Here's the next chapter! Yay! I've been a little busy school. Anyway, all I can say is hope you like this chapter.

Program X

Chapter Two - Permanent Damage

Naruto was not one for vengeance, everyone knew that; instead he would handle his problems logically, which was more damaging to a certain kind of people than most would think when you hit them politically. It was like busting their balls and spitting on their proned, twitching form. But even then he wasn't fond of destroying the life of another. Now, not so much.

He sat on the hospital bed, IV cables in his arms that supported his life. He was covered from head to toe in medical bandage. Even his eyes and mouth were covered to preserve his body from outside bacteria. In the two hours he was awake he was told that the damage was so bad that he had to be kept in a clean room with bandages over his skin. The surgery to save what skin he had was "successful," or as much as it could be. But he will never be the same, the doctor said.

Now you understand when I say he used to not be for vengeance means that going through his head are the ones who made him suffer and ruined his life forever. He gripped the sheets and gave a grin, though how painful it was to do so, when he remembered the look on the pinkette's face when she was stabbed through her chest. It was the pain that he saw flash through her eyes that made him feel better, to know that she - no matter how quick it was - felt the same pain that he went through.

A knock startled him, and he turned his face to the direction the sound came from. The door opened, the sound of heels scuffing the ground as they made their way to him until he felt a hand gently grasp his hand, rubbing circles with their thumb. He heard a stifled sob and the hand tightened a little bit, sending him for a whirl of who this was and tingling pain.

"Naruto," A voice Naruto immediately recognised as Neji reached his ears through the bandages. A hand snaked their way over the other side of his and he felt her trembling as she cried. "I'll make those bastards pay. Every one of them."

It's okay, Neji, he wanted to say. He would be mad that his bandages stopped him from talking - from soothing his upset friend - and instead gripped their hand. As he thought the words, a sudden feeling scratched at the back of his head; it was like a primal instinct, buried in his mind for thousands of years. Suddenly, anger and vengeance filled his heart as he thought of those that assisted in his torture.

He gripped his hand, shocking Neji and causing her to jump in surprise. I'll do it myself!

All of that sudden anger washed away when Neji took him in a hug, locking her arms around his torso and pulled her body to his, crying on his shoulder. She must have felt the sudden anger, it was hard not to, and is now trying to make him feel better.

He smiled and hugged his friend, spooked when the door once again opened.

"Neji," Hizashi's voice reached Naruto's ears from the door, and Neji let go of him. "Go brief with Danzo."

Naruto felt Neji hesitantly get up from his bed and leave the room, only Hizashi in there with him. Naruto heard a chair scrape on the ground as it was dragged next to his bed. He wanted to tear these bandages off just to see his surroundings. He hated losing the sense of sight. It made him feel...different. Crippled, in a way.

"Hey, hey," Hizashi grasped Naruto's hands that gripped the edges of the bandages around his head. "Keep those on, the doctor will be here in a second. Wait until she's here."

Naruto slowly nodded, losing strength in his fingers as they were pulled to his lap by one of his saviors. This time when the door opened he didn't jump, instead looked at where it came from.

"Morning Naruto, I hope these bandages didn't bug you too much." The female doctor stated lively. He simply nodded his head and reached to scratch at it. "Don't worry, we'll get it off right now. Just let me snip this piece off."

Naruto heard the ripping of the bandage from what he guessed were scissors and immediately went to unravel the loose gauze.

"No," The doctor smacked his hand away, "I will take it off."

Naruto nodded, resting his hands on his lap as the doctor slowly started unraveling the bandage. Soon, streaks of light started entering his vision - blinding him from being exposed to the light after so long. As his mouth is being uncovered, his eyes finally adjusting to the light and could finally make out the doctor's face. Her skin was pale, not as much as an Uchiha but almost, and her black hair was in a ponytail. Her scrubs and lab coat were what he expected to see her wearing knowing she was a doctor.

"There we go." She sighed out as she took off the rest of the bandages from around his head. Naruto saw Hizashi cringe out the corner of his vision before getting up and leaving.

Naruto was silent, the motor and gears coming to life as he immediately knew what was wrong. He ripped a part of the bandage around his hand and unraveled it before the doctor could stop him. His eyes widened as he looked at his shriveled hand, shaking from his shock and anger.

"Calm down, Naruto." The doctor eased, gently placing her hand over hers. "We saved as much of your tissue that we could, but the damage was too much that most had to be cut off to prevent infection."

"I want a mirror." Naruto quipped as he stared at the pale red muscle of his hand compared to the doctor's.

She nodded, and took out a handheld mirror from her coat pocket. It was a simply fake-crystal mirror, though it sparkled like it was real.

Does she keep that everywhere with her, Naruto thought but took the mirror nonetheless. He pulled it up to his face and nearly dropped it in shock at what he saw. His face is a hideous red with white blotches of tender muscle. Surprisingly, his whiskers were still on his face, though very faint, under reddened, pale blue eyes. They no longer looked blue but a steel grey with a flash of orange expanding from his pupil every so often.

"I look like death," Naruto muttered as he set the mirror down. He was surprisingly taking it well. If someone was a victim to being put through all of that and then lose most of their tissue, they would surely be horrified, infuriated, and or crying.

"I'm sorry for what happened to you, and I think we have a way of making your day a little better." The doctor gently pulled Naruto to his feet.

Naruto was guided to the out of the room and led down the halls with many hospital rooms. Few were occupied and those that were inside bothered Naruto with the foreign and highly advanced medical machines that were inside. The Konoha Hospital he frequented to had nothing like these beeping monitors that showed more than just a heartbeat pulse. What is this place?

As they walked further down the hall they stopped in front of an elevator before taking it down. There weren't windows for Naruto to see where in Konoha they were. By how far they were going down he suspected they were one of the largest buildings in the village, narrowing it from somewhere on the Hokage Monument or the Hokage's mansion. He highly doubted the latter but he never been to the buildings on the mountain.

"Where are we?" Naruto looked at the woman and watched as she glanced down at him before the doors opened.

"I'll let Mr. Sarutobi and Shimura answer that." The woman answered and entered the busy entrance hall. Ninja and doctors unlike those Naruto saw in the village walked and talked to each other, the only one staying still is the man behind the registration desk. He watched as the doctor walked up to the man and said a few things before he nodded and motioned down a hall.

Naruto was then led through that hall, which was much less noisy than the entrance, and was brought to a bunch of offices. Each were like those in the Accounting Wing in the Hokage Mansion. They were neatly-managed and were clean, with the exception of one room which was littered with papers and boot prints leading to the desk. A man slept there, a hat over his face keeping Naruto from seeing who it was.

He was stopped in front of the door at the end of the hall and looked in anticipation as his doctor knocked a few times before entering. Inside he spotted Hiruzen with a one-eyed man and five others.

One is a man with an outfit straight from imagination. He wore a red, long-sleeve shirt and black pants with black armor over his torso and shins. He had a white mask over his face and one eye had a purple glass over it. The next was a tall man Naruto remembered from the attack. He wore a black-grey outfit and red eyes. In a corner next to the second man, Naruto noticed Itachi with metallic wings folded over his back. His black hair was let down out of the ponytail with red eyes from the mask. The last man was tall with a similar black-grey outfit but an orange X crossed over the top half of his head and a black-over-red X belt buckle. Lastly, the only woman in the room was Naruto recognised as Tsume as she wore a similar outfit to everyone else

"Ah, Naruto, you're here." Danzo announced, looking to the boy. "I'm sorry we didn't get to save all of you."

Naruto just smiled half-heartedly at the old man, thoroughly shocking all of the inhabitants in the room with this action. "It's okay, sir. I understand that the doctors tried their best."

Danzo looked back with a stoic face but his eyebrow twitched and raised slightly in reaction. He turned to Hiruzen, his looks telling the Hokage that he will be the one to say something first.

"Naruto...you know how you wanted to be a ninja, right?" Hiruzen started slowly, his words holding an uncertainty that bugged the blonde - before he grinned at the mention of his dream. "Well, I have something...better, I think."

"What he means is," Tsume interjected as the old Hokage started trailing off to a halt. "We want to enroll you into Program X, a new project for making future elite ninja."

Naruto's eyes lit up at the words future elite ninja. "Really? That's great! When does it start?"

"Naruto." Hiruzen calmed him down with a low tone. "Remember what I told you? A shinobi never…"

"Never does something without learning all there is to know." Naruto rolled his eyes as he repeated what he was told so many times in the past - mostly because of his impatient and willingness to do something without fully understanding. "What...is this program training?"

"We will have you, and others, trained by the best teachers in the country." Danzo answered, moving a file folder to Hiruzen who started looking in it. "You training will be of martial arts, conditioning of abilities like strength, speed, endurance, reflexes, and agility. Everything else after that will be determined in the Second Stage."

"What is the Second Stage?"

"That is classified for now, until I talk more with Hiruzen. If you still want to join," Danzo pulled out a piece of paper and pen and presented them to Naruto. "just sign at the bottom line next to the dot."

Naruto did just that and Danzo smiled. "Welcome to Program X, Naruto Uzumaki."

Hope you liked it! R&R!