Let me clear something up: that was Naruto's FIRST kill. No matter how much Konoha prepares its gennin, it will affect them. Naruto's reactions are from the compounded surprise of the sneak attack, the speed and unintended nature of the kill, the shock of falling off a cliff, the impact with the rocks, and the Animus download. He'll be back to Naruto by the time the story actually kicks off, but for now he'll be a bit addled.

Also, neither of the original works upon which this story is based and draws most of its themes are the property of myself or anyone I personally know. This is a work of fiction written by a fan (me) for the sake of my own interest in doing so. What I do with the plot and characters is my business, and I don't care what anyone except the legal owners of the source materials have to say about it. I do like a good review though. ;) This is applied for this entire story, since I don't feel like writing a disclaimer again.

Thank you to my reviewers: canadasucks, Maverick Hunter Phoenix, changingtides, Atticus Goodfellow, KRP, Fayneir, RogueNya, TenchiSaWaDa, Zeioinsanity, Houkou, and Jack512. And also thanks to the many people who put this story, and me, on their alert lists.

"words" talking

'thoughts' thinking

"Shannoro" Inner Sakura

"Where is that idiot!" screamed many fans least favorite kunoichi. Sakura was fuming, had been for all of two hours. "He was supposed to relieve me of guard duty before lunch so I could join Sasuke-kun on patrol." A hint of worry slipped into Sakura's voice towards the end, though she covered it up. "Have you seen him Tsunami-san?"

"No, Sakura-san, not since this morning," Tsunami tells her from the kitchen. "And Inari's been here helping me all day. I'm starting to get worried though; it's not like Naruto-kun to skip meals."

"Don't worry Sakura," Kakashi tells his student from the table, where he's discretely reading his Icha Icha Paradise, disguised as a war novel so Tsunami doesn't yell at him for corrupting her son and his students…again. "He's a big boy; he can take care of himself."

Sakura sighs, "If you say so Sensei. Is Sasuke-kun back from patrol yet?"

"He should be back any minute now," he says. The door creaks on its hinges as the dark clad Uchiha walks in through the front door. "Ah, speak of the devil. So, how was patrol Sasuke?"

Sasuke shrugs. "Hn, not much to report. Everything's quiet except for some of the leftover bandits of Gato's causing trouble by the west cliffs."

Inari gasps. "But Naruto Nii-san was headed to the west cliffs when he left this morning!"

Kakashi frowns, switching to squad commander mode. "Well, that's problematic. Sakura, Sasuke, go to the west cliffs and look for Naruto. And see if you can find the bandits camp while you're at it."

They both nod affirmatively, Sasuke with a serious look to his usually bland face and Sakura with that hint of worry that she tried to hide earlier.

Sasuke and Sakura make their to the west cliffs via treetops silently, Sasuke having told Sakura to be quiet in enemy territory after only a few minutes of her blabbering to him. He made a note to use that one on their next out-of-town mission. The silence was heavenly.

They reached the tree-line overlooking the cliffs unopposed and began scanning the edge of the cliffs for any sign of Naruto or bandits. "Sasuke-kun, look over there," Sakura whispered to Sasuke. She was pointing to a large orange lump near the edge of the cliffs to the north of them. "That stupid Naruto. He probably fell asleep training again." Inner Sakura decided to make her opinion known at this point. "OHHH!!! When I get my hands on him…" Inner Sakura mimed strangling something.

Sasuke "Hn'd" as the two of them made their way towards their napping teammate. Then the wind shifted.

Sasuke froze as he caught a whiff of a scent that had plagued his nightmares for years.

Death.

"Sakura! Stop!" He shouted, but he was too late.

Sakura had missed Sasuke's hesitation and reached the still orange lump. She had come close enough to tell that it wasn't Naruto; too tall and too thick. She looked back when Sasuke yelled and saw what looked like panic in his eyes. "What? Sasuke-kun?" Sakura turned back to the orange clad man when she caught a flicker of red in her peripheral vision. She shouldn't have looked.

The flicker of red Sakura had seen was part of a two foot pool of blood, centered around the orange clad mans head, which just happened to be turned towards her, his eyes wide and glassy, his tongue poking out through the hole in his neck. Then the smell hit her. Sakura barfed. She really shouldn't have looked.

Sasuke caught up to Sakura while she was emptying her stomach. Sasuke had steel in his eyes as he moved forward to investigate. 'His neck was slashed. Looks too deep to be an assassination, too sloppy to be a beheading. Judging by the shape of the cut…a kunai. So Naruto must have done it. This guy probably snuck up on him looking for an easy kill. So where is that dobe?'Sasuke looks around the corpse for any signs of what happened to his wayward teammate. 'There are footprints here…and they're backing towards the cliff…oh no.'

Sasuke peered over the cliff to check his suspicions. For the first time Sasuke, rookie of the year and Uchiha prodigy, got no pleasure out of being right. The tide had come in, and there, floating away in the surf, was a blue and orange blob with a shock of blonde at one end.

"Naruto! Sakura get Kakashi Sensei!" Sasuke yelled to his brainy teammate before he dove off the cliff.

Sakura screamed when Sasuke jumped off the cliff for no apparent reason after shouting something about Naruto and Kakashi. "Sasuke-kun!" She staggered to the cliff and fell on her knees at the edge, hoping to not find her teammate and love interest strewn across the rocks below. She peered over the edge to see Sasuke lugging a waterlogged Naruto to the shore. She released the breath she didn't remember taking, but the next one caught in her throat when she realized that only one of her teammates was currently moving. Naruto was still limp and silent in Sasuke's hold. "Sasuke-kun!" she yelled down to him.

"Get Sensei!" he yelled back as he struggled with the current to tow his unresponsive teammate to shore.

Later in the house Kakashi sat down in front of Naruto, who was sitting on a stool wrapped in a large blanket and trying his hardest not to look so much like a drowned puppy while he sipped his tea. "Naruto," Kakashi said in a low but strong tone. It took a few moments but Naruto eventually lifted his head enough to stare his cyclopean sensei in the eye. "I need you to tell me what happened on the cliff today, in as much detail as you can, starting from when you got there this morning."

Sakura stopped fretting over Sasuke, who was on the other side of the table on a similar stool, in a similar blanket, nursing a similar cup of tea, and trying his hardest to not look like a drowned duck, which was only barely achieved by his hair being down. Her worry over her crush quickly turned to ire against her teammate. "Naruto!" she yelled at him, making him cringe at the volume. She continued quickly and angrily. "What the hell were you doing?! Sasuke-kun could have been hurt when he dove in after you! And what was with that…that…that body…" Sakura lost steam towards the end, the memory of the dead bandit causing her to drop her voice to the point where she ended in a whisper.

Kakashi snaps at her. "Enough Sakura."

"But Sensei…!" The girl begins incredulously, but is unexpectedly interrupted.

"Sakura," Sasuke says in an agitated tone. When the pinkette turns to her crush he sets his patented Uchiha Death Glare™ on her. "Shut up."

"Sasuke-kun is scary. Iyaah!" both Sakura and Inner Sakura think in shock.

"I was clearing my head at the cliff…" a voice mumbles softly. The three arguing shinobi turn their attention to the source of the noise. Naruto continues, "I heard a noise- twig snapping. There was a guy charging me- big, orange shirt, short hair, spear, wooden geta. I jumped out of the way…" Naruto trails off with a hard look on his face.

"Take your time Naruto. What happened next," Kakashi says in a slow and calming tone.

"I…I drew my kunai and swung at him, to make him back off and get some breathing room. But he, he... he kept charging," Naruto said brokenly, finishing in a whisper. "He kept charging…and I, I couldn't move my arm in time," Naruto choked out. "I-I-I m-murdered-"

"No," Kakashi says with finality as he grabs Naruto's shoulder firmly. He continues when Naruto raises his head to look into his sensei's eye. "Not murder. He was trying to kill you, you stopped him. That's self defense. Not murder. Understand?" Naruto nods slowly as he processes this.

"Not…murder…" he mumbles with a spark of hope.

"Nope," Kakashi says with an eye smile. "Not murder. Now," He takes his hand from Naruto's shoulder and leans back in his chair. "What happened after that?"

Naruto gulps and squints his eyes in an attempt to increase his focus. "After I…that, I backed away and, uh," here Naruto pauses to rub the back of his head and put on a weak grin. "I, uh, I walked off the cliff and hit my head at the bottom, heh."

Everyone sweatdrops, including Naruto.

Inner Sakura goes on the rampage that Sakura wants to with many a loud "Shanaro!" and "Baka!,"and other words and actions sweet, innocent maidens don't know. Sakura's sweatdrop doubles in size.

Sasuke rolls his eyes with a mumbled "dobe" and sigh.

Kakashi drops his head and sighs like Sasuke. He turns to the clock and then turns another eye smile on his gennin. "Well, it's late. You three get to bed." The three nod in the affirmative and Naruto finishes his tea. "Oh, Naruto?" The gennin all pause and glance at their sensei. "You take the next few days to rest."

Naruto opens his mouth to protest, but changes his mind and nods instead. Sakura is silenced by another of her crushes death glares. Once his students are out of sight, Kakashi slumps completely down into his chair. "I was really hoping to avoid doing that," Kakashi mumbles. "At least, for a little bit longer, anyway." Kakashi sits there for a while before sighing, then standing up and following his students to bed.

Up in their room, Sasuke and Naruto have just lain down in their beds.

Just as Naruto was about to close his eyes, Sasuke asks the question that's been on the edge of his lips since he determined that the corpse from earlier was the blondes doing. "Naruto, what was it like?"

"Huh?" Naruto asks, Sasuke having pulled him from his tired musings.

"What was it like? Your first kill?" Sasuke clarifies, turning his head to the blonde.

Naruto looks at his teammate before turning back to the ceiling. After a minute, Naruto closes his eyes.

"Bad, Sasuke. Just… bad."

I haven't ever exactly played either Assassin's Creed game, just watched other people do it. So, since I don't have a strategy guide or my own observations to work off of, just assume that each of Naruto's 'dreams' (which I am NOT writing out) eclipse one of Desmond's 'dives,' and that the first covers Desmond's memories from the beginning of AC1 up through his first extraction from the Animus, and that all following dreams are another day that Desmond stays hooked up to the Animus.

I know this chapter mostly sucks, but I wanted to get it out and get the story moving some. Future chapters will take some time because I need to storyboard them

Now to quell any confusion this might cause. Naruto IS NOT actually experiencing the Animus ability from the games. The Animus he landed on directly downloaded all of the memory from Desmond's dives into Naruto's subconscious. The dreams he's having are just his mind slowly processing the information one segment at a time. This will avoid the bleeding effect that threatened Desmond, and will allow Naruto's brain to adapt the information in safe, useful ways. He IS NOT going to just learn how to do any moves he doesn't already know, his mind will just be trained to react to certain things certain ways, and know how to tap into the Eagle Vision. His brain will overwrite his nonexistent fighting style with actual, experienced techniques that he 'learned' as Altair, Ezio, and Desmond. His ninja training and reflexes are going to allow him to half-ass most of the moves, but he'll have to train in using them for them to work effectively. And he'll be FAMILIAR with the use of certain weapons, but again, he'll have to train with them to do it right.

Any questions? You know which button to press.

Oh, and I'm still accepting pairing requests.