A/N: Heya folks, sorry it's been so long. I was swamped with work, then I didn't have work-because I was unemployed-and now, well, I have time on my hands. So, here is another chapter. If this chapter is decently reviewed and you guys can help me remotivate myself, I'll consider posting a "shorter" chapter that is a bit action-packed for you guys! :) Its all up to you.

See ya!

-Arte

Chapter 3: Reasons

"Not all men seek rest and peace; some are born with the spirit of the storm in their blood, restless harbingers of violence and bloodshed, knowing no other path."

-Robert E. Howard, "A Witch Shall Be Born," Weird Tales (1934)

CE 2171: Systems Alliance Farming Colony Mindoir, in the Attican Traverse

District 12 Capulet Hospital: (Six Miles from the Shepard's' farm)

"Doctor! His blood pressure is rising rapidly-and his heart rate is off the-"

Naruto felt himself falling down a deep hole of memory and he very much knew he didn't want to see what was at the bottom.

The last conscious memory he had was waking up at the Shepard's house. So, how was he back in Konohagakure? It felt like his soul was in two different places-tearing him apart with what was, and what could have been.

"Daniels, hold him down damn it!"

"Yeah, I'm trying! The guy-he's really fucking strong!"

"Fuck. Ah!-use the magnetic clamps-they are rated for distressed Biotics! No, SWIPE don't PUSH."

But Naruto noticed none of the efforts to restrain him, or sedate him, or any of it.

"-use more than one for each arm Doc, is that okay?"

He was elsewhere.

"Do it! Now!"

The seventeen-year old was standing in front of his house (well, not anymore, not for a while), a beautiful sprawling compound that had stood in Konoha since the Founding, designed and designated for the Hokage and his family.

It was, to be honest, a mansion.

The sakura trees, the kind he and Katsura used to get in all kinds of trouble for climbing, were in full bloom outside the house. Dripping slashes of red in the otherwise placid greens and browns of Konoha proper made the petals look like bloody droplets on the ground.

He shivered.

Naruto forged onward, walking through them, scattering them to the winds as they swirled around his feet and chest. He noticed absently that he was wearing his hospital scrubs and not his regular red vest and armored pants combo-that was odd. The whole scene, though, was surreal. Colors seemed brighter than he was used to and his heart was pounding in his chest, his head ached. Pressing a cool hand to his sweaty forehead, he saw his hands-the most basic tool of a shinobi-were shaking.

And not a little shaking either.

They were significant tremors.

How odd.

Naruto put a shaky hand to the front doors and slid them open, halting at the entrance, mildly unsteady on his feet. This would be the first time he'd set foot in this house in...oh, it would be about four years now. Strange how time flew, yet things stayed the same. The hole in the wall, a reminder of a time he got a little too enthusiastic with taijutsu, was still there, partially covered by a Shinji Yakamoto painting of his Mom's that still hung slightly crooked.

She was always a fan of stupid fruit paintings in stupid positions, but Dad bought them all for her.

There was still scuffing on the floor from his frequent and very one-sided fights (guess who won) with Katsura all around the house. His Dad's droopy bonsai tree still stood forlorn in the corner of the living room. Sad, lonely-probably, thought Naruto, wondering where its caretaker went. He was wondering the same.

Frankly, the reason he hadn't come home was that he hadn't been very welcome after he 'defected'...and that was a bit of an understatement.

He knew it was more than nerves, more than just anxiety over what his parents would think, that made him stop on the threshold of something he'd wanted more than anything. Coming home, eating a home-cooked meal (ramen of course) once again...it'd been a dream that kept him going when he sat in his room, in the highest building in rain-drenched Ame, overlooking the always-weeping landscape, wondering whether he had truly done the right thing.

Whether he made the right choice-to betray in order to save.

It made him strong, his precious people. Protecting them was his life...

His surety kept him going...but only sometimes. Sometimes, events got the better of him and the why's and what-is-it-all-for's, became hard to see-like looking through foggy glass. Innocents were the worst. He'd had to kill innocents to prove himself. Naruto became so afraid after that...because it got easier and easier.

Killing, like Shizune said, was the easiest thing in the world.

To be amongst the most powerful killers that ever lived...it was humbling and terrifying. These were the monsters his mother had scared him with when he misbehaved. Some nights, it made him cry-not that he didn't belong, but that it felt too right to be one of the monsters. He felt like he was betraying the only dream he'd ever had. Naruto Namikaze, a signatory of Senju Tsunade's Medical Oaths, had made himself one of them.

A walking calamity, an S-Ranked Missing-nin known everywhere as the Bloody Nine.

Fourth Jinchuriki of the most powerful bijuu to ever exist.

The Avatar of Hate and Rag: the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the Nine-tailed Fox.

Lately, it just been Kurama, his partner in crime and his closest confidant. The only being that really knew why he was there...what the stakes had really been. It had been about more than just a broken family and some wrecked villages. Far higher. It was a strange friendship, Namikaze Naruto and the Kyuubi. Meeting the Sage of Six Paths, the man who started it all, had changed things between them. They...were same after all.

If he hadn't had Kurama, he'd have gone insane for sure.

Finally fallen, Naruto would have spiraled all the way down the rabbit hole, no doubt becoming as dark as with which he was partnered.

Kisame, Sasori, Deidara, Kabuto.

Those fucking lunatics and bloodthirsty monsters-then again, Pein was even worse, wasn't he? His cousin? A megalomaniac with delusions of godhood-what was worse, he truly believed the bullshit he spewed out of his biased mouth.

The man wasn't out to save anything, like he'd thought...he was out to teach a lesson and, Uzumaki or not, kin or not, Naruto had decided to put the man down like the rabid dog he was. Well, after he had completed his original goal, that is.

But as time went on, he'd realized more and more...wasn't he a bloodthirsty monster too?

Wasn't that right, Mr. Bloody Nine?

Naruto fell into a memory shaped like a bear trap. The Bingo Book listed his alias as the Bloody Nine of Konohagakure, but it was, for the most part, an ironic nickname. Very little blood was actually left behind...just cauterized limbs, bloodless slices and trenches, and surgically-precise death in his wake. Events flashed in his brain. He saw himself in the midst of the mindless slaughter-precise, whirling medical chakra cleanly severing limbs with foot-long chakra blades. Dense, plutonian fires boiling out of his mouth and hands to engulf a whole village after him and his...partner, Kisame, were done capturing the Two-tails. Fires so hot that vapor was the only thing left of the medium-sized cesspit of a Lightning village. The perfect ambush.

His cold clinical face as he surveyed his handwork...Kisame's approving, toothy smile and hardy backslap were like ice water in his veins.

He felt himself trembling.

He felt disgust well up inside him at his weakness.

Get a fucking grip, Naruto. The blonde-haired ninja continued to hover on the edge of the doorway, dismissing his weakness, but feeling as though something horrible lay just beyond. Something he never wanted to see again...and the trouble was, he felt there was a huge piece of the puzzle, the ending, that was missing from his memories. What had happened to those he cared about? His father's panicked eyes, a blue deeper than the ocean, pierced him-pleading. Then they were gone.

His thoughts stuttered and lost track, reclaiming a different tack.

Naruto couldn't help but feel like it was better to forget and try to move on, then to remember and weep. So, finally, he summoned his courage, took off his sandals with steadier hands, and shut the door behind him as he moved into the living room.

It was just like he remembered it, only the pictures were older-and exclusively of his sister. Where his pictures previously stood, were empty or were more of Katsura. Her blood-red hair was a bit of a lighter shade than his mothers, but otherwise they were clones. Sure, she was in her awkward pre-teen gangly stage, but Naruto knew she'd grow up to be a beautiful woman-and a massive handful-just like his mom.

The room had been empty one second, then the next second...there they were-both of them, lying on the tatami, carved up in piles, on the floor in front of him. Blood soaked the carpet and dripped on to the matting as flies buzzed around the offal, recognizable only by the locks of hair and distended skin of their faces lying like Noh masks on the ground.

Naruto staggered and brought up his last meal, burning his throat as images flashed through his mind, almost too fast for him to register. Vomit heaved up from his stomach for a second time, expelling itself in a wave-again. The pain brought tears to his eyes. It was the first tears he'd shed in four years.

Blood and meat.

So much blood. So much meat.

Pieces of a hand, small, feminine, older. Open, staring eyes. Severed neck. A sword that ate chakra exploding through flesh. Screaming. He couldn't stop remembering. As a medic, he'd seen bodies before-as the Bloody Nine, he'd seen far, far more than his fair share of death-he'd made most of them with a little help from Kisame. But this... this wasn't combat, this was butchery. And who was screaming for fucks sake?

Oh.

It was his screaming and his mouth open in an agony of the very soul.

Naruto fell to his knees and vomited again. Bile coated his mouth as he spilled what felt like everything he ever ate right there on the tatami next to the quivering pile of flesh. Mom would kill me for vomiting here, he thoughtwildly. It was the only thought he could grab hold of, like a man being bowled over by waves. He scrambled for something, anything to cling to. Another wave came. The images came again.

More blood.

More screaming.

A young mouth, a mouth that hadn't even had the chance to kiss her first love, slowly opened and closed, gasping, struggling for breath-or, was that to say something? Eyes that threatened to swallow him with the love he saw there, open, for him to receive.

I. Love. You, Naru.

I forgive you.

A blade came down and her eyes stood open forever. Blood flew and chilling laughter echoed around the sealing chamber, standing over them the Demonic Statue waited like the reaper. Naruto sat, collapsed, in seiza, surrounded by all of the most dangerous shinobi the world had ever produced...and he couldn't find it in him to care. Or react much beyond the horror in front of his eyes.

The son of the Hokage, the single greatest missing-nin that Konohagakure had ever produced-greater even than Orochimaru, who died at the hands of his father-gripped his hair, side-bangs and all, and pulled, trying to rip them off his head as he screamed and cried like a baby in front of the people he hated most.

He cried and screamed.

It echoed around the house hollowly as it echoed around his soul. It wasn't even a scream, but more of a wail. The wail of a man who'd lost something precious...and would never get it back. His mind shut down, and he continued to struggle. He knew he'd lost something, but what? And why couldn't he remember it?

Naruto collapsed, the dream or nightmare was disappearing. The world fell into itself and a dark hospital appeared, but Naruto wasn't seeing anything.

Naruto woke up with one name on his lips.

He knew, because the last thing that happened was that his screams of anguish and pain turned to world-eating rage. A Ragnorak of fire, and pain and hatred and vengeance so potent that it made Kurama recoil in panic, a molotov cocktail of energy and emotion so strong it created waves of boiling-point air around him. Parts of the Gedo Mazo flaked off due to the heat. Oh yes, he savored the memory.

His former partners, he remembered, had stopped laughing quick.

Oh yes, they stopped laughing alright. Especially when he'd stuck his fist through his Kisame's chest and ripped his spine out, cradling like a newborn.

Yes. Ohhh, yes.

No laughter there, though, unfortunately the rest was a blur.

"How the hell did he get out of the electromagnet clamps? Quick!"

An orderly paid the price by standing too close. He died instantly, his neck and spine exploding under the sheer force in his shaking grip.

Naruto screamed and flooded the room with his killing intent. "KATSURA!"

A piercing, panicked scream of a nurse lanced through his brain, startling him.

"Daniels, do something-don't just fucking stand there!"

A black bulky object descended towards his temple with servo-assisted, panic-fueled, blunt force.

Everything went blissfully, thankfully, dark.

Antiseptic was the first of many familiar odors to infiltrate his nose when Naruto awoke. The odor was tied with the strangely harsh bright lights for irritation. He'd always hated the plethora of scents inside the hospital whenever he'd had rounds. Of course, it was a happier time then, he was young and innocent, and hadn't known the turns his life would take. Ultimately, he really hadn't minded tending to his various assigned patients, had he? Sometimes, only sometimes, it was fun talking to the older shinobi and hearing their stories. Inevitably though, there were as many sad stories as there were happy ones.

He learned later to hold on to the happy ones.

His mind carefully shied away from the events before he woke.

Instead, he stared out the window. It was getting dark out.

Brushing away the mental cobwebs, Naruto figured he might as well get his act together before someone came in-he vaguely remembered hurting someone and hoped it hadn't been serious. Though, everyone knew it wasn't wise to be around a shinobi who was hurt and lashing out-unless you were a trained med-nin.

That was common sense.

Naruto looked down at his arms, strapped tightly against the bed by a series of thick, humming rings of some dark metal. His hands were shaking. He clenched his fists, glaring. The tremor was very much new. It was a very, very good thing nobody was in the room. He didn't know what he'd do if someone else saw his weakness.

Turning his thoughts in a different direction, he realized that it was good nobody was around for another reason: recon was always easier without an audience. Naruto sat up awkwardly, still strapped to the table, and quickly surveyed the room, attempting to answer the many questions he had in his mind.

What had really happened to him after the Yin-Yang dimension collapsed? He remembered parts of it, kind of, it was very hazy and fading fast but...he did remember that he went somewhere dark.

After that, he'd...tried to...tried to kill something.

Naruto closed his eyes and let out a quiet sigh.

He had hadn't he? Succeeded?

The ninja opened his eyes again. He was sure this wasn't Konoha...or the Elemental Nations. He could tell just by the feel of the place. Absolutely zero chakra anywhere. That was so very odd and well, impossible.

It also meant his attempt at erasing himself from existence hadn't worked.

So, if this wasn't the Elemental Nations, or the Western Continent...where the hell was he?

As he looked around, he could only barely tell he was in a hospital. The place was like no hospital he'd ever seen before. It strongly supported his theory of not being anywhere near places he knew. Huge bay windows opened the room up on his left and overlooked a scene that wouldn't look out of place in Takigakure, a land with endless plains and fields. This was much the same, only it was thriving with crops. The biggest difference was the two suns hanging low in the sky...what the fuck? He didn't get a good look at them as they were almost over the horizon, darkness stealing in.

He could see that much, strapped in as he was-it frankly scared him...just a little bit.

No genjutsu had power like that. Well, maybe Itachi-chan's Tsukyiomi maybe, but he hadn't been anywhere near the Uchiha Clan Leader when he'd gone under, or you know, gone wherever he actually was...

He shook his head, spiky blonde bangs swinging side to side. He continued his visual inventory of the room.

For one, it was spartan-practically empty, aside from him. A single bed, which he occupied, dominated the room. It was dark in a strange way, despite the light coming in from the windows. Dark steel, dark curtains, and the mechanical devices-of which he was unfamiliar (that in and of itself was strange to him considering his profession) were all made of some strange dark metal complete with blue lights that hovered in front of the machine, making sporadic nearly silent beeps.

There was spots of blood on the cabinets across from him. That was...sloppy...of them. Was that from him?

Frankly, he had a lot of questions.

Who made a hospital that was any color other than white?

It was ridiculous!

They might've caught that gross breach of containment etiquette if they'd made everything the proper color.

Naruto flexed his right arm. He was strapped in so tightly-and with heavy black steel clamps no less. They must have deemed him dangerous or a flight risk-or both. He didn't imagine all patients got this treatment. He thought he might've killed that orderly...but it was hazy and he didn't really want to remember all of it. Other thoughts might come along with it, and he was doing his best to steer away from all that for now.

Still, to be clamped down so tightly...he felt a little flattered, honestly.

But mostly insulted.

"If they'd known anything about me they'd know that these clamps wouldn't stop Tsunade-sensei, let alone me if I was really trying. Clearly they have no idea who I am." He sighed. He'd thought, at least, that being an illustrious missing-nin would give him a little more fame...but apparently not.

Couldn't they tell what a slashed headband meant?

Before he could reminisce further, he heard a strange hissing sound and the door did something he'd never seen a door do. It slid sideways into the wall. What the hell was that?

Who made a door like that?

How were you supposed to sneak up on somebody if the doors made hissing sounds?

A little disgruntled, Naruto made no effort to hide the fact he was awake, annoyed, and bored as hell as he watched six people walk in. Five obviously had some kind of military training. Naruto could tell based on their gait, the way their eyes roved around quickly, assessing and then laser-focusing on him. The nervous tension they sported as soon as they realized he was awake. His keen eyes noted the change in respiration, the pituatary response, the elevation in heartbeat and blood pressure in response to stress changes.

Naruto smiled to see it. They were...afraid.

He was an obvious and unknown potential-well, not potential anymore right?-threat after all.

The five of them held strange boxy objects in their sweaty little hands. They somewhat resembled the prototype 'muskets' he'd seen on the western continent. It was obviously a weapon-though he was willing to bet it couldn't quite penetrate a solid earth jutsu. They were very sleek-looking though and it was pointed right at his face, which made him revise his assessment a bit.

He loved his face, thank you very much.

The stoic look and almost daring smirk on the closest military guys face made Naruto want to rip these steel manacles off and wipe it off his face.

And he almost did.

But then he remembered he didn't give two shits about anything anymore and settled back down, adopting an easily-conjured bored look on his face-it was a look that never went out of style, though some people thought it looked a lot like his mischief face when everybody knew the two were different. Duh.

"Awake at last I see. How are we feeling today?"

The doctor or nurse (whichever) had a professional smile on his tanned face, complete with gleaming white teeth. Naruto gave him credit for his poker face and sheer sack-size as he watched the man bustle around checking the faintly beeping monitors, making checks on his clipboard while his bodyguard watched in the background without a seeming care in the world. It was a familiar scene (sans the bodyguard).

He used to be the one with the clipboard.

"Oh, I'm fucking grand Mr. Nurse. If you'll just," here he rattled his manacles a little bit. They let out a heavy clanking sound and it seemed to freak them all out. Were these supposed to be impressive? "...let me out, I'm sure I can be out of your hair in no time."

The man shook his head, smiling to himself. "It's Doctor Halsey, actually, not 'Mr. Nurse.' And I'm afraid we can't do that-let you go, that is-quite yet. We still don't even know your name or how you got here. We're...pretty far away from things so you gave us quite a jolt when you dropped in unexpectedly."

Dr. Halsey pressed an object that looked like a futuristic pen to the vein in Naruto's inner arm. It beeped after a second and a backwards number appeared in the air above it. Naruto couldn't see it because the man quickly stuffed it back in the pocket of his white overcoat (the first white thing Naruto had seen here).

"All your vitals check out...such as they are."

The doctor dropped his pleasant smile and gave him an arctic glare.

"So, since you killed one of my staff and you seem fine. You aren't going anywhere till the Alliance gets here. Murderers don't get many choices."

Murderers? What a joke.

Naruto laughed lightly for a second, it was light and whimsical and slightly...off.

Then his laughter cut off abruptly and he brought all of his killing intent-enough to immobilize any shinobi below A-rank-to bear on the doctor and his measly cadre of bodyguards.

"I hate to be a bother Doctor Halsey, really I do, but I really don't like having a weapon pointed at my face. So I'm going to have to ask them to lower it...or I might become uncooperative. Trust me, I'm on my best behavior right now-you don't want me to get nasty."

The reaction was immediate on the untrained civilians. Naruto was somewhat taken aback by it.

To Naruto, it felt like an extreme focus on projecting his intentions towards them, but to the good doctor and his chimps, the reaction was more in line with what he'd been told it felt like: as in, more like watching yourself die over and over again in ever increasingly creative ways. Jiraiya had mentioned that it felt like staring into the sun too long, or being shocked by massive electricity, or being sucked into a vacuum-blood and flesh flaying off your body at high speeds. It felt like being uncomfortable under your own skin and wanting out. It felt like watching a sun die and explode in front of you.

"Huh."

He guessed it was understandable that they were comatose in seconds, passed out with looks of fear etched on their faces. It made him sick how easy that was, though. It was like they'd never dealt with ninja before. (This was seeming to be more and more than case...that they truly had never met a true shinobi before) To be honest, these 'military' guys didn't really seem all that tough.

Border security at best.

Naruto didn't realize at the time that these guys were Border Security of a sorts, just part-timers, a small garrison meant to defend a colony from internal threats-not hardened Alliance Military.

Putting two and two together, Naruto realized that these guys had obviously never dealt with a ninja in their lives...and that meant, well, that he was someplace they'd never encountered chakra-users before.

He was very far away indeed.

It was a problem for later, right now he was hungry and that was all that was important.

Applying a precise amount of chakra, expelled from the tenketsu in his arms and hands, pure coiled power writhed under his skin and he snapped the steel bindings like paper, electro-magnetic clamps whining in protest, before sitting up fully and rubbing his wrists. A precision burst of healing chakra saw him back to normal, no soreness present.

Where the hell were his clothes?

He couldn't find them anywhere in the room, he'd searched in the tiny bathroom, under the bed-even behind the machines that had no discernible power-source.

Naruto contented himself with stuffing the good doctor and the muscle-heads into the tiny bathroom, and stealing the scrubs off Mr. Nurse, totally ignoring the weapon on the ground. He wouldn't know how to use it anyway and he had far more effective weapons that he didn't have to lug around with him.

Turning around and tucking his scrubs into his pants, he punched the lead security guard in the face as lightly as he could-just for shits and giggles of course. The flesh made a heavy flapping sound as his fist gently impacted it-though it still broke the jaw of the fucker who dared smirk at him like he was better. That guy wasn't getting up for another twenty minutes at least. He proceeded to apply a very basic sleeping genjutsu matrix on the others.

Leaving was easy-he just stepped in front of the door and it hissed open for him.

Wandering the hospital was easy after that, as it turned out.

It helped that he could act like he belonged there-knew some of the lingo at least. It helped him blend in while he tried to find the nearest cafeteria. Every hospital had a cafeteria, so he knew he'd find it at some point. Follow the smells. Naruto knew he wanted to be out of there before the idiots awoke and set the rest of their goons on him. That gave him another fifteen minutes at minimum. Luckily, it only took him two more minutes to find the yummy smells and another two to follow it.

The large cafeteria was again, nothing like he'd ever seen. Tall machines took the orders verbally and materialized the food-he didn't think it would taste good, you know, for being manufactured...but it did end up tasting phenomenal. A ham sandwich was a ham sandwich after all (they didn't have ramen, he'd asked).

He was getting some funny looks-mostly for stuffing his face, but he really didn't care. He hadn't had any food in a long time. The sandwich went first, then the fruit cup, then the veggie side. A tall glass of orange juice went next and at the end, he had a couple of minutes to spare before he needed to leave.

So Naruto just left his tray, full of crumbs and crumpled napkins, and headed back the way he came. He knew he'd seen a sign along the ground for an exit of some kind, so he simply followed the markers. A stray thought stopped him in his tracks and made him groan.

They'd taken all of his clothes, his sealing scroll, his weapons, his cloak-all of it.

Damn it.

Ultimately though, it hadn't taken him that long to find where they were storing his effects. As it turned out, they were down the hall and to the right, waiting in a storage locker that was clearly marked. Blue cages, filled with what he assumed were the personal effects of everyone who was a patient at the hospital, lined the fairly large room. He noted, as he started looking, that since he hadn't given them his name...and obviously no one recognized him...that his effects would probably be under a John Doe, or an 'unknown' category. He was wrong on both counts actually.

Naruto, squinting at the electronic placards attached to the blue cages, realized that it was grouped according to room number-not the first or last name. Thinking quickly, he remembered glancing at his room and noticing a '117' on the outside.

So, first floor then. Room seventeen?

He passed by about fifty or sixty cages before he came to his: chocked full of his strange effects that looked doubly strange next to all the other, relatively normal looking shit. Keys, wallets, some strange machines-devices that he'd seen strapped on everyone's arms.

Fearing there was a locking mechanism, he gently tugged on the cage-box and when it slid back easily, he pulled it all the way out, settling it on the ground. His cloak was on top, he put that aside. That came last. Naruto proceeded to strip down to his underwear, which they kindly left him, and put his pants on first-black cross-stitched, heavy-knit ANBU-issue pants with the inserted plates. They were heavy, durable, and could really take some serious punishment.

Next came his shirt, a standard-issue black mesh that he squeezed his ragged blonde hair through. Nobody would notice it messing his hair up-with the bangs he grew out like his fathers, there was nothing to 'mess up'. He noticed, as he glanced at the reflective metallic cages, that his hair looked far more like that asstroll Madara than his fathers. How long had he been out that his hair had grown that long?

He'd need to cut it ASAP.

Rooting around, he pulled out his vest-a garment that was far heavier than it looked. He felt its reassuringly solid weight and smiled a bit while slipping it on, securing the back straps and front clasps. Blood-red in color, it matched his cloak and the stripe on his pants pretty well...and usually it helped obscure the blood that he frequently got all over it from Kisame's exuberance. It hadn't occurred to Naruto before to consider his color scheme: black and red-the color of a borrowed Sharingan.

He grinned to himself-how fitting.

Naruto continued to pull objects out of his bin.

Heavy cross-knit stitch black finger-less gloves, to cover the odd birthmarks on his palms (a sun and a moon, he'd had them since birth-kids used to make fun of him for them...until he punched them in the mouth), two heavy belts full of...where the hell were his herbs?

Two blonde eyebrows drew down into a point, an angry point, as he realized the staff must have pilfered his healing herbs and the various poisons and antidotes he carried with him-that included his surgical tools. You never knew what you needed right? Naruto slammed a now-armored fist into the cage nearest him and before he knew it, the cages were toppling like dominoes, the first one having a massive hole two feet across in it. The sound was deafening as metal grated on metal, slamming into each other and cartwheeling into the metallic walls of the hospital.

He had to sweat drop as he looked at the absolute mess that he wrought with a single punch. He thought the metal was a little more sturdy than that...but apparently not. A little version of himself dramatically raised his fists to the sky in his head and screamed, 'no!' Damn him and his super-strength.

You, are a fucking idiot Naruto Namikaze.

He sighed.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this...on tilt. Out of control, so to speak.

Welp, it was clearly time to get the fuck out of dodge. That hot mess would bring them running if nothing else...and his time had been up for about five minutes now. His fingers deftly put the clasps together and slung the bandolier and side-holstered belt across his hips. The standard Konoha kunai and shuriken (or senbon if you preferred to be a giant pansy-he didn't) pouches went opposite his money purse.

Naruto's fingers brushed his shortened tanto-a foot and a half long blade of blackened steel-and clipped it length-wise underneath his vest, in the small of his back, the handle in easy reach of his right hand. Behind that lay his thin sealing scroll, a scroll that contained more power than anyone had a right to wield. His mind shied away from what lay within.

Finally, the last three items...

Naruto grabbed his goggles and his head-band, settling his black goggles over top of his hair, red lenses facing outwards. He kept the goggles because he'd grown his hair out when he was young and it helped keep back his bangs. Of course, his mother always let out a kawaii and told him how she loved how it let his hair frame his face-squeal and glomp included-but Naruto was just happy his hair stayed blessedly out of his eyes.

The blonde took extra care with his last two items: his slashed Leaf headband his Akatsuki cloak...both of which cost him dearly and he was loath to part with them.

He'd bled...a lot, for both.

It only took a second of staring at them for him to come to a decision. Becoming a saint, it seemed, would be harder than remaining a monster...

He took the easy path.

His headband settled around his neck and his heavy cloak around his shoulders.

Shouts echoed down the hallway along with the heavy tramp of booted feet and Naruto smiled. It took them long enough. The security here is shit. The blonde shinobi stood, kicking his empty blue bin away with one foot, and walked calmly passed the totally wrecked cages, twisted into heaps of metal and made his way out into the hallway, blurring while he walked-his body melted like wax-into the body and clothes of the good doctor who was doing such a kind job of taking care of him earlier.

The slightly manic grin on his face no doubt looked out of place.

Calmly, more calmly than he felt-the tremors in his hand betraying him-Naruto Namikaze, the Bloody Nine of Konohagakure, walked out into the gathering twilight of an alien world that looked far too much like his own for comfort.

It was time to get some answers.

Authors Note: I decided to end it here. The second part will be up soon. See if anyone can catch the reference to a classic anime (dark and sci-fi-y)!

Later.

Arte