Man behind the Mask: Phase 1: One with the Mask

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything else.

Chapter Start

It was all happening so fast. The instant Naruto put on the Mask. Bones started healing; the intestines and blood on the floor were being sucked back up into his open stomach, muscles were reattaching. It was a much faster process than when Kurama healed him, but with one major difference.

Naruto felt every bit of the pain.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! GODDAMN IT HURTS!" Naruto screamed.

"Oh quit your whining!" the mask said, "Did I say this process was gonna be fun?"

Naruto then heard a ripping sound, and realized that he was growing pretty fast. As a result, his clothes were tearing. His arms started growing more muscular, as were his legs.

"You're gonna have to learn to love the pain, Nar, cause there's a LOT more of it to come…"

Meanwhile, back in Konoha, a certain council member was sitting in the Root base. I'm of course talking about Danzo Shimura. He himself had given the order to have Naruto disposed of, and was now waiting for his faithful root members to return. Soon enough, 8 root anbu showed up to debrief him

"The mission was a success, Danzo-sama." One of the root spoke.

"So, you finished him off?" Danzo asked.

"Hai, Danzo-sama. We left him near the cave by Training Ground 666 since that's normally where we leave the evidence. He might be alive right now but he won't…"

"He's still alive?" Danzo asked, outraged. "Then what are you doing back here? I told you people to kill the demon brat, not mortally wound him and wait for the problem to take care of itself! Now get out of here and finish the job!"

"H-Hai, Danzo-sama." A root member said nervously before the root members left the room.

Back with Naruto, to say the young teen had changed would be the understatement of the century, as he was no longer the scrawny ninja he was before.

He now stood at 6 and 1/2 – 7 feet tall, his arms, chest and legs were heavily muscled like the Hulk, and instead of his normal blue eyes coming out of the eyeholes of the mask his eyes glowed a dark red. Fortunately for Naruto, the change didn't make him lose his pants.

"What have you done to me?" Naruto asked. "What am I? WHAT AM I?"

"You're mine, Naruto."

Naruto took a picture out of his pocket and looked at it, it was a picture of him and Anko. "Anko-hime…"

"HEHEHE, so this is your girl? I gotta say, I'm impressed. Just think of the fun you two could have with her, but I'm guessing you've already had some with her haven't y…"

"…sorry to interrupt, but can you tell me what you've done to me?" Naruto asked, a little peeved about the Mask saying some pretty personal stuff about Anko.

"To us, Naruto. You're wearing me and I'm inhabiting you. We're a team now."

"Why help me?" Naruto asked.

"I want revenge on the dipshits that put me here. You help me get what I want, and I'll help you become the best…"

Suddenly Naruto felt many chakra sources coming in his general direction.

"…And it looks like I don't even have to wait very long for my revenge either."

Naruto then felt a searing pain rushing through his body as the mask began to transform him. He felt bones lengthening, some of them even threatening to pierce the skin. When the transformation was complete, Naruto looked more like a monster than a man: Bone-blades came out of both his arms; he became at least half a foot taller, and multiple bone like spikes came out of his back (Basically Berserker Rick but with Naruto's blonde hair.)

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Naruto screamed.

"Oh yeah…It is SO good to FINALLY be FREE!" the mask said as he and Naruto noticed that multiple root members had showed up on site.

Although you couldn't tell it because of the masks on their faces, most of the Root Members were starting to feel fear for the first time since joining root just by looking at what appeared to be the nine tails jinchuriki standing in front of them. Hell, one of them, though he wouldn't say it, had shit himself from the fear he felt just by looking at Naruto and the KI that Naruto was radiating.

"Come on" the mask said, "Let's go kill something. Its been to long…and I'm WAY out of practice…."

Chapter end

AN: Next time Naruto goes up against a foe that shouldn't even exist: Root itself along with Danzo. Will he succeed in his mission to permanently ground the Warhawk? That's next time. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!