I've had some requests for characters pairings. Just to let you guys know, this isn't a romance story :P

There may be indications of potential relationships but i'm not giving away anything yet... muahahaha

There's no limit on the number of chapters either. I'll write and upload them as and when I motivate myself enough to do so. ^_^

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Chapter 3

The drunk staggered down the street, clutching his empty bottle. It had only been a few days since his wife had walked out on him, but already he was starting to feel the hopelessness of his situation.

Each night he crawled from bar to bar, drinking shamelessly in his futile efforts to forget her. Each night he found himself out until the sun rose, and his friends found him to take him home.

Somewhere a clock chimed 3AM.

The man groped in his pocket for a match and cigarette, leaning back against a wall as he did so and subsequently ending up on his arse. The bottle rolled noisily across the flagstones until it came to an abrupt stop as it came up against something.

A cloud moved from across the moon, flooding the area with moonlight and revealing a shape on the roof across from him. Watching him with a kind of killer intent that would make the strongest man quiver in fear.

It bared its sharp fangs in a feral grin. And leapt straight at him.

The man had barely time to raise his arms before the beast collided with him, snarling and dragged them both into the nearest alley.

Blood spread slowly from the silent, dark alley; pooling around the empty bottle and staining the street with its red colour.

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'Bed feels weirdly uncomfortable this morning,' thought Naruto, as the sound of birds roused him from his sleep. And no wonder. He blinked and looked around in surprise as he found himself under a large bush in the park. He was sure he had gone to bed in his apartment the night before; how on earth had he ended up here?

Scrambling to his feet, he brushed off the twigs and leaves that were stuck to his pyjamas. Deciding that, since he was already outside, he might as well have ramen for breakfast. So he set off for the Ichiraku Ramen Shop, which wasn't that far away.

As he walked past some early rising villagers, he noticed something odd. They weren't giving him the usual glares or smirks like they'd always done. There was... something like fear in their expressions. He stopped for a moment to look at them curiously. People were actually avoiding him! Choosing to cross the street rather than walk past him.

He wondered just what had caused this abrupt change in their attitudes towards him and at that moment saw himself in a shop window.

The sight shocked him so much he almost fell over.

Instead he stepped closer to the makeshift mirror, turning his head to see better. His ears had grown from slightly pointed human ears, to what looked like animal ears. He flicked his left one and giggled a little, causing the nearest villagers to back away in terror.

But that wasn't the most shocking thing. His eyes had also changed.

What had once been perfectly ordinary bright blue orbs had changed to a blood-red almost demonic colour.

He frowned; this was a problem. It was his first day as a genin. He needed to meet his team, his sensei, complete missions. There was no way anybody would hire someone that looked like this.

Chewing his lip as he tried to think of a solution, he decided against going further into town. Despite the alluring call of ramen, it would be too much for anyone else to see him like this. He needed a plan.

In an astonishing display of acrobat ability, Naruto dashed across the rooftops to his apartment. Barely noticing his increased stamina and speed which was far above anything he could have achieved before.

Once safely inside, he paced the room, deep in thought, as he pondered how best to deal with his new appearance. It was certainly something to look at! His muscles seemed more toned than before; he even, unbelievably, seemed taller. By a few inches anyway, but that was enough, he realised with a sigh, for all his clothes to be too small.

He spent a few more minutes admiring his new physique, before resuming his pacing up and down. There must be something he could do to hide it...

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Sakura could barely conceal her excitement. Her hand shook as she brushed out her long pink hair and tied it up neatly with her shiny new forehead protector. It looked good. She'd even invested in an entirely new outfit! She assessed herself one last time, checking that everything was in order, before leaving for the Academy.

She hoped with all her strength that Sasuke would be on her team. 'Ooh we would make such a good pair!' she squealed in her mind. 'Hell yeah!' exclaimed her alter ego, inner Sakura.

As she neared the Academy, a blond-haired girl joined her, an equally determined expression on her face. Sakura frowned. "Oh no you don't, Ino-pig. Sasuke is mine!" she said loudly, quickening her pace to stay ahead of the blond.

"Tch, don't kid yourself forehead-girl!" she retorted, also quickening her pace to match Sakura's.

The two girls continued in this way until they reached the Academy; bursting through the doors at breakneck speed and landing in a mass of limbs on the floor.

Sakura was the first to recover, jumping to her feet and tossing her hair over her shoulder. She made her way triumphantly to a seat next to the dark haired boy, Sasuke, whilst Ino got unsteadily to her feet too and sat a few rows behind, glaring angrily at the back of her head.

This was a momentous day. Today, the new genin would find out who they would be spending the remainder of their ninja training with. The atmosphere was filled with anticipation.

Iruka then walked in and the room went quiet, all eyes trained on him. He swept a proud smile over his students. "Im so proud of you all, but this is where the real work begins. You are no longer m....." He was cut off abruptly by the classroom door sliding open so violently it nearly detached from the frame. In the doorway was a figure so unrecognisable many of them took several minutes to realise who it was.

"N...N...Naruto...kun?" stuttered a pretty dark haired girl with pale pupil-less eyes, a blush tinting her cheeks slightly. It was Naruto. He seemed so different! He wore a pair of dark sunglasses and some loose black trousers wrapped near the ankles with white cloth as was the custom with ninja. His shirt was black too, with elbow length sleeves and an odd crimson coloured pattern that spread from his shoulders. He wore nothing on his feet and the most observant among them noted his nails on both hands and feet were elongated. His blond hair was longer than before, covering his ears entirely and a shiny forehead-protector hung around his neck.

"Yo," he said with a casual wave, making his way to the last available seat; next to Sakura, who was staring at him with unconcealed shock.

"Right then, yes, well..." stammered Iruka, trying to get over the sight of the new and improved Naruto, "as I was saying. Ahem. You are no longer my students." He continued presenting his lecture on all the hard work that was expected of them now, before commencing with the team placement announcements. Each team consisted of three genin and their jounin sensei.

Naruto waited impatiently for his name to be called. 'I hope I don't get dumped with Sasuke,' he thought to himself, stealing a glance at the boy from behind his sunglasses. It had taken him several hours to come up with an adequate outfit that would fit and hide all his abnormalities. In the end he had raided a local clothes store, scaring the shop-keeper half to death in the process, and ended up with this simple affair.

He was actually rather pleased with it. The sunglasses hid his eyes and black and red were his favourite colours; much better than that awful orange he'd used to wear. He couldn't think what had convinced him to buy clothes that colour. Shoes had been a problem. He'd discovered that his toenails had undergone the same transformation as his fingernails had, but not only that, there were now pads on the soles of his feet. This made wearing shoes particularly uncomfortable, it felt much more natural just to walk bare foot, he couldn't understand why humans chose to wear them.

Before long, Iruka called out his name. "Team 7! Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke."

Naruto silently cursed. 'Ah well, at least I have Sakura to make up for that loser,' he thought.

'Ah well, at least I have my Sasuke-kun!' thought Sakura, 'GRRAAAAH, why do I have to be teamed up with NARUTO?!' screamed inner Sakura. 'Even though,' she stole a quick glance at him, 'he does look kinda good in that outfit.'

'..............' thought Sasuke.

Soon, all the teams had been called out and Iruka closed up the scroll he had been reading from. "Ok guys, a break for lunch then back here at 3pm to meet with your sensei's. I wish you all the best!" he said, wiping a tear from his eye and beaming at them all.

As they all left in their team groups, Naruto jogged to catch up with Sakura and Sasuke. "Hey guys, seeing as how we're all in the same team now, it would be great if we could all have lunch togeth..."

"HA! Not a chance you loser," sneered Sakura, turning to face him and cutting him off mid-sentence. "even if we're on the same team, you're still a stupid idiot that nobody likes. Quit forcing your company where it's not wanted!"

Sasuke looked round at them, expressionless and said in a soft but menacing voice, "you better not slow me down."

They then turned and walked off, Sakura skipping alongside Sasuke and saying in a sweet voice, "come on Sasuke-kun, lets go get some lunch." Sasuke said nothing.

Naruto stood motionless for a few moments in hurt shock. He shouldn't have been surprised. Despite everything that had happened, he should never have expected things to change just because he was a genin now. People still hated him, just like before.

Feeling angry and dejected, he headed for the Ichiraku Ramen Shop.

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The Third Hokage was signing the 1057th of his daily paperwork when the two ninja's charged in without knocking. He sighed and carefully set down his pen before looking up to deal with the intrusion.

"Hokage-sama! We're sorry for interrupting," one of them said, breathlessly.

"It's important," said the other.

"Tell me," he ordered, frowning at their serious faces and arching his fingers in front of him. It must be something bad or they wouldn't have arrived in so rude a fashion.

"Yes, Hokage-same," the first one straightened up and delivered his report. The Hokage leafed through it as he continued. "As you are aware, a series of violent killings has been conducted throughout Konoha and the surrounding forest area for the past week. Cats mainly, birds, squirrels, rabbits and so on." The Hokage nodded, frown deepening. "Last night there occurred, at approximately 3am, our first human murder."

He looked up shocked. "Are you sure they're connected?"

"Yes sir. The marks and cause of death are the same in the victim and the animals sir."

"Do we have any suspects?"

"It is believed to be some kind of mad animal... or a demon."

The Hokage sat back and absorbed this. It was indeed a major issue. If a mad animal, or even a demon! were loose in Konoha it could be very dangerous. One death already, how many more would there be?

But there had been no other signs of anything of that nature. He thought long and hard. The two ninja shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, wondering whether they had been dismissed yet or not. Eventually he gave a sigh and looked up at them. They stood back to attention.

"Send for Uzumaki Naruto," he ordered.

Once they had gone, he stood and peered out through the window of his office. It was a long shot, but it was the only explanation that made sense. If somehow Naruto's seal had become weakened, then in a weaker state of mind such as sleep, the other Naruto would be free to do as it wished. He worried about this for some time. After meeting with Naruto, he would be able to confirm his fears or not, that he was sure of.

A gentle knock at the door broke him out of his musings. He moved back to his chair and called out, "come in."

The person admitted was not the Naruto he remembered speaking to only a week ago. This Naruto was significantly taller, with longer hair and a different outfit. He was so surprised for a minute he just sat and stared at him. The boy shifted uncomfortably just as the other two ninja had done before. Shaking himself out of it, the Hokage smiled and ushered him forward to a second chair near his desk. Naruto sat.

"Now then, Naruto-kun, I thought we could have a little chat."

"Sure thing, old geezer, but we've gotta keep it short. I have to meet my sensei in an hour," he replied.

'Yep, same old Naruto,' thought the Hokage. "Well alright then, you've been assigned Kakashi? I wouldn't worry too much about being late then." He chuckled, and Naruto looked confused. "I was just wondering if you had noticed... anything unusual since the last time we met?"

Naruto shifted uncomfortably again, looking down at his hands. "Unusual, I don't know what you mean."

"Something out of the ordinary. Like a change in height or waking up somewhere and not knowing how you got there."

The boy winced and the Hokage knew he'd hit the right mark. His smile became triumphant. "Naruto-kun, please remove your sunglasses," he requested.

Naruto hesistated. What should he do?! But the old geezer seemed to know anyway, so... He took them off and looked the Hokage straight in the eye.

The Hokage nodded and sighed. "I was correct after all. I didn't want to be but..."

Naruto looked at him questioningly.

"Naruto-kun, there have been a string of murders committed by a demonic creature for the past week."

There was silence as that statement was absorbed.

"Wha...bu...but old geezer! You don't seriously think it was me do you!?" Naruto stuttered, blood-red eyes wide with shock.

"No, no I don't believe it was you."

He sighed in relief.

"I believe it is your other self."

"My...what?"

"Naruto, I know this will be difficult to take in, but please listen to me. You are not who you think are..." he began.

"Yeah yeah yeah, I know I know. I'm the kyuubi," stated Naruto with a dismissive wave of his hand. The Hokage stared at him in puzzlement.

"How did you...? Well never mind. The point is there is a you from before sealing and a you from after sealing. The same being, but two entirely different consciousness. Are you following me?" Naruto nodded.

"Good. Now, if say, the seal was weakened somewhat, that would mean both consciousnesses would come into contact. In situations where the later you is in a weaker state, when you are asleep for example, the original you takes over. I believe it is the original you that is committing these atrocities."

Naruto sat back and contemplated this. It made sense when he thought about it. If both his selves shared the same space, it was simple to see how they could share memories and even physical forms!

"So it's like split personality?" he asked.

"Yes, A very special case of split personality," replied the Hokage. "I will send for some specialist seal jounin to look into your case. In the meantime I request that you spend the night in the research facilities at the rear of this building. It would enable us to observe you and protect the villagers."

Naruto nodded, getting to his feet.

"Ok old geezer. I have to get going now, I'll see you later," and with that he exited before the Hokage could say another word.

Sighing, the Third Hokage rubbed his temples. He was getting too old for this. All he needed right now was a nice hot spring. He fantasised about that for a while, added a few lovely young ladies to the dream, before returning to his work.