I do not own Naruto….oh but if I did; Mwahahahaha! Hello everyone, I wanted to get this part out of the way so the real incline of the story can begin. I'd also like to tell you to go to my user page. Why? Because it'll have a link as to how I think the King looks like, in his real form. :3 I'm gonna have the start of wave in this one, and the next chapter should really pull you guys into the story. **I need help with some translations, any info is much appreciated!**

"Bla/BLA" –Talk/SCREAMING

'Bla' –Thinking

"Bla/BLA" –Demon (summons) talk/SCREAMING

(Bla) –Author's note or misc.

SFX /Misc* BOOM! *whisper*

Chapter 3 A new pet and new challenges

Naruto woke a half hour earlier than usual and yawned as he rubbed his eyes. As yesterday's memories came flooding back he set out to do his morning routine. Like a zombie he moved throughout his house, all the while thinking about last night and the strange man's words. He owed the man what he thought was more than his own life, that's just how he was. He put his precious people before him, always helped his friends, and never breaks a promise or goes back on his word.

He already knew his answer, he knew it as soon as the man spoke. But that didn't stop his mind from frying; from just trying to get his head wrapped around it. His whole life; changed in a split second. As he look down the shower drain he drew in a deep breath, closed his eyes and slowly exhaled. He resigned himself to it for now and got ready for the day.

After he put on the last of his gear he went to the door, but stopped from closing the door feeling something strange. He looked back to his kitchen table and saw the scroll the shadowy figure gave to him. He stared at it for a couple minutes before grabbing it and putting it in his scroll pocket. 'Maybe it's a new jutsu?!' He instantly forgot about future stress and ran for training ground 7.

After some time he finally saw the training ground come into view and decided to walk the rest of the way. He put his hands behind his head and watched some of the clouds; he breathed deep through his nose and smiled. Remembering about the scroll he quickly took it out, not even watching where he was going. "Oof!"…"Eeek!" Hinata turned very red as she was on top of her crush, inches from his face. Too bad he's clueless when it comes to girls. "I'm sorry Hinata, are you OK? Your face is turning red." He put his hand on her head as her face turned dark crimson, and she slowly began to shake. "Hina-?" Was all he got to say before she passed out on top of him. "H-hinata! Are you ok!?"

Propping her up against one of the training stumps he quickly checked her vitals; sighing when everything was fine. 'I wonder why she does that. Maybe she needs to see a doctor?' He shook his head trying not to worry about it, checking the sun's position he saw it was about eight AM. So he had about two hours before his sensei showed up, he smiled as he pulled out his scroll again.

"Perfect." He slowly unraveled the scroll and carefully read its contents.

Shadow Familiar (Also known as a low ranking shadow demon)

This jutsu is to summon a familiar; the spirit of the animal is dependent upon the users' soul. It requires the user to use the summoning jutsu with a blood offering only once, after that the familiar will be linked to you and only require chakra. Unlike regular animal summons, the shadow familiar can stay in the human realm. The familiar's powers and strength is dependent on many factors, but the biggest one is the chakra you feed it. Like a sword, this creature is linked, and apart of you. Treat it well.

Naruto read it over and over again, and then finally read the hand signs; committing them to memory. Hinata's eyes fluttered open and she blushed instantly. Looking around she calmed down some, she found Naruto reading something by a nearby tree. She walked up behind him and peeked at the scroll he was still reading, tilting her head she tried reading it again. Naruto finally noticed the shadow that wasn't his own and turned around, smiling when he found her trying to read the scroll. "Hi Hinata!" Hinata came back to reality and blushed, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" She stopped speaking as saw Naruto wave it off with a hand gesture, "You want to read it?"

Hinata timidly shook her head, and took the scroll carefully in her hands. She started at it for a few minutes, and even turned the scroll around. "N-Naruto, I can't read it. It looks l-like strange symbols I've n-never seen before. " She handed the scroll back to him. Naruto took it and read it again, "That's weird, I guess only I can read it." Hinata gathered some courage and decided to ask him, "W-what does it say?" She turned her head away some as he looked her in the eyes, looking back at the scroll he spoke. "It's for a summoning jutsu." Naruto got excited again and wanted to try it out, so he rolled up the scroll and put it back in his pocket.

He bit his thumb, making sure there was plenty of blood and slowly did the hand signs. "Familiar Summoning!" He slammed his hand down on the ground and a web of seals stretched across the ground. The seals on the ground slowly turned red for a few moments before fading back to black. The web of seal contracted and a smoke cloud appeared in the middle of it with a 'poof'. As the smoke cleared it showed a dark fox spirit. It looked as if its body was made of black smoke, and its eyes held a red gleam in them. He had three feet long tails that had blood red tips at the end, and yes tails; he had two of them.

The fox looked in between Naruto and Hinata, looking back to Naruto it bowed its head. Naruto looked as if he was staring into space, while Hinata thought she was staring at the most cutest thing ever. She followed this thought by picking up the fox and hugging it close to her chest while saying 'kawaii'. The fox was startled but didn't attack, in fact; it looked like it was snuggling into Hinata's chest. Naruto came back to reality and looked to Hinata, "Um, Hinata?"

She instantly snapped out of it and slowly put the fox down blushing like mad. Naruto looked back to the fox who bowed his head again, Naruto smiled widely. "So you're my familiar now huh?" The fox yipped but kept his head down, until Naruto out stretched a hand to pet him. The fox gladly accepted the affection, and looked to his master when he stopped. He tilted his head to the side before jumping up onto Naruto's shoulder and wrapping his tails around his neck.

He actually didn't mind his familiar was a fox spirit, even after learning about his…tenant. In fact he was very excited to have a familiar, someone who would stay by his side; no matter what.

Naruto and Hinata became aware of the fox's new posture, and it started a low growl. They looked down the trail to see Sasuke walking up with his eyes close and his hands in his pockets, when he got close to the training stumps he opened his eyes; and froze. He closed his eyes and mumbled before opening them again, staring at the still growling creature. He closed his eyes once again and 'hmphed' before he sat down in front of the furthest away training stump.

Naruto and Hinata look at each other and Naruto shrugged, he started to pet the fox. "Good senses, but Sasuke is one of our comrades; even though he can be a teme sometimes." The fox looked into his masters eyes and tilted his head, and then he slowly shook it up and down understanding what he was being told. The fox leaned into his touch, and suddenly went stiff. He looked to his master as what to do, but Naruto was slow on the up take.

POOF!

Kakashi appeared on one of the training stumps and smiled. "Sorry I'm late everyone, I had to-" He stopped there finally seeing the fox on Naruto's shoulder, and slowly raised a finger to point at it. "What is that?" Naruto looked a bit surprised, "What does it look like to you? It's a fox." The fox yipped and Naruto looked deep in its red fiery eyes. Looking back at Kakashi he corrected himself. "He's a fox, and his name is Kenji*"

Kakashi inwardly shivered, not because he was afraid or didn't like foxes. But what they represented, tricksters. Harmless tricks really; but you never wanted to incur their wrath. Kakashi still remembers the pranks Naruto pulled when he was assigned to watch him while he was in Anbu.

Kakashi decided to get on with the test and pulled out a timer out of nowhere. He started winding it and stopped for it to go off at noon.

He then pulled out two bells from his pouch, "You each must acquire a bell to past this test, by any means necessary" He made the two bells jingle as if to taunt them, which was working for two individuals. Sasuke 'hmphed' as usual, but he was thinking of the best way to take Kakashi out. Naruto was spaced out, and his eyes were unfocused. Hinata was the brightest, and shyly began to question what she was being told.

"B-But sensei, you're a J-Jounin. How can we beat y-you?" Kakashi smiled and tied the bells to his hip holster. "You come at me with the intent to kill." His face became deadly serious as he tightened the knot, "GO!" Instantly Sasuke was gone, a second later Hinata was gone in a burst of speed. Naruto was still standing there, unfocused and still looking into space; but the fox was looking directly at him, almost like it was looking through his soul.

He shrugged it off and pulled out a little orange book. He slowly walked over to Naruto, "Ninja's should never let the enemy get behind them." With his next step he suddenly appeared right behind Naruto, but he stopped from preforming one of his jutsu when he found the fox still staring at him. What really threw him off though was that the fox knew how to hold a kunai with his tails. Kakashi slowly put his book away, and took small steps backing up.

He was just about the right distance for a jutsu he could use to escape, but stopped mid stride. "Ah, I see. So it's actually like a link. Your sight is amazing, but I'd rather save it for when I might really need it." Kakashi hearing Naruto looked into the foxes eye's and saw one of its eyes was blue. 'This might be a problem.' He quickly turned to shunshin away but was soon bound at the wrist by the foxes now extended tails.

Naruto quickly turned around and threw a kunai directly at Kakashi's chest, Kakashi POOFED and turned into a log. The fox sniffed the air and 'yipped', Naruto turn his head to the left. 'Testing the others? Fine, more time for me to learn.' He nodded his head and they both closed their eyes. They slowly shifted into attack positions, ready for anything.

XxXxXxXxXxX-With Hinata-XxXxXxXxX

She was clearing her head of her crush and trying to focus on finding Kakashi. She activated her family's blood line, just in time to see Kakashi burrowing underneath her. Kakashi was positioning himself to attack, and Hinata thought fast. Kakashi reached above ground to find nothing but air, but soon found his hands crippled with pain. Hinata only hesitated for a second before striking her teacher's hands with her gentle fist on full chakra blast, essentially crippling their teacher's hands and fingers and effectively ending his ninja career.

She cursed her hesitation and praised when there was a POOF; she looked around for her sensei. She quickly turned and bent backwards seeing an object quickly move to her small blind spot. Bending just far enough for Kakashi's leg to be right above her, she used her opening. Striking six major chakra points she would have a greater chance to subdue Kakashi with a well-placed trap or battle plan, but her hopes dropped when she saw Kakashi POOF away and turn into a log.

'Ok, according to Kurenai Hinata still uses hand signs to activate her Byakugan. So I need a distraction or a way to surprise her.' He didn't need to think long before coming up with a simple plan. He came out from tree he was hiding behind, Hinata easily seeing him turned and slowly gained speed heading for her sensei. Getting in her Gentle Fist style she fully charged her palms and attacked viscously, her first strike made her sensei turn into another log.

She quickly turned to see Naruto right in her face, she turned bright red and started stuttering; losing her focus to keep her Byakugan active. Suddenly she struck Naruto in the lower rib cage, 'Naruto' poofed away to turn out to be Kakashi; "How did you know?" He asked as he held his injury.

She explained while reactivating her bloodline, "A ninja should never form a habit, you're so use to your mask that you didn't even know you failed to copy his birthmarks." Kakashi wanted to face palm but his hand was occupied, so he settled for a sweat drop and a mental side note.

He decided to move on and waved to Hinata as she was charging at him, he poofed away just before getting struck by a chakra powered blast to the chest. She breathed in and out somewhat heavily, focusing on extending her vision she saw Kakashi heading for Sasuke. 'Something doesn't make sense…' Thinking deep and underneath the underneath of the test she thought about the bells.

So deep in her thoughts she didn't see the real Naruto enter her three sixty vision without her notice, she almost 'eeped' in surprise and fought hard to suppress her blush. She was able to calm down quickly and gather courage from seeing how serious Naruto's face was; even the young fox had a tense to his stance.

"Hinata, I know you're smart. You know what's going on with this test don't you?" She blushed a little but nodded her head. "I-I get the goal, b-but I don't know how to achieve it yet." Keeping his eyes in the direction of their teacher and 'teammate' he started to gather some chakra for a jutsu; forming a battle plan he turned his head toward Hinata.

"Follow my lead; we have to save our teme of a teammate." She nodded and followed his pace.

XxXxXxXxXx-Sasuke-xXxXxXxX

Kakashi was leaning against a tree reading his little orange book, turning the page he spoke with a philosophical tone. "You should never let a ninja get behind you, let alone under you." The flamer user got a huge tick mark, "Shut up, I was closer to getting those bells than either of those idiots could!"

Kakashi marked his page and put his book away, and walked towards him. "Yes, but now everyone is above you." He smiled innocently as Sasuke eyes lost a bit of luster; he smiled wider as he patted Sasuke's head. "If you're going to save your teammate you better do it fast." He said nonchalantly.

Naruto and Hinata suddenly came out of the foliage in the forest, and then more of them did. As they all surrounded their sensei he whistled lowly counting at least twenty pairs, "You don't think you're over doing it do you?" All of the Naruto's grinned and so did the Hinata's, "Not a chance." They all said in unison. They all charged at once without hesitation.

Right before they first clone reached him he sent a pulse out of chakra, the clones paid it no mind and kept moving. The originals however felt it and knew exactly what a short burst of chakra like that was used for; Naruto was the first one to spot it. The explosive note started its timer and set their careers in motion.

Sasuke paid no mind to the burning note and was still thinking about what Kakashi said. He was pulled from his thoughts when Naruto pulled him from the ground and quickly threw him in the direction of Hinata; but not before grabbing the almost burned out note.

As Sasuke landed he looked to see Naruto explode in a ball of fire. Sasuke's thoughts were erratic, 'That was a real explosive note, and he saved me? I was helpless, and couldn't even scratch him.' He slowly looked to Hinata and was surprised to see her focused on Kakashi fighting the clones still, but slowly taking them out one by one.

Sasuke's thoughts finally settled, 'His clones wouldn't be here if he was dead, so a clone pulled me out?' Hinata still looking at their sensei with her bloodline active, she started talking to Sasuke to bring him in on the plan. "Sasuke, we won't win this fight by ourselves. If we all work together we can beat him, watch when Naruto tries to catch him from the back."

He looked intently as one of Naruto's clones attempted to throw a kunai at Kakashi's back. Quicker than a blink of an eye Kakashi turned around to catch it and threw it back at the clone hitting it right between the eyes. There! A blind spot.

"You saw it?" He nodded slowly, he didn't like it, but this was the only way. He looked to Hinata slowly coming to the same conclusion as her and Naruto. "Teamwork?" She nodded. He sighed and took a weapon count, "So what's the plan?" She took out a kunai and threw it high in the sky, "Follow me."

XxXxXxXx-With Kakashi-xXxXxX

As the last clone poofed away he took a look around, "I wonder what they're up to." As he looked to where Sasuke was he suddenly got a shiver up his spine, and felt a huge chakra spike. 'Obviously Naruto; but what's he doing that would require that much chakra?'

He didn't have to wait long, hearing a rustling noise he turned to see all three of his students coming out of hiding. Naruto spoke first, "You can give up now, if you don't I can't guarantee your health and safety." Kakashi sweat dropped but readied a kunai none the less.

"You three are still too young to bring down a Jounin." He gestured a 'bring it on' with his hand having the other gripping the kunai tightly. Naruto put his hands on his hips and shook his head, "Poor Kakashi, that smut must be rotting your mind if you've slipped this much. I'm gonna have to tell the old man about this."

He got a shiver up his spine again, he did a double take and took in all the information he could currently interpret with his senses. Before he could come up with his answer the ground burst open revealing a huge pit, and filled to the brim with tails. 'Tails!?' Thinking fast he jumped before the ground he stood on caved, dodging a fireball in midair he threw his kunai at Naruto and prepared a jutsu. He stopped mid hand sign to feel a searing pain in his hand, he turned his head to find Hinata behind him while still in the air.

'This isn't good.' He kicked Hinata in the chest sending her flying into the pit. Five tails quickly caught Hinata and placed her softly back on the ground, she blushed a little silently thanking the fox before running to Kakashi's landing. As he landed he had to almost bring out the big guns as he fought a Hyuga with one hand.

Dodge, strike, roll, jump, redirect; evade. He saw a slow and obvious charge up to get him in the chest and got ready to take advantage of it, but his tuned senses told him to dodge. He bent backwards all the way just in time to see a fireball travel over him, continuing his momentum he back flipped and readied himself for the next attack.

He saw Sasuke throwing some ninja start at him while he was being followed by Naruto. He easily dodged the weapons and started hand to hand with Sasuke and Naruto. Moving his head to the left he dodged a punch from Sasuke and quickly grabbed his fist; kicking Naruto in the chest he threw Sasuke in the same direction his teammate was heading.

Quickly moving to the left he just missed being hit by Hinata's charged palm strike from behind, bringing out a kunai he turned and started to swipe at her. She dodged and carefully picked her opening, seeing it she took a hit in the shoulder to complete their plan. Kakashi almost felt bad when he felt the kunai enter his students shoulder, but this was a ninja's life. A second later he felt his bad hand being grabbed by something soft. 'Shit.'

He tried to kawarimi but was stuck fast when his other hand was bound and was being pulled toward the pit, he dug his feet into the ground an pulled as hard as he could. He felt it loosen just an inch before he turned white. In his peripheral vision he caught sight of his favorite kind of orange. How he could tell the difference between the book's color and Naruto's jumpsuit no one knew.

He sank to his knees when he saw that Sasuke had the last hand seal prepared for a fireball jutsu, and behind him he felt a kunai pressed against his back. He slowly lifted his head, "I gi-" Ring, ring, ring, ring! Poof! Kakashi disappeared and reappeared on top of the middle training log. He continued with a smile, "I give you an A for effort but none of you got a bell, so one of you are going back to the academy." 'Let's see what they do to try and secure their own futures.'

The kunai that Hinata was holding fell from her hand and stuck point first into the ground. She slowly grabbed her still bleeding shoulder and took a step forward, she stopped mid stride when she thought she was hallucinating. Kakashi and Naruto were silently checking if they were dreaming, and Sasuke was wondering if he was doing the right thing.

He swallowed his pride and looked their teacher in the eye. "I'll go." His head turned when he heard Naruto laugh. "Yeah right, I'll go. Like you said, you got closer than any of us." Sasuke flinched at first but then got angry. "You dope! You aren't going to be a sacrifice!" They both got in each other's face and got angrier.

"I-I'll go." Kakashi raised a brow, and the boy's tension disappeared. Hinata held her wound a bit tighter as she spoke. "I-I'll only get in your guy's w-way." She slowly let her head drop, and moved her hair in their view of her face. Naruto spoke up, not letting this happen. "No, we worked as a team. Ether we stay as such or the old man is making a big mistake in balance and power."

Kakashi knew the fire that shined brightly in Naruto's eyes; he had seen it in all of the village's great leaders and warriors. Sasuke smirked seeing the desire in him, and Hinata; Hinata gained courage from his words and emotion. Inside they were settled, but they still had silent doubts in their own heads. 'All three didn't step forward to be a sacrifice, they did it to protect each other, I just hope this sticks.'

Kakashi chuckled a bit and smiled warmly, "You pass."

XxXxXxX-Short Time Skip-XxXxXxX

Iruka read the newest missions that were ordered today, another D class would be good for them. "And lastly we have a mission to pick potatoes for a gardener." Naruto's tick mark was about to burst hearing the list of crappy missions, for three weeks it was the same thing. He finally had enough, "Boring, boring, and not even worth breathing over." Iruka got a huge tick mark and was about to yell at his former student when the Hokage's hand gesture stopped him.

He lit his cherry flavored tobacco and puffed slowly. Exhaling he got a mischievous grin, "So you think you can handle a harder mission?" Naruto got a cocky grin and reached behind his head to grab ahold of his head band strap. "If I didn't think we were ready I would hand in my head band right now." "Aren't you a little full of yourself?" Asked the Hokage as he took another puff and closed his eyes.

The blond boy believed he spoke for his whole team, and spoke while tightening his head band. "There's a reason why you put the two strongest bloodlines and a power house on the same team." The third knew he wasn't bragging, but hinting to his tenant.

The old man smiled warmly and took another puff, 'Very well.' "Send him in."

End

Well Merry Christmas, and a happy new year! All I want for Christmas is forgiveness for taking so long. I knew what I wanted to type, but it just wouldn't flow. The next chapter will be better, and I'll be working on two other prelude chapters for two different stories. Thank you EDelta88 for letting me take up two of your many challenges. The next chapter will be soon, how soon; I don't know at this point. But I've already started on it. Until then, have a very happy new years. (I understand that it looks like the story was 'rushed', but in actuality: The ninja life is fast paced and a very hard life. Point of views are changed drastically before being put in combat. That and I also write it as if you know what I'm talking about already. This is why the next chapter will be better, it's recognized as a character development chapter.) Hope you stick through to the darkest ending. :3

*This is only temporary till I can find the proper Japanese translation for Red eyed raven.