VERYIMPORTANT AN!

Ok so long story short it's been a while since I had any inspiration for 'The True Horror of Konoha', and after trying to reread it I have found that I don't like the way it was written. It is for that reason that I have decided to rewrite it.

Now before I get people filling my PM box I will explain a few things.

While I say rewrite for the most part I don't intend to change that much of the actual story, though there will probably be a few things different, all I want to do is try and write what is already here a bit better so that I can actually reread it (something that I honestly haven't been able to do, I know how stupid that sounds but that just how it is). One of the things I will be doing is joining some of the chapters together so that they are longer.

Hopefully it won't take long to do this because I will be using my original chapters as templates and when I have finished redoing them all I will write a new one :)

VERYIMPORTANT AN!

For anyone reading this for the first time I will warn you now that this first chapter will be very graphic. Later chapters will have humour but this first chapter in particular will be very violent and may disturb people.

You have been warned, this fic is rated M for a reason, mainly this first chapter.

One last thing before you start reading, I am looking for someone that will be willing to Beta for this fic, I never got one for the original and think it would be a good idea. So if your interested please PM me :)

XXX

Disclaimer- I own nothing:(

XXX

Chapter 1- The Breaking Point

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha, was nothappy. He should have known that something would happen, it always did, but on this particular day of the year it was always the worst. He should have known better then to trust the civilian council, but he was old and tired, truth be told he should have retired years ago. The problem with that is that there was no one to replace him, at least not one he would trust the safety of the village to.

There was his old friend Danzo, smart, organized and strong in his own right, but he was a war hawk through and through. He didn't believe in true peace and to him ninja were little more than disposable weapons that were to be used and replaced. Hatake Kakashi could be an option in a few years, but only if he could learn to let go of the past and move on with his life. Tsunade had a similar problem to Kakashi along with a drinking and gambling addiction and as for Jiraiya... well let's not go there.

At this moment in time the old Hokage was making his way down the hospital corridor to a special room set aside for when something like this happened (which unfortunately was quite often) nurses and doctors alike were being brought to their knees at his barely contained killing intent. He could feel his temper rise more and more at the thought of what had happened, but more importantly at the fact he had let it.

Flashback

Sarutobi was bored; there was no other way to describe it. He sat in yet another pointless council meeting that seemed to have nothing to do with him (or any of the other clans of Konoha for that matter) as they were forced to listen to the current spokesmen of the civilian council; a large, overweight man with greasy black hair and expensive clothes which seemed to be dripping with sweat at the effort of standing up while talking.

All they had been talking about up to this point were civilian affairs, which had nothing to do with shinobi. He looked around at all the people present, the civilian council, thirty of the most annoying people in the world that just seemed to blend into each other nothing extraordinary about any of them except the clothes they wore.

The shinobi council however was a different story, made up of all the clan heads of Konoha: the Aburame, Akimichi, Hyuuga, Inuzuka, Nara, Yamanaka, and of course his own the Sarutobi clan; they made an interesting group of people that stood out in any crowd.

Then there were the village elders, Homura, Koharu and Danzo, his old teammates and former best friend. Over the years they had become more and more distant until it got to the point they hardly ever said more than a few words to each other unless it was business. He felt a pang of regret for that. They used to be the best of friends, but now it was like they were little more than strangers.

It was while he was reminiscing about his old friends that he noticed for the first time that all of the civilian council seemed nervous. He picked up all the little things; the way that some of them kept looking from the clock to him, the nervous whispers between two or three council members and the fact that they all seemed to be sweating. His warning bell was screaming, something was wrong terribly wrong.

Then it hit him.

Without warning the room was suddenly flooded with killing intent, all in the room falling silent as all eyes shot to the old Hokage in fear. His killing intent seemed to become visible as a dark aura surrounded him, the very air growing think and hard to breathe. The tension in the room kept rising until slowly, Sarutobi started to stand up. He kept his head lowered, the Hokage hat casting a shadow, hiding his eyes from view.

"What have you done?"

His voice as barely above a whisper, yet in the silence that had settled in the room it might as well have been screamed. He watched as most of the civilian council flinched at the question, all doing their best to avoid eye contact with the enraged Hokage. The room was completely silent, nobody wanting to be the first to break and risk the wrath of the man that could without a doubt kill all of them with minimal effort.

Surprisingly it was a member of the civilian council that broke the silence. He looked like any other middle-aged civilian; short brown hair, brown eyes and dressed in a simple, yet expensive, grey kimono. He stood up slowly, as if he was scared of making any sudden movements as the eyes of the room moved from the still enraged Sarutobi to him.

"W-what d-do y-you mean, H-Hokage-s-sama?"

He stuttered out, and by the end of his question he was shaking.

"...did you really think I wouldn't notice? Did you think I wouldn't realize that something was going on? I may be old, but I am not senile yet. Now, tell me. What have you done!"

By the end of his speech, he had gone from a soft whisper to shouting, the walls themselves shaking at the uncontrolled rage in his voice. Slowly he moved so he stood in front on his desk, not raising his head to look at the terrified men and women in their seats; his eyes hidden in the shadows of his Hokage hat.

Homura, Koharu and Danzo all looked at their old friend in both fear and surprise; it had been many years since they had seen Hiruzen with such a commanding presence. But what many if they were looking at the elders instead of the Hokage, would have been shocked to see was the barely restrained hope in their eye.

Finally, after a few more minutes silence, Koharu spoke.

"Hiruzen, what's wrong?"

It was at this point that Sarutobi finally lifted his head so that all present could see his eyes. They were not the soft, caring eyes of the old man that so many had come to know. They were as hard as steel, the pupils of his eyes shrunken in anger. These were the eyes of someone that had seen battle, that had witnessed the lives of countless people end, both friend and foe. These were the eyes of the God of Shinobi, the eyes of The Professor, one of the most feared ninja to ever walk the elemental nations. At this point in time, his eyes were fixed firmly on the members of the civilian council.

His voice as cold as ice, Sarutobi spoke.

"Why are we here, why are any of us here? These aren't shinobi matters, so far all we've heard s nothing that couldn't wait until the next official council meeting. So, why are we here? I was told that there was an important matter that must be discussed and yet we have been here for four hours and all you have talked about is basic information of no real importance. So I ask you, whyare we here?"

Again, nobody spoke, nobody moved, the tension in the room becoming more and more intense with every passing minute as the civilians got more and more nervous at each word that came from the elderly Hokage's mouth.

It was then that he asked a question that had a unique effect on the room.

"What is the date?"

Those four words froze all those in the room, the civilians in fear and the shinobi in sudden realization. Everything was quiet. Then the killing intent in the room seemed to increase tenfold. All the shinobi clan heads and, surprisingly, the three elders added their own killing intent to the Hokage's.

Suddenly, not being able to stand the killing intent in the room any longer, one of the civilians stood from her seat to address the gathered people; a woman in her late twenty's, with black hair and an expensive looking white kimono with the image of a sakura tree in bloom. The fear she was felt at the combined killing intent making her voice come out high and shaky.

"We did what you were afraid to do! The Kyuubi is dead and all the people it killed that night have been avenged and- !"

It was then that a VERY pissed Inuzuka Tsume shot to her feet practical frothing at the mouth, along with every other clan head in the room. The killing intent reaching a new high, the women couldn't bare it and was forced back into her sea, face pale and eyes wide in unbridled fear.

"You fools are you so blinded by your hate that you actually believe that a seven-year-old boy is the Kyuubi! Did it ever occur to any of you that if that was true we'd all be dead by now!"

Despite what many would believe, many of the shinobi in Konoha didn't hold a grudge against the boy. Some did, mostly those that lost everything in the attack seven years ago, but most didn't act on this hate beyond glares and harsh words and even then those were few and far in between. Every now and then they would join in with the civilian if there was a mob, but they weren't ninja for long after that.

Before anything else could happen, Nara Shikaku started moving; a rare, serious expression on his usually bored face as he made his way to the door, not even sparring a glance at the civilians as he passed them.

"We don't have time for this, we need to try and stop whatever is happening before it's too late."

That was all it took to snap the attention of the people in the room as the clan heads, elders and Sarutobi all quickly moved to the doors, but before the Hokage pushed the doors open, he paused; looking back at the members of the civilian council left them with one more thing to think about.

"If anything has happened to Naruto, anything at all, I will come back here and kill every single one of you. ANBU! Make sure none of them leave this room before I come back."

Five animal masked ninja appeared in the room, positioning themselves in such a way that any and all possible exits were blocked off. With that he pushed the doors open.

Only to stop dead at the sound that assaulted his ears. He absently made a mental note that someone must have applied a silencing seal to the door and windows while they were in the room. It was the only way to explain why none of them had heard the bone chilling scream that seemed to echo across the entire village.

End flashback

When Sarutobi had finally arrived at the room he stopped at the door and just stood there for a moment. He wasn't sure if he could go in, from what he saw when they got to the scene he knew it would be bad. It was a miracle, depending on your definition of the word, that he was even alive. He was stood there for several minutes until finally, after taking a deep breath to help steel his nerves; he pushed the sliding door open. His breath hitched at the sight before him.

A small, severely malnourished, seven-year-old boy was hooked up to several different machines, lying on a hospital bed that made him look smaller than he was. His body was covered from head to toe in bandages; the only parts left visible being his eyes.

Walking into the room, Sarutobi sat in the single chair set next to the bed. As he looked at the boy he couldn't stop the tears falling down his fact; in a matter of seconds the old Hokage seemed to grow ten years older.

"I'm so sorry Naruto, if only I had realized what was going on sooner... I could have stopped this. You should never have had to go through that... no one should."

By the time the old shinobi had gotten over his shock he and the others were too late. They found the young boy in the middle of a large crowd, tied to a log in the centre of a bonfire. Every now and then someone would throw more wood onto the fire, or the occasional bottle at the screaming boy.

What really got to the group that had just arrived on the scene was that the boy seemed to be healing at the same rate he was burning. Whatever clothes he had been wearing were burned away long ago, giving a clear view of the young child's skin as it sizzled away before growing back almost instantly. Then they noticed something that really made them sick. He was still conscious, screaming.

And those people stood there, laughing and cheering.

After slaughtering people in the crowd in a blind rage and sending whoever was left to Ibiki, they had quickly rushed the boy to the hospital. That was twelve hours ago, and in that time they had found out a lot about what had happened. It seemed that the civilian council had managed to round up a small number of his ninja to help them in their vendetta against the boy and as soon as the meeting was underway they had applied a silencing seal to the door.

They had surprised the ANBU guarding him and knocked him out before moving on and dragging the poor boy out of his apartment. The mob had then proceeded to beat Naruto to within an inch of his life, before letting him heal, only to do it again. When they had their fill of beating the poor boy they tied him to the post and after some big speech from one Miss Haruno, that included telling the barely conscious Naruto that the Kyuubi was sealed inside him, they had lit the fire.

The worst part by far was the fact that he had been burning for three hours straight, the Kyuubi trying to heal its prison in an attempted to live and, unfortunately, keeping him conscious for the entire experience; it seemed that even the great Kyuubi no Kitsune couldn't heal everything.

According to the doctors Naruto had suffered third degree burns over his entire body and it seemed that, even though it was healing... there was nothing more they could do for him.

His body would never be free of the scars.

XXX

16 hours earlier

XXX

Naruto was sat on his bed in his apartment, staring at the floor with a blankly. Today was his seventh birthday and, like all his previous birthdays, he was spending it completely alone.

His apartment was made up of just two rooms, the main room, which had his bed, a table and a small kitchen he didn't know how to use; the once white wallpaper was peeling off, creaks covering most of it and the carpet was covered in strange reddish- brown stains from all the times the villagers had come and beat him. There was one window that looked out onto the street, but had several cracks and missing pieces of glass from where people had thrown rocks into his room.

The only other room was what the old man said was supposed to be his bathroom. It did have all the basic things that one would find in a bathroom, a toilet, a sink, it even had a shower. The problem however was that he never had any hot water, so whenever he took one it hurt because it was so cold.

He also learned that before he moved in someone, (probably his landlord) after hearing that he was moving in had disconnected the water pipe that went to the toilet. This meant that he needed to put water in it himself when he wanted to flush. The problem with that however was that he could barely reach the top of the toilet.

He looked around his small apartment, he was lucky the old man could get him it really. Sure it was small, but it's not like he had much stuff anyway and the stuff he did have was old and, in most cases, mouldy, it was still better then when he was living on the streets.

Three years ago, on his fourth birthday, the orphanage had told him that they didn't have room for him anymore and through him out, literally. One of the care workers had thrown him out by the scruff of his neck right into a pile of rubbish. The first few weeks had been hard, but he soon learned which bins would have food and which alleys would have boxes that he could sleep in.

Then the villages had found him. That was when the beatings had started.

Luckily, the old man had found him. He didn't trust him at first, it wasn't the first time someone had tricked him, but over time his weariness of the kind old man in the strange clothes eased away. Sarutobi had been careful when he saw him, shocked as well. But after getting over it he took a shivering Naruto to the hospital and, after getting him looked at, brought him here.

He could remember once how a 'nice' old lady had invited him into her house to eat when she found him looking through her bins for food. The moment he was in she locked the door and proceeded to beat him with her walking stick, screaming something about how he had 'killed her only son'. Only after about ten minutes of cowering on the ground as she continued to beat him was Naruto was finally able to get away from her by jumping through a window.

It was also the first time he noticed that he healed very fast. When he had gotten far enough away he had stopped and looked at his arms, which were filled with shards of broken glass from the window he had leapt through in his desperation to get away. Then, right in front of his eyes, the glass was pushed out of his skin and the wounds started to heal. He didn't know what to think, but just assumed that it was the same for everyone and, putting it to the back of his mind, didn't think about it again.

That was about a year ago and since then he never left the apartment, at least not willingly. All his food was brought to him so he never needed to. Not that it stop the villagers.

The old man would visit him every now and then, but he hadn't had time as of late. Naruto didn't know what he actually did but he knew it was important.

Lost in his thoughts he didn't even realize that he started singing to himself, his small, weak voice barely above a whisper.

"Happy...Birthday...to me...happy... birthday... to me... happy birthday... Naruto...happy...birthday...to...me..."

By the end of the song Naruto could feel the tears falling down his cheeks, but he still didn't make another sound. He just started off into empty space, twin lines of water falling freely from his eyes.

Why?

Why did he have to be alone?

Why?

Why did the villages hate him?

Why?

Why did they hurt him?

"Why...why...why...WHY!"

As he asked himself these question again and again Naruto barely even registered he had started to punch the wall next to his bed, his small hands bleeding as the skin split and the ones creaked, only to heal moments later.

Not being able to take it anymore he threw himself on his bed and sobbed into the bare mattress.

XXX

Meanwhile, ANBU captain, Hatake Kakashi was looking through the window from his perch on the building across the street from the small boy's apartment. He watched a seven year old boy sang to himself as he cried, as he punched a wall over and over again until his hand broke.

His hart ached at the sight. No one should have to go through what he had, and defiantly not a young boy.

Kakashi had been the boys guard ever since the Hokage had found him in a back alley, half frozen from the cold and little more than bones. It was a miracle he was alive. When he had first seen the boy in the hospital the silver haired Jonin thought he was actually dead and, after spending about an hour just staring at his weak form, the Hokage had called him straight to his office and told him what had happened.

Originally he had wanted to adopt him, but the council argued that because he was an ANBU captain, 'a job far more important to the village then looking after one brat' as they put it, he was refused; because his parental status as being the son of a ninja, let alone the Fourths, was an S–rank secret, he fell under the jurisdiction of the civilian council.

So instead he had volunteered to be the boy's bodyguard, a job the Hokage had agreed to but had to set certain rules. The boy was still a civilian after all so he couldn't officially be given a guard. So they had come up with a solution.

Kakashi spent almost all his spare time watching the boy; if he wasn't on a mission then he was on the roof across from Naruto's apartment. This meant he could stop anyone that tried going after the boy while he was here. The only problem with this was that he still needed to go on missions so nobody would realize that the boy actually had protection and not just a passing ANBU.

Kakashi knew who the boy's parents were. Really you would need to be completely blind not to, he had his mother's last name for a start and as for his father, well just look at him, he was a carbon copy of the Fourth Hokage. The only difference between the two was the skinny frame and whisker marks on his cheeks.

So caught up in his thoughts Kakashi didn't notice the black clad figure behind him and by the time he did it was too late. Kakashi felt a sharp pain in the back of his head, and then nothing.

XXX

After an hour or so of crying Naruto had finally fallen asleep, his dreams full of faceless people, villagers. There was all one thing they all had in common; they hurt him.

His dreams were always the same, at least when he could get to sleep. It was very rare for Naruto to sleep more than an hour at a time. He didn't know why; he just didn't seem to really need it, his body was just full of energy.

But when he did it was always the same.

He would always have nightmares. Some of them, like the one he was having now, were just of all the times he was beaten by the villagers. Other he had nightmares of strange creatures, odd...things. Some of them didn't even seem to have a shape, nothing more than shades in the shadows of his dreams. Hiding at the edge of his mind...waiting...watching.

The thing that scared him the most though was when he had a dream about it. He didn't know why but it was always the clearest thing in his nightmares and it was the one thing that was always there. Whenever he slept, no matter what he was dreaming, it would always make an appearance.

A large fox, bigger than any building he had seen in Konoha, bigger even then the Hokage monument. With its blood red fur and teeth larger than a full grown man, it was the most frightening thing he had ever seen. But the most terrifying thing about it was the eyes. Large red pools of moving liquid fire ringed in black, with a black vertical slit down the middle. It was like the two colours were fighting for dominance, a never ending battle between light and dark.

It was the eyes that haunted Naruto in his waking hours, they held no real emotion. No malice, no happiness, nothing, just a primal instinct, primal need, yet they shone with an odd intellect. It was like the fox was both a beast yet intelligent at the same time.

XXX

Naruto was woken when he heard loud banging at his door. Instantly he knew what was going on, it happened all the time. Sitting up in his bed he just stared at the door...waiting. He knew from experience that there was no point in hiding, they always found him.

It didn't take them long to get through the door, when they did Naruto saw a large number of people crowded in the corridor outside his room. He recognized some of them from previous mobs, the middle age fat man that had no hair, the old man with the long white beard and one eye.

And then there was the woman with the pink hair, she was a regular when it came to his mobs, hell most the time she was the leader. With her pink hair and green eyes she normally stood out in a crowd. She had on an elegant red dress with a strange white pattern and looked like she was going out on a night in the town, not leading a mob to a small boy. They just stood there in the doorway for a moment; the pink haired lady had a smug look on her face, just staring at him.

"Take it outside."

Her voice was cold and without sparring him a second glance, turned around and went to wait outside. With those three words she had broken the flood gates. The men lurched forward and roughly grabbed the seven year old. Naruto could smell the alcohol on their breath, that was bad, it was always worse when they were drunk. After they dragged him outside Naruto saw more people. This was very bad, there had never been this many people before.

For the next half hour the mob proceeded to beat, stab, and bludgeon the small boy until it seemed there was nothing left to hurt. Even through the pain Naruto found himself making mental notes of what was happening.

He was stabbed more times than he could count, but that wasn't saying much considering he was never taught past ten. He was bludgeoned with lead pipes, run through with farm equipment, kicked, punched, and slashed. Throughout the whole experience, Naruto never made a sound, not even to scream. He wouldn't give them the satisfaction.

This just seemed to make them angrier, but as soon as they stopped he started to heal and it would start all over again. He didn't know how long they beat him, it could have been hours or minutes for all he knew. Every time Naruto reached his limit they would stop, wait for a few minutes for him to heal, and then start again.

Eventually the pink haired woman came back into view, though it took him a few minutes to identify her because his eyes need to re-grow after they were stabbed and pulled out for the fifth time, not that Naruto knew they were doing this, as far as he knew he had just lost conciseness for a few minutes.

"Tie him to the post."

Naruto was hurled up and dragged to a post someone had stuck to the ground, a pile of wood lying around the base. Now, Naruto might be young but even he could see what was going to happen. If he could have put up a fight as they tied him to the post he would, but he was still healing.

When he was secured to the post with ninja wire the mob moved back and five people clad in black hoods, stopping anyone from seeing their faces; stepped out of the crowd and stood there, surrounding the unlit pile of wood.

When the crowd had quieted down the pink haired woman stepped forward and starred at him with an empty expression on her face. After a minute of looking into his eyes she smirked, her eyes becoming filled with sick glee and turned to address the crowd.

"Tonight, we right the wrongs that have been done to us! Tonight, we take are revenge on this...creature!"

At this point she throws her right arm out towards Naruto. The crowd began to cheer as her words got more and more heated. Someone in the crowd got so worked up by this that they through an empty sake bottle at the beaten boy. After waiting for the crowd to settle down again she continued.

"Seven years ago, the Kyuubi attacked this village, destroyed our homes and killed are families! Tonight we take our revenge! This thing has the Kyuubi inside it, therefore it is the Kyuubi! The Hokage may be fooled by its facade, but we are not! We see it for what it truly is and tonight we finish what the Fourth could not! Tonight, we kill theKyuubi no Kitsune!"

At the end of her tirade she turned to look at the boy, her face full of arrogance and self-importance.

Naruto was shocked, he didn't understand, he was the Kyuubi? That was impossible, wasn't it? His thoughts flashed to his nightmares, to a giant red fox. What if it was true? What if he was the Kyuubi? It made sense, the glares, the beating, the hate; it was all because he was the Kyuubi.

If he was the Kyuubi why didn't he remember? If he had killed all those people he would remember, wouldn't he? All these thoughts and more passed through Naruto's head, but before he had time to think the pink haired lady raised her hands and looked at each of the five people around the fire.

"Light it up!"

With that the five hooded figures started to make hand seals. When they finished five voices could be heard calling out.

"Fire Style: Grate Fire Ball"

Five balls of fire simultaneously struck the wood, and lit it instantly. It didn't take long for the heat to get to be too much for Naruto. He tried not to scream, to keep to his personal vow of silence, but he just couldn't. The pain was too much for him to bear and with one deep breath...

...he let it out.

All these years of pain that these people caused him, all the things they had done...he just let it all out.

He screamed...he screamed so loud that it actually made them stop cheering for a moment, but the moment passed, and they started again. Soon he started to feel his skin bubble, melting off his body. It was indescribable; he was in so much pain. Then he noticed in his pain fogged mind that he was healing while he was burning. For three hours he screamed, but to him it seemed like a life time, a life time of burning, writhing in agony...nothing but him, the flames and the sound of laughter over his own screams.

At some point in time he felt the fire stop, but that just caused a new pain to arrive, he felt...cold, very cold. He had become so used to the heat that he couldn't stop shivering and the more he shivered the more it hurt. The last thing he saw before he was finally able to slip into the abyss that was his mind was the old man, looking down on him with a look of absolute horror on his face.

XXX

When Naruto woke up he didn't know where he was, and he didn't care, there was no pain. He was numb; he felt nothing. He started to notice his surroundings, his head still a little foggy. Wherever he was, it was huge, some kind of underground cavern, solid stone walls all around him and a barely visible stone roof. To one side he noticed a giant gate in the place of a wall, but that wasn't what was weird about it. The strange thing was that it seemed to be held shut with nothing more than a piece of paper.

As he stood up he realized that he was knee deep in some kind of strange in water, which seemed to be flowing out from the cage. It took him a minute before he recognized that it wasn't water at all...it was blood.

And he still didn't care.

It was then that he heard it, a low rumbling sound off in the distance. At first he thought it was thunder, but then remembered he was underground. Whatever it was, it was getting louder. Turning towards the gate he grasped what he was hearing.

Growling.

How did he figure that out; by looking at the giant red fox on the other side of the gate.

He stared up into its face, into its fire like eyes, the eyes that had haunted his nightmares for as long as he could remember. For the first time they didn't scare him, he felt empty... numb.

The two just stared at each other for what felt like hours, until finally.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

It was strange to see a fox laugh; its voice was so deep he could feel the vibrations all around him.

"I have lived for thousands of years, seen civilizations rise and fall, but I have never known a human, a child no less that could look me in the eye without fear. Maybe you won't be such a bad host after all. Hahahahaha!"

Naruto just continued to look at the giant beast before him with a blank expression on his seven year old face, showing no sign that he had even heard nor cared the fox's words.

"...So it's true. You being here must mean the things the pink haired lady said were true. Though I can't tell where we are, it does seem oddly familiar..."

His words made the fox's laughter stop instantly, a look of mild surprise crossing its face. The boy's voice just sounded...wrong, it held no emotion, no feeling. It actually sent a shiver up the Kyuubi's spine to hear such an empty tone in a child's voice. It was then the fox took a good look at the boy.

He had a plain white t-shirt with that looked like it had come right out of the trash, a pair of black shorts with too many holes in them to be considered usable. His spiky blonde hair going in all directions, and three whiskers on each cheek gave him an innocent look, not that it had helped him with the villagers. But what really caught its attention were his eyes, large blue eyes that were normally full of life; no matter what happened, eyes that would brighten up the room just by being there, were now dead.

They held no light in them, no shine of happiness, no flash of anger...nothing. They lacked the spark that one would see in the eyes of the living. Now they were like the eyes of an old man that had seen too much and had given up, waiting for death to come and take him away.

The Kyuubi didn't know what to think of this. It had never seen eyes like that, especially not in the eyes of a seven year old boy.

"...We are in your Mindscape, a place in your subconscious mind. At the moment we are using it a...well you could say a bridge of sorts, in order for us to communicate. What you see around you is a representation of both our minds."

Naruto thought about that for a moment, seeming to be getting his thoughts in order as he took his time looking around him.

"I see, I'm guessing the blood is you, which means that my mind is... a sewer? Hm..."

That made the fox laugh again, it was starting to actually like this kid.

XXX

Sarutobi Hiruzen had been sitting at Naruto's bedside for three days straight; luckily, his old friends had stepped up to run the village for a few days. He had been skeptical at first of letting Danzo anywhere near his office, but it turns out he wasn't against him as much as he thought. He had been, in his own words 'trying to bring back his Will of Fire'.

It seems that he had taken it onto himself to try and challenge him, hopping that by going against what he believed in it would force him to regain the fire that he lost at the end of the Third Great War. Sarutobi had been so happy when he heard that, that he actually hugged the old cripple. Danzo still didn't agree with his ideals, but did admit that he respected them, even if he couldn't believe in them himself.

Homura and Koharu apparently knew about this from the start, but not having the heart to do the same, started to distance themselves from him, not being able to see him that way. When the three had seen the look in his eyes at the meeting they had seen their friend again, the man that had lived through wars and countless battles. They had come to him the same night of 'the incident', as it was now being called, and told him everything. Since then they had been handling everything while he waited for the boy in front of him to wake up.

They had caught most people from that night, at least the ones that were left after he went into that rage, but some had still gotten away. They had stopped four of the five ninja that had been involved and they had been nothing more than a few no-named chunin that had lost their families in the Kyuubi attack seven years ago. The rest that they had caught were just civilians, mostly drunk, and had all been sent to Ibiki and Anko.

Three days...

Three days, and there was still no response from Naruto, not a twitch or a groan, nothing.

He heard the door to the room sliding open and turned to see Hatake Kakashi entering the room.

XXX

Kakashi had been in a deep depression ever since 'the incident'. He wasn't wearing his ANBU uniform any more, only his normal attire of a black body suit, his mask, his flak jacket and his left eye covered by his forehead protector.

It was all his fault, if he had been paying attention this wouldn't have happened...and to have been jumped by some no-name chunin. If nothing else this whole experience had shown him that he had become arrogant, relying on the sharingan and letting his other skills fade which had left him vulnerable, and now Naruto was the one to pay the price.

By the time he had come too it was too late, the damage was done.

He had woken up just in time to see the Hokage go berserk, slaughtering many people gathered around the burning seven year old. He was found a few minutes later on the same roof he had been sat watching over Naruto with his hands tied in ninja wire by one of the ANBU that had been gathering up the few villagers that had gotten away.

After hearing what had happened, and a quick talk with the Hokage, he had come to the Memorial Stone, and just stood there, staring at the names of his old teammate, and sensei for three days.

"I'm so sorry Minato-sensei, Rin...Obito, I failed again."

He whispered to the air. He decided that it was time to see if Naruto was awake; turning his back to the stone, he took off towards the hospital.

XXX

The first thing Sarutobi thought when he saw Kakashi was that he looked even more tired than he did, the bags under his visible eye only seemed to emphasize this fact. His clothes were a mess, and his hair, which would usually be sticking up, was flat against his head. His shoulders were slumped towards the ground, he slowly walked in to the room, and stood next to the Hokage, looking at the boy lying in the bed.

"I don't blame you Kakashi, it wasn't your fault. They got around all of us and you couldn't have known other ninja were going to come."

The silver haired ninja didn't react to the Hokage's words; he just stood there, staring at Naruto. Eventually he replied, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I appreciate that Hokage-sama...but it was my fault. I let my guard down and he paid for it."

Sarutobi was afraid this would happen. "Kakashi they tricked us all, including me. At least we don't have to deal with those damn fools anymore."

It was true, while Naruto had been in surgery Sarutobi had gone back to the council room, and repeated what had happened when he had found Naruto. The only difference being that he killed them all. The village council now consisted of only the shinobi clans, at least until a civilian council could be selected.

Kakashi still didn't move his eyes from Naruto's form.

"...I guess..."

Before another word could be said between the two of them; one of the machines connected to Naruto started beeping rapidly. Startled, Sarutobi shot to his feet, and leaned over while Kakashi ran into the hall shouting for a doctor.

"Naruto? Naruto, can you hear me? Naruto?"

Slowly, the young boy's eyes started to open. When they did, Sarutobi's, Kakashi's and the just arriving doctor's eyes all widened in a mixture of horror and shock, all three of them taking a step back, not even realizing it. They were the eyes of a corpse, lifeless, without the slightest hint of emotion in his once bright blue eyes. They were still the same shade of blue, but something was just...missing.

"Dear Kami, Naruto...what have they done to you?" whispered Sarutobi under his breath.

Getting over his shock the doctor quickly made his way over to the boy's bedside and, after taking a moment to check the many different machines that he was hooked up to, shone a small light in his eyes to test their reaction, trying to figure out what was wrong with them. When that was done he stepped back, shook his head, and then turned to the other two men in the room.

"He's conscious, and there's nothing physically wrong with his eyes. I'm sorry there's nothing I can do at this point."

With that he left, leaving them men in the room with the poor boy.

A few minutes later Naruto started to whisper something; it was so quiet that the two shinobi in the room had to lean in towards the boy to hear him.

"Why...didn't you just let me die? Why?"

Those words broke both men's hearts, to hear such words coming from a seven-year-old boy was just wrong. Not able to stand it anymore, Kakashi left the room without a word, though the old Hokage could clearly hear the sound of something being thrown against a wall out in the corridor.

"Probably going back to the memorial stone"

Thought Sarutobi.

XXX

It was a week later before Naruto was discharged from the hospital. He didn't say a word to anyone, not even the Hokage after that first sentence, just staring off into empty space. It worried Sarutobi greatly. There was also the fact that he hadn't slept at all for a week straight, and didn't show any signs of changing that any time soon.

Kakashi hadn't come back.

As Sarutobi lead him to his apartment Naruto absently noticed that the people were still glaring at him whenever the old man wasn't looking. He was covered from head to toe in bandages again, although there was now an opening for his mouth and eyes. The old man had found him some basic clothes to wear on the way. Ironically, they were the same clothes he had when in his mindscape talking to Kyuubi, only new. Sarutobi had tried to talk to him about the Kyuubi several times, but Naruto would just stare off into space, not saying a word.

When they got to the apartment the old Hokage stayed with him for an hour or so, making sure the boy was ok. Naruto just went about his business as if he wasn't even there. Moving around the room, picking up the things that had been knocked over when the villagers had bragged him out, throwing away what they had broken.

"At least one good thing came out of this."

With the civilian council gone he was in charge of the village until a new council could be found.

Meaning, starting tomorrow night, Naruto would get a full ANBU guard watching over him 24/7. He had asked Kakashi to be the team leader, but the man had refused, saying that he couldn't look after him anymore when he let him down like that.

Eventually Sarutobi had to go back to work; he had been away for too long as it was, so saying goodbye to the unresponsive boy he left the apartment, shaking his head at the thought of what had happened to the boy.

XXX

As the day turned to night you could find Naruto in the same spot as the night when they had come for him, just sitting on his mattress staring into an empty corner of the room. He didn't know how long he had been sat there, and he didn't care.

It was at this point that his door opened, he hadn't locked it, he didn't see any point, it never stopped them before, and it wouldn't now. He just kept staring at the wall. After a few minutes of nothing happening he slowly turned his head toward the door, still showing no interest at what was going on around him.

Stood in the doorway, an insane grin stretching across her face was the pink haired lady. It seemed that she was one of the few that got away from the old man. For a few more minutes he just sat there, staring into her wide, deranged eyes. Then he saw the knife in her hand. It looked like a simple eight inch long kitchen knife, the same thing someone would use if they were preparing dinner.

"Why didn't you just die? It was all planned out; I was going to be the one to lead the people of Konoha to the destruction of the Kyuubi. I was going to be a hero, but you just wouldn't DIE!" Her voice was high, almost a screech, and as she was saying this she had moved further into the room. By the end of her speech, he made a mental note that she seemed to really like monologues for some reason; she had stopped right in front of Naruto, and stabbed the boy in the chest. He felt the pain as the blade pierced his skin, slipping through his ribs and puncturing his lung as a cold sensation started spreading around the wound; but Naruto didn't react at all, he didn't flinch, he didn't blink, he didn't even gasp. He just kept staring into her green eyes. This just made the woman angrier, so she kept stabbing, each time repeating the same word over and over again.

"Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!"

It was while she was stabbing him over and over that something inside Naruto just …snapped.

Before the woman could stab him again, he grabbed her by the wrist seizing the hand that held the knife, and with the same emotionless expression he had been wearing until to that point, broke it in one quick movement. She was in such shock that she stood there, staring at her wrist for a full minute before she started to scream.

Before she could get to a decent volume Naruto leapt from his mattress, and pushed her to the ground, placing a hand over her mouth to silence her. Slowly leaning down so that his mouth was right next to her ear, Naruto made the first sound he had in a week.

"Shush..."

When he pulled away again, his hand still placed firmly over her mouth, she looked up into the young boys eyes; what she saw made her stop struggling, and she froze in terror. His eyes weren't empty anymore, they were filled with an insane glee at what was about to happen.

Then he started to giggle, then chuckle, then laugh until it reached full blown hysterics. After about a minute of laughing, he stopped and once again leaned down so that he was next to her ear and said, in a voice so full of childlike innocence it made a cold shiver run don her spine...

"Will you walk into my parlor?" said the Spider to the Fly

And with those words, the small boy's body started to change before her eyes.

XXX

Flashback

XXX

Naruto just stared at the giant fox in front of him, his face completely devoid of any emotions as he met the beast's burning gaze without fear.

"Why?"

The fox just looked down at the boy in front of it with an amused gleam in its eyes.

"It would amuse me, what other reason do I need? Let's face it you need all the help you can get. You're weak, it pathetic really."

"I'm seven."

"...whatever."

"So you'll just give me a new bloodline with no strings attached?"

The fox looked thoughtful for a moment before its eyes took on a slight glimmer.

"Well...I guess you'll just owe me one, won't you."

The fox paused here, seeing how Naruto would react. All it got was a blank look for several minutes before...

"That's it?"

"That's it"

Naruto thought about it for a moment then agreed, what harm could it do?

"Okay."

With that the Kyuubi sent as much of its chakra through the bars of its cage as it could, slowly making its way towards Naruto, who stood there, staring into the fox's eyes, seeming to ignore the bubbling red chakra as it slowly started to climb up his small legs, and after a moment was covering his entire body.

After a few minutes it started to soak into his body until nothing was left.

"It's done."

"So what can I do?"

"You can be anything."

Naruto looked at the fox for a moment.

"Isn't that just crap parents tell their kids to make them feel better?"

The fox looked at the boy, trying to tell if he was serious, a large sweat drop appearing at the back of its head.

"Well...yes...it is, but in his case it's literal. I gave you the ability to shape shift, its only limitations are your imagination and size. The bigger the thing you change into the more chakra it will take."

Naruto thought about that for a moment, it did sound useful to be able to change into practically anything...

"How does it work?"

"It's simple enough; just picture the form you want to change into in your mind, and channel chakra through your body."

"I can be anything?"

"Pretty much...oh, I should probably warn you that if you're not careful you could lose control, and go on a killing spree, slaughtering everything in sight. Sounds fun right? I personally hope that happens at least a few times."

Naruto just stared at the fox for a moment. It made sense, and he didn't really care either way anymore.

"...fair enough."

The fox just stared at the boy in front of it for a long moment, before bursting out in laughter.

"Hahahahaha...they...ha...they really did break you didn't they...ha. Kami this is the most fun I've had in century's...hahaha."

Naruto just stood there, staring at the fox as it continued to laugh. When the Kyuubi calmed down enough to stop laughing it turned back to the boy.

"Thanks for that...woo, I needed that. Anyway I think it's time for you to wake up, see you later kit."

Before Naruto could reply he felt dizzy, and fell back into the water. When he opened his eyes he could see the old man leaning over him.

XXX

End Flashback

XXX

He could feel it, the way his body shifted to his will, his muscles ripping and knitting back together under his skin. The way his bones were braking, stretching and reforming into something different. The way his clothes just melded into his body, as if they were never there. It was excruciating, almost as painful as the feeling of being burnt alive for hours on end, but more than that it was euphoric. He had never felt so alive.

When it was done he stood up and stepped back from the pink haired woman; she was so scared of what was in front of her that she couldn't scream. Standing in front of her, in all its eight foot glory was... she didn't even know what to call it, something out of a nightmare maybe?

If only she knew.

It actually was from a nightmare, one of Naruto's to be precise. His very skin was covered an ivory white shell, the only clothing he had was a torn black cloth that covered his waist down to his knees, held up by bandages tied to his waist, his body covered in muscles, reminiscent of a body builder. Long spiky blonde hair went down to his feet, and strange red markings covered his entire body, huge hands with long, boney fingers tipped in vicious scythe-like claws. He had what seemed to be white spikes with red tips growing out of his shoulders, pointing in random directions, and a long tail coming out the base of his spine, the end of which was a deep crimson, as if it had been dipped in fresh blood.

But what really scared her was his face and chest.

A demonized skull like mask covered his face with long, sharp teeth spread in a horrifying grin with more of the red markings on the left side of its face. Cold yellow eyes ringed in black with a sickening glee shining in their eyes as they stared down at her, and a hole in the centre of his chest where his heart should be.

Naruto just stood there a moment to admire himself in the reflection of the broken glass that was in his window. This had been one of the creatures he had seen in his nightmares, right down to the last detail. He laughed, he couldn't stop himself. He absently noted that his voice had a strange echo to it, as if more than one voice was talking at the same time. The irony, for years this creature had haunted his nights; now it would haunt others as well.

Without saying a word he bent down and grabbed the pink haired lady by her throat, lifting her up easily with one hand above his head, and with no effort at all, threw her through the window into the street outside, jumping out after her. He slowly made his way over to her broken body.

She was covered in cuts and glass shards from the window, both her arms were bent at odd angles, obviously broken in several places; she was still conscious, if only just. He couldn't have that; he wanted her fully aware for what he was going to do. Quicker than most eyes could see he speared her through the abdomen with the end of his tail, and held it there for a moment, listening to her gargled screams as blood rose to her throat.

It was music to his ears.

He then sent a small pulse of his chakra through his tail and into the woman on the ground at his feet. Instantly her eyes shot open; she started to scream as loud as her abused lungs would allow her, causing Naruto to stop yet again to listen to her screams. When he had enough of that he picked up his foot, and brought it down on her, mostly uninjured left leg, shattering the bone.

He tilted his head to the side in fascination as her screaming changed pitch, so he did it again with her right leg, then each of her already broken arms. Each time he did this she made a new sound.

XXX

A platoon of five ANBU that had heard the screams and came to investigate, were watching in stunned silence as they saw some -thing, mutilating the woman; but what shocked them more was that it was the woman they had spent the last week looking for. She had somehow managed to get away on the night of the Incident, and had avoided them ever since.

A cat masked ANBU turned to another with a dragon mask, asking in a clearly feminine voice.

"What should we do, captain?"

The now identified captain remained quiet for a moment, staring at what was happening in stunned silence, before replying.

"You go and inform the Hokage, we will stay here, and try to subdue it, hurry." With that she was gone in a swirl of leafs.

The four remaining ANBU jumped off the building they were stood on, running towards the creature.

Spotting them out of the corner of his eye, Naruto grabbed his limp prey by the throat and held her to his chest to use as a human shield as he turned to face the ANBU, still cackling insanely. They stopped in their tracks, not expecting the...creature to have seen them coming. Stepping forward the dragon masked ANBU spoke.

"Drop the woman and get on the ground, do you understand me?"

The creature just laughed at him.

Then, slowly reaching around the woman's stomach dragged his free hand; Naruto used the claw on his index finger to slowly cut a line across her stomach. For a moment nothing happened before a red line appeared, followed by a burst of blood, and the pink haired woman's intestines fell onto the floor with a wet slap.

The ANBU were shocked at the act of brutality, but what was even worse was that the woman was still alive; but not for long, just before the light left her eyes, the creature reached a hand around her neck, and with one quick jerk, pulled her head from her shoulders. What little blood was left in her body spurted out of the hole where her head once sat, covering Naruto's face.

What he did next shocked the ANBU as, in his echo-like voice, he started to... sing?

"Ring, a round the roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tish-yoo, a-tish-yoo,
You, all fall down!"

At the end of the song he started to laugh again, the sound of his voice, echoing across the village as he threw his head back, and laughed.

One of the ANBU, a large man in a bear mask, ran forward.

"No! Stop! We have to take it together!" called out the captain, but it was too late.

The bear masked ANBU started to run through hand signs as he ran straight towards the beast, but before he could finish, the creature appeared in front of him, grabbing his arms just below the shoulders. The ANBU let out a scream as the hands got tighter and tighter; the arms falling to his sides limply, getting number by the second until, with a quick jerk, both his arms were pulled off just below the shoulder; but before he could get over his shock at the loss of his arms, Naruto used the one in his right hand as club hitting him in the face so hard his head exploded in a shower of blood, and gore; his laughter never letting up for even a second.

Without further ado, the remaining three ANBU sprang into action.

"Wood style: Tree Bind"

Instantly long pieces of wood shot out of the ground and wrapped themselves around the beast's arms, legs, neck and chest.

"Fire style: Great Fire Ball"

"Wind style: Great Breakthrough"

The two jutsu joined together, the fire being fuelled by the wind, turning white from the increased heat, and the laughter stopped as soon as the attack hit; the ANBU releasing a sigh of relief, only to take a step back in fear when it started again, if weaker than before.

Nothing had ever survived that combination, nothing.

When the smoke cleared they could clearly see the creature still standing, if only just. Its body was covered in what seemed to be cracks; as they watched the shell-like skin started to move, like millions of worms were curling under it as its body started to shrink.

The Hokage arrived with the cat masked ANBU, just in time to see the beast before it disappeared, leaving an unconscious Naruto with a large crazy grin on his face, his small body almost completely covered in blood. Looking at the bloodbath before him, then to the seven year old boy, Sarutobi could only say one thing.

"Dear Kami, Naruto... what have you done?"

XXX

Like I said at the top of the chapter for the most part it will be the same, though I am planning on making a few changes here and there. If any of you have any ideas you think would be useful don't be afraid to tell me, I might not use them but as far as I'm concerned no idea is a bad idea :)

One more thing, I am debating with myself if I should remove the original True Horror or not when I have finished the rewrite, what do you think?

R&R