All of the ninja carefully eyed the figure as he approached. His shoulder length dark hair was greasy and messy and added to the creepiness of his image. His menacing smile and eerie laugh contributed to the uneasy feeling which spread though the minds of the genin while the jonin stayed calm and collected. His bloodshot hazel eyes wandered about the unexpected visitors before landing on the genin he least expected to see.

"Well, I'll be damned." He said looking at the orange clad blonde. "You don't look scary at all. Just a little bratty wimp." He laughed.

Naruto frowned in anger. "At least I don't look like a murderer… like you Kusuri."

"So you know who I am, huh?" Kusuri chuckled. "So those stupid people figured it out? Hah!"

"How could you do that?! To murder the loved ones of the people who feed you and gave you a place to live for years!" Naruto growled trying to restrain himself from making the first move.

"Those people murdered my father! My only family! They had it coming!" Kusuri replied replacing his evil grin with a sour frown. "And you know what that's like don't you, Uzumaki?"

Naruto inhaled inaudibly. "How do you know who I am?" He choked out.

"Because I was born in the hidden leaf." Kusuri announced.

There was a visible shock that came upon the faces of all of the ninjas. "Then how did you end up here?" Kakashi asked calmly as ever.

"Thirteen years ago, I left my mother in the leaf to go and search for my father who left years ago and never came back." A vain pulsed in Kusuri's forehead. "I couldn't find him so I came back… and what do I see?! The whole village in ruins! After being attacked by the Nine Tailed Fox!"

Naruto's gaze met the ground.

"My mother… my home… all was gone! And who did the people blame? You!" He pointed towards the blonde.

Naruto's eyes widened and he felt Hinata's hand, still on his wrist, start to shake.

"And then I ran away and I got here… to this cursed town…" Kusuri continued. "And just as I thought I could have a family again… I found out why my father never came back… because those people killed him!"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed then widened with realization. "Wait…"

"That's why I spent years developing jutsus to avenge my father!"

"To bring him back from the dead." Sasuke interrupted him.

Kusuri's eyes slowly traveled towards Sasuke and he chuckled.

"So… you are Saigai's son?" Kurenai asked.

The genin stiffened at the realization. It all made sense now.

"So… the zombie guy that came to town and… kidnapped people…" Shikamaru cringed. "Was Saigai?!"

Kusuri chuckled again. "Father insisted on personally picking his grafts… I told him not to go… and then he lost his nose…" He looked towards Naruto again. "Yours looks to be a perfect replacement."

Naruto growled. "Not a chance, Frankenstein."

Kusuri chuckled. "Why not? Your people want you dead, I might as well take more of your parts."

Naruto stiffened then growled to hide the fact that he found this comment upsetting. However, Kusuri was not easily fooled. His lips spread into a devilish grin. "I struck a nerve it seems…"

Naruto swallowed trying to steel his face. Faking a smile was easy, but he couldn't hide his anger do to his short temper.

"And I know why…" Kusuri continued. "Because you know that it's true."

Kakashi glared at him as if trying to telepathically intimidate him into being quiet… because he knew that eventually he was going to say the thing that everyone was afraid of him saying.

"They ignore you… they belittle you… they make fun of you… they despise you…" Kusuri kept an eye on Naruto as his face twitched as he attempted to stay calm. "These people…" He waved his hands at the others. "They aren't your friends… they don't want to be around you… but they are forced to… in fear of you getting angry… and killing them!"

The other genin exchanged glances from Kusuri's babble to Naruto's sweating angry expression. "What is he going on about?" Kiba asked nonchalantly. Immediately after the last word left his lips Kusuri snapped his head towards him as his eyes and his creepy grin progressively got wider. "You… don't know?"

Kiba blinked at him in confusion.

"Ah!" Kusuri exclaimed before staring at the blonde again and letting out a raspy but loud laugh. "They don't know! They have no idea what you really are?!"

"This isn't about me!" Naruto yelled out suddenly, startling Hinata who pulled her hand back from his wrist. "This is about the people you killed! Not me! So shut up before I knock all of your teeth out!"

Kusuri laughed. "It doesn't matter, I will replace them with yours." He smirked. "However, I would prefer to do it when your fangs are out."

"Shut up!" He pulled out another kunai. "I have to do something before he tells the others!" Naruto thought.

"P-please, calm down." Hinata whispered to him. "Don't let him get to you."

"Oh-ho-ho, got yourself a vixen I see…" Kusuri teased. "I'm surprised." He looked at Hinata and grinned. "So what is it? Blackmail or bribe?" He asked suggesting that it was one of those two that was keeping the girl with him.

Hinata's eyes widened in horror.

"Just shut up already!" Naruto threw his kunai at him at the speed of light. Equally as fast, Kusuri lifted his arm and sliced the kunai down the middle with his chakra blade.

Naruto hissed quietly. "What is that?"

"So that's what you used to dig up your father's bones and to cut the window bars."Sasuke observed.

"Yes, aren't you impressed?" Kusuri answered. "It is my chakra scalpel, I developed it myself." He then reverted his gaze back towards the blonde. "It cuts human flesh and bone like water. I'd gladly demonstrate it."

Naruto shifted his body to shield Hinata as he gently pushed her behind him.

"Naruto…" She looked at his back and felt a mix of emotions flow through her mind.

Kusuri smirked and swiped his hand across the nearest wooden crate, in an instant, the crate split perfectly in half and a splash of red created a dense cloud around the crate for a second, leaving red droplets all over the surrounding crates and a part of his robe. Blood started to pour down the cut crate as bits of flesh hung from the freshly cut top of the crate.

Kiba covered his nose. "Gah! What the heck is in those crates?"

"Unsuccessful graft attempts, I suppose." Shino replied.

That's disgusting…" Sakura added.

Ino slowly nodded in agreement along with Chouji. "Yeah… I'm not even hungry anymore…"

Kusuri wiped the blood off of his face with a grin before his face froze and he glanced behind himself. "His breathing… I cannot hear it… father!" He swiftly disappeared behind the crates, his filthy robe fluttering behind him.

"Hey, where the hell do you think you're going?!" Naruto followed after him.

"Wait, Naruto!" Kakashi followed after his student.

Hinata ran to the crates before Kurenai grabbed her arm. "No, you go last so you can keep an eye on everyone with your byakugan."

"B-but…" She started to protest but Kurenai interrupted her. "You know that Naruto would agree with me."

Hinata sighed and nodded. She was right. Naruto wouldn't want her anywhere near that guy.

Everyone slid behind the crates and were met with an abundance of metal poles left and right covered in ropes and dried blood. A few feet ahead was Kusuri kneeling in front of a pile of rocks and mud which were stacked into a rough shape of an armchair. On it… was a sickly figure in black robes. His face was covered in stitches and different shades of grey and green. There were bits of hair on his head and there was a dark hole in the middle of his face where his nose once was. Barely breathing, the figure opened his eyes slightly but judging by the gray, cloudy irises, he could not see anything.

Asuma's breath caught in his throat. "Is that…"

Shikamaru frowned. "Saigai…"

Ino, Sakura and Hinata looked at the figure in disgust while Shino and Sasuke calmly stayed on their guard. Akamaru growled and his fur spiked up. "Calm down, buddy." Kiba restrained him verbally. "I don't want you biting into that thing."

Hinata observed Kusuri's creation with her byakugan. The robes covered his body but she could see a strangely shaped patch of flesh on his chest… it was the same shape as the part taken from Ginga's leg. She felt sick… not only by seeing that but also by the rest of his anatomy. His chakra coils were not connected among the separate body parts so some parts were already dead and rotting while others were still alive, but just barely.

"What am I to do, father?" Kusuri asked. "I do not know how to keep you alive anymore…" He quietly admitted.

Struggling to breathe, Saigai mumbled. "Chakra… I need… that… chakra…"

"That chakra?" Kusuri asked confused.

Saigai breathed heavily as he struggled to lift his hand. His different colored fingers folded slightly so that his pointer finger was left straight as he pointed towards the orange clad genin.

Naruto raised his brows in shock before backing away from his enemy.

Kusuri grinned again. "Oohh… that chakra…" He got back on his feet and did a few hand signs. "Wire Slave Jutsu!" He yelled and immediately. Thin wires sprouted from the metal poles at lightning speed and wrapped around each of the ninja pulling them against the poles and wrapping themselves around their limbs thus trapping them.

"What the…" Kiba struggled against the wires but screamed out in pain when a surge of light engulfed the pole and he got electrocuted.

"Kiba!" Sakura attempted to release herself only to get electrocuted as well.

Akamaru bit the wires to try and set his partner free but suffered the same fate as his companion.

Kakashi held still against the pole and analyzed the wires with his sharingan. "If you use chakra you will get electrocuted… but if you don't the wires will tighten and cut you into pieces." His thoughts were interrupted by the voice of his student.

"Let me go, you bastard!" Naruto yelled trying to pull his limbs out of the wires.

Kakashi's eye widened when he looked up at his student. He wasn't tied to the pole but to the wall facing everyone else… his arms were tied above his head and the wires held his feet tied to the ground. Kusuri approached him with a long stained blade.

"Don't you dare touch him!" Kakashi warned.

"Oh?" Kusuri swiftly unzipped Naruto's jacket and rested the tip of the blade on his chest. "And what do you think you can do about it?" He sliced Naruto's shirt open with the blade leaving a cut all the way down his torso. Naruto hissed in pain.

"No, Naruto!" Hinata yelled before being electrocuted and screaming in pain.

"Hinata, don't move!" Naruto yelled at her.

Kusuri laughed and walked up to Kiba and put the blade to his neck. "You don't know what he is, eh? Watch." He turned his head towards Naruto. Kiba's eyes roamed over him for a bit before he saw that the cut on Naruto's chest was rapidly healing.

Naruto followed Kiba's eyes and looked at the cut that was slowly disappearing. He looked up again and saw the other genin looking at him in disbelief. He looked at them with fear in his eyes.

Kusuri laughed menacingly. "Did you see that everyone? How is that possible? Well, I'll tell you!"

"NO!" Naruto screamed scrimmaging against his restraints. "IF YOU SAY ONE MORE WORD I"LL BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF YOU!" he couldn't use his chakra to free himself, not only for fear of being electrocuted, but more for fear of his seal appearing.

"I don't think so." Kusuri replied punching him in the face. The force of the punch caused Naruto's head to slam against the wall as blood trickled from his nose. Kusuri chuckled at the groaning blonde before Naruto spit the blood in his face. Kusuri angrily wiped the blood off of his face before slashing Naruto's chest straight across. Naruto let out a muffled scream as a curtain of blood covered his chest as Hinata screamed out his name, tears welling up in her eyes.

Naruto lifted his head and looked at her. He shook his head and gave her a sharp look, as if telling her that he's fine.

"Okay then…" Kusuri grinned at the blonde. "I will not tell them."

Naruto stared at him knowing that those words meant absolutely nothing… and he was right.

Kusuri's creepy grin widened. "But I will show them instead!" He pulled out a paper seal and slapped it onto Naruto's forehead. Naruto groaned as a surge of chakra traveled to his stomach and his seal appeared around his belly button.

The jonin gritted their teeth unable to do a thing while the other genin stared curiously at the seal.

"What is that?" Chouji asked.

"It's a seal but… the only seals I know of that complex are…" Sakura's eyes widened.

"Prisons…" Shikamaru finished her thought.

"What?!" Ino shouted.

"So something is sealed inside of him?" Kiba asked.

"No way…" Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"You know what it is?" Kiba asked him.

"That explains everything." Sasuke frowned.

"What does?" Kiba asked frustrated as Kusuri chuckled at the Uchiha's realization.

"So it's true…" Shikamaru looked at Naruto whose eyes met his.

"How…" Naruto mumbled out.

"I'm not dumb, Naruto…" Shikamaru answered. "So you can break out of those wires anytime?"

Naruto nodded slowly.

"Why don't you then?"

"I'd rather die than hurt any of you…" Naruto replied before coughing.

"I think my version is better." Kusuri interrupted. "First you kill all of them, and then I'll extract your chakra for my father and then YOU die."

"Never gonna happen, pal." Naruto glared at him.

Kusuri made a hand sign. "We'll see about that."

Kakashi's eyes bulged out when he recognized the hand sign. "NO!"

Kusuri laughed. "Forbidden Jutsu: Beast release!" He yelled out as he jabbed his glowing palm into Naruto's stomach. Naruto screamed before he froze and his breathing became heavy. The slash on his chest healed rapidly as smoke connected his flesh back together and made the blood on his body and face evaporate. He looked around at the shocked faces of his comrades as a familiar feeling surged through his body. "Oh, no…" The others watched in shock as his whiskers thickened, his fangs grew, his nails turned into claws and his electric blue eyes became a bright bloody red. A flame of red boiling chakra surrounded him. Akamaru squealed as a growl rumbled out of his mouth. Naruto looked around seeing the terrified expressions of his friends. He's going to lose them after this… they'll turn against him… avoid him… hate him… but… he will not let them get hurt. His glare turned towards Kusuri who laughed joyfully.

"Amazing power! Show me what you can do!"

Naruto growled and snapped off his restraints in a second, setting himself free. He ripped the seal off of his forehead protector and stared at Kusuri.

Kusuri returned the glare. "Why isn't he killing them? Is he waiting for my order? Ha! Even without the paper seal he's under my control!"

"Now… kill them all!" Kusuri ordered. Naruto growled at him. Kusuri's evil grin was slowly replaced with a confused frown. In an instant the red flames extended and formed a giant claw which wrapped itself around Kusuri and squeezed him. "Agh! What… what are you doing?! You're under my control!" Kusuri screamed as the claw tightened around him.

A terrifyingly deep voice inside of the blonde replied. "You? Control me? Don't make me laugh!"

The horrific voice startled the others. "Wha... what was that?" Kiba paled.

Naruto wrapped his hand around Kusuri's throat as he struggled for his life. His red eyes stared into his soul as his life faded out of his body. His claws dug into his neck while he gurgled trying to breathe… before finally stopping after his breath seized and his lifeless body slumped into the blonde's grasp.

Naruto threw his body violently onto his father whose body smashed into pieces upon impact along with the makeshift armchair he was sitting on. Dust clouded around them and the limbs fell in random directions as the stitches popped and everything went silent. The jonin and genin stared as the red chakra absorbed back into the blonde's body.

Kurenai turned to the rest and whispered. "No one make a sound until he goes back to normal… he might think yo-"

"Naruto!"

Kurenai was interrupted after Hinata shouted her boyfriend's name in tears.

Naruto's head snapped in her direction before he turned and started walking towards her.

"No! Naruto, stop!" Kurenai shouted.

"I know you are in there, Naruto!" Asuma yelled.

Naruto just kept walking until he got in front of his girlfriend and raised his hand to strike. She gasped in disbelief as his swiped his claws in front of her chest. In a moment of shocked silence, the wires that held Hinata to the post fell onto the floor. She looked down at her now free form before looking back up at her boyfriend's red eyes.

"I would never… ever hurt you… ever." He said softly.

Hinata's eyes welled up with tears before she sprung forward and captured his lips into a kiss with her hands on his hot cheeks.

Kurenai's jaw dropped as she looked at her fellow jonin in disbelief.

Hinata pulled away from the shocked Naruto whose eyes were back to their normal ocean blue color. "Are you alright?" She asked in concern.

"Why did you…" he stared at her.

"I'm not scared of you, Naruto. And I will never be." She replied lovingly.

His expression softened before he turned away and pulled out a kunai and started to release everyone else from the wires. Hinata did the same. Naruto didn't look anybody in the face as he quietly but firmly spoke. "They're dead, mission complete, now let's go."

Kiba stared at him. "Now wait a minute, what was…"

"Forget it." Naruto interrupted him.

"Forget it?!" Sakura interjected. "Do you realize what you just did?"

Naruto froze looking at his feet. His eyes slowly rose up to meet Kakashi's. "Did… did I actually… k-kill him…?" He asked with a terrified whisper.

"Yes…" Kakashi answered quietly.

Naruto gulped holding back tears. "Can we just get the hell outta here now?"

"But we cannot." Shino replied. "We still have one more person to find."

"No we don't…" Asuma responded.

"What do you mean, sensei?" Choji asked. "There is still one person who we didn't find right?"

"The other victims we found were not missing limbs, so the ones Kusuri used for his father belong to the last victim. There is no doubt that they're dead."

"Alright, let's go back and take the skeleton we found with us. The next flood will bury all of this if the animals don't get to it first." Kurenai said.

They climbed back up and sighed in relief that it was finally over. Sasuke looked at Naruto. "I couldn't do anything… but he… unbelievable…" He gritted his teeth. While Kakashi and Asuma took the skeleton, Kiba stepped in front of Naruto.

"Ok, dude… what the fuck was that? And don't tell me nothing because what we saw over there wasn't nothing!"

Naruto looked at him with sadness then turned around and sat on a rock. "Ok… but what I'm about to tell you is an S-ranked secret, so you can't tell anyone, got it?"

"S-rank?!" Sakura and Ino yelled in union.

"And what's gonna happen if we do?" Kiba asked.

"Let's just say that Kusuri already got the punishment for telling." Asuma answered.

"What?" Kiba paled.

"Yup…" Naruto grumbled.

Kiba turned to him. "The punishment is death?"

Naruto nodded slowly.

Hinata sighed sadly and sat next to Naruto putting her head on his shoulder while rubbing his arm.

"You already know?" Shikamaru asked her.

"Mm-hm." Hinata confirmed.

"Will you tell us what it is already?" Kiba pressured.

"Do you guys know how the Fourth defeated the Nine Tails?" Naruto asked not looking at anyone.

"What does that-" Kiba began.

"JUST ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION!" Naruto snapped startling everyone as his voice ran thought the dark forest.

"Fine, fine! The Fourt killed it, right?" Kiba stammered out.

Ino and Choji nodded.

"He didn't kill it." Shikamaru said.

"What?" Kiba looked at him.

"He couldn't have." Sasuke added. "How do you kill something with such power?" He looked at Naruto.

"What happened to it then?" Shino asked already connecting the dots.

Naruto's mouth opened but no words came out. "I… I can't…" He whispered.

"When… when you can't kill an entity… what do you do with it?" Ino asked.

Sakura's eyes bulged out and she looked at the others. "You seal it…"

Ino gasped.

"In something…" Sakura continued now looking at the blonde.

Hinata gripped his arm tighter.

"No way…" Kiba leaned against a tree as he remembered the seal on Naruto's stomach. "So the most powerful beast that ever lived… the beast that destroyed out village… is in you?"

Naruto looked up at him. "Yeah…"

"So that's why everyone treated you the way they did. They blame you for what happened." Shikamaru asked getting a nod from Naruto.

"Why you?" Sasuke asked firmly.

"Because in order to seal something that powerful into a human, their chakra coils need to be completely undeveloped so that they can adjust to the fox's chakra." Hinata explained. "So sealing it into an adult or a child whose coils are already developed would kill that person. So the entity needed to be sealed inside of a newborn child."

"And the only child born on the day the fox attacked… was me." Naruto finished her explanation.

"Hm…" Sasuke nodded.

Shikamaru looked at Naruto's dreadful expression and smirked. "Hey."

Naruto looked at him.

"I know what you're thinking."

Naruto gulped nervously.

"You are not the fox, you are just the thing that holds it back from hurting everyone. The fox is evil and you are one of the kindest people I know. The furball doesn't faze me, I'll still play shogi with you."

Naruto stared at him in disbelief. "You… you don't hate me?"

"Nah." Shikamaru put his hands in his pockets. "You know, a long ago I asked my dad if he knew why everyone was mean to you and instead of answering me he asked me how I felt about you. Now I realize that the kids were the only ones that didn't know about it, right? But the parents didn't want them around you so they told them all kinds of bull about you to keep them away."

Naruto nodded. "So how did you feel about me?"

Shikamaru smiled. "The same way I feel now. You're a cool guy, hating you now would just be a drag…"

Naruto blinked at him before chuckling. "Thanks Shikamaru."

"It's the same for me." Kiba said. "I don't see you as a demon… and I never will if you keep dressing like that."

"Hey!"

Hinata giggled.

Naruto looked around and gulped. "Are you guys seriously alright with this?" Everyone nodded. Naruto's heart swelled and he sighed in relief and wrapped his arms around Hinata.

Letting go, he looked at Kakashi, his old cheerful expression was back. "NOW can we go back? It's creepy as hell here and I'm starving!"

Everyone laughed and Choji's stomach agreed.

Kiba shook his head. "A guy with the most powerful beast inside of him… is afraid of ghosts."

"Shut up!"