AN: Chapter 3 is here! Most unfortunately, if I do not update by Sunday, then I will not be updating until after Wednesday. This is because I will be on vacation, but I will be spending those three days writing! Enjoy. And as always, please review if possible.

Note: Kyuubi "Speaking" 'Thinking'

The great gates of the lightning village creaked slowly open, and the six men and two women walked through hoisting a dead body between them, heads held up proudly. A thunder clap of applause and cheering greeted the returning heroes and heroines. The deafening scream of the exuberant villagers brought a smile to even the hardest shinobi's lips, for today, the lightning village would at last have the secrets of the Hyuuga clan!

Unbeknownst to the cheering crowd of citizens and shinobi, there sat a shadow not so far away from the gates, taking in the sight of the excited horde serenely. 'It seems I have arrived too late.'

Naruto narrowed his eyes behind his mask as the unmistakable form of the Raikage appeared to congratulate the retrieval team, causing even greater cheering amongst the gathered villagers. "I say you jump in there in a surprise ambush, Katon the shit out of the Hyuuga's body, then run like hell!" The blonde stifled a snort at his invisible companion's suggestion.

'Even if I were stupid enough to jump into a crowd of shinobi, with the Raikage present I might add, there is no guarantee that any katon jutsu would completely eliminate a body beyond recovery.' Naruto stood up and braced himself against the tree he had hid himself in as the gates slowly slammed shut.

"So what are you going to do?" sneered the fox. "Sneak in past an entire village of shinobi, break into the facility housing what's his face's body, destroy it, then sneak all the way back out?"

'…'

"…kit, you do realize I was kidding right?" The demon's eyes widened in comical disbelief when he realized his host was actually planning to carry out his sarcastic suggestion. 'Me and my big mouth.' "Kit! Infiltrating a village of that size can take months, even years of planning!"

Naruto dropped silently to the forest floor nearly thirty feet away from his perch. 'We have at most one night before they dissect Himura-san's body.'

The colossal beast gaped dumbly in his cage. "You don't even have backup!!"

Naruto remained unfazed. 'I have always worked alone'

"This is suicide."

'I know.' Naruto sat down and began pulling out all of his weapons and placed them on the dusty ground. The great fox sighed as he watched his host examine and clean his formidable arsenal of weapon.

"50 shurikens, 25 kunais, 3 windmill shurikens, 100 senbon needles, your sister's dagger, and a single katana." The caged demon snorted in contempt. "You can totally take on that village now."

Naruto ignored the demon and continued sharpening his weapons. 'Are you scared Kyuubi?'

A growl loud enough to shake the sewer like structure of his mind echoed in his head at his unintended taunt. "I am the greatest demon to have ever lived! I once single handily brought your village to its knees!! I am Kyuubi no kitsune!" A great silence formed as the Kyuubi calmed down. Another sigh escaped the demons lips. "But yes, I am afraid." Naruto nearly cut his finger off at his companion's confession. "Only because I rely on you for my survival!" The blonde rolled his eyes and continued his maintenance of his weapons.

Finishing his examination of his weapons, Naruto placed them all back into there correct hiding places. Rearing his fist back, he gathered chakra into his hand before slamming it viciously into the ground. Taking out a small water bottle from his travel pack, he plunged his hands back into the pack once more to pull out a small sac of rice balls. Dropping the now empty travel pack into the small crater, Naruto sat down on a nearby rock and gulped down six rice balls after removing his mask. Washing down the stale rice with the water, he placed the bottle and the sac into the crater as well. Using his hands, he quickly used the nearby dirt to cover up his existence.

He then headed deeper into the forest, searching for a hiding spot. Spying a tree base with a giant knot hole, he moved silently towards it, making sure to leave no noticeable tracks behind. After making sure the hole had no other inhabitants, he settled down and closed his eyes, resting his back against the wall, and his left hand on the hilt of his katana. 'Wake me when the sun sets.'

A lonely guard patrolled the eastern wall, staring mournfully down at the partying village. It was nearly midnight, and still the wild laughter had yet to die out. In fact, it seemed to become even more out of control then before. "Man this sucks. Why the hell am I stuck on guard duty while everyone else is off having fun?" The single guard was an average looking man with a face that would have blended into any crowd. His hair was a short brown with a dash of silver in the back, and he wore the lightning headband on his right bicep.

Snorting heatedly, he kicked a stray rock off the side of the wall. "I mean, who's dumb enough to sneak into a village of shinobis?" A silent swoosh caused the irritated man to swivel about and squint into the darkness. "Who's there?" The man's body tensed up in paralyzed shock when a hand jabbed a nerve point in his back. A silent gurgle was wrenched from his lips as he felt himself being lowered to the ground. Staring up in motionless shock at his assailant, he felt like kicking himself for being taken down by a runt. The kid was pretty short, with waist length blonde hair and a creepy expressionless mask adorned with an X shaped slash mark. The man tried to call out again, but only a desperate whimper escaped his sealed lips.

The kid made a crossed shape hand seal and a second version of him appeared. The frozen man watched in fascinated horror as the clone henged into an exact replica of himself. His imposter nodded at his attacker, and the short boy leapt off the side of the wall and into the village after making sure nobody was watching. The man struggled feebly as his copy picked him up casually. The emotionless voice whispering softly in his ear sent a chill down his spine. "I'm dumb enough to infiltrate your village." They wouldn't find his body for days.

The happy villagers were celebrating at their victory over their eternal enemy village Konoha. They had been at it for nearly ten hours, and the merry-making did not seem to be coming to an end anytime soon. Most of them were quite drunk, and many would wake up next to some rather dissatisfying bedmates. Even the shinobi were relaxed; too relaxed to notice a stray dog wandering through their village. The children ran up to pet it, giggling laughing even though they did not understand why everyone was celebrating, but glad they didn't have to sleep yet. The dog would wag its tail happily at the attention, but the minute any shinobi tried to take a closer look at it, it would have vanished. Nobody noticed the dog that appeared to stop and listen in on their conversations. Or the way it smiled when it overheard the location of their war spoil.

The lonely stray wandered closer and closer towards the village's hospital. It wandered down a dark alleyway behind the hospital, but never came back out. Instead, a dark shadowy figure slinked away into the hospital through an open window. Inside, Naruto breathed a sigh of relief when the room appeared to be empty. But a soft groan alerted him to the presence of a patient who had awoken due to the draft caused by the open window. The hunter-nin closed the window noiselessly and turned his attention to the shocked man before him. Apparently, the man had his tongue cut out, for he could not speak properly, and judging from the slash marks across his throat; his vocal cords had been damaged beyond repair as well. Which probably explained why he wasn't screaming his lungs out yet at the appearance of a foreign ninja in his room.

The man reached urgently for the assistant button resting on the night stand next to his bed, but Naruto was faster. He darted across the room and snatched the alarm button away from the struggling patient. A plan formed in his mind as he stared at the device in hand.

"You'll go to hell for this."

'This and everything else I have done.'

More then likely, most of the hospital staff were out celebrating with the rest of the village, leaving only a few nurses and doctors to maintain the patients. If there were to be an emergency, it would make it much easier for Naruto to sneak around. His left hand glowed green as he placed it on the patient's chest, right over his heart. The mute man's eyes bulged out in shock as his heart began to beat erratically. Naruto watched coldly as his victim suffered a chakra induced heart attack. Pressing the nurse assistant button coolly, he handed it over to the dieing patient. He slid into the shadow of the doorway as he detected footsteps headed for the room.

"Buki, is something the matter?" The voice was female, and Naruto carefully slid out a kunai as the door opened and hid him from view. The nurse let out a scream when she saw her convulsing patient. Rushing over, she began an analysis of the quivering man's body. Doctors rushed into the room at the nurse's cry of distress, and began trying to stabilize the flailing man. The nurse backed up and watched in horror as the man's body, wracked with pain, began to take on a seizure like frenzy. Blood oozed out of his nostrils, eyes, mouth, and even ears. Noticing the way the man was gazing at the open door, the shaken nurse took a quick glance at it. There was nothing there. 'How odd.'

'They really need better security around here.' Naruto moved quickly throughout the mazelike whiteness that made up the hospital. Following the signs with arrows, he soon found himself in front of the morgue. Resting the side of his face next to the door, Naruto sent a surge of chakra towards his ear. The soft rhythmic beating of a heart accompanied by the silent movements of a diaphragm met his enhanced hearing, as clear as if he had been using a stethoscope on the person. 'Only one.'

Pulling out a single senbon, Naruto twirled it casually between his nimble fingers as he gently eased the door open. A lone doctor entered his line of vision, hunched over the unmistakable body of Himura Hyuuga. Even dead, the Hyuuga managed to have a supercilious expression of superiority on his frowning face. Raising his free hand, Naruto knocked on the door once.

The doctor did not turn to face him, but continued whatever she was doing. "I told you not to disturb me while I'm preserving his body. It's a delicate procedure."

'So that's what she's up to.' "There's no need for that doctor."

The woman turned around irritably, fully prepared to berate the fool interrupting her, but instead found a senbon lodged in her jugular. The doctor gurgled quietly, as she clutched her bleeding throat. Staring at her crimson hands in disbelief, she tried to say something to the blonde standing at the doorway. No sound came out. Her attacker flickered from view, and she suddenly found a katana sprouting out of her abdomen. 'I think he pierced my stomach,' she thought detachedly. Her hands groped desperately at the gaping hole as the blade was withdrawn. Falling to her knees, she stared up at her slayer. Mouthing silent unheard words, the woman fell over, never to speak again.

Naruto stared down impassively at the doctor he had just killed. 'You were at the wrong place at the wrong time.' Picking up the still warm body, he slung it over his shoulder and stumbled over to the body banks. Sliding open one of the frozen coffins, he dropped the body in carelessly. He considered the woman's shocked expression for a long moment before shutting the steel crate. Returning to the Hyuuga's body, he picked up the scalpel the women had left on a tray, and went through the gruesome motions necessary for decapitating a body. After accomplishing the bloody job, Naruto placed the head on the table before moving the headless body onto the floor. The neck region leaked out blood onto a small miniature lake of red on the sterilized floor as he bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood. Ignoring the pool of crimson fluids building up next to his feet, he went threw the familiar motions necessary for summoning.

A pair of huge foxes materialized silently, without the customary flash of smoke. The duo looked exactly alike, brownish gray fur, grim smiles, and even identical scars across their faces. "Lynx, Bynx, take care of this mess. Leave no traces." As the leering foxes advanced on the bleeding corpse, the masked boy glared sternly at them through his mask. "And quietly," he hissed softly.

Wiping his stained hands on a nearby clothe, the hunter-nin removed a small scroll from his supply pouch. The scroll was thin, and only about 4 inches long, but was surprisingly large when unraveled. Placing the head of Himura on the scroll, Naruto utilized the remaining blood from his thumb to seal the head into the roll of paper. Rolling it back up, Naruto removed his mask. Tilting his head back so that his jaw was aligned with his throat, he shoved half the scroll into his mouth. Ignoring his gag reflex, he continued pushing until the small scroll was entirely in his throat.

His esophagus flexed over and over, working the small scroll further and further towards his stomach. Gasping for air, the blonde ignored his discomfort and instead concentrated on gathering chakra towards the opening of his stomach in order to halt the passage of the scroll. Taking another deep breathe, he replaced his mask, and turned around to inspect the foxes. The pair had already disappeared, but there was no trace of blood, not even that of the woman's he had killed earlier. It was as if nothing had ever been there.

Nodding to himself in satisfaction, the emotionally stunted boy headed for the exit. Sixth sense prickling, the blonde threw himself away from the door, just in time to avoid the hail of shurikens that came through. Rolling to his feet while pulling out a kunai, Naruto found himself facing three very angry looking shinobi.

"Get him!" snapped the woman in the middle who appeared to be the leader. The man on the left reached into his shuriken pouch for more projectiles while the one on the right leapt forward, slashing at Naruto with a kunai. Dancing around the charging man, Naruto sidestepped into his defense, and dug the kunai into the man's ribs. The nameless man grunted in pain, then shock when he felt himself being hoisted up by his much smaller opponent.

Only after feeling eight shurikens dig into his spine and back did he realize he was being used as a meat shield. The thrower froze up in shock at having hurt his own teammate, but the leader ignored it and unleashed shots of crackling lightning from her hand. Ducking and weaving between the bolts of lethal electricity, the blonde closed in on his adversary. Engaging the more dangerous of the two in taijutsu, he punched and kicked at an alarming speed that the woman had no chance of blocking. A short leap and a slash with the kunai left the leader on the ground clutching her bleeding throat.

The final man snapped out of his shock and rushed forward with a cry of animalistic rage. A foolish mistake on his part. Slipping behind his charging opponent, the blonde grabbed the man's shoulder and kicked the joint behind the man's left knee. Crying out in pain, the raging man's left leg collapsed under him. Naruto took the chance to slip his kunai into the foolhardy man's back and severing his spine. The man dropped face first onto the ground and lay there twitching silently.

"Not good kit. It seems you were detected. Time to forget about stealth and get the hell out of here!" Naruto nodded in agreement and rushed towards the open doorway.

"Duck!"

The wall on the left exploded and showered the room in dust and debris. Rolling away from his escape route to avoid being flattened by a slab of cement, Naruto rose to a crouch and squinted through the settling dust. A lone figure could be seen standing behind the screen of dust. As the dirt cleared, it revealed to the tense boy his attacker. It was the Raikage. And he was surrounded by a mob of very unhappy looking shinobi.

"We are so fucked."

AN: Well there's chapter three, another cliffy! Hope you like it. Review please, and feel free to point out any mistakes i made.