Hello my good friends and welcome to another chapter of Perfection. Now then, I am going to respond to some of the reviews I have received before I do much else. Thor94: Thank you, and yes that is part of the reasoning that I put her there, however they are both greatly changed from their canon selves. Yaoi's of Naruto: Yes I do plan to include that at some point, most likely when Haku and Naruto meet again; I will add it in the form of a flashback. Rickjames196 (Responding to all 4 reviews in one go here): Yes, as I do believe I have said previously Naruto does gain power from eating others, the method will be explained later, more than likely when he becomes a genin. Naruto is not the only one who can benefit from eating others; he is simply the first one to try it in the modern shinobi world. For your comment of competition, well there are millions upon millions of people within the elemental nations, so unless Naruto converts hundreds of thousands of people then it won't put much of a dent in the "buffet table" so to speak. Milennial: Thank you good sir! I am always happy to hear from others that enjoy this sort of things as I do. I will put your pairing into consideration and on the poll, although if it is chosen I will have to watch that arc, as I have not yet. I may even watch it if she is not chosen, it sounds interesting and you never know I might include it in this story.

Also, to all those (There are quite a few of you) who tried to insist that I include a harem to fit in with the theme of relying on instincts, there is a major plot element of the Naruto series that you are forgetting, The Kyuubi. Naruto has been affected by the Kyuubi since birth, and it has had some effect on his instincts as well, namely making them slightly more influential to him and slightly more animalistic. But it also made them more… well… Fox-like. Foxes have the tendency to take a single mate and remain with them for life. This could be nothing if not instinct and therefore the idea has transferred unto Naruto, so yes, this fic will remain single pairing. I have nothing against harem fics, and have read some very good ones, but I prefer to write this as single pairing, which I find to be more realistic and allows for much more relationship development.

Without further ado, let us begin this new chapter of Perfection.

=Prey=

-Konoha-

'Well, that was an interesting ordeal…' Thought Naruto as he walked through the streets. It was very early in the morning, the sun was just barely rising into the sky, and thus the streets were nearly empty except for a few civilians opening up their shops and several shinobi going about their duties.

'Perhaps I can cause similar developments in others just as I did to Haku…' Naruto thought as he wandered, no real destination in his mind.

'But that raises the question of just who I would do it to.' As Naruto wandered the streets, the few civilians currently outside parted, trying to get as far away from the cloaked boy as possible. News of his… unique eating habits spread quickly after he had revealed it to his classmates, and caused a great amount of fear in the people, as the thought that the 'Demon Child' would devour them at the first chance.

'Their fear is irrational… The Sandaime forbid me from eating any of them without being attacked first.' Naruto thought with a smirk on his face 'Although, if not for that, I most definitely would have done so, so perhaps they are right in their fears…'

'But back to the issue at hand, who would I make into a cannibal like myself?' Naruto mused as he walked towards one of the training grounds that were scattered around Konoha.

'Perhaps I could convince Anko… No no I haven't known her quite long enough to have that kind of effect on her. The Sandaime? No, much too old, he would be too set in his views.' Naruto thought as he reached the training field and began doing some basic exercises. Nothing too strenuous, at least for him, doing 200 pushups, 200 sit-ups, 100 squats and running around the entire training ground 50 times would definitely be strenuous for any other children his age, but to him it was just a regular warm-up.

Naruto continued to think about it throughout his workout, but couldn't seem to come up with someone he could convert to his habits. As Naruto relaxed after his workout, his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a voice that he recognized very well, along with the barks of what seemed to be a small dog.

Just moments later one Inuzuka Kiba ran onto the training ground. "Just you wait Akamaru, we will learn this new technique and we will beat that teme* Sasuke for sure!" Akamaru responded by yipping excitedly.

Naruto laughed slightly at his friends supposed "rivalry" with the current top member of their class, Sasuke Uchiha. He did better than everyone in all subjects, except for Naruto. The main reason Sasuke was at the top of the class is that Naruto found the history lessons to be somewhat boring and mostly irrelevant to his career as a ninja. As such, he paid very little attention during those sessions and ended up barely passing those types of classes.

Hearing the sound of the laughter, Kiba turned towards the tree Naruto was currently resting under. Upon seeing his friend Kiba grinned wildly and waved to Naruto, saying "Hey Naruto! It's been a while where have you been?" Smiling at his friend's enthusiasm, Naruto said "Oh I was just on a mission, collecting a bit more food."

'Wait a moment… How did I not think of it before! Yes, Kiba will do nicely; I just have to wait for the right moment…' And his moment would come soon, sooner than he had thought.

-12 days later-

"Alright class, make sure you have everything you need for the trip, we won't be coming back for about a week, so you can't afford to be missing anything!" Yelled Iruka as he looked around to make sure that everyone was present.

After making sure that no one was missing Iruka called out "Alright, does everyone have everything?" After receiving answers of yes from everyone, the method ranging from a simple nod to an excited yell, he turned towards the path up the Hokage monument. "Alright everyone, let's go!" Iruka said and he began leading the class up the monument, with Mizuki bringing up the rear to make sure none of the students wandered off.

"Aw yeah! I've been looking forward to this for weeks!" Shouted an excited Inuzuka Kiba as he walked next to his friend Naruto and did a small jump while throwing his fist into the air.

Naruto laughed at his over-excited friend and said "I've been looking forward to this too, though by the looks of it not even close to as much as you've been."

This event they were talking about was the annual Academy Field Trip. Unlike field trips in normal civilian schools where field trips were relaxing and usually simple activities that lasted no more than a day, the academy field trip was much more literal in its language. This field trip was made to simulate to the students what it would be like during their shinobi careers. This involved splitting the students up into groups of two or three and letting them survive mostly on their own for around a week. The teachers made sure everything went smoothly and each student was given a flare to set off if anything went wrong.

They did this every year, with increasing difficulty based on your year in the academy. This year was the first year that it would be done without the normal daily check-ups from the teachers, so many of the students were excited to see just how well they could do on their own.

This year they had been allowed to pick their own partners, so Kiba and Naruto near instantly made a group, which had remained a group of two due to the rest of the class's fear of Naruto.

After about half an hour of walking, Iruka came to a stop in the middle of a somewhat large clearing with the rest of the class following suit. "Alright everyone!" Iruka announced "This is where you will all be split up into the individual groups and lead to your area by a clone of either me or Mizuki-sensei! Remember, you must work together in order to survive out there, and if anything that you can't handle comes up, just fire one of the flares that we have provided you with. If it is anything crippling or life-threatening, fire all of the flares from your group so that we know to get there right away, understand?"

"Yes sensei!" called out the children "Alright, then let's begin! And remember, be safe and have fun!" The students all let out a cheer as Iruka and Mizuki each made several earth clones and split the groups between them. The real Iruka ended up with a group that contained three somewhat generic children from civilian families, and took them to their spot.

Mizuki on the other hand ended up, quite intentionally I might add, with the group of Naruto and Kiba. Mizuki began leading the two in the opposite direction of where Iruka had gone. Since they were following behind him, neither of them saw the cruel smirk upon his face.

'Finally, this is my chance to finally get rid of the Kyuubi brat!' Mizuki thought darkly as he lead the two further into the woods, much further than he was supposed to. Neither had questioned their teacher because they thought that because they were older this time that they got to be a bit farther out.

'All I have to do is get them far out into the woods and then kill them! I will finally get my revenge for that night! The entire village will celebrate me as a hero and the Hokage will break free from the illusion that the Kyuubi has obviously put on him! I'll be promoted to Jonin right away! It's a shame that the Inuzuka kid has to die as well, but he will thank me in the afterlife for freeing him from the Kyuubi's control.'

As Mizuki went on with his delusions, Naruto and Kiba began wondering when they were going to stop. Finally, Kiba built up enough courage to ask "Mizuki-sensei, when are we going to stop? We are pretty far away already."

This seemed to break Mizuki from his thoughts and cause him to look around. Seeing as he was already further than he intended to bring them, Mizuki turned to the pair and said "Alright, this should be far enough. Now then, I have something to tell you both." Both Naruto and Kiba looked curious, although Kiba slightly more so than Naruto "What is it Mizuki-sensei?" asked Naruto

"Well, what I need to tell you is…" Mizuki said as he reached towards the giant shuriken on his back "DIE KYUUBI!" he shouted as he threw the shuriken

Naruto was surprised by the teacher's sudden actions; he had known that the man disliked him, but hadn't thought that he would attack them like this. Kiba's eyes were widened with shock and he couldn't move from fear as he watched the shuriken spin ever closer, as if moving in slow motion. He couldn't move, he couldn't breathe 'Is this where it ends of me?' he thought as he watched the approaching bladed star. 'No! No this can't be the end! I need to move! Why can't I move!?' Came Kiba's panicked thoughts 'Damn it why can't I move! I don't want to die here!'

As Kiba's fate got closer and closer he closed his eyes, waiting for the sharp pain of death to come. This feeling never came as instead he felt what seemed like someone hitting him in the side followed by the pain of hitting the ground. Opening his eyes, Kiba realized that Naruto had tackled him out of the way.

'Thank you, Naruto…' Kiba thought as black invaded his vision. His eyes slowly closed, and he went unconscious from the shock and fear that he had experienced.

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he saw that Kiba had gone unconscious. He grabbed the limp body of his friend and jumped away from his teacher towards the nearest treeline, dropping their supplies on the ground in the process. And he had done so not a moment too soon for as soon as he had jumped away the place where they had been was hit by a kunai, the explosive tag that had been attached to it promptly destroying their bags.

"Damn you demon brat! Stand still so that I can kill you!" Screamed Mizuki as he charged at Naruto, drawing a kunai in each hand. Naruto jumped behind a tree, leaving Kiba there and hopping back out into the open knowing that Mizuki would focus on him first before attacking Kiba.

Just as Naruto predicted, Mizuki turned and charged him once again, paying no mind to the unconscious Inuzuka. As Mizuki approached, Naruto thought over his options 'I may be strong, but Mizuki is a chunin for a reason, I won't be able to beat him in a straight fight. That means I either have to surprise him with a trap of some form, or make him underestimate me and kill him when he least expects it.' Naruto thought as he ran and dodged out of the way of Mizuki, using his kunai to deflect the teacher's, but could not stop all of them and received several cuts on his arms and a cut on his left shoulder. 'Well I can't escape him for long enough to set a trap, so I'll have to go with the second option, this is gonna hurt…' Naruto thought.

Naruto then opened up his guard and faked fatigue. Mizuki, as he had been expecting the 'demon brat' to be pathetic and weak, bought it and kicked Naruto across the clearing. Naruto hit a tree and slid down it, letting out a seemingly pathetic groan as he hit the ground. Mizuki smirked and ran across the clearing, lifting up the downed boy and punching him multiple times in the stomach before once again kicking him across the clearing.

Mizuki walked up the Naruto and smirked confidently, pulling out a single kunai and leaning down over the boy. "Any last words, you filthy demon?" Mizuki said as he confidently spun the kunai around on his finger. When Naruto said nothing, Mizuki laughed darkly "Good, demonic scum like you doesn't deserve last words, let alone a life at all!" Upon finishing his sentence Mizuki quickly thrust his kunai down. As the kunai descended upon him Naruto saw his opportunity and thrust the kunai he had hidden in his cloak toward the crazed chunin as fast as he could.

But it was all for naught as Mizuki had nearly every advantage. Mizuki was stronger, faster and more experienced than Naruto, so he blocked the kunai with his own with relative ease. "Hah, demon brat, did you really think that would work? You stupid piece of shit, you really thought a chunin like me would ever be caught off guard by just an academy student?! You can't beat me, so just die demon!"

Naruto watched as Mizuki held his kunai in place with one are while drawing another kunai in his free hand. He saw the sick grin on his face as he plunged the kunai down towards his chest. 'I… I failed…' Naruto thought 'I guess this is the end huh? I never thought it would end like this.' Naruto thought as he closed his eyes. 'I'm sorry I couldn't save you Kiba, I guess I just wasn't strong enough.'

Naruto listened to the whistle of the wind and the swaying of the leaves as his death neared closer and closer 'I hope death doesn't hurt, I've had enough pain during my life as it is…' Naruto calmly waited for his death, opening himself to feel its cold embrace. His senses dampened, his life flashing before him, and he simply sat there.

Waiting for the end

Waiting for a stop to the constant pain that had been his life

Waiting for escape

Waiting for peace

Waiting for the cold embrace

And for a moment, just a moment, as he thought over his life, Naruto accepted his fate

Accepted his death

Accepted his fate

Wanted to die

And so he waited, not thinking of saving himself

Not thinking of anything at all

Just waiting

And waiting

And waiting…

…

…

…

…

'What is taking that son of a bitch so long?' Naruto thought as he opened his eyes

And was shocked by what he saw

He saw Mizuki

Lying by his side

His eyes wide, his expression shocked

And a kunai sticking out of the back of his head

Naruto looked around and saw Kiba, his friend, his only friend, with his hand still outstretched from throwing the kunai. Kiba saw him looking, and just smiled.

=End=

Well then everyone, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter of Perfection! I would love any form of response and any constructive criticism to help me with my writing. I hope to hear from you all, and will respond to any review or message that I can. Now then, I bid you all a good night.

Until the next moonlit night,

Musamura