Chapter 08: The Fourth and the Fifth

"Drink!" Kyuubi ordered.

Naruto was still disoriented because Kyuubi had pulled him into his mind scape so suddenly. His teeth were already deep in her neck. He noticed the blood running down his throat before he even smelled it. Now, it was too late to stop himself.

Time moved faster in his mind scape, but he could feel his life draining away. His instincts took him over and he drank big, gulping, draughts. As his life was drained, he sucked hers out through her blood, strengthening himself. Every few seconds, he would bite down deeper into her neck and increase the flow of blood until his fangs butted up against her collar bone and spinal column.

Naruto's skin began to tingle, then burn. The power was overwhelming. He could smell his own blood now, but he couldn't see it. Everything had gone red. The force sucking out his soul stopped.

---

Naruto was thrust back into the real world. The summoned head in front of him was split down the middle by a tail of chakra. From the end of the tail grew a second torso, the claws of which had embedded themselves inside the chest of one of the Pein bodies. He could taste the blood, the putrid stench of death permeated it. But, it wasn't his mouth... He was surrounded by a halo of chakra which seemed to move at his whim. It burned everything it touched. His own blood filled the mass of dense burning chakra and his enemies blood was added on top of that.

Naruto squeezed. The world which had seemed unmoving in those initial seconds of regaining consciousness was suddenly spurred into rapid motion by the spray of blood that painted both Naruto and Pein. Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! The remains of the body tumbled to the ground. Naruto laughed. It was a good feeling to rend a body limb from limb, so good that it gave him a massive hard on just thinking about it.

Naruto leapt into action. The nearest Pein ran. Naruto chased him. There was nowhere for Pein to run. A substitution. An attack from behind. It was almost like Naruto's head melted through his body which seemed to bubble furiously as it inverted itself in an instant. Pein's sneak attack suddenly became a frontal attack.

Naruto leapt towards him, claws outstretched. Pein's dodge was graceful. He spun and changed his arc of flight just enough to be below Naruto's outstretched claws and teeth, despite them elongating to go after him. Naruto's hind legs lashed out, striking Pein in the shoulders and ruining his controlled acrobatics. Pein slammed into the ground, passing right through the concrete and leaving his now severed arms behind.

The other Pein bodies were fleeing. Naruto licked his lips. They were all heading in the same direction. The bodies all collapsed to the ground.

It had been too easy. He had barely gotten going when it had so unclimatically ended. Naruto thrashed the limp, motionless bodies of Pein. They weren't even warm. He couldn't eat things that were already so dead. He looked around. His summons were gone. There was no one around him, none that he could see at least. He could smell them though. He could smell fear and terror. He let the chakra cloak drop and began following the scent. He could smell fresh sweat and the whispering scrapes of shivering against the concrete.

A young boy was huddled behind a barrel in the shadow of a store which had been selling some sort of useless trinkets. He was a civilian in old, worn-out clothes. His shoulder length black hair was uncombed and matted with dirt. Naruto suspected the boy was homeless.

"Hey kid," he said, "Are you okay?"

The boy looked at him, his eyes wide in terror. Then, he nodded.

"That's a relief. It's much more fun that way." Naruto crouched in front of him. "Now, just so you don't worry too much, I'll tell you some things." Naruto lifted the boy's chin, stroking the cheek with his thumb. "The first thing I'm going to do to you is going to hurt a lot."

The hope instantly drained out of the boy's expression and Naruto chuckled. This one might be fun.

"The second thing will hurt even more." Naruto's claw dug into the flesh of the boy's face.

The boy struggled, but his head was held in Naruto's unyielding grip.

"Finally, the third thing, you won't feel at all." Naruto grabbed the crotch of the boy's pants and pulled. The pants were torn free, leaving red welts on the boy's hips. The welts were the least of his problems because, when Naruto had pulled the pants off, he had had a firm grip on the boy's genitalia as well.

The boy screamed in pain. Naruto used his chakra to sear the wound closed and stop the bleeding. Dark lines slowly began spreading from the wounds, like poison in the boy's chakra coils. The skin of the burned area blistered, oozing clear blood.

"I'll make this straight right now, okay. I am not gay, but everyone else was smart enough to run far enough that it would take a lot of effort to catch them, and I really, really need to do something soon because Pein wasn't at all satisfying. Of course, it doesn't make much of a difference now, since you're not really a man anymore."

Naruto took off his mask and fastened it to his shoulder. The boy he'd pinned looked even more frightened. His body trembled with pain and shock.

"That's a nice expression. It makes me even hornier."

Naruto pulled out his penis and rammed it into the boy's ass. His frustration from the unsatisfying ending to the fight made the sex last only for a minute before he had his orgasm. He was surprised. The boy had whimpered, but had not screamed during the ordeal. There was no burning of flesh either. Even through the whole thing, little of it though there was, his chakra had remained under control.

"It looks like I was wrong. That didn't hurt you all that much. Aren't you lucky." Naruto tried to pull his penis out of the boy's ass, but found that he was stuck. "What the..."

"Ahh! It hurts!" the boy finally cried out, his pain overpowering his fear.

Naruto frantically pulled and pulled and pulled until the boy's sphincter was torn open and Naruto's dick tore free. Naruto examined himself. There was a large bulge of flesh at the base of his penis. It was the reason he had gotten stuck. Then he noticed that his claws were now black, no longer the translucent white of human nails. The back of his hands were coated in a barely visible layer of golden fur, and so was the rest of his body. His limbs seemed strange. He wasn't sure why, but the proportions seemed to be just slightly off of what they should be. Naruto touched his face. His nose was slightly upturned and his chin now jutted out a bit so that it was almost in line with the nose. His tongue ran over his teeth. The elongated canines he was already used to, but his other teeth had become pointier. The degree of the change shocked Naruto to the point that he no longer felt the blood urges pushing him to cause mayhem. In this moment of clarity, Naruto snapped the mask onto his face and closed the filter off.

"Sorry, kid," Naruto said, "I kind of lose control sometimes." Naruto used the limited medical knowledge he knew to stop the bleeding, though his failures to control his chakra caused supplemental burning in the process. "Get yourself to a real medic-nin, then get the hell out of this city. Tonight, everyone who's left will die."

---

Naruto found Jiraiya at the top of the tallest spire. It had been in the direction the other Peins had run just before they had collapsed.

"So, this is Pein?" Naruto looked at the emaciated body. It was pale with orange hair like the others, sitting in a machine. The most striking thing about the body were the metal piercings. Unlike the other Pein bodies, the metal bars stuck out of him like antennae. His back was hunched cruelly by the sheer number of the rods. If not for the blood dripping out of a gaping chest wound, Naruto would have thought the bony body to be long dead and dried like a mummy.

"Was my student once," Jiraiya said, "like you."

"He could bring his other bodies back to life. I can barely be killed. We've both committed unspeakable atrocities. So why haven't you killed me yet?" Naruto asked.

"You restrain yourself. You kill those who wrong you, but you don't go around killing innocents... When you can control yourself. He was going to kill everyone. He was going to level every ninja village so that everyone would learn the pain and fear of war. And when there were too few left to fight, he would build a Utopian society with himself as the god."

"And when the people became corrupted? Pain and war don't go away. There will always be grievances, always be pain. The best you can hope for is a fragile peace."

"So what now?"

"Take as many civilians out of this city as you can. Whatever's left is going to be gone tomorrow."

"You're going to destroy another hidden village?"

"It's an Akatsuki stronghold. Pein was in Akatsuki, as was his 'angel'. This entire village served Akatsuki. These people have already been sent a warning. Anyone who stays is working for Akatsuki."

"Do you really think people will leave their homes because you've threatened the city?"

"Look down at the gates," Naruto said, turning and looking out over the city, "There is already a line and already ninja are attempting to block them in. Soon there will be a slaughter, and I won't be the only one doing the killing. If you want to save whatever shreds are left of your conscience, get as many of those people out of here while you can. I'll find you tomorrow."

---

Naruto prowled the bowels of the city. Often, he found ninja hiding in the shadows. He killed them, and ate if he was hungry. When he was done his torturing his victims, he would find a crowd of people and drop the mutilated corpse among them. The panic brought out more people and more ninjas, making his displays even more impressive and causing even more of a ruckus. It wasn't long before half the city was clamoring at the gates, trying to get out. The ninja at the gates could not keep things orderly. They began killing people who got too close, or out of line, or just looked suspicious. Riots emerged across the city. People brawled in the streets, looted stores, and set buildings on fire.

In the chaos, hundreds of Naruto clones were hidden, spurring the crowds on and setting fires strategically. Others dove under the water and began to use fuusha rasengans to cut trough the base of the pillars the city was built on. Naruto chuckled to himself. Kyuubi had told him that his move was useless. Sure, in battle he had much better jutsus, but for a continuous cut with chakra, it was a lot easier to maintain the rasengan in its idle state than to constantly generate wind chakra, even if the latter had more cutting potential.

Occasionally, a ninja would find one of his clones and dispatch it. Naruto would just send out another to continue the work and then go hunt for the ninja that had killed his clone. The ninja would be killed, mutilated, then tossed into the crowds by the gates. When civilians saw the dead ninja, they would rise up as a mob and attack the ninja guarding the gates. Sometimes the ninja won. The first one was especially terrible. Blades of water had decapitated hundreds of civilians in under a minute, calming the crowd. After that, Naruto learned that striking the ninjas at the gate with the corpse tended to distract them enough to give the civilians a fair chance at slaughtering them. It became like a game to him to see if he could throw the body hard enough that the enemy ninja would be trampled before there were any civilian casualties. Late in the afternoon, he stopped for a nap. He would need a good supply of chakra for the finale.

---

Kyuubi leapt onto Naruto the moment his eyes had closed. Her tongue was lolling out and saliva was dripped from her tongue. He removed the filter from his face. The smell was intoxicating. She was emitting such strong pheromones that he could taste her in the air.

Naruto rolled her over so that he was on top. She resisted only a little. Actually, after the initial resistance, she actually turned and crouched waiting for him to to his thing.

"You're a horny little vixen today aren't you?" Naruto growled as he grabbed her hips and began humping her hard and fast. He was at least as horny as she was. His experience with Pein and the boy had been so completely unsatisfying that he needed proper release. All the violence he had done later had just built up the tension.

Kyuubi merely whimpered. She was obviously more affected by their problems that day than he was. Naruto did not know why he did it, but he followed his instincts. When he came, he bit down hard on Kyuubi's shoulder. For some reason, this also cause Kyuubi to have her own gushing finale as Naruto drank the blood from her.

They both stopped and collapsed, huddled against each other, wrapped tightly together by their tails. Kyuubi rubbed her face against the light fur of Naruto's chest and emitted a kind of purring sound which made Naruto smile. He felt content. He hadn't felt that way in a long time.

"You know how amazing that was? What you did today made me so proud. I don't think you even know the extent of what you did."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"What do you think will happen to that boy you mutilated and molested."

"He'll find a medic, get out of town, then live a long celibate life," Naruto said.

"You really think a homeless boy like him will be able to get medical attention in the riot you caused? Maybe if you had waited a day or two..."

"I healed him, so he's not bleeding or anything, he'll just find a medic later," Naruto said with a shrug.

"That's the best part," Kyuubi laughed, "When you 'healed' him, you sealed him up completely. It will only be a day or two before his bladder fills up completely and bursts. If the blood loss doesn't kill him, the urine festering in his bowels will make him rot from the inside out. That will be a long, excruciatingly painful death just because your riot means he won't be able to get any medical attention."

Naruto knew that he should feel angry, upset, disgusted with himself, but instead he found this to be hilariously funny and began to laugh with Kyuubi, burying his face in her hair. "I wish I'd have known this... Heh, heh, heh, I'd love to have seen his face when hearing that."

---

Naruto woke a few minutes before sunset. His chakra was recharged and he was excited to begin. He sent out his clones. He received many dispersing clones memories of atrocities they had found before he had every clone in place.

On top of the tallest tower, all the bodies of Pein now hung. The main body was being held by a clone who shot a blast of fox fire into the air that lit up the sky. Everybody left alive in the city turned to look at the spectacle of the corpse of their god being held up by a five tailed mass of monstrous chakra. Everyone could feel the evil of the killing intent emanating from the monster. There were many cries of fear and many of the remaining people fainted.

When the cries died down, the city began to shake. The clones had begun to finish cutting through the bases of the towers. The timing was almost perfect. All the spires tilted inward and collapsed onto the central spire, crushing the extra bodies of pain under the mass of steel and concrete.

Nine giant flaming foxes were created at various points around the city and began spiraling up, leaping from spire to spire. Each one was following the clone who had created it and fusing the spires together with their heat. Some of them swerved. Ninja who remained in the city had tried to stop them, but the city was too broken and the ninja too injured to put up any real defense. The nine foxes converged at the top of the spire and dove down into it, passing over Pein's body and leaving nothing but white hot ash in their wake. There was an explosion, but Naruto saw it only from the eyes of his clones as they were destroyed because he was busy running across the water and away from the city. The spires shattered, sending debris in all directions, landing like burning meteorites in the water surrounding the city. All that was left was a giant crater in the middle.

One clone had managed to survive. It jumped into the air and used a stream of fox fire to melt the kyuu that had become his calling card into the center of the crater before dispersing. With all of his clones gone, Naruto had only half a tail of chakra left. Luckily, after the display he had put on, if any ninja had survived they had decided to stay out of his way.

Naruto was tired from the exertion. Having only one tail of chakra left made him feel drained. He was getting hungry as well and wondered where Jiraiya was. He contemplated removing his mask to smell for Jiraiya, but knew that he'd be as likely to eat Jiraiya as talk to him in his current state. He took the mask off anyway and attached it to his shoulder. He could, after all, hear almost as well as he could smell. The sounds of the forest told him that there was a lone person in the wood. The smell of blood now told him that the person was injured.

Naruto followed the scents and sounds into the forest surrounding the marshlands. When he saw who it was, he let out a demonic chuckle. It was the boy he had attacked after Pein had died. He lay naked on the ground. His crotch was a bloody mess and there was a sharp, blood-covered stone clutched in his hand. The whimpering abruptly stopped and the boy froze in fear, trying to pretend to be dead. He was still trembling.

"Yes, you should be afraid," Naruto whispered, crouching over the boy, "After all, I did this to you. My heat made you sweat, didn't it. You were so thirsty that you had to drink, but it had nowhere to go."

Naruto ran a finger along the wounds in the boy's crotch, then pushed it into the boy's mouth.

"Do you know what that is?" Naruto asked, rubbing the blood covered fingers roughly across the boy's tongue, "It's the taste of death. There's no avoiding it now." He pressed the palm of his hand against the boy's abdomen until he cried out in pain, "It's too much pressure inside you. Soon it will burst and you will slowly die and you are poisoned by your own piss filling you up from the inside."

"I don't want to die," the boy cried, "Please..."

"You can't be saved now." Naruto pushed harder. The boy's agonized scream echoed through the forest as Naruto felt the pressure release suddenly, bathing bowels in burning, salty liquid. "It burns doesn't it. It will slowly rot your organs until you die."

"I don't want to die, don't let me die," the boy sobbed pitifully.

"It's too late for that now. You're going to die and there's nothing you can do about it. Unless you want me to kill you right now..." Naruto laughed and then grabbed the boy's face. He pulled the eyelids apart, exposing the left eye. Then, he delicately reached into the socket with his claws and popped the eye out. The boy cried out again as the nerved anchoring the eye snapped. Naruto carved the kyuu into the top of the eye, then placing it back into the socket with the kyuu facing outwards. He did the same with the other eye.

"That's it. I'm done... for now." Naruto used a rasengan to create a crater and filled it with leaves. He dragged the boy into the pit and, after putting more leaves on top of him, buried him until only his face was exposed. "I'll be back later to play with you some more." Naruto walked off, feeling rather pleased with himself. He had no intention of returning.

It didn't take long after that for Naruto to find someone else to eat.

---

"I'm back!" Naruto announced when he located Jiraiya, "It's finished."

"How are you doing? You got two more tails today." Jiraiya was pointedly keeping his distance, a wise choice considering what had happened with him the other times he had gained tails.

"Does it really matter? You probably couldn't kill me now if you tried," Naruto yawned lazily and scratched behind his ear, which he found to be longer, pointier and higher on his head.

"So you think that I should want to kill you?" Jiraiya was looking at him strangely. Naruto wondered what he could be thinking. He didn't like the way Jiraiya's eyes seemed to be considering him.

"Compared to Pein, now I am much worse. I just left a kid to die a slow and painful death and made sure he was too scared to call out for help," Naruto said seriously, looking Jiraiya right in the eyes. Then, when he could hold it in no more, he rolled around on the forest floor laughing hysterically. It really didn't matter what Jiraiya thought anymore.

"So no one can stop you now and you think torturing innocent people is a joke?" Jiraiya's hand had twitched almost imperceptibly towards his weapons pouch and his voice had been full of disappointment. "What do you think your father would say about that?"

"My son has made me proud! He has used my gift most effectively," Naruto said in a bad imitation of the voice of a courageous movie hero. He sat down by the fire, much closer than Jiraiya sat.

"I'm sure he's rolling in his grave... At least he would if Orochimaru had not defiled it for use with his impure world resurrection jutsu at the chunin exams."

Naruto flinched at the venom in Jiraiya's voice. "It's not like he was one of our friends."

"And, if it had been me you had killed?"

"I would never be that out of control."

"And if it was Tsunade? Sakura? Hinata?"

The leaves under Naruto began to smoke and then flared up, leaving a charred circle around Naruto. This barb had hurt him. He dug his claws into the dirt to calm the anger that was welling up inside of him. He had never meant to hurt his friends. His demonic chakra leaked out as his anger built up more and more inside of him.

"I'll fucking kill you!" He finally roared.

Naruto slashed at Jiraiya who disappeared into a puff of smoke as Naruto's claws passed through him. This just made him angrier. He slammed his fists against the ground where Jiraiya had been Wherever Jiraiya was, he was disguised too well for Naruto to sense him. Naruto screamed and pounded the ground a final time, releasing all of his remaining chakra in an explosion around him. Then, realizing what he had done... tried to do... he began to sob. He grabbed every ninja tools he had and stabbed them one by one into his vital organs until he passed out.

---

Naruto woke up in the belly of a frog, floating in toad oil.

"I got a medic-nin to look at the boy. He'll live, but his eyes are permanently blinded," Jiraiya said, "With any luck the medic will have the sense to borrow a pair from one of the people who died."

Naruto tried to turn and look at Jiraiya but something seemed to be anchoring his hands and feet, something that stretched enough that he couldn't break it. When he tried, he only managed to submerge himself in the toad oil.

"Why am I here?" Naruto asked once he had finally given up trying to struggle.

"Because I saw that you still regret your actions... even if it took your trying to kill me to learn that."

"Why didn't you just kill me?" Naruto asked. It was the sensible thing to do, and what Naruto would have done in Jiraiya's place.

"I may still do that, but too many people have died so that you can live. I will not allow their sacrifice to go to waste. In either case, I recommend that you do not use your demonic chakra. You know that toad oil is extremely flammable. The pit that you're in is a toad oil secretion gland and you're being held there by a web a mucus. As long as the mucus is kept moist with toad oil, it will hold you there. If the toad oil catches fire, you will be stuck there, burning as the toad oil replenishes itself."

"So if you want yo kill me, all you have to do is make a spark." Naruto knew that he had to keep his emotions under control. He wasn't sure that the mucus would hold him if he released his demonic chakra – not that he seemed to be able to release it at the moment – but he did not want to be stuck in a pool of fire. Even if he was resistant to it, he would still receive nasty burns if he remained in a pool f fire for an extended period of time.

"No, no... That wouldn't be enough to kill you... or at least it would take an unbearably long time thanks to your regeneration and your resistance to heat. However, you would still burn and be in agony until someone decided to put the fire out for you." Jiraiya had come to the same conclusion as Naruto.

"And I suppose you sealed my chakra as well."

"A seven pronged seal at the base of your spine to stop you from channeling the chakra in your tails and a five pronged seal overlaid on the seal that keeps Kyuubi locked inside your belly.

"I'm as helpless as a kit in the mouth of a bear then." Naruto wondered how long it would be before he would escape. Strangely, he did not feel angry at Jiraiya for this. He knew he deserved whatever he got.

"I hope so. I didn't do anything so foolish as to use the reaper death seal on you, and any seal can be broken with enough chakra."

"So, what do you want now."

"I want you to listen. I'll tell you about your father, and maybe you'll get a little more rooted in your humanity."

"And if I don't?" Naruto actually wanted him to tell the story. His father was a topic which Jiraiya had not talked a lot about. It irritated him that he could not just ask what he wanted. Even though he was not angry at Jiraiya, his demon blood would not let him accept being captured by someone who was weaker than him.

"I'll keep trying until you starve to death."

"So, you've thought of a way to kill me that doesn't involve trying to destroy my body. What if I decide that's what I want and let myself act as a demon, just to make sure you finish me properly." Naruto responded defiantly.

"Then you'd better be a better actor than you are ninja, because you're not doing a particularly good job at either," Jiraiya responded calmly and began his story, "You and your father and I actually have a lot in common. When we first started out, we were terrible ninjas. We were all loudmouthed pranksters. You, however too it to a whole new level and never seemed to mature at all. Your father was perhaps the best of us in that regards. He progressed very fast, probably because of the war. You know, killing changes people. When you kill, and kill, and kill until you're stained with more blood than you can..." Jiraiya paused, noticing that Naruto was licking his lips hungrily, "err... That is to say, despite this, your father always managed to remember one thing: the most important thing is protecting your comrades."

"And I seem to be killing all of mine," Naruto said sullenly.

"You know, I am always extra careful the first few days after you gain a tail. You seemed to gain two today. I don't know why..."

Naruto blushed.

"Make that, it is best if I don't know why..." He began writing in his notebook, remaining silent for several minutes.

"And my father?"

"Oh, yes... Do you know how he took his first life?"

"He killed someone who attacked his team mates?"

"No, he attacked a man from behind and slit his throat. The man was so drunk that he didn't even notice the genin come up behind him."

"So he killed his target. That's exactly how a ninja should be."

"This wasn't a target. It was a friend of mine. We were sent on a mission to investigate the illegal operations of a certain group and he was my informant. I never told your father about him, but your father saw me talking to him, then saw him talking to our targets and leapt to the conclusion that he was setting us up. You know what he said to me?"

Naruto remained silent.

"He gave me the head of the man and told me what he had seen him doing. I never told him that it was my friend that he had killed, but he knew. He never apologized or shed a tear for the man he killed. After that, though, he never shied away from killing the enemy. Once he had developed the hiraishin, he became good at it. He could kill hundreds of people in minutes. He told me once that he knew he had killed many people that did not really deserve it, but he had done it to protect his family and his village and so he never regretted it."

"I suppose you think that I should fight to protect my village and kill to protect my family... My village does not exist and my family was dead from the day I was born."

Jiraiya laughed at this, then looked sullen. "For a moment there, you reminded me of Tsunade... Before you convinced her to become Hokage... Do you remember that?"

"And she was right. She would have been better off not coming back."

"I am sure you're wrong. Do you think she was happy when she was wandering around, drinking, gambling, and avoiding debt collectors? No. She was always running from everything, and anything that reminded her of her past. Because of you she was able to settle down and accomplish things."

"Until I crushed everything she worked so hard for and killed everyone she worked so hard to protect."

"Not everyone. In fact, if you hadn't been here, I probably would not have gotten the chance to beat Pein. I probably could not have understood his abilities until it was too late. He would have destroyed me, and then Konoha and then killed you by dragging Kyuubi out of your stomach and using it to crush anyone who stood in his way."

---

Naruto did not know how long he was there. There was no night or day inside the stomach of the toad. Sometimes, he would sleep. Other times, he'd lay there thinking. Jiraiya would come. Sometimes, he'd give Naruto something to drink. He would always tell Naruto stories. Eventually, he gave up being surly, but the stories Jiraiya told always left him feeling guilty. The seals were preventing him from communing with Kyuubi, so that meant he was alone whenever Jiraiya wasn't there.

The seals messed with his chakra flow as well. If he could have controlled his chakra, Naruto could have easily blasted through his bindings with a rasengan. After what must have been many days, Naruto remembered what Jiraiya had told him on the day that they met. Orochimaru's seal had disrupted his chakra, making it difficult for him to do jutsu. Once he remembered this, he realized that Jiraiya's seal must be a more powerful version of the same thing. From that point, whenever he was alone, he would close his eyes and feel the flow of chakra through his body.

It was difficult. His chakra was extremely unstable. Trying to focus it at the tip of one finger would bathe an entire hand in the glow or would switch between fingers. After several weeks of mind numbing practice, Naruto found that he could focus chakra in any part of his body, even on the seals that Jiraiya had put on him. After that is was just a matter of time before Naruto understood how they worked. It was terribly complicated, but it was not impossible and Naruto managed to control his chakra in a way that would counteract both seals and then, instead of escaping, he focused his thoughts on the seal that his father had put on him.

The reaper death seal was incredibly difficult to understand. Since it was designed to convert demonic chakra into regular chakra, it constantly interfered with his efforts to learn its effects. He was almost ready to give up when he tried passing chakra through the seal to convert it, then using the converted chakra to probe the seal. The seal had no effect on the pure human chakra. He found that the seal was much more complicated than even the seven pronged seal.

Once he completely understood the most difficult seal on him he removed himself from his bonds and retrieved an explosive note from his pouch of ninja tools which Jiraiya had left nearby, but not within reach of him when bound. After figuring out the complex seals that he was adorned with, the seal on the explosive note was easy to understand. It simply gathered chakra to a single point, then released it, causing an explosion.

Next, he began trying to understand the intricacies of sealing scrolls. He already knew how to simply store objects. Every genin was taught at least that much. Now, he understood how the sealing process worked. He practiced sealing ninja tools using less and less space on a scroll. At this point Jiraiya returned. Hearing him while he was still far off, Naruto leapt back into the pool of toad oil and pretended to be trapped.

"You hungry?" Jiraiya asked. He had some bread with him.

"Famished," Naruto replied, "Did you bring someone tasty to eat?"

"You're on a strictly vegetarian diet until you get your blood lust under control."

"Maybe you should be on a strict no sake and peeping diet."

"You can always go hungry again," Jiraiya suggested. He broke the loaf of bread in half and held one half in front of Naruto's face. Naruto reached out and grabbed Jiraiya's wrist.

"You should be more careful with your prisoners. They might use their extra time to learn about seals." Naruto grinned evilly.

Naruto wiped his other hand on Jiraiya's pant leg, then took the bread with the somewhat-clean hand. He took a bite and almost gagged, and not just from the smell of the toad oil. It might as well have been a cake of sand as far as his tongue was concerned.

"So, you escaped."

"How long have I been here?" Naruto asked.

"It's been four months," Jiraiya replied. He lifted Naruto's shirt and saw the seal was still in place. "How did you get out?"

"Even without my tails I have a huge amount of chakra. The seal only disrupts it instead of blocking it. I had four months, plenty of chakra, and nothing to do. It takes a lot more work to do a jutsu like this though."

"And even though you know how the seal works, you don't know enough about sealing to remove them," Jiraiya guessed.

"It's a good thing I have a seal master here to teach me then."

"There's a good reason that I haven't taught you seals," Jiraiya replied.

"Because you can still use them against me?"

"Exactly." Jiraiya threw a kunai with a piece of paper tied to the end. Thinking it was a paper bomb, Naruto dodged out of the way. The kunai missed, but the paper grazed him.

---

"That was more effective than I thought it would be."

Naruto found himself restrained again. The seals on his body had multiplied so the point that it seemed every inch of his body was affected by the seals and he couldn't move at all.

"What did you do to me?" Naruto asked.

"The seal on that paper was specially created to push all of your demonic chakra behind the seal. It's the same one I used to use when you lost control of yourself under the influence of too much demonic chakra. Since almost all your chakra is demonic chakra, you fainted when it went away."

"What if I had no human chakra left? Wouldn't that have killed me?"

"Possibly. I am not really sure. I have never used it on non-jinchuuriki before. It needs the other seal to be there, or else nothing will happen."

"Why not just release the chakra into the air? Then it would work against anyone."

"And most likely kill me in the process. I am not a jinchuuriki. Being blasted with a cloud of demonic chakra... Even if I was, the amount you have... It is better to leave it the way it is."

"Why'd you do this to me anyway? I didn't attack you. I only ate bread. I didn't even growl."

"Could you have defeated me with those seals still on?"

"Maybe. If I did something like blasting the entire area with fox fire, or something else that would take out the entire area."

"And you really think I've been coming myself, and not using clones?"

"You seem pretty confident in your seals. That's why you did it! You wanted to switch out with a clone, just in case I did something. What did you do to me anyway?"

"I put two seals on every major muscle in your body. The first disperses any chakra you manage to focus on that muscle. The second causes any signals going to a muscle to be duplicated and sent to an opposing muscle. You'll be stopping every movement you make. I don't have to restrain you at all."

"And you think there's no way out of this?" Naruto asked.

"If anyone can find a way out, it will be you. You got out of my last set of inescapable restraints."

"Or you could just let me go."

"Not until I have proof that you're safe to be around."

"You're never going to know for sure. Even if I manage to control myself now, what happens when I get my sixth, and seventh, and eighth, and ninth tail?"

"We're almost to Kumogakure. Until we get there, I'll be developing a very special seal, like the one I used on you before, but can be activated from a distance. I've actually been working on it since I first saw you use four tails during our training. It's almost ready."

"And what if I learn enough sealing to break it?"

"That is why I am never going to teach you sealing. You already have a ton of power, so any training you receive from me will be in using healing techniques and other training to help people."

'Even if you don't teach me,' Naruto thought, 'Once, the five pronged seal is removed, I'll be able to commune with Kyuubi and she'll teach me everything I need to know.'

---

Naruto walked towards Kumo. Jiraiya, or at least a clone of him, was following him at some distance, ready to activate the seal that spread across Naruto's back. After learning how Naruto had gotten around the seven pronged seal, Jiraiya had added another seal to the demonic chakra repressing seal. Naruto had tried to probe it with chakra once his other seals had been released, only to find that the seal activated on its own. That, of course, had only made him more curious. He had slept for several days because of it. What made it worse was that the seal was on his back, so he couldn't even see it to figure it out that way. It made him want to kill something. He hoped that the next time he went to sleep, Kyuubi would find a way to get it off.

Naruto smelled something. He wasn't sure what it was, but it made him very curious. It was a human smell, but there was something else. He was still miles from Kumo and wondered what it could be. He followed the smell. It led him closer to Kumo, but not directly towards it. He ended up at a cave. There did not appear to be anyone there at the moment, but it was obviously inhabited by a ninja – a ninja that smelled like cat.

"Move a millimeter and you will be looking at yourself without a mirror." A sharp blade was placed against the back of his neck. Whoever this person was, they were very, very, good. He wondered to himself whether he should let her cut his head off. Would it actually manage to kill him or would his head or body grow back? "Tell me who you are and what you are doing here."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I am here to wipe the village of Kumogakure off the face of the earth as revenge for destroying Sunagakure."

"You are alone. Where is the army you'll need just to breach the gates."

"Is Kumo built on a mountain? If it is, I'll just destroy the whole mountain... No, no I won't. It's more fun if I kill people with my bare hands."

The blade pushed against his neck, drawing blood. The weapon was definitely sharp.

"You should be careful with that." Naruto licked his lips hungrily.

"I'll remove your head before you can reach me."

"You seem to be under the impression that you have me at a disadvantage, neko-chan."

Naruto pulled her feet out from under her with two of his tails. With no leverage, the sword could not cut through his spine. His other three tails grabbed her neck and wrists, but not before a handful of shuriken embedded themselves in his back.

"Heh, that kinda stung a bit." Naruto tossed his attacker over his head, then used his tails to knock the shuriken out of his back. To his surprise, instead of slamming face first into the ground, the woman flipped in midair and landed lightly on her feet. She was older than him and dressed all in black with fairly short blond hair. "Not many people can sneak up on me."

"I'm very good," the woman replied.

"True. But I've killed many people who were better than very good." Naruto raced forward as fast as he could, slamming into the woman, not stopping until he had slammed her into the back of the cave.

"Looks like I can't go easy on you," she said. A moment later, dark purple chakra poured out of her body. It was hot, even for Naruto's Kyuubi-enhanced resistance to heat. "That should have melted your arms off."

"It is kind of warm. If you turn it up a bit, I might actually have to do something about it."

A moment later, the woman breathed out a ball of fire which was the same hue as her chakra. It slammed into Naruto who had not been expecting it. It exploded, knocking Naruto back. The woman's chakra took the form of a two-tailed cat. It was just like the one Naruto had when using his demonic chakra.

"How about I make you a deal. If you become my slave, I might not kill you." Naruto suggested.

"Might not? You aren't very good at bargaining are you?"

"Accidents happen," Naruto replied, "Besides, your bijuu gives you a strong affinity for fire, doesn't it? You might actually survive mating."

"Mating? You have a high opinion of yourself kid," the woman scoffed, "Who do you think you are?"

"If I had to guess, a somewhat more powerful version of what you could become... That is assuming that the smell of cat all over you is from a tailed demon."

"So you're the jinchuuriki of the Gobi?" she asked.

"That is not right. I am becoming the Kyuubi. Would you consider a person who is no longer human to be a jinchuuriki?"

"I am Yugito Nii, jinchuuriki of the two tailed bijuu Nibi no Bakeneko. Demon or not, I won't lose to you."

Yugito dashed forward and slashed at Naruto with her chakra claws. Naruto flew backwards, bouncing off the floor of the cave and out the entrance. He dug his claws into the rock before he fell off the ledge in front of the cave. He kicked off the side of the mountain and flipped onto his feet and walked back in. The claw marks had already healed.

"Is that the best you have?" Naruto asked, "I guess I overestimated you. Now, let me show you what real heat is. Kitsune-Bi: Furiya!" He purposefully missed her, but aimed close enough that the chakra covering her was pushed back. She quickly moved further away from the blue flame which had melted a hole in the roof of the cavern that was now dripping red hot magma.

"I'll admit that your fire is hotter, but your aim sucks."

"I was only trying to make you feel the heat. I could have easily filled the whole cave. You are in a very bad position to be going against me now. I haven't even gotten serious yet." Naruto unleashed his tails and was covered in a mass of burning red chakra. "If I went all out like this, your claws probably could not touch me, let alone hurt me."

"If you're so confident, then let me hit you once."

"If you can't stop me in one hit, you become mine to do with as I wish."

"And if I stop you?"

"Choose whatever you like. At best you will slow me down."

"So if I can knock you out in one hit, I serve you, otherwise you serve me." She smiled, looking very confident.

"Doesn't really seem fair since you have no chance." Naruto crossed his arms behind his back and closed his eyes. "Go for it whenever you're ready."

Naruto felt an impact, then heard a scream. He opened his eyes and saw Yugito clutching her hand with his own demonic chakra wafting off of it.

"That was disappointing," Naruto sighed. It hadn't hurt him at all. His chakra had been too dense for her to even make it through. "You should have at least used a weapon or a jutsu. Trying to hit me with your hands was a pretty stupid move." Naruto restrained his chakra and walked over to her. He took her hand and licked the wound, dispersing as much of the chakra as he could. He was surprised that it wasn't healing on its own. "Back when I was like you, a wound as small as this would have healed by now."

"Different bijuu give their jinchuuriki different abilities. I get control of fire. Killer Bee can spit ink. I guess you heal," Yugito explained.

"If you even think of using that kunai, I start biting," Naruto said, noticing the sound as she had begun taking one out of her weapons pouch, "It's taking every ounce of willpower I have not to tear you open and eat you right now. It's been so long since I've tasted meat and blood."

"So someone is powerful enough to stop even you?"

"How much do you know about seals?" Naruto asked.

"I can use sealing scrolls, but that's pretty much it. It never interested me." Naruto smiled. She had become compliant because he had proven how much more powerful he was. He wondered if that was a trait that even a normal jinchuuriki would receive from their bijuu, or whether it was just Yugito's personality.

"Hmm... Either way, I want you to help me now, since you're now my servant," Naruto said, looking around, "Do you have rope, or chains? I need you to tie me up and take me into the city as if I was a prisoner."

"I thought you were going to destroy the city, so why do you have to sneak in?" Yugito asked.

"I need to learn sealing first, and the seal master that is following me will not be able to get into this city easily, I hope."

"As tricky as a fox."

Naruto grinned, "It comes naturally to me. Also, if you try anything, I'll eat you."

---

"Are there any guards at the gate who can see through a henge?" Naruto asked.

"If we did, we wouldn't have been so desperate to acquire Hyuuga eyes."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked, henging into a slightly more human form with several cuts and bruises. His arms were tied behind his back with a thick rope and Yugito held a kunai in his back.

"You never heard the story? I guess you are a little young. It happened several years ago. The former Raikage sent a delegation of men to negotiate a peace treaty with Konoha. He was a very devious man. He had the delegation's guards kidnap the Hyuuga heiress in order to take her eyes. The head of the Hyuuga clan slaughtered the entire delegation to get his daughter back. Because he slaughtered our 'peaceful' delegates, the Raikage demanded that he be killed for this offense and Konoha executed him... At least that's what we thought at the time. We learned later that his brother took his place at the execution."

"Where is the Raikage who ordered them to go after Hinata?"

"So, you knew the girl. If you're planning on getting revenge, it's too late. A new Raikage takes his place by killing the old Raikage."

"The current Raikage is the one who killed the Kazekage, right?"

"No wonder you want revenge. You were friends with him too, weren't you."

"I was friends with a lot of people in Sunagakure. So is there some sort of official match, or do I just have to walk in and slaughter him when he sleeps?"

"You can kill him in his sleep, but if you kill him face to face, it is less likely that other ninja will betray you. What happened to destroying Kumogakure?" Yugito sounded relieved.

"It will happen, eventually," Naruto replied, exposing his fangs in a devilish grin, "Forget the old plan. Cut me lose."

"Yugito, who is this person?" one of the gate guards asked.

"A challenger for the title of Raikage," Yugito replied.

"You already captured this man. How can he expect to fight the Raikage."

"Neko-chan, I told you to cut the ropes." Naruto flared the chakra around his arms and the rope melted away. "Send word to the Raikage. If he does not face me before the sun sets, I will destroy this village."

"Fool! As if the Raikage could waste his time on you, someone who was beaten by someone as weak as Yugito."

Naruto released his henge. "Beaten? I didn't even defend myself and she still couldn't even make a scratch with her little kitty claws." Naruto grabbed the man by the neck. "Now is someone going to deliver my message, or shall I just start killing now?"

"I'll deliver your message," another guard said, "Just wait here." Not long after that, a large group of BOLT arrived at the scene.

"Captain Yugito, you are siding with the enemy?" the squad's captain asked.

"1have yet to decide who I will serve. My life is forfeit if I disobey either one."

"You actually think this guy has a chance?"

"I can land a hit on the current Raikage. I can't even hurt this man, even when he is not even defending himself."

"Then, perhaps your new master would like to prove his strength against someone else while he waits."

"I am hungry..." Naruto said, "Please make my challenger someone young and juicy."

Most of the ninja clenched their weapons tighter.

"Any volunteers?" the captain asked, taking half a step backwards. One man, more muscle than brains, stepped forward.

"I'll take him. This runt will be no problem." The man seemed very confident in his skills.

"You stink. If I am going to eat someone, I'd rather it be a young kunoichi like the Raikage's clan mate from the Suna invasion. She had the sweetest blood I've ever tasted."

"Monster!"

"The Raikage killed you!"

"Demon!" The crowd didn't like him already.

"I see my reputation proceeds me. You made one little mistake though. The Raikage buried me alive. He may have thought he killed me, but, as you can see..." Naruto posed. "I am still in perfect condition. In fact, I hurt myself getting out a lot more than he did burying me."

"We'll see you tough you talk when I bury you in seven different places."

"I'll let you have the first move."

The man didn't need any more invitation. He rushed forward. He had heavy, spiked plating on his knuckles and he swung them at Naruto's face. Naruto leaned back to dodge, then realized that it had been a feint. The man's other hand, with matching weapon, slammed into his ribs. For such a large guy, he was fast and his muscles weren't just for show. Naruto was quite sure that this hit had cracked some ribs and the metal spikes had bitten deeply into his flesh. He was knocked to the side.

"You know, that actually hurt a bit. But you're not going to win like that." Naruto took a deep breath and stood up slowly. His opponent was stupid enough to wait. "I guess it's my turn now." His wounds were pretty much healed already. "Tell me what part of you I should remove first."

"As if I'd give you the chance." The man attacked in a way that was almost the same as the first time, but his stance obviously did not have the leverage for the sneak attack. Naruto focused wind chakra into his claws and stabbed them straight forward through the man's knuckle dusters and splitting his arm right down the middle to the elbow. The man screamed in pain and Naruto ripped the bottom half of his arm off.

"I didn't even get warmed up. What if I pull a muscle while fighting the Raikage?" Naruto joked. He was particularly glad that he had put his mask on. As hungry as he was, no one here would be alive right now if he did not.

"You bastard."

"Orphan. My parents were married, but died the day I was born," Naruto corrected him, cracking his knuckles, "By the way, I have a present for you."

Naruto leapt forward suddenly, knocking the man over and pinning him to the ground by the neck The man's good arm flew forward, slamming into Naruto's belly. Lightning chakra poured through the metal and into Naruto's body. Naruto coughed up blood.

"Anyone who does not want to die... Run NOW!"

Naruto's chakra blazed, covering his entire body. Without even meaning to, he severed the man's head by burning all the way through the neck. Naruto removed his mask and began tearing at any unburned flesh he could find. Soon, his hunger was sated. He carved kyuu into the man's forehead, then ran and then jumped over the edge of the mountain.

He fell towards the water below to wash off the mans blood. He dove under the surface, barely avoiding the rocky bottom. He washed the blood from the mask, putting the other one on his face in an attempt to calm himself. Then, he noticed Jiraiya hiding in the bushes.

"I thought you were about to destroy the city."

"I changed my mind. I decided to become the Raikage and then find out who participated in the attack and just kill them."

"And who's the beautiful young lady who was escorting you?"

"Mine!" Naruto growled fiercely. He had been leaning against the shore and the rocks under his claws had shattered. He hadn't meant to respond so violently. "I mean... She is a jinchuuriki. She has the two-tailed cat inside of her." The aforementioned woman arrived then, having taken a less direct route to the bottom of the mountain.

"The Raikage will surely come himself after that. Everyone's heard about the other demon from Suna and about what happened to Amegakure..."

"Neko-chan, I'd like you to meet my traveling companion and jailer, the legendary super-pervert Jiraiya." Naruto smiled, "And if he lays a finger on what belongs to me, I'll tear out his throat." A moment later, Naruto was unconscious.

"So, are you going to drown him?" Yugito asked.

"I doubt that would kill him. He's rather resilient." He looked at Naruto who was regaining consciousness. The seal had not been as effective as the last time. "You're awake already... It's only been a few seconds."

"Yeah, I've been pumping chakra through the seal on my stomach constantly. I have a lot of normal chakra in me now, enough to make this seal a little less effective." Naruto pulled himself out of the water and shook himself off. "I do have a date with the Raikage after all. I wouldn't want to be late. Yugito, would you mind fetching him? If we fight up there, a lot more people will die than I intend to kill."

Yugito nodded and headed back up the mountain.

"She seems pretty loyal to you. What did you do?" Jiraiya asked.

"I made a bet with her, and told her what I would do if she betrayed me... And I proved I was capable of carrying out my threats."

"What do you intend to do with her?"

"I'll have her show me around Kumo, then I'll have her ask Nibi to do to her what Kyuubi did to me. I'll have her take both tails at once. I am stronger than her, so once she is a demon, she will obey me. Then, we'll find out if she will survive mating with me since humans are too fragile, and Kyuubi is trapped inside of me. And then, I will make her kill all the people who participated in the attack on Suna... If she is still alive." It seemed like a good plan to him.

"And you don't care if she survives?" Jiraiya asked.

"Why should you care about the enemy. It's because of this place that we have nowhere safe to go. She would have died anyway. You should just be happy that I found a use for her."

"And, if you no longer had a use for me?"

"When that time comes, don't piss me off," Naruto replied.

A scream came from above. Naruto looked up and saw Yugito flying down, a small avalanche tumbling down after.

"I think the Raikage has arrived.