Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto (unfortunately). I do own all of my own characters.

"blah" = speech

'blah' = thoughts

'blah' = Kyuubi's speech

this chapter took a little longer than i expected...

Chapter 5 – New Life

Naruto stared down the dark passage that seemed to have no end.

Itachi and Kisame calmly started walking in, but noticed that Naruto wasn't following.

"Come on kid, lets go" said Kisame.

Noticing that Naruto wasn't even moving, Kisame grabbed Naruto by his arm and dragged him in. Naruto tried feebly to resist, but Kisame just pulled harder, forcing Naruto to follow him.

They walked for what seemed like eternity down this dark corridor, which occasionally turned to the right or left. Naruto looked back at one point and noticed that he could no longer see the light of the entrance behind him.

"You can't go back now even if you want to, the boulder has moved itself back into place and is being held there by ninjutsu" explained Kisame.

'Well isn't that reassuring' thought Naruto sarcastically.

"Don't worry too much about it," said Itachi to the obviously scared Naruto "just what ever you do DON'T be disrespectful."

"H-Hai" stuttered Naruto.

Soon after Naruto could see a faint light in front of them. As they got closer he made out the outline of a door right next to the torch that turned out to be the light source.

Itachi opened the door and went in followed by Naruto and Kisame. The inside was well lit and it took Naruto a little while to get used to the brightness.

The trio was now in what looked like a waiting room. Naruto caught sight of Itachi talking to some holes in the wall on the far side of the room. There was another door on the opposite the one they had come in.

"Kisame, what's Itachi doing?" asked Naruto.

"He's arranging a meeting," said Kisame.

"Oh…"

An Hour Later

The door next to the holes in the wall opened to reveal nothing but darkness. Itachi walked through the door and seemed to disappear into the darkness; Kisame tapped Naruto's shoulder and beckoned him to follow as he made his way to the door. Naruto hesitantly followed.

Once inside the room he immediately noticed Itachi standing right in front of him and had to move slightly to the right, so as not to bump into him.

'I wonder if that's ninjutsu or genjutsu' thought Naruto and started looking around the room.

With the exception of a three candles, that stood equally spaced several yards in front of them, the room was absolutely dark. Behind each of the candles, Naruto could barely make out an outline of a person, but could not see their face.

'These people sure are secretive' thought Naruto.

'Well what did you expect kid, that they would reveal their identity to every stranger?' said the Kyuubi in a bored tone.

'Guess not…'

Itachi's voice brought Naruto back to reality.

"Sir, we have completed our mission and brought Uzumaki Naruto back with us" said Itachi in a calm voice.

"So I see," said the person in the middle "however, it seems to me that there is more going on."

"Yes, this time around he came with us willingly," replied Itachi.

"And what would be the reason for this?" asked the figure on the right.

At this point Kisame nudged Naruto a little bit, motioning for him to speak.

Naruto gulped, but stepped forward spoke on his own accord; he was surprised when his voice came out calm and collected.

"I came willingly because I am no longer a part of the Hidden Leaf Village, and I was hopping that I could join the Akatsuki."

A soft chuckle was heard from the person in the middle.

"So you want to join the Akatsuki?" asked the person on the left.

Naruto said yes and nodded.

"And you think that because we've been hunting you we would like that?" he continued.

Naruto didn't say anything, but you could tell that he was getting nervous and that that had indeed been the reason.

Suddenly Naruto could see the middle figure leaning toward the figure on the left, obviously whispering something.

The talk between the Akatsuki echelons

(A/N: this whole conversation is being whispered. Roeto is the one in the middle, Kane is on the left, and Hajeko is on the right; Naruto's perspective)

"Perhaps we should consider this," said Roeto.

"No we should proceed with the original plan," replied Kane.

"I know this isn't exactly what we had planned, but if he joins we will still have the power of the nine-tails," countered Roeto.

"But that kid will have it not us," said Kane.

"Look this way we can train him to be a weapon," said Hajeko.

"That's true," said Roeto "and this way is a lot more reliable. Who knows how many things could go wrong if we went with the original plan."

"That's true, the original plan is quite risky" said Kane.

"Exactly so if we do this, we are guaranteed to have the power of the nine-tails work for us and not against us" said Roeto.

"Fine," agreed Kane.

"Good then it's settled," said Roeto "however we still need someone to train him."

"I suggest we let Itachi and Kisame train him," said Hajeko.

"What? No, we need the Uchiha for far more important missions" said Roeto.

"No, I must agree," said Kane "the Uchiha is from the same village and the sharingan will most likely be helpful for interacting with the Kyuubi."

"True, true… alright, yeah…" said Roeto contemplatively.

(A/N: these characters will be described later on)

Back to Regular Talking

"Naruto, we have decided to except you into the Akatsuki" said the person in the middle. (A/N: no names since Naruto hasn't been introduced yet).

Naruto instantly felt better and smiled a little.

"However the first three months will be your probation period" said the person on the left.

Naruto's smile faded a little bit.

"Now Naruto could you step out to the waiting room for a little while" said the person in the middle.

"Alright," said Naruto.

As he turned around and was shocked to see that it wasn't a wall of darkness as he had expected. Where the wall of darkness was supposed to be there was nothing; Naruto could easily see the entire waiting room.

Naruto quickly recovered from his shock and went back to the waiting room.

As he sat down on one of the chairs he quickly glanced back to look at the other room and was shocked once again. The wall of darkness was there once again.

'What the hell? Did they put that up as soon as I walked out?' Naruto questioned in his mind.

Suddenly Naruto could hear the Kyuubi chuckle lightly, 'no kid, no, that's was never removed. It's a ninjutsu that on one side is absolutely black and you can't see through it no matter what, but on the other side it's completely transparent.'

'Anyway just relax kid, they are only talking about your life in there' said the Kyuubi placidly.

'Yeah, only' said Naruto sarcastically 'Hey I thought you were gona actually teach me some new jutsus.'

'Have some goddamn patience kid! Plus you need to strengthen your body quite a bit before I even bother with you.'

In the Conference Room

"Itachi, Kisame, you have not completed your mission yet" said Roeto.

"What do you mean? We brought back the brat didn't we?" asked Kisame.

"Yes, but that was only the first part of the mission" said Kane.

"The second part is training him isn't it?" asked Itachi.

"You always were sharp Itachi," said Roeto "yes, the second part of your mission is to train him."

"Apart from regular training we need him to easily be able to use the powers of the Kyuubi' said Kane.

"Understood" said Itachi.

"Yes, sir" Kisame reluctantly agreed. 'Damn I have to spend more time with that kid. I really hate brats.'

"Also Kisame we will need for you to teach him water-jutsus," said Roeto "we want him to be versatile in every element, so when he is done learning water-jutsus, Kisame you will be replaced with Raiko so that he can learn lightning-jutsus."

"We are to train him as an assassin right?" asked Itachi.

"After the next three months are up, you'll know what he is best at; that is what we will be training him as" said Roeto.

Itachi and Kisame nodded and turned to go, but were stopped by Roeto's voice.

"You are to stay here for the next three months. I'm sure you know where the training facilities are" said Roeto.

"Yes, sir" said Itachi.

"Good then you're dismissed," said Roeto.

Itachi and Kisame then walked out to the waiting room to join Naruto.

"No matter what you said to Itachi and Kisame, you do want him to be an assassin, don't you?" asked Hajeko.

"Yes… and once he's trained we can finally put some our long-term plans into action" said Roeto with a mischievous smile.

In the Waiting Room

"Come Naruto," said Itachi as he walked toward one of the walls of the waiting room. He pressed his fingers in a certain pattern against the wall and it disappeared to reveal a well-lit corridor.

As they walked down the corridor Itachi explained a few things to Naruto.

"Naruto, Kisame and I will be training you from now on."

Naruto nodded.

"I expect absolute cooperation," said Itachi.

"And don't whine, kid," added Kisame "I have whining brats."

"Yes, sensei" said Naruto.

"Good, I'm glad to see you agree," said Itachi "now lets go to our rooms and then I'll give you a tour of the compound."

After a few minutes of walking down many different corridors, they finally reached a corridor that had one door at the end of it. They opened the door to reveal a door with two beds, a table and several bookshelves.

Naruto dropped off his stuff and was about to go out again when Itachi grabbed him by the shoulder and forced him back. He held out a black exercise suit and told Naruto to put it on, which Naruto promptly did.

"Your training starts now," said Itachi "that is a weighted suit, which will help build your muscle mass and chakra control. We are going to start you off with 50 pounds."

Naruto's eyes bugged out, "50 pounds already?!" Naruto half screamed."

"Shut up!" commanded Itachi, "Anymore complaining and I'll have you wear 100 pounds."

Naruto promptly shut up, but continued to grimace.

"From now on you will wear that suit all the time, except in the shower. I know I said that this will help with your chakra control, but for the first week I want you to walk around in that suit without using chakra. After the first week is done, you will get more weight added to the suit and you will be able to use chakra to help you walk around."

Itachi then put five ten-pound weights into Naruto's suit and beckoned Naruto to follow him on the tour of the compound.

As soon as Naruto began to move, he immediately felt the extra weight. He noticed that it wasn't that bad to walk around with, but when he thought about fighting like this he realized that this would seriously slow him down.

'This sucks' thought Naruto.

'Idiot, this help you like hell'said the Kyuubi.

'I realize that, but it still sucks' replied Naruto.

The Akatsuki compound was a very large place, complete with a training room that was about 50 square yards. Next to the training room was the weapons room, which had every single weapon type imaginable, even some things that Naruto had never seen before. Itachi then showed Naruto the location of some practical rooms such as the bathroom, kitchen (which didn't have any ramen as Naruto sadly noted) and dining room.

"Hey Itachi-san when are you going to teach me that jutsu for getting in and out of this place?"

"After the three month period is up" replied Itachi.

"What?" pouted Naruto "Why?"

"That's what is meant by probation," said Kisame "if you do go outside we will always accompany you."

"Oh good, at least I won't be stuck in a cave for three straight months" said Naruto.

"Well, of course we will be doing training outside" said Itachi.

"Come now it's getting late," said Itachi "you need sleep in preparation for training."

"Yes, sir!"

"By the way Naruto, you'll be sleeping on the floor" said Kisame in an amused voice.

"WHAT!?" yelled Naruto.

"Well you need to build up your body, so just consider this part of your training" said Kisame.

"Fine, fine…" Naruto agreed reluctantly.

The next morning, Naruto woke up with a backache and sore muscles.

'Damn it, how come I have to sleep on the floor?' Naruto scowled.

As if to as answer Naruto's mental question Itachi said, "don't worry Naruto you'll get used to it and also it will build up your bodies resistance."

After washing up the three went to the kitchen and Itachi prepared some breakfast. after breakfast Itachi and Kisame took Naruto to the training room.

"Alright Naruto, now run around the room 100 times, after that 100 push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and tree-punching" said Kisame "Also you will need to balance on a ball for 30 minutes."

"WHAT? Isn't that a bit much?" yelled Naruto.

"Shut up and do as you're told!" said an angry Kisame.

"Ok, sensei" sheepishly answered Naruto.

"Now for complaining you are going to be punished," said Itachi with an evil smile; Naruto gulped.

"You now have to run around the room 200 times. Now GO!" said Itachi forcefully.

Naruto immediately started running not wanting to get even more laps added to his overwhelming 200.after several hours Naruto finally finished his assigned task and had some rest.

"Kisame-sensei, I'm too tired to do any more today" groaned Naruto while meditating.

Itachi had left sometime while Naruto while busy with his exercises.

"Don't complain Naruto" sighed Kisame "or do you want to get punished again?"

"No sir" quickly responded Naruto.

"Here have some water" Kisame tossed a bottle to Naruto.

"Thanks sensei"

"Now don't drink too much, you aren't done for the day" said Kisame.

"Now give me another round of everything you did today" ordered Kisame.

"Oh man…" groaned Naruto "Fine, whatever…"

'Kid you need to do this to get strong' said the Kyuubi.

'Yeah I guess so…'

'Don't guess… Know' said the Kyuubi in a manner-of-fact tone 'now go run those laps and do those exercises they will help you a great deal.'

After he finished his exercises Naruto peacefully meditated with Kisame for several hours before going to eat dinner.

"What's for dinner Itachi-sensei?" asked Naruto since Itachi was cooking again.

"Rabbit" responded Itachi in a bored tone.

'Mmmm… Meat…' said the Kyuubi licking his lips.

Naruto slightly raised an eyebrow at Kyuubi's comment, 'Its not human meat so don't get so excited.'

'Idiot, meat is meat; human or non-human. During all my long years in the free-world I got to taste all the meat in the world and I can easily tell you which one is good and which one you shouldn't even touch.'

'And how does rabbit rank?' asked Naruto.

'Well rabbit is good, but it's right below wolves… wolves are really good' said Kyuubi is a sadistic tone.

'Right… I'll give my own opinion when I compare the two…' said Naruto. Then mumbled 'Which will probably never happen.' Said Naruto thinking where he was going to get wolf-meat.

'That's easy you just kill a wolf, skin it in your case, and then eat… well you humans would want to roast it too…'

'Right…I'll put that on my to-do-list… long term list that is.'

Just then Itachi put the rabbit meat on everyone's plate and they all set in silence eating dinner.

When they came back to their room after training Naruto just collapsed on the floor in the middle of the room and fell asleep instantly. Itachi and Kisame chuckled at this, but found it a little difficult getting about the room without stepping on Naruto.

It continued like this for three months with only slight variations to the types of exercises that Naruto did. He had not been taught any ninjutsu or genjutsu yet, his sensei's reasons for this being that Naruto had to first have a strong body and strong taijutsu before they could even begin to focus on the other aspects of being a ninja. The leaders of the Akatsuki meanwhile were convinced that Naruto wasn't a spy and decided to have him trained as an assassin. They knew that as soon as the boy was ready they could begin the first phase of their plan.

Meanwhile in Konoha

The Godaime Hokage, Tsunade, was sitting at her desk trying to make sense of all the scrolls and documents that were in front of her. However her mind kept cycling back to that little boy that she had lost three months ago.

The last three months had been the worst for Tsunade and the Leaf.

The morning after Naruto ran away Tsunade had sent more ANBU and other specialized tracking teams to try and find Naruto, but to no avail. Naruto could not be found anywhere. She then issued an order for search parties to be formed to look everywhere in the Fire Country for the boy. She knew however that not all of the teams would be so diligent in their search for Naruto, not everyone wanted to have the demon-fox back. After realizing that she sent out some of the genin teams because she knew that even thought the genin weren't so good at tracking, they would want their comrade back and would be more diligent that the older generation.

However the results were still negative and after a month the Godaime was forced to give up the search and label Naruto not only as a Missing-nin, but also an S-Class criminal since he had killed that team of ANBU.

Tsunade told all the ninjas that whenever they were out on missions to try and keep an eye out for Naruto. They all agreed, but she knew that most would forget this order and would rather keep Naruto out of the village.

The Godaime Hokage when public with the news of Naruto's disappearance a week after it happened. Many of the older generation had cheered because the demon was finally gone. However the younger generation was hit quite hard with this news, especially Team 7 and the team that brought Sasuke back.

Shikamaru and Kiba could not believe that Naruto had done this and Kiba kept insisting that someone must have kidnapped him because the Naruto that he knew would never leave Konoha. Shikamaru led several search parties all of which found absolutely nothing, it looked as if Naruto had just disappeared in thin air. Neji and Chouji were still in ICU when Tsunade had made the announcement. Chouji managed to recover a month after the mission and was absolutely shocked when Shikamaru told him the news about Naruto. Neji however was still in ICU and it wasn't looking good, he was only conscious a few day of the week and even then could barely get out several words before falling back into unconsciousness.

Hinata grieved for her lost friend and crush. She felt as if she was left completely alone in the world, but soon convinced herself that he would come back. She had to be optimistic, she had to believe that he would return, then maybe just maybe she could tell him how she felt. But most of all, this event drove her to train more, become stronger so that she could impress Naruto when he returned, maybe this way she would gain more self-confidence.

Sakura and Sasuke were absolutely shocked to hear about Naruto from Kakashi. They both desperately wanted to know the reason behind Naruto's disappearance, but since Kakashi was forbidden to tell them about the demon-fox, they were told that the reason would only be revealed if Naruto were found again.

Sakura couldn't help feeling heartbroken; Naruto had done so much for her, and she couldn't even help him when something was wrong in his life. Sasuke just scoffed and mumbled something to the point of "dobe, I won't go chasing after you," which promptly earned him a slap for Sakura; that action surprised Sasuke, Kakashi and also Sakura.

Out of all of Team 7, Sakura was probably the most effected, because she realized that the only things she had ever done for Naruto was ignore him, tell him off and/or yell at him. Now he gone and she couldn't apologize, she couldn't make up for everything she had done to him.

She tried to put herself in his shoes and realized that the only two emotions that she came out with against herself were anger and resentment. She wondered how he could always be so happy and optimistic. She desperately wanted to apologize to him, but knew that that was impossible now. Whenever she was alone in her bedroom and not out on missions to look for him, she would constantly remember her lost teammate and tears would always find their way to her eyes and she would eventually cry herself to sleep.

Sasuke may not have shown it in public, but did miss his friend/teammate/rival and would do his hardest on those search-and-rescue missions and blame himself went they came back empty handed. He had finally realized that that old saying was right 'you don't know what you have until it's gone.' He had a friend and now he had lost him. Then he thought about Sakura, she was annoying, but still she was a friend. She may not leave the village, but would she stop being his friend if he kept acting cold? He thought that maybe he should at least try to acknowledge her.

The rest of the rookie nine and Gai's team (that are in any condition to be told the news) were absolutely shocked by Naruto's actions. Ino tried to label him as an idiot, but no one else seemed to support that idea and she soon gave up (especially after she noticed that both her teammates regarded Naruto with respect). Shino, as usual, did not say much except that if Naruto left willingly then he must have had a good reason. Lee, who was now chained to the hospital bed to keep him from escaping, said that Naruto was not the kind of person to leave his dream behind like that without VERY good reasons and very actively supported the theory that he must have been kidnapped by someone. However strongly hopping that it wasn't Orochimaru.

By the time Chouji had recovered enough to be back on his team the search was called off and Chouji was forever left with the guilt of not being able to help his friend. Soon after the teams were re-arranged as follows:

Team 7 now consisted of: Sasuke, Sakura and Tenten.

Team 10: Ino, Chouji, and Lee.

Team 8 stayed the same.

Team Gai was dissolved and he was given new rookies to train. However he would often hold private training sessions with Lee (that is after Lee had been let out of the hospital).

After the end of the three months after Naruto left, everyone except Tsunade, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Hinata and Sakura believed Naruto to have gone forever. Only those five brave souls dared hope and pray for Naruto to come back someday. They swore a silent mutual agreement that they would always keep their eyes open for their blonde, happy, loud and hyperactive friend.

Back with Naruto

In contrast to the dread that was being felt by his teammates, these last three months where so of the happiest Naruto had ever had.

Naruto now had teachers that liked him, or at least seemed to like him, that seriously trained him. Not like Kakashi or Ero-sennin, who would rather be doing anything else except training him, Itachi-sensei and Kisame-sensei wanted Naruto to get stronger. This was probably one of the most important reasons that Naruto finally threw away his mask completely and let his true intelligence and cold mood show.

By the end of the three months of probation Naruto was already carrying around an extra 300 pounds in his suit. His morning warm-up was to run around the training room 200 times and do 200 push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and tree punching. He could easily maintain balance on a ball for 2 hours straight without even breaking a sweat. His chakra control had also increased ten-fold, Itachi had Naruto walk up and down the entire mountain. Not only that Naruto could climb up the mountain on only his fingertips (using chakra of course).

If was at this point that Itachi approached Naruto and told him that they would begin ninjutsu and genjutsu training. Naruto was excited beyond belief.

"However before we start Naruto," said Itachi "I think we should go have a talk with a friend of yours."

"Friend…?" asked Naruto uncertainly. Then thinking it was someone from Konoha added "I'm not going back to that village."

"No, no Naruto we have no intention of going to Konoha of all places" replied Itachi.

"Then. What 'friend' are you talking about?" asked a bewildered Naruto.

"A friend that had been with you your entire life" calmly replied Itachi.

'My entire life…' thought Naruto 'who the… no way…'

Naruto's face paled slightly, "You don't mean…?"

Before he could finish Itachi grinned and said, "Oh yes, your furry friend…"

A/N: sry about the grammar, half of this was WUI (writen under the infuence) XD.

after writing this it looks like im gona have to introduce most of the akatsuki members (this wasnt originally planed...). no real prob just longer chaps that will take longer to write

peter kim - orochimaru wont show up until later. I REALLY wont say anymore since i dont want to spoil the story (this kinda stuff is way too long term; meaning it could easily be changed)

next chapter... well i think u can guess at least the 1st part...