Author's Note – this story will include some intense violence, as well as disturbing and/or adult themes, as I intend to make the villain a truly vile and psychotic individual. If this offends you, feel free to read something else. You have been warned.

I DO NOT OWN NARUTO (duh)

"speech"

"thought"

"demon speech"

Chapter 9. – Shadows Scar the Sunshine.

"This is very, VERY bad," Kakashi thought as he surveyed the wreckage with Konoha's symbol over it. "We walked right into this. If Kumo finds us at the scene of this massacre, it could start another war."

"We need to get of here fast," the jounin told his team. "But first, we should destroy that symbol. Sakura, smash it."

"Hai, sensei," she replied, and began to run toward the blood painted wall.

She got about halfway to her target when a familiar sword burst from the ground and stabbed through her thigh, causing her to stumble and tear the wound open further.

"SAKURA!" Naruto and Kiba both yelled in concern.

As she fell, Sakura gritted her teeth against the pain and brought her fist down with earth shattering force. As the dust settled, she attempted to stand on her injured leg, channeling green healing chakra into her hand that clutched at the wound.

"He's here! Toramaru's he –" she yelled, before she was cut off by the unmistakable sensation of a heavy combat boot striking the back of her head. After that, everything went dark.

The others saw Toramaru leap up out of the ground and kick Sakura to the dirt. The insane ninja turned to face them, leaving her facedown and bleeding.

"I set a trap for Konoha's hounds and instead I catch their pups," he called out mockingly. "This is insulting. I see only two proper warriors among you. Kakashi-san, Kyuubi-kun, why did you bring the rest of this trash? None of your underlings are worthy of feeding my darling Hiruhime."

"You cocky bastard!" Kiba snarled. "I'll kill you!"

"Heh heh heh, the pup bares its teeth," Toramaru chuckled.

Kiba growled, but Shino gripped his shoulder and shook his head.

"You shouldn't underestimate them, just because they're young," Kakashi said. "They've all defeated powerful opponents in the past. They're not children."

"Have they watched their loved ones tortured to death, Kakashi?" Toramaru demanded. "Have they had to slit the throat of a wounded comrade to put him out of his misery? Have they had to kill old friends who turned traitor?"

The ex-Akatsuki member began to stride purposefully toward the Konoha team, radiating overwhelming levels of killing intent.

"No, they're just pups," he said scornfully, "one who fancies himself a wolf, one with fleas, two cringing bitches, and one who sleeps in the shade. I'm going to kill them all, with my bare hands!"

"Like hell you will!" Naruto shouted. "I won't let you lay a finger on them!"

Gathering his sage chakra, the blonde rushed forward to meet Toramaru, creating over 100 clones on the way.

"Suiton: bakushouha (water style: aquatic shockwave)!" Toramaru called out, and coughed up a small tidal wave.

About half the Narutos managed to evade – and thus survive – the watery blast by using the other half as springboards. The survivors flew toward Toramaru, intent on avenging their fellow clones.

"U-zu-ma-ki Naruto rendan!" they shouted, accompanying each syllable with punches and kicks.

Toramaru was driven to the dirt under the onslaught, but instead of getting back up, he simply sank into the earth and disappeared, his chakra signature vanishing.

The other Konoha ninjas saw Naruto's clones jump over the wave, then gasped as the wave formed itself into a dozen of Toramaru's water clones.

"Bring it on, asshole!" Kiba shouted, springing into action. "Jujin bushin no jutsu (man-beast clone jutsu), shikyaku no jutsu (quadruped jutsu)!"

Where before there had been Kiba and Akamaru, there now were two feral looking Kibas. They sprang toward Toramaru's clones and began to spin.

"Gatsuga!" the real Kiba called, as he and Akamaru blasted through one clone only to have another clone drop to his hands and mule kick them both with bone snapping force.

Meanwhile Kakashi had made several shadow clones and was engaging in a miniature war with more of the enemy's water clones.

"The clones are this strong?!?" the copy ninja thought in disbelief as he desperately parried repeated sword strokes with his kunai. "Water clones have only one tenth of a ninja's original strength. If his clones are this powerful, then Toramaru is at least as strong as Pain was. Looks like this fight is going to be up to you, Naruto."

Shino and Shikamaru were fighting as a team, and were managing to hold their own against the Toramaru clones. Shino commanded his symbiotic insects to swarm around them, draining the life-giving chakra from any clone that got close and reverting it into harmless liquid, while Shikamaru sought to immobilize the enemy with shadows, rendering them easy targets. The clones quickly learned to keep their distance, and began to bombard the pair with jutsus.

Hinata was hard pressed by three of the water clones. She was fighting in top form, but like her teammates, she was out of her league. Even though her byakugan allowed her to see the enemy coming, their inhuman speed allowed them to slip past her defenses. The clones never scored a direct hit, but at the speeds the four combatants were moving even a glancing blow was enough to send Hinata reeling.

"I'm impressed by your agility," one of the Toramarus told her as she twisted to deflect his punch. "But we both know that you can't keep up this pace for long. You're already starting to slow down."

"The smart thing would be to kill yourself now," another clone chimed in, as he dropped low and almost tripped her with a leg sweep. "That way you can have a clean death, and I won't get a chance to 'play' with you."

"He's right, I can't keep this up much longer," Hinata thought, staggering and struggling not to panic, "but I won't give up. Naruto-kun believes in me, and I can't let him down. I'll just destroy all three clones at once!"

Hinata let herself fall into her stumble and rolled, handspringing back up to put distance between herself and the enemy. She began to rotate her arms at incredible speed. Sweat formed on her brow as thin, bladelike beams of chakra trailed from her extended palms, lashing like whips around her.

"Shugohake rokujuuyon shou (guardian trigrams sixty four strikes)!" she yelled, leaping forward to face her attackers.

The clones drew their swords like lightning and parried furiously, but Hinata's chakra blades simply bent around their swords to strike their bodies, slicing them in half and dispelling them.

Her enemies defeated, the Hyuuga princess released her jutsu. As the adrenaline burned out in her veins, she fell to the ground feeling the familiar effects of chakra exhaustion. She fumbled in her coat for a soldier pill, but it was too late, and the strain of performing such an advanced jutsu at the speed necessary to land a hit on Toramaru had been too great.

As her vision blurred, she murmured, "I did it, I-I beat them. Did you see me, Na-ruto-kun? Aah…"

Standing on a branch overlooking the battlefield, Toramaru smiled; everything was going according to plan. He suddenly stiffened, and then leaped to another tree as a rasenshuriken shredded the tree he had been standing in, reducing it to sawdust. Toramaru landed, then turned to address the trio of Narutos who had attacked him.

"Good, Kyuubi-kun, that was very good," the mad shinobi said. "That was a killing blow, struck from behind, with virtually no warning. And while I had assumed that you'd find me, you did so much faster than I anticipated. You've been practicing using your sage's senses, haven't you?"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!!! Oodama rasengan (great ball spinning sphere)!" Naruto shouted, leaping at Toramaru as his clones formed a massive chakra ball, over ten feet in diameter, in each of his hands.

"Akuma kendo: taki wa wakeru!" Toramaru shouted as he swung a chakra charged Hiruhime into the whirling balls of chakra, which exploded forward, tearing apart the surrounding forest.

Naruto was thrown back by the kick of unleashing the blast, but was unhurt, as the raging whirlwinds of chakra had been unleashed in the other direction. Toramaru, on the other hand, had his arms and shoulders peeled raw where the spinning chakra blast had curled around the shockwave he had released to block the attack.

"That's right, Naruto," the insane ninja cackled, seemingly oblivious to his blood running freely down his back and off his arms. "Get angry; embrace your fury! I want you to hate me. Show me your rage!"

"I SAID SHUT UP!!! JUST FUCKING DIE ALREADY!!!" screamed Naruto, growing claws and fangs as his sage chakra was used up and could no longer suppress the demonic power that his anger called forth.

"Yes, use the demon's power," Toramaru gloated, "our fight is meaningless unless you use your demonic strength."

Naruto took a deep breath to calm himself, before dispelling one of the clones he had sent to gather sage chakra. His demonic features instantly receded as he used the sage chakra to suppress the Kyuubi's power.

"Like I'd do what you want me to, you crazy bastard," he growled. "I'm going to beat the crap out of you, but I'm going to do it as a shinobi, not a demon."

"Very well," Toramaru replied, "I suspected that you might take that attitude. If you feel so strongly about it, then I won't force the issue. And just to show that there're no hard feelings, let's play a game. We'll race to Kumo's kekei genkai research facility, but first we have to pass the checkpoint – your white eyed girlfriend! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The evil ninja burst into maniacal laughter and vanished in a blur of motion.

"HINATA!!!" Naruto screamed, racing after Toramaru and yet knowing that he couldn't keep up with the missing nin's superhuman speed. "HINATA, RUN!!!"

Hinata heard Naruto's panicked screams, and tried to get up, but she was too weak from her fight. She felt a strong hand roughly grab the hood of her jacket and yank her up. Through blurred vision, she recognized Toramaru's mocking, fanged grin.

"No," she whispered, struggling desperately to move, to resist, to fight back, to do anything!

Toramaru's sadistic smile only grew wider, before he slammed her head into the ground.

Hinata's last thought before she blacked out was, "Naruto-kun…help…"

Naruto saw Toramaru grab Hinata off the ground and knock her out. He sprinted desperately to reach her, but the remaining water clones moved to intercept him.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!" he roared, three tails of red chakra erupting from his back and swatting the clones aside.

"HINATA!!!" Naruto screamed as he dashed toward her, but Toramaru dove underground, pulling the unconscious kunoichi with him.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!"

"It's time, boy."

Naruto was back in the sewers of his mindscape, at the Kyuubi's sealed cage.

"It's time to make your choice," the demon gloated. "Will you let him take her to Kumo, or will you unleash my power?"

"But if I use your power, you'll kill her too!" Naruto replied, uncertainty creeping into his voice.

"I'll kill her?" the Kyuubi sneered. "Oh no, brat, YOU will kill her. I don't control your actions, even when you use my chakra. But that's beside the point. It would be better for her if she died. She's a beautiful young girl who's been captured by an enemy who desperately wants her kekei genkai. We both know what Kumo will do to her, and that she will be begging for death before they're done."

"No!" Naruto shouted, with tears in his eyes. "No, No, No, No, NOOO!!!"

The Kyuubi began to laugh as Naruto pounded the floor in horrified frustration at the choice before him.

"Hahahahah, the clock is ticking, brat," the Kyuubi laughed. "You can either unleash my power, or let your beloved 'Hinata-chan' become Kumogakure's newest adult attraction. Make your choice!"

"Perhaps I can offer an alternative," said a cold, yet familiar voice from behind them.

Naruto whirled around, then froze in shock at the figure confronting them, as the Kyuubi bristled and snarled.

"Hello Naruto," said Itachi Uchiha.