Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

XXXXX

Naruto Uzumaki had no idea what was going on. One minute he and his team were walking away from the town their boat that moved them from Yuki no Kuni back to Hi no Kuni landed and suddenly they were enveloped into a mist like in Nami no Kuni. He realized they were under attack but he didn't know from where or who was doing it. His back was against Sauke's and Sakura's. Kakashi was standing a little in front and to the left of him and they all had kunai prepared to fight.

"Four little shinobi all in a row. One was caught in a wa-ter flow. Another was blinded by a knife and the third one just lost his life. The last little shinobi was so sad. He got up and got real mad," sung a hollow and dark sounding voice.

"Watch out you three, we don't know who we are fighting," whispered Kakashi to the genin.

There was a sudden sound of water rushing towards them and they all jumped to get out of the way, which separated the four team members. Sakura was unfortunately caught by it and swept away as she screamed. As the remaining members landed and before they could look for Sakura, Kakashi and Naruto heard Sasuke cry out in pain. Kakashi got to Sasuke first and saw that he had a large gash on his head that was leaking blood and some other substance into his eyes and Sasuke couldn't focus because of the pain. Kakashi heard a large intake of breath and a gurgle to his right where he figured Naruto was. He picked up Sasuke and headed toward the sound. When he got there he saw a kunai laden orange body. He was shocked and rushed over. He heard a dark chuckle behind him as the mist thinned.

"So, the famous Kakashi Hatake was taking on some genin to teach. I wonder what he will do now that I have killed one of them. Please, make this fun. I have not had fun in a while," said a man about thirty yards away. He was a large well built man that stood around six feet tall. He wore none descript clothing that was all faded greens and browns. The man had brown hair with silver streaks and a standard ANBU sword on his back. The main thing that Kakashi saw was an Ame hai-ite.

"And just who's name should I engrave on the head stone?" asked Kakashi as he set his blinded student next to his dead one.

"Oh ho, think you can win this one. Well since you want to know, how about I tell you when you win. My name is on several items on my person," said the shinobi.

"Fine, but you will not survive," and with that Kakashi charged the man.

While Kakashi was fighting the man Sakura had regained her bearings and since the mist was thinning was able to find her team. As she headed towards them she saw that Naruto wasn't moving and Sasuke was rolling around in pain. She hurried over, being careful to avoid the jonin battle going on. She first checked on Sasuke and tried to get him to stop so she could wash his eyes with water from her water bottle. She cleaned them enough that he could bear the pain and she proceeded to bandage his forehead. She then checked on Naruto and found he was barely breathing and had very little pulse. She figured that with the amount of kunai and blood lose that he did not have much longer. She was in the middle of trying to bandage him when he gave off a large chakra pulse and started to glow red. His wounds began to heal right before her eyes and he started to stir.

XXXX

Kakashi was having a hard time against the shinobi. The man seemed to flow in and out with no predictable pattern and even with his sharingan he was having some trouble coping with the opposing shinobi's attacks. When he suddenly felt a chakra spike like he had back in Nami he knew that Naruto was alright.

"Seems the orange one is not dead yet. I'll have to remedy that in a second. Who is he anyway? And why would you allow a shinobi under you to wear such a potentially deadly color?" asked the man as he parried a series of kicks and reacted with punches and a knee or two.

"His name is Naruto Uzumaki and he is very surprising," said Kakashi as he countered and blocked the punches but jumped back to avoid a knee.

"Uzumaki you say? Well that is surprising. I must leave now," and with that the man created some Mizu Bushins to hold off Kakashi and ran, disappearing into the forest, but Kakashi didn't see that he handed one of his clones a scroll. The clone with the scroll snuck around the distracted Kakashi and slipped it into the blonde kid's backpack, which had been dropped at the beginning of the fight. Kakashi looked over at his team once he was done with the clones and saw that Naruto was not giving off any more chakra and was just sitting up. He saw that Sakura had gone back to helping Sasuke who was irritable and in slight pain.

"Ok, team. We will have a little rest and then continue onto Konoha. Hopefully we can make it there in a few hours and report what happened," Kakashi reported and sat down to recover some energy from using his sharingan. Naruto groggily got up and sat next to a tree with his back pack. Sakura discreetly made her way to Kakashi.

"What was that chakra the Naruto put off Kakashi-sensei? It healed his wounds but seemed malicious," said Sakura quietly. Kakashi looked up from his book and pondered what to tell her.

"Sakura that is a very personal question. If you have such thoughts you should probably ask your teammate. If he does not want to tell you then you should drop it. Everyone has secrets; and while team members should trust one another, there is a difference between trusting someone and telling them your secrets. Secrets are not necessarily an issue of trust but of personal space. I am sure you do not tell everything to your teammates, but you do trust them," said Kakashi.

Sakura pondered this and decided to ask Naruto. Plus he would tell her anything because of his crush. While it was true that she didn't tell her teammates everything she could not stand the thought that the loud blonde would hide something from her.

"Hey, Naruto. Can you explain that chakra you released earlier and how you healed so fast?" asked Sakura in a very loud manner. Sasuke hearing this turned to listen to the blonde's reply. Naruto was still groggy and his mind was a bit dull on what happened and just mumbled to himself as he closed his eyes. Sakura immediately hit him on the head to get his attention.

"Oww, Sakura-chan. Why'd you do that? I am trying to rest," complained the blonde boy.

"I asked you a question baka," yelled Sakura.

"I don't want to talk about it," said the blonde as he got up and walked away.

"Naruto; you will tell me eventually. I'll make you," whispered Sakura to herself.

XXXX

They had made it back to Konoha and Kakashi had dismissed them while he went to turn in the report and talk to Tsunade. Kakashi had suggested that Sasuke go to the hospital and make sure his eyes were ok, since they seemed to be bothering him. Sakura tried to discretely follow Naruto to maybe find what he was hiding. Naruto himself headed to his apartment to drop off his stuff. Kakashi got to the Hokage's office and waited for Tsunade to address him.

"What is it you need Kakashi? You sent your report in ahead of you about the escort so what is it?"

"On our way back we were ambushed by a very skilled shinobi. He nearly killed Naruto and blinded Sasuke. He was holding his own against me and probably would have won. He retreated when Naruto sent out a pulse of Kyuubi chakra that healed him. The shinobi had asked about him and when I mentioned that Naruto was an Uzumaki the man left. Also, Sakura saw some of the chakra and has started asking questions about it. I told her that if Naruto did not want to tell her that she should drop it but I doubt she will," Kakashi stated.

"And you do have someone watching her correct?"

"Why? She can't physically get the information from him and I doubt he could be tricked into revealing it," Kakashi stated dumbfounded.

"True, but she is fixing her friendship with Ino who is more curious than Sakura. That is way you should watch her for now," stated a growingly frustrated blonde.

"Oh, yeah," replied a sheepish Hatake. He quickly made a Kage Bushin to send after his student.

"Now on the other issue; what is the problem?"

"That man acted like he knew the Uzumaki name. I fear he may know at least who Naruto's mother is. If that is the case, it would be easy to guess who the father is. With this person out there Naruto would be in more trouble and danger, especially if he doesn't know why. I think we should tell him, just so someone doesn't let it slip later and cause him to freeze up in a fight," stated the silver haired man.

"I don't think we should. He is not strong enough to protect himself and I doubt he could keep it secret," replied the Hokage.

"To be fair, he has kept the demon a secret since he found out," stated the masked man.

"Only because he is afraid to tell others about it; his fear of rejection has over ridden his natural inclination to tell everybody everything about himself," said the blonde right before a small explosion was seen out in the village and Kakashi suddenly stiffened.

"What is it?" asked the blonde.

"My clone was too late."

XXXXX

Naruto had been unpacking his stuff when he came across a scroll he didn't remember he had. He opened it up and found a letter that was addressed to 'blonde gaki' and he figured that he was blonde and even while it was annoying many people called him gaki and so assumed it was for him. The letter continued to say that if he came to the gates at midnight with all his valuables and his family would be revealed. He decided to ponder what to do over some ramen from his favorite restaurant.

As he was sitting at the bar of the ramen stand eating his third bowl slowly, unusual for him but he was in deep thought, he didn't notice two girls come into the stand and sit at a table away from him. Sakura had her back to Naruto as Ino was looking at him.

"Ok Ino, remember, we need information on a different type of chakra or healing ability," said Sakura.

"Right, I'll do a limited invasive mind jutsu. It is just suppose to transcribe the information about a given subject into my head, as long as they are unaware. Basically I get all his memories dealing with an issue," said Ino as she started a few hand seals. Ino was still for a moment before she started screaming, drawing everyone's attention towards her.

"Kyuubi! Fox-demon!" she continuously yelled as she clutched her head.

Naruto stood up and bolted away from the place as fast as he could. He understood that now was not a time to stick around when villagers or other shinobi may believe he attacked the person screaming about him. Unfortunately some chunin saw this and tried to apprehend the boy, who in his terror fought back. This led to some explosive tags being flung around as Naruto made it to the training area near the tower. After a few more minutes of struggle Naruto was tied up and being dragged to the Hokage tower just as Tsunade and Kakashi arrived on scene.

"Ok, why is Naruto tied up? Why were explosions going off? And where is Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka?" said the Hokage.

"We saw a disturbance and saw Uzumaki-san running from it. We tried to stop and apprehend him for questioning when he fought back. During our confrontation several explosive tags were detonated. As for the two other genin, I would assume someone took them to the hospital. Yamanaka-san was hysterical," said one of the chunin.

"Kakashi, take Naruto to my office. I'll bring the girls, hopefully before they spread this," replied the Hokage as she leapt toward the hospital.

XXXXX

Tsunade had Naruto, Kakashi and the two kunoichi in front of her and giving an explanation within half an hour later.

"Tsunade-sama, how can you have this thing be a shinobi? It nearly destroyed the village," spoke Sakura. Ino had barely spoken anything other than mumbles since the incident.

"He is a fellow shinobi not a thing and you should respect that. As to what you learned, it is an S-class secret and is not to be spoken of on pain of death. Am I understood?" Tsunade glared.

"Crystal, Hokage-sama," Sakura said before she trudged out, dragging the near catatonic Ino along with her. Kakashi sighed and shook his head. He had wanted Naruto to tell his team but had understood the reluctance. He decided to follow her and try to explain what Naruto situation was better.

"Naruto, how are you feeling? I know you got scarred and so I am not going to reprimand you for failing to follow a chunin's orders. I also need to know if you are going to press charges against Ino for the unlawful use of a jutsu?" asked the Hokage. Naruto sighed. He was feeling very violated by what Ino had done, but understood her curiosity. He was also heartbroken by Sakura's words. He really didn't think he could trust her again and didn't know how to feel about her. Part of him still liked her but most of him was angry and sad about what she said.

"I don't know. Can I sleep on it? It is kind of late and I need to think," said the young blonde.

"Sure, be back here tomorrow at ten and we will talk," said Tsunade.

XXXXX

It was late. Nearly 11:30 p.m. and he couldn't sleep. He just did not know what to do about Ino and Sakura. He also didn't know who they had spoken to before Kakashi found them. Many of his new friends could despise him right now and he wouldn't know. He was sad that he now could not trust anyone again. He couldn't trust his team or friends. Tsunade, Jiraiya, Kakashi and Iruka; the four people he could trust beyond a doubt in a village of thousands. As he was looking around his room he spotted the scroll from his bag. He reread it and decided to give it a shot. He packed up his few belongings you could call valuable and headed out to the gate. He got there a little early and so sat in a tree to wait and avoid patrols.

"So, you came. I did not think you would," said a voice from behind him. It sounded like the one that had attacked him on the previous mission.

"And who are you and why did you attack me earlier?"

"I am an Uzumaki. I believe I was you mothers brother, making me your uncle. I would like to talk with you and tell you about the family," the man stated.

"And I should believe you why?"

"Because of this," the man pulled out a scroll with the same swirl that Hokage-jiji had shown him and allowed Naruto to put on his clothes. "It is sealed so that only Uzumaki's can open it. Add a little blood and it will open." Naruto did as asked and it opened.

"So, I guess you told the truth," said Naruto and he proceeded to tell the man of his life up to this point, but at the end asked a question that had been bugging him. "You know who my mother is, but do you know who my father is and if so who else knows?"

"I know and I can tell you that the copy-nin probably knows along with the Hokage and most likely the other Sannin as well. Why they have not told you I cannot say, their reasons are their own. But I will tell you everything, but I want you to come with me to Ame so that I can train you to be a proper Uzumaki."

Naruto was very conflicted with what to do. This man here was offering family and training, two things he longed after, different reasons for them but still wanted both to happen. Many of his friends probably hated him and many of the people he trusted he learned had kept information he was entitled to know out of his grasp. Naruto just shook his head and decided.

"Alright, lead the way."

XXXXX

AN: This is my latest story. Tell me what you think.

Sakura reacts the way she does because of how she was told about Kyuubi.

She may or may not change later.

Naruto is also depressed and not thinking clearly after the revelation.