Ok now I know I said I wouldn't start my third Naruto story until I finished my first but if you haven't learnt by now, I am notoriously unreliable. Another thing I have learnt is that when inspiration hits, you sit down and type because once it goes you are not going to write much at all. So of course when inspiration hit me, funnily enough in the shower, I knew I would be writing this. For instance for my Dxd story, which is doing rather well, I was inspired and was able to crack out 15 000 words over three nights equating to a total of 4 hours… those of you who write know that is nothing to scoff at, so now when my muse says write a new chapter for this story you better believe I am going to. Now this story is following along the theme of my other Naruto stories: The Tails of Naruto Uzumaki being a good Naruto story, Naruto Guardian Of The Mist being a neutral Naruto story… so can you guess what this one will be? Some of you might be wondering why would a story called Naruto Senju Uchiha Uzumaki feature a dark Naruto. Answer, because I have yet to find one. Every time I read a story with Naruto being somehow a part of the three main clans, he is always good or at the very best grey. Those of you who have read more than one of my stories will know I like trying out strange abstract ideas that are rare, if not unique. As for why I am calling him Senju Uchiha Uzumaki… well you need to read the story for that. Another thing, is with the manga currently making Madara an absolutely badass killing everyone, I feel motivated to try my hand at a dark Naruto story. Enough with the preliminary notes let me explain a bit about the story. Naruto leaves the Leaf Village (shocker) but not in a cliché way (my first story had enough of those) and finds his way to the Uzumaki shrine and makes a deal with death, literally. That is all I will reveal at this stage but the things you can expect from this story include: strong Naruto, powerful not god-like Naruto, dark/evil/cruel/manipulative/sadistic Naruto and since I just can't seem to shake it in the Naruto genre, a harem which will mostly feature characters who were wronged, some of which are canonically dead but I did mention a deal with death didn't I? Who will be in it right now is undecided but the one person who I am sure will be in it is Pakura since I can't find a decent story with her. As for updates, since I am currently churning out a new 6000+ word chapter for my Dxd story a week I will update this once a month until my Dxd inspiration dries up. If this gets amazing reception (either 30 reviews a chapter or 100 favourites and follows within a few chapters) I will try my best to get a new chapter up every 3 weeks. The thing is uni literally takes all my time up and it doesn't help that I am trying to get a job now either so I can't promise anything better than that. Oh and to stop a problem before it develops here is my customary quotation mark note. Hope you enjoy the story.
That's right, this will be a dark Naruto story and when I say dark I mean subjugate the world and ruthlessly kill anyone who tries to stop him dark.
Quotation marks can be either one mark 'word' or two marks "word" neither is correct over the other. In fact I looked through my bookshelf and I seem to have a 60/40 split in favour of my quotation mark usage. This is because in America " " is usually talking and a majority of writers on this site are American hence why some people think it is the only correct way. I am Australian and two of my favourite series; Deltora Quest and Harry Potter use quotation marks just the way I do so I will say this now: I am never changing this. It is solely authorial choice. If you cannot handle this then don't read on as frankly I am tired of being insulted for using single quotation marks to denote speech and double quotation marks to denote thoughts and being told how dumb, stupid, illiterate etc. I supposedly am.
SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan.
'Talking'
"Thinking"
'Heavily demonic voice'
'Fox or Death talking'
"Fox or Death thinking"
*expression*
Jutsu
Flashback
Chapter 1 – Don't want me; fine I'll leave
A five-year-old boy of small stature, with a tan complexion and golden blond hair, which was marred with dirt, was walking through his home village. Home could he really call it that?
"This place is no home of mine." Thought the boy clad in a white shirt with an orange spiral in the centre and black shorts, which were well aged and fraying slightly.
As he walked along the streets, he felt all the disdainful glares on his back, their contempt for his very existence was rolling off them in waves. It was as if he was nothing but a pest in their eyes; taking up space, eating their food and breathing their air.
"Why am I even still here? I have three people that even acknowledge me, two because I eat at their restaurant, even if they do give me free meals occasionally, and the old man. If I left, would they even care? I know Ayame would probably be sad for a little, but I am no one special to her, she has her dad and friends as well. Ichiraku… well I guess he will miss his best customer, but with his food, losing one customer won't really affect him that much. The old man… why does the old man even care for me? There are plenty of other orphans in the village; it can't just be because of that Will of Fire he keeps going on about." Thought Naruto, a scowl plastered on his face as he walked, receiving disdainful looks from both sides.
Naruto finally reached the end of the market district and turned left instead of right, leading him away from his apartment.
"Well if that's the case, I might as well leave and try to find someplace better." Thought Naruto resolutely, as he headed towards the entrance of the sewers.
As he neared the entrance, which was more or less a large manhole, his eyes quickly darted around looking around to see if anyone was looking at him. There were two people who were drunk and lying on the floor, no doubt unconscious and a stray black cat looking around a trashcan near the two drunks.
'Perfect.' Muttered Naruto, as he quickly lifted the manhole and slipped into it and then slowly pushed the cover back over and embraced the darkness.
Naruto stood there for a few minutes, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, which only took a couple of seconds. Naruto always did have surprisingly strong senses, sight and hearing being the best, with smell coming in a close second. Naruto walked along the sewer heading down the right path, his small sandal covered feet splashed against the miniscule amount of water in the sewer. Eventually reaching the end of the single directional sewer path, the path opened up into two new paths, one leading to a small building underground, constructed out of steel and silver so it didn't corrode from the sewer water and one leading outside the village.
On certain days when Naruto wanted to be alone and not have anyone glare at him, he would sneak into the sewers, since no one would voluntarily go into them. The best part was that as long as he made a noticeable appearance in the village at least once every two days; no one noticed he was gone. He found this particular path six months ago, just before his birthday. The glares were always more intense then, most becoming looks of loathing and outright hate. He had briefly entertained the notion of leaving then, but he wasn't ready to leave yet.
As Naruto walked over to the metal building, he remembered all the times he snuck down here, bringing as much imperishable food he could, along with stray items like blunt kunai, broken swords and cloth. He might have only been five but having to fend for himself since he could walk made him grow up fast, giving him an eye for spotting the usefulness of anything and a rather perceptive mind. For this reason, when Naruto entered this building for the first time and saw all of the dead bodies, organs floating in jars, notes and medical books, he knew two things. The first, that whoever ran this place before abandoning it was absolutely sick, but at the same time a genius and the second thing, was that there were a lot more aspects to medical Ninjutsu than just healing someone. The books he found here were initially hard to comprehend but with the help of a handy dictionary and thesaurus along with a rather detailed chart that was bigger than him on human anatomy, he found that something about the stuff he was reading just clicked with him.
As Naruto entered the lab, he walked over to the small section he had assigned for all of his worldly possessions that he had managed to get his hands on, which just so happened to be inside a single scroll. He didn't have much aside from kunai, shuriken and ninja wire, but he had at least three useable swords, which if he ever learnt how to forge weapons, could be melted down and reshaped into one spectacular sword. Luckily for Naruto, the lab also had many senbon needles, thousands in fact and many vials. The best thing that Naruto found in the lab by far was the storage seal which had multiple sealing circles. It had seven separate circles, which Naruto took advantage of, using one for all metal weapons he had minus the senbon, one purely for the senbon and vials, one for each and every book Naruto had found value in, one for all of his food, one for all non-metal materials Naruto had, such as the cloth he had collected via various means, while the last two were currently empty, as Naruto didn't have a need for them yet. The scroll was a metre in height and thus dragged on the ground when Naruto walked with it strapped to his back. Naruto sealed all the new stuff he had scrounged today, before rolling the scroll up and strapping it to his back.
As Naruto left the lab and headed for the path leading out of the village he internally thanked his lucky stars that he was able to access his chakra, granted he didn't have good control over it, but just being able to release a small burst of chakra made him capable of using the sealing scroll.
As Naruto took his first steps outside the village, he paused and took a deep breath in, while enjoying the feeling of being away from the oppressive walls of The Leaf Village, which he could see in the distance a good kilometre away.
"Okay, now which direction should I take? Left has worked for me so far... so left it is then." Thought Naruto, before walking left aimlessly, not knowing where he was going or what he would do when he got there, only that he wanted to get away from this cursed village as soon as possible.
-line break-After an hour of walking, Naruto glanced back and noticed that he could just barely make out the sight of the main gate of his now former living area and couldn't help smiling.
"Soon I will be free of that blasted place altogether." Thought Naruto in contentment, as he kept walking.
After a short time Naruto spotted a building, even though curiosity killed the cat, Naruto Uzumaki was no cat and therefore walked towards the temple. As he neared the entrance he saw a decrepit worn out building which just so happened to have the same symbol as the one on his shirt on the entrance.
Naruto grabbed his shirt and looked down at the symbol then back up to the building.
'This must be a sign, coincidences like this don't happen often.' Muttered Naruto, as he entered the shrine.
Within the temple a central podium, which also had the symbol from his shirt on the top of it, had a bunch of masks hung along it.
'Masks? What could be so special about a bunch of masks?' Asked Naruto to himself.
Naruto looked at all the masks before reaching for one, but then paused halfway to it.
"No, something is telling me… not this mask." Thought Naruto in confusion, as his hand hovered over the other masks, until one elicited a tugging sensation from him.
As Naruto grasped the mask, he felt compelled to put the mask on, almost as if it was calling out to him. As he put it on, an intense burning feeling spread through his body, it felt like he was being electrocuted as every neuron in his body started firing at full capacity causing immense pain, while his heart pumped blood twice as fast around his tiny body. Golden spectral flames burst around his being as a spectre appeared behind Naruto, not that he noticed. However, the spectral figure sensed something within the body it was currently possessing and broke off its connection allowing the pain the boy experienced to cease as he dropped to his knees, the mask falling off his face.
'Do you have any idea what you have just done?' Asked the spectre, in a voice absent of all emotion that chilled Naruto's very being.'No *huff* why don't you *huff* enlighten me?' Retorted Naruto, as he breathed heavily, trying to recover from the immense pain that had previously wracked his body.
'You who bears the seal powered by my very essence, the very notion that you managed to summon me is quite the coincidence, however, I don't believe in coincidences.' Said the figure.'Who are you anyway?' Asked Naruto now having regained his bearings.
'I am an existence as old as time, in the beginning I was there and, in the end, I shall be there as well. The only certainty in life is that sooner or later, all will come to me. No matter how hard some try to prevent it, no one is a match for death, as the Reaper of Souls I would know this fact very well.' Said the ghostly figure, now identified as the Reaper of Souls, Death itself.Naruto looked up and gazed at the spectre; it was translucent and possessed a demonic visage. It was much larger than an average human, possessing long, shaggy white hair, from which two red horns protruded, and dark greyish-blue coloured skin.
It was draped in large white garments and carried a set of prayer beads wrapped around its right hand. A small blade was held by the figure in its left hand and its mouth was full of sharp, jagged teeth, as well as a very long, almost serpentine tongue.
'Not that I'm not thrilled about meeting the Reaper of Souls, truly, I am actually humbled getting to meet death itself while still being alive, but what did you mean when you said I have a seal powered by your essence?' Asked Naruto, in what he hoped was a respectful voice.
Death stared at Naruto with its cold black eyes, its red pupils focused solely on Naruto, who unflinchingly stared right back.
'You have courage to be able to even look at me, greater men than you have crumbled at the very notion of me, for that I applaud you. As for the seal I referenced, a foolish human, who bore a close resemblance to you and now sits in my belly for eternity, summoned me in order to separate the yin and yang chakra of a tailed beast and then; seal the yang chakra of the beast inside you, while the yin chakra was sealed into him.' Said Death, as Naruto stood their quietly, absorbing what he had just heard."Death has literally been claiming every single deceased person's soul since the beginning of time itself, for him to mention the human who summoned him looked like me… so let's see the only chakra beast that could be sealed in me would be the Kyuubi which was supposedly killed by the Fourth Hokage, however he said a human summoned him and split the beasts chakra and sealed half into me. That would mean the Fourth Hokage was no doubt the one to summon death… I see… my own father cursed me to a life of isolation. However, I have death standing in front of my right now… such a rare occurrence can't be ignored." Thought Naruto rapidly.
'Why exactly did I feel compelled to wear that mask and how did you get here?' Asked Naruto, pointing to the mask that had fallen off his face.
'That mask, aside from the technique that the being currently in my stomach developed, is the only way to summon me to this realm, as for why you felt compelled to wear it, that is because you possess the blood of the clan which built this shrine.' Answered Death, in reverse order to what Naruto asked him.'I see. Say Death, or Reaper of Souls, whichever you prefer, would you like to make a deal of sorts?' Asked Naruto bravely, locking eyes with Death.
'What could you possibly offer me, in time, everything shall be mine?' Questioned Death, a hint of amusement entering his tone."Damn didn't think that through." Thought Naruto.
'An avatar.' Said Naruto cautiously.
'You? Well, while you do possess the abilities to become an Avatar of Death in time, why would I need you, since as I said, all life comes to me eventually?' Asked Death.'So you are perfectly content to sit back and wait for everything to come to you?' Asked Naruto.
'Why not?' Asked Death.'Surely an entity as powerful as yourself would want to have some impact on the world?' Pressed Naruto, trying to find something he could use to his advantage.
'Your efforts are amusing, but I couldn't care less about this world, honestly, to me, a million years is the equivalent to the blink of an eye.' Commented Death.'Well if you have no interest, why not help me out anyway, I mean, doesn't simply waiting for souls and doing nothing get boring?' Suggested Naruto.
'I am an entity above such emotions, I am neutrality at its finest, if the world ended tomorrow, I would not care and if the world ends in ten billion years, I would not care either.' Said Death.'Well in that case, why not make things more interesting for me? If you don't want to have any impact on the world, why not let me, since you said everything ends with you anyway?' Asked Naruto.
'Hmm, I suppose I could, that being said, I would gain nothing, but I would also lose nothing… very well mortal, you have piqued my interest. I will temporarily bring back the soul of the person sealed inside of you, I will allow you one of your earthly years to train solely in the art of wielding a scythe, I will provide you one as well. The soul I bring back will also be your instructor. 'I leave you with this.' Said Death, as its right hand glowed an eerie black, before a long black pole started to materialise in its grip. The pole extended up to a metre, reaching Naruto's height, before a black, curved and serrated blade, started growing out of the pole. The blade was two metres long and was serrated on the underside, while the top was smoother than humanly possible, to enable it to cut through anything with minimal resistance. The scythe was peculiar in its measurements as most scythes hand a long handle and short blade, to assist in harvesting of crop, but this scythe, this scythe was purely made for the harvesting of souls.
To test if you are worthy of my attention, I assign you the mission of harvesting one hundred souls for me within one of your human days, at the end of your year of training. The soul may come from anyone, as like I have said, I am a being of neutrality and do not have a petty moral judgement on the souls I collect, that is the job of another, I merely harvest.' Said Death, before raising his tanto and pointing at Naruto's navel, which he briefly stabbed into, before pulling it out and dragging out a spectral cloud of white smoke with it.Death raised his right hand covered in prayer beads and created a ball of ethereal flames, which he plunged into the white mass, causing it to suddenly take shape. A woman begun to take shape, she possessed long fiery red hair, a feminine build and she was clothed in long white garments, similar to Death. When she opened her eyes, violet orbs were revealed which darted around quickly, widening slightly at the sight of Naruto, before the figure turned around and nearly died at the sight before her.
Death placed the scythe down, before fading away, leaving Naruto and the woman recently brought back into existence alone.
'So who are you exactly?' Asked Naruto after a few minutes.
'Me? I'm your mother, you know.' Said the figure claiming to be Naruto's mother.
'Now why exactly would death bring you back to life of all people, I doubt Death is sentimental.' Said Naruto aloud in thought.
'Maybe because I was the best bladed weapon user of my generation, you know.' Said Kushina, with a slight tick mark on her head.
'Hmm I suppose that is a good enough reason… but boy is this awkward, believe it.' Commented Naruto, at the strange force-field like feeling in between the two.
'Believe it? I guess you got a verbal tick from me after all.' Commented Kushina with a smile.
'I suppose. Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself before we start training, since we will have a whole year together?' Suggested Naruto, trying to remove some of the tension between the two.
'Very well, my name is Kushina Uzumaki and my hobbies include pulling pranks and chatting. My favourite food is salt ramen and I hate coffee and anything bitter.' Said Kushina.
'My name is Naruto Uzumaki, but I guess you knew that already, my hobbies also include pulling pranks and watering plants. My favourite food is Ichiraku ramen and red bean soup while my least favourite foods are fresh vegetables. Guess I know who I take after in the attitude department.' Said Naruto with a small smile, which Kushina mirrored.
'Well that's enough talk for now, why don't we start trying to teach you how to wield a scythe, you only have a year after all and a scythe is one tricky weapon to use.' Said Kushina.
'Right.' Said Naruto, as he walked over to the scythe and picked it up.
'Now for a scythe, the first thing you need to do is lower your centre of gravity, this scythe has a particularly long blade, so to deal with this, you need to take a slightly wide stance and lean forward, while keeping it close to your body. The main thing to remember is that a scythe cleaves and thus, one body blow is usually the end, in order for this to happen though, you need to be quick, hence why you lean forward, it also helps to stand on the balls of your feet to help you kick off the ground faster.' Explained Kushina, which Naruto listened to before doing as told.
The weight of the scythe proved too much for Naruto and he toppled forward slightly.
'Guess keep balancing will be my biggest problem, since I have decent manoeuvrability and speed, but this weight is completely throwing off my centre of gravity.' Muttered Naruto, as he readjusted himself, getting in position again and tensing all the muscles in his legs, in order to keep him upright.
'Okay, here is how we will start off, you need to stay in that stance and the only thing you can move is your scythe, your legs need to remain in that same position.' Said Kushina.
'Why what are you going to do now?' Asked Naruto curiously.
'Me? Well I'm going to be launching chains at you in a single linear path and you need to either dodge, or block them, without moving, got it?' Asked Kushina, as she stepped back a bit.
'Got it, believe it.' Said Naruto with a smile.
'Alright, here we go.' Said Kushina, before launching a chain at Naruto's right shoulder.
Naruto leaned to the left, avoiding the blow, before another chain aimed at his left side shot at him. Knowing he couldn't dodge Naruto reversed his grip on the scythe so the blade was facing down and away from him and swung the scythe in a semicircular arc, which pushed the chain away from him.
'Well you have quite a bit of ingenuity, that is good, as it means I can step up your training.' Said Kushina, before three chains shot at Naruto.
Naruto blocked the first in a similar manner as before with his scythe, but the other two ploughed into his stomach, launching him back a metre, with the secondary effect of pushing him over onto his back. As Naruto regained his bearings, Kushina stood there waiting. As he got to his feet, he stepped back into his original position and took the same stance.
'I'm ready.' Said Naruto, which caused Kushina to grin.
'That's my little maelstrom.' Said Kushina, before launching another three chains aimed at Naruto's head and shoulders which he blocked by using the pole of the scythe to push the chains up, before another chain ploughed into his stomach, sending him back again.
'Never haphazardly raise you guard: opening your stomach up for attack is asking for trouble, the blade needs to be a part of you, but also needs to work with your body, using the scythe to block something and leaving yourself open is a poor choice, when ducking would have enabled you to dodge them all and keep your guard up.' Lectured Kushina.
'Got it, again.' Said Naruto before Kushina started launching chains at him again, as soon as he was back in position.
The chains were coming faster now, at all times, two chains were passing by Naruto, but he skilfully managed to dodge fifteen, before one clipped his hand, which opened up his guard allowing Kushina to hit his left shoulder.
'Always keep a firm grip on your weapon; even in death, you should never let it leave your hands.' Said Kushina.
Naruto nodded and got back into his stance, before the cycle of dodge, block and get knocked back by a chain or two that snuck by him persisted for another hour, before Kushina decided to take a break.
'Alright, that's enough. We will take a break for now.' Said Kushina, before Naruto pulled out his scroll and unsealed a protein bar which he chewed slowly.
'So you already know how to use seals.' Commented Kushina offhandedly.
'The basics like sealing and unsealing, as well as the general idea behind seals, yeah, drawing or making them, no.' Said Naruto, as he continued to eat his protein bar.
'You know Uzumaki's are experts at Fuuinjutsu, if you like, I can teach you?' Offered Kushina kindly.
'I'd like that.' Said Naruto with a small smile which caused to Kushina to smile as well.
'I always imagined this is what it would be like having a kid. Getting to train you in Kenjutsu and Fuuinjutsu, watch over you and give you handy tips here and there *sigh* still it is a shame I couldn't be with you since you were born.' Said Kushina wistfully.
'If you don't mind me asking, how exactly did you die?' Asked Naruto curiously.
Kushina sighed before sitting down in front of Naruto. Naruto finished up his protein bar and looked at Kushina in anticipation.
'I suppose I should start from the beginning.' Said Kushina, before revealing everything that had happened in her life right up until her death.
-line break-
'That's everything I suppose.' Finished Kushina, before looking up and seeing Naruto deep in thought.
'Is something the matter?' Asked Kushina in concern.
'Yes, something is wrong, this doesn't add up. The way you describe the Uzumaki barrier seal, no intruder would have been able to invade Whirlpool unless they were an Uzumaki themselves, or they had the blood of one. You described tens of thousands invading meaning that there is no way they were able to gather that much blood and thus, the only logical conclusion is that the seal was tampered with from the inside.' Said Naruto ominously.
'That is impossible! No Uzumaki would ever sell out their village; every Uzumaki held a frighteningly close bond with every other Uzumaki, no one would want to betray their fellow Uzumaki.' Protested Kushina vehemently.
'Maybe it wasn't an Uzumaki… maybe it was an ally of the Uzumaki. After all, it makes sense. The first host of the Nine-Tailed Fox was Mito, an Uzumaki and she grew frail and old, despite our longevity. The Leaf knew this and also knew only an Uzumaki can hold the chakra of the fox, meaning a new, young Uzumaki needed to be attained in order to ensure they didn't lose their weapon in the form of a tailed best holder. At the time, the Uzumaki's would not have wanted to give up another Uzumaki just to help the Leaf, since Mito, the wife of the First Hokage, sealed the fox into herself by her own hand and with her passing, the fox be released once again, but with Madara and the First Hokage dead at this point in time, no one else could control the fox aside from another Uzumaki. So in order to keep the strongest tailed beast the Leaf instigated a series of events in order to get their hands on another young Uzumaki who they could control and who better than the Uzumaki who also had the ability to mould chains out of chakra, which can hold down a tailed beast.' Finished Naruto.
Kushina was stunned mouth slightly agape.
"It can't be… did the Leaf betray us?" Questioned Kushina internally.
'That means that the real reason the Uzumaki's were wiped out, was because of the Leaf.' Said Naruto, dropping the bombshell. Hope you liked it and just in case you are worrying, Naruto is not just going against the Leaf. Far too many stories have Naruto going against the Leaf and immediately tag him as dark or evil Naruto. Going against the Leaf doesn't make someone evil, after all, if that were the case, every non-Leaf shinobi is evil then. Naruto will in fact be against more than just the Leaf as this will be a true Dark/Evil Naruto. Now aside from Naruto, I have some very good news, I have Pokémon Y and as of now I have completely caught all 718 Pokémon ever in existence, including all event legendaries at 401 hours and 25 seconds of game play. Just thought I would share this achievement with you all since I am really happy about it. In any case, please let me know what you thought of the story.
SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan.