Naruto was beginning to regret leaving the Tazuna residence… then he remembered why he left in the first place and that regret vanished like it was never there.

The reason he wasn't particularly happy right now wasn't the lack of a warm bed or anything else even remotely similar, it was the fact that the sun was still in the sky and despite the clothes Kakashi had lent him, the light was still roasting him, fortunately though, he wasn't catching on fire this time.

Looking towards his shoulder he saw the rabbit that he believed had technically saved his life and made him whatever it is he was right now.

It almost scared him to think that the enemies pet had saved him and if what he saw in Kakashi's memories was true, he would probably have to explain why the rabbit was a corpse… he was not looking forward to seeing the girl he witnessed in its memories reaction to the news.

He actually felt nervous knowing that the man who killed him was still alive and would probably be back to full health in as little as a week.

'GAH, FUCK THIS FUCKING SEAL!'

"WAH! WHO SAID THAT?!" was the child's only natural response to suddenly hearing something like that.

'W-what? You can hear me?'

"Uh… yeah, why wouldn't I… now show yourself!" of course the corpse began to feel just a little more nervous when the owner of the voice didn't leave their hiding place.

'Wish I could gaki… as for why you wouldn't be able to hear me, it is a function of the seal on your gut to cut out my influence,' the voice said in what Naruto assumed was its normal tone.

He knew he recognised it before, it was the same voice that told him to get out of the sunlight and even told him that blood pills didn't work on him.

Hearing it talking about seals, his gut and taking into account the fact that the voice appeared to be coming from everywhere yet nowhere at the same time his mind quickly came to the only conclusion it could.

'You're the Kyūbi aren't you?' deciding to keep his mouth shut this time he simply thought he answer to the voice earning an amused snort from the being before it gave its answer.

'Of course I am, what else is sealed in your gut?' the response caused the child to roll his eyes in exasperation upon hearing the fox's statement, he didn't know why it had suddenly decided to try and speak with him but he wasn't entire sure he liked its attitude.

'So to what do I owe the pleasure of your presence oh mighty Kyūbi-sama?' even in his mind his voice reeked of sarcasm as he probed the beast for its reason to speak with him.

'Cut the crap, I'm simply here to offer you assistance in exchange for a job,' immediately the blond was put on guard by the nine tails' statement, it wanted him to do something for it?

'And what is this job you want me to do?' the boy thought, he wouldn't turn it down straight away, even if the fox only gave him knowledge it would prove useful in his current situation.

'Nothing much, I just want you to finish off the Uchiha clan,"immediately the blond corpse narrowed his eyes and thought his answer firmer than he had ever given before.

'I refuse, my teammate is an Uchiha and you expect me to kill him? You really aren't as smart as you think are you fox?' the answer of course, didn't shock the kitsune in the slightest, it had expected his response, though it would have to rely on instinct from now on… oh how it hated its nature right now.

'He may be your teammate now but the Uchiha clan has always been a family of traitors, Madara and his brother murdered their best friends in cold blood before Madara murdered his brother for his eyes when he was going blind,' the fox's statement surprised the blond, hearing that something like that had happened wasn't exactly the easiest thing to digest, 'and then the clan that Madara led to the position of one of the two greatest on the continent betrayed him to side with the Senju during the founding of Konoha, I think you can understand what I'm getting at, the Uchiha clan is a parasite that should be dealt with.'

'Sasuke isn't like that,' Naruto's thoughts were filled with conviction which in turn earned a snort of amusement from the bijū.

'Fine then, how about a compromise, if you can succeed in proving this teammate of yours isn't a pawn of his hate then I will consider your side of the bargain upheld as long as the rest of his family is wiped out, if he proves himself to be nothing more than a hate consumed traitor then you will have to kill him no matter what you feel on the matter, do we have a deal?'

'What exactly would I gain out of this deal? All I know right now is what you want me to do but you haven't said anything about what I'd get out of it,' the blond thought seriously, his mind starting to wonder about what would be worth accepting the deal in the first place.

"Knowledge, more specifically about what you have become," immediately the child's mind raced at the idea that the bijū knew what was going on with him and could possibly allow him to know everything that was different for him than others, "however, I'm not an expert on what you are, I know of some things that occur with your kind however I don't really know much beyond the basics, for example, I don't know how you use your abilities, only what they are and even then there may be some… discrepancies because from what I've heard there are lots of different levels of power within your species."

'So basically you're saying you don't really know that much about what's going on with me?' Naruto thought back to the beast earning an exasperated sigh of the being.

'I know far more than you do, hell if it wasn't for me you'd be dead and dust right now!' Kyūbi shot back, not particularly happy with how the interaction had played out.

'I hate to break it to you fox but… I AM DEAD!' the sheer volume he could reach in his mind was quite surprising, especially for the bijū that took the full brunt of the noise.

'Well, technically you're just lacking life, you're not really dead,' the twitch on the boys eyebrow upon hearing the beasts statement would've been obvious to all that had seen him if there had been anyone there to see him in the first place.

'And what is the difference between lacking life and being dead?'

'Dead men tell no tales,' the fox replied quickly, saying one of the few sayings it had heard in its life.

'Liar, going by Kakashi-sensei's thoughts on Zabuza dead men tell a lot,' came the blonds retort to the demons statement.

'Their bodies might tell a lot during a post mortem but they themselves don't say anything Blondie,' the twitch that appeared on the child's eyebrow was obvious to anyone that could see it, indicating that he was genuinely pissed off with the beast.

Suddenly a simple thought popped into his head, one that he hadn't considered before due to the lack of time he had been capable of it.

'Damn… now I see why you want the Uchiha clan dead,' the boy stated within his mind, causing the bijū's eyes to widen slightly at the implications of the sentence.

'Y-you read my mind!' the smirk that graced the corpses lips under his mask was vicious enough to make even the walking weapon of mass destruction known as Kyūbi shiver, knowing exactly how much leverage it had just lost.

'Yeah, if I can read other people's minds then why not yours?' the instant the boy said that the prisoner knew it had lost, the boy could easily find out anything it knew whether it wanted him to know or not.

Naruto himself was slightly surprised by what he discovered within the beasts mind, the reason it didn't seem to possess a lot of wit was simple, it tended to crush first and then forget whatever questions it had, resulting in a lack of social interaction and knowledge, all of which was obtained via spying on its previous vessels interactions.

It also made sense that the beast was made purely of chakra, its entire body being nothing more than a giant chakra construct like a Kage Bunshin, though not as likely to disperse upon being hit. It also meant that the beast technically had no organs and even though it had fake ones, the person that had made it had decided to leave out any form of reproductive organs, making it effectively genderless though it had a rather masculine personality.

However it was what he learned about himself that truly shocked him, the idea that he was a vampire, a being of the night that survived by drinking blood was something that made him nervous. The knowledge he discovered on his own biology was also surprising, since he was no longer producing his own blood and his heart wasn't beating, it meant that although he could survive without it, he still needed it to regenerate from injuries. That was something he didn't really understand, something about it being a liquid with the correct base materials to breakdown into new cells to replace the old ones or something like that, he didn't really understand what the fox knew, just that he needed blood to heal and he was currently all out of blood.

His canines had apparently also undergone an unusual transformation. Not only had they grown longer but they had also hollowed out, acting as syringes to drain blood straight into his bloodstream if the fact they were connected to what appeared to be an enlarged series of blood vessels was correct. It also appeared that his fangs would slightly expand once he had dug his teeth into someone, probably to increase the speed with which he could drain the blood out of his victims.

The new state of his chakra system was also a shock to him, no longer was his chakra flowing like it should with any living being, instead it just lingered there, stagnating as it no longer received the necessary components to form, the only reason his chakra would refill at any point was because of the seal that held Kyūbi siphoning off its chakra and purifying it to mix with his own, though it would also quickly stagnate until he decided to actively use it. The only other way for his chakra to regenerate was by assimilating the small amount that would be contained within the blood of his victims.

Of course all of this would cause him some problems, he didn't know how his chakra would react when used in a technique nor if he would even be capable of using it effectively, only that he was no longer regenerating it as fast as he used to.

It was also surprising that the seal was still intact despite the fact he had been cut in half right at the point it was located, unlike his biology the beast within him didn't seem to have any idea why it hadn't been broken, meaning he would have to talk to the Hokage about it when they returned from their mission.

He was grateful of another piece of the fox's knowledge, the rabbit. As it turned out whenever a vampire drank from a living being it would have one of three fates, if it was a virgin of the opposite gender to him it would become a vampire as well, if it was either the same gender as him or not a virgin, it would become either a familiar or a ghoul like bunny.

It did surprise him that there were two possibilities however the fact that the rabbit had become a ghoul (if he was honest he still thought it was a zombie) instead of a familiar was something that interested him. The idea that becoming a familiar preserved the soul while becoming a ghoul preserved the body was interesting, though he had no idea if he could create familiars or if he was restricted to ghouls.

Either way he might eventually have an army under his command and that could either cause major problems or be a major asset… quite possibly both. Of course there was also the question of how do you hide a literal army of zombies from the public, he hadn't quite figured out a way just yet but the seal on his stomach gave him a basic idea that he would mull over with Kakashi later.

'Oh yeah, I forgot about that,' the corpse thought casually before connecting his mind to the rest of his teams for the time being.

'DAMMIT NARUTO WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!' was the immediate crash of sound that assaulted his mind courtesy of Kakashi.

'SHUT THE HELL UP!' the Kyūbi's response to the sudden barrage of noise caused the boys eyebrow to twitch and a sudden thought to jump to the front of his mind… he had connected himself to ALL of his team in one go.

'What the hell? Who the hell are you?!' came the immediate response from the pink haired member of the team.

'Who the hell am I? WHO THE HELL AM I! I'm the fucking Kyūbi bitch!' the mental groan from Naruto was obvious to everyone in the team as the blond began to contemplate how different methods of suicide would work now he was dead.

'Well that's depressing… a dead person contemplating suicide, no wonder you're wondering how it would work,' Kakashi thought causing everyone connected to the conversation to sweatdrop at the comment.

'Uh, sorry to interrupt but, why the hell is the Kyūbi talking to us when it was killed by the yondaime?' came the obvious question from the pinkette as confusion racked her brain, surprisingly it was Sasuke that answered her.

'Isn't it obvious? We were lied to, the Yondaime didn't kill the Kyūbi, he sealed it, if I'm right, in Naruto,' the combination of the length of the sentence he made and the fact he sounded almost bored caused everyone to question exactly what was wrong with the boy. Obviously he noticed these feelings 'what? Just because I'm quiet doesn't mean I don't think.'

'I'm amazed, from my experience you Uchiha are too filled with hate to make proper conversation… damn traitorous parasites,' the giant mass of chakra said with enough venom in its voice to kill an elephant.

'What the fuck did you say?!'

'You heard me, why don't you lie in a ditch and die like the worm you are!'

'Why you little!'

'BOTH OF YOU SHUT THE HELL UP!' the sudden shout from the masked Jōnin came interrupting the argument, 'now if you don't mind I would rather have a productive conversation than listen to a pair of children name calling.'

'What did you call me?!'

'He's right Kyūbi,' Naruto's mind interrupted, 'looking at your memories it's easy to see that you are a childish pyromaniac with a sledgehammer.'

'I'm not childish! Just under educated,' the beast retorted causing another series of sweatdrops from the group involved in the meeting.

'You're under educated because you're childish enough to see something interesting and decide to blow it up instead of study it,' the blond said with a hint of exasperation.

'That's because it's more fun to watch things burn,' the sheer joy present in the fox's tone made everyone realise just how much they had overestimated the beings intelligence.

'Enough, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, I have something to tell you all,' Kakashi finally started only to be cut off by the azure eyed genin.

'Zabuza's alive, I know, I read your mind earlier,' he thought rather calmly, causing everyone to let a hint of concern flow through the link, 'I know you're planning on teaching us a chakra control exercise and even know what it involves now, so why don't you guy's focus on that and protecting Tazuna, I'll focus on getting used to my new nature.'

'And what is your new nature?' Sakura finally interjected, honestly she had found the bombshell that Naruto had the Kyūbi sealed within him quite the shock. However she was smart enough to realise that if Naruto was the beast then it wouldn't have been speaking to them full stop.

'He's a vampire,' the bijū said before the blond could respond, earning several feelings of disbelief from the rest of the team before they changed to realisation and finally, acceptance, 'that rabbit was the poor creature he drained dry to turn and heal himself the first time.'

'Is that why he started burning when the mist cleared?' Kakashi's question was simple and the answer was just as simple.

'Yep.'

'So why is the rabbit a zombie?' Sakura asked, not really seeing why a rabbit that had been killed by a vampire would come back as a walking corpse.

'Because when he drinks the blood of something it becomes a 'zombie' as you call them, or if they are a virgin of the opposite gender they'll become a vampire as well,' the demon said rather offhandedly, the fact that the blond already knew meant it had nothing to lose from being loose lipped.

'So if Naruto was to bite Sakura and she was to bite me we would all become vampires?' Sasuke asked, his desire for power beginning to flow through the mental link.

'And once again the Uchiha thinks of how to seize power before anything else… typical red eyed bastards.'

'Shut up, I don't need an overgrown rodent commenting on my every thought!'

'Rodent! I'm a fox not a fucking rodent you retarded piece of cartilage!'

'Oh shut the hell up already!' Kakashi had to admit his student and the fox almost sounded like an old married couple from the way they were bickering.

'Kakashi-sensei, do you think your raikiri would kill me?' Naruto thought as he finally decided to sit on a nearby rock.

'Naruto, it is bad enough I had to send a messenger bird to the Hokage telling him you were dead, I don't need you inanimate as well,' the sigh of disappointment that came out of the blond was easily noticed by everyone.

'Fine… anyway, I've been thinking a little bit,' the vampiric genin started only to get cut off by a certain pink haired konoichi.

'You can actually think?' the tone she used sounded more incredulous than anything else.

'You'd be surprised by how much he thinks, he just has a short attention span,' Kyūbi told the girl earning several feelings of surprise from the group.

'Anyway, before I was interrupted, I was going to suggest a… let's just call it a team plan,' that statement immediately got the groups attention, 'you remember how I kept hiding from everyone except Iruka-sensei whenever I did a prank?'

'Yes…' came the simultaneous groan from the rest of the team, though Kakashi kept his other thoughts of how he had occasionally been in the groups trying to catch him to himself.

'Well I was thinking that Sasuke is good at fighting, so why not have him be the heavy hitter, Sakura is perfect for a support role and I'm actually quite good at stealth when I want to be,' the blond started only to be cut off by their sensei.

'So your idea is to have Sasuke work in the open with Sakura supporting him while you strike from the shadows right?'

'Yeah, take right now, you three can easily defend Tazuna while I sneak about dealing a few blows to Gato during the night,' the idea had some merit Kakashi decided, if anything Naruto was the stealthiest of them all, himself included, if it wasn't for Iruka being a sensor type he would've never found the blond either. There was only one problem.

'Naruto… do you plan on feeding off anyone?' immediately the feelings of fear his teammates experienced upon hearing their sensei's words flooded the mental link, letting him know that his nature wasn't appreciated.

'I hate to admit it but if I ever want to heal I'll need to bite someone sooner or later… I think it makes sense to get the first time over with sooner, besides, if I make an army of zombies I might be able to take down Gato before Zabuza recovers,' the blond finished with a joking tone, though everyone could tell he wasn't exactly jumping with joy at the idea.

'Alright, I have one more question before this meeting is over,' the Jōnin finally decided to ask something that had been bothering him for awhile, 'why are you so angry with Inari?'

Thinking seriously the blond decided to try and push images into his teams head, images of Kaiza, of the brave man that fought to his last breath in an attempt to free the country from Gato's reign of terror, only for everyone to disregard his will and come to heel like domesticated dogs.

'I see, so you're angry that Inari is essentially spitting on that mans grave by letting Gato win,' Kakashi stated upon seeing the images and even more importantly, feeling the blonds feelings towards the images.

'Yeah… I know I'm being immature but I just can't stand seeing that child when I know about this,' Naruto admitted, feeling the sorrow flow from his team at the revelation.

'Anyway, if that's everything, I want to start 'objective: hit and turn',' Naruto stated seriously as his senses began to scan the area for anything that would let him find his first victims.

'Yeah, all I have left to say is good luck and be careful,' Kakashi stated, earning a warm feeling off the blond as his teammates also gave similar responses before he closed the mental link and stood up.

"Time to start the hunt," and with that said, the blond disappeared into the young night, preparing himself for his first taste of human blood.