Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, some other guy does…some guy who I wish I was….but I'm not jealous I swear!

As far as I know I'm not making any money off this, though with my current financial affairs I've stop being sure when I am and am not getting paid…and that should scare you.

Disclaimer 2: This is a ReWright! ….reright? rewritten…rewrite! Yes ReWrite! That being said not much will change…ok…not so much a rewrite as editing. I can't say that I'll do this for every chapter. A few I lost the originals and ended up copying the uploaded chapters back from fanfic. Just to clear this up for anyone who is just starting to read.

Ningenkai ... is the realm/dimension/plane of existence where Naruto and the elemental countries exist.
Ningen ... is an inhabitant of Ningenkai, regardless of if they are a summon, a demon born on Ningenkai, human, or a rat.
Human ... is the species also referred to as Homo sapiens

I will need to correct their positioning in later chapters as I haven't gotten to editing them all yet. But for people who complained, and asked why I bothered with "ningen" instead of just saying "human" this is the reason.

"Troublesome" Normal speech
'Troublesome' Thoughts (or in speech they're like those pesky 'air quotes' like dr. evil does from Austin Powers "fire the 'lazer'!")
"Troublesome" words with emphasis (or could be looked at as sarcasm or emphasis with a sneer)
"Troublesome" jutsu

"Alright, all of your paper work is in order sir," turning to see her assigned partner, Endo Jotoro returning after checking into a disturbance, "Endo-san would you please signal the gates opens" called Nakao Harada, a newly promoted chuunin.

"Nakao-san, I would but," Endo Jotoro, paused as he arrived holding a scroll, "Kano-san handed me this and said to check for it." He motioned Nakao away from the merchant then quietly read the scroll for them. "Approximately one hour before the guard changed the Gaki no Kyuubi was chased out, by chuunins, we expect that it will try to sneak in some time either around lunch or dinner either tomorrow or the next day. Despite the estimation it may try to enter earlier than expected, therefore check all entrants thoroughly incase it tries to use them to sneak into Konoha. Destroy this scroll after you've read it."

Harada sighed as she walked back to the merchant to explain, as discreetly as possible, that security had just been heightened and a thorough search of his wagon was necessary. Starting the search, Harada sighed again, 'I don't know which is worse, the demon who attacked us, or the people who torture the demon.' Pushing such thoughts out of her mind she lifted the tarp that the merchant was covering his goods with. 'Great, an instant ramen shipment…Ayame-chan is going to be thrilled that her competitors will be having a sale…but I thought that the 'demon gaki' loves all ramen, I'm surprised that he, isn't here.' Sighing again, she replaced the tarp, and ducked to look under the cart, coming face to face with a tanned blonde boy with whiskers marks wasn't the first thing she expected. Gasping and recoiling, she regained her wits quickly.

"Nakao-san!" Jotoro said as he started over to her, "What's wrong? Is the gaki there?"

Glancing down at the pleading and fearful eyes of 'the gaki' Harada sighed and said "No, it was just a piece of tarp that flashed in my face as I looked under." Hearing her partner stop, relax, and go back to post, she ducked under again and saw the startled eyes of the child. Motioning for the boy to be silent she whispered "If you promise to ruin or take at least half of these, I'll let you in. Win-win." Watching the boy nod vigorously with a broad smile Harada loudly said to Jotoro, "It's clear, signal him in."

Standing up and following the cart to the gate Harada thought "Well, that answers that question, if that boy is a demon then the village must be hell spawn."

Sighing inwardly, Harada knew that for the next 2 days of her assignment she was going to be checking all the carts. The boy never was seen too soon after being run out, well not in open public at least, she always saw him at Icharaku's ramen. She felt that she might have to warn the two that their valued customer probably wasn't going to be eating as much from them for a while. Harada hoped the boy would not say anything about it to them, she was going to have to end her shift early today to try and catch him for his dinner visit to Icharaku's.

'Damn I almost forgot that it isn't even lunch time yet he'll go then.' Feeling her hope drain she though 'I know way too much about that boy, Ayame-chan, this is your fault.'

As the wagon pulled through Konoha the boy listened to the dull roar of daily activities, trying to make sure that he didn't hear anyone calling out "Uchiha-san." After the wagon had pulled to a stop, the young blonde began to look around at everything he could see, mostly just the ankles and lower legs of people passing the cart by, with gritty and stained buildings in the background. The boy looked to his right, seeing only one pair of legs coming and going infrequently, and it was into a dark alley.

While watching for a little pattern or timing to whoever was doing the unloading, he thought back to the nice, but strange, lady at the gate. At first he though she was going to scream out and get him beaten down again. 'She didn't yell at me and she told that guy I wasn't there and let me in…and she promised me something. I wonder what it is.'

Making up his mind, he released the underside of the wagon, and let himself down to the ground quietly. He waited until the person had turned around, likely with arms full of…'stuff,' before he began to get from under the cart. Once the man, turned into the doorway, he ran by as quickly and quietly as he could. Turing past the edge of the building, he heaved a sigh of relief, noticing that it didn't lead right into the market place. He knew these alleys; he was about 5 minuets from his apartment, if he wasn't attacked.

After relaxing for only a moment, the boy got prepared to make the trek back to his meager apartment. Closing his eyes, and focusing on his sense of smell he noticed a few, unfamiliar scents. 'One is the smell of clean cotton, and the other is salt and water. Salt and water, they're like…opposites it's so weird.'

Pushing the new smells out of his mind for now, the boy focused on smelling the most recent and lethal impedance to his getting home via the alleys, exploding notes. Usually left on the ground face down, so that when he stepped on it, it would attach to his sandal and stay with him until it exploded, the notes' backs looked like any other paper-trash that he was used to stepping on. Remembering his first, and what he planned on being his last, run in with the paper bombs.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Flashback &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

He was headed home along one of the normal roads, ignoring the constant hate filled glares, occasionally jumping out of the way when someone spat at him. To him it actually was a good day since no one had attacked him, until he got a feeling within his stomach, of sheer dread. It felt similar to when the villagers had trapped and closed in on him, though this feeling was even stronger than when one of the ninjas attacked him. Not hesitating in the slightest, he jumped toward an alley to his right, watching as a little bit of his unruly hair was cut by a grayish/silver blur. He ran through the back alleys between shop buildings for almost a block before he was launched up into the air.

His entire left leg was in pain, actually only the stump that remained was in pain the rest coated the walls. A few pieces of bone shrapnel hit or pierced walls of the alley but most of it cut or punctured the boy's skin. He and the alley smelt of burnt flesh, and his landing was rough, he remembered the watching the ground come towards his face in slow motion. Despite being unable to feel anything but pain, he raised his arms and ducked his head. He landed on his right shoulder, hearing a loud crack and splatter, though he actually wasn't in pain anymore. His vision slowly filled up with red seemingly bleeding into his eyes, as everything started to darken. Ignoring the lack of pain, the lack of feeling, and his darkening vision he tried to stand up, and run away.

In the time that Naruto took flight, landed and started to move, the assailant landed on the rooftop nearby to check over the confirm the kill. He actually expected the boy to pop in smoke and be a Kawarimi no jutsu, or a shadow clone, since he was told that the boy was extremely dangerous and powerful. Watching the blood ooze and splatter, Korin was almost convinced that it was done, aside from escaping, until the boy, missing his left leg and having his ribs puncture through his chest started to get up.

Pausing to look at the boy, he was healing unbelievably fast, where the boy only had a stub before, he now had down to his knee. The bone shrapnel's wounds, that even without having lost his leg he should have died of blood-loss from, had almost completely healed up. 'I hate A-ranked solo-missions!'

What terrified Korin even more was that the boy WAS getting up. 'I was told he wasn't even a genin…If he heals that fast, and wasn't a least knocked out by that, then what must his family be like!' He launched a kunai and was about to run until he was surrounded by Konoha's ANBU. Hoping to distract even one of them, he glanced back at the boy.

Korin almost pissed his pants at what he saw. The boy was standing, despite the ripped jacket and destroyed pants of the jumpsuit, and looked fully healed.

Korin pissed his pants when next to the boy stood a man in flowing robes with red highlights. The man's hat bore red area with a single kanji in white that stood for fire, and the man, the Hokage, was PISSED. Before Korin passed out one last thought passed his mind, 'I was never told the gaki's name or family, he must be related to the Hokage!' If Korin remained awake after he came to that conclusion he would have shat his pants also.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Flashback &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

He could only smell one, well he didn't think that what he was doing was actually 'smelling' but, he could almost feel where the notes were. He could only find notes that were within 3 meters of him. Slowly walking past the notes he could sense, he made his way almost to his apartment building. The boy stopped once he could smell the alcohol in the air nearby.

Under most cases the boy would keep going forward and ignore the smell of alcohol. He hated alcohol and the people who drank it. The only people who ever really attacked him were the drunks, and the only people he every saw drink were the drunks, usually coming out of the bars, and the "Uchiha-sans" thugs that patrolled the city especially (incidentally, people who drank but didn't get drunk didn't go to any of the bars around Naruto's apartments) on this side of Konoha.

Thinking a little bit about the 'Uchiha-san thugs' as he waited, he shivered remembering some of the beatings that he remained aware of. Thinking about the other things he knew, 'I have rarely ever seen one of the 'Uchiha-sans' drink, but they're ALWAYS around the drunks in alleys or rousing them from the bars and sending them into the streets.' Huffing in annoyance he thought 'It's like they trained all those drunks so that whenever they're drunk they come find me!' Shocked by the revelation the boy looked up nervously, hoping that it was just a random coincidence.

Relaxing when he realized that he was still alone and the drunks had gone, he inwardly cheered as he figured he could make it back safely from here. Keeping alert for the additional explosive notes that lay scattered around the boy weaved through the alleys until he came to the rear of his own building.

He started up the stairs until he caught a whiff of alcohol, a strong and very close whiff. Seeing his very strong neighbor, something that Naruto couldn't and didn't want to remember how he learned, sitting on the landing of the second floor cursing about shitty sales and reeking of alcohol, the boy decided that climbing to the third floor via the walls would actually be a good exercise. Starting back down the stairs and around the back of the building he thought, 'After all, I've heard plenty of parents telling their kids to get a lot of exercise to be healthy, this was better for me than those crappy stairs!'

After about 20 minuets of trying to climb the walls to reach the third floor landing, the boy finally made it, feeling exhausted he quickly unlocked his apartment door and stepped inside, locking it again. Moving though the living room he walked past his kitchen, living room, and bathroom into his bedroom. He lay down on his bed and tried to go to sleep. He planned on sleeping for the next 3 hours, or whenever his stomach woke him up, whichever happened first.

He failed miserably; he was willing to put up with the strange dreams he had been having, if he could just get to sleep. And although he didn't mind that in less than a minuet he had recovered from the long run out of the village, sneaking back in, and climbing a 3 story building all while avoiding explosive notes, and drunks he wanted to sleep. He knew that in about 4 weeks his birthday was coming up, and everyone got extra mean spiteful around him then. He just wanted to be left alone until a week or two after his birthday, when everyone calmed down. These were the worst 5 weeks of every year.

Getting up the boy walked into his kitchen, and pulled out some cup ramen, one of his last 4 cups. Sighing as it meant he either had to go and buy some more for his house, or he had to go to Icharaku's Ramen. The latter would be preferred if he wouldn't continuously have to leave his home to eat. Boiling the water he sighed quietly to himself. 'Crying doesn't work,' he reminded himself. Once the water was ready he poured the noodles into it and prepared to eat.

Finishing his meal, the boy walked into his bed room, deciding to remain in the house until it he became hungry for dinner. He pulled out two scrolls. One was blank the other was addressed to him from his Ojiisan, the Sandaime Hokage.

Addressing the blank scroll to the Hokage he quickly wrote that he would like some more books to read, especially books about the Yondaime and Shodai Hokages. Not realizing that his main interest in the two hokages was because both of them dealt with demons. The Yondaime killed the Kyuubi and the Shodaime had a special blood limit ability that did "something cool" to demons or in his case 'Biyuu.' It involved "the power of human sacrifice" or Jinchuuriki, but he didn't kill any people for whatever he did, he was cool!

Leaving the scroll soon to be bound to the Sandaime, with no return marking, he planned to do what he always did drop it off by the back of the Konoha Ninja library where the library keeper would walk out and find it, and then turn it in to the Hokage.

Thinking back to the last time he saw the Sandaime, he remembered about how he could get in contact with his Ojii-san

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Flashback &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"Naruto-kun, I am glad that you like this apartment," Sandaime said quietly, "I'll let you have it, though eventually I expect you to start paying for the rent."

Naruto looked at him horrified for a moment, until Sandaime laughed

"No, no Naruto-kun, it won't be anytime soon!" Sandaime said with mirth. "I was just letting you know that eventually you'll be expected to do your part also, that's all."

Naruto beamed at the Hokage and hugged him. As they were in a hug Naruto asked "Will I ever see you again?"

"Yes, Naruto-kun, not as much as either of us would like, but we will." Pausing for a second, the hokage thought. "I have an idea, in order to keep in touch, we can write each other using scrolls. I'll make sure that all scrolls that are addressed to me without any return information will come directly to me. That way you we can still talk." The boy's eyes lit up at this.

"I'll still get to see you right?"

"Yes, but not as much as I would like to," Sandaime said sadly "right now we are in a perilous situation. Relations with Sunagakure have started to deteriorate, and Kumo-nins have been seen at our boarder. Even though it's as per our treaty Iwagakure no Sato is again looking into ways to gain more central land. I want to avoid another war at all cost."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Flashback &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Finishing the request scroll, Naruto placed it by his door so he didn't forget it when he went to Icharaku's, and he didn't leave it in the kitchen because the last time he did, he spilt milk all over it, and had to make another one.

Walking into his bathroom Naruto looked at himself for just a moment, noticing that he looked a slight bit different. His hair wasn't any different, still the same blonde. His whiskers were the same length and they weren't any thicker. He wasn't pale, and his eyes were still red. The same red that they had been ever since some grass-nin attacked him at Icharaku's stall while the chuunin exams were held in Konoha.

He didn't remember much of it, but his eyes had been red ever since. Ayame-chan and the owner had been extremely sad and said Icharaku's had closed for the rest of the week until they saw him the next day. Then they just fussed over him the whole day and barely let any other people near Naruto. For the rest of last year, Icharaku's didn't accept foreigners as customers; they barely had started again during this past summer.

Ignoring the nagging feeling that he always felt when he thought of that, he reached back to scratch his head. Finding it uncomfortable he stopped and continued his observations until he noticed a drop of blood in his mirror. As he looked at it he caught sight of his hand, his bloody hand with pointy nails. The flesh had become lean, as though only muscle was there. Instead of the wide, chubby fingers Naruto was used to, he found slightly longer and thinner fingers. His nails were longer and slightly pointy; instead of the rounded square shape he was used to, he found something closer to a spade. Moving his hair carefully, he saw that he had a thin scratch mark, it didn't hurt, and it finished healing before his eyes, but he still had a little bit of blood on his neck. Shrugging it off Naruto cleaned the blood off in the sink then turned on warm water for a quick bath.

Naruto dressed quickly in a red shirt that had orange flames at the on the edge of the sleeves, with black shorts so large that they were almost pants on him, however they had a lot of pockets, many were very large allowing him to carry a few scrolls or other supplies. Naruto was always glad to wear clean clothes once in a while, since the shirt and shorts he was wearing before had all sorts of sticks, dirt and mud in them from his escaping various ranked shinobis for the past few days.

He was also glad that the lady who ran a second-hand clothes shop nearby actually allowed him to shop there. Actually, she had never let him enter the store until he was attacked by the Kusa-nin and actually needed to get the jumpsuit repaired and the blood removed. She didn't let him in all the time either, only when she was in a good mood, or when sales were up enough that she could risk letting the demon child be seen, however briefly, in her shop. On occasion he had been able to convince (READ: usually after begging her) to let him in after store hours when he outgrew something. She also was the only person (aside from Icharaku) who allowed him to shop in her store but didn't double or triple the price of what he bought, although if she allowed him in after store hours she would charge him a 'special service fee,' still to him it was amazing to be able to afford something without saving up for months. If the lady didn't allow him in periodically he would likely end up always wearing the orange jumpsuit that he wore constantly before the Kusa-nin attacked him.

Naruto peered out his door, he found his neighbor asleep, and snoring loudly. Quietly Naruto locked and exited his apartment, and passed the drunk on his way down to the alleys.

Glancing around in the dusk sky Naruto thought of his options, 'I could go to Ramen heaven, play in the forest, drop of Ojii-san's scroll, or prank some mean people.' He quickly came to a decision, 'I'll drop of the scroll first, then I'll eat at Icharaku's, then I'll play a prank, and then play in the forest. That way if I'm caught, I'll have already dropped off Ojii-san's scroll and eaten.'

Carefully walking past the notes, Naruto headed off to the library.

After dropping off Ojiisan's scroll, Naruto was on his way to Icharaku's when he spotted the chuunin who let him into the village earlier. Wondering about what she had said he almost started to walk over to her until he realized that she was in the center of the street. 'Even though right now is the calm before the 'dinnertime storm,' there are still villagers in the streets that would likely see me.' Naruto panicked momentarily thinking, 'I don't wanna be beaten again!' Steadying himself and breathing for a few seconds calmed Naruto down then he figured, 'I'll go get ramen from Icharaku's first then I'll go and try to find that nice chuunin-lady again…maybe…'

Unfortunately Naruto's trip to the ramen shop didn't go unnoticed, a lone shinobi stood on the edge of the roof above Naruto, too shocked to glare at him. "Impossible, the demon was able to sneak back into the village already? With the number of chuunins and jounins alert and looking for it? It must be gaining its powers again…the Fuuin no Yondaime must be weakening…" the shinobi whispered to himself. "I must report this!" The shinobi hurriedly leaped away silently.

Naruto entered into Icharaku's shop silently, and sat in his usual seat far in the corner right by the where Icharaku cooked his noodles. It took Icharaku not even a second to look up and smile at Naruto, "Well, boy, you're looking down today. Are you sure you don't wanna work here?' Naruto looked up at the man smiled, then shook his head, animatedly starting to chat with one of the few people he knew who would listen to him.

A few minutes later Icharaku's daughter, Ayame, walked in from her before dinner break with another girl and saw Naruto, "Naruto-kun how are you doing? Are you hurt? What happened? Who did it to you?" Naruto wasn't able to answer a single question before he was enveloped in a hug from Ayame, who was worrying about him post-fact.

Icharaku raised an eyebrow at this. Not really at Ayame hugging Naruto, since he already knew she thought Naruto was cute, but apparently something had happened to Naruto earlier in the day. Deciding that Ayame would be able to get the info out of the boy, especially since Naruto just couldn't find it in himself to be rude to girls his age…ever since that one girl. That one girl practically made Naruto terrified of women, in general. 'There is enough time to remember that later,' Icharaku mused inwardly 'Although, looking at him now, Naruto will probably need a free bowl after what he went through today…'

Icharaku listened quietly to Naruto describe today's ordeal for him, until he noticed Harada standing in the stall watching the two with amusement. Figuring that she was the 'nice chuunin-lady' that let him in he sent her a grateful smile. Harada apparently caught it, since she turned and gave a small sheepish smile. Ayame introduced Naruto to Harada shortly after, confirming what Icharaku thought.

After Naruto finished telling about his "Brutal Mauling of a Jounin" as one of the chuunin screamed and subsequent chase out of the village, Ayame released him and walked into the back to get ready for the dinner time rush. Naruto started to pull out money to pay for his meal (consisting of 14 bowls…fairly light for him) Icharaku spoke with an air of disinterest "Naruto, those last two bowls were free, don't worry about them."

"Thanks Icharaku-san!" Naruto said quietly as he left. Icharaku smiled and waved as Naruto left, he didn't notice as Harada said goodbye to Ayame and left shortly after.

On his way home through the back alleys Naruto noticed the sound of someone following him, something that he ignored at first, since a few people used the alleys to cross between Konoha's large and multiple markets streets. However, shortly after thinking that, his senses started to heighten, something that only happened when he became increasingly nervous. Hearing the sound of one of the explosive notes he was avoiding go off, Naruto broke into a run, remembering what always happens when even one goes off…the others are set in a chain explosion. Smiling a feral smile Naruto started to run to out pace the explosions, planning to get into one of the abandoned buildings toward his part of town.

When he was younger Naruto had wondered "Why doesn't a single explosion note kill me? I know that some notes are made strong enough to kill anyone with a single note, except Ojiisan." After setting them off on purpose one day (some drunk chuunin was chasing him) he realized why some hours later, the weak explosions served two purposes, 1st if anyone other than him set them off, they would be able to survive the explosions and whoever showed up to kill Naruto would help whoever else set off the chain. The 2nd reason occurred to him after he saw a friendly sparring match on the roof tops turn ugly, that anything much stronger than the ones they used would start to destroy the buildings and could send shards of the material off and kill innocent people. Naruto didn't figure this out in quite such elegant words but he understood it.

Harada had noticed a poorly concealed note that a drunk (that happened to be a jerk she unfortunately met while on a patrol) stepped on, and part of her almost, laughed when the concussion note, designed to incapacitate the victim blow up and launched him out of the alley. Almost laughed, however she also noticed that a much better concealed concussion note was hidden close to her. She launched herself up onto the roof tops and glanced back to see the notes start going off into alleys neither she nor Naruto had actually gone down. She looked forward, to see the same happening, already concluding that most likely the notes were put down targeting Naruto for whenever he tried to stay out of the main streets.

Harada was about to continue to follow Naruto, until she felt three presences land and surround her. "What has happened?" an ANBU asked neutrally but urgently. Harada answered quickly and concisely leaving out the part about Naruto being why she was in the alley. The ANBU nodded and then two of them disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

The third ANBU asked "Where is the man who set them off?" Harada lead the ANBU into the street the man flew to quickly, and was curtly thanked as the ANBU picked the man up and they both disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Harada sighed, knowing that few if anybody actually knew where the boy lived, she knew the Hokage knew, but Sandaime-sama had refused to tell anyone where the boy lived since the boy was attacked by an assassin. The boy also had wised up quickly apparently; since she had heard whenever he was followed he would duck into sewers and disappear from even jounins. She knew that she wasn't going to be finding him any time today.

Harada had been hoping to catch up to the boy and speak to him before he went home, but apparently the boy really could outrun most chuunins, since when he started running, he started to leave her behind. Cursing under her breath, Harada knew that most likely she wouldn't see the boy again for another week or so unless he went to Icharaku's after the dinnertime crowd.

Naruto, though, was cursing for a different reason. The building that he stepped in actually happened to be the same building that had the ramen shipment earlier, something that Naruto didn't mind at all.

What Naruto did mind was the fact that when he stepped in the ramen's owner walked by, probably taking stock with a chuunin friend. All three people went wide-eyed and just stared at each other, Naruto being the first to break the staring contest ran back out into the alleyway completely having forgot that he was waiting for the exploding notes to pass by this building.

As Naruto ran out the door, the chuunin had already launched several shuriken, which were blasted back at him the moment that the note just outside of the door went off. The chuunin dived and pushed himself and his friend out of the way of the returning projectiles, then rolled and started after 'the demon.'

Naruto, suffered a fate similar to the drunk man Harada watched earlier, he was launched up by the note, however due to his weight and positioning(almost directly over it) he flew up and back, into the side of the building he just left. Bouncing from the impact and leaving a small blood stain from his arm, Naruto's body hit the other wall of the alley, leaving another bloody mark and bounced off again, onto the building landing on the roof with a wet splash sound, similar to a damp sponge.

Naruto, unlike the drunk wasn't unconscious, Naruto pushed himself onto his hands and knees, ignoring the blood flowing from his head, and back and arms and tried to listen. Naruto only heard the ringing in his ears for a few seconds, until he heard one of the men from the ware-house yell "That demon tried to kill us! You have to get him, he'll destroy the village if this keeps up!"

Naruto instantly knew that the chuunin would be out in a few seconds trying to hunt him down. Standing up quickly, Naruto ignored the pain in his body since it had already reduced to a dull ache, he started to run over the rooftops toward the sewer entrance that he knew best. Seconds later the chuunin had already gotten up on the roof, but paused for a moment at the blood stain before continuing on.

The same ANBU who spoke to Harada decided to break the concussion chain, and had gone 6 blocks down so that he could be sure he cleared the entire block of the notes before the notes near him went off.

He was almost sure that there were no notes left to explode on the block he cleaned, when he heard running. Looking toward the source of the sound the ANBU scowled behind his mask once he realized that the demon gaki was approaching him. He, and through him, and his squad could lose there ranks, potentially their ninja-licenses, or be marked as traitors for attacking a leaf civilian, which the gaki was…However other ninja's locations and actions weren't as well accounted for, and so the chuunin who was chasing the bloody gaki could get away with attacking and maiming him.

The ANBU smiled at that thought until the gaki changed directions causing him to frown, 'I want to watch the gaki suffer, but I can't allow REAL Konoha citizens and shinobi kill him, since I won't have them die for doing what Sandaime-sama should have done already.' With a sigh the ANBU leapt after the chuunin who was yelling his lungs out about catching the demon gaki and attracting more attention and people for the inevitable confrontation.

After running for a little over an hour, getting himself lost but losing the civilians and a few chuunins, Naruto (who at this point has his claw like nails) leaped up and climbed over a very tall wall in the shadow of an equally large gate. Landing on the other side, Naruto immediately darted into another alleyway and continued zigzagging between house alleys for several minutes, lost, until he stopped in the shadows between two fairly close houses. Remaining tense Naruto listened very closely for any one of the shinobi to come across the wall and land somewhere near him. After waiting for a little over two minutes Naruto began to relax his breathing and control his erratic heart-rate, starting to convince himself that none of his pursuers actually followed him over the gate.

"This place must be a sanctuary of some sort…I don't even hear them yelling about them losing me…" Naruto whispered to himself.

Naruto, for the first time in a long time, allowed his curiosity to get the better of him. He first started by looking at the buildings forming his current alley, they where only 1 story houses. At first Naruto didn't notice anything spectacular about them, until he looked a little closer at he areas in the light. 'Wow, these are white walls, real white, and they are really clean, I thought rich people only put whites like this on the inside…' Naruto ogled the clean white wall for a few more seconds before he started to look else where. "Wow, nothing is dripping and all the roofs are in good condition, is this the rich sector…the, um, Council sector?"

Naruto started walking back to the street, until he took his second step and realized that he was walking really loudly, but not like the sound of stones. He looked down and saw grass, well manicured and evenly cut, unlike forest grass, all the blades looked the exact same and were soft! Getting over that he was walking on nice looking soft grass, he returned to the street which actually was compacted dirt instead of the gravelly stuff that the rest of Konoha used, that hurt his feet when he had to go barefoot. The dirt road was soft and even like the grass again, well maintained and had no trash. Looking back at the home he just walked away from the fronts were traditional homes complete with the same pure white that amazed him earlier.

Naruto again listened for pursuers, not really expecting to hear any, but was still slightly surprised not to hear one or two having doubled back to check. It was extremely unusual for them to just let him go. 'Perhaps this place really is a sanctuary.'

Releasing a relieved sigh, Naruto caught the smell of food, various foods. Naruto looked up at the sky and realized that it was about the time that most people would be having their dinners with their families, meaning that a lot of people will soon be showing up. Naruto looked back at and beyond the alley between the two homes, 'None of the houses here are close enough for me to escape unnoticed, I have to get out of here quickly before people start getting to their houses…or I could hide out and wait until most people are eating dinner and escape then.'

The decision was made quickly when Naruto heard several women approaching him, although Naruto couldn't make out what they were saying, he could hear the idleness in their voices. 'I don't think that they are searching for me, they might not know I'm here, I can't let them find me though, and I don't know places here to hide well enough really…so I should run.'

With as little sound as he could mange, Naruto ran in the grass behind the houses until he came upon the district's wall. Just like the houses the wall side was an immaculate white, although the wall it self was more than twice as tall as the houses. "How the hell did I get over that?" Naruto asked himself quietly. Naruto looked down in though for a moment until he remembered his nails and how they got sharper and longer. They were normal now, but he knew that they must have been much longer while he was running for his life.

Not really sure which way led back to the village he figured that following the wall, from behind the houses to stay out of sight, would likely lead him to the gate leading back to the rest of Konoha. Becoming a little nervous at how long it might take him to get out of the district he started off to his left at a quick pace hoping that this was the fastest way to get back to the gate that let him in the district. In passing he occasionally noticed a figure etched or painted on the doors of some houses, he didn't pay much attention to it since he was trying to find his way out of the district first.

After almost a half hour, Naruto was in a silent panic, 'I know that any second hundreds of villagers will come pouring in, or worst…they'll just start coming in as I get to the gates to go out.' He had almost run into a few more women, who he heard just before he ran out stopping himself from running right in front of them. He turned and continued behind them.

Glancing at the wall and seeing something strange Naruto realized he had found a gate out. Naruto was about to run to and try and open it until he stopped in the dead center of the road. 'I feel really strange, it's not dread, or danger, nor the that feeling about those...'girls,' Naruto twitched at remembering the terror of being near them, then continued 'but neither is it the good feeling that I feel when near Ojiisan, Icharaku-san, or Ayame-chan…' Naruto stepped back into the shadows by the houses nearest to the gate to think without being seen, hopefully.

Naruto looked up at the gate and saw the same immaculate white that he had now expected as standard in this sector, however he also noticed that on the gate that a blue line connected vertically with a blue circle and a red crescent surrounding the top of the circle was in the center of the gate, the weird feeling was coming from that symbol, but Naruto couldn't remember where he had seen the symbol before. Naruto looked down at the dirt on the road, and couldn't tell if the gate ever opened, since the dirt did not have the swept look that most gates have when they are opened.

Naruto was in the middle of a sigh of disappointment when the gate opened inward with a man standing in the shadow from the other side. Naruto stopped and couldn't move, mentally berating himself for just freezing instead of running or really hiding.

Naruto started to inwardly cursed at himself when he realized that he could have just remembered what way the shadows were coming off the gate he jumped and compared it to the current shadows. Using the shadows would have helped orientate himself toward the rest of Konoha. 'Why now of all times did I have to act so stupidly?'

Naruto looked up remembering that the man was likely to at least notice somebody standing were he was, only to find the man standing in the middle of the street, gates closed, looking right at him. The man kept a neutral expression on his face framed by straight dark hair, but Naruto didn't feel the hatred, or revulsion pouring from the man's black eyes that Naruto almost always felt whenever a villager or shinobi saw him. Looking at the man, he was dressed in dark pants and a dark undershirt, with a slightly dusty and beat green vest overtop. Deciding that he could escape this man just like any others now that he knew the way out of this district, Naruto asked the question that had been bugging him since he got here, "Oi! Oyaji, what does that symbol mean?" As an afterthought Naruto asked "Ano…who are you too?"

The man's eye's widened and Naruto could see the man crack the smallest of smiles that changed into smirk shortly after. The man's eyes though held laughter, Naruto couldn't quite tell what the laughter meant, and it put him slightly on edge meeting a person who was so unreadable to him. Naruto was brought out of his analysis of the man when he spoke, "Although it is customary to give one's name first, my name is Fugaku," the man said with some mirth in his voice. "And that symbol is both the symbol of the Konoha police force, and my clan's personal crest, both of which I am head of." the man finished with pride.

"What is behind that gate?" Naruto asked, feeling almost relaxed around Fugaku, "And why does your clan share the crest with the police force?"

"Well this gate connects my clan's sector with the police sector, and the reason why we share the same crest is because my clan the Uchiha started and still makes up the majority of the police force."

"…" everything that was just outside of Naruto's thoughts suddenly came rushing back in at once. The crest, the Uchiha-san thugs, and the beatings. In his mind something like a math equation was occurring

'Crest equals Police. Police Crest equals a place a lot of police are…and police are the Uchiha-san thugs: meaning Crest equals VERY VERY BAD PLACE!' Naruto was extremely still and Fugaku noticed the boy's face go slightly pale. 'Fugaku's crest equals Police crest equals Uchiha-san thug crest, which means Fugaku is Uchiha-san thug.' At this point Naruto's eyes contracted rapidly, a feeling of dread overtook him, his heart-rate increased and his adrenalin started to pump. 'Fugaku is the Leader of Police and Leader of Uchiha-san thugs! ….if Fugaku is Uchiha-san thug….then Leader of Police is the Leader of Uchiha-san thugs who's Fugaku…Fugaku is the ULTAMATE THUG!'

When Naruto came to that conclusion, he swayed on his feet for only a second. He blinked and looked at Uchiha Fugaku with terror in his eyes. Had Naruto not been forced to learn NOT to scream his terror (it attracted other who would beat him to near-death in most cases) he might have called the majority of the Konoha police force, who were currently idly walking towards the gate, to rush and leap up and over the gate. As it was, he gave a quick gasp and started running away from Fugaku without another word. He ran at top speed for less than 2 minutes along the road, not encountering anyone, he barely avoided slamming into the district wall when he came to a corner. After a little while longer he almost ran past a gate with Konoha's Leaf symbol engraved and outlined in black. Naruto tried to open the gate simply by pushing, but when it didn't move Naruto just used this now extended nails to give him a quick climb up and over.

Naruto dashed back into the alleyways, a still on high alert, expecting the Uchiha-sans to come poring out of their gate at any second. Naruto didn't stop running until he found the familiar sewer cover that he lifted single-handedly in his adrenalin-fueled haste. Ducking in, Naruto landed and jumped into one of the pipes that his small frame fit into. Realizing both his luck and misfortune Naruto thought 'Kuso! This is the entrance I use the most and it's right by the Uchiha-thug district!' Glad that he would now be able to get home safely for today, Naruto resolved to find other sewer entrances that he could use to get home that were further away from the Uchiha district.

For his part, Fugaku was completely shocked. He was aware that some of his officers were attacking the boy, most weren't as he had requested the ANBU reports from Hokage-sama whenever ANY form of abuse were to happen from his officers. Almost none other than abusing Naruto came up, however even those rarely showed up from the actual member's of his clan. While Fugaku wasn't overly concerned about Naruto's safety, or really at all, this brought up the question of the ANBU's actual efficiency or their loyalty to their mission.

In most cases Fugaku didn't concern himself with the workings of ANBU, seeing as he had to run the police force. However, when Itachi entered and became a jounin in less than 3 months after passing the chuunin selection exam, Fugaku wanted Itachi to have his hand in every aspect of the Konoha shinobi before he retired and left his position to Itachi.

Another, and the main reason that Fugaku usually refused to concern himself with ANBU was that they Hyuuga actually were well known for occupying those positions. Due to Itachi's popularity, his joining ANBU would make it both easier to get other Uchihas into ANBU, and more profitable to the Uchiha name seeing as he would be seen as the current figure-head of the ANBU the moment he joined.

Provided that Itachi's career as an ANBU isn't interrupted by an S-Ranked missing-nin, he should achieve captain in less than a year. Having a year or so as captain of ANBU to add to his reputation would boost his fame ten-fold. Then by that time Itachi could easily enter the hunter-nins due to his skill, killing off several B-ranked or a few A-ranked missing nin would do wonders to his popularity within Konoha and his reputation outside of it. By that time the Uchihas would be seen far superior to the Hyuugas, almost solely due to Itachi's fame.

'Once I have Itachi take over as head of the police force, we can start all of our plans in motion.' He paused, 'However, having a backup plan, or better yet a pawn both to shield Itachi from anything that goes wrong, and help aid him will be perfect.'

Fugaku sighed knowing that like any Uchiha, Itachi was brought up loyal to his village and his clan. 'Strengthening the bond to the clan by breaking the bond to the village would be tough,' Fugaku started walking home again 'especially with Itachi, since we have to restore that bond to the village since he is what will be the conduit of the Uchiha loyalty toward the village.'

Fugaku arrived at his home, walked and sat in his room still pondering on the ways to go about breaking and reforming Itachi's bonds with the village, until he had a breakthrough. 'It's so simple: the gaki no Kyuubi! First I must separate Itachi and Sasuke, so that they don't grow too close, then I will give Itachi his own house to do with what he likes.' Smirking to himself, Fugaku almost laughed at how simply Itachi's future was falling into place in his mind, 'Then I'll assign Itachi the mission of watching over the gaki for about 2 weeks, knowing Shisui's personality the brat will practically grow on Itachi, especially since Itachi and Sasuke won't really know each other he'll be wanting to connect with someone as an older brother. Then I'll send some officers in disguise to incite a riot and kill the brat, causing Itachi to lose faith in the village.' Fugaku pause thinking of how to get Itachi to return to faith in the village. 'Since I know Itachi would never fail a mission, the boy will live through it.'

'Ah! Again, it's so very simple! Itachi wouldn't let the boy be anything other than a ninja, so I'll just investigate non-Uchiha officers to see who is a friend or family with an academy teacher, and from what the Sandaime said, he almost certainly will be attending the academy. Growing up with the hate of the village, the children, and even the academy teachers, the boy will sooner or later crack and begin to hate the village, it shouldn't take much at that point to push him into attacking the villagers, and we'll send Itachi to kill the gaki The villagers will hail Itachi as a hero, and Itachi will realize that they were right, even if he isn't happy about it. Sadly from there ends the short cuts, from then on we'll have to slowly build Itachi's trust in the village again. However in that time, we should be able to start the other points of our plan. However in order to get the gaki to attack Itachi with hatred, there are plenty of genjutsu that can do that, though it will be tough putting on a strong enough genjutsu to last, yet be too subtle for Itachi to see. '

"Anata, dinner is ready" Mikoto called out gently.

Fugaku stood and walked toward the meal his wife prepared slowly concluding his thoughts 'I'll bring this plan before the elder council to see if they can improve upon it. Also it is key to figure out when is best for us to induce Itachi into joining the Uchiha general council, the elders will know when is best to bring him in with the least resistance.'

Naruto looked around, belatedly realizing that he was in Icharaku's ramen booth. He had already had a few bowls; he could still smell the beef and miso that used to be in those bowls, he was currently finishing a pork bowl, and simultaneously watching Icharaku make his next bowl or miso. He had remained focused on the ramen since, Icharaku-san promised that if he could eat over 20 bowls with manners he could have the last three for free.

Naruto was very polite this week. He should be, having actually studied (spying on a few families during their dinner) for it.

Icharaku had put Naruto up to a deal that for the week during the chuunin exams were held, if Naruto use manners while eating then he would give Naruto three free bowls (even if foreign people saw a ramen eating machine they weren't scared off, only when Naruto got to slurping and using no manners did people stay away). Icharaku had actually stipulated over 20 large bowls during one sitting; his last three would be free. However, only on Naruto's really crappy days did he eat any less than 25 bowls during a single sitting (crappier the day less bowls eaten), so it wasn't like the minimum number of bowls even bothered Naruto.

Naruto felt a sudden urge to move and run, one that he completely ignored as Icharaku had just put a batch of noodles into a bowl that (to Naruto) was glistening like gold. 'My first free bowl of the day!' Naruto though anxiously, his heart starting to pound as he waited (bowl # 31 for breakfast…and people wonder why Naruto was constantly getting discounts from Icharaku).

Naruto never got the chance to taste it as a kunai lodged itself within his chest. Screaming in pain, Naruto dropped from the stool, and stumbled to the ground. Prone for a second, Naruto almost blacked out.

Watching an ANBU come flying into the booth a most of the people stumbled out or on the ground away from the 'corpse.' Wasting not even a second to dispel the genjutsu cloaking the assassin, the ANBU attacked the Kusa-nin.

Blocking the ANBU's attack the nin tried to backpedal over the dead body of the child, only to kick the child's shoulder upright shoulder.

Naruto felt the sandaled foot kick his right arm. Then he felt something drop on him, hard, driving the kunai deeper into his back. Whatever landed on him rolled off quickly, and Naruto winced as more pain flowed from the kunai and across his back.

The ANBU had rushed in once the Kusa-nin tripped on Naruto intending on taking him down. As the man rolled off the boy he placed his hand next to the boys head and whispered "Hagane Bokusou Yaiba"

The ANBU watched in horror as grass pierced through the boy's head and the bloody blades almost stabbed him.

Almost instantly everyone felt the chakra and the killing intent of the Kyuubi pouring our in waves. So strong and so oppressive that the Kusa-nin and the ANBU (as well as the 5 ANBU on their way (and 60 more ANBU and the Hokage that were now going to check it out, as well as the rest of the village)) all stopped. The Kusa-jutsu was completely destroyed as a blast of red chakra violently radiated from the body of the boy. For only a split second the chakra changed from a light translucent red to dark opaque blood red. Burning the Kusa-nin's hand completely off, and melting a portion of the arm and clothes that were still there. The chakra returned to being translucent, but remained dark red as it slowly receded to just over the boy's unmarred skin.

Then the eyes opened and Naruto saw them, blood red, slitted and full of malice. The eyes that Naruto saw were surrounded by darkness; he could only see what they saw: almost at though they were a window to some other place. What he saw was a Kusa-nin with only one hand and half of his other arm staring in fear. Then the Kusa-nin got closer, no, the window was moving.

But almost as quick as Naruto found himself there, did he find himself out.

And in his bed, covered in a cold sweat, shivering. One thing that Naruto had learned it takes a lot, a whole lot, much more than anyone else he knew, even Sandaime, for him to be knocked out. Something Naruto thought of as a bigger curse than the villager's hate. He was awake when those grass blades shot through his head. It happened almost in slow motion, as he watched them and tried to move. Granted he only felt them for a split second then everything became disorientated (seeing as Naruto did get something along the lines of a 'ninja lobotomy').

Finding him self with those eyes had been very confusing. He never felt more afraid for his life than around those eyes, yet he never felt safer. He felt hatred yet not hated. For the first time since that incident, Naruto was willing to actually think about whatever that place, or thing was. 'But that can wait,' Naruto yawned and looked at his clock. It was illuminated by moon light streaming in due to his lack of curtains. 'I have another 4 hours until Icharaku-san opens his shop. Kuso, three hours to sleep.' Naruto rolled onto his back and looked up at his ceiling, drifting off to sleep.

His next dream was much sweeter, something that only could happen in Naruto's *slightly* obsessive dreams. Naruto was a ninja, the best of the best. Ojiisan was there also, he was congratulating Naruto for finding this place, a place Naruto called heaven. Then Ojiisan told Naruto something he couldn't (but wholeheartedly wanted to) believe. That this new land, that Naruto had found, would belong only to Naruto, to do with as he wanted.

Naruto gazed out over this land, over the gently rolling hills covered in softly swaying grass, off in the distance a dark lush forest stood. Naruto could hear the bird song from where he stood, calling him invitingly to take a stroll through the woods, or to stop in and enjoy the shade. In one of the valley a small lake was present with serene waters slightly churning as they slowly flowed down a brook, going over small rocks giving a pleasant and relaxing sound.

A warm breeze blew, ruffling Naruto's cloak and blowing his long blonde hair into his eyes briefly, bring a smile to his face, as it brought a familiar and welcome scent, Naruto turned toward the scent and saw what made him weak in the knees. Icharaku's ramen, but not the stall in Konoha's market, not even as a small shop, but instead as a Ramen palace.

Naruto started walking toward the…palace slowly as though it would disappear if he ran. Ojiisan said that he was proud that Naruto had found a place were ramen naturally grew! Ramen no Kuni would be this country's name, with Naruto as the Ramenkage! Ojiisan then said that Ramen no Sato should be built around Icharaku's Ramen palace.

Naruto dashed into tell Ramen no Sato's first and most respected citizens all about what Ojiisan had just said. Stepping in Naruto was greeted by Ayame-chan and Icharaku-san the good news. Both were ecstatic and promised that their new Ramenkage would always receive all the free bowls that he could eat!

Hagane Bokusou Yaiba Steel Grass Blades

AN- Edited Reading my original author note I realize that I was unclear. Naruto's age wasn't something that I was unaware of. But as one of the basic changes in the story Naruto is older than the rest of the cannon rookie 9. What I was saying with the AN originally was that Naruto, at this point since he hadn't started the academy yet could be anywhere from 5 to 8 years old because we were never told if Naruto just tried the graduation exam each year of his 4 years, or if Naruto went through the first 3 and then failed for 3 years after that. The former would mean that Naruto started at 8 and graduated at 12. The latter (since we're told that Naruto is 12 at graduation) would mean that he started at 5 years old, and repeated the last year 4 times (3 failures and a pass).

So instead this story takes a different option. Saying that Naruto started the academy at 8 years old and failed 3 times in the last year would put Naruto's graduation at 15, while the rookie 9 would have graduated at 12. So I am applying that logic(if you're willing to call it that) and making Naruto 3 years older than the rest. Note that in cannon there is a 5 year difference between Sasuke/Naruto(12) and Itachi(17) at the start date of cannon. In this story (at the start date of cannon) the ages would be Sasuke (12), Naruto (15) and Itachi (17).