I'm sorry it's late! I'm now banned from writing, so posting may be kinda sporadic. Sorry!

Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto. geez.


Groaning, Naruto turned over and then shot up suddenly, sitting straight up in bed, then glancing down at his tightly clenched right fist, in which Haku's snowflake sat. Slowly, hesitantly, Naruto opened his fist to and stared down at the icy cold, forever frozen snowflake sitting in his shaking hand, glittering brightly and twinkling in the sun.

"Haku was a good kid," Kakashi whispered.

"How…?" Naruto asked, looking toward Kakashi with an expression on his face almost of betrayal. "Did you hear… all of that?"

"What?" Kakashi asked. "No, I was only awake for the last few moments…"

"Sakura-chan? Sasuke?" Naruto suddenly exclaimed, looking wildly around toward where he had remembered Sakura and Sasuke on the bridge. "When… what… when did I even black out? Where are they? Are they ok?"

"Your seal saved Sakura," Kakashi muttered, looking downwards in guilt. "And Sasuke was really seriously injured, but he was fixed with a few healing seals and pills, at least until Sakura wakes up and is able to heal him. But how about you? How did you have enough chakra to fight Haku? Where did all your wounds go?"

Taking a deep breath, Naruto opened his mouth, then froze as his mouth moved, his eyes suddenly turning red with vertical slits as pupils.

"Hello, Naruto-kun, Kakashi-kun…" Kakashi stared, wide-eyed, at Naruto, then back at

"Kyuubi! Stop!" Naruto's voice broke in.

"Silence yourself. Let me talk, I won't hurt you two. Naruto-kun decided to make a deal with me…"

"You fool! YOU FOOL!" Kakashi shouted, jumping up and glaring down at Naruto with a fury that could have shattered heavens.

"And while I can't harm Konoha, or any of his friends, I can have whatever I want…"

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" Kakashi screamed, looking wide-eyed at Naruto, the Kyuubi, who chuckled darkly.

"Kakashi-sensei, Haku was about to kill all of you!" Naruto protested.

"Ah, let me explain what I want."

Kakashi froze just as Naruto's voice stopped yelling in the background. Pausing for a second to lick his lips, the Kyuubi inside of Naruto's body chuckled as Kakashi glanced toward the door, then back at Naruto.

"Relax, Kakashi-kun… I won't hurt you…" At that the Kyuubi paused, before continuing in a far more serious tone. "I want you."

"What?" Naruto asked, confusion clear in his cerulean eyes.

"You. Your services and abilities, for four years, doing… jobs… for me outside of the village. Alone, with no one else… This will partially serve your village, as I will have you killing previous enemies of mine under a secret identity… Of course, I will teach you useful tricks and abilities, maybe even how to build an arm out of chakra, but you will do my every bidding for four years outside of the village. No, you will not harm your village, or your friends. Yes, you will grow more powerful. Yes, you will have to kill…"

"What-you-NO!" Kakashi yelled, the last word so loud it seemed to shake the room.

"Oh, yes, Kakashi of the Sharingan. He said anything, didn't he?" The Kyuubi sneered.

"Kyuubi!" Naruto suddenly piped in. "You do realize I can't 'kill' S-class criminals, right? Wouldn't it make more sense for me to go as a Chunin, at least?"

"Ah, but you are Chunin level, as is your entire team," Kyuubi sneered. "But you are right…"

There was a deep growling sound coming from the depth of Naruto's chest as the Kyuubi looked up in thought.

"Ah, yes then, after the Chunin exams. After the Chunin exams, you will do my bidding for four years."

"Two years is too long!" Kakashi protested.

"What do you want, then?" Kyuubi growled sarcastically.

"Kyuubi, you're doing two years, or else I will lock you back into your cage!" Naruto claimed.

Never, brat.

If I'm gone for more than two years, I'll hurt my friends emotionally!

But you technically haven't hurt them physically!

However, emotional hurt is hurt too! And, it can lead to physical hurt!

"Fine," Kyuubi growled. "Two years."

From out of nowhere, as Kakashi began to watch in horror, Naruto began to change. Faint red chakra, barely visible but for the light illuminating it, swirled around and around Naruto before forming half of the Kyuubi cloak around the left side of Naruto's body, an arm of pure red chakra growing out of the left stump. Slowly, the whites of Naruto's left eye turned pure red, and the pupil narrowed into a thin black slit. Finally, as the transformation finished, Naruto's whisker markings on the left side of his face blackened, fangs growing in place of his canines as the Kyuubi finished the deal.

"Until two years later, Naruto…"

Then, as Naruto looked downward and crumpled to the ground in surprise, the Kyuubi's presence vanished, leaving Naruto alone with half of the Kyuubi marring his previously boyish features. Blood red chakra swirled around him, occasionally flashing out in a tail, then fading away before appearing once again. Slowly, Naruto looked down at his left arm, then shut his eyes in horror. The arm was pure red, claws adorning the place where his fingernails should have been, his eye blood red and a faint red fox ear growing on the side of his head.

"Kakashi-sensei… am I… evil?" Naruto whispered. Jerking out of a terrified and horrified daze, Kakashi shook his head vigorously and took Naruto by the shoulders.

"No. You're not evil, think, think, Naruto! You just gave two years of your time to this… demon… in order to save your friends! It is the opposite of evil, even Sasuke would say that!" Kakashi protested, then shook his head and pushed up his headband.

"Do you know how I obtained this Sharingan?" Kakashi asked, his voice stony, subdued, unlike his normally sarcastic tone. Numbly, gazing down at the red chakra swirling around him, Naruto shook his head. "My best friend was killed as he saved my life, and gave me this Sharingan as a final gift. Does that mean it is evil, because it resulted from death and sorrow? No, it is not evil because I don't use it for evil, just as you can harness the power of the Kyuubi without harming your village! Listen, Naruto," Kakashi growled, his voice suddenly deep, serious. "You. Are. Not. Evil!"

Turning away, Naruto felt tears began to gather up in his eyes, and he opened his right palm and stared at the intricate snowflake, than back at Kakashi with his red and blue eyes.

"Do you have a string?"

"What?"

"Do you have a string? For the snowflake?"

Nodding dumbly, Kakashi procured a black length of string from his pouch and attached it to the snowflake, then handed it to Naruto, who lifted up his left and right hand and put it slowly onto his neck.

"Let's go outside and tell Sasuke and Sakura," Kakashi murmured.

Peals of laughter rang from Sakura and Sasuke as they wrestled for the last piece of green wrapped candy, a plate of three blue-wrapped candies sitting on the table unnoticed as they fought futilely over the forest green treat. Stopping in dumb amazement, Naruto and Kakashi watched as the emo duck glared at the pink-haired damsel, then yanked with all his strength.

"Is… Sasuke… wrestling? Like a kid?" Naruto asked, as if he had seen a duck do algebra, which he kind of had. At last, Sasuke had learned the art of pranking, of foolishness, of wrestling and boyhoodness! Then-

"SASUUUKKEEEEE!"

"SAAAKKUUURRAA!"

With a huge crash of breaking furniture, Sasuke and Sakura careened into a sofa, which broke into a pile of jagged wood and pillow stuffing, from with Sakura emerged victorious with the wrapped candy unwrapped and stuffed into her mouth. Then, as Sasuke, grumbling and covered in white marshmellow fluff with pieces of green felt, they noticed Naruto and froze, even as Naruto doubled over at the sight of the white-covered Sasuke.

"What-" Sasuke exclaimed, his eyes wide with awe and fear.

"Naruto?" Sakura asked, confused.

"Well, I made a deal with a devil, and here's the mark!" Naruto exclaimed, clutching his stomach as he looked at Sasuke again. "Teme, you look like a pillow!"

"You-you-wha-" Sasuke exclaimed, darkening with rage and thrashing around futilely, trying to remove the fluff as Sakura grabbed his arms and held them there. Sprinting toward Sasuke, who began to curse wildly as Kakashi pulled out a camera, Naruto began to pile fluff on top of Sasuke, seizing the left arm that managed to break free.

Click!

Slowly, the picture slid out of the camera, revealing Sasuke kneeling in the middle of a pile of fluff, his hair filled with white stuffing and covered in pieces of green felt, his arms held tightly by Naruto and Sakura, who were grinning happily, disregarding Naruto's fangs and red eye, Sasuke's face grumpy and pissed.

Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura…

I'm kinda starting to become fond of you guys, Kakashi thought, shutting his eyes and repelling the pictures of himself, Obito, and Rin that flashed into his mind, telling himself that he would not fail once more.

Suddenly, with a loud puff, a huge ball of white fluff, dotted with green felt and even a few splinters, landed on Kakashi's face and exploded, causing him to splutter, shake his head, and growl in rage as he turned around to remove his mask for a split-second, brushing off the cotton that had wound up on his face. Never mind. Pulling it back up, he turned around to see another ball of white zooming toward him, ducking just in tme to avoid the second ball of fluff, which zoomed past and hit the opposite wall, exploding in white fluff.

"HAHAHAHAHHAHA!" Naruto yelled with laughter, before a smaller ball of fluff exploded over his chest. "NOOOOO, YOUUUUUU!"

Two minutes later, as Tsunami peeked into the room to investigate the cause of the explosions of noise rocking the house, expecting a catastrophic battle or a chakra-enhanced arm wrestling match, she saw the silver-haired sensei and his three students in the pile of fluff, laughing their heads off, broken wood shoved to the side of the walls, Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi each holding a sky-blue piece of candy as Sakura sulked in the corner.

Oh, Kakashi would pay for taking her candy.

Yes, he would, she promised to herself. Oh yes, he would.


Two Weeks Later, at the Hokage Office:

"Very good job. Very good job, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura. That was a B-rank mission, maybe even A. I'll give you the pay for that, and you get a break. You really deserve one," Hiruzen praised Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. Sakura was looking down at her feet, flushing with pride, Sasuke his stoic, emo self, and Naruto bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, grinning so wide his face looked like it was split in two. "Go take your break. Kakashi, Naruto, stay here…"

Glancing at each other, Sakura and Sasuke slowly backed out of the room and shut the door.

"Out of the tower, kids!" Hiruzen called, before a loud sigh was heard from outside the door and barely audible footsteps padded out of the room, until only silence remained.

"Naruto made a deal with the Kyuubi," Kakashi muttered, watching Hiruzen gaze at Naruto with an almost pitying gaze, the red chakra coating his left side darkening and flickering with several tails before fading again.

"As I can see."

Silence.

"Haku was going to kill us after we battled Ragai and Fuguki, so I begged Kyuubi for help. I promised him anything that wouldn't harm my friends or Konoha so that he would heal my wounds and replenish my chakra. So he did. What he asked for in return was two years of service outside of the village, in which he would teach me to get revenge on those he has despised. He agreed that I would leave after I passed the Chunin exams,"

"Indeed I did."

"Kyuubi, shut up!"

"And you can force me-"

"Kittens! Come out!"

"No, Naruto, Naruto, please, please-"

In Naruto's mindscape, Naruto shaped the previously Kyuubi-pee filled gutters into a flowery meadow covered in prancing, meowing, and extremely cute and funny.

"NOOOOOOO!" Repelled by the disgusting cuteness, Naruto exited the mindscape just as the Kyuubi began to claw and stomp on the transparent kittens, who continued meowing, playing, frolicking, and being cute.

"What were we doing?" Naruto asked, then noticed Kakashi and Hiruzen staring at him with a dumbstruck expression. "Oh, I just covered the place in kittens. It always works."

"Uh…" Hiruzen smiled to himself, then nodded at both Kakashi and Naruto. "Naruto, don't get carried away with your newfound power. Just do what the Kyuubi wants, then leave."

"I will use the abilities the Kyuubi gives me, but I will not be swept away by the power," Naruto promised. Smiling fondly at Naruto, both Kakashi and Hiruzen gazed at him with an admiring gaze, before Hiruzen nodded slowly.

"Good, Naruto. Now, go take your break," Hiruzen urged.

As Kakashi poofed away, Naruto stepped outside and immediately located Sakura and Sasuke, standing outside the Hokage Tower, both of them jumping up from their spot on the ground and opening their mouths to begin to ask questions.

"Guys. I have an idea," Naruto interrupted them before they could start. Both of them stared back at him, confused. "Let's find out what's under Kakashi's mask."

Both of them stared, dumbstruck, before Sasuke shook his head and began to walk away.

"That's a stupid idea, we should be training," Sasuke told them.

"Well…" Sakura thought, her face tilted up to the sky. "It's most likely impossible, I heard no one has ever seen him without his mask on!"

Naruto ignored this. "What if he has… fish lips?"

An image of Kakashi's face, with a normal sized nose but huge and pouty red lips, filled Sasuke's head, causing shivers to tingle down his spine.

"Or… maybe a small mouth?"

As Naruto said this, Sasuke shook visibly, an image of a tiny old-woman mouth on Kakashi's face.

"Perhaps… buck teeth?"

Swaying on his feet, Sasuke turned around suddenly, eyes wide and half scared/ half challenging.

"Let's go do this, guys," He snarled. "We're finding out what's under Kakashi's mask. Now."

From the shadows in the nearby alleys, Kakashi smiled dryly. If they wanted to play this game… I can become a player…

"So, what do we do first?" Naruto asked, frowning as he sipped on a cup of water. Shrugging, Sasuke and Sakura both stared at each other, at Naruto, and then at each other.

"We should track him throughout the day. We should be able to find him somewhere to start, probably at the cemetary or maybe the Icha Icha store," Sasuke eventually commented, frowning as he knit his brows.

"I'll go first!" Naruto eagerly offered. Zooming off on feather-like, quiet steps, Naruto headed toward the nearest Icha Icha shop, frowning when he saw the lack of a certain silver-haired Kakashi Hatake from his normal place ogling the newest release or deluxe editions. Shutting his eyes, Naruto began to search for chakra signatures, searching for the familiar one of Kakashi Hatake, and then-

"There!" Naruto exclaimed, before he took off running in the direction of the nearest grocery store. As he neared it, Naruto ducked behind a corner and noticed a flash of silver hair, and then leaned over to peer into the window. Kakashi Hatake was standing, back facing the window, holding a bag of groceries in one hand and one book in the other, obviously flipping through it, pages crinkling as they were quickly flip.

So Naruto waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Finally, growling with frustration, Naruto stomped toward the door, opened it, and then stopped in astonishment. In the second that Naruto had walked, losing sight of Kakashi in that fraction of time, he had vanished.

"Did you find anything? Anything at all?" Both Sasuke and Sakura yelled as soon as they spotted Naruto walking toward them.

"Um…"

"BAKA!" Sakura yelled, glaring at him as Naruto sat down heavily and stared down at the stone cup in front of him.

"He just vanished! He was reading in the grocery for two hours, and when I went to go inside, he vanished! Just like that!"

"BULLSHIT!" Sakura spat. "I'm going next, and we're going to find out what's under his mask, even if you are a failure, baka!"

Sasuke and Naruto shrugged at each other as they watched her stomp off.

He's been standing here for two hours, Sakura complained as she, shielded only partly from the pouring rain by the tree branches above her as she glanced at Kakashi, then back at the sodden book in her hands.

Wait.

Was that… straw? Poking out from Kakashi's side?

Running forward and shoving the bushes covering her aside, causing a spray of droplets to fly through the air, Sakura ran toward Kakashi Hatake, standing in front of the tombstone, and ducked in front of her.

Instead of his mask and single melancholy eye, Sakura met the gaze of two poorly drawn eyes and a mouth, sticking out a tongue.

Kakashi had defeated them again.

"You failed too, Sakura? I mean, I know the dobe would, but you…"

"SHUT UP TEME!" Naruto yelled, looking pouty and angry. "You're going to fail too, believe it!" Ignoring Naruto, Sasuke stood up as Sakura sat down in his place, dripping wet, and sighed.

"I'm trying next. Just you see, I'll see what's under his mask…"

Sasuke soon was following Kakashi as he walked about the Konoha village, watching in increasing levels of boredom as Kakashi walked around. And around. And around the village, face buried in Icha Icha Tactics, before Sasuke finally exploded in anger. Stomping toward Kakashi, Sasuke was just about to ask him in a yell how Kakashi had became a ninja if he spent hours walking around the village until Kakashi vanished in a puff of smoke.

Shadow Clone Jutsu.

Sighing in defeat, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura slowly walked home in grim and utter defeat.

"Why do you guys look so tired?" Kakashi asked as Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura made their way to the training ground, sending furtive glances toward him as they began to half-heartedly train. All three of them glanced at each other, then back at Kakashi, then returned to their training. Stifling a laugh, Kakashi smiled as Naruto leaned in to whisper to Sasuke, who glared at him and shook her head.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto finally asked. Sasuke and Sakura both shook their heads at Naruto, who ignored them.

"What, Naruto?"

"Um… what'sunderyourmask?" Naruto blurted.

"What?" Kakashi asked, confused.

"What's under your mask?"

"Why, is that all you wanted to know? I'll show you, if you want."

Sasuke and Sakura gasped, and they both ran up toward him and stared, wide eyed, as Kakashi reached up and put a hand on the top of the mask.

"Under my mask is…"

Buck teeth? Sakura pondered.

Big lips? Sasuke asked himself.

A small mouth? Naruto wondered.

"Under my mask is…"

"Under his mask is…"

"Another mask!"

With that, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura collapsed to the ground in horror as Kakashi began to laugh at their horror, their disappointment, their sadness… they were so close… so close… but they had failed…


Two Weeks Later:

"KAKASHI-SENSEI! YOU'RE LATE AGAIN!" Naruto and Sakura screamed, even Sasuke glaring up at Kakashi as he popped down next to them. Today, Kakashi was even later than usual, four hours late.

"I had a meeting," Kakashi made an excuse. Both Naruto and Sakura glanced up at him suspiciously, but then he took out three red tickets, emblished at the top with the large word Chunin.

"I signed you guys up for the Chunin Exams."


Yes, the CHUNIN EXAMS! I'M SO EXCITED TO WRITE THIS!

It's one of those points you have already prepared and you waited for forever to post it.

Hope you enjoy, please read and review!