Squeak! Squeak! "Damn it, floor. Shut up," whispered the transformed unarmored Naruto as he tried to walk outside. It has been hell ever since the two girls moved in. And that was only yesterday. 'Think about what will happen to me in a week, thought Naruto as he edged toward the door. He reached for the door knob very slowly so that even the air molecules were not disturbed. His hand touched the door knob, which rattled due to his trembling. 'Almost there. He turned the knob and heard the click as the metal bar went back into the door. Naruto grinned. 'Ha! Made it out alive! He got ready to rush out of the door and opened it.

!

Naruto stood there open mouth. 'How is it that I didn't notice this squeaky door before? Naruto stood still, not moving a millimeter. The sound of silence quickly turned to the sound of stomping feet on the second floor. Naruto panicked and ran out the door. He was laughing. He made it out.

Naruto froze as a senbon needle scratched his cheek and embedded itself into one of the trees. He started to shake when he heard the dreaded voice in a singsong tone, "Where are you going, Uzumaki?"

'Crap, Kin found me. What are my choices? Uhh, I can give up. Or I can run…. I'm going to run now. "CECI, put… I don't care how much energy into my legs. I need to escape, now!" Naruto heard the quick footsteps of Kin as she ran toward him. "Uzumaki, get back here!" Naruto took a few steps and stopped. He looked around and rubbed his eyes to make sure he was seeing what was in front of him.

He found himself in the middle of one of Konoha's market streets which happened to be very far away from here. Very far as in a couple miles away. "Uh, CECI, how much energy did you use?"

"…50%, Master Naruto."

"50%? Well, I guess I did say I didn't care, but CECI, if I say to use a random amount of energy, keep it under 20%."

"…Understood." Naruto took in a deep breath and exhaled. "Now that I'm away from them, I'd better get something to eat." He walked for a couple of minutes, ignoring the curious views from the people who saw Naruto in the Chunin exam. He stopped when he saw his favorite restaurant and went right in. "Hey, old man Ichiraku! 10 bowls of miso ramen please!"

The old shop owner, Ichiraku Teuchi, turned around and greeted his favorite customer. "Naruto!" Naruto became confused when Teuchi moved side to side, trying to look around the blond. "Uh, old man? What are you doing?"

Teuchi continued his actions and replied, "Is there anyone with you?" Naruto shook his head. "So, you're going to pay for your ramen today?"

"I guess so." Teuchi nodded and then got an evil grin. "Well, then you can pay for all the times you ran out on me today." He took out some chains and got ready to tie Naruto to his stool to show how serious he was. But Naruto raised a hand. "Wait, you don't need to go that far. I'm kind of rich now, so I'll gladly pay everything."

Teuchi was stunned. This was the first time Naruto gladly paid for his food. 'Wait, if he pays everything from now on and he gets this much ramen everyday then… I'll be rich too! "Eat! Eat! Eat all the ramen you want as long as you pay for it." Naruto nodded gladly and began eating all the ramen Teuchi put in front of him.

10 bowls later…

Naruto sat there, rubbing his full belly. "Thanks for the food as always, old man Ichiraku."

Teuchi nodded. "No problem. Now there's the subject of payment we need to talk about." He handed Naruto a piece of paper that was as long as his arm. Naruto read it and his mouth hit the floor. "400,000 yen?(about $5,000)" Naruto's head sunk. He truly felt sorry for Iruka-sensei for paying for him all this time. Naruto took out a checkbook he got after he bought his house and wrote an amount on it. He handed it to Teuchi and said, "Sorry, but I have to go now. I think it's time for my team to go on the mission."

Teuchi nodded. "Be careful. I can't lose my favorite customer."

Naruto grinned. "Don't worry! I have a lot of strong people on my team and I'm really strong too. Anyways, bye! I'll come by when I'm back." Naruto went rushing toward the gates. Teuchi watched as the blond disappeared from his sight and sighed worriedly. 'Hope the kid doesn't get hurt. He doesn't need any more shit in his life. He looked down at the check in his hand and looked at the design. 'A fox design on the check. Heh, must be to piss people off. He looked at Naruto's handwriting. 'His handwriting still stinks. Is that a 7 or a 2?, Teuchi thought with a laugh. But he then realized something. If the number on the check has to be 400,000 yen, then why would there be a 7 or a 2? He examined closely and shook as he understood the crude writing. '700,000 yen? (about $9000) "Ayame!", he shouted, "get ready! We're going shopping!"

The gates of Konoha were visible to Naruto by the time Teuchi was spending his small fortune. By the gates, there were two people standing. He ran up to them, but frowned when he recognized one of them. The two were Jirayia and Shikamaru. They stood there with their packs on their backs. Naruto called out to them, "Hey Shikamaru, dipshit." Jirayia stumbled for a moment when he heard the new nickname. Shikamaru only raised an eyebrow to the name. "About time. Is this all the members?" Naruto shook his head. "No, there are 3 girls that are on our team." Shikamaru sighed. "Women, so troublesome."

"What you say about us women?", asked the voice that came behind Naruto. Naruto turned around and saw all three members with their packs ready. Naruto reacted impulsively, "AAHHH! DEMONS!" This resulted in a slap upside the head, courtesy to Hinata. "Naruto-kun, they are not demons. From what they told me, you tricked them. Why are you so cruel?", asked a scolding Hinata. Naruto held his head from the pain and put on anime teary eyes. "I'm sorrrryyyy" Tayuya and Kin joined Hinata in reprimanding Naruto while the two other males stood there, befuddled due to the situation. Jirayia was stuck on if he should help Naruto. In his mind, it's the right thing to do, but Naruto wouldn't accept his help. Shikamaru was surprised about Hinata. She was acting much more confidently around Naruto. He wondered what had happened to her.

When the three females thought Naruto had enough scolding, they turned to the gates and said, "Come on, we don't have all day."

"Hey Naruto?"

"What is it, dipshit?"

"Would you mind stopping with the name?"

"Would you mind stopping with the killing of your student?"

"I already apologized for that."

"Right, the apology makes everything better. A simple sorry makes everything right again."

"Well, what do you want me to do?"

"Why don't you take your sorry and shove it up your-!"

"Enough!", Hinata yelled as she interrupted the erupting conversation. This shut them both up for the moment though Jirayia never got his question out. He wanted to know exactly how Naruto was still up and running. (Heh, running. Like a machine for those that don't get it) But for the moment it seemed wise to keep shut. If he didn't either Naruto would just argue with him or that girl would intervene. And he wasn't so sure he wanted to face that.

"So this is the city that your old teammate is in?", asked Naruto. "Yeah.", answered Jirayia. After a long, silent trip, they arrived in a bustling city. People yelled about fresh fruit, vegetables, tools, toys, robbers, meat, weapons, milk, fish, wait a moment, robbers? Naruto stuck out one hand and grabbed the running robber and slammed him into the ground. He then proceeded to pick up the stolen bag, return it to the tired women the robber stole it from, added energy to his leg, and kicked the robber over the buildings. "It's good!", exclaimed Naruto as he put his arms in the air. Naruto turned to his teammates, whom were emotionally conflicted about what just happened, and asked to the white pervert, "How do we find this teammate of yours?" Jirayia thought for a moment. "Well, if I know Tsunade, she's in a place that gambles."

"Hey! This machine cheats! I want my money back!"

"You mean like in that place with the screaming blond woman and the frantic brunette?"

Jirayia sweatdropped. "The blond is Tsunade." Everyone sweatdropped. "That was much too easy. Is this really a Chunin mission? The last one was easy too since all I had to do was trick-" he was met with two demonic glares and a disappointed/worried look from the girls of his team. "Right, let's go.", said Naruto as he inched away from the girls toward the still yelling blond.

Tsunade was not having a great day. She had lost all her money to this cheating machine. And the machine really did cheat this time, she swears. But of course, her day is about to get worse. "Still defending your title of the Legendary Sucker, aren't you?" Tsunade recognized that voice. "Don't bother me. If you want a team reunion, go celebrate with the geezer and the snake bastard."

"Sorry, but the snake won't be able to attend said reunion.", said an unfamiliar voice. It was a kid with blond, spiky hair. 'Just like Minato. He wore a gray t-shirt with a orange spiral on it and a pair of blue shorts. "What do you mean that he can't attend?"

"Simple," the kid said with a smug grin, "Dead people can't attend parties."

Tsunade's eyes widened for a moment before laughing at him. "Dead? He has escaped death's grip for many years, that slimy snake. Tell me, if he did die, who killed him?"

Naruto's head raised in pride as he pointed at himself and said, "Yours truly." Naruto responded to Tsunade's guffawing with a frown. "You? A kid like you kill Orochimaru? Can you believe this kid, Jirayia?"

"Actually, yeah.", Jirayia said to the now not laughing Tsuande, "He wiped out an entire army, defeated Orochimaru's personal guards, beat a jinchuuriki, and killed Orochimaru in a really gruesome fashion."

"… Jirayia, stop shittin' me. How could a kid like this defeat him?"

Naruto spoke up. "I'm actually wondering something along the same line. How can this lady be one of the greatest medics? She doesn't seem that impressive except for her bust size." At that remark, Tsunade's face grew red with rage. Jirayia snickered and was followed by Naruto until they were both silenced by slaps courtesy of their lady teammates. Shikamaru at that time had left the building to watch the clouds. He calmly ignored the yelling, insults, and slaps. 'Fluffy clouds. Wish I could sleep on them.

Hinata stood between Tsunade and Naruto and stuck her arms out to halt the bickering. "Stop! This is no time to be fighting." Hinata exhaled a breath of relief when Naruto and Tsunade stop trying to claw out each other throats. But she got a bad feeling when they both looked up with a suspicious glint in their eye and an evil smile. "You're right this isn't the right time to fight.", said Tsunade.

"A better time to fight is 10 seconds from now on that street.", finished Naruto. They ran off into the streets, ignoring the complaints of the Hyuga heiress.

Naruto and Tsunade stood face to face with 10 feet in between them. Naruto got into his battle stance and said, "CECI, equip armor." Tsunade became startled at the sight of the white glow and the appearance of the armor, but regained her composure quickly. She stuck out one finger and smirked. "All I need to beat you is this finger."

Inside the armor, Naruto was pissed. "CECI, add as much chakra into the energy flow as you want. Just don't put too much energy. I don't want to kill her."

"…Understood. Adding 40% into reactor. Power output is now 140%." As soon as Naruto heard that, he took off running toward Tsunade. He pulled back one fist and charged it with chakra-energy. Tsunade kept up her cocky attitude and flexed her finger. Naruto released the punch and Tsunade flicked. The two collided and sent both flying back to their original positions. Tsunade landed and made a crack as her feet hit the ground. She looked up wide eyed at the armored blond. Naruto had added power to his legs as he was midair and got ready. As soon as he felt the ground, he pushed off, becoming a blur as he raced to Tsunade. He uppercutted her gut and sent her flying high. He then charged his palm and waited for the exact moment. When Tsunade had almost hit the ground, Naruto striked. His charged hand hit the midair Tsunade and sent her flying horizontally away from Naruto. He kept his hand out and fired. "Thrust power output at 10%. Fire!" The result was Tsunade tumbling into the ground when she was hit by the charge.

Naruto smiled and walked over to the defeated Tsunade. He grabbed her twin blond ponytails and raised her head. She grunted in pain as she was lifted up 6 inches off the ground. "Still think I can't defeat Orochimaru?", asked Naruto smugly.

Clank!

This was the sound everyone heard as Tsunade's finger shot itself into Naruto's breastplate. He was sent flying and tumbling much like the other blond earlier. Tsunade got up without breaking a sweat and cracked her knuckles. Naruto on the other hand had some trouble getting up due to the cracked breastplate slightly crushing his ribcage, making it hard to breathe. But he was finally able to get up and when he did, he retracted his armor.

This surprised everyone as he glared at her. Then he smirked. "This battle is over. I win." Tsunade, after the words had sunk in, growled. "What do you mean you won? I barely worked up a sweat." She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand to prove her point, but froze as she felt something warm stick to her hand. She slowly lowered to eye level and started to shake at the sight. There was blood on her hands.

"Hemophobia, pathetic.", said Naruto as he faced his team. "Let's go back to Konoha." He began walking back on the path they came on. Jirayia called out, "Wait, what about the mission?"

Naruto stopped for a moment before looking back. "Our mission was to bring back the greatest medic of Konoha." He pointed at the shaking woman. "That is a pathetic excuse for a med-nin. The person we're looking for isn't here anymore. All that's left is the illusion of her. So, mission failed. Now let's get back home. I want some Ichiraku's." With that, he resumed walking. His team took one more glance at Tsunade, who was being helped by Shizune, before they followed after him.

Shizune could only watch with pity in her eyes as Tsunade rubbed the blood off her skin. No, that wasn't true. The blood was washed off 20 minutes ago. Tsunade had spent the last 40 minutes trying to remove something that wasn't there. She was trying to remove the memory of the red liquid even touching her skin.

Shizune had gone over the scenario in her head over and over. That boy was wrong to say that in front of her. No matter how much that was true, he shouldn't have said that.

She felt the side of the bed move as her shishou sat next to her. There was a brief moment of silence. It was broken when Tsunade sighed. "That boy's right. I am pathetic. I just completely broke down when I saw that blood, and…"

"Stop it, Tsunade-sama.", Shizune interrupted. "That boy had no right in saying that. He has no idea what you've gone through. If he had known, he would have been more respectful."

With every word, Tsunade's head rose up. With Shizune finishing, she said, "You're right. That boy has no idea. He probably hasn't even gone through a fraction of the hell I had to live. Thanks, Shizune. Tomorrow, I'm meeting that kid and kicking his ass."

Shizune smiled. It was great to see her shishou back on her feet. But she frowned when she realized what she had just said. "Tsunade-sama! You just can't go around beating up people you don't like." But this fell on deaf ears and the blond took one swig of her sake and collapsed. Shizune's eye twitched. 'How many drinks did she have to collapse to that one sip? And where was I when she was drinking? Wait a minute, where did she get that sake? I thought I took all of them away.

Never underestimate the desire to drink of Tsuande.

Naruto walked silently on the dirt road as his team followed behind. He was deep in thought. The only true reason that he wanted that hag was to help Bushy Brows. So what could he do now? 'I suppose we could do some surgery using robots to minimize the risk, but the bones that didn't shatter are weakened. I don't think a simple milk and cookies will restore them.

He didn't notice the blue haired girl frowning at him. Hinata didn't feel like what he had said was the right thing to say. He doesn't know what the woman had gone through, and yet, he said those things. She could understand that he might be a little peeved at the fact that he lost his two limbs, but he was still up and running. However, it didn't explain the reaction he had.

She took a deep breath and walked a little faster to catch up to him. She was still nervous around him, but much had changed. She reached for his shoulder and nearly yelped in surprise as a hand touched her shoulder. She looked back and saw Jirayia shaking his head. "That's not the best possible route you might want to take."

Her frown deepened. "What do you know about taking the best route?", she said. She was still ticked about the fact that the man here pushed her crush off a cliff to make him stronger. While it worked, it was still unacceptable.

Jirayia ignored her frown and continued. "I know his past better than you. So I can understand where all those negative feelings came from and why he said those things."

"I don't care.", she said, figuring out that Jirayia must have been informed about Naruto's condition. "Just because he lost some limbs doesn't give him the right to-" She was interrupted when Jirayia's eyes went wide and did a loud whisper. "What do you mean he lost his limbs?"

Hinata looked at him confused until she realized what was going on. 'He doesn't know., she thought quickly before she shook her head. "Never mind. Just ignore it for now."

Jirayia looked at the girl suspiciously before he resumed talking. "He had a horrible childhood. Did you know that?" Hinata nodded. She knew that all the adults had looked down on him and had told their children to stay away from him. Even some from the Head family had spoken ill of him. She knew because of this he had no friends.

Jirayia, after seeing her response, smiled. "At least he's got someone to count on now, thanks to you." Hinata blushed momentarily in thinking that she now supported Naruto through the hardships. The blush would have stayed on her face if Jirayia had not said the next thing.

"He really needs someone to look after him after all those beatings he had to endure."

Jirayia flinched as he saw the look on Hinata's face. He quickly realized that Naruto had not been so forward about his past to his fiancé. Oh well, it was bound to happen. But right now, he had to figure out how to survive his student's fiance's glare.

Hinata replied with an angry and authoritative tone, "What beatings?" Jirayia shook his head. "Never mind. Just ignore it for now.", he said, copying Hinata. But unlike Jirayia, Hinata would not be so easily deterred. "I can't ignore it. If it has something to do with Naruto-kun, then it has something to do with me. Got it?"

Jirayia still shook his head. "Sorry. But the truth about those beatings is an S-rank secret. If I just tried to tell you a hint about it, I could probably go to jail. Only Naruto can tell you.", he said knowing full well that the Third might just give him a slap on the wrist. "I just thought he would have told you by now so I brought it up."

Hinata thought about forcing the white-haired pervert into telling her, but she was soon too distracted by the thought that Naruto still didn't trust her enough to tell her all of his secrets. But before she could think of some kind of solution on how she should confront Naruto into telling her and being apologetic about not trusting her, Naruto raised a hand so that his arms made a 90 degree angle and whispered loud enough so everyone heard him. "Stop. Someone's here."

Hinata quickly shook herself out of her thoughts and looked around at their position. They were still on their path, but the scenery had changed. The town was gone. On one side of the road, there was a forest lining it that seemed to stretch as far as the road did. On the other side, there was a huge hill covered with long grass that swayed under the gentle breeze. Naturally, everyone turned toward the tree line. If there was someone here and they weren't already noticeable, then they were hiding in the trees. But Hinata noticed in the corner of her eye that Naruto wasn't facing the trees. He was facing the hill where no one could hide effectively unless they were blind to them as well.

After a few moments, everyone noticed the same thing Hinata did and turned around. A boy, not much older than them (except Jirayia), came walking over the cliff. They could tell by his face that he was about their age. Actually, that was all they could see. The boy slowly took his time over the hill so his face was the only thing visible to the ninja team right now.

When the boy finally got over the cliff and revealed the rest of his body, everyone, except Naruto, gasped. The boy had on armor similar to Naruto's, except he wore no helmet. Naruto clenched his teeth as he glared with rage that in the middle of the boy's chest was unmistakably a power core like his.

As if the boy had just noticed the ninjas, he looked up in surprise. But this look didn't last as it was replaced with a smile that wasn't exactly cheery.

"So you're IronMan's apprentice.", he said with a scary amount of enthusiasm and creepy laughing. Naruto eye's widened for a moment until he saw the boy's arms, or to be exact, his appendages on his arms. They looked like whips that were coiled up around a small structure protruding out of the boy's armor's arm. They seemed to be made of rubber, except the tip was metal. Naruto knew exactly where he saw those before. "And I assume you're acquainted with Whiplash."

The boy nodded so furiously that it almost seemed like his head would fly off his neck. Naruto thought what anybody else would think. This boy was either crazy or on drugs. Maybe both.

The boy started to laugh again. "My master had thought that Tony Stark had someone in the Elemental Countries, so he sent me here to take care of him."

"Master? But I thought your master had blown himself up to defeat Tony.", Naruto asked, still unsure about the boy's mental stability. The boy shook his finger. "Sorry, but that's a top-secret…uhh, oh! secret!", the boy said this laughing to himself as if saying a word to describe a word tickled him.

The boy suddenly stopped laughing and stared at Naruto. "Goodbye, IronMan's apprentice.", he simply said as he pushed a button on his arm. Metal pieces shot up out of the armor's collar line and split into more pieces. This repeated until the pieces conjoined together at different locations, forming a rough, and crude-looking helmet.

Naruto, as he saw the helmet form, equipped his armor and immediately shot a charge at him. The boy just lifted his hand up and let the charge hit his armored hand. Naruto couldn't believe what happened next. The charge stopped in midair in the boy's palm and was absorbed into the armor. Then suddenly, the whips glowed bluish-yellow and shot forward. Naruto lifted an arm up in defense and blocked successfully. Or so he thought, until the whip sent an electrical current through him, making him yell in pain.

On the sidelines, Hinata saw this and started to step forward to help her fiancé, but Shikamaru and Jirayia took hold of her arms and held on.

"Let go!", she shouted.

"This is also not the best route you should take, little girl.", Jirayia said.

"Yeah, you touch Naruto, you'll be electrocuted as well.", said Shikamaru. Hinata opened her mouth to argue, but couldn't find any ground to argue on so she watched painfully as Naruto's body was coursed through with electricity. The other two former Sound ninjas stood still. In their minds, the faster he dies, the faster they don't need to deal with him.

Naruto finally moved his arm, moving the whip away from his body. But inside the armor, things were getting worse.

"Systems rebooting…", said CECI. Naruto gritted his teeth in frustration as he realized that the electricity restarted his armor. He won't be able to shoot again until his armor was back online. But it seemed it didn't matter. The boy shot his other whip across and it went around Naruto and grabbed him. Then Naruto was pulled toward the boy.

Naruto felt each punch from the boy smash into only the armored parts of his body. But he also felt the armor cracking under the force of the punches. He could only watch because at the same time the boy shot electricity through him again. At the end of the boy's barrage of punches, Naruto could see the boy pull back his fist and smash it into his helmet.

Naruto flew and landed with a pained grunt as some of his armor was bent in and slightly pierced his back. To his relief, he heard, "Systems rebooted and online." Naruto grinned. Time for payback. But then, "Warning. Armor 98% damaged. Unable to move."

Naruto clenched his fist again and felt enraged when he saw the boy standing there, laughing his ass off. "CECI, do I have any weapons I can use outside the armor?", he asked hopefully.

There was a brief silence, but it felt like forever, until CECI replied. "There are two hidden weapons. One is hidden in your mechanical arm and one is hidden in your mechanical leg." Naruto was confused. How did he have weapons on those? He never modified it. But then he realized that someone had. "Damn it, old man. I thought I said no modifications without my okay." But in the inside, Naruto was glad he did. "Okay, CECI. Activate those hidden weapons."

"… Error. Unable to activate."

"What? Why?"

"…Armor too damaged. Movement impossible. Use of weapons unavailable." Naruto grinded his teeth again in frustration. But then he came up with an idea. He didn't like it, but what choice did he have. "CECI, unequip armor now."

"…Understood. Warning, transformation not detected."

"Sorry, CECI. But if they saw those hidden weapons come out of nowhere, I'll still have to show them. So let's just unequip."

"…Unequiping now."

There was a bright flash as his armor glowed white and receded back into the power core. Everyone, except Hinata, gasped as they saw his mechanical limbs and the gear sticking out of his head. It was the boy that spoke first. "What the fuck happened to you?"

Naruto lifted his arm up and activated the hidden weapon. Little curved blades popped out, all aligned from his elbow to his wrist. Then they started to spin.

"Shit. Shit happened.", Naruto replied.

"Hidden Chainsaw activated.", said CECI.