Hello everyone who may or may not be reading this (I don't discriminate against blind people), I am Musamura. I have been reading fanfiction for a few years now and have decided to try my hand at writing something. As this is my first story, if you notice anything wrong with the story or some hole I may have forgotten to patch up, I would greatly appreciate if you told me whether by PM or review. Any of those vile things known as "Flames" will be used to bake cyanide cookies, which will then be force fed to said flamers cat. (If the flamer does not have a cat, I will buy them one) Remember this is my first attempt at writing anything, so I'm not sure if I will be any good at it, but I might as well give it a shot. Now without further ado, I bring you "Perfection"!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything else I decide to put in this story; why else would I be writing this.
Chapter 1: Prey
It was a peaceful night in the city of Konohagakure. Many of the people of the village were asleep, while some of the more restless individuals spent their time in the bars of the city. The ninjas leapt from rooftop to rooftop, dutifully defending their beloved home. An outsider would think that the people of the village were all at peace with each other, helping and defending each other in their times of need. Most of the people of the village thought this as well, but one of the residents was left out of the thoughts of those people. That particular resident was currently running for his life from a group of these villagers. Each of the villagers was holding a weapon of some sort, be it a bottle, a pipe or simply a stick. Most in the crowd appeared to be drunk, but there were some that seemed fully aware and moved with more grace than a normal civilian should be able to.
'Just great' thought their quarry 'There are ninja in the crowd this time…' The person in possession of these thoughts was a small boy. The boy appeared to be around 6 or 7 years old. His hair was a golden color, but it was dulled by mud and what appeared to be blood. His clothing, which had been gotten for him by his grandfather figure, was little more than rags that barely held themselves together, with many holes and stains dotting whatever was left of it. He was barefoot, and held a small bag of what seemed to be food clenched in his left hand. What really set him apart from the other orphans and homeless children were his three whisker marks that showed themselves on his face. This child was Uzumaki Naruto, and he had been running from this crowd for around half an hour now.
'Why do they do this to me…' thought Naruto 'No, they have always done this, I mustn't think of why they do it, only of why I cannot escape it even after all this time.' As the child ran the further and further he got, the further his sanity seemed to be slipping away from him. 'Why am I not faster, why am I not stronger, why can I not escape this pain!' One of the villagers threw a bottle, which hit him in the back of the leg and shattered, but Naruto just kept running. 'I have trained myself to be faster, yet they are faster still, I train myself to be stronger yet they always best me in strength, I strive to be perfect, but this pain never stops!' At this point the boy turned down an alley, which turned out to be a dead end.
"We have you now you foul beast!" yelled one of the villagers, a man of around 40 with a burn scar across his forehead. Naruto began to panic, looking everywhere for somewhere he could run, something he could use, someone who could help him, anything to escape the pain! Do you wish to evade this pain, to never be harmed again and to show those who harmed you true fear?' A raspy, inhuman voice echoed in his mind 'Yes' thought Naruto, too far gone in his panic to question the voice 'Yes I would do anything for that, to no longer suffer through this pain!' Then give in to your instincts young one, let your body control you and kill them all, show them no mercy as they would not show it to you. Show them no fear for that will show them weakness. Show them no sympathy for their pain, for they would never do the same for you.
'But how, how do I show them!? How do I escape this pain!?' thought the boy to the voice 'I have tried fighting back before, but it never succeeds and they simply cause me more pain for my resistance!' All you must do is will for your instincts to take over you, I will do the rest 'Alright, but before you do this, just who exactly are you?' I am what was created in you due to the suffering these villagers cause you, the instincts you suppressed and the darker thoughts you hide. I am you, you are me, we are one and the same and yet completely different. Both of us are two halves of one whole, apart we are nothing, together we are Naruto 'Alright, do what you must, just whatever you do don't let us feel that pain again!' thought the human mind of Naruto. He then gave in to the tugging on his mind, and everything went dark.
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"Ngh… What happened?" said Naruto as he awoke. Looking around his surroundings, Naruto saw that he was within what seemed to be a great forest, with trees that blocked out any light and the calls of strange creatures echoing throughout it. Even though it was probably very dark due to the lack of sunlight getting through the trees, Naruto noticed that he could see everything just fine. He felt a pull on his mind, as if something was calling towards what appeared to be the center of the forest. The more Naruto tried to ignore the pull, the stronger it became. Finally, after a few minutes of resisting it, he decided to give in to the pull, figuring that there was nothing for him to do here anyway except for to find the source of the pull.
After travelling through the seemingly endless forest for some time, Naruto came across a dark clearing. The canopy had grown so thick in this place of forest that the entire clearing would appear a pitch black to any outsider, however Naruto could see just fine. The clearing was mostly empty, with a few jagged outcroppings of rock scattered throughout it. At the center of the clearing Naruto saw a strange figure which, despite his ability to seemingly see through the dark of this strange forest, had shrouded features and could barely be made out. Seeing as the pull was leading him towards the strange figure, Naruto approached it. "W-Who a-are you?" Said Naruto to the figure "I am you, you are me, we are one and the same and yet completely different" Spoke the figure with the same voice that had spoken to him before he blacked out, confusing Naruto. "What do you mean, you're not me, I'm me!" "I am your inner self, your animal instincts and impulses that you feel you must hide to survive within that hellhole you call a home." The figure spoke as he stepped closer to Naruto, revealing himself to Naruto. Naruto took a step back in shock when he saw that the figure looked almost exactly like himself.
"What the, why do you look like me!?" Yelled Naruto in a fearful tone. "I told you, I am you, you are me, we are one and the same, so it should be expected that we look the same as well." Spoke the figure. "Wait a second" said Naruto "If you are my inner instincts like you say, then why haven't I ever heard your voice before?" "It is because you simply have never been in enough danger to require me to aid you, now that you have I have awakened." Spoke the figure in an explaining tone. "Oh yeah, the mob… What happened to them?" asked Naruto. "They are still there, almost exactly as they were before, the time travels slower in here." "Where are we anyway?"Asked Naruto "We are within our mind, more specifically in the mindscape, a place where the mind can manifest itself and explore its own inner workings."
"So, if the villagers are still outside, or in the real world I suppose, then how are we going to deal with them?" Naruto asked his inner instincts "The only way for us to survive this is for you and I to merge. It is only our combined abilities that will allow us to devour them, and anyone else who gets in our way." Spoke Instinct (Naruto's instincts will be called this from now on whenever the human part of Naruto, which I will be calling Reason, speak to each other) "Very well, it's not as if I have anything else to lose, how do we go about merging?" Asked Reason. "We are two parts of the same whole, we must simply will ourselves to merge together and it will happen." Said Instinct. "Very well, let's get this over with then." Both halves of the true Naruto then willed themselves to join together.
However, due to knowing more about the joining process and the ways of the mind from being contained within it, Instinct had a slight advantage over reason, and he used every bit of it he could. This caused Reason to fade away slightly, and increased Instinct's influence. Not enough to fully be in control, or even to survive the merge as Instinct had intended, but just enough to affect the combined mind. With more of Instinct in the formation, and less of Reason, The fragile process of creating a new consciousness from to others was disrupted, and led to the new consciousness to be more animalistic than human.
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When Naruto opened his eyes, he saw the mob that had been chasing him once again. 'These puny beings' thought the now twisted mind of Naruto 'They believe me to be weak, that they are superior to me. I will show them. This time I am the predator, and they are my prey.' At this thought a bloodthirsty smirk grew on Naruto's face. Then Naruto charged. In the eyes of the civilians he seemed to blur forward almost faster than they could see. Reaching the first villager, Naruto used his newly enlarged fangs to tear out a chunk of the man's arm. His teeth easily tore the flesh away as Naruto jumped away from the man, leaving him screaming and clutching his wounded and profusely bleeding arm. The torn away flesh gave a perfect view of the bone inside the arm, with rough tears at the edges of the wound rather than the normal smooth cuts of blades. Needless to say, it was a messy ordeal and sent many of the civilians running away screaming at the mere sight of it.
Naruto was paying attention to none of these things however. His mind was preoccupied by the piece of warm flesh caught within his teeth. 'Why am I not disgusted by what I just did? Why did I even think to do that? I normally would have fainted or something from the sight of doing something like this, much less actually doing it myself! But most importantly, why does it taste so good!?' The confused thoughts of Naruto rambled off, trying to make sense of his thoughts and desires. Taking advantage of the rational side's distraction, the instinctual side of the new Naruto swallowed the piece of the man's arm.
Suddenly, Naruto felt a rush of addictive power. 'What is this feeling, this power… did it come from eating that delicious piece of mea-I mean- that man's arm?' Thought Naruto. 'If it did, then I don't care about how wrong it should feel…' "I WANT MORE!" Screamed the now twisted voice of Naruto as he charged what remained of the civilians. What followed could only be described as a bloodbath. The only thing that the Hokage saw when he arrived was the mangled pieces of what used to be civilians, gallons of blood all over the ground and a small figure crouched over the body that had remained the most whole of the crowd, with his head, torso and a single leg being attached, the rest spattered across the clearing with the rest of the gore.
Then the smell hit them, and it took all of the resistance that the ANBU had to refrain from throwing up. The Hokage had been slightly better off, having experienced this sort of thing in the war. After getting over the sheer amount of gore and the stench, the Hokage and his ANBU focused onto the figure hunched over the body. With the new total silence the only thing that could be heard was a sickening squelching sound. The expression on the faces of all present turned from that of confusion to one of disgust as they realized just what the figure was doing. The hunched figure noticed none of this, instead choosing to focus on his latest meal, the small intestine of the scarred man that seemed to have been leading the mob. Getting over the momentary shock that came from the atrocity he was witnessing, the Hokage called out "Who are you, and why have you done this to these people?" The figure froze in its spot, then slowly began chuckling. After a few moments of the insane chuckling the figure slowly turned towards the gathered ninja. While doing this, the figure stated "Awww jiji-chan, I'm hurt, you don't recognize me?" Finally seeing the face of the figure, the Hokage reeled back in shock and confusion. "N-Naruto!? W-Why would you do this, why would you kill these innocent people!?"
"Why would I kill them? Well why wouldn't I kill them, they intended to kill me." Spoke Naruto in a low tone, laced with anger. "These people tried to beat me, cause me pain and end my life, so I decided to return the favor. It is only the fault of their weakness that I happened to be the one of the two parties which succeeded…" "A-Alright" spoke the Hokage shakily "But that doesn't explain why you would… why would you… EAT these people! That's cannibalism!" Naruto let a wide, blood filled grin lose at the Hokage "Why would I eat them? Well, for the same reason as any of you would eat your food. They are DELICIOUS!"
End of Chapter 1
So then, what do you all think? Rather dark, but that is just the kind of thing I lean towards writing. Make sure to leave a review and a favorite if you liked it, and the next chapter will most definitely be out soon. Also, if you can think of anything that I can improve on, please let me know about it as I will try to fix it. As I said this is my first time writing anything and I will need all the advice I can get. Well then, that will be the end of this before I start rambling off.
Until the next moonlit night.
Musamura