Chapter 2: The Voracious

Author's Note: Okay, it's getting close to Christmas, and I finally have enough time on my hands to get around to finishing this chapter! General reviews so far have been pretty good, though I have reached that point in my writing career I never thought I'd get to. (Not that I'm arrogant in my abilities or anything, but it still came as a shock) I got my first flame! And surprisingly it wasn't about the cannibalism. Thus, to commemorate this event, I shall show you what said person said given the review is… no longer available.

i get so fed up with you stupid immature children who have no understanding of how to write a proper story. 99.9% of you queer ass children have no idea how to keep readers reading. all you children lack proper imaginations, because you all just plainly suck at what you do find a better hobby you retards.

Now first off, I'm okay with criticism. In fact, I welcome it. But this is just straight up flaming right there. Second, if you are going to leave a review such as this, I highly recommend not being a coward and signing into an account so I can either a) refute your argument privately so we can settle this without embarrassing you in public, or b) I can simply ignore you. But hiding behind a guest review, guess what? Those can be deleted. And to add insult to injury, both Morgoth and I were going to refute your so-called "argument" in public. But given how long ago it happened, (and the fact that we really don't care anymore) we're not going to do that. I plan on just forgetting about it.

Right, now that that's out of the way, I assume that if you are still reading this then you are expecting the next chapter. Sorry for all that ranting and whatnot, but let's get on with the chapter.

The time following the discovery of the mutilated body was a strange one for Konoha. Much to the despair of the ANBU, Inu's prediction about the body not being the last ended up proving correct.

The intervals between the discoveries of new bodies was always varied, sometimes they turned up within days of each other while others showed up months in between each other. From what the Investigation Department discovered, there was no distinct pattern behind any of the victims. Male, female, civilian, shinobi (though rare) it mattered not. The only similarities were how they died; surgical removal of organs done with the victim most likely still conscious and living, the brain fried beyond any recovery of memories by a Yamanaka (in the cases when the organ was still in the body) and the symbol burned somewhere on the body of the victim.

Though a common theme was that the disfigurement of the body was nowhere near as violent or messy as before with the first victim, nor were all of the organs missing as before. Usually it was either a single organ or at most three missing. But that symbol, the symbol persisted on every corpse.

And with each new body found with that damnable mark somewhere on it, the ANBU slowly got more restless and irritated. It was almost like someone was mocking them, the Black Ops of the village. The best of them all.

The villagers were slowly becoming more and more restless, partially due to the bodies being hung in a public place to be found by all, and also for obvious reasons. No one appeared to be safe except those advanced in age (no elderly bodies had been found) and everyone found themselves with a healthy sense of paranoia. Could they be next?

For not the first time since the tragedy, and nor would it be the last, the civilian populace of Konohagakure wished that the Uchiha Police Force were still around.


Naruto sat in his apartment, several books strewn about the room while he eyed the newspaper in his hand.

Upon seeing the front page was about the "Unidentified Serial Killer" Naruto snorted. Folding it shut, he set it aside and stood up from his armchair. He crossed to the window and gazed out over the village. Glancing back at the newspaper headline again, he scoffed again and brushed his unkempt hair out of his eyes with his hand.

"'Unidentified Serial Killer,' please," he remarked to himself. "The least they could do is at least NAME me. I mean really, it's just rude."

The Walrider rolled his eyes (or at least the area where he would have eyes moved slightly) in response to Naruto's complaint. Naruto sighed and turned to walk into the kitchen, tying an apron around his waist as he went.

Naruto walked over to the fridge and opened the meat drawer. Pondering for a moment, he pulled out a pair of his recently made sausages and set them out on the counter. Looking in the lower section, he pulled out a carton of eggs, and a jug of milk. Naruto then pulled open the fruit/vegetable drawer and pulled out a tomato, an avocado, celery, and a red pepper. He set all of these next to the meat and pulled out a frying pan and a bowl. Idly twisting the dial on the small radio nearby, Naruto set to work with a small smile as the orchestral music began to flow through the apartment.

Reaching over to a basket beside the fridge, Naruto pulled out two bread buns. He wasn't sure exactly about the style of them, but the braided form of the dough had intrigued him when he first saw it, so he bought them on impulse. Naruto pulled out a small knife and gently cut out two oval shaped sections in the top of the buns.

Filling the pan with an inch of oil and setting the flame, he gently laid the two buns down. Adjusting the heat, Naruto turned back to the bowl and pulled out an egg. He flipped it in the air with a spatula and twisted the utensil sideways as the egg came back down.

The shell split and came to rest on the spatula, the whites and yolk flowing down into the bowl.

Naruto pulled out another bowl and repeated the process with a second egg. Picking up the first one, Naruto carefully poured the egg into the oval cutout of one of the buns. He repeated this with the second. Gently sprinkling a dash of salt and pepper over the buns, he then gingerly placed his sausages in the oil alongside them.

Humming along to the tune of the music playing beside him, Naruto carefully removed the finished buns/eggs and set them on a paper towel to drain away excess oil while the sausages finished cooking.

Once the sausage was finished and placed on a plate with the buns/eggs, Naruto turned back to the fridge pull out another package, though this one wasn't anything to do with meat. Pulling the peeled pear out of the liquid-filled bag, Naruto set it down on the board and carefully sliced it into thin slices. He arranged the slices on the plate and turned back to the counter one last time.

Cutting off parts of the vegetables (and fruit) and slicing them into smaller chunks, he mixed them all together into a salsa of sorts and placed small portions atop the eggs in the buns.

Satisfied with how the meal turned out, Naruto carried the plate over to the table. The Walrider swooped into the room, eyeing the plate before looking at Naruto questioningly.

"Huevos High Time," Naruto replied. "Served with homemade Blood Sausage, and wine-soaked pears."

The Walrider, though never actually being able to taste the food Naruto cooked, nodded in approval. He darted over to the end table near Naruto's chair and held up the worn cook book he had located years ago.

"Fine. I'll admit that book was invaluable after all," Naruto said with a roll of his eyes.

The Walrider hissed as he set the book down. Naruto shook his head at the spirits antics and picked up his fork and knife. Deftly cutting off the tip of a sausage, he placed it in his mouth and chewed. Giving a small smile, he then cut a portion of the egg/bun and took a bite.

While eating his breakfast, Naruto glanced over to the fridge and frowned slightly. Swallowing the portion in his mouth, he stood and strode over to the fridge. Opening the meat drawer, Naruto's frown deepened. Shutting the fridge, he sat back down and looked at the Walrider.

"We're running low."

The Walrider hissed at his host.

"Yes I know we haven't been hunting in a few days," Naruto replied. "Problem is I haven't had any good targets to go after. Without a chosen prey, we can't collect the meat. It's that simple." He paused for a moment and pondered. "Well, there's that, and the fact that the drawer itself was on the verge of overflowing for a couple days."

The spirit nodded at Naruto. Naruto then turned back to his breakfast and proceeded to finish eating. After taking his plate to the sink, he then turned and walked to his dresser to get dressed for the day.

When he was done, he was clad in a white robe-like shirt rather reminiscent of the Hyuuga clan as well as black trousers. The only difference was that it was that the Hyuuga clan symbol was absent. Buttoned over the shirt was a purple vest adorned with iron buttons and various different seals in the fabric (not that anyone really noticed them)

Naruto pulled his long hair, satisfied that he had actually managed to get the hair to straighten out and not clump into uncontrollable spikes, into a (slightly) spiky ponytail that fell down to his mid back using a small gold cylinder lined with intricate red designs. Rolling up his sleeves, he walked over to where he stored his weaponry. Pulling out a bronze gauntlet of sorts, he eyed the syringe attachments to the back of the hand area before setting it aside in favor of the second item.

Glancing over the gleaming gauntlet, Naruto strapped it to his forearm and adjusted the mechanisms. Glancing at the Walrider, he smirked as he flexed his wrist, unsheathing a razor-sharp blade from the topside of the gauntlet. Sheathing the tanto-sized blade, Naruto pulled his sleeve down over the gauntlet. Turning to a third mechanism, he took it and strapped it between his left forearm and wrist, carefully positioning the three individual barrels to aim in the same general direction of his fingers. Loading them with senbon, Naruto pulled back on the conjoined wires and released. A trio of senbon speared out from the mechanism, phasing through the startled Walrider, before stabbing the opposing wall.

Smirking, Naruto ignored the outraged wailing and shrieking of his partner and removed the senbon from the wall before slid them into a pouch filled with more of the needles. With a flick of his arm, his sleeve fell down to cover the firing mechanism.

He reached for the standard shuriken and kunai pouches, strapping them to his waist and leg respectively. Naruto also grabbed the pouch of senbon needles, as well as another pouch containing several vials, each one being a different type of poison or venom. These he also strapped to his waist.

Smiling in satisfaction, Naruto went to close the closet, only to pause upon spotting the object lying there. He picked it up, eyeing the black gas mask thoughtfully before setting it down and glancing at the clothing hanging near its resting place. Reaching forward, Naruto smoothed out a few wrinkles in the plastic and the black clothing hanging behind it. Sliding the clothing along the rack, Naruto gazed at the neatly arranged stack of silvery metal plating on the shelf behind them. He gently ran a finger over a helmet of sorts, the upper portion curving upwards and forming a backwards-facing spike. The guard covered the mouth and a portion of the upper facial area, with blank open space left between them. Naruto smiled, brushing off some dust from the helmet before stepping back.

His gear now in place, Naruto turned and walked over to the door. The Walrider darted over from his position in the corner before falling in line with Naruto's stride, mimicking it perfectly as he got closer and closer to his host before merging back into Naruto's body.

Opening the door of the apartment complex, Naruto inhaled deeply with his eyes closed. He opened his eyes and started out down the street, ignoring the usual glares and whispers that accompanied his journey. They didn't bother him as much as they once did. After all, what use was it wondering what animals thought of humans anyways?

Besides, even if they did act against him physically, what use was it when facing someone with a complete lack of empathy and an apathetic disregard for human life?

The villagers had learned some form of survival instincts after a couple years of Naruto's newfound lack of restraint. There was an unspoken agreement between them. Don't piss off Naruto, he won't harm you physically, mentally, and socially all at once. Not even the ANBU would intervene unless Naruto actually got close enough to killing someone. Even they had a slight unease around him.

It wasn't that they feared the Kyuubi within him (though that was enough to make them wary) but the one thing they feared most about him was his unpredictability. Bipolar shinobi was one thing, but for someone to go from politely speaking to someone to insulting them while beating them into the ground was another. Especially when said someone was still in their teens.

As Naruto walked down the street, one of the many people walking alongside him happened to shove past him with his shoulder, knocking him slightly to the side. Naruto froze for a moment and cleared his throat calmly.

The man stopped and turned, a sneer forming on his face at the sight of the village pariah.

"What do you want ya little prick?" he growled.

Naruto quirked an eyebrow. The other civilians around them all stopped and stared in a mixture of awe and horror. No one ever spoke that way to Naruto. And came out unscathed that is.

"You got something to say to me? Or you just gonna walk along?"

Naruto chuckled, a sound that immediately put the spectators on edge. Naruto laughing was always a bad sign.

"Something to say to you?" Naruto replied, his eyes hard while the smile never left his face. "Now why would I need to speak to an uncivilized animal such as yourself?"

The civilian's eyes widened, before they narrowed angrily.

"Oh, so that's how you wanna do it then punk?" he snarled, reaching forward and jabbing his finger into Naruto's shoulder.

The crowd gasped. Naruto's gaze hardened as his teeth ground together, the smile vanishing in an instant.

"No," Naruto said. "It's obvious that a mongrel such as yourself needs to be taught some manners. Such rudeness is not something I tolerate."

With that, Naruto grabbed the civilian by his shoulder and flipped him over his shoulder before slamming him to the ground. The man didn't even have time to yell before Naruto stomped on his arm, breaking his elbow and his arm.

The crowd began to back away as quickly as possible, all the while trying to avoid Naruto's ire. Naruto grabbed the man by his hair, lifted him up, and slammed him back down onto the side of the curb.

"Filthy mongrel," he hissed through clenched teeth.

Rolling the groaning man on his back, Naruto raised a foot and stomped down on his chest, receiving a yell of pain in return.

"Uncivilized animal."

Raised foot, stomp. Yell.

"Ungrateful sow."

Raised foot, stomp, and crack. Yell.

With a final stomp, and another ominous cracking followed by a coughing of blood, Naruto stepped back. He hawked and spat, right on the man's face.

"Disgraceful cur."

Ignoring the moaning civilian, Naruto turned and walked away. He composed himself once more, idly brushing his hair back as he continued on his way.

The ANBU crouched on the rooftops cringed at the sight. Stowing away his orange book, he sighed and shook his head. He dropped down and raised a hand to his earpiece while he knelt down by the beaten man.

"Inu here," he remarked. "We need another response team."

-What the hell happened Inu?-

Inu sighed. "Naruto, as usual."

The voice groaned for a second before sending out the call. Within minutes, the jokingly named "Naruto Response Team" had arrived at the scene. They each carefully lifted the man onto a stretcher and began transporting him to the hospital.

The ANBU known as Tenzo dropped down beside Inu, watching them go.

"And here I was thinking we'd have some peace and quiet for a while. Should have known not to make that bet."

"Hey, when Naruto stopped beating civilians within an inch of their life, I knew that he would snap eventually," Inu replied. "You just haven't been on the watch for long enough to know about his habits."

Tenzo shook his head. Sure he hadn't been on the squad for long, but even so he had thought that the rumors of Naruto's infamously short temper were just that. Rumors. As he found out first hand, this was not the case.

"Think there's any way that we can prevent him becoming a shinobi? He's still too unstable. If this is how he reacts to people he's supposed to protect, then how can we guarantee the safety of his comrades?"

Inu turned and stared at Tenzo, the eye that made up his nickname spinning ominously.

"That's not for us to decide Tenzo," Inu said in a low voice. "Naruto's situation is unique. As long as he carries that burden, he's practically guaranteed to become a shinobi. Besides, it's up to the Sandaime, not us."

Tenzo pondered for a moment before accepting the answer. With a single handsign, he vanished in a swirl of leaves. Inu leapt back up onto the rooftops, before taking off in the direction of the Academy.


Naruto strode into his classroom, his eyes subtly perusing over his classmates, almost eager to see their reactions to his entrance. He was not disappointed.

A good portion of the class, the ones that came from civilian families primarily, all looked away whenever he turned his gaze on them, with little variations between uneasiness and outright fear. The ones from the shinobi clans however, they seemed to be made of the sterner stuff than the others, though they too showed a slight wariness towards Naruto whenever he approached or looked in their general direction.

Granted there was only one exception to those of the shinobi clans, and that was the Hyuuga heiress. She always seemed to watch Naruto carefully, and then duck her head and blush whenever he looked at her.

Had Naruto remained naïve and dense for the rest of his life, he might have questioned this behavior until it became so obvious that even he couldn't ignore it. But since meeting the Walrider, he had begun to examine human behavior more closely than before. And thus it was simple for him to conclude that she had a crush on him. How that was possible, Naruto had no idea. He was a cannibalistic psychopath for Yami's sake. (Though nobody knew about the cannibalism after all)

Part of him wondered if it was his actions when he was younger that attributed to this, and thus she now proceeded to see everything he did with rose-tinted lenses or something. Given that it was mostly harmless, Naruto proceeded to leave her be for now. (Though the stalking was a bit much)

Another exception to the standard behavior of the students was one of the few that consistently scored better than Naruto, and that was Sasuke Uchiha. Before Naruto's gradual change, Sasuke had simply seen him as an annoyance to be ignored. But as Naruto's mannerisms slowly changed, as well as his skills improved, Sasuke looked upon him with a grudging respect of sorts. Given that he was one of the few that did so, Naruto found himself also having some form of respect for the Uchiha heir.

Granted, Sasuke held a much different skill set than Naruto did, but he just as skilled in those areas as Naruto was in his chosen areas of expertise. (Even if Sasuke was more suited for a front-line fighter, unlike Naruto)

Sasuke met Naruto's gaze, staring unflinchingly at the blonde's bland expression. Naruto returned with a polite nod of the head before sitting down beside him.

"Uzumaki," Sasuke greeted, lifting his face briefly from its place behind his hands.

"Uchiha," Naruto replied, smoothing back a few stray hairs.

No other words were needed between them. There were some things that just didn't need to be said between two such as themselves. They both understood that sometimes all that was needed was simply silence.

Unfortunately the silence was broken when the familiar sounds of two arguing teenage girls filled the hallway. Naruto stifled the groan that threatened to escape. By the sounds of it, it was Yamanaka and Haruno.

They were by far, two of the most annoying people he had ever had the misfortune of meeting. Granted, after the Sandaime made a large amount of alterations to the Academy curriculum, the two had gotten a bit better at what they did. (Naruto suspected it might have been due to the fact that kunoichi were now actually expected to be able to fight, and not just arrange flowers like they had been taught before)

Ino Yamanaka quickly began to excel at classes that dealt with plants and poisons (almost rivalling Naruto in that regard, though he still came on top in terms of creative poisons) as well as finding that her skill with her clans Mind-based jutsu also helped her with the forming and casting of Genjutsu (Even Naruto and Sasuke gave grudging admission to her skill there) though she lacked the endurance for prolonged physical combat. That and her personality (typical teenage girl) left much to be desired. How Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi were able to stand being around her for prolonged periods of time baffled Naruto (and surprisingly enough the Walrider)

Sakura Haruno found herself on the path to becoming a talented medic, which was further enhanced by her practically perfect chakra control, and she had managed to partially recreate Tsunade Senju's technique to increase one's physical strength. While not perfect or instinctive like the legendary medic's ability, she was still able to use it to great effectiveness to the point that most were wary of battling her in Taijutsu unless she was forbidden from using the technique. That being said, her personality was also something that Naruto quickly grew to dislike. She was impulsive, stubborn, rather vain, and had an unhealthy obsession with the Uchiha clan heir. (Naruto questioned why he even had a crush on her once when he was younger. To this day he had no concrete answer for his actions)

As usual the two were arguing, presumably about who got to sit with Sasuke. Naruto sighed, stood up, and cleared his throat.

The effect was instantaneous. The two squabbling girls immediately silenced themselves and stared over at the blond. Naruto let a polite smile form on his face, but his eyes showed none of the cordiality his expression did.

They were cold, hard, and shining with annoyance, like that of a man looking at a particularly irksome insect buzzing around his head.

"So terribly sorry to interrupt," he remarked. "But given that I have stood up now, there are two open seats beside Sasuke. So therefore, you don't need to argue anymore… am I correct?"

Both girls nodded, a few small beads of sweat rolling down the side of their faces. Naruto's smile widened by about a quarter of an inch.

"Good. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be finding a new seat now."

Sakura and Ino quietly moved to sit on either side of Sasuke, the Uchiha not reacting much except a small nod towards Naruto. Naruto returned the nod, before walking up and sitting down beside the Hyuuga heiress. He got a small amount of pleasure at hearing the "eep" she made before turning bright red and trying to hide within her coat. The Walrider briefly stirred within Naruto's body, but settled down seconds later.

At that moment the two teachers for the class made their appearance. Naruto sighed inwardly as Iruka began giving his usual "do-your-best" speech that he gave before every test. The assistant, Mizuki, simply stood to the back. Once the speech was over, Mizuki brought forth the usual written test that preceded the true exam.

Due to his large reserves of chakra, Naruto would have been hard pressed to pass the original exam, which included being able to form a Bunshin. Upon realizing this, the Walrider urged him to get this changed. While he didn't wish to speak with him, Naruto had no choice but to bring this information to the Sandaime.

At first, Hiruzen had not believed Naruto. That was until Naruto brought forth undeniable evidence that the test was far too biased. It was then that the Hokage proceeded to make several changes to the exam.

No longer was a student's chances of passing based on a simple Bunshin technique. Now the test segmented into multiple parts that changed based on what the student chose to focus on in their classes. There were sections for Medical Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Accuracy with ranged weapons (while being able to dodge incoming attacks) Elemental Ninjutsu (should they have found their elemental affinity), Anatomy and Poisons (one of Naruto's personal favorites), Stealth, T&I, and the list goes on.

Not only did this help with giving students more options, it also prevented them from making the least possible effort needed to pass and having the Jonin sensei's pick up the slack with extra training. The graduation age was also upped, due to them not being in wartime and it helped determine which were actually serious about becoming a shinobi, and which were just there because it seemed like the "cool thing to do."

Of course, the written test was still there. Though it was mostly formality at this point, and few actually failed it.

Naruto smiled softly as he put his pencil down. The Sandaime may still be a liar in his books, but at least he was able to do something after all. It wouldn't do for the Hokage to not have a spine against his own people, now would it?

His eyes flitting around the room for the briefest of moments, taking in the sights of the students who were either painfully obvious in their struggles (few as they were) or those who had a strong probability of success.

The Nara clan heir had his head down, his paper flipped over beside him. Either he had given up, or he had already finished before Naruto himself. His eyes narrowed a fraction at the thought. It wasn't out of the question, for members of the Nara clan were known for both their laziness as well as insanely high IQ.

The Inuzuka clan heir seemed to be debating whether or not to actually complete the written exam. At his side was the gigantic wolf-like dog that was the standard for his clan. In terms of written tests, he would have been considered the worst in the class (or "dobe" by most students) but Taijutsu was where he thrived for the most part.

Like the Nara heir, Sakura Haruno had also finished the test within minutes, though she seemed to appear smug that she had done so. Her smug expression faded when she noticed that Naruto had finished before her. Inwardly Naruto chuckled. She could be rather petty at times over the smallest of things, be it something related to Sasuke or anyone perceived as doing better than her in her main area of expertise.

Sasuke had also finished his test, though he preferred to simply sit in his usual stance after he finished. No doubt in Naruto's mind that Itachi was the main subject of Sasuke's thoughts.

The Aburame heir was still working on his paper, silent and stoic as ever (with the exceptions of a few scattered buzzing sounds from the insects in his body)

A massive smirk formed on Naruto's face, a smirk that bared his teeth and gums as he relaxed in his seat. No need to think more on them. They didn't really matter after all.

It wasn't long before the final papers were turned in and stacked neatly on Iruka's desk. After he picked them up and left the room, the students began chattering amongst themselves. Naruto gazed around the room, taking in the sounds rebounding through the classroom. Most of it just seemed trivial and often centered around either everyday life or the delusions of grandeur flowing through the minds of those in the room. Most of it was all the same, and it usually came from those of civilian families.

Saving princesses from a far-off land and receiving her undying gratitude in response.

Gaining fame and fortune for their efforts.

Meeting the boy of their dreams and living a happy life with said boy. (This usually was Sasuke in the minds of most of the girls, with the exception of Hinata and a couple other outliers)

Naruto shook his head. Utter meaninglessness. Fame was a double-edged sword in the shinobi world, both garnering respect and fear and completely ignoring the entire purpose of being a shinobi. Saving others (not necessarily princesses) took too much effort and usually did little in regard for a reward unless you were some paragon of virtue who took joy in things like that. Fortune, while good to have, did not accompany you into the afterlife, therefore eliminating the entire purpose of gathering wealth if it was only temporary. You would be better off simply gathering resources to survive and leave it at that.

This train of thought only further reminded Naruto that his meat drawer was running low. Idly, he glanced over his classmates, wondering whether or not they might make good targets. The Walrider responded briefly to that train of thought.

Too thin. Not enough muscle.

On this Naruto couldn't really argue with. His classmates were too young to hunt down. They weren't fully grown yet, and the Walrider was right in that he wouldn't get much meat off of them. That and it might spark the investigation to accelerate at a more frenzied pace with the populace knowing that not even their children were safe.

His thoughts were interrupted when another shouting match began between Ino and Sakura, with Sasuke being the topic as usual. Naruto's eyes narrowed as he mentally groaned. They never really shut up for long did they?

Naruto idly wondered whether or not the two girls would still be able to yell if he cut their throats open and left their vocal cords exposed.

Violent thoughts aside, Naruto looked back up when Iruka returned to the room and proceeded to get the rest of the class to stop talking (through the use of a curious jutsu which enlarged his head three times the normal size and amplified his voice just as much)

"Right, now that that's done," Iruka remarked. "We are now going to move on to the specialized exams for those who took the classes required for them. Find the examiner for the exam you wish to test in first, and follow them to the exam room."

Naruto glanced at his list of various "elective" courses. The Walrider hissed a brief mental suggestion, which Naruto obliged as he headed for the examiner for the Poisons exam.

Lo and behold, the examiner was one of Konoha's resident poison (or rather venom) experts. Anko Mitarashi. Anko was an interesting one for the most part, and she took her status as a kunoichi very seriously (unlike some) due in some part to her training at the hands of the rogue Sannin Orika. Like her former teacher, she utilized a multitude of serpent-based techniques in battle. Not only that, but from what little Naruto had observed, she also was a fan of psychological warfare against her opponents. Granted, this was due to her status as an interrogator for the village.

On terms of her personality though, Naruto still found flaws as with any other human being. She was cocky, almost as arrogant as himself at times, and in battle she tended to toy with her opponents for far too long. Her obsession with killing her former sensei was also something that just rubbed Naruto the wrong way. Should there be any mention or rumor of Orika's location being close by, Anko would drop everything to chase after her, forgetting that despite her considerable skill, Orika could destroy her without batting an eyelash. It was this complete and utter lack of self-preservation (she had learned a suicide technique in the hopes she could use it to take out the teacher who taught said move to her. Now that just screamed a lack of common sense) that earned Naruto's distaste.

The fact that she also dressed in nothing but a mesh shirt, skirt, and trench coat did nothing to help dissuade that distaste. He would not deny she was attractive, but she flaunted it to everyone that saw her.

Regardless, Anko Mitarashi was good at her chosen craft. Her teaching methods though, left much to be desired.

"Heads up boys and girls, I'll be your examiner if you've chosen to actually attempt to make a competent poison! You ready? Good! Follow me!"

Naruto eyed the woman for a moment before sighing and following after her. Unlike some of the more well known archetypes of the shinobi lifestyle they were being tested, there was not a large amount of students choosing to be tested in poisons. Most preferred flashy ninjutsu or taijutsu moves in preference to the more subtle arts of killing.

Anko lead the small group to the next classroom, before standing in front of the blackboard with her usual cocky smirk on her face.

"Alright brats, now that we're here, I'm going to watch you all take your best shot at making a poison that could actually kill something, and then we're going to test them out! Use whatever you have at your disposal, and get cracking!"

Naruto eyed her for a moment before walking over to one of the desks and sitting down. He glanced around as the other students wandered over to the supply closet to pick out ingredients (though for some odd reason, nightshade was one that seemed to appear frequently in their ingredient lists) The flowers

Having never been one to rely on others, Naruto pulled out a sealing scroll and flipped it open. He bit his thumb and pressed it against multiple seals, extracting the ingredients within each one.

Perusing over his collection, he plucked up some Wolfsbane, Belladonna seeds, Water Hemlock, and seeds of the Castor plant. Resealing the other ingredients, he then unsealed a mortar and pestle. Taking up the pestle, he dropped four Belladonna seeds into the mortar before grinding them into powder and pouring the powder into a small bowl. He then repeated the process with the Castor seeds, before placing two flowers of the Water Hemlock into the mortar. Unlike the seeds, when ground up the Hemlock took on a more paste-like consistency. After removing the Hemlock paste and placing it into the bowl with the ground up seeds, Naruto then took two flowers of Wolfsbane and carefully tore them apart and dropping the shreds into the bowl. After sufficiently mixing the ingredients into a liquid state, Naruto pulled a syringe out of one of his belt pouches and filled the syringe with his crafted poison.

Anko, who had been at this point absent-mindedly wandering the room while munching on a dango stick, noticed Naruto's finished product.

"I have no idea what kind of concoction you came up with Uzumaki," she remarked. "But we'll see if it's any good in terms of killing." The second part was said with a malicious smirk, and a rather condescending tone.

Naruto smiled, teeth and gums bared in response.

"You'll see, sensei," he replied mockingly. "You'll see."

The snake mistress of Konoha was a bit taken aback, but she quickly recovered and walked away. Naruto's smile faded as a sneer of disgust was aimed at her back. Glancing around and seeing the other students still working, he simply pulled out a book from his bag and began to read.

Thankfully he didn't have to wait long, as the other students (he refused to call them peers) finished their own mixtures and waited for Anko to bring out the victims/test subjects for them to test the effectiveness of their poisons.

Shortly after they finished, Anko returned with a large cage filled with several (arguably adorable to most) rabbits. Some of the students turned a little green at the thought, and Ino Yamanaka looked on the verge of either fainting or bursting into tears. As of that moment, Naruto was the only one unaffected, though his thoughts did wander a bit.

He idly wondered whether cooked rabbit meat would go well with anything in his fridge. After all, one must have some variety in their diet, no?

For each of the students, Anko proceeded to grab a rabbit from the cage, set it in front of them, and instruct them to demonstrate their poisons. Some were bland, doing nothing except inducing cardiac arrest and killing the rabbit almost instantly (albeit "humanely") while others outright failed or were slow-acting to the point that it would take a day or two before they could tell if the poison was effective or not. Ino's poison was one of the better ones, a slow-acting poison that not only killed, but paralyzed as well. It was slow-acting, but didn't take days to kill unlike some of the others. Naruto, unsurprisingly, was picked to go last.

"Alright ponytail," Anko called. "You're up, and try to make sure this thing actually dies okay?"

Naruto gave another gum-bearing grin, his eyes hardening slightly, before standing up and readying his syringe. The rabbit, sensing its peril, tried to hop away frantically. It was stopped when Naruto lashed out and grabbed the animal by the torso, before jabbing the syringe in its neck and depressing the plunger. He removed the syringe and released the rabbit, as the concoction began to take effect.

The rabbit began to convulse slightly, its pupils dilating as it staggered around the desktop. The animal began hacking and coughing as it stumbled and shook its head from side to side.

Naruto's grin returned, wider and toothier than before. It had only just begun. The Walrider hissed in approval from within Naruto's body.

The rabbit by this time had begun to vomit, regurgitating half-digested rabbit food and grass, all the while wheezing and trying desperately to breath. It began squeaking in alarm as it ran (as much as possible) across the desktop, seemingly trying to escape from some invisible predator. The stress, as well as the vomiting and respiratory distress finally caused the poor animal's heart to give out, as it fell over. Dead.

The class was dumbstruck with horror. Sure Naruto was always weird, psychotic even, but they had never before seen someone take such maniacal joy in watching an innocent animal die. Naruto's grin faded, as he groaned and made a note on a small pad.

"Didn't even show all the symptoms," he murmured. "I'll need to test this on something bigger next time."

Anko turned and stared at Naruto, her eyes wide as her mind began to take in what she had just seen. It wasn't like she had seen Naruto himself standing there, but rather her old sensei in his place.

"What the hell was that Uzumaki?" she said in a low voice.

Naruto looked up from his notepad and gave a small smile, though not his usual toothy grin.

"A concoction of my own creation, a mixture of two parts Wolfsbane, four parts crushed Belladonna seeds, two parts ground Water Hemlock, and three parts crushed Castor seeds. Is that all you need?"

Anko stared at the blond before glancing back at the dead rabbit on his desk. She then looked back at Naruto.

"What effects does that poison have?" she asked.

Naruto paused for a moment before pulling out a small handwritten sheet of paper stuffed in his notepad.

"Various symptoms include, but not limited to, nausea/vomiting, burning sensation, numbness of mouth and face, burning of the abdomen, dilated pupils, rash, staggering and loss of balance, slurred speech, hallucinations and delirium, respiratory distress, and death."

Anko stared in horror at Naruto before asking the one question on everyone's mind.

"Is there a cure?"

Naruto laughed darkly, his toothy grin returning in full force.

"Of course not," he said. "Why on earth would you want to cure someone you've poisoned if your intention is to kill them?" he retorted with an air of talking to a slow young child.

Naruto bit back another laugh at the horror-struck faces of the other occupants in the room. He proceeded to pack up his supplies and head for the door, ignoring the fact that they backed out of his way.

"Uzumaki."

He stopped and turned to face Anko once more, one of his eyebrows raised slightly.

"You said symptoms include but not limited to," she remarked. "Are there other symptoms you haven't told us yet?"

Naruto's held back laughter finally broke through.

"Maybe. But even if there are more, do you really think I'd tell you what they are?" he replied. "We are shinobi. Shinobi must preserve some form of professional secrets, no?"

And with that, he strode from the room and returned to Iruka's classroom to await his next exam.


It wasn't long before the rest of the students had returned to the classroom from the other exams, each talking and speculating how well they did on the exams they had just completed (or simply putting the event down as "troublesome" in the case of the Nara heir) So far though, the only ones who were actually quiet were those who usually never talked much (such as Shino or Sasuke) or the ones who witnessed Naruto testing his poison in the last exam. Iruka then walked into the room and told them to get ready for their next exams.

Naruto looked over his list of preferred subjects before walking over to Mizuki, the examiner for Weapons and Accuracy. The chosen examiner for this subject wasn't much of a surprise either, given that from what Naruto know of him was that he was rather skilled with a fuma shuriken. Though the only difference was that Mizuki had a former student (one who just graduated last year in fact) as his assistant and co-proctor.

She was plain, not that special in terms of attractiveness, though the two buns in her hair might be seen as cute to some people. What caught Naruto's attention was the large sealing scroll strapped across her back. If her gear was anything to go by, Naruto deduced that she was a weapons expert.

While a noble art to study, if one overstudied in it then they would be in trouble should someone be able to counteract their weapons. The main weakness with throwing weapons was that should a specialist in them come across a Fuuton (Wind-Release) user then their weapons would be rendered useless. Something told Naruto that this girl (Tenten he believed her name was) had never come across a Fuuton user before, and he could tell she was overconfident in her own skills. Granted, she wasn't as arrogant as Anko Mitarashi, but the overconfidence was still there.

Mizuki on the other hand was someone Naruto could barely tolerate. Sure he played the part of the kind instructor, but whenever he saw or spoke to Naruto there was a glint of resentment in his eyes, as well as a surprising amount of hatred. Naruto speculated that this meant that Mizuki was like all the other lambs of the village that believed him to the the Kyuubi reincarnated in human flesh. Now normally Naruto would simply ignore him like he did with all the others (disregarding this sentiment should they attack him, in which case he'd return that force tenfold), except that occasionally Mizuki had subtly tried to sabotage his work a few times. He failed in his attempts, but it did move Mizuki from the category of "annoyance" to the "strong possibility of becoming food" category.

Once the group of potential examinees was gathered in a group around Mizuki and his assistant, (a noticeably larger group than the one for poisons) the silver-haired instructor proceeded to lead them outside to one of the training fields set up with training dummies and various targets hanging from branches or marked on other dummies.

"Alright students," Mizuki told them cheerfully. "For those of you who deemed it necessary to be here, I thank you. Using weapons is a skill that almost every shinobi will use at least once in their lifetime, so it makes sense for you to learn how to actually use them, be it throwing weapons or melee weapons. So here's how this exam is going to work."

Mizuki pulled the large fuma shuriken from the harness on his back and stabbed one of the points into the ground.

"The exam is divided into three stages. The first stage is for you to show what weapons you plan to use in your shinobi career, be it kunai or katana. The second stage is for you to show that you can actually use the weapon without harming yourself, and that you know a possible style for them if you are using a melee weapon. The third stage will be a spar between your fellow students, and at that point it is to show that you can use the weapons in actual combat. Understand? Good. Now I'll read off your name, when I call it you will start with the first stage."

Mizuki ran through the list of names, with each student giving a rudimentary explanation of their chosen weapons as they went, before finally coming to Naruto. No one except Naruto noticed the slight twitch in Mizuki's kindly smile as he read Naruto's name.

Disregarding that small reaction of Mizuki's, Naruto walked up before the class and turned to face them. Reaching to his leg pouch, Naruto pulled out a much different type of kunai than what they were used to seeing.

Instead of the usual prism-like blade with a dark greyish-black hue, Naruto's kunai seemed sleeker. It's blade was still triangular, but unlike the standard kunai it was a flat blade, and only the center of the blade was black while the razor-sharp edges were silver.

Naruto stuck his finger through the ring at the end of the hilt and spun the blade around in a circle before catching it in his hand.

"What you see in my hand before you is an improved kunai," he remarked. "The blade is sharper and tempered at a much better quality than more commonplace weapons, and the design makes it so that the kunai moves faster through the air and has less 'lag' if you will, from the wind pushing against it in flight." Naruto's toothy grin reappeared. "Not only that, but they are easily concealed and you can stab someone with much less resistance than a normal kunai."

Sheathing the blade, Naruto then lifted his left sleeve to reveal the three barrels strapped there.

"A senbon launcher designed to fire multiple needles at once with far greater accuracy than some people are capable of. They can also be loaded with poison, thus coating the senbon with the substance as they are fired."

This statement caused one of the students to turn a faint shade of green, having been one of the ones in the Poisons lab to witness Naruto's "masterpiece" in action. Letting his sleeve fall, Naruto finally lifted his other sleeve to reveal the gauntlet on his right arm.

"This is something more for close combat than my other weapons, as well as a bit of a surprise for them," Naruto said as he flexed his wrist, unsheathing the blade from the top of the gauntlet. "Designed for prolonged close combat, as well as saving on stamina as you don't actually have to hold the weapon yourself."

Naruto released the catch by flexing his wrist again, sheathing the blade, before giving a mocking nod of the head to Mizuki. The teacher grimaced slightly, before switching back to his usual "kindly teacher" persona. Naruto proceeded to walk to the back of the group and stand there with arms crossed and a bored expression on his face.

After the last couple of students explained their weapons, Mizuki then began calling names for students to showcase their skills on the training dummies. Most were average, though some showed better-than-average skills with either kunai or a sword of some type. Tenten just sat and watched their attempts with a bit of annoyance at the sight of some of the less-than-stellar scores of some of the prospective "kunoichi" of this year's class. Naruto simply ignored them in favor of conversing with the spirit residing within his body, though not the one resembling a fox.

Not that they really had much to talk about, other than the Walrider's obsession with wanting him to just go ahead and kill and eat Mizuki right in front of everyone. Naruto calmly pointed out that if they did that, Konoha would put two and two together that he was the serial killer plaguing them for the past three years. So at the moment this wasn't an option, much to the spirit's ire.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Mizuki called, barely keeping the kind mask up as he spoke.

Naruto smiled before walking up once more in front of the group of students. Eyeing the cloth dummy disdainfully, Naruto stood facing it as he palmed several of his unique kunai in one hand while taking three senbon in the other.

Rearing back his hand, he lashed out and buried the kunai in various nonlethal positions on the dummy. Hands, feet, and one through the knee. Loading the needles into the launcher on his arm, he pulled back on the cords attached and released. Undeterred, the senbon lodged themselves in the dummy's eye, right as Naruto ran forward with his wrist blade unsheathed. The blade glinted in the light as Naruto slashed to the side with his arm.

The cloth head of the dummy fell to the ground, severed from its wooden neck. Naruto turned and gave one of his smiles before retrieving the weapons lodged in the dummy.

The class was not as surprised to see his brutal methods. This was Naruto after all, the guy who would try and beat someone within an inch of his life for simply not covering his mouth while sneezing near him.

Mizuki eyed the positions where Naruto hit the dummy before sighing and recording full marks. Regardless of Naruto's… status, Mizuki couldn't deny that the brat had skill after all. Though it was still only a nonmoving dummy. When the third stage of the exam came, hopefully Naruto wouldn't perform so well.

Moving back to his usual position at the back of the group, Naruto's gaze shifted from each of his "peers." Given how Mizuki stated that the third stage was about actual combat, the only logical conclusion was that the students were going to spar against one another. Naruto fought the urge to groan.

The only problem with this conclusion was that Naruto could easily defeat any of the students here with little to no trouble.

His eyes flitted to the teaching assistant, Tenten. Perhaps he might get to face her? That might prove to be a little more fun than fighting children after all. After all, she was a full-fledged shinobi. She had to be skilled in something at least, even if it was only throwing weapons.

After the last students had finished throwing or swinging around a blade, Mizuki then took them to the center of the field. He then proceeded to pass out slips of paper with the numbers 1 or 2 on them, alternating along the line until each student held a slip.

"Alright, everyone have their slips? Good. Go find someone with a different number from you. That person will be your sparring partner for the third stage of this exam."

Immediately everyone scrambled to find a partner, or rather a partner that wasn't Naruto Uzumaki. Fortunately for them, there was an odd number of students and thus Naruto was left without a partner. He glanced at the multiple pairs and scoffed.

"Cowards."

Mizuki chuckled for a second. "Well, without a partner, I'm not sure how exactly you're going to be able to complete this part of the exam Naruto," he remarked.

Naruto smirked. "You think so?" he retorted. "I still see one other person left to fight."

With that he gestured to Tenten, who raised an eyebrow in response.

"Really?" she drawled. "You think you can take me on?"

"I don't think," Naruto replied with a gum-baring grin. "I know I can."

Mizuki watched the back-and-forth argument before caving in.

"Alright Naruto, you can fight Tenten. Though your match will be last in the list."

Naruto waved a hand dismissively before moving to stand by a tree and watch the following fights, hoping to at least see some blood be spilled. His wish would not be granted.

In their haste to make sure that Naruto wasn't their partner, most of the students paired up with their friends without realizing that they would have to fight said friend. With that in mind, most of them tried to not cause any serious injuries, much to Naruto's annoyance. Still, despite that, some of the prospective shinobi seemed reasonably capable to survive in a short fight. Granted they'd probably be horribly injured, but they'd survive.

Finally it was time for Naruto's spar against Tenten. The two walked forward and stood across from one another. (The other students backed away a couple feet, just in case) Mizuki raised his hand in the air before chopping downward. He then backed away himself.

Tenten smirked as she took a fistful of kunai and got into a standard throwing stance. Naruto relaxed slightly as he brushed a couple stray hairs out of his face and slicked them back.

Tenten lunged forward, flinging the knives right at Naruto. Naruto smiled as he pulled out one of his own kunai and batted the blades aside. Sheathing the kunai, he loaded his senbon launchers and launched a trio of needles right at her.

She blocked them as well before unrolling one of her smaller scrolls. Tenten quickly began summoning weapons and throwing them at her opponent. Naruto responded by simply reloading and firing senbon, aiming carefully to disrupt multiple weapons with a single shot. Upon realizing the ineffectiveness of her barrage, Tenten quickly stopped. Naruto glanced around and looked at the discarded weapons, tutting softly.

The bun-haired girl's face contorted in anger as she whipped out another scroll and stubbornly resumed her onslaught of sharp implements.

Naruto smiled widely as he began jumping from side to side, dodging the various weaponry flying about, almost seeming to flash in and out of existence as he moved between the moving steel. Inevitably the storage scroll in Tenten's hands ran out of weapons, and the rain of metal finally ceased. Tenten exhaled with a hint of fatigue, growling angrily. Naruto sighed again at the sight of weaponry all around him, his smile fading for a second. He turned and grinned widely at Tenten, gums exposed once more.

"Is that all you can do? Throw things and waste resources?"

Tenten gritted her teeth as her eyes hardened in anger. She whipped out two more scrolls and unraveled them, flipping through handseals. Naruto raised an eyebrow as she looked back up.

"Soshoryu! (Twin Rising Dragons)"

The two scrolls exploded into smoke shaped like twin spiraling dragons, with Tenten spiraling up in between them. Mizuki's eyes widened when he heard the technique name.

"Tenten! That technique is too dangerous for a simple spar! Call it off!"

Tenten ignored Mizuki as she unsealed a kunai in each hand, before flinging them at Naruto. She continued unsealing and throwing at a rather impressive rate, as the rain of metal began once more.

Naruto chuckled as he grabbed both kunai out of the air and flung them back at their original wielder. He began flashing in and out of existence once more, catching weaponry and flinging them back at their former user. Granted he wasn't able to throw all of them, but it was still enough to seriously damage her.

Eventually, she did run out of weapons, only for Naruto to whip out one of his unique kunai and fling it right at her. Unable to comprehend the speed, the blade impaled her right in the stomach.

Tenten's eyes widened as she coughed blood and fell crashing to the ground, right in front of her unscathed opponent. Kneeling beside her, he reached down and pulled out his kunai before wiping it off on one of her empty scrolls. Glancing around at the endless amount of weaponry littering the ground, he sighed before grabbing her by the hair and pulling her up.

"Look at all this waste of iron and steel," he said in her ear, yet still loud enough for the rest of the class to hear. "You know this could have all gone for something necessary in the village. Building supplies for housing, plumbing for clean water, and countless other possibilities. Yet instead, it is here being wasted by a pathetic girl who can't even hit her target."

Naruto pulled his hand back, Tenten's hair still clutched in his fingers, before slamming her face down in the dirt hard enough for the ground to crack around the impact area.

"Disgraceful! A waste of space in our military and nothing more!" he yelled viciously.

Naruto stood and walked away, smile gone from his face as he dusted himself off. Mizuki eyed Naruto's retreating form warily. He sighed and marked down Naruto's results, while also making a smaller note beside them to get Naruto some form of psychiatrist should he be made a Genin. Because if he was this brutal without using the fox, how dangerous would he be when he actually tapped into an endless reservoir of hatred and anger?

Naruto simply ignored the instructor and his "peers" in favor of returning to Iruka's classroom to finish his remaining exams before the final spars of the day.


With the "elective" exams all finished, the students had all gathered at the back of the schoolyard, where a ring had been set up in rope and stones. Everyone stood in groups, waiting for Iruka's instructions. Naruto simply debated who he would either have the fortune (or misfortune, depending on who it was) of sparring with.

Iruka returned with a stack of slips of paper, much to Naruto's annoyance. Repetitiveness was not something that should be encouraged in the shinobi world. It made you lazy. Predictable. Stagnate.

"In my hands are slips of paper with numbers on them," Iruka said. "There are two of each number. You will take a number, and whoever has the matching number will be your partner for the spar."

Iruka then walked around and passed each slip out. Naruto glanced at his, bearing a number "7." He looked around, eyes peeled for another "7" so he could at least scope out his opponent. Naruto's expression soured when he saw who had the matching number.

Hinata seemed to realize this, and she turned bright red and began shivering slightly. Naruto's lip curled in disgust as he sighed. It seemed that this spar would be rather boring, just like before with the girl who had a habit of wasting weapons.

Iruka then began calling numbers, bringing the pairs up for their spars. He also insisted on them performing that odd gesture of "respect" that involved the pair interlocking two fingers with that of their opponent. Naruto never really understood it, but then again, he never really cared enough to understand.

The fights had mixed results, some entertaining while some were downright uninteresting. Shikamaru Nara proceeded to forfeit against his friend Choji Akimichi, citing the spar as "a drag" before walking over to a tree to stare at the clouds. Kiba Inuzuka tried his usual head-on assault against Shino Aburame, only for that to fail when the Aburame heir unleashed his hive of insects. Kiba did last longer than most would against an Aburame, though that was mainly attributed to his proficiency in Taijutsu. The fight between Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno started off slightly promising, before devolving into a full on brawl after they got into an argument over Sasuke Uchiha. Any other students' fights were simply either devoid of anything entertaining, or were over so quickly you could blink and miss it. Sasuke Uchiha's was one such fight, over in a single move.

From what little body language Sasuke was giving off, Naruto could tell he was both pleased to have easily defeated his sparring partner, but annoyed that it was over so quickly.

"You needn't be angry over the simple battle Uchiha," Naruto said with a smile. "After all, some people just don't have the skills necessary to make it. Your opponent was one such person."

Sasuke nodded. "Indeed." He turned to Naruto, ignoring the spar going on in front of them. "You know, I would have much rather fought you Uzumaki. At least you can keep up with me," he remarked with a smirk.

Naruto chuckled. "Such is the curse of geniuses such as ourselves, eh Uchiha? Always having the skills and the ability to acquire knowledge to hone ourselves, but having few who can actually challenge us." He sighed as he brushed back a couple stray hairs. "It can get quite boring at times."

"A fight between us though, that would have been a much better spectacle than what we have in front of us right now," Sasuke replied, eyeing the spar with disinterest.

"Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata, you're up!" Iruka called.

Naruto grinned widely. "Look's like it's my time to be bored then."

Sasuke grabbed Naruto's shoulder for a second. Naruto turned and raised an eyebrow. Sasuke jerked a head at Hinata.

"She may be timid and kind-hearted, but she's still a Hyuuga," Sasuke told him. "Don't underestimate her if she can use the Juken."

Naruto chuckled. "She might be able to use that style," he replied. "But I still have the upper hand."

Sasuke shrugged and let go of his semi-rival's shoulder. Naruto strode forward to stand in the ring, smile wide and gums exposed. Hinata blushed a bit, but kept it under control (and didn't faint) as she bowed respectfully for a moment. Naruto eyed her before giving a small inclination of the head.

"Alright you two, you know the drill. Lock fingers," Iruka instructed.

Hinata quickly extended her index and middle finger towards Naruto. Naruto glanced at the offending digits with a faint expression similar to that of one looking at a rather irritating insect, before giving in and (unwillingly) locking fingers with her.

After removing his fingers, Naruto stepped back a few paces. Hinata looked at him before getting into a shaky Juken stance.

"Well, seems Uchiha was right. She does know some form of Juken. Still, the style seems too rigid for her. Like she can't use it properly or something."

"Begin!"

Hinata raised her hands to prepare an attack, only to stop as Naruto scoffed. She stood and waited for a moment as Naruto stayed perfectly still.

"Give up."

Hinata's eyes widened as she heard the words coming from her crush's mouth, his smile gone and replaced with a cold frown.

"W-what?"

Naruto sneered at her. "Were you not paying attention? I said give up. You don't stand a chance."

Hinata gulped before shaking her head in defiance.

"I can't. I-I'm a Hyuuga, and Hyuuga's n-never back down-"

"Yet I don't see a Hyuuga before me, now do I?" Naruto retorted. "Hyuuga's are arrogant, self-absorbed, and overall seem to think the village means nothing to them except when it benefits them in some way. You don't act as such, so you aren't a Hyuuga." He gestured to her current stance. "You seem to know the basics of the Juken but that seems to be it. Your stance is rigid, your form weak. You don't have the power to actually perform those techniques,so therefore your skills won't be enough to defeat me."

"I can't give up though," she stubbornly replied. "I-I have a dream-"

"A dream?" Naruto repeated before bursting into loud mocking laughter. "A dream! And what might that be? To abolish the Caged Bird Seal? To unite the two houses of the Hyuuga? Don't make me laugh!"

Hinata's eyes widened as Naruto's grin returned with full force, a mad kind of glee apparent in his eyes.

"The Hyuuga have been the way they are for years, and that's how they've remained strong! They mark the weak, they take pride in their skills, and they never back down. The same could be said of the late Uchiha clan. They were strong, took pride in their skills, and they took whatever was necessary via their bloodline in order to succeed."

Sasuke, who had been a little annoyed when Naruto mentioned respecting the Hyuuga, perked up a bit when Naruto mentioned the Uchiha. A small smirk formed on his face, as Naruto's words restored a bit of pride in his deceased clan.

"There's also the fact that you don't have the power to back up that dream of yours," Naruto continued. "You're soft, kind-hearted, and you care far too much for a family that would cast you aside should you prove to be a disgrace to the name of Hyuuga. That's not being a better person, that's being foolish. So like I said, give up-"

At that moment Naruto darted to the side to avoid a surprisingly fierce strike from Hinata. Her teeth were clenched, and tears were streaming from her eyes. Letting out a yell of rage, she began striking as fast and hard as she possibly could. Naruto once more began blurring in and out of sight to avoid each strike, his grin never leaving his face.

"Now that's more like it!"

Hinata spun towards him, fingers blazing with chakra as she kept attempting to close his tenketsu and end the match before he could pull out one of his many tricks. Activating her Byakugan she leapt towards him. Naruto, recognizing the stance, yanked a kunai out of his pouch and held it in a reverse grip. Veins bulging around her eyes, Hinata then struck with the start of her technique.

"2 palms!" Dodged.

"4 palms!" Three dodged, one blocked via kunai.

"8 palms!" Six dodged, one blocked, one missed.

"16 palms!" Fourteen dodged, two blocked, two missed.

Seething that her attacks were not doing anything to him, Hinata rolled to the side and came up behind him. Naruto grinned and returned the kunai to his pouch.

"Hakke Sanjuni Sho! (Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms)"

Naruto's only response was to dodge each of the final strikes, much to Hinata's horror, before blurring out of sight and reappearing behind her.

"Was that your best?" Naruto asked, almost bored.

He tilted his head to look back at Sasuke with a smirk.

"What was that you said about being careful of the Juken?" he said.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Just some friendly advice, alright Uzumaki? I made an assumption, I was wrong. You happy?"

"Very much so," Naruto replied happily before lashing out with his foot and kicking Hinata right in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her.

Grabbing her by the arm, Naruto roughly hauled her to her feet and tossed her aside. Hinata staggered for a second, then charged at him with another Juken strike. Naruto simply flexed his wrist to unsheath his wrist blade, then raised it to block the attack.

Moving his hand into a position similar to one someone would use for a chop, Naruto jabbed Hinata in the throat. Hinata coughed and hacked as she frantically tried to breathe. Naruto stared dispassionately at her before backhanding her to the ground, into blissful unconsciousness.

He tutted softly before sheathing his blade. Iruka ran over to check on Hinata, mostly if she was still alive, before looking at Naruto.

"Winner by knockout, Uzumaki Naruto."

Most of the class was indifferent, and some were even resigned to this outcome. The only one who seemed somewhat pleased that Naruto beat Hinata was Sasuke. On the other hand, there was one other who was not happy with this turn of events whatsoever.

"Hold up! I want to challenge this bastard, right here, right now!"

Iruka turned to see Kiba Inuzuka staring at Naruto with barely contained fury, his canines showing as the boy growled angrily. Naruto himself turned to face Kiba as a mocking smirk formed.

"Oh? And why should I lower myself to fighting a mutt as of right now?"

"Simple. I've got a score to settle with you," Kiba retorted.

"Kiba, you only just woke up after Shino beat you," Iruka told him. "You really shouldn't be in another spar until your chakra has fully returned."

"So what!? I gotta do this, on Hinata's honor!"

Naruto started laughing when he heard this. He glanced at the prone form of Hinata before looking back at his "challenger."

"Her honor?" he replied. "Need I remind you that she lost. End of story. The strong defeated the weak, and it will show on her final grade. Nothing you do could change that, just like if you just happen to beat me your own score will not change." Naruto then proceeded to turn and move to walk away.

Kiba growled angrily before smirking. "So you're saying you're not going to fight me cause you're afraid to lose?"

"I never said that."

"But you implied it," Kiba crowed triumphantly. "You may have been willing to fight Hinata because you knew you could beat her, but you won't fight me because you're unsure. That makes you a coward Uzumaki."

Naruto stopped and turned back to face Kiba.

"Maybe I am a coward," he remarked. "After all, I do like the idea of staying alive compared to recklessly charging in and dying for no reason. That's why we as humans have the 'fight or flight' response. It tells us whether or not we should fight or flee, and thus one who is seen as a coward for fleeing is actually simply trying to preserve his or her own life. And if the flight response is never seen, then that simply proves that the being in question is too moronic to realize it is going to die. So in a way, being a coward isn't so bad." He grinned maliciously. "Perhaps you should try it sometime Inuzuka. It might actually give you some brain cells to fire up in that empty head of yours."

Howling in fury, Kiba lunged forward on all fours, ignoring Iruka's alarmed shouting and Akamaru barking frantically. Naruto's grin widened as he jumped over the charging Inuzuka, then he landed feet first on Kiba's back.

Leaping off of Kiba, Naruto stood nonchalant as the feral boy staggered to his feet. Snarling, Kiba leapt into the air and began to spin.

"Gatsuuga! (Fang Passing Fang)"

Naruto blinked out of the path of the spiralling vortex, then reappeared a few feet to the left of his original position. Kiba canceled the technique in favor of swiping at the blond with the claws that had grown from his fingernails. Naruto ducked and weaved between the attacks, the grin never leaving his face.

"My my, what an angry little mongrel you are," he remarked. "You know what they say about mad dogs. They have to be put down!"

Naruto slammed a fist into Kiba's face, sending the Inuzuka skidding. Kiba quickly recovered and shot forward again, failing to notice what was clutched in Naruto's other fist. In a single sweeping motion, the handful of sand flung across Kiba's eyes, causing the boy to howl in agony as he tried frantically to get it out.

His blond opponent proceeded to grab Kiba by the shoulders and deliver several knees to the gut before flipping him over his shoulder and slamming him into the ground. As Kiba groaned and tried to get up, Naruto kicked his head back down. Hard.

Dusting himself off, Naruto shook his head at the unconscious Inuzuka. Turning to face the dumbstruck Iruka with a smile on his face.

"Well, since I seem to have won two matches," Naruto said. "Do you think I can get extra credit?"

Placeholder for line

Given that Naruto had beaten two opponents, (and thoroughly made sure the school was terrified of him) Iruka told that he was free to leave and that the exam results would be posted the day after tomorrow.

Upon reaching his apartment, the Walrider phased out of Naruto's body as Naruto walked over to the fridge and inspected his meat drawer once more.

"Well, no use putting this off." He turned to face the Walrider. "We'll go hunting tonight."

The Walrider nodded in agreement. Naruto closed the fridge and walked over to his armchair. Sitting down, he sighed, put his hands behind his head, and simply relaxed for a few minutes.

This relaxation was broken when a thought crossed Naruto's mind. He frowned for a moment, stood up and looked at the Walrider.

"I need you to go out and locate Brother Sum. Inform him that we need to meet again soon."

The spirit hissed in response before darting out the window as a cloud of formless vapor. Naruto sighed and sat back down. For some odd reason he just felt… empty. Perhaps it was the absence of the Walrider, but it just felt odd whenever the spirit left to do his bidding at times. When Naruto was younger it wasn't as bad, but now it was noticeable. Almost like a void…

"Naruto…"

That, and the fact that whenever the Walrider left him the fox was able to speak with him was an annoying side effect.

Blocking out the chakra composed entity, Naruto stood and walked over to the window. Gazing out over the village, he sighed once more and shook his head. He idly wondered what (or rather, who) he might be having for dinner tonight.

His thoughts were interrupted though by a flicker of movement off in the distance. Squinting at the moving object, he was rather shocked and a little intrigued at what appeared to be a shinobi with the Sacred Scroll of Sealing strapped to his back. A shinobi with shoulder-length silver hair.

Naruto's signature smile returned. Mizuki had finally slipped up. And as promised to himself, when someone in the "strong possibility of becoming food" category slipped up and let down their guard, he would strike. Placing a hand on the side of his head he quickly sent out a mental pulse to the Walrider.

The spirit just happened to have finished organizing a meeting with Brother Sum, and was on the way back.

"Walrider, Mizuki's let his guard down. Tail him and keep me updated on his location. I'll meet you there."

A shriek of triumph was heard between their link as the Walrider sped off in search of their current target. The hunt was on.


On the rooftops, a hooded figure stood keeping watch, a single Sharingan eye homing in on the fast-moving spirit.

"So, the Walrider comes out to play," the figure remarked. "Guess Zetsu was right after all."

The figure turned to gaze over at the apartment of one Naruto Uzumaki, right as Naruto scaled the roof and took off in the same direction of the Walrider.

"And there he goes," she mused. "Perhaps I'll wait for him back at that apartment, see if we can have a little chat…"


Mizuki ran through the forests on the outskirts of Konoha, a confident smile on his face as he went. After all, why wouldn't he be confident? He had successfully managed to steal the Sacred Scroll of Sealing, something no one else had managed to do in the history of the village.

A twig snapped, instantly causing Mizuki to jerk his head to look where the sound came from. Nothing happened. Mizuki shook his head and kept moving, trying his best to keep up the air of confidence he had before.

Yet there was something off about the area he was in. Almost like he was being watched, or even followed.

He wasn't sure if he was seeing things, but at one point he thought he saw the shadow of a humanoid figure on a tree. Upon turning around however, there was no one in sight. Just a faint hissing noise emanating around him.

Mizuki swallowed nervously, adjusting the scroll on his back as he kept moving onward. He had to get out of Konoha anyways. It wouldn't do any good to keep her waiting. Especially if she was in a bad mood. The thoughts of the power she could give him kept Mizuki going at this point, even restoring a portion of his lost confidence.

This confidence was tested once more when a harrowing cry of laughter, filled with malice and darkness echoed throughout the forest. Composed of thousands of souls and voices, it sounded like the embodiment of evil and corruption. Mizuki flinched and began frantically looking around, searching for the source of this dark and horrifying sound. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something. A dark faceless figure, half-formed of shadowy vapor. He saw it for only the briefest of seconds before it dissipated into smoke and vanished.

The laughter rang out once more, and Mizuki spotted the creature to his left. Again, it dissipated into nothingness, and the process began anew.

Now on the verge of panic, Mizuki reached to his back and pulled out one of his fuma shurikens. Sweat began to bead and run down his face as his eyes darted from side to side, hoping to catch at least one more glimpse of this creature before it killed him. The laughter stopped.

Seconds passed, before the figure slowly formed once more out of the shadowy vapor. Mizuki swallowed in fear.

"What are you? What the hell are you!?"

The spirit let out one last shriek of laughter before saying one final word.

Walrider.

There was a rustling in the canopy above him. Then Mizuki heard a familiar sound. The sound of a click, then the smooth sound of a blade unsheathing. A sound that he himself had heard just earlier this afternoon.

Mizuki looked up just in time to see Naruto leaping from the canopy, wrist blade unsheathed, and a smile of mad glee on his face. In that moment, he felt shock and fear. Then there was a sharp pain, and then the darkness of oblivion for Mizuki.


The gleaming blade stabbed right into Mizuki's spinal column, right at the base of the neck, bringing the silver-haired Chunin down with Naruto on his back. Naruto twisted the blade sharply, severing the spinal cord and most of the neck, leaving the head hanging literally by a thread or two of sinew and fragments of the spinal cord. Nodding at the Walrider, Naruto felt the spirit rejoin his body, regaining that feeling of being whole once more.

Naruto looked down at the corpse dispassionately before glancing down at himself. Thankfully he had remembered the plastic suit, otherwise the bloodstains would take forever to wash out.

Carefully turning the body, he removed the Sacred Scroll, eyeing it with interest. Unrolling it, he glanced down and began to read.

"Kage Bunshin? Interesting," he murmured.

Reaching into one of his pouches, he removed a scroll and began writing down the details of the jutsu. Upon his completion, he glanced back at the Sacred Scroll. He then looked around warily. Naruto called forth the Walrider once more, instructing it to patrol around him and let him know if someone was coming close. After the spirit left, Naruto unrolled the Scroll even more and began copying as fast as he could.

After finishing his copying, Naruto rolled the scroll back up and set it against the tree. Pulling out a small sealing scroll, he unrolled it and prepared the seal. Glancing back at Mizuki, he cut the head of the rest of the way and sealed the headless corpse in the scroll. He then pulled out a scalpel and began cutting the back of the skull open to remove the brain. Once extracted, the brain was then sealed in another seal next to the corpse.

At that moment the Walrider informed Naruto that a large group of shinobi were nearby, but not in the forest yet. Naruto smirked as he began finishing his last touches to the area. It would be a sight to see indeed.


By the time the ANBU finally arrived in the clearing where Mizuki's scent was last located, Inu was by this point almost ready to give up. The sight that awaited him was not what he was expecting. Go ahead.

Blood littered the forest floor, fresh blood that Pakkun quickly identified as Mizuki's. Several trees had blood painted on them in the form of an arrow, all aiming at a single spot. Stabbed into the ground at said spot was a fuma shuriken, and impaled on the top point was the severed head of Mizuki. His face was contorted into an expression of horror, just like the rest of the victims of Konoha's resident killer. His eyes were positioned upwards, and they showed nothing except pure, abject terror. What caught Inu's gaze though was not just the fear on his face but the fact that a portion of his face appeared to have been… bitten off. Bitten off, then cauterized in a manner that sealed the wound, yet left it clear how it was caused.

"Taichō, you might want to take a look at this."

Inu stood up and walked over to where Tenzo was standing, the Sacred Scroll now strapped to his back.

"Check out the writing. We've found it on every tree with an arrow so far."

Inu leaned down and peered at the carefully written message. As he got closer, the metallic scent informed him that it was also blood.

"And when I come, I will bring forth to the world righteous judgement to the heathens who oppose me," Inu read aloud.

"So our serial killer is a priest then?" an ANBU in a Rabbit mask asked.

"Not sure, but we can definitely understand one thing," Inu remarked. "Based on that bite, we know that our killer isn't just doing this for sport."

"Are you saying-"

"Yes. Our killer is a cannibal. And to make matter's worse, he's stepping up his game."

"What do you mean Taichō?"

Inu sighed. "He attacked someone who had the Sacred Scroll of Seals. A Chunin no less. Before today, he only hunted civilians or the odd Genin and weaker Chunin. But now he's after stronger game. Which means that this is only going to get worse from here on out now that he has the skill and the confidence to go after stronger shinobi."

The ANBU in the Rabbit mask looked at the head for a second before turning back to Inu.

"Well, for all the trouble he's gone through, I guess we have to call him something at this rate."

"The Voracious," Tenzo remarked. "That's what he is. The Voracious."


At the same time, Naruto had walked into his apartment and locked the door. Unzipping the plastic suit, he carefully disposed of it in one of his trash cans. He'd take it out tomorrow, but for now he had meat to prepare for storage.

Striding into the kitchen, he prepared to unseal the corpse when he heard something that he had never expected to hear. A voice that didn't belong to the Walrider.

"Uzumaki Naruto," a deep yet feminine voice called from his sitting room. "Konoha's resident cannibalistic serial killer, psychopath, and host to both the Kyuubi no Kitsune and the Walrider of legend."

Naruto turned to face the strange woman, outwardly calm yet panicking on the inside. "Who is this woman? How did she get in here!? It should be impossible with all the security I put in place! I knew I should have been more attentive, but no I failed at keeping up my security and now my home is no longer impenetrable. This is impossible!" Naruto exhaled slowly, still keeping a close eye on the woman.

"Aren't you going to reply? It's rude to keep a woman waiting you know."

Naruto exhaled once more. "It doesn't matter. I'll kill her, dispose of the evidence via incinerator, and then improve my security tenfold."

Carefully eyeing the woman, Naruto slipped a few of his kunai into his sleeve and into his palm, loading his senbon launcher as his hands moved briefly behind his back.

"You're not very talkative are you?" she remarked dryly.

Naruto whipped his arm out, flinging the kunai before pulling up the sleeve on his left arm revealing his senbon launcher and firing several poisoned senbon right at the woman. Much to his shock, the weapons simply phased through her, much like with the Walrider earlier that morning.

"Nice reflexes," she remarked, "But what good are reflexes if you can't-"

Naruto proceeded to throw another kunai before diving to one of the lower cupboards and grabbing one of his many hidden gas masks along with a small remote controller. Putting it on, he gazed at the intruder and pressed one of the buttons on the remote.

A pale green gas began pouring out of AC units, flooding the room. As the gas began to fill the room, the woman began to chuckle as Naruto moved towards another cupboard.

"Tear gas Naruto? Nice try, but I've got an ace for something like that."

A swirling vortex appeared from her one visible eyehole on her mask, sucking up the gas into a small wormhole. Soon the room was cleared of gas, only for the intruder to spot Naruto standing there confidently with another remote in hand. The woman raised an eyebrow behind her mask as Naruto grinned madly.

"Is that supposed to scare me?" she drawled.

Naruto's grin expanded, as one eye opened wider while the other narrowed considerably.

"Yes, very much so in fact. This remote is linked to hundreds of powerful bombs lined throughout the building as well as the buildings directly surrounding it and the basement levels. One press of a button and we'll both be consumed in the incendiary blast of my holy fire, and there'll be no escape for you or I!"

With that, Naruto burst into insane bouts of laughter, cackling wildly while the woman simply stood there impassively. Then she did something that actually caused him to stop laughing from the sheer shock of it all.

She wasn't pleading or begging for her life. She wasn't running as far as she could to escape the coming onslaught of fire and brimstone. No, she was clapping.

"I must admit, you are indeed an interesting one Uzumaki Naruto. I can sense the bombs lining this building and the surrounding ones so I know you're not bluffing. So willing to lose yourself to fire just to keep your secret. I respect that."

Naruto was stunned. She knew this whole time? Was this a test of some sort? To see how far he'd go? But from who? So many possibilities.

"Who are you?" he asked warily.

The woman lowered her hood, revealing long black hair that spiked at the ends of her bangs and ponytail and an orange mask with a single eyehole, with the entire mask appearing to be a spiral emanating from the eyehole. From within said hole, a single Sharingan blazed.

"My name is Uchiha Madoka, and I have something of an offer to discuss with you Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto's eyes widened in shock. Staring at the woman for a few seconds, he glanced at the remote in his hand and set it down on the counter.

"I'm listening…"

End Chapter

Phantom's Notes: Well, finally got that chapter finished! I'll be honest, there were times when I thought we were never going to get this done, but here it is! I hope you guys have enjoyed the chapter, and again I am sorry for my updating schedule being terrible. But at least I finally got this chapter up, and what better time than around Christmas eh? Or whatever you celebrate… anyways, happy holidays from me, and I'll see you in the next chapter for The Witch-King (which will most likely be the next one updated) See ya on the flip side!

Morgoth's Notes: Hello, and happy Holidays. This project of ours has been an extensive one, having been working on it since November. But now that it's complete we can move on to our other stories. But I must warn you, in the coming chapters there will be things that can be considered controversial such as the last uniform we mentioned in Naruto's closet (Props to anyone who figures out what that is). But all is for the greater good, and will help this story rise to the top. Please review (descriptively and grammatically correct) about what you thought of the chapter, as we worked quite hard on this. But we wish you luck in continuing reading this dark story, and remember. Continue on the sacred path, for the Great Journey Awaits.

Morgoth: Oh a little info update, if you haven't figured it out, Naruto is based off of multiple characters including Enrico Maxwell, Charles zi Britannia, Hannibal Lecter, Sigma, Sosuke Aizen, The High Prophet of Truth, and Dr. Richard Trager.