Thanks for all your reviews; I really appreciate it. School is getting harder and this is the only way, so far, for me to unwind, y'know?

No pairing for now…maybe ever…but the story is still developing so let's see…

Enjoy…

CHAPTER 2

The seal Naruto had drawn was a fractured variation of his Forced Movement seal. He removed the limiter on the original seal so it could make the whole body move under a constant flow of chakra. The other difference was that it wasn't his body he wanted to use, the 'X' on the Kyuubi containment seal was a contact point to channel chakra.

He aimed to extract the Kyuubi's essence, and hopefully some of its chakra, and have it outside. He called it the Forced Animation seal. (Note: not re-animation)

It worked.

Kind of.

He channelled his chakra instead of Kyuubi's to the seal on his belly and a small orange-red spark of chakra erupted. It lasted for only half a second, the seal sparked again but this time the orange-red spark crawled down his belly and leaped straight into the bundle of clothes.

Meanwhile, Naruto's endurance turned out to be a blessing; he gnashed his teeth painfully and clawed the ground, leaving jagged tracks from his nails. The spark disappeared and Naruto felt lighter.

He breathed a sigh of relief and lifted his head to look at the bundle.

The dirty clothes on the ground bubbled and spurted out small bits of dirt. The centre spun in a sort of whirlpool and rose into the air till it was exactly Naruto's height if he was standing. The clothes whirlpool stopped turning and the clothes tightened around its middle; Naruto could make out a left chest, then a belly button, then a malnourished arm slopped out of where arms were supposed to be. This process continued until the head popped out from between the shoulders, it was wrapped in a sandy brown scarf, leaving only its red sclera eyes to shine through the bindings.

The boy hesitantly reached out to his creation, stiffening when the animated bundle of clothes bent down till it was at eye level to him and blinked.

The creature coughed, clearing his throat with a lot of effort, "Ma-Ma-Master Naruto."

Its voice was gravelly and dangerous, it flexed his fingers in front of its face curiously and when it noticed his creator was trying to get up he hastily helped him up, displaying a surprising show of strength with arms so stick-like, and gently eased the boy onto his wheelchair.

The young seal master kept on silently watching as the cloth creation shuffled around the room and curiously touched whatever caught its attention. The boy was a mix of apprehension, elation, and curiosity, and so was the beast inside him. 'Kyuubi…what have I done?'

"I can't sense your dark half. Not most of it. You must have pulled it out of yourself instead of me." The Nine-Tails scratched its head and continued. "What I don't understand is why it called you master. Darker halves don't refer to anyone as their master." Kyuubi then immersed itself in the theories spinning in its head, muttering as Naruto keenly listened, "But darker halves aspire to reach the light and take over it. I think it calls you master because, technically, you have taken it to the light, but it doesn't seem to want to take over it. I can't sense any ill will towards you. Quite frankly, it's a version of you with no human inhibitions." Naruto's darker half punched a hole through a picture of the Sandaime Naruto had forgotten he had. "It also seems to know what you're thinking."

The blonde processed this information while still supplying chakra to his darker self.

This wasn't what he wanted, not in the least. He didn't even know he had a darker half. Still, he wasn't one to waste an opportunity; he whistled for the other Naruto's attention. "What should I name you?"

The cloth creation scampered to him and fell on its knees before him, grovelling at his feet. "Master shall name me."

"Fine then. I'll call you Daku, The Dark One."

"Excellent name, Master." Daku wrung its hands nervously. "What should Daku do for Master?"

"I want to know what you can do." He waved his arm and Daku ran to his bed and came with his blanket from the top, dropping it on Naruto's lap neatly, and the supposedly crippled boy proceeded to drape the thin cloth on his legs, saying, "Let's find an empty training ground."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Daku was a special…thing.

There was no limit to its strength and it found it exceedingly hard to control; it tried petting a rabbit and ended up crushing its head. He tried stroking the bark of a tree and carved out a deep portion of it. He already had plans in his head to control Daku's strength and transfer it to other aspects of its body.

The dark one didn't have any proper chakra network, he had a belly filled with chakra and he had thick cylinders that spread out from his belly to his arms, legs and head.

This network was so underdeveloped and wasteful that Naruto pitied the cloth creation.

The amount of chakra needed to run around the secluded training ground more than once was enough to make six giant fireballs consecutively while water walking on a rapid stream. Naruto would agree that he had a large store of chakra, larger than even the Hokage's, but the creation burned off so much of it took a toll on him.

If he was anyone else the chakra drain would have killed him.

Daku was fast and accompanied by his strength, Naruto was sure it could face off against any elite jounin and hold its own, the problem lay with the fact that it didn't have any tangible fighting style. He grew more and more ashamed watching it punch and kick randomly. He was at least happy when Daku told him he could read.

It was very flexible and dextrous with the way he could contort itself in painful ways without wincing. Daku could create sharp starched strong cloth stakes out of its hands and any part of its body, the stakes were strong enough but he deduced a well-timed blow could shatter them.

Daku had an amazing memory. It could remember whatever it was told to the very last detail. It could also perform the tasks to the best of its ability, the only problem being its still uncontrollable strength.

After a thorough assessment, his first order for the chakra creation was to spy on a chunin training and memorise anything he or she did, whether the person was practising taijutsu, genjutsu, shurikenjutsu or stealth…anything was fine and since it didn't need any food for nourishment, only the supply of chakra, then it could stay and observe every one that trained for days and days. A week of observation later and Daku came back, he wrote all he learned down on several scrolls, adding drawings when necessary. The handwriting was legible enough for Naruto. He commanded the dark one to learn it all and go back and learn more. He grew not to be surprised by the level of detail Daku took to using to write and draw all he observed. The observation took Daku three months before he was fairly proficient in anything.

(AN: from here I'll start calling Daku 'he' not 'it')

When he was sure Daku was stealthy enough, he commanded him to start reading scrolls from the library on all the ninja aspects. The dark one read so fast it took him two minutes to finish up a ninjutsu scroll filled with D-rank jutsu. He was then commanded to learn other things like carpentry, masonry, mining, and politics. There was only so much Daku could learn from a book so he took him deep into the forest to cut down trees and craft the simplest of things.

It was among Naruto's daily routines, alongside practising and polishing his sealwork, to instruct Daku on what to construct with his meagre knowledge of carpentry.

Naruto had Daku carved out a replica of an adult's skeletal frame out of wood, with smooth pebbles as the joints and thin wires to keep the jaw hinged to the skull. He took the scroll that had pulled the dark one out of Naruto and improved it, adding a chakra battery to store up excess chakra and feed it to him. With the way Daku consumed so much chakra, the battery would be used plenty of times.

The battery was like Daku's brain, almost limitless; there was a limit, it was just that it would take a lot of chakra to reach it. He put the scroll safely in the chest cavity of the wooden skeleton and watched in satisfaction as Daku returned. The dark one pulled rocks and loose pieces of clothes to the skeleton till the wooden bones were covered by tan-covered materials, the head was still covered in an eerie turban, this time it was a camo brown, and within the turban held piercing red eyes.

The clothes he wore were unassuming shinobi clothes, stolen little by little by Daku over weeks. The long-sleeved shirt and pants were pitch black, the shinobi jacket was camo brown and the sandals were brown. Gloves prevented the stakes from sliding out and he didn't need a mask to hide his identity.

The stakes were not starched clothes anymore; they were either made of wood or stones. He mentally reminded himself to instruct Daku to steal some marbles and if possible, diamonds.

A skeleton made from diamonds would make Daku unstoppable—

He stopped himself, 'Baby steps…'

The rocks under the cloth skin increased his strength tenfold but drastically reduced his speed and stealth, so it took another month to get it back to Daku's equilibrium. They also had to look into chakra control exercises to reduce how much chakra it took to use any jutsu. The dark one could compress his chakra so small that it could be equal to the size of a baseball, which was as far as hiding his presence could get. It was enough for the average shinobi but he was sure a sensor would detect him. He had drawn separate limiter seals on each of the dark one's body parts so the chakra usage would drastically reduce and the muscle power would develop even more.

Naruto, as he was training Daku, didn't abandon his speciality. Daku had memorised some scroll he had found in the library about sealing and progressed all the more into it.

He was now brushing into level nine level of mastery in fuinjutsu but he just couldn't get past it to level ten. He practised walking but preferred using his wheelchair, which he couldn't resist but augment. He had written custom-made seals on it and removed the wheels. The purpose of the seals was so that it could hover over the ground with accumulated wind chakra directly from his chakra network. It wasn't too fast but he wasn't too focused on speed, more on efficiency.

When the genin from the academy graduated, Daku was also ready to face the world.

Naruto had Daku create shadow clones to scout outside Konoha's walls. The news was always the same; nothing of importance. He planned to either take over an existing village and then the country or he would create his village and then take over the country. Naruto grew more adventurous and sent Daku out further to the nearest village to learn if it had the qualities he was looking for.

Then, Daku found it.

The Land of Wave wasn't a village, it was an island country. But it might as well be a large hovel situated on a semi-wasteland. The people were crippled by poverty and destitution, crime was at an all-time high, they were being oppressed by an external force and their daimyo was too weak to do anything about it.

When Naruto got Daku's report, the boy beamed.

Drawing up a plan of action, he soon instructed the loyal creation to go and liberate the country, transferring half of its control to Daku, who had specific instructions to make it known he wasn't the true leader until Naruto could come out and claim the position.

If Daku performed his mission to the letter, which was all the time, then Naruto would soon have the loyalty of a country under his grasp.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

'Master wants me to go to Wave country and set it free, keep the country for Master until Master is ready to come out publicly. Daku would go, I will go and do as Master instructs because Daku is for Master and Master alone,' was the lone, repetitive thought of Naruto's loyal creation.

Daku speeds towards Konoha's borders. He was a vague shadow that bounced off trees and rocks till it reached the water border of Wave Country.

He hummed to himself and took a tentative step onto the surface of the water, nodding when he didn't sink and continued with blurring speed to the nearest village which so happened to be the place the Wave Daimyo and the tyrant that took over Wave resided.

From all the books on politics he had been reading he deduced that he would need to end the threat before meeting with the daimyo. Still, before he could do either he had to get the people of Wave ready for the gross amount of change that was about to happen. The village and the country had the potential to be one of the richest and most well-protected places if the government handled it right; the water was a good way to trade with other places and the water also provided some security against invasion. Then there were the natural resources caked up in the ground.

When he got to the other side, he stopped so he could think of a plan to prepare the poor people for Naruto's entry into their lives.

Unlike the first time Daku was here, he wasn't trying to be stealthy or quiet, so he was half-prepared when one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist attacked him.

He heard the whirring of a large blade and that was all the warning he got. He ducked and slipped into the tree line, waiting for his attacker to show him or herself. His patience paid off when Zabuza seemingly appeared on the sword and blinked in confusion when he didn't see the mysterious person or his headless corpse.

The swordsman hopped off his lodged weapon and cleanly pulled it out. "Come on out, stranger!" Daku assumed he was one of the tyrant's hired hands so he would have to go through him before he could get to Gato. Not one for theatrics he blurred out of the underbrush and shoulder tackled straight into Zabuza before he could realise his presence, or so he thought, until the 'Zabuza' on the ground turned into a puddle of water. He performed a flawless one-seal 'body replacement' in time for the legendary head cleaver to impact where he formerly was. "I have to say, stranger, you sure are fast. Let's get this over with; who do you work for and why are you here?"

His answer was water bullets shooting out of the darkness in the forest and smashing into the flat side of his sword, his feet shuffled backwards from the effort of holding himself against the onslaught.

Daku, with his left forearm to his fingers now a stone stake and coming out from another side, kicked Zabuza, grunting in displeasure when he again turned into water. His hearing warned him that an attack was coming from behind; he capitalised on the knowledge and raised his stake hand to intercept the blow but was forced to slide back when the sword cleaved clean through his weapon.

Zabuza swiped again and Daku bent down, rolled to the swordsman and shot up under him with a precise and deadly uppercut. The movement was so fast that the swordsman only had time to substitute himself after the attack. Daku split the substituted log in half with a newly formed stake. He hummed in displeasure and caught the small spurt of smoke in the bushes before he went through a short chain of hand seals, making sure to pump as little chakra as his control would allow.

Daku inhaled into his non-existent lungs, pronouncing the jutsu in his mind, 'Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.'

The wind he exhaled surged over and through the forest, forcing the A rank missing ninja to dig his sword into the ground as trees and chunks of ground were torn out from the earth.

Daku made a water clone and the clone sank into the ground, shooting out underneath the unsuspecting missing ninja. The real Daku stopped his onslaught and barrelled into the forest, shoulder tackling Zabuza and began laying waste to his face, slamming jarring blow after blow.

Until—

Four needles sank into his back, where his chakra points were meant to be but since his chakra network was still too underdeveloped it only jammed into his arms and lower back. The ice needles lodged into his rocky muscles and slowed him down for the ninja under him to kick him away.

Daku hummed sourly and flexed his lean muscles, the needles popped out as he did so. He whipped around and blocked the coming onslaught of ice needles with both arms, turning them into rock stakes.

As he did that, he made numerous water clones to fish the secret attacker out. The ice attacks stopped just as the last clone disappeared into the darkness. He turned his red stare to the injured swordsman as Zabuza crept into Daku's guard, grunting with mild annoyance and swung a punch into the man's abdomen as he ducked a horizontal sword slice.

The man was pushed back and Daku followed with more dizzyingly fast kicks and punches till Zabuza had his back to a lopsided tree. The large sword was discarded, far from Zabuza's reach.

Daku summoned a stake and pinned both of the man's shoulders to the tree with it, breaking the man's shins with two swift kicks. He stepped back to admire the grotesque display, tuning out the colourful swears coming from Zabuza's mouth. Daku's clones surged out of the forest with an unconscious hunter ninja on one of their shoulders. The one that brought the attacking ninja came to him and gingerly dropped him to the ground.

One of the clones reported to the original Daku, "Mist hunter ninja by the looks of it, but I assume he works for Zabuza." They both turned to the cursing swordsman, the clone picked up Zabuza's fallen sword and handed it to his boss. "What should we do?"

Daku dispelled the rest of the clones, leaving the one he was talking to. The clone crossed his arms and watched over the unconscious hunter ninja, as well as Daku as he impaled the head cleaver sword into the ground, addressing Zabuza with a calm monotone, "We need Gato's location. Tell us or else."

The wild man spat at him. "You don't have the guts."

"On the contrary," Daku went to the hunter ninja and flipped him onto his stomach, stepping on the downed boy's left shoulder and grasping his left arm, "I don't exactly have the heart to care." He pulled and when he heard the resounding pop of a shoulder dislocating, he released the boy's arm. The boy's eyes shot open and he let loose a pained yell, desperately trying to crawl away but the Daku clone stepped on his back, stopping any escape. "Where is Gato hiding?"

"Leave the kid alone. Only I know where Gato is."

"Also on the contrary; I know you do, but it's now clear you care about this child." He hadn't bothered to remove the boy's hunter ninja mask, hearing the ragged, grating gasps for air from the pained boy. Daku grasped the other arm and the boys struggling started anew; Daku made to pull out another shoulder, but the swordsman yelled for him to stop.

Zabuza let his head sag. "Fine…I'll tell you where he's staying. Just…leave him out of this…please."

"Wise decision." Daku let go of the boy's arm and dispelled his clone, kicking the boy's hand when he wanted to throw ice senbon at his aggressor. Daku told him in a matter-of-fact tone, "I thought we've established those are useless against me."

"Haku…stand down." The boy did so wearily. "He's staying far east from here. His place is huge. Surrounded by armed guards and attack dogs, you can't miss it." He groaned in pain when Daku yanked out the rock stakes, letting the man fall to his behind.

"For your compliance, you will live; your death would serve no purpose to my master."

"Who-who are you?" the masked boy whispered.

"I am Daku, the Great Master's loyal Right Hand." He turned away. "My master would reveal himself when he is ready. Prepare to submit to him when he calls you," and with those chilling words, Daku blurred out in the general direction of the nearest village. He summoned clones and they Henge'd into various generic-looking people with one goal in mind: to spread the word that change was coming.

Whispers all over the town began after he had dispelled his clones.

"Did you hear what that guy said? He said Wave is going to be saved!"

"He says a great change is coming!"

"I don't believe him! Gato is too powerful!"

"The way he described this man…I'm not sure what to think"

"If a stranger says change is coming…I don't know about you but I'll believe anything right now"

"What did he say we shouldn't inform the daimyo?"

"I don't know and…I-I just don't know"

With his job in the village done Daku untiringly ran to Gato's hideout.

If he had a heart or even the smallest of consciences, then what he saw would have sent him into a blind rage. Females—young females—were being passed around by the thugs. From what Daku had heard from the apparent leader of the hired hands then the girls were part of the payment Gato would give them.

Daku tried to summon any emotion he had observed from his master and settled his turban-covered face in a displeased scowl, humming disapprovingly when a man roughly groped a girl two times younger than him.

The only thing that had motivated him to aid those poor girls before he headed into the stronghold was that it was what 'Master' would do and it would greatly benefit his master's plans in the long run.

He memorised all the faces of the thugs in a section of his mind for items of least importance; he wouldn't need their faces if they were dead, and he assigned a clone to each one, sending them away to kill the hired hands outside. The mercenaries didn't even have the time to blink before solid stone stakes were driven through the back of their heads. The clones had to swiftly cover the young girls' mouths to prevent them from screaming, and with a harsh glare, they non-verbally nodded to show their cooperation.

The clones knocked the girls out and carried their limp bodies to their boss. Daku dispelled all the clones except one and assigned the solitary clone to guard the girls, casting a genjutsu over them to make sure they stayed asleep.

The real Daku stealthily crept into the unguarded fortress, slinking from shadow to shadow like a phantom. From a guess, he would say the guards remaining were a little over two dozen.

Now there were two ways to go about exterminating the threat.

He could plant bombs throughout the base, kidnap Gato and blow the place up before the hired hands knew what was happening. He picks off the survivors with his stakes.

Or he could go in silently and assassinate who and whatever, taking Gato's head as proof of his death.

He ran both scenarios in his head and chose the latter; the chakra consumption for using his stakes would wear him down, as well as the fact that it wouldn't be a clean job. So, like a grotesque spider, he skittered on the wall, going from room to room, and eradicated all who he perceived as a threat. He found some unwilling prostitutes with some of the men and quietly pointed for them to run to the entrance. He cleanly and mercilessly killed till he dropped behind Gato and jammed his bloody stake arm through his back, pulling it out, with Gato's heart impaled at the end, and watched in grim satisfaction as the man died drowning in his blood.

The next step was the daimyo.

The poor daimyo didn't even have enough security to pose as much threat as the dead thug, so he dispatched the old man effectively. The Daimyo had to die because he was the one who introduced the tyrant to his country in hopes of looting from his people, but the plan backfired when Gato's greed overpowered the Daimyo.

Daku found all that out after he had killed the daimyo.

Daku looked down on both men, then up at the gathering villagers.

He stood in the centre of the village silently, an imposing figure hovering over the dead bodies of the tyrant and their weak daimyo. His red eyes glowed so ominously that no one dared to speak for a while; Daku raised his right hand, forming a clean stake, and shot it into the two dead men's chest to confirm to all of them that they were dead. All that bore witness cringed in phantom pain.

"You!" A dirty orphan said from the safety of the far back "You're the change!"

"I am part of the change." He kicked both dead men into the crowd. "Another other part of the change concerns this village and, by clear extension, this country's total submission,"

"To who!?" Another person yelled, a fisherman by the looks of him.

"To my master. He has seen how this country would be in the future under proper governance. He wishes to become the leader of this country."

"Anyone is better than those two!"

"Perfect," he unsealed a scroll and said out loud, "this is what my master wishes you all to do before he can make himself known…"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Back in Konoha, just as Daku left for his indefinitely long mission, Naruto sat in an open forest, sketch pad in hand and pencil smoothly running over the page, drawing in perfect detail the general flight pattern of a swallow. He sat in his special wheelchair, his faithful Daku clones guarding him from the shadows.

The bird he was drawing, purely out of leisure, ruffled its feathers and began singing.

The boy's pale skin now looked better with all the food Daku had been stealing for him, though his hair could not go back to how vibrant it looked again. He wasn't particularly picky over how he looked so he didn't bother dying it. He wore a simple white shirt with deep blue stripes on the shoulders and sides, with baggy black pants that perfectly hid his legs, he had on blue sandals that he was sure hadn't touched the ground yet. His legs were bound securely by a seat belt in case he ever had to defend himself unexpectedly.

He grunted sourly and neatly rubbed out a useless line from the bird's wing, and then he continued with his facial features plain and peaceful. The drawing depicted the phases a bird goes through before it can take off the ground or off a branch. Though not noticed at first, it was fairly easy to understand. He hummed a tune and continued sketching, he felt a faint tingle on the right arm of his hovering-but currently on the ground-wheelchair, signifying that someone he wasn't familiar with had breached his alarm seals. The Daku clones weren't intercepting the person so he or she wasn't too much of a threat.

His suspicions were confirmed when, from the corner of his eyes, he noticed a pair of pale pupilless eyes watching him. He didn't break composure whatsoever; he wanted the person to make him or herself known. Naruto turned to where a Daku clone was hiding an hour of watching later and flicked his eyes at the hiding person, two minutes later the clone dropped down in front of him, Hinata on his shoulder, and disappeared before she could see who had gotten her.

The twelve-year-old girl scrambled to her feet shakily, red-faced and embarrassed, "U-Uhm…"

Not even bothering to look at her, the young fuinjutsu user went back to his sketching, from the regular reports he had gotten from Daku, which were stored in blood seals under his bed, the girl in front of him was Hyuuga Hinata, heiress to the Hyuuga clan, has confidence problem and daddy problems. "Why are you here, Hyuuga?"

He didn't see it but the girl blushed, stumbling over her words pitifully before she could say anything coherent. "U-Uhm…I-I haven't s-seen yo-you before…"

"I'm clearly not a threat."

"I-I'm so—"

"I don't need sympathy," he cut her off calmly, briefly looking at the swallow and then back to what he was drawing.

Hinata gulped and twiddled her fingers. She tried to change the topic. "Ni-Nice wea-weather we have…uhm…"

"I agree; the weather is nice, perfect for relaxing." She looked down at what he was drawing and marvelled at how majestic he made a common bird look, making her appreciate it all the more. "What is your name, if you don't mind me asking?"

"U-Uhm…my-my name is Hinata." He hadn't even looked up,

"Naruto."

She went in for the figurative kill again. "You-You have a nice n-name, Naruto."

"Thank you." He came right out and asked, "Why are you still here, Hinata?"

She tilted her head slightly. "I-I don't understand,"

This time he looked up and she had to hold herself from stepping into his personal space. "I make you uncomfortable and you're meant to be training with your team by now."

"How-How did y-you know?"

"I've been coming to this spot since I was 9 to draw whenever I have time and a few months ago your team made the training ground your own."

"I…see."

"Hinata! Where are you Hinata!?"

They both turned to the forest where they heard her name being called. "You are needed, it seems." She nodded and made to run into one of the thicker parts of the forest but stopped just at the edge.

"Would-Would I see you again?"

Naruto shrugged and went back to his bird sketching, "Maybe when I'm less busy." She nodded and went back to her team. "What do you think, Daku?"

"From my 'boss's' observations she does not like harming others. Her heart is too soft to be an effective shinobi."

"I know that. I mean, do you think she should be part of my plans?"

"It would be an enjoyable addition, Naruto."

The boy scratched his chin as he thought more about it. "Yes…Yes, she will be an enjoyable addition." A short smirk graced his plain face as he looked at where the girl had disappeared. His plans were all in the long term, and his intentions for the girl solidified in his head. "It would be a fun project."

Daku's clone wholeheartedly agreed.

Authors note

Whatcha think dudes? Good? Bad? Meh?

Review!

Foy.