The left hand of Kami

Chapter 2

Yay! I got all good reviews for the first chapter! Thank you very much! Gracias! Arigatou! Anyways, I don't have anything to tell you.

Naruto groaned as he wearily lifted his head, his neck cramping painfully as he did so. blinking away his blurry vision, his sight rested on the shadowed form of a person standing a few meters away. It was also then that he noticed that he was hanging by his arms a few inches off the ground. His shirt and forehead protector had been removed and the areas where he had been stabbed were red and swollen from infection.

"What the hell is going on? Who are you? What am I doing here?" The shdowed form laughed, and began speaking in a voice that naruto chillingly recognized. "what's the matter, little ninja? Can't get free? You and your bastard team ruined my plans and cost me millions of dollars! I really should just kill you right now, but where's the fun in that? I've decided to let you live…barely."

Stepping into the light of the dank cell, Gatou sneered at Naruto. "I'm going to take out of your hide what you cost me in money, brat, and I'm going to enjoy doing it."

With that, he waved two men in, both of them wearing forehead protectors with a slash through them. "These two men will be keeping you company and making sure you don't get too comfortable." Gatou laughed maniacally as he turned around and closed the cell door, leaving Naruto along with the two nuke-nin. The men both bore insane grins as they closed on their prey.

-two weeks later-

Kakashi's heart was heavy. He had lost another teammate, only this one was barely 12, and had yet to even face some of the true joys in the world. Quickly, the whole village turned out as a search-and-rescue party, but, save for the needles, they could find no trace of Naruto or Gatou.

Just as he was saddened by the loss of Naruto, he was also enraged by the seemingly indifferent attitude Sakura had towards the situation. At first, kakashi thought that Sasuke didn't care either, but as the days passed, he saw the uchiha survivor becoming more and more agitated, and more and more cross with Sakura, who kept telling him that Naruto was dead and that he didn't have to worry about him anymore.

Kakashi so wanted to slap her, but that was improper in a teacher-student relationship. He could only watch as the rest of the group, Zabuza, Haku, Tsunami, and Tazuna, all seemed to carry themselves around autonomously.

Zabuza looked worriedly at his student who was peering out the window into the night sky. Over the last few weeks, they had become good friends with the konoha nins, and had even accepted an offer to join the village. However, Haku still seemed depressed about something. Most likely it was the boy that had gone missing.

Despite what the two of them always told everyone, Haku was indeed a girl, she just chose to hide it so as to not be given a handicap in battle. Moving to get a better look at his apprentice's face, zabuza was able to read the emotions of his student. She was sad, with a tiny bit of happiness, and, as her eyes moved to the distant view of the bridge, they filled with a different emotion, love. Zabuza sighed mentally. If the boy had indeed been captured, he would most likely be dead already.

A weeping mass in the form of a boy was centered around a cell, whose slimy, green walls and chipped stone reminded one of a castle dungeon. And, much like a dungeon, this cell was covered in blood, all of it from the boy.

The boy himself was lucky to be alive. Scars criss-crossed his entire torso, remnants from the nuke-nin's treatments. What was worse was that he still had some on the implements stuck in him. a scalpel was stabbed into his leg, while 3 kunai jutted out from his chest and back. On his back, the thin strips of flesh he had left were bleeding sluggishly, as a result of the severe flogging he had just gotten.

Naruto had learned to separate his mind from his body early on in the torture, but that only helped so much. It wasn't until a week ago that he had finally met the fox.

-Flashback-

Naruto let out a bone-chilling scream as the hot iron was pressed against his flesh. Nuke-nin1 laughed. "See how he screams? I love it! Let's do it some more, before he gets used to the pain." More irons seared his skin, just as he blacked out.

He awoke in a dark room, with water ceovering the floor and piping running through the ceiling. To his left, he heard the sound of heavy breathing. Pushing himself to his feet, he walked towards the sound, wincing as the injuries to his body screamed in protest at his actions.

The hallway led to a giant room with a large, iron-barred gate in it. Lying on the gate was a piece of paper with the letters 'seal'. Two baleful red eyes glowed from the darkness in the cell.

Naruto smirked, "So, this must be where the 'Great Kyuubi' is held. Finally, a chance to meet the bastard that as made my life a living hell." The red eyes narrowed for abit before a huge voice resounded throughout the room. "You're lucky I like you Kit, otherwise I might take that personally." Naruto blinked, "Huh?" "I said I like you. You've got spunk. Besides, it's not my fault that the villagers can't tell the difference between a vessel and a real demon. Actually, none of this is my fault. A snake-like man named Orochimaru killed my family, bu lied and said that Konoha did it. Just before I was sealed away into you by your father, I asked Shinigami to bless the souls of those who passed on. As far as I know, they're currently in heaven, watching over their loved ones." "O-kay. I guess that makes sense. I apologize for my comments earlier." "Apology accepted, kit. Now, we have to do something about your situation here. The dilemma is this; if you die, I die. I don't want to die, and I really like you, so it's in my best interests to help you. However, I can't do that yet. I need you to do something first. Go up to the paper seal and tear off about the lower quarter. This will allow me to feel what you are feeling, see what you see, taste what you taste, etc. it will also enhance your own senses, as technically we will be sharing the same ones. This will also give the sixth sense all animals have, and will allow me to talk with you without you having to come here all the time." "That sounds perfectly reasonable, Kyuubi-san. I will do as you asked." With that, he tore off the lower quarter of the seal.

-end flashback-

So, for a week, Naruto's senses had slowly been improving, and he could clearly here when his tormentors would be approaching. As soon as they entered, they each had their necks caught between a pair of legs and snapped easily.

Naruto felt little remorse about his kills. The men were sadists, and deserved to die. With his dirty deed accomplished, Naruto swung himself up vertically and placed his legs against the ceiling and egan to pull with all of his remaining strength. The chains groaned, but nothing more.

But then, red chakra slowly began to leak out of him and around his arms, and the chains pulled from the wall eaily. Thanks kyubi. No problem Kit. Now, kill Gatou and get out of here.

Gatou was lounging in a gilded chair sloppily eating a turkey leg when his door was blasted open. "What is the meaning of this?" he raged, throwing the leg down hard.

Then, out of the smoke came Naruto, filty, scarred, and bleeding. He grit his teeth as he pulled a kunai out of his body. There was a brief spurt of blood, before the wound healed up, leaving just a scar. Naruto had learned early on that kyuubi, while usually able to heal most wounds without a scar, was not able to heal his great number of wounds without leaving scars or risk being totally drained of chakra. Naruto stared at the man in front of him, "Hello Gatou. It's nice to see you, after such a long interval between your last visit. Unfortunately, I must take my leave from this place, but I decided to leave the people at Wave village a little present." He flashed forward and less than a second later, Gatou's headless body fell to the floor.

Kakashi, Zabuza, and Haku were about ready to burst into tears, while Sasuke just showed huge disappointment and sadness in his eyes. The villagers, in honor of Naruto, had pooled their money and managed to get a carving of Naruto put in as the centerpiece of the bridge. The statue was winking with a thumbs-up, and held the engraving, 'For the one who showed us that courage and heroes still abound, we name this, the Great Naruto Bridge.' Sakura just rolled her eyes before glomping Sasuke again and asking him out. While he was mourning the death of his comrade and, he realized, friend. His anger grew at the girl, bt he didn't retaliate, as that wasn't what Naruto would have wanted. Instead, he calmly ignored her, but managed to shoot a look to Kakashi and zabuza that said 'This bitch will die if she doesn't get the idea soon enough.'

They were on their way to Konoha already, when Kakashi noticed something strange. Red drops were lying on the ground, next to a discarded kunai. Also, further along the road, there were two more kunai. It loked as is someone had pulled them out of his or her self.

Then he noticed the body. It was still breathing, but the breathing was shallow, and heavily labored. Wary of a possible trap, kakashi inched forward until he could get a better view of the person.

His eye widened instantly. "Haku! Zabuza! Get over here! I need your help!"

Gently, he set Naruto's body along the ground, but it was hard trying to avoid the spots that were still being healed. The boy's body wasin a disgusting state, he looked as if he had been attacked by a madman with a chainsaw.

As Haku and the others ran up to them, Naruto opened one eye halfway and he smiled a little. "Hey…Kakashi-sensei…I got a present for Wave village. I sent them…Gatou's head…but it seems that Gatou and…his cronies did a real number on me. Kyuubi says there's a lot of internal damage he has to heal…so I need to rest…for…a bit…" With that Naruto fell asleep, just as the others arrived. Hku just paled and brought her hands to her mouth, while Zabuza and Kakashi fervently began to heal the boy.

Sasuke sighed a huge sigh of relief, and smiled, glad that his teammate, though broken, was still alive. Sakura just muttered, "Drama queen."

3 dayslater, the whole group arrived at Konoha. Naruto was rushed to the hospital, where he was expected to make a full recovery, save for being heavily scarred. The rest were brought up to th Hokage's office.

Personally, kakashi had never seen the hokage so angry. The man was almost spitting fire. "What the hell happened kakashi! Why is Naruto-kun so injured?"

Kakashi sighed, "my apologies, hokage-sama. We were attacked by some bandits on the bridge, and Naruto, using 'it', managed to kill most of them, after thei leader insulted the young Haku here while she was fatally injured. He then proceeded to go after Gatou, but disappeared for 2 weeks. We only found him 3 days ago. It looks as if he has been tortured. By the man he was gong after, Gatou."

The hokage's eyes narrowed, "I want that man's head on a plate." "I'm sorry sir, but Naruto already beat you to it, though it looks as if he had spent all of his energy doing it. He gave the head to wave country."

The hokage nodded, before turning to Haku and Zabuza. "Since you two helped immensely in the aid of Konoha, I will grant you rights to be Konoha nins. Please go to the registration office down the hall an give them this letter. Everyone, you're dismissed, save you, Kakashi."

After the others filed out of the room, Kakashi brought his full attention to the matter at hand, something which was rare and almost unheard of. "Yes sir?" "What were the reactions of Naruto's teammates when he went missing?" "Well, Sasuke at first didn't seem to care, but after a few days, really began to show that he was worried. Sakura, on the other hand, cared for nothing but Sasuke, and even said that she was glad that Naruto was gone and that he was hopefully dead." At this, Kakashi's fists tightened in his anger, and his voice was strained. "I see. Kakashi, I'm hereby demoting Sakura back to academy student, though she will receive genin pay. When she reached genin level again,she will be on a 6-month probation period, during which if she shows any signs of not working as a team, she will no longer be a ninja. Be sure to inform her of this, would you?" "Gladly." "Then you are dismissed." The hokage then made his towards the hospital, as there was a certain demon vessel he had to meet.