Hey everyone, been quite a long time right? Sorry about that. The reason I haven't been updating much is because of all these Idea's that keep popping into my head for new fics, and they don't go away until I put the damn things down, so I've written A LOT of stories, this is one of them, I'm updating them all on here because my friends said they were good, so I figured you guys might want some meat to hold you over until I can work on Harsh Existence and Path of the Hanyou.

Right-o, hope you enjoy the fic, check out my profile, there's like 10 others lol

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Tonight was an important night in the young life of Naruto Uzumaki. He was out, and alone, completely alone miles away from Konoha, at the mere age of four years old. How did he get there? one might ask, well that is precisely what is about to be told at this very time.

After a series of keystrokes to fast for anyone to see, the author yells loudly "Author style: Flash back no jutsu!" the edges of your vision blurs slightly, and the coloring distorts to an aged cliché brown.

Naruto had been having a day just like all the rest, everyone ignoring him, or when they weren't ignoring him, harassing or abusing him. Naruto was at the orphanage, the same place and same bed he'd known for as long as he could remember, which wasn't for too long. The day had passed like normal and now the sun had just passed over the last bits of the horizon, the last bits of red and orange leaving the sky, leaving it a dark, unforgiving blue. Out of the blue a strange looking man showed up in the orphanage in a plume of smoke.

He walked over to one of the Orphanages' caretakers, an elderly old hag who Naruto particularly disliked, she was rather spiteful and harsh towards him. They talked for a moment and she offered him a moderately sized wad of bills, the strange man took the money and stashed it in a pouch on his Shinobi vest, he then turned and looked at Naruto, and glared at him with one glaring eye, the other eye covered by his Konoha hitai-ite (One guess who) He walked over to the small figure that was Naruto and looked down at him, with a look that clearly said 'The taint leaves Konoha tonight, for good' He grabbed Naruto by the shoulder with a strong gloved hand and spoke coldly, "You're coming with me, demon"

Naruto merely shrugged, he couldn't speak very well, even though he was four. No one ever spoke to him with anything more then a simple range of about thirty words, all being arranged into various creative insults. So, those were some of the only words he knew, he knew a bit more, from hearing other people talk to each other, but whenever they noticed him they would stop talking and edge away like he was the plague. The result of his spectacular treatment was a four year old child who could not read, write, and could hardly speak at all, in fractured sentences. The truly sad part about it was it made Naruto look like he was well below average intelligence, when in fact he was incredibly smart, but even the brightest mind in the world can't work off of nothing, and that's what he had to work with and learn from, absolutely nothing.

The masked Shinobi nodded slightly, more to himself than anything, and the two disappeared in a plume of smoke.

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They appeared almost instantly miles away, far outside the village, and definitely where Naruto had never been to, and would never find his way back to Konoha.

Naruto was moderately disoriented from the transport, and the Shinobi took the opportunity to take out a Kunai and Slash Naruto across the face with it in a violent, almost punching motion, the cut was deep, and in fact was so deep that it cut into Naruto cheek bone a bit. Blood sprayed slightly from the wound, and Naruto screamed in pain and grabbed his face with his hands, covering them in blood.

The strange Shinobi merely smirked at him "Good bye demon" and the next second he was gone in another plume of smoke.

Naruto dropped to his knees, and then collapsed to his side, clutching his face and cry from the pain, when he suddenly noticed the pain in his face was fading extremely quickly. In under a few minutes the pain had completely subsided, and the wound had even disappeared, leaving nothing but a jagged scar, just below his left eye, had the Shinobi hit him just half an inch higher, he would have split Naruto's eye in half.

Naruto tried to wipe away the large amount of blood, but only succeeded in smearing half of his face red with blood, he slowly stood back up from his spot on the ground and looked around where he was, and was, for the first time in his life, truly scared.

Sure, there had been times where he was nervous of if the villagers would do something to him, but he was never actually scared of it, just nervous, now he was in an unknown place, in an unknown territory, and had no clue what so ever of what to do, or where to go, and to make matters worse, the last hints of the sun that was over the horizon were now completely gone, bathing all the land in darkness, and the sky turned from it's deep blue to a deathly black.

Naruto hated the dark, not because he feared of things that go bump in the night, no darkness just made him feel lonely, far lonelier than normal, and worst part about that was, even when the darkness faded, the loneliness never would, he never would have someone there waiting for him, his short life, up to this point had been nothing but sadness, and now, Alone in the dark, it seemed as though he was doomed to die the way he lived, cold and alone.

After another series of blindingly fast keystrokes the author once again yells to the heavens, "Author style: Flashback jutsu, KAI!" the faintly blurred edges of your minds eye clears, and the cliché aged coloring fades back into full blown color, or lack there of, as the pitch black darkness rolls in.

Naruto suddenly whipped his head around, listening intently, he had heard something, then, there it was again! But louder this time, Naruto strained himself to hear better, more accurately, as the sound slowly grew louder. Eventually Naruto was able to fully hear it, it was the voice of a women, not of one old and bitter, like the majority of the voices he knew, but one that radiated warmth, and care, Naruto was finally able to make out what she was saying.

"You don't have to be alone Naruto, I'm here, I've always been here" Her voice was, if you were to sum up her voice in one word, beautiful couldn't come close.

She spoke in simple words, and Naruto understood what she said, but he was still scared, her voice came from everywhere and nowhere all at once. A slightly fearful expression crossed Naruto's face and he called out into the woods "Who...who's there?"

The voice came again "You don't have to fear me Naruto, and don't worry about speaking, I know you can't speak very well, I'll help you with that in time, I am here to help you, protect you even"

Naruto got the majority of what she said and nodded "But, who are you?"

The voice sighed "You must promise not to fear or hate me before I tell you"

Naruto nodded once again "No fear, no hate. Promise"

"Okay, my name is Amise(Ah-me-say), more widly known as the Kyuubi. Naruto, I want to help you, my presence has caused you to suffer far beyond necessary, I want to raise you, teach you, prepare you"

Naruto focused hard, but sadly missed a good portion of what she said, but got the most important part "Amise, Kyuubi, me suffer, you help me?"

"Yes, me help you, first thing needed, is food, and home. You let me help you, relax and lose you to your mind"

Naruto was very pleased that she went back to using simple words and phrases, as he knew what she meant now, he sat down in the grass, which was quickly losing it's daytime heat, and closed his eyes, and as instructed, began to lose himself to his mind.

Amise was overjoyed that he trusted her so, then he had no real reason not to, he didn't know what she did to the village, nor did he know that she was the reason he was hated. She took the opportunity he granted her and seized control of his body as he roamed the mind scape and explored the undeveloped halls.

Naruto's eyes opened, they were exactly the same as before, except now they held a distinctly hardened, experienced look in them, Kyuubi was in charge now, and she needed to get her host turned son safe, she looked around the clearing, glade that she herself could see in the dark, even if Naruto couldn't. There in the grass was the reflection of the dim moonlight off the bloody blade of the Kunai, thankfully discarded by the masked Shinobi, she instantly swept up the blade and twirled it about and handled it like someone with years of experience, now she had a tool for him to use, now she just had to get him the other things he would need, an out of place home, where he would be safe from being found, or attacked. He also needed food now, or else a house wont do good if you just starve to death. She jumped out and off into the night, in the body of a small four year old child, moving with grace and precision far beyond anything a young child could hope to attain.

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Nine hours later Naruto opened his eyes, returned back to their young inexperienced selves, and was surprised to find himself sitting in a large stone room, which was actually a large cave which he was deep in, before him lay a good sized campfire, and a small rabbit was sitting on sticks, placed perfectly on the fire so it would keep warm without getting burnt.

To say he was surprised, and scared would be an understatement, hours ago that voice told him to relax and explore his mind, and he was in the middle of a clearing then, now he was sitting in a cave, before a fire, with food ready for him, he also noticed the Kunai that was next to the fire, apparently used to clean the rabbit. When all of his internal questions mounted to their highest point, the voice came once again.

"Do not worry Naruto, I am inside of you. When you wish me to, I can take control of your body and do things you can't, or wont. I got you food and home, until you can do it for yourself, I will do this for you when you need"

Naruto was shocked "Why?"

An infinitely adorable giggle followed his question "I am here to help you, care for you...your mother if you want me to be" She knew she was walking on thin ice now, telling him she can be his mother could very well destroy him later when he learns the real truth about who she was, but she needed to get closer to him.

Naruto's jaw dropped, even he knew what a mother was, and a father, it was all of the orphans dreams to get a mother or father, or to meet their own. "Mother?" he asked, hope and nervousness laced in his voice.

"If you want me to be, yes"

Naruto nodded frantically, not wanting this possible moment to slip through his fingers "Yes, yes!" he yelled

She wished that he could see the smile he had brought to her face with those simple two words, sure to most she was known as a heartless demon who crushed all who faced her, and this was true, she was unforgiving to most, BUT, she was a female, and had maternal instincts, particularly powerful ones, she had always wanted children, but being the queen of the demons had some drawbacks, like if she wanted to have children she would have to find a mate, she would have to become a mate, and submit to a male and declare him as her Superior, and therefore lose her position as queen, replaced by the 'dominant' male 'king' and she wasn't willing to do that. But now, she had an opportunity to have a child of her own.

Sure, he wasn't a fox, but he was young, and that was what mattered, she would raise him to be powerful, and honorable, as all foxes are, he would Kitsune if it was the last thing she did, and it would be, for she would die with her new found child.

She nodded to herself then, matters were settled, she would train him, raise him, and make him better than the best he could be.

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here is a well documented timeskip, from here to next marker.

Back in Konoha, daylight had broken through the dreary night, and the Orphanage had reported Naruto's 'disappearance' the night before. They claimed they had no clue what happened, if he had just escaped and would be back, or if he had been taken and killed. Though in reality they knew exactly what happened to him, he had been taken and dropped in the middle of nowhere, left to bleed to death, or starve to death. A slow and painful death no matter which route he took, a perfect way for the twisted demon to fall.

Sarutobi was furious, the boy was supposed to be under supervised watch by the Anbu, to make sure nothing of this caliber ever occurred, a search had been mounted, on a city wide scale to find the small blond haired boy, but no one, save a few people were particularly concerned with finding the demon, and put forth 'half-assed' search attempts, though all the searching in the world would prove useless, Naruto was far from home, and well hidden in a cave now.

After the first four days of searching yielded not a trace of evidence as to what happened to the boy the searches were drastically reduced, and called off all together after enough time passed.

After a month passed Sarutobi had no choice, with a sad disposition he marked Naruto's missing person file as deceased, even if he had run away on his own somehow and not left a single trace, not even unlock the orphanage doors, a four year old could not sustain himself alone, he would have long died of malnourishment or starvation. Let alone the fact that, how would a four year old with bright blond hair not be noticed in a village full of Shinobi?

Time began to meld from distant days, into weeks, to months, to years. Naruto Uzumaki all but disappeared, save for a small file in Konoha's archives, the death records.

He may have disappeared, but he was never forgotten by Sarutobi, he would never forget his face, or bright blond hair, he would forever live on in his memories.

Over the years, every few weeks or so, a random caravan would get robbed while leaving Konoha, it got to the point that Jounins were sent to guard the caravans until they got over twenty five miles away, and even then, with multiple Jounin guards, goods would disappear from them without anyone ever seeing who took them.

At first, it was believed to be an organized band of thugs, but when the goods continued to get flinched, even with Jounin guards, a trace of evidence never left, no one ever seen, it had come to be thought of as a phenomena, the forests surrounding Konoha had come to be known as 'The land of lost' it was named for the fact that, it was always within the range of Konoha's forest that items became 'lost' it was never even confirmed that they were stolen, as the items in question always just, vanished. As if some ethereal force just plucked them from existence.

Some caravan operators had even come to the conclusion that there was a lost soul that wandered the forests of Konoha, that had it's most precious possessions stolen from it, so it would take things from peoples caravans, looking for it's lost valuables, many had even taken to praying to the spirit before leaving Konoha, though none were sparred, nearly every caravan that left Konoha, would lose at least one item on the journey, never had someone been injured during the assaults, and never had everything been taken, only one to a few items of varying value.

A suspect never emerged for the case, and even though it was an ongoing crime spree by all means, there was absolutely no evidence to prove anything had happened to the goods, except that the goods themselves disappeared. The case in it's entirety was thrown into the 'cold cases' folder, with no evidence to go on, no conclusions could be drawn, they were dealing with one of two things. A thief of unimaginable skill, or as people had begun to believe, a spirit.

The years passed, the cases of theft never stopped, until one day, they just stopped happening, completely and utterly, a theft wasn't reported for over five months at one point.

Then one day, as quickly as they stopped, they came back even force, now when things were flinched from the carts, at least one of the people there, often times the Jounins, as if they were being mocked, would feel a slight cold breeze, and a quiet whisper, usually along the lines of 'Humans...pathetic'

As soon as word got around about those particular cases, the rumors of it being a lost spirit flew through the roof, people even began to get worried, if this spirit could so easily get by Jounin and steal things, whats to stop it from so easily infiltrating the village, and slaughtering people?

One day, that very thing happened too, one cold night the Uchiha clan, in it's entirety was slaughtered in cold blood, only Sasuke Uchiha was left alive. Even though Uchiha Itachi had been named the murderor, huge numbers of people declared it was the spirit, showing just how weak they were, bu annihilating the strongest clan in Konoha in one sweep, a cult even formed in the village, of people devoted to 'honoring the spirit' who would routinely gather up different things of varying value, and deliver them to a shrine, which they had constructed just outside Konoha, and to their immense joy, the shrine was regularly emptied.

Who would have ever guessed that all of this was being pulled off by a young boy, presumed dead for multiple years now, and his mother working in tandem all the time.

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See, wasn't that an interesting way to pass nine years of time, I created my own filler, woot.

Naruto had been living and training with Kyuubi for the past nine years now, it was great, he was with his mother all the time, anytime he had a question, or needed to know something, she was always there to help him, or teach him.

The time had most definitely been well spent, in the beginning the thefts of the merchants had all been done by the Kyuubi, but before long it was Naruto himself that was slipping past Jounin like children younger then himself.

Amise had told Naruto who she truly was, what she had done to the village, and why she was with him. He didn't care in the slightest, why should he resent her? Sure, she caused him to suffer, but she also became his mother, his power to live, his will to go on.

Amise had truly raised him as if he were her own Kitsune offspring, as a result he adopted some more, unusual characteristics, like the fact that he grew up walking on all fours, not on his hind legs. And because he did it so much and so often, at such a young age, his body had no trouble in adopting to it so that it was not awkward in the slightest for him, living the life of a fox led to him having a very flexible body.

They had come to an important decision though, Naruto was to go back to Konoha, after all, Kyuubi was demon of incredible knowledge, but she was far from all knowing, Jutsu, was one field she was specifically pathetic in, and it came back to haunt her in the end, now they had to go back to Konoha for Naruto to learn Nin and Gen Jutsus. Kyuubi only knew the jutsu's that were used against her in her lifetime, and those were almost all large area of a effect attacks like elemental dragons, or large span attacks either way, she taught the ones she could to Naruto.

He even managed to come up with a few jutsu's of his own, based on the larger Jutsus, he scaled them down and modified them. He even got the elemental dragons to the point that they could be smaller than a person, and could be controlled extremely well, and use small amounts of chakra for precise attacks.

But, alas even with his fairly extensive knowledge on Jutsus and how to use powerful ones, the boy was severely lacking in the department of 'book smarts' he knew little of human history beyond what Kyuubi knew, and he knew nothing of Genjutsu, and little to nothing on seals. So the decision was made, return to Konoha, learn everything that could be learned, and if possible, get the hell out.

There wasn't a specific need to leave, just Naruto didn't like Konoha, at all. Amise never forced her will or beliefs on him, he had come to his own decisions, that his own homeland had abandoned him for naught, and left him to die slowly in the woods, hell they were the ones that put him in the woods to begin with!

So, he developed a hate for the village, he didn't want the city to burst into flames or anything, but he wouldn't cry for the loss of a village of ignorant bastards if it did.

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So, here Naruto was, sneaking through Konoha like the Kitsune he was, easily crossing the village without even making a Jounin look the wrong direction, over the years he had become incredibly talented at all things relating with the outdoors, naturally. Over the years of thieving he had come across many a nice pairs of gloves, but he chose to go by Natures glove, calloused skin.

He was an unnaturally good climber, even before Amise taught him to mold chakra to stick better he could scale rock faces with ease, the boy was practically half spider with his incredible agility and flexibility.

He had changed in his years in the woods as well, his blond hair was now much longer, hanging down beyond his shoulders, and yet it retained it's feral spikiness, even in long length, even though he was only thirteen his years of living with nature, and training had earned him a body to be reckoned with, he was well toned, and that toned body would undoubtedly become a to die for ripped physique when he fully entered puberty.

He had gone through many sets of clothes in his years, fortunately one of the most trafficked items out of Konoha was clothing, so he was always ready with more clothes, he wore what was available, which was currently baggy black khaki pants with a multitude of pockets, a dark blue shirt with the Konoha symbol on it, and a red hoody jacket over the shirt, he currently had the hood up, to hide his blond hair, in case he was spotted, however unlikely it was, it was possible.

Naruto wasn't surprised that he got to his goal target without being spotted, he had been stealing right under multiple Jounins noses for years now after all, he was a master of the shadow and the art of subtlety.

Naruto was at his target, the Hokage tower, he was perched just outside on of the windows, and there was the old man himself, Sarutobi still ticking away at his desk, filing the massive piles of paperwork that kept Konoha ticking, and probably what kept Naruto with clothes to wear for the past nine years.

Naruto kept to his art of stealth and silently slipped the window open when there was no breeze to give away it's opening, he slipped through the tiny opening and slid it back closed without effort, he silently scaled up the wall behind where Sarutobi was sitting, until he was on the ceiling above Sarutobi, Naruto had fortunately met him a few times before he was...removed from the village, and he was aware that Sarutobi liked him.

Naruto waited for the opportune moment, and made his move. Right as Sarutobi looked inside one of his desk drawers for something Naruto moved in a blur of speed across the ceiling and wall, and stopped, sitting in the chair before Sarutobi's desk. His hood was still up, casting his face in shadows, obscuring him from vision.

Sarutobi looked up from his drawer, to get back to his paper work and nearly choked on his pipe as he noticed the figure sitting in the chair before him, with his face hidden in shadows. He reigned himself in, and addressed the mysterious person, who looked young, very young, no older then fourteen judging by size. "May I ask how you got in here? The door wasn't opened, and you surely didn't knock"

A light chuckle came from the figure "Well, to be frank with you, your windows are a rather large hole in your security, I reckon I could have possibly assassinated you before you knew it, I've been in this office for over five minutes already, waiting for you to look away from this chair so I could appear"

Sarutobi was frustrated, whoever this kid was he was making a mockery out of the Hokage, and Sarutobi was not one to look like a fool, you have a certain reputation to uphold when people refer to you as 'Kami no Shinobi' "Who are you? And what do you want, stranger?" the most annoying part, was that this persons voice sounded vaguely familiar, like he had heard it once, long ago. Little did he know he did hear it, and just once, when they first met, Naruto said "Hi" shyly, and that was all.

Naruto grinned beneath his hood "I have been called many names, most call me demon, and very few people, in fact I only know of two that have, call me Naruto Uzumaki" Naruto pulled down his hood, revealing his bright blond hair, and shining blue eyes, which had in his time come to look the same as when Kyuubi was in power, hardened and experienced.

Everything Naruto said was lost to Sarutobi the second he pulled his hood down, in a display of incredibly un-Hokage like behavior, Sarutobi jumped up from his chair, ran around his desk, and literally wrapped Naruto in a very powerful hug for his age. "Naruto, my god, you're alive! You've been thought to be dead for nine years now! What happened to you?"

Naruto sighed "I was 'assassinated' or, attempted to at least. One of the women from the orphanage paid some Shinobi to kidnap me, take me far from Konoha, and well I'm not sure if he was supposed to kill me or leave me, but he gave me this scar, and left me to die from the wound, or starvation, one or the other" Naruto said, while gesturing to the jagged scar under his left eye.

Sarutobi was livid, his village, the people he loved more than his own life, had treated a poor defenseless child like that. "B-But how then, that cut would have surely been horrible at four years old, and how did you fend for yourself all these years? Where did you get these clothes?"

Naruto sighed once again "I have been living off of the village for the past nine years, whether they liked it or not, and I wasn't alone, I always had mother"

Sarutobi was suddenly very nervous, he knew that Naruto's real mother was dead, which meant he either met someone who manipulated him into thinking she was his mother, or much more likely, and much worse, the Kyuubi had made contact to him, and manipulated him to believe she was his mother, and that was bad, if Kyuubi already had him thinking that, well who would you believe? Your mother telling you she's your mother? Or the strange man telling you your 'mother' was actually an evil demon bent on annihilating this village. Damn this was going to be difficult "N-Naruto, what is your mothers name? If you don't mind me asking"

Naruto smiled "Her name is Amise, and before you ask me what I know you're going to, yes she is the Kyuubi, and no I don't care what you tell me, I know what she did, who she killed, why she did it, and I love her no less for it, she raised me, kept me safe, got me food and shelter, she is my mother as far as the term can carry"

Now that surprised him, for Kyuubi to have actually told Naruto what she did to his village, his people. He couldn't think of why she would have possibly told him that, what could she possibly gain out of telling him the truth after all? The poor old man just simply couldn't possibly think that the great demon queen merely wanted her son to know the truth, and not live a life of lies and fake truths, which were far worse than lies.

Sarutobi sighed "Well Naruto, you seem to have been doing fairly well on your own for the past nine years, you must be here for something, so what can I do for you?"

Naruto sighed "Well, we've come to the combined decision that I need to enter the academy, I only know what mother could teach me, which was a bit lacking in human history, and Jutsus, I only know high ranked, powerful jutsus that have been used on Mother, then I've got my scaled down versions of them, either way we both feel I should go to the academy for at least a little while, and learn some 'basics' that I've never learned."

That was another thing Sarutobi was not expecting, the boy demonstrated incredible skills in infiltration, and he was asking to enter the academy to learn basics? "I suppose that can be done if you want to, though you'll likely be bored"

Naruto shrugged "I doubt it could be that bad, I rather love to learn, the more the better"

Sarutobi nodded one last time "There is the slight problem of your age Naruto, you're thirteen, most kids enter the academy at age eight, then go for four years until they are twelve, then graduate, or come back and keep trying"

Naruto once again shrugged "So? Put me in a final year class then, I'll just learn anything else that I don't at the academy at the library"

Sarutobi reached into one of his drawers and pulled out a small stack of papers "Alright Naruto, I'll get to work on enrolling you in the Academy, we have the slight problem of finding you a place to live though"

Naruto waved his hand, dismissing it "I'll be fine the way I am, I've been living with nature for nine years, I have no problems staying a bit longer"

He looked at him questioningly but nodded "Fine, this paperwork will take me a while, so you can go. Just remember to show up at the Academy tomorrow morning by seven thirty, you've got a lot of work ahead of you, four years of teaching in under three quarters of a school year"

Naruto nodded and gave a short wave "See ya later, Jiji" Naruto stood back up from the chair, pulled his hood back up, and to Sarutobi's amazement, completely disappeared. Not in a plume of smoke, or anything else signifying a transport jutsu, he just...vanished.

Naruto left the tower and went to the library for the rest of the day, as he would everyday from now on, except when training of course, he read books on every subject he could, history, jutsu's, and he was particularly interested in seals and the art of sealing, as anyone with the most advanced seal in history on their stomach would be.

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The next day came quick, and Naruto arrived at the Academy early, earlier than anyone else. He waited there, hidden from everyone, waiting for people to show up.

Eventually kids started to show up, and he followed the kids who looked to be his age, he figured they would be in the same class as him, so they would be his best bet to find his class. They proved to be very useful for him, they led him right to his class, he got in the room, and up in a seat in the far corner without anyone even noticing his entrance, or that he was there. Not that it was particularly hard, ninety percent of the class was talking or yelling at each other...like a bunch of twelve year olds or something, who woulda thunk it?

Eventually the classes teacher walked in, he had your standard chuunin garb on, and had a large distinctive scar across his nose, due to his location in the room, at the front of the class looking out, he did notice the new kid in the back, with the hood up, hiding his face from view. He hadn't been informed of any new students, then again he often went untold of important things. "Hey, you in the back, remove your hood please, and would you care to introduce yourself to the class?"

Naruto shrugged and walked to the front of the class and pulled his hood off, the fact that he had gotten in the room without anyone knowing surprised everyone, and when they saw his face they were more surprised, while his cold, calculating eyes made them wary, the deep jagged scar under his left eye made them nervous, and he was most definitely unique, with his long blond hair and whisker marks. "Umm, introduce myself...anything specific you want to know, sensei?"

Iruka eyed he boy strangely "Umm, your name would be a good start, and things you like or don't like I suppose, maybe hobbies if you have any"

Naruto shrugged again "Alright, simple enough. My name, is Uzumaki Naruto, though I've only been called it by two people ever. Likes, training. Dislikes, this whole village. Hobbies, modifying Jutsus, and finding out new interesting things about, anything"

Iruka's eyes widened at his name and he stammered "N-Naruto U-Uzumaki? You're alive? You've been presumed dead for nine years now"

Naruto chuckled "Well, surprise. Here I am, alive and better than ever"

Iruka sighed "Very well, take your seat I suppose, you have a whole lot of stuff to try and catch up on, joining the academy at such a late age, and to join right into an ongoing final year class, it certainly isn't normal"

Naruto shrugged "I'll be fine" he then walked back up to his seat in the corner, and the day slowly trudged along, sure Naruto was absolutely fanatic that he was learning everything about Konoha, and humans in general, and more importantly, more about jutsus, and yet he was incredibly depressed in Iruka's teaching. He only covered the basics of everything, never delving into the intricacies of anything, or specifics of the functionality of things, he taught them enough to function, and no more, and it left Naruto irritated, and hungering for more.

The day ended with the sounding of a rather irritating bell, and the majority of the students ran from the building like a pack of children, Naruto on the other hand waited for the kids to leave, slowly stood from his desk and walked down the steps to where Iruka was cleaning up some papers on his desk.

He looked up from the pile of papers and noticed Naruto standing there, and offered a fake smile "Well hello, Naruto. Anything I can do for you?"

Naruto sighed at his 'teacher' he saw right through the fake smile, Amise had taught him thoroughly how to read people, and he was a natural, he could read someone like a child's book. "You can drop the act, I know you don't like me, I can sense it from a mile away, and I don't care, no one in the piece of trash village likes me, and I don't care, but I am curious about something"

Iruka was shocked that he was so easily read "Well, it's just that the Kyuubi made my life specifically bad, I never had any proof that you weren't the beast reincarnated, anyway, What would you like to know?"

Naruto sighed once again and shook his head, as if disappointed in Iruka, but decided not to indulge in the matter "Your teaching, do you teach everything so vaguely? Not to sound rude or anything, but how can you expect these kids to know much when all you offer them is a basic grasp of things?"

Iruka narrowed his eyes at Naruto, he was quickly getting on his nerves, he was but thirteen, who was he to pass judgment on his teaching? "I teach them what they need to know, they don't need to cover every explicit moment of history of Konoha to every insignificant detail, they're training to be Shinobi, not historians, they don't need more than the basics"

Naruto narrowed his eyes back in return "What if some of them actually are interested in learning everything about everything as well? What if you had a student that was here only to learn everything about everything? Who needed no training in anything, only needed knowledge? Not just the basics, but everything, to every explicit detail, of every insignificant detail, what then? Are you to ignore a single child because they want to learn more than the others? They get left behind because they strive to succeed? I find that to be one shitty work ethic, sensei, I'll tell you here and now, if you wont teach what is needed, then I'll learn it elsewhere" Naruto turned on the spot and walked out of the classroom, not even caring about the stunned expression on Iruka's face.

Naruto emerged from the building and sighed, if this was the quality of learning he was going to be dealing with for the rest of the year, he was going to have to work hard at the library to learn every little thing he could, and boy was it going to be a pain in his ass.

Naruto walked slowly away from the academy, Narrowing his eyes at all the kids who were now walking home alongside their parents, Naruto hated them all. Sure, he had Amise, and he considered her his mother, but he knew very well that she wasn't his real mom, only a foster parent if you would, he resented everyone else who's parents didn't abandon them at birth, Naruto's parents had abandoned him, just like the rest of the village, and he hated them for it, and hated everyone else who was 'normal'

He decided since, he had a hood, and no one knew he was alive, yet. He would enjoy the chance while he could, and eat out at some place, nothing fancy, he wasn't rich or anything, he had very little money in fact.

He was walking down the streets with his hood up when he spotted a small joint, it looked like it wasn't doing to well, close to closing down in fact so he walked over and brushed the small flaps out of the way and walked inside, and looked around, and there was no one behind the bar.

Naruto walked forward a bit more and sat down at the bar on the stool against the far wall, he didn't like being in the open, made him feel vulnerable. "Hey, anyone here? Or is this place closed down already?" he called out.

A second later an older man practically dove in from the back of the store, he looked to be in his early fifties, he quickly took out a notepad, and practically threw a menu at Naruto "Yes, we're open, sorry business is...slow we weren't expecting a customer to show up in the middle of the day, pick whatever you like, just let me know and I'll get to work on it"

Naruto flipped the menu open, and nearly coughed as the thin layer of dust flew off, he looked through the menu and instantly spotted something he knew he would very much so like, and he also noticed nearly every single dish on the menu was Ramen, he finally settled on a simple Ramen with rabbit meat. He had come to really enjoy Rabbit over the years, and Amise cooked a mean rabbit stew over an open fire.

Naruto nodded to himself and closed the menu "Right then, I'll have 'Rabbit meat special' and a bottle of Sake please"

Naruto had once stolen a case of Sake off of a caravan, and he tried it, and from that day forth he had found his first love. He wasn't an alcoholic or anything, he just loved the taste of it, and the feeling of being drunk made the world easier to deal with and was a nice side effect, ok maybe he had a small problem. He managed to control himself, but that case of Sake sure did go fast once he found out how much he liked it. Amise also had the very pleasurable ability to remove all of the foul effects, puking, hangovers, alcohol poisoning, and she was able to not remove the wonderful feeling of being drunk, she turned it into something completely safe, and much more enjoyable for him, which increased his love for the beverage.

The man looked at the hooded figure with wide eyes "You want a bottle of Sake? How old are you? You look like a child to me"

Naruto growled lowly "I'm old enough to have been drinking Sake from time to time for years now, just give me the damn Sake, I am a paying customer you know, a rare thing from what things seem like, it would be a shame to lose my business before you even got it"

The man sighed in defeat, he couldn't afford to lose this customer, no matter the price. He nodded and disappeared into the back of the building again, he reappeared a moment later with a bottle of Sake, and a glass and opened the bottle for Naruto, and went to poor it into the small glass when Naruto stopped him "Theres no need for the glass, I like to drink it straight" The old man sighed in defeat once again and released the bottle and retreated to start working on his Ramen, taking the small glass with him.

Naruto eyed the bottle of Sake before grabbing it and slowly bringing it to his lips, within the shadows of his hood, he tilted the bottle and took a decent sized sip and slowly swished the liquor around his mouth, enjoying the taste before fully committing and swallowing his mouthful of the beautiful beverage.

Naruto sat there, relatively peacefully for about ten minutes before the small restaurants owner came back with a decent sized bowl and set it down before Naruto, Naruto took a nice whiff of the Ramen and found it smelled good, scratch that it smelled incredible. Naruto reached over for the pair of chopsticks that had been set down with the bowl and was just about to break them apart when the man spoke. "We only have one rule here at Ichiraku's, no hats or anything else that hides your face. We like to see the face of our customers as they eat, so if you would be so kind as to remove your hood"

Naruto sighed, he just wanted to eat his Ramen in peace, there was no real point in specifically hiding himself, but he didn't want news to travel about his return, and the fact that the demon was still very much alive. "Fine, but you tell no one of who I am, I'm looking to keep a low profile, okay?"

The man shrugged and nodded "Sure, whatever. Not like I get a lot of customers to talk to anyway"

Naruto put down his chopsticks and reached up and pulled his hood off, revealing his long blond hair, bright blue eyes, and scarred, whiskered face. The man took a small step backwards in surprise, he was right the kid couldn't have been older than thirteen, yet his eyes spoke otherwise, and that scar...eesh, for a kid to have such a vicious scar, it sent a chill down his spine, and yet he didn't have a clue who this kid was. That wasn't to be so unexpected after all, the last time anyone had seen him, he was four, and even then not everyone knew what he looked like they just knew of 'the demon'

Naruto, with his hood now removed picked his chopsticks back up and started to eat his bowl of Ramen before it got cold. He brought the first bite to his mouth and slipped it inside, and his eyes widened in surprise, this wasn't just good, it was incredible!

He ate the Ramen slowly, savoring the incredible flavor, it was the best thing he'd ever eaten that wasn't made by Amise, he enjoyed his bottle of Sake with the Ramen too, and found that the two made quite the combination, in the end the meal was over to quickly for him, but he knew there were other things to be done, he was going to need to find a place to live, he couldn't just sleep outside forever, he needed somewhere he could keep his things, supplies and such that he would undoubtedly need.

He stood up from the bar after he finished his food and his drink and fished out some money for his bill, he put the money and called out into the shop to inform the owner "Hey, thanks for the food and Sake, it was fantastic, I'll be back again sometime to have some more" he then turned and left the small establishment before the owner came back into the front.

The man picked up the money Naruto left for his bill and his eyes widened slightly, either the kid was bad at math, or was generous, because their was enough money for his bill three times over, granted it still wasn't a lot of money, their dishes weren't expensive, but it was still beyond generous.

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Naruto went to the library and started to read on everything he could on just about everything, jutsus, history, the villages construction, everything. He was looking through the many shelves of books to see if there was anything specifically interesting when a certain book that looked out of place caught his eye, he pulled it from the shelf and read the title 'Konohagakure no Sato, construction plans' Naruto smirked absolutely deviously, this was definitely misplaced. He opened the book and started to quickly flip through various sections and his grin grew wider, and more deviant every second, this was most definitely misplaced, it contained blueprints with detailed notes on just about every building in Konoha.

He took the large book and sat at a table and started to flip through it, looking for one building specifically, after a few minutes of searching he found it 'Hokage Tower' He studied the schematics like a microscope, taking in every detail of every little thing, and was specifically that the Archive room for scrolls was specifically documented as being constructed to house Konoha's forbidden scroll, the scroll of Konoha's most powerful jutsu.

Naruto, more pleased with his sudden find then possible instantly closed the book, stashed it in his hoody and stole it from the library, he officially was going to stray from his and Amise's plans for him. 'If the Academy is going to suck so much at teaching, then I'll just skip a few steps, and go straight to the top in techniques, I'll learn the history from books, better than what they teach anyway'

He found a secluded spot where he could rest, and prepare for his plans. He opened the book once again and went back to the same page, and committed the entire Hokage tower blueprint to memory, he laughed out loud at the stupidity of the village, they specified what kind of security measures every room had, and he wasn't surprised to find that the archive room had an unpickable lock. It's not that the lock itself was unpickable, it's that it was rigged with a lot of traps, so that if you did pick it, you would likely die if you didn't have the key. Naruto was surprised that that was the only security measure, besides the Anbu patrols every ten to fifteen minutes. 'So, I have to get the key for the room from the old man himself, that should prove...interesting'

Naruto formed his plan of how he was going to get in in his head, it definitely wasn't full proof, he just hoped it would work. Being a professional thief in his world was much more difficult when you didn't have any jutsus to assist you, like transport jutsus, or any kind of genjutsu.

After a while of figuring things out, and coming up with back up plans, in case his prime plan failed for some reason, he was set and ready, tomorrow he would be the new owner of many important scrolls. He packed away his new favorite book, and his plans were stored in his mind, and he fell asleep under the stars, the same way he had many years before.

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Naruto slept like a rock, like he always did. He woke up the next morning refreshed and ready for his plans to go through, but first he had to go to the academy, now that he was enrolled, it would instantly mark him as the thief if he missed a day at the academy at the same time as the scroll being stolen. So he got ready and headed off to the academy for one last time, it was likely that he would have to abandon the village after stealing something of such value like the Forbidden scroll, along with whatever else he finds of intrest in the scroll archives in the tower.

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It took him no time flat to do what he needed, he stopped by a Shinobi equipment shop while they were still closed and broke in, with far to much ease. He ransacked the joint stealing everything he would no doubt need on his travels, a whole bunch of storage scrolls, hundreds of Kunai and Shuriken, which he put in the scrolls, soldier and blood pills. Medical tools and accessories, he even stole an entire new set of clothes for it all, there would be no use if everyone could spot him from a distance. He put all of his new things in one powerful storage scroll, and hid it inside of his hoody. Once everything was set and prepared he left for the academy.

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He got to the academy not long after, and long before anyone was there once again, he waited around sitting on a particularly lonely looking swing under a tree, after about forty five minutes people finally started to show up. At first it was just a few instructors, and then kids started to show up, Iruka finally showed up and opened the door to their classroom, and Naruto walked in a straight up to his seat in the corner. Everyone else eventually came in, the majority of them sending glances his way, after they all talked and goofed around for about ten or so minutes they quieted down and Iruka began his lesson.

"Well, I'm glad that you all decided to join us today, we have a fairly important history lesson today. On one of Konoha's worst disasters ever. The attack of the Kyuubi thirteen years ago"

Naruto got more comfortable 'Lets see what happens when they all learn about me'

Iruka continued "The attack of the Kyuubi thirteen years ago, is arguably the worst loss Konoha has ever suffered, on that day hundreds of brave Shinobi died to the Kyuubi, along with an incredibly large number of civilians. The Kyuubi was a great beast of incredible power, with a single lash of it's tail it could create earthquakes, or make Tsunami that could wipe out forests. It was incredibly powerful, and incredibly evil. It attacked Konoha with no warning on October 10th and began it's destructive rampage. Finally after many Shinobi fell to the evil beast, The Yondaime himself rode out to fight the beast on the back of the great toad Gamabunta, he fought with the Kyuubi and sacrificed his life to kill the beast. It really was our worst day, we lost many a great Shinobi, and our most powerful Hokage ever, arguably the most powerful Shinobi ever"

Naruto nearly fell out of his seat as his lesson went on, once the lesson ended he was...irritated. "What the hell Iruka? Why are you teaching them lies? They should know the truth, they'll find out eventually, and it will just be worse the later they find out"

Whispers ran rampant through the class and Iruka slapped himself on the forehead "Because, Naruto. It was declared by the Sandaime that no one under a certain age was to know of that he felt it would be better, so he made it a decree, the death sentence for whoever speaks of it to anyone of the younger generation"

Naruto groaned "You're fucking kidding me? That is the stupidest decision ever, I'll bet everyone here is still told to some degree, watch. Hey, someone in here, speak up"

A girl wearing a large amount of purple, with platinum blond hair and light blue eyes spoke up "What do you want?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes "Think back to when you were very little, did your parents tell you to stay away from a certain child if you ever saw him?"

Said girls eyes widened slightly "You know, they did"

Naruto chuckled darkly "Care to give a description of the child?"

She thought for a second "Yeah, dark blue eyes, whisker mark things on his cheeks, bright spiky blond hair, they said to stay away from him at all costs, that he was extremely dangerous."

Naruto laughed "See! What did I tell you Iruka, now they are supposed to fear me and they don't even know why, they weren't even given the option to come to their own conclusions, by hiding the truth Sarutobi just made the problem that much worse, it's easy to fear and unknown enemy, it's harder to fear something when you know everything about it, so I think I'm going to right the problem, fuck the law, I'm telling them all"

The girl narrowed her eyes at Naruto "You? You're the one they told me to fear? Why? And how come I never saw you in the village before you came to the Academy yesterday"

Naruto chuckled darkly "Yes, I'm the one you were told to fear, I'll get to the why in one moment. The reason you've never seen me in the village before, is because I wasn't living in the village, when I was four a Shinobi came to the orphanage where I lived, the women there who 'took care of me' paid him to remove me from the village, and to kill me. He took me from the orphanage and dropped me off somewhere in the forest and took a Kunai and gave me my scar under my eye, then left me to die slowly and painfully in the woods. Fortunately my savior came and saved my life, I'd been living in the forest for the past nine years. Training with her"

More shocked whispers, and said girl spoke again "Why would they do that to you?"

Naruto laughed darkly once more "It all comes down to why you were told to fear me. The story Iruka just taught you is quite inaccurate. The Kyuubi never died, it can't die, or couldn't. It could only be sealed away, but no object can hold the power, it has to be alive, able to adapt to the power. The Yondaime sacrificed his life to defeat the Kyuubi, not kill it. He sealed the Kyuubi away, into a living person, he sealed the Kyuubi into me on the day I was born."

"From that day on I was absolutely despised by all of the village, they all believed I was the Kyuubi reborn, so they told you all to fear me, they ordered my death, but hah. They never expected for The Kyuubi to screw up their plans, I would have died that night I was kidnapped if not for the Kyuubi, she took care of me, took me in and raised me. Got me shelter, food. She saved my life, she's my mother as far as I'm concerned"

Gasps were heard around the room, followed by whispers, when eventually Ino asked "So...if you consider the Kyuubi your...um mom, where are your real parents?"

Naruto growled "I'd like to know that myself, who the fuck abandons their child the day they were born? if I ever meet my parents, they will have a lot of shit to explain, if their lucky I'll let them live"

Foul language aside, they were surprised, it certainly was a strange answer "Wouldn't you want to meet them? Get to know them? Make up for lost time and all that?" Ino asked.

Naruto sighed sadly "You wouldn't understand it, you couldn't understand it. You have parents, you don't know what it's like to be alone, and to know that your parents are the reason. I'm done talking about myself, you all know the truth of the Kyuubi now, make your decisions about whatever you want, not like I care if 30 more people hate me, it's but a drop in the bucket. Iruka, continue with your, arguably crappy lesson"

The classes attention slowly resettled back on Iruka, and he continued the lesson for the day, switching away from any lessons Naruto may sabotage and improvising by telling them about the third Shinobi wars, the war that made the Fourth Hokage as famous as he was.

Naruto spaced out for the lesson, opting to mentally come up with all of the things that could go wrong with his heist later that day. He sat there and spaced out clear through the whole day, straight through lunch, not answering a single question when they were asked, or even replying to the few people who tried to talk to him.

The day ended quickly and he left the academy in a fairly rushed manner, thinking all day left him starving, and fortunately he knew the perfect place to grab a bite to eat.

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Naruto arrived at Ichiraku's about ten minutes later, he moved the small curtain aside and walked into the establishment for what would be his second, and quite likely last time. He sat down in the same seat as last time and noticed everything had been cleaned since he came, they either had business, or decided to cleanup, thinking Naruto was a sign that business was coming.

Naruto knocked on the bar loudly "Hey old man, you here?" A moment later said 'old man' appeared from around the back corner and smiled upon seeing Naruto, with his hood already off. "Well if it isn't my new favorite customer, what can I get ya?"

Naruto smirked at the older man, he was nice, Naruto wasn't sure if it was because he didn't know who he was, or because he was just a very rare person, but he enjoyed it "I'll take the same thing as last time, the Rabbit meat special, but without the Sake this time, I need to keep my wits about me this evening"

The man nodded "Something important this evening is there?"

Naruto grinned "Yeah, you could say that"

The man smiled and disappeared, presumably to start making Naruto's dish, how surprised was Naruto when the man returned a few minutes with a young girl, she must have been about sixteen, she had long brown hair and was overall quite good looking. The old man smirked at Naruto "This is my daughter, Ayame(I can't believe I forgot her name, is that right?) I felt that since your our best customer as of late, I should introduce you. Now that I think about it, I don't believe I ever even got your name"

Naruto winced, 'So, he just didn't know who I was, well here goes another nice person, and probably my meal' "My name? It's Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto. Better known around here as the demon"

The man, and his daughters eyes widened, in shock, not fear " Uzumaki Naruto, The Uzumaki Naruto??" he asked.

Naruto nodded sadly "Yeah, I did"

Their eyes once again widened "My god, I thought you died years ago, you just up and disappeared one day without a trace, that was over nine years ago, I'll never forget the day they announced the searches were canceled and pronounced you as dead..." he said, trailing off in apparent memories.

Naruto chuckled bitterly "Watch out, you almost sounded like it was a bad thing for a second there"

Both the young girl, and older man leveled evil glares at Naruto "And why wouldn't it be? It's not every day that the villages seconds most famous hero dies, and it certainly isn't a good day"

Naruto's eyes widened "Me, a hero? I think you've got some wires crossed"

The old man shook his head "Not at all, if not for you where would we all be now? Dead, incinerated by the Kyuubi, or died in some kind of invasion shortly after, Konoha survived because of you"

Naruto was completely shocked, not only had he never thought of it like that before, but someone from Konoha thought of it, the village of people who wanted him dead, had people in it who liked him, honored him even. "Well, thank you for thinking of everything like that, now if you would just convince everyone else that, we would be set"

The man chuckled "In honor of one of Konoha's greatest hero's returns, your foods on the house!"

Naruto smiled but shook his head "No thanks, I don't want any kind of special treatment for what I do, plus you need the money by the looks of things, I'd be happy to pay as long as you don't make me wait forever for my food, haha"

The old man smiled back "Very well, it will be ready in no time, and thank you for the business", he then disappeared into the back of the shop once again, hopefully actually cooking this time around. Ayame merely pulled up a chair and sat down on the opposite side of the bar, looking at Naruto.

"So, you're the infamous Naruto, I expected you to be...smaller, muscle wise I mean, you're quite...developed for your age"

Naruto smirked "Well, that happens when you live in the woods for your whole life, and have next to nothing but meat to eat"

Ayame sighed "How did you survive? I mean, being alone for nine years, I would have died from loneliness"

Naruto nodded "Indeed, I was fortunate enough to never be alone, Amise was always there to comfort me, help me, do anything really"

Ayame quirked an eyebrow "Amise? Who's that?"

Naruto smirked "Kyuubi's name is Amise, I never would have made it passed that first night without her"

Ayame's eyes widened "The Kyuubi took care of you? Wow...."

Before the conversation could carry any further the old man reappeared with Naruto's bowl in hand. He placed it down before Naruto and smiled "Enjoy"

Naruto smirked and grabbed up the chopsticks and broke them apart "I plan to" he immediately tore into the Ramen, unlike the first time when he savored the flavor, this time he chose to tear through the meal quite fast, he was done in under five minutes, he took out enough money for his bill, plus a decent bit extra again and set it down on the bar and made to leave but Ayame called out. "Do you really have to go already? You've only been here a little while"

Naruto sighed, figures he would meet the only nice people in Konoha right as he was probably going to have to leave. "Sorry, I have some incredibly important things to do, and the sun is already starting to set, damn Academy lets out far to late. Well, thanks for the meal again old man, and it was nice to meet a friendly face Ayame. Fair well, maybe one day we will meet again"

He turned around and once again made to leave, and was once again called out to "Maybe we'll meet again one day? What do you mean? Aren't you gonna come back?"

Naruto chuckled, this was going to be incredibly stupid to say, but it didn't matter, they would figure out who stole everything soon enough "Sorry to say I probably wont be. After news about tonights actions gets around, I won't be very welcomed here, after all, they don't exactly like famous criminals hanging around the village"

Before either Ayame, or the now present old man could respond to what he said, he turned quickly and left the establishment and disappeared into the night, though he didn't put his hood up, he was too deep in thought and completely forgot about it.

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Naruto had been walking through the streets towards a secluded training ground where he could change into his new clothes and get ready, and he wasn't paying close attention to his surroundings and walked smack into a drunken villager. Naruto grumbled out a 'My bad' but the villager was drunk, and felt like making trouble. He shoved Naruto back and snarled at him "Watch where you're going to punk piece of trash"

Naruto smirked, this would definitely help out his operation, a distraction big enough to get the Hokage himselfs attention, and he would get to get over the anxiety of his first real kill. "Sorry, you've got it wrong, you should have called me the demon brat, you piece of trash citizen"

The mans eyes widened in surprise "Impossible, the demon brat died years ago when he disappeared, but you look just like he did"

Naruto smirked "Just because I disappeared doesn't mean I died, I'm alive and well, you wanna remove the demon's taint here and now? You'll be a hero"

The drunken fool grinned and smashed the Sake bottle he had, leaving it to be a crude jagged sharp weapon, he lunged forward at Naruto with the bottle, aiming to slash him across the throat. Naruto grinned at the opportunity as the drunk fool tripped and stumbled when Naruto easily dodged the wide swipe. Naruto easily spun around and wrapped his arm around the mans head, he jerked his arm and twisted the mans head, with a sickening 'Crunch' his neck was snapped and his spinal cord severed, killing him instantly.

Naruto quickly set up the body to be a more menacing 'message' to the village, he stripped the man of his shirt and carved a message into his torso and back, and strung him up from a tree with some rope, hanging by his broken neck as if hanged. He then quickly continued on to the concealed training ground.

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He arrived at the training ground about two minutes after that, and quickly pulled out his concealed scroll and opened it and unsealed all of the items it contained. He quickly changed out of his, quite civilian clothes and into his new ones, he was not more than a moving shadow in his new get-up. He had on black steel toed combat boots on, above which he had on baggy black cargo pants, which were tucked into the boots, atop the pants he had a rather bulky belt covered in pouches and straps to attach or carry things which. Further up he had on a short sleeved black T-shirt on and a black vest over that. He had on black fingerless leather gloves with metal plates on the back of the palm. To top everything off he had a long black cloak, that concealed his whole body and had a large hood which completely hid his face and long blond hair. And the final piece of the new gear was a long Katana that was attached to his new belt, it, like the rest of him was black as night. Black sheath, black handle, guard and pommel, even the blade itself was black steel, and reflected almost no light. He had chosen it for that precise reason.

With all of his new equipment ready he burned his old clothes with a high rank fire jutsu he knew, which consequently torched the ground about thirty feet around his clothes, he shrugged at the bonfire he left and disappeared into the shadows, off towards the Hokage tower, the fire would surely be found soon, and the body of the dead villager would surely be found shortly there after, then all hell would break loose. He had to work quick.

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He arrived at the Hokages tower and scaled the side all the way up to Sarutobi's office windows, he sat outside the window, hiding in the shadows, waiting for the call to come in and for him to leave. Sure enough not twenty minutes after Naruto arrived Sarutobi's secretary came barging into his office and yelling "Sir! One of the training grounds have been set on fire! and....and not far from there a villager was found, killed. Hanging from a tree, and something was carved into the body...a message. Your presence has been requested there"

Sarutobi nodded sadly and stood up from his desk and followed the secretary out of the office, once the door was closed for a minute or so Naruto opened the window and slipped inside, he quickly started to go through Sarutobi's desk and found what he was looking for, a key. Not just any key mind you, the key to the scroll archives of Konoha, why Sarutobi didn't keep it with him at all times was beyond Naruto, but he was glad for it.

Once he was finished he quickly snuck out of the office and knocked out the secretary with a simple chop to the neck. He went down the hall with stealth beyond human perception, he opened another set of doors and went down a flight of stairs. He was now on the level of the archives, he snuck down this hall as well, he wasn't sure of any possible new security measures that had been installed after the towers construction, so it was better to be safe then fucked. He arrived at the doors to the archives, two large, heavy solid wood doors with nothing marking them as the archives, only someone who knew would know what was contained in that room, fortunately Naruto was one of these people.

He pulled out the key to the door and slipped it into the lock, and suddenly was hit with a slight panic. He didn't know which way to turn it, and turning it the wrong way could very well kill him with the security countermeasures on this door. His only hope was to guess, and hope it didn't kill him.

He turned the key to the right, since that was the direction you would turn most keys. Bad move, he suddenly doubled over on the floor in immense pain. He looked down at his stomach and found the source of the pain, six Kunai were embedded into his abdomen up to the handles, surely a fatal wound to anyone, if not from the initial wound, then immediate medical attention was needed, or you'd die from blood loss. Again, fortunately Naruto wasn't anyone, he had the most powerful demon to exist in him, already working to heal the wounds.

Naruto left the Kunai where they were though, he could still die from blood loss, granted it was significantly harder than for most people, but six open Kunai wounds would do the trick, he would bare the pain and wait for Amise's healing to push them out.

He stood back up from the floor and narrowed his eyes at the key 'Stupid thing' He grabbed it and turned it to the left with a sharp twist, the locked clicked open happily and Naruto grabbed the doorknob and swung the door open. He walked inside and his eyes lit u, the room was FILLED with scrolls, he hoped his distraction worked for a while, it was going to take a while to find which scrolls he wanted to take, and what to leave.

He closed the door behind him after removing the key from the lock and looked about the room full of scrolls. On the far wall on a large stand was the original reason he planned this whole heist, the forbidden scroll. He immediately grabbed it, unrolled his storage scroll and sealed it away inside. He left the storage scroll out and continued looking through the scrolls, taking pretty much everything jutsu related.

He was searching through the room when he came across a fairly inconspicuous scroll, but the name of the scroll caught his eye instantly 'Uzumaki Naruto's heritage' The scroll had a blood seal on it, preventing anyone except the intended to open it. Naruto bid it fit for further scrutinizing at a later time and sealed it in the storage scroll as well. He continued on his way searching through the scrolls taking any and everything he found of importance. He found records on all of the clans, their foundings, and their Kekai Genkai's if they had one, specifically he found a large amount of info on the Uchiha and Hyuuga clans, and their two Doujutsu's, the Sharingan, and the Byakugan.

Naruto finally finished clearing out the archives and he packed up his multiple storage scrolls (He ended up taking a lot more scrolls than he planned) he packed everything away and left the archives, purposefully leaving the door unlocked.

He quickly fled the Hokage tower, leaving behind the six bloody Kunai that had stuck him in the abdomen. He left the tower without incident and immediately fled the area, he was going to see what happened first to see if he truly needed to flee the village, or if he had time to do a few needed things before leaving, after all if he were to be a famous criminal now, he would need money, and why not knock off a few shops and pile up some bills before jumping ship?

Naruto headed off to find a place to sleep at where he wouldn't be found, it didn't take him long, and he was soon asleep, dreaming about that days events.

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Meanwhile:

Sarutobi arrived at the scene of the 'hanged' villager, and the flaming training ground, which had long since been extinguished, the villager was pretty clearly not killed by hanging, his neck was snapped to a point far worse than what a simple hanging could cause, but the thing that made Sarutobi shiver was the message that was carved into the flesh of the body.

'Konoha, until now I have always left you in relative peace, only raiding your caravans every once in a while, though after this mans apparent displeasure in knowing who I am,

it seems as though peace is not a possible road to take any longer, this is a declaration, those who dare raise their hand against me, or anyone who I hold close, will meet a fate similar to this mans, or worse.

That is all, enjoy yourselves, The Lost Soul'

The message was all bad news, not only did it confirm that the last few theft less days did not mean the Lost Soul was gone again, but now whoever it was has declared war on those who wrong it or those it cares for, now they had a mysterious, murderous person to look out for, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel, there was a tiny scrap of physical evidence this time, the broken bottle on the ground had a tiny bit of blood on it, whether it was the villagers blood, or the aggressor was unknown, but either way it was sent to be analyzed, if it matched the citizen, it was a dead end, but if it didn't well they then had the DNA of the 'Lost Soul' which also proved that the Lost Soul was in fact a regular person.

Sarutobi was just about to pack up and call it a night and head home when a frantic call came over the Anbu frequency of the radio, from his secretary of all people "HUGE PROBLEM AT THE HOKAGE TOWER! Someone broke into the tower and knocked me out, when I came too I checked the whole tower, and...and....The entire scroll archives have been emptied! Almost everything is gone, Including the forbidden scroll! It looks like the doors trap went off, I found six blood soaked Kunai in the hall heading away from the door"

Sarutobi's eyes widened, 'The entire archives?' "Dispatch Anbu squads to look up anything out of the ordinary, get those Kunai to the lab for the blood to be analyzed, and catalog everything that hasn't been taken from the archives, we've got a very skilled criminal to catch"

Everyone broke up from the scene and split up to go about their new tasks.

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The next morning came quickly, Naruto noticed the entire village was in an uproar over the emptying of the archives, he merely grinned, it was still early so he broke into another Shinobi equipment store, he got a new vest and shirt, since his old ones now were adorned with six Kunia sized holes, he also raided the register this time around, along with the registers of the closest six stores, he ended up making a killing, once he finished up his nefarious deeds he quickly took off and headed to the Academy, if he was going to stick around just a little longer, he was going to have to keep up his appearance, he still couldn't just disappear from the Academy.

His day at the Academy was actually going quite well, he was questioned about his new clothes by everyone, but merely said he needed to dress like a Shinobi if he were to be one, no further questions were asked and he was happy, everything was going great until about an hour after lunch, they were all in the room listening to one of Iruka's lectures when suddenly ten Anbu's in full battle gear appeared in the front of the room. The leader pointed at Naruto, who was in his spot in the far corner, with his hood down. "Uzumaki Naruto! You're wanted for the murder of a citizen of Konoha, and the theft of the archives of Konoha! You're coming with us! Lost Soul, tch, you're just a thief, lower than scum"

Everyone in the room's eyes widened, including Naruto. Fortunately Naruto was good, he put up his hands defensively with a shocked expression in place "Wait, what!? I didn't do anything! I bet you fuckers are just a bunch of demon haters, aren't you!?"

The leader narrowed his eyes, not that anyone could tell from behind his mask "The fact that I hate you has nothing to do with the fact that you're guilty. You're blood was found at both the murder scene and the scroll archives, how you survived taking six Kunai is beyond me, but it's probably something about you being a demon, now come with us, so you can be executed like you should have all those years ago"

All ten of the Anbu drew their weapons, short Katanas, and Naruto stood and laughed "Alright, alright. You guys got me, yeah I killed that villager, thats what you get for trying to slash my throat, and the archives, well Iruka sucks at teaching, so I'll give everything back" Naruto started to reach into his vest "Where the hell did I put those scrolls?" after fumbling for a second he pulled out three large scrolls, labeled Archives A, B, and C respectively. He tossed them to the Anbu and as they flew through the air he spoke, "Here, take em"

Right as the leader was about to catch the scroll Naruto grinned evilly, and the scrolls exploded into a cloud of smoke, and Naruto shot off at high speed and smashed through the window of the Academy, The Anbu following shortly thereafter. These events left everyone in the room completely lost, Naruto was wanted for murder? And he was also apparently the one who stole the archives of scrolls, but why would he do something like that?"

But there questions were to remain unanswered, as Naruto was now gone, running from the Anbu.

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Naruto was glad that the Anbu's skills were not overestimated, but was disappointed that they were unable to catch him, not that he wanted to be caught, but if the best you've got can't even catch a thirteen year old, you've got some issues to resolve.

The number of Anbu chasing him had quickly increased in size once the chase was in the open in the village and it was apparent he wouldn't be easy to catch, he was now being chased across the village by well over thirty Anbu members, not that it mattered, he was sprinting over the roofs on all fours, jumping huge gaps and every little while, if they would get to close he would drop a smoke bomb and completely disappear to them once again, he had one last little thing to do before he left the village, and he was heading for it. The center of the village, he was heading towards the Hokage tower, to drop a message for Sarutobi.

He had very fortunate timing as he lost the Anbu's trail once again right as he neared his destination, it was times like these he knew some low level jutsu, like clone jutsus to make distractions.

He hopped up to the Hokages windows and slipped in as stealthily as ever, he wasn't to surprised for Sarutobi to once again be seated there, reading through piles of paperwork. He silently scaled the wall and ceiling until he was directly over Sarutobi, he reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, he was now glad he chose to right this note before anything happened. He let go of the note and watched as it drifted slowly from his hand down onto Sarutobi's desk, right in front of what he was reading.

Sarutobi saw the note land on his desk and instantly looked up to where it no doubt came from, just in time to see Naruto grin and disappear as if he'd never been there at all.

He quickly grabbed the note and read it over,

'Well, sorry about the exact situation that I'm leaving under, but see ya later old man,

Sorry for killing that man, but he did try and kill me, even if I did tell him who I was exactly,

and the Archives, don't worry about them, I'm sure they will turn up some day unexpected, I only need them to learn.

See you around, maybe I'll visit one day, and thanks for trying to help out, but there's nothing here for me in Konoha any longer.

-Uzumaki Naruto, The Lost Soul'

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From that point on Naruto was able to evade the Anbu fairly easily since he had completely lost their trail, he left the village without any serious trouble.

Naruto wasn't stupid, he kept going once he left the village. He knew there would likely be hunter-nin sent out after him before long, he did have all of the villages important documents after all. So he slowed his pace drastically once a few miles from the village to set up something.

Now, Naruto knew that Konoha knew that he had no formal training as a Shinobi, so he couldn't be nearly that skilled in frontal combat, they would be wrong but that didn't matter, this was all about staging a scene, to put some heat under Konoha's collar, and to throw them off his track quite well.

He carefully went about setting up an entire battle scene in a small clearing, he went so far as to cut his wrist with a Kunai and to put sprays of blood on the ground and tree, he ripped off bits of his clothes and got them bloody before placing them perfectly, lastly he took his Kunai and grabbed his long blond hair and cut off a bunch of it, and started to strategically place clumps of bloody hair out as well, he was now very glad that he had went on that trip a while back on the command of Kyuubi, he had come across a Iwa chuunin who attacked him. Naruto had killed the Shinobi and taken his Hitai-ite, which was very good now because he took the Hitai-ite and placed it in the clearing as well, as if it had been ripped off of someone. He went so far as to create foot prints and marks in the first for an entire battle, footwork, places bodies dropped and bleed out and all.

In the end the scene was literally a masterpiece, and any moron who came across it could tell that Naruto would have lost whatever battle that had taken place.

Once his battle scene was finished he left without leaving a trace that he was alive, he wasn't sure of exactly what to do though, he realized he made a fatal mistake in his planing, he forgot about the aftermath, what he would do, where he would go once everything was done.