Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 1: Guess Who's Back in Town

"We'll need to see your passport before you can enter the village," one of the two chuunins at the check-in station said without looking up from his book. The man next to him looked up to see who it was and nudged his partner when he realized who was in front of them. "What?!" the first man snapped angrily at being torn away from his book. His eyes widened when he saw two large figures standing in front of them. One of them was obscured from view by a hooded black cloak, but the other was easily recognizable as one of the most famous and powerful ninja Konoha has ever produced.

"Jiraiya-sama?!" both gate guards exclaimed as the legendary toad sage himself stood before them. "I'm sorry sir, I didn't know it was you," the chuunin that had spoken up first stammered out as he bowed his head. Jiraiya laughed as he waved the younger man off telling him not to worry about it.

"You can handle things here, Jiraiya. I'm going on ahead," the cloaked figure said before disappearing completely. Jiraiya shook his head with a sigh muttering about impatient brats before turning back to the gate guards who were looking at eachother now.

"Was that-" one man started to say before the other one spoke up. "-I think it was." They both grinned as they thought about the young boy who had left with Jiraiya over 3 years ago.

"Looks like things are about to get more interesting around here."

The cloaked figure reappeared on the roof of the Hokage's tower and looked over the village below. "It hasn't changed a bit," he muttered to himself as he continued to gaze upon the busy streets below. Hearing a familiar voice coming from the building beneath him, a smirk crossed his face as he suddenly disappeared again.

"Damn paperwork..I'm gonna beat those two idiots into the ground for getting me to take this stupid job when they get back." Tsunade complained aloud not expecting anyone to hear her as she glared at the piles of paper covering her desk.

"That hardly seems fair. You're the one who decided to take the job," a voice suddenly responded from a dark corner of the room. "Who's there?!" Tsunade demanded as she shot to her feet and got into her fighting stance. She heard a light chuckle as a hooded figure seemingly separated itself from the shadows of the room.

The figure stood close to six feet tall, maybe a little taller, from what she could tell. The long black cloak separated in the middle to reveal a similarly black mesh shirt beneath and a pair of form-fitting black pants that came down to a pair of black combat boots. In the shadows of his hood, all she could make out was a pair of slit, crimson eyes peering back at her.

"Relax, Tsunade; I'm not here to fight you." Tsunade didn't lower her guard as she glared at those unnerving red eyes. They reminded her of the eyes of the nine-tailed fox, but there was something different about them. The presence of the man before her was also vastly different from both the fox itself and what she remembered of when she had seen Naruto use its chakra. "I won't ask you again; who are you?"

"Have you really forgotten me already? Your age must be catching up with you," he responded with a light chuckle causing Tsunade's anger to spike. Before she could respond to the comment about her age or just outright attack him, a gloved hand reached up and took hold of the edge of the man's hood. Tsunade barely noticed the intricate red seal array on the back of the black glove before her attention was completely drawn to the now-exposed face of her intruder.

"Naruto? Is that you?" Tsunade asked the man as she stared wide-eyed at his smirking whiskered face. Apart from the whisker-like birthmarks and some of his other facial features, she would never be able to guess this was the same energetic blond that had left the village to train with her old teammate.

For starters, the man before her had shaggy black hair that was completely different from how she remembered it. His skin was now much paler than it used to be, though it still had a slightly tan hue to it. And of course, those crimson eyes that were watching her intently were somewhat alarming.

"I suppose my new appearance must make it rather difficult to believe it's me. Perhaps this will help," Naruto said before his appearance began to change. His hair took on its original golden-blond color and was styled in a way that looked very similar to the fourth hokage. His skin darkened a bit and his eyes returned to being bright pools of blue. His outfit had also changed into a black and orange jacket with loose black pants and a pair of sandals.

"Is this better?" Naruto asked as he gestured to his new outfit. Tsunade was trying to figure out how he had transformed like that. It wasn't an illusion like a normal henge; it was like he had somehow managed to actually change his physical appearance.

"How did you do that?" Tsunade questioned as she continued to watch him as if waiting for him to change again. Naruto gave a soft chuckle as he smirked at the older blonde. "All in due time, Tsunade; that's just one of many little tricks I picked up during the trip."

"And trust me, it's not even close to the most shocking..or disturbing," came Jiraiya's voice from the window. Tsunade snapped out of her stupor and immediately turned around and sent her former teammate face-first into the ground with a strike to his head.

"I was wondering when you'd show up, Jiraiya. I was starting to think you took a little detour to the hot springs." Naruto commented with his smirk still firmly in place. Jiraiya grumbled incoherently as he picked himself up and rubbed the top of his head where a lump was already beginning to form.

"That wasn't quite the 'welcome home' I was hoping for," Jiraiya groaned as he got back to his feet and looked at Tsunade. "It's nice to see you again, too." Tsunade's eye twitched a bit as she glared at her old teammate and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well maybe if you came back when you were supposed to it would have been more pleasant. You were supposed to be back months ago, what the hell happened?" Jiraiya sighed as he moved to stand next to his apprentice. Tsunade was mildly unnerved by how stoic the usually-energetic boy she remembered was being. He was so different she was still having trouble accepting this was really Naruto.

"About that…a lot of things happened and things didn't exactly go as I had originally planned..." Jiraiya trailed off as Tsunade sat down behind her desk and motioned for them to do the same.

"For starters, why don't you tell me how strong Naruto is now?" Jiraiya and Naruto looked at eachother for a moment before looking back at their hokage with Jiraiya replying in all seriousness "I don't know." Tsunade's eyebrow started twitching again before she calmed herself down enough to ask "what do you mean 'you don't know'?" Jiraiya sighed as he scratched his head with a bit of a troubled look on his face.

"I mean just that. All I can really say for certain is that he's stronger than me." Tsunade's eyes shot wide-open at that answer, obviously not expecting such a thing, before she leaned forward with a serious expression. "Okay, start from the beginning."

To say Tsunade was at a loss for words would be an understatement. The story she had just been told sounded completely impossible to believe, and yet, there was no trace of deception in their story.

"So that seal on your glove-" "is a limiter." Naruto answered for her with a nod. "And you're a-" "Vampire." Naruto stated plainly with another nod as if it were an everyday thing. Tsunade slumped back in her chair with a sigh and brought a hand to her face. "I need a drink."

"You and me both," Naruto responded with a fanged smirk that sent chills down Tsunade's spine. The obvious implications behind the statement sent thoughts racing through her head. She knew that he would never harm the people in the village, but stories don't exactly paint vampires as the nicest of creatures. Though considering the fact that nobody knew for certain that they even really existed, it was hard to say if any of it was true or not.

"You can relax, Tsunade. I'm not gonna go around draining people dry and making an army of monsters or something out of one of those horror stories." Naruto said with a chuckle, obviously amused by the obvious thoughts running through the woman's head.

"So how much is actually true? About vampires I mean?" Tsunade asked while Jiraiya listened in as well not knowing a whole lot himself. Naruto tilted his head and tapped his chin a few times as he thought up an answer.

"Well, I can't really say for vampires in general since I'm a bit different as far as I know, but pretty much all of it is bullshit. While I'm not exactly the sun's biggest fan, I won't burst into flames or anything ridiculous like that from direct sunlight." Naruto admitted with a roll of his eyes. "Silver and crosses do as much to me as they would any normal person, and a stake to my heart wouldn't kill me. Pretty much the only truth lies in my need to consume blood. Oh, and the immortality bit of course."

Tsunade mulled this new information over in her head for a moment before asking her next question. "What's it like?" Jiraiya noticed Naruto's smirk widen with a devious glint in his eyes and had the distinct impression Tsunade was about to regret asking that particular question.

Without even seeing him move, Tsunade shivered as a low whisper suddenly asked her "do you want to find out?" before the sensation of someone licking her neck sent chills throughout her body. Jiraiya immediately began writing in his notepad as a light trickle of blood left his nose as he thought about the idea for his next book.

"Naruto!" Tsunade quickly spun around to come face-to-face with…nothing. All that was there was the shadow being cast off from the large bookcase. Looking around the room furiously, she found no trace of him.

Suddenly, the entire room went dark as if something had sucked out every ounce of light. "Looking for me?" an ominous voice came from above. Looking up, Tsunade found herself looking directly into a pair of smoldering crimson eyes that made her heart stop for a moment. Her mind was unable to produce any coherent thoughts as she just sat there unblinking for what felt like hours until the darkness began to recede and Naruto was standing on the ceiling looking different once again.

He now looked similar to when she had first seen him, only the hooded cloak was replaced with a thick, black trench coat with large silver clasps. "I hope you don't mind, but I prefer this form," Naruto said as he dropped to the floor and ran a gloved hand through his black hair. Tsunade liked his blond hair and blue eyes, but she had to admit this form certainly suited the new Naruto quite well. Clearing her mind of other thoughts and losing the slight blush she had from his earlier actions, Tsunade got back to business.

"That's fine, but now the question is what to do with you. It hardly seems appropriate to keep you a genin if what Jiraiya says is true, but I'd still like to test your skills…" Tsunade trailed off as she thought about who Naruto could spar with. "Let's meet at team 7's old training ground in the morning. You can spend the rest of today getting settled back in." Naruto nodded before heading towards the door and opening it to leave.

"Oh, and Naruto," Tsunade began getting the young vampire to turn and look at her. "It's good to see you again," she finished with a smile. Naruto responded with a smirk of his own before giving a small wave and walking out of the room, closing the door behind him.

The following morning, Tsunade and Jiraiya were standing at the edge of training field waiting for the others to show up while chatting about some of the things that had happened during Jiraiya and Naruto's extended training trip when they were interrupted by a sudden voice from behind a nearby tree.

"You know, I really would've preferred to do this at night. It's too damn bright out," Naruto complained as he walked out from behind the tree to show he was wearing the same outfit he had been wearing when he left Tsunade's office the day before with the addition of a pair of tinted sunglasses.

"Deal with it, not all of us have perfect night vision, brat." Jiraiya responded earning a roll of the eyes from Naruto. "So am I fighting the pervert?" Jiraiya twitched at the comment while Tsunade fought back a laugh. "No, I'm not your opponent." Naruto raised an eyebrow at this as he tried to think of anybody else who could be considered a challenge in comparison to Jiraiya.

"I'm your opponent," a familiar voice said as a puff of smoke appeared. Naruto smiled as he approached one of the people he had missed the most during his long absence. "It's good to see you again, Kakashi. It's been a while."

"Awww, what happened to Kakashi-sensei?" Kakashi asked with false hurt in his voice as he returned the smile and took in his old student's new appearance. "Don't take it personally, Kakashi. The kid doesn't do titles much these days," Jiraiya cut in as he thought back on all the wasted effort he had put in to get his apprentice to call him something besides 'Jiraiya' or 'pervert' since he changed.

"Don't take this personally either Kakashi, but you're probably the worst person Tsunade could have chosen to fight me." Kakashi's visible eyebrow raised in confusion which was mirrored by one of Tsunade's. "The kid is probably right." Jiraiya said with a shrug.

"And why is that?" Tsunade asked. "Because his sharingan will be completely useless against me." Kakashi frowned slightly at that answer thinking that his former student was getting a bit ahead of himself. Seeing Kakashi's skepticism, Jiraiya laughed a bit and gave him a warning. "I wouldn't advise underestimating him, Kakashi. Not even I know exactly what he's capable of." Kakashi nodded and raised his headband to reveal his sharingan and got into his stance prepared to engage Naruto in a taijutsu match first. Naruto sighed and walked in front of Kakashi with his hands hanging at his sides.

"Begin!" Tsunade called out to signal the start of the match. Kakashi frowned to see Naruto still just standing there with his arms at his sides and a vacant expression on his face.

"Lesson one: Taijutsu," he called out similar to how he had during their genin test before rushing at Naruto with a fist drawn back. His disappointment at being underestimated quickly changed to confusion and surprise as he threw a quick series of punches; that were all evaded with precise movements. Naruto's arms had yet to move from his sides as he continued to dodge blow after blow by simply stepping back just out of reach, pivoting to the side, crouching, or even bending backwards. All without throwing a single strike of his own.

"Impressive, you've really improved," Kakashi commented. Naruto just shrugged as if brushing off the compliment. He wasn't being arrogant or trying to be an ass; he just didn't think he should be praised for doing something that took minimal effort.

"Lesson two: Genjutsu," Kakashi said as he went through several handsigns before locking eyes with Naruto. Kakashi slowly approached Naruto when he noticed his body stiffen for a moment and assumed he had been caught in the jutsu, but stopped in his tracks when a creeping darkness began to spread all around him until he couldn't even see his hand 2 inches from his face.

"Sorry, but my illusions are much stronger" a voice echoed at him from everywhere at once. Kakashi called out "Kai!" as he tried to free himself from the strange illusion, but nothing happened. Kakashi shivered as he felt a strangely cold presence behind him. Quickly turning around with a kunai drawn, he froze immediately as his eyes locked onto fierce pools of crimson. His entire body refused to respond to his attempts to move as the kunai slipped from his grasp.

"I told you, your eyes are useless against me," the disembodied voice called out once more before the darkness began to recede again and Kakashi found himself still standing in the middle of the field looking at a smirking Naruto. "The darkness is so much more inviting isn't it, Kakashi?"

"Why couldn't my sharingan see through your illusion?" Tsunade was surprised to hear that and Naruto just made a 'tsk' noise a few times while waving a finger. "Sorry, but that's a secret." Kakashi was beginning to understand that he wasn't the one being underestimated and maybe he should've taken Jiraiya's warning a bit more seriously. He was obviously outdone in genjutsu and hadn't fared much better in taijutsu.

"Lesson three: Ninjutsu," Kakashi said as he went through a series of handsigns before bringing a hand to his mouth. With a cry of "Fire Release: Grand Fireball Jutsu!" a large ball of fire was now heading straight for Naruto who seemed completely unfazed by this development. Just as the attack was about to connect, Naruto stepped back into the shade of a nearby tree before the attack collided with the area he had been standing and sent up a cloud of dust and smoke.

Once the smoke cleared, there was nothing left of the area the young vampire had been standing in but charred earth. Tsunade and Kakashi seemed a bit worried, but Jiraiya just shook his head. "Come on out, brat, you're gonna worry Tsunade to death."

"Why must you spoil my fun, Jiraiya?" Kakashi jumped at the sudden voice behind him and the looks on his and Tsunade's faces as he rose out of the masked jounin's shadow like it was water was priceless. Jiraiya was torn between wanting to laugh at the scene or feeling sympathetic. It had certainly freaked him out quite a bit the first time he had seen Naruto do it. "Consider it payback for all the times you've interrupted my research," Jiraiya responded as he made his decision and started to laugh. Hey, he didn't get any sympathy so why should they?

"Whatever you say, pervert. Shall we continue, Kakashi?" Naruto asked with a fanged smirk. Before the copycat ninja could respond, Tsunade stepped forward. "I've seen enough. I know what to do with you."

Naruto frowned slightly at not getting to have a bit more fun, but relented. "If you say so," he said with a shrug as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "So what's the verdict?" he asked. Tsunade smiled proudly at the young vampire as he approached.

"Come with me; we'll discuss your new position in my office. I have an assignment that you'd be perfect for."

A/N: Here's another story I wrote a while that I'm just getting around to uploading. I have about half of the next chapter written as well, but I'm working 10-12 hour shifts Monday-Friday so I only have the weekends to work on any of my stories; hence, updates may be a bit slow. I'm gonna try to finish chapter 2 up tonight though and get it out either tonight or after work tomorrow. No promises though. Anywayz~ let me know what you think and as always, thank you for reading.