(Blood of Iwa Chapter 1)

Sitting on the front porch of an almost entirely empty compound was Naruto Uzumaki. He had long blonde hair that jutted out in a shaggy fashion down his back, and had two bangs that framed his face. Naruto had amethyst colored eyes, an Aristotle looking face, a runner's build, long thin but strong fingers, and a bored look on his face. He wore black ANBU styled pants, but a white and red Kumo jonin one strap over vest with the red and black Uzumaki symbol on the back. It was different, but Deidara and Naruto thought it looked cool so they didn't care what anyone else thought.

Naruto had been looking up at the giant cliff face that defended the back side of their village, and all of the beautiful water that came rushing out of it that Iwagakure used for their drinking water, as he thought about how empty his clan's compound was. It was the only compound in the village that was not full of life. Children had parents and relatives inside of their compounds that would love them and teach them how to become great ninja, but inside his own compound were only himself and his older cousin Deidara, so they were forced to read from their clan's library and train themselves, as well as take care of themselves at only five years old. Naruto and Deidara did catch a break when they turned seven when the Tsuchikage decided to teach Deidara and make him his personal student, and Roshi, the jinchuriki of the four tails, decided to do the same with Naruto, but now he was eight, and even worse he was bored.

They had been doing very well so far. They had asked a lot of jonin around the village when they turned five what was the best way to train, and get stronger. They got many different answers, but overall they got a few of the same replies. They found out that they should learn one tiajutsu stance and master all of the steps inside of it, don't try to start learning fancy jutsu and to start by mastering as many chakra control exercises as they could, find out if they have any skill for genjutsu, or kenjutsu and go with that, and if you find out you have some unknown gifts in obscure fields go talk to someone who is skilled in that field so they can help you.

Naruto and Deidara had done as they had been told and went out to start learning everything that they could. The first thing they learned was how to float a leaf on top of their head. They discovered that if you spin the leaf while they levitated it in the direction that their hair grew then it would also improve their shape manipulation skills. Naruto quickly found out that he didn't have any skills when it came to genjutsu so he practiced the genjutsu release technique as Deidara tried to place genjutsu on him when he found out that he did have natural born skills in genjutsu. Naruto discovered that he learned tiajutsu a lot faster than Deidara and that he enjoyed it more as well. Deidara seemed to be more of a long range fighter than an up close tiajutsu user, though he did learn and master the stances for the tiajutsu style of his choosing. Naruto and Deidara soon found that using weapons was very easy for them, and that it was not hard for them to master throwing kunai, shuriken, senbon, and Naruto even took up using a wakizashi (The wakizashi has a wood handle with no guard and it's sheath is made of wood as well), but Deidara stuck with using a tanto (standard tanto with a black handle and round metal guard).

After they had mastered all of this, which had surprised them that it had only taken a year, they moved on to elemental training. They found out that Deidara had an earth and lighting affinity which was not surprising since they were the last of the explosion release clan, so they knew that he would have those affinities. Deidara was happy as he loved to make things explode and had really taken a fancy to art here recently. Naruto's affinities were very shocking though. Turns out Naruto had an affinity for four of the major elements (Fire, wind, lighting, and earth), but when they thought about it then they realized it wasn't that surprising if you knew who Naruto's ancestors were.

Naruto was the great grandson of the second Tsuchikage so he must have inherited his great grandfather's dust release bloodline, and since the second Tsuchikage's wife was a member of Deidara's clan then he must have received the explosion release as well. The second Tsuchikage's son then went on to marry a woman who had the lava release bloodline, and they had a son. That son married a woman by the name of Kushina Uzumaki who was the nine tailed fox's jinchuriki, and Naruto's mother, that is how Naruto found out he had the lava release bloodline as well, and how Naruto became the jinchuriki of the nine tailed fox right before his mother's death giving birth to him.

They quickly set out to learn and master their explosion release first. They had both realized that they were geniuses already so it was not surprising that they were able to master earth release in four months and lightning release in the next four months. After they mastered the elemental training they set out to master the explosion release bloodline. Deidara had been talking recently about making it better and more artful, but Naruto had no idea what he was talking about so he let him do his own thing. For the next year Naruto mastered all four of his affinities, but didn't actually learn any jutsu for them except maybe one or two jutsu for each element and incorporated the explosion release into his tiajutsu style. He had recently been learning from a friend of his by the name of Roshi. He was the jinchuriki of the four tailed monkey, and was Naruto's best friend. He had promised Naruto to teach him how to master his biju's power one day, but as of now he was just teaching Naruto how to create and use his lava release bloodline. A little while after they turned eight Deidara came to him while he was sitting on his porch with a brilliant idea.

"Naruto I have discovered the answer to all of our problems" spoke Deidara as he sat down next to Naruto with a smile that threatened to split his face in two.

"And what problem was that exactly" asked Naruto. He knew Deidara had not discovered how to instantly make a family, and since he never talked about actually wanting one or even about having children one day it was a safe bet that whatever it was he found out was not family related.

"I found out that the old man has a special kinjutsu in his personal library that will make our explosion release turn into the ultimate art. With it we could become the greatest ninja in all of Iwagakure" spoke Deidara with pure joy radiating off of him. It was obvious that he either didn't care what the old Tsuchikage did to them when he found out, or didn't think they would be caught at all, but Naruto knew that the old man didn't like them all that much after they had cut the legs on the old man's chair to make it and him fall down when he sat in it. The old man had fallen down, but then he went into a fit about how he was old, and that his back was messed up, and all this other jazz, and then he made them whittled a new chair for him out of a tree. It took a week of boredom to get it done and they had yet to mess with the old man since.

"I am not even going to ask how you found out about this kinjutsu of yours, or why you want it, but do you even know why it was labeled a kinjutsu? It could kill ninety nine out of every one hundred people who try to use it and you're talking about it like its candy from that shop down the road" spoke Naruto as he looked as his friend like he was an idiot. Sometimes Deidara had such a one tract mind and never looked at the dangers that came with what he was doing. Naruto would have bet that if it was not for him Deidara would just bomb everything he saw just to see it go boom.

"Oh come on Naruto you can't tell me you're not interested in it. Even you with your lack of love for art can't deny that the explosion release is boring on its own. All we can do is make things explode by touching them, but that doesn't leave any variation now does it? If we were able to get this kinjutsu, and it works as well as I believe it will, and then we will be able to make hundreds of different jutsu for our explosion release. How can you sit there, look me in the eyes, and tell me that you don't wish to advance our bloodline's power simply because you are afraid of the unknown" spoke Deidara as a large explosion went off behind him as he stuck and incredulous pose. Naruto might have found Deidara's antics trying, and somewhat childish, but he had to admit the guy was a phenomenal speaker when he wanted to be. If Naruto was the Tsuchikage he would have assigned Deidara to act as the ambassador to promote good relations in other villages, if it was not for Deidara's lack of subtlety and his love of making things explode.

"Sigh, we are going to get into so much trouble for this" spoke Naruto as he rubbed the back of his head, but sighed his head in defeat and started to follow his grinning cousin down the road.

As they walked people saw the way Deidara was grinning and were instantly on guard. Deidara had a habit of pranking people as did Naruto, but his usually involved large explosions and people's houses going down, so he was not the person you would invite into your house.

As they were walking down the road they saw someone that Deidara really didn't want to see. Standing there was Kurotsuchi, the granddaughter of the current Tsuchikage, wielder of the lava release bloodline, and a real pain in the ass in Deidara's opinion. He quickly tried to hide, and walk down a different path, but Kurotsuchi noticed them, and quickly chased after them much to Deidara's dismay.

"Hey Naruto, hey pop boy" spoke Kurotsuchi in a sweet voice until she called Deidara 'pop boy' in an annoyed voice. It was not secret to nobody in the entire village that Deidara and Kurotsuchi hated each other. They fought bout everything, especially who would be playing/training/hanging out with Naruto. The argued about whether the lava release bloodline was better than the explosion release bloodline or not, who was the fastest, and other things like that.

"What did you call me flat chest" demanded Deidara right before he had to duck under one of Kurotsuchi's right hooks. Ever since Deidara had discovered the 'beauty' that was women he really started to notice their chests. This led him to insulting Kurotsuchi's chest because she was as flat as a billboard. It usually caused large fights to break out, but Naruto was not in the mood so he decided to break it up before it got out of control.

"Hey Kurotsuchi how is everything" asked Naruto in his usual nice voice. He didn't realize it yet, but he had a natural way of speaking that attracted women to him. It was smooth, but held a deep tone, for an eight year old, that attracted Kurotsuchi to him, as well as his other fan girls.

"Hey Naruto, what are you doing" spoke Kurotsuchi as she started to draw circles in the dirt with her feet as she looked down with a tint of red to her face. She really liked Naruto, but she made sure she didn't act like some of those other girls in the academy that fought each other over Deidara and Naruto because they were the last of their clans.

"We were looking for something that could help us improve our explosion release bloodlines, but we have to get it from the old man's library as it is a kinjutsu" spoke Naruto. He knew Kurotsuchi would not rat them out as she had known about quite a few of the pranks they had played on the old man and had not told him.

"Well I can show you were it is if you want" spoke Kurotsuchi as she looked at Naruto hopefully. That all ended when Deidara decided to speak turning Kurotsuchi's smile into a frown very quickly.

"HELL NO! I don't want to take her with us" shouted Deidara as he pointed at Kurotsuchi like she was nothing more than an annoying bug that should not have been there to begin with.

"If you don't take me with you then I will tell gramps, and I doubt you will get whatever it is you are looking for pop boy" spoke Kurotsuchi as she placed her hands on her hips, leaned forward, and gave Deidara the death glare. She really knew how to take advantage of a situation, something all Tsuchikages were known for, so she must have gotten it from her dad Naruto figured.

"Fine whatever, but if you rat us out about this I swear I will blow you up from here to Kirigakure" spoke Deidara in a would be threatening voice. Kurotsuchi did not seem scared in the least, and Naruto just figured that was because she wasn't. She had a reputation of being the strongest girl in their generation, and she was not afraid to prove it.

They continued walking down the streets until they started getting close to the Tsuchikage's tower. Like all of the building it was made of stone, and Naruto for once agreed with his cousin that this place could really use some art. That wasn't to say that he want people to start painting murals on their walls and crap like that but honestly you would figure people would get tired of looking at all of the grey walls.

When they finally got to the Tsuchikage's tower they quickly walked in and made a B line for the Tsuchikage's office. When they got in the old man's office they were relieved to find out he was gone, so Kurotsuchi showed them a cool little hidden path that most people did not know about, and it led them straight to the old man's secret library that was full of Iwa's kinjutsu which was very convenient. When they came out of the secret passage way, Naruto looked back and thought about how he was not surprised in the least. The entrance to the secret passage way was behind a picture of his great grandfather, the Second Tsuchikage, a man known as the 'no man'. It would figure he would make something as cliché as a secret passage way. When they got out of the secret passage way they came into a small library full of very old books. The all made a few clones to help them look around, and then they themselves started to look around. It only took about fifteen minutes for Deidara to find what he was looking for.

"Found it" shouted Deidara as he pulled a scroll out from the book shelf and quickly started reading through it. When Naruto and Kurotsuchi saw it they too started to read it, and were far less interested in it then Deidara seemed to be.

"Deidara this kinjutsu is gruesome" spoke Naruto as he read through what happened to people who activated this particular kinjutsu. Apparently mouths grew wherever the kinjutsu was applied, and the mouths somehow allowed the user to kneed chakra into materials. Now Naruto understood what Deidara was doing. He was going to knead his explosive chakra into materials that he could shape, and then use them to cause explosions that, in Deidara's words, would be the ultimate art.

"I finally have it. Now let's see here, ahh here it is" spoke Deidara as he started going through hand seals. Before Naruto could stop him he had already called out the name of the kinjutsu and slammed his hands together. As soon as he did this Deidara was on the ground screaming in pain, as the palms of this hands split open, and Naruto and Kurotsuchi watched on with morbid fascination as teeth and a tongue came into being in his hands. When it was all done Deidara was passed out on the ground with three new mouths on his body.

"He really is an idiot" spoke Kurotsuchi as she pocked at Deidara's new mouths it the edge of a book she had been reading. They actually reacted and licked the book before Kurotsuchi was able to pull it away. That little incident caused a nasty feeling to run up Naruto's back. He didn't want that to happen to him that was for sure.

"What are we going to do with him? Gramps will know that we were in here when he sees those mouths on pop boy's hands" spoke Kurotsuchi as she looked over at Naruto. Naruto seemed to be in deep thought, but then he pulled out a few roles of tape and started applying them to Deidara's hands (When he is done Deidara's hands will look like Rock Lee's hands with that tape on them). When he was done you couldn't even tell that the mouths were there, except the wet spots were the hands were licking which grossed both of them out.

"There all fixed. Now all we have to do is make sure that Deidara doesn't start showing off his new found 'gifts' and we should be alright, but knowing Deidara his dumb ass will just go around shooting explosive missiles out of his hands in public" spoke Naruto as he rubbed his temples before picking the kinjutsu scroll back up.

"Don't you dare apply that disgusting kinjutsu to yourself Naruto? What Deidara did was stupid, and it was also gross. You don't need that kinjutsu to become a powerful ninja Naruto" spoke Kurotsuchi as she eyed Naruto with her 'Puppy Dog Eye Jutsu' in the hopes that it worked on him. Naruto just smiled and nodded his head, before he placed the scroll back onto the shelf.

'I won't apply that kinjutsu to myself, but I will find a way to recreate those same effects, but without the nasty part about growing mouths on my hands. Maybe I should try fuinjutsu. I am really good at that, and as they say, there isn't anything that fuinjutsu can't do' thought Naruto as he picked up his cousin and ran out of the secret library with Kurotsuchi hot on his heels. Eventually they made it back to Naruto and Deidara's compound without incident. Maybe they would get away with it after all. After Naruto put Deidara to bed in his room that was full of holes in the wall, and destroyed furniture as well as other things that his cousin had used his explosion release on. When he got back into the living room he noticed that Kurotsuchi looked nervous, like she didn't know what to do.

"Hey Kuro-chan want to watch a movie before you go" asked Naruto in his sweet voice. He could already tell the girl was more than ok with that so he put in one of his favorite movies and sat down on the couch next to Kurotsuchi. It was a great time, and they enjoyed many laughs at the movies and their own expense. Eventually the movie stopped, and Kurotsuchi left to go back to her own clan compound. When she was gone Naruto turned around and threw a lightning empowered kunai into the shadows. He saw a shadowy figure jump up to avoid the attack, but before Naruto could follow up on his attack he realized who it was.

"Roshi? Is that you? What are you doing sneaking around my house like a thief in the night" asked Naruto as he gave Roshi a hard stare. Roshi just gave him that dumb grin that was always on his face, and scratched the back of his head much like Naruto did when he was nervous or confused before he answered.

"I just wanted to see if my favorite pupil would be able to detect me, but then I noticed you were all lovey dovey with the old hard ass's granddaughter, and I figured I would wait until you were alone" spoke Roshi in a voice that said he was trying to be as professional as possible, but Naruto saw right through his act, and decided to call him out on it.

"So you could spy on me for black mail material you mean" spoke Naruto as he crossed his arms. The look on Naruto's face told him everything he needed to know, but he hoped Roshi didn't know about his cousin's idiotic move with the kinjutsu.

"So how long have you been tailing me anyways" asked Naruto as he tried to gather information out of his sensei, although the man was not his official sensei, he was still kind enough to take time out of his day to teach him tiajutsu, kenjutsu, how to master lava release, earth/fire/lave jutsu, and all kind of things. It really made Naruto advance much quicker than he had been in the past which was saying something.

"I was on my way to the dango bar down the road when I saw you carrying Deidara, and decided to follow you guys. I hope you three were not getting into any kind of trouble" spoke Roshi as he glared down at Naruto with inscrutable eyes.

"No, Deidara was just being stupid again. He said he was completely immune to explosions, and bet me that not even my strongest explosion technique would harm him in any way. Well his hands did not come out of that unscaved so I bandaged him up and through him in his bed to rest and heal" spoke Naruto, coming up with a good excuse on the spot.

"That idiot! He always wants to be involved with anything that went bang, and made some pretty colors. I swear that boy would help our enemy's plant bombs all over the village if they promised to let him watch when they did it" sighed Roshi as he rested his forehead on the palm of his hands. He quickly recovered and directed his attention back towards Naruto. "By the way how is your lava release coming along? Have you been able to create the quicklime version yet" asked Roshi as he looked at Naruto. He had been teaching Naruto for a while now and he could honestly say he was very amazed at how quickly the boy was progressing. It felt like only yesterday he had no idea how to even convert his chakra into lava release, and now he could make the molten rock version, and now he could make the quicklime version. In another year or two he will undoubtedly know how to make the rubber version, and the syrup version. The boy was truly a genius and it was interesting to watch him train.

"Yea I already told you that I have mastered it a week ago, but then you went on your little escapade over near the border and I haven't seen you since. If you're going to leave you should at least leave me with something interesting to train with. I might have made some serious head way in the syrup or rubber version if you had at least left me instructions on how to do it" spoke Naruto as he sat on his couch with a tired sigh, and watched as Roshi did the same, but on his recliner.

"You are far too worried about training, and nowhere near interested enough in actually enjoying life. You should get more, spend some time with a few girls, and find a hobby that is not shinobi related" spoke Roshi as he laid back in the recliner.

"You can only enjoy life when you are strong enough. If you are too weak then someone will simply come and end your fun for you, and then you will wish you had trained more" spoke Naruto as he looked over at Roshi who had gotten up and was walking towards the exit.

"If you're so worried about death, then you won't be able to enjoy life. Remember that Naruto because one day you will have to make a choice and it will affect you for the rest of your life" spoke Roshi as he used a 'Fire Style: Body Flicker Technique' to leave in a flash.

Naruto looked over at were Roshi had been standing and saw a scroll. When he unrolled it her realized it was for training in learning how to use the rubber style for his lave release and a note that told him that he had a mission and wouldn't be back for a while. Naruto put the scroll in his vest and walked back towards were his cousin was sleeping and started examining the mouths, what they did, and generally experimenting to see how they worked. When he was done he left the room and entered his own bed room. It was much cleaner than Deidara's, but it was far from perfect, as it had some clothes on the floor, lots of papers scattered about the room with ideas for new jutsu, seals, and improvements on his tiajutsu and kenjutsu style.

Naruto quickly cleared a spot on his desk and started to write down various seals that would give him the desired effect he was looking for. They would have to act much in the same way sealing scrolls did, and be able to absorb outside materials. Then they would have to be able to infuse the substance with his explosion release chakra so that the material gains the properties of his bloodline limit. They will also have to be able to shape, manipulate, and alter whatever material he puts inside of them, and the material that they make when they infuse the material with his explosion release chakra. It would be a monumental task that would take months if not years to complete, but Naruto was positive it would be well worth it in the end, plus he would just have some seals on his hands, and that was much better than having mouths on his hands.

Over the next four years Naruto learned under Roshi's tutelage, and Deidara learned under the Tsuchikage's teachings, but Naruto knew that Deidara was slowly slipping away. He was getting angrier more and more as the months dragged on, and Naruto knew he had been planning on leaving the village. It pained him to see his only family member, and his best friend, think about something like that because when he became a ninja he would be forced to kill him when he got older if they ever met again.

Naruto was able to create, and apply the seals that would imitate the kinjutsu Deidara had applied to himself, and he was quickly learning how to make various techniques out of his quicklime and/or rubber based jutsu that he would make using his lava release bloodline. He would simply knead lava release chakra into his stomach, change it into either quicklime or rubber, spit a wad of it out onto is hand or hands, watch as it was absorbed into the seal/s, and then mold the material inside of the seal into whatever jutsu he wanted to make. He had to admit Deidara was still much better at using it then he was, but Naruto could make his own materials while Deidara had to make sure he didn't run out, and Naruto also found out that his creations were superior to his cousins. The creations he made using the rubber were much stronger, more flexible, and far more resilient to damage than any of Deidara's clay creations that he had seen so far, and the creations he made out of his quicklime were much faster, agile, and far more explosive than any of Deidara's clay techniques. Naruto figured it was probably because of the materials they were using, plus he believed that his seals were better than his cousin's kinjutsu, jutsu because he had made them.

Today was the day that Naruto would officially become a genin of Iwagakure. His cousin had already become a jonin, but then again he was four years older than he was, and Naruto bet he could become a jonin in only two years as he knew he was stronger than his cousin.

"See you later Deidara" shouted Naruto, as he opened the door. All he heard was a snort before he closed it. Deidara had become nothing more than an annoyance and it was getting on Naruto's nerve. He was no longer friendly, no longer laughed unless he was blowing something up, and he was turning into a real jerk. Naruto had tried to talk to him about it, but he just brushed him off, and said "I don't care. I got a way of creating true art, so what does it matter if I am a little unpleasant" before he would walk off. Naruto was annoyed, but put Deidara in the back of his mind as he left the compound ready to become a genin.

'Look out Iwa, Naruto Uzumaki has finally come to make his debut' thought Naruto before rushing off towards the academy.