Author Note: Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha! Evilness! I heart evilness. Typing has kept me occupied for the past few days... due to inability to talk... and eat... and sleep... I think the dentist can be thanked for that. Grrr. Also, I apologize for any spelling mistakes..let's just say I'm not exactly coherent or able to point things out too well at the moment. But alas! Here it is! Also, I'm going to give a big thanks to Foggy Brains, Saraswati-Isis, Emeralde, Luvguurl, xXxLuna-the-ChosenxXx, Kai's Snowfall, yukikun336, IYKagome1506, DragonLady of Nerkila, TheAkatsukiiscoming, xcloudx, the wolf hanyou, and Chibi Strawberry for reviewing and a super thanks to everyone that's even glanced at this! Here is chapter five at long last!

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Darkside

Awaken the demon inside

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Naruto could hear the blood pounding violently in his ears. Time slowed down drastically for the blond. Like a speeding bullet, and just as fast, the sharp kunai inched closer to Naruto, who could do nothing at all.

Quickly using his Kage Bushin no Jutsu was out of the question. Sakura yelled something and all Naruto could hear from Shikamaru was his dry voice breaking through the headset in a mess of static. He went to move so that at least it wouldn't hit his head, but it was too late for that now.

"Naruto!"

The kunai hit his head and... bounced off?

Naruto stumbled backwards, completely dumbfounded. His back connected with the rocky pathway and he looked up to see Sakura, Shikamaru and several guards all wearing worried expressions on their faces. Stiff from shock, Naruto forced himself up to stand and was immediately helped by Sakura.

"Are you okay?" She asked, looking him over in case he actually was injured.

Naruto untied his forehead protector. He spotted a small dent directly underneath the leaf symbol; without it he would've been dead for sure. A warm hand checked his head for any wounds. Naruto gave one of his infamous smiles and assured Sakura that he was unharmed.

"I'm okay! Really, I am!"

"Damn it," a bitter cold voice cut in. "I thought ya would've been killed for sure." Obviously the leader of the bandits, the man who had spoken dropped down from the trees. "'O well, looks like we'll 'ave to do this the hard way. Eh, boys?"

On cue, four more figures appeared from their hiding places. They surrounded Kashikoi and his men, sneering cruelly as they drew specially forged shuriken and kunai.

"Finish these fools off, quickly now! Don't wanna keep me waiting!"

Naruto arched his back so he was standing up at his full height. He tied his forehead protector back on, glaring daggers at the leader of bandits. Snarling, he jumped forwards.

"I won't let you hurt these people!"

Shikamaru went to protest against his friend's actions but took the opportunity to trap the other bandits in his Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu. Sakura made mince meat out of them and protected the now shaking Kashikoi and his men from any attacks.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled towards the blond. "Be careful!"

Shikamaru, the leader of the three person team, sighed heavily. He continued to hold control over each bandit, calculating a way to get out of the forest and away from the threatening bandits without much trouble. Frankly, they had a great chance of escaping unharmed but Shikamaru knew not to take such a situation so lightly.

Naruto didn't give the leader any more than a few seconds to think. Pulling out a kunai with practiced movements, he lunged for the cocky bandit. His attack was blocked easily, as Naruto had predicted, but he had a few tricks up his sleeve.

"Heh. You can't take me out that easily, kid."

Naruto applied pressure on the kunai, which was being reflected by a replica that the scraggy man held forward. The blond pushed backwards, becoming airborne and landed perfectly on a thick tree branch. Making the proper hand signs, Naruto made two replicas of himself.

"Shadow clones, eh? Nice try, but those won't be working on me!"

The bandit brought out another kunai. He stared intently at Naruto, attempting to predict his moves (having been able to before) and frowned as the blond smirked as if he was about to do something only a smart ass would do. He hated smart assess.

Naruto clone number one jumped down from his perch, landing roughly on the ground, and on purpose too. He used a hand to balance himself, pushing off the rocky path but not before grabbing a handful of chalky dirt. Grinning, Naruto clone number one pretended to reach for a kunai and threw himself at the bandit. With everything working out perfectly, the clone hurled his hidden pile of dirt in the bandit's face, temporarily blinding him.

"What is this? I can't see!"

The second clone then left Naruto's side, quickly filling in the gap between him and a very angry ruffian. As the man clawed at his eyes, trying to rid them of dirt particles and clear his vision, the second clone appeared behind him without warning. Both clones nodded . The second one held the bandit in a death grip, refusing to let it's captive go.

"Hey! This isn't fair!" He began to struggle, even though Naruto's clone held a grip over him that was incredibly strong. "Talk about dirty cheating!"

"Shut up!" Naruto yelled in the distance, a glowing ball of concentrated chakra forming in the palm of his hand.

Naruto clone number one, who had been standing in front of the struggling man, vanished into a cloud of white smoke, blinding the now confused man even more. It took only a short amount of time for the smoke to clear but by then it was already too late.

"What? What's that? I can't see... ahhhhhhhhhh!"

Rasengan, not at it's usual power but powerful enough, roughly hit the bandit squarely in his stomach. Naruto clone number two became engulfed in smoke, allowing the man to connect directly with the trunk of a very tall, old tree.

Naruto approached cautiously, three shuriken held between each of his fingers on his left hand. The bandit coughed up blood, his body unable to move. When Naruto was standing directly in front of him, the severely wounded man lifted his head up slowly, a thin river of crimson flowing from his mouth.

"D-don't think you and yer friends are off the hook, kid," the man choked out between violent coughing. "Oh, it's only just started!" His attempt at laughing failed... miserably.

Naruto was confused. "Just what the hell do you mean 'it's only just started'?" He bent down and grabbed the bandit by his shirt made from rags. "Huh? Tell me!" He only received a half hearted chuckle in return, causing anger to swell from inside the blond's stomach. "What did you do?"

"Let's see, shall we?"

"Naruto!" Came Sakura's voice from somewhere in the forest. Naruto hadn't realized how far he had been separated from the group (he obviously hadn't paid attention to the dead tone of the headset) and wished he was closer.

"What did you do to Sakura-chan?" Naruto snarled, the anger becoming more apparent and more controlling by the second.

"Heh. You 'spect me to tell ya that?"

"Naruto!"

The blond clenched his fists, realizing that he was now shaking from pure anger. Laughter filled the tense atmosphere but Naruto silenced the bandit with a single shot at his face with a tightly balled up fist. He spent no time waiting around and took off immediately.

Sounds of metal clashing with metal rang loudly throughout the forest as Naruto neared. He could make out several voices he did not recognize and picked up his speed, drawing forth all his strength and gripping the three shuriken he still held tighter. When the trees gave away to the path, Naruto caught sight of Shikamaru having a hard time driving away more bandits while Sakura fiercely protected Kashikoi alongside his trembling guards.

"Look," one of the bandits who had just arrived said to another. "That little lady sure puts up a good fight." He then pulled off a large shuriken that was attached to his back. "But can she survive against this?"

Naruto chose that moment to make his presence known. The bandit with the shuriken almost dropped his weapon as three sharp spinning stars were aimed in his general direction. He just barely dodged them and quickly caught on to Naruto's drive to protect one of his partners. He snickered manically.

Turning his back to Naruto (a very stupid move indeed, but he had temptations to kill after all), the bandit flung his weapon at Sakura, who was too concerned about Kashikoi's welfare to notice the shuriken spinning towards her. Naruto tried to jump in the way but he was too late. Sakura had been hit.

"Sakura-chan!"

Shikamaru finished off one of the troublesome bandits with his Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu and turned towards all the commotion just as Sakura was hit directly in her left arm by a rather large shuriken. He took over the kunoichi's job as a body guard and let Naruto finish off any other bandits that dare tempt his anger any more.

"Are you okay Sakura-chan?" Naruto fended off another attack from the threatening bandits, then carefully checked his friend's injured arm.

The shuriken had his Sakura just below her shoulder plate. Blood stained her ninja outfit and the ripped skin tissue looked horridly swollen. The kunoichi smiled half heartedly before brushing herself off, ignoring her wound.

"I'll be fine."

Naruto had his head bowed down, his eyes shut tightly. His fists were clenched again and this time his anger took over completely. He could hear the bandits approaching and when he opened his eyes, the harsh men were faced with a whole different Naruto.

His eyes, once a brilliant blue, were now crimson. He had released it again.

Continued in chapter six!