Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the characters written here. They are own by their respective owners. Nuff' said.

Warning: This is rated M for a reason (blood, gore, extreme violence, language, and possible adult themes/lemons, etc.) Some of the characters will be a little OC.

Now on with the third chapter.

The Black Leaves

Chapter 3

Three Years Later, Academy, Sparring Ring

Today was a big day for the ninjas-to-be at Konoha Academy. Every teacher and student of the ninja school had gathered for a school wide sparring tournament. The Academy sparring tournament was held every year and was used as a mid-term for the students. Every teacher had come and was stationed around the ring to evaluate the performance of each student and to give their own grades of the matches. Along with the students, the parents of said students had also come to either cheer for or comfort their child. At least one parent of each student was present.

"First, let me thank all of you parents for coming here today!," The gray haired chunin, Mizuki, yelled from the center of the wooden sparring ring. "As you all know, every student here has been training to graduate and to become full fledged ninja! Today, each student will be giving their all to show their skill and to impress their instructors! Now this is not a pass or fail event, we are only observing their current abilities so that we can set up proper teaching methods for each individual student! The matches for this event will be one-on-one, and each match will be between two random students who will to show us everything they've got!" All of the students cheered at being given the opportunity to impress their parents.

"Now the rules are..." Mizuki continued.

Naruto was standing by himself near the ring as he listened to Mizuki talk. The reason he was alone was because all the parents had demanded their children to not go near the blond boy. Hinata was one of them. Her father had a strong grip on her coat sleeve and would give a hard tug every time she made a move to go near Naruto. She could not understand why all of the adults were so mean to the little boy. Sure, he might have pulled a prank on them once or twice, but that was no reason to force him to be alone. The glares that the adults sent at little Naruto also confused poor Hinata. Every glare that was sent his way was always filled with such intense malice that Hinata was sure that she would burst into tears if anyone even glanced at her with so much hate.

Naruto just ignored the glares.

"Okay," Mizuki finished. "The first two who will fight will be..." He looked down at the clipboard he had in his hands. "Haruno Sakura vs. Inuzuka Kiba!"

A thin girl with long bright pink hair stood up from her seat next to her equally long pink haired mother and made her way to the ring with a large smile on her face. Her red battle dress and black bicycle shorts were her current battle attire. Everyone knew that in a few months she would change into something else then right back. Fashion was her top concern, rivaled only by her desire to be a ninja.

"Good luck, dear." Haruno Kaoru said from her seat next to Uchiha Mikoto. The pink haired mother and the clan matriarch had been the best of friends ever since they were kids, and their respective marriages did nothing to break their bond.

As Sakura was making her way to the ring, so was one Inuzuka Kiba with his little white dog, Akamaru, sticking his small head out from the front of Kiba's hooded jacket. The young Inuzuka had a small smirk on his face as he took his place in the ring, across from Sakura.

"Are the two combatants ready?" Mizuki asked the two children.

Sakura quickly got into the stance of the basic taijutsu that was taught at the ninja academy. Her smile was now gone and in its place was the emotionless face of a true ninja. If one were to look hard enough into the young girls green eyes, they would see a bright fire of determination burning strongly. Sakura was determined not to lose this fight. She would become a great ninja and make both of her parent proud. And beating the Inuzaka before her would make her one step closer to her goal.

Kiba gently pulled Akamaru out of his jacket and placed him on the ground. The little puppy looked up at his master in confusion and gave a short bark. Kiba gave a soft chuckle and knelt down beside his dog and gave a light pat to his head.

"I want you to stay out of this one little buddy," The master said to the dog. "I'm gonna' take care of this on my own."

The sudden fire that blazed behind Kiba's eyes told Akamaru much more. Ever since Kiba's older sister, Inuzuka Hana, was named heir to the Inuzuka clan; Kiba has been trying to surpass her. Before his sister was given the title, Kiba had thought that since he was a boy he would automatically be named heir. He learned the hard way why that was not true. A year ago, Kiba and Hana had a short match in front of the Inuzuka counsel against each other to determine who would be the next head of the Inuzuka clan. Hana beat poor Kiba without so much as earning a scratch from her hot headed little brother.

Ever since his humiliating defeat; Kiba has been training none stop to best his sister. He would normally train with Akamaru, but on the rare occasions that the white dog was not near, he would train by himself. Fighting this match on his own was only one of the many ways that Kiba would try to impress his mother/clan head. He could not afford to fail.

Kiba slowly got into his families famous taijustu stance.

"Alright," Mizuki said as he glanced at both combatants and raised his right hand high above his head.

"Fight!" He shouted as he brought his arm down in a chopping motion.

Instantly, the two students charged at each other. Sakura sent a hard left jab at Kiba's gut with enough force to cause the dog-boy to double over in pain. Kiba gripped onto Sakura's wrist and gave a hard upward pull. The sudden yank caused Sakura to stumble foreword and allowed Kiba to slam her head with his own. He continued to headbutt the poor girl several times until she finally wrenched her arm free.

Sakura stumbled back with her hands holding her now throbbing head. She quickly shook her head to try and rid herself of the pain and failed to notice Kiba's right leg sweeping across the ground.

His leg made contact and swept the pink-ette off her feet and knocking her to the ground. Kiba quickly raised the same leg and slammed it down onto Sakura's stomach. The girl gasped at the sudden pain but was able to roll away before Kiba could do it again. She quickly got back to her feet and glared at her opponent.

Kiba smirked once he saw the determination and rage in Sakura's eyes. Aiming to finish this match once and for all, he reared his right fist back and charged at Sakura. Once he got close, Kiba threw his charged fist out at the beaten pink-ette. However, while he thought he ended the fight then and there, Sakura had instead caught his hand with her left. With no time to react, Kiba could only stare as Sakura drew back her right arm and pounded her fist into his stomach.

Kiba's eyes went wide as a jolt of pain surged through his body from the blow. Seeing as how he was winded from her blow, Sakura stepped closer and followed up by striking the same area with her right knee. Kiba's body couldn't take the stronger jolt of pain from the second blow, and Kiba fell draped over Sakura's knee. As Sakura stood, Kiba fell to the ground unconscious.

Mizuki raised his right arm and pointed it in Sakura's direction. "The winner is... Haruno Sakura."

Meanwhile

Shimura Danzo was strolling quietly towards the academy. Behind him were eight of his most loyal and powerful ROOT ninja. Each ROOT ninja had the traditional attire of the average ANBU and were following their leader in complete silence.

Earlier that morning, when Danzo had made a visit to his hidden headquarters, he had selected his best ninja for what he called, 'A very important mission.' All that his ninja were told was that they were to capture and kill one Uzumaki Naruto and that he himself was to observe. The ROOT members did not question his orders, or why he needed so many high level ninja just to kill a kid, and agreed to the mission.

'Hiruzen thought he could hide this...thing...from me. He was gravely mistaken.' The aged war hawk thought to himself. Two years ago, one of Danzo's spies found an unusual folder hidden inside the Hokage's desk. The information inside of the folder both shocked and intrigued the ROOT leader. Several special pieces of information though, continued to dance about inside his old skull.

With a twisted grin, Danzo reached inside one of the many hidden pockets inside of his robes and pulled out two sheets of paper. On the sheets of paper was all of the information that Danzo thought was important enough to copy from the stolen folder.

The first page read:

The symbiotes are a race of aliens that arrived on Earth over two thousand years ago. Symbiotes have the unique ability to bond with a host organism an greatly increase the host organism's power.

The first symbiote was brought to Earth by a human that had found it on a distant planet. The human thought that the symbiote was some kind of costume and tried to wear the symbiote as such. The human was completely unaware that his new 'suit' was in fact a powerful creature. The instant that the human put on the symbiote, it bonded with the human and increased the humans power. The human already had unusual abilities before the bonding. The human host used the symbiote for a short while until he decided to remove it. The symbiote was confused by its host's actions and quickly became resentful towards its host.

After the symbiote was forcibly removed from its first host it soon bonded with another human. Its new host already had a grudge against its previous host and the symbiote's influence only increased both the human and the symbiote's anger and hatred. Combined with absorbing the abilities of its previous host and enhancing said abilities. The symbiote quickly became much more powerful than its first host. The symbiote hunted down its first host and would engage the human in many fights over the years until its hatred finally calmed down. After a short time the symbiote regressed back to its once kind nature. That is until its second host was killed.

Over the ages, the symbiote has bonded with countless other hosts. Unfortunately, because of the different natures of each individual host and its rapid switch from host to host. The mind of the symbiote was slowly destroyed. Its mind is now similar to a wild beast, making it twice as deadly and nearly impossible to control.

The name that the symbiote had taken as its own during its second host was, Venom. For a more detailed explanation of the history of the Venom symbiote please see page 46.

Symbiotes require a host to bond with for several reasons.

The first is obvious, mobility. Without a host, a symbiote is nothing more than a little puddle that can barely move on its own. When bonded, the symbiote automatically has a mode of transportation; the host itself.

The second reason is, food. The symbiote feeds on the adrenaline created by its host. Symbiotes also feed on a hormone known as phenethylamine, which is found inside the human brain and in chocolate. It has also been recently discovered that symbiotes can also feed on their host's and their victim's chakra. The downside to this is that the host can no longer use their chakra and must depend completely on their symbiote for protection. When bonded with a host, the symbiote is almost always feeding on the hosts adrenaline but it still must feed on others to survive. There are two distinct ways that a symbiote feeds on its victims; the first is like every other organism, it uses its host to eat other living creatures and always goes for the brain before eating anything else. The second method of feeding is considered the 'cleaner' method. The symbiote possesses its host then forces its victim directly into its body; the victim is then drained of all nutrition then expelled from the symbiote as nothing more than a corpse.

The third and final reason is, defense. On their own, symbiotes are incredibly weak. Almost no effort is needed to destroy a symbiote that is not bonded with a host. When bonded though, they become much more difficult to damage. A fully bonded symbiote can only be truly damaged by either intense heat or high frequency sound waves; anything else will simply irritate the symbiote.

Danzo chuckled darkly as he flipped over to the second page.

The abilities that the Venom symbiote will give to its new host, Uzumaki Naruto, alone are as followed: Incredible strength, speed, and agility. Enhanced senses. A sixth sense of awareness of his surroundings, nicknamed 'Symbiote Sense'. The ability to extend his limbs to a certain extent, mainly his tongue. The ability to change color to match his surroundings, effectively becoming invincible. A limitless number of symbiote tendrils, tentacles, claws, and blades. The ability to adhere to any surface.

The abilities that Venom has when possessing Naruto are: Near-impossible strength. His speed and agility are reduced because of his increase in size and muscle mass. Able to see almost completely around him because of his large eyes. Symbiote Sense. He starts to extend his tongue for battle more than his other body parts. The ability to blend in with his surroundings is still available but is not used as much because of his decrease in intelligence. Claws, fangs, tendrils, tentacles, blades, and his absorption ability.

Unfortunately, with every advantage there is a disadvantage: Venom is weak against extreme heat and high frequency sound waves. Sound waves cause great pain to both the symbiote and its host and causes the symbiote to become unstable and weak enough to be forcefully removed. Heat simply burns the symbiote and its host causing both to, literally, melt into a puddle. As stated before, Venom is not that fast compared to when its host is using the symbiote's power, but his impressive strength makes up for the loss.

Because of several events over the years, Venom's mind has become nothing more than that of an animal, except much more deadly. Unlike a normal beast, whose top priority is normally self preservation, Venom now has absolutely no concern for the safety of itself or others. Regardless of what the danger is, Venom will charge in head first and ignore any and almost all damage. Only when its two weaknesses are used does the symbiote earnestly tries to avoid damage. Its main concern is only to kill and feed regardless of who is nearby. The friends and family of its host are in just as much danger as the hosts enemies.

Venom does have limited speech. It normally only growls or roars and is limited to only saying a few words at a time. For more information on Venom's abilities, see page 110. For all information pertaining the Venom symbiote, see page 40 to page 200.

Besides the Venom symbiote, there are several other symbiotes that exist on Earth. Almost all of the other symbiotes on Earth were created from the Venom symbiote and thus share all of its abilities plus their own special or enhanced abilities. All symbiotes can detect one another and their hosts. Listed are all of the known symbiotes, besides the Venom symbiote, that are currently on Earth, along with their current host; if they have one, location; if known; and special traits and abilities that the Venom symbiote does not have.

Name: Anti-Venom
Location: Unknown
Host: Unknown

The Anti-Venom symbiote is exactly as its name implies. It is the opposite of Venom. It shares all of Venom's abilities but has absolutely no mind of its own; its host has complete control. Anti-Venom is toxic to the original Venom; just touching it causes the Venom symbiote great pain. Just as the Anti-Venom symbiote touching Venom causes Anti-Venom just as much pain. It is best to keep the two symbiotes away from each other as they do not like the company of the other.

Name: Phage
Location: Iwagakure
Host: Unknown

Phage is unable to create tentacles of any kind. Instead it creates large blades, spikes, and spines from its body that can be launched at opponents at high speeds. Phage is the youngest brother and youngest 'child' of the 'Symbiote Siblings'.

Name: Riot
Location:Otogakure
Host: Unknown

Riot's blood and saliva are highly acidic and can dissolve even the strongest of alloys. It never creates sharp weapons and instead uses its tentacles to bludgeon and beat its opponents. Riot is the oldest brother and oldest 'child' of the 'Symbiote Siblings'.

Name: Lasher
Location: Sunagakure
Host: Unknown

Lasher is able to create a mucus that is used to trap, crush, or suffocate its opponents. It also only uses its tentacles in a whip-like fashion. Lasher is the middle brother and is the third oldest 'child' of the 'Symbiote Siblings'.

Name: Scream
Location: Unknown
Host: Unknown

Scream uses its long hair instead of tentacles to trap or kill its opponents. Somehow Scream is able to withstand the type of sound waves that normally harm symbiotes. Scream is the oldest sister and is the second oldest 'child' of the 'Symbiote Siblings'.

Name: Agony
Location: Unknown
Host: Unknown

Agony, like its sister, uses its hair instead of tentacles to trap or kill its opponents. Agony can also absorb dangerous chemicals and weaponry to use against its prey. Agony is the youngest sister and is the third oldest 'child' of the 'Symbiote Siblings'. Agony is also the leader of the 'Symbiote Siblings'.

Note:The 'Symbiote Siblings' are the 'children' of the Venom symbiote. They were forcibly created by a organization that tried to control the symbiotes yet failed. The main goals of the 'Symbiote Siblings' are; to find their father, Venom; help their father to return to his once kind self; to find a wife for their father and subsequently its host; and to live together as one big family.

Name: Toxin
Location: Unknown
Host: Unknown

Toxin is the 'grandchild' of the Venom symbiote and the 'child' of the Carnage symbiote. Toxin has the abilities of both of its relatives and sense it is a third generation symbiote, it can withstand the weaknesses of normal symbiotes to a much greater degree than its 'father' or 'grandfather'. It has two different forms; a slim bodied form were speed and quick attacks are used, and a large muscled form were hard hitting attacks are used. Because of its relatively young age, Toxin is quit immature and childlike and requires at least four hours of 'play time' a day. Its first host specified that it can do whatever it pleases during those four hours, but is not allowed to commit any acts of grand theft, arson, rape, or homicide. Toxin pouted and whined for several hours after being told the rules.

Name: Payback
Location: Unknown
Host: Unknown

Payback is a unique symbiote. Not much is known about it except that it was not created from the Venom symbiote. It is not known were it originated from. From the limited number of encounters with the symbiote, only limited data was collected. It appears to have the same abilities as Venom but only possesses its host when the host is in a state of pure bliss. One documentation shows that Payback has feelings for Venom and does not hesitate to act upon them. It was shown that Payback nearly rapped the one of the hosts of the Venom symbiote, but failed when it noticed the person documenting the event and fled.

Name: Carnage
Location:250 feet underneath Amegakure
Host: None

Every possible precaution has been made to prevent the release of the most dangerous creature in existence, Carnage; the 'son' of Venom. The first host that the Carnage symbiote bonded to was criminally insane and the insanity was amplified by the symbiote; creating a true monster. Carnage is ruthless, merciless, cruel, everything that could be considered insane and it has total control over its host. Carnage kills purely for fun, men, women, and children are its targets. It reasons that 'Humans are just sacks of blood that make more sacks of blood. I want to color the world in every ones beautiful blood.' At every murder that the symbiote commits, it writes on the walls 'Carnage Rulez'. It is completely impossible to tell the difference between Carnage's feeding victims and its normal murder victims. It has the deadly abilities to change its host's appearance to that of any other human and it can see completely around around itself. Carnage is too dangerous to be aloud to be let free and was thus trapped in the most well defended area in existence. If Carnage were to ever get loose and find a host; not even the power of all of the other symbiotes combined could save humanity. No one can control Carnage.

Danzo finished reading the papers with a disgusting smile as the group approached the academy.

Well there is chapter three for ya'. I am well aware that the information on the symbiotes may or may not be correct. Remember this is a fan fic. Nuff' said.