Sui: I'm back with yet another chapter of Tortured Demigod. I hope you all like this chapter as much as the last. On a side note, I have been informed by a reviewer that I have not been doing much in the way of character development for Hinata, which in turn made me see that I'm not doing enough character development for Sasuke. That is a grevious error that I have begun to fix with this chapter.

Disclaimer: I lost the grueling legal battle for custody of Naruto and Ookami.


Naruto awoke with a start, his eyes snapping open and then quickly squinting almost shut to keep out the bright morning light. After his eyes adjusted, a glance about the room revealed that both Kakashi and Sasuke were not in the room. Quickly getting dressed, Naruto made his way downstairs, finding his team and Tazuna's family finishing breakfast. Naruto ambled over to the table, getting himself some breakfast and digging in, not even sparing his the others at the table a glance.

"You slept rather late, Naruto-san." Kakashi commented.

"Eh, rough night." Naruto got out between bites.

"You still have to work your water walking." Kakashi reminded.

Naruto simply grunted in response as he continued eating, giving Kakashi a blank stare for a moment before going back to eating. That is, before he realized something and snapped his eyes back up to Kakashi, staring in shock.

"Something wrong, Naruto-san? You've been staring at me for the past ten minutes." Kakashi said, startling Naruto out of his daze.

"No… It's nothing Kakashi-sensei." Naruto tore his eyes from the steel gray aura that surrounded most of Kakashi, with the exception of the patch vibrant gold that emanated from his covered left eye.

"Well, anyway. Naruto-san, you will continue to work on the water walking exercise. Sasuke will work on the tree walking exercise, with Hinata-san's help considering how much she managed to help with the water walking exercise and once Sasuke completes tree walking, he'll work on water walking as well. Tazuna-san, I'll be going with you today to guard you."

Naruto only half listened, glancing about the table, observing the others. Sasuke's aura was now a deep purple, tinged at the edges with the same vibrant gold centered around Kakashi's left eye. Tazuna's was the color of rusted bronze. Tsunami's was a red-brown earth like color. Inari's aura was tarnished silver. Only Hinata's remained unchanged, still the same pure ivory it had been since he had first met her, further solidifying the thought that she was different from other humans.

Naruto finished his food in a slight daze, wondering at the changes that had occurred. Leaving the house, Naruto distractedly made his way to the other side of the lake to practice water walking. Stepping into the water, Naruto immediately sunk. After several tries, Naruto decided to talk to the Kyuubi, assured that the fox deity would be able to tell him what happened. Sitting down cross legged, Naruto closed his eyes and focused his mind inward and quickly felt his feet land on ground that wasn't there before.

Opening his eyes, Naruto saw his mindscape. The mental representation of his mind had changed greatly since his first meeting with the Kyuubi. Where once it was a dank sewer flooded with at least a foot of water in the shallowest parts, the corridor now appeared as the hall of a great daimyo's castle. The floors were polished hardwood and the walls were of a slightly lighter wood with other corridors occasionally branching off. Naruto had learned that the hall he appeared in whenever he came here was actually the center of his consciousness and that the halls all lead to different parts of his mind. Making his way down the hall at a brisk pace, Naruto quickly found himself in the Kyuubi's room. It too had gotten a renovation over the years. It now appeared as a great hall where royalty would meet visitors, complete with a semitransparent silk curtain hanging in front of the Kyuubi's cage to shield the dark deity from sight.

"Come to ask about the changes Nuregami made." The Kyuubi stated rather than asked.

"So you do know what she did."

"Of course I do. As Nuregami said, not everything is black and white. However, due to your status as only half god, black and white was all you could see in people's souls, good and evil. Nuregami bestowed the sight of a full god upon you, hence the pain you experienced in your eyes, since your body isn't supposed to handle such power. Each color, as with the black and white aura's you saw before, has a meaning. It's up to you, however, to figure out their meanings, which go far deeper than just good and evil. Now go back and continue to work on that water walking exercise your sensei set you to. I expect you to complete it well before the week is over so you can begin working on the use of Nuregami's power." A wave of power flooded from the cage, sending Naruto hurtling back out of his mind.

Scene Change

"A-ano, you're using too much chakra." Hinata advised quietly.

Sasuke gave his signature, apathetic grunt, but still lowered his chakra output as he steadily continued up the tree. He had been unwilling to follow Hinata's advice at first, his pride demanding that he figure it out on his own, but quickly began doing as suggested once his logic managed to out weigh his pride after the 22nd time he fell to the ground when he didn't take her advice.

"Why are you so willing to help me?" Sasuke questioned suddenly.

"What?"

"The day of the bell test, I insulted you and since then I've been ignoring you at best or insulting you at worst. If you had acted that way to me, I would be actively sabotaging you. So why are you willing to help me?"

Hinata looked down sadly. "I'm w-wiling to help you for the s-same reason my clan calls me weak. They say I'm t-too kind and forgiving, that I should h-have no mercy and act like a p-proper Hyuuga, acting as though e-everyone else is below m-me, that is." Hinata explained.

Sasuke stared at her for a moment before he replied. "And why don't you act like that? Every Hyuuga I've ever met has and, though they aren't as strong as the Uchiha clan, the Hyuuga are still powerful." Sasuke admitted with some difficulty in quelling his pride enough to admit that someone else may rival his power.

Hinata just smiled the somewhat sad smile she had before. "Too little chakra." She advised.

Scene Change

"What happened to playing the matchmaker between the blond brat and your female student?" Tazuna questioned.

"I'll give them many more chances to work things out in the future, but the safety of you and your family comes first and I've already given them what I can without endangering the mission. Naruto-san made significant improvement yesterday, but Sasuke needs to make more improvement than he has so he can catch up. I'll need all my students at their fullest to fight Zabuza and his accomplice and I also would like to give Naruto-san a chance to do whatever it is he does to practice his unusual abilities without his teammates there to interfere or ask questions he doesn't want to answer."

"About that, how can he do that? I've been around the elemental nations a few times, so I know that ninja can do things ordinary people could never do and I've also heard that there are those among ninja who can do things that no other ninja can and that these families organize themselves into clans. Is it some sort of clan ability that allows him to do that?" Tazuna questioned, displaying a worldly knowledge that few non merchant, traveler, or politician civilians had.

"Honestly, I don't know. I know nothing about Naruto's heritage and I'm not sure if anyone else in Konoha does either. Naruto was dropped off in the orphanage on the very day he was born and has had a hard life, much harder than he deserves, and I feel that it has pushed him to grow up far too quickly and in a very bad way. Naruto refuses to talk about how he can do the things he can, and the Sandaime refuses to allow anyone to push the issue. All we can do is hope he remains loyal to Konoha and continues to use his abilities to our benefit." Not entirely a lie, he had his thoughts on who Naruto's father was after all.

Scene Change

Naruto was sitting by a tree as he rested, he had managed to improve his skill in water walking, though not by much and was now absently practicing Nuregami's powers, making small spouts of water burst into the air and form ever more intricate shapes as he refined his control over the water manipulation powers to get the most use out of them before the inevitable battle against Zabuza. Naruto snapped his head to the left as he sensed someone approaching. Not even a minute later, a person who was either a very effeminate boy or a slightly boyish girl made their way out of the tree line, a basket of herbs in their hands.

"What's someone like you doing all the way out here?" Naruto questioned, apparently startling the person.

"O-oh! I was just gathering some herbs." The reply was strained, as though the long haired person was afraid.

"You won't find many around here. It seems as though Tsunami-san already picked all the herbs near the lake. If I may ask, what is your name?" Naruto made polite conversation so as to buy time to decipher the newcomer's aura. It was composed almost entirely of the same steel gray that made up most of Kakashi's aura, sprinkled with splotches of dark vermillion. Haku took a moment to answer, having gotten over the shock of meeting Naruto, only to realized with renewed shock that Naruto's hair now had a distinct white tinge and barely visible red lines could be seen making their way across his visible skin. "M-my name is Haku."

"Hm. Well, as I said, there aren't many herbs around here."

"That's fine. I'll g-go look for some elsewhere." With that, Haku quickly rushed off, nearly running and making Naruto suspicious at the speed androgynous teen was moving at.

Scene Change

A week had passed since they had arrived. Sasuke had managed to complete tree walking with Hinata's help and had moved on to water walking. Naruto had managed to become competent enough with water walking that he could do it so long as he wasn't fighting, though he had spent a majority of his time working on using Nuregami's power, working on water walking when he ran out of ink. Kakashi had made a complete recovery, the only signs that he had done so being that he had put up the crutches, his genin having no idea where they went either. Today was the day that Kakashi had predicted Zabuza would attack and had Naruto leave several dozen kage bushin at Tazuna's house in the event that a kidnapping attempt was made before the group made their way to the bridge. When they arrived, the bridge was covered in mist and the shapes of some of the workers could be seen lying on the ground. The team and Tazuna moved into the mist, the ninja showing no fear while Tazuna was nearly having a panic attack, despite his previous experience with ninja battles.

"Cut the theatrics Zabuza, you know you don't stand a chance." Kakashi called out.

"Heh, I see you brought the brats with you again. Are you sure they can do anything against us?" Zabuza said as the mist cleared up just enough to show Zabuza and his accomplice nearly two dozen feet away.

"Are you sure your kid can handle my students?" Kakashi returned.

Instead of answering, Zabuza just thickened the mist once more, reducing visibility to near nothing. Suddenly, Zabuza appeared out of the mist, his sword, which had been repaired over the course of the week, already coming down in a powerful down stroke. Kakashi leapt aside, allowing the heavy blade to bite deep into the concrete bridge. Zabuza quickly gave chase, both jonin disappearing into the mist. From behind them, the accomplice appeared out of the mist, striking at Tazuna, only to be blocked by Sasuke and attacked from the side by Naruto, who had summoned his large segmented blade once more.

"So you were Zabuza's accomplice then, Haku." Naruto said as Haku disengaged. "I was suspicious after you ran off like that, but this just confirms it."

"How did you know it was me?" Surprise leaking into Haku's voice despite the lack of a change in posture to indicate as such.

Naruto just donned his lupine grin and charged after Haku, Sasuke following closely. Naruto attacked with a horizontal slash that Haku dodged, knowing better than to try to block a hit from such a large blade through many training sessions with Zabuza. Sasuke came in from the side with a vicious roundhouse kick that Haku blocked. Naruto slipped in the instant Haku blocked and ripped his sword in an upswing, tearing through the bridge as he did so. Haku back flipped away, creating some distance. Haku ran through a series of hand seals, stopping on the Ox seal.

"Hyouton: Tsubame Fubuki" The mist condensed into dozens of small ice birds that charged Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto leapt aside, batting at the birds, shattering those that he hit and occasionally taking a glancing hit, while Sasuke ran through seals and spat out a fireball, only for the birds to make it through and tear into Sasuke, leaving numerous cuts and shallow holes in his flesh as the greatly diminished birds continued their suicidal attack, melting in the aftermath of Sasuke's fireball before they could do any serious damage. Naruto charged in again, bringing the massive blade down in a diagonal overhead slash. Haku retreated further, allowing the blade to bury itself in the bridge. Naruto lashed out once more, the blade being replaced with a loosely connected string of prayer beads that wrapped around Haku's leg. Naruto pulled hard, sending Haku flying towards him. The instant before Haku was about to hit him, a large stone circle adorned with the sign of infinity appeared in front of him, causing Haku to slam hard into the reflector before it disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared.

Naruto jumped back as a fireball pelted the spot Haku lay crumpled on the ground. The fire cleared revealing an unharmed Haku behind a sheet of ice that shattered into razor sharp shards that flew at Naruto and Sasuke. As before, Naruto managed to bat away many of the ice shards, the increased mobility of the beads allowing him to hit far more, shattering them as he did so, even with his lighter weapon, while Sasuke dodged many of them, getting several new cuts in the process.

"How are you able to shatter my ice so easily with your weapons?" Haku questioning gaze focused mostly on Naruto and watching Sasuke with peripheral vision.

"I'm a ninja, not some two bit magician. I'm not going to reveal my secrets so easily." Naruto countered, drawing upon his divine powers and, with a few quick brushstrokes, a bomb the size of Haku appeared a few feet above the disguised ninja. Haku leapt back, the powerful bomb blowing a chunk out of the bridge and sending Haku flying back from the concussive force. Haku scrambled up, running through hand seals at top speed.

"Hyouton: Myakou Hyoushou." A group of ice mirrors quickly condensed out of the mist around Naruto, but he shattered many of them as they were forming with a lazy swipe of the deceptively powerful beads, finishing the remaining ones with another swipe of the beads. Drawing once more upon his divine powers, Naruto created another bomb behind Haku that went unnoticed until it hit the bridge and immediately exploded, sending the androgynous ninja flying towards Naruto, only to be wrapped in the string of beads mid flight and swung into a pile of bridge material. Naruto pulled up, sending his enemy over his head to slam into the bridge behind him. As he turned to face his enemy once more, he caught sight of Hinata attacking their opponent while the injured Sasuke had retreated closer to Tazuna.

Charging in to reinforce Hinata, Naruto drew Haku's attention, allowing him to slip in and place himself between the fake hunter ninja and Hinata, switching out with his sword once more as he did so. Pressing the attack, Naruto used short swings to press Haku back while Hinata slipped in around Naruto, darting in between attacks, and land a steady stream of hits on their opponent. After nearly two minutes of a non-stop assault from the combined force of Naruto and Hinata, Haku collapsed to the ground, legs no longer able to support the masked teen. Naruto lifted his sword to make the killing strike.

Scene Change

"Give up now Kakashi, I'm far better prepared than I was before." Zabuza threatened the nonchalant jonin.

"I beat you before; it'll be child's play to do it again." Kakashi replied lazily before letting out an exaggerated yawn in an attempt to anger his tense opponent while he wondered over that same tenseness. "Surely you're not afraid of me, are you? You're a lot tenser than before." Kakashi went with the direct approach, none to discreetly pulling up his headband to reveal his implanted sharingan eye.

"Keh, as if. I just came into some knowledge that annoyed me, but make no mistake, I know the truth about that blond brat of yours now and I've prepared a contingency plan to deal with it."

"Oh, so you know about Naruto-san then. What preparations have you made for him then?" Kakashi probed, wondering how Zabuza had figured out about Naruto's jinchurikki status, unaware that Zabuza was really speaking of Naruto being not entirely human.

"I'll be sure to let you know when it gets used." Zabuza replied before fading into the mist.

"So you actually fear Naruto-san and expect him to be able to get past your accomplice then?" Kakashi goaded.

Kakashi's well honed danger sense warned him just in time to roll forward and dodge a horizontal slash from Zabuza's zanbatou. Not even a second later, Kakashi lashed out with a kunai, the chakra enhanced blade clashing with Zabuza's sword before he disappeared back into the mist. This continued in much the same fashion, Zabuza attacking from the mist before quickly retreating. However, the pattern ended when Zabuza suddenly stopped attacking. Kakashi waited tensely, straining his senses in an attempt to find his opponent.

'If he's not here then…' Kakashi didn't finish his thought as he rushed towards where he could sense his students and the client. He arrived just in time to see Zabuza bat away Naruto and Hinata with the back of his sword, having apparently missed with the attempted killing stroke, and grab the now unconscious Haku before leaping back, the mist fading.

"I was hoping we had been wrong about you, brat, and that Haku would be able to handle you. After I figured out the truth, I made some preparations in case Haku couldn't win."

Naruto's eyes narrowed at that. "I had figured that you wouldn't figure out the truth and what you did learn would scare you off." Naruto said, confusing those on the bridge who didn't know the truth of Naruto's heritage.

Zabuza gave a half grin, half grimace as the mist cleared fully, revealing the large circle filled on the inside with symbols that none but Naruto were aware of the meaning of drawn right behind the team. "I figured with all the water around, I'd give you a proper opponent that would feel at home in such an environment." With that, Zabuza dashed forward in a move no one expected and bashed Naruto with the back end of his sword, sending him flying into the circle, both it and the symbols immediately beginning to glow an off purple black before the symbols pulled themselves off the ground and arranged themselves in the air in no recognizable pattern.

There was a rush of air over the bridge before a loud clacking sound made itself known, similar to the sound a crab makes when it snaps its claws together. The circle filled itself with water that appeared from nowhere until the water level was twice as high as Kakashi was tall, Naruto standing unsteadily on the surface as it rose. Several dark shapes fell from the sky, some of it being chunks of wood that floated on the surface, bobbing slightly in nonexistent waves before two more dark shapes fell, sinking all the way to the ground, giving Naruto time to make his way to one of the planks, before they made their way to the surface. One was a green hermit crab with a shell in the shape of the first half of a shark and the other was a red hermit crab with a shell in the shape of the back half of a shark.

"Jiro-kun, dear, what are we doing here?" The red crab spoke in a distinctly female voice.

"I don't know, Saburo-chan." The green crab had a male voice. "It seems we've been summoned to a modified version of an Oni gate."

"Then someone has challenged us." Saburo looked around before spotting Naruto. "Ah! I see now. Some young spawn of that accursed woman who beat us up on the sunken ship has called us to do battle. I suppose we can humor the child before we tear him to shreds for the disgrace his mother inflicted upon us." Saburo's tone became dark near the end.

"Ha! Let's do it. It's not like that bitch can come down here and deal with us herself again." Jiro cheered.

Naruto simply prepared himself, knowing that the two wouldn't listen to reason now that they had determined him to be an enemy. Jiro spat an urchin at Naruto that he batted away before lashing out at Saburo, knowing these two's weaknesses from the Kyuubi. Jiro leapt in front of the attack with a cry as Saburo swam underwater before he spat out a salvo of urchins that Naruto tried to bat away again. This time, however, some of the slipped through, the spines impaling themselves in his flesh and realeasing a potent demonic toxin that burned as it was obliterated almost as soon as it entered his system. Naruto grunted as he pulled the urchins out, only to be attacked from behind by a surfacing Saburo. Naruto ducked under the attack and drew upon his divine powers, quickly leaving a bomb bobbing in the water next to the odd pair. The two swam away as quickly as they could, the waves created by the partially submersed bomb crashing over them and sending them underwater. Wrapping his beads around the disoriented Jiro, Naruto pulled the crab demon from the water. Switching out with the Seven Strike, Naruto slammed the blade into Jiro's shell as hard as he could, sending the odd crab flying away with an audible crack as its shell was left with spider web cracks emanating from the point of impact.

Back outside the cylinder, the gathered ninja and Tazuna watched in shock as Naruto battled the crab monsters

"Just what did you summon?" Kakashi wondered in awe, only half paying attention to his own question.

"I-is is even p-possible for talking a-animals to exist? Hinata breathed out, worried for Naruto.

Zabuza gave the same half grin half grimace he had before sending Naruto into the odd circle. "I was hoping that wouldn't work. If it hadn't, it would have meant that the blond brat was just unnaturally strong or in the possession of a blood line." He began, speaking more to himself than Kakashi before addressing his fellow jonin's question. "Meet Jiro and Saburo, the demon couple."

Zabuza's reply broke Kakashi out of his shock and he quickly ran through a short set of hand seals. A loud chirping sound erupted as chakra lightning gathered in his hand, arcs randomly lashing out at the wet ground beneath him. Kakashi charged the barrier, his lightning covered hand outstretched in front of him. With a cry of "Rikairi." Kakashi impacted with the barrier, only for it to have no effect.

"Don't waste your time Kakashi. Your brat is going to die in there against those two." Zabuza said, some of his former confidence returned now that what he perceived as the greatest threat was trapped and going to die.

Kakashi turned back to Zabuza with a glare. "Sasuke, Hinata-san, guard Tazuna-san. I'll deal with Zabuza and then I'll free Naruto-san."

Hinata nodded her assent while Sasuke wisely decided to refrain from voicing his thoughts on Naruto's impending death as Kakashi charged the missing ninja with renewed ferocity.

Back inside the barrier, Naruto was having a bit more trouble keeping up with the attacks of Jiro and Saburo as they attacked with greater ferocity after Naruto had cracked Jiro's shell. Dodging another attempt to crush him from behind, Naruto batted away the follow up of a crab equivalent of a backhand from Saburo.

"Humph. This brat isn't going to be fun anymore, Jiro-kun. Let's just finish him off." Saburo said, retreating partially into her shell.

"Of course, Saburo-chan." Jiro said as he swam over to her and they joined claws before retreating fully into their shells, the two halves of the shark that made up their shells joining together to form a full shark wearing plate armor.

"Now you don't stand a chance against us brat. We are Ichiro." The creature Jiro and Saburo had joined together to form spoke with both their voices before it submersed, swimming in threatening circles around the plank Naruto was currently positioned on.

The shark suddenly leapt from the water with an explosive burst of speed, aiming to crush Naruto under its bulk. Naruto lashed out with his blade as he leapt aside, scoring a gash into the soft, unprotected underbelly of the shark. Ichiro roared in pain as it took the blow, landing on the driftwood and crushing it into splinters, some of which lodged themselves in its wound. Swimming around Naruto's new perch as it had before, Ichiro tried the same tactic as before as well, leaping from the water to try to crush Naruto again. This time, however, Naruto drew upon his divine powers once more, drawing a quick horizontal line across Ichiro's stomach. Releasing the power and leaping away, Naruto was pleased to see a dark stain spread from where Ichiro had landed. The dark shape of Ichiro sped up towards Naruto, just out of sight as it was directly below him, growing larger as it neared the surface. This time, Ichiro had attempted to come from below to take a chunk out of Naruto. It partially succeeded as it's serrated teeth scraped against Naruto's leg, as he leapt away, leaving gashes nearly an inch deep in the back of his calf and scrapping against his shinbone in the front. Naruto let out a mixture of a hiss and a growl in pain as he landed. He looked down at the bleeding wounds to see them slowly, though it was far faster than a normal human's healing rate, and steadily healing. However, Naruto's moment of distraction cost him as Ichiro launched itself from the water at his left. Naruto leapt away with results similar to when Ichiro came from below. Jagged gashes tore from nearly the shoulder to elbow of his left arm. Naruto cursed as he drew upon his divine powers, using a variation of rejuvenation to accelerate the healing of his wounds, consuming a nearly a quarter of his remaining ink.

Ichiro, making the mistake of trying the same attack three times in a row, came at Naruto from the right. This time, however, Naruto batted the demon shark into the air as it attempted to take a chunk out of him and, intending to end the battle quickly, drew upon his divine powers once more, drawing a thick, dark line across Ichiro's vulnerable stomach, draining him of almost half of the ink he had left. As Naruto released his grip on his powers, allowing his changes to come into being, Ichiro was split in two with a piercing scream.

"Damn you, brat!" Saburo's voice rang out as the demon shark began to disintegrate.

"You won through luck! Next time, we'll tear you to shreds!" Jiro said as the shark finished disintegrating into yellow-black particles that faded into the air.

Naruto sighed in relief as the water drained away into the nothingness it had come from before the dark barrier faded away, allowing him access to the outside world once more. However, before Naruto could do anything, a voice rang out across the bridge.

"Well, well. It seems the baby demon Zabuza and his little brat can't even beat one man and some kids." Everyone's heads turned to see Gatou and a group of thugs at the end of the bridge.

"What do you want, Gatou. I'm not done with my job and don't need the help of your grunts to do it either." Zabuza called back.

"You fool. Did you really think I ever intended to pay you, especially after you demanded triple the original pay?" Gatou sneered. "Now that you ninja have all worn each other down, I can have my men kill you all and save the money I would have had to pay you."

Zabuza spared Kakashi a glance. Neither was in the best of conditions. Kakashi's furious assault had left its marks and Kakashi hadn't gotten away without wounds either. Haku was still unconscious and the only one of Kakashi's students still somewhat fresh was the girl, Hinata if he remembered correctly.

"It seems we aren't enemies anymore Kakashi. What do you say we deal with this pipsqueak and then we can go our separate ways?" Zabuza offered.

Before Kakashi could respond, Gatou spoke up again. "Of course, I'll have them leave that white eyed girl. Eyes like that would make her sell for quite a bit. Some men like to take exotic women to bed, though I might just keep her for myself for all the trouble this has caused me."

Kakashi's eyes widened as what Gatou said sunk in. "We may not need to deal with them."

"What do you mean? That rat just threatened to sell your student as a whore and you're not going to kill him?" Zabuza asked incredulously.

"I'm more than willing to try after what Gatou said, but that would require Naruto-san to leave some of them alive. He's notoriously protective of her. No one has figured out why yet, but he's threatened more than one person for them insulting her. With what Gatou just said, it's likely he and every one of his thugs are going to die." Kakashi said with chilling finality.

Just as Kakashi had predicted, Naruto sprang into action, moving low to the ground with his blade close to his side. As Naruto unknowingly unleashed a great deal of killing intent in his rage, the thugs and Gatou were frozen in fear as they saw the air and lingering mist behind and above Naruto warp into the form of a massive wolf, teeth bared in a vicious snarl. Just behind the ethereal figure of a wolf, the figure of a fox, more than three times the size of the wolf, with nine tails swinging wildly about formed. With a sensation of déjà vu that they barely noticed, nearly half the thugs were spilt in two, their organs spilling out as the two halves fell to the ground. The sight startled the remaining thugs into action, prompting them to flee in terror. They didn't get more than ten feet before Naruto was upon them, hacking them into pieces. Within two minutes of Gatou's proclamation, all the lackeys were dead and Naruto was standing before Gatou, Seven Strike perched on his shoulder, staring the corrupt business man in the eyes. Gatou, if he had been able to speak through the paralyzing fear, would have told of a monstrous figure. A person with bone white hair with black streaks placed at even intervals. Red markings curled and wove over his visible flesh. A visible aura of raw power flared around him, intermingling good and evil making a terrifying picture of a wrathful god come to enact revenge.

"P-please h-h-have mercy." Gatou managed to squeak out in the face of this vengeful deity.

Naruto continued to glare at Gatou as he moved with slow deliberate movements, bringing his sword to rest on Gatou's shoulder, he gave a malicious grin before ripping it toward the shipping magnate's head, literally tearing his head from his shoulders with the force of the blow. With a dull flash of light, Naruto resealed his blade and turned back towards his team, Zabuza, and Tazuna, surveying the carnage he left in the wake of his rage induced killing spree. Nearly 100 people dead in less than two minutes with no resistance what so ever.

Naruto strolled over to where Hinata, Sasuke, and Tazuna were standing before sitting down heavily, the exhaustion from fighting Haku, then Saburo and Jiro, then Ichiro, and then slaughtering Gatou and his thugs in quick succession setting in now that the adrenalin rush wore off.

Zabuza, taking the chance to get away while he could, grabbed Haku and disappeared in a quick Mizu Shushin.

Meanwhile, Naruto's teammates, Tazuna, and even Kakashi were looking at him with shock evident. Sasuke and Hinata because they hadn't thought Naruto would be capable of slaughtering so many people like that and not even show even the slightest bit of remorse. Tazuna because he was shocked at seeing a 12 year old kill nearly 100 people in less than two minutes. Kakashi was less in shock at Naruto's reaction than the others, his own observations of Naruto in addition to the Sandaime's report on Naruto and this incident having thoroughly convinced him that Naruto was mentally unstable, but still somewhat disturbed at the sheer brutality and carnage of Naruto's attack.

Scene Change

Team seven was leaving. It had been nearly two week since the battle on the bridge where Naruto had fought against the crab demons Saburo and Jiro and their combined form, Ichiro and slaughtered Gatou and his thugs. The village had been cautiously thankful of Naruto, though they were rather disturbed at the sight that had greeted them when they arrived at the bridge and were even more disturbed when they learned that Naruto had been the one to kill Gatou and his thugs. With a few words to the citizens of wave, more specifically Tazuna and his family, the four set off back to their home, using the bridge Tazuna had built.

"Hey, what should we call the bridge?" One of the villagers asked.

"I was thinking the Super Awesome Tazuna Bridge!" Tazuna suggested enthusiastically.

"How about… The Great Naruto Bridge." Inari suggested. "He did free us from Gatou's reign."

"Yeah, fine, we'll go with that." Tazuna grumbled good naturedly, staring off into the distance where the Konoha head disappeared to.


Sui: So do you like this one as well? The review button will take your ballets, please form an orderly line. On to reveiw answers.

Jimbobob5536: Sorry to say, no souless Kakashi, I just found that to be a nice cliffhanger, though considering I put out a new chapter two days after the previous one, it doesn't work too well.

dracohalo117: Amaterasu won't be making an actual appearance for awhile. She will show up from time to time, but she won't really affect anything untill the rest of the divine players come onto the stage.

Ninja bat master: I have plans for Hinata, I won't tell you what exactly they are, but I will tell you Naruto is right in the belief that she is not a normal person.

Wyrtha: Hinata is too timid, even with more exposure to Naruto, to ask more and Naruto, having been taught some by the Kyuubi, knows better than to demand more from a teacher than they are willing to give. As for the gods, they are telling Amaterasu about Naruto, but she can't really affect the human world at this point in time for reasons that will be revealed in due time.

Lexor: Zabuza and Haku aren't, or weren't rather, followers of the old ways. Haku just reported that Naruto suddenly physically turned into a white wolf, Haku didn't see the markings or the divine weapon that hovered over his back, and Zabuza remembered an old story he had read once about something like that. Now that they are convinced that Naruto is divine, they can see the truth of what he is, but they won't be around for awhile.

twilightcloud18: Hinata still likes Naruto and Naruto bears an interest in her, but their relationship won't be really moving along for awhile still due to Naruto's lack of understanding of humanity( as well as his own lack of humanity at the moment). Right now, the begining of their relationship is being layed out before they really start it.

Dragon Man 180: So you asked, so I gave. The fear of a wrathful deity is forever instilled in Gatou.

Celtic-Moon-Wolf: Worry not, Naruto's slaughter of Gatou's thugs isn't the only instance of Naruto killing spree that will be seen. At the moment, Naruto's apparent goodness is more or less an act for Konoha, though as you saw in this chapter, not everyone falls for it. As for the second part of your revew, the game in questione that is featured in this story is called Okami.

To everyone whose reviews I didn't answer, I thank you for your support and hope you continue to read.