Lethal Shinobi

Chapter 4

'Why is no one here?' Venom asked his new host as Naruto made himself a light breakfast. It was still early enough in the morning for just a bowl of cereal to be enough for the boy.

"Mom and dad work during the day. Dad is the Hokage of the village after all and is really busy all the time." He could not hide the small hint of sadness in his voice. Naruto knew how important his dad's job was, but that did not mean he couldn't want to spend more time with his old man. "And mom is still an active shinobi of the village. Though, she has been taking more missions closer to home than she used to; or at least that's what she says."

Venom did not respond.

"Mom always makes it home on time to make dinner though, so it's alright."

Naruto ate bowl after bowl of cereal until they were nearly out;still unable to appease the constant ache in his gut.

'That won't work.' Venom stated as his host moved to fill his empty bowl with the last remaining bits of cereal he could scrounge out of the box.

"But I thought you said we needed to be well fed?" Naruto questioned as he took his empty bowl to the sink and began to clean said bowl. "I thought it just meant I was eating for two now that was why I'm always so hungry."

'True,' The monster responded. 'You are eating for two now, but you are just not eating the right stuff.'

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked while drying his hands. "Do you not eat what normal people eat?"

'I am not a human like you.' Venom stated obviously. 'I can not survive on your kind of foods. I told you that I've been feeding off of you, so that should give you an idea on what I eat. Fresh meat and organs.'

Naruo's face soured. "Does that mean I'm gonna' have to start eating bugs or something?" Of course, his young innocent mind would come up with something so harmless.

Venom knew this and chuckled. 'What a naive child you are. Yes, if it comes to that. But to sate our hunger properly, we will need much larger meals than whatever insects you could find.'

"Then what is it that we need to eat then?"

'Why don't you just show me your home and maybe we can find a snack along the way?' The monster offered. If he simply told his young host outright what was required, the chances of him agreeing and going along with it were slim to none. But, by using a combination of the boy's current ideals and the constant hunger he suffered, Venom might have an easier time convincing his host to do what was necessary.

Excited at the opportunity to show his new monster friend around, Naruto quickly ran for the front door, put on his shoes and ran outside.

"Welcome to Konohagakure." Naruto stated proudly. "The strongest village of ninja in the entire world. My dad runs this village and makes sure that everyone is safe and happy."

Naruto began to walk around his home from place to place, he showed the village off to the monster inside of him. He went about showing the academy, the many stores and restaurants in the business district, and even some of the clan compounds in the more wealthy parts of town.

Each and everyplace Naruto decided to show off, Venom would make some sort of comment. Most of them were in regards to feeding and finding food with the occasional sprinkling of the word 'hunt' or 'hunting' thrown about. But he never elaborated further than that.

While walking about the village, Naruto felt a strange presence always around him. It was like some massive hulking thing was standing right over him; matching step by step and make the same movements he made.

With Venom now residing within him, the boy never had that feeling of being alone as he went down street after street. Even when empty, the feeling that there was someone right there, just out of sight, never left him.

While his parents did work on the weekdays and his friends were often busy with family or training, Naruto would never consider himself to be lonely or anything like that. So the feeling of constantly being with someone, no matter when or where, was a little unnerving. But, it was ultimately something he was going to have to get use to.

The tour ended as the sun began to fall beyond the horizon. Naruto had decided to end it by showing Venom his favorite place in the entire village, the very top of the Hokage Mountain, on top of the carved head of his father, the Fourth Hokage.

"From here, you can see the entire village." Naruto boasted. "Not many people bother coming up here since there really isn't anything to do, so it's a good place to clear your head and think." He sat down to enjoy the cool breeze.

'Your head will never be clear with me around.' Venom chuckled. 'This is a good hunting spot though.'

Having heard Venom mention hunting all throughout the little tour, Naruto had finally gotten tired of hearing the word.

"If your talking about finding that fresh meat and guts you mentioned." Naruto paused for a moment before nodding his head. "Then yeah, I guess this is as good a view as any to see where all the best meat markets are in the village."

Venom gave an audible groan of irritation. His host's innocence was starting to rack on his nerves.

'Let me show you what I really mean.'It continued to rant for a bit. 'I just do not understand how you went from correctly guessing that we would need to eat insects, at least, back to incorrectly guessing at dead meat. You were right on the ball then just dropped it.'

"We excuse me for guessing." Naruto huffed. His new monster was strange.

'Whatever.' Venom dropped the subject. 'Unfortunately, while I would rather be the one hunting, your young body is just too weak to handle all of my power right now. So it will have to be you that hunts for us both. I will have to teach you how to use our power.'

Ignoring the stuff about hunting, Naruto's eyes lite up at the prospect of actually training. The thought that he could actually learn and be taught powers and techniques like a shinobi instantly elated the young boy beyond words.

"Will I be able to become a ninja?!" Naruto asked excitedly. He could already see himself taking down armies of enemy shinobi single highhandedly and the crowds of people cheering his name.

'You could,' Venom responded honestly. 'But then you would have to explain to your beloved parents why their child was suddenly super strong and had tentacles sprouting out everywhere. I would assume their response would be less than pleased. That's not even getting into when I will be able to take control completely and really shake things up.' He laughed at the last bit.

Naruto's mood instantly soured. His shoulders slouched and the sparkle in his eye faded.

'Aw, don't worry. If you did become a shinobi, you would have to eventually leave the village. If you did that, then who would protect your family and home? Sure there are others here to protect it, but it could never be guaranteed unless we remain here.' Venom tried to reason.

Naruto could see the reasoning behind the monster's words. How could he possibly make sure that his parents were safe if he wasn't around to make sure of it? Sure, his dad was the strongest ninja around, and his mom was not too far off from that; but they were still human and a surprise attack could easily get to them as anyone else.

"I guess that makes sense."

Again, Naruto was just too young to see what Venom's true motives were. Still not a complete puppet to the creature, but could be persuaded to do at least some of what the monster desired. There was some resistance though, making working with him not a complete bore.

'Good, now let us finally grab a bite to eat.' Naruto could practically hear the monster's tongue slurp about. 'Take us to the woods and prepare yourself for your first hunt.'

Naruto got to his feet and began the long trek to one of the closest training grounds that dotted the village. With his home having so many ninja, finding one was not that hard of a task. It was finding one the was not being used that would be the challenge.

The closest training area was not that far away from the Hokage Mountain and appeared to have just recently been used if the gashes on the ground and piles of sawdust were anything to go by.

'This will work.' Venom mumbled. 'Now, to start. I want you to close your eyes and focus. You should start to feel a kind of...tingling in your head.'

Curious, Naruto did as he was told. He closed his eyes, took a deep calming breath and tried to do the same stuff his dad talked about when he tried to teach Naruto about meditation.

First, calm yourself. Then try to force out all distractions, including thoughts not pertaining to the one thing you are trying to focus on.

Without even having to do the second step, Naruto could feel a strange tingling coming from the back of his skull. It was like a strange tickle directly on his brain.

'Feel that? That is our hunting sense. It kind of lets us know when there are other living things around us.' Venom explained. 'It can also be used as a kind of early warning system for danger and possible threats. It's sorta' always on too. Now, where do you feel it?'

"It kind of tickle on the back of my head." Naruto described the strange sensation.

'That is the direction of a large enough form of life that can be considered a meal. The intensity of the sensation depends on both the size of the life form as well as how threatening it may or may not be.'

"It doesn't fell that strong?" Naruto was not really sure what the monster meant by the feeling becoming more 'intense', but right now it didn't seem to be that bothersome.

'Good, that means whatever we have found is either pretty small, or not a threat. Now go find it.'

Naruto jogged over to where the strange feeling directed him. It took the boy a few minutes of searching, but he was finally able to locate his target. A common brown squirrel that was sitting about on a tree branch. All the while he looked about, Naruto used that odd tickling sensation to find the small animal; finding the fact that the strange feeling changed direction pretty useful in finding the goal.

'Finally!' Venom hissed loudly, the sound of gnashing fangs and slithering tongue almost deafening to Naruto. 'Snack time!'

Naruto's right arm suddenly reached out towards the small mammal. The appendage almost instantly became black tentacle that stretched out and quickly snagged the squirrel.

The small animal did not have the time to even attempt an escape as the long limb quickly wrapped itself around the warm-blooded beast and brought it right back to Naruto.

Naruto was shocked by the sudden action, but quickly got over it when the small animal was brought close to his face.

'Eat!' Venom's voice nearly screamed.

Naruto looked at the small squirrel. It's little body thrashed about desperate to get away from the tentacle holding it in the air. Naruto had no idea what to do. The squirrel thrashed and twisted itself more and more. But, no matter how much it tried, it only succeeded in tiring itself out. He could see his own scared expression reflecting back on it's small black eyes.

For some reason, Naruto never thought about what hunting actually entailed beyond finding things to eat. His young mind had not come up with the possibility that he would end up killing something.

Despite suddenly regaining control of his changed arm, Naruto could not bring himself to do anything more than hold the terrified rodent.

'Eat!' Venom practically roared at his host. 'We must feed if we wish to survive. If you do not eat, then your lungs will be my next snack!'

Naruto could not tear his gaze away from those begging black eyes. "I-I-," Tears began to well up in his own blue eyes.

'You can.' Venom tried to reassure his host before he could even finish speaking. 'You must. If we don't feed, we will die. If we die, then who will protect your family? Your friends? Your home?'

"B-but, I c-c-." Tears began to trail down his face.

'It is simple. Just eat. It is all part of being a hunter. You've seen dogs do it. You've seen wolf and even greater beasts hunt down their prey. This is no different.'

"I'm just a kid!" Naruto shouted.

'But you are also a predator now. A creature that must prey on others to survive. It is the natural way of things. Fighting it will do nobody any good.'

Naruto did nothing but start pitifully at the captured creature in his grasp. He just could not bring himself to end it's poor life.

Venom let out a loud groan that grew into an enraged roar before going completely silent. He had to get his host to eat. Even if all he ate was this tiny little morsel, anything was better than just giving up such a compatible host.

Plus, getting him used to snacking on the small things would help him eventually work up to the larger and more filling meals out there. Venom just needed to find a way to make Naruto understand his new place in the world's food-chain; the top.

'Just,' Venom's voice had become calm and had taken on a new and reassuring tone; almost like that of a teacher. 'Why don't you just taste it first?'

Naruto still gave the captured creature in his grasp a hesitant look. He could not even imagine himself taking a nip of the small animals' ear, let alone biting into it. The thought was just too horrid to think about.

'Here.' Venom said gently as he moved the tip of the tentacle holding the creature. With a quick swipe of the appendage, a small cut appeared on the the squirrel's belly. The scratch was so small and close to the surface, that just the smallest drop of blood began to form from it.

'Try it.' His demonic voice whispered oh so gently in Naruto's mind. 'That is all you have to do. If you don't like it, then we will just have to try something else. Right?'

A sudden strike of agonizing hunger suddenly tore through Naruto's body. Forcing the youth to double over in pain and for his mouth to begin to salivate at the prospect of food. That squirrel was starting to look less like a terrified cute animal, and more like a mouth watering snack.

Naruto quickly shook that thought out of his head, but was unable to remove Venom's suggestion from within his mind.

He stared at the creature once more and could feel his tongue swimming in saliva as the ache in his stomach become worse and worse. The past two days, the pain would eventually go away, or at least dull a bit to be nothing more than an annoyance. Right now, it was gnawing at his very mind. The desire to fill his belly was becoming almost too much too bear.

Slowly, Naruto opened his mouth; allowing the pool of saliva he had accumulated to pour freely from his lips. He slowly brought his dripping tongue out from within his hungry mouth and stuck it as far out as he could.

With a small jerk, the tentacle moved the squirrel just enough fro the one single droplet of blood to finally fall and land perfectly on Naruto's red tongue.

Time felt like it had come to a complete halt. Naruto could feel, something, run through every single fiber of his body. A feeling excitement and irritation. A feeling of utter bliss and complete agony. Simple words could not describe how he felt as that one single drop of blood ran over his tongue and down his throat.

He could feel the warm liquid trail down his throat and leave a euphoric sensation with every cell it touched. His stomach almost instantly stopped it's constant cramping and crying for food upon the one little drop landing within it.

But, it was not enough. He needed more.

As satisfying as that one single drop was, it was like comparing a marinade to a steak. One could drink it and still feel less hungry, but in reality it was nothing more than something to enhance the flavor of the main dish. Something that you could swallow a lot of but never truly feel satisfied.

He needed more.

Naruto looked back to his trapped prey. He could not stop his tongue from licking his dry lips as the animal became so much more appealing as a meal. The taste of its adrenaline was still fresh on his tongue. Mixing in with the scent of its fear.

It was an amazing dish just begging to be consumed!

Any feelings of disgust had vanished an all Naruto could think about was sinking his teeth into the warm, squirming flesh in front of him. But, there was still that small voice of hesitation in the back of his mind; screaming for him to not do what his stomach begged for.

'This is right.' Venom whispered. 'This is how it is meant to be.

His words were encouraging, like a teacher whose student was unsure of their own skill. 'With me, you have become so much more than you were before. This is the price you must pay for my power. The more you eat, the stronger we get.'

'It is the natural order of things.'

Slowly, the black tendril began to recede away to reveal Naruto's normal hand gripping the squirrel tightly. Said hand brought the animal closer to naruto's drooling mouth.

He opened his mouth wide; anticipation coursed through his veins as the small animal's head entered his dripping maw.

In one swift motion, Naruto bit down with all of his strength while pulling the creature's body away; tearing the animal's head away with a fountain of blood jetting from the remains of its neck.

Tears began to stream down Naruto's face as the texture of the squirrel's fur rubbed against his tongue. The salt from its eyes mixed with the taste of iron from its blood, creating such a unique flavor that Naruto could not help but moan in approval of the taste. The crunching of the creature's skull between his teeth was like a symphony to his ears.

This was right. This was how things were meant to be. He was a predator that needed to hunt prey. There was no need for Naruto feel bad about his actions or feel apprehensive about taking a life. Life was just that way. Cruel.

Without any hesitation, Naruto swallowed the animal's head before biting into the rest of it's corpse. He would swallow whatever he had in his mouth quickly so that he could fill his stomach that much faster.

He tore open the squirrel's stomach, ripping out the intestines and other inedible bits before once again diving back into his meal. The sound of Naruto's ravenous feeding echoed through out the forest as the blood and gore from his food splattered and fell onto the grass below.

After only a minute or so, Naruto had finished with the dead thing. All that remained was mostly useless organs, the fur and a few bones.

He was still hungry. He still needed to eat.

The sound of moving branches instantly alerted Naruto to another squirrel running across the forest canopy. Without a second thought, a black tentacle shot out from his shoulder and quickly snatched the creature while it was in mid leap between trees.

The new appendage quickly yanked the small mammal straight into Naruto's bloody mouth; his teeth chomping down on the first thing they touched and tearing away as much flesh as his small mouth could hold.

The tentacle acted like an extra hand, holding onto his dead prey as he feasted. All the while, more tentacles launched themselves in whatever direction Naruto's new ability could identify; snagging squirrels, birds, snakes, and even some large insects. All were acceptable meals.

Venom remained silent as his host fed. This was just the start of their beautiful relationship. After the youth had his fill, the monster would teach his host how to use his new abilities.

Venom was different from the others of his kind. He did not want a mindless meat puppet, nor did he want to constantly fight for control and dominance. He wanted a host that was willing to work with him to achieve both of their goals. It just so happened that this child happened to be a compatible host young enough for the monster to guide down the right path.

Or at least the most fun one.

After what felt like a straight hour of stuffing his face, Naruto finally dropped the carcass of the most recently caught bird and fell back onto his rear. He belched loudly while patting his bloated stomach.

He had never felt this full in his life and the feeling was almost as intoxicating as his first bite was.

'Better?' Venom asked, already knowing his host's response.

"A lot." Naruto groaned. He rubbed his engorged stomach with joy. If he got to feel and eat as much as he did because of Venom, then maybe being a part of him wasn't so bad in the end.

'Now was that so bad?' The monster teased. 'Sure, you killed and ate nearly half of this forest, but it was just you following your new position in the natural cycle.'

The smile on Naruto's face faltered as he slowly came to the realization of what he had just done.

Venom was quick to respond before his host could get the chance to delve too far into an inevitable depression.

'It felt right, didn't it? It felt like something you were meant to do, didn't it?' He did not want to give Naruto a chance to rebuke his claims. 'Like I said just before, there is nothing to be ashamed of since you have done nothing wrong. Even better; the more you eat, the stronger we become. The stronger we become, the better we are to protect your family and home.'

Naruto sat in silent thought for a moment before finally realizing that it had already gotten dark. His parents were probably wondering where he was.

Needless to say that he doing what he had done had not effected him as badly as he thought. Venom was right, since he and it were now one, it was only natural that he would have to make some changes to accommodate his new partner.

The thought the he might eventually go after larger prey did not seem to bother Naruto as he slowly got back to his feet.

'We can start practice with some of your new abilities later. Why don't we just head home?'

Naruto took a moment to look around at the results of his feast. Blood covered the grass and ground in a thick crimson layer with the discarded remains of each meal laying about in random locations. Naruto had consumed with such ferocity that blood and gore had even splattered on the nearby trees and underbrush. The moon shone brightly through the leaves, easily highlighting the mess.

Naruto could not help feeling at least a little bad that he had acted so violently and created such a disturbing mess. He moved to at least pick up all of the discarded waste.

'What are you doing?' Venom grumbled. 'Leave it be. It can serve as a warning to those that find it.'

"Warning to what?" Naruto could not help but as as he dropped the handful of entrails he had gathered.

'A warning to all. To let the world know that Venom has returned and has found himself a new host.' He burst into a fit of laughter.

"But I thought we didn't want anybody knowing about you just yet since we can't use all of your power just yet?" Naruto responded, ignoring the odd laughing.

Venom's laughter came to a sudden halt and a groan of realization echoed through Naruto's mind, forcing a few chuckles to escape from his lips. Not even an ancient body-stealing monster was safe from his wise-cracks.

While walking home, Naruto noticed the blood and organs sticking to his shirt and shorts. Luckily, the boy was clever if nothing else, and decided to simply turn the clothes inside out before reaching the populated parts of the village.

He did, however, almost walk right into the middle of the busy street before wiping his mouth off. Walking around with a blood covered face would probably spark a few people's attention.

Naruto was fortunate not to run into too many people on his way home. He did, however, notice that strange tingling in the back of his head constantly go off as he walked about. He had to look around a little to notice one of the village's guards following him from the rooftops; most likely a guard his rightfully paranoid father had assigned to him, if Naruto had to take a guess.

That strange hunting sense of his started to get really annoying as he walked further and further within the village, until finally it got to the point where his entire head felt like broken TV static.

"What is going on?" Naruto groaned as he stumbled into a nearby alleyway, his hand holding onto his head in a desperate attempt to alleviate the pain.

'Something you are just going to have to get used to. You can not make our hunting sense stop, nor would you ever want to. Consider who you are; a target. Being able to know when a possible enemy is nearby will do nothing but help you all throughout your life.' Venom reasoned. 'Stop complaining.'

All Naruto could do was grumble at his inner demon's harsh words and continue on his way home.

Nothing much else happened that night once Naruto arrived home. His mother did ask why his clothes were inside out, but Naruto was quick to just wave off the woman's question by claiming he didn't pay any attention while getting dressed that morning.

Before she could question the boy any further, he had ran up to the bathroom to take a nice relaxing bath. He was careful to hide his dirty clothes under the sink until he could get the chance to wash them himself.

After a nice long soak in the tub, Naruto joined his family for dinner before doing some last minute homework and heading off to bed. Everything was back to normal. And he still had school tomorrow. Despite all of what he had just eaten a short while ago, Naruto found himself easily able to eat all of his mother's cooking. No matter what, he would always have room for that.

The next few days went about as normal as one could be for little Naruto. He went to school, hung out with his friends, and did homework. Other than having Venom making comments on nearly everything, every day life was still the same as before. Naruto did get the occasional question from his classmates on what it was like being kidnapped though.

Naruto would be lying if he said he wasn't enjoying the slight increase in popularity; even if it was just temporary. Venom was quick to tease the boy as often as possible about it too.

The days went by and life went as it was.

Naruto slowly got used to his new constant hunger and had decided that the forest where he held his first feast would be as good a place as any to use as his hunting grounds.

Every day, Venom taught his host how to use more and more of their power. Naruto became more and more enthusiastic to learn each new thing as the training went on. But his enthusiasm did become too much for the monster at times.

It was easy for the small kid to escape his new guards since without having chakra, and thus no way of detecting the boy, Naruto could easily slip away in a crowded street and make off to his new hunting grounds.

"Come on, please?" Naruto whined as he chucked away the useless rib cage of a songbird. It had become one of the boy's newfound joy's to slurp out as much as he could out of small birds in one go; it was kinda like drinking out of a meaty soft drink.

'I have told you over two dozen times now; we can not use all of my power. You are far too young and weak and if I allowed such a stupid action, I would end up eating every last bit of you in a matter of seconds. You can hardly use the power I have already given you. Wait until you are older.' Venom explained for the hundredth time.

His host was really beginning to get on the monster's nerves. Constantly asking for his power while also eating just the bare minimum to get by. If only the child would indulge himself every once and a while.

One of the negative effects his kind had upon bonding to a host, besides the nearly endless hunger; was the desire to satiate that hunger with the members of the host's current species. For one reason or another, eating one's on kind just tasted so much better than any alternatives as well as was just much more filling.

It wasn't like the village had a small population or anything. And humans reproduced fast enough that the world over would not suffer too badly from at least a few feasts.

Naruto huffed at the monster's words as he walked through the forest, looking for something else to fill his hungry belly. It did not take him long to find another bird sitting about on a far tree.

A small smirk appeared on the young boy's face. He thrust his right arm out and a large black tentacle launched from his hand towards the small bird. The large appendage smashed into the tree branch the bird was sitting on, snapping it clean in half with little effort.

The bird, however, reacted in just enough time to fly away and quickly out of reach for the grabby arm. Naruto held the tentacle at the spot for a moment, too embarrassed by his failure to do anything but look foolish.

'Thank you for proving my point.'