Once Naruto and the Sandaime made it back to the central hall of the catacombs under Konoha, the old man yelled for the ANBU

I'm very sorry that this took so long to get out. It was a combination of writer's block and being busy trying to improve my GPA.

Once Naruto and the Sandaime made it back to the central hall of the catacombs under Konoha, the old man yelled for the ANBU. The special ops ninja were a buzz with activity after feeling the explosion and were currently in the upper portion of the main hall. Hearing a voice calling from the lower levels, the masked ninja descended to find their disheveled leader and Naruto.

"Search the area behind me for survivors and make sure everything is structurally sound," the Hokage ordered. The ANBU bowed and moved to fulfill the order. More and more shinobi arrived at the scene as time passed to help search through the ruble. Sarutobi discretely told a few of the special ops ninja to search for any of Danzou's documents or other interesting things.

Naruto wanted to go to bed and the Sandaime wanted to take a shower, but the Hokage had to make sure of one thing first. He gave orders that remaining Root soldiers, as most of them were not present when he and Naruto raided their headquarters, should not be hunted down. Most of Danzou's men were covertly stationed as part of the ordinary shinobi ranks of Konoha. They were conditioned for taking orders and the Hokage hoped they could be integrated into the regular chain of command.

Finally, Naruto and the Hokage made it to the surface to find that it was dark outside. This made Naruto realize he hadn't slept for about a day as it was night when he began searching for the Root commander. He was practically dead on his feet by the time they made it back to their domicile. He said goodnight to his surrogate grandfather and went to his bedroom while the old man headed to the shower.

Naruto was rather filthy himself, but he just wanted to sleep at the moment. Naruto crashed to his bed still dressed in the pants he had pilfered from the tower after he had ripped his first pair, not wanting to walk through the streets naked. He hadn't given thought to all the people he had killed that night and he didn't want to deal with it until he was rested. Hopefully his sleep would be dreamless.

The next day, Naruto woke up about an hour before noon. After taking a shower, he headed into the kitchen where he got himself something to eat to hold him over until he made it to Ichiraku's Ramen stand for lunch. The Hokage was already in his office at the administrative building so he was left alone in the house. There was usually an ANBU nearby to guard the house and make sure no one snuck in to the Hokage's home to set traps, but apparently that did little good for the Root shinobi snuck in a few days ago. Anyway, the ANBU kept out of sight and Naruto had the house to himself.

Every once and while, a maid would stop by to clean the house of the village leader but he and the Hokage were mostly left alone, and although there were other Sarutobis in the village, the Hokage lived alone before Naruto came along. The Sandaime's son had moved out long ago and his wife had died before Naruto had reached the age of four. From the few times the old man had talked about her, she was a civilian woman with dark black hair and a bad temper. The Sandaime had met her while on his way back from a mission during his days as a jounin. She was the daughter of a merchant who was staying in the town he passed through on his way to Konoha. She had bumped into him in the marketplace and proceeded to chew him out for the mishap.

He had apologized, even though it was her fault, because he thought she was kind of cute. It turned out that her family was on the way to Konoha as well, which he found out when he met her at a restaurant a few days later. She recognized him and they ended up sharing a meal together. They kept running into each other from then on, whether that was purely coincidental was up for debate, and eventually they started dating seriously.

Throughout their whole time together, she always pushed him around, even though he became the mighty Hokage. He loved her though, and enjoyed her brash attitude. It was refreshing having someone else take charge, even if it was just in their relationship, as he had to constantly run a whole village.

She had died during an assassination attempt upon the Hokage's life more than six years ago. The Sandaime had been reinstated and some shinobi in Hill country apparently wanted to make a name for themselves, thinking an old man would be easy enough to kill. When Naruto had told Sarutobi that he had never heard of Hill country before, the Hokage had replied, "Of course you haven't," with a strange expression.

Anyway, it was probably good that he and the old man lived alone and that the maid wasn't due for several days, as what Naruto was keeping in the freezer would have given quite a few people a heart attack. When he had said he was keeping his severed head, Naruto wasn't joking.

He had put his former body part on ice so that he wouldn't stink up the house before he could figure out what to do with it. He knew the skin and brain would rot, so he needed a way to clean the skull. Naruto didn't really want to scoop out his own brains, pluck out his eyes, or peel his own skin off, so he decided on boiling.

Naruto figure he might has well do the deed now, since he had an hour or so to kill before he ate lunch, so he took a large pot from the pantry and filled it up with water. He put his head in the water and took the whole thing outside; as he didn't know what kind of smell the boiling head would produce, even though he figured it was just a kind of meat.

After starting some wood on fire, he set the pot to boil. Poking the head with a stick after fifteen minutes of cooking, he realized it would take a while longer to soften up enough to easily shed the undesirable parts. Naruto decided to head inside while his head continued to boil. He read for an hour before he checked on the progress of his trophy.

The boiling did loosen the skin somewhat, but did nothing to help with the removal of the brain. The grey mater had solidified into a jelly like substance that was harder to remove than before he started to cook it. Though it should be appalling, the act of scooping his own brains out did not really bother him; he supposed it was the strangeness of the situation.

After he had gotten his skull relatively clean, he put back in the pot along with some clean water. It was still relatively pink from the blood, most of which he didn't have to deal with due to the boiling. He put the meaty remains of his head into the fire as the old man probably wouldn't appreciate that kind of thing on his property.

Naruto decided to let the bones continue to boil while he cleaned up, got dressed, and went to his favorite place in the village.

"Hey, Ayame-chan," Naruto greeted once he arrived at the ramen stand, "Can I get a couple bowls of beef ramen to start with?"

"Sure thing, Naruto-kun," the brown haired waitress replied as she went into the back of the stand to give her father the order. There were no other people at the stand so Naruto didn't have to deal with any annoying villagers. The kind owners of the ramen stand were the only people for whom Naruto would hide himself, transforming into a nondescript boy to avoid scaring off their customers.

After she had given Naruto's order to her father, Ayame came back out to the counter. They talked for a few minutes while the fox child's ramen cooked but Naruto did not tell the girl about his exploits of the last few days. He trusted her immensely but he didn't want to dictate all those gruesome details to an innocent civilian waitress.

When it fist happened, Naruto had told both Ayame and Teuchi about his inheritance of the Kyuubi's body. They weren't scared at all, just concerned for the recently exploded boy. The Ichirakus knew that he was the container for the fox demon, even though Ayame was only a few years old when it attacked, but they never hated him. This just made Naruto's love for them, and ramen by proxy, grow to even greater levels.

A few minutes later, Teuchi emerged from the kitchen with Naruto's order. He talked with his favorite customer while he ate, but then had to return to the back of the stand to cook more ramen for the child. Sarutobi wasn't necessarily rich, but he had enough money to allow Naruto his ramen addiction.

After Naruto's belly was fully distended by noodle soup, he bid the stand owners goodbye and headed back to his house. The fire under the boiling head had burned out, but only recently as the water was still hot. He dumped the water out of the pot and let his former body part cool down somewhat.

The skin had loosened from the bone a little, but it also seemed to have shrunk around the skull. What really backfired was the removal of the brains. Naruto had hoped that the boiling water would deteriorate the grey matter, but it was tougher now than when he began. His brain was now the consistency of a hard boiled egg. He had to crumble it out rather than scoop. At least it didn't smell that bad.

Naruto used a kitchen knife to cut the skin off of the bone, being careful not to scratch the skull. There was still some flesh stuck to the skull, but he planned on boiling it again to help get that off. What remained of the spinal column was removed easily with the bulk of the flesh. The hardest part of the cleaning was removing the solidified brains through the bottom of the skull. Naruto ended up using a coat hanger to reach in and break it up. With the skull mostly clean, he put it back in the pot, added some clean water, and set it boiling once again.

After the boiling was finished, during which time he practiced his katas incorporating the use of his tails, Naruto scraped the skull once more. It was now relatively clean so Naruto let the skull sit outside to dry. Hopefully, the morbid process would be complete by tomorrow. For now, he thought he should go bug the Hokage.

Naruto washed his hand, locked the house, and headed down the main street to the Hokage tower. It was around 1:30 and there were a few people in the street. Naruto was not hiding his appearance, so the people were sneering at him. He didn't try to smile at them like a happy fool, he just sneered back.

Since Naruto was in the form a young child, the foolish villagers felt that they could scorn him, even though they should fear him. A mother with her young child was crossing the street when Naruto passed near her. Even in the presence of her child, she spit at Naruto's feet.

Naruto was not going to take something like that from some stupid bitch that hated him for the demon, but still thought she was safe enough to taunt him. Naruto used his kitsune illusion skill to mask off the entire area surrounding himself, the woman and her child from the eyes of the villagers outside. To them, it looked like Naruto continued walking toward the village center and that the woman was talking to her son at the side of the road.

"Hey idiot!" Naruto called to the woman. No one else heard him and eventually the woman turned around, still holding the hand of her small child.

"Watch how you speak to me you filthy little monster!" she practically screamed at him. The boy at her side remained oblivious thanks to Naruto's skill.

"Listen lady, I think you should learn some gratitude for the prison keeping you safe," Naruto growled out, "maybe you'd learn better if your snot nosed brat had the Kyuubi stuffed in his gut!"

"Wh-what are saying, demon brat?" She was slightly put out because he had broken the law about mentioning the Kyuubi and also because he was talking about her son.

Naruto smiled evilly. "I'm tired of people not appreciating my sacrifice," he told the civilian woman lowly, "let's see how people treat your innocent little boy when he has to do my job."

With that, Naruto activated another illusion. To the woman, it appeared as if Naruto tore his shirt open. Then, black seals on his stomach swirled angrily before shattering. A malevolent red energy emerged from Naruto's stomach, briefly taking the form of a roaring fox head, before it plunged into the woman's screaming child.

The boy didn't notice anything in reality, but in the kitsune illusion he was lifted into the air while screaming and convulsing. Finally, after the violent energy completely dissipated into the child, he collapsed to the ground in a heap. His burned open shirt revealed a large black seal and upon his cheeks were six faux whisker marks.

During the whole ordeal, the woman had been screaming hysterically. Finally, she could take no more and passed out. Naruto left the area, his illusions dissipating moments afterward. The boy, who had been oblivious, was now puzzling over his unconscious mother while bystanders came to help.

When the woman was awoken some minutes later by the helpful villagers, she was frantic. She then noticed her son's cheeks were whisker free and proceeded to lift the child's shirt to see his stomach, confusing the surrounding people. After she didn't find anything, she broke down weeping while hugging her confused child.

Naruto arrived at the Hokage's tower and climbed the stairs to the third floor where Sarutobi's office was guarded by two masked ANBU members who allowed Naruto through without a hassle. The Hokage was, as usual, doing paperwork.

"What's happenin' Gramps?" Naruto asked as he sprawled out on a couch off to the side of the office.

The Hokage paused in his work to glance at Naruto and shrug before going back to work. Naruto sighed at the old man who was absorbed in running a large village. The Hokage was always busy and he was usually irritable when swamped in paperwork.

"Hey, I've seen shinobi make copies of themselves before," Naruto suggested, "Why don't you use some of them to help you in the office?" The boy thought they would really useful and that was one of the ninjutsu he was disappointed he would never be able to use.

The Hokage knew that Naruto was probably speaking of the Bunshin no Jutsu, which wouldn't help, but the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu could fit the bill. The technique made physical clones of the user and upon dissipation, relayed all of the knowledge they acquired during their short existence back to the original. Naruto didn't know any of this, he just assumed every type of clone split the user into multiples of the original.

The Hokage had actually thought about using clones before to help him, but it was really not ideal. The effort to execute the technique and keep it active exceeded the hassle of just trudging through the paperwork. He had sometimes left clones to deal with Naruto's martial arts education, but that was a special case where he absolutely had to be somewhere else.

It was fine using Kage Bunshins in a fight, but so was running. Running is a strenuous activity that is necessary in ninja battles, but no one went around sprinting all the time. The same thing went for chakra techniques; it was like using a muscle.

To answer Naruto, who really had no desire to know that much about a technique he could never accomplish, the Sandaime just shook his head. The boy just sighed again as he laid back into the couch. There was silence for quite a while as the Hokage looked over and signed documents and Naruto relaxed on the sofa.

"I boiled my head," Naruto said suddenly. The Hokage froze, his ink brush pausing mid stroke. When he looked up, Naruto was staring up at the ceiling. Coughing slightly, the Hokage asked him, "Why?"

"I wasn't kidding when I said I would keep it," said Naruto, "but I didn't want to leave a rotting head just laying around so I had to get rid of all the perishable parts."

"…Naruto," the Sandaime began after thinking for a moment, "are you alright? In the head, I mean. This head thing is a little freaky and I know you just killed for your first time a few days ago. Not to mention, you killed quite a few people yesterday along with actually eating a few. I'm worried that your behavior is beginning to be somewhat psychotic."

"Old Man, its true that I might be a little bothered about killing a bunch of people, and eating them was even weirder, but I'm okay," Naruto said. He paused for a second before continuing, "I admit that the head thing is freaky, but how often do you have an opportunity to keep your own skull as a souvenir?"

"That's okay, Naruto," said the Hokage, "and to be honest, a lot of ninja do things even weirder and much more depraved, but if you ever start having problems I want you to talk with me."

"Okay, Old Man," Naruto conceded. They sat in silence for a while and the Hokage continued his paperwork. Naruto thought about the ordeal in the catacombs and eventually remembered how hard it was to wield a human sized weapon when he was in a very large body. The short swords he was using at first cut his hands because they were too large to just hold the handle and not the blade. He was going to need a personalized weapon for when he shifted into the form of a giant man.

"Hey, I need a big weapon for when I'm transformed," he brought up the subject to his surrogate grandfather.

"Like when you're a fox?" Sarutobi asked.

"No, I'm talkin' about when I'm still human, just really big," Naruto explained.

"How big are you talking about?" the aged Hokage questioned.

"I was thinking at about fifteen feet tall, but I still want something that I can use when I go to twenty-five or thirty feet."

"Hmm," The Hokage had to think about that one. What would be a good weapon for Naruto? A sword was always a good choice, but he doubted that enough steel could be forged with sufficient strength to allow Naruto to wield such a weapon while in an enormous human form. Sarutobi remembered that Jiraiya's summons often used large weapons so maybe the toads could be convinced to make the fox boy a sword. It was too bad that Jiraiya was not in the village.

Bludgeoning weapons may be a good choice for the boy turned demon. One of the trees from the forest of death would certainly make a strong club. Even then, the mighty trees were so huge that they could only be wielded as a bo staff if the kitsune was at least fifty feet tall. Although, there were trees of varying size all around Konoha so they could just choose one of the smaller ones.

Thinking about the problem, he realized that the boy couldn't hope to wield the same weapon at his many different height options. Naruto would have to choose a weapon for when he fought as a ten foot tall giant and another when he increased his height to even near twenty feet. He would have to have different sized weapons for any additional increases in size as well in order to wield them properly.

"Naruto, why don't we pick out a weapon for when you're about ten feet tall," the Sandaime suggested, "then we can pick out something else for other sizes. You'll only be able to hold the same thing properly within a narrow range of size."

"Okay, do you think I should get a big assed sword commissioned?"

"No. A sword to fit you when you're ten feet tall would push the limits of current metallurgy. It would be near impossible to make a sword that big strong enough to withstand actual use."

"Oh," Naruto frowned. What weapon would suit him?

"How about an axe or a hammer? The heads of those weapons could be made out of metal and still be strong enough and the handles could be made of wood."

"I don't really want one of those. Maybe for when I'm even larger, but for ten feet tall, I'd like something a little more elegant."

The Sandaime had to think about that. Apparently Naruto wanted something flashier than an axe or a war hammer. That pretty much ruled out a cudgel or a pike.

"Maybe a giant pair of nunchuku or tonfa?" The Hokage threw out, "Or perhaps a large kusari-gama?"

The last suggestion struck a chord in Naruto. The idea of a large chain intrigued him. Still, it was not quite what he wanted. He could swing a chain around it didn't really snap like a whip. A whip! That's was what he was looking for. It reminded him of one of his long tails.

"I got it, Old Man!" Naruto exclaimed, "I want huge whip!"

"Hmm," The Hokage pondered, "Are you talking about a chain whip or a leather whip?"

"I'm talking about a leather one and I'll have to make it myself if I want it to be big enough, but I need to know more about whips and maybe get a regular one from a weapons shop before I make my own."

"Alright, here," the Hokage gave Naruto a fair amount of money to purchase what he needed from a weapon's shop, "but I don't know if you are going to find anything about how to make or use that type of whip around here."

"Thanks, Old Man," Naruto said as he headed out of the office.

"I'll be home early tonight so we can go out and get something to eat for dinner," Sarutobi yelled to the boy who was already in the hall. Naruto just raised his hand in response.

Naruto had to visit three different weapon's shops in the village, disguised as some random chuunin, of course, before he found a leather whip. Nobody really thought of the whip as an effective weapon and the only shop that had it, stocked it just because it was part a collection of eclectic weapons from around the world.

He was not, however, able to find anything on the whip in any scrolls, other than a passing mention. Naruto really wanted to know how to make a whip, but it looked like he would just have to reverse engineer the one he purchased.

Naruto practiced quite a bit with his new whip for about two weeks. Then, he unraveled the plaited leather of the whip in order to find out how to make his own. Once he had noted the construction, he put the whip back together, admittedly a little sloppier than it was to begin with. He did this to practice and also because he didn't want to waste the perfectly good whip.

Throughout his time training with the whip, he realized why it was not seen a viable weapon. While it certainly could cut things, as the end moved faster than the speed of sound, it did not cut very deep. It would be painful, but little more than a nuisance in a full out fight.

Secondly, the whip was really only good at one range. Though its reach seemed advantageous, once someone made it inside of a certain point, the whip became rather harmless. It also required a lot of room to maneuver so it couldn't be used in any tight spaces.

Naruto had some ideas to circumvent these disadvantages and make his whip a viable for combat. Before he concentrated on his final masterpiece, he wanted to make at least one practice whip. He purchased some leather from a shop in the village and cut it into thin strips. Using a rolled up sheet of leather for the belly, the inside of the whip, he continued set upon the tedious process of plaiting the thong, or main part of the whip.

This job took a lot of time and skill but eventually he finished, the hardest part being the recreation of the knots he learned from the store bought whip. He used a thicker piece of leather for the fall, the part of the whip that is more flexible. He ended it with a short length of wire rather than the frayed string of his old one.

All in all, his new whip was several feet longer than his original. When he first tried it, it was ungainly and hard to get moving, let alone crack. He found that increasing his arm length helped in this regard. The wire at the end definitely cut things, but without control it slashed him. He was lucky had the Kyuubi's body, or else he would look like he lost a fight with a blender.

After he tinkered with his creation a little more, he was ready to make his final whip. He decided that he wanted his weapon to be about twenty five feet long so he could use it comfortably when he was ten feet tall.

During his period of experimentation with weapons, Sarutobi had gotten an idea.

"Hey, Naruto," the Hokage said, "Can I have one of your fangs?"

"What?" Naruto was taken aback by the question. "Why would you want that?"

"Well, you always hear stories about swords forged from the fangs of demons, so imagine how strong a sword made from the strongest demon's fang would be."

"…You've been reading too much manga, old man." Naruto deadpanned.

If Naruto didn't know any better, he could have sworn the Hokage blushed slightly in embarrassment.

"Seriously though, your bones are stronger than metal and you regenerate anything anyway, so just let me try something."

Naruto thought it was kind of out there, but hey, he had boiled his own head before. There was really no harm in giving the old man his tooth, so he consented.

The Hokage took Naruto to a secluded spot outside the village and the boy transformed to about a quarter of his full size. Naruto used his giant hand-like paw to tug on one of his large canine teeth, but it would not budge.

In his large form, his body was exceedingly strong. When the Root ANBU cut off his head, he was only able to cut through his neck because Naruto had made his body that weak. To transform into his child form, Naruto imagined how he felt when he still had a human body, thus it was only as strong as a human body.

After fifteen minutes of Sarutobi trying to break his tooth out of his mouth, which hurt like a bitch, they figured out a way to remove the tooth.

Naruto willed every portion of his body, except one fang, to shrink to his normal human size. This resulted in small child sprawled on the ground with a tooth larger than his entire body protruding from his open mouth. From there, it was pretty easy to snap it off.

With that ordeal over, the duo hauled the freakishly large fang to the Sandaime's favorite blacksmith. They had to explain that it was a demon tooth, how they came up with the idea in the first place, and that the Hokage was not going senile. Eventually, the blacksmith swore to keep everything a secret and all traveled to the back of his shop to the forge.

The smith was actually kind of excited because of the chance to work with such a strange material. It definitely seemed like it possessed the properties of steel, although it was more complex than that.

Naruto and the Hokage stuck around as the man put the fang in the coal forge. After fifteen minutes of heating and rapidly working the bellows, the tooth was still as solid as a rock.

Seeing no results, the smith poured his own chakra into the fire, raising the temperature of the flame drastically. This didn't do anything either and they were about to write the whole thing off when the Hokage had an idea.

Naruto poured his youki into the forge and nothing happened at first. After the crimson youki seeped into the coals, the temperature spiked high enough that the group had to take a step back; however, it seemed to do the trick.

Parts of the forge were melting, but the tooth was getting red hot. Working quickly, and wearing protective clothing, the smith removed the tooth from the forge and moved the giant fang over to a large anvil. Using a chisel and hammer, the smith cut off a portion of the tooth metal.

The man put the smaller piece of material back in the forge and set aside the rest of the fang. With the heating problem solved, the smith could shape the material like normal metal so Naruto and the Sandaime left.

After his the boy and old leader went away, the smith started to fold the metal-like bone. He wasn't sure about the properties of the material, but he figured that the folding would give the piece a uniform structure.

Once he was satisfied with the number of folds, he began to shape the piece into a rough outline of a sword. It was a rather short design, as he didn't know the material well and this was basically a test piece. After hours of work, what was once a piece of fang, now resembled a weapon.

The sword was longer than a tonto, but shorter than a wakizashi. It had a slight curve to it, but was straighter than most swords. He was happy with the progress so far, so he set the sword aside and left the shop. It was pretty late, after all that work.

The next morning, when the smith decided to start the long and tedious process of grinding and polishing the sword, he ran into a slight snag. The files and stones used to shape a blade were not equipped to cut the demon bone, so the smith paid the Hokage a visit.

After waiting a short amount of time, the smith was allowed to see the village leader. He told the Hokage of the problem and the old man told him that he would stop by his shop later along with Naruto.

Around lunch time, Naruto and the Hokage arrived and addressed the problem. Since the youki infused coal could heat the fang sufficiently, and melt the forge, Sarutobi mused that a youki infused file could cut into the supernatural material.

Naruto proceeded to "soak" the man's files and stone in crimson energy. Sure enough, this did the trick. The only problem was that the youki charged tools ran out of demon power rather quickly.

In the end, Naruto stayed in the shop while reading a book to keep away the boredom, occasionally charging up the tools so they could cut. If the more weapons were to be made, some sort of seal would have to be placed on the tools to "keep the youki in". Naruto resolved to ask the Hokage about that.

A couple days later, the sword was finished.

Sarutobi and Naruto were standing inside one of the more remote training grounds of Konoha. The Hokage wanted to test the sword that he had commissioned a few days ago away from prying eyes.

The short sword was finished in a rather standard way. The wrapping on the hilt was reddish brown cord and the tsuba, or guard, was a simple bronze circle. The saya, or sheath, was lacquered wood of similar color to the wrap.

The blade of the sword was much whiter than that of a typical sword. This was obviously due to the fact it was once a bone. This also made the sword very lightweight.

The Hokage swung the blade a few times before testing its cutting power against an unfortunate tree. It might seem impressive that a tree about a foot in diameter was cut in one stroke, but he was the Hokage. He could probably cut through a tree with a spatula.

What was impressive was the cleanness of the cut and the fact that he channeled no chakra into the sword during the stroke.

Next, he did channel chakra into the sword, but before he could make another cut, he was surprised to find that the blade was glowing red.

What surprised him even more was that when he casually swung the glowing sword through the air, an arc of red was released from the blade. The crescent of energy traveled through the air and cut a fair way into the ground.

The Hokage was awestruck, but the mood was ruined when Naruto snidely remarked, "Gee Old Man, maybe you should have yelled out "Wind Scar" before you did that."

"Shut up, boy," Sarutobi grumbled, "you have to admit that was damn impressive."

"Actually," Naruto conceded, "that was pretty amazing. But this is turning out too much like some manga or something."

'Honestly, that was where I got the idea,' the Hokage thought, 'but it is surprising it is so much like it.'

The ability, kenatsu, or sword pressure, was often talked about in folklore and now in children's manga. As common as long range cutting attacks were in fiction, he had never seen it in reality. Sure, there were many ranged jutsu, but all you had to do with this was swing the sword. The ability would be beyond useful and he couldn't help but grin slightly.

Naruto was working on the final portion of his new whip in the spare room of Sarutobi's house when the old man called to him from the living room.

When he made it to the living room, a little blue blur collided with him and he barely kept himself upright.

"Naruto-itoko!"

After regaining his balance, he picked up the Sandaime's grandson under his armpits and swung him around. The little boy giggled happily as his "cousin" spun him through the air.

"Are you gettin' fat, Kono-chan?" Naruto teased the little boy as he set him down. The child pouted and tried to kick Naruto in the shin, but still smiled when the older boy ruffled his hair.

Ever since Naruto had started living with the Hokage, Konohamaru quickly took a liking to him. The old man had told his grandson that Naruto was a distant cousin. Konohamaru loved visiting his grandfather and his cousin because they always spoiled him.

"Can we go get dango?!"

This visit was no different. The Sandaime smiled at the two boys. He was glad they got along so well. Sarutobi was rather busy so he let Naruto take the younger boy to one of the dango shops in the village.

Naruto did not appreciate the hostile stares that followed him and Konohamaru. He did not alter his appearance to avoid conflict because that would just confuse the young child. Also, he didn't respond to any of the hostility because he didn't want any confrontations while he was with the boy.

They finally made it to the dango shop that would serve Naruto. This was not due to any kindness on behalf of the proprietors, Naruto had previously threatened him. He only even did this because Konohamaru enjoyed the sweet dumplings so much.

The first time he went into the shop with the boy and realized the owner was going to start something, he had quickly told Konohamaru to wait outside the stand while he talked with the man.

After a few minutes, a confused Konohamaru was receiving dango from a ghostly pale and trembling man. From then on, their visits were without incident.

During this particular visit, Naruto spied a familiar head of purple hair in the dango shop.

Anko was enjoying the food filled with her namesake when she noticed Naruto enter the shop with a brown haired boy. She had not seen him for a couple weeks and she was glad to run into him.

After the duo ordered some dango, they made their way over to the table at which she was sitting.

"Hey, Anko," Naruto greeted cheerfully, "have you ever met my friend, Konohamaru?"

The little boy smiled and waved at her, which she returned.

"Not really," Anko replied, "I've seen him with the Sandaime before, but we haven't ever met." She leaned down until she was eye level with the Hokage's grandson. "Nice ta meetcha, brat!" She told him heartily.

Konohamaru scowled at the 'brat' comment but let it go as he sat down at the table and began to eat his treat.

"So, what have you been up to? Besides babysitting, I mean," Anko asked Naruto.

"Oh, just the usual stuff," replied Naruto, "Nothin' all that important; although, I am just about finished with my new weapon."

"Oooo, I can't wait to see your …weapon," Anko said suggestively.

Naruto just looked at her flatly, blushing only minutely. "Anyway, I'll show it to you as soon as I get it done."

All joking aside, Anko was very interested in his handcrafted weapon. She had heard him talk about how he desired something personalized to own fighting style, but he hadn't told her any specifics.

"Well, you know where to find me," the snake summoning kunoichi said, "I gotta run, so I'll see you and the honorable grandson later." She gave a mocking bow and ruffled said grandson's hair before she took off.

Naruto waved to Anko as she left and turned to see Konohamaru with a strange look on his face.

"What's with the funny look?" He asked the boy.

"I just hate that stupid "honorable grandson" thing!"

"She was just joking around with ya."

"I know," said Konohamaru, "but people say it for real all the time and it gets really irritating."

"Well, it ain't the worst thing to be called," Naruto said quietly. Before Konohamaru could ask him what he meant, Naruto snatched his last stick of dango before standing up.

"Let's head on back, little buddy."

After Konohamaru went home, Naruto spent the rest of the day working on his whip. In the morning he finished his weapon and set out to test it. He wanted to be able to use it adequately before he showed Anko or the Sandaime.

The rest of his day was spent in the clearing in the Forest of Death that he first stayed in when he was stuck as a giant fox. When he finally went home, he couldn't hide his pride and excitement from the Hokage.

The old man asked him what he was so happy about, but all Naruto would say was, "You'll see."

He got Anko the next day and they both convinced the Hokage to take a break and see the fruits of all Naruto's labor. He took them to a different clearing than the one in which he earlier practiced so that they couldn't see the damage his weapon caused. He wanted it to be a surprise.

Once he told them to stay about fifty feet away, he took off all his clothes, accompanied by a wolf whistle from Anko, and shifted into an eleven foot tall human. He then put on a makeshift loin cloth because even if Anko enjoyed looking, the Sandaime didn't.

Finally, he ducked behind a tree to retrieve his finished whip that he stashed there earlier. When he came back into view, the two watching gaped at the sight of the weapon. It looked like something out of a nightmare.

The whip was over twenty five long and ended in one of Naruto's wire-like fox hairs. The thong of the whip was made out of braided red leather, was about as thick as a man's thigh at the handle, and tapered down till the end.

What made the whip unique, other than its size, were the sets of sharp bone spikes that protruded out of its circumference at right angles all down the length of the thong. Each set of spikes was spaced about eight inches away from another and consisted of eight spikes in a star formation.

The spikes themselves were shaped like the teeth on a backsaw. They were sharper on the back edge so that they would cut when the whip was pulled back. The spikes were largest at the base of the thong, almost six inches out of the leather of the whip, and got smaller toward the fall.

To top it all off, the skull of Naruto's previous head was attached to the end of the handle. The weapon looked truly wicked.

The Hokage and Anko were almost startled when Naruto started to swing the whip. The giant man started swinging it gently at first, but then he quickly changed directions and the whip lurched forward. The noise it made at the end of its travel sounded more like thunder than the traditional crack.

Then, Naruto turned his sight on an unfortunate tree. The whip snaked out and wrapped around the tree. With a great heave the whip returned to Naruto and revealed the damage done. The tree was completely shredded around its base and after a few seconds toppled over.

Anko and Sarutobi winced thinking about what that thing would do to a person.

"I got one more trick for ya," said Naruto before channeling his youki into his weapon. A bright, orange-red flame slowly covered the whip and before long, it looked like a bonfire.

When he cracked it this time, the flame leapt from the whip and rapidly expanded into a large fireball.

"That was so fuckin' cool!" Anko yelled after she got over her shock. She ran up to him and tried to hug him, but only really succeeded in hugging his leg. "How the hell did you make that thing," she asked. The Sandaime was also interested.

"Well, I got the idea from the old man's manga inspired sword," the Hokage looked away, slightly embarrassed and Naruto continued, "I figured if my teeth make badass swords, my tail would make a badass whip. So, I just willed spikes to form in my tail and then cut it off. I use a large bone for a handle and I tanned and died my hide for the plaited leather. I had to add my youki to the chemicals and dye in order for it to work, but it turned out really well. The fall is one of my thick hairs so it cuts when I snap the whip. I finished it up with my skull just for looks."

"That sounds like a pretty gruesome process," said the Hokage. Though, he was wondering why the whip caught on fire instead of throwing out crescent blades of energy like the sword he had made.

"Yeah," Naruto admitted, "the leather and tail parts hurt like a bitch."

"Ohhh," Anko cooed from her position around his leg, which she was rubbing her cheek against, "but my Naru-chan can take a little pain."

Anko then got a little adventurous and lifted Naruto's loincloth aside. Her eyes widened and she unconsciously licked her lips. She moved her hand to touch his giant…

"Anko!" the Hokage yelled, still mindful of Naruto's young age, "Down girl!"

I know not much happened in this chapter, and that might be why I had such a hard time writing it, but there were some things in here that had to be said for the sake of the plot.

Anyway, as an apology, here's a small omake. There are spoilers for chapter 366 and onward, so be careful if you only watch the anime.

The Fall of the Akatsuki

The members of the Red Dawn were some of the most powerful people in the world and were very close to there goal of world domination. They had acquired most of the nine Bijuu and had built up quite the sum of money. They also had influence in many governments and they controlled a few small countries.

One might think that they could only be defeated by an idealistic young hero with unreal power or the coalition of several warrior nations but they would be wrong.

No, the Akatsuki were defeated by a hodgepodge of average ninja and civilians. How could this happen, you might ask. The answer is simple.

They killed the Toad Sage, Jiraiya.

This was quite possibly the stupidest thing someone could do. Jiraiya was, without a doubt, the most beloved person on the continent. Hell, the man was allowed into Iwakagure, even having played a major part in their defeat in more than one major war.

People underestimated the number of people who read his books. In fact, there were more copies of Icha Icha Paradise sold than the sum of all existing religious texts combined.

And what did Jiraiya do with the massive profits from all his book sales. He donated all of it to charity. Almost all of the orphanages in the elemental nations were funded entirely by Jiraiya.

The Toad Sage's seal work was also used in many parts of a modern society's infrastructure. City electrical systems, plumbing, and many manufacturing processes benefited from Jiraiya's work.

Despite his lecherous ways, Jiraiya was otherwise big on women's rights. It was almost a continent wide joke about how he peeked on women. They were really alright with it, after beating the hell out of him of course.

So, with Jiraiya being a relative saint, the population at large was understandably upset when he was killed.

Within a month of Jiraiya's death, the largest force ever assembled marched on Amekagure. Multiple bodies, strange powers, doujutsu, and even immortality didn't mean much against such a force.

The prophecy that was foretold to Jiraiya when he was younger did come true. His student did bring peace to the world, though not through stopping a world domination plot. Jiraiya did that unknowingly.

Also, Naruto was not the prophesized pupil who would change the elemental nations. Pein was. By killing Jiraiya, he united the continent against him. After obliterating the Akatsuki, everyone just tried to get along in memory of Jiraiya.

They made love, not war. Dirty, hardcore love. Just like what Jiraiya would have wanted.

The End

I can't believe that Kishimoto killed off such an awesome character. The fact that Sasuke is still alive while Jiraiya is dead is a fucking atrocity. In fact, I might have Jiraiya kill Sasuke in my story. I've never seen that in any fan fiction.

Please review!