New! Partially Improved! Or at least, not a bad story! The newest chapter has arrived! Yeah, I know it takes me a while to get new chapters out. *Checks.* Hm… still my most popular story and it has been since mid-July, last time I updated this story. However, I did update Rei Tantei, so that counts for something right? *Looks at the sour faces.* No? Ok then. On to the story!

I STILL own NOTHING.

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(Previously)

Itachi thought about it. What was the best way to get rid of his problems and present his plan all at the same time?

"I want to kill Uzumaki Naruto."

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Chapter 4

One Step Forward, One Step Back

'He couldn't even give me time to explain myself could he?' were one of the few thoughts running through the Uchiha prodigy's mind as the Hokage cleared the desk in his office, lifted Itachi up by the neck with a single withered hand, and was crushing the life out of him… all without Itachi ever seeing that the elderly man had ever moved.

"…Explain…" he tried to gasp out at least that word to save himself but it came out moderately garbled… mostly by the hand around his throat. 'I need to train more,' Itachi thought as he started seeing spots, 'Seriously, I never even saw him move. He is the Hokage for a reason, but seriously, I have got to speed up my reactions without Sharingan. It's not like they are an end-all supreme power or anything, I mean who believes that? (Somewhere in the village, Sasuke sneezes, has his hiding place revealed, and is glomped by thousands of fan girls.) If I get out of this, I have GOT to train harder.'

Before he passed out, he was dropped to the floor.

"I will give you one and only ONE chance. You have this chance to save yourself; I suggest you do not waste it."

As he lay gasping on the floor Itachi thanked the heavens above and was trying to clear his mind from the recent lack of oxygen to explain himself in a way that would make sense and (hopefully) keep him alive.

"Naruto gets attacked way too much. If he dies in the eyes of the populace then he can live a safe life anonymously. But now that the civilians know that he has no chakra and that he isn't protected by the 'Never attack a shinobi' rule, it's like there's an open season on the boy. He has already lost too much, at least let him have some peace." Itachi was praying harder than Jiraiya did when Tsunade caught him peeping on her, hoping that his plea at the end distracted the Hokage enough to let him off with his life.

The Hokage was very still for a few moments looking out at the village. When he reached for the security seals under his desk Itachi was sure that he was going to sound proof the room to prevent the screams from escaping and that he was going to die. 'Oh man, I'm only 12(1), I don't have a girlfriend, I don't have a good sword (2), I'm still a virgin, my dad looks at other guys funny, my little brother is stupid, I haven't gotten drunk and arrested for underage public intoxication, and I am going to die right now for trying to do the right thing for someone who has lost it all… well this sucks.'

"Itachi, I said for you to please sit down. I know you have recovered enough and you should stop cowering and listen to me. NOW."

Itachi clung to that chair like a guardian angel. How he did so while sitting on it will forever remain a mystery.

"I know that he has suffered at the hands of the people of this village. I know. But he can't disappear."

"Hokage-sama, I don't mean to seem rude… but why? He is miserable here in his current state. I have no doubt that as a shinobi his life could have gotten better, but why keep him here now when there is no use for him, militarily speaking?"

"We have to keep him here because of the demon he contains. If the other shinobi nations find out we have lost our demon, especially the strongest demon, they will no doubt try to kill him to plant the demon in their own host, a host that could use chakra. That is just the threat to him personally. For the village's security we cannot let him leave simply because his presence is a deterrent to the other demon hosts from the other countries. He may not be able to channel chakra or youki, but if he was attacked by another demon host, I can assure you that Kyuubi will take steps to insure its survival, especially defeating a demon that is invading its territory. The boy must stay here in a public manner. He cannot disappear and he cannot leave the country. I am sorry Itachi, but this is the way it must be."

Itachi couldn't help but to stare. "Hokage-sama I don't think this is going to work. A single Anbu cannot defend him from the sheer amount of people trying to hurt him when they form mobs and much less when other shinobi get in on it. Even I can be hard pressed, especially on days like his birthday. What kind of kid should have to live through that?"

The Hokage exploded. "DO YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THE HORRIBLE THINGS HE HAS TO LIVE THROUGH? I HATE THE LIFE HE HAS TO LIVE. I HATE WHAT WE HAVE TO LEAVE HIM TO, BUT THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO!!!... if he still had chakra, I could protect him, but his civilian status puts him under the council's jurisdiction, especially with his orphaned status. And there is no way that they will protect him as I have done these years. I paid for the guard missions for him over the years… with Sarutobi family money once my yearly Hokage salary was used up. I did what I could to help, but it is beyond me now. He is out of my reach and if I were to try to interfere with matters outside of my sphere of control then other interested parties could too. We would have a civil war on our hands and unless I could go around the laws there is no way to avoid it. I'm sorry Itachi. It seems like that's all I am anymore."

With that, the Hokage waved his hand at Itachi to dismiss him and turned to watch the village with a heavy sigh of grief. Itachi left, trying to figure out how he was going to salvage the life of the one he guarded.

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On the other side of town, a young shinobi with a burnt reddish-orange(3) colored hair walked into an armor store.

'I hope Itachi was right about me not getting caught.' Naruto thought. He may still look like a kid, but darn it, he was going to need shinobi clearance to buy the stuff Itachi said he needed.

"Hello can I help you?" a kindly looking store owner in an smith's apron asked.

Naruto took a quick look around the store and seeing nothing but shelves of dark metal and a single girl running around to each item with stars in her eyes. "Oh I am just looking for now, but I will need to buy some stuff later. Do you think your daughter could show me around?"

The man seemed to wilt before his eyes. "Well I know that she could show you around, but she isn't my daughter. She is an orphan, from the Kyuubi attack I guess, and she comes in here to stare at the weapons. She claims to want to be a weaponry master, and with as obsessed as she is, I can believe it."

"Oh." It was a much more sobered Naruto that spoke this time. 'Someone else hurt by that stupid thing…' "So you wouldn't mind if I got her to show me around?"

"Ha, not as long as she agrees and if you find something to buy here."

As Naruto walked over, the girl had become entranced by the sight of a set of kunai with a blood grieve in them and missed his first call to her.

"Miss? ... Miss? … Miiiissss…"

Being ignored was NOT something Naruto took too kindly to. This called for drastic measures.

"Wow what a nice pair of buns on that girl with the pink shirt."

*Slap.*

"What? Who are you? You said that right?"

Female indignation apparently conquered everything, even when the said female wasn't aware of what was happening around her.

"Itai… yeah I said it. I only did because nothing else I was trying worked! And I was meaning your hair… what were you thinking?" It was a bluff, and Naruto prayed it worked.

The girl opened her mouth to retort, but quickly stopped and blushed when his last comment hit home. "Ok, maybe that was a bit much… what did you need me for?"

'She bought it! Quick, answer before she gets suspicious!' Naruto replied, "Oh! The old man at the counter said you can show me around since you know all about this stuff. I was looking at some large plate armor, some standard kunai, you know the works for a new shinobi!"

"Armor plates? Sound more like a samurai to me." The girl was definitely more knowledgeable about weapons than others his age.

"Not for body armor, for a workshop slash training area that I am building! I am testing new seals and stuff and if doesn't work, then it could blow up and kill me… at the best! Plus my friend wants to train against some training dummies that don't get destroyed as easily, so maybe I will need some plate armor after all… heh heh…" Naruto scratched the back of his head in an abashed sort of way.

"OH! I get it! So you want like a metal wall to hide behind in case it goes boom right?" She looked rather happy that she finally had figured out what he was after.

"Well, not just metal. I was thinking about making kunai that explode and some that have dual explosions… one explosion to pierce through armor and the second one to explode inside the armored target so that no one will…" Naruto stopped talking. 'Was there a draft in here?' He turned to his immediate left and saw her standing within an inch of him with wide, shining eyes.

"You want to make… armor piercing kunai? As your first idea? The starting point for your workshop?"

"…yes… Are you ok? You look like you are about to hyperventilate and pass ou…"

*Thunk!*

"Aw man." Naruto looked up at the shop owner across the store and yelled out, "Hey can I get some help here?"

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(1) Naruto was 12 in canon when he graduated. At the time Itachi was 18. In this story Naruto is about 5-6, so it is logical that Itachi is about 12. Depending on which month it is of course.

(2) A moderate joke on my part. In real life, a guy might think all sorts of things as he dies, maybe that he doesn't have a cool car/girlfriend/a million dollars, or that maybe using his bike on that ramp into the lake wasn't such a good idea after all. In this universe, cars don't exist, so what other shiny thing do young male shinobi have to desire? A cool sword of course.

(3) His mother had red hair and orange is his favorite color… plus a burnt orange isn't nearly as hard on the eyes as bright orange is, so he is not as likely to have others connect him (the Tensai look) to his Naruto persona. He has a mix of yellow hair from his dad and red from his mom… orange.