A/N: scarease; no thanks, but your awesome, sagemodeman; thank you for the insightful review, the13thmachete; Thanks for the feedback and praise, UzumakiKirofu; thank you and I hope you enjoy, Thuggins21; Have no fear, I will not abandon this story!, ShoYungRai; lololololololololololololololol, so true.

And here is another reminder, the story is rated M, and not for sex. Sorry if you don't like gore, should I update the summary? Anyone have something that would better describe this story? Should I put dark? He's not really dark…but the story is at times.

Day six

Jariya had been in a mountain village, close to Kumo when he received word from a messenger toad.

"Naruto is suspected of murder. Self-defense is ruled out. Come quickly."

His wooden sandals bit chucks of bark from trees. Lashes from small branches left welts around his face, hands and feet.

He blasted past the patrols along the borders of several lands, leaving ninja out of breath and embarrassed that they been so thoroughly out run. 15 hours later, in the early morning hour, he sped past Izumo. Several ANBU who tried to get in his way were put down without a gap in his stride.

The third had opened his window and scooped up his papers, upon feeling the unmasked chakra blazing toward his office. Jariya landed in front of the old man's desk blazing fury in his eyes.

"Where is he?" The voice came smoothly between deep breaths, face like iron.

The third started packing his pipe, "In the hospital, recovering from training."

"What evidence do you have?"

The third finished packing, lit the pipe and took a long drag, "Enough to take action. The council has met and we've been able to reach a compromise. He is to have a limiter seal placed on him."

"And you expect me to put this seal on him?" Jariya asked incredulously.

"Well, I can't be the one to do it. So, it's either you or Danzo."

Jariya nodded, "I see. So you think he did it?"

The Third took another deep drag and let it out with a weary breath. "Two days ago he created a couple thousand shadows and roughed up several teams of ANBU. He drew on the Kyuubi's chakra when he made them and they took on a mind of their own. Reports say that they all had red slit eyes, and fought viciously."

"How does he know the Shadow clone…?" He was interrupted by a look of realization that came over him.

"You think it was a rouge Shadow?"

"Yes, but there was another murder last night." Hiruzen look at Jariya in the eyes.

"Sensei", Jariya said leaning forward to place both hands on the desk. "You said he was doing just fine on his own."

The old man reached into his desk and pulled out an envelope, placing it on his desk. He turned his chair away to gaze outside the window and puffed his pipe. "I'm sorry Jariya, but I may have been wrong."

Jariya pulled out the pictures and his Iron face paled slightly. He flipped through the pictures and whispered, "Naruto."

Hours ago

The streets were abuzz with civilians crowding around an upscale apartment. Five stories high, it housed some of the more recently wealthy merchant traders. Military police had evacuated the building and were questioning everyone who lived there. Neighbors and family members flocked to the scene, demanding answers from the tight lipped officers.

Hana's dogs parted the crowd of bystanders taking in the smell, as Hana's eyes roamed the crowd. She was searching the faces of the people nearby, looking for the gleeful, anticipation she knew would be on the killer's face. That or cool detachment, though there were several who met that criteria. She'd have to wait for the body to be removed and the cries of horror and sadness spread through the crowed.

"Stay here and watch for anything suspicious", she said to the triplets.

She walked up the stairs, passing officers standing guard at each floor. Passing the third floor the sound of gagging echoed through the corridor. A smile tugged at her cheek, 'Probably some rookie', she though amusedly.

A few moments later she paused at the top of the stairs to observe a crime scene photographer hunched over a pile of bile. She knew him. He'd been on the force as long as her and there he was. Sick to his knees like a fresh cadet after their first kill. Something was wrong.

Demon Shadow

The fat, blading man exited his shop and locked up behind himself. His jovial whistling made the fox around the corner grind its teeth in anger.

He could remember the painful hunger that gripped him after he'd been kick out of the orphanage. The fat, greedy man, prying the meat from his grip. Naruto had refused to let go until the man laid his boot to his face. Naruto's nose drew tears into his eyes from the first sharp encounter. Naruto's grip had been fierce until the second stomp, which had driven the back of his head into the ground. Naruto could see the man being pulled back by some decent person who couldn't watch a child, even the demon child, get viciously beaten by a grown man. His watering eyes had found he man's blurry face, through the haze of pain, and he was smiling.

Hana

The smell of blood was overwhelming when she opened to door from the stairwell. The entry way had an elevator to the left and the hallway leading to the penthouse apartments to her right. The door to the apartment was open when she rounded the corner, noticing the pale look to the officer "guarding" the door. She paused and leaned back to see writing on the door. Blood smeared out a message, "HATE ME."

Demon Shadow

He'd followed the pig back to his house. Darted up the stairs, following the sound of the elevator's struggle to wench the fat man to the top floor. He sat outside the man's home until the stirring of the occupants fell silent and the audible click of the TV turning off could be heard.

The man's wife was first, followed by the son and then the daughter. They were lined up along the wall in the living room tied up with rope, so that they were supported against the wall. The pig had been asleep through the rounding up of his family, but it took four shadow's to restrain him, once he'd woken. He was bound across from them so that he could see their faces, and in a way that only one of his arms was free to move a small amount. Naruto pulled the lamps from around the place and shined them on each of his victim's faces, as they screamed and cried for help.

Hana

She looked back down the dim hallway that lead to the main living room. The living room was bright enough to shed enough light into the hallway and she could already see blood spattered all along the far wall. Her stomach began to tighten.

"BLAME ME", was in blood to her left a few feet down, then "CURSE ME", towards the end of the hallway. She took a few steps into the living room and her knees grew weak and the tightening in her stomach made her want to heave.

Demon Shadow

Each time they saw his face the pitch and intensity of their screams would on increase. He'd let the demon mask become much more lifelike, mimicking the Kyuubi's visage in a way that let it move with his facial expressions. The man had been yelling for him to stop and screaming for help until Naruto had pointed to a seal on the wall before leaning in close. His voice came out sounding just like the Kyuubi's, "No one will hear your screams."

The man had fallen silent and stared at the wicked looking knife as it came closer. Naruto placed it into the pig's hand hovering next to his own neck.

"This ends when you slit your own throat."

The man's eyebrows went up and his breathing became frantic, "You want me to kill myself?" He grasped out.

"No, I want you to watch. Then live knowing you were too weak to save your family, because you're a coward."

And Naruto walked over to the man's wife. Her cries, which had fallen to soft whimpering, picked up into frightened screams, begging him to stop as he picked up one foot and hovered it in front of her face.

The demon only stood staring at her for a moment before another shadow appeared couched next to him, eyeing the pig.

Naruto, leaning a bit to the side so that the pig could see his wife's face, drove his foot into her nose. The screams became shrieks as he repeatedly kicked his heel into her face. The children struggled and screamed for the mother.

The pig struggled screaming, "No, please! They didn't do anything, stop this you bastard!"

The shadow walked over to the man as her shrieks became gurgles and whispered into his ear.

"The knife is your only friend. Only your death will stop their suffering."

The thud of her body against the floor seemed to ring out silence throughout the room. The children stared at their mother, before tear stricken faces slowly turned towards their father.

The demon slowly walked towards the boy, tossing a glance at the pig.

The man's hand was trembling, eyes wide as he stood in shock.

The demon kicked out at the boy's face. Blood splattered over the young girls face and she screamed, "Daddy, please save us!"

The pig's resolve sharpened and he slid the blade across his throat, only to realize the blade was dulled to a rounded edge. He pressed frantically against his throat, praying for his death, until the gurgles came and his boy was dead.

He looked to the Demon in desperation, and saw its smile. The satisfaction was palpable, and the tears clouded his vision. The blurry figure in his peripheral seemed to be moving in slow motion, cutting the rope that held the boy and moving towards his daughter. The only person he had left.

The demon picked up his boot, blood and bits of teeth dripping from the heel. He man jammed the knife, tip first, into the side of his neck.

The demon to his side leaned in closer, "Yes almost there. Finish the deed before it's too late."

The man hesitated in pain until he heard to first kick into his daughters face briefly muffle her scream, "Daddy, daddy, please." He yanked forward with all his might pulling apart his throat with a brief gurgled cry.

The girl fell to the side breathing swallow, as she gazed at the blood squirting from her father's mutilated neck.

Hana

She stared, frozen by the gruesome image before her. The families body parts skewered with fine cutlery around a little girl's body, crucified on the wall, with "FEAR ME!" written above her. The man's head looked like it had been skinned and stuck over the little girl's. Then she noticed the twitching of the girl's body and she could make out a faint whimpering. Hana dashed forward and removed the flesh from over the little girl's head to see the girl's crying face. Her mouth had been stitched shut and eyes were wild in an empty gaze.

Hana whipped her head over her shoulder and screamed, "Medics!"

Original

The sun was beginning to peak in through the window when Naruto became aware of his surroundings. There was a massive presence as large as Jiji's in the room, but he could tell it wasn't the old man's.

"It killed again. Did it send you the memory?" The voice was gruff and deep.

'He knows. Stay calm. Is it a trick?' Naruto thought as he slowly sat up to face the man.

"Either that you're hiding the truth. That you are the one responsible, and we'll have to send one of the Yamanaka Clan elites to go snooping through your memories." He raised an eye brow as if to pose a question.

'Kyuubi, what do you think?' Naruto thought.

'If they go into your mind they'll find out about our deal and the demon clone. It seems like you're going to have to tell them the truth or the consequences could be worse.'

Naruto looked into the white haired man's eyes before glancing around to the walls to see silencing tags pinned up. They were excellent quality, and the brush strokes screamed master.

"Did you make those?" Naruto said still eyeing one of the tags.

"Yes." Jariya paused for a moment, "I could show you sometime after this is all over. If you want."

"Jariya of the sannin would take the time to show some brat seals?"

Jariya's lips curled a bit at one side. "Not just some brat if the rumors are true."

Naruto looked out the window and a frown settled on his face.

"He showed me the deaths last night. I thought he'd disappeared after the first time, but he found some way to decrease the shadow's chakra flux. He stole some of my clone's chakra yesterday, and was somehow able to give me only a few of his memories. He can also hide himself from me by using a modified barrier seal. I tried to cancel him this morning, but I couldn't sense him. He could be wearing the barrier tags by this point. I kept going through the memories from my shadows that fought him and I'm missing a perspective. I think he was able to take in the memories from one of my clones so he can gain all the knowledge I have if he's able to capture one of my shadows, before it can dispel. I'm not sure what I can do to stop him."

A tear fell from Naruto's eye and he finally turned from the window to gaze over at the sage. "I didn't want to them to die. I'm so sorry."

Jariya felt his heart ache for the child. He got up, walked over to Naruto and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I know. This will stay between the old man and me. There is not a person alive that can hide from me using seals. I'll find him, but first there is some business we have to attend to, to prevent the shadow from getting any stronger. If he were to gain your memories he'd have even more ability to draw from. Since your watcher is unable to keep complete tabs on you, with all the shadows you can create, it's been decided that you'll have most of your chakra sealed. You'll still be able to make clones, just not nearly as many."

Naruto's face grew hard for a moment before it softened and he looked down. "I understand, but what about when I go out on missions?"

The white haired man laughed loudly and ruffled the child's head. "Your jonin sensei will be able to release the seal in case of an emergency, but you probably won't have a need for all the chakra during your first missions."

Naruto scowled when he remembered the genin team walking dogs. "Oh yeah."

Naruto changed into his training clothes in the bathroom while Jariya made notes in a large black book. When he was done Jariya took him out of the room and, instantly, the world lit up with the feeling of chakra presences all around. He froze like a deer in headlights for a moment before casting wild eyes at Jariya.

"Oh, you thought the silencing seals were the only ones I put up?" Jariya said with a small chuckle.

Naruto realized, after a moment, that the man had walked off and rushed to catch up. "So, when are you going to show me some of your seals?"

On their way to the Hokage tower Jariya was sure of two things. Some civilian on the police force leaked information about the most recent murders. That and Naruto was definitely not okay. Instead of the looks of hate and hidden fear that he'd seen cast at other containers, people were out right terrified of the boy. Some of them nodded to him as if grateful he'd been assigned to guard them from the "Demon."

The boy had looked shocked at back peddling and recoiling of the villagers when he saw them and soon he kept his gaze down. People parted in the streets as if the boy were a monstrous beast that would kill them if they got too close. At some point Jariya's hand had come to rest on the boy's shoulder, "Keep your head up kid, you look guilty."

Naruto looked up at him and said, "Aren't I?"

Jariya grit his teeth and they stepped into a shunshin to the entrance of the tower.

Naruto had faintly heard the last minute bickering of the few people in the sealing room. After the frightened faces of the villagers, he'd just wanted to curl into his despair and vanish. Some protest about Jariya performing the seal, which was quickly put down by the old man caught his ear. Naruto had felt his reserves disappear and wondered if this was what it was like for other people. He felt tired and refused to meet anyone's eyes. Jariya had pushed him along, after the sealing, and even the scent of ramen didn't pull him out of the haze he was in. He faintly heard the ramen chef's calls, but couldn't be bothered to look over at him. Jariya had asked if there was anywhere he wanted to go and eat and he thought of the pond his shadows had trained at. A group of them had gathered to train their senses there thought he'd quickly learned his first lesson about "reaching too deep". They walked in silence and he was grateful the older ninja didn't feel the need to fill it with useless banter.

When they arrived at the pond he could feel the man's chakra spike with surprise for a moment, but he paid no attention to it. He sat down and leaned against one of toad statues, "Some of my shadows got caught delving too deeply into their senses. This is what happens for some reason."

Jariya stood in awe. All around the pond where small toad statues in various poses. He stared at their faces, most with a look of peace about them, while a few had strange looks of fear and panic on their faces.

From under his bangs Naruto could see the look of shock on the man's face and it pulled him from his silent contemplation.

"What?"

A/N: I know it's a bit short but next up is team assignments. I'd do a poll but I don't know how and I'm too lazy. Ooo, how about you put it in a review? Who do you think should be Naruto's teammates AND why? Or I guess you could PM me…