AN: Hello people I wanted to write this Authors Note to tell you that I am still writing (or re writing) the next chapter of The Masked Lord, the reason I never posted the second chapter is my computer died on me with a kill virus. I got mad and didn't write again until recently, anyway this is a story that I started writing because I had a daydream about a fraction on it while I was at work. Anyway comment what you think about if you do want to see more of The Masked Lord.

It was a dark stormy day in Konohagakure as people gathered around the Memorial Stone. A new name had just been added, flowers stacked around the monument. Among the silent crowd stood Ino, Shino, Kiba and Akamaru, Choji, Hinata, Sakura and Sasuke. They all stood there almost unable to believe that he was gone of all people. Sakura walked up to the stone solemnly, she held a picture in her hands and squeezed tight against her chest. The tears burning her eyes as they welled up and ran down her cheeks she bent down and place a picture of team seven against the stone.

She began to walk away when Hinata broke down in a fit of tears and sobbing as she couldn't bear the thought of Naruto not being with everyone. Not having told him that she loved him and now she will never have the chance. Ino and Kiba walked over in a hurry to comfort the young woman, Kiba held her while Ino placed her hand of her back. Both of them holding everything back so they can be strong for their friend.

Choji just stood there thinking back on all the good times he had with Naruto, all the times they skipped class to snack and goof off. Shino acted as he always did althought it didn't show seeing Naruto's name on that stone killed him.

From the back of the group of people Ayame and Teuchi walked up to the stone carrying a bowl of their Famous ramen, both of them had been crying and Ayame still was. She took the steaming bowl from her father and placed right under Narutos name. "Naruto… you have always been such a bright person and you have brought such light into this world." As the words came out of her mouth her voice began to shake "You were like the little brother to me and now that your gone the world seems darker, but you will always live on within our hearts and we shall carry your spirit with us forever."

With that Teuchi walked up to his daughter placing his hand on her shoulders and together they walked away leaving the stone along with everybody else. Sasuke stay there for a couple minutes blankly staring at monument. When an Anbu member appeared infront of him. "Sorry to interrupt, but Lord Hokage wants to see you about the mission."

Sasuke turned to the woman who wore a bore mask on her face and a standard anbu uniform, looking her over for a minute. Taking a breath in for a minute he responds in his monotone voice "Yes, I will be there shortly." The Anbu took that as her que to leave as Sasuke turned to head to the Hokage's office.

Kakashi looked out the window of his new office, he had been appointed Hokage just a few months ago and now one his stundents and friends had died on a mission that he personally choose for Sasuke and Naruto to go on. It should have been an easy mission for the two of them alone but something didn't go as planned. They couldn't even recover Naruto's body for a proper burial. A knocking at his door brought him out of his thoughts. "Come!" he ordered and Sasuke walked in the room as Kakashi took his seat behind the desk. He looked over the Uchiha and noticed how tired he looked. "You haven't been sleeping have you Sasuke?" Kakashi asked but he knew the answer and Sasuke knew he knew the answer as well.

Sasuke looked at his sensei without a word beings said until Kakashi motioned for him to give his report. "We had tracked out target to the Land of Demons when we arrived we had found a small town with several bodied mutilated and experimented on"

~Fade to Flashback~

Naruto and Sasuke walks into the town, very few buildings spread around inside the wooden walls of the village. As they walked through people stared at them giving dirity looks and murmured about they two strangers. When a rock was thrown through the air and struck Naruto in the back of the head. Naruto turned around and wanted to yell at the person who threw the rock but saw a few kids with tears in their eye. A small boy with short brown hair and one blue eye the other and been bandaged up walk a step closer and yelled, "Get out of our town, you're not welcome here ninja!"

Soon after that all the other kids joined in while all the adults watched on wanting to stop the children form picking a fight with these two ninja but not wanting to get hurt themselves. It was only when the village leader came out a building off to right of the children did the children stop yelling.

"Children what have you done?" He asked the worry and fear in his voice, he was terrified of something and Naruto felt that something was them. "Please master Ninja don't hurt the children, they don't know any better. I give you my word they won't ever don't anything like this again."

Naruto held his hands up with his trademark smile and said "Hey don't worry about it, kids will be kids right." He wanted to reassure the village head that they weren't here to cause trouble for anyone.

Sasuke looked at the scene and sighed in annoyance and then looked at the man infront of them. He was an older man about 45 or so, tall with some recent scars on his face and neck that looked like they were from a fire jutsu. He was bald and clean shaven and his eyes tell the tale of a man who seen horrible things. "Listen we're here to find a man in his early thirties with the leaf village symbol branded on his right hand."

The village leader's eyes widen in shock when he heard that, there infront of him stood the answer to his village's problems offering to take care of it for them. "Yes I know of the man you speak of! Please follow me." He told Naruto and Sasuke as he turned and walked away and they followed. "The man you're looking for came here about month ago, and he was very nice for the first few days. However he became secretive and soon after that people started going missing." He explained as they walked through to the other side of the village. "A few corpses turned up with signs of experimentation performed on them. A while after that a few more appeared with body parts missing, when I asked him if he know anything about it. He used a fire jutsu on my face and then to make sure that nobody else asked any questions…"

Naruto finished his story for him "He attacked that kid who threw the rock, didn't he?" The leader nodded his head. Naruto casted his eyes down at the ground, he felt bad for wanting yell at those kids more now than ever. "Do you know where he is hiding right now?" Naruto wanted this guy now more than ever. Sasuke could tell what Naruto was thinking, it was the same as always wanting to help everyone

They stopped at the south gate, he had it opened for the two ninja. "Hes hiding in a cave about a half mile south of here, after we kicked him out of the village." He looked Naruto and Sasuke in the eyes pleading "Please get him and take him far away, make sure he can't do this again."

They both nodded in agreement a then both jumped into the trees speeding off to their target's hideout. Naruto wanted to get this guy and make sure that he couldn't hurt anyone ever again. Sasuke on the other hand wanted to get home and back to work rebuilding his clan with his girlfriend Sakura. They stopped in front of the cave entrance and the both checked their equipment, after a quick check they entered the cave.

The inside of the cave was dimly lit, probably to not attract attention from the outside. It wasn't a very large cave but there were body spewed about. Upon closer inspection they saw missing body parts or bodies so destoried they hardly look human anymore. The walls coated in dried blood and as they moved further in cave the blood on the wall became more fresh and wet. They finally got to the end where the man they were looking for was working on his own body.

The fugitive sensed them the second they walked in but didn't care very much. He turned to them his left arm was no longer human but looked like that of a demon. His eyes were two different colors one red and other was blue. Naruto looked at his eyes and realized that the blue eye was that kids eye. He became mad and moved quickly reaching down into his pouch on his leg throwing three kunai with explosive tags on them. However they were batted way towards the ceilings but they didn't go off like they should have.

Sasuke followed up with lightning fast handseals and yelled out "fire style fireball jutsu." He breathed out a ball of fire at the man turned monster giving Naruto cover behind the flames. Naruto used the body flicker to appear behind the monster. The target blocked the fire attack but was unprepared for Naruto's new quick formed Rasengan into his spin.

The monster let out a loud roar in pain as Naruto pushed the attack into his back. The technique started to flicker out of existence as the monster turned around and smacked Naruto into the wall. Sasuke activated his sharingan to track his movements and he saw that he was molding chakra in his left arm. "Hidden Jutsu: Nail Gun!" The nails in his left arm shot towards Naruto only to hit a log, as Sasuke use the substitution Jutsu on him.

Naruto got up off the ground were he was dropped and looked at Sasuke. "Hey shock and awe?" Naruto asked Sasuke as he got on the other side of the target. Sasuke agreed as he speed through hand signs and held his palm down towards the ground and held his arm with other hand as lightning chakra formed in his hand making aloud chripping noise. Naruto made a shadow clone and formed a Rasengan, once it was formed he attempted to slam it into his targets back but he turned around and blocked it with his demonic arm. He resisted the force of the attack temporally but ended up launched back towards Sasuke, who was waiting with his own attack.

The target came flying at Sasuke as he slammed his attack into and through his back while yelling "Chidori!" The monster felt the attack go through his back and out through his chest. Blood pouring out of the wound as Sasuke pulls his arm out the body that then falls to the ground.

Naruto looks at Sasuke then looks to their target back to Sasuke. "Sasuke take the body outside I will finish up in here. Make sure that his work will never be repeated or copied"

"Fine, don't take to long… idoit" He turned with a smirk over the victory he shared with his life long rival and friend. Naruto walked out with him and turned around gathering any data of value and burning the bodied their target left behind. When he got back to the site of their battle he looked around to see where the man was sitting was a book. He walked to it and picked it up but in doing so he activated a trap bomb that went off in his face. He turned in time to protect himself but the flames hit his own explosive tags left in the ceiling setting them off to explode clasping the ceiling on him.

The explosion was heard from the outside and Sasuke rushed in to get Naruto out. The bodies where burning out of control something wasn't right they shouldn't be burning this fast. Sasuke ran faster and found Naruto trying to get boulder off himself. He couldn't get them off of himself he attempted to make clones but was only able to make one who couldn't get the boulder off either.

Sasuke got there in time to try and help pull the boulders off of Naruto. As Naruto sniffed the air and noticed natural gas in the air. "Sasuke get out of here the caves about to explode." Sasuke ignored what Naruto was trying to tell him. "Sasuke you got to go now, rebuild your clan make Sakura happy" Still Sasuke wasn't listening that's when he was punched in the stomach knocking the wind out of him and the clone picked Sasuke up and carried him outside. Naruto watched as his best friend was carried away "Live well and carry on the Will of Fire."

The clone got outside performed a fire jutsu to dispose of the body of their target and then set Sasuke down who was ready to run back into the cave. The Shadow Clone disappeared out of existence and then the cave exploded in fire and then caved in filling the whole cave with rocks.

Sasuke looked on in horror and yelled for his friend "NARUTO!"

~Flash back ends~

"That's how it happened Lord Hokage, I tired to get him out but I couldn't." Sasuke looked deeply saddened by the story it weighed heavily on him. More than anyone thought it would even himself.

Kakashi looked at him with sadness in his eye he wanted to help his student but he knew there was nothing he could do to help. "Thank you Sasuke, I wont need a written report on this, this mission started off as a B-ranked mission but now I will be moved to S-ranked and is on a need to know basis."
He took a breath and thought this through "Sasuke I know you did all you could but take a week or two off, spend time with Sakura let her help you.

Sasuke stood at attention "Yes Sir!" Kakashi motioned for him to leave and Sasuke bowed and left his office.

Kakashi looked out his window and thought of the Fourth, of Naruto the boy who wanted to surpass all other Hokages. He thought back to Obito and then back to Minato and Kushina and was saddened by the lose of his sensei's only son. Looking into the glass at everything he could see and what he couldn't see. "Im sorry sensei"