Sorry about the mix-up last time. I have since corrected it as fast as I could, and hope to avoid a repeat!


'One, two, three, four. Repeat after me brat.'

"One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four..." said Naruto. He hit the tree in a very specific pattern. One punch straight forward, on uppercut to the branch above him, one knee jab to the trunk as fast as he could, and the last was a kick that forced him to extend his leg-reach as far as possible. Aside from the brief correction from Yoko-sensei, Naruto kept repeating the same four moves on the tree until his mind went blank.

Ever so slowly, as the muscles memorized the moves, Yoko gradually adjusted them to suit the Uzumaki fighting style without Naruto even realizing it. It was little more than a tweak here, a little pinch there, but Naruto was unconsciously beginning to copy his mother's style.

Every day after class he would go to a random training ground, slip into his repetitive attacking, and Yoko would add in the Uzumaki taijutsu stances while the boy's mind wandered. It was far more effective than having him sit around looking like an idiot all day, and it allowed them to do twice the training in half the time.

In a month, he had unconsciously memorized most of the basic stances of the style. Now he could slip into his 'zen' state and his body would react without any effort on his part, at least for the basic moves.

It was extremely gratifying for the fox to watch a six-year-old idiot with a month's training taking down a war-experienced chunin who was trying to sabotage his efforts and give him a black eye. If not for the Hokage passing by at the time, the 'teacher' would have done more than simply allowed himself to be humiliated by that fact. He probably would have come up with some excuse to kill Naruto for it.

Either way, the old man finally found out about Chibi. Naruto covered for his sudden ability in hand-to-hand by having the wolf pup act as the one doing the adjusting while he did some very basic stances. No way was he explaining that the Kyuubi no Yoko (and it had taken a week to figure out who 'Yoko-sensei' was and for Amaterasu to explain why he was sealed in him) had been teaching him.

The most he did was confirm the puppy wasn't a lost Inuzuka nin hound, had it's shots up-to-date, and give Naruto an extra stipend to help pay for his new friend. If Naruto wanted to keep a nin hound, well he could keep a nin hound. At least he wouldn't be lonely anymore.

On the plus side, Naruto was allowed into the Konoha Public Library once he confirmed he could actually read...but he wasn't allowed into the shinobi section until he had his headband.

It was more than enough, even if the Hokage did have to replace the librarian with someone a little younger in order for Naruto to go in and check anything out. To be fair, the woman was pushing retirement anyway.

For the most part, Naruto's life settled into a new routine.

Wake up, get kicked out of class and walk to the library where he would spend hours devouring any book that caught his interest, then at evening he would go into a random training ground where his body slowly learned how to fight properly and not that lame Academy style everyone learned. And when he went to sleep, Amaterasu-sama (who he simply called 'Kaa-chan' because everyone referred to her as "Mother") would teach him the things the academy instructors refused to because they were idiots. Things like math, science, language, history and most importantly, seals.

Kurama trained his body, Amaterasu trained his mind.

And in the middle of that, Naruto and Chibi trained on their teamwork.


He was eight when they finally got a teacher who gave a damn enough to chase him down. Umino Iruka was someone who lost his family to the demon fox, but after a talk with the Hokage and realizing the only actual friend the boy had was his wolf, decided to at least look past that fact.

Naruto was actually out of his depth dealing with children his own age...and it showed. Painfully so. He acted out, had no idea what manners were (except table manners, thankfully) and was often the class clown trying to hide how insecure he was.

Iruka realized rather quickly that he was so used to being an outcast that he preferred training alone rather than join a group effort.

It took two months before Naruto got it into his head that he was allowed to stay in the classroom rather than be kicked out for some imagined offense. It actually somewhat pissed Iruka off, because whenever he graded the tests Naruto always came out on the higher-side of things.

Then again, the kid was used to spending hours in the library just reading. He had to be doing something in there other than causing trouble. And his taijutsu, while rough, was extremely effective.

Though Iruka did notice Naruto tended to space out and ignore everything said to him whenever they had their sparring practices. If he hadn't recognized the rather uncommon meditation technique for what it was, he would have thought the boy was absent minded.

Though his pet wolf Chibi, who wasn't so small anymore, was weird. If he hadn't been told personally by Tsume when she dropped Kiba off in class, he would have been absolutely positive that the wolf was Inuzuka bred with how smart it was. Even if he did get these weird flashes of crimson markings every once in a while.

It was an unofficial test set up by Amaterasu. If someone could see the true form of Chibi, then they had the potential to enter the Celestial Library. If they couldn't see them, then they weren't worthy enough to enter. Considering Naruto was key in bringing back the old arts, this was a small price to pay to gain entry. He had an automatic pass because of his studying with the wolf and the fox.

It was a familiar sight. Naruto, the class clown...and surprisingly enough second-runner-up for the Rookie of the Year title...with his ever present wolf Chibi close by. During classes the wolf occasionally propped itself up so that it's head could rest on top of Naruto's and it's snores were quiet enough not to convince the teachers to make it stay outside...or at least on the ground.

It was an odd sight to be sure, since the wolf was close to the same size as it's owner when it stood on two paws and the student behind Naruto would occasionally complain about the tail getting in the way, but the fact of the matter was that where Naruto went, Chibi followed.

It also had a unmistakable dislike of the females in the class. Primarily because they were so intent on gaining the attention of the lone Uchiha in the class that they were loud and obnoxious. They were more interested in make-up, clothes, and boys than they were in training. It was just pathetic and it grated on the teacher's nerves more often than not. And the boys weren't much better.

It was easy to pick out who had any chance of becoming decent shinobi...they weren't as annoying and actually paid attention.

Iruka privately marked Naruto as one of the few to make it past jounin within a week of convincing the boy to stay in the class for more than five minutes. He could still remember the look of absolute shock and disbelief on his face when Iruka demanded to know why Naruto always bailed within the first five minutes of class...only to learn that the boy had rarely been allowed to stay in the room for ten minutes before the teacher found an excuse to throw him out, no matter how feeble the reason.

"You mean I'm allowed to stay?!" had been heard pretty much all throughout the village that morning. It had given Iruka a reason to strangle his fellow teachers, and only the fact Naruto would bolt if he let go had kept him from following through on the urge.

Still, ever since that conversation Iruka had been seeing crimson markings on the white wolf out of the corner of his eyes.


Naruto had a crush on one girl in the class. Sakura Haruno. Or at least, one that lasted for all of a week before it died a quick and painless death.

Amaterasu was not pleased with the fact the teachers did nothing about the girl's habit to shrilly scream at things, and when that failed to hit it as hard as her under-fed body would allow. It also didn't help that once he was able to balance a check-book, Naruto was more or less forced to keep track of his own funds and the Hokage quit bringing food over. He now had to pay for it himself.

Because most of the shop keepers either overcharged or forced him to buy almost expired foods, Naruto quickly gave up shopping as a bad job altogether and started growing his own foods. He did make one agreement though. He would never use his sealing techniques that he learned from Amaterasu to kill regular animals, even for food. He would have to use kunai and shuriken like everyone else.

So instead he used his stipend to buy seeds and pots, and grew his own food. Any meat he wanted he generally hunted for with Chibi, who would drive the animal towards him but never kill it. It was better than nothing.

About the only thing he did indulge in was ramen, but that had less to do with the fact it was rather cheap, and more to do with the fact that one year he crashed into the back of a kitchen during his birthday and the owner had taken one look at his outfit and the fact he was rather scrawny for his age, and to Naruto's eternal shock, let him hide in the stand and fed him a few bowls of the food that had been leftover in the pot.

Finding out there was one stand owner who wouldn't overcharge him had been enough for him to become a frequent customer.

There was also the unspoken fact that the man (Teuchi Ichiraku) had been able to see the crimson markings since the very beginning, but never commented on them.

He still wanted to know how Naruto had somehow stumbled across the legendary ramen recipe, which had been lost for centuries. He had no idea that the boy had asked his 'Kaa-chan' about it and was allowed to copy it down from the library.

Either way, business was positively booming.

So the fact his 'mother' didn't approve of Sakura meant that he allowed his fascination with the girl to die. At most he would be civil with her, but that was about it.


Itachi wondered if this was how you were supposed to feel after murdering your own family in cold blood. Dispassionate, almost cold. Like he wasn't actually there, but merely an observer. Killing his parents had been the clincher.

Was this all there was to a shinobi's life? Being ordered to murder your own family all for some perceived 'loyalty' to a village that had long since quit caring?

So when he came face-to-face with a white wolf with crimson markings he would swear he had seen before, he was little more than a mindless husk of what he had been before the massacre started.

I have saved the little ones you spared, but a few were killed by a masked man with a single Sharingan. If you want to avoid a lifetime of heartache, I would suggest avoid placing your brother under a genjutsu. The amount of trauma you would cause will have severe side effects.

"Who are you?"

The wolf said nothing, but the sheer amount of heat and light it was giving off was a pretty big tip. Suddenly he realized where he had seen the creature before.

He had been to the temple dedicated to Amaterasu before, when he first made genin. It was a tradition for all heirs of the clan to undergo, because that was their patron goddess. He had been blessed by the priest, who didn't bat an eye about his young age. Inside the temple he remembered vividly passing a room with statues and allowed to look around the public areas.

Inside one of the room which wasn't often opened to the public was a statue of a white wolf with the same markings...only the crimson had faded. It had been dedicated to the legendary wolf Shironui.

He had only gotten a small glimpse of the statue, but it had stuck in the back of his head ever since.

But he had been recently catching glimpses of another, smaller wolf around the village. Naruto's pet Chibi.

"I'm to be cursed, aren't I?" he asked tiredly. He would welcome it.

I would now show up to curse someone, Itachi Uchiha. The cleansing of the bloodlines was a necessary, if painful, occurrence that you simply moved ahead of schedule. As for the eyes you recently awakened, I am here to give you a choice. The Mangekyo Sharingan is a cursed eye, a mere mockery of the true potential. It also comes with a heavy price, often taking the life of the user if overused. The fact of the matter is that you have a chance to be more than a kin-slayer, to actually protect the brother you hold so dear to your heart. However it will come with a sacrifice.

Itachi went down on his knees, as if bowing to the Daimyo himself.

"What would you have me do, Kami-sama?"

Your loyalty to this village. If you wish to free yourself from the burden of kin-slayer and protect your brother, you must learn to let go of that loyalty which drove you to kill your family.

Itachi wanted to take that horrible secret to his grave...the fact that the Hokage and three advisers had ordered him to kill every Uchiha he could before going undercover.

It had severely disillusioned him about the Will of Fire.

"Uzumaki Naruto is one of your favored, isn't he?"he asked quietly.

He has found the Celestial Brush and is training to restore the old powers that were lost.

"If I go through with this... Can I swear my allegiance to him instead?"

Allegiance to a child who had been cast aside, but had more loyalty towards his friends over a village that ordered him to become a kin-slayer? There wasn't much choice. He would go undercover... but his Will of Fire had greatly diminished. If Naruto became Hokage, then maybe he would care about this place again.

The wolf padded up to Itachi, still kneeling, and placed a paw on his forehead. He could feel something happening to his eyes, as if a great weight had been lifted.

From now on Itachi Uchiha, you shall be the hidden blade to the Celestial Brush Naruto holds. Go now, and I will insure your brother survives this night without witnessing the deed you were forced to commit.

Itachi stood, feeling as though his burden had been lightened somewhat. He nodded respectfully to the wolf, before grabbing his things and leaving without a word. His job was done.

The wolf-form of Amaterasu nodded herself, before she raced outside the compound. Young Sasuke was late in getting home and about to run head first into something out of a nightmare. Better for him to be knocked out and found by the village watch than for a child to come across that.

The only other soul who knew the truth was Naruto, because the more he knew, the less danger he would be in later.