Silence reigned through the Tazuna residence as no one could bring themselves to ask the one question on all but one person's mind… what had happened to Naruto?

Everyone that knew what had conspired on the way to Nami knew that the boy had been cleaved in two but here he was, sitting at the table, wearing a cloak and facemask his sensei had given him in an attempt to maintain at least a semblance of modesty.

The only person in the house that didn't possess these thoughts was a young woman with long dark hair, a fair complexion and dark eyes. She was wearing a light pink sweater and a dark skirt, all in all she looked just like any other civilian, something to be expected when she was the bridge builders daughter and possessed no form of training.

Then again, the tension in the room was almost palpable, allowing even the least perceptive of individuals to figure out something wasn't right with the group in front of her… however she just assumed it was because the mission was more dangerous than they had expected.

Finally the silver haired Jōnin decided that he had to ask the boy the question on their minds, after all, the sooner it was gotten out of the way, the sooner the group could start focusing on the more important matters… such as the swordsman's escape.

"Naruto?" almost immediately the currently cloaked form of his student turned to face him, the light that had been a permanent feature of them before no longer anywhere to be seen as tears threatened to fall from them.

"Kakashi-sensei… what am I?" the question was asked with clear desperation, the simple question telling the man everything he needed to know… the boy before him didn't know what had happened either, "am I still alive?"

Almost immediately everyone in the room tensed, why had the boy asked a question with such an obvious answer? Sure he had been fatally injured but he had managed to survive one way or another, even if no one knew how he had done so.

"What do you mean? You are here with us, you are talking, you are moving, why wouldn't you be alive?" Kakashi asked the boy, his mind beginning to grow concerned about the boys mental health after such a traumatic situation.

"I… I can't find my pulse," the statement caused several eyes to stare at him blankly before the one eyed ninja stood up and walked towards the boy, placing his fingers to the boys neck, just where his pulse should've been. Seconds passed and the one visible eye on the Jōnin began to give off a sense of disbelief, soon an entire minute had passed and the man proceeded to push the boy away from the table, shocking the people present as he moved his ear to the boys chest, focusing chakra the audio receptor to enhance the sense.

Once again the man's eye began to show a level of disbelief as several minutes passed before he finally removed his head from the boys chest.

"That's impossible… how?" despite all his experience, despite all his training, the Jōnin had never come across a situation such as the one he currently found himself in, a situation he had long ago registered as physically impossible.

"K-Kakashi-sensei? What's wrong? What's impossible?" Sakura couldn't help but ask with a hint of fear in her tone as she witnessed her sensei trying to find the boys heartbeat, her mind had already come to a conclusion however she didn't want to believe it, accepting it as possible would deny everything she knew about life and how to identify when a person was dead.

"Naruto's heart… isn't beating," instantly everyone except the blond himself gasped at the idea that someone who was literally walking and talking among them had no heartbeat, that they appeared to be clinically dead despite their activity.

"What's going on with me? What am I? Am I alive or dead? Am I even human anymore?" the others in the room could do nothing but look at him with a mix of shock and pity, they knew they couldn't bring themselves to understand what was going on in the boys mind right now, unlike him they had never been forced into a situation where they had to ask if they were dead or alive with no clear answer in sight.

"I don't know, I guess the only real way of describing what you are right now is… a paradox, neither dead or alive, yet you have the characteristics of both, some type of 'no-life' that isn't death… dammit, I'm no philosopher, I can't really describe what's going on with you," the hint of anger in the man's voice was noticeable, however the important part was that everyone could tell where it was directed, at his own inability to comfort his student.

"Do you think the old man will have any idea about what's happened to me?" came a question from the young blond, causing the Jōnin to look at him with a hint of regret seeping into his eye.

"It's possible but I doubt it, I've never even heard rumours of anything like this happening so I think you are a special case, something truly unique," the silver haired Jōnin said seriously, he didn't want to get the boy's hopes up for nothing so he made certain he knew he would probably have to find out everything about himself alone.

Almost instantly the silver haired Jōnin's eye moved towards the door, a certain edge seeping into it as he picked up on something the genin couldn't. Slowly standing from his seat the one eyed man walked towards the door just before a light thump came from the wooden barrier.

The entire room tensed as the light thumping started repeating itself while the most experienced ninja slowly made his way towards the entrance, ready to deal with whatever might be on the other side.

It took an instant for the man to open the door and pick out his target… upon which he immediately closed the door without doing anything else, causing the rest of the people in the room to look at him in confusion.

"It's… a rabbit," the one eyed man said nervously, causing the group to give him a strange look before he decided to expand on the statement, "it is a white furred rabbit… with a broken neck… and covered in blood… I hate to say it but I think we're dealing with some sort of zombie rabbit."

Almost immediately the looks of confusion changed to looks of rage as they began to wonder exactly what the man was trying to pull while the thumping continued to pound into their minds.

"Kakashi-sensei, there is no such thing as zombies, let alone zombie rabbits," Sakura stated as she continued to sit at the table, annoyance at his antics clear in her eyes as she wondered why he was keeping the door closed.

"Then you can deal with this 'nonexistent zombie rabbit' in my place," the green clad ninja said with a hint of relief in his tone as the pinkette began to splutter indignantly at the man passing the task of dealing with whatever was behind the door to her.

"Fine!" she shouted upon deciding that she shouldn't disobey her superiors orders even if she didn't like the idea of being the one to deal with whatever he had turned away from before.

Stomping away from the table, she pulled out her kunai just in case it was something dangerous on the other side of the door and after taking a few seconds to steady herself, she opened the door an inch and peered through the crack, looking lower when she saw nothing before repeating Kakashi's action of slamming the door closed.

"So… what is it Sakura?" the smug tone in the cycloptic Jōnin's voice made everyone in the room look at him with wide eyes before the konoichi answered.

"It's… it's… it's a… zombie rabbit," the simple fact that Sakura was prepared to say that after denying that zombies existed in the first place made the rest of the room reach a certain level of fear, if there was some sort of zombie apocalypse happening why did it have to start there?

"Okay… Naruto, how do we kill that which has no life?" Kakashi asked the boy who simply spluttered in indignation at being asked something like that.

"HOW THE HELL SHOULD I KNOW?!"

"Well… you're technically dead so I would expect you to know," the cycloptic Jōnin said while refusing to look the boy in the eye.

"Kakashi-sensei… I've been dead for less than three hours and only known for less than ten minutes, what makes you think I know anything about how to kill a zombie?" the blue eyed blond reasoned earning a non-committal shrug off the older man.

"Well, since you're already dead maybe you can reason with it and not get eaten in the process," Sakura said with a hint of desperation before running over to the blond and dragging him from his seat, earning a yelp of pain from the boy as she put pressure on his burnt skin and moved him to the door, "so go on, you deal with it."

Hissing in pain at his pink haired teammates touch the boy began to wonder why the rabbit was there in the first place, was it there to get revenge for him killing it or something completely different? He soon decided that the only way he'd find out would be by opening the door and seeing for himself.

Taking a deep breath despite figuring that he probably didn't need to breathe anymore if he was dead, he placed his hand on the handle and with a quick jerk, he opened the door to reveal the small white rabbit with a broken neck and dried blood covering its neck.

Everyone prepared themselves for its next move, each member of the group was prepared to run if they needed to. Ten seconds passed, then a minute, it soon became apparent that the rabbit was simply standing there staring at the boy that opened the door, no sign of life present in its form… well except for the fact it was still standing.

Naruto couldn't help but feel disturbed by the dead rabbits gaze and after several minutes of simply staring at it, he finally decided to put a little distance between them, taking a single large stride backwards.

The effect was immediate, where the rabbit was once standing perfectly still, it suddenly moved forwards, its legs, almost dragging it closer to the blond before stopping about the same distance from him it had started.

Once again everyone began to feel uneasy about the strange creature that was currently keeping close to the dark clad genin before he once again moved, this time to the side, resulting in the rabbit once again moving towards him, its misty eyes staring into the azure orbs in Naruto's head.

"Kakashi-sensei… the rabbits scaring me," the jinchūriki couldn't stop himself from saying as the corpse proceeded to follow his every move, never staying anywhere more than three feet from the boy.

"Why don't you try asking it to go away nicely?" Kakashi responded with a minor hint of amusement in his tone at the boys plight, earning a glare from the blond.

"What makes you think it'll listen to me?" Naruto asked in annoyance, it was almost as if the Jōnin was enjoying his pain.

"I don't know, I'm just thinking that ever since you were bisected reality seems to have decided to say 'screw normality, it's time for a change'," despite his anger at the Jōnin, the whiskered child couldn't help but agree with what the man was saying, the idea of something normal happening had ended up becoming something the group wanted as opposed to something exciting.

"Fine then, rabbit, get out of here," the blond commanded, expecting the corpse to ignore him, only to blink in surprise when it turned towards the door and proceeded to walk towards it before stopping just outside the house and turning to face the inside once again, causing the group to look at the blond with a look of annoyance on their faces as the boy looked at them with confusion clear in his eyes, "what? I wasn't expecting it to actually listen to me."

"It is official, we have to figure out what the fuck is up with you before we do anything else," Kakashi stated blankly, earning nods of agreements from everyone else, resulting in Naruto growing annoyed with the group and deciding on trying something he was sure would disturb them.

"Come here little… dead rabbit… thing," almost immediately everyone else looked at him with wide eyes as the corpse walked towards him before he lifted it and placed it on his shoulder, "now stay there until I tell you otherwise, okay?" he commanded the snow white and blood red bunny as calmly as he could, earning a small nod of confirmation from the dead mammal.

"Naruto… no corpses at the table," the masked Jōnin ordered, earning a glare from the blond in the process.

"So I'm not allowed at the table anymore? That's called being prejudiced, you sir are a racist treating us corpses like that!" the young corpse's rant rung out amongst the house, earning several sweatdrops from everyone in the building.

"Fine… no rotting corpses at the table," the cycloptic ninja amended only for his eye to start twitching at the boy when he sat at the table with the bunny on his shoulder, "Naruto… why is the rabbit still on your shoulder?"

"Because it hasn't started rotting yet," the whiskered child said in a matter of fact tone causing the silver haired man to facepalm before amending his statement again.

"Alright, no rabbits at the table," he stated with uneasiness in his visible eye upon seeing the misty eyes of the bunny stare straight at him.

"So what, you're prejudiced against rabbits now?" Naruto shot back, causing the man to groan at the boy as he kept trying to twist his words against him.

'Dear Kami… what do I have to do to make him get rid of that damned thing?' almost as soon as he finished that line of thought, the silver haired Jōnin found a certain hint of fury lingering in the boys eyes.

"Well you could try keeping your mouth shut," Naruto said angrily, causing everyone at the table to look at him strangely as Kakashi blinked several times.

'You can hear me?' once again he didn't voice his thoughts while facing the blond, immediately noticing the boys eyes narrow.

"Of course I can, I'm not deaf ya know," almost immediately the other people around the table started looking at the boy as if he had gone insane, which as far as they were concerned he had.

"I see… Naruto, I didn't say anything," Kakashi told the blond seriously, causing the boy to suddenly blink in confusion.

"'What do you mean, I heard you clear as day!" the boy shouted at the man as he bolted to a standing position, the rabbit being forced to adjust itself to prevent itself from falling off his shoulder.

"Perhaps, but that doesn't change the fact I didn't say a thing, what you heard, were my thoughts," almost instantly everyone looked at the boy, their eyes widened to epic proportions, "you are capable of reading minds Naruto."

Immediately the other occupants confusion made sense, to them it would simply appear as though he had been talking to no one. Of course the first thing that popped into his mind upon realising exactly what was happening was to see if the opposite was true.

'Can you hear me Kakashi-sensei?' he thought, his mind focusing on the older ninja, all traces of his previous anger gone as he tried to project his thoughts into his sensei.

'Well that's surprising, you're able to speak with your mind as well… I wonder what else you can do?' Kakashi thought to the boy causing the room to look a little concerned by the silence between the duo.

'Well I guess I could try linking up with other people and see if we can have a three way chat in our minds… hey Sakura-chan, can you hear me? If you can don't talk but think an answer,' Naruto thought to the girl while simultaneously trying to keep his link with the Jōnin open.

'Yeah, why do you want me to think back to you?' the pink haired girl asked the boy calmly.

'Hello Sakura.'

'Kakashi-sensei? Are you thinking as well?'

'That's right, Naruto was trying to see if we could have a conference call via mental link,' the masked ninja informed the girl while giving her an eyesmile.

'Hn, well that's useful for our co-ordination,' came the voice they recognised as belonging to Sasuke, his mind obviously connected to theirs as well.

'Whoa, that's awesome!' Naruto's mind said to the others, causing the group to roll their eyes at the blonds enthusiasm, 'if I focus hard enough I can see through your eyes ero-sensei.'

'What? Naruto, you are a minor, you are not allowed to read Icha Icha so don't use my eyes,' came Kakashi's retort while the other genin gave the man a minor glare upon Naruto's new nickname for him.

'Why not? I wanna find out what Yagiko and Koran will do after the oral,' Naruto stated via mental link, causing Sasuke and Sakura to blush before the pinkette hit him over the head.

'NARUTO-BAKA! Don't think things like that when I'm here!' the konoichi yelled at the boy in his mind.

Of course all this silent conversation was beginning to creep out the civilians as they witnessed the changing expressions but knew nothing about the conversation that was going on.

"Um… excuse me ninja-san, please stop doing that, its kinda scary," Tsunami said trying to get the ninja to act at least slightly normal in the presence of civilians.

"Heh heh… sorry Tsunami-san, we'll stop now," Naruto said with a nervous chuckle as he shut down the mental link between the group before thinking of something he would have to try later on… he would just have to make sure no one knew he did it.

"Mom, I'm home," came an unfamiliar call as a small boy wearing a striped bucket hat and dark overalls walked through the front door, closing it behind him before removing his sandals.

"Inari! Where were you?" came a rather loud call from Tazuna, prompting Naruto to raid the man's mind to see what he could learn about the boy, quickly discovering that he was the bridge builders grandson though he decided to stop there.

"Welcome back grandpa," the newly dubbed Inari said with a certain amount of happiness present in his voice as he walked over to the old man.

"Inari, say hello to these people, they're ninja who protected grandpa," Tsunami said with a smile, causing the young boy to look at the group with an annoyed glare before turning back to the woman.

"Mom, they're going to die," this statement earned a twitch of annoyance from Sasuke, a look of disbelief from Sakura and a death glare from Naruto.

"Shut up brat, you're too late to tell me I'm going to die so just shut up before I sic bunny on ya!" the blond said with anger clear in his voice, obviously he didn't like being reminded that he was technically deceased… which actually took his mind on a tangent as he wondered if his name would be put on the memorial stone KIA since technically he was.

"You know nothing, there's no way you can beat Gato, he's too strong," the bucket hat boy said with a hint of anger in his tone, causing the blond to search the boys thoughts, sifting through his memories, quickly finding something he found interesting.

A man named Kaiza, a man simply seeing through the boy's memories made him respect as he fought to keep everyone close to him safe. A man with an indomitable spirit despite his complete lack of training and someone the boy would happily say was worth the love he felt Inari had for him.

However it didn't last long when Gato arrived, Kaiza had stood up to the vertically challenged businessman and without the support of the people or any combat skills, he had been publically executed, destroying the villages morale and causing them to submit to the fiends rule.

Almost immediately the corpse of a boy started bristling with unbridled rage, his anger wasn't directed in a single direction, no, he hated Gato for killing a great man like Kaiza and practically enslaving an entire island, however he was also furious that the people of Nami had simply let their hero die in vain. Instead of taking his spirit within themselves and standing up to fight Gato, something he was sure they could do if they had tried, they had simply let their hope die with a single man.

And to think that the boy that looked up to the man the most was the one to disregard his will the most.

"Kakashi-sensei, I'm leaving," the blond said as he got up and headed towards the door, the sheer anger in his tone was something the group had never heard before and Kakashi was certain the boy had gone too far into someone's thoughts to be polite if his current actions were anything to go by.

"Naruto, where do you think you're going? We still haven't finished our discussion from earlier," the question was simple and the man held an authority he rarely did when he made the statement, unfortunately Naruto didn't care right now.

"I don't know but if I stay here I know I'll kill that worthless piece of shit over there," he said pointing towards Inari, allowing everyone to see something they hadn't before, that his eyes had changed from their normal azure blue to a rich crimson that reminded the group of blood.

"Naruto, stop right there, we need to talk and you need to hear what I have to say, do you understand?" Kakashi said, he didn't know why the boy was so angry but he knew that he would have to speak with the entire team about the future of the mission and he couldn't do that if Naruto wasn't there with them.

"Then I'll set up a mental link. I refuse to stay in the same room as that rodent," the blond stated, not giving his sensei enough time to argue before he was out the building with the door slammed shut, causing several cracks to appear surrounding the frame of the entrance.

Almost immediately there was an unholy silence as everyone tried to take in exactly what had happened with the blond and why he had a problem with the little child.