They said that he could manipulate his ice further. The mist he could make could be used to manipulate his ice. Naruto had a theory that he could make tiny bits of ice and use them in mass. The flexibility that the tiny bits of ice would have would make it so he could perform new attacks.

Naruto looked up from his book about water manipulation and the basics of the hidden mist jutsu. Reviewing and mastering the basics could allow for further progression. Naruto held out a hand and pushed chakra into it.

Little bits of ice slowly appeared, floating, above his palm. The tiny bits of ice slowly grew in number, slowly swirling around in the air. Naruto tried to rush it a little bit more, to speed up the process, but the ice still moved slowly.

Suddenly, a voice broke his concentration.

"How's it going, brat?"

Anko's voice startled Naruto. The particles of ice stopped swirling around and fell from the air, landing on Naruto's palm or falling to the ground. He turned and looked at his sensei.

Grinning, Anko gave Naruto a thumbs-up. "Let's have a quick spar, ok?"

Naruto careful closed the book in his lap and set it off to the side, where it wouldn't be damaged. Standing up, Naruto's back made a few cracking and popping noises. He turned around fully to face Anko and then jumped backwards.

A snake burst from the ground right behind Naruto, attempting to bite him in the back of his thigh. Quickly, Naruto jumped up, brining his knees to his chest as he spun around. He threw three senbon at Anko as he spun, before landing on the snake's head, killing it.

Rushing forwards, Anko pulled her fist back to punch Naruto, but Naruto only leapt back further and into a tree. Quickly making a hand sign, Naruto slowly rippled, becoming transparent.

Smiling sadistically, Anko pulled out a kunai and twirled it around. "You know brat, if you really wanted to get the drop on me… you have a long way to go!"

Spinning around, Anko quickly deflected a needle of ice aimed at her back.

She had to give it to the brat, he was good with stealth. Naruto was stealthy enough to remain hidden, even with Anko actively searching for signs of the boy. She'd have to wait for him to make a move. When he did, that would be when he revealed his position.

Naruto made no noise when he moved. He chose spots to walk on that wouldn't leave a footprint, or at least a noticeable one. But there was one thing that gave his general spot away.

The overwhelmingly strong scent of cleaning detergent gave away his general location. Somehow, even after going through the training he has gone through, he managed to always smell like cleaning detergent. The scent was strong enough that it could make your eyes water.

Turning to her left, Anko launched a barrage of kunai and shuriken. The scent had spiked there before vanishing for a moment. Naruto had probably jumped backwards and moved around in a wider and larger circle to throw Anko off the scent.

Sitting in a tree, Naruto quietly used a kunai to cut open a small part of the tree and let the sap run out. Taking the sap, grimacing, he started to rub it on himself to get rid of the scent of cleaning detergent. He felt absolutely and utterly filthy with the tree sap on him.

Quickly, Naruto pulled out four kunai and pushed a wire through the loops of the kunai. Pulling out a few pulleys, he started tweaking it and the wire. Shortly after, the pulleys were connected to the wires, which were tied around the kunai.

Jumping off the tree, Naruto launched himself right at Anko.

Hearing the subtle shift in air, Anko spun and raised one arm to block any attack while throwing a snake upwards at Naruto.

The boy spun, barely dodging the snake, but he threw the kunai at Anko. He'd have to hurry with his plan with his chakra running out slowly. He didn't have much left.

Anko deflected one kunai and side-stepped, avoiding the other three. Suddenly, Naruto's Genjutsu he cast on himself wore off, revealing his position. Grinning once more, Anko jumped up at him and pulled her right arm back for a punch. Naruto spun around so his feet met Anko's fist and used the momentum to launch himself almost directly upwards once again.

Twisting his fingers, wires wrapped around his fingers became visible, and a spinning noise was heard. Anko turned and blocked the four kunai that had come flying up behind her with a kunai. Quickly, she slashed at the wires connecting the kunai to Naruto, letting gravity take control and bring the kunai down to earth.

Naruto held out his hand, his signature chokuto/tanto hybrid weapon forming in his hand, and summersaulted mid-air towards Anko. Anko held up a kunai, staggering a little from the force that momentum and gravity had given Naruto, as his blade met the kunai.

Anko grabbed Naruto's arm, tugging harshly, and slammed him into the ground. He landed with a harsh thud, bouncing slightly upwards. Slowly, he turned so his stomach was on the ground and tried to push upwards weakly. His arms gave out and he face-planted into the dirt.

Sighing, Anko figured she went a bit fair with that last attack.

Hiruzen sighed. The meeting with both the Shinobi and Civilian councils was a pain in his ass. It always was. But this particular one was worse than normal. He held up his hand to silence the random chattering around the room.

With all attention on him now, he spoke.

"As you all know, 12 years ago the Kyuubi attacked. It killed many good men and women, even the Fourth Hokage."

People looked back and forth among each other, wondering what brought this on and where Hiruzen was taking it.

"As you know, the Fourth sealed the Kyuubi into a child. His name is Uzumaki Naruto." Hiruzen's voice was unusually grim.

Somebody in the room muttered, "I still don't get why we didn't kill the brat."

Ignoring the comment, Hiruzen continued.

"However, none of you have realized something. Something… crucial. He is not the monster you made him out to be. Because of the isolation you exiled him to, his mental and emotional health took a dive. Leaving a young child alone with the Fox Demon is an idiotic thing to do."

A few people in the room rolled their eyes. One even stood up.

"And? That's not my problem. That's his problem to deal with. That's his job after all."

"SILENCE!" Hiruzen snarled at the man. The man sat back down and shrunk into his seat. "It may have been his job… but do you realize what that does to a child?"

The room was silent.

"He was still a normal child, just scared and isolated. The demon inside him tortured him without end. We have reason to believe that it still does. Because of this, Naruto soon exiled himself. He shut himself up in his apartment that was given to him, leaving only the comfort of books and the torture of the demon."

Breathing in, Hiruzen forced himself to take a deep breath to calm down.

"Soon… he developed an extreme case of OCD and schizophrenia. Now, we are dealing with a schizophrenic sociopath that could eventually decide the fate of our village. Now think. THINK! Think about what he could have been if he wasn't isolated. What would happen? Come on, speak up."

A shinobi stood, raising his hand. Hiruzen nodded towards the man, urging him to speak up.

"He would have been brought up with the rest of us – perhaps without these issues, or at least with access to help, and thus would be closer to Konoha and not as much of a potential threat."

Hiruzen nodded, and the man sat back down.

"Spot on. He would have developed a love for Konoha. Currently, he has no love for Konoha. However, even before this, all of this could have been avoided through the actions of one person. Uzumaki Kushina."

Murmurs filled the room, only to be silenced once more by the Hokage.

"Uzumaki Naruto is the son of Uzumaki Kushina. They don't look the slightest alike, sure, but the DNA test has proven that Kushina is the mother of Naruto. Yes, you all believe she died, but she didn't. Uzumaki Kushina abandoned her son."

"Well duh, she realized the monster that was once her son." A brown-haired woman stood, giving Hiruzen a look.

Another snarl got her to shut up and sit down.

Hiruzen inhaled deeply once more to calm himself. Then he motioned for a figure to come out of the shadows.

They did so and pulled their hood down, revealing one of the very people Hiruzen was talking about. Kushina leveled a glare on all the people in the room.

Hiruzen held his hand up to silence people right as they started talking. "Kushina has been called back to Konoha to perform a task. To teach young Uzumaki Naruto how to create chakra chains, to settle him into his role as the host of the Fox Demon, and as preparations for the up-coming war between us and Kumogakure."

Kushina then chose that time to speak up. "That… creature… was once my son, and I have since realized that. However… my lack of action has ruined any chance that he could have been my son. He is now, truly, a monster and nothing I do can stop that. I am merely here to fulfill my duty to Konoha."

Naruto leapt through the trees with his sensei, Anko. The mission was simple. Kill the leader of a small group of bandits. Nightfall had fallen hours ago, but he had refused to stop to rest and sleep.

He wouldn't need the sleep anyways. He just wanted to get the mission over with and get back to his apartment.

Arriving upon the camp of bandits, Naruto took a moment to observe. The layout was simple with small tents scattered here and there with a big tent in the middle of the scattered tents. That big tent most likely belonged to the leader of the bandits. Quickly, Naruto used his invisibility genjutsu and dropped to the ground.

Stealthily, he made his way to the main tent, stepping around dead fires and drunken bandits. Gently, he opened the tent flap and snuck in.

He could feel the cool earth through his thin leader boots – the leather was quite thin for a reason. Thin leather was perfect for stealth specialists. Leather made little to no noise, if tightly bound. It didn't protect the feet very well, but just barely enough that it worked.

Slowly, he went through a series of hand-signs. He had been wanting to test this new technique on a human, and now was his first chance.

Naruto held his hand over the open mouth of the drunken snoring bandit leader. Slowly, ice senbon formed in his other hand. Suddenly, he clapped his hand down on the man's mouth while striking with the senbon.

The needle was positioned so it hit the back of the man's neck, paralyzing him, so Naruto could perform his technique and study the effects of it.

The man's eyes shot wide open, panic clear as day as he tried to struggle. However, he couldn't move while Naruto quickly chopped the man's throat. Naruto pulled his hands away and quickly flashed through more hand-signs and then held out his right hand.

A blank, inky substance floated above his hand, rippling in the air. Gripping the jaw of the man with his left hand, Naruto opened the man's mouth and slapped his right hand over the mouth of the man.

He was trying to suffocate the man with sentient ink.

The man made little noise as he choked on the ink being shoved down his throat. He tried to spit it up or even swallow the ink – anything that would stop it from blocking his windpipe. Slowly, the ink dripped down to the lungs of the man and suddenly became sticky enough to latch onto the lungs, so it couldn't be coughed up.

Naruto removed his hand and watched the man, waiting to see if it would work.

Anko sighed as she and Naruto traveled back towards Konoha.

Sure, she loved the sadism behind the method used to kill the bandit leader, but…

Glancing over at the hooded boy, Anko grimaced. Sure, she herself had killed people in equally bad ways, sometimes making it even worse. But she did it because it was fun to torture enemy ninja. It just wasn't worth it on bandits or people who weren't trained.

Yet Naruto did it without showing emotion. Sure, fear was still heavily prominent in his eyes, but that was normal. What wasn't normal was reacting how he did for one of his first kills. That one had been his second kill, ever.

Both of Naruto's kills had been in cold blood. Yes, that's how most kills are, but still… this one felt different. Something struck Anko as wrong. The entire thing seemed off.

Granted, she would do her best to see to it that Naruto ended up in a mental institution, but she knew that the council would stop her. The Shinobi council, even if they realized what was wrong with the boy, they'd keep him merely for his abilities. They would have tried to use Naruto as a breeding factory, to create shinobi with a new bloodline, but he was the demon child. Almost nobody would go near the demon child willingly. Thus, he had been left alone.

But sooner or later, something would happen.

Whether or not he ended up in a mental institution was set in stone – he would end up in one. The question was when he would be put in one.

Naruto stood 10 meters away from Anko. It had been almost exactly one week since their last mission was completed – killing the leader of a small group of bandits – and Anko insisted that Naruto learn better taijutsu.

So Anko had taught Naruto a basic form of taijutsu. Not a common one, for sure, but not well known either.

What people didn't know often killed them.

This spar, as soon as it began, would require Naruto to put the technique to practice. He crouched low; arms held out to his sides just barely enough to help him maintain balance but also quickly put up a guard. He shifted so his feet were slightly farther apart to maximize the movement of the technique whilst slightly leaning forwards. Anko had told him it wasn't a very good technique, but it would work well enough if learned properly.

Anko made the first move, sprinting towards Naruto, right fist raised and cocked backwards, left hand held in front of her with the palm facing Naruto.

Quickly, Naruto pushed a small amount of chakra into his legs to bounce backwards once and then leap forwards, slightly thrusting his knees forwards to help build momentum. Naruto twisted into a horizontal spin, mid-air, and kicked outwards to meet Anko's fist. Anko's closed fist opened, grabbing Naruto's leg and pulling him towards her, and slammed her palm into his gut before throwing him away from her.

Landing with a thud, Naruto recovered faster than he used to and quickly got back into form. This time, instead of waiting for Anko to make the first move, he raised himself slightly from the ground and, pumping small amounts of chakra into his legs, he closed the gap between himself and Anko quickly.

Ducking low, Anko let out a sweeping kick, attempting to launch Naruto away from herself, only for Naruto to jump upwards and pull his legs under himself. This made him a smaller target, he supposed, but then re-focused. Suddenly, he spun diagonally and kicked at Anko, his heel hitting her in the shoulder.

However, the Jounin stood unfazed and, once again, slammed her palm into his gut, launching him across the clearing.

This time, instead of landing harshly, Naruto rolled as he hit the ground. Sure, it hurt, but not as bad as it would have hurt if he didn't roll to recover.

They suddenly started screaming, the noise slamming against the insides of his head. Naruto fell backwards, barely avoiding an axe kick from Anko, and gripped his hair as he barely held in his screams. Anko stood up straight, watching as Naruto writhed on the ground in pain.

Anko cursed and knew she'd have to get the Hokage to re-apply the seal again. She pulled out a syringe from her trench coat and injected Naruto with it, knocking him out.

Unbeknownst to Anko, a pair of purple eyes watched from the shadows under a tree.

A/N Section

Yeah

I did that.

Deal with it.