Conquer Your Demons

A/N: I have a plan for this story. It will get there. There are changed to set up for that.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its contents.

Chapter 1: Motto

Naruto Uzumaki, or as he was better known these days – Motto – was trudging through Fire Country for the first time in 6 years. Maybe it was the rocks of earth country, or the unfortunately unpleasant populace, but he just felt like he could use a change. Normally he wouldn't let his foxier half anywhere near his home village, but they'd been getting along rather well with the recent carnage they inflicted on the continent.

'I can't imagine why Zetsu had so much trouble with this 'split personality' thing. Satisfy the urges and happiness follows. Maybe he just had a power struggle going on…' He thought to himself.

"Excuse me?" A sweet voice said from in front of him. He'd been walking for days, looking for a new place to live, perhaps someplace quiet where they wouldn't be afraid of his other personality. He looked up to see an average looking teenage girl in front of him.

"Yes?" The blond mumbled. He felt the sudden urge to eat her alive, but he suppressed it. He didn't have to eat much anymore and his split would appreciate something meatier to feed on than a young girl out for a run.

"Are… Are you strong?" she stuttered at his sudden intense gaze. His sapphire eyes were stunning and unique; a crystal clear hue.

He almost laughed aloud. However, maniacal laughter hardly suited the situation. He had the power of the nine-tailed fox. Strong? His strength dwarfed whole nations. His pinky dwarfed nations. His chakra was unlimited; he could do almost anything. However, that was hardly common knowledge and was not obvious to any random onlooker, let alone an untrained civilian.

"Depends, what do you need me for?"

"Our town… Rokungoyii, it's a quarter mile north of here and it's been attacked by bandits. I was sent out to go to the leaf village to hire some ninjas to help, but we can use any help we can get."

"How old are you? Why are they sending such a young girl all the way to Konoha?"

"For your information, I'm 17 and that means I'm old enough. I'm the fastest runner in town. It should only take a week or two to get there if I run the whole way. Plus, they need all the men in town to help defend it. So will you help us?"

"I'll see what I can do." The blond responded before walking towards the town. The girl left, running again, while he contemplated helping the town. It wasn't a question of whether or not it was right, it was a question of how could he help or even choose a side without alerting ninjas? 'They'll probably send a genin team, so I have a week or so before they come. I'm sure I could get away before then. I'd rather not be discovered just yet.'

He continued north and soon arrived in Rokungoyii. Spotting a guard, he quickly informed him of what the girl has told him. The guard sized him up and down, then directed him to a hotel where he could sign up for one of the town's watch groups. The blond simply followed the directions and was soon lying down in a comfy bed, drifting off to sleep.

MINDSCAPE

"Hello, Kyuubi…"

"Ahhhh, my vessel, or should I say, my worse half"

"Don't be so superior, baka-fox. Remember our deal; split 50/50. You handle the combat, I control us the rest of the time. Speaking of which, stop trying to make me devour children. It's not going to happen, she did nothing wrong."

"Fine, but either you get us some fresh human meat soon, or I am going to take over and eat everyone. And I mean EVERYONE"

"I would challenge you on that, but you're right… I've been beginning to crave it too, which is odd because foxes don't usually eat humans. Why is it that we eat them anyway? Why not mice?"

The fox in their shared mind took on a puzzled look, before looking down at Naruto once more. "I suppose it is because I have never had the meat of a mouse… Too used to human"

"You know what, let's not try that. Those bandits sound delicious. Whaddya say, Fox, want to go get some prey?"

"Naruto-teme, you know me too well…. Tonight we shall dine on human innards" The great Fox let out a roar of a laugh, before fading away, the blond being enveloped in light and entering the waking world.

WAKING-WORLD

Naruto awoke and sat up. Remarkably, despite how little sleep he actually needed, it was dark outside. The clock read 11:45 PM. He'd slept for 7 hours and had reached the time of night when most of the town was asleep. Slowly, he got up and threw on his clothes.

His physique had changed a great deal since his fusion with the fox 6 years prior. Whereas before he was somewhat stunted due to malnutrition, the fox saw such a poor body as unfit for his own majesty. Instead, he crafted a body ideal for combat. Each of Naruto's legs were sculpted from layers of toned muscle it should have taken years to perfect. His arms were fluid and toned; but once chakra was channeled they could be used to form red claws to ensnare foes. Naruto's chest and back were modified to be more flexible with larger joints so he could move like a fox – on all fours. Overall he was about 5'6" and looked much like an average Konoha Jounin: fit, but not bulging. His eyes remained their clear blue hue, his hair remained an obnoxious blond and his whisker marks were just as visible as ever.

However, the Kyuubi did not wish to be associated with the blond, as far as the man's former life went. So all description of 'Motto' always came back the same: they could describe his hoodie, but never the man himself. The Kyuubi's shroud coated Naruto the moment his hoodie touched his skin; an impenetrable illusion to keep anyone from ever recognizing the man by who he once was.

With no shirt on, he reached for the cursed hoodie. It was black, with dark red lightning bolts shooting around the arms and intertwining on the back. In a slightly lighter red, the hoodie read 'Liberator', then below that read 'Decimator'. He also pulled on his cargo pants, each pocket holding one of his six incantations, the only moves he ever needed to use anymore. Everything else was almost instinctual. The pants also had red lightning on them, but only around the edges of the bottom. He wore sandals as well, civilian style flip flops. He never needed to worry about them falling off, a small aura of chakra constantly circling through his feet to keep them attached.

Leaving the hotel, Naruto began his search for a pub or bar. Looking around, he found all of Rokungoyii was silent, almost eerily so. Moving at a brisk pace, he made his through the town, and soon arrived at a bar which was still open, though only a few people were inside. Stepping across the threshold, Naruto entered and sat down at the bar.

"How can I help ya?" A gruff voice asked him. Looking up, Naruto's sapphire eyes met those of the bartender, if only for a second.

"I'll take some scotch, the best you've got." The bartender nodded and was about to scurry off to get it, when a voice sounded from beside the blond to his left. "Me too."

Looking to his side, he saw the shaft of silver hair rising, defying gravity, into the air. "Me three" A female voice sounded next to him, only to reveal a raven-haired beauty with dangerous red eyes.

Silently, Naruto wondered how he had missed them coming in, but then realized they'd already been there when he'd walked in, so he never really caught on to begin with. The curse of infinite chakra; sensing other people's insignificant amounts without trying is difficult. 'Hmm, what to do. Kakashi-sensei and Kurenai-sensei.'

"Here you are" The bartender said as he had come back whilst Naruto had pondered these thoughts. The Bartender placed before each of them two glasses, one with water in it, the other with scotch.

"So, how have you been, Sharingan Kakashi?" Naruto asked. His voice was tainted by the demonic chakra, unnaturally low and guttural.

"Hmm? So you know of me? Well, I suppose any SS-ranked criminal would know of all people that could beat him. If you aren't careful, I may just suck you into a different universe." The silver haired man chuckled at his own poorly crafted joke, then took a sip of water to clear his mouth, and took down a sip of scotch, breathing in pleasure afterwards.

"I know of you and of Konoha's genjutsu mistress…. Yuuhi Kurenai. Good to meet you both. I don't suppose you know who I am?" Naruto said, his voice changing pitch to a still lower baritone as he responded. The Kyuubi's voice in his mind began urging him to feast.

"I know of you, certainly. The only criminal other than Uchiha Madara to earn the SS-ranked class. You don't have a name listed, but your nickname, Motto, has certainly been stuck in everyone's mind for the last six years. Why are you so close to Konoha? Iwa's gates not enough, want to break ours down too? Maybe you'd like to repeat the Oto Massacre, destroy another shinobi village?"

"I have no plans to repeat the Oto Massacre, Kakashi. I got what I went there for, nothing more. Now, as for your question as to why I am here? Well, I see no reason to tell you." Naruto responded firmly, never looking at Kakashi. He had finished his first glass of scotch, and re-filled it with the bottle thoughtfully left behind.

"If you don't tell us, we may not let you go. You may be SS-ranked, but this close to Konoha, do you think you can take on another village? Our Hokage? Our Sannin?" Chimed in Kurenai, feeling left out of the conversation. She had a serious tone, it was clear she would use force if only to keep the hooded man away from Konoha.

Kyuubi's personality, at this point, began affecting his decisions. The morbid voice in his mind was begging to taste the blood of the red-eyed bitch. "You mean your uninspired troops? Your old hag of a Hokage? Your weak summons? You couldn't keep me out with your whole village; what makes you think you two can stop me here?" Naruto's voice had turned demonic.

"If your intent is to destroy Konoha, we will stop you here… Is that your intent?"

"It could be. There's nothing you could do about it regardless." Naruto responded simply, before leaving money on the table, and stepping out into the night. A red claw began gathering at his wrist, dancing in the moonlight. The two jounin followed him as he wandered out of town.

"It doesn't have to be like this, you know" Naruto said, calling back to the two following him. "I live by my motto, liberate the worthy, decimate the unworthy. What do you think would happen if I went to Konoha?"

"It is not your right to judge Konoha." Kurenai demanded, though internally she was more scared than she'd ever been in her whole life. This man before her was likely more powerful than her entire village, but perhaps if he were distracted, it would be possible to bring him down. She began weaving a genjutsu with 1-handed signs, under her cloak.

"You amuse me, Kurenai, Kakashi. I wonder if the whole village is as foolish. I think I'll make it my next stop! For now though, what to do with you two? My worse half has some suggestions…"

The Kyuubi in Naruto's mind was ecstatic at the prospect of visiting his old hunting ground. He stopped goading Naruto to do unspeakable things, but was just as interested in what his half would do with the situation. His switch hadn't flipped just yet.

It was at this moment that Naruto began pulling an incantation stone from one of his six cargo pants pockets. "I think I shall grant you a gift, I'll show you one of my moves. Perhaps this will deter future ninjas from making a similar mistake"

Pulling out the incantation stone, he inspected it once more. It was really a beautiful object, a turquoise crystal embedded in a steel square, three inches on each side, and half an inch thick. The steel had some circular seals around it, kanji littering them in strings, converging on the center crystal.

Naruto heard lightning sparking and looked up from his musings to see Kakashi charging, a raikiri in each hand. Kurenai looked to be deep in concentration, but whatever she was doing was having no effect. Naruto inwardly grinned, and quoted Kyuubi in his mind: 'real power means the tricks of mere mortals become transparent.'

Kakashi's charge was ignored entirely, even as he activated his Mangekyou to force Motto to remain solid in the current plane. Kakashi streaked toward the hooded figure, noticing for the first time that he never saw the man's face. Naruto simply sighed, and holding his incantation stone, performed his favorite move. Deciding to humor Kakashi, he said it aloud "Ninpou: Chakra Body no jutsu". Instantly, Naruto's body, clothing, and incantation stone turned to raw chakra, superheated due to being so densely contained.

Kakashi smirked at this ninja, underestimated the power of his combo. Not only was Motto held in place by his Mangekyou, but he was using his strongest assassination technique to take him out. It took only a matter of seconds for these perceptions to be changed. Kakashi's left fist of lightning surged straight through Motto's body, doing nothing at all. In fact, worse than that, Kakashi's left arm was became cauterized at the stump as his arm had turned to ash on contact. Kakashi dispelled his other raikiri, holding the cauterized stump where his left arm used to be and laying on the ground, twitching.

"Now then, this one is for myself AND my partner." Reading the seals aloud in a demonic language that sounded completely foreign to both Kurenai and Kakashi, Naruto began the least destructive of his six rituals. After 10 seconds of reading the incantation, Naruto raised his hands and slammed the incantation stone into the ground.

"YOUMA NINPOU: CRIMSON RISING!" Naruto shouted. Seals began to spread from the point of impact. In the blink of an eye they reached a mile in diameter, a new carpet underneath the small village and everything surrounding it. Suddenly, red light burst skyward from all the seals. Motto's chakra reached out to feel every living inhabitant in the radius, searching for buried feelings. All of the tainted; anyone who had ever felt the guilt of murder or the burden of sin, were immediately and cruelly vaporized. The great cylinder of red light solidified lasting a total of six seconds. At the end, Naruto could see feel every living person for one mile in any direction and decided they would live. Then, the feeling of godly judgment passed.

For a moment he was pleased that he could feel all of the bandits dying, their souls screaming for mercy as they were condemned. He could also feel the relief of their prisoners. With a sigh of relief, he looked down at the unconscious red-eyed woman he'd decided to spare, despite her sins. With an almost hearty laugh he skipped over, crushed her throat with a red chakra claw, and began ripping her apart with his teeth. It would be a good meal.

BREAK

"Did you see that?" A civilian asked another. "What was it, a beacon?" "No, it must have been a summon or something, one of our Sannin at work. Makes you feel so safe, doesn't it?" "I've never felt more safe. With that kind of power, we have nothing to worry about. Especially with that walking demon gone."

The chatter of villagers continued happily, while in the Hokage tower, things were far less calm.

KAGE TOWER

"What the devil was that?!" Tsunade screamed at the three sannin before her. "Motto is within 30 miles of Konoha and you didn't know?!"

"It may not be him, Tsunade-sama" Sakura said, attempting to placate her. "Plus it was just a flash, maybe it didn't do anything…. Just a prank or something"

"Sakura, how many ninja do you know of that could even make that big a flash with chakra. If it wasn't you three, it would have to be a Kage, and it certainly wasn't me. The only person in the whole Bingo Book anymore that could do that is Motto. I want all three of you to go and see what happened there. If he's still there, do whatever you have to do to steer him away. He might just be planning to massacre us the way he did in Oto."

Sakura; the glorious Slug Sannin, Anko; the amazing Snake Sannin, and Konohamaru; the almighty Toad Sannin all turned and bolted for their homes. The man was at most an hour away via summons and they had no intention of letting him hide away. In minutes they were off in the direction of where the red column had been. Tsunade simply sat back in her chair and massaged her temples.

'Naruto…What are you doing?'