A strange sound woke Asuma up. It took him a few long minutes to figure out it was some sort of alarm system like they had inside shopping centres when there was a fire or bomb threat. Glancing to his side to find Kurenai was gone and probably with the others he launched himself from the bed to leave the room and find out what was going on.

The Akatsuki were running down the hall outside and headed for one room further down. Seeing Suigetsu ahead Asuma ran to catch up and asked urgently "what's going on?"

"Father said Itachi tripped the alarm" the teenaged boy said "he said he was moving inside Narutos' mind to help him when he sensed something wrong with his body. He is being attacked. Itachi had just enough power to pull free of the evil when it noticed him inside and trip the alarm. He said he felt whatever it was doing something to Naruto he could not see what."

"Orochimaru or one of his men?" Asuma asked curiously "could Orochimaru have got inside and grabbed him?"

"Certainly not" Hizashi said as he joined them, running but somehow making it look like he wasn't try in the least at the same time "or C.C. or one of us would sensed him before this. This is something new and evil."

"How do you know that?" Asuma said as he looked at the man carefully. "I know" the man looked away and refused to look back at him. Suigetsu just made a motion to stop Asuma's further questions and suddenly the jungle ruler frowned and stopped "they're gone."

"What do you mean Hizashi?" Suigetsu asked him. "The one who attacked him has gone."

"What about Naruto?" Suigetsu asked him, noticing the others had stopped and were listening. "Gone from the Med room" he frowned "something is wrong with him."

"Where father?" Hinata touched her fathers' arm urgently "Itachi is unconscious. We only have you to lead us. Where?" As an answer the man started to run truly and everyone else followed. The jungle ruler suddenly looked back at Suigetsu and said, "get some of the lasers. And hurry."

Trusting the man the boy made a detour into one room they passed and joined them less than a minute later, handing them out to everyone, even Asuma. "Why would we need these father?" Hinata said to him "why do we need weapons against Naruto?" The man's look shut her up and soon they had rounded a corner to find Naruto.

But it looked only slightly like Naruto. It had his height, build and shape. It had his blonde hair and wore what was left of his clothes. It had his face but it was contorted in rage and something else. The eyes were red glowing orbs with cat-eye pupils. The fingers bore long sharp looking curved nails. The back of the shirt was torn open to reveal two huge limp brown things a few of them recognized and there was two hideous wounds on his right side.

One was what looked like five long bloody claw marks from the top of his shoulder and diagonally across his body to just above his pectoral. The second wound was a tear in the side of his neck just over jugular and nearly totally severing the vein, which still oozed blood that covered the front of his shirt and turned it red.

They could also see more claw wounds in the flesh of his right arm and wrist and Asuma could see indents in his arms to suggest he had been held down and sharp nails had cut into him. Suigetsu had been right about what Itachi had felt. The boy had been attacked, held down tightly and forcefully at least.

"Naruto!" Minato and Hinata cried union and they both moved towards the boy but Asuma snapped "NO!" grabbing the man's arm while Hizashi seized his daughter. "But..." Hinata started and Asuma spoke to them both "look into his eyes, that's not Naruto."

"Then who is it?" Minato snapped and Suigetsu suggested "Fugaku?" as he frowned at his friend. Karin shook her head as she said softly "No, it is something else. Something dark."

And she was right. The eyes were totally insane and full of rage and darkness and something they couldn't understand. Hunger. As they watched the top lip peeled back as the figure growled loudly at them, showing top teeth to see the top rear incisor teeth on either side had grown longer and were sharply pointed like two little needles.

"I don't care what he looks like now" Minato said stubbornly "he's my son and he won't hurt me if I don't hurt him." Minato handed his laser to Asuma before he could protest and was walking slowly forward, hands out to show was weaponless. He spoke low and soothingly to the boy who's body shook in barely suppressed fury and they were suddenly struck with the feeling Minato had done just this before. They were proved right when there was a brief flicker of memory in the boys eyes followed by an even briefer flicker of recognition before it was all overpowered again.

The boy allowed his father to come to his side, remaining still on his spot as his body trembling violently. Minato reached his side without incident and reached out slowly towards him. Before anyone could stop him, tell him that in this state the boy's fear of touch would be greatly exaggerated the man had reached out a curious finger to touch the wound in his jugular.

The boy gave a loud shriek, his eyes mad with pain and his arms swept out striking Minato across the face and throwing him into the nearby wall. They heard the man grunt in pain as he hit, sitting still on the floor for a few seconds before slowly pulling himself up straight and raising a hand to his lip.

It came away bloody and they realised when he had struck the wall he had bitten it through. They saw the boy move to flee them when suddenly he stopped, frozen to the spot and head raised just slightly and they realised he was sniffing the air. As they watched he moved forward, kneeling in front of his father and reaching out.

They thought he was going to see if he was all right but the boy reached out and grasped his hand. They saw the boy move his fathers limp hand to his mouth and lick the blood off, eyes dark and pleading on his fathers. They were full of need and hunger, the madness muted temporarily.

"What is it Naruto?" the man asked his son softly, gently "what do you need? Tell us and we'll help you." The madness overpowered for a second but he pushed it down quickly and looked down at his father's hand. Following his eyes Minato watched him turn his hand around with one hand and reach out to lightly scrap clawed fingers over the surface veins.

"Of course" Asuma said softly "it must be some sort of reaction to the blood loss. All the blood he's lost from the beatings, the surgery and this attack. Or some sort of drastic mutation. Or maybe because of the curse and legend." They all looked at him and Asuma was shocked by the confusion in their faces and eyes. "You don't know about the legend and curse over their family?"

"No. What are you talking about?" Asuma looked down at the two to see the man looking up at them, glaring at him as he asked, "how do you know about that?!"

"Naruto told us in the cell" Asuma said softly "he was trying to show me just how strong you both are because of it."

"Naruto wouldn't have told you" Minato sounded angry "you found out some how."

"How? Only you and he know about it." Minato couldn't answer this and only continued to glare at him. Asuma returned the look equally and said evenly "tell them or I will."

When the man didn't answer the muscular man sighed and said "all right I'll tell them then. But it would sound better coming from you." When the man still refused to speak he sighed again and said softly "right it goes like this. One of their ancestors was a great fighter and skilful artist. He had blonde hair and blue eyes and was tall and pale. There was a battle in his land and he fought for his people against the enemy and even reached the leader of the enemies and faced him in a showdown.

But what he didn't know was the leader of them was a witch. As the enemy leader died his last breath was a curse, a curse that no matter what he did his future children and their children and so on would all be born with the same features. No one outside their line would have the genetic strength to change the features."

"And this power?" Suigetsu asked, aghast that his friend was one of a line of cursed souls and that his friend wouldn't confine this in him. "One of his line before this guy was extremely powerful, Naruto told me even more powerful than your friend Itachi." This stunned them and Kisame managed to ask "so?"

"So the legend says that one of their line will inherit all that power and all the power of each generation, so powerful it's thought that whoever inherits it will be able to brake that curse. However it was also said that part of the curse will be that whoever inherits it will also be unable to control it and it will kill them."

Hizashi suddenly spoke "and because there's only the two of them left Minato was afraid if we knew that then we wouldn't want to get close to Naruto for fear of a chance of loosing him later on if and when this power shows." Asuma nodded slightly and Suigetsu asked curiously "Has any other than ones like Naruto and Minato been born to their line?"

"Naruto said it's been tried a few times. A few of the ones in the past have married and been with Negro's and American Indians and such but the babies are always born blonde with blue eyes, tall and pale and all ways male."

"Have you any idea how much of the excitement of having children is taken out when you know what they are going to be and what they'll look like?" Minato said from his spot on the floor. "Then why have Naruto in the first place?" Karin asked.

"Because I loved Kushina and didn't care about it as long as we had something to share of each other."

"Even if it meant you'd risk loosing him later on to this power?" Hinata gasped in horror. "Why do you think we were nearly all ways in contact with Dr Shizune?" Minato asked "when we found out about Naruto being a nin I made sure we kept a careful and constant eye on his condition and abilities, just in case.

When Itachi and Kisame and the boys turned up I realised just what it could mean. If Itachi could have such power and control it utterly then there was a hope that, should Naruto inherit the power, someone would be there not just to help him but teach him to control it and use it properly. That it might not end up killing him and we'd loose him. At least that's what I thought in the start. I didn't know that, child that he was, Naruto saw all four as part of his life and family almost immediately or that so would Kushina and I would soon come to feel the same."

Minato looked up at Kisame, eyes pleading for their forgiveness of using them like he had. "I would have done the same" Kisame said soothingly "in your position. And in our own way we were using you all in the start as well."

"So this was Naruto's big secret? Why he does not like to be touched?" Suigetsu asked. "That's an entirely different matter," Minato said and Asuma nodded "apparently the cause for that is something that happened to Naruto when he was nine. Something about a man kidnapping him and doing terrible things to him for days, things we could never imagine before Kakashi saved him."

They had all heard the stories of the mysterious man who had saved Obito from the car crash that had killed his teenaged parents and Naruto later on before giving the baby to the boy and his mother for safe keeping and any reference to him picked their interest. "Did he tell you what happened exactly? What he saved him from?" they asked. "No. What I just said was all he would tell me and he had needed therapy for it."

"But what would be so bad in his past that he would not tell us with our close relationship, as such close friends?" Suigetsu was totally confused. "Some traumas surpass friendship," Asuma said softly and they had a feeling he was quoting someone.

"Is that the voice of experience Asuma?" Suigetsu asked him stubbornly and the man nodded, but Hizashi' next words shocking them "because you're a nin like Naruto." They all looked at the jungle ruler in shock and Asuma snapped out "how do you know that!"

The man just looked at him and didn't answer, his eyes saying sternly "You're kidding me, I can see it." Asuma glared at the other man angrily as he said "what I am is none of your or anyone else's business!"

"Isn't that why Orochimaru was keeping such a close eye on you at the lab" Hizashi said without a single change of expression "we heard him say through the monitor that the clones were to keep a close watch on you for he did want 'a repeat of what happened before.' What did you do to make him watch you closely?" Asuma looked him dead in the eyes for a few seconds then sighed and blinked "I'm an active nin, not a passive like Naruto is."

"What do you mean by that?" Minato asked him "What do you mean by active or passive nin?"

"A passive nin is one who has abilities or powers only they could use inside themselves, like Naruto being able to become immune to a drug once his body has had a chance to experience it. A passive power is when they can only use it for themselves-he can't make anyone else immune as well."

"And an active?"

"Can use it to affect things around them-like a telekinetic ability to move objects or a pyrokinetic ability to start fires. My brother Ooba has a passive power as well, he's empathic."

"Empathic?" Minato asked.

"They sense others feeling or pain" Hinata said "like father and I can. Ours is because we are father and daughter. An empath can feel others. Not necessarily family but complete strangers as well, anyone they see."

"And we have met your brother before" Hizashi said softly "just after we first met each other."

"When?" they looked at the jungle ruler "when did we meet him?"

"He was Hidan, remember" Hizashi looked at them "the man possessed by Hidan when we released them two years ago. He has two twin children and a wife and claimed he and his brother haven't really been close for years."

"How do you know it's him?" they asked the man who looked angry and crossed his arms over his chest and fixed Asuma with a stubborn look "tell us your full name then your brothers."

"Asuma Sarutobi and Ooba Yamashiro. He and I are orphans and he and Tasume haven't come to visit us for ages. Older brother jealous of our money even though it doesn't mean we have more than they do. He acts like we do."

"It is too!" Minato nodded "I remember him going on about how his brother and his wife are always travelling and ignoring their problems." Asuma looked angry "I never ignored his and his families problems. Ooba is a proud man and every time I tried to help he'd tell me to get lost and his problems are his own. So I gave up trying to help him."

They were about to continue when there was a sudden snarl and they realised they had forgotten the problem at hand. "Never mind your ability or any legend or power" Hizashi said as he uncrossed his arms and slowly walked towards father and son, a low gentleness coming from him "Naruto is more important right now and it seems the cut has stopped bleeding. Which means he no longer has it to sooth him."

He was right because the boy was trying to rise from where he had crouched beside his father, eyes skittish around him and on the verge of either all out panic or a murderous fit of hunger and they had almost missed it. But he seemed weaker as well, as if the taste of his father's blood had calmed him and he no longer had his madness or adrenalin rush to power him.

He looked at Hizashi as he approached and suddenly made a scared sound, backing away from the approaching man and growling threateningly. They had no doubt that the boy could see every little thing they couldn't about the man and it terrified him. Hizashi stopped walking and frowned at it, turning slightly aside and saying from the corner of his mouth "Minato we have to get him to the lab and find out what happened to him. He won't let me near him. We need you to do it."

"Wait a minute, I just realized. Where's Kurenai?" Asuma suddenly spoke out and Hinata frowned, speaking softly "She was caring for Naruto when I went to bed. She should be there..."

"You mean she was there when who and what ever attacked Naruto!" Asuma exclaimed, causing Naruto to cringe "she could be still there and hurt worse than Naruto is!"

"Hinata go with Asuma to Naruto's room" Hizashi said softly "check to see if she's hurt." The girl nodded but looked to Naruto in concern. "Go my blood" he ordered her "we will help Naruto but Kurenai may be hurt." Reluctantly the girl led the man away to find his fiancée.

When they were gone the jungle ruler looked back to Minato who was slowly rising, leaning on the wall heavily. "Minato you have to get Naruto to the lab so we can find out what happened to him and if we can possibly reverse it." When the man hesitated he looked him dead in the eyes and said softly "Do you want your son to be like this permanently?"

Minato slowly shook his head, winced and so headed towards the boy, waiting until he growled at him before stopping. He then spoke softly, reaching out to him "come on Naruto. Come with me." He started to walk away with his eyes on the boy but he only watched him blankly. Knowing he couldn't touch him again the man tried other ways they suggested but it wasn't until Hizashi stepped to the man and said in a whisper "give me your arm."

"What?" he asked him in confusion. "Why?"

"He obviously doesn't understand you or that we won't hurt him. It seems like only one thing allows him to calm. Give me your arm." Not understand but trusting him the blonde man reached out an arm to the man who grasped his wrist and turned it around, showing the soft inner-arm to him. He then drew a suddenly sharp nail down the mans arm from between the wrist and elbow and when he gasped in pain and tried to pull away Hizashi hissed "don't struggle."

"What are you doing then!" the man gasped as he tried to pull free of the loose but iron grip on his arm. "You're blood soothed him remember" Hizashi said softly "we can use it to lure him into the lab." Understanding the man let him do what he had to and when he let go the jungle ruler spoke again "show it to him."

The man nodded and brought his arm around so the blood welling in the cut and dripping down his arm was within the boy's sight but not his reach. The boy's nose twitched again and his head snapped up, locking to his arm and the eyes and face suffused in hunger and need. He was suddenly on haunches, hands down for balance as he leaned forward slightly, wings drooped on either side and suddenly attentive.

"That's it" Hizashi said softly, evenly "now slowly move back, back away and make sure he keeps sight of it." Nodding the man backed up a few feet and stopped until the boy rose and started after it, eyes hungry and lost every time he moved away.

In the end they had to move quickly because once the boy's damaged mind realised the blood was moving away from him not closer he started to get desperate and moved towards them faster. By the time they reached the lab they were almost running, the boy doing that forward run that newly walking toddlers did when they tried to keep themselves from falling over.

They got him into the lab and while Hizashi moved to the back Minato moved him closer and said without looking back "what do I do now Hizashi?"

"In there" Hizashi motioned at the containment cell in the corner. "Go inside, keep to the wall and walk around until he's inside and you're back at the door. Then close and lock it before he can move forward."

"If you say so," Minato said doubtfully as he backed towards the room. The boy's eyes flickered to the cell, his father's arm and back to the cell again and didn't move. "Hizashi he won't follow. I think he knows what we're trying to do."

The man looked up from what he was doing and said gently "you'll have to try and convince him to follow."

"How?" The blonde man frowned when he noticed the way the boy's eyes went to the cell and back to his fathers bleeding arm and something flickered in his eyes. He suddenly backed up a step, then another and Minato knew he was about to run, even though he could see the incredible pain and hunger in his son's eyes his fear overrode his hunger.

What would happen if he got outside in that condition?

"Hizashi he's about to withdraw and run" Minato said, his voice showing his fear of that happening. "He thinks we're trying to trap him." When the boy made a moan of fear and backed up a few more steps Minato became desperate "Hizashi! If you're going to do something do it now!"

Before the man could speak Itachi appeared shaky and pale in the doorway. Taking the situation in a glance the nin used his staff and froze the boy where he was, then levitated him into the containment cell so they could lock him in.

The instant the freeze jutsu broke the boy began to shriek and panic, racing around the cell in an effort to find an escape and or a way out. In order to calm him down Minato came forward and put his arm through the bars. The smell of the blood snapped his attention around and this time he did fall over. Minato had to resist the urge to run in and help him, but instead he only held perfectly still.

With a moan of pain the boy managed to struggle to his feet and sway towards him and the bars. With barely any strength in his legs he made it to them and reached out to grab his arm and his grip had only the strength of someone incredibly desperate as his mouth lowered over the cut. Minato could feel his lips and tongue working on the wound, trying to gulp it down but the cut just wasn't deep or long enough to give him what he wanted.

The weak boy worried at the wound, not understanding why the blood was only trickling out when he needed more than he was getting.

"I choose that place on your arm for a reason" Hizashi said without looking up from his work "it would bleed just enough to tempt him but not enough should he realize he could..." Minato yelped loudly as his son suddenly dug into his flesh with the long sharp top incisor teeth. "…Go deeper by extending the wound" he finished when the pain wore down and Hizashi nodded.

"Why have you locked him up?" came a voice from the doorway and Asuma strode in. "You should be patching up those wounds first or donating blood would be redundant. He's loosing more then he's gaining."

"We can't do that while he's conscious" Hizashi said "he'd never let us that close." Asuma glared at him and said "but you won't get anywhere until you do."

"We can't though," Minato said from his spot. The muscle man looked at Itachi and asked, "have you ever used a jutsu to sedate him? Soothe him enough he doesn't care what you do to him?" The nin looked vaguely startled and repulsed by the idea. "I have never needed to before or even considered it. Naruto would rather the pain to being touched."

"Even after Orochimaru almost killed him last year?"

"When pain gets too strong for him Naruto goes into a deep trance-like sleep until his body can fix the problem or numb it" Hizashi said "he's always done that previously." The jungle ruler shrugged "compensation for being unable to take painkillers or sedatives we assumed."

"On other occasions I have had my hypnotism" the thin man said to him "I merely use it to convince him there is no pain to feel."

"Why didn't you do that this time?" Asuma frowned at the pale man. "He is too clouded" the nin said, stating the obvious "he must be clear-headed and he is not. If he can not think straight or understand my words what is the use of me telling him he does not feel pain or to go to sleep?"

He had a point.

"Use your jutsu to put him to sleep" Asuma said, glaring at Hizashi as he continued to work and ignore them all "we have to patch up those wounds before we try and figure out what's wrong with him."

Itachi nodded and raised his staff, starting the jutsu. A few minutes later he suddenly spoke softly, voice even and full of concentration "he is fighting me." The nin frowned "Naruto has never fought me before, especially with such strength of desperation. However it seems pure instinct. His conscious mind is blocked out so only instinct and emotion is left to control him."

"How do we bring his conscious mind back out?" Hizashi had looked up from his work. "His condition must be stabilised. Right now his body is ravaging him for what it needs to heal his mind and flesh but there is not nearly enough strength in him for that. So it is making him look else where outside for what it needs."

"The hunger in his eyes" Hizashi said.

"His need for my blood to soothe him" Minato said.

"Especially since you are father and son. You are his only family left and he is very protective of you. He feels since he failed to protect Kushina he must do what ever he must to insure your safety. Even if it means sacrificing his own." Minato was horrified by this "But that's my job!"

"He does not see it that way. He is open to me this way, his entire being is laid open to me to see and view. But for some reason the one thing he and you have hidden from us for so long is locked away, buried deep inside him where it would take me hours to get inside."

"He may not have hours" Asuma said impatiently "just put him to sleep already." Itachi suddenly frowned again deeper and disturbed "Minato stop it and move away." And when the man only frowned at him in confusion the nin raised his voice and snapped loudly "Minato move! Now!"

And the blonde man pulled his arm back and away just in time to avoid the brunt of the sudden flash of claws on his wrist. He looked at his son in disbelief to find the eyes so lost in hunger in threat that he instinctively backed up a few steps from the containment cell.

"Why did he do that?" Minato asked the nin as Asuma rushed forward to tend to the cuts on his arm and wrist, the nin frowning deeply as he spoke "Some thing dark is growing inside him, strengthened by the hunger and weakness the longer he stays this way."

"Something dark?" the man questioned as he looked at his son in concern. Itachi looked deeply thoughtful "another personality it seems, rising from all the darkness and pain he has experienced as well as the madness from the device. It is only new, his entire pain and guilt and everything that has been building since he was nine compressed into one side of his soul, becoming something darker than any one of us could ever think him capable off" he looked at them "this side would be entirely capable of murder."

"What do we do?!" Minato was horrified and fearful of loosing the son he loved to this side of him. Itachi seemed to be deep in concentration before he slowly spoke, even with every word forced out as he tried to express what he was feeling inside the boy. "His current state is lending more and more strength to this side, we have to aid him so he can try and control it. But I can also feel another element to all that is going on inside him."

"What do you mean?" they asked him and the nin spoke again "an outside force is influencing him, someone we do not know."

"The one who attacked him?" Hizashi was frowning at the other man "could when he have attacked Naruto and did this to him he somehow infected him with a virus or disease that caused such a dramatic change to the boy's nin cells and system, making him hunger his loss? And when he left he some how retained a connection to the virus and now actually the boy's own body. Now he's making this happen to the boy."

"Possible" Itachi said thoughtfully "it would explain why I sense another different soul looking out of the boys eyes at this moment." Minato spun at this and looked deep into his son's clouded eyes. What did they mean someone was seeing through Naruto's eyes? He looked the same, a little clouded and hungry but he didn't see anything else there.

Just as he was thinking this he saw the flicker of something totally malevolent looking at him contemptuously. "How do we break the link?" Minato asked them "how do we free Naruto?"

"Destroy the virus you destroy the link" Hizashi said firmly "and free Naruto."

"How do we do that?" Minato asked impatiently. Itachi said honestly to the man "We do not know, but if you feed him you will feed the virus and allow it to get a stronger hold on him, as the attacker."

"But if you don't it'll kill him" Asuma pointed out and Itachi nodded "I know that and can only say he must be freed before he gets too weak."

"How do we free him from this guy?" Minato asked, back straightening in determination "how do we make him let go of his control over him?"

"Only one way to do that" Itachi said seriously, "he must be destroyed."

Minato and Hizashi looked at the nin in shock and horror at these words. Itachi NEVER condoned murder, no matter the reason. Why now?

"This is a different case than all those others. This evil is the most powerful and deprived I have ever encountered in my existence. Those others-such as Orochimaru and Pain or even Zubuza were all trying to further their own power. However some trace of humanity still existed in them, some trace of god. This one has no trace left and he has completely removed himself from god and humanity. He does what he wants when he wants no matter what it costs the lives or souls of others. He must be destroyed before he can destroy the lives of any one else. Naruto must be his last victim."

"I agree" Hizashi said "I can smell him on Naruto and it smells of true evil."

"What do you mean?" Minato asked the jungle ruler and he said blankly "Death. He smells of the blood and death of innocents." Itachi nodded "I sense it as well and see it in his eyes when he looks through Naruto." And when Minato remembered the contempt and malevolence in his sons' eyes he shuddered.

"I'll help you then" Asuma said as he moved to Hizashi' side "together we may be able to find a way to cure him."

"How is Kurenai?" Hizashi looked at the man funnily and he replied, "Her throat was punctured but not deep enough to cause any damage. She's sleeping now." Hizashi nodded and allowed the man to join him.