As I write this chapter, it made me realize just how I want this story to go. Rather than be humorous, I want people to see how I view Tony Stark/Naruto's burdens, as well as the burdens of their allies and friends. Not to mention, the only humor was Sasori, who in fact is my OOC version of him. More on that later, enjoy for now.

Disclaimer: *Beep* Hello, you have reached the office of TommyBAuthor93. TBA is sadly unavailable, and he would like to inform you, if you are a lawyer, that he does not own Naruto or any Marvel Likenesses. This is a reluctant admittance that you can reply to after the *BEEP*

Iron De-Man

2: Suit Up!

"S-So you're saying...Naruto didn't come back?" Kiba weakly asked as he stood in Neji's room with the rest of the failed Sasuke Retrieval Squad. Shikamaru sighed and nodded sadly, his emotions barely in check from what he was told earlier that day by his father. The rest of the SRS, a broken Lee, a beaten Kiba, a weak Neji, and a wheelchair-bound Choji looked down, fighting their own tears back.

Kiba was the first to move to the door, and he left quietly saying, "I-I gotta go...check on Akamaru..."

Lee opted to stay with his teammate while Choji and Shikamaru made their way from the room, the normally lazy Nara wheeling the much thinner Akimichi back to his room. They passed Kiba's room as they did so, a quiet howl of pain coming from a distressed puppy and quiet sobs coming from a friend. Shikamaru bowed his head again before looking to the window after he wheeled Choji to his bed and helped his best friend climb into the hospital bed.

I'm sorry Naruto...Shikamaru thought as he hung his head when Choji's breathing evened out as he slept, I...I'm sorry I called you troublesome...but you were...Heh. Now that I think about it, you, Kiba, Choji and I were all just troublesome brats...I never thought you'd be the first. Of all people...not you.

As the tears spilled from his eyes, the young chunin left the hospital, a subtle henge hiding his emotions from the village as he went to his home. Quietly, he entered his clan grounds, passing his dozing father without a word. He walked into the house and kicked his sandals off, dropping his henge as he did so. His mother, standing at the end of the hall, dropped her scowl as her son's appearance dropped from his usual lazy drawl to a deep depression.

"Shikamaru!" she exclaimed with worry as she went to her son, "Oh, sochi..."

"I-I'm sorry!" the young chunin wailed, not noticing his father enter the house and seal it off, as he let his mother hold him and he felt the after-effects of a failed mission gone horrible fully affect him. Shikaku frowned as he watched his son bawl like a child, but he couldn't argue that he hadn't the right to. Aside from the fact it was his first failed mission, Naruto was many things to the Nara clan, but as troublesome as he was, he was always a bright smile that kept the younger generation on their toes. Shikaku knew Shikamaru considered Naruto a close friend, and he would be lying if he said he lost a friend like that before. The Ino-Shika-Cho was still alive, but that didn't mean he hadn't lost friends. The pain his son felt was understood by the Shinobi Commander of Konohagakure no Sato.

It was understood all too well.

"So..." Naruto slowly spoke as he looked down at the tea in his cup that he held between both his hands, "...I can't...I can't use chakra?"

The blonde had woken three days after his exertion and Sasori had given him the dim news. His chakra coils had, for lack of a better term, evaporated from using the fox's chakra. Not to mention the Chidori that was shoved in his chest probably was laced with malicious chakra, furthering the damage.

"Well, to be blunt, your reserves just stopped existing," Sasori said as he drank down some sake, "Which is amazing in itself! To think, you're the first Jinchuriki unable to use his own chakra...how do you feel with only the Kyuubi's chakra?"

"How the fuck do you think I feel?" Naruto growled as his eyes flashed red, the realization of it all hitting him. He glared at the smiling man across from him, furious that he was amused at his predicament. Sasori was a puppet master of the highest degree, probably already having seen his dream out, but Naruto was only thirteen! THIRTEEN! No shinobi he's heard of (aside from a certain green jump suit wearing shinobi) has ever managed to be a beneficial shinobi without chakra. Throw in the fact his taijutsu was horrible and he couldn't use genjutsu to save his own ass, ninjutsu was all he had! How was he supposed to be Hokage without Chakra?

"Well, from your tone I'd say you're pissed!" laughed out the puppeteer before he sighed and took another swig from the bottle. As he drank, he leaned to the right and avoided the cup of sake thrown at his head. The redheaded man scowled and slammed his bottle down, glaring at the infuriated blonde, before calmly speaking, "Don't. Do. That."

"What are ya gonna do, huh? What are you gonna do that hasn't already been done? Beat me? Stab me?" Naruto yelled, standing on his feet and glaring at the man, his eyes unknowingly flashing red. Goliath looked between the two from its corner, before curling into a ball and lightly rattling.

"Sit down," Sasori said after a moment of silence, his eyes losing the anger once behind them as he studied the blonde's face. He swore he saw something. There was something in the flash of red that spoke volumes to him despite only being a glimpse.

"Why?" the blonde snapped with narrowed eyes, not noticing the red eyes that flashed again. An idea came to Sasori, and he had to be crazy to even try it.

"Just do it," the puppeteer grit out. His patience was wearing thin. This boy was so stubborn, but he had an idea to what the blonde's real issue was. As soon as Naruto sat, Sasori gave the blonde another smile, making Naruto wonder if he was bipolar, before he poured a much larger glass of sake. When it was full, he gave the bottle to Naruto and took the glass.

Hesitantly, Naruto took the bottle and looked in it before sniffing it cautiously. Sasori scoffed in annoyance.

"Like I would poison you now!" he exclaimed before taking a gulp of his sake and pointed at the bottle, "Drink boy, you're gonna want to after I'm done talking."

Naruto wouldn't believe that man until much later when he looks back on his life and laughs in agreement.

"Kaasan...I'm home..." Kiba quietly said as he walked into the room, his fur-like jacket open and revealing his bandaged chest. Akamaru was in his arms, whimpering and depressed much like his partner. When no reply was heard, Kiba thanked Kami for the privacy and made an instant turn towards his room. He had a lot to think about and he wasn't in the mood to be ridiculed by his mother or sister for being bummed out. The young Inuzuka heir's door slammed shut and a pair of pained howls echoed in the room.

"Listen brat," Sasori said, pouring more sake for himself, "You may not be able to use chakra...but you've still got Yokai."

"Oi! I'm no homo!" Naruto exclaimed loudly, an angry blush on his face as he recalled an incident with his former teammate. Sasori paused and snickered.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," the redhead teased before cutting Naruto's rebuttal off with a wave of his hand, "I said Yokai, not Yaoi! Ero-Konohagakure Gaki...I swear...Yokai is the Kyuubi's chakra."

Naruto blinked then frowned, "I don't understand...I thought the Kyuubi was made of chakra?"

Sasori smiled and drank some sake before he spoke again in the same manner as a sensei, "Yokai is demonic aura, much like how chakra is human physical/mental aura. The difference between the two is slim, which is why most humans believe biju are made of chakra. Most jinchuriki, unlike yourself apparently, are pulled aside and separated from peers, trained and honed to be weapons. They're taught the same thing, so it's now a common belief...even to the biju."

"But...But Gaara used to be crazy! He thought his demon was his mother!" the blonde countered with confusion. Sasori scratched the side of his head.

"Then I've, err, been out of touch with recent training regarding jinchuriki," the puppeteer admitted before he returned to his carefree notion, "Anyway, this isn't true. Chakra and Yokai are like um...well, they're like water and oil in a way. Water and oil are both liquids and both do not harm us if contacting the skin unless their temperature isn't normal, yes?"

Seeing Naruto's nod, Sasori continued, "Well, we can't drink them both. Water is necessary for our survival, but if someone drank oil...well, let's just say they'll wish they hadn't. Same applies to Yokai and Chakra. When shinobi use chakra, hardly any harm can come from using their chakra, right?"

"Um...yes?" Naruto said, his response sounding rather confused and lost. Sasori sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"Ok, straight to the point then as I'm losing you," he grumbled to himself before looking at the teen, "Your chakra is gone, phht, kaput, empty, etc. Before it was gone and you used the Kyuubi's Yokai, the seal left on you by the Yondaime acted as a filter. It filtered the harmful powers of the demon's essence and filled you with pure chakra...hateful, but pure."

"How does this matter?" the blonde asked, looking down at the red orb swirling in his chest. He tapped on it once out of boredom before looking back at the puppeteer.

"I'm getting there!" Sasori waved off the question before continuing, "Just shut up and listen! Your seal's filter was powered by one thing; your chakra. It's gone now, though."

"Thanks for reminding me...again," Naruto grumbled as he looked at the bottle to his left and idly poked it. Sasori smacked a stick on his head before dropping it to the ground, earning the now annoyed blonde's attention.

"If you'll shut up and listen, you'll get what I'm saying!" Sasori snarled, making the blonde recoil, "Good! Now if we were to find a way to filter the Yokai through your system, which I know a way, you could retain all skills as a shinobi."

"What's the way? Tell me!" Naruto shouted, excitement and hope in his eyes. He earned another smack on the head and sat down, cradling his skull with a groan, before glaring up at the amused redhead and asking, "You're starting to enjoy this, aren't you?"

"Very much," Sasori confirmed with a smirk, earning muttered curses from the blonde, before he chuckled and patted the young preteen Jinchuriki's shoulder, "Oh relax, gaki! Now, to make this work, I have to alter your CSC slightly. I also have an idea..."

"What?" Naruto asked cautiously. Sasori grinned.

"How much do you know about forging with metal?" the puppeteer asked. Naruto furrowed his brows in confusion, making the puppeteer's smile grow.

A few days later, Naruto found himself cursing his newfound master as he worked in a forge that the puppeteer had deep beneath the opening of his small hole. The blonde worked hard as he lifted the metal mallet in his gloved hand to slam it down on a glowing piece of armor nearly as long as his forearm. The young jinchuriki paused and dragged the back of his gloved hand over his forehead to clear it of sweat.

"Don't stop, Naruto-kun!" Sasori called from his own forging area, making the blonde groan as he resumed working. He had an easier job, in Naruto's opinion anyway, and was constantly drawing on a sketch pad. What he was drawing, Sasori wouldn't say. When the blonde had inquired as to what he was drawing, the puppeteer merely smiled and said, "That'd ruin the surprise, my young friend."

Finally, Naruto had had enough. He slammed the hammer down angrily on the metal just as it finished cooling and he chucked the curved metal at Sasori's feet, making the S-ranked nuke-nin look up from his project. The blonde pulled his gloves off and then ditched the white shirt drenched in sweat, revealing his red glowing 'heart'.

"I'm done! There! I curved the metal," the blonde snarled, going to a cooler and grabbing a bottle of water. Sasori blinked and picked the metal up, examining it for a moment before shrugging and chucking it behind him into the furnace. Naruto, seeing this, dropped his water bottle in shock.

"WHAT THE HELL?" he cried, confused, exhausted, and utterly pissed at the older shinobi's action, "I've been working on that for almost four hours! Why'd ya do that?"

"I did that because you passed," Sasori said, making the blonde frown in confusion even more. The puppeteer smiled and stood, hiding the picture under his arm, before he spoke, "Because of your...predicament, I have successfully developed a countermeasure to your, um..."

"Lack of chakra?" Naruto suggested, his voice seeming annoyed. He hadn't been enjoying the fact he doesn't have chakra anymore. The fact the Kyuubi kept trying to cheer him up about it didn't help.

"Poor Naru-chan...Don't fret my Kit," cooed the demon from the back of his head, "I believe your new acquaintance has found something that will surely help you get even with that Uchiha..."

Ignoring the Fox's soothing, which made the blonde snort at the thought of the demon trying to soothe him, Naruto looked expectantly at the redhead puppeteer as he nodded, "Not what I wanted to say, but if you want to be blunt...Anyway, that little orb keeping you alive does much more than I expected. It acts as a filter for the yokai flowing through your veins...only, instead of converting yokai to chakra; it seems to be making your chakra coils become more tolerant to your demon's essence. However, it's not protecting your skin, so if you used it in a fight, you'd be dead within ten minutes...that is, if you didn't already die by your opponent's hand."

"Oi!" Naruto cried in annoyance, "Cut to the chase ya old buzzard!"

Sasori laughed at the insult before flipping his drawing pad around and showing it to the boy. Naruto's eyes widened as he looked over the drawing. It was of a grey, iron-looking bipedal fox. A large sectioned tail came from the back while the clawed feet and hands looked similar to that of the two Demon Brothers of the Mist's gauntlets he had seen long ago. The mask looked like Kakashi's only a metal helm covering it had fangs jutting over the cloth (as Sasori had indicated the part to be made from with a line) and gave the humanoid face a more demonic appeal. The entire sketched head reminded him of some of the Oto Nin's attire from the Oto/Suna invasion, the eyes being uncovered while two large ears beginning where he assumed his ears dropped curved up and out, looking much like a fox's. The torso was lithe and had a revealed circle, revealing the red circle that was his heart.

"Whoa..." Naruto said with a slacked jaw, "That's...That's...so freakin cool, Dattebayo..."

Sasori laughed at that and hung the image on the wall before putting his hands on his hips in pride, "I know. I designed it."

"What's it for?" Naruto asked, looking over the image with a curious face. Sasori grinned and put a hand on the blonde jinchuriki's shoulder.

"That..." the esteemed puppeteer said with a grin, "Is going to be your suit of armor."

Naruto furrowed his brows and looked up at him. Sasori grinned down and began to explain, "Well, if you're going to use your Biju's yokai, you'd like to live afterwards, right?"

"Yeah...Oh! This armor is gonna be like a filter?" Naruto asked, realizing the importance of the red lines decorating the armor. His eyes shined with excitement and Sasori grinned down at him.

"Bingo! Now, if we do this right with no mistakes, we can have your armor ready within the month," the redhead said, clapping his hands together and rubbing them, "Let's get to it!"

A month passed and as Sasori predicted, they were done forging and preparing the suit. Sasori had also taken time from the week to increase the young blonde's knowledge of the world. Naruto had stubbornly fought the fact that Konohagakure no Sato wasn't all peace and prosperity like he thought, making the lessons a bit longer than the puppeteer would have liked, but eventually, Naruto succumbed to reason. He learned that Greed drives most men, Power only further corrupts them, and the most important lesson of his life: Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.

Not to mention the blonde discovered he had a gift when it came to drawing seals. He had already drawn a few sealing tattoos on his arms, legs, and chest, although he had to have Sasori draw one on his back. At the base of his head on the back of his neck was another tattoo, a swirl of multiple kanji for when he would store the armor's helmet.

Needless to say, the first attempt at syncing the armor to his yokai didn't end well. In fact, all it did was shoot the pieces of armor from his body, scattering them and shattering many of Sasori's scavenged puppets. The redheaded puppeteer had a small shit fit and left the cave for an hour to destroy a small village.

The second attempt went better, but it still ended in disaster. Mainly that his armor remained stuck to his body for an additional forty-five minutes. Naruto wasn't pleased with that. Especially since he had to use the toiletries.

Finally, they succeeded in their goal. Naruto stood opposite of Sasori and Goliath while standing outside of the cave. He had seals decorating his whole body, similar to Sasuke's cursed seal, only they would spawn from his chest rather than his neck, and rather than fading from red into black, the marks would glow from red to a golden yellow. Sasori opened his notebook and reviewed the notes he had written the day before. The blonde grinned and slammed his hands together in the Ram seal, his voice echoing as he exclaimed, "Seisou Suru (Suit Up)!"

Sasori stared as the markings spread from Naruto's CSC the same as the day before. The yellow markings glowed brightly, and had he not been accustomed to the sunlight, he would have been blinded by the released energy. The puppeteer grinned as the black humanoid fox flexed his claws, the red eyes beneath the helm glowing brightly as Naruto tapped into his tenant's yokai.

"I could definitely get used to this!" Naruto exclaimed from beneath his armor. The cooling seals that kept him from overheating worked, had they not, he would be a very unhappy camper. The blonde grinned as he went through the normal start-up sequences, "Ok, Kyuubi-baka. You wanna make points right? Give me the Head's Up!"

"Of course Naru-chan!" The demoness chimed in the back of his mind as holographic images imbedded themselves in his head, "You have auto-targeting systems, a design Sasori-kun had thought up, as well as multiple storage seals for projectiles in your forearms, hands, and a rather nasty set of claws, as you know. While using this suit, you can safely access the equivalent of three tails of my yokai. Your speed, senses, and reflexes are enhanced as you and Sasori-kun designed them, but I modified them slightly to further your success rate. I told you before; I won't stand for a weak container!"

Naruto scoffed and rolled his neck before settling in a crouched stance as he looked at Sasori, "All right then. Sasori-sensei! Get the clock ready!"

Sasori grinned and pulled a stopwatch out. He held a hand up and looked at the armored boy before he spoke, "Remember: Suna's gates and back, Naruto-kun!"

Naruto nodded and he crouched down like a fox would, his hands flattening into the sand and his toes arching like the hind leg of a quadruped animal (or a fox). The large four inch wide, three foot long tail swaying in anticipation. The red eyes narrowed as a bead of sweat went down the side of his head.

"GO!"

The sound of an explosion was heard nearly fifteen miles away, where three Suna chunin were walking near their home. A boy with red hair and black circles around his eyes snapped his head in the sound's direction and a small smile crossed his face.

"Gaara?" the blonde girl with her hair pulled back into ponytails said; concern in her voice. Gaara looked at his elder siblings and he locked his green eyes on them. Temari and Kankuro were both distraught with the loss of the blonde genin that had rescued him a month prior, but both were still acting strong for his sake. He released a tear the day Tsunade informed them of Naruto's 'death', and he hadn't spoken since.

For the first time in nearly a month, the two Suna chunin saw happiness and hope reflecting in the eyes of their younger brother. They were confused by it, but the confusion left when Gaara looked back at the sight of an approaching silhouette, clouds of sand billowing behind it as it dashed towards them.

A gust of wind past them and the two elder siblings had to shield their eyes as sand flew around. The young redhead stood in place and his smile grew when his eyes met with two red glowing ones as the gust returned, only this time coming from the opposite direction.

"It seems," the Ichibi jinchuriki began stoically, earning his brother and sister's attention, "That Naruto is still alive."

AN: AND I'M BAAAAACK! Enjoy it! Love it! I DON'T CARE! REVIEW BITCHES! REVIEW!