.

Without a Fox: Senju Style

Chapter 5: A mission

By Jamnaz79

Notice: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in the story. I only write for the hell of it and for a bit of fun and hopefully to have others enjoy. I take no profit or anything from this story.

The Village Elder paused in his words as he reached to his hip and pulled out a kunai. He dropped that do to the ground before the boy and his pet, "A shinobi must be willing to kill anyone even a former friend who has betrayed the leaf."

The eyes of the child started to grow wide as he looked down at the kunai. He understood where this was going and he didn't like it. He swallowed slowly as he watched his pet hop around before him.

The old man stood up and started to walk off, "You have fifteen minutes to kill Mr. Fluffy Naruto-kun. Do this and prove to me that you are different then the boys and girls at the Academy. That you have what it takes to be the legacy that this village needs to protect it after the Hokage and I are gone."

The boy slowly reached forward and grabbed the kunai. He sat there for the next ten minutes staring at his little pet. But before the fifteen minutes he would be back to the house, his cheeks covered in tear stains and blood on his hands. But, Naruto would do what was required of him

~~~ WaFSS ~~~

11 years after Kyuubi

The old man slowly walked down the path. His sandals squishing on the sand and stones of the path towards as he made his way towards the rocky waterfall. One of his trainers assigned to the boy stood at the edge of the pond that a waterfall emptied into.

The youngster he had come to see was busy at the moment running up and down the waterfall. While he moved he continued to dodge kunai that were being flung at him repeatedly. He dodged back and forth as he sprinted up and down, chakra flaring over his feet. It was an impressive sight for such an advanced control exercise to be executed by one so young.

The Elder of the Hidden Leaf Village came to a stop before the Sensei of the boy. She was a woman who he knew had been influenced by the boy to the point that she had broken her root training. It was not something that he had expected to happen. Yet, he had come to expect the unexpected when it came to Uzumaki Naruto. The boy was simply able to reach people, even change them. It was something that his father and great grandfather had been able to do. Damn Senju blood.

Danzo had to hide a small smile that threatened to break out over his lips as he reached the woman. His voice betrayed nothing of his warm thoughts, "How is he doing?"

"He has surpassed every expectation with chakra control. He seems to have pinpoint control, he has finished floating multiple kunai, water walking and the waterfall exercise. His reserves are huge and surpass my own Danzo-sama. This is not natural." The woman spoke calmly, her face hidden by the blank white mask of his private ANBU. Only the short cut purple hair easily identifying her to those that knew whom she was.

"He is unique." The words were a simple statement but far from a simple truth. The man's eyes did not leave the boy as he trained. "Have you tried it yet?"

"Yes Danzo-sama. But, I would humbly request for you to see the result instead of me telling you." The woman spoke calmly with a tone of surprise in her voice.

"That seems counterproductive to just telling me. I trust I will not be disappointed." The old man looked at the woman for a moment before he turned to walk slowly over to a bench to sit, "You may summon him over when he is completed with the exercise."

It was thirty minutes later when the boy came over soaking wet. Despite the chill in the air the boy smiled brightly as he walked up. He stopped before the old man and bowed deeply, "Grandfather, I was told that you wanted me to show you the results of the test?"

"Yes Naruto-kun, I have been informed that you had some interesting results on your chakra nature test." The old man offered a small smile as he leaned forward his left hand resting on the cane. "Why don't you show me this unexpected result."

"Sure thing!" The boy grinned brightly obviously excited at the opportunity as he turned towards the purple haired root ANBU and held out his hand. The hand was quickly filled with chakra paper which the boy concentrated on. Moments late the paper split into four with even cuts from an obvious wind nature. That was followed by each of the pieces of parchment starting to react differently. One of the pieces burnt up in fire, the second piece crumbled into dirt, while the third piece turned soggy and the final piece of paper crumbled up.

Danzo starred at the boy in utter shock. It was one of the few times that his mouth actually hung open for a few seconds before he resumed control of his emotions. The sheer idea that this boy under his control had affinity for all of the elements! Was this what it meant to be the child of a jinchuriki of the nine-tails? Or was the part of the Senju and Uzumaki genes that caused this? No matter what if the boy was grown properly he had the potential to be better then his own rival Sarutobi. Nobody could know of this. This is something that needed to be kept secret, kept away from attention. The boy had two years to learn from his still before the agreement took effect. Yes, it was time for the boy to kick his training up a notch.

The smile the slid over the lips of Danzo startled the boy. As it seemed to twist as the most creepy sound he had ever heard escaped the lips of the Honored Elder. The old man was cackling as his eyes lit up, "You are an amazing young man Naruto-kun. You know what this means don't you?"

The boy couldn't speak as he was so startled all that he could do was shake his head slowly back and forth.

"It means with your potential that we need to now start to take your training seriously. No more child's play. Now I will see you worked to the till you beg to stop training." The words were spoken as a whisper but carried to the red head boy causing him to not be certain what to make of them. While he wanted to be the best surely he had been trained hard already? But, the fact that old man was smiling seemed to make the words stand out as a shout.

~~~ 12.5 years after the Kyuubi incident ~~~

The knock echoed through the room drawing the boy out the pile of scrolls before him. Naruto slowly lowered down the large scroll filled with lower ranked seals onto the table. He did not rise to get the door instead out of his shoulder sprouted a thin red chain that wrapped around the handle before sliding it open. Only when he saw it was his adopted grandfather did he rise to stand. "Danzo-sama, I did not expect you at this hour grandfather."

The old man slowly walked forward leaning his good hand on his cane. His eyes swept over the chamber with the slight hint of a frown on the corners of his slips at the state of mess. Despite all of the discipline the boy brought to his own life and studies for being a shinobi, Naruto's chambers always looked like the lab of a mad scientist with parchment and scrolls laying all over. The face that these scrolls were all used for fuinjutsu was not lost on the old man. "Yes, I do not come very often to visit you in your private chambers. The last time was..."

"Four years ago Grandfather." The boy offered softly ass he watched the man with curiosity in his gaze.

"Has it been that long?" Danzo questioned certain that boy was right. He did not often come to visit in the evening at this hour. It was considered Naruto's quiet time for him to relax a few hours before sleep after a day of hard work.

"Yes Sir. It was the night you quizzed my opinion on the Uchiha situation."

"Yes, I remember." The face of the old man turned serious as he considered that day.

~~~ Flashback ~~~

Naruto grumbled to himself feeling completely sore. His body hurt all over from practice today with his kenjutsu katas. At the moment Purple-neesan was rubbing a cream against his back where he managed to get a deep gash a few hours ago. Thankfully due to his Uzumaki nature the gash was already healing up slowly. But, that didnt remove the pain from deep wound.

"Quit your whining, you will be fine in a few hours." The woman snapped at the boy and gave him a little poke in the lower back. It was something that she only did in private with him, show true emotions.

"Then why do we need to put the cream on it?" Naruto pouted at the pain from the cream being smeared over the wound. A fresh batch sending a chill up his spine as he grimaced, he swore she did this on purpose to torture him!

"Just because it will heal doesn't mean you cant become infected. You Uzumaki are tough Naruto-kun but you are not impervious to infections." She accented her point with another fresh smear of icy cold cream onto his back. "Now stop whining or else I will not use any healing jutsu to help speed it up."

"Fine." The boy pouted and fell silent as she worked.

A few moments later there was a knock at the door. Immediately the purple haired woman picked up her mask place it back on. She stepped back and into the shadows of the corners of the room disappearing from sight of whomever was there.

Naruto quickly stood up sliding back on his black tunic with a white Uzumaki swirl on the back, then made his way to the door. He slid it open and stopped in surprise to find his grandfather there. He stepped to the side with a bow of his head, "Please come in grandfather."

The old man walked slowly in with tapping of his cane with each step. His gaze seemed to slowly sweep over the chamber inspecting it completely. He then motioned towards the shadow that Purple had jumped into before moving his head towards the exit, "Leave us."

There was not a reply or sound just the feel of air passing by the pair as someone left the room unseen.