AN: Hello all Seagate here with another chapter. I have to say I was surprised and really pleased at the reception this story got and I really appreciate people giving it a chance. So here I am with another chapter, I can only hope you all enjoy it. Because I have to say I am enjoying writing this story so far, as it is so different from my other Naruto story and allows me to play around with the story.

I would like to once again say this is my own version of Panory Bro's story Dawn's Sage, which is a very interesting fic that I recommend.

Other than that I hope you all enjoy the chapter and leave a comment or review at the end as this story is only loosely planned out at this point in time. With only a few basics of where I want it to go and what I would like to happen being sketched out. Which leaves things open to suggestions and advise at the moment.

Well onto the story I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
( - )

(Last Time)

"He's right you know Fenrir. He's surpassed you in using the technique, he's probably surpassed me too. Despite that though he's still too inexperienced to be a true 'Sage', to be a true Alpha. Real world experience is the only way to fix that." Akela spoke up softly as she walked forwards, coming to a stop next to her mate Fenrir. As she stood next to Fenrir, Naruto couldn't help but note in amusement that Akela towered over Fenrir, standing nearly ten feet taller than him.

Fenrir grunted at that, shifting his head to look at Akela, before turning back to Naruto. "Well I suppose as long as he summons us whenever he gets in over his head, and doesn't forget that he is a member of our family then it is fine."

An amused look passed across Akela's face as she heard that. For all of Fenrir's apparent ferocity he was a marshmallow at heart. He placed his concern for the Pack above everything else, and since Naruto was a member of their family, well Fenrir had an almost fatherly concern for the boy.

A smirk passed across Naruto's face to as he also understood that Fenrir was only concerned for him. Turning away from the large grey wolf, Naruto instead turned to Akela. "So you have no problem with me leaving."

"Follow your own path Naruto, we will always be here if you want to come back." Akela replied softly as she looked down at Naruto.

"Then that's what I will do." Naruto said with a nod of his head, knowing as he did that the road ahead would be hard. He would no doubt face multiple powerful enemies as he tried to find this way in the world of Shinobi. If he was honest with himself though, he was very much looking forward to it, the Black Forest although a place he considered home, was only so big. He was more than ready to venture out into the real world to test his mettle.

( - )

Chapter 2

( - )

(With Naruto a Year Later)

Naruto felt that for the most part he had had a pretty decent upbringing, for literally being raised by wolves that is. Akela had instilled in him a moral code of sorts, this moral code for some would be seen as distinctly grey, but for him was basically gospel. He had been taught that the strong survive and the weak die, that there is just as much thrill in the hunt as there is in the kill and that the Pack is the most important thing. Other things like the basic what is right and what is wrong was never really covered. Akela instead left that up to him to decide, stating that most of it was common sense. The only thing she really impressed upon him was the Pack always a came first, and no matter what you should never kill a member of your own Pack.

That being said Akela, despite her ambiguity when it came to morals and ethic, was somewhat of a stickler when it came to the rest of Naruto's upbringing. Knowing as she did that he would one day chose to walk among the humans she had decided to not just teach him how to fight, hunt and kill but the other necessities he would need. She had taught him the basic things he would need to know when travelling through the human world, like numbers and language, manners and etiquette, the basic geography of the Elemental Nations etc. The old Shinobi Academy text books Kushina left in the Black Forest alongside the rest of her crap was very useful for this.

It was because of this knowledge that Naruto had been able to thrive since leaving the Black Forest and coming to the world of man. Shinobi he had found out, did not hold the monopoly on mercenary work like one would expect. Often times their services were highly expensive.

The payment for a C-rank mission alone was more than most families could earn in a year, and the missions only got more expensive as the ranking increased. A single S-rank mission from one of the larger Shinobi Villages like the Hidden Cloud, the Hidden Rock or the Hidden Leaf could impoverish a small nation, depending on the difficulty of the mission and how many Shinobi would need to be sent.

There were other options though, such as going to the smaller Shinobi Villages, like the Hidden Rain, or the Village Hidden in the Waterfalls. The prices these Villages charged for their services were not quite as extortionate, they were still expensive though.

It was because of this reason that the Shinobi Villages didn't have the monopoly many thought on gigs like protection, assassination, espionage and the like. No there were cheaper alternatives for those missions, Missing-nin, Shinobi who abandoned their Villages and were often actively hunted by said Villages, they provided cheaper alternatives, as to did roving mercenary bands and exiled Samurai.

It was in that less than esteemed company that Naruto was able to make a healthy living and somewhat of a name for himself. It had been twelve months since he had first walked into the seedy bar in Clover Town, the Lusty Leopard. It had been the first place he had visited, in the first town he had come across since he was reverse summoned to the human world.

Suffice to say his impression of it had not been great, the building was a ramshackle, two-story wooden building. When he had first entered his heightened senses had almost been overwhelmed by the stench of sweat, stale alcohol and greasy food. Luckily though he had been able to power through, driven on by his curiousity at meeting other humans for the first time.

It had been a disappointing first meeting, a guy sitting at the bar had simply sneered at him and told him to piss off back to kiddie school. Naruto ended up smashing his face into the marked and pitted wooden surface of the bar, breaking the man's teeth and nose and causing him to let out a loud scream of shock and pain. That had gotten Naruto the attention of the entire bar.

A brief brawl later and a half dozen broken bones and lacerations made it clear to the bars clientele that Naruto was not someone you fucked with. After making sure he made that point, he went on to ask for some food, taking the money from one of the half dozen thugs he had beaten down to pay for his meal.

As it turned out, Naruto's first impression was not that uncommon. The bar was known to draw a rougher crowd, as exiled Samurai, mercenaries and Missing-nin often frequented the place. It was because of this, or maybe caused by this, that the bar had somewhat of a bad reputation.

When he had first looked around the bar, Naruto had been surprised to see that against one of the bar's walls there was a large request bored displayed. A request board that held hundreds of paper bounties and requests, posted by government officials, private parties and the like. These requests were often for protection, for hired muscle, or to advertise bounties that had been put on the heads of Shinobi, Missing-nin and other people of interest.

Upon hearing this Naruto had decided to give one of them a go, after all this was apparently how people like Naruto made money. People who excelled in fighting but who didn't want to or weren't allowed to join the Shinobi Villages.

The first mission Naruto had ended up taking was a bounty request, for some failed academy student from the Hidden Cloud Village. The man had apparently been causing trouble in a nearby town, using the paltry skills he learned at a Shinobi Academy to bully, harass and rob people travelling to and from the town. This had ended up interfering with the town's trade, often putting off some of the more squeamish merchants. The town had put in a request for the man to be dealt with, Naruto had accepted it.

From there it had only taken him a about an hour to reach the town and track his target down, this had been made easier by the fact that the man had more chakra than the average person thanks to his Shinobi training. Which for Naruto, who was nowadays constantly in Sage Mode and very much able to sense chakra, made it almost painful easy for him to track down the man.

What followed was the man attempting to intimidate Naruto with a sword when he was confronted, and Naruto ripping the man's throat out with his clawed hand. It had taken Naruto about an hour from accepting the job to bringing his body to a nearby bounty hunting station that was based in the same town as the Lusty Leopard. A two hour job all round that had ended up earning him ten thousand ryo. Naruto had to say that he liked it, though the prey could have been better.

That had been twelve months, and over two hundred confirmed bounties ago.

( - )

Walking forward confidently, a slight smile on his face, Naruto's amber eyes almost glowed as he entered the dimly lit main room of the Lusty Leopard. His entrance did not go unnoticed as a few of the regulars called out greetings to him as he passed. Seeing this Naruto gave them a brief nod in return, despite him not having bothered to remember their names.

Naruto had grown a lot in the last year, he now stood at close to six foot with broader shoulders and more muscled arms. His hair was still shaggy, a grayish silver colour. His eyes had also retained their glowing amber colour, whilst the whisker like birthmarks had become even darker and more pronounced. For the last year he hadn't stopped using Sage Mode once, having become accustomed to constantly absorbing Natural Energy, even when he was asleep.

Over the last year he had also managed to buy and scavenge a new outfit. Consisting of finely made black Shinobi pants, a grey T-shirt and a black knee length coat. His sword was now strapped to his back, the hilt of the blade just poking up over his right shoulder. And as always he continued to refuse to wear shoes, instead walking on his clawed feet, trusting in his all but impenetrable skin to protect him more than a simple leather sandal ever could.

Continuing on Naruto nodded to the barman, Sokka. He was a large thick set man, with no hair on his head and a large black beard, who upon seeing Naruto grunted a bit before sending him a brief nod back. It had been over a month since he had been back at this inn, as he often liked to travel from town to town, he had to admit though he was happy that he was back. Many towns in the different country had a place like the Lusty Leopard in it, or a bounty station, or at least somewhere Naruto could find work.

The Lusty Leopard though, as the first place he had visited since leaving the Black Forest always held a special place in Naruto's heart. This was the reason why he came back every now and then. Plus they had a very good request board. The barman and owner of the bar Sokka, having been a Rock Shinobi once still had a number of friends and contacts that allowed him to stock up on requests and missions. Which Sokka would go on to post on his request board often drawing in people like Naruto who would spend their coin here as a thanks.

Ignoring him for now, Naruto instead approached the request board, looking for an interesting job he could take. Immediately he ignored jobs like hired muscle or protection rackets, those kind of jobs didn't interest him, they were too easy and the pay was shit.

Bounties though, bounty mission they did interest him. A number of the requests posted on the board were pages that had been ripped out of the different Shinobi Villages Bingo Books, little booklets that displayed Shinobi of interest all of whom had a price on their head. Each Village had a slightly different book, which contained brief descriptions of Missing-nin from both their own Village and the other ones and enemy Shinobi of interest from one of the other Shinobi Villages.

These for Naruto were the most interesting bounties. Hunting down and killing Shinobi was far more exciting than killing thugs, business men and the like. Shinobi could at least fight back, or could at least attempt to, and that actually make the hunt fun. So far he had taken close to one hundred and fifty of these requests, most of them low level bounties for D-ranked, C-ranked and B-ranked Shinobi. And so far he had not failed a single one, his heightened senses and his ability to sense chakra allowed him to easily track down the Shinobi, and his use of Sage Mode made killing them even easier.

That being said he did like to play around with them before he ended them, often testing his swordsmanship and taijutsu against the trained Shinobi. So far though not a single Shinobi B-rank or below had managed to put even a scratch on him, it was disappointing but at the same time it was interesting to see how diverse Shinobi skills were and even more fun to prove the power of the Wolf Sage was many times superior.

Scanning the board of requests, Naruto paused slightly as he saw the Bingo Book entry for the S-ranked Missing-nin Itachi Uchiha. Reaching out a clawed hand for the yellowed and crinkled page, Naruto agonized about whether or not to take it. Before with a shake of his head he let go of the page relating to Itachi Uchiha, one of the twenty S-rank Shinobi who had been put in Bingo Books, and whose pages had been torn out and pinned to this board.

For the last few months Naruto had been pondering over whether or not to take one of these bounties, the idea of hunting down an S-rank Shinobi, the best of the best had given Naruto somewhat of a thrill. But reason had always taken hold first, Naruto may be very confident in his abilities, but he was not some maniac, he knew he couldn't just go running off fighting a Shinobi of that caliber, at least not yet.

Especially a Shinobi like Itachi Uchiha, the man was one of the best. Up there with the likes of Sasori of the Red Sand, Orochimaru of the Sanin, Jirayia the Toad Sage, Killer B and many other S-rank Shinobi. These were Shinobi that Naruto would one day hunt, but for now he needed to work his way up, and hone his abilities before he could go about hunt them down. Testing his strength and the strength of the Direwolves against the best of the best.

So far Naruto reckoned he was at the least at the level of a High A-rank Shinobi to a low S-rank Shinobi. His mastery of Sage mode and his taijutsu and kenjutsu skills were proof enough of that, and that was not taking into account the few Sage based ninjutsu he had picked up during his time in the Black Forest. Unfortunately though he did have a few weaknesses, namely genjutsu.

Naruto's chakra was so colossal that it made it all but impossible for him to use genjutsu, even with his finely tuned chakra control he couldn't manage even a simple genjutsu, or at least not one that wouldn't be patently obvious to even a genin. This Naruto deemed was a weakness, he may be able to release himself from a basic genjustu if he was caught up in one, but so far he was unable to cast them. This especially bothered him considering that the best Shinobi like Orochimaru, Itachi and Jiriaya had been able to master all of the Shinobi arts.

Pushing those thoughts away for now, Naruto ignored the S-rank bounties and instead snagged him a nice simple B-rank one instead. This one looked particularly interesting, apparently there has been a band of Shinobi raiding villages and settlements in Rice Country. According to the description the Daimyo of Rice Country had issued a bounty for the group to be hunted down and killed. The group was apparently running amuck, kidnapping people at random, burning anything that got in their way and then fleeing. Suffice to say it had Naruto's interest.

"I'm taking this one." Naruto said bluntly as he ripped the request off the board and shoved it in his coat pocket. Getting a grunt of affirmation from Sokka as he strode past the bar and out of the inn. The two of them had a special connection, over the twelve months they had known each other Naruto hadn't heard the man speak once for Naruto, Sokka was one of the most likeable humans he had come across.

( - )

(A few days later in Rice Country)

Rushing through the trees, Naruto's eyes narrowed as he saw the retreating backs of his quarry. It had been a couple of days since he had taken the job and his targets had been busy. In that time they had managed to hit a further two villages, bringing the total count up to nine that were known. Naruto had arrived too late to stop the attack on the first settlement, by the time he had arrived a number of buildings had already burnt down, twenty-seven people were dead and a further six had been taken captive.

The attack had ended two hours before Naruto had arrived much to his irritation. Luckily though he had managed to pick up their trail. A trail he had followed to yet another burning settlement, little more than a hunting lodge really. Which just like their other targets was small, secluded and sparsely populated, it probably boasted a population of barely twenty.

Naruto had arrived just as his targets were fleeing, the ground around the settlement were littered with corpses, and from what he could sense there was not a single person left alive in the settlement, it had been a complete massacre. Upon noting that Naruto had begun his pursuit, easily tearing through the dense woodland, his senses flaring as he tracked down the nine Shinobi he was hunting, or at last he assumed it was nine judging by their chakra levels. As well as the eight civilian captives they had seemed to have taken.

Naruto was silent as he stalked his prey, not making a sound as he ran through the trees, doggedly following the enemy Shinobi. As he pursued them he made sure to keep his distance, not wanting to alert them to his presence in case they had a Sensory Shinobi among them who might be able to forewarn them that he was on their tail. He also wanted to track them back to their base of their hideout, after all the bounty and not specified how many there were, it had only said five thousand ryo a head and Naruto was feeling hungry.

( - )

(An hour or so later)

Night had drawn in as Naruto moved swiftly and silently through the trees, beginning to quicken his pace now that his targets had stopped moving. Already he could hear voices coming from just in front of him and could see the flickering light of a fire, the golden light being just visible through the dense forest.

It seemed these rogue Shinobi were very confident, either in their abilities or in the fact that they were not being pursued. After all why else would they have an open fire like this, or talk as loudly as they were doing.

Coming to a stop just before his targets encampment, Naruto paused. Spreading out his senses as he did so. So far he could sense thirteen people in the camp ahead who had more chakra than an average civilian, making them the Shinobi he was after. None of them were that impressive really, ranging from around high genin levels to high Chunin levels, or at least that is what Naruto estimated from his experience. But what they lacked in raw power they made up for in numbers.

On top of the Shinobi he had identified, he could also sense twenty-three civilians also in the encampment, easily identified by how little chakra they had. Now these could be common bandits, but somehow Naruto doubted that. Shinobi often thought themselves above common thugs and cut throats, so it was unlikely they would work with them. Plus the request had stated that they were kidnapping civilians, and Naruto had seen evidence himself of this.

No, in Naruto's mind it was more likely that they were captives, taken from the raided villages.

With that assessment made Naruto began to prowl forwards again, his amber eyes glowing faintly in the darkness as he saw the silhouette of a figure at the edge of the camp, it seems they were not arrogant enough not to set a watch. Not that that would do them any good.

Naruto didn't pause for second as he leapt forward, his clawed hand outstretched. The watchman didn't even have a chance to scream as Naruto ripped his throat out and then dragged him into the dark woodland, not making a sound as he ghosted his first victim.

Naruto paused as he dropped the dead man onto the ground, hiding him behind a bush for now as he instead focused on the camp. Making sure his actions had gone unnoticed, which judging by how the loud conversation went on undisturbed, seemed to be the case.

Shifting forwards once more, Naruto grinned as he closed in on his prey. As he drew closer to the camp, he soon began to make it out. The camp was made up of three mottled green coloured tents, a large campfire which had a number of pots bubbling away just above it, and finally a large prison wagon just to the side. The wagon was a large wooden frame with four iron studded wheels. Attached to the top of the wagon there was an iron cage, within which Naruto could make out a number of huddled shapes. Just to the side of the wagon Naruto could also see two horses tied to a nearby tree, both of them grazing at the edge of the camp site.

Turning away from the prison wagon for now. Naruto instead focused on the centre of the camp, around the fire Naruto could make out the shapes of ten people sitting around, all of them Shinobi. Shifting his gaze back to the edge of the campsite, Naruto was soon able to find another Shinobi who was standing guard at the back of the prison wagon. The final one though, Naruto frowned as he spread his senses out. The final one seemed to be in the prison wagon itself….

Naruto frowned as he sensed this, trying to work out why someone trained to use chakra would be kept in the cage along with the others. The first thing that came to mind was a trap, someone placed there to kill anyone who attempted to free the prisoners. He soon dismissed that theory though, a plan like that would require intelligence and caution, which was something this group of rogue Shinobi seemed to lack.

Ignoring that problem for now, Naruto instead looked back to the main group, slowly moving around the edge of the camp as he listened in on the conversation they seemed to be having.

( - )

(In the Camp)

"I'm telling you right now! No one is allowed to touch the prisoners! The Master will use you in one of his experiments if he finds you have interfere with one of his test subjects!" One of the men said loudly, his tone laced with irritation. The man who spoke was tall and skinny, with short black hair and a gaunt pale face. His clothing like his fellow Shinobi seemed to be a mottled greyish black colour, and like them he seemed to be armed with standard Shinobi equipment, including a sword, kunai and shuriken.

"Oh come on, how will he notice!" Another one of the men answered, this one was shorter than the first, with a squat, stocky body, tanned skin and a scrubby black beard. "I mean we got some real pretty ones this time! I am sure the Master won't begrudge us a bit of fun!"

"Trust me if when I say this, he will know and he will make you suffer. I am saying this for your own good, don't interfere with the Master's test subjects." The first man replied, a note of fear entering in his voice as he spoke about this, 'Master' of his.

"This bullshit!" The second man snarled. "You wouldn't allow us to stick around and have a bit of fun in any of those villages we attacked, and now you're not even letting us enjoy the spoils of war!"

"The Master told us not to stick around, we were to go in and get him the best candidates for his experiments we could find and then we were to get out." The first man said his voice hard and uncompromising.

"You're worse than that fucking Kabuto shit, tell me how many ties has your 'Master' blasted you in the arse?!" The second man sneered, those around him jeering in agreement as they watched the ongoing argument in amusement. This seemed to encourage the squat, bearded man, as he sent the taller man a nasty look. "So what I say is you fuck off and get out of our way! Do that and I might let you have a go on that fine piece of arse we picked up in the logger's camp, after I've had my go of course!"

The others seemed to jeer and cheer louder as they heard this, several of them rising to their feet.

The first man glared darkly at that before he stood up. With a rasp of steal he then drew his sword, a simple katana, which he held confidently in front of him. His gaze not faltering as he glared back at the squat, bearded man. "We were given orders! And if I have to kill you to make sure those orders are obeyed… I will!"

"You're feeling confident are you?" The shorter man looked taken aback at that, for a moment. Before with a nasty smirk he grabbed a hold of a nearby woodcutting axe he had stolen form the logger's camp, easily hefting it in his hands as he turned to face the taller man. The rest of the Shinobi also beginning to rise to their feet. "You really think you can take me Kaiza?!"

The now named Kaiza didn't answer as he simply gripped his sword tighter, the long blade held at the ready. Nor would he ever get a chance to, as at that moment the watching Naruto decided to take advantage of the distraction their argument caused and attack.

( - )

(With Naruto)

Naruto didn't give any warning as he leapt exploded from the tree line rapidly closing in on the group of rogue Shinobi, his body was little more than a blur as his Sage Mode enhanced muscles propelled him across the leafy ground faster than a high level Jounin. Before any of the raiders knew what was happening Naruto was among them his clawed hand tearing through the torso of Kaiza, ripping a large chunk out of his chest and killing him in an instant.

The others barely had a chance to voice their surprise at their 'leaders' death before Naruto was among them, his right hand lashing out and tearing the short, squat man's throat out, causing him to collapse backwards, his hands futilely scrabbling at the gaping, bloody wound in his throat. A meaningless act as the wound was too deep and grievous, his life blood spraying out of it and soaking into the ground.

Lashing out with his other hand Naruto sheered through another man, disemboweling him with his claws, before he lashed out with his other hand ripping yet another man's throat out. Twisting around Naruto delivered a kick to a fifth man's chest, the strength behind the kick sent the man hurtling back several metres, his chest a shattered ruin and his organs completely pulverized.

"What the fuck!" One of the other men shouted as he drew his sword and lashed out at Naruto, his strike desperate and uncoordinated. The man's eyes wide with fear and terror, as he blindly attacked the silver haired man who had just slaughtered five of his fellows in barely thirty seconds, not even aiming as felt a primal terror rising up in him

Naruto saw the sword blade descending towards him, easily slapping the blade away before spearing his hand forward his hand as deadly as any sword. With barely any resistance his clawed hand tore through his opponent's chest before closing around his heart. Then in a grabbing motion Naruto yanked the still beating heart out of the man's chest.

Twisting Naruto grabbed the sword from the now dead man's hand, time seeming to slow as he turned to face the prison wagon, his amber eyes fixed on the guard who looked to be caught between fleeing and attacking. Naruto didn't giving him a chance as he hurled the sword at the man. The sheer force behind the throw caught the indecisive Shinobi off guard, as the blade pierced straight through his torso and pinned him to a nearby tree, the blade sinking down to the hilt.

Naruto ignore that though, already aware the man was dead as he turned and threw the chunk of meat that had once been another human's heart at one of the other Shinobi. An act that made the Shinobi flinch backwards, and which allowed Naruto to close in on him, his claws already extended as they ripped through the Shinobi's skin, muscle and bones.

( - )

Seeing the latest of their fellows die the three remaining Shinobi, decided unanimously to retreat. Turning tail the three Shinobi fled the encampment, channeling chakra to their muscles as they attempted to get as far away from the rampaging silver haired monster as they could. One of the braver ones attempted to stall Naruto, as he turned on the spot and released a fire ball at the Sage, rapidly going through a set of hand signs before blowing a medium sized fireball out of his cupped hands.

( - )

(With Naruto)

Naruto grinned as he saw three of his prey attempting to flee, crouching low Naruto sprang forward. Crossing the encampment in seconds Naruto didn't pause as he saw one of the Shinobi turn a launch a fireball at him. With a savage grin Naruto ran through the fire, not even feeling a flicker of pain or heat as the fire licked futilely at his Sage enhanced skin.

Exploding out of the other side of the fireball, Naruto only grinned wider as he saw the look of horror on his attacker's face. It was a look that would be forever frozen on his face as Naruto lashed out with his hand a moment later and ripped his head off.

Landing easily on the ground Naruto then sprinted after the other two, catching up with the first one ten metres out from the camp. The man didn't stand a chance as Naruto's clawed hand tore through his back muscles, gripping onto his spine, before with a slight grunt he ripped a part his spinal cord out of the man's back, in a shower of blood. The man let loose a single scream of agony, before he collapsed bonelessly to the floor.

Seeing this the final Shinobi stumbled, falling to the ground as he futilely tried to back away from the advancing Naruto. His eyes fixed on Naruto's bloodstained hands, small crimson droplets spattering onto the floor as he prowled forwards.

"P-please, don't…." The man begged, his eyes wide with terror as he backed away from his unstoppable attacker.

Naruto didn't give him the chance to finish his pleading, as he reached up and gripped the hilt of his sword, before with a single swing he unsheathed it and beheaded the rogue Shinobi. The Shinobi's head falling to the forest floor behind him with a dull thud.

A frown appeared on Naruto's face as he looked down at the twitching body of the now headless man. When the men had fled he had been expecting more of a hunt, his blood had already begun pumping faster. Unfortunately though it seemed these men's escaping skills were almost as poor as their fighting skills. It was disappointing to say the least, Naruto had at least been hoping that their numbers would make this more of a challenge.

It seemed he had gotten his hopes up for nothing.

With that thought in mind Naruto sheathed his sword and then shoved a hand into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a tightly furled scroll. Opening it Naruto then proceeded to seal away the remains of the two Shinobi who had attempted to flee. He then turned and headed back to the camp, ignoring the scared captives in the prison wagon for now, as he instead walked around the camp sealing up the remains of the Shinobi he had killed. He would need proof after all if he wanted to collect his reward from the Daimyo.

Eventually Naruto went to collect the last body, it was the Shinobi who he had pinned to the tree with the sword. Looking at his glazed eyes and ignoring the whimpering he could hear coming from the prison wagon, instead looking down at the sword. It was buried to the hilt in the man's stomach and had in fact penetrated through the tree, the tip of the blade stick out of the other side. With a dis-compassionate gaze Naruto snapped the hilt of the sword off, allowing the dead man to slump forwards and collapse on the floor.

A few minutes later with the bloody remains of the twelve Shinobi he had killed all sealed up in the once again rolled up scroll, Naruto then shoved it in his pocket. Making plans to go to a bounty station first, just to see if any of these men had a decent bounty on their heads, or at least better than the five thousand ryo a head the Daimyo of Rice Country was offering.

Nodding his head Naruto turned to look at the prison wagon, ignoring the whinnying of the nearby horses as they smelt the fresh blood in the air, and the whimpers of the prisoners as they saw Naruto's amber gaze fix on them. He might as well let them out.

Naruto grunted in irritation at this before he walked over to the prison wagon, gripping both sides of the cage door, his claws digging into the melt like a hot knife through butter. Before with a single heave Naruto tore the front of the cage off its hinges, before he turned and hurdled it away into the surrounding forest.

"Right then, you're all free to go." Naruto said abruptly as he turned and walked away, not even turning to look to see whether the prisoners had taken the opportunity to get off the wagon. No instead he focused on the one, strong remaining chakra signature. The one within the wagon, waiting to see if they would do anything.

When nothing happened Naruto turned back around only to see none of the captives had left the safety of the cage, as they instead all looked on at him with fear. Irritation rose up in Naruto at this, but with a bit of effort he pushed it down. "The nearest settlement is twelve miles in that direction, I would suggest you calm down the horses, attach them to this wagon and start heading there. I would also suggest you scavenge the area and take any of the weapons that are left behind." Naruto said pointing in the direction of the last village the Shinobi had attacked, the one which had survivors.

Naruto could now see the confusion of the faces in the cage as they heard what he said. "The sooner you leave the sooner you can start returning to your homes. All of them are still there, if a little burnt, and there are still survivors there who will no doubt help you get back to your homes. Well except for that logger's camp, that one's is burned to the ground with no survivors."

As he said this he got a more noticeable reaction as one or two of the twenty or so prisoners gained looks of shock and surprise. He also noticed how one of the prisoners, a pretty girl with long black hair who looked to be around Naruto's own age, flinched as she heard what he said about the logger's camp. This girl also happened to be the one who he could sense had strong chakra, curious.

"Well go on then." Naruto said brusquely as he turned and walked away, heading for the camp fire set up in the centre of the camp. Idly dragging one of the logs the Shinobi had been using as a seat over, as he sat down and took the lid off one of the cooking pots and sniffed the stew inside suspiciously.

As Naruto was doing this the captives began to slowly get out of the prison wagon, cautiously going about the tasks Naruto had suggested. Keeping a wary eye on the silver haired Sage as they did so. Their desire for freedom and home warring against the innate fear Naruto had inspired in them with his savage butchery of the twelve rogue Shinobi.

Naruto for the most part ignored them, the mindless sheep that they were, instead he focused on the stew as he checked it for poison, before upon finding it clean of any contamination he began scouting around for a bowl. Despite his apparent nonchalance however he was very much aware of what was going on, his senses still on overdrive and his body prepared to leap into action at any moment. After all, after close to a year of dealing with Shinobi, Naruto knew well enough how tricky they could be. The girl in the cage might have seemed like some innocent captive, but he would still not let his guard down.

Ten minutes later as Naruto was finishing off his second bowl, of the surprising delicious beef stew. As he did so he tensed slightly as the former prisoners began to leave the campsite, using the wagon as Naruto had suggested. That however was not the reason for his tensing. The reason was that one of the captives had stayed behind, the one who felt like she had had Shinobi training.

( - )

Naruto remained tense as he felt the girl approaching him. He had no doubt what so ever that if needed he could rip this girl's head off with ease and there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop him. The thing was though the girl should know that too. She had after all just seen him decimate twelve other Shinobi. Despite this though as the rest of the former captives left this girl stayed behind.

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he heard the sound of the girl approaching him, she wasn't trying to hide her presence. Instead she just walked up to him. He could also feel no change in her chakra, telling him she wasn't molding it or preparing a Shinobi technique, not that he could tell at least.

His curiousity intensified.

"Is there something you want?" Naruto asked abruptly, not turning around as he felt the girl freezing up.

He heard a slight exhalation of breath, before the girl spoke, her voice soft and gentle yet holding a surprising amount of strength in it. "I have nowhere to go."

"I told you where the nearest settlements were, you should have gone with the others and they could have helped you get home." Naruto replied bluntly, still not turning around.

"There would be no point." The girl replied, her voice breaking slightly as she said that. "You said it yourself, my home was burned to the ground and there were no survivors."

"The logger's camp?" Naruto guessed, shifting as he turned to look at the girl out of the corner of his eye.

It was like Naruto first thought, the girl looked to be around thirteen, with a pretty face, waist length black hair, a still partially immature body and pale skin. Her clothing was the simple garb one would expect from a rural dwelling civilian, currently looking a bit grimy and damaged, no doubt from the attack on her home and her subsequent capture.

"I have nowhere to go." The girl repeated her gaze hollow, and her tone no longer as strong as before.

"How's that my problem?" Naruto asked abruptly, cocking an eyebrow as he waited for a response.

The girl didn't answer for a few seconds after that, her gaze instead running over Naruto's muscled frame and his blood stained hands. "You killed them… the men who murdered my family and burnt down my home…"

"I did yes." Naruto responded, curiousity beginning to rise up inside him as he looked at the girl, wondering where she was going with this.

"Can you teach me? Teach me how to fight, how to kill?" The girl asked, her eyes locking fearlessly with Naruto's faintly glowing amber eyes.

"Why on earth would I do that?" Naruto asked, his tone not cruel or condescending, just curious. "Especially since you already seem to have had some training. I can sense your chakra, it is stronger and more controlled than a civilians?"

The girl didn't bat an eyelash as she heard that, instead she just replied softly. "My father taught me. He wanted me to be able to defend myself. He was a former Missing-nin, he taught me chakra control, and genjutsu's, his specialty."

Naruto cocked an eyebrow as he heard this. "Sound like you already know how to fight, join a Shinobi Village or something, I am sure they'll happily take you."

"When our home was attacked, my father and I… we attempted to fight back. We were overwhelmed though, my father was killed, as was my mother and all of our family friends. I don't know what would have happened to me if you hadn't come and killed those men." The girl replied ignoring Naruto's previous suggestion. Her tone hitching for a second as she spoke and her grief slipping in for just a moment, before it strengthened as she continued to gaze resolutely into Naruto's eyes, not backing down. "I want to come with you! I want to learn how to fight like you do, how to kill bastards like those men, like you did!"

Naruto gazed at her curiously as he heard this. Once again relying on his heightened senses as he looked carefully at the girl. She wasn't lying to him he could tell that much, she was scared, she was grieving, she was nervous, but she wasn't lying. More than that she was alone in this world, like he Naruto had been before Akela and Fenrir had taken him in.

Letting out a sigh Naruto turned away from the girl.

She didn't move he could tell that much, but he could hear her heart begin to beat faster, as fear and panic rose up within her.

"Sit down," Naruto said bluntly, idly grabbing up another bowl from the ground as he did so. The girl's heart stopped beating, for just a second it missed a beat. Then it started hammering again, in shock and surprise. "There is some more stew left, you are going to need your energy. We leave in an hour!"

The girl stumbled forward as she heard that, taking a seat just to the side and away from Naruto, her eyes locked on him, an unreadable expression on her face as she watched him fill the bowl with stew before he shoved it over to her.

"Do you have a name?" Naruto asked cocking an eyebrow in curiousity as he saw the girl grab the bowl from his hand and begin eating. Not even bothering to put on airs and graces as she brought the bowl up to her mouth.

The girl paused as she heard this, lowering the bowl enough so she was once again looking at Naruto.

"Yeah, the name's Kin." The girl replied, her voice once again soft, yet her gaze showing her inner strength. "Kin Tsuchi."

( - )

AN: So what did you all think? In this chapter we got to find out more about Naruto and his character we get to see how he interacts with the world and how he settled into being in the Elemental Nations after his secluded upbringing in the Black Forest.

We also get to see some of his abilities and get to see the introduction of a character I always liked, even if she was shown for very little time. I liked her design, her style of fighting and think she was somewhat underused. That's just my opinion though.

Anyway I hope you all liked the chapter, and like the differences that are beginning to become present between Toad Sage Mode and Wolf Sage Mode. As well as Naruto's rather distinct fighting style. His ambitions and his goals. They might not be as lofty or selfless as in canon but I think they are good goals for a developing character to start off with.

Hope you all leave a comment and a review and I will see you all next time most likely with either a chapter or this or a chapter of Dead Man Walking as my Road to Hell story has stalled briefly as the current chapter is a tricky one to write.

See you all later.

Seagate.