"Bones of the Devil"

Summary: When he was five years old Naruto was kidnapped and sold to Orochimaru. After two years of experimentation Naruto escaped and was rescued. Now Naruto is finally a shinobi of Konoha, but just how will those torturous two years influence his life to come?

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Edit 4/22/10: Fixed some spelling and grammar mistakes.

Zaion Indulias: The original version of this story, which I have left up for any curious to see the changes I've made, was written in response to a challenge put to me by one of my readers, Killjoy3000. When he sent me the challenge it instantly sparked my creativity and the original version of this story was the result. However, after posting the second chapter I received several constructive reviews, both criticism and recommendations of potential ways to improve the story, from several of my readers. These reviews made me stop and think for a while, and I ultimately found myself reimagining the story into a more tightened and together idea. Many of the elements that had begun to form had not been part of my original plan, and thus felt more patched on. Going back I am intending to rewrite and expand the first several chapters, as well as continue the story to its conclusion. Be prepared readers. The story shall be far more complex than the original, and it shall hopefully flow together and be a much better read. Please read and review, and enjoy the ride.

Jaa ne.

Bones of the Devil

A Story by Zaion Indulias

Chapter 1: Pain

"With the business of reallocating our border patrols along the Iwa-Kusa border out of the way does anyone else have any more business to present before this body?" Sarutobi asked as he shuffled some papers into a blank folder and handed it off to an ANBU guard.

On the right hand side of the large council table relative to the Hokage Shimura Danzou stood, his right eye covered by bandages and his right arm in a sling under his robes.

"I do indeed have business to propose, Hokage-sama. While peace may reign currently between the Five Great shinobi nations, the situation is far from stable. We have a treaty with Kumo merely because of their embarrassment of an attempt to kidnap the daughter of the Hyuuga clan head Hiashi. Mizu is so wrapped up in their civil war that they barely notice anything outside of their own territory. Iwa hates us and remains a threat despite Minato's legacy leaving them fearful of just what our military forces can do. And Suna remains an ally only because they required our assistance in the last Great War to keep Iwa from overrunning them. It is my proposal that we take an untapped resource, one of near unlimited potential, and refine it into a weapon which we can use to defend ourselves. Intelligence has gathered information that indicates that Iwa and Kumo both have two of the tailed beasts under control, and that Suna and Mizu each have one sealed as well. With those threats only years away from being combat ready, at best, we need our own counter. There is no one alive who possesses the Senju ability to control the Mokuton so we need a deterrent to prevent the other nations thinking they can use their jinchuriki as weapons against us."

Sarutobi narrowed his eyes and crossed his hands on the desk before him. Although he knew full well what Danzou was going to recommend as the man had recommended it in every closed session of the advisory body since the Kyuubi was sealed he still had no choice but to humor the man.

"And just what, pray tell, would this untapped resource be exactly?" He asked, his tone of voice already carrying his dislike for Danzou's proposal.

Danzou smiled an ingratiating smile as he turned to look directly at Sarutobi, his one good eye fierce and determined.

"Why, the Kyuubi's vessel, Uzumaki Naruto of course. If he were to be given to my Ne division to train then within five years we could have a weapon to rival anything the other nations could possibly throw at us. We would be a force none would dare challenge, and when this temporary stability collapses we will have a weapon capable of decisively ending the war in our favor."

Around the table many of the councilmen and women began to voice comments in favor of Danzou's proposal. Very few of them had any love for the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko and many had been behind proposals to have him killed or exiled in the past. Sarutobi was not surprised in the least that most of them were immediately in support of a proposal that they would clearly view as a chance to be rid of the demon vessel and make him serve Konoha.

"I am afraid that simply will not be possible." Sarutobi said sharply. Around the table there were grumbles and shouts of complaint but he silenced them with a raised hand. To his side his advisors Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane sent him sharp looks but kept their silence. "We will not use a civilian as a weapon simply because he has a power. The Yondaime's last will was clear. He wished Naruto to be cared for and seen as a hero. To use him as a weapon would be to violate both the word and spirit of his last request. When Naruto is six he will be allowed the choice to enter the Ninja Academy same as any other member of the populace. While the people he normally interacts with will be encouraging this decision, the choice is still ultimately his. And if I learn that any of you, or anyone else, has been interfering with him I will personally see that you are all executed. Am I clear?"

Danzou's lone eye narrowed as his voice dropped an octave. "Crystal, Hokage-sama."

"Good. With that said, this meeting of the Konoha Advisory Council is adjourned. Unless an emergency meeting is required we shall meet again in one month. Dismissed." Sarutobi said as he stood up. Behind him his ANBU guard all snapped crisply to attention.

As soon as Sarutobi had left the remaining council members began filing out. As Danzou walked down a hallway towards the nearest exit from the Hokage Tower he was met by an ANBU with a peculiar symbol on his mask.

"Danzou-sama, did the meeting go as expected?"

"Yes." He muttered grimly. "The old fool was still not willing to even consider the possibility of training the jinchuriki as a weapon. That leaves him as a wasted resource. However, I must consider the best interests of Konoha first. The child left alone is a liability. But if he can be...traded for resources we can use, then he can contribute towards Konoha's growing military might and security."

As they stepped outside into the early morning sunlight he paused.

"Inform the men. Operation Snakes and Foxes is a go."

The strange ANBU nodded silently before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

You are a fool Sarutobi. It is a shame I must make this deal to keep Konoha strong. Someday you will make a mistake too great and fall and I shall be waiting to keep Konoha strong. Count on it.

It was a day like any other in Konoha. The sun had been shining high in the sky. People bustled to and fro about their business while shinobi moved here and there amongst the crowd. Some were off duty, some were performing routine sweeps to look for any signs of danger in the village, and still others were gathering supplies to head out on missions.

The village itself was busier than usual in preparation for the fifth annual Festival of the Yondaime. Most shinobi who were not assigned to crucial missions had the day off to celebrate and mourn with their families. This also meant that there were too few ANBU to spare for so-called "non-critical duties". Thus a young blond-haired child was left completely unguarded as he scurried to and fro on this most celebratory of days, celebratory for everyone but this small child that is.

Uzumaki Naruto was Konoha's dirty little "not-so-secret". He was the jailor of the Kyuubi no Yoko though he himself was currently unaware of this fact, and on this particular day, his life was about to change irrevocably.

As the blond boy scurried down an alley avoiding the big crowds with their angry looks and their cold shoulders, four cloaked and hooded figures watched him from the rooftop. Each of them wore standard ANBU gear, but their masks all bore the markings of the elite Ne Division. Silently they watched the boy before their opening appeared. Moving quickly the four dropped into the alleyway, the blond boy barely having time to recognize them as ANBU before one member of the quartet struck him in the back of the neck. Naruto collapsed in a boneless heap like a sack of potatoes.

As one of the Ne ANBU lifted the unfortunate boy over his shoulder, the commander of the squad reached up to his ear and triggered the radio communicator in place there.

"Target has been acquired sir. Shall we proceed to the rendezvous with the Snake?"

There was a brief crackling over the line before a cold emotionless voice came through.

"The old man has refused the proposal. Proceed with the operation as planned."

As the four ANBU moved out, heading for a secret tunnel out of the city, Hyō sat in his office in Ne's hidden underground compound. For five years the Sandaime had been refusing to allow his boss to take the Kyuubi jinchuriki into his Ne program. Now they had found a method to make the child useful to Ne's goals without risking the Sandaime's direct wrath.

After all, it's not like anyone would be able to prove that Ne had been responsible for the boy being traded to one of the village's most reviled nuke-nin. Especially not once Sarutobi was given full access to Ne's records and facility and found no trace the boy had ever been the subject of as much as a spy mission. And the efforts Ne would put into an attempt to discover what had happened to the boy would engender their favor in Sarutobi's eyes. Yes, all was going according to Danzou-sama's plans.

Two Years Later…

A squad of Konoha ANBU silently dropped into the wreckage of what had apparently once been some sort of secret underground facility. The squad had been on their way back to Konoha, cutting through Ta no Kuni, when they had sensed a massive flare of chakra before a series of massive explosions rocked the forest. Even in the dim moonlight they could see a massive cloud of smoke rising up about a mile to the east of them, so they diverted to investigate.

When they had arrived they had stared in awe at the destruction before them. An area of forest nearly a mile across was entirely devastated, and from the looks of things some sort of underground facility had been blown outward before the debris collapsed back in upon it. As they gazed upon the devastation they spotted dead and broken bodies scattered throughout the wreckage, but no signs of movement. Knowing that there was a distinct possibility that allies of whoever had been behind this hidden base could arrive at any moment, and that whoever had been behind this utter destruction may still be in the region, the team leader signaled for a quick inspection and then a retreat towards Konoha.

The four figures dropped into the crater of devastation and split up, each speeding through while looking for any sign of anything that could indicate who had been here or what they had been up to. One of the ANBU, a purple-haired young woman wearing a cat ANBU mask, was beginning to get frustrated. The only clue to who had been here were a number of the dead who wore hitai-ate with a musical note symbol that she had never seen before, and a large amount of what looked like scientific equipment scattered throughout the debris. Just as the time limit for her recon was about to give out she froze on top of a mountain of debris. The purple-haired girl focused her senses, tuning out all extraneous background noise.

Crumble.

There is was again! Quietly she moved over the debris towards a pile of what looked like smooth white bone. As the moonlight glinted off of it she realized that what had at first seemed like a pile of debris was in fact some odd flower. It was sticking out of one of the piles of debris and was entirely comprised of bone encased in a shimmering layer of ice. She was about thirty feet away when the "petals" of the bone flower suddenly began to creak and slowly folded open, ice dusting off of them like snowflakes. Behind her mask the ANBU's eyes widened at the sight before her.

As the 'flower' fully opened a young boy was revealed. He couldn't have been more than six or seven she thought, but with how haggard and malnourished he looked she couldn't be sure. His blond hair was cut short with some sort of striped pattern in it as well as his clothes. What little remained of them were a dark red, similar to the color of his skin. Suddenly, the ANBU realized that the boy wasn't wearing red but was in fact covered in blood. She involuntarily let out a gasp as the blond boy took a few hesitant steps towards her, his small body shaking and his eyes glued to the ground. Making a decision the ANBU took a few steps towards him, wary of any possible danger but trying to be as non-threatening as possible. As she did so she heard the sound of something cracking beneath her feet. The boy paused and she glanced down, her eyes widening in shock. Beneath her feet was a mask she recognized well. It was a Konoha ANBU mask, but it had the special symbol of Konoha's Ne division on it.

Why would there be a Ne mask here? Danzou hasn't reported any losses in his forces. Just what the hell is going on here?

Glancing up she adjusted her body positioning to be as nonthreatening as possible before motioning for the child to continue approaching.

Slowly the boy approached until there were only a few feet separating the two, his eyes still downcast. They stood facing one another for several long moments before finally the boy raised his eyes to look at her. What the masked ANBU saw there nearly tore her heart in twain.

The poor boy's bright blue eyes were glistening from the tears that were filling them and flowing down his cheeks, creating two clear paths through the blood that otherwise covered his entire body. She could barely make out three faint marks on each cheek under the blood and the stream of tears, his skin so pale that they barely stood out at all.

"They…" He croaked out hoarsely. "Why did they do this to me? They deserved to die!!"

The ANBU realized instantly that whatever this poor boy had been through it had traumatized him, and that right now he was feeling a mixture of remorse and self-righteous fury that were confusing him. His outcry showed he was horrified by whatever had happened, that he apparently felt he was responsible for it, and trying to justify to himself that they deserved it. Silently she knelt down and embraced the poor boy in a hug.

Given what they must have done to this boy, they sure as hell did.

"It's alright now. No one's going to hurt you any longer." She said as she held the crying boy.

Her teammates found her five minutes later still holding the young child. He had passed out after a minute or two of crying into her shoulder, and she had lifted him into her arms while waiting for her teammates to converge.

"I found one survivor, cachou. And something disturbing. We better return to Konoha immediately."

The captain of the ANBU team, wearing an Innu mask, nodded silently in assent as she handed over the cracked Ne mask. He stared at it for a moment before making several silent hand signals top his team. He made sure to seal the mask away in a seal on his wrist before the four moved out. The three other members arranged themselves in a defensive formation around the cat-masked ANBU as she was the one carrying the unconscious child.

The Leader narrowed his eyes as they ran. He recognized that child, and he blamed himself and the Hokage for his disappearance. For two years he had been requesting people be sent to find out who had taken him, and with the exception of a short search by Ne for two years the Council had blocked his requests at every turn. The presence of the cracked Ne mask was highly disturbing, as it indicated they may have been in collusion with whoever kidnapped the child in the first place.

When they reached Konoha he would have some hard decisions to make, and by the end of it Konohagakure would be short one elite ANBU and likely one elite ANBU division.

None of the ANBU noticed a pair of broken spikes sticking out of the center of the flower where the young boy had been standing, covered in blood, nor did they witness the ice begin to very slowly melt off of the flattened flower of bone.

Three Days Later...

"Hokage-sama." Danzou said his face and tone of voice indicating pleasure while his body stance remained tense. "To what do I owe the honor of being called before you and your advisors?"

Danzou currently stood in the Hokage's office, the old fool flanked by Homura and Koharu, his old teammates. Danzou was not surprised by this fact. The pair was usually his allies on the Council, and they had given him a heads up that Sarutobi intended to call him for an important meeting about Ne's budget. He already had his faked records ready and waiting for when Sarutobi asked for them. What he was surprised by however was the overt and quite large showing of ANBU lining the walls. He was displeased to note that none of them included any of his Ne recruits, despite the Hokage's bodyguard normally consisting of at least one member of his elite division.

Sarutobi's already stern face darkened further.

"Tell me, Danzou. Has Ne suffered any unexpected and unreported casualties during the last year?"

Danzou narrowed his eye in an attempt to keep confusion from showing on his face.

"Excuse me, Hokage-sama? My division has suffered no losses in the last four years of operation. We have had two members retire due to injuries, both of whom currently serve here in the tower at your behest, and we have had three deaths during training. But beyond that no additional losses, certainly not any that have not been reported." He said, hoping his answer would satisfy Sarutobi stall for time as he investigated whatever Sarutobi was suspicious about. It was after all the truth, and all of his records, both official and unofficial, would attest to this fact.

Sarutobi's eyes only narrowed further as his expression became icy cold.

"That is what I thought." He said his voice like the edge of a knife. "Then how do you explain a Ne ANBU mask being recovered from a destroyed research facility found in Rice Country three days ago? Or the fact that this facility appears to have been part of a hidden ninja force we have no records of or information on? Or the fact that this facility, in a region your own Ne troops certified clear of any enemy shinobi presence a mere two years ago during the search for the kidnapped jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, was found to contain that very child?"

Danzou fought the urge to swallow.

No, it isn't possible. He can't know I was behind it. Even if he suspects he has no proof I was actually behind it. And those experiments of Orochimaru's will not be ready for another two years. I can't afford to be tossed out into the cold now. I must maintain my influence until I have the power needed to take t he Hokage seat from this old fool.

"I have no idea what you are talking about, Hokage-sama. All of my agents are accounted for. Perhaps some enemy force has been preparing agents to infiltrate Konoha using Ne as a disguise?"

Damn Ichiro. I told you to deliver the message and leave. You let your fascination with the 'experiments' get the better of you again, didn't you?

Sarutobi raised a hand and half of the ANBU in the room vanished in a swirl of leaves. Danzou breathed a sigh of relief.

The old fool bought my excuse.

"ANBU, arrest Shimura Danzou. As of this moment, by Hokage decree the Ne division is permanently disbanded. All of its members and support personnel are to be rounded up and interrogated. Any who we can tie to the crimes of kidnapping a citizen of Konoha or conspiring with a foreign enemy are to be executed immediately." He returned his focus to Danzou, his eyes dark and cold. "Pray, Danzou, that no evidence is found of your complicity in these crimes."

"By what right do you accuse me of being involved in this supposed crime?" Danzou asked, losing all pretense at control in his rage. "By what right and evidence besides a mask found in an enemy stronghold, most likely planted there, do you make these unfounded accusations?"

Sarutobi closed his eyes but his voice was still as cold as ice.

"The rescued child confirmed that his last memory of Konoha before waking up in a dark cell was of four ANBU appearing around him. Four Ne ANBU." He opened his eyes and waved his hands for ANBU to take Danzou for questioning.

As a pair of ANBU began leading Danzou away the one-eyed man began to plot and plan. He had dozens of contingency plans in place, but never had he imagined that his operation would be compromised so badly. Damn Orochimaru, the bastard let security drop at one of his facilities and now everything was spiraling out of control. Now Danzou was going to have a lot of work to do to recover the situation.

At least I know they won't get much information out of my agents, and the couple I have ready and assigned to admit to the crimes to take the fall will deflect investigation further into our activities. And with the agents I've culled from the official registrar by faking their deaths during training I can begin rebuilding my forces in secret. Yes you old fool, do not count me down and out. I have only just begun. Someday that demon brat will pay for disrupting my plans.

To be continued...

AN: Here is the first chapter of the rewrite of "Bones of the Devil, Ice of an Angel". The changed title and 'shortened' format are both representative of certain elements I have changed behind the core of the story. The story itself shall be composed of a minimum of three distinct parts each posted separately (The beginning and then a pair of alternate pathways defined by a single simple choice that is placed before Naruto). The early chapters are being broken up into shorter segments, to make it easier for me to balance and complete them properly. The tentative schedule for the chapters is as follows, at least for the next several. Chapter 2 will follow Naruto's recovery and his early training with his family and friends. Chapter 3 will be his Academy year, including hints of what torment he is undergoing internally, as well as the reveal of a new twist on the idea of Hone Kitsune. Chapter 4 will show his team assignment and first few weeks of his team learning to work as one. Chapters 5 and 6 shall cover the Wave Arc plus a redesign of the particular assignment Naruto's team is assigned to carry out just before it, and Chapter 7 shall be when the new material begins.

As always, I hope you all enjoy the read, and please remember to review. Constructive criticism and advice in reviews helps me write better stories for you all to read, and reviews in general help keep my muse encouraged.

Until next time, Jaa ne.

-ZI