The Guardian

A/N: So, this is an AU, so don't go bug me about stuff that isn't canon. Naruto here has red hair, because Uzumaki are awesome. Anything else will be explained as the story goes.

The Uzumaki where known for their prolonged life and incredible healing factor. That and their prowess in the sealing arts placed them as one of the strongest clans in all of the elemental nations. Their swordsman ship was feared by everyone who had survived being at the end of their blades and the humongous amount of chakra they naturally held dwarfed even the most powerful of ninja.

A trademark trait of theirs: Blood red hair, a trait so dominantly engraved in their blood, even the most distant relatives of theirs would still possess deep red hair. Mind you, there were still exceptions, but everyone from the so-called royal line was sure to receive the red hair gene. Exceptions were those children whose parents were an Uzumaki and someone with a bloodline. For whatever reason a bloodline cancled the red hair gene as well as the ability to utilize any of the other Uzumaki bloodline abilities, such as the Adamantine Chains, the Red Lightning (a special type of Lightning Release) and the Healing Blood.

But the Uzumaki had a secret. A very well guarded one. Every 8th generation, an Uzumaki would be born, known to his clan as The Guardian.

Born as such, things differed greatly from the norm, even by Uzumaki standards. For one, their chakra was not to be compared to anybody else's. To get to the point, it had zero offensive capabilities, meaning no nature manipulation at all. The chakra refused to be used in any offensive way, instead it was pure life energy. The Guardians among the Uzumaki were the best medics ever known to mankind. Their ability to heal even mortal wounds and regrow whole limbs to their patients was kept a closely guarded secret. They could fully enhance their bodies to take near infinite amounts of damage, making themselves the ultimate shield to their people. And so much more, but it all was buried in the ruins of Uzushio.

But their numbers were small, had always been. At the time of the invasion of Uzushiogakure, there were but three guardians, and even tough they protected their people beyond what anyone else could have done, they were felled by the overwhelming number of shinobi that had attacked them. No one survived. No one but Kushina Uzumaki, princess of the whirlpool country and at the time of the invasion a resident of Konohagakure, and, as it came to pass, a child of the seventh generation.

Her son, Uzumaki Naruto, was born a Guardian.

But he did not know that, no one did. His mother and father died in the attack of the nine tailed fox, leaving him with a great burden to bear. The Kyuubi had been sealed in him as it had been sealed in his mother before him. But he was, beyond any doubt, an Uzumaki. Those who had known his mother would often compare them, claiming that his hair was just the same shade of red as her's and his eyes the very same shade of violet. The Third Hokage even told him that he had the nose of his grandfather, the late Uzukage.

Being the lone survivor of his clan, Naruto set it in his head to rebuild Uzushio one day and become Uzukage.

But it seemed that it shouldn't be. Naruto, being born as a Guardian, could not use any jutsu that he was taught in the academy. But due to the fact that he was a clan heir, he continued his education anyways. Laws made it possible for him. But this apparent disability hit Naruto harder than he let on. He had always been sarcastic and oddly silent when surrounded by many people, quite the opposite to when he and the Third Hokage were alone, where he would be as loud and obnoxious as his mother had been. He also seemed to have received her foul mouth.

When his inability to use ninjutsu became clear, Naruto began focusing on taijutsu and the sealing arts. Genjutsu were virtually impossible for him and his shitloads of chakra, aside from the really high level stuff and they wouldn't teach an academy student how to create a fake dimension around someone just yet. Naruto was good at taijutsu, the only one to ever beat him was Sasuke Uchiha, who was at the same time his rival and best friend. But the special thing about Naruto's fighting style was... he never attacked. It seemed like it wasn't within his nature, throwing a punch, but his defense was unparalleled. Sasuke only ever managed to beat him because of his Sharingan.

Sealing arts... well, he was an Uzumaki and Hiruzen couldn't find enough books for the red head to go through. Having learned the basics of kenjutsu as well, Naruto was saddened to admit that he was not as talented for it as his mother had been. Instead, the Third gave him a staff to use. He was scarily good and always carried it with him, using it as a walking stick of sorts and never using it for anything else but defending himself. It looked ridiculous, him being but a young teen with a staff nearly twice as big as him, but no one dared to say anything.

But no matter how good he was at all these things, the academy required of him to be able to use at least seven jutsu to pass. And he couldn't even use one. He had no medical condition like Lee had, with his crippled coils, or Yakumo with her frail body. He was perfectly healthy and still couldn't do it. And he refused to attack first, even he himself couldn't explain it.

And thus, he failed.

Just like that.

Hiruzen did not often visit the top of his own head on the Hokage Mountain, but it was where he knew Naruto would be. He came here the first time he had to face that he couldn't use his chakra the way he wanted to.

"Naruto."

The red head didn't move, he just sat there, looking out over the village. His messy red hair was swaying gentle in the wind, pulled back in that even messier ponytail of his, and his eyes were closed. Hiruzen sighed and sat down besides him.

"Naruto," he began again, "What will you do now?"

It was a blunt question and he knew that the boy had no answer for him.

Naruto looked up at him, tired eyes seemingly searching for an answer in the old man's eyes.

"I don't know," he responded in a hollow voice. "I really don't know. I'm going to be the head of my clan and I can't even fucking fight." He snorted. "It's ridiculous."

Hiruzen scoffed. "It really is." He placed a hand on the shoulder of boy he considered his grandson. "You can't fight, it goes against your nature. You said so yourself."

Naruto nodded mutely, not seeing where this was going.

"Then how about you go and find your nature first?" the man suggested.

The Uzumaki raised an eyebrow at the Hokage. "How could I do that? How the hell could I find anything here that isn't reminding me that I have to fight?"

"Then leave."

That totally threw Naruto of track. "Huh?" he asked dumbly.

Hiruzen nodded, more to himself than Naruto, reassuring himself of his decision. "You heard me. Leave the village, travel, see things for you own."

Naruto gaped at him. "I- How could you sanction that? How could you get the others to understand?"

"I don't see how that is your problem," Hiruzen said, "And besides, this is still a military dictatorship, so my word is law." The man shrugged. "And... isn't this what you want as well?"

Naruto looked back out at the village. "Yeah," he said eventually, "It is. I just can't be me here. Hell, I don't even know how to be me yet!"

Hiruzen stood up again, only slightly wincing as his back cracked loudly. "Your leave is bound to a condition. You must return on you sixteenth birthday."

"The day I'm supposed to be clan head."

Hiruzen nodded. "Exactly. If you can promise me your return to us, you may leave. I suggest you head to the ruins of Uzushio."

Naruto nodded slowly. "Then... Then I'll need to say goodbye to-" But Hiruzen cut him off.

"I can't let you do that, Naruto."

"What! Why?" the redhead exclaimed and jumped to his feet.

"Because I know they would try to stop you. It is hard enough to explain your disappearance as it is, if someone was to see you leave or talk to you about it, word would get out and I don't need rumors spreading about you defecting. We had revolts for lesser reasons."

Naruto chuckled dryly. "Oh yeah, I still remember the protests when you abolished the subvention of the civilian housings."

"We are a military state after all," Hiruzen said, also chuckling. "But seriously though, we need to keep this quiet for as long as possible. The academy will begain anew in 3 months. Until then I will have a good reason for them. Hopefully..."

"Fine, fine, I'll leave quietly... You mentioned Uzushio, that's farther east, near the Wave country, right?"

Hiruzen nodded. "It is. You may also want to seek out Jiraiya or Tsunade. They have long since gone their own ways, you may be able to learn a thing or two from them."

Naruto stepped closer to the Hokage and hesitated a moment before hugging the man fiercely. "Thank you, old man. For everything."

"No need to thank me, Naruto. Just don't make me regret this," he said, hugging the Uzumaki back.

Naruto took a step back. "So... see you in three years time then."

"Indeed. And don't you dare be late, Naruto. I know you've spent time with Kakashi."

Naruto looked nonplussed and scratched his cheek. "You say something?, he drawled before smirking and vanishing in a swirl of red leaves.

Hiruzen massaged his forehead. "Oh dear, I hope he finds Tsunade first. I don't want to think what will become of him if Jiraiya gets his hands on him..."

XXXXXX (There is no real need to read this part, skip to the next and treat it like a time skip if you want.)

To say three years passed in a flash would be quite rude in hindsight of all the stuff that happened in these years. Naruto would call it loads of bullshit but bit back his comment lest he get decked over the head by Tsunade. After Naruto had left the village in the dead of the night, he wandered the roads gen east. He arrived at the skeleton of an impressive bridge about a week after he had left Konoha. The bridge was unfinished so he couldn't cross is by foot. Thankfully, Naruto had learned how to walk on water in his fervor to control his chakra, and so he simply walked across the ocean towards the island country.

It didn't take much to see that something was wrong there. The town he had entered gave off an aura of depression, the streets were empty and dirty, the houses looked as if a bunch of hooligans regularly vandalized them. The market was empty, deserted even, and when Naruto passed the only house he could spy a light in, shutters were slammed close before he got close enough to look into the windows. Seriously unnerved, Naruto climbed atop the highest building the could find and looked around. There, on a hill in the forest, Naruto could see another house.

Said house turned out to be the residence of the man who tired to build the bridge to the main land, Tazuna and on his part master bridge builder. Naruto found shelter with him and found passage to Uzushio though him. Before he left for the Islands that once were his clan's home he took a job, a ninja job for the older man.

Protect the bridge.

It was the first time Naruto got a glimpse of his own abilities.

The people of Wave country were suffering greatly from an industrial tycoon named Gato, who took over every haven and shipping organization on the country, effectively bleeding out the people. Without access to their ships they couldn't sell any of their goods, which was mostly fish and a special silk produced on the islands. The bridge would create a new path for export as well as import. Tazuna was a thorn in Gato's side and the bridge builder knew that he was being targeted. He couldn't afford hiring ninja from Konoha so he pleaded with Naruto to aid him, after the boy had scared away a bunch of samurai sent to kill Tazuna. He really didn't do much, he couldn't fight back after all, so he just dodged and blocked whatever they threw at him and dared them to try again. They fled in an instant.

It was while he was protecting Tazuna at the bridge that he met Zabuza and his kunoichi, Haku.

Truth be told, Naruto was no match for them. He could hold himself against Haku just fine but Zabuza was a Jonin after all. If not for the fact that Gato decided to loudly proclaim that he wasn't going to pay them anyways and kill them off, Naruto would have probably died less than a month after he left Konoha. But it was during his encounter with Zabuza that Naruto discovered a very curios ability of his. He could create barriers. Solid, half transparent barriers of pure, reddish chakra. And he could create this quite far away from his own position.

He first created one when he saw Zabuza's blade fly at Tazuna. He was too far away to intercept the blade but in his desperation he flung out his hand towards Tazuna and willed him with all his might to be protected. And that was just what happened. A dome of red energy opened up around the bridge builder and Zabuza's blade bounced off it's surface. Because Zabuza didn't know if there were any more ninja in the vicinity, he retreated.

After that, he met Haku in by a river where Naruto tried to better control these barriers of his.

They talked, unknowing that they would later have to fight.

Haku was the first real friend Naruto had made without the bias of him being the sole heir to the Uzumaki and to Haku, Naruto was the first actual friend she ever made. They talked for hours on end, laughing about little nothings. Haku told him about the loss of her mother and how she was forced to kill her father, all because of her bloodline, and Naruto told her about the hate and spite he faced because of the burden he carried, the nine-tails sealed in his gut.

And over the course of a week they would meet everyday at the stream. But Zabuza attacked the bridge again, this time with Haku.

Both fought with a heavy heart, as Zabuza tried to find Tazuna, but thankfully stopped when Zabuza returned and stated that his contract with Gato was null. The man had tried to betray him.

After Zabuza and Haku, with some protective assistance from Naruto, fought and defeated most of Gato's thugs, Naruto discovered a second ability to him. Gato fired a cannon barrage at the bridge from ships stationed at the coast. Haku was mortally wounded as Naruto's barrier broke.

His desperation reached a new height as he tried to stop the blood flow from the gaping hole in Haku's side. Imagine his surprise when his hands began glowing red and the wound began to knit itself back together. It wasn't perfect and she would forever bear a scar but Haku survived. Zabuza had meanwhile, in an untold fit of rage, sunk all three ships with his Water Dragons and chopped Gato into tiny little pieces.

With his job done, Naruto left for Uzushio and suggested for Haku and Zabuza to seek refuge in Konoha. He handed them a scroll that would put them under the protection of the Uzumaki clan and boarded a ship towards the Land of Whirlpools.

Uzushiogakure was nothing but a ruin. The village that once must have been as big as Konoha was but dust and debris. The village had mostly been built out of limestone, dozen of pillars with engravings lined the cobblestone streets and the skeletons of once high buildings still towered over the landscape. And there were skeletons... of people.

For a week straight, Naruto buried every body he could find in the ruins outside of the village on a hill. 312 graves in total now watched over their once great village. Afterwards, he searched though the houses and their basements for any scroll of book he could find. And he stayed in Uzushio for a whole year, learned for a whole year who and what he was, before finally standing in the middle of the grave hill he himself had created.

"I'm leaving now," he said, looking over the graves of his clansmen. "I learned a lot, more than I imagined to ever find. Thank you for that." He began walking away, towards the shore. "One day, this village will rise again, I promise."

His travels brought him throughout the whole of the Land of Fire, he met many people, experienced their joy and their loss with them. He became a wandering healer, helping wherever he was. And after another year of having seen most of the Land of Wind, he ended up in a town just a weeks travel from Konoha. It was in a bar that he met one of the three legendary Sannin. Tsunade. In all her... drunk... and broke... glory(?) he managed to trick her into taking him as her apprentice. At first she was reluctant but after she had seen his initial talent and sheer affinity for the healing arts, she taught him all she knew. He would be able to do what she could not. Save even those dying in his arms.

Jiraiya remained elusive for the rest of his travels up to the point where the man himself sought out Tsunade.

XXXXXX

"Tsunade."

The blonde woman halted mid swig of her sake and turned towards the voice. Sitting on the stool besides her was Jiraiya, her former teammate and friend.

"What do you want? Why the hell are you even here?" she snapped at him after she downed her cup in one go. The man winced internally at the amount of alcohol that was probably in her system.

"Old Hiruzen calls you back," he said, not facing her. He signaled the bartender for a drink of his own.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Does he now..."

Jiraiya's rose even higher as he stared at her in a mix of disbelieve and shock. "You... you aren't raging on about how you won't return?"

She shot him a glare, downing another glass. "Should I?"

He shook his head. "No, no. It's just... surprising, is all."

Tsunade shrugged, downed another glass and stood up. "Probably." She faced away from him. "Brat!" she barked, "We're leaving!"

From behind Tsunade Jiraiya spied a mop of red hair that had been sitting at Tsunade's right side. He blinked.

"Is that-?" he began but Tsunade was long out of earshot, followed by whom he knew to be Naruto Uzumaki.

"So," Naruto said when they were outside of the bar, "Will you go back? I'm due to leave anyways."

Tsunade sighed. "I'm not sure, brat. I really am not. With you there, Konoha might still have some hope in the medical department."

He laughed. "Don't try a n' sweet talk me, old hag. We both know it doesn't work."

With a snort, Tsunade stopped walking. "Just because I don't have red hair, and don't try to deny it." She continued to walk towards the hotel they were staying at while Naruto opened and closed his mouth over and over before begrudgingly following his teacher.

"Wait up!" Master and apprentice turned around to see Jiraiya push his way through the masses towards them.

"Oh for kami's sake...," Tsunade muttered but stopped anyways.

The white haired man stopped in front of them. "I need an answer, Tsunade. We have a war approaching us and we will need you with us for that."

"I know," was all she said.

Jiraiya gaped. "You- You know!?" he stuttered.

Tsunade nodded and jerked her thump at Naruto. "The kid came by Otogakure some time ago. They have been preparing this for over a year." She smirked. "Seems you're getting to old for your job, pervert."

Jiraiya blinked. Blinked again and sighed deeply. "Jeez, kid. What the hell?"

Naruto shrugged. "It's as she said. Old, pervert. This just doesn't cut it as a spymaster."

"Now hold on a second, I ain't no pervert-!"

"I swear to kami, Jiraiya," Tsunade growled, "If you pull this super pervert shit one more time in my presence I won't be returning to Konoha!"

Jiraiya face faulted. "Fine, fine... So, when will you leave?"

"I'll return with Naruto on his sixteenth birthday," she replied.

Jiraiya nodded. "I'll see you in two weeks then." He vanished in a swirl of leaves... and "research" pages out of one of his notebooks.

"Fucking pervert," Tsunade growled. It seemed that the Uzumaki were somewhat foul mouthed by Nature...

But in was in a weeks time that a hawk found its way into Naruto's hotel room. Tsunade was just about waking up with a major hangover when her door was kicked off its hinges. Naruto and Shizune burst into the room, the latter tripping in after Naruto and his staff.

"Move it Granny!" Naruto shouted. Tsunade groaned but the redhead didn't wait for any kind of response. "Konoha is under attack! Get your drunk ass into gear!"

She was sober in under a second. "Fuck!" she growled and moved. And god damn she moved. Naruto blinked twice and Tsunade was all packed and ready to go. That's a kage level shinobi for you. "What are we waiting for?! Move!"

So much for the woman who refused to even look in Konoha's general direction for the last two decades. Naruto shook his head and hurried after her as Shizune hastily paid for their stay.

They rushed through the trees as fast as possible, on the horizon, where Konoha was supposed to be, black smoke was steadily rising into the sky.

Suddenly Tsunade growled. "I'm going on ahead," and without waiting for an answer she kicked down hard on a tree branch and shot off. Shizune looked apologetically at Naruto before flickering away as well. The redhead sighed but continued on anyways. They were right after all, they couldn't afford to wait. As he was flying through the trees he spotted signs of a fight. Halting momentarily and expanding his senses, he sensed a few presences to the west. One of them, the closest, was weak, in a state of dying.

Naruto's chakra roared to life when he registered the fading energy and a red hue shrouded him as his violet eyes gained a golden tint. He was going to save this life. It was his nature to do so. Channeling all his chakra in to his legs, to the point of near bursting, he exploded of the tree he had stuck to with an almighty crack as his body broke through the sound barrier. He sliced through the forest with blinding speed- until the forest just ended. Naruto blinked once in surprise as he shot into a clearing where all the trees had been cleanly cut down and lay scattered everywhere. Somewhere underneath these trees was the dying person.

His senses pinpointed the location and he thrust a palm upwards. From underneath the trees a red glow was visible before they exploded away and a dome of red expanded among them. In the middle of these trees lay a girl in a pool of her own blood. Naruto was at her side in an instant. His mind geared into overdrive. It was time to save her. Both hands held aloft an inch above the girls body, his palms began to radiate golden light and the skin of his arms turned blood red.

The damage was excessive. Legs shattered, hip fractured, spinal cords severely disrupted and damaged, eight ribs broken with two piercing her lung, sternum fractured, first, second and third vertebra fractured, severe concussion and multiple inner hemorrhages. Clean cut deep into her back, nerves to the legs and anything below her torso served. Immense blood loss. Her face was unrecognizable, arms bent in five places, none of them the actual joint, and she was coated in blood and grime from head to toe.

Naruto took a deep breath and let his instincts as a Guardian take over. Golden chakra flowed over her mangled body like honey, slowly covering every inch of her body. Infections removed, her clothes were disintegrated, every foreign element was removed from her. He willed his chakra to replace her lost cells, replenish her blood, shift bones back into place and repair them.

Someone was there, outside of his barrier, but he ignored the two presences for now, they were wounded but in no danger of death. The barrier became opaque at his will and he continued to heal the girl. Belatedly, he noticed her long red hair. An Uzumaki? Absently, he checked her blood. Curiously enough, she wasn't related to him at all, they didn't have any common ancestors for at least 100 generations. She was two months older than him and had a very disturbing seal on her neck, but he would look into that later.

Her internal wounds and broken bones fully healed, he knitted her skin back together and set about repairing the neural damage when she woke up.

XXXXXX

Tayuya wasn't sure why she was alive or if she as at all. The last thing she remembered was being buried underneath a hundred trees by that Suna chick with her fan that came to aid the shadow twerp. Oh yeah, the mission. Taking that Uchiha prick back to Oto so Orochimaru could use him as his new ass toy. Of course Konoha wouldn't let them take the emo head with them, even if it was admits a freaking invasion. Konoha shinobi suck, so fucking much. She got groped by some shadow guy! Jeez, what's wrong with that clan? Lazy ass bastards all together. Tayuya blinked and was surprised that the first thing she saw wasn't the tree she remembered crushing her face. The second thing she noticed was that she wasn't in any kind of pain. Even the constant throb of the curse seal was- nope, it was still there. Shit, she wasn't dead.

Then another sensation. The air caressed the skin of her stomach, her nipples- Hold up. She was buck naked.

Fuck?

Kneeling over her (she was floating?!) was a guy with spiky red hair and... golden eyes. He was wearing a white cloak with a hood attached to it. Against his shoulder leaned a staff, some type of Khakkhara. A monk? Wasn't that guy way too young for that? His hands hovered over her bare chest and over her navel each, glowing in warm gold. He was healing her, she could feel the flow of something foreign yet soothing through her body. It was then that she realized that she couldn't feel her legs from her abdomen downwards but the feeling seemed to steadily return, inch by inch.

Still, she was naked.

So she cursed violently.

"What the fuck?!"

The young man, teen actually, didn't flinch, but his eyes found hers and she bit back another curse. Those eyes... whatever it was, it bid her to remain still. But Tayuya had never been one to follow orders so she tried to move. It turned out to be the worst decision she could have made.

She hit the soft forest floor but didn't feel it. All she could feel was an absolute amount pain. Her blood boiled in her veins and the air corroded her lungs. Her bones felt like there were grinding against her muscles as those were flexed hard enough to the point of snapping. She curled back in utter agony as a scream ripped hoarsely from her throat, accompanied by a mixture of blood and vomit. But suddenly her mouth was closed off and she breathed in pure warmth. The pain melted away from her body as she pressed her lips harder against the warmth that eased her pain, eagerly taking in the taste of-

Her eyes flow open and faced half lidded violet eyes, the eyes of the cloaked teen that was kissing her.

What. The. Fuck?

And with that, the mental stress reached it's highest point and Tayuya's consciousness shut down because... fuck, it was too much.

XXXXXX

The (quite literal) Kiss of Life did its job and stabilized her body, as it would have happened hadn't she just jerked out of his grasp all off sudden.

His eyes roamed her body once more, shining in solid gold, though this time, he had to fight back a blush. Now that she wasn't in mortal danger anymore, he became far more aware of the fact that she was in fact naked. And beautiful.

Naruto shook his head. Focus, you are a healer, not a pervert, he told himself.

She was completely fine, her wounds healed and bones reset. But then he frowned. The nerves in her lower back were still damaged, she couldn't move her legs. He sighed and extended a hand. This wouldn't take long-

Something exploded against his barrier, shaking the ground.

"What the hell?" Naruto expended his senses and found that the two signatures from before had become hostile and were molding offensive chakra to use against his barrier.

Naruto growled. Who would dare attack a half dead girl? He ripped his cloak of his person and wrapped the girl securely in it before willing his barrier to become transparent.

Just then a blade of wind ground against the wall of chakra. Naruto frowned and raised his staff. The dome expanded momentarily and the attack was deflected. Peering outside he could spot two ninja about 20 meters from him. One was a a blonde teen and the other was-

"Shikamaru?"

The boy stood from his crouch and squinted at Naruto.

"Uzumaki?" he shouted, the sound dampened by the barrier.

"Of course it's me, lazy ass!" Naruto shouted back. "What the hell are you doing? Attacking a half dead girl?!"

Shikamaru frowned. "She's an enemy."

A growl escaped through the snarl on Naruto's lips. "She was in no condition to fight!"

"I assume she is now," the Nara returned. The blonde girl still held her fan at the ready.

"She can't fucking walk. You interrupted me before I could finish."

Shikamaru frowned. "You shouldn't heal her, she isn't on our side."

"So what?" Naruto snapped back. The barrier pulsed with his aggravation. "I'm not with Konoha at the moment. What if you had been laying here, crushed under tons of trees! Should I have fucking ignored you, let you die because you weren't on my side?!"

Shikamaru's eyebrow twitched. After a few seconds of silence he got out of his stance and signaled for the girl to do the same. "Fine. This whole missions is an absolute drag anyways."

"But-!" the fan wielding girl began to argue but the Nara raised a hand to stop her.

"She's out anyways. And besides, she's more useful to us alive, could provide information on Orochimaru."

Slowly, Naruto let his barrier fall. He tapped the ground twice with his staff and Tayuya began to gently float in the air. She hovered after him as he walked over to the others. Shirkamaru tried not to think about how much raw chakra control such an act required.

"So, she's one of Orochimaru's?" Naruto asked.

Shikamaru nodded. "Personal bodyguard or so. There were four of them initially, she's the only one that survived."

He glanced back at his patient. "Poor soul, forced into his servitude by these sick seals." Shaking his head, he let his golden gaze roam over Shikamaru and the Suna girl. The Nara's eyes widened at Naruto's eye color but said nothing.

"You two have seen better days," he joked, "Let me fix that." And before any of them could say something a wave of gold and red washed over them.

The girl inhaled sharply as all the pain and exhaustion left her body. "What...?"

"Woah...," Shikamaru breathed as he flexed his perfectly healthy arms. "So, I guess that's what you do then?" he asked, smirking.

Naruto grinned. "Yeah. Best fuckin' healer you can find. A Guardian, to be precise but... let's head back to the village, shall we? And... why are you out here anyways."

The smirk left his features as Shikamaru frowned. "Sasuke defected."

Naruto blanched, almost dropping his patient.

"He fucking what?!"

A/N: So I tried making the reason for Naruto' leave something different. It isn't your stereotypical reason and I hope its still a valid one.

Hope it was a good read! :3

And by the way, not a dojutsu!Naruto.