My god, I've been holding this chapter off for too long. I really need to get back on track with this.

Sorry for making you all wait, but I hope this chapter is worth waiting for.

Naruto and Sasuke burned the remains of the body. Being horribly mutilated when the unknown demon escaped, burying the corpse seemed rather pointless. While this was taking place, Sakura had filled out some notes about the situation. Having encountered this for another time, Sakura found it best to record it and let Tsunade know when they all return. "We should keep moving, this secret hideout shouldn't be too far away."

With the corpse now completely incinerated, Naruto kicked dirt at the fire to put it out. "Then let's hurry."

The group left the area, continuing on their path to the abandoned Akatsuki hideout. Being quite far from Konoha, the team needed to take a break for the night. With a fire set up, the team set up camp to get ready to sleep. The night seemed peaceful; Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi were sleeping soundly as the campfire kept them warm for the night. However, Naruto was getting restless. As he was sleeping, the images continued to appear in his mind again.

"Minato-kun!" Naruto heard his mother's voice calling out for his father.

Naruto then saw his father, slowly being consumed by darkness. "Otou-chan!" Naruto tried running towards him, but as he got closer, the darkness consumed his father further and further, until nothing was left.

Naruto woke up, sitting straight up with sweat running down his skin. The dreams were becoming more frequent, more real. What was the reason for this? Was it a sign? Naruto got out of his sleeping bag and went to the dim campfire. Grabbing a stick, Naruto sat by the fire and poked at it, moving the logs around making the fire grow.

The next morning, the team packed up their equipment and continued on their journey. Naruto was still feeling a little drowsy from his lack of sleep, but he chose to not talk about it. He managed to pass it off as simply sleeping uncomfortably. The next few hours of the journey were fairly quiet, but by the early afternoon, the team had finally arrived just outside the entrance of the hideout that was located on the map.

"We're here." Kakashi said. "Careful, Akatsuki may have left the hideout rigged with traps."

As the team slowly approached the hideout entrance, something caught Naruto's eyes. He looked over to the bushes and noticed that they weren't alone. There was a little boy staring at them. "Hey guys look." Naruto pointed to the boy. "Hi little guy, what are you doing here?" The child didn't answer. "You shouldn't be out here, it's dangerous." The little boy suddenly broke away from them, running directly into the hideout. "Hey, hold on!" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke didn't have time to stop Naruto from chasing after him before he entered the hideout. "Naruto no!" As Sasuke chased after Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi followed after him. As Naruto got deeper into the hideout, he walked right through a thin wire that was pulled across the hallway at waist-length. Naruto didn't take notice of the wire, but but as soon as he felt the wire pushing against him, he knew what went wrong. "Sasuke!"

A sudden explosion erupted right by Sasuke, separating the two from Sakura and Kakashi with debris that blocked the pathway. Sasuke was close to the explosion and the force of the blast slammed him against the wall, breaking it down and causing the hallway to cave in. Sakura managed to be unharmed the by the falling debris, but Kakashi found himself trapped within the pile of rubble.

Sasuke got back on his feet, cleaning the dust off his clothes. "Naruto, you alright?"

Naruto coughed a few times as Sasuke helped him onto his feet. "Yeah, I'm fine." Naruto dusted himself off and looked around the place. The way they came in was blocked off, so the only way was to go further down the hall. "Where's Sakura and Kakashi-sensei?"

"I think they're on the other side." Sasuke answered. He approached the rubble that blocked their path. "Sakura, you there?"

"I'm here." Sakura answered. Her voice was muffled by the block, but still noticeable. "How are you two?"

"We're fine. Can you see a way out from where you are?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't think so." Sakura responded.

"Naruto and I will go on ahead, stay here."

"Stay here? No!" Sakura yelled back.

Ignoring her yelling, Sasuke and Naruto continued down the hall. "Sasuke, it's gonna get too dark further in, can you give a little light?"

"No problem. Stay behind me." Waiting for Naruto to get back, Sasuke performed his hand seals and brought his hands to his chin. "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu(Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique)." Sasuke inhaled deeply and blew short but strong breaths out. Each breath unleashed a small fireball that hit unlit torches directly, giving the hallway light. "That should do it."

Venturing deeper into the hideout, Naruto found it more convenient to just take one of the torches and carry it along. After several minutes passed, Naruto stopped. "Finally."

"What?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto pointed to the little boy that he had chased into the hideout to begin with. "Seriously kid, this isn't funny. You could get hurt down here."

The boy then put on a sickly grin. "New bodies." Naruto and Sasuke looked at the boy with confusion. "Yours will do just fine." The boy's chest suddenly ripped open, mimicking what they saw earlier with the Iwa shinobi. "Naruto, I think we found our demon." The billow of smoke emerged from the open chest and darted at Naruto and Sasuke. The two ducked to avoid the smoke, but it didn't stop there. Naruto quickly took notice that the smoke was coming around for another attack. "Sasuke, look out!"

Sasuke looked behind him and saw the smoke fly towards him, but instead of entering his body, he flew right through him and continued to fly towards Naruto. Naruto shielded himself, but that wasn't enough to stop the demon. It made impact on Naruto and sent him through the wall behind him. Naruto tumbled several more feet until he finally stopped, covered in dust and debris. As he got on his knees to get up, he noticed someone standing right in front of him, and as he looked up to see the face, he felt as though he was looking straight into a mirror.

What stood before him was almost an exact copy of himself; he face, the hair, even the whiskers. Everything about this clone was real, save for what he was wearing; while Naruto's clothes had orange, this demon was clad in similar clothing, except with red instead of orange.

"Thanks for the chakra, it feels really good." The demon said. He rotated his neck around cracking the bones inside.

"What did you do?" Naruto asked. He got to his feet as quickly as he could. "Why do you look like me?"

"I can take over the body of any human, feeding on their chakra or life." The demon answered, "Strangely, you're not human. And I gotta say, it feels nice to have a body for myself." As Naruto forced himself onto his feet, the demon grabbed a hold of Naruto's throat and squeezed. "But this isn't big enough for two of us. I say, you go." He then threw Naruto directly at the wall he had broken through from, kicking up dust. Naruto then quickly jumped through the smoke and landed a powerful punch right at the demon's face. The demon tumbled back, but quickly regained his composure and flipped back onto his feet.

The fight between the two led them to moving all over the place. Strikes that they made on each other did as much damage to them as it did to the walls around them. The powerful hits that landed sent them crashing through walls and ti eventually led them outside of the hideout, near a cliffside.

"What's the matter boy?" The demon asked. "Can't even handle your own strength?"

Naruto wiped the blood that was dripping from his lips and spit the excess blood out. "I'm just getting warmed up." He charged at the demon, delivering a swift kick right at his groin. Naruto smiled with satisfaction when the demon hunched over in pain. "Looks like you copied my body to every detail." He then grabbed the demon's right arm and forced it down to his ground level. Naruto then slammed his knee onto the demon's elbow, snapping the arm with a very loud cracking sound. The demon screamed in pain, but didn't stop fighting back. The demon pulled his arm out of Naruto's grip and kicked him away. "That kick was uncalled for and it's gonna cost you." The demon looked at it's broken arm. "Like that's gonna make a difference." The broken arm then began to repair itself, the broken bones were mended by the sound of cracking and the arm bent in the proper direction.

Naruto looked at this extraordinary healing in shock. Even I can't heal that fast. "Crap."

"Naruto?" Sasuke trekked through the dark corridors, calling out for his team member's name. "Naruto!" As he turned a corner, a sudden crash broke through the wall, bringing light into the dark hall. Sasuke blocked his face from the debris as well as the sudden pouring of light. When his eyes adjusted to the brightness, he looked at what caused the hole. "Naruto." Sasuke ran over to his side. "Naruto, you alright?"

"Sasuke, that's not me." The real Naruto said from outside. Sasuke looked over to the real Naruto in surprise. "It's the demon."

Shocked, Sasuke turned to face the demon again, but right as he was face to face, the demon punched Sasuke, sending him flying towards Naruto. Right before the two could make contact, Sasuke suddenly disappeared and instead landed right next to Naruto. Sasuke glared at the demon with his Mangekyou Sharingan.

"Oh. So you're an Uchiha." The demon said. "How interesting."

Naruto and Sasuke drew out their swords. Sasuke's chokuto charged up with his electricity and Naruto's katana gained a bladed edge powered by his wind chakra. The two charged at the demon, striking him with their swords. The demon's strength managed to deflect each blow with his own hands with relative ease and almost no damage. Sasuke jumped up to strike with a vertical slash. As he descended down towards the demon, he thrusted his blade down. The demon clapped his hands together and caught the blade. The electricity from the chokuto surged through the demon's body, but it appeared to do no damage. Sasuke looked at the demon in surprise, surprised that his lightning element didn't do a thing. The demon simply looked at Sasuke and chuckled. "Kinda tickles." The demon then threw his hands to the side, leaving Sasuke open. He then reached forward and grabbed Sasuke by the throat.

Naruto charged at the demon from behind gripping his katana. As he approached the demon ready with a strike, the demon turned around, putting Sasuke between them. Naruto immediately stopped his slash mid-strike. The demon then pushed Sasuke at Naruto and the two staggered back.

"Boy, this new body is really interesting." The demon cracked his neck again. "I'm definitely gonna enjoy this."

Sasuke panted as he spun his chokuto around to hold it with a reverse grip. "This demon's tough."

"Keep it together Sasuke." Naruto said. "We get rid of it here, it can't hurt anyone else."

"Stay here? No!" Sakura retorted. Sakura was able to hear the sound of footsteps, meaning that they had left. "Goo for nothing..." Sakura looked to the wall and clenched her fists. "I'll teach him to tell me what to do." Sakura struck at the wall with a powerful punch that shattered the wall, giving her a way out.

After punching through enough walls, Sakura had finally made her way out of the hideout. But when she finally found the exit, she looked back only to see that it was the same way the team came in. "Great." She groaned. "Sasuke! Naruto! Kakashi-sensei!" She shouted their names, hoping that one of them would answer. She then heard rustling in the bushes up ahead. Sakura kept her composure and slowly approached the bushes. As clenched her fists to prepare herself for the worst case scenario. As she got closer to the bush, the rustling was revealed to be a bird that suddenly flapped it's wings and flew up to the sky. Sakura sighed in relief. "Oh, just a crow." As she turned to head back into the hideout, she suddenly stopped. "Wait, there's no crows in this part of the forest." When Sakura turned around back towards the bush, she came face to face with the deadly glare of the Sharingan, but not Sasuke's. "I...Itachi..."

"You'll be nothing more than a hindrance." Itachi said. His voice was as calm as it always would be, but Sakura could also sense the seriousness of death in his voice. "Best to get rid of you now." Itachi closed his eyes. "Mangekyou Sharingan!"

The instant Itachi's eyes opened, Sakura fell under the power of his genjutsu, screaming in despair.

Sasuke looked away, recognizing the scream. "Sakura."

"Go ahead, Sasuke." Naruto said. "Help her, I'll take care of him."

Sasuke nodded, acknowledging Naruto and also thanking him for the chance to help Sakura. "Good luck." Sasuke darted off to where he last saw Sakura, hoping that she would still be there.

Naruto watched as Sasuke disappeared from sight and then looked back at the demon. "You're no ordinary demon, what the hell are you?" Naruto asked.

"I'm you Naruto. I'm you in exactly every way possible." The demon then reached up to grab his shirt collar, pulling it back to reveal something on his shoulder; a Cursed Seal exactly the same in appearance as Sasuke's. "I just happened to be a little more..." The Cursed Seal began to glow and cover the demon's skin with the black flame markings, "...cursed."

Gritting his teeth, Naruto removed his coat, letting it hang off his waist. Orange chakra seeped through his skin, covering him until he transformed into his kyuubi-hybrid form. His nine tails spouted from behind, and his eyes went solid black with the blood-red slit pupils. Narto charged at the demon, striking at him with a slash from his claws, but the demon dodged the strike by stepping back. Naruto's more feral form seemed to make no difference in the battle, even with the full power of the Kyuubi on his side, this demon was able to match him in speed and power.

"You're gonna have to do better than that if you want to touch me." The demon taunted.

Naruto got down on all fours, growling at the demon with rage burning in his eyes. In his Kyuubi-hybrid form, rage was what increased his power. While standard drawbacks of rage are lack of focus and rational actions, that didn't apply for this form. Naruto dug his feet into the ground and charged at the demon, but it jumped over Naruto, rolling on his back to get behind him. As Naruto turned around to face the demon, the demon was suddenly standing directly in front of him. "Peek-a-boo." The demon punched Naruto right in the gut and then delivered a doublefist uppercut and sent Naruto backflipping a few times before landing hard on the ground.

As NAruto tried to get up, the demon grabbed Naruto's head and dragged him along the ground. The demon then slammed Naruto's head on a tree, hard enough to cause the tree to break in one hit. The demon then dragged Naruto to another tree and slammed his against against it, only this time the demon released its grip to send Naruto slamming into more trees and hitt the wall of the hideout.

Gai's team had came to eye's view of the village. "There it is." Gai pointed forward. "Let's not slow down yet. ONWARD!" Gai picked up the pace of their walking, which earned few groans. "Now what kind of attitude is that?"

The team arrived just outside the village gates. The state of the village was rather poor, but due to the pirates attacks that the Hokage mentioned, that was no surprise. By the look of how things were, the villagers were recovering from an attack that happened maybe two or three weeks ago.

"This is horrible." Ino commented. "How often are these pirate attacks?"

"This ocean off this village has many of them." Gai answered. "They're as frequent and random as they want to be."

As they went further into the village, a man approached the team. "Ah, you must the shinobi from Konoha." The man put his hands together and brought them to his chest as he bowed to the shinobi. "I am the village leader, Togawa. You must all be exhausted from your journey, please follow me." Togawa turned to lead the team even further into the village. They stopped just in front of a large wooden building; some parts of the wall were boarded with newly placed planks of wood, seemingly repairs from previous pirate attacks. The windows looked as though they used to have glass, but had since been replaced with just an open square frame. The building was built right by the face of a large mountain base, almost as if the mountain was a part of the building. "Ever since these attacks, our village lost tourists for our hot springs. This building is where we would accommodate all our guests. Our hot springs are inside the very mountain you see here. If there is anything else, don't hesitate to ask anybody." Togawa bowed as he took his leave.

"Alright." Ino stretched her arms. "Finally, a break. I'm gonna use the hot springs right now."

Just before any of them could step foot in the building, the sound of bells rang throughout the village, causing panic. The team looked around, wondering what it was all about.

"Gai-sensei, what's going on?" Lee asked.

"THEY'RE COMING!" a villager shouted as she ran to her home with her infant child in arms. "PIRATES!"

"Hmm?" Gai jumped up to the top of the building and looked to the ocean. Just off the shore, several row boats were approaching the village with a pirate ship anchored further out to sea. "Prepare yourselves!" Gai instructed the team. "We have to protect this village."

Naruto tumbled along the ground, nearing the cliff. The demon slowly approached him, putting on a sickly grin. Naruto forced himself back to his feet, he had to fight back, he had to get rid of this demon. Naruto lunged at the demon again, but the demon grabbed Naruto by the throat and lifted him up.

"It's over Naruto." The demon squeezed tightly on Naruto's throat, constricting his airway. Naruto struggled to try and breath, but this demon had such immense strength. Naruto finally lost the will to fight back; his body changed back to his human form, leaving traces of chakra on his skin. "About damn time." The demon then tossed Naruto over the cliff, letting him fall to his demise.

The demon turned around, stretching his back and cracking his neck. "Now, where is that Uchiha." The demon bent down, touching the ground. He then jumped forward, but instead of landing some distance forward, he kept flying forward. The black marks on his skin covered his body, changing it to a dark gray. Two small bulges broke through the back on shirt that changed into large hand shaped wings. His hair grew out waving through the wind as he flew through the sky. His eyes went pitch black, leaving only slit pupils inside a red irises.

Now that this chapter is done, be prepared for what I have in store for the next chapter.

For now, my only spoiler is going be that I'll be introducing an OC that's going to have a big impact on this story.

Please leave a review, I want to know what you guys think. Have I been slacking? Am I still doing good with this story? Give me your thoughts.