Yo...

I'm publishing this new chapter a little early as a parting gift of this year...so I haven't read all the reviews for the previous chapter. Most of them were positive, so I guess you guys liked the chapter.

Some readers think that Naruto is a little too young for a commander and lacks emotional stability (like Mikasa)...and I can partially agree with that statement until previous chapter. People change with time or something changes them...in Naruto's case what happened previous chapter will completely change him.

Let's face it two of his best friends died...whom he PROMISED to protect, and Aoba was also a good friend and comrade. This is not something trivial and you'll see the changes from this chapter.

As for angst, all of my Naruto stories will have this element. Blame my imagination as the ninja world does not seem like rainbows and sunshine to me, Kishi and most of the authors on this site have a different imagination than me...and admit it, readers need my kind of stories to refresh their mind from reading countless "sunshine" stories.

Or maybe I just watch Attack on Titan too much Xd...

Enjoy the last chapter of 2013...

Chapter 23

Mangekyo Sharingan

(Flashback: A Few Years Ago)

A young Naruto performed a set of hand seals and gathered a lot of chakra in his lungs as a pair of dark black eyes observed his movement carefully.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu(Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu)"

A small flame was released from his mouth and it continued to grow larger and larger until it completely transformed into a blazing inferno that burnt the air, the grass...anything that came in his way.

The sound of clapping could be heard in the field as Shisui came forward and patted Naruto gently on the back.

"Congratulations, Naruto...from today you are a proud member of the Uchiha clan. You have completed the rite of passage by mastering the Fireball Jutsu" congratulated Shisui happily as a cheerful smile came on his young nephew's face.

"Thank you...Oji-san," said Naruto happily, as Shisui gently ruffled his silky blonde hair earning a small pout from the boy.

"If you keep on improving like this...then I'm sure you will surpass me one day," said Shisui light heartedly as a small frown came on Naruto's face.

"But how can I surpass you when I don't even have a sharingan?" asked Naruto frustratingly,

"Naruto you must understand...the sharingan cannot be awakened by anyone. Even in the Uchiha clan only a special few are able to awaken these eyes. These eyes generally evolve in a person when he/she faces a life or death situation or in situation of grief or despair...something which I don't want to be the cause of your sharingan," explained Shisui seriously, the young Uchiha knew kids at this age were really sensitive.

The teachings and events that will happen in Naruto's life would define his path...and it was his duty as his uncle to guide his sister's sons on the right path.

Naruto was a kind and gentle person...however he had a trait of acquiring more power, his reasons were noble as he just wanted to protect his family.

But the road to hell is paved through good intentions.

"Is there any other stage besides a three tomoe sharingan? In our clan's books it is mentioned that someone called 'Madara' awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan? Is it true?" asked Naruto curiously, and for a moment he saw the shock evident in his uncle's eyes.

"Where did you find that book?" asked Shisui sternly, that information was only known to a selected few in the clan.

Before the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju died he mentioned his final fight with the Uchiha with his brother Tobirama, who conveyed this information to Kagami in order to warn him about the effects of Mangekyo Sharingan on a person's thinking.

At that time the Uchiha clan discovered that the dark feelings that a user of Mangekyo Sharingan feels was the "Curse of Hatred", and even the clan's existence would be at stake if more members came to knew about these eyes as the method of obtaining them was generally killing the one closest to you as watching him/her die awakens these eyes.

"Hehe...I wanted to learn a new Fire Jutsu so I sneaked into the Kagami-jiji's library, I found it there. Sorry..." said Naruto sheepishly and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

A tired sigh escaped from Shisui's eyes...his father was really growing old, and this little idiot always had a habit of peaking where it wasn't allowed.

"Never do such a thing again...it is not fitting for the son of the Fourth Hokage and heir of the Namikaze clan," scolded Shisui harshly,

"Hai...sorry," said Naruto apologetically, and Shisui saw the boy really meant it.

"Naruto...there are some things in this world that needs to stay in darkness. Mangekyo Sharingan is one of those things...since you have already found out the truth, there is no need to lie. Such eyes do exist...and it is the ultimate form of the sharingan, one which even me or your grandfather don't have, in fact after Madara there was no one who awakened it," explained Shisui briefly, and Naruto was really amazed by hearing this fact.

"How powerful are these eyes?" asked Naruto gleefully, and Shisui didn't miss the thirst for power in the boy's eyes...even if he was young there were some things about Naruto that concerned him a lot.

"They are said to be able to control Tailed Beasts and have many supernatural abilities which I clearly don't know about. It is said every Mangekyo is different from the other but sometimes it can be the same too," said Shisui truthfully,

"But how did Madara master the Mangekyo if he was the first to obtain it...there would be no one to train him in using this power. It's not as if the eye can tell him what to do," said Naruto thoughtfully, and Shisui was really impressed by his intelligence.

"A good question...the Mangekyo does not need to be learned, it acts as per your will. It's after all a part of your body which you can control...and Madara was the most powerful person of our clan till this day, so he was able to master it easily," said Shisui seriously,

"Such an amazing power," said Naruto in wonder, however Shisui flicked his forehead.

"Naruto...you have inherited the Will of Fire. It is your dream to protect your family and this village...and for that you need to become powerful. But a man's value isn't known by the power he has...but by the ideals he is willing to fight and die for," said Shisui with utmost conviction in his voice,

"Ideals?" asked a confused Naruto,

"Your ideals are the mirror through which you see this world...and the same mirror through which the world will remember you. Naruto...your ideals about your family and the ninja world, your will to never give up can really change this world...but if you're not careful, you will lose this precious will of yours and that day you won't be yourself anymore," advised Shisui sagely

The young Uchiha saw the thoughtful look in Naruto's eyes and a small smile came on his face as his message did reach Naruto's mind. He slowly got up and started walking away after giving a light pat to Naruto.

Never in his entire life had Naruto heard such words...and his young mind was really astonished on hearing his beloved uncle's thoughts.

He looked at Shisui in wonder...today was his last day in Konoha as he was being shipped to Blacklight base for training, and the older Uchiha had given him a lot to think about. However he was broken from his thoughts when Shisui stopped walking and slowly turned around.

Naruto was a little surprised when he saw Shisui's sharingan flaring to life.

"Pain! No matter what pain comes on you in this war...never abandon your will and replace it with hatred. Never make excuses and most of all never give up on your beliefs," said Shisui proudly, and Naruto's eyes widened in shock on hearing that.

"Why?" asked Naruto curiously,

"Because you're Naruto Namikaze of Konoha..."

(Flashback end)

Iwashi Tatami had never seen something like this in his entire life. Time had just seemed to have stopped for the young Blacklight as the two tomoe in Naruto's sharingan swirled wildly as slowly changed into a star like symbol.

"That's the symbol of the devil...just what is he?" thought Iwashi in shock,

Naruto's gaze shifted to the hundreds of incoming kunai and shuriken and his newly formed eyes flashed dangerously...and what happened next shocked both Iwashi and Shizune.

"Disappear" said Naruto darkly, and he felt an enormous power being born inside his body.

A mysterious sound was heard and slowly a dark portal opened all above the trio and every ninja in the area was shell shocked when all the weapons were absorbed in the mysterious portal.

"What the hell?" said many of the Iwa shinobi in shock,

Naruto looked at his reflection in the water beneath him and saw his eyes had changed...and it all made sense to him.

"So this is the power of my Mangekyo Sharingan" thought Naruto murderously as he glared at his shocked opponents.

"Attack!"

Iwashi and Shizune's were terrified when 7 Anbu jumped straight at them and sliced their swords straight at them.

"Shit" cursed the young boy and brought his hands up to block the swords somehow.

SPLASH!

Iwashi slowly opened his eyes as a splash of blood hit straight on his face...and he was shocked to see Naruto holding the swords of all the Anbu with just his left hand.

"YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

A powerful wave of chakra was fired from Naruto's body and all the Anbu were sent crashing away along with their now crushed weapons.

Many of them crashed against the walls of the castle and were gravely injured while some of them were able to re stabilize themselves and landed gracefully on the ground.

"Is he even human?" thought a shocked Iwashi, however he froze in shock when Naruto looked at him with those terrifying eyes.

"Captain..." said Iwashi weakly, he didn't even know if Naruto was fully aware of what he was doing.

"Don't pull back, Iwashi. Go and protect Shizune, no matter what," said Naruto firmly, and Iwashi had never felt so much conviction behind his words.

"Are you all right?" asked Iwashi worriedly, however he never got an answer as his captain glared at the enemy ninja who had gathered in one single formation now.

"Rest assured, today I'll show the enemy the true power of Commander Phoenix" said Naruto darkly and he slowly picked up his tanto.

"Yes, Sir!" said Iwashi confidently, and quickly jumped back to form a protective barrier around Shizune and their fallen comrades.

The two opposing forces stared at each other...well to be precise there was a single man on one side while 50 Anbu on the other.

"Don't look him in the eyes...or you're dead!" said a dragon masked Anbu, and many of the Anbu quickly nodded in agreement.

"Let's dance!" said Naruto murderously, and in a flash disappeared from his spot.

The Iwa Anbu were shocked when the blonde devil teleported right in front of them in a second, and before they could even lift their swords his tanto had already sliced 5 Anbu's throats.

"DIE!" yelled one Anbu and fired two fuma shuriken straight at Naruto's chest.

Again those weird eyes moved and the weapons FUCKING passed right through Naruto's body. It was as if they never even touched him and a dark smile came on his face as things started making more sense to him.

"What are you?" asked the dragon masked Iwa commander,

"I'm your worst nightmare" said Naruto demonically, and the Anbu commander was baffled as streams of blood erupted around him.

20 of his men were teared apart in half as hundreds of wooden spikes emerged from the ground...and for the first time in his entire life Dragon was afraid of his opponent.

"He can use Mokuton?" asked a Eagle masked Anbu in a terrified voice.

Dragon cursed his luck, now everything made sense to him. This was no ordinary boy, and now he could clearly understand why Ohnoki had shit his pants and wanted this boy dead.

Meanwhile Naruto was currently engaging the rest of the Anbu forces but every time they tried to hit him, their attacks just passed right through him.

This power truly made him feel like a God, his opponents were clearly terrified, and he could feel fear leaking from their bodies.

4 Anbu jumped towards Naruto in a close knit formation and sliced their swords together in an effort to cut him to pieces.

"I don't think even Kami can save you tonight.." said Naruto flatly and again the Anbu's swords passed right through him and instead cut them to pieces as they stabbed each other.

He roughly grabbed the neck of a dog masked Anbu and in one swift movement broke his neck...but he didn't stop there as he quickly set an explosive tag on the body and gave it a powerful kick sending it stumbling across 5 Anbu that were a few feet away.

BOOM!

Flesh and blood flew in the air as the exploding tag detonated and butchered the Anbu that got caught in its radius.

"Why did this happen? I thought we had changed...I thought I could protect my friends and now they're dead!" thought Naruto sadly, with each passing moment his regret was killing his soul and enormous power was being generated in his body.

All his wounds were healed, it was as if he was never even injured.

Shizune was horrified when Naruto's hands started changing, the tanto in his hand dropped on the ground. His fingers started turning into sharped wooden claws...they were the same like an animal.

"Help me...Kaa-san," said a dying Iwa Anbu painfully, and Naruto painfully watched as the man slowly breathed his last.

"Why do they take our lives? Our hopes, our dreams...WHY!" yelled Naruto angrily as his claws sliced a female Anbu in half.

The women fell lifelessly on the ground and the last thing she saw was a murderous pair of sharingan eyes...one in which only hatred could be seen.

Dragon watched in shock as the monstrous boy slowly started moving towards him and what was left of his Anbu forces...and the look in his eyes screamed pure slaughter.

Blood dropped like a river from his claws and his dark phoenix mask was now stained in crimson red...but even the blood on his mask was not darker than his eyes and the hatred they had in them.

"Formation E!" said Dragon urgently as 4 of his Anbu surrounded the boy from all sides.

The 4 Iwa Anbu jumped on Naruto and prepared to slice his head off...however something terrible happened.

"I'll exterminate..."

One of Naruto's claws ran straight through one of the Anbu's face and blew it apart like a watermelon.

"...all of you"

Another claw struck the Anbu on the right in his chest...however this gave the two remaining Anbu the opening they wanted.

"DIE FREAK!"

"GAH!"

Dragon was shell shocked when two wooden spears emerged from the boy's back and pierced the bodies of two of his men who were about to kill Naruto from behind.

And that creature looked him straight in the eye...as the Iwa commander took a step back.

"I'll purge all of you from this world..." said Naruto darkly, and mercilessly stepped on the bodies of the dead Iwa Anbu.

"How dare you!" said one of the female Anbu in anger and rushed towards Naruto,

"WAIT!" yelled Dragon urgently, but alas it was too late.

The female Anbu's sword passed right through the boy and before she could jump away she was uplifted in the air as Naruto grabbed her brown hair.

"I'm going to take you to heaven"

Kotetsu's words flashed in his mind as more tears slipped from his eyes and he mercilessly thrashed the female Anbu on the ground killing her instantly as her brains splattered all across the ground.

"MORE!MORE!"

The Iwa Anbu watched in horror as Naruto used his feet to stomp the face of the female ninja again and again as more and more of her brain spilled on the ground.

"He's going to kill us all..." said a female ninja in fear,

"Commander...what's the order!" yelled another Anbu urgently, but he was a little frightened when he saw the same terrified look in Dragon's eyes.

"Broken Arrow..." said Dragon quickly, and many of the Iwa Anbu were shocked to hear this.

There was no other choice.

Mikasa and the rest of the squad quickly ran across the corridors of the castle...they could see several explosions occurring on the other side and this made them more frustrated.

"Just what the hell is going on...why did those Anbu retreat like they had seen the devil?" asked Hana angrily, she was really enjoying killing her enemies until all of them suddenly retreated quickly.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." said Izumo worriedly, he didn't know why but he knew something terrible was going to happen.

"I just want my Armin to be safe..." whispered Rangiku silently, and Anko put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry as long as Naruto's there nothing will happen to Armin and the others...try to stay focused, we are behind enemy lines," advised Anko clearly as her comrade just gave her a hesitant nod.

Mikasa could feel the enormous chakra just up ahead...and she knew just who it belonged too.

"Naruto, Armin...please, please hang in there," prayed the young girl worriedly,

Naruto and the Iwa commander looked at each other straight in the eye. Everywhere around them were bodies of the now deceased Iwa shinobi.

"Uha!" screamed the last Anbu in pain as Naruto stabbed his head with the help of his claws.

Dragon took a deep breath to calm himself...just a few more moments. His 50 men were dead and the rest had been ordered to fall back as he had initiated condition "Broken Arrow".

He was really ashamed of himself for initializing Broken Arrow, it had been used just once in Iwa's history when Minato Namikaze almost destroyed the entire Iwa army on his own...even the Tsuchikage was no match for the blonde devil.

And today history had repeated itself as another blonde devil had been born tonight...one who killed 50 of Iwa's top Anbu on his own.

So, this was the real Commander Phoenix of Blacklight...the one whom they had killed was just a decoy. All of them had been fooled by the young Weasel masked Anbu (Armin) who currently lay dead on the floor. It was due to his sacrifice that this monstrous boy had survived.

And it seemed he was very dear to the soldier standing in front of him.

"How are you so strong?" asked Dragon tactfully, he knew there was no point in attacking the boy.

Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu, Kenjutsu, Fuinjutsu...nothing worked on this boy and Dragon knew it was due to those eyes. He had battled sharingan users before but none of them had such a weird power.

Or did seeing his friend die awakened these eyes?

"I have no interest in answering the questions of a man who is about to die," said Naruto flatly, and made the "Tiger" hand seal.

Dragon prepared himself for the incoming attack as a spiraling vortex started forming in front of him...and as expected the inevitable attack happened.

"Stay down like a dog and...DIE!" yelled Naruto loudly and gathered his chakra.

"Katon: Bakufū Ranbu(Fire Release: Blast Wave Wild Dance)"

Giant streams of fire were fired from Naruto's mouth and started turning wildly into a 'wild fire vortex' and quickly sped towards Dragon who was in the process of completing his own hand seals.

BOOM!

A thunderous blast occurred as Naruto's fire vortex flames destructively collided with something and dust and debris flew everywhere.

After a few moments the smoke started to clear and Naruto was a little shocked on seeing who blocked his attack...rather 'it' blocked his attack.

"You're late..." said Dragon irritatingly, however his remark was totally ignored by the two males standing in front of him.

On the left side was a male with red hair, mustache and beard which tapered off to a point. He was wearing a large headpiece consisting of a three pointed crown-like ridge, bearing both his Iwagakure headband, a ring, and a prominent black piece of Armour running across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. He wore a long-sleeved light-red shirt and pants, with mesh-Armour shirt and fitted black suit underneath, along with calf-length sandals. Around his waist he wore a brown sash that held a brown Armour-like breast plate with a pouch in the front, a brown back plate on the back that is connected to the front with mesh Armour, and armored lapels falling to the sides.

On the right side stood a tall male, he was probably the tallest person Naruto had ever seen. The man was heavily armored and had light brown eyes, his Armour extended all the way to the bottom half of his face, covering it up. Underneath the Armour covering the bottom half of his face, he was wearing a white cloth which also covered both sides of his face and the top of his head

But the interesting thing about them...were the '4' and '5' red tails around their backs which had protected the Iwa Anbu commander.

A devious smile came on Naruto's face as he recognized who his opponents were.

"The Four Tails and Five Tails, huh?" asked Naruto in an amused tone,

His enemies didn't give any response to his provocation...instead their entire body started getting covered in red chakra.

Naruto was again surprised when several loud crashes were heard everywhere around him...and soon a tall man landed right beside him.

And the young Namikaze didn't need to look on his side to recognize who it was...how could he not remember this man?

"Looks like you're having fun over here...Naruto," whispered Baku darkly,

Author's Notes: Wohoo, the biggest cliffhanger of this story till now!

A really dark chapter...and this was Naruto's TRUE power that I was hinting at. It has finally appeared...yes he has Mokuton but his main power is Kamui.

I really hoped you guys liked this chapter...I ended this year with a bang, didn't I?

Baku has appeared on the battlefield along with HAN AND ROSHI!

I am having exams from 2nd Jan, so it will take some time to post the next chapter...and before that I would be updating "The Sharingan Devil" a lot, so it will probably be 1 month before the next update...my exams are important too (I do have a life outside FF).

Next chapter: Naruto VS Tailed Beasts.

Note: I'm pure evil!

Happy 2014!