Okay, I heard we're not allowed to answer reviewers anymore, so for here on now I guess I'll be answering your questions via e-mail or in other way... however, this time I'll do it somewhat the old-fashioned way. Just this once:

First, to calm down people who're afraid that their favorite characters might have died, I can only say that there will be Leaf survivals... and you shouldn't be worrying about the original, "Naruto" staff, coz they're all planned to make appearance (at least those around Naruto's age). As for why Naraku is so strong, I believe this chapter will clear it up a bit. Also, sorry that Hinata and Naruto won't play a big part in this chapter, but I can promise you that from chapter three they'll become somewhat main characters.

And also, one of you guys drew my attention that Naraku is also the name of the villain in "InuYasha"... well, I've seen first, few episodes of the show and read some manga, but I'm not that much of an "InuYasha" fan and any similarities between my OC and that guy are totally unplanned. Also, at the end of the chapter, I've decided to make Naraku's profile so you guys can learn a bit more about him

Before the last announcement I'd like to invite all of you to read (and hopefully review) my other fics. If you like this one, I thnk you'll enjoy others. Especially those who said that Naruto was 'too weak' will probably enjoy "Naruto: Next Generation".

LASTLY: I'm afraid that the next chapter won't appear till the end of this year... you'll have to wait for January for it. Sorry.

Disclaimer: There are lots of things I don't own and 'Naruto' is one of them.

Chapter #2: Bloodlines and Stuff

Chapter Cover: Hinata is kneeling on a glade and is picking up flowers to her basket

Naruto charged at his opponent, forcing the hand that held the orb of spinning, blue chakra up front with a mad yell: "Rasengan!"

"Naraku-sama!" was all the greenhead could yell as the blonde leaf-nin came closer to her companion at an impressive speed.

"Shit!" thought Naraku as he bended forward and propped his hands on the ground. His feet went into the air again and as Naruto came close enough, the brown-haired boy kicked the hand that was carrying the chakra orb from below, thus causing Naruto's arm to go into the air.

Without wasting another second Naraku used his other leg to hit Naruto right in the stomach. The kick send the blonde shinobi flying back before he hit a tree hard and came to a stop.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata instantly run towards her love as Naraku landed back on his feet. "Naruto-kun, are you okay?" the Hyuuga heiress was checking the blonde for any wounds, but didn't find any, except few scratches (probably caused by the branches).

"For a guy like you to master Rasengan…" Naraku came closer to the two. "… you really surprised me back there… seems that you have some skills after all… stand up, I'll tell you what you wanna know…"

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"You think it's him?" asked the hooded man, looking at the four, burnt bodies of the sound-nins. All that could be seen from under his hood were his eyes that were shinning a bright, yellow color.

"Hard to say" replied another, hooded figure, only this one had a female voice. "But with Konoha gone not many shinobies are capable of using fire jutsus. I'd say that it's highly possible we finally found his trace. Master will be pleased…"

"Who are you?" came a voice from behind. The two, hooded figures turned around to see a group of eight sound-nins, prepared for battle. "You did this?" asked the one who seemed in charge as he pointed at the four bodies.

"No…" responded the female. "But I believe we know the one who did…"

"Then you'll come with us for interrogation…" announced the leader of the group.

"I'm afraid we can't…" said the girl calmly. "We're here for a reason and going with you would slow us down too much. Mind leaving us…"

"Hinato-chan, there's no point in explaining ourselves…" interrupted the second figure. "Please, let me take care of it and we'll continue our mission…"

"Fine…" sighed the girl. "Just don't take too long like the last time… do it quick and as painless as you can… their screams might summon others…"

"As you wish…" replied the yellow eyes as his pupils shone even more and from under the hood the sound-nins could tell he was smiling, as sharp fangs appeared in the place his mouth should be.

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"To start of I think proper introductions are required" announced the brown-haired boy. "My name is Monodane Naraku. This is Nakago Kasumi…" with that he pointed at the girl with long, black hair. "…Banrai Hinako…" this time he turned to the greenhead. "…Yari…" the blue-haired girl was now pointed. "… and Akaramu Tamao…" and this time the small blonde bowed.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto…" replied the blonde leaf-nin. "… and this is Hyuuga Hinata" at that he pointed the white-eyed girl.

"Hyuuga, eh?" Naraku's eyebrow went up. "Well, you can tell by your eyes. That proves you're shinobies of the Leaf. How did you survive Orochimaru's attack?"

"We were fighting at the west gate…" explained Naruto. "Once we were able to force the enemy to move back, we saw that the other gates were taken over by sound-nins and most of the village was already demolished by that bastard's snakes, so there was no point in going back to the town. We hold the enemy as long as we could and then left the battlefield. Staying in the village would only result in our deaths."

"Judging from what you say, you did a good thing…" nodded Naraku. "… were there any more survivals? What about the anbu that were Hokage-sama's reinforcements?"

"As far as we know… the Hokage was killed along with all the anbu that tried to save her…" replied Hinata, lowering her head. "But some of the Leaf shinobies had to survive…"

"I see…" responded Naraku calmly. You couldn't see any emotions on his face but Naruto had a feeling that the brown-hair was suffering.

"So, what about you?" the blonde leaf-nin decided to change the painful topic. "How did you get the Konoha forehead protector? I doubt you really killed a Leaf shinobi…"

"I got this headband from Umino Iruka after I graduated from the Shinobi Academy eleven years ago… me and my two teammates went under the command of Shida Ryuu. A year later we participated in the Chuunin Selection Exam…"

"Wait a minute" asked Naruto. "Eleven years ago? You seem to be in the same age as me and Hinata. How old are you?"

"I'm nineteen…" replied Naraku. "Just like my companions… except Tamao, she's still only seventeen" the brown-hair looked at the blonde girl, causing her to blush slightly. "I become gennin in the age of eight… and a chuunin once I turned nine. I was promoted to jounin rank soon after that…"

"At the age of ten he was already a jounin…" Hinata opened her mouth slightly.

"So how come I never heard of you?" asked the blonde leaf-nin.

"I became a missing-nin before I turned eleven" explained Naraku. "And as you may know the villagers don't like to speak about the renegades… you could say I was just wiped out of the Leaf's memory. Being a Monodane didn't helped much here…"

"Now I remember" suddenly Hinata cut in. "I remember father once told me about your clan. They were thought to be the strongest clan in Konoha, maybe even stronger then both Uchiha and Hyuuga put together. But then something happened and the clan was almost completely wiped out."

"Yes" nodded Naraku. "By the time Orochimaru attacked Konoha there were five of us left, including me. After the Leaf's destruction, me and my two siblings are the only survivals for all I know… the reason why we are extinct is our bloodline limit…"

"And what's so special about your clan's bloodline limit?" asked Naruto. "And why was your clan wiped out because of it?"

"Naraku-san's bloodline limit gives him almost unlimited power" announced Kasumi. "You see, every shinobi village specializes in one type of ninjutsu. For example the five great villages: Iwa Gakure are the specialists in earth-based ninjutsu, my village, the Hidden Mist, mastered the techniques based on water and ice where as yours were the specialists in fire jutsus. Finding a shinobi that could use a different type of ninjutsu that is his village specialty is almost impossible… not to mention finding a whole clan. But Monodane's case was a bit different…"

"The members of my clan gain the ability to use any type of ninjutsu" continued Naraku. "Of course, there were special requirements, but still the greatest masters of the Monodane were able to use fire, water, earth, wind and thunder all at once. Moreover every child was born with a talent to use one of those five elements…"

"So you're skilled in any form of ninjutsu?" Hinata's eyes widen.

"Not exactly…" replied Naraku.

"You see the five elements used in most ninjutsu styles are called the full circle…" began explaining Yari. "The circle is separated into five domains, one for every element. At least that's what the Monodane think. Naraku's bloodline limit does allow him to learn techniques from every domain, but it also throws limits at him. In order to access another domain, he must master the previous. Because of that the Monodane bloodline gives every child a talent for one element, dependable on its inborn abilities…"

"Those who are born with extraordinary endurance have the talent to master earth and as long as they won't master that domain, they can't even think about using jutsus based on a different element. And mastering one domain takes from five to ten years… at best" announced Naraku.

"So what kind of inborn abilities do you gotta have to master every domain?" asked Naruto with curiosity.

"As said endurance gives you talent for earth…" began Naraku. "Those who are born with a runner's body are talented in wind domain as it's the symbol of speed. Those who have a high chakra level are destined to master the water ninjutsu as that element resembles chakra in most ways and those with greater strength are assigned to fire. The children which doesn't show any special abilities, though such were born rarely, are masters of thunder as it combines the abilities of four, other elements, but in the same time doesn't give the same power."

"And which element was assigned to you when you were born, Naraku-kun?" asked Hinata.

"Fire…" replied the brown-haired boy shortly.

"Okay, so now we know what's so special about your bloodline limit, but why was your clan wiped out because of it?" wondered the whisker-marks. "I mean, something like that is a great weapon… why would anyone in Konoha decide to get rid of it?"

"It wasn't the Leaf's idea to destroy the Monodane…" explained Naraku. "At least not exactly. During the great, shinobi war, my clansmen were send to front line as they were Konoha's secret weapon and a thumb card for that matter. Many were killed during those times. When the war finally ended, few of my family was still alive… I was born few years later… and pretty much that's when things started to get complicated…"

"About a month after my birth, I was assigned to fire domain and my father, the head of the clan, made a decision that he'll train me himself…" he continued after a short break. "Once I learned how to walk my training began. In the meantime, my sister was born. My older brother went to the Academy… everything seemed to be going well… but I've learned the hard way that when something seems like it, it's rarely like it…"

"Once I've turned ten and became a jounin, traitory took place… well, from what you've heard you can tell that my clan's bloodline limit was something that any village would like to have… I guess it's kinda similar to your Byakugan…" with that he gave Hinata a sad glare. "Anyway, the ones that were most interested in gaining access to full circle turned out be stone-nins… however, after the great, shinobi war have ended, the Tsuchikage didn't want to risk another, because the Iwa suffered much damage during their fights with the Leaf… of course Konoha suffered just as much but that's another story…"

"So the Stone decided to kidnap one of the clan heirs, right?" interrupted Naruto. "That's how it was with the Cloud and Hinata…"

"Really?" Naraku gave the white-eyed girl a surprised look as he slightly nodded, blushing a bit. "Well, it's not a memory a kid would like to have, but I still think it's better then how things turned out for my clan… the Iwa didn't really had problems in getting the bloodline limit… because my brother decided to give it to them…"

"He betrayed Konoha?" whisker-marks eyes widen.

"Yeah…" replied the brown-head as he looked away. "But the worst was still to come. The Stone had their full circle and the Tsuchikage was willing to stop at that… my brother however had better ideas… to make his position stronger, he decided to become the only inheritor of our bloodline limit… during the time my sister and I were with our parents on a mission, he attacked the Monodane estate and killed every, single person in it…"

Naruto lowered his sight, Hinata covered her mouth not to let out a scream. Naraku's eyes became dull, still he held back his emotions. At that time the girl called Tamao walked closer to him and placed her hand on his shoulder.

The brown-head smiled at her and the continued: "I was mad… at all costs I've decided to bring my brother to the ultimate justice… so I left Konoha in order to find and kill him… soon after I became a missing-nin… I'm still looking for him… the last info I've heard about him is that he's somewhat related to an organization called Juusan Akuma… for the past, two years I was gathering information about them…"

"That's also the reason why we're heading west…" added the one called Yari. "We've heard that there's high hope for us to find a trace of the Juusan Akuma there…"

"Okay, I understand why you wanna get your brother…" announced Naruto, turned to Naraku. "But why are you traveling together? You're from different villages and there's a war going right now… the sight is most… unexpected…"

"Well, let's just say that, in a way, all of us owe Naraku something…" responded Kasumi.

"Anyways, we should get going…" stated the brown-haired boy. "It was nice to met you, but we need to get to our destination as soon as possible, so…"

"We're going with you!" yelled Naruto.

"What?" Naraku's eyebrow went up.

"Seems like you guys could use some help…" explained the blonde. "Plus, Leaf shinobies should stick together. Isn't that right, Hinata?" he asked his companion.

"I… I guess so…" she replied quietly.

"Wait, Naraku-sama…" interrupted the green-head. "I have nothing against them and all, but… you saw this blonde's level… we all due respect to his abilities, the leaders of the Juusan Akuma will crush him if he'll have to face them… if they'll tag along, they'll only find death…"

"Hinako's got a point…" nodded the brown-head. "Traveling with us is dangerous…"

"We can take care of ourselves" ensured Naruto. "Besides, everyone could use back up from time to time…"

"Well, I don't mind you guys walking around with us, but the decision is not just mine to make…" announced Naraku. "We'll have a voting…"

"You know my point… I have nothing against you guys though…" said Hinako.

"The blonde didn't shown anything special… I don't think we'll have a big use for him" added Kasumi. "I say leave them by…"

"Company is always welcome…" Yari disagreed as she winked to Naruto. "We should give them a shoot… maybe they'll surprise us?"

"So I guess the decision is up to you, Tamao-chan…" with that Naraku turned to the blonde girl who blushed deeply and started staring at the ground.

"I…" she began shyly as she raised her head to look at the two, leaf-nins. "I… I think that… I mean… it… won't hurt if… we'll allow them to come along… I think…"

"It's decided then!" yelled Naruto with a smile. "We're coming along!"

"Something tells me we're gonna regret this…" Kasumi whispered to Yari.

"It's not that bad… this could be fun, actually…" replied the blue-head with a quiet voice.

"We should get going, the town is two days trip from here and the sooner we get there, the better" announced Naraku. "Move out!" and with that all seven shinobies went on their way.

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The night was getting darker. The boy sped up a little as he started to put his cloak on. He was wearing a black fishnet shirt with a green waistcoat on it. He had three, golden earrings in his left ear and black, pineapple haircut. The cloak he was wearing, was black.

The boy turned on the corner and walked right into a dark, blind alley. He sighed slightly and then, without even turning around, he said out loud with a lazy voice: "You've been following me for few hours now… I wanted to lose you, but it seems I'm out of luck… stop this stupid 'cat and mouse' game and show yourselves already…"

A second later, four sound-nins appeared from darkness and walked closer to the boy.

"What do you want?" asked the pineapple guy with his back still turned.

"We know who you are…" announced the leader of the group. "Come with us peacefully…"

"And what if I decline?"

"We'll have to kill you…"

"Really?" asked the boy as he finally turned around. "How troublesome…"

And that ends chapter two! Hope you liked it and that you'll leave a review once you're done reading.

Now, for the promised, Naraku profile:

Name: Monodane Naraku

Name origins: 'naraku' can be translated as 'hell' which is thought to be a rather... hot place. SInce Naraku's specialty are fire jutsus, I've figure this name will be suitable for him (other names related to fire wasn't exacly of my likings). As for his last name, 'monodane' means simply 'element'... since Naraku's clan has access to all, five element, I've decided that this will fit.

Birth Date: 2nd of November

Bloodtype: AB

Height: 1,86 m

Weight: 78 kg

Rank: hard to say... when he left Konoha, he was a jounin, but became a missing-nin... his level seems to be at least that of an ANBU though...

Village: Konoha (Hidden Leaf)

Techniques (used so far): Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Skill)

Favorite food: ramen (Naruto will be pleased)

Favorite color: red

Family: there's not much info about his clan... all that's said that most of his clan members made it to the ANBU... currently, the only Monodane alive are him and his siblings: his sister Misora, who's a year younger then him, and his brother Resshin, two years older.

And this concludes this chapter totally. Now then, just because I won't be able to update this year, I'd like to wish you all:

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

See you on the next update... hopefully.