"": Spoken

'': Thoughts

"": Spirits

Summary: What if the sealing had gone as planned? What if Uzumaki Naruto was the sole keeper of the dead king Biju's chakra and had the memories of a long dead Kyuubi. What if this said boy was still treated as if he were the dead Kyuubi reborn, would he still be Konoha's Angel?

Death of A Demon, Birth of A…

Previously…

Looking up, Hinata saw past the bad sarcasm and saw behind the smiling mask that Naruto put on for the sake of the village. Looking at the softly smiling boy, she smiled too and that was the start of a life long friendship.

Chapter 3: As The Years Go By…

'It's been five years,' Naruto thought to himself while he sparred with Hinata. 'Time sure has flown,' the boy thought to himself while weaving through Hinata's deadly and accurate Jyuuken (Gentle Fist) strikes. Looking at the determined look on the girl's face, Naruto couldn't help but let his mind wonder. 'Funny how five years ago, Hinata was too scared to even think about having that type of look on her face,' Naruto said to himself while holding back a laugh, which came out more like a sort of strangled chuckle, which in turn only served to deepen the scold-like look on the girl's face causing her to redoubled her efforts.

Much had changed in the five years after the faithful night that Naruto made his first friend, and as clichéd as it sounds, Naruto's life seemed to brighten from that point on. Even with all the drama he went through inside and outside of the academy, ignoring both the ignorant villagers who couldn't see his pain and Iruka's attempts to befriend him.

Naruto soon found himself spending most of his free time with Hinata just exploring the town, and like a good friend, Naruto found out that Hinata was having trouble at home because they thought she was too weak, so Naruto decided that they could train together so that way, everyone would benefit.

What seemed like a good idea at the time turned out to be a horrible idea, at least in Naruto's opinion when he final got Hinata to let out her inner shinobi after a speech that slapped some sense into the kind-hearted girl.

'This isn't a game Hinata. You, your comrades, and your village could all be lost if you don't have the resolve needed to do what you have to. Yes it is good to be kind, but there is a time and place for all things and the battlefield isn't a place to be kind. So you have to make a choice: either give up on being a shinobi or harden your resolve and show me what you can do.' Those were Naruto's exact words on that day Hinata finally stopped hiding behind her own inferiority complex and let her real self shine after that. From that point on, it had only been uphill for the girl.

With Naruto's help, she was able to master the Jyuuken she had been taught and with the help of the 'closet prankster,' she was able to steal some of the more advanced Jyuuken scrolls without the Main Family finding out. Taking a note from her partner's playbook, Hinata decided to work on her own techniques instead of basing her whole arsenal solely on just what she was taught.

Researching everything on chakra that she could find, Hinata couldn't find any inspiration for a new jutsu until she saw Naruto use his chakra. It wasn't the Chakra Shokkou or its variations that caught her eye, but the way his chakra seemed to constantly overflow from his body and act as an early warning system.

From there on, it was a domino-effect as Hinata figured out a way to release her chakra in a similar field that surrounded her hands. The field acted like her personal Jyuuken amplifier and the results from her first test were shocking. In a family spar, Hinata used the amplifier on every finger and was able to effectively use Jyuuken from all of her fingers and close tenketsu with the slightest touch. Needless to say, Hanabi was quickly defeated with the newly dubbed Jyuutesaki (Gentle Fingers), and the turmoil growing in the Hyuuga Household subsided…for now at least.

Naruto, on the other hand, got more than he originally thought he would get out of this friendship. Hinata, being the friend that she was, taught Naruto some of the basics to a good taijutsu form like a stable base, and hands in a ready position, but Naruto refused to learn Jyuuken when the girl offered saying, "Jyuuken is your family taijutsu and I doubt I'm ready to join your family Hinata." The mere implication left Naruto smirking and Hinata beet red before the girl got Naruto back by closing a few well placed tenketsu points, freezing the boy right where he was standing.

From the hints that Hinata gave, Naruto used what he was naturally given to form his own taijutsu style that, much to his surprise, came out to be a lot like the Hyuuga's Jyuuken. But unlike the Hyuuga's, Naruto didn't have the Byakugan, so he used his overflowing chakra as a screen that reacts to both chakra and killing intent inside its set area. Using this screen, Naruto was able to strike using the overflowing chakra to coat each of his blows. When used, it had a few surprising effects. One being able to distort anyone trying to mold their chakra when his chakra coated fist came too close to chakra trying to mold. This had a particularly vexing effect on Hinata who found it increasingly harder to use her family's taijutsu when Naruto could just cancel it out by simply bringing his fist near hers.

The other effect was rather cool, or so Naruto thought. Because it was his chakra that was constantly flooding the area around him, Naruto had a limited control over his natural chakra element in the area, or specifically the air that was in his chakra's territory. After a little practice Naruto was able to make 'air strikes' in the area without molding the Junshuu Chakra (Territory Chakra), but just guiding it with something like a kick or punch. It went extremely well with Naruto new Taijutsu form which he named Hakke: Kenchoken (Eight Divinations: Striking Fist), after its parent style Hakke: Jyuuken.

Nevertheless, true to his kitsune nature due to the after effects of his binding to Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto developed a way to mold his overflowing chakra, Junshuu Chakra, so that it could cover the area with a genjutsu. After that same development, Naruto began to work with the genjutsu field until he was actively able to disguise the whole area with regular Bunshin, which in turn stopped Mizuki from embarrassing him in class because he couldn't compress his chakra into a Bunshin.

Back to the ongoing duel with Hinata, Naruto found himself being pummeled by Hinata's Jyuutesaki and used his Hakke: Kenchoken to distort her tenketsu closing attacks before hitting her with a double handed open palm strike, and then used his Junshuu Chakra to push the girl back and stun her for a second with a mass amount chakra overflowing her system. Watching the girl lose control of her chakra within seconds, Naruto sent a pulse through his Junshuu Chakra, effectively blinding the girl's Byakugan, before making a hasty retreat.

Shaking the spot from her eyes, Hinata looked around for Naruto, before swearing silently when she could find him. 'All-out assault is the only way I can beat Naruto,' Hinata thought to herself before scanning the area for Naruto's Junshuu Chakra. Sighing when she couldn't detect it Hinata knew that Naruto was probably setting up some type of trap outside the range of her Byakugan.

Originally Naruto's Junshuu Chakra proved to be more of a hindrance when fighting Hinata's doujutsu, because even with all of its benefits, it was like a homing beacon for Hinata's eyes to zone in on. In order to counter that, Naruto began experimenting on ways to make his constantly overflowing chakra less noticeable. In the end he began to let the chakra blend with the natural chakra that every living thing gives off.

Now what started as a hindrance is now an effective weapon against all doujutsu. Naruto could now almost completely hide his presence to the Byakugan and if Hinata got too close to beating him; he could flare up his Junshuu Chakra and blind the girl while making a quick escape to regroup.

Watching from the Byakugan's blind spot, Naruto knew that even with his chakra completely concealed to Hinata that if she saw his body, she would spot him and his plan would be ruined. Closing in on his prey, Naruto could practically taste the girl's anxiety. 'Good she can feel my presence, but can't find me,' Naruto thought mentally applauding the girl, before springing his trap. Flaring his Junshuu Charka, and blinding the girl before molding the surrounding chakra into an area affecting genjutsu.

Hinata was surrounded by darkness, and knowing Naruto, he probably had double layered the genjutsu so that everyone on the outside would only see the trees surrounding them. Steeling herself, Hinata bought some time for herself by saying, "Dirty trick Naruto, I swear if I find you I'll show you how much Jyuuken can hurt." Waiting for Naruto to reply, hoping his voice would give away his location.

"Come on Hinata, you can do better than that," Naruto said, but to Hinata's dismay, his voice came from every direction. Scrunching her face, Hinata used her chakra like Naruto's Junshuu Chakra in hopes that she could dodge his attack. But right as Naruto entered her small zone, she knew he was moving too fast for her to counter or dodge. Expelling chakra from her body, Hinata made a silent vow to finish learning Kaiten to stop something like this from ever happening again when Naruto suddenly stopped.

With his illusion wavering, Naruto had little time to bring up a pulse in his Junshuu Chakra to blind Hinata so he could make a clean get away before a heavy pressure gripped his head. It was like someone had his mind in a vice grip. It didn't take long for Naruto to figure out who it was and when the realization dawned on him he muttered a mental, '…Ino…,' in a pain-filled voice before he heard, 'the one and only,' as the pressure doubled.

Watching as his genjutsu fell, Naruto looked at the last member of his opponent's team, and was pissed to see that the pink haired girl was able to crack his genjutsu in such a short time.

The two girls had originally swore not to talk to Naruto, but after hearing only good praise from Hinata, and seeing how much the girl had grown; they revised their earlier verdict. Both came to Naruto and Hinata's little sparring group in hopes to get stronger and maybe catch Sasuke's eye, but that soon changed when they found themselves too tired to even think about the boy.

Within the first week, they both were wearing weights like their two friends and actively participating in new methods to use their chakra to suit their needs.

Sakura, with her near perfect control quickly picked up some of the genjutsu she had gotten from Hinata, who in turn swiped them from the Hyuuga library while she got the advanced Jyuuken scrolls. The only thing keeping her from using them were her small reserves, so Naruto took it upon himself to raise everyone's reserves including his own. This led to them doing a set of brutal water walking and tree climbing drills that not only raised their chakra reserves but also their stamina. Now the drills were used as a warm up for the day, and Sakura had more than enough chakra to use the more advanced genjutsu.

Ino on the other had, stuck with her family jutsu but used them in more inventive ways. With increased reserves and control over her chakra, Ino began experimenting with different ways to use her mind-related jutsu. The result was the ability to create a link with anyone within her target range that couldn't put up a barrier to block her probing. The jutsu, Omoi Burijji (Mind Bridge), link allowed her access to another person's mind, with her leaving her body, but it sacrificed her ability to actively control someone. So instead she fell back on her psychology classes with her father and learned to use a form of gentle persuasion. Another side effect of the link was her ability to attack the person's mind by creating pressure from kicking up too many thoughts at once.

With the three girl's combined powers being used against him, Naruto knew that he was about to be screwed when his chakra pulse fell giving them an opening to attack. But as soon as he did, a shadow swept over him protectively before pulling him back under its dark grip breaking Ino's connection with his mind.

Shaking the remainders of Ino's chakra induced headache away, Naruto turned to Shikamaru and said with a smirk, "What took you so long?" And the boy then said his catch phrase in response before turning to his lifelong friend Chouji and nodding. It looked as if they had a plan, and by the looks of it, he was going to like it.

Creating another genjutsu with his Junshuu Chakra, Naruto knew that Sakura had sensed it and turned to Shikamaru, who was hiding with him, nodded which signaled that step one was complete. Turning to Chouji, Naruto smiled when the larger boy, who surrounded his body with chakra, waited for the girls ready to give them the surprise of their lives.

The two boys didn't want to join Naruto's little spar group until they started seeing Ino's progress. The girl was starting to act strange, or at least more strange than usual. She talked of Sasuke less, and she was beginning to nag them less on their material things and more on training. Therefore, Shikamaru's analytical mind couldn't take not knowing anymore and decided to investigate while bringing Chouji along too. From there they were hooked and stayed ever since.

Much to the elder Nara's surprise, Shikamaru actually took his training a step further and asked his father to help him train. The shocked older man couldn't help, but nod his head in confirmation before teaching his son some of the finer points of 'shadow bending'. For someone so lazy it was surprising that Shikamaru picked it up quickly and was now able to transport through his shadows, and do much more than just make his opponents mimic him when he got a hold of them.

Chouji, on the other hand, wasn't too thrilled about working so hard without being able to eat his chips, but after the first few days he got over it. Especially when he started losing some weight and attracting some attention from the opposite sex. The once 'big boned child' was now just a bit bigger than his lithe friend Shikamaru and had picked a new way to use his family techniques. Instead of bloating his body to increase the strength of his blows, Chouji took a left from Naruto's Chakra Shokkou: Dageki and used his chakra to surround his arm in a bloated fist shape increasing his strength to one even higher than Naruto's.

Feeling his genjutsu start to crumble, Naruto signaled to Shikamaru that the girls had taken the bait, and instead of waiting for Sakura to break the genjutsu; they had Chouji come barreling out in his protective cocoon of molded chakra.

Instantly recognizing the revised meat tank, the girls jumped out of the way knowing how much damage the rolling ball of chakra could do. Normally a kid, with the exception of Naruto, didn't have the reserves needed to produce enough chakra to support something like that, but ever since Chouji started training, his reserves were only second to Naruto's. It turned out that the calories he soaked up while eating chips did hold chakra, but now that they were gone, they left his body more room to store chakra without having to burn the calories to obtain it.

Looking up, Shikamaru mentally patted himself on the back as the plan fell together. Looking at the girls' shadows, lengthened now that the girls had jumped into the air exposing them to more sunlight, Shikamaru connected his shadow with there's as they approached, capturing them without causing too many injuries. Naruto and Chouji then moved into the 'checkmate' position, as Shikamaru called it, while Shikamaru struggled to hold the girls. Once done the girls knew that they lost and admitted defeat.

"Why does this happen every time!" Ino yelled to no one in particular while stomping the ground. "Our strategy was perfect; we attacked and subdued Shikamaru and Chouji while Hinata held off Naruto until we could all take him. Why didn't it work?" Ino yelled. Chouji, who had taken a liking to the girl, was trying to pacify the infamous Yamanaka temper. Sighing, Ino conceded to the boy's wishes much to his pleasure, but still demanded an explanation which Shikamaru supplied.

"It was simple. I anticipated your move and we let ourselves be beaten, before coming to Naruto's aid and setting a trap for you. It fit perfect really, knowing Sakura's natural ability to detect genjutsu we set it so that she would come to the genjutsu we set as bait and when was cracking it we attacked catching you totally off guard," Shikamaru said, apparently not seeing Chouji making signals for him to shut up. Not paying any mind to the growing killing intent coming from the girls, Shikamaru went as far as to say, "You know being that predictable will be the death of you," but then realized what a jam he was in. Naruto and Chouji were long gone and he was face to face with three pissed off and bloodthirsty kunoichi.

After about ten minutes, Naruto and Chouji crept back after the killing intent disappeared. There was an ominous air over area they had christened 'Shikamaru's Hollow' after their POW comrade. When they entered the clearing, they saw the three girls all sitting intently watching the boy squirm against the ropes that tied him to the tree. As Naruto's Junshuu Chakra filled the area, the blonde winced when his chakra came in contact with Shikamaru's.

From the feel of it, Hinata had closed some of the most painful tenketsu on the boy's body and from the far off look on his face both boys shudder as they thought, 'Sakura's genjutsu.' Moving to help their friend, both boys were surprised that the girls were fine with them helping Shikamaru instead of trying to stop them and they wisely kept their mouths shut.

After releasing the captive boy, Shikamaru began his recap on what happened, starting with Hinata disabling him before Ino battered his mental defenses just enough for Sakura to place a genjutsu on his mind. Apparently the mere though of the genjutsu reduced the boy to a shivering pile of mush, and only increased the fear/respect Naruto and Chouji had for their female training partners.

Dismissing the meeting, all parties left to their homes sore. The Ino, Shika, Chouji trio went the opposite way that Naruto and Hinata went as they all lived on the opposite side of town. After saying his goodbyes to Hinata, Naruto settled at his favorite ramen stand, and ordered a large bowl before thinking about what had happened that day and the past five years.

'We've grown…,' was all Naruto could think at the time while taking a long slurp of his ramen. 'The graduation exam is tomorrow and I know we will all pass,' Naruto said mentally smiling, but hiding it under his 'public face'.

The Next Day…

It had been the same as before. Naruto had had another vision from a place he had never been, but was completely familiar with. This time he had been in a bedroom, much grander than his. The deep crimson bed set complimented gold foxes statues and paintings that decorated the room. As he seemed to fall asleep a knife was placed to his neck. The assailant was a masked female with deeply tanned skin that was covered with short soft black cloth that looked strangely like the ninja gear the more elite females wore. There was a little unheard chit chat between him and the female that no matter how much Naruto tried to hear, he couldn't. And as the masked went in for the kill Naruto flipped her on her back, before unmasking her… and that's where the dream ended.

Waking up in a sweat, Naruto looked at his clocked and loudly cursed when he saw he was already five minutes late.

At School…

Iruka had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Naruto had never been this late before, even when he came in with new cuts on his legs and arms that he couldn't hide behind his clothes, but still tried to hide them from his classmates. The Exam was almost over and Naruto was nowhere to be seen. After calling his name for the third and last time, Iruka couldn't help but let out a depressed sigh when he was forced to fail Naruto.

Ten minutes later the boy came in, huffing at his lack of breath. By the looks of his hair, he hadn't taken a proper shower in his rush to get here and his hair was still wet with bits of soap in it. Shaking himself off, Naruto was about to ask if he could take the exam but the look on his instructs face told it all.

So here Naruto found himself swinging back and forth on the swing on the academy grounds. He knew he would have passed if he hadn't been late, but the dream had made him sleep through his alarm. Stopping his mental beratement when he felt his Junshuu Chakra going off, he looked at the intruder with slanted eyes. 'Mizuki… what does he want,' Naruto thought to himself, and as if on some sort of cue, the man began explaining how he could graduate.

Initially Naruto was suspicious and for good reason, what the Chuunin was suggesting was clearly treason, but Naruto decided if he turned the man in he may get to graduate and a sneak peek at the scroll.

A few hours later, Naruto was running through the forest surrounding Konoha, and stopped a miles off from where Mizuki originally intended. After cracking the verification code Naruto assumed that his father's blood gave him access to the scroll and with a shrug, the boy began digging into the scroll.

The first technique, Kage Bushin (Shadow Clone) had his name written all over it, and unlike the normal Bunshin, it was direct splitting of his chakra making it much easier for him to form it, rather than trying to force his chakra into a small place. The second jutsu though was much more appealing.

Naiteki Kai(Inner Release) was the name. 'Not too impressive,' Naruto thought to himself before he read the description. 'Releases the inner potential of a shinobi. Not to be confused with the eight inner chakra gates, this release doesn't affect the chakra flow, it just releases the natural inhibits your body sets through a hypnotic trance.' There were the only words written before the scroll went on to the next technique.

'I guess it's worth a shot,' Naruto thought to himself while remaindering what the Sandaime said.

'You are not the Kyuubi and you are not its container. You are the barrier that keeps him from coming back and never forget it.' Naruto mentally recited, before going through with the handseals.

Pain erupted through the boy's body as he let out a bloodcurdling scream that rang throughout all of Konoha, but even then it didn't drown out the gravel voice's words in his head, "Who has summoned me?" and with that, Naruto blacked out.

Read and Review

A/N This is as good a place as any to stop. I can but pat myself on the back, I finished this chapter within a day after Stigma (Which I promise will be good so check it out and review). Seeing Past has a new chapter up so check it out if you haven't already and if you have any question on this fic please don't hesitate to ask.

Jutsu/Technique Logue: I decided to only add new jutsu that appeared in the chapter so I wouldn't over kill the A/N.

Jyuuken (Gentle Fist): Primarily taijutsu of the Hyuuga, clan is thought to be Konoha's strongest hand to hand disciple. Unlike other fighting styles, Jyuuken attacks the victim's tenketsu which controls the chakra flowing through each person's chakra coils. With a few well placed strikes the victim can be incapacitate or even killed, but the only draw back is only those with the Byakugan can see the tenketsu need to perform such a task.

Jyuutesaki (Gentle Fingers): Hyuuga Hinata's own form of Jyuuken inspired by Naruto's Junshuu Chakra. A small field of chakra is placed around Hinata's hands, and with control only seen by Hyuuga clansmen she is able to close tenketsu at a much higher accuracy rating than her clansmen. But in turn this method takes under much more chakra and has to be used sparingly.

Hakke: Kenchoken (Eight Divinations: Striking Fist): Naruto adaptation to Konoha's famous Jyuuken. Although it does not have the ability to strike tenketsu, it utilizes Naruto Junshuu Chakra, to attack the opponent and has several different effects. Along with disrupting any chakra in the molding process when Naruto makes an attack close to where his opponent is molding the chakra, Naruto can make small deflective shields that are tens of times weaker than Chakra Shokkou: Tate it still stop most taijutsu attacks. Also using the Junshuu Chakra in combination with this style Naruto can make ranged attacks manipulating his natural element, air. But like most things Kenchoken has a weakness… speed. If the opponent is faster than Naruto, it will make most of this hard hitting style useless, because Naruto can't touch the guy/girl.

Junshuu Chakra (Territory Chakra): Because of Kyuubi's excess chakra that has been stored in Naruto, the boy has to release a constant field of chakra that surrounds him at all times. Because it his part of him, it can act as an early warning system and supplement for many of his jutsu like his Hakke: Kenchoken style and the area illusions he casts molding the chakra surrounding him. Until recently the territory chakra surrounding him, has been a hindrance when fight doujutsu like the Byakugan, but with his ability to blend his Junshuu Chakra with Nature's chakra Naruto is now almost undetectable by the chakra seeing eyes. To further its advantage of doujutsu Naruto has found a way to create pulse so that they temporarily blind his opponents.

Omoi Burijji (Mind Bridge): Ino's original technique that link's her mind to an opponent's, IF their mental defenses are weak enough. Once linked Ino can probe their mind for information or simple cause pain by kicking up too many thoughts at once.

Kage Bushin (Shadow Clone): Solid copy of the jutsu caster that can act as scout for the caster, because when destroyed all information he gained is passed to the caster. But even with this redeeming feature the chakra cost is too high for most and many die for chakra exhaustion while making too many clones.

Naiteki Kai (Inner Release): Release the hidden potential in any shinobi, results varies from caster to caster.

P.S. All hail my beta, Master of Dragon and Sword!!! (Cue deafening crowd roar) Seriously though, this guy did an outstanding job on this chapter. Not only does it make much more sense, but the flow of the chapters is just awesome now. So once again all hail Dragon and Sword Master and until next time…

Black Saint (Review!!!)