Shade Aru was considered one of the most talented shinobi alive, but he wasn't used as such. Instead, he lived among the Hyuga clan as a secret kept from the rest of the world.

Shade's entire clan was mysteriously killed when he was only six. Hiashi discovered him in the corpse ridden Aru estate and took him back to the village, adopting him as a son.

Only the Hyuga clan and the Hokage knew of this. Even though the Aru clan was a strong one, a Hyuga main branch member adopting a child from a different shinobi bloodline would look bad, as if they needed a new heir because their own children weren't strong enough.

Shade didn't mind, though. He liked being kept secret. He only left the estate when in search of jutsu and only when using his Undetectable Jutsu, an old jutsu of his clan which kept him completely hidden from everything imaginable. He was a copy ninja, so both the jutsu, and the lack of people who knew of his existence came in handy when he sent clones out looking for new moves.

His clan had the Arugan, an invisible and always active Dojutsu that allowed him to copy any ability or jutsu. His clan was also blessed with an unstable and always shifting DNA sequence, so he was able to copy Kekkei Genkai and other strange abilities (such as curse marks) as well.

Shade's other Kekkei Genkai of the Aru clan included the Aruno, which allowed him to summon any creature he had ever seen summoned with or without a contract; the Arutensu, which allowed him to use any jutsu to its fullest extent without hand signs; and the Arukra, which was a second chakra network that was made up of unstable black chakra, which was far more powerful than regular chakra and could shift colors in order to change traits.

Shade had seen several jutsu and Kekkei Genkai, and he had copied them all by either seeing them with his own eyes or with his shadow clones' eyes.

Most of Shade's jutsu came from him following certain ninjas with his shadow clones, such as Naruto Uzumaki.

This boy interested Shade because, like him, he was also a Jinchūriki, and the one who contained the nine-tailed fox, no less. Shade's demon was the ten-tailed wolf, Bakuda, who was passed down and protected in the Aru clan.

Bakuda was unknown to the rest of the world. Everyone thought that the original Ten-Tails had been split into nine demons, but it had actually been split into eleven, with the zero-tailed leech and the ten-tailed wolf being the other two parts. Bakuda was by far the most powerful piece of the original while the leech was the weakest.

Bakuda wasn't sealed very tightly into Shade, as Bakuda had only decided to host people since he was too powerful to just walk the earth normally, which meant he wasn't a prisoner. This allowed the two to work together and befriend each other. It also allowed the two to be separated or put back together without doing any harm to either of them.

All of this added up to give Shade the potential to be extremely powerful, but he didn't care. He didn't know what killed his family, as his father, Gendo Aru, had put him in an unconscious state and then hid him in a secret room in the Aru estate, so Shade never saw the killer. He did see one thing, though; blood.

Shade had woken up and walked out of the room to find himself the only survivor. He remembered the corpses of his family, mangled and strewn throughout the halls, their blood painting the walls.

Then Hiashi found him wondering aimlessly and took him to the village.

Shade no longer went outside after that. The only person he ever spoke to that much was his newfound sister, Hinata Hyuga.

Hinata always came by Shade's room and told him about her adventures at the academy, her missions with her team once she graduated, and, most importantly, Naruto.

Hinata was the one who first told Shade about Naruto. Shade wanted to see this boy, to find out if he really was as good and as hard working as Hinata said he was. Instead, Shade saw him paint the Hokage mountain faces, take part in a chaotic chase through the village, fail the Genin exams, and steal the Leaf Village's scroll of sealing.

But somehow, Shade knew the boy was good. He had seen Naruto's sad moments, and they had reminded him of himself. So, Shade approved of the boy, although he still used shadow clones (which Shade had learned to use by watching the Mizuki fight) to follow him in order to watch the fox (which Shade had learned about from listening to Mizuki's rant) and in order to learn new jutsu.

So Shade sat in his room and lived out his life doing nothing but copying new jutsu and making his own.

-o-

Shade looked down at his right hand as his most powerful battle jutsu to date was clearly visible on his hand.

His jutsu was a spinning cone of black chakra that looked like a spinning black spike was on Shade's hand like a glove, with its base starting at the wrist and its point stretching about half-a-foot from his fist. It made a sound like a pack of wolves howling.

"My jutsu," Shade began saying to himself, "is finally complete. To think that I've been practicing since I saw Jiraiya use the Rasengan. I figured that with that thing and Kakashi's Chidori, I would need my own powerful close range jutsu just in case I had to face something like it."

The jutsu faded away.

It requires my second chakra network, the Arukra, Shade thought, because the unstable black chakra is the only kind capable of supporting it. This makes it more powerful, but that also means it's harder to control since it has no copied origin.

"But at least it's finally finished. My jutsu, my wrath, my 'Gekido', is finally perfect."

Shade then passed out from exhaustion.

-o-

Shade sat in his dark room meditating. Shade's room had no lights, no furniture, and no decorations. It was completely barren, but he preferred it that way. He liked it better with no distractions, simple wood flooring, and black screen walls.

The room matched Shade. He had long, thick, black hair that came down to his shoulders, dark brown eyes with black circles on the skin around them, and sharpened canines similar to that of the Inuzuka clan.

Shade wore basic black ninja gear that was baggy around the body, thighs, and biceps, but tight around the shins and forearms. He had a black bandana with short tie ends on the back of it that allowed his thick hair to come out from under the back.

He knew it was time to use an ability which he had rarely used since he copied it from the high priestess in the land of Ogres. But he still was reluctant.

I've never sent my soul this far back, he thought.

WHO CARES?! Bakuda screamed back in his deep demonic voice.

I do.

I don't give a damn! You just watched Naruto DIE! He had a family, he was Hokage, and he was a hero! And besides all that, if you don't do this, the rest of the world will follow right behind him.

I know, it's just—

Shut up and do it, Shade! Naruto was not meant to die, and you know it! Other powers were involved, powers that we should have stopped! Now Hinata has been widowed and Boruto and Himawari have lost their father!

Shade audibly sighed. Bakuda was right. He knew that, but what he was basically planning to do was reset time and change history. He didn't want to do all of that, especially when he felt like he was going back for the wrong reasons.

This isn't about correcting your mistakes, Shade; it's about saving the world.

Then why am I going back to when I was thirteen?

Trust me; it'll be easier that way. How else are you going to be trusted and accepted by others if they don't even know who you are? It will be best to bond with them at a young age.

And I can't reveal anything about the future?

No, that would be bad.

Alright, fine; let's do this. Wait, will you come back with me or will I be stuck with you from back then?

You'll be stuck with me from back then, but I'll immediately know everything that has transpired due to our mental connection... If you'll let me, that is.

Alright, sounds good. Here we go!

Shade focused and sent his spirit back. It was a long and arduous process, but once it was finished, he found himself sitting in his thirteen year old body, which was pretty much just smaller and more boyish looking than his adult body. He stood up from where he was meditating and went to the wall.

He placed his hand on it and opened the hidden sliding door, thus revealing his bedroom. It was generally the same as the room Shade was normally in, except it had furniture.

A plain, queen sized bed was in the far left corner from the doorway. Two giant scrolls were at the foot of the bed, one plain and the other with his clan's symbol painted on the outside of it (which was a black wolf skull).

A small rack stood in the far right corner of the room with two two-and-a-half foot blades sheathed in plain black rectangular scabbards. The handles were black with white cloth wrapped around them for better grip.

Shade walked over to the blades, picked them up by the sheath straps, and put them on. They sat on the back of his waist, forming an X by crossing over each other.

He then walked back out into his meditating room and went to the far wall from his bedroom before opening up another door that blended into the rest of the wall.

Shade then stepped through the doorway and into the sunlight. He began to make his way to where he knew Hiashi would be training Hanabi. He and the Hokage needed to hear this.

-o-

"So what you're saying is that you sent your spirit back to save Naruto and the rest of the world from a great evil… which you can't even remember," the Third stated.

"Yeah, I don't think the ability I used was meant to send people as far back as I went," Shade said, "I can't even remember how old I was, but I know Naruto had kids… what were their names again?"

"I understand your concern Shade, but without your memories of the future intact, there isn't much we can do," Hiruzen said as he leaned back in his chair behind his desk.

Shade was standing before him in the Hokage office reciting what little of his memory he had. Something had gone wrong when Shade sent himself back, and now he barely remembered anything.

"Look, all I'm asking is that when and if Naruto graduates, just add me on as an extra member of his squad," Shade said. "Just keep me with him and everything should go just fine. I may not remember how I got them, but I know plenty of jutsu and techniques to help him and the Leaf."

The Third thought for a moment before nodding.

"Alright, fine," he said, "I'll keep you and Naruto together as a team should he graduate and become a full-fledged ninja. In the meantime, however, you may want to introduce yourself to him and attempt to befriend him. How you do so, I don't care; just make sure you don't speak of any of this to anyone else besides Hiashi or myself, understood? Oh, and one more thing."

The Third then pulled out a scroll and began writing on it. When he was done, he stood up and handed it to Shade.

"This is a message to Naruto's teacher, Iruka. Show it to him and he'll allow you to take part in the remainder of his class. This will also prove that you are ready for the rank of Genin. If you're willing to completely come out of hiding, that is."

Shade bowed and said, "Yes, Lord Hokage, I would be delighted to finally come out of the Hyuga estate and live my life," before putting the scroll away and leaving. He soon walked outside and heard laughter followed by several angry shouts involving the name 'Naruto'.

Shade grinned and looked up at the Hokage monument faces.

"Oh, this is gonna be fun!" Shade shouted before running towards the noise.