DISCLAIMER

A disclaimer for the ages….you know why ….

I do not own Naruto or any of the characters nor am I affiliated with anyone who does.

Chapter 1

The only thing that stood between the Hidden Leaf and Rido Mutsuhito now was this rogue ninja blocking her path. This was not the first rouge shinobi that she had ever encountered, but they never failed to shake her courage. But she couldn't afford to become cowardly now. She had to get to the Uzumaki. If she failed her mission she would never be able to return to her clan. The ninja in her path now, though, had no visible intention of letting her go. This made her edgy if anything. She knew that they were going to have to fight which that meant that she was going to have to use her power. The mere thought of awakening the hideous sentinel inside of her made her deeply nauseous. But some things could not be avoided. Slowly, Rido drew her kunai, not wanting her opponent to think that she was going to attack.

The ninja tensed in response preparing for defense. But to his great shock, Rido drew the knife to her own throat, slicing an opening horizontally from which blood poured down her clothes. This surprising revelation froze the rouge ninja in curiosity. Good, Rido thought, he's hesitating. The blood poured over the ground quickly, gathering in a dark pool by her feet. Then it rose, encircling her body in a dark spiral of dripping blood.

The ninja before her jumped in surprise at the sight of the living blood surrounding her. Rido could feel the sentinel making itself known, maneuvering its way into the front of her soul and spilling its chakra into hers. Her vision blurred, losing first its color and then all of its light. Soon she was blind, but she could sense the ninja still standing before her. She knew better where he was now than when she could see. His soul pulsed like a beckon in the darkness of her mind. The sentinel and her were one now, its manic lust for death and blood enveloped her mind.

Though she struggled to keep her sanity in the light of the sentinel's ferocious rage, Rido was soon a slave to the beast within her, nothing but a conscious voice of reason in the back of her own mind. The sentinel roared a bloodthirsty rasp of anger before lunging at the terrified ninja who was making a futile retreat. The kill was quick; a simple snap of the neck, nothing more than a lion would do to an antelope.

That part could be dealt with.

What couldn't be shaken off was the way the sentinel feasted on the man, draining him first of blood then off all but the shells of his bones. Her vision usually returned by this time which was a horrific thing to endure. She had no control of her body still, and was forced to watch as the sentinel forced her to consume human flesh.

Of course, the sentinel hadn't always been inside of her. But that was a time long before the fifteenth member of the Mortality Association decided to have Rido injected with the sentinel as a warning to the rest of her clan who he thought were becoming to powerful.

Rido had to deal with the beast ever since then, but now there was hope. It was said that the guardian sentinel of the nine-tailed fox demon would be at peace once its purpose was served. Now Rido had not the slightest idea what that purpose was, but she was willing to try anything. There was nothing that she would sacrifice to stop the murderous sentinel inside her.

Kakashi watched as Naruto and Sasuke spared violently, obviously using more enthusiasm than necessary for a simple sparing match. But as Kakashi had dually noted, Naruto and Sasuke often lost their heads when they were fighting each other. With Naruto it was somewhat amusing when he would try so hard. But when it came to Sasuke, his over enthusiasm worried Kakashi. Not for Naurto's safety—which would be a well needed ego deflator if Sasuke hurt him—but the fact that he was so desperate for power. For vengeance.

That kind of reasoning is what created shinobi like Orochimaru. Ninja's so desperate for power that they would betray their own village to get it. Kakashi didn't need the all-seeing Sharingan to see that Sasuke's path was leading straight to darkness.

"All right, that's enough." Kakashi stated.

Sasuke stopped before Naruto did, causing him to land an idle punch in Sasuke's side.

"What the hell, idiot?" Sasuke demanded returning the blow with much more force.

Naruto stumbled backward almost tumbling into the raging river that encircled the training meadow. Sakura watched in amusement thinking of how strong Sasuke was instead of Naurto's safety, which was just as well considering that Sasuke was just about all Sakura ever thought about.

"Damn it Sasuke! It was an accident you bastard!" Naruto yelled. He hated it especially when Sasuke made him look bad in front of Sakura-chan.

"Calm down Naruto. It's stupid to get so angry over nothing. No wonder you're so bad at controlling your stamina and mastering jutsus. You waste all your energy on ranting". Kakashi said matter-o-factly.

Naruto grunted in response and crossed his arms defiantly. Kakashi wondered if he would ever be praised for having to deal with someone as…full of life…as Naruto on a daily basis. Instead of dwelling on that thought, he resumed his spot in Come Come Paradise while his students recharged.

"Can we go now sensei?" Sasuke asked as if for once in his life he had something better to do than training.

"Sure," Kakashi replied, waving them off. Whatever Sasuke was up to was none of his business anyway. If he stirred up trouble for the village then Ichiro would deal with him.

Naruto was, of course, in no hurry to get home. There was never anyone waiting for him, so instead he strayed into the woods to practice his punches on the trees, trying to crack them with shear force.

The air grew orange with the sun's setting rays, telling Naruto that it was time to go home. He'd been making no headway with the tree splitting anyway so going home might have been a good idea.

He had the key halfway in his door before it was flung open by the other side. It took Naruto a while to register what happened while he tried to fit his key into the lock that wasn't there anymore. Rido had little patients with such foolishness, especially when she was so close to her objective.

"Naruto?" she asked eagerly.

He jumped; completely startled by the person that was clearly standing right in front of him. He took in the girl standing in the doorway to his house. But before he could protest her intrusion he noticed that she was very striking, with bizarre red pupils. But Naruto was used to weird eyes, thinking of Hyuuga Neji and that Gaara. They booth had weird eyes.

And they were both very dangerous.

Naruto became defensive, quickly pulling a kunai to Rido's throat. Rido tensed. Cutting her there would do nothing but kill him instead of her but Naruto didn't know this. Rido put both hands up in surrender.

"I'm sorry," Rido said quickly.

Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"Please, I didn't mean to…I don't want to hurt you…I just…" Damn it, why hadn't Rido thought of this part before? Naruto kept the kunai pressed dangerously close to her throat. Please don't cut me, she thought hard.

Finally Naruto relaxed and crossed his arms. What did this girl want? Maybe she was some kind of weirdo stalker. It was possible. Sasuke had a stalker so it only made sense that he did. "What are you doing in my house? Are you some crazy stalker? Huh?"

Does he really believe that anyone would want to stalk him? Rido thought. But she had to be as kind to Naruto as possible if she was going to get what she wanted. She smiled shyly.

"No, I'm not. Sorry for breaking into your home Naruto-sama, but when nobody answered…well there's no excuse. Can you forgive a foolish girl?"

But Naruto wasn't listening. He was still hung up on the fact that she called him sama.

"Naruto-sama? Are you mad?"

Naruto didn't feel mad. But he tried to play up his new position as Naruto -sama. He put his hand together as if about to perform a jutsu and growled. "This is what happens when you mess with lord Uzumaki Naruto-sama! Bow to me and I may forgive you."

Is this guy for real? Rido thought sourly. She wasn't one to bow to just anybody but she figured she should make an exception. If the Uzumaki wouldn't befriend her than she would have to return home a failure. How could she face her clan? Rido bowed deeply and awaited him to order her to rise.

It was good thing that Rido's head was down so that she didn't catch Naruto busting a gut—like he had one to spare. "Rise, you are spared…this time."

Rido stood up and stared at Naruto. He was grinning an annoying foolish smile that made her want to laugh and sigh at the same time.

"Hey, you're really not a crazy stalker are you?" Naruto asked slyly.

"No,"

"Good. Then to pay for my emotional distress of having my house broken into, you can buy me ramen!"