Another Path

Chapter 9

No one voted for the summoning animal…..well I will pick for myself then.

So far, Naruto has Mokuton, Sunaton, Nothingness, Time, and Fuinjutsu. Yes he will have other but bloodline only. Think of the jutsu he could use from the dead bone pulse or ice…stuff like that. Yes Naruto will go to the mist….but later.

Anyway, here is the next chapter…

We find Naruto at the gates of Suna three days after the whole runes incident. Naruto healed in one day but the Kazekage and his family insisted that he stay a bit longer in thanks for bringing their family back together.

Temari was disappoint that Naruto already had a girlfriend but she quickly let it go, not wanting to anger him, but she developed a big crush on him though that did not go unnoticed by the Kazekage. The man did wonder if he could set up a political marriage. He pushed those thoughts till later. The boy had really changed his son and he was glad for it as he no longer had to get his son killed. That lead the two boys to become good friends and even Kankuro opened up to the blond.

Gaara had also decided to teach Naruto some sand moves since the blond now had control over sand like he did, the only difference was that that blond did not carry a huge jug on his back, just a couple of bottles and seal on his arm that contained a lot of sand.

Back to the gates, the group was saying their goodbyes. The Kazekage and Baki, the sand sibling's sensei, gave Naruto a scroll on wind and sand jutsu and a special surprise for the blond later. After hearing about Naruto's unique bloodline, they decided to give th eblodn something special.

Kankuro patted Naruto on the back and thanked him again for all that he did and Gaara, still not used to other emotions, just shook has with Naruto and smiled a little. He saw Naruto as a brother even though they were not related by blood. Temari was the one that shocked everyone as she walked right up to him and planted a kiss on his lips. "That is a thank you for saving my brother. It is truly a shame that you already have a girlfriend…I would have claimed you for myself if you didn't." She said with a smile as she saw his face really red that could make Hinata jealous.

Naruto shuttered before coughing his hand and saying, "Well…..I better go!" He then high tailed it out of there, sand being sent in all directions in his wake.

"Heh, now that was funny." Kankuro said a he watch Naruto ran away at top speeds. Brat better watch out, he might have a harem if these girls he is saving come together…luck brat.

With Naruto…that night…

Naruto has decided to take the scenic route to Konoha and head to the Fire Temple to see the sites. The Hokage expected his mission to be a lot long anyway so he had time. Right now though, he was sitting next to a camp fire he had made. Looking into the fire, he remembered about the scroll he had got from those runes.

So, he quickly took it out and opened. To his surprise, it was a summoning contract for Ravens! He had done his research and found out that these guys were helps to the shinigami. What was weird though was the fact the scroll was in some old runes in the land of sand! Shaking his head, he decided to sign the contract and see what would happen. He found that there was a special set of hand signs for him and went ahead and did them while sending a good amount of chakra into the jutsu. "Summoning Jutsu!"

In a large puff of smoke, a 40 foot raven appeared where he was standing. He was now on the bird's beak. Its giant eyes locked onto him and said, "You the one who summoned me?" The blond just nodded. "I see. Well, you do have the blood of a Shinigami in you, for it you did not, you would have died when you tried the summoning." At this, the blond soul reaper paled."Normally, summon creatures would have a test for you, but I think I will have no test because of the fact that there has not been a summoner in a very long time. Now, I will give you a familiar to work with you. Oh by the way, I forget the introductions!" The large summon squawked.

"Oh right, I am Naruto Uzumaki!"

"You may call me Maru! Now, what is it that you desire in life?"

"Well, I know that my time in my home village is short because there are those that want me dead even though I am not a demon container anymore. When that time comes, I wanted to find the entrance to the Soul Society and restore it!"

"I see, very noble of you. I never thought the day would come when someone would want to find that place. If that is the case, then return to the runes from which you found the summoning scroll, you will find a clue to your desire. Now, I will trust you will your familiar, my own daughter! KIRA!" When he said the name, a poof appeared next to Naruto. A smallish raven was revealed when the smoke was gone.

"What is it father?"

"We have a new summoner and you are his familiar. Teach him the Shadow and Darkness Arts when you have the chance."

"Alright!" The little raven said as she flew to Naruto's shoulder. "Finally, we got a summoner!" Maru just chuckled and then in a large puff of smoke, he was gone. The bad thing about hat was that Naruto was falling from a very high height. Using her quick thinking, the small raven attached herself to Naruto's back and grew to a reasonable size and 'fused' with him, giving him large black wings.

"What the!"

"This is the power of a familiar, we are partners now, so this is possible. Hhen you learn the shadow arts, that is when thing will really heat up! Right now though, we can only fly. Kira said in his mind.

"Cool." Naruto said as they then flew the rest of the way to the fire temple, even though it was night time.

The next day….

He was almost there but when he was about a mile away, he decide to give Kira a rest and walk the rest of the way. On the way there, the chatted about random thing like what they liked and things like that, but they came across a boy about his age and in bad shape no less.

"I got this!" the little raven said as she flew to the boy. "Shadows of Healing!" The shadows from al around stretched out to the boy and healed his wounds. "We should make camp and not move the boy for a bit"

Naruto nodded and did just that. A few hours later, the boy woke up and looked around at Naruto. Naruto now noticed that the boy was wearing black and white monk's clothes and hair that kind of made him look like a girl.

"What the….where am I?" asked the boy.

"A mile from the fire temple, so tell me, what happened?" asked the blond soul reaper.

The young monk scowled before his face saddened. "I am not well liked in the fire temple. The reason…well I have a bit of Kyuubi's chakra in me. My name is Sora by the why." Sora then looked back to see that Naruto had a shocked look, not a disgusted look like the monks back at the temple.

"You know, I thought I got rid of the kyuubi's power when he unlocked my bloodlines." Naruto deadpanned. That was not the answer Sora ever expected.

"Who are you." He said.

"Name's Naruto Uzumaki, former demon container to the Kyuubi no Kitsune. So where are you from?"

"The fire temple, but I really don't want to go back for they don't like me."

"Then come with me to Konoha and I can fix your problem."

"How?"

"I am good at seals and I have made a seal that converts the demonic energy into spirit energy, giving you the ability to use a shinigami's power like me." Naruto said as he gestured to his swords.

"I will go! I am tired of the hate!"

"Good, but when we get to Konoha, we have hide the truth from everyone except the Hokage. I am sure he will help you as well." Naruto said as eh brought out some ink and a brush. Naruto told him to lift up his sleeve and a hour later, the seal was complete. As soon as he applied it, the energy of the old Kyuubi shifted to the seal and then shot out a blade like Naruto's.

Sora smiled and said, "Thank you. We should go just in case if they send someone to come after me."

"Alright, just know that you are also part of my little organization." Naruto said as he then explained to Sora what he was doing and to say the boy was shock would be an understatement. He was happy though because he was part of something that accepted him.

"Well, if we wanna get to Konoha faster….I will teach you the Raven Shunshin!" The small raven said to Naruto, causing sora to fall back in surprise. "But that could take a while so I will do the jutsu."

When Sora was with them again, the raven grew again and wrapper her wings around the two boys and in a black whirlwind of feathers, they were gone.

Gates of Konoha…

Izumo and Kotetsu where once again guarding the gates and to say they were bored was an understatement. THEY HAD NOTHING TO DO! Well, that was about to change as a whirlwind of black feathers appeared out of nowhere and then the feather fly away as they turned into Ravens. The two guards gawked at the blond that just suddenly appeared with what looked to be a monk. "Hey guys, I am back from my missions and I brought back a new friend."

"You know, I should have expected this." Izumo said with a smile.

"Yeah…." Kotetsu smirked as they two boys walked to the Hokage tower.

The hokage was currently doing paper work with a clone when Naruto walked in with Sora. The old man looked up a rose an eyebrow and told Naruto to explain. Naruto retold his entire adventure to the Hokage and when he was done, everyone in the room was looking at Naruto in shock.

"Ugh….I am getting too old for this shit." The old man muttered. "So let me get this straight. You now have power over Nothingness, Time, Wood, Sand, whatever is in that scroll, the Raven contract and their power over darkness and shadows!"

"Yep." The little raven answered for him.

"Oh , just give me a written report later but first here. " Sarutobi said as he handed Naruto a scroll full of Mokuton Jutsu. "Trust me….you will need that. Now about your friend, your sensei just went on another mission, so they won't be back for a bit. I think it would be prudent that he is instated on your team some no one asks of his past."

"Thanks old man." Naruto said to the shock of Sora.

With that, they left and building and started walking in the direction of a certain training ground. "Where are we going?"

"A friend of mine asked me to train with her team when I got back. I want you to meet her and some of my other friends."

On the way there, Naruto decide to take out the scroll he had gotten from the Kazekage and look over the jutsu inside. Though the first thing he was a seal that had the Kanji for Iron Sand. As soon as he put his hand on it, the seal glowed; it activated his blackhole seal and his Uzugan. It created a seal on Naruto's arm next to his regular sand seal that held a good amount of iron sand in it.

When it stopped, the monk said, "That was…interesting. Does this happen a lot."

"I guess so. My Uzugan copies bloodlines and let me use them. I guess all I really need is their DNA."

Sora just shrugged as they made their way to the training grounds, Tenten immediately came over. "Naruto! How was your mission?"

"It was interesting to say the least. Me and Kiba's team saved the Waterfall village, I got a girlfriend from the Waterfall Village, went and saved the Kazekages son from some runes. Then I met my new teammate, Sora." Naruto said to a shocked Tenten.

Her teammates, Lee and Neji, and sensei, Gai, came over after hearing the story. Lee watched as Neji came over to Naruto and scowled at him. "There is no way a dead last loser could do all that. You are fated to be a loser for the rest of your life."

"Well, aren't we happy." Naruto deadpanned. "Tell, you what, we fight and I win you get that fate stick out of your ass."

"Fine but you won't win. Fate has deemed that."

"Whatever man." Naruto said as he got into a fighting stance that he made up. He really needed to get his own if he wanted to face other taijutsu users. "Kira, go over to Sora…this is not a battle for you."

"Heh, no problem bro!" She said as she flew away.

With that, Neji flew toward him intend on showing Naruto how much of a loser he was. Naruto ,however, smirked as Neji struck all his chakra points in one go. When the hyuuga was done he stepped back and was shocked that the Naruto he had defeated was a Shadow Clone!

"You make this to easy man." Naruto said as he reappeared next to Neji while hanging on his shoulder.

"You cannot escape fate!" yelled the now enraged Hyuuga as he destroyed yet another Shadow Clone. Gai was smiling at the blond, he really hoped that Neji would lose and learn that fate does not control everything.

"Cats out of the bag!" Naruto announced as he disappeared to everyone else but neji as he had his byakugan activated and began blocking and dodging all of Naruto's sword strikes. Both Tenten and Gai's eyes widen for lern that attack. Tenten really wanted to spar with the guy now. Gai was impressed that a Genin could use Yugao's attack so easily.

Neji just growled and slammed a chakra enhanced palm strike right to Naruto's chest, sending the blond back a few feet. Neji capitalized on that and rushed Naruto. "Eight Trigrams, Sixty-Four Palms!" That attack sealed all of Naruto's chakra points.

Naruto just smirked weakly at Neji. That may have hurt like hell, but he does not need to use chakra to bet this jerk. "Damn that hurt." Naruto said on his knees.

Neji smirked but was surprised to see Naruto on his knees instead of on ground, writhing in pain. "Now do you see….you are a loser."

"All I see is someone that has a stick up so far there ass they can't see how good their life is. I know about that hyuuga seal and I think I can make a new one that won't total fuck you up but I am debating whether or not to do it." He paused looking at the shocked expression on all their faces. "Right now though, I am going to kick your ass! I may not be able to use chakra but that didn't stop me in those runes I had to go to." Naruto said as he channeled spirit energy in one hand while channeling physical energy in his other.

"That hell?" Neji commented as he saw two different energies being channeled by his opponent.

Naruto smirked as he slammed his fist into the ground, creating a mini earthquake and pretty much destroying land surrounding him. He wasted no time in executing his next attack as he rose he hand and yelled, "Byakurai!" White lightning shot out of Naruto's hand so fast that Neji didn't have time to dodge and he was sent clear across the training grounds.

When he did not get back up, Gai rushed to his student in a panic only to find out that the kid was just staring at the sky. Naruto walked over and held out a hand, to which Neji took with some effort. "Looks like I lost…but I will hold you to your word that you will fix that seal."

"You got it." Naruto said as he saw there was a change in the young Hyuuga. "Hey, try to get along with your family if you can, because after all…you are family."

Neji just nodded as group began to par with each and got to know Sora. Lee, however, was happy there was someone else who could use spirit energy; he just needed to find a way to spar with in that field. Then the real fun would happen…

Done! This chapter is done. Next our hero goes to Wave country with Team 7! Review!