Perfection

by Musamura

Everyone has an animal inside of them, In some it's just a bit louder than in others. On the night of a particularly painful beating, the animal inside one Naruto Uzumaki awakens. Merging with the true Naruto, they become the ultimate predator. This new Naruto has only one goal in mind, to achieve Perfection. Rated M for Gore, Language, and perhaps some other things later on.

9. The Forest

Hello friends and welcome to another chapter of Perfection. The first chapter of my planned new story is in progress, but I want those chapters to be noticeably longer than the chapters for Perfection, so it will take a bit longer for me to update it, however it should be out relatively soon, so be sure to check that out when I put it up. Now then, on to the responses to reviews

thor94: I'm glad you liked it, it's always nice to hear that there are people out there as twisted as me. Poor Sakura indeed friend, poor Sakura indeed...

NaruShika-Forever: Thank you friend, I try. *dark chuckle*

LordGhostStriker: I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with Sakura just yet, I have a few ideas rolling around in my head but whatever I do I can assure you it will be... interesting to say the least.

RandomWriter21: Thank you for the positivity, I hope you will continue to enjoy this chapter as much as the previous ones.

Absimilard: I don't know what would have made it seem terribly short, it was one of the longer chapters I've written for this story. The list of the other teams are missing because 1. Teams 1-6 don't matter and 2. I ended the chapter just after team 7 was called, so the other teams hadn't actually been called yet. On your other point, I am a firm believer in the idea that if you change things, things will change. That is, when something is different going into a situation, the outcome of that situation will be different. I have no plans on having everything going as canon for this story, hell the only reason I am putting them through to wave arc is that I need to in order to bring Haku back into the story.

Guests (various): Glad to see you're enjoying yourselves.

Th 1998: I don't plan to friend, you have nothing to worry about

Also, just so that it's clear because it won't be stated in this chapter due to the perspective I'm keeping and consistency reasons, I have basically switched Kiba and Sasuke in terms of team placement, so now Sasuke is on Team 8 and Kiba is on Team 7. Everything else is the same, Kakashi will be failing one of the other teams this year, but he might come back later. Also, Akamaru is no longer with Kiba as his family had taken him away because of Kiba's chosen... dietary style. The Inuzuka clan didn't want Akamaru to pick up on Kiba's habits due to the bad reputation that man-eating dogs would bring the clan. I will probably show the exact series of events via flashback in a later chapter.

Also, just in case it wasn't apparent already, here is the guild for the various types of speech/thought in this fic.

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Talking in a different language"

'Thinking in a different language'

"Demonic/Large Summon speaking"

'Demonic/Large Summon thinking'

(Authors Note)

-Location/Time setting-

Now then, without any further ado, I give you the next chapter of Perfection.

=The Forest=

"Alright, you heard the man kiddies, meet me on the roof on five minutes! And if you're late I'll skin ya alive, so hurry up!" Anko exclaimed before going the way she came... using a different window. Iruka silently shook his head thinking about how those windows were probably coming out of his paycheck as Naruto and Kiba both nodded towards each other before walking out the door towards the roof.

Sakura, who had remained behind, was thinking 'No no no why of all the teams I could get I get THEM! I'm gonna die, I better start writing my will now...' "Sakura-san?" 'I'll leave my collection of pictures of Sasuke to Ino and my savings to' "Sakura!" 'Maybe I can get out of this, yes yes that's it I can run away from the village! I'll move to Iwa and change my name to Pam and work at a clothing store and I can' "SAKURA!" Iruka yelled at the top of his lungs. Sakura jumped a good foot in the air and stared shocked at Iruka with her hair standing on end. "You need to get going Sakura, you heard what Anko said she would do if you were late, and she wasn't joking."

Realizing Iruka was right, she immediately ran at full speed out of the classroom and towards the roof. A minute later she got to the roof to see Anko sitting on a railing while Naruto and Kiba were sitting on a nearby bench. Anko turned to look at her from her conversation with the two and said "Well, looks like you made it. You're lucky, if you'd have been about fifteen seconds later I would have had to skin you alive." with this Sakura let out a breath of relief and proceeded to sit down as far away from Naruto and Kiba as she could afford.

"Alright, now that you're all here, let's start with some introductions. I'll go first to show ya how it's done." said Anko "My name is Anko Mitarashi, I like Dango, snakes and working in the T&I division, I dislike perverts, ignorance and a very specific snake. My hobbies are eating dango, torturing prisoners and feeding my snakes. My dreams are too graphic for me to tell you just yet." Anko finished and then pointed towards Sakura. "You go first, since you were the last one to get here." "O-Okay." Sakura stuttered "M-My name is Sakura Haruno, I like doing my hair and Sasuke-kun, I dislike..." At this Sakura glanced over at Naruto and Kiba, who were both staring at her with glowing predatory eyes. Sakura gulped and said "I-Ino-pig. My h-hobbies are d-doing my hair and talking to Sasuke. My dream is to..." Sakura left off with a loud and somewhat perverted giggle, temporarily forgetting her surroundings

Seeing that the girl was not going to continue, Anko then pointed to Kiba and said "You next dog-breath." Kiba smirked and said "My name is Kiba Inuzuka. I like my friend Naruto, my clan and hunting. I dislike weak people and cats. My hobbies are training and hunting. My dream is to become the head of my clan by proving myself better than my sister." Kiba finished grinning at the thought of surpassing his sister. Anko nodded seemingly in approval and turned towards Naruto "Alright sharp-tooth, you're up." She said as she gestured in his direction. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like eating, training and putting fear into the hearts of my prey. I dislike the weak and arrogant people. My hobbies are chasing prey, eating said prey and training. My dream is.. to achieve perfection." Naruto finished, his face never losing its glowing eyes and sharp toothed grin.

"Alright, now that the introductions are out of the way I can get on to the main point of meeting you three up here." Anko said "That is, none of you are actually genin yet." At this Naruto and Kiba's eyes widened slightly and Sakura gained a surprised but hopeful expression.

"What do you mean we aren't genin yet? We passed the test didn't we?" Kiba asked, looking irritated. Anko smirked at him and said "What you passed was the test that we use to weed out the ones with no hope whatsoever. This test is the one that will really determine if you are ready to become a genin, and trust me, it's much more difficult. There is a 66 percent chance that you won't pass this test." At this, Kiba and Naruto's eyes widened slightly more in surprise and Sakura's face gained a blatantly hopeful look to it.

"Come to training ground 44 at noon tomorrow and I'll give you the test. Bring whatever you think you will need for an overnight mission. And don't be late unless you want to be fed to my snakes." Anko ended with a large grin on her face and then disappeared in a cloud of smoke. After spending a moment looking at the space their new sensei had just left, Naruto turned towards Kiba.

"That was... interesting. I wonder what this new test is." he said as he started walking towards his home. "Kiba, you want to come over and have a bite to eat? I recently got my hands on an Iwa spy from the execution chambers, he seems to have a decent amount of chakra in him as well." Sakura blanched and turned, attempting to slowly escape from her two 'teammates'. "No thanks dude, my mom said she wanted me to come straight home so we could celebrate. I'll see you tomorrow, you to Sakura-san." At the mention of her name Sakura froze from where she had been about to leave the roof and watched silently as Kiba walk past her and down the stairs she had been about to take. As she watched Kiba turn reach the base of the stairs and begin walking away, she let out a silent sigh of relief.

"You know Sakura-san, we aren't going to make a meal out of you." Naruto spoke from directly behind Sakura, causing her to turn completely white and slowly turn to look at him. "We aren't allowed to eat fellow shinobi, we'd be arrested for murder right on the spot." Naruto said while stepping past Sakura towards the stairwell. At Naruto's words, Sakura began to calm down slightly and regained a small amount of the color that her face had lost. "Besides, you wouldn't be that good of a meal anyway. Almost nothing but skin and bones, with limited chakra reserves to boot. You'd be more of a light snack than a meal." With this Naruto headed down the stairs and towards the exit of the building.

-Naruto's house-

Naruto sat in his house, thinking about his day and preparing dinner for himself. As he laid out strips of the freshly torn out arm and was about to fill his glass from a with the blood of the most recently captured Iwa spy, he received a knock on his door. Placing down his glass he moved to the door and opened it. On the other side was a boar masked ANBU. "The Hokage requests your presence in his office." the ANBU said, extending a hand in an offer to shunshin Naruto there. "Alright, just a second ANBU-san." At this Naruto turned back into his home and looked towards the Iwa ninja that was tied to the wall. "Don't you go dying on me until I get home okay? You'll taste better fresh!" Naruto then turned back towards the ANBU and took the hand that was offered. Both Naruto and the ANBU disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

-Hokage's office-

The Sandaime Hokage was sitting quietly in his office, swiftly dealing with his worst enemy: paperwork. He had so far managed to get halfway through his last pile when Naruto and the boar masked ANBU appeared in the center of the room. The Hokage smiled lightly and said "Thank you Boar, you are dismissed." With that the ANBU bowed and disappeared in another plume of smoke. The Hokage then turned to look at Naruto, who had a curious look in his glowing eyes. "I'm sure you're wondering why I brought you here Naruto." The Sandaime said, earning a nod from Naruto. "Well, it's about a secret I think it's time you learned. This was a secret kept from not only you, but every child of your generation."

"You know the story of the Kyuubi right?" The Sandaime asked. Naruto nodded and nonchalantly said "You mean the one that the Yondaime sealed inside of me?" At this the Sandaime's eyes widened and he stared at Naruto in shock. When he finally calmed down enough to speak after a few moments he asked "You knew? How did you find out?" The Sandaime wanted to know so that he could execute whoever had revealed it to the boy. "I learned when I my outer self merged with my inner instincts. Spending all that time in my mind, my instincts were easily able to find the Kyuubi, although it isn't exactly awake yet." Naruto explained.

The Sandaime released a deep sigh and said "I apologize for having to learn of such a thing so early in your life. I was planning to wait until you became a genin to tell you because I thought it would help you handle the news more easily." Naruto took on a slightly darker expression, with narrowed eyes and for once in the past few months he lost his sharp toothed grin. "I understand, Sandaime-sama." The Sandaime flinched at the cold tone Naruto used "I hope that you can also understand that I trust you quite a bit less now. There are probably half a dozen other things you're hiding from me right now."

The Sandaime had a flash of guilt in his eyes before he managed to hide it due to his many years of experience. "I will tell you when you're ready, Naruto." At this Naruto grew even more aggravated and with a light growl stormed out of the room back towards his home. 'I'm sorry Naruto, but you just aren't ready to know yet.' the Sandaime thought as he turned back to his pile of paperwork and began reading the first one with a depressed sigh.

-Training field 44, noon the next day-

Sitting just outside of a large forest were the three members of team 7. The forest they stood outside was extremely think, with trees over 10 meters thick and taller than many of the buildings in Konoha. They all were sitting for the same purpose: waiting for their sensei to arrive. As they sat, two of them simply wondered about what their test would be and what they would be doing when they became genin. The third of them, however, was thinking very different thoughts than the first two.

'Oh no what do I do?' Sakura thought 'I don't know what I should do, should I tell Sensei that I don't want to be a genin? But then Sasuke-kun will never notice me! Naruto said that he and Kiba weren't allowed to eat me, but do I really trust him?' Sakura then clenched her fist in front of her face and gained a determined look. 'No, I have to do this, for Sasuke-kun.' Sakura was so focused in on her internal argument that she didn't notice the shadow appearing behind her.

"I see you all made it here on time!" Anko yelled from behind Sakura, causing said girl to freeze and slowly turn around, face whiter than snow. "Alight, now it's time for your test, if you pass then you become fully fledged genin, if you fail... well you're probably dead already." At this Sakura started shivering in fear, while Kiba and Naruto's grins widened slightly.

"Now, your test will be... to survive one night in this forest!" Anko explained, pointing her thumb behind her to indicate the large fenced in forest behind her. "Now, before you go getting cocky about this test, I'll explain exactly what this forest is." Anko said upon seeing the slightly relieved look on Sakura's face and the disappointed ones on Naruto and Kiba's faces. "This is Training Ground 44, also known as the 'Forest of Death'. We use this forest to test genin who might be worthy of becoming chunin. This is because of the wildlife in the forest. Most of the animals and plants in that forest are either gigantic, poisonous, or in most cases, both."

Upon hearing this, Sakura's face fell, while Naruto and Kiba's grins came back full force. "Alright, as for the rules of the test, you need to stay the full night inside the forest and come back out alive in order to pass, however, you are not allowed to set up any form of camp for the night until you are at least one kilometer away from the fence surrounding the forest. I will be back here at noon tomorrow, only then will you be let out of the forest. And remember, if you break my rules, there will be... consequences. Good luck!" With that Anko opened the gates and motioned them in.

Naruto and Kiba immediately grinned at each other and then ran into the forest, with Sakura trailing behind them, panicking at the thought of them leaving her behind. 'I wonder if those kids will make it? Ah well, just gotta hope for the best.' With that Anko began walking towards her favorite dango stand, unaware of the large slitted eyes that had been watching the entire ordeal.

-Inside the Forest of Death-

"I wonder what kind of stuff even live in this forest." Kiba said to Naruto as they continued hopping through the tree branches, Sakura just behind them. "I mean, if the size of these trees is any hint then the stuff here has got to me enormous!" Naruto nodded in agreement with Kiba, then turned his head sharply to the left as he heard a rustling sound. "Well Kiba, looks like we're about to find out!" Naruto exclaimed as a massive centipede burst through the branches and flew towards them. It was red, over 30 feet long, with black legs and massive yellow pincers in front of its sharp toothed mouth. It let out a loud screech as it neared them. When it got close to the genin, all three of them jumped backwards, allowing the centipede to crash headfirst into the trunk of a large tree. While it was stunned from the impact Naruto whipped out his kusarigama and swung them towards the insect, hooking them into one of the gaps between the plates that made up the centipede's hide. Naruto pulled himself towards the insect using the chains and landed on its back near its head.

While this was happening Kiba and a frightened Sakura prepared to back Naruto up, when they heard growling noises coming from behind a nearby tree. As the turned towards the tree they saw two very large gorilla-esque creatures with abnormally large limbs. These creatures let lose a roar and charged at the two genin. Kiba managed to jump away, but Sakura was frozen in fear and did nothing as the two creatures charged at her. When they got within 10 meters of her she let out a high pitched scream and her legs gave out, leaving her in a sitting position. Sakura's eyes were wide in terror as the creatures got closer and closer to her. Just as they were swinging their massive arms at her, she snapped her eyes shut...

Until she heard a massive crash and two loud roars of pain! She quickly opened her eyes to see the giant centipede that Naruto was fighting crushing the two gorilla creatures between its large mandibles while Naruto himself rode on its back. She watched in amazement and horror as the massive centipede split the two creatures in half at the waist, where it then proceeded to begin eating the beasts. Naruto jumped off the back of the centipede and walked over to Sakura, extending a hand to her in order to pull her up. Sakura could see Naruto's lips moving, but couldn't hear what he was saying as the shock of the situation overcame her and she slipped into unconsciousness.

"Keh, shoulda figured that she would faint." Naruto said as he turned towards Kiba "Hey Kiba, you alright over there?" Kiba then jumped from his position a few branches back to stand next to Naruto on the particularly thick branch that he and Sakura were on. "Yeah, I'm fine. How'd you get that thing to attack those gorillas anyway?" Naruto chuckled and responded "I told you remember? I can talk to most species of carnivorous insects because of my summoning contract." Kiba gained a look of remembrance, then reached up and embarrassedly scratched the back of his head "Oh yeah, I guess that kinda slipped my mind, heh heh." Kiba said awkwardly.

Kiba then looked at Sakura and turned serious, saying "What should we do with her?" Naruto sighed and said "We have to take her with us, I'm pretty sure sensei and a few others will be angry if we just leave her here. We can just have the centipede carry her." Kiba nodded, lifting Sakura off of the branch and placing her on the centipede's back just as the insect finished its meal with a series of seemingly happy clicks. Naruto let out several more strange clicking noises "Please carry the girl and follow us, I'll give you some more food if you do" The insect nodded its large head and the group hurried off into the tree's farther away from the fence.

-Forest of Death, 1.5 kilometers from the fence, 9pm-

Naruto and Kiba had found a decently sized clearing near the base of a large tree and set up their camp in the small space underneath the slightly raised roots of said tree. The centipede had left after dropping Sakura when Naruto had thrown it a human arm he had in a storage seal. The beast had clicked happily and then vanished into the undergrowth. At the moment Naruto and Kiba were sitting around a small campfire eating a meal.

"So, Sakura still hasn't woken up yet?" Naruto asked Kiba as he sipped what seemed to be a stew made of human blood and a few strips of meat. "Nope, it doesn't seem like she's gonna wake up any time soon either." Kiba responded as he ate a similar stew. "Looks like we'll have to divide the watch between the two of us, so, who's gonna go first?" Naruto asked Kiba. Kiba gained a strange, somewhat anticipatory look and said "I'll take the first watch, I feel a bit restless." Naruto looked at Kiba for a moment with a bit of concern, but seeing that Kiba was firm in his decision Naruto said "Alright, I'm going to hit the sack now, wake me up around 1am." "Okay." Kiba responded, still with the strange mixture of anticipation and determination.

-Midnight-

Kiba had been sitting by the fire for three hours now and so far nothing had happened, everything was very quiet. This did nothing to help Kiba's nerves, Kiba kept thinking and he realized that it was much too quiet for a forest full of enormous predators. 'Something isn't right here.' Kiba thought as he stared into a patch of brush that seemed to draw all of his attention at the moment.

Then suddenly a pair of yellow slitted eyes appeared in the bush Kiba was staring into. Kiba's eyes widened and he was about to pull out a kunai when suddenly the pair of eyes rushed forwards into the clearing. The jet black beast charged at Kiba so fast that he barely had any time to pull his clawed gauntlets in front of him to block the blow from a massive, bloody set of fangs. He gazed onto the creature in the light of the campfire, revealing it to be a massive jet black wolf. "Come pup, prove your worth!" the wolf growled out as it pulled back its fangs and tried to maul Kiba with its razor sharp claws.

=End of Chapter 9=

Gyahahahahaha! I hope you all enjoyed this latest chapter of 'Perfection'. I had taken a rather large break around the holidays, but now I'm finally back into writing much more regularly. If you enjoyed, please favorite and possibly a review, I always love to hear from each person who reads my story. Feel free to ask me any questions you have via review or private message and be sure to keep a look out for my planned new story that will be coming out relatively soon.

Until the next moonlit night,

Musamura