Fatality

Chapter 1: Secrets

The white knuckles and red streaks on his palm from where his nails had dug into the skin and slightly quickened breathing were the only signs that the person lying on the bed so still was within the throes of a nightmare. He had grown used to his previous mentor Kakashi immediately pulling him out of them when he begun to thrash and scream. The young boy, consumed by guilt because he knew that the older man had been forced to spend many sleepless nights because of his nightmares tried to reduce the symptoms so no one realised and sacrificed themselves on his behalf.

A loud buzzing sound though awakened him soon enough and the 10 year old was instantly awake, slipping out of his bed and padding over to the other side of the room to where the origin of the noise was. A flick of the switch and the noise ended – the boy already on the other side of the room preparing some breakfast for himself which he quickly consumed before efficiently getting ready for the day ahead.

He donned the long black cloak over his ANBU equipment which signified his rank as one of the elite and – after giving his room a quick cursory glance – exited, striding down the now familiar hallways to the room where he would meet with the rest of his squadron to receive their mission.

His platoon consisted of 3 others as well as himself; two men and a woman. They had been recently formed, since he had been moved from the unique pair that Kakashi and he were to a more standard unit since Kakashi decided that he would fall back on the slightly more relaxed life of a jounin instead of continuing to pursue the rigorous and dangerous lifestyle that an ANBU led. Because of this, he didn't really know them all that well and had only seen one of the men without their facemask on. His own mask was that of a fox, while the man that he had seen the face of (a burly 19-year old) wore a dog mask, the female wore a bird mask and his captain that of a tiger.

They were an interesting combination. Both himself and the captain seemed to prefer silence while Dog seemed to get nervous and fidget if no talking was done, and Bird the same, if not less so. So, their missions, such as those of patrolling and ones where they had to travel for periods of time were often filled with the whispered bantering of those two while he silently travelled at the rear listening in.

'Ah, you're here': was the only greeting he was given. When they all sat the commander started to brief them; 'Your mission has essentially, two parts. The first is a fairly straight forward assassination and the second is that of a rescue. It is to take place at the town of Baretore, which is near our border with the Grass. The assassination is of a wheat merchant. The merchant, Saito Norio, has been leading some operations of a… questionable nature.'

'What type of operations are we talking about?' Dog broke in.

'Thieving, murder – the usual – this is his file'. The second part is just over the border. Two of our chuunins were undercover but were, unfortunately, found out due to unforeseeable circumstances. They both carry valuable information and are in holding cells in the city of Hanabe, you are to locate them and extract them. The only information that you'll need is in here' the commander pushed the files on the desk towards the group and stood. In response, the other ANBU stood as well, snapping off a quick salute before filling out, picking up the files on the way.

'We'll split up' Tiger said, flipping through the information, quickly scanning the pages. 'The assassination only needs one person, where as the break out will need more.'

'I'll do it' Naruto offered, when there was silence for a few seconds after the announcement. He didn't even move when his captain stared at him for a few seconds before proffering the folder. Photos, addresses, contact lists and the man's schedule for the next week were at his fingertips. The intelligence squad were certainly good with their work.

'Okay. We'll all travel to the border together; from there we'll move ahead to the city. We'll strike tomorrow night, you'll do your part in the early hours of the morning so we can meet up just after at a meeting point that we'll work out when we go through the town. Let's go'

Bitterly, Naruto wondered why when something like this happened he had to be alone. The assassination had gone as planned; the merchant's body minus his head was still lying on the couch in the room behind him while its missing head was in the bag that had been placed on the floor next to him. All he had to do was get to the meeting point in 45 minutes. That wasn't exactly easy though when a ninja you didn't notice managed to trap you with an earth barrier which leeched your chakra. He had pounded on the walls of the seeming cave with not only taijutsu but ninjutsu as well. The only result was making him more tired then usual.

His eyes drooped and he fought to stay on his feet, but soon dropped to his knees. Black spots danced in his vision and through his eyelashes he could nearly see the chakra slipping away from his body to be absorbed into the walls. He had tried talking to his attacker, seeing if he could exploit any weakness, but he had gotten no response.

Slapping his cheeks with his hands, he tried to keep awake, determinedly looking around before nearly flying at the wall, using kunai and his bare hands in an attempt to rip it open so he could escape. At the moment, it seemed his best hope was to see how long he could last and maybe the other ANBU would arrive back early and investigate.

They were back again; the black dots that is. Swimming in his vision, turning his head only served to make them grow bigger. Just as he felt his consciousness slipping away from him he screamed 'No!' but wasn't sure if it was said aloud or simply in his mind.

A flash of bright light and he was here. The corridor that stretched in front of him was quite long, and the whole place reminded him of sewers. The constant dripping sound that echoed around him could only be described as unnerving, but he ignored it as he started forward, water splashing around his feet as he did so.

The air was tainted with a musty smell, and Naruto wasn't surprised to see mould growing in the corners and fungi on the walls. To an extent, it seemed hard to breathe. The hot air was stifling, but seemed to invite him down the hallway. It was then that he felt it: the chakra; which seemed to slither around the ground trying not to be noticed. Finally, he was there. Bars formed a door and they were sealed shut with a piece of flimsy paper. Frowning, he moved closer trying to read what it said, but stopped short. Eyes wearily looking at the form he could see behind the bars; it was massive.

'Brat', the creature said, moving closer to him, which only caused him to be more in awe at the animal's considerable girth. It was a fox, one that bore considerable resemblance to his ANBU mask. 'What are you doing down here?' the fox asked, his snide voice laced with dislike.

'I'm not sure' Naruto answered, keeping his voice emotionless with ease, not betraying any confusion he felt. 'Who are you?'

'I'm called many things. To my species I am a savoir; a god; a ruler. To your pathetic race? A monster, devil incarnate…' If he could liken the expression on the animal's face to any that a human might display, he would say it was a smirk. 'Perhaps even a Demon'

'Ninetails…' the ANBU breathed in sudden understanding, but was suddenly taken aback and fell silent before speaking again. 'But why am I here…? And where is here? The afterlife perhaps? I should be dead by now'

'The afterlife?' the great beast questioned, seemingly amused. 'You wish. No, we are somewhere closer to home; much closer to home.'

'Not dead then? Where else would I go then? Do the deep recesses of my mind or something? There is-' Naruto stopped talking. The fox had let out a great burst of laughter at his words and he backtracked, wondering what he said that could have made him done so. What he thought of could only make him flabbergasted. 'In my mind then? Why would I be in my mind? More importantly, why would you?'

'That is a question to ask your great leader when you return, perhaps?'

'Considering the fact that I'm going to either die from having no Chakra or being stabbed in the throat soon, I think the probability of that is little to nil'

'That is easily fixed' the Kyuubi replied, and Naruto found himself slowly moving backwards although he wasn't even trying to.

'What? What's happening? And why are you helping me anyways?' he asked, having to yell the last bit as he found himself being pulled backwards down the corridor at an increasing rate. All he heard in response was the laughter that could only come out of the mouth of a demon.'

His eyes opened to see a red maelstrom of what appeared to be demonic chakra pushing the walls outward where they crumbled down the ground. Moving quickly, he ran out, dodging the few shuriken which landed where he just was. Pulling a kunai out of his pouch he leapt out, all senses on high alert as they searched the area for his attacker or attackers.

There were two, he determined, one seemed out for the count and was probably the one who had cast the chakra-sucking jutsu in the first place. They were lying a few metres away, chakra overload causing their body to shut down into sleep while some of the chakra that they had taken in started to expel from their body; coming towards Naruto where it was absorbed back into his body. Feeling slightly better, but still with no chakra reserves to speak of he turned his attention to what seemed to be their partner in crime.

He could practically feel the fear that was threatening to swallow up the ninja that he turned to face. They ignored it though, reaching behind their back to retrieve two long knives, and clasped one in each hand. The sadistic grin that crept onto the boy's face as his opponent started to attack was blood curdling. It wasn't only this however, his eyes too now held a feral gleam which promised a bloody end.

'What held you up?' he was asked when he got to their meeting point, a few minutes behind the appointed time.

He dug around in his belt pouch for a second before letting the moonlight glint on the raised hitai-ate of a slashed rain symbol. 'It was just a small complication. They were just lackeys coming to report on some developments he might've been interested in.'

'How many?' Dog asked him, genuinely curious.

'Only two', he answered, gaze flickering to him for a moment before they all turned to the Tiger.

'Try to not take as much time' he was reprimanded by him, and although he noticed the captain's sharp eyes glancing at the fresh blood in the crevices of his fingernails and the blood on the bottom of his cloak nothing more was said.

A/N: Although I want Naruto to be moderately powerful, I'm not aiming for zomg haxor super power. Yeah, he's got heaps of potential et cetera et cetera but he's just a kid. He might've started in the ANBU as a child, but that doesn't mean he's at that power level yet; instead, he has been learning/training with Kakashi and been going on a few odd missions to build up exp. The ANBU platoon that he's in atm is his first. If you had to rank him in terms of power-level he'd be last in the group.