Hello everyone, how are you? It's a me, Scarecrow! For those of you who have never heard of me (say it ain't so!), welcome! For those of you who are familiar with me and my work, welcome back! This is my latest work!

Now, for those who know my other work, you may ask: Scarecrow! You're doing it again! You're starting a new work without working on the ones you already have (which can all be viewed from my profile!), why aren't you working on them?

Well I'll tell you! I'm in college now, in pursuit of higher learning... and it really eats up a lot of my free time. And while I can and do work on my other stories (I've updated several in the last week alone), I figured now might be a good time to get rid of some of those damn plot bunnies that have been lounging around for a while. So epic various one-shots and multi-parters to pop up more frequently.

Besides, if you work on the same thing for too long, it get's stale. Variety is the spice of life! But don't worry, I have never, and will never Abandon a Story! So there.

Because those description boxes are so damn small, here's an extended explanation of what you're going to get into:

Akatsuki captures Naruto and attempts to remove the Kyubi. An alliance of shinobi managed to stop them half way, with explosive results. Naruto's body is left whole and intact, but also an empty shell. His mind and soul, meanwhile, are fractured into a multitude of Narutos, spread across the Elemental Nations. Each one contains a piece of the original Naruto somewhere in them, but also a part of the Kyubi. Each Naruto possesses a distinct personality, as well as a distinct power, granted by the Kyubi. Now, Naruto's friends and foes alike are scouring the land to find the various personas of Naruto. Will Naruto's friends be able to gather them all in one place, then use them to save their Naruto? Will Naruto's enemies capture them and destroy them for their fragment of the Kyubi? Will some of the Narutos even want to help either side, or will they have their own agendas? One thing is certain though: One Naruto was a handful, but when there's a virtual army of them? God help us all...

There, now doesn't that sound interesting? I hope so! This is actually a very special story for me, as it marks my first story that is NOT a crossover! Yay! So, without further ado, let's dive headfirst into the start of... The Many Faces of Naruto Uzumaki!

Chapter One: A Hero, Broken

-A Hero, Broken-

The unthinkable had happened. Despite taking every possible precaution; Naruto Uzumaki, vessel for the Nine-Tailed fox, and son of the Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki (and if Jiraiya's hunch was right, possibly the ninja world's savior), had been kidnapped and was about to die.

In a collected effort that could only have been thought up by a madman, five members of the Akatsuki had struck during one of the many periods Jiraiya was out 'researching'. While Naruto had certainly gotten better training under the Toad Sannin these past two and a half years, he wasn't that strong.

Even when Jiraiya had noticed the destruction the fight was causing, and had come barreling in full sage mode, he was already too late. Naruto had been knocked unconscious, and the bad guys merely had one take him while the others held Jiraiya off. He did manage to kill the criminals; only to find that they had used a special jutsu to implant their powers into others, and that the real things were still at large.

Jiraiya had hardly caught his breath when he tried to track the fiends, but they had gone off in too many different directions, and even when he got a clue, he knew he couldn't go in alone. So he had made a call for reinforcements….

-A Hero, Broken-

With Naruto:

And now here he was, floating in a bubble of energy with his and Kyubi's souls getting torn out. This was a terrible day all around… and it was still early!

"I blame you for this" Kyubi gripped as it thrashed against the pull of the demonic statue.

"Hey! It's not my infinite well of demonic power they're after!" Naruto retorted, trying his best to break the chains that were pulling the life from his and the Kyubi's body. All around him the water in the cave was drying up, the metal bars around the prison had rusted and corroded, and the lights which had been so bright before were starting to dim. Clearly, the two were fighting a losing battle.

"All the same… this really sucks!" Kyubi roared in frustration, a sentiment matched by Naruto. By now the two of them were so close together that their mental bodies were practically mashed into one. This was the final set in the sealing. In a few moments, the two of them would be drawn out completely, and they would be dead.

-A Hero, Broken-

Madara grinned, it was nearly done. Soon, his plan would enter its final stage; and he would place the entire planet under his hypnosis. All this work, all this planning, finally it was going to be finished! Everything was going so well…..

To well…..

Ah hell…

At that moment, everything went pear-shaped. The walls of the cave exploded as every ninja Naruto had ever met or helped came for their hero. Leaf Ninjas, Sand Ninjas, Snow Ninjas, Star Ninjas, etc, etc, all were in attendance. And all of them were ready to throw down. And since they were going against a group of some of the strongest, most destructive ninjas to ever live, they were going to need those numbers.

-A Hero, Broken-

Naruto and Kyubi felt the ripple in the stream that was pulling them, and immediately doubled their efforts. They pulled with all their might, their semi-merged form nearly breaking free from the death grip the statue had on their collective soul/psyche.

Almost, but not quite.

-A Hero, Broken-

Jiraiya roared as he slammed a Rasengan into another puppet, a cloud of sand flying over his shoulder to sweep away the horde of plant men shambling towards him. A blast of wind from Suna's finest blew away the poison mist, while above snow ninjas armed with mechanical wings chased down Akatsuki's mad bomber. Kakashi's hand flickered with a million volts of energy that flash fried the paper that swirled around him. Try as he might though, Konan would disperse without taking a lethal hit. Behind him Neji and Sakura tried to drag away an unconscious Rock Lee and Choji, who had sadly looked directly at Itachi's eyes. Gai would have helped, but Kisame was keeping him pretty busy.

Jiraiya jumped, his strength greatly enhanced by sage mode towards the statue. Ma and Pa sat grimly on his shoulders, doing their best to keep pesky enemies away. There were only two people left still working the demon sealing statue now: a man covered in piercings and a man with a swirly orange mask. With only two left, the drainage was very slow, and he could see Naruto's spirit fighting the hold it had on him.

A strange beast with an eagle's mask barreled towards him, but several star ninjas and samurai baring the armor of Bird Country threw themselves in its path. Behind him, he heard a loud explosion followed by some loud cussing, just as a silver haired head bounced across the ground in front of him, still cursing like a sailor. Jiraiya let none of that deter him though. He couldn't. He would not fail his godson again!

Pein leapt in front of him, and Jiraiya couldn't help but gasp at the sight of those eyes. Pein pointed at him, and suddenly Jiraiya was sent flying forwards towards Pein and his razor sharp sword. Jiraiya spun in mid air though, preparing for battle.

A battle which was entirely subverted as a mass of sand swept Pein up and pulled him away. Jiraiya turned and gapped as Shukaku's massive form loomed over the battle field. The ceiling of the cave the Akatsuki were hiding in had now been partially destroyed to make room for the beast, but with Deidara and Tenten making judicious use of explosives, the whole structure was likely to come down soon anyway. All the more reason why he needed to grab Naruto!

-A Hero, Broken-

Madara growled in frustration. With Shukaku distracting Pein, he was now alone. He brought all of his power to bare on the statue, nearly yanking the entire Kyubi's soul out with a single pull! But he couldn't keep it up, because the brat and the fox were fighting back just as hard. The force on the souls was so great, nearly matching their resistance, that the two souls appeared merged to Madara's ancient eyes. Where once their was a clearly distinguishable blue soul and red soul, was now a soul of light purple.

A nearby explosion made Madara focus again. Who cared what their soul looked like? In a second, Jiraiya would be here to lay the smack down on him, and then no one would be there to operate the sealing, rendering the dangerous process increasingly unstable! He had no idea what would happen if the statue was left completely unattained. Best case scenario, the souls would go back to the body. Worst case… he had no idea.

-A Hero, Broken-

Jiraiya flew towards the Statue, the largest most powerful Rasengan he was capable of making swirling in his hand. At its strength, he could level a mountain, he was sure it could take the statue down. And while he wasn't a hundred percent on whether this would free Naruto or not, it was the best chance he had. The best part? The last Akatsuki member couldn't attack him to stop him without freeing Naruto anyway!

They were going to do it! They were going to win!

-A Hero, Broken-

Shukaku inhaled a massive amount of air, his aim to suck the annoying pierced human closer to him so he could smash him like a bug! And in case that didn't work, he was lacing the air in his body with chakra for one of his Air Bullets.

Pein saw he was only getting closer to the sand demon, but remained nonplussed. In his head, he was busy counting down the seconds until… There!

Throwing his arms forward, he unleashed a massive Shinra Tensei, which struck Shukaku's stomach. Sadly for the 'god of Rain village' this backfired, as it only force Shukaku to fire his deadly projectile sooner then he had planned.

Pein's eyes widened as he realized he couldn't dodge the attack, and wondered if anything would be left of this body once it was struck.

However, moments before collision, a swarm of paper butterflies encircled him and pulled him out of harms way. Pein managed to not outwardly sigh as he watched the massive ball of death sail right past him…

and right towards the statue.

-A Hero, Broken-

Deidara swore loudly as he made the dragon avoid another hit. His masterpiece, while grand and destructive, was not very good for these kinds of battles. Plus, for every explosive he fired down there, some panda looking girl fired another back at him! The nerve!

Down below Kisame was forced into the air as Gai struck him with the full force of his Blazing Peacock technique. Normally he would have loved to cut the jumpsuit wearing monkey down, but some Nara and Aburame had double teamed him while Gai had distracted him and made him drop his sword. He had seen the bun-haired girl fiddling with it, but he knew she would be unable to use it like he could.

With a crash he hit something solid and heard someone swear. Turning his head slightly he saw that he'd managed to hit Deidara's craft. Thankfully he knew the dragon would only explode if Deidara willed it too, or if it was exposed violently to extremely explosive chakra.

Down below, Tenten stepped back from the modified Crow puppet she'd tricked Kankuro into letting her borrow. Until now she had been using it to fire explosive weaponry back up into the sky at the mad bomber on the dragon. Now though, she had made some changes to make the cannon fire something a little… heavier.

She had been forced to use super-durable wires, given that nothing could touch the blade (Kisame excluded of course), and it would drain chakra out of anything around it. Thankfully she had modified the Crow-Cannon (as she had taken to lovingly calling it) to run on good old fashion gunpowder and steel. Anyway, after some effort she had managed to load the legendary sharkskin into her cannon.

Now normally, one might wonder; why bother? The answer was simple: She was going to use it to take down that stupid dragon that had been killing far too many of the allies. If she was right, the sword should suck the chakra right out of the construct, dissipating it harmlessly. Taking careful aim, she lit the fuse; and Fired….

-A Hero, Broken-

You know, very few people really appreciated Murphy, or his law. He worked hard on that law, and dammit he was going to exercise it!

What's that? You DON'T know what Murphy's law is? Why, it's only the greatest law ever written: If something wrong can go wrong, it will!

For instance: Say a perky weapons maker fires a giant sword at an explosive dragon being piloted by a madman?

BUT!

The madman sees the shot coming, and maneuvers his dragon away.

BUT!

The Dragon is slow and cumbersome, and can't make it completely. Instead of either missing it completely or hitting the target, it merely sheered of a wing, sending it into a dive from which it could not escape. Of course, the madman and his passenger jump ship…er… dragon, but the fun's not over, as the dragon's destination is already set: One Large Demon Sealing Statue.

Now, imagine a giant one tailed Demon raccoon, who had drawn the leader of an evil organization into a brawl. Now, imagine he (the demon) fires a large explosive blast of wind at the leader. Now imagine the Leader is saved at the last minute by his side-kick. But oh no! The Wind Blast is still going, and it's going to hit… A Large Demon Sealing Statue! What are the odds?

But oh, what's this? A perverted Toad Themed Sage is flying through the air brandishing a Rasengan the size of a house! Why, with something that powerful, he could lay waste to a mountain! Just what is his target anyway? Oh! Why it's our old friend Large Demon Sealing Statue!

Oh, Murphy.

So tell me: What do you think happens when a giant Rasengan, a Demonic Air Bullet, and an Explosive Dragon all hit the same target at the same time?

-A Hero, Broken-

All fighting stopped as all the ninjas bore witness to the massive combination of three different explosive attacks merge into one as they struck the Demon Statue. Ecept Madara who, despite his stubbornness, vanished away at the last second, further destabilizing the jutsu used to extract the soul and maintain the Statue. The statue glowed an ominous myriad of colors, sending out pulses that rippled through the air and sent shivers down the strongest man's spine.

Jiraiya, seeing the other projectiles coming out from the corner of his eye, quickly substituted with a clone at the last second, saving his life.

Shukaku, after a plea from Gaara, moved to encase the entire blast zone in compact sand. All around him, ninjas followed his example, throwing ever defensive jutsu they knew towards the statue, which was glowing ever brighter. However, there was one thing they still needed:

With no one to maintain the jutsu, the now combined soul of Naruto and Kyubi began to make their way back towards the body, which had entered a near death state in the absence of both souls. They had just started to enter when the statue went critical…

A green blur flashed by, snatching the comatose body out of the air! Maito Gai had save the body of Naruto from certain destruction!

But what about the soul? Well, with time it would make it's way back to the body; as long as nothing served to-

BOOOOOM!

The statue exploded, the energy smashing into the allied defenses, turning the massive sand wall to glass and the stone to molten lava. Anything left behind the shield within the blast area was vaporized. Nothing was left unscathed; not even the soul of a hero.

But a soul, being made of energy, cannot be destroyed. For energy can neither be created, nor destroyed. This is a fundamental law of the universe. And while most ninjas would smirk and scoff at such things, this was not one they could overcome.

That said, just because the massive explosion could not destroy the merged soul of the boy hero and the nine tailed fox, did not mean it could not cause serious harm.

-A Hero, Broken-

There was a scream. A scream unlike anything any of those gathered, from either side, had ever heard before. It was a scream that managed to rise even over the sound of the massive explosion. It sounded bestial, and yet so frighteningly human as to strike a tremor in the soul of all living things.

Behind the defensive wall, where no one could see, the Soul of Naruto Uzumaki had shattered. That scream was his scream, amplified a trillion fold by the Kyubi, who was screaming right alongside him.

Such a blast should be the end of them, of anything in fact. But their will to live was too strong. Kyubi, the ancient demon, was not ready to go quietly into that good night, and was exhausting the powers he had to keep all that he was alive. Naruto, with a drive to continue that went far beyond even 'insane' latched his psyche onto the Kyubi's power, and used its healing properties to keep him alive. But despite their best efforts, they could not hold themselves together forever.

That's not to say it was in vain of course. In a freak event that likely could not be reproduced in a million years, the combined soul split apart. Each fragment should have died right there; but they didn't. Instead, each fragment contained a small portion of both Naruto and the Kyubi's combined psyche! From there, the 'shards' rode the explosion to safety; phasing right through the shield and out of the cave to parts beyond…

-A Hero, Broken-

The assembled ninjas couldn't do more then gape at the strange and magnificent sight as what looked like a swarm of shooting starts shot out into the sky, traveling faster then most could see.

When it finally stopped, the ninjas let their guards down. The massive shield fell, revealing the remains of the Sealing Statue, or rather the lack of remains. Even the mighty statue couldn't have survived such a blast.

Looking around, Jiraiya saw the Akatsuki fleeing. Kakuzu was carrying the head of the silver haired man. Konan was flying away with Nagato. Zetsu had fused back into the ground. Deidara was flying away with Kisame and Sasori. He didn't know where Itachi had gotten off too; he might have left before the explosion started.

"Jiraiya-sama! Hurry!" he heard the voice of his student's teammate call him. Turning, he saw that Naruto's body was being surrounded by medics, each trying to make sure Naruto was alright. He sighed; glad it was over. They had won, and Naruto was going to be alright.

-A Hero, Broken-

One Month Later:

Naruto was not alright.

Ever since the day where an army of allies had laid waste to the Akatsuki sealing statue, he had been in a coma. All his vital signs were in order, but in the words of Inochi Yamanaka: "The lights are on, but nobody's home." When the mind walker had entered Naruto's mind, all he had found was a wrecked sewer system, a destroyed cage, and a fraction of the Nine-Tails power (but no Kyubi itself).

Tsunade was doing all she could, as were most medics that worked on the boy. While Naruto's reputation in Konoha may not have always been stellar, abroad he was a walking miracle. All the places Naruto had helped were willing to give whatever they could, as long as it helped Naruto. This did make some of the other countries uneasy (especially the Cloud and Stone village), but for now they weren't going to attack.

Sadly, things weren't looking good for Naruto. There was no way of knowing if he would recover, or if he was going to stay a vegetable. The only theory they had come up with so far that made any sense, was that part of Naruto's mind and soul had been lost in the explosion. And frankly, how were you supposed to heal that?

The news depressed a lot of Naruto's friends, and Jiraiya wasn't ashamed to admit he cried a little at the thought of his godson never waking up. But they soon picked themselves up. Naruto wouldn't want them to act this way! He wouldn't give up if it was them! So they wouldn't either! The Toad Sage had taken that energy to heart, and set out on a journey: the world was a big place; full of untapped resources. If there was anything that could help his godson, he was going to find it! Nothing would stop him! He would not fail! Not again!

-A Hero, Broken-

Somewhere in Fire Country:

A falling star touched the earth. It had been flying for so long, in so much pain, that it hadn't been able to land before. But he was better now. Stronger.

Naruto opened his eyes, and gave a smirk. Taking a deep breath, he basked in the nature around him. "So I am the first, huh?" he asked the air. The air moved in a gentle breeze, and he closed his eyes as he felt the sounds and smells of nature whisk around him.

But that was not the only thing he felt: in the darkness of his mind, he felt a mental ping go off every few seconds as more and more started to appear. However, he knew he was correct in his statement.

"But of course I'm the first" he said, running his fingers through his hair "Who else could be?" and with that, he began a purposeful stride through his woodland surroundings, determined to find civilization.

Somewhere in Earth Country:

Oh dear, oh goodness, where was he? Naruto bit his lip as he looked around his unfamiliar surroundings. He had no idea where he was, and he was all alone, and it was getting dark, and… and…

"I don't know how to deal with any of this!" he screamed to the sky, only to flinch as his echo bounced off the walls of the canyon he was in. He shuddered, wrapping his arms tightly around himself, before slowly shuffling off in a random direction…

Somewhere in Lightning Country:

On the tallest mountain peak of the tallest mountain, Naruto lay on the ground. He was curled up into a ball, sobbing for all he was worth. His cries echoed through the mountains, making those below shiver as they felt what must be a very depressed mountain spirit cry out in suffering…

Somewhere in Water Country:

Pain. All he knew was pain! It was coated his every waking though, and surged through every synapse of his mind! Never stopping, never ceasing, only growing in intensity. Pain was all he knew. Pain was all he had ever know. How could he get the pain to stop?

Somewhere in Wind Country:

Naruto whistled a merry tune as he skipped across the sand. He had woken up to some beautiful sunshine and some delightful sand, that he just had to stop and make a sand castle! After that, he figured maybe he could find someone to share this delightful day with, and had begun traversing the majestic desert in search of company.

Across the whole of the Elemental Countries:

Over and over again they appeared. As the falling stars touched down, the took the form of their past life; one Naruto Uzumaki. But though each appeared the same, they were all distinctly different. Their numbers were hard to pin down, as no one was there to see all of their 'births', and in fact no one was yet aware of their existence!

That would all change soon enough.

End Chapter

BOOM! So what do you think? Was it good? I hope so! As you can see, we now have a currently unknown amount of faux-Narutos running around, each representing a different aspect or emotion of his personality. Right now, nobody even knows they exist, but it won't be that way for long!

If you enjoyed what you read, please review. If you didn't, well I'm sorry to here that. Please, no flames. That said, I hope to see you all back for chapter two, when we get first contact with the Narutos and the rest of the world!

Until Next Time...