WARNING: THIS CHAPTER HAS A GRAPHIC TORTURE SCENE! You have been warned. ^^

Due to a request in one of the reviews I am going to try and make the chapters longer ^^ though this will make updating less frequent, but I will try and make it weekly with each chap being about 6-10 pages long. ^^ Also I am working on another story so my attention is going to be split between the two.

I'm writing this chapter with my newly acquired Kyuubi plushie by my side, so hopefully he inspires me. Other than that, please enjoy the latest chapter ^^

Naruto, however, did not leave. Circling back, making sure to hide his presence and dimming his chakra signature to that of an animal, he watched the rest of the 'test', safe and hidden in the boughs of a sturdy tree. He doubted the council would allow him to work solo, they would say the whole team failed and then make him leave. The Third would be unable to do anything, he was a mere figure head. Maybe, back in the day, when Sarutobi was at his prime he would of actually run the village decently, not allowing others to undermine his authority, make decisions for himself, the kind of things real leaders did. Naruto snorted, Jiraiya would have been a better leader than Sarutobi, and the guy was a proud, Super Pervert, his own words. So he may as well stick around and see if he could help out in any way he could. Unnoticed of course.

Closing his eyes, Naruto focused his senses, locating his soon-to-be teammates. He located Sasuke quickly, he was fairly close to his position. He seemed to be setting up a trap for their bastard sensei. No matter how he seemed on the outside, Naruto didn't think he could ever bring himself to like the man. He was single-handedly responsible for more than half of the nightmares that plagued his mind when he was growing up. He saw his face in every shadow and alley that he passed. Every thunderstorm that had passed he thought it was him coming for his life again. Every time a flock of birds passed he winced in painful remembrance. He was never free from the man's unintentional influence on his life. No matter the evidence that claimed he wasn't responsible for his actions or the remorse the man felt, Naruto could never forgive him. The man shoved his fist through his chest! A child has a very impressionable mind and this was his most vivid memory. He had never trusted another person after that until Tsunade had come along, and even then it had taken months for him to talk to her after their first encounter, and even then it was a slip of the tongue. He had to warn her before the men who had hurt him, hurt her too.

Flashback

It had been 4 months since Tsunade had taken Naruto under her wing. He hadn't spoken to her or anyone after she had whispered his name. He had gone mute, his face in a constant state of fear. He did not trust her much, no matter how much the voice in the back of his head yelled at him to. He refused to swallow any of the food and drink she provided him with, instead trying his hand at hunting and drinking from rivers. Of course he wasn't as apt at it as he hoped and he was slowly wasting away, often getting poisoned from the bad water and relying on her to heal him. The warm feeling that usually did had not appeared since that day for some reason, as if it was punishing him for doing something wrong. He brushed this thought off and continued to watch the woman that had helped him and continue to do so. He was curious as to why someone who knew him would actually help him and not harm him. Maybe it was some kind of trap? A lead to some great horror she had yet to present him with? Currently he was following her through a busy street. He was tempted to grab hold of her cloak with his small hands to prevent him from getting lost within the crowd, some natural instinct to cling to the woman was overcoming his senses, only his overwhelming fear of people was squashing the feeling dead in its tracks. He looked up at the face of the blonde haired female, only to find her lost in thought as she weaved her way through the crowd gracefully. Maybe she wouldn't notice if he held onto her cloak? She looked so deep in thought that a meteor could have fallen out of the sky and landed right next to her, and she wouldn't have noticed. Deciding to take the chance he reached out to grasp the edge of her coat that flew behind her in the wind. Just as his fingers grazed the fabric, he felt the back of his neck explode in pain before the world started to dim. He tried to call out to the woman that had been with him, only for him to realise he forgot her name. She had only said it once and now, as his consciousness was slowly fading, her name escaped him. Somewhere, from deep within his mind a name was supplied to him, it was unknown and sounded strange as he voiced it, but the presence within his mind seemed to radiate with approval as he accepted the name. The warmth that had been absent the last 4 months returned and dulled the pain that was making his head hurt, his reward for calling the name. He liked how the name felt so right when he put it together with the woman. As if it was made especially for her.

"Kaa-san..." and he knew no more.

Tsunade knew of Naruto's hunting habits and since he refused to eat any of the food she made or bought him, she indirectly fed him by wounding animals so he would catch them and purifying water so he could drink without consequence. She did not know why she was helping this boy, all that she knew was that she wanted to and nothing would stop her. He would allow her to heal him from poisoning and to change the bandages on his stomach but other than that he would only follow after her as she travelled. Tsunade quickly noticed he watched her intently at all times, as if studying some specimen that constantly confounded him with its actions. That's probably what she was to him, she mused once. Obviously no one had ever given him this kind of attention or care before. This thought disturbed her to her very core. She knew he held the demon within him, but how could the villagers treat him as the beast? He was an innocent child! If it wasn't for him, the entire village would be rubble right now! What was Sarutobi-sensei thinking? She was glad she left the village all those years ago, and these recent turn of events made her disgust with the village even more profound. From somewhere behind her she heard a weak voice call for his mother. Thinking about family made her more depressed and angry. Clearing her head of morbid thoughts she looked around for her unofficial charge, only to find him not behind her. Panic quickly took over as she searched the busy street for him, there was no flash of bright blond hair anywhere.

"Brat!" she yelled, frantic worry clear in her voice. She didn't want to scream his name in case there were people from the leaf village somewhere near-by. That would cause problems. But as the seconds slowly turned to minutes and then the minutes slowly turned into an hour as time ticked by with her finding no sign of him, her fear about what others would think was pretty much thrown out the window, violently. She was about 3 seconds away from a mental breakdown, when she overheard a whispered conversation that made her blood freeze in fear and boil in rage at the same time.

"Did you see how it was snivelling?" snickered one

"Yeah, probably trying to trick us with its demon wits, making us think it was really a small child, rather than a blood-thirsty demon,' snorted the other.

"He'll need to be better than that if it even hopes of convincing us it's not the demon it is. My father fought the beast and recognised the blonde hair and blue eyes straight away. Who does it think it is? Crying for its mummy, it doesn't have a family. It's a demon!"

"I know right? But who would have thought that it would bleed red? I thought demons had black blood?"

"Must be more of its demon magic at work, we'll have to cut deep for its true colour to show. After all, we can cut it as much as we want, remember how it heals almost instantly? Even though it's lost enough blood for three normal people it still remains conscious! I wonder what would happen if we severed its fingers?"

"Should make for a fun evening," the man smirked. They got no further in their conversation however, as a fist came flying out of nowhere and struck the first man in the face, sending him flying into the wall on the other side of the street. He fell to the ground unconscious, blood running from his temple. His friend looked at him horrified before turning his gaze towards the one that had struck him. Tsunade stalked towards the fear stricken man, hate and rage clear in her glare that was aimed at the man. Lifting him up by the front of his shirt, Tsunade spoke low and threateningly,

"Where is he?" she demanded. Her voice wavering with the amount of emotion it carried. "Where did you take him?" The man was officially wetting himself, literally. Tsunade looked at him in disgust as he emptied his bladder and his legs lost the strength to carry him. Throwing him against the wall she demanded from him again, "WHERE IS HE?" she practically screamed, he throat sore from the intensity of her yell. Dizzy the man pointed down the street to an alleyway shrouded in shadow.

"T-theres a d-door in there, i-i-it leads to a room where t-the demon is-" he got no further as Tsunade knocked him unconscious the second the word demon left his mouth. Shaking with barely suppressed rage, she made her way to the alleyway the man pointed to. It was dark and out of the way, she wouldn't have noticed it if she wasn't looking for it. Walking to the entrance she noticed a trail on the ground that led to a door, as if something was dragged through here recently. Not thinking twice about what was dragged though here, she followed it to the door. Just as she was about to kick open the door she paused, on the door handle was blood, fresh blood too. She could hear a child crying on the other side of the door.

Anger clouded her vision as she kicked the door clean off its hinges. It smashed into the wall on the opposite side of the room. It was small and unfurnished. A single, flickering light hung down from the roof in the centre of the room, illuminating a small bloody figure surrounded by a group of men whose heads turned at the sound of their door being broken. Tsunade's gaze zeroed in on the crying figure. Once bright blonde hair was now dirty and bloodied. You couldn't even tell the colour his clothes once were, for they were now forever stained red. The men weren't kidding when they said he'd lost enough blood for three people, there was a deep puddle surrounding the child, almost as if he was swimming in it. The walls were splattered and sprayed with the red liquid. It looked like a massacre had happened in this room, she thought dizzily. Her limbs started to shake as she was overwhelmed with the stench of blood. Her long forgotten fear re-surfacing in all its terrible might. She had once been a great medic in her prime, but the loss of her little brother and her fiancé had left her with a mind-numbing fear of the vital liquid. As she was trying to control her terror one man circled her, unnoticed. The bold man lifted a bat that he had just been using to break the child's limbs, and brought it down to connect with her head. Just before it made contact a small voice rang out shrilly in the dank, dark room.

"KAA-SAN!"

...

He was fascinated by the way the demon would heal itself. It had become a game to him, to see how much the thing could handle before it finally died. When he saw the beast he was horrified that it was still alive, and walking freely no less. He had lost his brother in the attack of the demon almost 3 and half years ago now. How could the Leaf let it go feely? He had thought. So he had smashed him on the back of the head and dragged him here to end the life it didn't deserve. But to his dismay, and fascination, the thing wouldn't die. He had cut numerous vital points and watched him bleed excessively, and the demon still wouldn't die. When it woke up from the blow to the head, it had cried pathetically. Had it been a normal child, the cries of pain and look of naked terror in its eyes would have haunted him for the rest of his life. As it was the cries and expression the beast made each time he struck it with a different weapon made him cackle in cruel delight. This is type of suffering it deserved for the horror it had unleashed that day. And so he had played his game, the same repetitive motions over and over.

Snap, scream, laugh, heal, Snap, scream, laugh, heal, Snap, scream, laugh, heal, but it was still conscious. So he had called his friends and his son to join in the fun. Now his game had more stages. Snap, scream, stab, scream, slice, scream, laugh, jeer, ridicule, heal, no matter what they did he always healed. And so his game would start again, each time they added something different to the mix. A tear here, a gouge there, rub salt in his wounds before they healed so it was sealed underneath the skin and burned him from the inside, set parts of him on fire and see if the demon's healing power would put it out or just constantly heal the burned area over and over until the fire burned itself out. That had been one of the best ones yet, he took immense satisfaction from watching the beast writhe in agony as the fire ate his skin. One of his friends had the brilliant idea of pouring acid onto his flesh and watch which one was faster. His ability to heal or the speed of the liquid eating his skin away? That had been interesting. It had taken a while to find the answer, some of them even put bets on which would win. The creature's screams of suffering and agony had made it all the more entertaining. The flesh had bubbled and burned away, exposing the soft muscle tissue of his entire stomach for a while before the healing ability kicked in. The edges of the wound had grown and shrunk for almost half an hour before the healing ability was victorious. This was accompanied by groans of disappointment by those who had bet on the acid winning. They were about to do it again, this time they would spit on the exposed muscles that the flesh eating acid had revealed and see if that aided the chemical in any way, when the door had been blasted off its hinges and in the doorway, shaking with rage was a very well endowed woman. As the woman had stepped in the room he had felt fear for the first time since the attack of the demon, before rage took over. Who was she to interrupt his game? The demon deserved it! She must be punished, he thought. A lecherous grin spread over his face as he thought of ways to 'punish' her. She could join his game. And there were many ways of breaking a woman that you just couldn't do with a man, must more... pleasurable... ways. He crept around to surprise her from the back. She seemed to be distracted by something, her limbs were shaking with some strong emotion he didn't care to place. He brought the club he was favouring lately on the beast down on her head, just as a voice pierced through previous silence of the room since the woman busted the door.

"KAA-SAN!"

...

The presence in the back of Naruto's mind was warring between anger, concern and sympathy. It was taxing itself with the constant healing of all these serious injuries. If it wasn't for the presence, Naruto would be dead thirty times over. It couldn't let up or it would mean the end of the boy. He was beyond hate towards these cretins for what they did to the child. It wasn't his fault that he was sealed in him! Guilt would have overcome him if it weren't for the severity of the situation. He needed to think of a way out of this, but he was helpless. In his condition the boy wouldn't last if he starts to posses him, he probably couldn't even handle a single tail of his power! He focused on beating the poison that was being poured on the boy's navel. It was even more taxing then healing the knife wounds to his vital points, fatigue started to plague the presence's mind. He couldn't last much longer, his power was severely diminished in this form, and he couldn't help the blonde at all. He was preparing for another round against the acid when he sensed a disturbance in the outside world. Mentally thanking whatever gods had decided to give them a reprieve he paid attention to the world outside his prison.

...

...

Naruto was in a living hell. Every time one of the men brought something into contact with his skin he couldn't hold back the pain filled screams that tore themselves from his throat. His body was accustomed to this pain and the last four months had healed him of all of his scars and wounds from his nightly beating he used to get in the Leaf village. But this was different. They were beatings; stones, sticks, fist and knives were used. But this was different. Occasionally he was penetrated in the vilest ways, but they were more of a fortnightly thing than daily. But this was different. He was used to being beaten. He wasn't used to being tortured. Pain overloaded his senses, adrenaline kept him awake and alert no matter how much he wished for the dark embrace of unconsciousness or even death. But what terrified him the most was that all of their faces looked like him. The masked man that commanded lightning. He was still after him, still after his life. Each leer, glare, smirk, laugh, each smug smile was his. Every bad person ever since that day held his face. That hidden face with the scarecrow white hair. It followed him in his dreams, he saw flashes of blue constantly in the corners of his eyes, and every bird chirp had him cowering in fear. He knew that it wasn't really him that was hurting him now, but he couldn't help it, the man followed him everywhere, so now, accompanying the agonizing, unbearable pain was the memories of the night he had a fist shoved through his chest and each of his cells were electrocuted. He felt close to insanity as his memories and the new pain worked together to destroy his mind.

He wondered vaguely what 'kaa-san', the woman, was doing now. Did she notice that he was gone? Did she care? Was she happy he was gone? Cruel despair flooded his system, almost as strong as the pain and terror that currently possessing his small body. He had tried not to get too attached to the woman, but he obviously failed. He had seen her, wounding animals and purifying water when she thought he wasn't looking, or when they went to a busy market place and the jostling people knocked him, she was there using her body as a shield from the throngs of people. He pretended that he didn't notice and she did the same. No matter what he did, she wouldn't hit him or beat him. When she tried to feed him for the first time and he refused, she didn't force him. She just left it there and went outside. That was the first time he saw a wounded animal that he made his dinner. He remembered when he tried a mushroom that was growing in one of the forests they walked past, he spent the next two days throwing up and she didn't leave his side. She stayed with him, she didn't continue her journey or abandon him on the side of the road, and she helped him get better. The next day he had found she left to go to the market and on the table were a bunch of books about poisonous plants and healing herbs. That was the first time he smiled since he left the Leaf.

He was torn from his peaceful memories by a burning, searing pain along his stomach. His throat was bloodied from his screams and his had lost his voice was raw from his protests, but still this pain was pain he had never felt before. If there were windows in this room they would have shattered at the intensity of his agony filled screams. The warm feeling of healing had been long forgotten in his pain. He could feel it as it fought against whatever was dissolving his stomach. He could feel each molecule and atom get destroyed and healed, only to be destroyed again. The feeling of his skin dissolving, burning, sizzling, as it was eaten away went on forever. Time seemed to have stopped and left him in an endless loop of suffering. He wished for death to release him, he longed for it. Was living really worth it if it meant this kind of pain?

It seemed like an eternity had passed when the burning of the acid finally faded away. Ever since the torture had started he had been unable to close his eyes, they remained widened in horror, anguish, agony and pain. So he was aware of all of their taunting, jeering and immense pleasure at seeing him suffer, it also meant he saw they were going to pour more of the burning liquid on him. Terror curled in his stomach as he imagined going through that endless burning agony again. He watched in morbid anticipation as the man who grabbed him lifted a vial above him. Just as he was about to tip the liquid on his newly healed stomach, he saw the door fly across the room. The men's attention instantly diverted to the distraction, and he curled himself into a ball, a futile attempt at protecting himself. Seconds ticked by with no one harming him, he peaked around his arm that was covering his head and saw an angel. An avenging angel. The women stood there, blonde pigtails flying, anger radiating off her in waves. Hers eyes locked on to his prone form and horror and fear filled her eyes. Her body started to shake. Naruto was confused, was she scared for him? Or of something else? He had no time to ponder this though, as he spotted the man who was the cause of all this creep around to the woman's blind spot. He raised the bat that was minutes ago breaking his bones and was about to bring it down on her head. He couldn't let this happen. She was the only person in the world who was nice to him. She didn't beat him. She didn't call him names. She fed him. She cared for him. Just as it was about to make contact with her head he yelled out, as loud as he could, desperation filled his voice, fear for her gave him the energy to make it cut through the surprised silence that had descended since her arrival.

"KAA-SAN!" his voiced cracked as his throat tore for the intensity of his cry. He watched as his voiced reached through whatever veil was shrouding Tsunade's mind. Her head snapped up and her gaze locked with his. Her eyes held fierce determination and anger, he maternal instincts were on hyper-drive as she dodged the bat that barely missed her head. She brought her fist up and smashed the man's nose, forcing the bone to drive straight through to his brain, killing him instantly. Before the body fell to the ground, Tsunade was on the other men in the room. Her fists turned bloody as they pounded into the soft bodies of her boy's torturers. Her rage would not be quenched however, as she made her way around the room, utterly destroying all of the occupants except Naruto, she had seen the weapons they had used. The used gasoline and matches, the bloodied knives and bats, the beakers full of acid, fury and hate turned her vision red as she rounded on the dead body of her first victim. The one who had started all of this. She brought her foot to meet his stomach forcing him into the wall. She approached the body again, beating it, pounding it, crushing it. She didn't stop. The corpse had stopped resembling a human being and looked more like a broken pile of mush as bones were broken and flesh was bloodied. Over and over she muttered the same thing,

"How dare you, how fucking dare you! Never touch him again! Never touch my child... my boy... how fucking dare you!" Her legs were stained red with blood, her hands as well, but she couldn't care less, she had to protect her child. Just as she brought her leg back to kick the body again, she felt a small pair of hands grasp her leg. She turned and her gaze fell on the clearest pair of blue eyes she had ever seen.

His face was caked in blood, tear stains ran over his scarred cheeks, his hair was matted and crusty, his clothes were torn and bloodied, but his eyes were the brightest blue. They pleaded with her to stop, to take care of him, to comfort him. She didn't think twice, stopping down, she pulled him to her and crushed him to her embrace. He hesitated for a second before the tears fell again, his small hands clutched the front of her shirt, fabric bunched tightly into small fists, as though if his grip loosens in the slightest she would disappear and the men would come back. Tsunade rocked back and forth, incoherent but soothing words coming from her mouth as she comforted the boy. Now the adrenaline rushing through her system had run its course, what he had yelled out to save her finally sunk in. She tried to pull back from him, but he refused to relinquish his hold on her shirt and buried his head deeper into her chest, sobs still racking his small body. Rubbing soothing circles on his back, she tried to talk to him.

"Naruto...?" she asked softly. He didn't answer, but his sobs died down. "Naruto, honey, what did you call me before?" He stiffened at the question, but then realised her voice was gentle and held no hidden anger or disgust at him. He slowly raised his head to meet her gaze. A light blush tinted his cheeks.

"K-kaa-san..." he mumbled before burying his head in her chest again. He was scared she would reject him, hate him for calling her such a name. The presence in the back of his mind seemed to purr in satisfaction. The moments dragged by and he heard nothing from the woman who held him so securely. He was about to disentangle himself from her when he felt a drop of moisture on his blood caked head. Looking up at her again, he was surprised to see tears cascading freely down her cheeks. He was horrified at the thought he had upset her by calling her that name and was about to apologize before noticing her lips stretched in a wide smile of pure happiness. He looked at her in amazement before summing up the courage to speak again. "C-can I call you kaa-san? ...please?" he asked almost desperately. Tsunade brought a hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp/ sob of pleasure. Not trusting her voice, she simply nodded, before hugging the child to her again. Naruto was shocked to say the least. She had accepted him. She wanted him. She had saved him and she would be him mother. Hugging his new mum as close as possible he cried once again, saying her name over and over.

"Kaa-san, kaa-san, kaa-san, kaa-san, kaa-san, kaa-san,"

End Flashback.

Shrugging off pleasant, yet morbid memories, Naruto focused on finding his other teammate. It took a while though, longer than he thought it would, because she was running around. Naruto snorted in amusement as he realized she was literally running around in circles. Seemed like she was looking for something, or someone. Rolling his eyes at her sheer stupidity, he settled on his branch to wait for an opportunity in which he could lend his skills to his unofficial team.

After writing this I realised i might have some serious issues or am deeply disturbed :S but i will solve them later, now on with the Kyuubi inspiration! Please RxR! ^^