"Geeze Anko, did you have to make that entrance again, you remember what happened the last time." Kurenai, a young red-eyed Jonin glared at her insane purple-haired friend.

All five of Team Ten were situated on the Academy roof, Naruto was lounging against the wall near the door, having a conversation with Morgana under his breath. Shino stood on the opposite side of the door, doing the same, but with his bug spy network. Ino just scooted farther away from her 'weird' teammates talking to themselves, but far enough away from Kurenai and Anko, the latter of which had the former in a bear hug from behind; making Kurenai shift uncomfortably.

"Yep! They never did get the smell out." Anko's grin was far too cheerful for her words. With a final struggle, Kurenai gave up and settled into Anko's grasp, both now resting against the railing.

"So, introductions. My name is Kurenai Yuki, newly promoted Jonin and your teacher. I like vodka, shochu, and salted octopus. I dislike cake and perverts. My dream is to become a great kunoichi." She looked at her oblivious students, each absorbed in their own activities. Even Anko was snoozing on her shoulder, a slight trail of drool trailing down her chin. She closed her eyes and counted to ten, trying her hardest to remain calm. "Hey!"

Four simultaneous yelps could be heard from below, making many civilians and students look toward the sky in confusion. Naruto sat rubbing his ears, muttering obscenities while Morgana admonished him for his foul language. Shino looked embarrassed…well, as embarrassed as Shino can look, and Ino's face turned a pinkish shade from not paying attention to her new sensei.

"Well, now that you're all paying attention, Anko, your up first, tell them about yourself." A wide grin split the now-awake Jonin's face, something which made the Genin cringe.

"My name's Anko Mitashira, and don't you forget it! I like dango, snakes, and Kurenai-chan. I dislike a certain Sannin, hateful idiots, and pink. My dream…is private." Anko trailed off with a fake smile.

"Aburame, you're up."

Shino sank back into his stoic self as he started, "Shino Aburame, age 12, I like insects, crossbreeding new species, and Sake. I dislike lizards, bug zappers, and the illogical. My dream is to become an adequate leader for my clan and further us as a whole." His bugs chattered and sang, their version of applause.

Kurenai nodded, satisfied that he would become a great shinobi with his goals. "Yamanaka, you're next."

"Well, I'm Ino Yamanaka, I like flowers, chocolate, and Sasuke-kun. I dislike rude people, Sakura, and bad smells. My dream is to run my family flower shop and marry Sasuke-kun." Unlike Sakura, Ino did not let out a fan girl-ish squeal at her crushes name, although the big, dreamy smile was about the same.

'A bit of a fan girl, but it's not too bad.' "Alright, Uzumaki, you're last." She looked up at the orange-clad ninja still in deep conversation with himself, causing his teammates to scoot away from him slightly.

Anko untangled herself from Kurenai and walked up behind the oblivious boy. She waited a couple seconds before pounding the top of his head. Naruto fell forward, scraping his bandaged forehead on the floor. He grabbed his head, feeling blood already start to seep out, turning the bandages a crimson red. "Fuck! What was that for you crazy bitch?!"

Anko stared at the cursing Genin before laughing and ruffling the boy's hair, "I like this one, can we keep him, Kurenai-chan?"

The red-eyes beauty just shook her head at her friend's actions. Naruto stood up as he unwrapped his head, walking to a nearby window to check on his bleeding skull. The rest of the group saw the skull and scythe burned onto his forehead; Shino, the closest to him, could even see that it pulsed with the boy's anger.

"Oi, gaki, what's with the tattoo? You're too young to have that." Anko asked, whirling the boy around to get a better look. The goggles Naruto wore disguised his expression and abnormal eyes, if you could see past it, however, the black mist-like substance had now engulfed the boy's iris and had moved onto the sclera (the whites of the eye).

"Get your hands off me. It shows that I am a devout priest of Lord Nerull. If you don't release me, I'm going to use a technique Morgana-oneechan taught me." Naruto's voice was deadly calm and contained a hint of something more powerful than Killing Intent. Anko, used to such feeling, largely ignored the boy, trying to puzzle out his world and examine the tattoo all at the same time. The two other Genin moved away from the two to what they hoped was a safe distance, Ino faster than Shino.

Kurenai stood and tried to diffuse the situation, "Enough. Anko back away, leave the boy alone. Naruto please introduce yourself." Anko pouted but did as her friend asked. Naruto waited until she was a safe distance before relaxing somewhat.

"Naruto Uzumaki, age 14, Priest of Lord Nerull. I like ramen, learning new spells, and my Onee-chan. I dislike idiots, those who hate me, and bills. My dream… is to make Nerull-sama proud of me." His team looked at him oddly, noticing that he clutched his book tighter to his chest, as if protecting it.

"Alright, weird comments and tattoos aside, I want you to meet us at Training Ground 11 in two hours. Grab a bite to eat, gather some gear, just as long as you show up on time. Got it?" Seeing all of them nod, Kurenai and Anko disappeared in twin swirls of leaves.

--

"…and what have I said about flaunting your techniques? You shouldn't go around proclaiming your new powers or threatening to use them on people, it's irresponsible, little Naruto!" Said boy was now walking around the market section of Konoha looking for the ingredients Morgana had told him to get. She had been ranting on his 'lack of control' and 'irresponsibility' for the past half-hour, driving the blond priest up the wall.

"Enough, I get it. I'm a failure to Nerull-sama, I have absolutely no control over myself, or my powers. I'm a fucking idiot, thanks for pointing this out!" Naruto shouted, drawing stares and sneers from nearby civilians and shop keepers, "Now can you be quiet so I can find half this crap?"

Morgana was silent for the rest of the trip, not a peaceful content silence, but a cold antiseptic silence. Naruto either ignored it or didn't notice it as he went about haggling over items such as pounds of clay, powdered silver, soot, and blocks of wood. The merchants tried to overprice him as usual, but with a look at the skull tattoo, which was glaring at them, they lowered their prices just to get him to leave.

"Now for some new clothes. Morgana-onee chan, what would you suggest? …Onee-chan?" A passing couple glanced over at the obviously insane boy before speeding up and quickly passing the boy.

Morgana was silent as the grave, an icy shiver ran down Naruto's spine at her frosty response a minute later, "Robes."

"O-okay." Naruto bummed around the marketplace, looking for someone who sold robes, though after several minutes of searching, it turned out to be fruitless. He slumped into a nearby bench, setting his backpack beside him, and leaned back closing his eyes. "Man, how hard is it to find robes nowadays?"

"Looking for something, young man?" Naruto shot up three feet and flipped around, a spell upon his lips. "Don't worry my boy, I think I might have just what you need." The speaker turned out to be and old man who had his cart part of the way down one of the more secluded alleyways.

"Oh yeah, stalker-vendor? Let's see what you've got." Naruto readied himself for a fight discreetly, Morgana pulsed under his shirt, a temporary truce for this battle where he may need her advice.

The old man gave a snort of laughter, "Foolish boy, if I'd wanted to attack you, I would have done it when you weren't aware of me. Now, I heard you saying that you need robes, right? Well, I might have just what you're looking for." He hobbled back to his cart and started rooting through one of the larger crates.

Cautiously, Naruto followed the man, looking over the man's shoulder at all of the knickknacks and…junk that littered his overfilled pushcart. An open barrel held an assortment of walking sticks and staves. Several boxes of jewelry lined the cart's interior. Locked chests and old crates filled the rest of the space.

"Ah, here we are!" The man pulled out a moderate sized box, the wood was old but sturdy-looking, he opened the lid to reveal an assortment of black feathers, all faced in one direction, looking like a sheet for all purposes.

"A sheet of crow feathers?" The vendor gave him a look which expressed how much of an idiot he believed Naruto to be.

"No, fool," He lifted the heavy garment out of the box. Light brown robes flowed out from under it like a wave, Naruto felt the garment and the material turned out to be leather. There were two large shoulders pads attacked to the robe, along with a long cape that would brush the floor as he walked, both were adorned with the silky black feathers. A hood completed the ensemble. "This is a very fine robe of some history."

"Oh?"

"Yes, it belonged to a stranger I met on the road many years back, there was a sound of devilish howling that abruptly cut off, and he stumbled out of the forest. He locked eyes with me and smiled, before collapsing forward. I went to help him but all he allowed me to do was to listen to his last request. He said, "When I die, burn me body and take my robes, give them to someone who's powers are like mine." I asked him his name, and with a smile he told me, 'Medivh, the Redeemed Prophet.' He died shortly after."

Neither spoke for several minutes, one revering a friend that could-have-been, the other contemplating the worth of such an item, "How do you know my powers are like his, old man?"

"His power, although very faint, was… different. Certainly not chakra, but something more potent, more mystical in a sense. I can feel the same power coming from you young man. So far, no one I've met has ever come close, princes, peasants, ninja, and samurai. Truly, these are your robes by right." The vendor's eyes were twinkling slightly as he said this, pushing the heavy robes into the boy's arms. "Go. Go and honor the man, Medivh's, memory. Proudly wear these and never regret it." The elderly man replaced the box and started to push his cart toward the exit at the other end of the alley. Naruto looked at the Prophet's…no, his robes with a newfound respect.

Carefully folding them and placing them in his pack, Naruto gave a nod of thanks to the retreating man and walked out of the alley. He still had to drop off all of his purchases at his house and head over to Training Ground 11.

--

"Damn it! How hard are these things to make?! Onee-chan, do you have any advice?" Naruto Uzumaki was sitting in the shade of one of the larger trees that dotted Training Ground 11. Misshapen pieces of wood lay about the boy, many twisted beyond recognition, while others had a crude skull shape. Morgana didn't answer, she had reverted back to her cold, disinterested self after Naruto left the vendor's cart. "Oh come on, why are you mad at me? I really need your help."

"Oh really? I thought that you didn't need my help and just wanted me to shut up." This was delivered in her, now usual, cold manner.

The Necromancer put his hands to his face and groaned loudly into them, "Is that what this' all about? Onee-chan, I'm sorry I yelled at you, but I was trying to concentrate on something and you wouldn't stop berating me."

"Well you could have done it in a nicer way, I wasn't that bad."

"You were doing it for over half an hour."

Morgana's pages took on a hint of pink, obviously embarrassed. "I was just worried that you'd reveal yourself too soon and would be taken away from me to be studied, like some sort of animal…I don't want to lose you." Her standoffish demeanor had cracked, a large dose of concern and love colored her voice.

"I know, I'm sorry I overreacted as well…so, can you help me with this?" Morgana huffed and muttered something about 'boys'.

"Now, little Naruto, what you're trying to do is create a holy, or in this case unholy, symbol linking your powers to Lord Nerull's in order to empower them. You know the shape and details of what you're trying to make, but not how to make it. Now, what I want you to do is close your eyes and try to look for your Mana reserves. It's almost like looking for your chakra."

Naruto nodded and did as he was told. Settling into a meditative stance, he searched within himself for his Mana. He looked toward where charka would normally be found, flowing among the Tenketsu, only to find nothing. On and on he searched before he literally stumbled upon it.

His Mana lay in a large reservoir in the center of his chest, just right of the heart. The first thing he noticed about Mana was that it didn't feel like Chakra. Chakra felt light and airy, almost like water, it could be redirected to go where the person wanted it to go, enhancing their body. Mana, on the other hand, was very thick, like tar; it rested in the reservoir, waiting to be called upon. He also noticed that at the top, a thin stream of Mana was constantly drizzled into the reserves, which were almost full.

Naruto exited his trance with a small smile on his face, happy at accomplishing it so quickly, "Hey onee-chan, I found it!"

"Oh really, so tell me what it felt like then."

"Well, it was kind of hard to find, but I found the reservoir behind my sternum." He pounded said area for effect, "It was really big and full, almost the size of the Hokage's tower I believe. Anyway, Mana is really thick and sticky, like tar or syrup; meaning that it's more potent than chakra, right?"

"Very good, little Naruto. And yes, you are correct. While Chakra is good for using techniques very quickly, it's not nearly as potent as Mana. Now since you know what it feels like, you should be able to use it more efficiently."

Naruto nodded and picked up another block of wood, but set it back down and turned back to Morgana, "Hey onee-chan, I had a question. At the top of my reservoir, I noticed a small, continual stream of Mana being pumped in. What's draining my Mana to where it's being continually refilled?"

Morgana was quiet for a moment, figuring out the best way to tell him this delicately, "Little Naruto, you know that ritual you performed several days ago which converted all of your Chakra into Mana?" 'Seeing' his nod she continued, "Well, I wasn't lying when I said it converted all of your Chakra, including the small portion needed to live."

A good description of Naruto's facial expression would be flabbergasted. "W-what are you saying?"

"What I'm saying is that you're now sustained by Mana instead of Chakra. For all intent and purposes, you're no longer human, but…a magical beast."

Naruto didn't respond, instead he started to laugh. Quietly at first, then it grew louder and more desperate and crazed, it grew so possessed it frightened the animals into flight from the hideous sound, including the toughest of predators. It was so horrible to listen to, the two Jonin hidden under Genjutsu watching the boy felt he had finally snapped and were about to report him to the Hokage had he not started talking.

"AHA, So-so I, HAHAHA, guess that the, snicker, the villagers were right, BWAHAHAHA, when they called me, HAHAHA, DEMON, HAHAHAHA, DEATH SPAWN, HAHAHAHA, BEAST!" Naruto continued to laugh until his lungs ran out of air, and even then he convulsed in perverted hysteria upon the shaded ground, laughing at a joke only he knew.

Now the two Jonin bolted towards the Tower, Genin test be damned, the Kyuubi's container had finally snapped.

--

"Naruto calm down? Naruto, you need to calm down now, or your Magic will lash out! Naruto, Naruto, NARUTO!" Morgana's voice had taken on a powerful commanding quality that made the insane boy instantly heed it. "That is quite enough, get a hold of yourself."

"Oh, hehe, of course, Morgana, haha, sama." The insane Necromancer smiled adoringly at the tome which it considered to be his best friend and family, "What do you wish me to do?"

Morgana was taken aback at the boy's attitude, he wasn't the boy she had grown to love, but a servant to do her bidding; she did not like this at all. "What happened to you, little Naruto?"

A dark wretched grin warped the boy's normally cheerful face, his eyes closed to slits behind the goggles, and his tattoo pulsed with dark pleasure, "I've lived through things no human should be able to, but now I see what I truly am, a beast to be controlled, and the controller is you, Morgana-sama."

She would have responded had not the Hokage appear behind the boy, knocking him out with a swift chop to the neck. Picking up the unconscious boy and the silently crying book, Kenji teleported back to the Hospital, determined to get a straight answer out of the thrice-cursed book.

--

Kenji Sarutobi, Third Hokage of Konohagakure sighed quietly to himself, how could things have gone so bad, so quickly? Naruto was now strapped to a hospital bed far underground in the sublevels of the Tower, still unconscious. He had a feeling this all had to do with the book that sat in front of him on his desk.

He knew he should have destroyed it forty years ago when he found it guarded by those, those…abominations. He would have burned it and everything inside had it not been for those perverted freaks of bone and flesh. They had chased him out of the complex and sealed the entrance, making it impossible to enter again, Kami knows he tried.

Glaring at the thing he forced open the cover and demanded of it, "What have you done to Naruto!"

The pages remained blank and for a moment he felt foolish for yelling at a book, but thin spidery writing scrawled itself on the page. I have done nothing more than tell the boy the truth.

"What does that mean, book." His glare intensified, awaiting the eventual answer.

I will tell you what I told him. He is no longer human in your sense of the word, he's no longer sustained my Chakra, but by Mana. He is now considered a magical beats because of his dependence on Magic.

Kenji fell into his chair in shock, no longer human, but a beast? "Naruto is not an animal."

I agree, but the proper term for beings like him is beast. But this is not important, I want my little Naruto back, not this…this…thing he's become. A few water spots appeared on the page, as if teardrops were falling onto them.

Kanji's heart softened a little at the…book's dismay, but his tone remained firm, "Then how do you suggest we do this?"

Her next words cane out in small bursts, as if forced to write it. One possible way…would be to…seal off Naruto's memories…of the event. But that might be the only option with a case as severe as this…

"What do you mean, 'our only option'." A spark of the shinobi who became 'The God of Shinobi' rekindled in the old man's eyes, a long-dead remnant of himself resurrected. "There are others?"

Her writing was still halting and became increasingly more shaky as she wrote, Yes, but none as safe as the sealing. Many would have my little Naruto shackled to another in the hopes of drawing sanity and stability from them, but it is a double edged sword. The other might end up as crazed the Naruto is now.

"That and you don't want to lose your 'little Naruto' anymore in the process."

Yes.

Kanji sat back in his chair, his pipe long since dead. He rubbed his temples to alleviate his sore mind, this was too much for one week, "How would we do it?"

If you can acquire about a pint of the boy's blood, I can show you how to do it.

"The boy's so pale, he's almost translucent! How much more blood can he lose?"

Much more than you'd think. The being the boy contains, oh don't looked so shocked I've had time to notice such things, is what continues to replenish the boy's blood and allows him to live, along with the small amount of Magic the boy uses naturally. The reason his color hasn't returned is purely cosmetic. He is, as you might say, as healthy as an Ox.

"And his height, a magical growth spurt?" The old man snorted in amusement until he read what Morgana wrote.

Yes, it is a desperate attempt to try and fix over a decade of malnourishment, funny how you didn't notice this before, Sarutobi.

Said man glared at the book both hatefully and regretfully, "You know damned well that I couldn't interfere with the boy's life or diet without the council going ballistic. Surely your powers of telepathy picked that up."

Don't play with his life, shinobi. You know what I do to people I perceive as threats.

The tension was high in the room, neither willing to back down on this issue. With a mutual nod, or page flutter, they conceded together, "While I'd just as soon burn you as tolerate you, it's good that the boy has someone. Though not as close as I've seen him without you, why is that." A statement, not a question.

…Do you know what it's like to miss a piece of your soul, Kenji? No, of course not. Basically when your soul is torn apart or separated, you mind deteriorates as a faster pace the more of it your missing. You'd be willing to do anything to reclaim that piece and retain a small part of your humanity and conscience. That is what it's like whit Naruto and I. When he first picked me up and accepted me, we were bonded. Now a piece of my soul resides in him while the opposite applies for me. I can deal with it better because I've felt it before, not so for Naruto.

"So that is the reason he been stark raving mad every time he's awoken without you?"

Yes.

A deep, bellowing sigh echoed slightly in the Hokage office, a testament to how…troublesome this whole debacle was turning out to be, "I should have burned you years ago."

Love you too, Kenji-kun.

A/N: Allrigt, the story is officially over 10,000 words long, hooray for perseverance! Sorry about not getting to the Genin test yet, but there's so much to go over both before it and after it, don't expect to see the Wave Arc too soon.

Anyway, here's how the polls are going.

Naruto's familiar

Wolf and Raven are tied for first place with Bat as a close third.

Zabuza & Haku

Haku is going to be a girl in this story, though not necessarily a love interest. Both are going to die but Haku will be resurrected. Zabuza will be made into a Mummy Lord (look it up).

First Magic Item

The Miscellaneous category won, a hint as to what it'll be has already been mentioned in the chapter, anyone who gusses correctly as to what the hint was will get to influence one part of the story's future, be it an OC, plot twist, etc. (within reason).

The Gate Spell

It will be used, but the destination will remain secret for now.

Questions and comments are always welcome. Good day.