:::Authors Note:::

Alrighty,

Sorry about taking so long for the update, but i never promise regular ones, i do hope i can make the next update sooner but as i said, no promises.

(1) = Post Traumatic Stress

(2) = The canon personality of Naruto

(3) = When Naruto is in his Tatsumaki Sakkaku persona, i will refer to him as such, like wise with his normal persona

Naruto was now one year into the Academy's training program, though he soon discovered that a large majority (read as 'all')of the instructor's went out of their way to try and sabotage his instruction. When Naruto discovered this, he decided to have some fun by surpassing any test they gave him and overcoming any obstacle. This, however, proved to become a rather large problem as when word of his achievements reached the ears of the populous, some of the more violent and avid haters of Naruto decided that it would be a good idea to remove Naruto as a 'Potential Threat' so that he couldn't 'get strong enough to kill them all'. The attempts themselves weren't very well thought out, but Naruto figured out the cause of it and set out to remedy this situation.

The solution that Naruto had devised resulted in him having to act like an idiot, much to his own chagrin but it was a necessary step to take. Naruto allowed a small mob of the idiots who sought his death into his home where they started attacking what they thought was him. The attacking soon turned into an impromptu torture session and 'Naruto was saved from his imminent death by a number of ANBU members the most notable being one with a dog mask on and silver hair that seemed to defy gravity as it shot and out of his head, leaning sightly to the right. The ANBU then took 'Naruto's' half dead form to the hospital, before notifying the Hokage. A few days later Naruto 'woke up' and pretended to suffer from amnesia and a severe PTS(1) induced personality shift, the resulting personality being a hyperactive idiot who dreamed to become Hokage.(2)

After his apparent change in personality, Naruto started t buy some equipment from what every stores he could, though he still bought the majority of his equipment, and anything else he needed, under a 'Transformation'. The reason he bought some equipment in his normal for was to help keep his new personality from being questioned. As time went by, Naruto noted that the people started to care less about him, opting to ignore him outright than to interact with him.

At the Academy, Naruto befriended only one of the kids and in turn his older brother, the Uchiha's Sasuke and Itachi. The first meeting between the three of them had happened after his short 'ordeal' resulting in his change in personality, and because of this he never revealed to either of them his true nature. Sometime after their initial meeting, Naruto and Sasuke became near inseparable and proclaimed that they would be brothers in all but blood, a proclamation that Itachi had been dragged into as well.

Very little happened, that could be considered notably different to normal life, after the oath of brotherhood shared by the two Uchiha's and the blonde jinchuriki, at least for some time. It was almost six months before Naruto took up the persona that he had used two years prior when naming his disguise to Kurenai. The incident that resulted in this re-appearance was an exceptionally co-incidence for Naruto as he was simply minding his own business when he noticed a Kumo nin passing by with a large sack over his shoulder, a sack that had the vague contours of a small child. Naruto immediately shrugged off a kidnapping, but decided to follow from both curiosity and boredom.

Although he had immediately dismissed the idea earlier, when he saw the nin meet up with another he started to doubt any innocuous nature of this meeting. Listening closer, he found out that the two nin where commissioned to kidnap one of the Hyuuga's main branch children and had succeeded in taking the clan's heir. Having learnt enough for the moment, Naruto formed the Transformation resulting in the form of his Sakkaku persona and confronted to two Kumo nin.

"Yo, I heard that the two of you are attempting a kidnapping, mind telling me about it?" Sakkaku asked as innocently as he could.(3)

Both of the shinobi turned to face him and the one who had just recently been holding the clan heir spoke up, "Who the hell are you, and what makes you think that we're trying to kidnap anybody?"

Sakkaku noted the caution in his voice and told them plainly that he had seen them meet and decided to listen in for curiosities sake, "Although, as for who I am, well I suppose the name Tatsumaki Sakkaku will suffice." His short introductory addendum, while informative, did not prevent the two men from panicking slightly.

"Ninja Art: Allure of Unbroken Shallow Sleep Technique."

Sakkaku flashed through the few necessary hand signs for the technique when each of the Kumo nin drew a kunai. After a few seconds, the technique took effect and they fell to the ground, in an unstirring slumber. Confident that the shinobi were now out for the count, Sakkaku made his way over to the bag and loosened the tie letting the small child inside tumble out, still unconscious. As luck would have it though, The very moment Sakkaku picked the small child up to assess her condition, a Hyuuga male with long brown hair and traditional garb burst into the area, Byakugan blazing.

"Put her down you bastard." The verbal jab was quickly followed with the chakra enhanced jab of the Hyuuga's Jyuuken strike.

Sakkaku leapt out of the way of the jab, but the small window of time prevented him from complying with what was asked of him earlier, an action that caused the man to become even more agitated. In an attempt to diffuse the situation, Sakkaku attempted to reason with the man, "Look, I'll give you the girl, but I need you to stop trying to attack me first."

Thankfully for Sakkaku, his attempt to placate the man for a temporary means worked, evident in the de-activation of his Byakugan. Sakkaku walked over to the man and told him exactly what had happened before he arrived and immediately set about trying to prevent the man from trying to murder the now sleeping kidnappers.

"Why do you stop me? These bastards just tried to make off with my daughter, so I hope you don't think I'm going to let them live." Seething with righteous fury, the man demanded an answer to why he was being prevented from achieving his justice.

"Ok, say you do kill them. What happens after that? You have no solid evidence that they were trying to kidnap your daughter, so if you did kill them it would only serve to aggravate the incident further, especially since one of them looks to be an ambassador for Kumo." Sakkaku explained his reasoning to the irate man. The recently identified Hyuuga clan head calmed himself after hearing this reasoning, as it was logical and what was said after proved to be the most appropriate course of action, "The two that tried to kidnap your daughter are under a genjutsu that won't break very soon, I would suggest taking them to the Hokage and having them questioned formally so that you can at least get some solid evidence before ripping their collective hearts out."

By now, the Hyuuga clan head had fully calmed himself to the norm for his clan, and had turned to the man who had just rescued his daughter, "I apologise for attacking you earlier and I thank you for rescuing my daughter and preventing me from acting rashly. May I have the name of the man to whose debt I am in."

Turning to the Hyuuga, Sakkaku just grinned before putting his hands behind his head, "Isn't it polite to introduce yourself before ask for the names of others? But to answer your question, the name is Tatsumaki Sakkaku, for now, and don't you forget it." Sakkaku noticed the slight widening of the man's eyes as he realised that Sakkaku didn't know who he was.

"Again, my apologies. I assumed that you already knew me; My name is Hyuuga Hiashi, the head of the Hyuuga clan." Hiashi, who had been holding his daughter since he had calmed down from trying to kill the 'would be' kidnappers, bowed slightly with his apology and introduction.

Once more, Sakkaku was tempted by curiosity, "Okay, now I know your name, but would I be allowed to know the name of your daughter?" Sakkaku posed his question carefully so as not to insult or upset the man, who in turn laughed at Sakkaku's attempt at politeness. "Her name is Hinata, and she is my eldest, although she is a little shy." Hiashi never strayed too far from his natural stoicism, but allowed for some emotive expression.

His curiosity satiated, Sakkaku turned and started walking away, "Alright Hiashi-san, I'm sure you can handle it from here, and as for the debt thing, don't worry about it." Hiashi watched the man disappear into thin air, as if he had not existed in the first place.

Hiashi had called several branch Hyuuga's to move the bodies of the Kumo nin for interrogation, while he himself dropped his daughter of at the Hyuuga complex before visiting the Hokage about the incident. After recounting the events that he knew and what had been told to him by Sakkaku, Hiashi waited for the Hokage's reaction. "I have heard of this Tatsumaki Sakkaku, only once before and that was from someone else who had been rescued by him, one Yuuhi Kurenai. After the event she was quite fervent in her attempts to find any information about him and even asked that if I should hear something to let her know."

Hiashi was confused that Sakkaku was practically a ghost, and remembered what had been said in his introduction. "Hokage-sama, I remember that Sakkaku-san mention that his name was 'for now'. I suspect that this name may just be an alias and disguise for someone else." The revelation was short lived as Kurenai had burst into the room asking a flurry of questions about Sakkaku.

Realising that Kurenai had interrupted the meeting between the Hyuuga clan head and the Hokage, she apologised and excused herself from the office. Soon after, Hiashi left, having given his report to the Hokage and was simply going to wait until the report from the interrogation had been released. Kurenai quickly returned to the Hokage's office to ask about one Tatsumaki Sakkaku. After her close rescue two years earlier and having learnt his name, Kurenai set out to find him, eventually seeking help from the Hokage, who confessed to never having heard of the man before.

Unfortunately for Kurenai, her attempts to find out more about the mysterious man proved no more fruitful as the last attempt, two years prior. Disheartened by the lack of results, Kurenai thanked the Hokage for his assistance in her 'selfish request' and left. Several months passed and Kurenai eventually started to entertain the thought that she may never see the man who had saved her again, only to be approached by the very man she had sought after.

:::Training Ground 37:::

Kurenai was sparring with her long time friend, Mitarashi Anko, a spar that was neither being won, nor lost. When Kurenai cast a genjutsu, Anko sent out several snakes, and for every snake was a genjutsu based escape method only to be quickly bombarded with the agile, and seemingly unpredictable, movements of Anko's snake fist style taijutsu. There was no pattern to be followed in the fight, because each time one would form, one of the combatants brought out something new.

Unbeknownst to either of the fighters, they were being watched by a young blonde jinchuriki who was hiding himself behind a genjutsu. Having enjoyed the show that was being produced by the fight between the kunoichi, Naruto decided to test his own abilities against the girls. Quickly forming the genjutsu body of his alternate persona, Naruto started to walk towards the combating kunoichi.

"Hey girls, mind if I join your little fight here?" Naruto, or rather Sakkaku said to them.

Both Kurenai and Anko stopped their spar when they heard Sakkaku's voice and turned to look at him. Kurenai almost immediately recognised him and rushed over to him, "Sakkaku-san, you probably don't remember me, but you saved me from being raped a couple years ago and I just wanted to give you my thanks." Kurenai reached to Sakkaku's face and kissed him on the lips, before either Anko or Sakkaku could complain or escape. Pulling her lips away, after several minutes of having locked lips with her saviour, Kurenai quickly said her thanks and turned away walking back to the training ground that Anko was waiting on with a wicked grin on her face.

Sakkaku, being as unused to such interactions as he was, had been shocked stiff by the kiss. His was brought out of his shock by Kurenai and Anko speaking up, stating that if he wanted to join in the sparring, he would have to come onto the field. Sakkaku answered their beckoning by disappearing, only to reappear several metres from the kunoichi and be forced into the defensive, Kurenai and Anko both struck at the shimmering that signified the genjutsu, that surrounded the man, disappearing. Both girls were surprised when the target they thought was Sakkaku, simple vanished.

Both girls grins widened at the idea that they were fighting someone they knew nothing about and could work their fighting patterns to their own design. They ensuing match, was quite one sided as Sakkaku continued to disappear and reappear all over the field. The sparring match continued for almost half an hour, before Sakkaku ended the fight and bid the girls farewell. Before he could leave, Kurenai called out to him once more, "Will I see you again soon?" She held a great deal of hope in her voice, something that wasn't missed by Sakkaku or Anko.

"Yeah sure, I'll come by every week about this time." Sakkaku grinned and disappeared as he had done throughout their matches, leaving no trace that he had been there.

Once he had found himself in a safe area, Naruto returned to his normal form. Naruto thought back to what had happened the night he saved Kurenai, and wondered what could possess her to feel like kissing him as thanks. Quickly deciding that he couldn't understand women, Naruto went about the rest of his afternoon, having spent most of the day watching and participating in the sparring between Kurenai and Anko.

Naruto smiled to himself as he started to think, 'Things are going to get interesting.'

:::Authors Note:::

Alrighty, I know you might think i am freaking awesome, and i am... but, i am a novice writer and would love for you guys to help me out by leaving a review, or two, or ten.

Heads up for the next chapter, more on the Kurenai/Naruto development, new developments and the story will have harem like elements but i suppose you'll just have to wait ad see.

One more thing, get uncle a mung bean sandwich... kidding, i don't even like mung beans I apologise if you are unsatisfied with how the chapter ended, i was extremely tired and it was late at night when i finished it so i didn't have the time to look over and flesh out some of the final scene.

anyways, this is Anonlemming, signing out

Ja Ne