separated into groups of two and coiled together to imitate the large hand-like wings Sasuke gained, two large snakes sticking out of her sleeves as another grew out the small of her back, imitating a tail.

'Dear Kami, did she just get ten times hotter?' Naruto questioned himself as he stared at the transformed Anko, only for her to revert to normal, but her body rippled with biomass as snakes momentarily formed from multiple places, like the 'wings' and 'tail,' as well as replacing her hair for a minute and her body from the waist down to turn into a giant snake tail. 'Huh, I guess she's another Evolved. Ironic how it's snake-themed.' He commented mentally.

"...What just happened?" Anko questioned after all was said and done and she was back to normal, though her hair was freed now.

"Well, like Sasuke, you apparently attained the Second Level of the Curse Mark, and you're now another of my Evolved. You have a single mutation like Sasuke did even though he treats his arms and spine as two separate mutations. Apparently, you have a variation of Tendrils that replaces them with snakes." Naruto explained.

Anko's eyes widened at the fact she had the amazing power two of her students had. But more importantly, she was finally free of her curse. Almost tackling her student, she hugged and kissed him fiercely in gratitude, and they stayed like this for a while.

(Four days later)

The remaining genin were lined up in the arena room in front of the Hokage and the collective Jounin's of all the teams. The remaining teams consisted of the Rookie 9, Team Gai, Team Suna, Kabuto's team, and Team Oto, everyone noticing Zaku had both his arms in slings, but putting it off as the dangers of the Forest, as everyone surely ran into something that could warrant breaking a few bones. But they felt a hint of respect for the boy when he didn't call to drop out, as those of lesser virtue would under such a handicap. However, Yakushi Kabuto dropped out, saying he was low on chakra and injured, making a show of himself by limping out of the arena.

Everyone complained when they were told that preliminary matches were to be held to thin the ranks for the final portion of the exam, as they didn't want to waste the visiting nobles' time with too many fights. A classic case of 'tough shit' shut them up and a sickly Jounin appeared, calling himself Gekko Hayate and the proctor for the preliminaries. Turning their attention to the electronic board above the giant hands, the first two fighters were chosen.

Uchiha Sasuke vs. Akadou Yoroi

Everyone filed up to the balconies overlooking the arena, Naruto noticing Team Oto giving him downright fearful looks, the redhead from Team Suna giving him disturbing looks of insanity, his teammates giving the younger of their group worried looks.

"Yo, Naruto. Blacklight or no?" Sasuke asked his viral 'boss', since Naruto was the original holder of Blacklight and he was just an Evolved, he had a say in if he should use it in the preliminaries or not.

Thinking it over, Naruto shook his head. "Nah, best to keep something up your sleeve. No Curse Mark, either. We don't want to freak out Jii-san. Just beat his ass shinobi style." Naruto gave his two cents, smirking near the end.

Nodding, Sasuke agreed. "'Kay then. You know, you've changed a lot since this Blacklight thing happened. I think I have, too. You think if all this never happened, we wouldn't be friends? That we wouldn't have come this far?" Sasuke asked, thinking over how far they came along and how the people around them were affected. Haku and Zabuza might not be alive, Naruto might still be an idiot, Sasuke would be a brooding fuck, and Sakura might be useless. They might not have Anko as a sensei, hell, shit might have gone down on their way through the Forest of Death. Well, different shit.

"I think you're thinking too much over the past. We're here now and that's all that matters." Naruto reassured him, chuckling slightly.

Chuckling along with his blonde friend, Sasuke stayed as everyone but his opponent left. He knew what that meant; 'Probably. But I wouldn't have it any other way. Why settle for less when our lives are this awesome and we don't even try half the time?'

He looked towards his opponent and frowned; this Yoroi just seemed too creepy, too shifty. Not Konoha genin. He couldn't place it. Shrugging it off, he prepared for the fight. While he couldn't use his single mutation or Curse Mark, he could use techniques similar to his mutation.

"Hajime!" Hayate yelled, jumping back to stay out of the way.

Yoroi immediately charged Sasuke, his hands glowing with chakra as he lunged to grab the Uchiha's face. Sasuke retaliated by jumping forward, rearing his fist back, a small ball of fire forming at his elbow, which exploded, sending his fist, along with the rest of his body, forward, slamming it into Yoroi's stomach. "Fire Release: Rocket Fist!"

Yoroi was slammed into the wall on the other side of the arena, coughing up a bit of blood under his mask, scowling at his smirking opponent. "What the hell was that?!" He questioned; Kabuto's cards on the boys techniques said nothing about a technique like this!

"Oh, something new. Like it? Then you'll love this. Fire Release: Flare Gauntlets!" He yelled, whipping his arms out as fire formed down his arms like gauntlets. He lunged at Yoroi and engaged the masked 'genin' in taijutsu, only for his opponent to dodge as much as he could. Blocking fire still hurt. Using the memories he had of training with Alex and James, he manipulated the chakra channeled to the Flare Gauntlets to try something new. The one on his right arm extended well past his hand and up his elbow, mimicking the Blade mutation they used; the one on his left arm extended from his hand, but not to the extent of the Blade mimic. Rearing his left arm back, he yelled his new technique, mentally smirking at Naruto's jealous face. "Fire Release: Whipfist!" Swinging his arm forward, the 'blade' of his gauntlet extended on a tendril of fire, heading right for Yoroi.

"Oh, what fuckery is this?!" Naruto complained, throwing his hands into the air, causing his teammates to giggle and snicker. "I will get Whipfist somehow! But Sasuke can at least fake it with his Fire Release?!" He whined.

Yoroi attempted to dodge the flaming blade, but it grabbed him by the arm, searing his flesh, and pulled him towards Sasuke. Deciding to try something, Sasuke dispelled the blade of fire and slammed his fist up into Yoroi's approaching chin, throwing him into the air. Dispelling the whipfist, he jumped up and began pummeling Yoroi with rocket-powered punches and kicks similar to the first technique he used. The last thing he decided to try required him to be on the ground, so he used fire under his sandals to land on all fours; once he did, he channeled chakra to his back, forming six small fireballs to either side of his spine, which soon exploded upward and formed giant flaming fists on limbs of flame that grabbed Yoroi and started thrashing him about the arena floor and high ceilings. Once the ragdoll-pummeling stopped, he tossed Yoroi up and slammed all six palms into Yoroi. He let his charred opponent fall and stood back up, quite happy with himself. Sasuke looked around at the gobsmacked faces of his 'audience' and merely whistled a tune, acting innocent.

"Yoroi Akadou can no longer fight. He is merely unconscious. The winner is Uchiha Sasuke!" Hayate announced, surprised Yoroi actually survived all of that. "Please turn your attention to the board to see the next contestants." He advised as medics carted Yoroi away to treat his burns.

Aburame Shino vs. Abumi Zaku

Both genin jumped over the railing to meet each other in the arena. After Hayate called for the match to begin, Zaku immediately struck, sending a wave of wind blades towards the Aburame, only for Shino to disperse into insects; a Kikai Bunshin. The rest of the match went on as such, Zaku throwing around wind blades with his good arm, Shino secretly planting kikaichu swarms as he dodged the attacks. The fight culminated in an ultimatum; attack Shino and the bugs behind Zaku would strike, or vice versa. Zaku offered a rebuttal by using his damaged arm to attack both sides, only for the tubes to clog up and his arms to explode, Shino explaining that as he thought it over, kikai crawled up the tubes and clogged his chakra. Shino was named the winner and Zaku was carted away by medic-nin's to save him before he died of blood loss and the next fight was chosen.

Tsurugi Misumi vs. Kankurou.

Kabuto's remaining teammate and the cat-dressed genin from Suna both went to the arena floor and began the fight when Hayate called for it to begin. Misumi engaged Kankurou in taijutsu, quickly showing his odd trait: Soft Physique Modification. It allowed him to stretch and contort his limbs like taffy, as he held Kankurou in a disturbing grip and threatened to snap his neck. At his bravado, he did just that, and all was silent. Then Kankurou started laughing, and his head snapped around to look at Misumi, his face falling off like clay pottery, as two more arms burst from his body, showing 'Kankurou' was a puppet as it turned Misumi's threat back on him, Kankurou coming out of the bundle on the fakes back. His puppet, Karasu, crushed Misumi's bones, cementing his victory. The next fight was decided.

Haruno Sakura vs. Yamanka Ino.

This fight was quite pathetic, but not in the way you'd expect. Ino went down with one super-strength punch, courtesy of Sakura's chakra control mimicking Tsunade's monster strength. It appeared Ino didn't train at all, only focusing on Sasuke. After... that, the next fight was chosen before someone said something they'd regret, catching the ire of an angry Ino.

Nara Shikamaru vs. Tsuchi Kin.

The fight dragged on; Shikamaru attempted to ensnare Kin in his Kagemane, Kin dodged and retaliated with genjutsu-hidden senbon, with and without bells, Shikamaru finally caught her and made them both throw a kunai, only to dodge, Kin's proximity to the wall causing her to bash her head on it, knocking herself out. After Kin was carried away by medic-nin's, the next contestants were chosen to fight.

Uzumaki Naruto vs. Inuzuka Kiba.

Naruto exclaimed in excitement and jumped over the railing, Kiba jumping as well, but remaining silent, his face in a grimace. This was truly odd for the usually loud and brash, dare some say happy-go-lucky, Kiba many knew. Writing it off as the boy taking his opponent seriously for once, they waited with bated breath. Most were curious were his ninken, Akamaru, was, but only his team were privy to that information, or at least a shadow of the truth; fearing for the safety of his best friend, Kiba sent Akamaru home, content on trying to get through the test under his own strength. The truth was that Akamaru ran away when he realized Kiba was walking down the path of darkness due to his hatred of Naruto, and what happened in the forest.

"Are both combatants ready? Hajime!" Hayate swung his arm down after their nods, jumping back to join the Sandaime in observing this fight.

"Gatsuuga!" Kiba yelled, barreling towards Naruto in a drill of claws, causing the blonde to jump to the side to dodge, activating his Hyoton ability and sending a salvo of ice senbon after conjuring enough water in the air to freeze them, surprising everyone with his sub-element manipulation and Suiton control, mimicking the Nidaime.

Dodging that in a barrel roll off the wall he landed on, Kiba immediately activated his Shikyaku no Jutsu, becoming feral while creating a clone, the most he could achieve under his mothers training for just his situation. Running at him and crossing each other's paths to throw off which was the real Kiba, they both engaged Naruto in taijutsu, the blonde retaliating to the best of his abilities; he didn't want to show off his Blacklight just yet, so he was limiting himself to ninjutsu. But when you have two shinobi who seemingly want to see you in various pieces, he was driven to react.

"Kaiten!" He yelled, spinning in place with chakra erupting from his tenketsu, throwing both feral Inuzuka's off of him, the left one disappearing in smoke. Skidding to a stop, a white-eyed Naruto fell into the Juuken stance, ready for Kiba's retaliation, ignoring the gasps and stares around him. "Get up, Kiba; I know that wasn't enough to defeat you." Naruto insisted, staring the Inuzuka down.

Kiba merely raised his head and smirked, going up in a puff of smoke and being replaced with a large piece of tile that was ripped up. "What?!" Naruto yelled, only to be interrupted by the pain that exploded on his back.

"Tsuuga!" Kiba announced as he drilled into Naruto, sending him flying. Smirking triumphantly as he landed, Kiba looked to see the damage he wrought, only to see a wall of grey flesh over Naruto's back that had a slight spiral-shaped wound on it, but overall the blonde was unharmed.

"I didn't want to use this…" Naruto started as he stepped out of his indentation in the wall, brandishing this slab of flesh as some sort of wing, a twin sprouting from the opposite shoulder blade, appendages of cube segments coming together. "But you forced me, Kiba-teme." He finished, turning around to face the Inuzuka heir, brandishing his grey arms with axe-like growths on them. Snapping down into a crouch as various spouts grew from his lower back and stuck out from under his shirt, he rocketed forward as they spewed chakra jets, swinging his massive axe-limbs for Kiba, only for the Inuzuka to dodge to the best of his ability, only receiving a large gash on his leg instead of a violent disemboweling/dismemberment. The Inuzuka landed, yelping as a jolt of pain shot through his leg through the numbing agony of the gash. He wrapped his leg in bandages as quick as he could before Naruto fell upon him again.

Switching his arms for his Claws, Naruto attempted to slice into Kiba; he understood this was a fight either to the death or submission, so he didn't hold back. As such, he began to combine Bio-Bazooka and Claws. The result was the former covered in spikes, one large spike off the elbow, and the five claws formed a barrel from where the projectile shot forth. His extra limbs from Nature Manipulation shrank away, as did the spouts on his back. Suddenly, the claws split open, showing giant, terrifying hands, the glowing projectiles nestled in their palms. Lunging forward, swinging his bladed fingers at Kiba, Naruto snarled when the terrified yet infuriated Inuzuka repeatedly dodged.

'No matter what I do, he keeps getting stronger than me! Why couldn't the dobe just stay the idiot he was in the Academy?! Maybe... maybe I should take Orochimaru up on his proposal.' Kiba ranted in his mind, his subconscious going back to his time in the Forest of Death while he actively dodged Naruto's attacks and struck back when he could.

(Flashback)

After the traumatizing experience of seeing Sabaku no Gaara utilize his sand to wipe that Taki team from existence, very messily, Kiba volunteered to get some water for his team when they set up camp far away from Gaara.

After washing the taste of vomit from his mouth and actually getting some water, Kiba jumped when he heard a rustle in the bushes. Brandishing a kunai and sneaking over to the shrubbery, Kiba was immediately captured in a reptile coil, a massive anaconda holding him while a battered Orochimaru stepped out of the forestry, a slight limp in his step and a bleeding mid-torso. Glaring balefully at the captured genin, he considered sapping his chakra from him to speed up his healing process; that damned Uzumaki forced him to expend a large amount when his attack shredded through layer after layer of him renewing his body. Abandoning that idea, he opted to pop another chakra pill and grumbled under his breath at his inevitable revenge against Naruto.

Kiba's enhanced hearing caught the name of his most hated classmate, and his slitted eyes narrowed. "Naruto?" He asked.

Sensing the malice in the genin's voice, Orochimaru hid a vile smirk at the prospect of acquiring another pawn within the village. "Yes. Young Naruto-kun managed to do this to me. He has an interesting ability and actually got a hit on me, although it was very strong, I shall take care of him soon enough. But I sense you hate him. Why is that? When I last left the village, Sarutobi-sensei still expressed the concept of comraderie amongst his ranks." Orochimaru knew how to push peoples buttons with his words.

Kiba growled, clenching his fists, drawing blood from his sharp nails. "Naruto was a complete idiot; he always smiled, even when everyone in class hated him. Everyone except her. Hyuuga Hinata. She saw something and was smitten with the dobe. That was the first straw. When the final exam came, he failed, but arrived the next day, an official genin. Hokage-sama favored him so much, he got him to graduate somehow. That was the second. Then every time I saw him, he was stronger and stronger. Why couldn't he stay the weak dobe from the Academy? I hate him because he doesn't know his place, and I want to put him back in it, so the world can make sense again." Kiba grit his teeth in rage.

Orochimaru fought the laughter from the genin's narrow-minded viewpoint of the world; people will be stronger than you, no matter where you go. They were shinobi, and perhaps Naruto hid this strength during the Academy. But that part about Sarutobi's favoritism was true; he cared for the boy too much, and if he failed the test, he failed. No special circumstances could change that. "I could help you get strong enough to beat Naruto-kun. I underestimated him, but that won't happen again. I can give you the strength to put him back in his place. Would you like that?" He offered snidely. His grin grew when Kiba nodded fervently. Gesturing for his snake to let go of the genin, Orochimaru reached into his pocket and unsealed a vial of purple liquid. "When you next fight Naruto-kun and find yourself on the losing end, drink this, and I assure you it will make you strong enough to beat him. I'm not telling you to do it, I'm giving you a choice. But know this: if you take this formula, you will be taking a path that many of your allies won't like. The weak always fear strength, so they want to keep you down, like when I left this village. Good luck, Kiba-kun." Orochimaru's chuckle echoed through the forest even as he disappeared.

Kiba looked at the vial in his hands and pocketed it, torn on his decision when the time comes for him to face Naruto.

(Flashback end)

Nodding to himself, Kiba took the first step down this road and took out the vial, immediately drinking its contents. He felt a wave of power surge through him and his muscles expanded, glowing marks crawling over his skin; thankfully they were hidden by his jacket, so he could avoid questions for now and not worry about the Sandiame stopping the match.

Naruto's nose twitched and he scowled fiercely; Kiba smelled wrong. He smelled like... Orochimaru. Growling at him, Naruto formed his Bladetail and fused it with Claws, creating three more hands that he used as kickoffs, sailing towards Kiba with his claws baying for blood. He managed to grab Kiba with one claw, and the opening in his palm shot the projectile, blowing Kiba's stomach out at point-blank range; unfortunately, Kiba went up in a poof and a large piece of flooring fell from Naruto's grasp.

His tails managed to grab Kiba when he attempted to attack Naruto from behind, digging the claws into his back and shoulders. Throwing him away, Naruto shot after him, switching his fused mutation for something he'd kept up his sleeve for a special occasion, and this was plenty special. Tendrils at his shoulders curved heavily down his biceps to his elbows, focusing on strongly supporting his hulking arms, large club-limbs with a few round notches across it, his fingers at the ends. He acquired the Hammerfists from the leader of an Iwa team who easily recognized his relation to the Yondaime Hokage, the man responsible for over 200 deaths of the rock-humpers in the last Shinobi World War, the poor bastard having some minor Kekkei Genkai that gave him a near godly affinity to earth and allowed his body to fuse with stone, creating his own gauntlets of sharp stone. Naruto's Armor proved strong enough against his augmented fists and so, upon deciding he was interesting enough, he consumed him, using his new mutation to slaughter his teammates. Rearing his large fists back and slamming them into Kiba's stomach, Naruto sent him rocketing into a wall, an explosion of dust blocking his body from view.

Watching the cloud for a reaction, Naruto's eyes widened when he felt a familiar dark aura explode from within, but sufficiently watered down from where he remembered it from; did Orochimaru get to Kiba? Why?

What Orochimaru gave young Kiba was the middle-ground between a vial he gave Mizuki, which the Chuunin didn't get to use before his untimely death, and a full-fledged Curse Mark branding. It was his effort to achieve a cleaner, less personal method of bestowing his Curse Mark on his chosen targets. Testing it on Kiba, a genin with his sensei's own village, was an amusing opportunity he couldn't pass up.

Emerging from the dust, a transformed Kiba was revealed. The serum was a conglomeration of abilities and Curse Marks of his top shinobi, the Sound Five. As such, he was more of an abomination than a successful experiment, but Orochimaru - hidden in this very room under everyone's nose - was very happy with the results.

Kiba's jacket was torn apart by his beating and the transformation, showing the marks along his body and the new changes to it, as well. He grew a third eye on his forehead, the horns flanking it pushing his hitai-ate off, as all his eyes were seas of black with a yellow circle in each, his cheekbones very prominent, a solid sculpt connecting them with his upper lip, lining the upper jaw of his skull, as all his teeth sharpened into fangs. He grew five horns along his forehead, forming a sort of crown, as his hair grew slightly and became very shaggy. His muscles bulked up slightly, warts forming on his shoulders as a second pair of arms formed from his shoulder blades, made entirely of bone, with a spike on their shoulders. His primary arms had black, plated-armor replacing the flesh from the biceps down, his fingers turned into claws. His skin turned ash-grey, his crimson fang marks standing out more than usual. He had some sort of central growth over his heart, the flesh slightly molded in a swirl pattern, thick veins spreading across his body from it.

"Kiba?!" Naruto gasped in surprise. He didn't get the chance to question this change as Kiba lunged at him, slamming both his left fists into Naruto's chest, sending him flying into the opposite wall. He followed up by pointing his bone claws towards the dust cloud Naruto's impact kicked up, the tips shooting off, peppering the area within. Knowing Naruto survived that like the bastard he was, Kiba brought his primary hands towards his mouth, drooling a golden substance that immediately solidified into a pair of daggers, as he jumped into the cloud, roaring like a mindless beast as he began to brutally stab where Naruto should be.

Of course, Naruto wasn't there; he was outside of the cloud when Kiba went inside, clad in his Armor mutation, his Hammerfists switched to Tendrils, thrusting his mutated hands forward, a web of biomass stretching into the cloud, an explosion of flesh forming tendrils that tethered Kiba to the wall. As the Inuzuka struggled to free himself, the transformed Naruto stalked towards him, Tendrils switched to Claws. Once in front of him, he dug his claws into Kiba's flesh, seeking to consume his augmentations, purging him of Orochimaru's taint and gaining that interesting bone manipulation ability. However, once he began the process, Kiba managed to break free and actually broke Naruto's claws with his own.

"Fuck!" Naruto cursed as he jumped back, his hands healing with biomass as Kiba bumrushed him, knocking the oxygen from his lungs with a shoulder-tackle, also stabbing him as the spikes pierced his flesh. Grabbing Kiba's head, Naruto slammed his knee into his face, breaking his nose, and used his hold to toss Kiba over his shoulder, running after him with his Muscle Mass, increasing his acceleration with a situationally-horizontal uppercut to Kiba's chin, rocketing him into the wall he was already flying towards. He jumped into the ensuing dust cloud, having called upon his fully evolved Muscle Mass but having his frontmost arms turned into Claws and the rearmost Hammerfists, the middle the familiar thick, grey limbs with a separated fibula and elbow-stump. He slammed his newest limbs into Kiba's bone-arms, shattering them and pinning the remaining bones to the wall, his large grey limbs holding Kiba's armored arms straight out, his Claws soon swinging up, separating them from Kiba's body. His agonized howl, as well as the gaping stares and violent flinches of onlookers, was ignored, as Naruto swept his leg under Kiba, causing him to fall forward onto his stomach, which he followed with by planting his foot on Kiba's back and keeping a grip of his bone-arms, seen tearing them off in a spray of gore and bone matter. Even as the bones, carrying the special DNA of its progenitor, were absorbed by Naruto, the growth on Kiba's chest pulsed with red/purple energy, promoting rapid regeneration of cells, soon regrowing his arms.

Growling as Kiba wouldn't stay down, he violently punted the Inuzuka in his rib, sending him rolling towards the other side of the arena and began channeling his newest mutation through his entire body, similar to what he did against Orochimaru; while some might think this is overkill, he did this to show Kiba he was way in over his head, and that taking the Sannin's offer was a big mistake. His body rippled with black and red biomass, bulking up like some muscle-bound demon, his Armor fusing with his Hammerfists. The notches on the forearms climbed up his biceps and across his widening shoulder blades, as layers and layers of organic armor piled down Naruto's back, creating rounded plates that stretched across the back of his body like an armadillo's shell. His legs bulked up greatly, notches forming on them like his arms, his feet almost disappearing under them from the size difference. A notch formed on the front of his featureless face, and one on either side of the top of his head, like cut off horns, the armor of his face contorting to connect them, creating almost a battering ram skull plate. His Bladetails unfurled, soon becoming much thicker and ending in the large clubs of Hammerfists, dragging behind him but rising up with his swaying tails.

Raising his arms and tails up, Naruto slammed them on the ground, shaking the entire building, causing several people in the stands to stumble. Kiba jumped to his feet, hesitating greatly when he spied the transformed Naruto, but shook his head and ran towards him, the arms of bone having regrown as he brought his four hands towards his mouth, gripping the gold material as he essentially barfed out four blades of hardened goo. Cautiously striking with a sword held in the skeletal hands just in case Naruto reacted as he thought he would, Kiba was proven correct when the transformed blonde violently swung his arms, splintering the arm and weapon, before he brought its twin forward, slamming into Kiba's stomach, causing him to almost puke a disturbing amount of blood before he went flying, only for one of Naruto's tails to wrap around his leg, catching him and painfully dislocating it. He pulled him to lay at his feet and began beating on him with his Hammerfists, creating a bigger and bigger crater with each hit, slowly collapsing his chest; yet, even as he did this, the serum Kiba took continued to fix the major injuries. Jumping high up and tucking into a ball, Naruto slammed down on Kiba, constantly rolling in place to grind against him painfully for three whole minutes. Once he finished, he jumped off Kiba, further exacerbating his wounds with his great weight, and stood outside the crater he made, the entire front of Kiba a bloody smear, only for him to regenerate, but once healed, he was shown to have officially lost consciousness. Naruto reverted and glared at Hayate, who was gobsmacked the entire fight, causing him to flinch and snap out of it, announcing Naruto was the winner and calling for medic's to take Kiba away, Hiruzen ordered a pair of ANBU to join them, as Kiba was obviously tainted by his ex-student, and most likely horribly unstable.

Nodding, Naruto walked back up the stairs to rejoin his team, ignoring the fearful stares from all the other genin, save Sasuke, who looked at him with a quirked eyebrow.

"Dude... I know you and Kiba didn't see eye to eye, but jeez..." He commented.

"That was Orochimaru's power... the teme is his guinea pig and he took it voluntarily. That's as good as treason; he deserved no mercy. Plus he was really pissin' me off." Naruto responded lowly, drawing hard gazes from Sasuke and Anko at the mentioned of Kiba using a 'gift' from Orochimaru. "It wasn't exactly a Curse Mark; more like a bastardized version, watered down from the forms you two unlocked when I purged you. But even then... he was an abomination. Bits and pieces of other things tacked onto him." He explained further, gritting his teeth at the idea, frustrated at both Orochimaru and Kiba.

About an hour later, witnessing Temari of Suna's severe battering of Tenten Higurashi and Neji Hyuuga's saddening, almost outright murder of his own cousin, Hinata. The girl would surely have died if not for the timely intervention of Naruto, who then took an oath of blood to make him regret that. He smiled faintly at how far Naruto came; from the orange jumpsuit-wearing, prankster loudmouth, to this lad who overflowed with potential, Naruto's future was bright.

Hayate called for the next fight. "Rock Lee vs. Sabaku no Gaara. Hajime!" With a chop of his hand, the proctor jumped back, already feeling the murderous intent from the Suna genin.

Glancing towards Naruto, Rock Lee got a nod of affirmation. Nodding back, Lee smirked at Gaara and willed his newest enhancement to the surface. With a wave of biomass, his arms grew in mass slightly, the normally thick limbs Naruto had compacted into lean arms, just as powerful, all six arms at the ready. Lee's grin grew at everyone's gasp, and he disappeared in a burst of speed.

Gaara seemed to be unaffected by this development, as he remained stoic, facing forward even as his sand blocked Lee's initial punch. His eyes widened when the other two arms joined the fist, breaking through his defense and slamming into his cheek.

Following the flying Ichibi container, Lee appeared in his path and slammed his three left fists into his chin, sending him up, and again appeared in his path, a triple hammerstrike bringing Gaara back to ground level.

All this happened within two seconds, and Lee had a grin bordering on feral and insane.

Above the arena, everyone was gobsmacked at Lee's speed and the fact he seemed to share the transformation technique – in their minds, as the truth of Naruto's 'Kekkai Genkai' hadn't reached the current generation of genin yet – as Naruto. Well, everyone but Naruto, Sasuke, and Anko.

They all sweatdropped at Lee's display. "Why does it seem like all my Evolved are battle-crazy?" Naruto asked seemingly no one.

"I'm not battle-crazy." Anko responded.

Sasuke looked to her. "You're normal-crazy. That's a good replacement." He commented flatly, mentally smirking at the tic mark that formed on her forehead.

"Anyway!" Naruto said before a fight could escalate from Anko's temper. And even though he said that, he had nothing else to say. They just continued watching the fight.

Everyone watched as Lee punched through the projectiles Gaara sent his way, attempting a lariat on the Suna genin, but a tendril of sand threw him across the arena, towards a wall. How he reacted surprised his team.

He stuck to the wall.

During the three days his team had to relax after they arrived at the tower, he trained in chakra control and a few techniques since Naruto imbued him with the ability to use chakra. His team didn't know he could use chakra, as they took the time to relax and left him to train, as he always did.

Shooting towards the ground, stabbing his six grey hands into the floor, Rock Lee channeled his new chakra into the earth and his arms. "Doton: Doryo Dango!" Hefting a boulder over his head from the concrete of the floor, Rock Lee grunted and threw it at Gaara.

The Ichibi jinchuriki merely called forth a large amount of sand, taking the form of a hand, and caught the boulder, soon grinding it into more grains for Gaara's supply. While he busied himself with that, Gaara didn't have time to react when Lee appeared within his guard, grabbed his shoulders, and threw him into the hole he created from tearing the boulder out. Slamming his foot on the ground near the edge, he channeled chakra through the walls of his pit, forcing earthen spikes to shoot out of the walls to gore Gaara. It seemed Naruto's Evolved all developed a sort of mean streak, as well.

Gaara protected himself by condensing his sand armor to a level that the spikes didn't leave as much as a scratch. Expanding his walls of sand allowed him to crush the spikes and free up room to stand. Glaring up at Lee, Gaara's arms remained crossed for the entirety of the match, as he rode out of the pit on a pillar of sand. Detaching from the top on a cloud of sand, Gaara solidified the remaining pillar and shot discs of it towards Lee.

The student of the Taijutsu-specialist Jonin repeatedly dodged the flying blades of solidified sand, grabbing the last and sending it back towards Gaara. Sharpened tendrils of sand crushed the disc and flew towards Lee, who used triple punches to crush them as he closed in on the Suna genin. In a burst of speed, he appeared at Gaara's feet and kicked upwards, impacting with his chin and sending him skyward. Reverting his frontmost arms to normal, he undid his bandages and appeared behind Gaara with Kage Buyou.

What he was intending on doing was given the green light before he jumped down for this fight by Gai-sensei, who watched intently, unaffected by his youthful students strange appendages, for now.

Wrapping Gaara with the loose bandages, Lee grabbed the resulting bound genin and spun in the air, gravity bringing them back down, their heads heading towards the hard ground. At the last second, Lee detached from the suicidal attack, leaving Gaara to slam into the ground head-first.

He landed outside the ensuing crater, the bandages on his arms seemingly endless as he cut the slack and his arms remained covered. His reflexes allowed him to dodge a wave of sand that came for him from Gaara's broken-down gourd. Jumping around the arena to dodge the sand, Lee shot back to Gaara and channeled biomass towards all his hands, slamming them together and creating a large shockwave that both pushed Gaara deeper into his crater and blasted the closing in sand away with a thunderous clang. Kneeling down and rearing all his right fists up, he glared down at Gaara. "Will you yield or must I finish you?" He asked.

Gaara glared back up at Lee, but the screaming in his head told him to not retaliate.

'WE'REGONNADIEWE'REGONNADIEWE'REGONNADIIIIIIIIIEEEEE!' Shukaku shirked in terror at the sight of Lee's transformed limbs aiming for his containers head.

"I… forfeit." Gaara ground out loud enough for Hayate to hear.

"Sabaku no Gaara forfeits; Rock Lee is the winner!" Hayate announced for everyone else, gesturing for medic-nin's to take Gaara. Gaara's siblings/teammates were shocked that Gaara was soundly defeated, and even forfeited! This would put a serious hamper in their plans for the finals…

The Oto Jounin grimaced hatefully at Gaara for quitting and at Naruto for imbuing that incredibly odd genin with his special abilities, thus allowing him to defeat his secret weapon for the invasion. He disappeared from the arena to think over this new development.

The last match was Kinuta Dosu against Akimichi Choji, who, even in a blood-rage from being called 'fat', lost due to Dosu's Melody Gauntlet carrying its destructive attack through Choji's bountiful water weight.

The winners were asked to line up and pick from a box of numbered strips. From the numbers picked, the fights for the finals were decided, and they were given a month's reprieve to train, as their future competitors saw all their tricks in these preliminaries.

Hyuuga Neji vs. Uzumaki Naruto

Uchiha Saskue vs. Rock Lee

Aburame Shino vs. Kankurou

Temari vs. Nara Shikamaru

Haruno Sakura vs. Kinuta Dosu

The genin were bid farewell and good luck, then escorted out of Training Ground 44 by their respective sensei or any remaining Jounin.

Anko informed her genin that they would begin training tomorrow morning, or rather, she'd begin training Sakura, as she informed Sasuke that Hatake Kakashi wished to train him, to aid in his Sharingan training and help with his secondary affinity to lightning, being the only other shinobi in all of Konoha to have the same affinity. And Naruto would obviously train with Alex and James for the first half of the month in Blacklight, then work on jutsu with her alongside Sakura, also helping Anko train in her mutation. He also managed to convince Alex to remove the Bio-Bomb from inside Sakura after she managed to leave a much more positive impression on him after about a week of working alongside her. He also managed to drag Alex and James into his shinobi training to be used as target dummies since they could just regenerate the damage. More than once Alex had his head blasted off his shoulders by Sakura as minor revenge for putting that bomb in her; all in the name of training, obviously.

Since his Hammerfists were near identical to Alex's, he trained in the many techniques Mercer developed, mostly acclimatizing himself to the great weight of them, as well as channeling biomass into them to enlarge them for a massive ground slam. He also learned to throw his weight into each punch, including letting himself fly damn near across the entire village; it was fun. At least for him; the cabbage merchant whose cart he crushed wasn't having fun.

He also began integrating his new mutation into combinations; he cackled with insane glee at the prospect of combining Hammerfists and Muscle Mass. That tree never saw it coming…

It took a bit of thinking to think of a Hammerfists-Claws combination, but he succeeded, turning his arms into murder-balls of sharp and death. Similar to James' fully evolved Hammerfists, his hulking limbs were covered in spikes that shined with organic steel, several smaller spikes poking through the hard-working tendrils of his upper arms and shoulders; his dwarfed fingers also had claws on their tips.

After this, he focused solely on Burning Touch, familiarizing himself with the many ways its caustic abilities could be implemented. The many ridges up his forearms could produce countless biomass 'knives' that began melting whatever they touched, as did his fingers once he grasped anything. He found that combining it with any other mutation bestowed its acidic abilities on them; claw marks would soon bubble and melt, tendrils burned everything they attached to, his Bio-Bazooka shot concentrated orbs of acid that cut through almost anything, and his Hammerfists were veritable bombs of acid that released their payloads on contact.

"Jouro Senbon!"

A hail of needles rained from the sky, Naruto blocking it with a combination of Armor and Barb Skin, the senbon bouncing harmlessly off his transformed hide. Looking up, he spied a green-haired shinobi in a jumpsuit of dark and light purple with an umbrella in one hand, and a sword of lightning with a vajra-shaped handle in the other. The Amegakure hitae-ate on his forehead solidifed Naruto's suspicions; this was Rokushou Aoi, a Konoha nukenin turned Ame Jounin. Upon his desertion, he had stolen the Nidaime's Raijin no Ken by tricking Morino Ibiki's brother, Idate, much like how Mizuki tricked Naruto himself.

It confused Naruto greatly how a missing-nin of Aoi's caliber (read: an idiot swinging around lightning, so there was some danger to him) had managed to infiltrate Konoha, and why he was vying for the blonde specifically. "Why're you here, Aoi?" Naruto demanded as his basic Muscle Mass came to the forefront.

With an arrogant smirk, Aoi swung his powerful weapon experimentally. "You have the honor of being attacked by someone of my majesty and you question why? Idiot! If you really need to know, I've heard rumors about your supposed Kekkei Genkai; some civilians from Nami have been talking about their hero and his transformation abilities, so I decided to see for myself how true these words were. Seeing those arms, I guess they were right. So killing you will be another notch in my already grand belt, for I will erase a Kekkei Genkai before it could spread! Now, no more talk and just die!" With that, Aoi lunged at Naruto, his lightning sword intending to spear through the blondes heart.

Much too skilled for such a move, Naruto sidestepped the flying Jounin and slammed his large fist into Aoi's chest, surprisingly sending him flying into a tree instead of splattering his upper torso here and there. 'Guess Amegakure builds 'em tough.' Naruto idly commented. With a flew of his arms, he switched the large grew limbs for Claws and jumped into the dust cloud of Aoi's impact, only to be thrown back out, his left arm flying the other direction as it was separated from his body by a swing of Aoi's sword. Biting back a pained growl and allowing the limb to be regenerated with biomass, Naruto glared at the approaching shadow from the dust and the swinging light to its side as Aoi sauntered out of the crash site.

Not bothering for more arrogant bantering, Aoi charged the blonde again, his intents just as telegraphed as before, Naruto rebutting with the arm-clubs of his Bio-Bazooka, launching the heat-seeking green orbs of pure kinetic energy at the equally green-haired shinobi, Aoi actually batting aside three of them with his sword of pure lightning and leading the others around and back at Naruto, who jumped high up to dodge them, leaving himself open to an extending spear of lightning, only for his shoulder blades to erupt in biomass, conjuring the wings he had acquired in Nami and allowing him to flap out of the line of fire, only receiving a quickly-healed grazing burn on his left wing. Fusing the wings with Bio-Bazooka and replacing the arm versions with Tendrils, Naruto fell from the sky towards Aoi, a pair of back-mounted hole-riddled tubes adorning his body now, vaguely reminiscent of something Alex and James called 'tank turrets.' Landing on all fours gave Naruto the perfect position to fire, two highly-concentrated orbs of energy instead of a swarm of lesser projectiles launching from the turrets, shocking Aoi so much, he didn't move, allowing himself to be engulfed in the explosion.

Standing up straight, Naruto glared into the debris cloud, waiting for any sign that Aoi survived; when it came, its formed froze Naruto on the spot.

The familiar warbling of biomass reached Naruto's ears, and a large forked blade on an immeasurably-long tendril flew from within the cloud and found a home in Naruto's sternum, puncturing his lungs and heart and soon pulling our blonde hero into the cloud, bringing him into the clutches of a manic Aoi, Raijin no Ken in his normal right arm, his left turned into a mutation outside of Naruto's repertoire: Whipfist. Naruto landed right on Aoi's lightning sword, through his stomach, and the Jounin took a moment to laugh in his face before kicking him off as the dust cleared.

Biomass crawling across his chest alerted him that his punctured organs were soon healed, and he allowed himself to come back to reality. "How the hell do you have Blacklight?!" He demanded angrily, gritting his teeth as his features became more feral, the tell-tale sign of Kasai's youki entering his system.

"You like it?" Aoi asked mockingly, raising his transformed arm up to marvel at it. "It's a gift from Alex-sama; he gave me this power and a mission: Destroy Naruto Uzumaki!" He announced his true intentions, swinging the mutated arm horizontally as it extended, intent on bisecting Naruto at the waist.

While his body acted on autopilot, thrusting a web of tendrils out to intercept the Whipfist and ensnare it for Naruto's counterattack, the blonde's mind was reeling in shock; Alex had betrayed him, betrayed them all!

With renewed energy, and plenty of anger, Naruto pulled Aoi into his grasp, keeping a hold on his opponent's transformed arm and, after morphing his own left arm in his Claws-Burning Touch fusion, the bladed ridges from the knuckles of his claws traveling higher up his forearm and his shoulders solidifying enough to allow the wart-like reservoirs of acid to form, Naruto sliced Aoi's sword-wielding arm right off his body, the caustic properties of his claws causing the wound to melt and further damage Aoi's shoulder and nearby internal organs, since Evolved couldn't regenerate on their own, especially since Aoi probably didn't consume enough biomass to supply the process, anyway. As the green-haired shinobi grit his teeth - but not yell in pain; admirable - he attempted to wrench his Whipfist from the blonde's grasp, only for the Tendril-imbued right arm of Naruto to shove its sharpened fingers into the flesh bridge human and Blacklight, a great pain erupting within it to match his right arm as large tendrils burst from Aoi's body, tearing the arm right off and ensnaring it in a web of tendrils that soon tore it apart, the pain forcing Aoi to his knees, blood splattered all over his body as he looked up at Naruto, an oddly peaceful smile on his face as the blonde raised both his normal Claws up to tear into him.

"Welcome to the top of the food chain, kid." He bade farewell.

With a swing of his arms, Naruto beheaded Aoi and several small tendrils shot out and engulfed his dismembered body, strewn-about arms included, as Naruto grit his teeth as the Blacklight rewrote his genetic code to include the new mutation and memories. Wait a minute...

Images passed through his mind; images in no way reminding him of the Elemental Nations. The technology too advanced, the buildings too tall, the people too normal-looking. A sister, a girlfriend, Gentek, Blackwatch, Penn Station, running away with a vial, being shot, killed, reviving, running through New York, all the things... Alex... told him. Oh Kami... The final memory played in his head, a message to Naruto.

'If you're seeing this, then you consumed me, kid. All my knowledge, abilities, and history are now yours. This was something James and I thought of once we realized that our time in this place was over. We're old, kid, and we need to make way for the new generation, and that's you and your friends. I decided on this more 'subtle' way of getting you to kill me, but James is up on the Hokage Monument, waiting for you. He wants a face off, no subterfuge, no lies, just a fight to the finish. You need to do this, kid; we're asking you to, as a favor from a couple of old guys.

Tell Sakura I'm sorry for putting that bomb in her; just a paranoid asshole having too much free will.

Tell Sasuke that he better not forget that he needs you to kick Itachi's ass.

Tell Kakashi to take off that stupid mask so he can get a girlfriend instead of reading those books.

You're gonna go far, kid. See ya.'

End Ch. 8

The feels, man... Dem feels. At least, I hope I managed to get some feels outta you guys with that last bit. So yeah, Naruto's final Blacklight training is consuming Alex and James, alluded to that bit I said some chapters ago that it's time for them to get out of the picture. I originally was going to have Naruto consume the Blacklight in them without killing them, but I felt this would have more of an impact on the story and you guys. So yes, Naruto now has Whipfist, Blade, and Shield from Alex, and he'll be getting upgrades from James next chapter.

Now for the Kiba thing; I know some of you are gonna bitch about him being such a douche but, since Sasuke's good and thus, won't be going to Orochimaru, the 'Sasuke Retrieval' Arc will be null and void, so we need a good replacement. Kiba being Orochimaru's pseudo-Curse Mark guinea pig might fill in that part.

So tell me what you thought about each notable part: Sasuke vs. Yoroi with mutation-derived Katon techniques, the first sign of Sakura becoming less bash-worthy, Naruto vs. Kiba, Anko and Lee as Evolved, and by proxy Lee vs. Gaara, and Alex's farewell.

Ja ne!