Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did then I'd have Free Ramen Thursdays.

"People talking"

"People thinking"

#Ghosts talking#

"Kyuubi talking"

Here at least

We shall we be free; the Almighty hath not built

Here for his envy; will not drive us hence;

Here we may reign secure; and in my choice

To we reign is worth ambition, though in hell:

Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven-

Jack London, Sea Wolf

Naruto soon learned that it did him no good to pay attention in class. All the things Iruka-sensei taught he already knew. It was the same when he tried to do good in the written tests, or practical lessons. The teacher who graded his work (Mizuki something-or-other) always gave him a failing grade, and Iruka never let him participate in throwing shruiken, or anything of that nature.

Naruto wouldn't even be in school if it weren't for Yukia and the fact that it was only way he knew to become a genin. As it were, he gained the reputation of not only the dead-last, but also of someone who daydreamed all day long. This was no doubt to the fact that he would stare sleepily off into space during class when he was actually being taught by teachers with far greater experience than Iruka.

After school Naruto would disappear into the forest for hours on end, not that anyone really noticed except the Hokage. He would train; with Akira and his more practical phantasmic senseis. He quickly swallowed jutsus, learning them as though they were second nature. He also learned strategy by having many ghosts attack him at once, and, even though they could not use chakra, he quickly grasped how to defeat many opponents at once.

Then it was back to Konoha for dinner, where he could usually get Yukia to allow him to got to Ichiraku's for ramen (as long as he had had a healthy breakfast and lunch). Teuchi, the man who ran Ichiraku, and his daughter, Ayame, were always happy to see him. Even though Naruto never said much, and was always seemingly lost in thought, his bright blue and wide smile warmed up the little shop. Just his presence, while he ate bowl after bowl of ramen, seemed to lift the spirits of both people.

Of course, the reason why he always stared off into space was that he was hearing the reports of all his spies, and he always knew exactly what was happening in the village--gossip beyond any busybody's greatest dream. Naruto chuckled slightly at the story of what had happened to a particularly unlucky chuunin, Genma, who had accidently walked in on his commander, a woman called Anko, when she was in a very bad mood. The ghost, a former stone-nin, continued, saying that his condition was now stable, but everyone was too afraid to go visit him incase Anko was there, chewing him out.

Naruto had another chuckle at Genma's expense, laughing at him for making such a foolish mistake. Next, news of something amiss with the Uchiha clan, something about their prodigy killing another one of the clan, apparently his best friend. Shaking his head at how screwed up that was and making a mental note to talk with the unfortunate dead Uchiha, Naruto finished his ramen and headed back to his apartment, discussing hunting techniques with Akira all the while. Still, he could not shake the feeling of foreboding he had.

6v9

Naruto knew that this was going to be a bad day as soon as he woke up. Yukia was in a particularly fierce mood, apparently having lost a bet that she had made with a snow country civilian a week before. Naruto had an idea what it was, but did not venture a question and risk her temper turning on him.

He grabbed an apple on his way out, and then noticed the second thing that was off about the morning. Akira was whimpering, her whole tiny frame shivering.

"What's wrong?" he asked, worried.

"I don't know. Its just bad. Very, very bad," she replied, shuddering.

His nerves on edge, Naruto walked out into the village. There were no birdsong, no happy humming that comes from the collective noise of a city, only dull, flat sounds. It seemed that everyone, consciously or unconsciously, was effected by the seeming doom. Or maybe, having a connection with the Shinigami made him more receptive to people's emotions, and there was nothing amiss after all.

When he arrived at the Academy, Akira didn't run up and immediately start bothering Akamaru like she usually did, but rather stayed inside Naruto's shirt, still shivering. The day was relatively quite, which only served to unnerve him farther. Iruka seemed slightly disquieted at the uneasy calm as well. He didn't even sneer and ignore Naruto when he raised his hand to answer a question. Rather, he called on him and congratulated him on answering the question correctly. That was when Naruto was positive something was off.

It was only when class ended for the day that the ominous cloud finally became overpowering. Naruto had just walked out of the classroom when a wave of nausea hit. He fell too his knees, dark clouds on the edge of his vision. Ghosts roared in his ears, their anguish and sorrow bringing tears to his eyes.

#Betrayal, murder, horror...avenge, HATE!# they bellowed, too outraged to form coherent sentences. Naruto couldn't understand them even if they were talking properly, as there were too many ghosts suddenly arriving in purgatory. Once this had happened when a group of kiri nins were slaughtered, and they overwhelmed the ghosts Naruto had stationed to welcome and explain their new status of death. It had nearly sent him unconscious, because he felt the last emotion that the ghosts had felt before they had died. Usually the other ghosts took care of it, absorbing it rather than letting Naruto feel it. Once you're dead then all other emotions seem pale in comparison. Now there were simply too many strong emotions to be absorbed, and not all the ghosts were hovering around Naruto, though more were arriving every minute.

Suddenly Yukia appeared next to him, trying to fight off the ghosts who were overloading Naruto's senses. Surprisingly, Iruka, who had just left the classroom, saw Naruto, and would have walked right past him if had not moaned.It was a moan of pure anguish, the sound of somebody having their heart ripped apart by too many emotions. Iruka instead stopped, his natural mother-hen instinct kicking in, and he bent down to comfort the boy.

Even as he started rubbing Naruto's back, and making comforting noises to him, he wondered why he was doing it. Giving comfort to the demon that had killed his parents... yet the moan that Naruto had let escape his lips, the only sound that he had made, even though he was obviously in intense pain, and sorrow, that sound was so heartbreaking. It wasn't a sound that a demon could make.

Naruto could only vaguely sense Iruka and Yukia, as he could only feel intense pain in all the areas that the ghosts had been killed in. That dimmed in comparison to the immense feelings of betrayal and anger that he felt because of the ghosts. He was more used to an incredible feeling of hate, and betrayal was a hundred times worse. It felt like his heart, his whole insides, would be torn apart in the violent storm that was his emotions. He was therefore not surprised when he coughed up blood.

Iruka, seeing him coughing up blood, instantly decided that it would be best to take him to the Hokage, or the hospital, at least. However, at that moment, one of the newly-arrived ghosts broke through the protective circle around Naruto.

#Please!# she screamed, tears of desperation running down her face. #Help me! My son! The Uchiha compound, hurry!#

Naruto, however, was too far gone with absorbing the blunt of the combined emotions of the nearly-slaughtered clan. More were arriving every minute, and he was fighting with all his strength to stay conscious. He hadn't realized that Iruka had picked him up, and was carrying him to the hospital, or how closely Yukia was following behind.

"Here kid, let me handle this," the Kyuubi said, taking pity on him. Suddenly, the pain around Naruto's heart lessened, and his mind cleared. He could hear the desperate screams and cries of the ghost-woman beside him.

As Naruto looked at the woman, with her beautiful long black hair, perfect skin, all marred by the despairing look in her eyes and face, he wished, just for a second, that somebody would feel that way for him. Then he managed a weak smile at her, and nodded at her.

He would save her son, and make sure that she would never look that hopeless again. Naruto knew what it felt like to be in trouble with no one to help you, and he wanted to save this woman from that fate.

Naruto found himself in the arms of a frantic Iruka, who seemed anxious about him.

"L'me go," he murmured. Iruka looked relieved at Naruto's sudden activity, but shook his head. He needed to get Naruto to the hospital as quickly as possible, so he sped up. Naruto, however, had other plans. When Iruka was slightly distracted by a larger than normal gap between two rooftops, he jumped down.

Naruto quickly ran, following the woman, who was running nearly as fast as a shinobi. He ran while trying to fight off dizziness, alarmed at the swelling of the ghosts, and starting to be overpowered by the combined emotions again.

But he kept running, because he would not break his promise, and he would save this woman's son.

He arrived at the Uchiha compound, and immediately sensed something wrong. There were no people, but he could sense where they had died, almost as if he could see their deaths at the moment it had happened. Shaking this feeling off, he followed the woman again, even though he no longer needed to. Now that he was away from the entrance of the compound, he could hear the battle clearly.

Turning around the corner, he saw something that would stay with him the rest of his life. He was wrong. It wasn't the sound of a battle he had heard. It was the sound of slaughter.

Multiple Uchiha, running, screaming, begging, but very few fighting. In the middle of the chaos, in the eye of the hurricane, there stood one man. Another Uchiha by the look of him, but it looked like he was the only one fighting. The rest of the clan looked either non-combantant, or accepting of their fate, like they knew it was coming. Naruto watched one elderly man kneel before the slaughterhouse Uchiha, exposing his neck, as though waiting for the killing blow that came moments later. Naruto probably would have charged in, right then and there, to fight the massacre, had not Iruka arrived at that very moment.

"Naruto-" he began before seeing what was happening. Fortunately Iruka was battle trained, and responded quickly. He grabbed Naruto, dragging him to another alleyway. Iruka made sure Naruto was safe, before running as quickly as possible towards the Hokage tower. He would have taken Naruto with him, except time was of the essence, and Naruto looked very reluctant to move.

Naruto moved as soon as Iruka was out of sight, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, like one of his ghost instructors had taught him. He spotted the woman's son with her help, and scrambled down the wall to warn him about the danger.

When he reached the ground he gasped when he saw who was standing in front of him. It was Sasuke.

"Hey, what are you doing in the Uchiha compound? You're not allowed in here," Sasuke said, his fingers reaching for his weapons pouch.

"Sasuke, stop that! You can't go in here. You'll be killed," Naruto said, slightly annoyed that Sasuke thought he was just there to trespass.

"Yeah right. That's not funny. Just because you're an orphan it doesn't mean you can joke like that," Sasuke said, exasperated.

"I'm not joking! Does it look like it? I mean it Sasuke, I'm not goofing off, and you need to listen to me!" Naruto shouted harshly. "You must have noticed it. No people, no sounds, no nothing. Don't tell me that you're so a poor of a ninja that you did not notice that!"

At first Sasuke huffed, his natural Uchiha pride rearing its head. It was not everyday that the star pupil got told off by the deadlast. Then he listened.

Naruto watched as Sasuke's face first got red, then white, whiter than its usual pallor color.

"What's happening?" Sasuke asked, in a husky voice. "I swear to kami, Naruto, that if you're joking..."

"I'm not joking, Sasuke. You just have to wait here, Iruka is getting help," even as Naruto spoke, a group of ANBU approached them.

"Are you alright?" one of the ANBU stopped to ask Sasuke, completely ignoring Naruto.

"What's going on?" Sasuke asked in faintly squeaky voice.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of it," the bird masked ANBU assured him. Then he noticed Naruto. "What are you doing here, demon?" he asked, his voice cold.

Naruto merely shrugged, hoping that the ANBU would forget about him, so he could go home and hopefully avoid a building headache. No such luck, however.

"Naruto came to warn me about going farther into the Uchiha compound," Sasuke said, trying to be helpful. Mentally Naruto cursed him into oblivion.

"Is that so? How would you know about this, huh, demon?" Swearing against Sasuke, the crazy Uchiha, and the Shinigami who all had seemed to conspired to get him into this mess, he tried to come up with a good lie when the bird faced ANBU was distracted by another ANBU.

"We managed to save about twenty of them, sir," the new ANBU reported.

"What do you mean 'saved about twenty?'" Sasuke nearly screamed, and Naruto took that as his cue to go. Let the stuck up ANBU deal with a hysterical drama king. As much as he felt sorry for Sasuke, he wanted a hot bath.

As soon as he into his apartment he was enveloped in a warm, fierce hug from Yukia.

#Never, ever scare me like that again,# she cried, hugging him again. Naruto looked at her transparent face. It was torn by a range of emotions, such as grief and sorrow, but the chief look on her face was relief. Relief at having him back, safe.

Naruto was stunned. No one had ever been that worried about him, not even the Hokage. It reminded him of Sasuke's mother, how desperate she was, even though she was dead, to save him. Hesitantly, Naruto hugged Yukia back.

(A/N) I hope you liked this chapter, and sorry I haven't updated in awhile. In my defense, I had to get rabies shots (ouch!), and finish up the school year. I also saw all the 3rd movies that just came out. I didn't like Shrek, but I absolutely loved Pirates and Spidey.

Please review! Constructive criticism, and questions are always welcome. Flames will be used to test fire extinguishers.