Disclaimer: I will never, ever, ever be able to own One Piece or Naruto.
Half of Konohagakure no Sato had been reduced to rubbles. A quarter was engulfed by the inferno. The rest was relatively unharmed. All the active and unhurt shinobi no matter the rank immediately worked on repairs.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage, observed the aftermath of the rampage of a demon from his room, up in the Hokage tower. The Sandaime sighed. It saddened him to see the village which he had worked so hard with both the Senju brothers to build get decimated. The old man suffered from mild chakra exhaustion and had several cuts and bruises decorating his person.
"Sandaime-sama."
A trio of ANBU shunshin'd into the Hokage's room.
"Do you have him?"
An ANBU wearing a porcelain mask with a cat motif took a step towards the Sandaime, holding out a bundle of white cloth. The old man took the bundle from the ANBU and pulled back the cloth slowly; revealing a blonde babe, sound asleep. Sarutobi sighed softly when he saw the whisker marks on the baby's cheeks. 'Minato, you did it.'
Sarutobi Hiruzen made his way to the balcony which overlooked Konoha. All the villagers and shinobi were already gathered before him. Sarutobi cleared his throat.
"These past few days has been very hard for all of us. Quite a number of Konohagakure no Sato's residents did not manage to survive. Let us all have a moment of silence to pray for their souls."
The villagers assembled at the village square bowed their heads and clasped their hands together in silence.
"Finally, on the 10th of October, the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, managed to defeat the beast ravaging our homeland. The Yondaime vanquished the monster but at a price."
Sarutobi could hear the choked sobs and disbelief from the villagers and his fellow comrades.
"The Yellow Flash of Konoha gave up his life to protect the village he loved."
By now, the villagers, mostly the women and the small children that revered the Yondaime broke into tears and the night air was filled with anguished cries.
"However, let it be known that a demon the likes of the Kyuubi could never be destroyed. The Yondaime decided to seal the beast, and seal it he did, within this baby." Sarutobi Hiruzen lifted the sleeping babe from the folds of his Hokage robes high.
Sarutobi could empathise with the villagers. They were dog-tired and worn down from the demon's attack. Some were probably still in shock at the devastation the beast has done to the strongest shinobi village and all of them were sure to feel bitter resentment and hatred towards the beast for the taking the lives of those dear to them.
"Kill it!"
"It has the demon!"
"It's going to turn into the Kyuubi when it grows up."
"KILL THE BOY!"
"DESTROY THE DEMON!"
Sarutobi prickled in annoyance. Yes, he loved Konoha dearly, but he could not help dislike the shallow-minded villagers at times.
"Silence!" Sarutobi practically roared.
All the villagers immediately clamped their mouths shut.
"If the boy dies, the Kyuubi will once again ravage our lands. Surely you do not want the Yondaime's sacrifice to be in vain?" Sarutobi 's voice was laced with poison.
The villagers looked somewhat regretful of the things they said. With a sweep of his long Hokage robes, Sarutobi made his way back into the Hokage's room.
Out of the blue, smoke exploded in the Sandaime's face.
"Hokage-sama!"
Sarutobi shunshin'd to the other end of the room, wheezing and coughing. The boy in his arms started stirring lightly. Sarutobi heard several kunai whiz through the air, and he he threw a few kunai of his own with his free arm to counter the oncoming blades.
"Kai!"
The room was suddenly filled with blinding light. Sarutobi felt a person try to snatch the bundle in his arms away from him. The Sandaime drop-kicked the person while still holding the baby tightly. Said person avoided the kick and let loose a flurry of projectiles which cut through the stale and still smoky air. The Sandaime dived behind his large mahogany desk.
"Katon: Goukakyu!"
"Futon: Kuki no Dangan!"
The resulting fireball was roughly the size of a mammoth that narrowly missed Sarutobi who flattened himself to the wall to avoid the ball of fire. The person extinguished the enormous fireball with a flick of his hand with which several tons of water gushed out from his sleeve and immediately put out the fire. The Hokage's room was thick with steam.
'There!'
With the baby in his left hand, Sarutobi blocked the jab with his right. The transgressor made a sweep for Sarutobi's legs but the Sandaime managed to flip over the offending limb and stabbed at it with a kunai hidden in his robe sleeves. The figure gasped with pain, betraying his position from within the thick steam.
"Mokuton: Shichuro!"
Timber appeared from nowhere forming a wooden prison in the perpetrator's general direction. Neko threw in a sleeping gas bomb that guarantees a 12-hour knock-out into the wooden prison as a safety measure.
The baby in the Sandaime's arms chose that moment to open his eyes and wail as loud as his tiny little lungs allowed him to. Sarutobi exhaled slowly, rocking the baby and trying very hard to put him to sleep.
"Hokage-sama! Are you alright?"
Sarutobi's most trusted trio of ANBU came into view, dropping low on their knees. Sarutobi grunted, trying his best to forget the pain threatening his consciousness. 'The Professor', albeit being old and aged, is still as tough as ever. But having just fought off a demon, witnessing uncountable deaths of many a beloved comrade and using whatever was left to protect the only heir of his predecessor is sure to take quite a toll on the old man. Sarutobi just almost fainted but was steadied by ANBU Tora. Sarutobi sighed, exhausted.
"Let us return to the Hokage Mansion."
Sarutobi held out the fidgeting bundle in his arms to a surprised Neko. With the support of Tora, the group of four, minus the baby, made their way to the Hokage Mansion in the dead of the night.
"Ne, oyaji, what are you going to name the boy?"
Sarutobi Asuma, who recently returned from protecting the Hi no Kuni's Daimyo, peered at the dozing baby in the cot. Like his old man, Asuma was swathed in bandages, proof of having battled the Kyuubi.
"His name is Namikaze Naruto."
Asuma's cigarette dropped out of his mouth.
"Na-Namikaze?"
Sarutobi nodded.
"The Yondaime had a kid?"
Asuma's eyes widened to incredible proportions.
"With Kushina."
"W-with the Bloody Habanero?"
The Sandaime nodded once again and smiled wistfully. He could still remember the Yondaime's laughable attempts to woo the spunky redhead.
"Ma, the 'Yellow Flash' never ceases to amaze me."
Sarutobi Hiruzen simply smiled.
"Why fishcake?"
Asuma's question broke the momentary silence. Sarutobi shook his head sagely.
"Whirlpool. Kushina wanted something to remind her of her old village."
Flashback
The sun was just setting, basking the whole of Konoha in an orange and pink glow.
Sarutobi Hiruzen and Sarutobi Biwako sat side by side opposite the table to the Yondaime, Namikaze Minato, who held his wife, Uzumaki Kushina, lovingly in his arms.
'Sandaime-sama, Naruto will grow into a fine shinobi.' Minato smiled as he leaned down to peck Kushina's bulging tummy.
End flashback
Asuma smiled.
"Leave it to the number one ramen worshipper to name her son after one of ramen's ingredients and a whirlpool. Heh. Ja, oyaji, I'm off to bed."
The already bandaged, healed and currently recuperating Sarutobi Hiruzen 'hm'ed to show his acknowledgement of his son's leave. Tired out from the recent events, the old man slowly closed his eyes.
Now, the Hokage residence is guarded and patrolled twenty-four-seven by highly-skilled ANBU Special Black Ops including the Hokage's own personal trio of ANBU. There were also Inuzuka dogs in every corner of the mansion. But let it be said, it is impossible to create a perfectly impenetrable fortress. What more if it were to be infiltrated from the inside.
ANBU Washi, second in command to Neko-taichou of ANBU Squad One. Standing at the height of six foot three, Washi is a broad-shouldered and firmly muscled man. Well known for his skills in stealth and deception and has aptly earned the epithet 'The Misleading Shadow'. Unfortunately, Washi believes in sacrificing whatever is best for Konoha's good. His belief has led the man to ally himself with one of Sarutobi Hiruzen's former teammates, Shimura Danzo. A shady character who possesses the same ideals, Danzo has set up an organization which carries out whatever is believed to be the best for Konoha according to Danzo's orders, ROOT. And Washi is one of them.
As it is, Danzo has somehow acquired knowledge of Konoha's new jinchuuriki and Danzo wants the jinchuuriki for himself so he could somehow train and manipulate the weapon of mass destruction which would certainly be a boon to ROOT's firepower. Therefore, it is up to Washi to kidnap the baby that night to be brought back to Danzo. And kidnap the baby he did for nobody suspected anything of ANBU Squad One's second-in-command. In a few minutes, the baby was once again safely entangled between the blankets in a dark underground lair where if you strain your ears properly, you could probably hear Danzo himself, cackle with mad delight at the many plans he has come up with for the unfortunate boy.
It was still early in the morning. Daybreak was still quite a long way to go, but Sarutobi Hiruzen is already sitting up ramrod straight on his bed, cold sweat trickling down his back. Sarutobi Hiruzen practically ran to the room the boy was placed in which was on the ground floor. He burst through the double doors and true to his instincts, the cot was empty.
Sarutobi Hiruzen bit back his rage.
"Neko! Tora! Washi!"
The very walls of the sturdy Hokage mansion shook.
"Hokage-sama, ANBU Neko reporting."
"Hokage-sama, ANBU Tora reporting."
Imagine the ANBU's and the Hokage's expressions when the third member of Squad One did not appear. The Sandaime punched the wall, leaving a small crater the size of his fist.
"Hunt him down. Hunt him down to the last wormhole. I care not for your methods, I want the baby back in my hands, safe and sound, before the day ends. GO!"
Neko and Tora disappeared in a blink of an eye. Sarutobi punched another hole through the wall, not caring his knuckles were bleeding slightly.
Eight years later after the rampage of the Nine-Tailed Demon, eight years after the kidnapping of the Yondaime's only heir, still Sarutobi Hiruzen and his remaining two most trusted ANBU have yet to give up looking for any signs of the blond boy.
Unbeknownst to the Sandaime or anybody else for that matter, save Shimura Danzo and his ROOT goons, young Namikaze Naruto was working his ass off training with his wakizashi deep within the headquarters of ROOT which is exactly beneath the Hokage Mountain.
"Naruto." From the shadows, young Naruto could hear one of Danzo's personal bodyguard call for him. The boy immediately resheathed his wakizashi and headed for Danzo's office.
"Danzo-sama." Naruto genuflected before the old man. Danzo nodded ever-so-slightly. The monotonous voice unbefitting of a boy at the tender age of eight came from behind the blank mask. It wasn't like Danzo actually cared for such trivial things. Fitting or not, Naruto was but a tool.
One of Danzo's personal bodyguard, probably the one that summoned him, threw Naruto a scroll which the boy deftly caught.
"Retrieve a scroll from an informative in Iwa no Kuni. Meet up with informative at exactly 0600 hours tomorrow morning. More mission details can be found in the scroll you are holding. Failure of mission will result in dire consequences. Dismiss and carry out mission immediately."
"Hai." The boy disappeared in a whirl of leaves.
"Naruto's status report."
"Namikaze Naruto, eight-years-old, mid-chuunin level in kenjutsu, low-jounin level in both ninjutsu and taijutsu, is not able to produce a single genjutsu but can access one tail of Kyuubi's powers. The side effect resulting in him being inactive for half a day after using the one tail cloak."
Once again, Danzo entertained his fantasies of becoming the Hokage with such a powerful weapon by his side.
Naruto kept on leaping from branch to branch as fast as he could. It was supposed to be a simple mission! Get to the hidden ROOT bunk which was nearby the destroyed Kannabi bridge, meet the informative, grab the scroll and go back. Apparently, Fate probably doesn't want Naruto to a job well done on this mission. It was his first solo mission! Stupid rogue nin just had to fuck it all up!
The small boy leapt from tree to tree with all his might. He definitely did not want to end up as appetizers to those bloodthirsty lugs.
"GET THE GAKI!"
"DON'T LET HIM ESCAPE!"
A group of six or so shabbily dressed nukenins were fervently chasing the blond.
"Doton: Doro Bakudan!"
Several mudballs came flying through the air towards Naruto which upon contact, exploded. Blown by the blast to a branch further ahead, Naruto kept on running through the trees, never once breaking his pace eventhough his body was riddled with lacerations, burns and bruises.
"Kage Bunshin!"
Two exact replicas of Naruto appeared and rushed towards the rogue nins to distract them long enough for the original Naruto to escape.
"Bunshin Daibakuha!"
Both clones exploded, creating a blast big enough to bring down a large branch from one of the many trees, almost but failing to crush any of the nins. One of the rogue shinobi raced in front of the rest to attack Naruto.
"Kaze Kaminoikari!"
Naruto turned just in time to parry the strike aimed at his head. Charging his wakizashi with wind chakra, he slashed at the rogue nin's torso, the lengthened blade ripping through the fabric covering the man's abdomen and drawing Naruto's first blood.
"Raiton: Kaminari Shuriken!"
Jump, dodge, roll. The barrage of lightning shuriken managed to graze the boy slightly, adding to his already long list of injuries. Suddenly, explosive tags attached to kunai rained upon him from every direction. Naruto barely managed to Kawarimi with a fallen branch. His left shoulder stung badly, more crimson liquid staining his ROOT uniform.
"Katon: Gokakyu!"
"Suiton: Teppoudama!"
Naruto's fireball sizzled out, nto strong enough to withstand the water bullet.
"Tajuu Kage Bunshin!"
All over the clearing, identical versions of Naruto engaged the six enemy nins in a battle of taijutsu was what he planned but apparently these shinobi were a bit stronger than they seemed as they slaughtered a few hundred kage bunshins within the first few moments with visible ease. This was not supposed to happen!
Naruto felt hesitant, Danzo-sama told him to only use it if he ever got caught in a situation where he couldn't win. But for the greater good of Konoha, Naruto was willing to lay down his very life!
Naruto shut off the sounds of metal clashing against metal, the sounds of his clones being deactivated, one by one. He concentrated on his chakra, the blue, viscous matter running through him. He pictured them red instead. Red boiling anger.
Naruto opened his eyes and they were not the brilliant blue they were before. His eyes appeared to be red and slanted. The eyes of a ravenous fox out for blood. His fangs were elongated and a snarl escaped his lips. His nails were twice longer and twice sharper than his normally short and neatly trimmed nails.
Naruto jumped into the middle of the battlefield. His nails ripping shreds from whoever was unfortunate enough to be within his attacking range at that point of time. The blond let out a bloodcurdling roar and tore the rogue nins a new one.
Knee to head, elbow to groin, foot to face, knuckle through chest, nails through throat. Even when all the nins were on the ground, no longer breathing, Naruto did not stop his frenzy. The clearing was nothing more than a wasteland by the time Naruto finally ran out of juice. Blood and gore were spattered all over, several trees had been felled and even rocks were shattered.
"Nice work, gaki."
Naruto did not notice the ominous voice. He was already face first on the ground in a dead faint, blind to the world for the next 12 hours.
All seven CP9 members were crowded in Blueno's room. Spandam has found another Akuma no Mi and Master decided to bestow it to Blueno. Master warned Blueno of how it tastes like so Blueno decided to have a big glass of water ready. Fukurou and Kumadori were looking at him expectantly. Jyabura smirked, having already experienced the sensations of eating an Akuma no Mi firsthand. Lucci was playing with Hattori in the far corner of Blueno's room. Kalifa and Kaku were the last ones to enter the room.
Blueno took a deep breath. He took a small bite and chewed the piece slowly, thoroughly before running the whole thing down with a big glass of water. Blueno paled and spat out whatever was left on his taste buds.
"Grow up Blueno, chapapa."
"It tasted like crap."
"What did you get?"
"Yoyoi, any changes?"
Fukurou and Kumadori checked him all over while Jyabura poked him in the side, with the hopes of activating the fruit's powers. Kaku, Kalifa and Lucci stared at the quartet from afar. Blueno slid off the bar stool and steadied himself in attack stance.
"Ha!"
Instead of the stool splintering into millions of tiny pieces, a round shaped hole the size of his fist appeared on the stool.
"Ara?"
Kaku came up to Blueno's side.
"What is it?"
Blueno squinted his eyes, trying to look into the hole.
"Empty."
"Put your hand through it, chapapa."
"Yoyoi, it might disappear forever."
Blueno closed his eyes tightly and reluctantly put his finger through the mysterious hole.
"So?"
Blueno cracked one eye open and started prodding around the hole.
"I think it's a pocket dimension."
"You got the Doa Doa no Mi then?" Kalifa enquired, pushing her glasses further up her nose.
"Probably."
"Make a door then, chapapa."
"Where?"
"Through the wall."
Rob Lucci pointed at the nearest wall. Blueno went towards it and pressed himself to the aforementioned wall. A Blueno-shaped door appeared. Blueno went through the wall and came out in the hallways. Fukurou, Kumadori and Jyabura went through the wall followed by Kaku and kalifa and lastly Lucci who seemed thoroughly bored.
"Cool." Kaku grinned.
"Now that the excitement has worn off, let us continue training." Kalifa steered Kaku to the training grounds. Lucci, unsurprisingly, was already gone.
"See you later, Blueno, chapapa."
"Ja, Blueno, I'm off to catch a few winks."
Kumadori went back into Blueno's room. Blueno followed him in, one eyebrow raised. Kumadori jumped onto Blueno's bed, one hand slipping under the bed to uncover a magazine. A porn magazine. Kumadori had always known about Blueno's secret stash. He rolled around on the bed, probably not going to leave the room any time soon. Blueno sighed.
Blueno left the room through the Blueno-shaped door and climbed the stairs to the roof. It was nice to be here especially when the sun was just about to set and the gentle breeze cooled down the surroundings.
Suddenly, an idea struck him.
Blueno drew a hole large enough for him to fit through in the air. He inhaled deeply, calmed himself down, convinced himself that what he was doing was a rational decision and jumped through the hole.
Blueno stepped out of the pocket dimension and into a forest. Well, what used to be a part of lush green forest has been decimated to a barren wasteland with bodies strewn all over the ground and the coppery, tangy smell of blood permeating the stale air.
Blueno took a step closer to the bodies. Most of them had holes of varying sizes riddling their person. One of the bodies lost half its limbs and another one had apparently been decapacitated. Rocks and trees alike had been balsted, burned and smashed to smithereens.
Blueno chanced upon a blond boy lying face first on the ground. What was a boy his age doing on a battlefield? Probably got caught in one of the blasts. Blueno prodded the boy with a stick. Still breathing. No gaping holes as far as he could see. Plenty of bruises and cuts and burn marks on his small body though. Probably around seven or so.
Blueno had always wanted a younger brother to run around with, to play with, the others were either too serious or simply did not agree with Blueno's idea of fun. But what would Master say? Would he throw the boy out in the cold rain? No, Master was a very understanding person. But it would probably be best if he asked for permission first. Yeah, Master would definitely let him have his very own little brother.
Blueno made his decision. He is definitely taking the boy back.
Suddenly, it struck him. What had killed the six men? What kind of being had decimated the forest to such an extent? Blueno shuddered. He sincerely hope that he will not be meeting that being, be it man or creature, anytime soon, or later for that matter.
Picking the boy up very, very gingerly, Blueno slowly made his way to the Blueno-shaped hole and after stepping into the pocket dimension, resealed the hole, forever preventing any hopes of ever returning to that dimension.
A/N: Read and review. If you want to know what any of the japanese words mean, mention it in your reviews. I'll gladly give you the translations.