Senju's Heir

Naruto didn't know what made him and Sasuke rush head first into danger so foolishly. Perhaps it was the numerous Sharingan implants, or maybe the decimated bodies around them. Regardless, blood is what they sought. Vengeance for those that had already fallen at the hands of this man.

Instants before reaching their target, Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a glimpse so subtle, even Shin's Sharingan barely caught it. Naruto sent a kick high, Sasuke sent a kick low. Both were stopped with a single appendage, an arm high, and a knee low. Using the inertia from their blows, Shin spun between both their bodies, and rushed back with his intentions clear.

Sasuke blew things way out of proportion and took Naruto off his feet by swinging him from his chest and out of Shin's trail. He went under one of Shin's kicks, blocked another with his left forearm, and realized something instantaneously.

'This man is no combat shinobi...!'

Coming to the conclusion that Sasuke wanted him to flank Shin, Naruto came full turn on his heel and made his way back into the fray. He swung his scarf to the side, and rushed forth, the piece of cloth around his throat clinging closer to it. He pulled out a kunai and prepared to use it.

Sasuke felt a trickle of sweat make its way down his face. "Naruto! Wai-!"

It was too late.

A feet from bisecting Shin, Naruto stopped and felt himself being bisected, Shield of Leaves be damned. A chakra scalpel split the middle of his shirt and opened his flesh all the way down to his abs, starting from his neck. He bit back a very persevering groan as he nailed his teeth shut.

Blood spurted out of Naruto's wound like pressurized water from a hose.

Sasuke, seeing Naruto's blood in the air, felt a loud crack boom within him; one accompanied by raw, unforgiving rage. Like a guided missile, he shot forth and reeled his right leg back right behind Shin's head. His jaw dropped when the attack slipped right over his Sharingan infested head. Of course, this man literally had eyes on the back of his head.

Sasuke took the unfortunate opportune, however, and picked Naruto up by curling one of his arms around his back. He aided him away with a quick jump and regrouped with the still pale-looking Sakura. "Naruto... Oi, Naruto! Are you still breathing?!"

"Of course I am...!" Naruto took the initiative to stand back up, but regretted it immediately. A sting, one painful, fresh and piercing sting made his very skin crawl in withdrawal. "Shit...! This guy's no pushover; I was only barely able to react, and his scalpel split my shield apart like it was made of water..."

"Naruto!" Doing her best to ignore Naruto's blood, Sakura quickly came and took Sasuke's role as support. "Press onto me..."

"But... Sakura-chan..." Naruto winced and pulled back a little from the still pure cherry blossom. "I'm all bloody... I'll get you-"

"I don't care about that!" Sakura interrupted, her pair of emeralds shielded in a crust of liquid. But she refused to shed a single tear. She would not break the twenty-fifth shinobi rule. "Can't we just get out of here?! He's too much for us, we're only Genin!"

"We can't do that," Sasuke frostily intervened, his eyes meeting the Sharingan eyes before him. He knew his pair were also there, just waiting to be tapped. He could feel it. "Not until we find out who and what this guy is."

"For once, I agree with Sasuke..." Panting, and with blood soaking the edges of his ruined shirt red, Naruto stood on his own and balled his fists. "Look around you, Sakura, everywhere... Everywhere you look, dead and mutilated bodies, all with family probably missing them and crying for them right now...! Sasuke's right, we're ninja now! And ninja do not abandon people in need!"

Sakura stared at her two teammates. She turned to herself, registering her small, frail red hands. She had never thought herself weak back in the Academy. She had always consoled herself that she wasn't the brute type, that her major reasoned with intelligence, not brawn.

Curling her quivering hands into fists, Sakura was made painfully aware of her frailness, of her lack of courage. Here stood two exemplary ninjas standing before her, one bleeding with his internal organs practically on the precipice of bulging out, and another who refused to go because he knew it was something that offered clues to his long life goal.

"Sakura," Sasuke muttered without taking his eyes off the approaching enemy. "You're a hindrance. Stay behind us or leave and go get Kakashi."

"Oi!" Naruto crowed, berating himself for doing so when he had a very deep slice running down his entire midsection. "Don't talk to her like that...!" He turned to his female teammate. "Sakura-chan, stay behind us. This guy may be out of our league, so me and Sasuke need some space to spread our wings."

"You're no better, Naruto." Sasuke growled. He looked the blond up and down, shaking his head at his condition. "You're both better off staying out of my way. With that injury, you won't be doing me any favors."

"Food for thought, Sasuke." Naruto straightened his posture, though still harbored the insufferable pain from his dangerous injury. "My Senju genes make me a fast healer, and my Uzumaki ones only help supercharge that further. Though even I won't be able to heal something like this immediately."

"Then..." Sasuke turned to Naruto, his eyes challenging and smug. "Can I count on you for once...?"

Naruto ripped his orange shirt right off his shoulders.

Open flesh graced his chest with a narrow vertical line, one glistening under the artificial light of the laboratory. He sniffed his scarf, and cuddled his nose into it. "You're underestimating me, Sasuke." He gave it another twirl around his neck, just in case. "That'll get you killed some day..."

Sasuke grinned.

He didn't know what Naruto was insinuating; perhaps it was a misunderstanding, or perhaps the blond had really hinted that he would someday fall to his hand. Either way, he found his sass somewhat amusing.

"Interesting words... Sakura, free the people in the jail cells. We'll keep the walking pacifier busy."

Realizing there was no way she could stand side by side with these two, Sakura felt herself helpless. She had at her disposition two of the ninjas rumored to be the next leaders of their generation, yet she felt helpless. But then came why.

'It's because I'm nowhere near their level...'

She shook those thoughts away, and decided to do what she could now. "Please don't die, both of you. I'll free the people inside the building."

Sakura took off, unknowingly leaving her teammates to be molded by fate.

"Free them?" Shin stopped a few feet from his two new test subjects. "Why are you trying to halt humanities thirst for knowledge? Have you any inkling in that foolish head of yours what I'm trying to achieve, or are you merely being led by the primitive chemicals and signals in your brain that initiate states of sympathy for your fellow man?"

"Feelings aren't something that can be explained, you monster!" Naruto raised both his fists, and prepared his legs. Sasuke did the same next to him, but on the opposing side. "Feelings come from deep within us and it's what makes us human. We care for one another, not just because its right, but because we know how much we can hurt each other!"

"Now I know you're naïve," Shin crossed his arms before his chest. "Humans in general are a species founded in conflict and war. The latter is a necessary stem on the grand scheme of things. It keeps the species strong, adamant and fresh. It crushes the weak, and allows the stronger genes to manifest into a much brighter future. You two are prime examples of this..."

A chill crawled its way up Naruto's legs. Shin's final words were like an objective claim, one that had no way of being refuted. "You're wrong... Your whole ideal is wrong...! We aren't some simple organisms clinging to nature, we're all conscious and aware of our surroundings!"

"That is why we must be careful," Shin's Sharingan glowered at his gullible nature. It was downright disgusting. "We humans are as foolish as we are cunning. We're all selfish and impulsive, reasonable yet wild. Contradiction is our founding detail and we strive to hide it. Conflict is the only place where everything is laid bare, and with Orochimaru's help, I will be one step closer to plunging this world into yet another war."

Shin sneered, his tattered lips pulling almost predatorily. "But what of it? You two will still rise stronger either way. Your genes are remnants of the strongest DNA sequence in humanity's history, after all..." He began walking towards them. "All is for the sake of humanity, and its secured future. The means to my goals are irrelevant so long as they are achieved... After all, science is the only logical perspective in this world..."

"You're insane..." Sasuke growled.

He looked this man dead in the eye, and saw Shin's Dojutsu morph into what he knew was no longer the standard Sharingan. Here stood a man that had sacrificed everything in pursuit of his goals. He gave his body, his soul and even his sense of morale, gaining what Itachi expected of him. Now a question remained.

If he sacrificed everything for his goal of killing Itachi, would he inevitably end up like him?

"No..." His eyes seethed with accumulated fury from years of repression. He no longer saw Shin as a man, not even a living being; all he saw was himself in a few years should he truly sacrifice everything to kill one man. Before him stood a result, one he refused to believe could ever happen. "I'll DESTROY YOU!"

Ignoring Naruto's pleas of restraint, Sasuke dashed forth, his eyes flashing and remaining scarlet. He had activated his one-tomoe Sharingan from the very founding emotion every Uchiha had embraced; hatred.

Sasuke chanted inside his mind the same thing again and again, refusing to believe his own conclusion. 'I will not end up like him! I won't!'

Sasuke went after Shin's life like killing him would help prove himself wrong. As he reached Shin, he took in every twitch of his muscles and memorized them with ease. Two feet from clashing, he jumped and readied his right foot to crash it squarely on the man's face. Shin caught his heel and Sasuke gasped.

A very thin line spread along the two fleshy flaps across Shin's face. "You will never be able to kill Itachi-sama..." He slung the boy over his back, allowed him some flight to grant a false sense of security, and grasped his throat, crashing him into the concrete. "You are nothing compared to him. Side by side, you're just another of the millions of worthless weeds needing to be crushed-"

Shin suddenly found himself catapulted towards the giant, metal door. He crashed, tumbling the whole mass of steel and summoning every dust particle within.

Naruto stood before Sasuke, his whiskers feral, and his eyes a raging crimson. A hum of steam echoed in the room, one sourcing from his chest. The red line running horizontally across his midsection healed in a split second, and the leaf petals in the vicinity turned aggressive and protective of him.

"Worthless...?"

Recalling Gaara's words back in the park, Naruto subconsciously sprouted roots under his feet. He felt them grow, stem and rock the ground under him, but knew not how it was occurring.

"So, you think that just because you have a little power that gives you the right to deny the existence of others...? The way you say it, the way you spit such bullshit... it makes me think you believe only a select few are worth taking into consideration, Shin."

Naruto filled the room with a sudden flash of green light. "You're WRONG!" He shot his hands together into the ram, then to the snake. "Mokuton: Deep Forest Creation!"

Sasuke stood on all fours, Shin restored his composure, and both shared something mutually similar besides their Sharingan eyes; the awe of the spectacle taking place.

Roots snapped the concrete flooring open, and tendons of the Jutsu spread upwards and in every direction before Naruto. It expanded until it brimmed the entire width of the room, puncturing gargantuan holes within them and possibly affecting the building's integrity. They sped up knocking down everything in their path and towards their initial target at blasphemous speeds; Shin.

Under Naruto, a single, massive root carried him like the progenitor he was. Throughout the glorious exposure of lack of control, however, some of the large critters penetrated the roof above, decimating it with countless craters. Masses of concrete fell from the ceiling, shaking the entire building's foundation.

Naruto didn't know where the technique had sprouted from, but he had felt it bloom inside him. Tenzo had once told him of the Jutsu's name and effects, but had never showed it to him for one simple fact; Tenzo's Mokuton wasn't strong enough. Still, he truly believed he could keep it under his control, therefore the snake-seal in his hands remained.

Shin warily observed the staggering amount of roots nearing, all massive in scale, and intent on crushing him with the very metal door that kept outsiders out. Moments before being crushed, he was about to use his Space-Time Jutsu to teleport away, but before any of that, he felt a painful pulse reverberating in his chest.

Looking down, he saw what could only be a lightning encased hand sticking out of his chest. He sprawled an alarming bulge of blood, and his Mangekyō Sharingan receded into their natural three tomoes.

'What kind of power... does this Jutsu have... to penetrate this many inches of steel...!'

From the other side of the door, Kakashi sniffed once, his dual eyes steeled into a furious red and a thick lead. 'I can smell you from the crevice under the door, my good man... And you're definitely not a friendly, nor one of my lovely students... not with a stench of blood as powerful as yours...'

'Am I to die...' Shin felt his legs buckle from under him. The only thing keeping standing was -ironically- the thing that had him so weak to begin with. 'By the hand of a man I can't even see! Dammit, and I was days from perfecting the cloning process...!' When the growing forestry before him reached its target, Shin felt his ribs break, his legs shatter, and his lungs crushed under the immense pressure. "Impossible...!"

After energy finally ceased to flow through his coils, Naruto's body crumbled and headed for the floor. Several feet from meeting the green infested base, his usual accompanists formed a bed under him, stopping his descent entirely.

"What..." He heaved, his eyes returning to their original violet. "Was that...? I felt something warm inside of me..."

Kakashi squatted next to Naruto with a hand on his throat. Sighing, he patted the boy on the chest a little harder than necessary. "Looks like you disobeyed orders. Coming from you, I'm not really surprised. But I suggest you be prepared with Tsunade-sama."

Sasuke limped his way next to Naruto and sat right next to him, his normal charcoal eyes also retuning. His mind was in too much of a mess to even be happy about unlocking the Sharingan. "What the hell was that...?"

"I have no idea..." Naruto sat up and surveyed his surroundings. Everywhere he looked, green is what his eyes perceived. The place still suffered from dim lighting, but at least it no longer looked like a scene from a horror flick. "Shit... If only we'd been sent here sooner... Maybe we could've..."

Sasuke remained silent, but Kakashi thought the contrary. "Maybe it would've been you on those counters."

"I don't care..." Naruto forced his body into standing back up. Peering over his shoulder, he made sure every body laying about wasn't damaged. His control may have not been the best, but he concentrated most of his efforts to avoid doing that. "Protocol, a consensus, laws; I don't care about any of that so long as I save those suffering."

"It's exactly..." They all reacted to the voice west from them. Shin was visible amongst the mass of roots, some of them planted into his shoulders and chest. He was minutes from perishing. "Why humanity is so pitiful... War is avoided... because of your kind... Ironic, considering what you are... a Jinchū-"

A single kunai flew through the air, and unceremoniously, cleaved through Shin's forehead, taking his life and silencing him forever.

All eyes went to the outstretched arm of Kakashi, broad as if he were a golden statue carved by a vengeful god. "Resilience... I hate that in an enemy ninja..."

"Oi..." Naruto muttered. He turned to Kakashi, fear and something reminiscent to anger stirring inside. "He was no longer a threat... You didn't need to kill him-!"

"WAKE UP!" Kakashi howled.

The silence that followed was painful within the confines of their group.

His one eye stared at Sasuke, then at Naruto. "We're ninja. Killing is our trade. I wasn't the one who caused this disaster, nor am I blaming you. But you need to remember we are trained from a very young age to kill. Be prepared to do so yourselves, because there hasn't been a single ninja in history that hasn't done it.

"We aren't paid to be heroes and not always will we be able to save everyone; don't be naïve. If the rules of engagement are twisted, we may even some day end up being the bad guys. That is why I need you to grow from being mere tools, and be human, like in this situation. I won't praise you for defying orders, but I still respect your intention to try and save the innocent."

Those words were soaked up by the pair of young ninja. Obligation as a ninja had nothing to do with what he wanted to get across, they could tell. It was a perfect mixture of logic and humanity. He wanted them to know that like their kunais, killing was standard issue in their line of work.

"Guys..." Sakura walked through the debris as her hands shifted between reaching for them and withdrawing. Among their stares, she fell to her knees. Naruto and Sasuke were about to go to her, but they were held back by Kakashi. "I'm so sorry..." She broke Shinobi rule number twenty five. "I couldn't be of any use to you..."

She took in the remnants of blood running down Naruto's chest, the red over his lips, and the lilac around Sasuke's neck. Both harbored reds, one suffered purples, and both spoke of exhaustion.

She crashed her hands on the floor, unknowingly cracking the surface under the grass. "How can I call myself a kunoichi...?!"

"Sakura-chan..." Naruto had never seen someone so distraught; not since he had cried in the forests of the Daimyō's village. He could see himself in Sakura when he had tried to prove to Tenzo he was worthy, that he had accumulated the necessary will to grow beyond his breaking point.

"Then change yourself," Sasuke's voice came as a surprise for everyone present. They stared at him as he stared at Shin's lifeless body. "One grows from adversity and experience. As that bastard said, me and Naruto are prime examples of such a fact.

We were smelted from one shape, and then to another, growing stronger with each transformation. It's about time your turn came... Otherwise," he stood back up a little shaky. "You'll remain as nothing but a bother to this team."

Naruto grinned, "Everything Sasuke said, Sakura-chan! Except that little last unnecessary part... But he's right, I think it's about time you decide where your place in this team is."

Kakashi nodded and gave Sakura a thumbs-up. "We all support you, Sakura."

"Sasuke-kun, Naruto... Kakashi-sensei..." She wiped away her tears and nurtured a smile with their support as an incentive. She sat in their group with her hands folded on her lap, and like the gravitational figure she knew he represented, Naruto was in the middle. 'I love you three so much...'

"Now then," Kakashi stood back up with his team in tow. "It looks like we have some serious work to do. I wish being a ninja was all battles and glory, and trust me I wish it was, but we have to clean up after ourselves and help out the citizens still incarcerated in here."

"I already sat them free," Sakura quickly added, yet again wiping her eyes from further shameful tears. "I came back immediately after I heard something similar to an explosion, but I helped several out of their cells and told them to help out the others beforehand."

"Oh," Kakashi patted Sakura's head, ignoring the unhappy pout that came with. "That's our girl. Now then, I guess all that's left is to help them out with whatever we can."

~~Next Day, Port City's Gate~~

"Thank you very much for all of your help!"

"Thank you for saving us!"

"Have a safe trip!"

After working all night and dealing with the constant thanks of the villagers, Team Seven was finally departing for Konoha. As they walked their way out, waving -except Sasuke, he was too proud- and smiling back at them, they held their heads high and enjoyed a renewed sense of accomplishment.

An hour after their departure, they decided to stop for a little impromptu lunch under a nice grove of trees and grass. As was customary, Sasuke moped alone under a tree eating a bento the villagers had prepared for them, and Sakura fawned over him. Naruto and Kakashi, however, had stepped away from them on Naruto's inquiry.

"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto started, leaning against a nearby tree. "I want to ask you something I didn't want to ask in front of Sasuke and Sakura-chan... What was Shin about to call me?"

Crossing his arms over his chest, Kakashi also leaned against the opposing tree and heaved a sigh. "I figured you would ask. Tell me, Naruto... What did you feel when Shin said those things about the workings of the world? About natural selection, about deciding who should live and who should die?"

"I..." Naruto thought back to that moment and the answer came instantly. He gripped the cloth of the replacement shirt he had brought on the trip, wrinkling and twisting it. "I felt angry... like I wanted to rip that bastard's throat out. I felt rejuvenated, like I had an endless supply of chakra and an incredible rise in my Mokuton. And speaking about my chakra... I didn't get a good grasp on the general feeling, but it felt more potent than usual... What was all that...?"

"You're a Jinchūriki." Blatantly saying it was probably the gentlest way Kakashi could put it at this point. He allowed the boy to process such knowledge, his eyes showing he was deep in thought. "Your father died sealing the Kyūbi within you, Naruto; the fox that attacked Konoha over a decade ago. He entrusted you with the future of the Shinobi world because he had confidence that his own child could guide it.

"It is the reason many from Konoha ostracized you when you were young. They were using you as the Kyūbi's scapegoat, thinking you as the beast itself instead of its jailor. Of course, there were those who were neutral, or in other times sympathetic to your situation. I kept watch over you for most of your youth to make sure things didn't get out of control."

"My own father did...?" Naruto considered himself a very forgiving person, to a certain extent, anyways. But this...? "He willingly sealed such a thing inside of me knowing I would suffer for it...? Shit..." He found himself cackling for a moment. "Amazing... Part of me wants to sock one on him, and the other wants to thank him for having such high hopes for me before I could even walk..."

Naruto pushed himself off the bark, shoved his hands in his pockets, and made his way into a ray of light scurrying through the opening of a tree. He stood there, looking upwards and smiling just as brightly as the light meeting his face. "I can't believe he would do that..." He chuckled again, his head bent back. "What should I be feeling right now, I wonder...?"

Kakashi watched him stand a little ways off from him, literally under the spotlight. He could tell the teen was smiling, but he noticed something else. Unshed tears at the edge of his eyes. His natural satellites were calm and harmless as they withered one after another, almost like they were stricken by a powerful disease.

In Naruto's case, Kakashi knew that disease was sadness.

Regretting his words, Kakashi stored his hands in his pockets and made his way back to his remaining students. 'I knew it... I shouldn't have been the one to tell him... I'm not worthy, am I, Minato-sensei...? Not after so many of my sins...'

Staring off into the sky, Naruto ceased his thinking for a moment seeing a hawk soaring the sky. The creature flew down to him, and he stretched out his dominant arm to receive it.

Realizing it was a messenger hawk from Konoha, Naruto took the scroll it carried and sent it on its way. "A message from Jiji...? Crap, we must be in trouble..."

The first sentence made a cold chill crawl down his back. "Team Eight's leader is out of commission and in dire need of reinforcements... Wait, isn't this Kiba's team...?"

~~The Land of Waves, Bridge~~

Hinata could have never predicted their mission would end like this; with she, Kiba and Shino, knocking on death's door.

All was well when they had received their first C-rank mission; they had all been excited, in fact. But things had turned too real when the mission had been upped two ranks after an attack by two Chūnins, upgrading it into the realms of A-class. They had insisted on proceeding and to ask for reinforcements when they arrived in Wave; that was their sensei's compromise.

That was a few days ago.

After facing off against Zabuza for the first time, a previous member of the Seven Legendary Swordsmen of the Mist, Kurenai-sensei had given them the order to escort the client home while she kept Zabuza -and his companion, one Hinata had noticed with her Byakugan- at bay. When they had returned to her, their sensei was unconscious and suffering from severe wounds.

Now Hinata laid on her shoulder, blood seeping down her collarbone and into her chest. Kiba was laying to her left with a broken arm, and Shino was the worse off with a kunai through his chest inches from his heart. She raised her head a little, and came across the sight of Zabuza and his exaggeratedly large blade.

Her head nodded to the side and ended pressed against the floor. She felt the steel of her forehead protector under her chin, and came close to spurring out more blood. 'So this is it...? There's still so much I wanted to do, so much I didn't get to do... I never got a chance to change the Hyūga clan... I wanted to eat more dango with Hanabi-chan... And I never told Naruto-kun how I feel...'

Kiba growled as he cradled his broken arm to stand back up and serve as a shield for his teammates. He panted, with each breath tainting his jacket only redder.

"Kill me..." He breathed, his left eye going blank from the swelling. "But spare my teammates..." He lowered his head. "Please...!"

'Kiba-kun...' Hinata knew very well how hard it was for Kiba to swallow his pride and beg for their lives. She was incredibly touched by the gesture, but she couldn't allow it. "Don't... Kiba..."

"A noble offer," Zabuza stopped before the child and placed his blade on Kiba's shoulder without applying any sort of pressure. It was all for the sake of demonstrating his superiority. "But one I don't care for. You see, I warned you the first time we met. The moment you little runts ran off with my target, was the moment your lives were forfeit. Correct, Haku?"

A few steps short of his master, Haku hesitantly nodded his agreement. "Yes, Zabuza-sama."

"Don't be so quick to give up, Kiba!"

With Sasuke going in first, Naruto followed after him. When his Uchiha teammate skillfully kicked Zabuza's sword away, he proceeded to kick its wielder in the face, holding no strength back.

He landed in front of Team Eight, Sasuke behind him, and Sakura to his right. "Not until I'm the one in a bloodied, dead pulp..."

Kiba was starting to think his one eye was showing him things. "Naruto...? They sent you guys...? But this is an A-class assignment!"

"They only wanted Kakashi-sensei to come, but I wasn't gonna leave you guys to your own luck..." Naruto glanced over his shoulder, his hair swishing and his eyes narrowing. There he saw Hinata, bloodied and beaten, her glassy eyes staring at him. He gripped his hands, bruising the skin under his nails. "Hinata..."

'Naruto-kun...' She must be a pathetic sight. Hinata knew it was out of her control, but laying defeated before Naruto was the last thing she wanted. She tried to raise her head, but it only came halfway up when it collapsed once more. "Naruto..."

Hearing her cracked voice, cracked something in Naruto himself. He turned to their target, his teeth fastened and his eyes shut tight. He slowly, very gently reopened them. A narrow red had ripped his pupils in half, his whiskers had thickened, and his hair had gained some girth.

When it came to combat, Naruto was no fool. He knew he was at a complete disadvantage against anyone in this type of situation. There was no ground, no trees, no leaves; therefore no way to use Mokuton except via his body. He had yet to truly begin honing his water and earth affinities, too. That only left his newly acknowledged source of volatile power.

"We're not on the best of terms, you and I..." His teammates stared bewildered; they could tell he wasn't talking to them. "But we're stuck in this situation together nonetheless... So..." Red chakra bloomed from him, embracing his body and forming a distinctive nine-tailed fox over him. It howled at its enemies, eradicating the mist around and allowing a clear view. "Just this once, lend me your power."

Beta: PrincessDystopia, July 31, 2016.