Chapter 7

Getting stronger

It had been two years since Naruto found, and took possession of, an underground laboratory formerly owned and operated by Orochimaru of the Sannin. He had disposed of the corpses littering the place, repaired the lighting,(Discovering the bunker was powered by a system that mimicked photosynthesis, something that Naruto found nothing short of fascinating) and cleaned the bunker entirely. All the bloodstains and bio hazardous materials like used scalpels and syringes were cleaned, and disposed of respectively.

The bunker's interior were a shiny stainless steel, with lights that were built into the walls and ceiling. The autopsy tables were spotless and ready for any future use. The glass tubes used for storing and observing test subjects were filled with water and ready to be occupied. If Naruto ever wished to experiment with the Blacklight virus on either the surrounding wildlife, or by kidnapping Konoha residents, he had a perfect place to perform the experiments.

Zeus had taught Naruto everything he had accomplished with the Blacklight virus' capabilities. Including shape-shifting, turning his arms and legs into weapons, as well as how to perfectly impersonate a person. As Zeus had two weeks and a half to become as powerful as he was before he was brought into Naruto's world, Naruto had more time to refine his abilities.

Zeus had told him to be imaginative, and put his own spin on the weapons Naruto could make. For example, Naruto's claws were much longer than Zeus' and very thin, almost like needles. The claws reached down to Naruto's ankles, providing him the range of the average sword. His blade was similar to Zeus' but still had its key differences. The blade itself was longer, scraping against the ground if Naruto fully extended it towards the floor. The small spike that emerged from where Zeus' elbow would be was instead a smaller blade for Naruto, and possessed serrated edges.

Naruto's Whipfist was also much different from Zeus'. The blades on the end of it were changed from the original design of two blades with two barbs that faced towards Zeus, by instead possessing a single blade on it's end with no barbs. The tendril the blade was attached also differed from the original design, by being bladed as well, said blades emerging from vertebrae like growths on the tendril.

Naruto thought the Hammerfists would be useless when most of his enemies would be shinobi. Much faster and smaller than the tanks it was originally meant to combat. So Naruto instead replaced with tendrils that could emerge from anywhere on his body, with a variety of uses, from allowing him to manipulate or grab more than two objects, from being used as an extension to the Whipfist.

Naruto had on occasion returned to his apartment, where his bio-clone resided, and after hearing it whine about how it had to hear the same lecture over and over, it gave him info on what the students were learning, as well as what the more interesting students, the clan heirs, were doing.

Apparently, the Akimichi and Nara heirs, were good friends. Not surprising. But the Yamanaka heiress wasn't on good terms with them. It had to do with the Nara's laziness, and the Akimichi's eating habits. The Hyuuga heiress was timid and shy, barely capable of finishing a sentence without stuttering at least once. The Uchiha heiress was surprisingly friendly, attempting to extend a friendly hand towards the bio-clone (and by proxy him). It definitely was of note. Saiyuri's mother was also friendly towards him, but her expression was odd. It was like she was remembering someone else. He'd have to find out who later. The Inuzuka heir was brash and loud, much like the majority of his clan, and challenged clone-Naruto to numerous duels that always ended with the Inuzuka being beaten into the ground. But Kiba seemed a good sport about it, always declaring that would get stronger to one day surpass Naruto. It was an amusing thought, but still was a pleasant surprise to see another friendly face.

Then there was the issue of the pink-haired annoyance. Her name was Sakura Haruno and seemed book smart but was utterly incompetent in combat. More concerned with her appearance, and boys. The clone was very much tempted to clean the human gene pool somewhat by killing her, consuming her would likely give him a very bad case of indigestion. But the clone managed to suppress that particular urge. There wasn't much more of note.

He was heading back towards the Forest of Death when the piercing sound of the dying sounded off in the distance, it's origin around the Uchiha District.

Naruto frowned. What was going on? He swiftly changed his path, and began sprinting with all haste towards the Uchiha District.

(Uchiha District, Konoha)

There was blood and corpses strewn about the street and the courtyard in front of the Uchiha Clan Complex. Naruto landed in the center of the courtyard and immediately unleashed his Claws. Whoever had infiltrated and made a mockery of the Uchiha Clan was very strong. He needed to be careful. He entered through the doorway, the door itself a pile of ash.

More bodies were within. The lethal wound seemed to be from a short blade, perhaps belonging to a ninjato or chokuto. There was a definite trail to follow. The corpses all seemed to be leading to where the Uchiha clan head and his wife resided. If the killer was already there...He made all haste to the master bedroom.

(Academy entrance, five minutes before)

Saiyuri Uchiha was confused. Normally her mother would come to pick her up and she would follow her mother home. She wasn't here, and Academy had ended ten minutes ago. What was going on? She knew the way home, and decided to head there herself. But the first thing she saw upon entering the street that led home was...bodies in the street.

She very carefully kneeled over one, and after a degree of hesitance, moved the corpse around so she could see it's face. Upon seeing the face, she gasped in horror, and let go of the corpse. The body of was of Teyaki Uchiha, the proprietor of Uchiha Senbei. She had a good relationship with him, she would always come to Uchiha Senbei the moment she came home from Academy. He was like an uncle to her and her brother Itachi. Who killed him? And what of the rest of her clan? She sprinted towards her clan complex as fast as she could, praying all the while that everyone was safe.

There were even more bodies. They were everywhere. There was so much blood... Saiyuri withheld the bile rising in her throat, and entered the clan building. More bodies. What happened to her parents? A surge of fear struck her. What if they had been killed as well? She ran towards her parent's bedroom, ignoring the dead bodies and the blood. She had to see her parents!

She stopped in the doorway. Petrified. The killer was visible now. It was her brother Itachi. He was gripping onto a blood stained Anbu issue ninjato. He had his blade reared back, her parents were on their knees, facing her. Their eye's widened when they saw her. Her father was the first to die, the ninjato slicing through his neck cleanly. Her mother was next. But she was saved by someone she had never expected to appear.

'Naruto?'

Naruto had appeared quite literally out of nowhere, having dropped from one of the rafters in the ceiling. His arms had been replaced by what could only be described as claws, and those same claws had blocked the ninjato set to end her mother's life. A quick swipe was ducked by Itachi, but the front kick had impacted squarely into his stomach. His eye's, the Sharingan within them, widened in pain, and a quick cry of pain issued from his mouth, before he was suddenly propelled forward, impacting and breaking through the wooden wall, landing somewhere out in the backyard.

(Naruto's POV)

Naruto turned to look at Mikoto, she was in a state of shock, and looked up at him. She mouthed out 'thank you' then looking towards Saiyuri. She immediately ran to her mother, being caught in her arms, sobs soon filled the room as Saiyuri was no longer capable of withholding her tears. Naruto looked at the scene for a few moments, before exiting through the new hole in the wall, intent on pursuing Itachi.

Itachi was struggling to get up when Naruto entered the backyard. He spoke.

"Naruto...what are you doing here?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"I was intrigued as to why people were screaming over here. I didn't expect you to be killing off your clan. I thought you were a pacifist."

Itachi didn't show any reaction. Or at least he thought he did. No human was capable of fully suppressing their body language. Itachi was lying. Naruto didn't need to mention that to Itachi however.

"I never cared about my clan. I only ever cared about power. This was just a test Naruto."

Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"A test you say? Well now. You certainly had everyone fooled. Even me. But makes you think you'll escape here alive?"

Itachi didn't show any reaction, like before.

"This."

The Sharingan changed in his eyes, becoming a vaguely shuriken-like pinwheel with three individual 'blades'. Then he made eye contact with Naruto. And he felt his consciousness fade away.

"Tsukiyomi."

(Tsukiyomi World)

When Naruto awoke, he was bound to what appeared to be a cross, and the world around him was only in shades of black and red. A crimson moon hung in the sky, casting blood red light throughout this strange land. He looked down at himself and noticed he appeared in an inverted gray scale. Itachi's voice was suddenly all around him.

"I am sorry Naruto. You have left me no choice in this."

Itachi materialized in front of him.

Naruto was somewhat curious. He had nothing to fear. Whatever this illusion could dish out, he had already experienced far worse through the memories of those he consumed.

"Oh? You actually sound regretful. I wonder why? What are you going to do?"

Itachi frowned, confused at how Naruto was so calm.

"This is the world of Tsukiyomi. A world that I have complete control over. You will be in here for 72 hours, in the real world only three seconds will have passed."

Itachi stopped frowning, and a truly remorseful expression took hold on his face.

"You should never have intervened Naruto. Just know that I take no enjoyment in this."

Swords suddenly appeared, completely surrounding Naruto.

His reaction took Itachi completely aback. An insane grin, almost to an inhuman degree, split his face. His blue-silver eyes glowed through the dark atmosphere, striking dread in Itachi's heart.

"Oh please!"

He suddenly screamed, anything resembling sanity entirely gone from his voice.

"What more could you possibly do to me Itachi? None of the torture you put me through would even tickle! Do your worst!"

Itachi's face lost the remorse, and swiftly became emotionless once more.

"We'll see."

The swords all impaled Naruto at the same time.

(Uchiha Clan House, Konoha)

Saiyuri had followed Naruto to the backyard, ignoring the pleading of her mother. Itachi was there, staring into Naruto eyes, completely motionless. Naruto was as still as a statue as well. Less than three seconds passed before the two began moving once more, Itachi swiftly placing a hand over his left eye, blood streaming from it, resembling tears. Naruto momentarily swayed, before massaging his forehead with his claws, and entering a combat stance.

Itachi was completely shocked. Naruto was entirely immune to the torture he had put through. Not even a slight whimper. Just those terrifying blue-silver eyes staring at him unblinking.

"What the hell are you?"

Itachi gasped out. The use of Tsukiyomi had put a major strain on his reserves. He could barely see in front of him.

The same damn grin appeared on Naruto's face.

"I told you..."

Naruto said in a singsong voice.

"Nothing you could imagine would even make me flinch."

Itachi grimly nodded at that. It seemed Naruto possessed an inhumanly pain tolerance, or he simply couldn't sense pain at all. Troublesome.

"I see that now. Regardless, you are a threat now because of that."

Naruto barked out a laugh.

"Yeah, Cause you can definitely fight in that condition."

Itachi cringed at that. He highly doubted he would stand a chance against Naruto. Those claws of his looked very deadly.

"Itachi...What happened? I was expecting you a few minutes ago."

A sudden new voice caused Naruto to whip his head to the right. There was a man there. With a strange orange mask with decorative black flames painted on it. It only possessed one eye hole. Long, spiky black hair, with jaw-length bangs. He was wearing a black cloak, as well as a black bodysuit underneath. Dark gray leather gloves covered his hands, and his outfit was completed with black pants and black ninja sandals.

Naruto felt an immeasurable rage when he looked at this masked man, and he had no idea why. Said masked man seemed to notice Naruto's stare.

"Ah. That's why. The Uzumaki child. I assume he was giving you difficulty then."

Itachi lightly nodded.

Naruto frowned. Who was this man? Why did he feel so angry just by looking at him? He curbed his rage and spoke.

"Who in the hell are you?"

The masked man chuckled. It greatly annoyed Naruto.

"Oh you needn't worry about that Naruto."

Naruto's eyes widened. This masked fucker knew his name? Who the hell was he!?

The masked man stopped laughing and moved to Itachi's side, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll be leaving now."

Naruto reared back, and leapt forward, claws at the ready to slice through the two men.

"Like hell you will!"

His strike never connected, as the two men suddenly vanished in a swirling vortex.

Naruto scarcely managed to stop himself from face planting, and looked back at where Itachi and the masked man once were. An expression of rage twisted his features.

"Goddammit! Son of a bitch!"

(A few hours later)

The Hokage as well as a team of Anbu, and every available Jonin had arrived to the Uchiha District. They were shocked at how the clan had been decimated, and even more shocked to learn that Naruto had helped prevent the deaths of two clan members.

Mikoto and her daughter Saiyuri were rushed to the hospital, to treat wounds more damaging than any cut or bruise. They were assigned a Yamanaka for psychotherapy, and would attend weekly sessions.

Naruto meanwhile was off to the side of all the action. Watching as body bags were hauled away on stretchers, to the Konoha Morgue. The Hokage walked up to him, a smile on his wrinkled face.

"Naruto, I can't thank you enough for helping those two. You did a very good thing today."

Naruto shrugged off his praise.

"It's fine. Saiyuri is the closest thing I have to a friend to be honest."

In truth, Naruto didn't know why he protected her or her mother. He only ever had a few passing conversations with Saiyuri personally, with the bio-clone having spent more time with her. Granted, the memories the bio-clone had were easily passed to him, but nothing there really explained why he went out of his way to save her life.

Was it because she was one of the few friendly faces he knew? Perhaps. Naruto would have to think these questions over later. A Yamanaka was asking him to fill out a report about the newly coined 'Uchiha Massacre'.

He could see why Old Man Hokage hated paperwork so much.