"demon talking

'demon thinking/telepathy'

"human talking"

'human thinking/telepathy'

Naruto: Shinobi of Sorrow

Chapter 1: The Master of Darkness Returns

Naruto Uzumaki was heading back to Konoha after doing a solo escort mission to a village not too far from home. He decided this was a good way to clear his head after having so much disappointment lately from his so called team. His sensei Kakashi was busy teaching Sasuke new Justus and ignore him and Sakura, he asked her if she would train with him but she blew him off to go find Sasuke. The Chunin Exam was only a week away and Naruto had no one to teach him and the only jutsu was the Kage Bunshin, but that isn't enough he had to get stronger if he was going to be Hokage.

"Hey you!" a voice called out, Naruto turned around to see it was a man with brown hair and green eyes, wearing a white shirt and blue pants. The man came up to Naruto almost out of breath "P-pl-please you have to help me".

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked as he help the man catch his breath.

"I'm from the village you just came from, my daughter was kidnapped by these strange creatures" he explained. "You're a ninja, right, please I will pay whatever it takes just please save my daughter" the man was on his knees begging Naruto to help him.

Naruto couldn't turn away from anyone in trouble, he helped the man up and gave him a smile. "You don't have to worry, I'll get your daughter back dattabayo. Which way did they go?"

The man smiled hearing Naruto say he would help him "Thank you". The man pointed to the forest next to the road "They took her into the forest, again thank you so much". Naruto nodded to the man and rushed into the forest.

Naruto had been searching the forest for thirty minutes now and found no sign of the girl or the creatures the man spoke of. He was about to create clones to search other areas, until he saw a clearing up ahead and something up there was giving him chills and sending a dark feeling down his spine. When he was a few feet from the clearing, he saw a giant dead tree, it was pitch black and was giving of an evil aura that would make the even the most strongest ninja run away, Naruto was barely holding himself together. At the base of the tree there was a sword with a black and yellow hilt wedged into the tree, at first it looked like a normal katana, but it gave off a sort of pure aura that overwhelmed the evil aura of the tree.

Naruto then notice coming from another direction, five creatures in old red ninja suit that he read about in books. Other than their red suits and yellow eyes, the rest of their bodies was pitch black. They were dragging along a girl with brown hair, green eyes, and wearing a green kimono, Naruto assumed she was the daughter of the man from earlier.

They pulled her to the base of the tree and dropped her in front of the sword. "Pull it out human" one of the shadow ninja said, the girl looked at the sword and how deep it was in the tree, she looked back at him and even though she was scared, looked at him like he was crazy. "Stop wasting our time!" the ninja shouted causing her to flinch "We have been watching you and we have confirmed that you are pure of heart and should be able to pull the sword out and release our master from his imprisonment". The girl didn't understand or know how they think she could do it, but she figure these guys were bad enough, whoever their master was would be even worse, so even though she feared what was to come she shook her head no.

One of the shadow ninja grew angry was about to hit her "Pull it out or I'll-" he was interrupted by a kunai in his back, he then vanished into black smoke leaving behind his suit. The ninjas and the girl look to see who threw it, Naruto jump out of the bushes and threw four more kunai hitting two more but the last two dodges.

Naruto ran over and got between the remaining two and the girl. "I won't let you hurt her and your master is staying right where he is" he said as he pulled out two more kunai to finish them.

One of the shadow ninja whistle and the ground started to shake, Naruto saw some trees falling in another direction 'What the hell is that'. Coming into the clearing was a giant beetle with a little red on its sides. It looked like it was made completely of metal including its teeth, its eyes were made of dense glass, and its arms were a pair if scythes.

"Beetle drone eliminate this pest!" the ninja shouted while pointing at Naruto, the drone locked onto Naruto and ran in his direction.

"Go hide" Naruto told the girl, she ran into the forest and hid behind a tree. The drone came at Naruto and slash downward, Naruto dodged and threw a kunai at, but it bounce off not even leaving a scratch on it. Naruto then went through some hand signs "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he called out and made ten clones, five of them distracted the drone while the other five got in close and placed explosion tags on it. The beetle slash four of the clones and hit two more dispelling the six of them, Naruto figured he had no time to waste and activated the tags causing them to explode. Naruto smiled thinking he had won but when the smoke cleared that smile disappeared when he saw the beetle was still standing and the only damage it had was that one of its eyes was blown out, he was about to tell his clones what to do when he saw they got dispelled when all four were hit with shurikens.

Naruto looked over to see it was one of the shadow ninja that threw them, the other was running towards him. "Did you forget about us?" he said as he swung at Naruto, Naruto dodge his punch and jumped back dodging a kick.

Naruto backed up into the dark tree, he barely notice the drone was about to hit him with its scythe. He jump out of the way in time, when he looked back he saw that the drone's scythe was cut in half. He saw the remains of it by the sword, he didn't know how but that sword was strong enough to cut it.

'If I use that sword I could beat that thing' Naruto thought, but he remembered the ninja saying if the sword was pulled out their master would be set free and he figured he was a hell of a lot tougher that that drone thing. He saw the ninjas coming closer and the drone recovering from the loss of its scythe, he had to end this and chance it that he could use the sword to beat their master and seal him away again. Naruto grabbed the hilt of the sword and was about to pull it out, until he felt the sword and the tree begin to pulse, Naruto was still holding onto the sword as he felt his consciousness fade.

Mindscape

Naruto awoke in what he figured to be a sewer, in front him was a giant cage with a paper bearing the kanji for 'seal' on it. Inside the cage was a giant red fox with crimson slit eyes and nine tails moving back and forth. "So my container has come into his mind to visit me" it said as it stared down at him "Do you know who I am?"

"You're the Kyuubi no Kitsune" Naruto said without fear in his voice, which shocked the Kyuubi.

"You're not even a little bit scared of the one who demolished your village?" the Kyuubi said trying to see if it could scare him and get a laugh out of it.

"You did do that, but not of your own free will" Naruto said making the Kyuubi look confused. "I've thought about it for a while, but something didn't quite connect, if you did attack the village on your own then someone would have saw you coming from miles away. From what I heard they say you just appeared in the middle of the village and from what I read from the books I could read before the librarian kicked me out, something like you could only appear like that from a summoning. Also the only ones capable of doing that and able to control you are the Uchiha since you were once summoned by their leader Madara when he fought the First Hokage, my guess either he had a student or family that summoned you, he survived the fight against the first, or there is someone else with able to control you using the Sharingan, and since the first two are very unlikely I'll better it was the third one right?"

The Kyuubi's mouth was wide open, he figured out what all of Konoha couldn't and so easily. "You…you are right it was a man wearing a spiral mask and he also posed the Sharingan, he was the one controlling me his power was as strong as Madara's except I know it wasn't him. Tell me how are you so smart, from what I saw your memories I thought you were an idiot".

"I'm hyperactive not, stupid those villagers would try to destroy me if I revealed how smart I was so I wore a mask" Naruto said in a serious tone also while glaring at the Kyuubi for that idiot comment. He then gave his famous foxy grin "But not all of the mask was a lie what life without a little fun is? No idiot could paint the Hokage Monument and not get caught by the jonin or the Anbu, I let Iruka catch me because he was one of the people who treated me with kindness and respect, so I figured I should do the right thing for him. If I didn't do the right thing for the people I care about, then I wouldn't be the kind hearted guy I am, I would be a serious stick in the mud, I would be Sasuke".

Naruto and the Kyuubi laugh at the thought of a second Sasuke, the Kyuubi smiled at him 'This kid is something else'.

"You are strong and clever, but most of all pure boy, you will go far in life" a voice came from nowhere, both Naruto and Kyuubi looked around but didn't see anyone. Then the water behind Naruto turned black and rose up taking the form of a giant pitch black shadow, it had four horns at the top of its head and spike like shoulders. The only color on its body was the whit around its black pupils, the flames above its eyes, the green outline under them and around its mouth, and the red goatee. It gave off the same evil aura as the tree, but stronger even Kyuubi was trembling a bit.

"Wh-who are you?" Naruto said finally able to get his voice out, the dark creature smiled at him flashing its massive fangs.

"I am Aku! The Lord of Evil and Master of Darkness! HAHAHA!" the being now known as Aku said, his evil laugh echoed throughout the sewer "It has been ages since I last did an introduction like that, it feels good to be able to do that again".

"A-Aku" the Kyuubi said as it backed up a bit, surprising Naruto that the mighty Kyuubi was scared. "I heard of you, you existed long before Juubi-sama did and ruled it for many years until you were sealed away. Your power rivals or is even greater than hers, but how is that you came to be here?"

"You have this boy to thank" Aku said pointing one of his claw fingers at Naruto, who had a confused look. "The sword you grabbed bonds its power to the soul of the one most pure of heart and demes them worthy of possessing. The last person who wielded it used it against me many times, so much in fact that each time it connected with me my soul was slowly bounding to it. So in short since the sword is bound to you, I am bound to remain inside your soul and mind for the time being".

Naruto knew this was bad, having such an evil being inside his soul spelled getting taken over for sure. "So what do you plan to do?" Naruto asked as he got into a stance and got ready for a fight if his answer was to take over his body and destroy the world.

"Lower you stance boy, honestly I plan to do nothing to you or the world" Aku said as he stroked his goatee, Naruto and Kyuubi were confused and curious, mostly curious as to why someone like him would use the word 'honestly'. "If I tried to take over your soul it would become impure and the sword would reject you and I would turn back into a tree. Besides there is nothing to gain by ruling the world, since my desire for conquest and senseless blood shed are over thanks to the Samurai".

"What do you mean? Who is he?" Naruto asked curious how this samurai could make someone as evil as Aku not want to kill or rule anymore. Kyuubi was also curious, since it was a samurai that defeated Aku, but legend says that the Samurai died the same day Aku was sealed.

"His name was Samurai Jack, and he was both my greatest foe and my friend" Aku explained "During our final battle the gods gave Jack the power to seal my soul away as long as it is imbedded in my body, also increasing the bond I shared with it. Jack was fatally wounded and died after the sealing, but when he did the sword took his soul as well and since there aren't many pure people in this curse world anymore, we were trapped for what seemed like forever. During our imprisonment we spend the first hundred years or two fighting and arguing, but after that we began to talk and I actually enjoyed it, it was the first time I actually thought of him as anything other than a worthy adversary. He taught me that even though I am the embodiment of evil, there is…some good in me not much, but some.

"After time went by we found out his soul was passing on" Aku said with a sad look on his face "I would lying if I said I didn't miss him, he was a worthy opponent and my first friend. You remind me of him you both have been through a lot and overcome the hardships and challenges that have come your way, I could never harm someone who reminds me of my old friend. Besides as I watched the world go by from my imprisonment I saw how beautiful it was, destroying it now wouldn't bring me any joy. I don't expect either of you to trust me but I want to just do what I can to help you, if you will allow me."

Naruto wasn't sure whether to trust him or not, but his words seemed honest and he spoke of the samurai person with respect and kindness, so why lie about him or anything. Naruto decided to take a chance. "Well you seem like a good guy despite what you look like, so I'm gonna trust you". Naruto turned to Kyuubi who was processing all of this. "You don't mind some company do you big guy?"

Kyuubi had a tick mark "No I don't mind, and for the record I'm a woman genius". Red chakra surrounded the Kyuubi and in its place was a beautiful woman with an hourglass figure and a bust that would make Tsunade's look small. She had red hair that came down to her waist, crimson eyes, and a red kimono with white fox designs that complimented her figure.

"b-beautiful" was all Naruto could as he stared at the goddess before him, even Aku gave a simple 'indeed' agreeing with him.

Kyuubi blushed at their compliments. "Thank you Naruto-kun, Aku-sama".

"So do you have a name, I can't call you Kyuubi all the time" Naruto asked missing the –kun suffix she used, but Aku didn't and smirked a bit.

"My name is Kurumi" she said, Naruto smiled thinking it was a beautiful name.

Naruto turned back to Aku "so I guess we're all friends right?" he asked with a smile.

For a second Aku thought he saw the samurai before him, but he realized that Naruto had the same kind spirit as him 'This boy is so much like you Jack'. Aku smiled back "Yes, it is a good feeling to actually have a friend again".

Naruto's body began to fade, he was about to panic until Kurumi spoke "It's ok, you're just returning to the outside world" Naruto instantly calm down. Kurumi then remembered the situation outside "Naruto-kun I'm gonna lend you some of my chakra to take care of these things outside".

"Wait!" Aku called out. "My shadow ninja are weak, but the sword is the only thing strong enough to destroy the drone, as strong as your energy will make him his human hands can't pierce it". Aku held out his hand and a blue orb flew into Naruto "I have given you what is left of the samurai's memories, his battle experience. It will only last a short while, long enough to finish then. I have another gift waiting for you outside".

Naruto couldn't smile any wider than he was. "Thanks Aku-sama" he said as the last of his body faded from his mindscape.

Kurumi looked over at Aku and saw he was still smiling. "You have a plan for Naruto-kun, don't you?" she asked, Aku nodded and Kurumi smiled back "do tell".

Outside

The shadow ninja's were wondering what had went wrong, cause the moment Naruto grabbed the sword the black tree disappeared. Naruto was holding the sword in his left hand and appearing in his right hand was a sword identical to the one in his left hand except on this one the blade was black and the hilt was black and red. Naruto turned and glared at the shadow ninja and got into a stance that Jack used whenever he had two weapons.

"What did you do to our master!?" one of the ninja's shouted as he ran at Naruto, throwing shuriken. Naruto blocked them with his black sword and dodged a straight punch by the shadow ninja, Naruto did a horizontal slash cutting the ninja in half before vanishing.

The beetle drone was next as it went to slash at Naruto, who blocked it with the white sword. Naruto pushed the scythe aside and jumped up in front of the drone, delivering a barrage of slashes faster than the eye could see. When he landed it looked like he hadn't done anything, until he made a slashing motion with his sword and the battle broke apart into hundreds of pieces and exploded.

The last shadow ninja was getting scared as he saw the power the boy had gained and turned to run, Naruto saw him and about to pursue him 'wait Naruto wait' Aku's voice said in his head. 'Try to focus your chakra into the swords and release it'. Naruto decided to give it a try and put his chakra into the swords, the black sword glowed a dark, and the other one glowed white. Naruto made an 'X' slashing motion sending a large x-shaped beam of dark and pure energy, cutting the ninja into four pieces and going on for a minute before fading and after destroying some of the forest.

Naruto looked at his swords and smiled. 'These swords are awesome, I heard swords have names sometimes, what are these named' Naruto asked Aku inside his mind.

Aku never really thought about naming the weapon he gave Naruto and he remembered the samurai never mentioned a name for his sword either. 'Why don't you decide since they are yours now' Aku suggested.

Naruto thought for a moment and smiled looking at the white sword. 'How about Hikari' he then looked at the black sword 'and Yami'. Both Kurumi and Aku agreed those were good names, Aku then materialized two black sword sheaths on the side of Naruto, one with a white kanji for light and the other with a grey kanji for dark. Naruto sheathed his swords and remembered that the girl from earlier was still here.

Naruto walked over to the tree and saw her behind and saw she had a look of amazement on her face. Naruto held out his hand bringing her out of her trance. "Let's go, your father is waiting on you" he said smiling at her. He could see the joy on her face when he mentioned her father, she gladly took his hand. Naruto then swooped her up bridal style, causing her to blush, and began jumping through the trees towards the village.

Once there the girl was happily reunited with her father, the man offered to pay Naruto for rescuing her, but he told him he already got something or someone more than worth the trouble. As Naruto walked back down the road to Konoha, Aku spoke again 'Naruto I want to thank you for your kindness and also repay you'. Naruto was curious and interested in what he was going to give him, he continued listening to Aku 'I can send my power through your body, change it, and turn you into a demon like me and Kurumi-san, well more like a Hanyo (Half Demon) since you aren't strong enough to hand the full transformation. You will have both mine and Kurumi-san's powers and abilities, I will train you to use my powers and teach you to use those swords, while Kurumi-san trains you in the art of jutshu and powers of a tailed beast, so Naruto do you accept?'

Naruto thought about it, he remembered how the village always called him a monster and a demon and didn't want to be that. He then thought of Kurumi and Aku, they were demons, but they had good hearts, he felt he could trust them and being a Hanyo would bring him closer to them. It's time to show the world the world, especially Konoha, that not all demons are evil, he will prove this as he became the Hokage and the strongest ninja/demon in the world. "Alright Aku-sensei, Kurumi-sensei, let's do it!" Naruto practically shouted while doing a fist pump, Aku and Kurumi smiled at his decision and determination, and chuckled at the title of sensei he gave them.

'Very well, by tomorrow your transformation will be complete, but your training starts now' Aku said, making Naruto wonder how. 'I have changed your mindscape so that time is a day in here, but a minute out there, I will bring you in here as I put your body on autopilot so it gets to the village safely. Kurumi-san will being your ninja while I supervise you sword training, get ready for today you will begin your long training to become the new Shogun of Sorrow…no more like the Ninja of Sorrow that has a better ring to it".

Kurumi chuckled at Aku's title for Naruto and was ready to begin his tortu-training, Naruto sweat drop figuring this was going to be a long day as he was pulled into his mindscape while his body continued walking.

AN: this in response to lycanoda Shogun of Sorrow Challenge and will be continued. the Aku in the story i based of of the Aku in Grim Tales from Down Below since he gave up his quest for conquest after jack died and Chi was born, no characters from GTFDB will appear in it unless something comes up.