Author Note: This is going to be an AU that diverges from the beginning of the series for obvious reasons that will become apparent. It will also address some glaring issues, not least of which is Naruto's incurable idiocy. Naruto is 7 in this chapter and has been in the Ninja academy for almost a year. Reasons will be explained. Probably. Maybe. This has not been beta'd so all the grammatical mistakes are my own and I apologize. For those wondering about the title: it is an allusion to a John Keats Poem; not a blood line limit. You don't want to get me started on how much I loath stories were Naruto has a blood line limit.
Naruto was a prankster; everyone knew this.
He'd been pulling them, to varying degrees of size and complexity, since he was 5.
The Headmaster at the orphanage refused to step in when the other children beat Naruto up? He put laxatives in his tea. A merchant refused to sell him supplies? Naruto applied liberal use of stink bombs to the interior of his establishment after hours.
The instructors at the Ninja Academy neglected and ridiculed (subtlety of course) the gaps in his knowledge that he had no parents to fill in ? He put itching powder on the toilet paper in the teacher's lounge. Naruto was bored? He drew mustachio's and genitalia on the Hokage Monument.
Naruto was a prankster; everyone knew this.
Which was why when noxious gas began bellowing out of a store front and a water tower exploded across the street; Naruto knew he would be everyone's first suspect.
So, despite the knowledge that it wasn't his fault and a burning curiosity to find out who was responsible; he quickly slipped away from the gathering crowd before someone noticed him. Taking the nearest side street Naruto wove his way through the maze-like back alleys of Konoha and didn't stop until he was five blocks away.
Naruto knew Chunin, most likely Iruka-sensei, would track him down for questioning eventually; but for the time being he was free to wander the winding back alleys and ponder the cause and culprit behind the commotion.
Cupping his hands behind his neck as he walked and tilting his head up to look at the sky, Naruto considered the situation.
Contrary to popular belief, Naruto wasn't the only prankster in Konoha. He just happened to be the most (in)famous. There were two others, Eji and Yoshi. The former was now a full fledged Ninja and the latter was the only son of minor noble. Both were older.
Several times in the past they had gotten together in secret, compared notes and achievements; and issued challenges to see who could out prank who. Because of this Naruto knew Eji and Yoshi fairly well. They were in fact some of the few people in the village who didn't treat him like trash.
Though, he wouldn't call the three of them friends exactly.
Being a noble Yoshi mainly kept to the more affluent parts of Konoha and rarely socialized with the common folk, and as such Naruto never saw him outside their clandestine meetings.
Eji, like Naruto, was a commoner; a first generation Ninja in fact, so Naruto sometimes passed him in the streets. They would exchange a nod and the occasional wave but that was all.
There's was more of a 'professional relationship'; a mutual respect for one another born from a shared disrespect of authority and a love for a good prank.
Naruto Knew Eji and Yoshi fairly well, which was why he immediately ruled out Yoshi.
The noble's son specialized in graffiti and generally only tagged places high up and in plain view of the entire village. Yoshi also felt strongly that destroying something in the course of a prank was neither funny nor in the true spirit of a prank.
In that Naruto usually agreed with him. Usually.
Eji, while never having resorted to explosives before, was sometimes prone to a little destruction of property if he felt it fit the prank. Like, say, causing the toilets in an upscale restaurant to backup and overflow during peak hours. In the middle of summer.
That particular event became known as: 'Toilet Gate' and was the talk of the town for an entire month.
When Eji had admitted to Yoshi and Naruto later that he was the one behind it, Naruto had laughed till his sides hurt. The thought of all those rich people in their finery having to trudge through sewage kept a smile on Naruto's face for months. Yoshi, on the other hand had not been amused. Though that might have had something to do with the fact that he was in premises when it happened.
So, while blowing up a water tower seemed a little extreme, Naruto could see Eji doing it if the older boy thought it was needed. Except, ever since Eji graduated the Ninja Academy he hadn't pulled a single prank. He had in fact informed Naruto and Yoshi at their last meeting that he most likely would be giving up his prankster ways in favor of focusing on his Ninja career.
So.
That left three possibilities that Naruto could think of. Either there was a new player in town that he was unaware of, Eji had decided that he wasn't quite ready to give up the prank or what happened wasn't a prank at all. And if it was the third possibility then that begged the question: what exactly was it?
Definitely food for though.
Glancing at the position of the sun, Naruto figured it was close enough to noon to make his way over to Ichiraku's to provide some good food for those thoughts.
He'd only made it a block when the wind shifted as he passed by the mouth of an intersecting alley and Naruto's steps faltered. Turning in the direction of the scent (his 5 senses had always been preternatural), he tilted his head up and scented the air again to be sure. Definitely blood. Human too, and by the smell of it fresh.
Naruto frowned as he altered his course to take him down the alley towards the scent. Moving silently, Naruto carefully followed the ever increasing potent smell down two more adjoining back streets until he came to a stop outside the semi-burned out building that it was coming from.
Naruto recognized it. It belonged to a fabrics merchant who was currently under investigation for insurance fraud and arson. He knew this because he'd initially been blamed for the fire that, had it not been for an unexpected storm front that passed through, would have burned the place to its foundation.
Though even with the rain the building still sustained severe damage and to Naruto at least, didn't look all that structurally sound. The brick of the walls were blackened and cracked in places, windows had been blown out by the fire and parts of the roof had caved in from a combination of the flames and the storm that put it out.
The wind shifted again carrying with it the full force of the coppery ichor mixed in with soot and ash. As he wrinkled his nose in distaste, it occurred to Naruto then that with as strong as the stench of blood was from outside the warehouse and with as far away as he was able to pick up the scent, that whoever it belonged to was most likely dead.
That gave him pause.
A ninja in training or not; he'd never seen a dead body before, most likely wouldn't either until the 4th year of the academy during the cadaver course; and he had no great desire to change that just yet. Then there was the chance that a Chunin that wasn't Iruka-sensei would stumble upon him overlooking the bloody form of whoever was in there and draw the wrong conclusion. After the arson fiasco Naruto could count on one hand how many people he knew would take him at his word.
But if there was the smallest chance that whoever was in there was alive and he left them when he could have helped Naruto didn't think he could forgive himself.
Compassion won out.
Naruto made a quick circuit around the building looking for a suitable entrance before deciding the back looked to be the safest entry point. The brick-work seemed relatively undamaged and the blown out window 15 feet above looked like a good entry point.
Using the skill that had impressed and convinced Old Man Hokage that he should be allowed into the academy a year early, Naruto channeled chakra to his feat and ran up the wall as if gravity were his play thing.
Naruto grabbed the lip of the window seal and swung himself up, over, and inside but did not let go.
He hung there for several moments letting his eyes adjust to the darker environment before dropping to the floor.
From inside the smell of smoke, soot and mildew overlaid with that of fresh spilt blood was almost overpowering. As it was Naruto had to use the collar of his shirt to cover his nose.
He navigated through the gutted interior as best he could, freeing his nose from his collar from time to time to make sure he was headed in the right direction. Melted spools of what once were silk or satin or cotton lay littered amongst the ash covered floor. Every once and awhile he would pass a spool of mostly intact material on a mostly intact rack.
Small miracles.
His nose was taking him towards the front of the building, which he noticed absently, had sustained considerably less damage. Naruto was approaching what he figured to be the offices when he saw the footprints in the ash.
Two sets.
They started at the mostly intact doors on the left side of the warehouse and continued through the door way into the offices 30 feet in front of him. The only problem was Naruto knew for a fact there hadn't been any such door when he'd checked the outside for a safe way in.
Which would mean a Genjutsu. A Genjutsu that stood up to touch. Which, if he remembered Iruka-sensei's lecture correctly, meant high Chunin to low Jounin level skill. All of which added up to Naruto getting the hell out of there and going straight to Iruka-sensei or Old Man Hokage.
A plan he would have followed had the owner of one set of those footprints not walked out of the office right then and there with a bag containing what looked like two severed hands.
Naruto turned and ran for the door.
He managed three steps before he lost all feeling below the neck and was able to stumble another two before he hit the floor face first. In between his racing heart, trying to not inhale ash, and scream for help ( he couldn't seem to find his voice); he could hear the steady crunch of ash under boot.
He had never been more terrified in his life.
The boots stopped just inside his field of vision as his assailant crouched at his side and proceeded to search his pockets. Quick and efficient he found and took Gama-chan before turning him over and repeating the process.
Naruto coughed up ash and soot as he tried to blink the same from this eyes.
The hands left him and he was able to clear his eyes enough to get his first good look at his assailant.
It was a man. Average height, average build, average looks and average everyday clothes. In fact, everything about the man was average. Achingly so. The type of person you could see everyday but never really notice.
The man peered down at him (Naruto absently wondered what had happened to Gama-chan and the severed hands) and regarded Naruto with his average brown eyes.
"Sorry you had to see that kid."
Even the man voice was average. Underneath the fear and shear terror Naruto felt an upwelling of annoyance.
"Don't bother trying to scream or move. The Senbon I hit you with contained a powerful paralytic mixture. "
The man smiled slightly. "The names Curare and as the name implies poison is my specialty. Not too shabby with acids or Genjutsu either."
A frown quickly replaced the smile as he looked toward the door Naruto tried to escape through.
"I don't know what your doing here or how you got past my Genjutsu. Unless…," the man frowned and reached down to trace the whisker marks on Naruto's cheek.
Eyes wide, Naruto tried and failed to flinch away.
Curare nodded to himself when the marks didn't come off.
"The only one of the 6 senses Genjutsu can't really fool is the sense of smell. A member of the Inuzuka clan like yourself, even a kid like you, probably smelled the blood a couple blocks away."
The annoyance from earlier was beginning to push up against the fear. He was not an Inuzuka. Even if it meant being part of a family Naruto didn't think he would want to be if they all smelled like that Kiba kid from the playground.
Curare looked up at the windows and nodded to himself before returning his attention to Naruto.
"Came in through one of the windows no doubt," he gave Naruto a once over. "Your what, 6 maybe 7? A little young for the Academy but not complety unheard of. Clan probably considers you a prodigy."
Curare paused briefly as he eyed Naruto's bright orange and blue jumpsuit. "Though I can't imaging they approve of your fashion sense. "
Naruto wanted to scoff at that. He was an orphan and nearly everyone in the village thought he was an idiot or worse. And why did everyone criticize his clothes. He liked orange damn it!
All he was able to manage was a mix between a cough and a wheeze.
Curare smiled and shook his head in amusement. "All that planning. All that time and work I put into finding a secluded location, preparing the Genjutsu and it was almost undone by an Academy student with an overly sensitive nose."
The smile slipped from his lips as Curare locked gazes with Naruto. "I really hate killing kids. Especially ones that would no doubt grow up to make me a lot of money in the Bingo Books. But you've seen my face and my handiwork. Can't let you live after that."
He shrugged as he pulled two more Senbon from his sleeve. "Nothing personal kid."
Naruto tried to scream for help, tried to will his body to move but it was no use. He found it difficult to simply breath. He was helpless to do anything but watch as Curare plunged the two Senbon into his eyes
Then all he could think about was the pain.
Outside on the roof across the street a shadow watched as a non-descript civilian man walked out from the alley adjacent to the building its mark had entered. Instincts screamed that something was wrong, and after only a momentary pause to create a Shadow Clone to follow the man, the shadow darted across to the building and slid through the same window as Uzumaki Naruto.
End Note: Anyone who might have been following this story will probably notice I've re-written the first chapter and deleted the second. I'm currently giving the second chapter the same treatment and hope to have it re-uploaded by the weekend. I also apologize for long delay in updating. I've been pulling 12-15 hour days at work (I'm a paralegal) and haven't had much time for myself. On the up-side I'll have made nearly 70k with over-time. Mmm, money. Any feed-back is welcome and encouraged. It is, after all, the only way to make this story better.