The Heart of the Demon

Chapter 2

The Demon's team

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters

Naruto was ecstatic she was finally a ninja no more stupid academy to waste her time she could finally live the life she was always meant to live! To celebrate the occasion she had asked Hokage-jiji to commission some weapons that she designed and couldn't wait to use and she was on her way to pick them up now.

Naruto walked into the Hokage tower and went up to the Hokage's office waiting for permission to come in and after a minute of waiting she got what she was waiting for "Come in." Naruto opened the door and walked in, the Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up and smiled "Naruto how are you today?"

"I'm great! Finally a ninja after such a long wait!" She was practically jumping up and down "Did they get here?! Are they ready?!"

Hiruzen chuckled and pulled out a box from one of the drawers in his desk "Your just in time, they arrived here about an hour ago." He stood up and walked over to her with the box. Naruto's eyes lit up and she jumped at the old Hokage and gave him a big hug

"Thank you jiji I never could have gotten them without your help!" the truth in the statement made Hiruzen sad, she should have been able to commission them herself but the prejudice against her for what she carried was something even he couldn't get rid of. He was brought out of his sad thoughts though as Naruto opened the box and found what she so desired.

Naruto opened the box and there they were the weapons she had dreamed of using since she was 8, she quickly put the box down on the table and removed her arm bracers to replace them with two thin clawed gauntlets made from chakra infusing metal. The gauntlets were as black as her bracers had been and had a thin heat absorbing layer of material on the inside to prevent her from burning herself when she used fire chakra. She couldn't help but jump up and down a little as she threw herself at Hiruzen again "Thank you Tank you Thank you!"

Hiruzen laughed a little "Your very welcome my dear. Now that that's done how about we go get some lunch?"

Naruto frowned a little at that "I would love to but I already promised Kiba I would have lunch with him today."

Hiruzen gave a small smile "Alright then have fun."

Naruto smiled and turned to leave "Thanks again see you later."

As she was opening the door Hiruzen said one last thing as he was sitting down behind his desk "and Naruto don't lead him on too much." Naruto looked at him as she closed the door with a smile that said 'I don't know what you're talking about.'

Naruto walked down the main street of Konaha, receiving the usual hate filled glares she always did, with a smile on her face when she got to where she and Kiba were meeting and found him playing with Akamaru on the side of the street. "Kiba" she called to get the Inuzuka's attention.

He looked over and waved to her "Hey you're here! I almost thought Sasuke was going find some way to get you to cancel."

She smiled at him "well he did try." They started their walk to Ichiraku's making small talk on the way and Kiba couldn't help but notice all the glares she got.

"What's wrong with these people!"

the sudden outburst caught Naruto off guard "hu what?"

he looked at her "Why are they all looking at you like that? It's infuriating!" he then turned his attention to glare at the people who were glaring at Naruto and they quickly looked away and backed off under the glare of the Inuzuka heir.

Naruto looked at him "They're afraid of me." She paused for a moment "and they should be." She smiled and pressed forward at a faster pace.

The comment had stunned Kiba sure Naruto was strong but she was still only an academy student now a genin, why would so many people, even some shinobi if he had judged right, be afraid of her. "Hey wait up!" He ran to catch up "why are people afraid of you?"

She frowned a little "Let's not get into that we have ramen to eat." She smiled as she walked into Ichiraku's; Kiba hadn't even noticed that they had arrived. Kiba pressed a bit more on the subject but finally gave up when Naruto continued to avoid it and they discussed other things while they ate.

"So team assignments today, are you excited?" Kiba asked Naruto as she ate a surprising fifth bowl of ramen, he hadn't expected her to eat this much it was going to cost him a fortune he cried to himself on the inside.

Naruto got an expression on her face that could only be described as giddy "Of course I am we're finally ninja! No more stupid sitting a class room learning theory all day, we finally get to have some action!"

Kiba completely agreed "Yeah I know I can't wait to kick some ass after so long in the class room!" that went on for a couple minutes when Teuchi interrupted them

"Naruto aren't you going to be late?"

Naruto looked at the clock "oh shit your right! We have to go!" Naruto jumped out of her seat and almost ran right out of the restaurant but caught herself and gave a sweet smile to Kiba "Kiba would you please pay Teuchi." Kiba nodded and pulled out the required amount of money and almost cried as it emptied his wallet.

They started off towards the academy at a fast pace Kiba just behind Naruto when he noticed that she wasn't wearing her arm bracers any more but was instead wearing two clawed gauntlets "Cool! Where did you get those awesome gauntlets?"

Naruto looked back at him with a big smile "I designed them! Jiji had them made for me; I can't way to use them in actual combat!"

Kiba went wide eyed "you deigned your own weapons? That's awesome! You're so cool!" Kiba did think it was awesome but he might as well overplay it a bit to get some brownie points.

"I've been waiting for years to use these puppies and now that I'm finally a ninja I get to actually use them!" Naruto was so happy at this moment nothing could bring her down.

They arrived at the academy just in time and went to sit where she usually sat in back. Sasuke had been waiting for Naruto to arrive and when she did he was happy until he saw that she was with Kiba who he promptly scowled at as they walked toward him, Kiba responded by sticking out his tongue in a childlike manner. They sat down and Sasuke was quick to strike up conversation "You're late. Where were you?"

Naruto gave him an innocent smile "me and Kiba were having lunch and we lost track of the time."

Sasuke replied with a 'hn.' He noticed her new gauntlets long before Kiba had "Oh you finally got them? Thank god you have been obsessing over those things for way to long" he said with a smirk.

Naruto simply smiled wide "Yeah they came in today! They're awesome aren't they? Well worth the obsession."

Iruka walked in and to his surprise the room immediately quieted without him having to tell them to. He took his place at the front of the room and looked over them "I'm so proud of each and every one of you, you have all earned the right to be called shinobi and I'm sure will all be assets to Konaha in the future. Be warned though the life of a shinobi is a hard life full of death and loss." He looked over the now gloomy class "But it is a life of honor, a life of servitude, servitude to our village. The life of a shinobi belongs to his or her village and as the generation before you have you will live and die to protect and support your village and its people for that is the way of the shinobi!" The class was now pumped and ready for anything to Iruka's delight his speech had worked.

"Alright then time to announce the rookie of the year and give team assignments. It should come with no surprise that this year's rookie of the year is Naruto Uzumaki!" There was some cheering mostly from the boys especially Kiba and Naruto gave a wide smile and leaned back in her chair letting the praise wash over her. Most the girls especially Sakura and Ino were upset thinking that Sasuke should have been rookie of the year and that Naruto must have cheated but they wouldn't go outright and say it lest they face Naruto's wrath. "Sasuke Uchiha was a close second losing by only a few points in taijutsu and ninjutsu." Naruto grinned at Sasuke when she heard that saying 'I won' but he didn't mind she was the only one he didn't mind losing to.

"Now team assignments Team one will consist of…" Naruto didn't really listen until her name was finally called "Team seven will consist of Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto's ears perked up and she started paying attention "Sakura Haruno," Naruto put her face on the table and mumbled something incoherent while Sakura cursed her luck "and Sasuke Uchiha" Naruto smiled a little at that at least she was on a team with Sasuke even if his biggest 'fan girl' was on the same team.

Sakura almost shot to the roof and yelled "in your face Ino pig!" at Ino who scowled at her. Sasuke had conflicting emotions he got to be with Naruto but he also had to deal with Sakura it was going to be tough but as he heard the loud groan from Kiba who was still sitting next to Naruto he decided he liked the team.

"Team seven's jonin sensei will be Kakashi Hatake." Iruka read through the rest of the names bid them farewell while they waited for their jonin sensei to show up.

Naruto's mood had drastically changed she had previously thought it would be impossible to get her down today but after three hours of waiting and watching every other jonin sensei come pick up their students Naruto was fuming. Sasuke wasn't much better constantly mumbling about how late Kakashi was, all Naruto could do to entertain herself was to scare the crap out of Sakura every now and then which had put her into a sorely bad mood. All in all it was not a great start as a team and if Kakashi ever showed up Naruto had a bone to pick with him.

Kakashi finally walked into the room reading his orange icha-icha book and simply said "Team seven? Meet on the roof now" and shunshined up to the meeting spot.

Naruto none too happy with how Kakashi came in after being three hours late said seven words and disappeared quickly followed with her own shunshin to the roof surprising Sakura, Sasuke simply shunshined up as well making Sakura feel sorely out place amongst the team of prodigies. Kakashi hadn't expected but wasn't really surprised by Naruto's and Sasuke's ability to shunshin, after all he had read their files. Naruto immediately started yelling at him for being so late "What is wrong with you! Every other sensei was on time but you! Oh god of course we had to be placed with the infamous Kakashi Hatake known for being late to EVERYTHING!"

Kakashi simply smiled under his mask "it's nice to meet you to" and went right back to reading his book. Naruto didn't know what to say so she simply growled lowly at him and went to sit by the equally livid but much more composed Sasuke as they waited for Sakura to make her way up. Sakura soon came through the door on the roof and took a seat on the other side of Sasuke.

Kakashi looked up "good now that everybody is here we can start" low mumbles and insults came from the genin but he ignored them. "Alright introduce yourselves." They all stared at him until Sakura finally asked

"sensei what are we supposed to say? Can't you give us an example?"

Kakashi deadpanned "I assumed you guys were smart enough to know how introduce yourselves but alright. My name is Kakashi Hatake I don't feel like telling you my like and dislikes as for my aspirations for the future… I have a few hobbies." It was now their turn to deadpan at him "Now you pinky" he pointed to Sakura

"My name is Sakura Haruno I like" she looked at Sasuke and giggled "I dislike" she looked at Naruto but decided against saying it out loud "my aspirations for the future" again she looked at Sasuke and giggle causing him and Naruto to shake their heads.

Kakashi stared at her for a moment "now you emo" he said as he pointed at Sasuke who clearly didn't like being called 'emo'

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha I like training and spending time with my friends I dislike fan girls" he shot a glance at Sakura "people being late" he glared at Kakashi "and people who treat my friends or family badly. I want to be a great shinobi for my village and a great clan head for my clan if my brother ever steps down."

Kakashi nodded satisfied and pointed to Naruto "your turn whiskers" Naruto ignored the comment back to being excited "My name is Naruto Uzumaki I like hanging out with my friends, training, ramen, and of course Kurama I dislike not having something to do and people who like to hurt me or my friends as for what I want to do I want nothing more than to help Kurama achieve his goals!"

That caught every ones attention "Who is Kurama?" Kakashi asked genuinely curious he had been watching her for all her life and never know anyone named Kurama to have ever been in contact with her.

"Kurama is the one who took care of me, he protected me and trained me, without him I would probably be dead and I certainly wouldn't be the person I am today." Kakashi hid his emotion completely but was taken aback by this information how could someone have been protecting and training Naruto without him knowing?

"And what are Kurama's goals?"

"He doesn't want me to say." Naruto seemed to think there was nothing strange about this at all but to the rest of them she was starting to sound crazy

"why doesn't he want you to say?"

"I don't know or care if he doesn't want me to say I won't" they all stared at her for a moment before Kakashi decided to move on he would speak to the Hokage about this later.

"Alright then" he went back to his book "meet at training ground seven at seven o'clock tomorrow morning. Oh and don't eat breakfast or you'll puke" he said with a smile before he again shunshined away.

Sasuke was a little upset that there was apparently this person in Naruto's life that was so important to her that she had dedicated her life to fulfilling his goals and she had never even bothered to introduce him, her closest friend, to him. Sasuke wasn't usually one to pry but he couldn't not pry at this. He and Naruto quickly jumped off the roof and started walking away leaving Sakura on the roof to go through the building. "So who is this Kurama? And why after years of friendship haven't you introduced me to him?"

Naruto sighed "I already told you who he is, and I haven't introduced you because he told me not to and that is the end of it." She looked sternly at him, something she almost never did, "don't pry at this Sasuke, not this."

Sasuke wasn't happy about it but he decided to do as she wished especially after that look. "So you want to come over for dinner tonight? Itachi is always happy to see you."

Naruto smiled happy he had decided to let it go "sure."

Kakashi knocked on the Hokage's door "Come in" came the voice of the Hokage from the other side of the door.

Kakashi entered and bowed to Hiruzen "lord Hokage"

"Kakashi. What is it that you need?"

"I want to talk about Naruto she said something when she introduced herself today that I think you should hear."

Hiruzen frowned one day and she had already said something that warranted Kakashi coming to him "alright what is it?"

Kakashi shifted on his feet "She kept talking about someone named Kurama saying that he had protected and trained her that he had saved her life. She said that her goal in life was to help him achieve his." Hiruzen was shocked by this he was basically a grandfather to her and he had never met any Kurama, and that Naruto would say her goals were to help this Kurama achieve his that was not something that sounded like Naruto and it gave Hiruzen a great since of dread. Kakashi waited a moment for an answer "is this something you know about lord Hokage?"

Hiruzen brought out of his thoughts from Kakashi's comment looked to him "no it is not I have no idea who this Kurama is or where he came from. Keep an eye on Naruto and try to find out as much as you can about this Kurama."

Kakashi nodded "yes lord Hokage" he bowed and left the room leaving Hiruzen along to ponder who this mysterious man that was apparently a large part of the life of the girl he considered a granddaughter.