EDIT: I would like to thank one ncpfan for giving a good recommendation to tell you guys a bit more about the plot: The story is mostly going to follow canon, with a few obvious deviations. This is not a Naruto turns evil story, BUT if I get enough people telling me that they want it to be, I can easily change it and make it one.

I would also like to state that i received several PMs expressing disapproval about the cold shudder magical neglect. I would also like to express my dislike of this and I will most likely change the previous chapters to match this. Naruto and his family are also probably not going to reconcile. Probably.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other references within this story.

Key:

"Summons and other Biju speaking"

'Summons and other Biju thinking'

"Human Speech"

'Human Thought'

Jutsu

The Other Side of the Coin

Chapter 3: Tenketsu

Time Skip: 3 Years Later

The sun peeked through the window and shone on a child's face. The face scrunched up before its eyes opened, shining a cerulean blue.

"Urgh…" Naruto groaned as he pulled off his covers and stretched. Yawning slightly he climbed out of bed and walked to the bathroom.

Going through his morning routine, he took a second to look in the mirror. He had grown pretty well. At a somewhat irregular height of 4`4``, due to his diet and training, he stood a few inches above his peers. His sun-kissed hair flopped around messily, still spiky like his father, yet short enough to be distinctly different.

Walking out of the bathroom he quickly pulled on a shirt and went downstairs. As he walked down he noticed his sister Minami, and his mother Kushina along with Minato walking out the door, no doubt taking her to the academy.

Sleepily making his way to the stove, he cracked a few eggs on a pan and began making breakfast. Thinking back, he remembered the day that his mother stopped making him breakfast, about 2 years ago. From that point on he realized he would have to take care of himself if he wanted to survive. Despite all this, he still wanted his parents' attention for the longest time, however, over the years he began growing more and more distant from his family, if he could even call them that.

The academy had begun about a month ago, and he excelled at first, easily achieving the top grades in class, with Minami coming in at a close second. Naruto supposed that his attempts to be the top of his class was some unconscious effort on his part to gain the attention of his parents. His parents didn't care of course, ignoring him in favor of Minami. Once he realized this, his grades plummeted, and he began skipping classes or arriving late, much like he is now. Their neglect was steadily getting worse.

"Feh," Naruto scoffed. "The academy's classes don't matter in the real world anyway. I mean, how is knowing what year Konoha was founded going to save my life against some nuke-nin?"

Quickly eating his eggs, he packed his things and headed to the academy.

"Well if it isn't the dead last!"

Naruto turned his head. He was sitting underneath a tree, his self-prepared bento in his lap. It was noon, lunch time for the students.

"What, got nothing to say?" came the follow-up of Kiba Inuzuka. Kiba was a brash young man, decent in taijutsu, and was located just above Naruto in terms of class ranking. Naruto supposed that Kiba attempted to pick on him in order to make himself feel better, for the scorning he no doubt receives at home for his grades. He was surrounded by a little group of kids, obviously brought along as back-up or for intimidation tactics.

"I don't need to say anything to make you look stupid," Naruto said. "You do a great job all by yourself."

While not the best of insults, it easily got the job done, making Kiba growl and take a step threateningly. Kiba was saved from a horrible fate by the bell ringing in the distance, signifying the end of lunch.

"Ugh, next time, I'll beat your ass dead last!"

"Whatever."

Naruto got up and slowly walked back to the academy, but not before Kiba knocked into his shoulder with his own and ran back to the classroom.

"Asshole…" Naruto muttered.

Barely keeping himself from falling asleep, due to the instructor's droning tone, Naruto thought back on his training over the years. He had mastered wind manipulation to the degree that he could actually cut a waterfall. Of course he was knocked out for about 3 days afterwards, but still, he managed to do it with the help of his clones. Granted the waterfall was only about 2 meters wide, it was still quite an achievement for one so young.

Naruto's fuinjutsu studies also bore fruit. He had become a Level 3 Seal Master, someone who knew more than the average ninja about seals, but still paled in comparison when compared to people like Jiraiya of the Sannin, a Level 7 Seal Master, and others who were older than him. In short, he was progressing as fast as a ninja with Uzumaki blood would have, had any aside from his family still been alive. He was resting in a nice niche of low to mid chunin in terms of strength. He had finally caught up to his sister in terms of strength, possibly even surpassing her due to his knowledge of seals. Minami was more interested in flashy jutsu rather than the more complex art of fuinjutsu. He would have loved to advance further in terms of strength, but he had hit a roadblock: his own body. No matter how hard he pushed himself, he was still a kid, and the body of a kid was pretty weak, not leaving much room for improvement. He estimated he would be able to reach mid to high chunin once he turned 12 in four years. For now he would just try to keep his muscles from deteriorating.

Frowning at the fact that his teacher was STILL talking, he finally gave in and settled down for a nap.

The bell rung.

"Alright class, you know your homework: read pages 126 to 130 in your textbooks!"

A resounding groan echoed throughout the class.

Getting up from her chair, Minami quickly looked around and spotted her friends, Ino and Hinata. Meeting them at the door, Minami began looking around the classroom, trying to spot her estranged brother. Realizing he was already gone, she frowned and hung her head. Turning around, she and her friends walked out of the classroom.

"So, do you think we can get him to reconnect with you today Minami?" Hinata wondered.

"We've already lost sight of him," refuted Ino. "We won't find him now, we don't know where he goes."

Minami frowned, but brightened slightly at the sight of her parents waiting for her.

Naruto was bored. He had been in the middle of reading through a Level 4 Fuinjutsu book, but had grown a little tired of it. Getting up, he quickly put on his shoes and ran out to the Hokage's private training ground. Running all the way to the back he ran up a tree, before doing a backflip off of it and landing onto the river without a ripple. Smiling at the fruits of his training, he began going through his regular routine of training: 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, and several other exercises needed to maintain his form. This would be a bit much for a civilian but for someone with access to their chakra, and with the infamous infinite Uzumaki stamina, it was child's play. Literally.

"Narutoooo!"

Naruto's eyes widened at the sound of his mother's voice. Looking up in shock he saw his mother and father standing at the doorway to the training grounds looking at him.

Walking up to them, his face struggling to keep an emotionless visage, he wondered for what would his family need him for? It must be rather important, if it made them notice him.

"Hey Naruto, how would you like to spar with your sister?"

His eyes widened. What where his parents playing at? He followed them out to the front yard where his sister appeared to be waiting.

Standing at position he stiffly bowed to his sister, as she followed suit.

Minami was excited. This was her chance to re-connect with her dear nii-san. Kakashi-nii told her that strong shinobi can communicate through their fists if all else fails. Smiling lightly she crouched into the Namikaze stance and prepared to make her brother understand her feelings.

Minato walked off to the side and stood at attention.

"HAJIME!"

Minami rushed forward, intent on nailing her brother in his face. Sadly, in her excitement, she overextended her arm, creating an opening. Naruto took full advantage of it and hit her with a win-enhanced fist, tearing lightly through her shirt and bruising her stomach. She was pushed back with a burst of air. Flipping in the air, she landed on the ground in a crouched stance, her eyes wide.

'Was that wind-manipulation? How does he know about it? Has…has he been training with someone?'

Naruto smirked slightly at his parents' shocked faces. He had long since given up on impressing them, and decided to instead attempt to prove to them what they missed out on.

Turning his attention back to his sister, he narrowly dodged a kick, before being smacked with an open palm in the chest. Stumbling back, he quickly made a few seals.

"Fuuton: Daitoppa! (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)"

Pouring as much chakra as he safely could into the jutsu, he pushed himself away from his sister's followed axe-kick. He watched as it cracked the ground. Landing on the tree, he overloaded his feet with chakra, cracking the bark and launching himself at his sister. She was too shocked to respond to this unpredictable tactic and was nailed in the face with a wind-enhanced fist as a result. She flew back and slammed against the tree.

Minato and Kushina's jaws had dropped. They had meant for this spar to teach Minami some control in her attacks as well as well as try out some new moves that are enhanced by the Kyuubi's chakra, by having her fight what they assumed to be a weaker opponent, not something like this! Naruto appeared to be just as strong as his sister, if not stronger, and he apparently knew wind-manipulation! That was a chunin to jonin level technique! Being able to channel wind chakra around your arm, without cutting yourself required some serious control, nothing a chunin couldn't handle, but for an 8 year old with no tutor aside from a few books, it was really impressive. Their eyes wide, they continued to watch the spar with rapt attention.

Minami eyes snapped open, anger clearly evident. That last punch had jarred her brain slightly, and she couldn't think straight. But what she could tell was that her brother was holding back. Granted she was holding back too, at most they were using genin-level taijutsu, with Naruto using a few chunin level techniques, but still, she felt insulted.

'I'll show you!' she thought. Getting up on her feet, not realizing her anger was beginning to get the better of her, she charged, unconsciously channeling some of the Kyuubi's chakra, making her even more rabid.

Deep inside her mind, the Kyuubi chuckled. He had decided to make things more interesting for himself by taking advantage of his host's mental state.

Naruto was paralyzed by the unexpected wave of fear and malice that shot from Minami. Now normally, he could handle this, he had trained with Rin blasting him with killing intent to create an immunity, but this was the Kyuubi's killing intent. Even in miniscule amounts, it was still as strong as a jonin's. Given that this spar was meant for Minami to practice with the Kyuubi's chakra, Minato and Kushina didn't think anything was wrong.

Minami's shrouded arm shot out at Naruto. Naruto had finally managed to slightly recover from the wave of malice and quickly threw a kunai he kept on him at all times. Unfortunately in his fear, he threw the kunai backwards, so the blunt ring smacked into Minami's face and knocked out a tooth rather than cutting her. The kunai bounced off as Minami kept moving forward. Reaching her brother, her arm already had shot out at Naruto. In a desperate attempt to defend himself, Naruto raised his arms. Generally a bad idea, he could've simply blown her away with another jutsu, but he couldn't think straight due to the Kyuubi's influence. At most, he had reverted to his primal survival instincts.

Minami's arm tore through his own, all the way to the bone. At the sight of blood, the Killing Intent skyrocketed, hitting Kage level, and finally notifying Minato and Kushina that there's something wrong.

Naruto fainted out of pain, with Minami following shortly after, as the Kyuubi's chakra quickly rescinded into her body, leaving her with little to no energy.

Running over and picking up Minami's prone body, not noticing his son's wound from his vantage point, and not bothering to check due to his worry for Minami's overuse of the demonic chakra, Minato grabbed Kushina's arm and flashed to the hospital, leaving Naruto alone in the front yard.

Rin was having a great day. She had a day off and had slept in. She had gone to a spa and hot spring, thankfully not being watched by a pervert, and had a general day of peace and contentment. She was currently making her way to the Namikaze estate with a picnic basket full of goodies, ranging from sweet meats, to other assorted snacks and beverages. She planned to take her little Naru-chan to his favorite spot in the park and have a small picnic with him.

She walked up the steps and onto the front yard.

Her picnic basket fell out of her hands and crashed onto the ground, spilling its contents everywhere.

Her precious little Naru-chan was injured on the ground, bleeding out from his arm. Quickly running over to him, she began to apply as much medical chakra to the wound as possible, and pushed Naruto onto her back. She turned and rushed off to the hospital.

Minato and Kushina were sitting in a small room, eyes still foggy, watching as their little girl's chest rose and fell. She was alright, thankfully. The doctors had excused the tooth being knocked out as it was bound to happen naturally anyway.

Hearing the squeaking of wheels they turned towards the open doorway. Their eyes widened as they watched what appeared to be a team of doctors wheeling their son as fast as they could to an operation room. Not moving for a few seconds, Minato quickly stood up and ran after them, Kushina following in his wake. Catching up to the doctors, they tried to follow them into the operation room, only to be shoved out, but not before catching a glimpse at their son's mangled arm.

Kushina collapsed on the ground and began to cry, her hand over her mouth. Minato picked her up and walked to the waiting area, muttering comforting words to her all the while. Their previously repressed guilty feelings coming back full force, worse than they were several years ago.

Setting Kushina down into a chair, before collapsing into his own, he began trying to remember just what happened to make Naruto like this. He then remembered the spar.

Re-examining his memories, his eyes widened with shock as he realized that he had just left Naruto bleeding out on the front yard.

Kushina all the while was having the same thoughts, and was rocking back and forth, muttering "What kind of mother am I?", like some kind of broken toy.

Several hours had passed before Kushina fell asleep, tears staining her face. Minato was close as well. In between the few seconds of sleep and reality, a voice echoed through his head.

"…Every deal has a price…"

Minato and Kushina quickly woke up and immediately rushed to the operating room. They ran into a doctor from yesterday.

"Please tell me, how is my son!?" pleaded Kushina.

"Lady Namikaze…I'm afraid to tell you whatever happened to your son was incredibly devastating. The wound looked as if a large claw ripped through his arm. Whatever the cause, it ripped through several of his muscles and his chakra tubes. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but whatever did this managed to rip apart most of the tenketsu within his arm. This means that he won't be able to channel chakra through his arm. We managed to stem the bleeding and keep him alive but…Lady Namikaze…I'm afraid to say that the ripped apart tenketsu, coupled with the torn muscles…it means that your son probably will never be able to regain the use of his arm or be a ninja ever again."

A/N: Alright, that's a wrap on Chapter 3. I do hope you enjoy, and please please PLEASE, offer any constructive criticism you may have. I would like to improve my writing as much as possible, to make sure you guys are satisfied. I tried to keep Naruto's growth as steady as possible. It is entirely feasible to reach low-chunin at his age, just look at Kakashi! However, Naruto is mindful of his body and didn't push it past the point of exhaustion, so he isn't going to be god mode or anything. If I had to say his strength level, it would be about Sasuke's level when he graduated. This, coupled with his ninjutsu and wind-manipulation easily puts him at low if not mid chunin. I would also once again like to state that I will most likely be updating on Fridays, Saturdays OR Sundays. My schoolwork is more important than this story, sorry if I disappointed you. But now comes up my little problem. I want Naruto to have a summons. Please give any recommendations you can. The following is not allowed: Toads, Slugs, and Snakes. This is mostly because Jiraiya neglects Naruto and wouldn't let him realistically sign the contract. Tsunade and Orochimaru not being in the village are pretty self-explanatory. Once again, please review, offer advice for improvements, and your suggestions for a summons. Goodbye for now.