THE NINE Chapter 2: madness, a naruto fanfic

THE NINE

Chapter two

It had been a week since Naruto had returned to Konaha from his ill fated mission with the akatsuki. Incidentally it had been six days fourteen hours and 26 minutes since his new identity as a demon became public knowledge. He really shouldn't have been surprised, after all this was a ninja village and secrets like this are rather hard to keep under wraps.

At first it hadn't been so bad, people running in fear everywhere he went, merchant throwing their goods at just so he would go away. To be honest he was actually finding all this rather amusing, though that was most likely because his new demonic mind set was becoming more and more dominant. Unfortunately it didn't take long for fear to turn in to anger; it also didn't take long for anger to turn into angry mobs.

It was at this point that he had taken to locking himself inside of his apartment. 'Well that could have gone better.' He idly thought to himself remembering the torch barring mobs that had chased him around the village. Letting out a sigh he flopped out on his old and worn couch. 'Well what now?' he wondered to himself. Honestly he had no idea what he was suppose to do, the fox had just informed him of what he was not what he was suppose to do. Letting out another sigh he pondered his next step. 'well it's pretty obvious I can't stay here, sure I doubt that anyone here could kill me but I bet the fox thought the same thing and look at where that got him, a one way ticket to my gut. And to be honest I would really rather not end up sealed in some snotbag kid any time soon." Again he let out a tiered sigh. 'well there's not much keeping me here anyway, ever one I ever cared about is already dead, and to be entirely honest the village even before I left to fight akatsuki the village seemed to be almost lifeless. Well I guess that I could always make a run for it, not like they could stop me anyway.' With that thought he got up and started pacing the room. 'Saying I do leave, what then?' and with that thought he stopped suddenly remembering what the fox had said. The other hosts, he could try and find the others. After all birds of a feather and all that. And he already knew where to start.

Rushing to his bead room he quickly packed a duffel bag full of cloths and other ninja gear, he may be a demon now but he had been a ninja longer and that was how he was trained to fight. Looking out his window he guessed the time somewhere around midnight. 'Just a few stops and then I'm out of here.' Silently he opened his window and slipped out un-noticed by the anbu that the Hokage had had posted outside his apartment (one of the advantages of wherein orange all the time was that his stealth skills where unmatched).

'First a few good buys and then I'm gone.' He idly thought to himself while jumping from roof to roof in the direction of what had become his own private training ground, the previous training ground 7.

Arriving a few moments later he found himself standing before the memorial stone that had carved in it all the names of the people he had once cared for. Slowly knelling before the now crowded stone he started his last goodbyes. "Hay guys, sorry it's been so long but you know how thing get some times." He rubbed the back of his head in slight embarrassment and gave the stone one of his patented fox grins, made even foxier since his transformation. "Any way I just came by to tell you guys that I'm leaving, ... don't look at me that way kakashi-sensei. Listen guys I'm sorry but this is just something I've got to do." At this he looked away from the stone somewhat ashamed at himself picturing the disappointed looks of all his friends. "listen iv changed since we last met, I'm not the same Naruto and quite honestly I don't know what's going to happen in the future, hell I don't know who I'm going to be in the future, but while I'm still mostly who you remember I just wanted to say sorry and goodbye." And with that he said a small prayer and rose to his feet. "Bah enough of this mushy crap, I'll see ya when I see ya. And I tell ya what, no matter how long I might happen to live every year on this day I'll raze a drink to your name, how's that sound." It was at that moment that he noticed the feeling of his haki-iate (forehead protector, probably not how it's spelled) on his forehead. Removing it from his head he stared at the leaf symbol engraved on it. Closing his eyes he removed a kunai from his pack an dragged it across leaving a distinctive scratch through the middle signifying to himself and to the world that he was now a missing nin, no longer controlled by his village but his own man (demon).

He had only just cleared the wall surrounding the village when he was surrounded by 20 anbu black-ops recognized by the verity of porcelain animal masks. "Halt, Naruto uzumaki you are here by placed under arrest for the crime of desertion, come quietly, we've been authorized to use lethal force should you resist." Finished what Naruto could only guess was the captain.

Simple looking up at the starry night he let out a soft chuckle. "Do you honestly think that you can take me anywhere that I don't want to go?" he drawled with an amused expression. At this the anbu got into a ready stance. Chuckling at the absurdity of 20 ninja's thinking that they could take on a demon lord finished with that side thought Naruto got into a relaxed stance. Suddenly a thought struck him and laughed in his head, 'oh yes that would be funny.' Suddenly before any of the other nin could move Naruto dropped the Genjutsu hiding he foxy traits and with that nine fox tails sprouted from his tail bone and two blond fox ears sprouted from the top of his head, however the most frightening change, at least in the minds of the men that surrounded him, was a Sudan change in the pigment of his eyes. Where once cerulean blue greeted them now a bloody red only broken up by two slit pupils. 'Man I wish they weren't wearing those masks, I bet they'd look pretty funny with their mouths all hanging open.'

Setting that thought aside for now he decided that he really didn't have the time to waste on these meatbags, well actually now that he thought about it he did, what with being immortal and all. So more accurately he didn't feel like wasting a time on them.

Charging the nearest one, not giving them a chance to realise what was going on he extended fingers so they where pointed outward and instinctively extended his claws and sent them slicing through the mans through nearly decapitating him.

By this time the rest had snapped out of their stupor and where encircling him in a standard anbu formation. Once again Naruto slipped into a relaxed stance and waited for them to make the first move. He was not forced to wait long as a tiger masked Nin jumped at him from the side unsheathing his ninjato (short sword I think). At this he simply pivoted on his right foot and brought up his left to connect with the man's masked face. At this he was forced to bring his arms up to try and block the hit. Unfortunately this left him open for Naruto to simply plunge his clawed hand in to the man's chest. Not even having time to turn drop the dead man another ninja charged at his exposed back. Thinking quickly Naruto grabbed an explosive not from his pouch and placed it on the dead man's corpse, which he promptly threw at the charging man at speed imposable to dodge. Both ninja and corps where sent flying backs toward a group a group of five anbu.

Crashing into the ground with a loud thud the man slowly made to stand. However the soft hiss of an explosive note caught his attention. "fuck." Was all he was able to get off as the chakra empowered note exploded taking him and five of his team mates all in one large explosion.

'Note to self, blowing stuff up is fun!' thought Naruto as he laughed in his head. Unfortunately this momentary distraction has all the remaining anbu need and ten of them rushed him and stabbed him in a number of vital places all at once.

What they had expected to happen was for the blond to fall to the ground dead, after all he had ten swords sticking in to him, no one could survive that. Unfortunately for them this is not what happened. Instead the blond just threw his head back and laughed. "Ha ha ha, man its times like this I really wish you guys weren't wearing those masks, man I can only imagine the look on your guys faces." And with that final thought Naruto channelled electrified chakra to all the sward sticking out of him and in the process all the ninja that where still holding them, and with that all ten gave out a scream and fell to the ground dead.

Now it was just him and two very scared anbu standing in the clearing. "No what to do with you two?" he asked scratching his chin in contemplation. "Well I guess I could just kill you, but where would the fun in that be? Well if I'm not going to kill you then what?" he asked with a hint of amusement in his voice. Neither of the two remaining anbu answered back, not that he was expecting them to. "Well I guess that if you agree to give the Hokage a message I could let you go." At this the reaming anbu simply nodded their heads, "good, all I wasn't you hell him is that if he leaves me alone I'll leave him alone. Now get out of here before I change my mind." With that the two anbu rushed off into the night. "Ya know come to think of it I don't really need two people to deliver that message." And with a flick of his wrist he sent a kunai sailing into the head of one of the remaining anbu.

"Well that was fun." And with that he turned to the west and started to make the long journey to Suna. Idly he wondered how Gaara was taking this whole demon thing, but simply shrugged it off, he'd find out when he got there.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx time skip xxxxxxxxxxxx

Gaara was not having a pleasant week. First it seemed that the council had decided that seeing as how he didn't sleep that they could simply give him all there paper work, after all he had so much time on his hands it shouldn't of been a problem right. So now instead of spending most of his time in his office he was now spending all of it there. Oh but the fun was just starting, the same day the council decided to up his work load just happened to be the same day that he had passed out and had a 'talk', and by 'talk' he meant he was yelled at, with his former prisoner. To say that he had missed that voice over the years would have been a lie. However it was what the crazy racoon-dog had had to tell him that had him on the edge of lapsing into old homicidal tendencies, the mere though of crushing the village council in his sand was actually starting to sound like a better and better idea. Not only that but he had just received an updated copy of the Konaha bingo book from that old war hawk Danzo. Ever since he was named as the next kage of Konaha, relations between the two countries had become strained, however there minor problem where nothing compared to their problems with the rest of the major villages, hell he wouldn't of been surprised if the next great shinobi war broke out soon, an idea that due to his new mind set was becoming more and more appealing. At any rate that was not what was on his mind at the moment. What was a sudden entry into the s-class section of the book? There on page one was the only person that he actually thought of as a friend. Gaara had already guessed what had happened, it seemed that Naruto too had changed and had decided to embrace his new identity. To be honest he had thought that it would of been him to have broken first, but it really was a moot point, he was sure his time would come, already the idea of staying in the village was becoming more and more repugnant.

"You can stop hiding now, I know your there." He suddenly said to the far wall.

"Heh heh, was wondering when you were going to figure out I was there." Chuckled the blond as he seemingly materialized. "So anything new going on with you?" he asked cocking his head to the side.

"I hardly think I need to answer that, you're well aware of the situation we both find ourselves in. Though I am a little surprised that it only took you a week to change so much." Said Gaara not showing any emotion in his voice.

"Figured it was time for a change, besides it seemed like a good idea at the time." And with a shrug of his shoulders he flung himself into the chair across from Gaara and rested his feet on his desk mocking over a particularly large pile of paper work.

Just starring at the pile of paper on the ground and then at the blond sitting in front of him Gaara had to suppress the urge to crush the blond idiot sitting in front of him. "You know, if you were anyone else I would of crushed you by now." He deadpanned

"Like to see you try." Naruto responded not even trying to repress the amusement in his voice.

"Maybe another time. Now I assume you didn't come all the way here just to say hi, so what do you want?" Gaara asked.

"You wound me," Naruto started holding his chest in mock pain. "Can't I just drop by to say hello to my vary dearest friend without there being some ulterior motive?"

"No" Gaara deadpanned

"Sharp as ever I see. Well maybe there is one thing. Ya see the way I see it there's still seven other people in our situation, probable confused and frightened and all alone." At this point Naruto pulled out the hurt puppy-dog look. "I mean just imagine what those poor, poor souls must be going through. Hell, except for you and me they've all been dead for years now. Just imagine what it would be like for them, oh it's almost enough to make me cry." And with that he dragged his finger down his cheek and in mock sorrow. However as soon as he had finished he jumped up on the desk, knocking over the rest of the paper work, and pointed to the window. "So you and me are going to go find them and then ... well I don't know what yet, maybe blow something up or something." Naruto finished with a sigh and fell back into Gaara's lap. "So what do ya say, ya up for finding the rest of the previous host, maybe raise a little hell in the process?"

"You know I can't Naruto. As the Kazikage I'm sworn to protect the village, I can't just up and leave whenever I feel like it." Replied Gaara.

"Sure you can, you're the kage, and you can do whatever you want. And besides you're not exactly the same person you were when you put that hat on. Remember I'm going through the same changes as you, I know that sooner or later some ones going to look at you the wrong way then before you can 'say stop beating me with my own severed limbs' you've got yourself a bunch of dead villagers on your hands. Come to think of it if you really where a kage you would come with me so that your people would be safe from you." Naruto snickered inside his head he honestly couldn't understand why people thought he was an idiot.

Noticing the contemplative look on Gaara's face Naruto's grin grew even more. "Come on Gaara you and I both know you can't stay here anymore than I could stay in Konaha. The people may have tolerated us as hosts but do you really think that they want an actual demon as their kage? So what do ya say? And at least with me around you know it won't be boring."

Sighing Gaara replied "fine you win." And with that Gaara removed his kage hat and robes revealing the moron collared clothes underneath. It was also this time that Naruto first noticed the large bushy tail swaying behind him. It was all he could do to keep from laughing. With that tail and the even darker circles under his eyes he really did look like a raccoon. "Nice tail." Was all he was able to get out before he found himself hanging upside down. "Just because were immortal now doesn't mean I can't find a way make you wish you were dead."

"Right, right. Well now that that's settled we just have to decide where to go now. Any ideas?" Naruto asked giving his new traveling companion a questioning look.

"Not really, well most of the five major villages have had a host at one point or another there's no way to tell where they are now, it's also unlikely that they would return to their former villages so they really could be anywhere." Stated Gaara as he pulled out a map.

"Well you're no help." Grumbled Naruto. "Well then that just leaves one option." And with that he closed his eyes and pointed his hand at a random place on the map. "There, that wasn't so hard. Now let's see first stop ..."

Omake

"You wound me," Naruto started holding his chest in mock pain. "Can't I just drop by to say hello to my vary dearest friend without there being some ulterior motive?"

"No" Gaara deadpanned

Gaara was about to respond when a light bulb appeared over Naruto head and he pulled out a miniature voice recorder. "Note to self. Find way to actually raise hell." And with that he placed the recorder back in his pocket. It was then that he noticed the tick forming above Gaara's eye "what?"

A/N

Well there's chapter two hope you enjoyed. As always the more reviews I get the faster I write. Also in the next chapter I'll start introducing the other hosts. Also Naruto will be getting at sword, though I'm not sure what sword to give him. You guys have any good ideas for what kind of sword a chaos demon should have let me know. Any way that's all and as always review, review, and review.

also some people are wondering why danzo is the kage. sorry i didn't clarasy this. after Tsunade was killed the council took over and as we all know danzo controls the council so he had them name him hokage. sorry again for not clarifying that in the story.