A Shinobi's Claws

by Venom Spirit

The Uzumaki are the clan of longevity and their vitality is well known. Naruto is abducted for just these traits to use to cure subordinate of his abductor, but when they decide he's too good to not be used for more afterward, they push him to his limits to create something powerful. Problem is, they might have made him stronger than they can handle. Wolverine!Naruto

1. Birth of an Animal

Nw story, I know I'm not right for not updating most of my stories, but this is a challenge I took up and have been at for a while. SO please forgive. But now that I've got the first chapter of it done, I can proceed here on to the rest. This will be the final story I start for a while, I hope, until I work more on other stories and this one further unless something like altering happens.

This challenge is by devilzxknight86 and it's a Wolverine/x-men inspired Naruto AU, heavier on the Wolverine influence. But it's not a crossover and it's not intended to be. You should check out some of Devilz work, it's awesome stuff. Now there is another author out there doing this challenge that I know of named Contramancer. His story is called Project Naruto: Shinobi X, it's pretty good and should check it out, but since he's already taken the story one way, I'll take it another way while putting my own spin onto things. I'll be using influences, ideas and even little additions from Wolverine and X-men for your reading joy and where to find. So be on the lookout for those.

I think that's it, so please Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Wolverine or any x-men or Marvel related references, ideas, or materials found in this story.

Naruto shivered as he sat in an alley, trying his best to stay out of sight of the masses on the main streets of Konoha. Holding himself the 8-year-old boy was trying his best to hold back his sniffles of chills and whimpers of pain. He had just barely managed to scramble away from a beating some of the adults were giving him, his body showing many bruises, scrapes, cuts and few telltale signs of something broken and damaged under the skin. Wiping away the blood from his face with his dirty shirt, h tried to stay silent.

He didn't understand it, why did he have to suffer like this? He only wanted to attend the Academy. But no sooner than an hour after being released from the academy on his first day and walking down the street was he attacked, pulled into a different alley and beat. The adults yelling things, like how he shouldn't be strong, around their kids and other things that just really hurt. He realized words did hurt, because, even when in a few days his bruises and cuts, everything would be fine again, he'd still remember what they said.

So there he stayed out of sight, too scared to draw attention to himself to move, too hurt to move more than needed. He'd go without food tonight, no doubt not getting back to his apartment until dark. That is until he heard someone approaching. Drawing in on himself, trying to make himself as small as possible, using the garbage and debris in the alley as makeshift cover, holding his breath to stay silent, as still as possible. Hoping they'd just pass by and not notice him.

No luck.

"What are you doing there?" Asked a male voice, not old like an adult, younger. He didn't answer but tensed when he saw the source of the voice, a pair of feet from his viewpoint, kneel down and show his face where Naruto could see. A teen in purple clothes, white hair, dark eyes wearing glasses, with a headband on his forehead. "You can come out, I won't hurt you." He spoke once more.

Naruto didn't want to come out, but he knew if he wanted to hurt him, he would just drag him out from his hiding spot, he was trapped in his hiding spot with nowhere to go and no way to stop the older boy from doing what he wanted. So he tentatively edged out from the back of his space an forward, out from was sore, but he ignored it, used to the sensations already. He stood to his height in front of the older boy though his eyes darted ready to run.

"what-..what happened to you?" Asked the boy who looked him over.

"...they hit me..." The young blond said diminutively.

"I...see." He spoke, looking at the boy, see his reaction to everything, how he looked to the streets when he said they, but he saw only people in the streets. "So you were... hiding then?" He asked and only got a nod from the young boy. He thought it over a moment before kneeling in front of the boy. "My name's Kabuto, what' yous?" he asked.

"...n-Naruto." The boy stuttered out slightly before his stomach spoke louder than his meek voice could right now. He looked away, embarrassed.

The older boy seemed to chuckle a moment. "Well, Naruto, tell you what, I have something that can help with that stomach of yours you can have it and eat it if you'll let me see where you're hurt and try to help okay? That sounds good to you?" He asked.

Naruto looked back at him before giving a slow hesitant nod. Kabuto reached into his pouch and pulled out a Nutribar, a meal supplement ration shinobi often kept on hand. tearing it open, he handed it to Naruto who took it and started to eat without question. Kabuto statted to look over his wound and soon h had green glowing hands working over his wounds. He was halfway done when Naruto had finished devouring his bar.

"You must have been hungry to eat that so fast. their taste isn't the greatest thing in the world ya know." He said with a smile but noticed the boy fidgeting a little. "Want another one?" He asked and after a nod, gave him two more to keep him occupied. When he finished the bars, Kabuto was nearly finished.

"Kabuto-San?" The boy spoke.

"Yes, Naruto?" He asked in return.

"Are you...a ninja?" He asked and Kabuto smiled.

"Why yes, I am. I'm a medic-nin to be specific. Like a doctor and a Ninja at the same time. See?" He stated, making him look at his arm where the last of his injuries was fading from sight quickly.

"Cool!" The boy exclaimed his previous hunger and pain forgotten now thanks to the food and healing, and now with a ninja in front of him, his excitement was palpable. "Can I do things like that?" He asked the older boy.

"Sure, so long as you study hard at the Academy like the other ninja in training and-" He stopped as he noticed the look on the boy's face. "What's wrong?" He asked and the boy looked away. "Naruto?"

"They...the adults. They hurt me because I was attending the academy now." He spoke, his voice meek once more. Kabuto understood it, and the reason behind why the adults did it, misguided as they were.

"Why do you let them do that you Naruto-Kun?" He asked, adding the suffix now.

"w-What do you mean let them? They corner me then beat me!" Not he was getting defensive, did the teen think he liked being beaten?

"They do yeah, but you don't have to allow that to happen if you don't want to. You have options open to you after all." He said.

"Options?" The boy asked, clear blue eyes gazing at the older boy in confusion.

"Well, you can run, like you do after your pranks I've heard about. Hide in places no one will ever think to look for you. You're a ninja in training and a great prankster as I hear, you can do things normal people can't do." He said.

"I try those, but they always find me, like they know where to look or where I'll run to." He said and Kabuto took up a thinking pose.

"What about Leaving?" He asked.

"Huh? What do you mean leaving, like leave the market area?" he asked.

"No I mean like leave the village." He voiced aloud.

"What!? I can't leave the village, that's-!"

"Naruto-Kun!... Why stay in a village where people beat you day after day like this?" He asked, kneeling to the boy's level. He caught the whiskered blonde by surprise with that question. Why did he stay? "Right now you are a civilian until you graduate the academy. You can leave the village whenever you want as a civilian. But once you become a ninja, like me, you can't leave, you'll be stuck. Do you really want to be beaten by them again? Made so hungry it hurts? Having to hide in an alley so not to be noticed?" He asked the boy.

"But...the old man, the Hokage. He cares about me, if I left, he'd be sad and-"

"If he cared, then why does he let this happen to you?" He asked the boy, making him question his own thoughts. "The Hokage has ninja all over the village who report everything to him. Don't you think a child being beaten is something that would be reported to him?" He stated.

Naruto froze at that line of the old man really know? Looking out from the alley towards where he knew the tower was, did old man Hokage really know he was being hurt and did nothing about it? He didn't want to believe, a nagging feeling that ached in the back of mind told him it was wrong, not wanting to believe the old man was like that. But Kabuto made him reason it out and think.

"You can leave Naruto. Get away from the hurt, the pain, the hunger...the loneliness, the glares." He spoke softly with his last two points, making Naruto snap his head upward at Kabuto. "You can see it in your eyes, You don't have anyone there for you, do you?" He asked and Naruto shook his head. "Then why stay here?" He asked simply.

"I... don't know anywhere's else to go. Who would take me in?" He asked.

"Plenty of people I'd imagine. You're a good kid who people mistreat for no reason. I bet you'd find a family outside of Konoha willing to take you in. Do you want to leave? Go to another village or town, find a family that might take you in?" He spoke and Naruto didn't respond for a moment.

"...My dream was to be Hokage. If I was Hokage, then everyone would respect me and acknowledge me." He spoke softly, looking at the ground.

"Do you have to be Hokage in order to get respect and acknowledgment?" He asked the boy. "That's a position, a title, for a person people will follow because of their achievements and power. So if you can be as strong and do things like the Hokage, would people respect you and acknowledge you then?" He asked the boy.

"I...guess? Maybe. I think so." He stated, following what Kabuto was telling him.

"There are other ninja villages and even ninja families that live in villages out of Konoha. You don't have to stay here to do all of that. If you want to stay knowing all of this now, that's your decision. But if you want to leave, I can help you with that." He told the boy, who looked up at him wide-eyed now.

"You'd help me? Really?" He asked and Kabuto nodded. "Why?"

"Because I was helped before. I woke in an orphanage with amnesia. I had no idea of who I was or where I came from. If not for the Matron at the time, I would never be who I am today. Now I want to help another who needs it. So how about it? Stay or Leave?" He asked.

"..." The boy stayed silent as he thought it over. There was still that feeling n the back of his mind that told him this was wrong, the old man wouldn't let him be hurt, Konoha was his home. But with the short conversation with Kabuto, he couldn't deny everything he said. The 8-year-old boy knew everything that was said had to be true in one way or another because it all made sense. Not only that, but Kabuto helped him, he was nice, that was more than what any adult besides Jij or Teuchi did for him. He'd miss them if he left but...

"How can I leave Kabuto-San?" He asked and Kabuto smiled.

"I'll tell you, but you have to be the one to do it. ow here's what you need to do." He told the boy, hiding a grin and gleam in his eye that wasn't so friendly.

[Alley by Konoha Gates]

"You have the backpack of supplies, the map and everything I gave you a few days ago right?" Kabuto asked Naruto. The boy nodded. "The scrolls and everything, how to use them and books on what to learn and train in?" Another nod. "Where to head for on your map once out of the gates?" An annoyed nod this time. "And your-"

"Kabuto-Saaaan..." The boy whined. "I got everything you told me to get do and everything. Left the note in my apartment like you told me with the key, cleaned it up, sealed all my stuff in the scroll like you showed me, spent some time with Jiji and the Ichiraku's, even Iruka sensei. Everything." H told the older white-haired boy, who held up his hands in placation.

"Okay, okay, just making sure Naruto-Kun, can't be too sure after all." He stated and looked at the boy. "This might be the last time we see each other in a long time. Maybe one day you'll come back and show me how strong you've gotten right?" He asked the boy with a smile.

"Right! Thanks for this Kabuto-san, I won't forget this." He said but flinched a bit.

"A headache again?" He asked the boy who nodded. A pill and a green glowing hand were offered to the boy, who took it and let the glow on his head soothe a headache away. Naruto sighed in relief, the headaches were a pain to deal with.

"Thanks Kabuto-san...for everything." He said and Kabuto nodded.

"You're welcome Naruto-Kun. Its almost time for shift change, you'll only have a few minutes at most. Make it count. Farewell Naruto-Kun I hope to see you again in the future." He told the boy before he left the Alley to let Naruto move on his own from he was far enough away, he ducked into another alley where the shadows of the day seemed longer and deeper.

"He'll be leaving here shortly. See to it he's picked up as planned." Kabuto stated.

"Orochimaru will be pleased. Completing your first major assignment in such a way to deflect suspicion will show favorably on you and your abilities Kabuto-San. Keep this up and you may yet replace me as his right-hand man in the future." Spoke a voice from the shadows that soon melted away, light returning to the alley to show Kabuto alone. Kabuto smiled, right hand to Orochimaru? Not a bad position to a powerful leader at all. However, he had some unfinished business with a false trail he had to establish.

[Naruto]

He rushed through the trees as fast as he could, avoiding obstacles and debris where needed. Kabuto was right, the gates were left unattended and the patrols had a gap right in this area he could take advantage of. So he ran hard and fast, not once looking back. He ran as hard and as fast as his legs could carry him. He only slowed down to eat a Nutribar and drink from the bottle he prepared and stopped only to relieve himself and check his map once that Kabuto showed him how to read.

He shouldn't have stopped.

While looking at his map, the sun lighting his map suddenly turned to shadow an before he could question it, there was a pain in the back of his head, and then darkness.

[Unknown location]

"So, Kabuto has finally come through then has he Kukuku." Spoke a figure as he looked down from a small slot in the wall before him at the blonde boy being thrown carelessly into the concrete cell with it's another inhabitant. The men carrying away the boy's backpack and belongings to be thrown elsewhere. "He took longer than expected, I would have thought he'd accomplish his task as soon as possible."

"Yes, master. He took his time to observe the boy than to approach and convince him to leave of his own choice, manipulating the boy to move as he wanted, rather than taking him so no one would be aware that the boy was taken. As far as anyone in Konoha will thank, the boy left of his own volition."

"Oh? Kukuku. Quite devious of young Kabuto then. Konoha lost it's Jinchuuriki and those in power, especially that old monkey will think they have only themselves to blame. I'll have to reward Kabuto later then. Not only has he brought me the boy, but to do it how he did." The figure spoke.

"Yes, though I must confess master, while not a doctor or scientist myself, I'm curious why the boy? I know him being Jinchuuriki is valuable but what uses does the boy provide?" The other spoke.

"Hmm, you wouldn't know, not anymore these days, but the Uzumaki are quite a catch. What do you know of them?"

"Well, the Uzumaki of Uzu no Kuni were feared for their prowess in Fuinjutsu, general power and skill in whatever pursuit each of their ninjas chose to pursue and large chakra reserves. They were wiped out by a coalition of three of the Major shinobi villages during the last war. Iwa, Kumo, and Kiri. Even then for every Uzu shinobi killed, 5-7 of the coalition's forces were killed in return. They were feared for a reason." He stated.

"Quite. You are correct and history, unbiased history, shows their power. They supported a friendship with the Senju, their cousins, and helped in the founding of Konoha but never joined their ilk. However, most are unaware of the various titles and rumors about the Uzumaki and their village. Their most famous being the Village of Longevity, for the Uzumaki were told to be gifted with such vitality, energy and life force to live a healthy, youthful and longer life than any other person in the world." Spoke the first.

"Truly?"

"Yes. Long life, greater personal energy, great life force, massive chakra reserves, natural healing that rebuked illness and poisons. Now Imagine that paired with the energy coursing through the boy as a Jinchuuriki to the most powerful of Biju."

"That's...but are we sure he is Uzumaki? They were supposed to be redheads, even in their mix blood descendants." The other stated.

"He is. If you study your history enough you'll know that he is. Hashirama Defeated Madara who wielded the fox, but where did it go? Who was Hashirama Married to? She eventually had to die so who was the only other Uzumaki to Live in Konoha aside from the Shodai's wife? Where was she when the fox appeared 8 years ago? Who did that Uzumaki have a known romantic interest in? What happened to the ox 8 years ago, it didn't just disappear." The first stated, and left his right-hand thinks on that premise a moment.

"Wait... then he's!?"

"Yes. Their Yondaime's child. It's ironic, he's a carbon copy of the man yet they can't even bring themselves to see it clouded with their own hate. And that is the reason why he's redheaded. In genetics, the traits of the parent with the larger reserves of chakra at the time of conception are typically more dominant in their offspring. Impressive really for him to outpace a pureblood Uzumaki Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi in chakra reserves. But that shows that the boy's pedigree is really something to marvel at."

"I...see. that really is impressive. But what of the girl then?" He asked.

"Let me worry about things concerning the fields of science my friend. Suffice to say, if this all goes well, then both of their Uzumaki traits should come out stronger afterward a step closer to what dear Kimimaru needs."

"Yes Lord Orochimaru. I'll get the staff prepared to start the procedure then."

"Good. See to it. Afterwards, I want you to check up on Kabuto, deliver my thanks and gratitude and deliver my next set of orders." The now named Orochimaru spoke as he handed over a scroll to the man who melded with the shadows and then disappeared. Orochimaru looked back at the unconscious blonde boy and the red-haired girl crawling over to him. "You will prove to be quite the specimen, won't you Naruto-Kun. Kukuku"

[Cell]

Naruto groaned as he felt a hand on his shoulder shaking him. He swatted it away wanting to sleep, but the hand shook him more. Tired, he roused and rolled over, looking up at the blurry features of a mass of red hair over the fair skin. "Huh?" He spoke, not hearing what was said until he could make out what he was seeing and heard.

"You were captured too huh?" The redhead asked and Naruto was confused until he looked around. "You're in a cell, they tossed you in here out cold." She spoke and Naruto could see the girl was a little older than him, striking red hair, brown eyes, and fair skin. She wore simple shirt and pants, kind of like the stuff worn at hospitals.

"Captured? What? No, I was... I was running away from my village. I-I stopped to check my map and then I...I... I don't know. I don't remember anymore from there." He said, holding his head.

"You were probably found by one of the sick fucks and knocked out, seeing as you're here now." The girl spoke, drawing away and bringing her knees up to her chest. "The pasty-skinned fucker will probably be by later to bite you so you can get one of these." She said, showing the back of her neck where a three hooked like mark was. "My advice, when they come, don't fight it. Fighting only makes it worse." She warned.

"w-what? NO! I can't be captured I-"

"You are. Now stop babbling. they're coming." She spoke resigned when suddenly their cell filled with a white smoke. She laid down and took a big breath before closing her eyes. He panicked and started to breathe rapidly as he got up and ran to the door, but he didn't make it three steps before he lost strength and fell face first, out like a light.

[Another room]

Orochimaru watched as the boy and the girl was restrained to tables and hooked up with various tubes and machines, while careful not to damage the seal arrays he placed onto either of the two. As soon as the drug flushed from their system the procedure would start.

"We're ready to begin Lord Orochimaru." Spoke one of his scientists.

"Begin."

The Scientist nodded and turned on the machines initiating the procedure, while another interfaced with a seal-array that connected the two from their tables to an altar. The seal array glowed and then one could clearly see the seal array on either of the two glow blue and spread like water from them, to the table, following the seals along the floor to the altar and up, before mixing at the central seal and spread back to their bodies.

From the tubes flowed blood, which filled a reservoir in the machine connecting them both, and flowed again from the machine to both of them, creating a cycle of blood flow between them. The machine adding a chemical solution to the blood in the reservoir before it flowed back to the test subjects.

A blood and chakra combination based therapy.

"Lord Orochimaru the Enrichment Therapy is proceeding and no noticeable rejections thus far. You were correct about them being compatible." The scientist stated and Orochimaru chuckled.

"Of course. Now to see how far the therapy can go. Tell me how long do you estimate would be good to keep up this therapy? Blood treatment is your area of expertise after all." Orochimaru asked.

"Hooked to the machine with the chemical, No more than an hour. The chemical solution is a buffer for compatibility in the first stage, once the blood s fully cycled, the second stage begins by introducing a second solution that will act as a catalyst between their mixed blood. After a full cycle of it, we introduce the final stage a new treatment using something we've developed that will essentially 'share' their genetic traits with one another and activate recessive traits and enhance them. Of course, all of this will have to be done over several sessions, increasing the doses each session, but better to take it slow so not to waste resources. The Uzumaki are hard to find as is."

"Ye, which is also why we're doing the chakra counterpart to your treatment as well. Their chakra will recognize their blood and be more willing to accept their containers and vice versa with the blood. Not to mention it should enhance the overall process as well. Expanding their chakra reserves and increasing the quality of their chakra." Orochimaru spoke, already seeing the girl tremble. "She will have it harder first, her coils have to adjust to a Jinchuuriki's chakra in both sheer quantity and quality. It'll be easier when she can access the level two state of the curse mark and experience its change in chakra."

"Indeed. Sakon and Ukon results show a change in their physiology after experiencing the level two of the curse mark, so having a Jinchuuriki's chakra in her will have some interesting effects to look forward to when she changes." The scientist stated, looking to see the boy now trembling. "Hmm, the boy is showing signs of the blood and chakra now permeating his system."

"Good. Keep me apprised Doctor. I want them healthy and clean at all times. Like you said they are a precious resource and I'll not have them sullied. If anyone dares touch them, have them executed and displayed. Continue with the sessions you have planned for today...and give him his number."

"Yes Lord Orochimaru." He spoke as the snake-like man left. The doctor turned and smiled at his two subjects. "I really do look forward to your results. depending on your success, you may yet well prove my theories and be used as the basis for future developments." The man said with a sadistic smile.

[Naruto]

He woke up long ago, but he couldn't speak, a gag in his mouth prevented such. his arms bound, he couldn't move. He felt both weak and strong, nauseous and perfectly fine, hazy and clear-headed. He hated this. He wanted to go home...yeah, Konoha was home. But he couldn't, he made his choice now. He looked to his side and saw the girl from before, he still didn't know her name, but she looked at him, bound the same as he was and just shook her head. He understood, don't fight. But he wanted to, by any gods that be, did he want to. But he couldn't move against his binds, couldn't make a sound past his gag. Nothing.

Laying on the table as the adults in white coats walked around the two he breathed and struggled, they just glanced at him before moving on. He could feel his mind fading he tried to resist it, but the darkness was edging at the outside of his eyes, closing in, and then darkness.

...

He kept fading in and out like that for a long time, still fixed to that table. The only time he fully regained his mind was when he was back in the cell with the girl, two trays of food and drinking waiting for them.

"...what do they want from us?" He asked finally when he had his voice back.

"Don't know. They never answer any questions and the pasty-skinned fucker just laughs that weird fucking way and says I'll be useful to him. Before you came I was forced to keep eating, fighting, training, take pills, get shots everything before he bit me and I got this fucking mark. Now, whenever I get mad these marks spread all over my body until he put another mark over it. Then you fucking show up and everything changes."

"So they're just using us?" He asked, crawling over to the second tray of food, starting to eat. He didn't know what else to do and he was hungry.

"Yeah, don't know for what. I feel stronger though. You?" She asked

"I don't know...I was just starting at the academy before I ran."

"Oh for fuck's sakes. No wonder they told me to train you."

"Huh?"

"Someone came to the cell after I woke up, told me to start training you in what I know and whatever scrolls they drop for us. Told me they expect us to both be strong for whatever plans they have for us." She said.

"But...I don't want to be used by them."

"You got some way of escaping I should know about then?" She asked looking at him expectantly.

"...no..."

"Didn't think so. Trust me you want to keep your head down and obey it's easier. If you fight they torture your ass. You wouldn't last long." She stated, scaring the boy a bit. She sighed, looking around their cell. A sink, a toilet, shower head with a drain under it, two mats for sleeping at the far end, breathing holes and damn thing else aside from the door with the tray slot. It wasn't a small cell, clearly, they expected them to train, evident by the various bars and protrusions from the walls for things like pull up exercises and the like, a single light at the top illuminating their cell. "Besides, you're marked now, like me so that must mean they intend to keep you." She said, pointing at his arm.

He looked at the underside of his left arm, an against the slightly tanned skin in black ink, was a number.

S-317300

Looking at the clearly defined number, he was at first confused, but then he started to feel sick. Marked...like he was owned. He trembled looking at it, he didn't want it, what it meant, he wanted to claw at it, but before he could, he heard the girl speak up. "You can't scratch it out. They tattoo it in then use sealing to make sure it stays, even if you scratch or cut it out, it comes back. It's there to stay." She told him and saw his dejected expression. Best he learns it right from the start to save the trouble. Sighing she thought it over and shook her head.

"What's your name?" She asked finally, stretching a bit.

"n-Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki." He stated.

"Tayuya." She stated simply and let out a breath. "Well, come on, Let's get started with chakra first." She directed him over to her to get started on the training.

It started like this, where she ran him through the basics she knew, quickly discovering he was shit with Genjutsu whereas she was talented with it. They were fed often, and despite it tasting like crap, they were never hungry. But no one talked to them. The scientists never talked to them when they woke up on the tables again after the room was gassed. They would fade in and out of consciousness during those sessions of being fixed to the tables, then wake up back in the cell feeling stronger.

Their world was only of that cell or begin strapped to those tables, and no idea what was happening outside of either. Scrolls were dropped into the cells, where she would read first and they'd learn together, she taught him to read and write with what they could, using water from the sink like ink on the concrete. They quickly lost any sense of privacy since the cell had no walls for the toilet or the shower. Clothes was never an issue as they usually woke up in new clean scrubs. He stopped being freaked out over it the first few times, he had no control over it anyway. She also told him to 'fucking deal with it' about her using the toilet or shower whenever she needed to, or him. Though she had to explain the greater differences between girls and boys that he didn't know yet, much to his embarrassment and her frustration.

He could only describe their time down there as a senselessness of time, no way of knowing how much had gone by, or what time of the day it was. The only indication any significant amount of time went by was that he was getting taller when he noticed it wasn't as hard to reach for a high par to do pulls ups or that he was filling out his sleeping mat more than before.

The scrolls kept coming over all subjects, even mundane things like math and history, Tayuya cursing up a storm about those things, but Naruto found some solace in those scrolls, they were a nice distraction. The training was good, they were getting stronger, but they couldn't learn anything really strong since they were prisoners obviously. The sessions on those tables kept occurring and he didn't see any indication of it stopping. It was almost a comfortable pace once whatever they did to them on the tables stopped being painful and weird feeling. but then things took a turn when Tayuya wasn't in a cell with him after one session.

[Containment cell]

"It's almost finished Lord Orochimaru." Spoke the doctor who directed the therapy sessions of the Uzumaki subjects.

"Goods. Looks like your modification to the mind awakening pill will prove beneficial to young Tayuya should this work." Spoke Orochimaru.

"It should. Having been undergoing the Therapy for months now has certainly rendered results. Expansion of her chakra coils is more than anticipated, her natural regeneration has heightened, physical limits have been approached and broken several times according to observation of their training sessions shows. Natural talent has come through. Bst of all her Uzumaki traits have strengthened, evident with her darker hair shade and brighter eyes. The standard Uzumaki traits." The doctor spoke.

"Indeed, she has come quite a way. It also helps their food is rich in everything their body needs, also containing a host of supplements and chemicals to stimulate their development and growth, along with treated air and water. Controlling every variable of their environment has proven a great success and Kimmimaru is showing improvement with treatment using chemicals derived from blood collected from them." Orochimaru stated.

"Indeed. The boy shows improvements of his own, but curiously no change to his visible physical traits aside from general growth and strengthening." He remarked curiously.

"He'll likely need a catalyst for any outward physical traits to change as an indication of internal change. We'll introduce such a catalyst through Tayuya and therapy sessions utilizing the curse mark and injections of material from Jugo in later sessions after that. For now, let's focus on Tayuya." Orochimaru spoke, waiting to see the progress of his prized Uzumaki girl.

In the cell past the viewing barrier was a sealed barrel that was leaking black smoke, the chakra from it was foul and tainted but it was powerful and intense as it now began to pour and steam from the barrel like a cooking pot under pressure. Finally, the seams of the barrel opened up as the barrel bulged before exploding outward. There, in simple scrubs was Tayuya, but her skin was dark, six horns from her head making a crown through her hair which had grown long. Muscles brimmed with power. Black finger and toenails like claws, fang-like teeth, red eyes with a black slit in the center against a black backdrop. Her hair flowed around her being, almost like tails.

The two watching took note of her transformation and Orochimaru smiled while the doctor took notes furiously. "My, it's like seeing the Initial state of a Jinchuuiki fused with the second stage of the curse mark. The power is quite nice. Seems the Biju chakra present in her chakra was perfectly transformed with the curse mark."

"Yes. That should make it easier for the boy's body to accept the chakra from Tayuya while the curse mark is engaged since it'll have traces of his own chakra in it and her chakra in his."

"Agreed. Go on and get young Naruto-Kun then. I'll get Tayuya-chan here ready." Orochimaru spoke as he made a hand seal and the girl suddenly passed out, her transformation receding. "What else does the Uzumaki blood have to offer I wonder." He stated aloud as he walked into the containment cell to collect Tayuya.

[Naruto]

He groaned as he woke up, again, after their cell was gassed. Finding himself fixed on the table again. Great, here he was again. But this time something was different he could feel it. Looking around, he saw a pasty-skinned long black haired man standing there with a smile.

"Awake now are you Naruto-Kun? Good, I wouldn't want you to miss the start of this after all." The man stated with a glimmer in his eye that spelled his self-amusement clear to him. "Wondering who I am aren't you?" He asked the gagged boy who nodded. "Well you see, I'm your kind tender Patron. The man responsible for your health, condition, training and education, the one who's made you as strong as you are now. My name Is Orochimaru. You should know me if you've been reading your scrolls like you should have been." He spoke with a smirk as the boy's eyes widened.

Naruto Glanced to the side to see Tayuya' eyes also widen, but her eyes seethed with anger as he struggled against her bonds to lash out at the man futilely. This was different, she hadn't acted like this before. But before he could wonder about it, he saw flame like colored hook marks spread across her body.

"Yes yes good Tayuya, just like that. You may begin doctor." Orochimaru spoke, who nodded and activated both the machine and the seals. Once the blood and chakra mixed and flowed back to the others, Naruto instantly thrashed against his restraints. "An interesting reaction," Orochimaru spoke as he walked over to the boy to look him over. Tayuya watched on, now horrified seeing what was happening.

"You two may have realized this already, but for some time now we've been mixing your blood and chakra with various treatments and chemicals to enrich and enhance both of you. As it stands you may as well be siblings, which is good, it means you're compatible with this procedure. You see, Naruto-Kun here is a Jinchuuriki and an Uzumaki. The Uzumaki people are a very powerful people, a people you descend from dear Tayuya-Chan. But Naruto-Kun here is unique in that he has the Kyuubi no Kitsune sealed within his body, like a prison, and that's changed his body, and thanks to these sessions you've benefitted from having his blood and chakra flowing through you. And now he'll benefit from you with your curse mark active during these sessions."

Tayuya looked on alarmed at the man before looking down at Naruto who was thrashing on his table, his restraints had been reinforced in preparation for just this occurrence. The deep purple chakra from her body was mixing in the seals, transforming his chakra to be like it and being absorbed into his body. SHe could see his chakra network like veins as the purple chakra illuminated them, but a red chakra was forming and meeting it. That same red chakra changed him, his nails became claws, teeth became fanged, formerly blue eyes were red and pupils were black slits, his hair was wild and his whiskers were sharp and thick.

"They Kyuubi is perceiving the curse mark chakra as a foreign entity and fighting it. Hmm, I suppose we'll have to accelerate this slight. Tayuya-Chan, I need you to step it up." He ordered but frowned when he saw her shake her head. "Well while I can see you don't want him to hurt, he is your brother and all now," she shivered seeing that demented smile. "This will happen regardless, so advance the curse mark, or I'll force it." He ordered and she met his eyes... "Fine then. Have it your way." He spoke, forming a hand seal and forcing the girl to advance to stage two of the seal.

Tayuya herself now thrashed in pain as her seal was forced, her body transforming into the state it was in not long ago. Some of her features mimicking those now seen in Naruto while under the Kyuubi's influence. The chakra emitted from her turned a Darker purple, while the chakra from Naruto now bled red, flowing into the seal. The central seal array managed to mix both chakras together, where the combined result flowed back to both parties. The new dark chakra from the sealed mixture flow into Naruto, where the red Biju chakra broke away its resistance, and now flowed throughout his body, the same happening to Tayuya.

Watching as the advanced state of chakra from both mixed and flowed between them, it was amazing to see really. Tayuya already experienced her changes, but now they were reinforced and made prominent, her horns grew longer, nails sharper, fangs keener, and more. But like he discussed with the doctor, this proved to be the trigger for outward physical change in Naruto as his hair bled red as dark as any Uzumaki pureblood. Orochimaru smiled seeing this only this but like Tayuya his current state of being was undergoing its own changes. Muscle mass was growing, the ears were ever so slightly shifted back with a slight point, not so much to be unnatural, fangs sharper, claw-like nails coloring black, hair growing a bit longer, and a distinctive shadow starting to just develop around the eyes to making those red fox eyes stand out even more.

Overall he was pleased with the results.

Not only had the therapy sessions worked, they exceeded expectations with the changes occurred. Now both had traits of strong Uzumaki genes reinforced by Biju chakra and curse seal chakra. A few sessions like these and then sessions of one in their base state and vice versa and the changes desired should be complete before moving on to more direct treatments for Kimimaru.

Naruto was the stronger Uzumaki of the two, so Tayuya would be first using their curse seal chakra as a compatibility catalyst between them before moving on to Naruto.

Orochimaru stuck around to see the session's end, watching as both transformations released. Naruto was left with his red hair, it's length and muscular growth, while Tayuya had her own growth, hair and eye changes left behind as well. He could practically feel the chakra between them wanting to release outward. "Take them back to their cell to recuperate, no more sessions until their bodies have completely settled and adjusted. I imagine they have a great deal to talk about. Kukuku" The man chuckled as he left.

[Cell]

Naruto awoke to an odd sensation he never felt before. His head was lying on something soft and warm, while his hair was being stroked. Blinking away the crust from his eyes and rousing despite the soreness in his body, he looked up to find Tayya with her recently changed brighter eyes staring down at him, looking on sadly. "Tayuya?" He asked her, concerned. She's never acted like this before.

"You're okay, so am I. at least, I think we are." She spoke softly, not sure how to breach this subject. "What do you remember?"

"Um...well I woke up n the cell alone, that kind of scared me... ok it really scared me." He admitted when he saw her look at him weird like. "But I wasn't alone for long, the room was Gassed again before I woke up back in that room." He continued on. "That guy you talked about...Orochimaru was his name, yeah. I remember him. He was the one responsible for all of this, what's happening to us."

"That's right. But what do you remember after that?"

"After that? after that... I... I don't know. I remember them starting up the machine and the seals, but after that, I just felt so much pain and rage, I couldn't focus on anything else. It was like my whole body was on fire and I was mad that it was. Then the pain went away and it was only anger after that." he spoke, trying his best to remember more.

Tayuya bit her lip and decided to get it over with, subtlety aside from Genjutsu just wasn't in her. "Naruto, can you go over to the mirror above the sink and tell me what you see?" She asked and Naruto nodded without a word as he got up and went over. what he saw shocked him, his hair now came down to his shoulder and was as blood red as Tayuya's nows, his blue eyes now had a slight shadow around the eye sockets in the skin that made them seem like they were piercing his soul. His whisker marks were thicker and more defined than before, while his incisor teeth were more pronounced, overall giving him a more feral look.

"This session was a hard one, and it changed you like it changed me... They made me advance my curse seal to the next stage. But the bastard made me use it during the session to make it harder for you." She spoke softly. Naruto turned to her, moving over to her, before pulling her into a hug, holding her.

"It's not your fault. If anything I'm kinda happy. I got red hair like you do now." He said with a smile that made her smile a bit before she remembered what the snake bastard said.

"Naruto, there's something else the pasty-skinned bastard told me. These sessions where our chakra and blood has been mixing, it's changed us, enriched and enhanced us to make us stronger. But the bastard told me it could only work if we were alike...turns out I'm an Uzumaki...and the sessions have basically made us siblings." She said, watching as the boy looked at her with wide eyes now. "Naruto?" she asked worriedly.

"So that means you're an a...a sister, to me?" he asked, hope he didn't dare to have in his voice.

"Yeah...I kinda am I guess. not just cause of how we are, but in blood now if what he said is right- oomph!" She was cut off as Naruto pulled her back into another hug, his shoulders trembled as he buried his face into her shoulder. She looked down at the boy curiously but smiled to herself. She supposed she could live with having a little brother. However, there was something else she needed to tell him now. "Naruto, there's one more thing."

"You remember when you told me of how things were like for you back in Konoha?" She asked and Naruto nodded. "I think I know why now. The bastard told me about you, something I guess was kept secret, but it makes sense with everything I know about you... What do you know about the Kyuubi?" She asked, receiving the same answer any Konoha academy student know. "That story's wrong Naruto. I can't say this gently, so I'm just going to tell you. Orochimaru said you were used as a prison, the Kyuubi was sealed into your body to act as it's prison to stop it." She spoke, and suddenly she could see recognition and depression settling in his eyes.

I wasn't hard to see him thinking things through, remembering everything little thing and piecing it together with the new knowledge like she had done while awake in the room and their cell while he was out. She could see his mind click and his mood which was previously happy nose-dive into depression, no doubt going to the worst places it could.

"No! stop that."

"Stop what?" he asked, his voice sullen.

"Letting your thoughts take you to those depressing fucking places it likes to go. You're, not a damn demon like what those villagers said. You only contain one, that I'm sure. So don't you fucking dare think you're some kind of demon. Alright?" She spoke and he nodded, not really able to form words at the moment. She sighed as she held the boy, her now little brother to her. Never once did she imagine she'd go soft like this.

But for Naruto, she supposed she could. She leaned back on their mats as Naruto laid there with her, before finally passing out together.

The next few days no one bothered them and the two took the time to see how much they had changed. Training was hard, but it showed their improvement of their overall level of skill and ability. Tayuya could more easily access her curse mark forms, while Tayuya tried to help him learn how to bring about that transformation he did on the table, starting to embrace that he contained a demon, then why not use it's power if he could access it. It seemed logical to Tayuya and she convinced him as much of it. For now, it was a tool that was too valuable not to use, but it was beyond their ability to work with at the moment.

New scrolls were dropped into their cell with their meals, these scrolls were different than the ones from before which dealt with Taijutsu, chakra control exercises, Ninjutsu and Genjutsu based theory, essentially anything and everything they could learn without giving them a means to escape in the form of strong Ninjutsu or Genjutsu. These dealt with harnessing things like their senses, self-enhancement through chakra, manipulating sound waves and the science behind it, and body modification.

That last one was weird to Naruto, but Tayuya seemed to realize something and told him to learn it. What use would he have for making his tongue longer or changing parts of his body like that? Regardless she said learn it so he did, saying he'd be grateful for it down the road when they got out of there.

It was only just when they got rid of their funk the sessions always left them in, the weird feeling of their skin not being their own thanks to sharing each other's chakra and blood which they had grown used to, that their cell was gassed again.

This time though, when he woke up, he was nowhere he recognized. "What? Where am I?" He asked out loud, looking around as he did.

"Ah, your awake Naruto-Kun, that's good, seems the dosage of the gas needs to be backed off a bit in the future, you were out for quite a while." Spoke the slimy serpent voice he now knew to associate with Orochimaru. Groaning he got to his feet, slowly, the newly made red-head looked around to find a high wall viewing area, the eds of it lined with some kind of weird writing he couldn't decipher, it wasn't anything like what Tayuya had shown him how to read before.

"You must be wondering where you are no doubt. Allow me to explain. Thus far you've been serving a valuable purpose and will continue to d so. But afterward, when that purpose is served, where will that leave you? I intend to make sustain your value to me by making you more useful than just a donor. You'll be serving me one day, so must know how to actually fight." The voice stated and Naruto sneered a bit.

"What makes you think I'll actually work for you willingly huh?" He asked the time with Tayuya and recent changes showing through already.

"Why Naruto-Kun, what makes you think you have a choice?" He stated, and suddenly grating metal on metal could be heard. Naruto turned to see a cage door slid open and he tensed. From the door walked out a man in simple grey scrubs similar to what Naruto wore. He was a tall, muscular man, obviously someone who worked for a living. However his face shown sunken cheeks and eyes, his skin was very pale and his movements languid. He stared at Naruto for a moment before the snake spoke again.

"A fight. Kill your opponent and you get to eat." He said simply as a kunai was tossed at their feet. Naruto had no warning as the man picked up his kunai immediately and rushed naruto. Naruto froze as he saw the man rush him, his face a portrait of fury and desperation as Naruto realized something. This man was going to kill him...for food. Eyes widening at the realization, he grabbed his kunai and rolled to the side to avoid a swipe from the blade.

Huffing, he tried to reason this out, find some way to calm the man down. But a look into his eyes said that wasn't possible. This man was desperate, eyes he knew well since they had been his own on the streets. Starved, he'd go the distance to get fed. The man rushed him again, his breathing labored from lack of energy. Naruto rolled out of the way again, but the man anticipated him this time as he stepped over to where he would come out of his roll, and brought his kunai down on him, using his size and weight to trap Naruto and bring force.

Naruto was pushed down and trapped, he twisted right and left to avoid being stabbed as the kunai came down viciously, again and again, just barely missing him as it hit the stone floor. Panic had already set in and in his panic, he went to push the man off of him, forgetting he had a kunai in his own hands. The man froze as a sickening squelch sound came from the action, and Naruto felt warmth wash over his hands. He looked down to see red staining his skin and clothes, as the man's face seem to pale even more as he suddenly went limp.

What caught the boy though was his face, his eyes. He was at first haunted expression but then smiled slightly before falling limp on him. Naruto was very still before he pushed the man off of him, seeing the kunai lodged into his chest and stained with blood, blood that had flowed like an open faucet onto Naruto as his abdomen, hands, and arms were soaked in blood. He quivered as he looked at his hands, the red-head horrified as he realized what he did.

"That will do Naruto-Kun." Was all he heard until his vision went black again.

[Cell]

Naruto awoke in the cell again, but this time he saw he was the first to wake. Tayuya was resting to the side where she had been no doubt dropped or thrown in like they usually were by their handlers. He was about to get up until he saw his arms and hands, Stained red, still wet mostly, some of it was dry, flaky...sticky, darker than when it had been fresh. Naruto felt his stomach lurch before its contents were spewed to the concrete floor.

The young boy struggled for air once his stomach finished its rejection. He huffed as he laid there looking at the blood before he managed to get to his knees and arms, and crawled over to the shower spigot. Once there he used the wall to help him stan and turn the water on. He rubbed his hands together then over his arms, The water turned red as it went down the drain, while the sticky blood he had to scrub hard to be rid of. However, even when the blood washed away he still kept scrubbing as the man's face kept coming to his mind.

The noise must have been loud as Tayuya woke up.

"The fuck?" She called out groggily as she sat up, her face twisting up as she smelled the fresh vomit. But she heard the shower going and looked off to see Naruto under it, still fully dressed, he was scrubbing his hands, but what for? "Naruto?" She called out, but the boy didn't hear.

It was then she noticed that the former blonde's shirt was stained red, and the shower water was red. Her blood ran cold as she pieced it together and realized what had happened. She got up and went over to the boy to see him scrubbing away at his hands and arm, but the blood he was washing away from the man wasn't there anymore. It was his own now as he was hurting himself in his scrubbing.

She grabbed his arms and pulled them apart. "Naruto! Stop!" She called but the boy struggled, he didn't speak words but his voice and cries were enough. "Naruto! Listen to me it's not your fault! Those sick bastards made you do it! It's not your fault!" She called out to the boy who's struggling started to cease. Tayuya adjusted her grip of his hands to a hug around his head shoulders to her chest and she sat down under the shower water.

The boy trembled into her arms, pulled down with her to sit under the shower water, before he sniffled and then cried, holding onto her for dear life. She didn't reject him she kept holding him close, letting him cry into her chest as she rocked back and forth slightly, running a hand through his now red hair, cooing at the boy that he was okay, it wasn't his fault. All the little comforts and truths she knew to help him. Her ears hurt from his wails, but she didn't move to stop them. It took some time, but under the water he finally calmed and then went limp as sleep took him, exhausted from the fight and his emotional break over what happened.

"Damn them. Damn them all to hell." She muttered out as she stroked her hand through his brilliant red hair. Looking at the boy she held now. She couldn't deny that he was as close to her as any family she might have ever had. A little brother not just in blood anymore as Orochimaru had said f their experiments, but also in name. She accepted him as her little brother now, and she felt his pain as her own as he cried while he held her. "I will make them pay. I will break them." She vowed.

Tayuya rose up and carried the boy away from under the shower spigot they shared. Taking him over by the sleeping mats he changed him out of his wet bloodied scrubs and into a fresh new pair, changing herself before tossing the old pair into a receptacle by the door for their scrubs. She came back to Naruto and laid him down, careful not to disturb him. But before she left him she thought better of it and laid down with it. If it was anything like her first time the nightmares would be horrendous. So she laid there with him, her arms around him as she held him close. She was proven right as the nightmares came, but she stroked his hair and cooed into his ear every time he awoke from one, sending him back to sleep.

The days following were hard for the boy as to be expected but Tayuya helped him to reason out and come to terms with his first kill. She didn't want to think of how it'd turn out if she weren't there. It helped to distract him from remembering what happened, though the only thing they could do was train and talk, so they did both. She realized he'd be made to fight more from there on, and thus that meant killing too. So she was preparing him as best she could for that. Sparring, knife drills with a knife hand posture, taijutsu, everything they had they trained in and reviewed. Even going so far as to turn out the light of their cell and use the darkness to train his spatial awareness and other senses aside from sight, especially hearing.

Proven right again, Naruto was put into another fight and had to kill again. This time he was better prepared and Like Tayuya taught him. don't think about it, just get it done then afterward reason it out why it happened and assure yourself it had to be done. More fights would follow, more death. The surplus of training with Tayuya helped him immensely as he got better at applying what he had learned. If only to make t quicker. But not before long he started fighting smaller people, who were stronger and faster, who used jutsu or their own and forced Naruto to step up.

That's not to say that Naruto didn't try to escape. But that glass window the wall walked up to he could hurt with his kunai nor could he find any other exit. With those attempts, Naruto and Tayuya weren't fed while he was tortured personally. After every fight and kill, it was a process to calm him down, but he eventually got better at handling the stress and turmoil. Tayuya worried for him, he knew that, but he worried just as much for her, guessing she was having to do the same thing he was.

Sessions continued, mixing and exchanging blood and chakra between each other, no doubt trying to enhance them further. They could both see that more chemicals were being added to the machine where their blood was gathered in at. Each new chemical affected them differently, but after a few hours, they seemed to get over it.

It was after a while where things changed yet again. They awoke to the tables, but this time they weren't hooked up to any machines. Orochimaru was in the room with them and the other doctors. "You're awake, good. Then we can start the procedure." Orochimaru spoke with that slithery voice that sent chills up his spine. He yelped a moment when he felt a harp jab in his arm and saw a doctor drawing out a large amount of blood from him, before taking it away.

"The hell are you doing this time!?" Tayuya called out and the pasty skinned man smirked at them.

"What I originally did all this for. To find a cure." He stated as he walked over to Naruto first. "A little lesson. You two are uzumaki, and for the past months, we've been awakening, enhancing, enriching, and refining the Uzumaki traits in you both. Now you are at a stage where those traits can be put to use. Such as..." He stated, jabbing naruto with the syringe and injecting him with the clear liquid. "Infecting you with sicknesses, virus, and diseases to fight them off and build up anti-bodies, which we can then use to synthesize cures." He stated with a smile, though left out the who or the what.

"You Bastard!" Tayuya shouted, looking over to Naruto who was starting to thrash as his skin seemed to itch all over and burn, his body trying to furiously fight off the invasion of the disease injected into him.

"Oh Don't worry, you'll be joining him. Now settle down or I'll give him a double dose." He stated and once the girl calmed, he injected her, who soon started to undergo the same process. Satisfied he left the two to their misery to allow their bodies to run the course of combating the disease. The two thrashed for hours s their own bodies was putting them through pain to fight off the disease which was virulent, to say the least.

Eventually, they both settled and their bodies processed through the disease, killing it off and producing the antibodies they wanted. They weren't aware of when they came in and collected blood from them, but they took a lot, adding to their weakness of fighting off the ailment and then losing so much blood. Their last vision was of the snake bastard examining a syringe of their blood as he left before darkness.

[Treatment Room]

"Any improvement?" Orochimaru spoke, looking at his charts.

"Preliminary tests show marked improvement of his condition to prior Lord Orochimaru. It's amazing, to say the least. His disease should have been terminal, but now it's treatable." One of the doctors spoke.

"Treatable?" Orochimaru asked, not like that statement.

"Well My lord, the disease is strong and resistant to most drugs and other forms of treatment. Utilizing the antibodies from the Uzumaki paired with the drugs has allowed his condition to improve and with further treatments, he'll be able to return to service. But the disease is rooted in deep to his body. A full cure may be impossible for him."

"I see...then we will have to take more drastic measures," Orochimaru spoke.

"My lord?" He stated.

"Prep Tayuya for a transfusion with Kimmimaru. Their curse marks should allow them compatibility for the transfusion to work. She already has antibodies so she'll be able to fight off the disease. It'll be similar to running tainted blood through a healthy liver back into the body."

"Yes Lord Orochimaru." The Doctor spoke as he left. Orochimaru stared down at the bed Orochimaru was on, equipment around his body showing his state of health.

"Soon Kimmimaru, you'll be healthy again and a fitting vessel once more. Kukuku." He didn't have to wait long as Tayuya was wheeled in on her table and the equipment set up. He watched as the procedure was started before the girl could even wake, but she noticed and woke up once the mixed blood and chakra hit her system. Her screams of pain and anger were quite something, melodic even. He recalled an old wives tale that if you worst sound could be seen as melodic such as screams and such, it was indicative of being good with music. Perhaps there was a thought there to explore, he did recall her playing the flute on the streets when they found her.

Regardless the procedure was kept going for a long time until her screams went quiet. Though initially stressful, checking updated charts of his vitals showed another increased improvement. His smile spread across his ears.

"Doctor, proceed with the sessions as often as you think they can handle without permanent damage. Schedule the boy for more fights with the stronger prisoners, he needs to be made stronger. In time we'll be using the boy instead of Tayuya if Kimmimaru still requires the direct transfusions." He stated as he left. The doctor bowed and wrote down the orders to be given to one of the handlers.

[Two months Later]

Naruto pulled the weakened Tayuya onto his chest as she whimpered. Her body was in pain. He ran a hand through her hair to help her like she had done for him. The first time he woke up without Tayuya he panicked but managed to calm down. Though when Tayuya was thrown in, he found her weak, and for the three days after that, he had to feed her and help her around the cell to the bathroom and shower, he was glad they didn't care about that stuff anymore otherwise it would have been a lot harder to help her. He learned from her they made her do the session with some sick white-haired boy with weird dots on his head. But when the blood and chakra hit her body it was the worst feeling and pain she could imagine.

The process left her weak and utterly unable to do anything for a time. Sure her body recovered and grew stronger each time, but the pain was immense if her estimation was right. Then there were his fights. The people kept getting harder to fight, and more often than not he won by some desperate tactic or maneuver he had to think of on the fly. He was getting stronger from the constant fights, but he was also getting hurt, sometimes his injuries brought him to his knees and only just barely did he have enough at the last moment to pull through.

He healed for sure, damn did he ever heal, he watched large and deep cuts knit back together and close like they were never there, to begin with. But that didn't mean they don't hurt. But every fight was harder to fight, yet every fight was a little easier to handle, as were every kill.

So that's how it went for Two months, now Tayuya only suffered the weakness for half a day before she was back on her feet, and his nightmares were manageable at least. He sighed as he ran a hand through her hair still, looking down to his older sister. "How are we going to survive this?" He asked her even though she was asleep. He didn't have long to contemplate as the gas filled the cell again and he sighed. Taking a deep breath, he relaxed and waited for darkness.

[Treatment Room]

Naruto awoke on a table, a weird table, but the room was different this time. Looking around he saw familiar machines and alter meant for the session, but his eyes found instead of Tayuya, a boy older than him with long white hair, two red dots on his forehead and hooked up to various medical equipment like he saw at the hospital in Konoha. A sinking feeling hit his stomach as he looked around and saw Orochimaru again and he growled. The boy struggled against his restraints at the man.

"Spirited, good you may need to use that here soon. It's good to see you Naruto-Kun, you've proven to be quite a catch I must say. You'll make a valuable enforcer one day. For now, you have a job to do. I'm sure you can guess what, so we'll just begin. Start with the bone marrow." He stated.

Two doctors walked up to the boy and Naruto both with large syringes, Naruto tried to struggled, but the restrained him tight and managed to stab the large needle down through his skin and he buckled as he felt it hit the bone and pierce through. He yelped in pain before he felt a painful sensation he couldn't quite describe, but saw the same happening to the other boy. Then the regular session started with the draining of blood and chakra. But before it went back, they injected the stuff in the syringes into the main blood mixture in the machine's reservoir with a few chemicals, before they started.

Once the mixtures hit though, his senses filled with pain as he buckled and thrashed against his restraints, he wanted to get out and free. He struggled hard, muscles tightening to give more strength as he resisted with all his might. He could feel it in his veins as it coursed through him. His body itched and burned like before when they injected them before, but much worse and more pain. However, that pain gave way to anger, and soon he directed that anger onto one focus as he looked over to Orochimaru.

He felt a surge of power, an enhancing of his senses and clarity of anger right on the one responsible.

Orochimaru was fascinated by what he was seeing. Was the boy accessing the fox's chakra on his own? Marvelous. But he knew this could be bad...or good. Deciding to take a chance, he made a few hand seals and forced Kimmimaru's curse seal to activate and progress to the stage two addition of Kimmimaru's cursed chakra and blood in this state to the Kyuubi Uzumaki chakra and blood mixing should have a unique effect. So he kept watching and his lark was well paid for.

He watched as Kimmimaru seemed to breath deeper, his body undergoing a slight change not unlike Tayuya's during the same process, though to what extent he can't be sure, however, his hair stated the same, it seemed his muscle mass became more defined, his bones that were exposed in the form receded into his body, while the tail developed flexible bone plates that could be used as armor for the tail, those bone plates travelling up the back like armor. Similar bone plates forming on the hands and feet up to the knees and elbows. Very interesting.

But the Uzumaki boy experienced his own change. He could literally see the bones under his skin becoming more pronounced, and if he wasn't imagining it, larger even. He smiled as he saw muscle mass swell slightly, and his feral features became even more pronounced than before. But what really caught his surprise was the sudden appearance of three spikes thrusting from between his knuckles out, slicing open the flesh. His grin widened as he saw those bone spikes cut through his restraints and suddenly he was free. Of the doctors in the room, Naruto slaughtered them in his rage.

But before He could turn on the drug-induced coma state of Kimmimaru, he moved into the room and applied the Gogyo Fuin to the boy's seal, cutting off the Biju's chakra and knocking him out. He watched as his state changed back to normal, the prior features he had a bit stronger, but still there, what amazed him though was his body stayed the same. The larger pronounced bone structure increased muscle mass and the claws, which had yet to recede. Kneeling down he worked the hand muscles a bit and the claws retracted before the skin healed over instantly. Eyes widening, he grinned from ear to ear. This just got even better.

Picking the boy up, he took him to another lab where he proceeded with taking as many 'donations' from the boy's body as possible and with no shortage of glee watched as the taken donations were healed back to normal as if never taken. He created a veritable supply of 'donations' from Naruto that would be put with his blood samples they'd been taking and collecting since day one for research and control markers.

"You really are full of surprises dear Naruto-Kun. I will make you my strongest enforcer. WHo knows, if we can take care of that damn Biju, you'd make a perfect vessel of your own." He whispered to the boy, running a hand through his hair as he looked down at the boy and chuckled to himself under his breath, proceeding with the rest of his 'donations' from the boy.

[Cell]

Tayuya was pacing the cell worried as all hell now. This wasn't right. Naruto was usually here and awake before she was nowadays and it was supposed to be her time for the next session. She just had to stay calm, he was probably in a really tough fight, r recovering after his fight, they did that in really bad injuries- Was he so injured that he actually needed to be treated? Her worry just increased as she started to bite her nail. Her worries eased when the door to their cell was opened and she saw the boy tossed in.

Eyes widening she ran to him to check him but gasped when she saw him. He has changed again. His face looked more pronounced, but his body was what was truly different. His bones, she could see them almost as clearly as she could the first day she saw him, but it was different, not as if he hasn't eaten, but like his bones were almost bigger than what his body could hold. And as if to compensate his muscles were bigger to hold it all, hell he was even a little taller.

The changes weren't that big of a deal, it's what caused the changed. Gritting her teeth, she pulled the boy who was heavy now, into a hug as she leaned against the wall. "They were supposed to be using me still." She muttered as she held the sleeping Naruto. However, she noticed something and looked down. She had seen his seal before during training, but now it looked different, It looked like there were five outer marks around it. That bastard messed with his seal!? The hell are they trying to do!

"I'm sorry Naru... I'm so sorry." She muttered as she rocked back and forth with the boy.

[Treatment Room]

The mess had been cleaned up and now they had just taken Kimmimaru off the drugs that were keeping him in a coma. When Orochimaru had backed off of the curse transformation, they were astounded to see the immediate improvement of his condition just with their eyes. His body returned to normal, he had more color, breathing was good. The instruments showed drastic improvement and as far as they could tell, the disease was no more.

Pulling the last of the tubes and sensors off his body, they gave him an injection to neutralize the other drugs in his system and waited. Soon enough the boy opened his eyes and slowly sat up, flexing his hand and stretching a moment.

"How do you feel?" His lord asked and KImmimaru looked up at him.

"Ready for orders Lord Orochimaru." The boy stated as he stood and bowed. Orochimaru smirked and nodded.

"Your quarters are still open. Return to them, rest in your own bed and wait for further instructions." He stated, the boy nodded and left.

"Remarkable." Spoke the voice of Orochimaru's right-hand man.

"yes, an unbeatable disease defeated by two Uzumaki," Orochimaru spoke.

"My lord, what about the two Uzumaki? The girl ha the curse mark, and will be up for your Sound Squad, but what of the boy. He is Jinchuuriki and the Biju would interfere with the Cursed seal no doubt." The man stated.

"Indeed, we'll have to find another use for him. His regenerative capabilities are just too great not to use. I had thought to make him one highest enforcer, but what are your thoughts?" He asked his right-hand.

"The boy will be hard to control, as will the girl. No doubt they'll try to escape the stronger they get. The girl's fate is determined but the boy... I wonder, what else could be done to him to make him even more useful?" He asked his master.

"You think we should try to change and add more to his body?" He inquired.

"Why not? His healing factor will let him survive any procedure I'd bet. I'd say you could probably even coat his bones in molten metal and he'd survive. Make his entire body a weapon. try to see if he can adapt other Kekkai Genkai or any other number of things you can think of... My Lord?" He asked, seeing the thinking posture he was making.

"Another reason I keep you around, you give me such wonderful ideas, your out of the box thinking serves you well as it does me."

"I aim to please My Lord. But if I may, what idea struck you?"

"Remember the experiments of some time back with various metal alloys and trying to introduce them and the dead bone pulse when Kimmimaru looked to no longer be viable anymore?" He asked his subordinate.

"Why yes. But those turned out to be failures due to the disease, incompatibility, and rejection of the alloy bonding to the iron in the blood of the subjects to graft with the Kekkai Genkai. But what is this... You attend to do the same to the Uzumaki boy." He caught on and his lord nodded. "But won't it be a problem trying to introduce an alloy when the Kekkai Genkai has already been assimilated?" He asked.

"Partly. That's why we'll introduce a second Kekkai Genkai that can modulate the alloy and use the fox in him to facilitate assimilation like it seems to have done before. For now make sure the boy is scheduled for more fights, test his limits and push them. But make sure the second seal stays in place. I don't want the fox interfering with his fights."

"As you will My Lord." He stated and walked away.

[Fighting Pit]

Naruto groaned as he woke up, looking around, he was back in the fighting pits. He grumbled, last he remembered he was jabbed in the stomach by the pasty skinned asshole and knocked out. Sighing he gt up and stretched, but then noticed immediately he was unsteady. Looking down he could see he was bigger, but his body was sore and he wanted to groan. But this wasn't the time or place.

"Fight to death like usual. However, today is different, boy." Great, this guy, he was no better than the snake bastard. "Today you'll have three opponents and no weapons for you. You got them claws now, use them." He said, cutting off the intercom before the gates started to rise. Claws?

A rush of memories, he remembered now bones shooting out of his hand's and he used them to...kill the doctors. His eyes went wide, but he didn't have time to ponder as two of the three men rushed him. They had weapons, one had an ax, another a set of large knives and the third guy seemed to have a sword. He didn't have much time to think about it as they rushed him and he dodged to the side.

However, the knife guy got a cut in on his side and he grunted. He went to hold it, but when he did he found no wound there. "What the?" He looked down to his side and only a little blood. Again though they came and rushed him. He was at a disadvantage here, numbers, speed all that, and he had no weapons... Looking to his hands, he gritted his teeth and thought of them, wanted them, trying to flex his muscles in the arm, and with some effort, he felt a slicing pain before puncture and then bone spikes sliced out from between his knuckles. He roared in pain as blood leaked from the ends of the bones.

The men were a bit put off by that, but they had their orders so rushed him again. This time though Naruto went on the offensive to use the bone claws to cut and stab at his opponents, hollering at them as he did, he felt like he was on fire, thinking of everything they could do to hurt him and how he could avoid or counter them. His muscles constantly twitching with intent to react at a moments notice as the world seemed to slow down almost. Handling the two was easier when he fought back, but now the swordsman stepped forward.

Naruto tore off his shirt, ripped, cut and bloody, but no wounds on him anymore to indicate as such. Bringing his new claws up to bear as weapons, clumsy as he was, he faced off with the swordsman.

The two circled each other and, but as the man adjusted his stance Naruto saw an opening and took it. However, the stance was a rouse as he was run through the middle when he got in close with his claws, the man just smiled at him. But Naruto not to be killed like this, shoved his claws into the man's chest, roaring at him as he did until the man fell back dead.

Falling to his knees, he huffed and looked down to the sword in his gut. grabbing the sword, he felt pain but didn't want it in him. So he painfully and quickly pulled the sword out of his body and coughed up blood once it was out. Dropping the sword, he went to feel the stab wound but was shocked to feel the wound closing around his finger until he pulled it out and felt it again to feel it was gone.

"What did they do to me?" He asked out loud but didn't have much time to sit on it as he heard more gates opening. Getting up, claws at the ready, he took a breath and raised his new weapons ready to fight again.

Thus this became the new routine, no more sessions as they felt they already had what they needed, now Naruto was the main focus. Constant fighting, some days he can't remember how long he'd spent fighting, or how many wounds he got. He quickly learned what not to do and where he could allow. But Tayuya bashed him over the head if he ever got lazy. She had him working out more in their training, using her body as extra weight like push-ups and all that, while she did the same with him. Training continued as normal, but both were fighting constantly.

Scrolls were dropped into the cell again, apparently tips on taijutsu and even a flute for Tayuya who became ecstatic over having one again. He loved hearing her play it, sometimes using it to lull him to sleep on some of his harder nights trying to sleep. Tayuya helped him with his Taijutsu, controlling his body and trying to adjust t the recent wasn't that much bigger than before, just noticeable. Training was harder thanks to the damn seal, he had to rework all of his chakra control, again!

This routine though would change when he was put into the fighting pit but no opponent came out yet.

"Oi oi, what's taking so long up there?" He asked aloud.

"Patience Naruto-Kun. We had to prepare your opponent. She was most resistant to wanting to fight, especially you. So we had to utilize a few seals and jutsu to make her agreeable. She should be coming down now."

"Ya really are a right bastard for forcing people to fight ya know that?" He spoke and Orochimaru laughs, that annoying damn laugh.

"Perhaps, but it gets results. You yourself are proof. Ah, here she is." He stated and he turned as the gate opened, only for his eyes to widen in horror and pain as he saw the girl he was talking about.

"Not her...not here. YOU BASTARD! What the hell have you done!?" He roared up at the viewing glass which was covered by seals to keep it safe from damage. He turned back to see the girl in question, with fair skin, long red hair, clean white scrubs, holding a flute, but her eyes are what caught him. Bright grey eyes almost like steel, different from the former brown she used to have. "Not Tayuya. Anyone but Tayuya." He whimpered.

"This is going to Happen Naruto-Kun. I can't have subordinates with prior attachments who can be manipulated by the enemy. Emotions and connections such as your two's is a weakness I won't tolerate in a subordinate. So either one of you kills the other, or I'll kill her for you in a way I choose. And I do expect you to put forth your best effort, otherwise, I'll follow through on that promise." He told the boy with a mocking laugh.

Naruto felt tears run down his eyes as he looked at Tayuya. He heard the bastard loud and clear, but that didn't make this any easier. This was his sister. Just why? He felt again his fury directing toward Orochimaru.

"Start."

And Tayuya launched at him like a bat out of hell. She was so fast! He barely got his guard up in enough time to block her hell drop meant for his head. He pushed her leg off ad back up. "I won't fight her!" He shouted.

"Then I guess I'll just have to kill her then," Orochimaru stated, Making a hand seal and she instantly went to the ground, crying out in pain as her hands latched onto her neck where the curse seal was.

"Stop Stop! I'll fight." He said and the man released the hold, and she stood again, impassive once more. He gritted his teeth, before producing his claws. He just had to make it look good and then let her kill him. She'll be fine then. The plan made, he assumed a stance and this time when she rushed him. he met her attacks with his own. Making a few glancing cuts here and there. He was controlling the pace of the fight. He could do this.

That is until when he went to make a restrained double claw thrust with both hands for the abdomen, a move she'd dodged before in their training, she seemed to smile at him a moment before halting her own movement. The sickening squelch all over again like his first kill as his claws pierced through her abdominals into vital organs. Horror struck his face as he watched her, her smile at him as the light left her eyes.

"No No No NO NO NO! Tayuya, come on sis. You can't leave me like this come on!" He spoke panic heavy as he pulled back his claws and tried to cover her wounds with his hands and her shirt, trying to stem the bleeding. He wasn't aware of the footsteps coming up from behind him as he worked furiously to help her.

"That's life Naruto-Kun. But now you are ready for what I have planned." He stated, applying a small temporary seal to the back of his neck. He watched the boy fall out cold and he nodded. "Prepare him for the procedure. Collect more samples beforehand as a control for after procedure examination. Right now his mind is destabilized just right for molding, a little more trauma from the procedure will tip it enough to make the job easier." He stated and watched as the boy was lifted and taken away. Looking the girl he smirked. "And someone please discard the trash." He stated, leaving the area.

[Lab]

The boy was fixed to a table, his body lined with various complicated Seal Arrays and complicated formula's in long lines of script, flowing all over his body and onto the table he was on. Hooked up to various machines, tubes with waiting reservoirs of chemicals and other material no doubt.

"Everything is Ready Lord Orochimaru, we can proceed any moment... My Lord, are we sure about this?" He asked, looking at the boy. "We'll be expending a lot of our rarer resources just on this one procedure and it's not guaranteed t exceed either." The right-hand spoke.

"Of course we are. Every test we can run has shown reasonable levels of success, just on his biology alone, that's not including the fox either. Once the procedure starts and the Gogyo Fuin is released, everything will proceed from there. How is his status though from the physical we ran?" Orochimaru asked.

"Well according to what's written here. Everything is off the charts like usual with him these days. Healing is practically instantaneous, senses are heightened beyond human, maybe even higher than our estimates of the Inuzuka, muscle tissue development is optimal. His skeleton looks like an adults skeleton, though it has a larger cross-section now thanks to it's growing larger, not to mention bone density seems to be at the maximum limit possible. Hence his greater weight. That and others are all at their normal levels for him." He stated, handing the charts to his master.

"Good, it's nice to know his healing factor is a product of his Natural biology now rather than reliant on his chakra or tenant. Also, I have to say, that as a wondering Idea you had for shaping and sharpening the boy's claws." He said t his direct subordinate who waved it off.

"It's was nothing Lord Orochimaru. But I have to ask, wasn't it a bit much making them double-edged and as sharp as Obsidian razors?" He asked his master.

"No. If this proceeds like I assume, it can only work in his favor. I assume our material is also ready?"

"Yes my Lord. The highest grade of Chakra conductive steel we can get, that black receiver rod you aid you got while you were in the Akatsuki, A sliver of the metal from Kubikiribocho and a scale from Samehada. These are all of our samples of these materials, my lord. Are you sure this will work? If it doesn't this will be one major waste."

"It will. We're pairing blood from a Magnet release user to blood from a Steel release user. The two deal with metals and their combination under the assimilation of the Kyuubi's chakra will graft the materials to his body successfully. Funny thing though about steel release. It doesn't actually involve steel. It uses the naturally occurring Iron in the body and replicates it throughout the body to produce the metal skin. Tests showed it does this with any metal present in the body, so it's better to be called Metal release instead. And it's part of the reason why we're using all of our rare materials."

"Then if his body in the procedure can amalgamize the materials into a singular alloy that his body can produce, we'll have a ready stock to just take from as needed and he'll heal it back from anything we take."

"Exactly. Now the solution is breaking down the metals into a liquid solution for the injection phase. We best get down there for our parts." He stated and they both walked down to the main floor of the lab. Checking the various equipment, seals, and markers he nodded and looked to his staff. "Begin." He stated and it was a flurry of movement.

The injection phase started with injections of various chemicals for priming the body, acting as catalysts and buffers to the other injections to follow. Then followed by blood injections with a second dose of chemicals, and finally the metal solution itself. Nodding, Orochimaru activated the seals on his body and the altar, where they started manipulating everything in his body. Seal phase has done now it was time for the fox, the release phase.

"Gogyo Fujin; Kai!" He called out as he struck his hand to the Kyuubi's seal, releasing it and as expected, the fox's chakra shot out like a raging storm covering the boy's body as soon as it was released. Naruto awoke with a start in screams, changing to his initial Jinchuuriki state as he struggled against his bonds, but the procedure wasn't yet done. Between the seals and the fox's chakra, all of the foreign materials in his body should be working together now and being absorbed.

The procedure didn't last long, but it was intense. It did end quietly though as he seemed to relax once the seals ran their course, fading as their intended job was accomplished. The fox's chakra receded as well and the boy settled, his breathing normally. "It's done...and he's alive." The right-hand man spoke.

"Yes, he is. But was the procedure a success?" Orochimaru stated as he walked around to check on the instruments monitoring the boy's condition.

"A moment." The man spoke, grabbing a scalpel and putting it on the boy's finger, opening up the flesh to see a metallic sheen on the bone of the finger. "A success sir. It's metal." He stated and Orochimaru smiled.

"Good, get him prepped for memory altering then. We need him to be weak of will and mind for better results."

"Yes, My Lord I'll-Geh!?" He grunted out, feeling his lower abdomen punctured. He looked to his side to see a pair of red eyes staring up at him, red eyes with black slits. Looking down he saw three Metallic black claws in his gut. The boy tore out to the side, gutting him before cutting at his other restraints.

"Stop him!" One of the doctors called out. But the boy snarled and ran, stumbling a bit along the way, however, he made a good time as he cut through a guard and roared. His double-edged sharpened claws cutting through him easily. He cut a tall piece of equipment that fell behind him, leaking chemicals on the floor. The locked door gave him no resistance as he cut clean through the metal and jumped out. Men went to chase him, but the chemicals mixed, and with contact with the air, caused an explosion which blocked their path.

Naruto rushed through the facility, running off instinct alone as his mind fogged with rage and the Kyuubi's influence just guided him to find a way out. Anyone in his way was cut down and moved past. ANy attack he received may have hurt, but new metal skeleton seemed capable of deflecting any weapon they threw at him. He cut through the last barred door and stepped through it where he suddenly came out into the cold air outside. It was snowing...the boy couldn't recall the last time he had seen snow. But snows from behind made him run for all he was worth, claws ready to gut any who came for him as he disappeared into the wilderness.

Meanwhile back in the lab, The guards were putting out the fire and cleaning up the mess. Orochimaru sneered as he looked around the lab. This had been a disaster. The boy had run off, all of that time wasted. Gritting his teeth, he looked down to the cooling corpse of his Right-hand.

"What a pity. You were quite the capable right hand. Though I suppose this opens up the way for Kabuto now to take your place. But a little pity is in an order I suppose. We'll bury you properly I think. Rest in piece Stryker." He said, sighing over the loss of a fine subordinate. This was a great loss, but perhaps he was too greedy to empower the boy as he had. A lesson learned, too much success can be a bad thing he supposed, or not to put all his bets on one line, something along those lines, he'd just have to do better next time.

"Pack everything up. We're leaving, this base is compromised now." He ordered to everyone as he left the lab.