Hello once again! It appears my muse hasn't died yet, so we might as well milk this for all it's worth. Some of you asked (more like pleaded against) if the actual X-men were going to appear in the story. The answer: no. There will be no wormholes for them to magically fall through, and pop out in Konoha. They're not going to go explore the space and find a planet full of ninjas. No one has a long-lost relative that lives in a hidden village. There will be no X-men in this story.
But, I will be borrowing liberally from their ideas. You'll see more of that in the chapter below. Some people are going to discover abilities they didn't even know they had, and some familiar faces aren't going to be as familiar as you thought.
On that note, why don't we continue with the story?
Two ninjas came in to take Naruto from his hospital room. He didn't know who they were; they were wearing masks. He didn't particularly care who they were either. Naruto's mind was focused on his new goal: Kill Uchiha Sasuke. If some old guy comes and says that he can make him stronger, Naruto was going to jump at the opportunity.
The two ninja lifted Naruto from where he sat on the ground, picking him up with relative ease and draping his arms over their shoulders. Danzo followed along after them, out of the room and into the hallway. There were no nurses walking anywhere, no doctors either. For all Naruto knew, he was the only one in the whole hospital. There were more masked ninjas standing by the doors to the main hospital, and two more flanking the stairs.
Naruto was taken up the stairs, toward the roof of the building. The place held bad memories for the blonde; this is where he first fought Sasuke. That battle ended in a draw. The next one wouldn't.
The odd procession jumped from the hospital to the building next to it. Danzo was surprisingly agile, despite his crippled appearance. He led his operatives through the village, toward the outer wall. Some of the neighborhoods near the wall were empty. Past attacks on the village cut down the civilian population, and there was no one living there anymore.
The group touched down on the empty street, and one of the ninja approached Naruto.
"Uzumaki-san," the ninja said, their voice muffled by their mask, "from this point on we ask that you wear a blindfold." Naruto nodded, and a black cloth was dropped over his eyes. It was a surreal feeling of being carried to some unknown location.
It took what felt like an hour for the group to stop moving, and Naruto suspected that they had doubled back a few times in order to make sure he had no way of knowing where he was. Inwardly he scowled. All the secrecy wasn't necessary; Naruto had already agreed to go along with this plan, and he didn't go back on his word.
When the blindfold was removed from his eyes, Naruto saw they were underground somewhere. There were walkways going across for hundreds of yards above him, but the area seemed eerily quiet. The two ninja lowered Naruto so that his feet could touch the ground, and the young ninja found that he could stand on his own.
The blonde was led down the poorly lit hallways, past dozens of rooms and even more masked ninjas. No one said a word, and everyone they passed paid them no mind. The silence was beginning to unnerve the young ninja.
As they reached the end of the hallway, Danzo opened a large pair of double doors. The room inside was not what Naruto expected. He was sure that he had signed up for some sort of rigorous training, and the place he was being led to was just a huge, secluded dojo or something.
He was now realizing how wrong he was.
Behind the doors was what at first appeared to be a laboratory. There were numerous computer monitors displaying information about some unknown project. The middle of the room had a large tank of water in it, and next to that there was another tank that held something metallic. Naruto could not understand how any of these things would make him stronger. That's when he noticed the table against the back wall.
Were those needles?
Naruto turned to Danzo, now slightly frightened as well as confused, "What's going on?"
"This is the first step," Danzo explained, "Before we make you unstoppable, we're going to make you unbreakable."
Naruto's eyes widened, "I thought you were just going to train me-"
"You will be trained," Danzo said, cutting him off, "but all the ninja training in the world will do you no good if the opponent gets the upper hand. I'm going to give you bones that don't break, and weapons that can't be used against you."
That didn't sound too bad, Naruto thought, but he still didn't know what was going to become of him.
"How are you going to do that?" Naruto asked, slightly less scared then he first was. Danzo motioned for him to follow, and the two walked towards the center of the room.
Danzo faced the tank with the metallic substance inside, his face showing a hint of pride. With his good hand, the man motioned towards the contents of the tank, "This is adamantium," he explained, "it is the strongest metal known to man. Very little exists on earth, and it is almost impossible to create. The substance will only remain in liquefied form for eight minutes before it becomes impossible to shape."
The older man turned to face Naruto, who made no efforts to hide the awe on his face, "What we are planning on doing is bonding this unbreakable metal to your skeleton. You're bones will become impossible to fracture. In addition, you will be equipped with six...claws, if you will. You will have at your disposal an unbreakable weapon that can never be turned against you."
Thousands of possibilities ran through Naruto's head. If he had metal bones, then nothing would keep him down for long! He could even use his Rasen-Shuriken without worrying about breaking his hand! The idea of beating Sasuke didn't seem so hard anymore. He didn't know how to feel about having claws though. Being able to cut through anything seemed really handy, although-
"Uzumaki-san," Danzo interrupted, "time is of the essence with the procedure. We need to begin immediately."
Naruto nodded hesitantly, "Um, is this going to hurt?"
"Very much so," Naruto gulped, "But I assure you that this is completely safe. Don't you want revenge for what that traitor did to your friend?"
'Sakura-chan...' That's right. This was for Sakrua-chan. After this, Naruto would be able to make Sasuke pay for what he did to her. With steeled resolve, the blonde banished any second thoughts he had left.
"I'm ready."
Naruto soon found himself strapped to a platform above the tank of water. The multiple needles hovering above him were a little unnerving, but he was determined to see this through. All he had to do now was just wait for it all to start.
A few feet away, multiple masked ninjas were preparing the multiple machines for the operation. One turned away from their monitor and approached Danzo, who was overseeing the procedure.
"Danzo-sama," the ninja began, "Everything is ready to begin, but I must tell you that the odds of the subject surviving this operation are very slim." Danzo waved off the nin's concerns.
"The demon's chakra will heal all of the wounds. The Kyuubi will not let its host die. Begin the operation as soon as possible."
The ninja bowed their head, "Yes sir."
After returning to their station, the ninja began to slowly lower Naruto's platform into the tank below him.
Naruto could feel the water rising to cover his body. The mask on his face allowed him to breathe normally, but it was still difficult to not panic after being submerged. Looking up, Naruto could see the needles begin to descend into the tank. Taking a deep breath, Naruto closed his eyes and prepared himself for the pain he knew was coming.
There was a slight pricking on various parts of Naruto's body, as the needles entered his skin. This was followed by a jarring pain as the needles dug into his bones. Naruto took a deep breath.
'That wasn't so bad...' he thought.
What came next was agony. A blinding pain that felt like his body was trying to rip its self apart. White-hot metal was literally being pumped into his body, and bonded with his bones. The heat was unbearable, and the surface of Naruto's skin began turning red. Faintly, Naruto was aware of someone screaming, but was unsure if it was him making the noise.
While the blonde writhed in the slowly boiling water, the masked ninjas frantically maintained the delicate systems required to keep the metal moving smoothly. One ninja turned back to face their superior.
"Danzo-sama," the ninja began, a hint of worry in their voice, "the Kyuubi's chakra has yet to manifest its self, and the boy's vitals are dropping quickly. We must abort the operation soon or-"
"No," Danzo said, "the Kyuubi will not let his host die. Obviously the boy isn't in serious enough condition for the Kyuubi to intervene. We will continue with the operation."
The ninja nodded, "Yes Danzo-sama."
The water Naruto was lying in had begun to heat up as soon as the molten metal began moving. Now, it was practically vaporizing. Naruto screamed and fought against the restraints that kept him strapped to the platform below him.
Suddenly, the water temperature spiked upwards drastically. A malevolent red aura began to seep from the now visible seal on Naruto's stomach. Danzo smiled; clearly the demon had come to the boy's rescue.
Unfortunately, Danzo's knowledge of the seal wasn't as thorough as he thought. He was right about one thing; the Kyuubi could choose to give his host chakra at will. Any healing that occurred though, was not the demon's doing. Whenever Naruto's wounds became so severe they threatened his life, one of the seal's fail-safes activated. The seal would drain chakra off from the Kyuubi, and convert it into chakra that Naruto's body would use to activate cell-regeneration.
Having white-hot metal injected inside of his body should have killed Naruto after only a few minutes. The only thing keeping him alive now was a steady stream of Kyuubi's chakra, and a lot of it. This did not go unnoticed by the demon. Deep within Naruto's subconscious, the beast was raging against its cage.
The malicious chakra was being siphoned off the Kyuubi faster than it could regenerate it. In desperation, the demon attempted once again to break free from its prison.
"I will have freedom!" the bijuu roared as it's strength began to fade, "I will not disappear!"
In a last-ditch effort to break free, the Kyuubi forced it's very being into the seal. It desperately clawed through the layers of protection, attempting to rip the seal to shreds. This only added to the pain Naruto felt, as the seal on his stomach began to burn into his flesh. The chakra needed to heal this wound stripped Kyuubi of the very power it needed to sustain its form. With one last demonic roar that was echoed by Naruto's own screams, the bijuu was consumed by it's host.
The backlash wreaked havoc on Naruto's brain. New instincts clashed with old ones, and previously formed lobes of the brain mutated to accommodate heightened senses. Alien thoughts and memories became confused with more familiar ones. Naruto's sense of self, his very identity, became lost in the mix his and Kyuubi's beings. The blonde couldn't cope, and his conscious mind shut down.
At that moment, the needles removed themselves from the ninja's body. The restraints, which had been strained to their limits, finally broke free.
From the darkest corners of Naruto's shattered mind, his new instincts kicked in.
And all hell broke loose.
Dun, dun, DUN!! Who else (besides most of you) saw that coming, eh? It seems that Danzo meddled with something he ought not to have meddled with. And you'll get to see how he deals with it...NEXT CHAPTER!!
Feel free to speculate on his fate in your reviews. Yes, I'm expecting one from everyone. This means you. Click the button.
