A/N: This story was originally done as an interlude for my story 'A change in scenery', it explains some of Naruto's past and his relationship with Tai (a OC), however I didn't really liked the way it went with the rest of the story so I decided to put it as a separate piece, but you don't really need to read one to understand the other.

A change in scenery

Memories

A lonely figure stood in the middle of a field of corpses staring, with unseeing eyes, into the darkness of the night.

Why did you do it?

On closer inspection, the first thing that would jump to attention would be the age of the figure: only a kid, not older than 8 maybe younger.

Why did you kill them?

However, even more shocking was that he and his clothes seemed to be covered in blood, to the point where his blond hair seemed red... a disturbing image.

Was it revenge? Was it fear?

Suddenly the child moved forward, not really knowing where he was heading but desperated to leave the cursed place.

Can you see them? Can you hear them?

However what little strength was holding the kid until this point seemed to had finally left his body.

Can you understand them? Are you scared?

He was left on his knees, head held in his hands and tears streaming across his face, and his mind trapped in the memories of how he ended up in this position in the first place.}

Can you forget them? Can you ever?

Konohagakure, or the village hidden in the leaves, was a beautiful and peaceful place, well at least it was peaceful for a ninja village, however in the last years they had been having problems with a couple of other villages, it wasn't a full out war…yet.

It had all started with a kidnapping attempt on the heiress of the Hyuga clan, an attempt because the man had been killed before he could even make it out of the house. However that had started a series of disagreements between Konoha and Kumo (the responsible for the kidnapping) since Konoha refused to punish a father for protecting his daughter like Kumo demanded, so both villages ended up on less than friendly terms.

The problem became only worst when a group of Iwa-nin known simply as the assassins, who had at one point fought (and lost) in the Third Great Shinobi World War, decided to join the fight.

This group was composed from 7 people, all of which were famous for their sadistic natures, bloodlust and, as a consequence of the war, for their hate of certain famous blond-nin that just happened to be Konoha's current leader. So, they were more than willing to accept any excuse to cause problems for the current Hokage and thus they decided to rejoined and offered their services to Kumo, all of which, basically, resulted in an increasing number of failed missions and deaths among Konoha's shinobi ranks

Naruto Namikaze was the only son of Minato Namikaze, the Hokage of Konoha, and an all time prodigy, having gained the title of genin at the age of 5 and having become a chuunin at the age of 7, however, because of his age, he wasn't assigned any particular high ranked mission...

Sure he had already done a few B-ranked missions, but not really anything too dangerous, however, because of the current political moment and the lack of available high-ranked ninjas, when he was 8 his superiors decided he was ready for more difficult missions and Naruto, although would had never said it at loud, was scared shitless about it.

It wasn't that he didn't felt ready, after all he had spent half his life training for this, so he was pretty sure he could hold his own in a fight, but he had never killed anyone and he hadn't really seen many battles, however, due to the times, he was judged ready to handle more difficult missions, and his teacher, Itachi Uchiha, had agreed, so he was assigned an A ranked mission, even if it was still an easy one.

Naruto was a special type of shinobi, mainly due to his small age but it was also because of his father, after all the son of the yellow flash needed special protection.

For as long as Naruto could remembered, he had had a team of ANBU working as his guards and bodyguards, during his early childhood they were his babysitters and later his playing partners, they had saved him from a few assassinations attempts, but normally that type of things were stopped long before they ever became a real threat to him

Eventually, when Naruto was old enough to understand what his father, bodyguards, brothers, sisters, uncle and aunt (and basically everyone he knew) did for a living and he decided that he was going to do that too, he had convinced his bodyguards to be his training partners and teachers. This, ultimately, led to him convincing his father that he was ready to join the ninja academy when he was 4 years old, and for him to graduate only a year later.

Even after becoming a genin Naruto was still highly protected, although the ANBU team was mostly reassigned, unless there was some emergency or special circumstance, he was still constantly guarded, especially given his 'special circumstances' which was code for 'he is still too young to do any dangerous work even if he has the training and power to do it'.

Given his age, Naruto wasn't placed in a normal 4 men team, with two other genin's and a jounin teacher, instead he was put into a special unit, under the supervision of his older brother Kakashi, and with two chuunin, Kurenai and Hayate, as his part time teachers and partners.

The reasons for this became obvious once he started his training, while both chuunin could learnt a different number of techniques from Kakashi, and they could get experience doing different missions with other teams, Naruto was trained by both of them in their respective areas of expertise: Kurenai trained him in genjutsu, and, Hayate taught him how to handle a sword and other weapons.

And because Kakashi needed to supervise them, he couldn't join the ANBU, something the Hokage had been trying to discourage for years, and he actually got some teaching experience, without having to inflict him on some poor unsuspected genin team. So overall everyone was happy, well Kakashi wasn't completely happy but it was for the best.

After a while, Naruto's training became more diverse, and he was helped along by different teachers. By the time he managed to reach the chuunin status, he was considered an expert in genjutsu, he had more than a fairly good grasp in taijutsu and he was starting to develop his ninjutsu arsenal. At this point he was also beginning to work on his personal fighting style and he already had a good idea of how he wanted to develop it.

Becoming a chuunin also forced him to work with a different teacher, this time in an apprentice relationship, meaning he was his only student, this was done for several reasons, on one hand the conflict with cloud was reaching a critic level and after two years of working personally with Kakashi, Kurenai and Hayate were considered part of the elite ninjas from the village, and, thus were needed in the field with increasingly frequency.

Additionally, Kakashi was regularly asked to help in the more dangerous missions, making it almost impossible for him to continuing supervising Naruto's training.

So once he became a chuunin, at the age of 7, he was introduced to his new teacher and although he didn't knew it then, his new big brother and closest confident, Uchiha Itachi prodigy and heir of the Uchiha family.

Itachi, was 12 at the time and already a Jounin, mainly because Minato refused to even contemplate the possibility of him joining ANBU forcing him to increase his status in order to get higher ranked missions. He was already deemed as one of the more powerful ninjas of the village, but, since his father was trying to shield him as much as possible from dangerous missions he wasn't constantly in the field and was, therefore, perfect to help in Naruto's training.

Naruto and Itachi quickly became close friends, and Itachi did what he could to protect Naruto and treated him as some sort of surrogate younger brother. During this time Naruto continued working on his genjutsu and taijutsu training, while obtaining a big arsenal of jutsus thanks to Itachi, and a year later he was finally ready for a big mission…at least that's what they told him.

Either way, the mission was a joint mission and for a good part of it Itachi would join his team: the group of 10 ninjas would travel together until they reached the border of fire country, here they would split, half of them would head to the Land of Earth where they were going to attack an enemy camp believed to belong to the 'assassins', this half included the stronger fighters, Itachi included.

The other half would head to grass country where some of their contacts were located, this is the group that included Naruto, this part of the mission wasn't particularly difficult however the chance of meeting enemy ninjas was high, thus the reason for the ranking.

What are you waiting for? Nobody is coming…

'I know that' the small blood covered kid said to the cold night, while trying to find the strength to get up of the floor.

Is there anyone left? Would they come for you if there are?

'They will' he said, trying to believe it himself and desperately trying not to think of the faces of the nameless bodies that surrounded him.

But you left them die…

'I tried…I fought'

And yet they died, and you're still here…

'I defeated them…in the end'

How many? How many did you killed?

…'I don't know'…the boy finally whispered back to the night, letting the memories rise again and surrendering to the darkness of the night.

The first part of the mission went without a hitch and by the time they split Naruto was feeling more relaxed about the whole thing, his group consisted on 1 jounin and 4 chuunin (including him).

The Jounin name was Kaza, he had red hair, brown eyes and specialized in close range fighting, he was a funny guy and Naruto knew he would enjoy his company having already done a couple of missions with him in the past, Ami was the medic of the team and the one Naruto was more familiar with, she was a close friend and as far as Naruto knew an amazing medic-nin, Kaede and Jin completed the team and although he hadn't work with them he knew from their files that they were strong shinobi with a good amount of experience, at the end he was the rookie of the team and that didn't really helped his nerves.

It took them a couple of days to reach the contact group, which consisted on 3 ninjas, Naruto didn't knew any of them but apparently Kaza knew the leader and they all passed the ID check, however as soon as they made contact with them Naruto couldn't help but feel unease about the mission and his instincts seemed to scream at him that there was something wrong.

However seeing as this was Naruto's first high ranked mission and none of his partners were reacting to whatever his instinct were trying to warn him about, he blamed the feeling on his own nerves and decided to ignore it, pushing the feeling away and focusing on the rest of the mission.

The group had important info about the possible locations of a couple of enemy camps and more importantly about a possible attack site; however they had blown their cover in order to get this information and if they wanted to escape without confrontation they needed to head back, and fast.

After traveling all day the group finally set up camp in the middle of the forest using the trees for protection, Naruto was having dinner while taking to one of the members of the spy team, the man was really nice and seem to be in an extremely cheerful mood.

The man, Taki, was particularly interested in the stories about Naruto childhood, apparently enjoying the memories of an easy time, and he spent some time hearing Naruto talking about his family and the village, never losing his cheerful smile or his friendly air, but Naruto still felt strange…so he avoided many details, things that weren't really important to anyone living in the village but that could be useful to an outsider.

"So tell me, Naruto-kun, what did your father felt about sending you to a mission like this? If you were my child I don't think I would had allowed you to come" asked Taki, when Naruto was done explaining about his special training in his early childhood, while skipping over big part of his training and almost never mentioning his trainers.

"Well he wasn't really happy, but he said he trusted me and that he knew I would do my duty" Naruto tried to explain without letting the conversation get too personal and looking around the camp while he did it, Ami was organizing her supplies and Jin seemed to be on guard duty but the others were talking with their new partners like he was, so why did he feel like he was about to enter a fight? "In the end he said I was his son but also a ninja, so he wouldn't stand in my path" Naruto finished answering seemingly unperturbed, or at least making a very good show for it.

"Well I guess I can understand his attitude, but I'm sure he taught you some techniques to help you in case of a fight…I mean he wouldn't leave you unprepared, would he?"

"I guess…he isn't the one currently training me though" Naruto tried to evade the question, he didn't want to explain he was being taught one of his father especial techniques so he hoped to leave it at that "What about you do you have any special techniques?" Naruto tried to change the subject

Taki seemed to think his answer for a while but he finally replied "Of course I do Naruto-kun, someday I'll show them to you" and then continued on a different subject.

After a while they finally settled down for the night taking turns to keep guard, Naruto would take the first shift and Kaza the last. By the time Naruto went to sleep, leaving Kaede guarding the camp, he was having troubles suppressing the desire to run away from that place and back to the village as fast as he could, but he ignored it in favor of resting for a while.

It was on the early hours of the morning when the feeling in the pit of Naruto's stomach became too much for him to stay in place, so trying to ease his mind he decided to take a look around the camp, coming out of his tent he spotted Ami sitting in one lower branch of a tree. However, before he could reach her his instincts went into overdrive and finally acknowledging he couldn't keep ignoring them he reacted and moved out of the way just in time to avoid being hit in the back with a sword.

Before he was even done dodging the slash someone aimed a kick to his side and he was force to step back, using his wind chakra to push himself out of the way in time, only to be forced to use kawarimi to escape a rain of kunai.

When he turned around he found himself coming face to face with Taki, the man was panting and had a couple of cuts in his arms and face and he immediately shift his position to cover Naruto.

However having already decided that his instincts shouldn't be ignored, Naruto couldn't shake his suspicions and instead of shifting his own stance he stepped back looking for some sort of coverage, Taki looked at him curiously for only a second before he smiled in a somewhat disturbed way and exclaimed in a voice full of happiness "You have good instincts Naruto-kun, just like your father" Naruto's back was pressed against a tree and his eyes were darting around trying to get a hold of his situation.

"Don't worry Naruto-kun, none of your comrades are dead…yet" 'Taki' finished with a crazy smile.

As far as Naruto could figure out from the state of things, they had somehow been betrayed by the spy team, or the spy team had been infiltrated since the beginning and the real spies were dead, either way that meant they were currently facing an unknown amount of enemies, with three being the minimum, all of them with unknown abilities and they had used an advantage position to attack…so yeah, it looked bad.

The rest of his team was out of his reach, however he knew than in combat abilities he was one of the weakest of the team, since he had only a small amount of real experience, so he hoped they were better off than him. Finally establishing there weren't more enemies close enough to interfere, he decided to face 'Taki' and try to get away far enough to regroup, so done with his assessment …

He aimed a kick at the side of the man's head, however the man seem to easily avoid the move but made no effort to retaliate or even to assume a defensive position, 'Taki' instead seemed happy to dodge the blows and did not even seemed to be making an effort or losing that infuriating happy smile in his face "That is good Naruto-kun, you're very fast for your age but I'm not your every day opponent" 'Taki' said not pausing his movements or slowing in the least.

"I wonder if your friends are as good as you, I hope they are this could prove very entertaining" suddenly there was some sort of whistling sound that seemed to meant something to 'Taki' because his posture changed slightly and he caught Naruto's leg before asking in an over cheerful voice "I'm sorry to cut this short Naruto-kun, would you mind terribly coming with me to my camp?" and before Naruto could react he felt a blade pressing on his neck and another one in his back.

"It's just that your friends have already lost and my partners are in something of a hurry…but don't worry Naruto-kun, I'll make sure you feel welcomed in my camp…you'll be begging for hell soon" and just like that 'Taki's' face and body seemed to melt away leaving in his place a man he had only heard in his father's stories Tai Zera, an S rank missing-nin with a love for blood and torture… one of the assassins.

Why did they deserve to die?

'They were my enemies' Naruto answered back to the blood covered night.

And you were theirs…

'I won the fight'

And that gives you the right to take their lives?

'It was me or them…I had no other choice'

And that makes it Ok?

'They killed my friends…they would have kill me'

So you killed them instead?

'I just fought…I just won'

Are you happy because of that? Does it matter to you? To them?

'It matters because I'm alive…and they're not' the blond boy explained to the darkness, not really understanding it himself.

Naruto was soon bound and dragged into the forest, while the made the way back to the rest of his team and he couldn't help but worry about them, however he soon confirmed that Tai was right: they were alive, Kaze was the only one unconscious by the time they reach them, however most of them had some time of injury.

Ami, like himself, seemed to had only a couple of bruises but Kaede had a big slash on his arm and Jin's leg was bleeding at an alarming rate, Kaze looked as if he had been attacked by the back and appeared to be the one in the worst condition, to Naruto's surprise one of the enemy ninjas cured the worst of the injuries and made sure they would survive, however he was only relieved for a second before Tai interrupted him in his ever cheerful tone "We wouldn't want them to die on us, before we get to have our fun…don't worry Naruto-kun we'll let you watch"

Once they were done with the preparations and medical treatment they took them all to some sort of clearing where their camp seemed to be located. The camp was big…they were at least 50 ninjas and the 3 assassins, Naruto and his team were immediately put into an empty tent, but they were still bound although they were left seemingly alone, the team wasted no time in trying to figure out a plan for getting out of that place.

First they tried to reconstruct exactly what happen before they were captured, apparently Naruto was the first that was attacked and while he was fighting Tai, the rest of the team were also surrounded and ambushed, they might had have a chance if they weren't outnumber 2 to 1 and dealing with a couple of S-rank criminals, in the end there wasn't much they could do and when Kaze was defeated by one of the assassins the fight was over in a couple of minutes.

One thing that was clear is that they needed to escape now or their chances of making it back home were close to zero, there wasn't any other choice if they wanted to survive, and the only problem was how would they do it?

However before they could do much Naruto was taken again by a couple of ninjas and Tai, this time to a different tent where he was bound to a chair and gagged. Tai started chatting happily, sounding as if they were having a tea party "You know Naruto-kun it's really a shame when the son has to pay for his father's mistakes, but as long as I get to hurt him, anything else doesn't really matter…" and on and on he went, Naruto was starting to think this was some sort of plot to make him mad and it was working, he was really starting to hate the way Tai said 'Naruto-kun' every other sentence.

After some amount of time although Naruto could swear they had been in that tent for a couple of days, anyway after a while a couple of ninjas dragged Jin in, and the way that Tai practically vibrate with happiness was making Naruto sick "Oh, it seems that we had been finally joined by or other guest. You see Naruto-kun, if you are anything like your father, anything I do to you would only cause you to fight harder and, as much fun as that is, we don't have the time at the moment Naruto-kun. So I think maybe our friend here would be willing to help, don't you think Naruto-kun?"

Naruto felt his blood turn cold and he could heard a buzzing sound in his ears, if he was capable he would have screamed, 'he couldn't, he wouldn't'…but he did and Naruto was forced to watch, incapable of doing anything to help and he felt sick just watching… he didn't know how much time passed before death finally claimed Jin but he was forever grateful that it did, only to regret it a second later when Kaede was brought…

For the first time in his life Naruto felt hate, pure and cold hate, it wasn't rage, it wasn't sadness it was hate…he hated Tai, with every part of his body and soul; he couldn't find a way to describe the feeling, he just wanted to make Tai suffer and he just wanted him to pay for what he did, and yet there was nothing he could do except sit there and watch while Kaede was tortured and finally released into the welcoming arms of death and Ami was forced to take her place, all the while hoping against hope that he would find a way to take Tai with him to hell when his turn came.

And then someone answered his prayers, the sounds of a fight were heard, Tai lost his focus and Ami somehow managed to free herself and instead of running or even attacking, she used the little time she had freeing Naruto only too surrender to her death a moment later, Naruto fought against what he wanted to do with almost every fiber in his being: fighting Tai, but a voice in the back of his mind begged him to not waste Ami's sacrifice and some sane part of his mind knew he wouldn't win, not against an S-class criminal…not yet.

Naruto ran as fast as he could (which was very fast) but he wasn't sure of where to go, suddenly he found himself in the middle of a battle, one way or another Itachi and his team had found a way to track them and where currently engaged in a battle against the army of ninjas.

Suddenly Naruto was roughly pushed aside and when he managed to look up, he saw and image that would forever stay in his nightmares: Kaze had been freed and judging by the number of new wounds in his body he had been fighting and in the second that it took Naruto to understand what was happening, in the second Tai had used to deliver a final blow, Kaze had stood in front of him and taken the lethal wound in his place.

Before Tai could attack again, Itachi had force him into a separate fight and as they move further away, Naruto suddenly felt as if every sound disappeared and everything just stood still for a moment, he took the form of the body lying at his feet, the form of his friend and savior; he looked around the battle realizing the number of enemy ninja was still close to 30 and the number of allies down to him and a couple of jounins, the others were either dead , incapacitated or like Itachi had moved further away, he took a couple of shaky breaths and managed to rise to his feet, he got hold of a katana and let the world rush back in.

He was never really sure of how he did it; he had been trying for years to develop his own fighting style and hadn't managed to place the final piece of the puzzle to complete it, but somehow being there, seeing it all, made all the difference to him and he was finally able to use it.

He wasn't ever sure for how long he fought, but it was dark by the time the fight was over.

He wasn't really sure how many lives he ended but he was covered in blood from head to toes and the field was covered in bodies.

He was never sure for how long he stood there watching without seeing.

When he finally forced himself to move away he fell to his knees and wasn't sure he was ever going to manage to get up again, he could only burry his head in his hands and pray that he would wake up from this nightmare.

He wasn't even sure why he was crying, for whom was he crying? For his friends, for his enemies, for himself…

You're crying because you can and they can't…

Suddenly there was a hand in his shoulder and looking up, he saw Itachi's always impassive face, but his eyes were burning with grief and Naruto felt into his embrace, nothing was said and they didn't needed to say anything, they just lay there with Naruto crying for all that was lost and Itachi holding him while he did it.

You're crying because you can feel, and that is all that matters…

Two other Jounins joined them, no one else from their side had made it, they took the bodies of their allies and burnt the rest, Tai and one of the other assassins had managed to escape, and only one of the assassins had died that day.

You can burn the bodies but their memories remain…

The next day they finally headed home, Naruto was still trying to come to terms with what had happened, he still didn't understood most of it and he was still trying to make sense of what he had done… but he wanted to be with his family and friends, he wanted to be home.

…You can mourn their deaths but what matters is to honor their lives

That night in the middle of that field, Naruto's dream was born, he wanted to be strong…strong enough to protect the ones important to him, like Ami did…like Kaze did…like Itachi did.

That night in the middle of that field of bodies, a legend was born 'The crimson ghost', the ninja who defeated an army of enemies when he was only 8 years old.

That night in the middle of the darkness a part of Naruto was forever lost, that night Naruto learn to kill and to hate; things a child couldn't learn and still be a child.

That night in the middle of fallen allies and enemies something grew inside Naruto, because you can lose anything without gaining something back and Naruto gained strength from the ones that fell.

That night in the middle of nowhere dozens of lives ended before the dawn, an army was defeated by a few men, a child was killed by his own choices, a warrior was born from the blood of enemies and allies, and when the light finally reached them, all that was left behind was a blood covered field.