Disclaimer- use chapter 01 as a reference tool... heh he I said tool
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"Brat, you wish to live"
"Ye...Yes...I...ca...n't...die...no...no...t...he...re...not...ye...t"
"Then are you prepared to change, to accept a new life without looking back at what once might have been"
"I...yes...YES...I...MUST...LIVE...I...need...to...survive...to find...a...Pur...pose"
Smirking Kakuzu knelt to Naruto's eye level and gripped him by the hair and replied "Then prepare yourself for when you awaken you will have a new purpose, to survive and thrive"
And in a single action Naruto's entire world blossomed into a world of pain once again"
---
Kakuzu took a sick sense of satisfaction in his handiwork over 'fixing' Naruto's body, maybe that loon Sasori was right when he talked about art and for once in his life he took pride in something that wasn't directly relevant to monetary gain but he had stayed too long in this place already and as they say time is money
But still there was one last thing he needed to do before he left and reached into the deep recesses of his cloak and withdrew his journal biography and placed an advanced compulsion Genjutsu on the book as he was smart enough that wasn't going to take chances with such a matter and slipped a simple folded note into the book as well
Walking away he took one last glance at the child before disappearing from sight safe in the knowledge that he had secured at least some form of immortality.
---
Sandaime peered through his crystal ball catching the tail end of Kakuzu 'fixing' Naruto, he had spent well over an hour trying to find the elusive blond after a trio of ANBU reported back having 'lost' Naruto's whereabouts and had been in a mad search for him since
Calling a contingent of medical ninja to his office He sped off with them in tow pumping chakra through his body to invigorate the old tired muscles that signified his already venerable age
It took only a few minutes to make it to the site of the disaster the medical ninja arriving minutes after panting and out of breath and he frowned slightly, the younger generation seemed to be getting weaker and weaker and found himself almost commenting something like 'back in my days'
"You there" pointing to a random member of the medical profession "Get a room organised in the warded hospital, You" he said pointing to another "get these to the toxicology lab and you two check Naruto's vitals" Sarutobi ordered while picking up the book Kakuzu had left
He didn't recognise the Ninja who had left the book but immediately recognised who the author of the book was as it was the same man who had killed one of his two Sensei's.
'Funny how times change, destroy one life that I valued and save the life of another'
Looking around Sarutobi couldn't help but feel as if he was being watched almost like the feeling when he tried to view himself through his crystal ball that one time.
---
Himura looked at the child who lay in her bed and gently removed his palms from her temples, the child was his own daughter permanently put into a coma and kept alive via a drip, her features pale and gaunt from years of inactivity, she was one of the few he still cared about
thinking on what he saw in the forest outskirts troubled him to no end but he saw potential for use as his ability allowed him to 'experience' the world through another's body and due to his daughters unique ability he could remain ahead of others despite being considered lower then everyone else
"Yes, perhaps things will work out better this way at least the child could be of some use now but, however..."
---
"So how is he" Sarutobi spoke, his aged voice soft, almost sombre as he was suspect to whether Naruto would survive considering how much blood was scattered over the ground and the large number of medical staff who would 'accidentally' mess up something life threatening if it meant some form of revenge petty or not
"That's just the thing Sir, we can't figure out anything wrong with it, err him as there doesn't seem to be anything wrong"
"Hmm what do you mean" Sarutobi stared unblinkingly at the man who sweated slightly at his slip up hoping the Hokage didn't notice the mistake
"The err child is well how do we put it, well his heart and blood type has err changed and it seems his body had ahh kinda been cut apart and been stitched back together"
"WHAT!"
"Gahhh please don't hurt meee" The doctor flinched and closed his eyes expecting to be hit as he whined, the man was an abject coward
"Tell me how exactly this has happened and what we can do about it" the Hokage spoke coldly his voice and demeanour turning icy cold like ice in a blizzard
"We don't know, he was like this when he came in I've never seen something like this before"
"Then explain in detail what has happened... and don't leave anything out"
"His body, its looks like its been ripped apart and then feed through a mincer, everything in him has been turned into these thick wiry veins and arteries and I'm not just talking about things like organs but also bones and muscle has been replaced entirely with these, these, I don't know what they are but there all like veins"
"Like veins and arteries?" Sarutobi glanced looking over his steepled hands hiding his wizened mouth and crooked nose
"Yes their 'like' veins and arteries but thicker, denser more like a cross between rubber and bone, the only thing left semi intact is his skin expect for all the stitching and before you ask the stitching is the same tentacle-like veins as what's inside him"
"So what is left other then the skin?"
"The only other organs left intact other then the skin is the heart supposedly from somewhere else or someone else and the eyes and brain and oh yeah we haven't actually been able to get inside him and we've been relying on the diagnostic techniques to actually any of this out"
"Hmm and whys that"
"We can't cut the veins, even using the chakra scalpel did squat all, at the moment all that's holding his body together is those things acting as stitches which are also stopping us from healing the skin back together and even when we are able to somehow cut the veins they just grow themselves back, even his hair has been replaced with them its just utter madness"
Sarutobi sighed and shook his head and looked back to the doctor "Madness? No, this is Kakuzu"
The doctor looked at him blankly then coughed adjusting his thick framed glasses which had become crooked from the involuntary release of air
"Anyway as I was saying madness or not-"
Boom
The door to the hospital crashed open as an out of breath medic-nin rushed in who dropped to one knee in respect for the Hokage cutting anything the doctor was going to say off
"Hokage-sama -pant- -pant- we just -haaa- got the results back from the lab for the kunai and headband and you wouldn't believe it, they came back positive on both accounts and their blood part of our recorded database and it seems our killer was none other then Kumogakure's ultimate weapon, Nii Yugito"
Sarutobi immediately shot up his hands slamming into his hard oak desk palm first and creating deep indents in its surface, he leaned forward his expression dangerously cold uncharacteristic to those who had known him as he was acknowledge that even on the battlefield he was a man who was calm and composed and had never been seen this close to losing his temper
"Are you sure"
His tone brooking no hint of amusement stared with his ice cold steel expression unnerving the medic-nin who still had his eyes downcast in a symbol of respect for the Hokage
"I'm as sure as I can be Hokage-sama we ran the test several times just to be positive"
'So Kumo found out what was inside Naruto, maybe they sent their own demon container in the hope that he would join them with the prospect of being with someone 'like' him and I wouldn't put it him considering how this village has treated the poor child'
"You" Sarutobi spoke looking back at the doctor who nearly tripped over his own feet at being addressed suddenly "How long until Naruto-kun awakens"
"Undetermined, he'll wake up when he feels like it I suppose so anytime from now until eight hours from now" the doctor finished lamely making Sarutobi idly wonder why he paid the medical staff for being near on useless
Without saying a word Sarutobi moved around his desk and out of the room and towards where Naruto was being kept
---
'It's hot'
He thought not entirely conscious of what was happening
He looked all around himself in his blurred vision looking from high above the tree line except everything was tinted in a deep red haze
'Heat, its everywhere, I'm heating up'
His eyes focused looking around himself with crazed eyes, Ninja were congregating around his paw letting off jutsu after jutsu splashing off his fur with little to no effect, lifting his paw he swiped the ground ninja screaming and cursing as they called out in their angered cries as they realised what was going to happen a second before their deaths
'The pain, this heat, it hurts, it hurts' his mind called out and he bellowed in rage his long snout dripping acidic saliva from sharp immense fangs making the ground burst into flames when the droplets of mouth juices contacted the earth
'My body, its not returning, I'm losing control, its heating up, I'm dying, what's happening to me'
He thrashed about madly as he felt a person clamber onto his hide of deep red fur, a large amphibian holding him in place, he scratched and clawed at the great toad incinerating one of it's oversized knives in a roar of super heated air melting both blade and handle in seconds yet the gargantuan creature held firm.
The man on his back had finished running his hands through seals before slamming his hands onto the small of his back
He twists his body just enough to see the man upon his back clothed in a long flowing white robe and wearing a steel mask hidden behind a flimsy 'human' illusion, his vision was fading, blacking out in places as the deep red of his sight dimming at the same time
"Damn you Witsuarunemitea, even if I am to be sealed it will not stop me I will destroy, Destroy everything!"
---
Naruto awoke to the bright sunlight of Konoha hospital, the world slightly out of focus as was common to those who had just woken up
Memories assaulted his mind of his death and how he had been saved by that creepy man, lifting his arm to rub sleep out of his eyes he was brought face to face with something he had never expected his unsettling dream forgotten with more pressing matters
His arm, previously thin and considerably frail compared to others his age and even those younger had thickened bulging with barely restrained strength and what he assumed were muscles, his arm was also covered in thick black stitches nearly a centimetre in width both through the joints in his arms and the half way mark between each joint
Each stitch was wound the entire way around making each macabre suture appear as if his body had been segmented and cut apart before being reattached, the words Kakuzu had spoken to him right before his fall back into unconsciousness hit him like a sledge hammer
"Then are you prepared to change, to accept a new life without looking back at what once might have been"
The meaning of the words sinking into his cranium made him realise something and with a surprisingly calm hand Naruto begun to lift his light blue hospital gown the words Kakuzu had spoken replaying over and over as he lifted the flimsy material
Just as his arms were the rest of his body had similarly changed with the same dark reddish black tendril veins that were keeping his body from falling apart and the strangest part of it felt that none of it was really all that weird to him like they were apart of his body
He was also noticing slight differences in his skin as well, while his skin had always been tanned and hardened from the constant punishment he took from anyone who felt that he 'deserved' what he got and was getting what was coming to him but now his skin looked like it had been dried and hardened like tanned leather from an animals hide or what skin looked like when it had been embalmed as his skin no longer felt a part of him
'Makes me kinda wonder what's under my skin' the sky eyed boy thought watching the stiches in his arm and too his amazement and somewhat horror the stiches in his right arm started to unravel themselves exposing what was under his skin
No longer were there muscles and bone but hundreds upon hundreds of these thick dry tendrils squirming like he was controlling them with his subconscious thoughts exactly how he moved his body normally, slightly queasy he willed the stiches to cover up his arm again silently stitching themselves into place
He blanched slightly, it reminded him of throwing up or looking into a public toilet that hadn't been flushed except somewhat cooler, he blinked as he saw someone in the doorway and looked up
Sarutobi chuckled to himself as he saw the surprised look on Naruto's face easily masking his slight repulsion to the changes in his body, truthfully he had been standing in the door way since Naruto first awoke but had concealed his presence to the point where even Jounin would have trouble noticing him even when they accidentally walked into him
He had seen Naruto playing with the veins and saw first hand what lay underneath and guessed that the doctors had been telling the truth with their assumptions on Naruto's altered physiology, he silently frowned as the thought of one of Jiraiya's books on tentacles came back to him and fought down the urge to cough under his breath
"Oji-san" Naruto called his voice warped and echoed like two or more people were speaking slightly out of synch with previously blond haired boy not noticing the change his grin stretching across his face making the stiches along his cheeks make a grotesque parody of his usual smile, the tendrils that used to be his hair swaying slightly like damp hair as they hung closely to his head
"So Naruto-kun how are you"
Naruto looked at the old man oddly for a second before replying "I'm fine some old creepy dude saved me after some other masked guy got me right in the chest"
Sarutobi closed his eyes contemplating his next words and thinking over what Naruto said before opening his eyes, he would have to take this slowly otherwise he may put ideas into his head which would elude him from the truth
"Naruto can you tell me who attacked you"
"Uhh nah He was wearing a mask, and had some weird headband on, it looked kinda like the ones your ninja wear except different"
"Naruto this is very important can you remember what was on the headband" the old man spoke levelly gently grasping Naruto's shoulders and looking him in the eyes
"Yeah it was like a funny circle thing under another circle thing with another circle thing to the left of the first two" Naruto spoke using his hands for emphasis waving them in circles
Sarutobi nodded it sounded exactly like the cloud symbol as it was made up of three ovals, two of them connected to each other but something still didn't add up
"Naruto you said it was a masked man didn't you, are you sure about that" Sarutobi questioned his eyes not leaving Naruto's
"Yeah I'm pretty sure it was a guy unless it was like that girl in the academy, Gouga what's-her-name" muttered Naruto scratching the back of his head and chuckling
Sarutobi blanched slightly at the thought, Gouga came from a family of Sumo's who were predominantly female and even their children had more muscle then most professional weightlifters and what they lacked in ninja techniques they more then made up for in sheer raw power and Taijutsu
'Hmm it wasn't a woman but I can't rule it out as a possibility, Yugito was of a slight build from the information I've had gathered about her but such things could be wrong and there's always the chance she was using Genjutsu to disguise herself and considering the 'evidence' its a likely possibility'
"Thank you Naruto you've been very helpful I'll make sure an extra special meal is delivered to your room, it's the least I can do"
"Heh thanks old man
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End chapter
If anyone was wondering this isn't going to be just another super powered Naruto fic, I'm going to try my hardest to actually put dialogue in this though considering his unique position he's likely to outclass most others so you won't be having a dead last story
The unnamed doctor was unnamed because I just couldn't think of anything for him, he originally started just as a cardboard cut out of an A standard doctor simply reporting to the Hokage but as I continued to write his lines I started developing small quirks in his personality, I was also watching star gate Atlantis at the time so I started basing his speech and mannerisms of Rodney.
I'm not sure if I'm going to keep him as a character yet as I still haven't given the poor mook a name, maybe just a minor character like the ramen shop owner or the other teams as they were originally designed as minor characters in the manga.
Kakuzu- Kakuzu is a unique character in my opinion and there just really wasn't enough of him, like Sasori and Hidan, Kisamoto the author of Naruto spends far too much time on Sasuke and too be honest I'm kinda getting sick of it, from the start to finish Sasuke has been a spoiled brat with too much spotlight major plot holes that you could fit an entire house through surround Sasuke and the Sharingan.
-Rant-
Its like Kisamoto has forgotten that the title of his work is Naruto not Sasuke, he builds these great characters with absolutely enormous potential for development then kills them off so Sasuke can take the lime light, like Orochimaru killing him off was absolutely useless as it would've been better if Orochimaru had taken over his body and we all know that Itachi is the better of the two.
Just think of it logically, Itachi at age 7 became a gennin while Sasuke became one at age 12 maybe older, Itachi was head of ANBU at age 12 or 13 with a completely mastered Sharingan where he killed off his entire clan while Sasuke ran away from home with the help of 5 supposedly jounin level sound nin's where he got his ass handed to him by the 'dead last' of the year while having to use level 2 curse seal against a single tail of Kyuubi.
Even now I'm getting pissed off with Naruto, as Sasuke being so exhausted after his fight with Deidara was unable to stand was still able to summon Manda even after using level two cursed seal AND use a Sharingan technique to SPACE TIME TRAVEL away and save himself
If we remember rightly before the time skip Naruto even after mastering water walking had to use nearly the first tail of Kyuubi chakra to summon Gamabunta, a summon needing just as much chakra as Manda so it'd be impossible to summon Manda when you're so exhausted that you can't even stand, Sasuke is an utterly useless character that should have been killed off by Haku
-Rant off-
Oh and remember to review otherwise my attention span for writing this story may disappear to the same place Kisamoto's writing talent has gone… And I mean down the wee dark crevices of Sasuke's pole lodged ass.