Acidic Properties

It was a dark and stormy day. The sky was full of dark grey and black sagging clouds full of condensing droplets of water. The ground, far below the dark and dreary clouds, was awash with muddy water and a slowly enveloping mist that rolled over paths, thickets and small clearings. The rocky hills and small mountains were dangerous to try crossing due to the soaked, slippery rocks and saggy, muddy ground that rested under the rocks.

Far above, the sun's was being blocked out the dark clouds, and the only light that shed on the world were the strongest rays of light and the seemingly endless flashes of lightning; which was echoed by the dark, angry sounding rumbling of thunder. Down below, on the drenched earth, the animals, insects, reptiles and birds found shelter and the worms came out of hiding, lest they be drowned in their tiny earthen tunnels.

For humans, it would have been an extremely dangerous day to try to make their way through the thick forests and edge slowly closer to a large human populated area that seemed to be far off in the distance; the dreariness of the day could make even the most positive thinkers pessimistic at the sight. For humans, the best thing to do, would to find shelter in a cave, not under a giant tree...Or any tree for that matter. After all, metal isn't the only thing lightning seems to yearn for.

Usually the highest point is struck by lightning as it arches down to earth, should there be no metal in close proximity that is. Trees are just some of nature's many different lightning rods. To take shelter under a tree would have been suicide. The point of which a bolt of lightning strikes anything, was estimated to be about four times hotter than the surface of the sun. Although survivors of such scary events are noted, it still isn't exactly a safe or sane thing to do. Luckily for one man, far away from home and not yet close enough to the seemingly far off populated region beyond the hills, seas of green trees and small mountains; he had the smarts.

First thing he did as he entered the lightning hurling giant's throwing distance, was to abandon all metal objects he had, less of a chance to be struck by lightning.

The second thing he did was that he kept moving, only taking shelter under trees if absolutely needed; as he made his way through the forested hills. Third, he was constantly on the look for a safe place to bunk down and ride out the storm.

Using the flashes of lightning for scarce flashes of potentially eye damaging light as torches, the man carefully made his way up the side of a small mountain, also known as a 'Foot-Hill', to where he thought he had spotted a cave.

"Ho-" the man stuttered to himself as he slipped on a rock he had stepped on before catching himself. "How did I get into this?" Pulling himself up onto a small, slippery ledge, near the mouth of the cave; the man thought back to week before.

00oo00

"Well, well, well...If it isn't Ban Shogo! Long time no see!" A tall black haired woman with an attractive body called out as she entered a small bar near the south-east outskirts of Earth Country. The man in question, short red hair and a cigarette in his mouth, jumped at the mentioning of his name. He almost pissed himself as he realized who it was.

"E-Eri? Is that you?" the red haired man asked slowly, hoping that it was truly the woman she seemed to be and not someone trying to bait him. He was, after all, a Nuke-Nin now.

"Who else do you know from Iwa who'd rather jump you and haul you to the closest bed, rather than back to the prison cells?" The black haired woman asked as she made her way towards Shogo, sitting on his right.

"Well, there is Asuka-San..." Shogo chuckled nervously, blushing slightly as the black haired woman on his right glared at him.

"And to think, I thought it was funny when you finally found out that Asuka-San wasn't a top heavy man but a healthy young girl like yours truly." Eri stated dryly. "Anyway, I didn't come for a quickie."

"Really?" Shogo eyed her wearily. "Then why did you track me down?" Eri sighed and ordered a drink before continuing.

"Tsuchikage-Sama asked me to find you...To extend a hand to you, so as to speak." the black haired woman stated after sipping at her sake.

"I thought he was the kind of man who'd rather smash those who ran away, then to offer them a place back in the corps." Shogo asked, looking at his old friend oddly.

"Usually...But I think old age is finally getting to him." Eri stated with a small grin. Shogo mirrored her grin and for a couple of moments, they stayed like that.

Suddenly, her grin vanished. "However, his hand is not something you can just grab without expecting something." Shogo nodded.

"If I get to come back and make love with you every day of my life, I'll gladly do whatever the old fart says." Eri blushed heavily at the red head's proclamation. "I mean, how hard can it be?"

"Normally, I'd be asking myself that, Sho-Chan..." Eri stated softly. "But a lot of things have changed since the Third War and the Yondaime of Konoha's rampage through our forces." Shogo scoffed.

"Like what? Did he finally get the man's face printed on every training target in the village?"

"Haven't you been keeping up to date?" Eri asked heatedly. "Like how three years ago, Kumo made a grab at the Byakugan and almost started another war with Konohagakure!" Shogo's smirk vanished.

"What happened?" Shogo asked.

"The grab was a flop. Stupid guy got the oldest daughter of the head of the clan and met a timely end only minutes afterwards by the girl's father. If it wasn't for the Sandaime Hokage, those two villages would be neck deep in blood and bones by now, and because of our alliance with Kumo, and Suna's with Konoha; the Fourth War would have started by now." Eri said with a sad shake of her head. "For once, I'm glad that the old 'God of Shinobi' is now a peaceful man." Shogo nodded numbly.

"So..." Shogo started after a couple moments of silence between the two; "What does the old codger want me to do?" Looking at his ex-lover, Shogo found himself staring at a bleary eyed woman. "Eri-"

"If I were you...If I were you, Sho-Chan...I wouldn't take it." the woman said softly.

"Why?" Shogo asked, confused by his old lover's sudden change in attitude.

"He wants you to infiltrate Konohagakure...And kill off several of the clan heirs." Shogo's eyes widened.

00oo00

"It'll be alright, Eri...I promise..." Shogo thought to himself as he hobbled into the cave. Tired and wet, he sat himself mere feet from the entrance and sighed.

"And soon...You and me, Eri...We'll be making like rabbits."

"Achoo!" The noise made Shogo jump high into the air and reach for his kunai pouch, only to remember he had tossed them aside in hopes of lessening the risk of being struck by lightning. When he landed, he crouched low to the cave's floor, and felt around for anything…Like a sharp rock that had been lying next to him.

'What was that?' the red head asked himself as he juggled the sharp rock in his right hand. Moving deeper into the cave, he looked around for whatever had made the sneeze like sound.

As he ventured deeper and deeper into the cave, Shogo noted that despite the cave being a slightly twisting and winding one; he could clearly see the ground ahead of him when a bolt of lightning arched across the sky or towards the ground, outside of the cave.

As he staggered through the dark, dank cave, Shogo kept swiveling his head around and his movements short, just in case whatever had made the noise was tall, long or fast…like one of those ape like creatures a group of veterans had informed him and his graduating class when he was 8 years old.

"Achoo! Sniff-sniff…" Shogo stopped cold as the noise filled the cave.

"Come out, come out whatever you are…" he said softly as he willed his feet to move forward. 'Unless you're a mountain lion or a bear…Then just stay where you are…' Despite his innate fear of the maker of the sound being a man eating creature, Shogo pressed on, going even further into the cave. Due to the dark walls, and four seconds without any bolts of lightning to offer any sort of light; Shogo didn't notice a small drop in the cave's floor and slipped down. Despite being a shinobi, even if he was a Nuke-Nin, Shogo couldn't help yelping as he fell. 'Great! I'm dead!'

00oo00

It had been hours since the storm started. It was one of those rare storms, the kind that told you to seek cover even before it started. Just the sight of the thick black clouds had warned him to find shelter, and so, that's exactly what young seven year old Uzumaki Naruto did.

He was supposed to be on a team, a team of young shinobi hopefuls who had been given packs of supplies which contained a compass, a sleeping bag, four ration bars, two canteens full of water and a map. The packs also had small knives for both field dressing and defense, if needed.

The one thing that the pack didn't have, was a long range radio. The only ones who had the radios were the proctors of the exam, and needless to say, there weren't any close by when the storm swallowed the area and emptied its payload upon the earth.

'My team's probably back at the Academy by now.' Naruto thought to himself as he pulled his knees to his chest and pressed his back up against the cave wall. 'I wonder if they told anyone that I'm still out here?'

Naruto was a tough kid. From the time of his birth, he had been an orphan. Like most orphans, he stayed at the local orphanage. Unlike the other orphans at the orphanage, Naruto had to look out for himself. No one in the orphanage wanted to look out for him, he could remember the last time the workers at the orphanage helped him, was when he was three and he needed help unclogging the toilet. Whole rolls of toilet paper did NOT go down the hole... Even the people outside of the orphanage ignored him when they could; of course, when he started pranking people, he started getting some attention, just not the right kind of attention.

No one kissed his boo-boos. No one hugged him when he fell down and scrapped his knees. No one helped him up when he tripped over a stone or a root. No one ran over to stop bullies from beating him up. No one offered him free sodas or drinks. Some nice people gave him free ramen once in a while, but that was probably the only nice thing he had ever gotten from someone, besides the Hokage, though he never knew why he was so nice to him. All in all, compared to his classmates, he was tough.

He knew he wasn't tough enough to handle a two day test by himself in the middle of a storm. Why was he by himself? Because earlier that morning, he had pranked his class, and when the class was separated into groups, his two teammates decided that it would be funny to leave him alone. If it wasn't for the storm, Naruto would have taken that non-vocal bet in a heartbeat.

"Achoo!" Naruto sniffed for a few seconds as he wiped his nose with a finger. He didn't think he caught a cold from the rain, he rarely got sick; but he had been sneezing off and on for a while now; and just his luck, there was nothing in the pack he had been given by the sensei at the academy to deal with colds.

"Ack!" Naruto froze. He wasn't alone. Looking up, he tried to see what had made the noise. He didn't have to try for too long, because almost as soon as he started looking around for whatever had made the noise, a bright bolt of lightning flashed outside, lighting up the cave for a few seconds. Naruto found himself staring at a red headed man, who had fallen down in the dark.

"U-Um…" Naruto started, startling the man as he began; "did Nicchi tell you about me?" the man stood up and looked at him. He stared at him for a little bit, mainly due to the absence of lightning outside. The man took another step towards him, slowly. Naruto couldn't see how close the man was to him, and he couldn't see what the man had; but he hadn't responded, and that made Naruto wary. Even though the instructors didn't like him all that much, they still answered in some form.

"…To think…" the man started, "after all these years, the most feared man of the Third Great Shinobi War, had a bastard child." Naruto squinted, trying to see the man again. "There isn't a person in Iwa who would miss that hair color…that hair style…" a flash of lightning lit the cave up for a second or two, and Naruto found himself staring at a very sharp rock in the red haired man's right hand. "The Tsuchikage had better give me a bonus for this…Not even he knew about you, boy…You're father must have done something to hide you from our spies…It isn't too often that our spies are fooled."

"What?" Naruto stared before he was cut off as the man slammed his head against the cave wall, the red haired man's left hand around his neck, holding him in place.

"The son of the Yondaime Hokage…left all alone in the wild…" the man laughed cruelly. "Konoha Nin were always stupid…" another bolt of lightning lit the cave up for an instant, and the man could see Naruto's blue eyes open wide in fearful shock. Thankfully the red haired man didn't notice the shock. "Your father was a monster…Killing men and women left and right…He even killed children. My girlfriend's younger sister…She was only ten…and your father cut her to ribbons…All because she didn't surrender." The man squeezed harder, and Naruto tried to stop the man by moving his small hands and grabbing the red haired man's left arm. Suddenly, the man stabbed his right hand with the sharp rock.

"AHH-ACCK!"

"I'm going to enjoy this…" the man chuckled darkly.

00oo00

"Are all of the students accounted for?" Umino Iruka asked Mizuki as the silver haired man entered the classroom.

"As far as I can tell." The silver haired man replied tiredly. "Of course, I've been in the nurses office with Nicchi and…What's his face…You know, the one that no one remembers." The silver haired man shrugged his shoulders.

"Naruto wasn't with them?" Iruka asked. Mizuki shook his head negatively.

"You know he doesn't need any real medical attention when we get done with these exercises." Mizuki half sneered, Iruka nodded. "I thought he would have just come back here."

"Well, he's not. I haven't seen him since this morning when we handed out the packs and let them loose." Iruka muttered. "Crap…Please, please, please Kami-Sama! Don't tell me that moron is still outside!"

"I can go ask Nicchi and…what's his face, if you want." Mizuki said. "Maybe they know."

"Would you?" Mizuki nodded and went back to the nurse's office to speak with the boy- er, two boys.

00o00

"Did you know what happened when I turned fourteen?" Shogo asked the bastard blonde as he fingered the sharp, blood covered rock in his right hand. "I received word that the Yondaime had ripped through an orphanage near, killing almost every single person; man, woman and child…even infants, all because they had let three of our Nin spend the night in the basement. I think all of those who died at his hands in that place would be happy to know that Iwa's finally getting their revenge!" He took the rock and raised it until it was above the boy's head. "There's a saying…and I'm going to fuck it up…but then 'A tooth for a tooth'…" he smiled at the boy for a second, not saying a thing. He felt the boy's fear…and relished in it. "…and…'An eye for an eye!" with that, Shogo brought the sharp blood covered rock down right behind the blonde's left eye and pried. The boy tried to scream…but with the red haired man's left hand around his throat, he was having a hard enough time trying to breathe.

"And I think your eyes will do nicely!"

00oo00

"Mizuki! You're back!" Iruka greeted the silver haired man as he reentered the room. "Do they know where Naruto is?"

"Nope…" Mizuki said in a calm voice. Iruka eyed him oddly. "They abandoned him not even ten minutes after they entered the forest." Iruka's eyes couldn't get much wider than what they were now. "Turns out they didn't like Naruto's prank earlier today and decided to leave him alone in the forest."

"Shit!" Iruka swore. "Our jobs are on the line here, Mizuki!" Mizuki nodded. He knew that the Hokage wouldn't like this. Two members of Konohagakure's academy leaving another member alone in the forest was bad enough, but when that person was the village's Jinchuuriki… "Stay here." Iruka ordered. "I have to report this." With that, the brown haired man left the room in a cloud of smoke.

"Of course you do…" Mizuki sneered quietly. 'Should just let the bastard die.'

00oo00

He didn't have to worry about the boy fleeing now. Not with his nearly severed right hand and his left hand hovering over his left eye socket. 'I've waited so long for this! All of Iwa has!' Shogo told himself as he tore the boy's pants off with an animalistic vigor. "I'm going to make you beg for your mother…" the red haired man said softly. "Then, I'm going to have a little chat with her…Show her your broken, mutilated body…and then…hehehe!"

The boy tried to say something, but he had for all intents and purposes, basically crushed his throat. Shogo smiled. "I wish I had a camera…I'd show Eri…She'd be proud…" With that, he slowly started cutting the boy's left leg…Slicing it in numerous areas. Each time he went over a cut, he dug deeper with the rock…And every time he went deeper, he boy started to shivered in pain…Shogo wanted to savor the feeling…So he went slower…and slower.

00oo00

"I don't care who's fault it is, just find him!" Sarutobi barked to his Jonin and Chuunin. "Bring him back to me…If he is the cause of all this mess, I'll deal with him myself!" the shinobi present nodded. "Now, go!"

00oo00

"This little piggy went to the market…"

Thunk!

"This little piggy stayed home…"

Thunk!

"This little piggy had roast beef…"

Thunk!

"This little piggy had none…"

Thunk!

"And this…And this little piggy went WEE!"

Thunk!

"WEE!"

Thunk!

"WEE!"

Thunk!

"ALL-Thunk- THE-Thunk-WAY-Thunk-HO-Thunk-OO-Thunk-OO-Thun-Ting-OO-TingTing-OO-TingTingTing-OME! ARRRGGG!" -SQUELCH!

00oo00

"Up there!" a dark haired man shouted over the thunder, pointing at a small dark opening in the rock face of the mountain side. "The cave!" he and two other people, their features distorted by the torrents of rain as it fell on them and the ground.

00oo00

"Haah…Haah…Haah…Hah…Hah…Hah…Haa~" Shogo smiled as he admired his work. The boy no longer had any toes. At least not on his left foot. The boy's pinky toe was completely gone…ribbons and blood were only indication that the boy had ever had one in the first place. The boy's left eye? In his mad rage of toe chopping, he seemed to have stabbed the organ. Oh well… "No sense in wasting an eye…" Shogo stated calmly. Looking at the boy, he grabbed his mouth and slapped him awake. "Don't you think?" the boy was on the brink of death…But Shogo wanted more. "Let's not waste it totally…" scooping the bleeding, dirty organ, with his right hand, Shogo forced the boy's mouth open, which turned out to be easy. "Eat up…it'll be the last meal you ever have!" he jammed the organ inside the boy's mouth and forced it shut with a strong uppercut.

He waited…And waited… And waited…Until…

"I said…EAT IT!"

00oo00

"I said…EAT IT!"

The three searchers jumped at the volume of the voice that came from deeper within the cave. The three turned to each other and nodded. They quickly lunged forward. It wasn't too much longer until they found who they had been sent out to find…

…beaten and dirty…being punched by a red haired man. They didn't need to wait any longer to figure out what had been happening.

A white eyed man darted up behind the man and with one touch to back of the head, knocked the man out.

As the red haired man fell, the three rescuers met a sight they had only seen on battlefields.

The blonde boy's right hand was hanging on to his wrist by nerves and small wires made of skin and muscle. From his wrist, they, as a group looked at the boy's left leg. His pants were gone, a quick scan around the cave found them against the opposite wall. The boy's leg looked like it had been in a metal working lathe. Circular incisions that ran all around his leg as well as puncture wounds that worked their way down towards the boy's foot...he had no toes on his left foot…they were lying in a small pile next to the red haired man, all save for the smallest toe, which looked like it had been hit with a sledge hammer.

The last thing they looked at, was the boy's left eye…It was currently falling out of the boy's mouth with several teeth and a wash of blood and spit. It was far beyond repair. The left eye socket was heavily scarred as well. It had not been a one hit wonder, so as to speak.

"We need to get him to the hospital, fast." The white eyed man barked. "One of you, Shinji, take the boy. Ganju, head to the Hokage's office, stat. I'll take this thing to Hokage-Sama." the two men nodded. Ganju, a man with brown hair, left instantly; while Shinji bent down and scooped the boy up before teleporting him and the boy back to the village.

Looking at the red haired man, the white eyed man sneered and kicked the red head in the ribs. "Not even that child deserved what you did to him. I can only hope Kami-Sama has mercy on your soul; because neither the Hokage nor Ibiki will." With that said, the white eyed man grabbed the man, and shunshined back to the village…

End

There you all have it, the beginning of the new Acidic Properties; and as I stated in my note, the beginning was bloody…And yes, if I had really truly wanted to do so, I could have made it even longer and more detailed…but I decided not to. After all, the story doesn't revolve around his attack; but what comes after and how he copes.

Yes, I know the chapter seems kind of rushed…Sorry…Wanted to get it done and over with. Also, the white eyed man was not Hiashi…just to let you all know before I get requests for Naruto/Hinata pairings…This author does not write them.

This will partially follow Canon. The teams, for the most part, will follow the timeline and the Canon sequence. However, there will be divergences.

Naruto's attack style has been already selected, though changes can occur and his weapon of choice has already picked out, minus a few additions that will follow in later chapters. For anyone who may be wondering what kind of combatant Naruto will be…will just have to wait and see…

The next chapter will contain a time-skip almost from the get go with a couple of flash backs, placed when needed. Also, this story will have training regimes, but those will only last a chapter or two, so don't worry.

Now, on to other issues…

I stated that my work for my other stories had been erased. That means there probably won't be a new chapter coming out for those stories, minus Heir of Uzu. However, to keep my brain thinking and working, I have started to write a Tome of sorts. The Attack of the Mental Rodents is a story made up of several ideas of mine, mainly for Naruto though some other genres may be placed in as such; that have never made it.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully the next chapter will be out sooner rather than later.

Death's Spear…