Chapter 1: Mission completion and desertion.

Naruto groaned in pain as he woke up. He felt a familiar pain in his shoulder as he slowly managed to open his eyes. He looked around for a few minutes before he began to recognize the familiar sterilized white walls and ceiling of the hospital.

Naruto groaned in annoyance as he fell backwards onto the bed, wincing slightly as he remembered the familiar technique that had injured him.

Naruto laid down and just stared up at the ceiling, the only noise he heard was the sound of his own breathing and the heart monitor that had been hooked up to him.

With nothing else to do the blonde began to think back on his life.

He frowned as he remembered his early life. Naruto's unwillingly being made to be the jail of the nine-tailed fox, or the Kyuubi as they called it. His early years being ignored by the matron of the orphanage and his fellow orphans on her words. He remembered being kicked out when he turned eight, and being given an old apartment in the red-light district. He remembered how he learned all the nooks and crannies, all the good places to hide in case certain villagers got crazy. A small smile came to the blonde's face as he remembered the drunks, prostitutes, and other members of the red-light district who didn't see him as a monster, but someone who had just been given a seriously bad hand, like many of them had. He remembered how they would help hide him, when people were hunting him.

He remembered his later years in the ninja academy, how he was purposely left out of certain lessons, or given bad advice from teachers and how everyone would laugh and mock him for his lack of skill, or even just for being lesser than them. How he adopted the mask of an idiot to hide his pain, to keep some people off his back.

He remembered his first ninja team, team 7, consisting of him, the rookie of the year, Sasuke Uchiha, the kunoichi of the year, Sakura Haruno, and Kakashi Hatake. Another frown came to his face as he remembered how Sasuke and Sakura would mock him, and how Kakashi would turn a blind eye. He remembered how the D-rank customers would make it harder for him, while singing Haruno and Uchiha's praises. He scowled angrily as he remembered how Kakashi would always go against his own words and train Sasuke privately, leaving him and Sakura alone.

He remembered his first real mission, where he gained his first real friend in Haku, who had a similar past to his own, hated for something that wasn't in his control. How he died to save a man who gave him a purpose to live.

He remembered the chuunin exams where he would blow away everyone's expectations of him failing in the first round. How he met with the old perverted sage, Jiraiya. The whiskered blonde let out a small laugh as he remembered how he knocked out Ebisu, the closet pervert, with one move, and how easy it was get him to agree to train him. He smirked as he remembered the sense of pride he felt when he learned the Rasengan and earned the right to summon the toads. The sense of pride grew as he remembered how he defeated Gaara, the holder of the one tailed beast, and Neji, the former rookie of the year, and prodigy of the Hyuuga clan.

His smile was replaced with a scowl as he remembered how Sasuke, the village golden boy, had run away from the village, the mission almost resulting in the death of Neji, Choji, Kiba, and Akamaru. How Kakashi and Sakura looked at him with disappointment when they learned the mission failed, as if the whole thing was all his fault!

He remembered the feeling of joy he felt, when Jiraiya took Naruto out of the village to train him. He remembered the anger he felt when Jiraiya told him of his parentage, that his father was the fourth hokage and that he was his godfather. He also remembered the shock and outrage on Jiraiya's face when he told the toad sage of his life. Apparently, the sandaime wasn't as good as he thought he was. He told Jiraiya lies of how Naruto was adopted and under the care of a loving family.

He remembered the blood, sweat, and tears that went into the following three years that followed. How he learned taijutsu, ninjutsu, the various variant version of the rasengan, picking up on his stealth skills, and learning to become a better ninja. He remembered running into retired ninja who he met and gained the trust of, learning things from them that he couldn't learn from Jiraiya, specifically elemental affinities and a sensor ability. He also remembered the day a slug, sent by Tsunade, dropped off a scroll detailing a specific chakra exercise that allowed him access to copy her super strength.

He remembered how he returned to Konoha and how so many people seemed to have changed. He also remembered the disgust he felt for some of the people there.

Then he remembered how he managed to get in this position.

Team 7, reunited after Naruto's training trip, were sent out on a mission of their own to one of Orochimaru's bases to find Sasuke, after leaving the village in pursuit of the power he believed was necessary for killing his elder brother and avenging his clan.

After arriving at the base Naruto, Sakura, their new teammate Sai, and Kakashi were separated. Naruto found himself facing off against Sasuke alone.

Sasuke, full of himself, mocked Naruto, saying that he could have bene training instead of wasting his time attempting to bring him back to Konoha. Naruto't response was to get into a stance.

The two were matched were evenly matched, Naruto's personalized frog kata, going toe to toe with Sasuke's family Interceptor style. As for jutsu, Naruto managed to match any fire and lightning jutsu Sasuke used with a mix of wind and water style respectively. It all came to head, when Sasuke activated his curse seal and went into the second state. The boy then proceeded to mock and gloat, going on and on about how with this, he was far superior to anyone from Konoha and that he would finally fulfill his ambition. It was during that time, that Naruto began to tap into the Kyuubi's chakra to even the playing field. The brawl continued for a little bit and then ended again in a similar way to their clash at the valley of the end. Sasuke, in the middle of their initial attack, took out a lightning chakra infused sword and stabbed the blonde in the shoulder. This time, however, Naruto's kyuubi enhanced rasengan plowed through Sasuke's and slammed him in the chest. The technique cracked some ribs and sent the Uchiha flying into the opposite wall and straight into the realm of unconsciousness.

Naruto smiled to himself as he remembered the look of shock on Sasuke's face when he was taken down. Finally, he had beaten Sasuke and proven himself no longer the dead last of his generation.

Naruto was drawn from his memories, and feeling of victory, by a familiar rumble getting his attention. He glanced down at his stomach and mentally cursed his large appetite and where he was. Naruto had always hated hospital food. With little thought, Naruto formed a shadow clone and then sent him out to Ichiruka's to get some ramen.

Naruto quickly laid back down and began to relax.

Little did the boy know, his entire life was about to change.

A few moments later Ichiruka ramen stand…

Naruto's clone grinned as he paid for his ramen and immediately began make his way back to the hospital. As he moved all around him, he heard various whispers around him.

"It's him."

"What's he doing out of the hospital? Did he heal that quickly?"

"Should have just put him out of our misery is what we should have done."

"I heard that he nearly killed the Uchiha heir."

"We should take him down now, before he tries to kill someone else."

The clone ignored the whispers of the bigots. Wanting to get the ramen to the boss faster, he jumped up and started to run across the rooftops for the hospital. After a few minutes, the clone had the hospital in sight when he noticed something off.

Looking down he saw a familiar trio of people. He immediately recognized the three as Danzo, Homura, and Koharu, the three advisors to the hokage, in this case Tsunade.

Naruto's clone immediately felt alarm bells go off in his head. He barely saw the three together unless they meant business. Given the fact that they were currently speaking to each other outside of the kage tower, meant that something big was going down. Naruto didn't know what was going on, but he immediately ran down to keep an eye on them, leaving the wrapped ramen hidden, in case they managed to catch a whiff of it.

The three advisors walked down the street and arrived at a small house. Upon seeing them enter, Naruto's clone quickly went to a window a floor above them, and then quickly entered, before anyone could notice him.

Pulling pranks on jonin and ANBU really had its advantages.

The clone then entered the home and quickly began to navigate the home. He stepped lightly to avoid stepping on any loose boards and making any unnecessary noise. Naruto soon found a flight of stairs going downstairs.

He quickly stopped near the base of the stairs. He saw the trio of advisors sitting at the table with a familiar man. The man had familiar pink hair done up in a star style with a mustache and, despite his darker skin tone, he could easily tell that this man was related to his teammate, Sakura Haruno. Kizashi, if what he heard was right.

"So, is everything ready?" Kizashi asked the trio.

"Yes," Koharu answered, nodding her head, "The report is already on its way to the daimyo. What about everything on your end?"

Kizashi smirked and said, "Being on the council has its advantages. The mission reports have been corrected and the medical reports have all been placed. All we have to do now is sit back and wait for everything to hit the fan."

Homura nodded and said, "You have done well, Kizashi."

Kizashi nodded and said, "Thank you, now as for what I was promised."

Koharu sighed and said, "The engagement between your daughter and Sasuke will go through. Your family will have full access to the Uchiha bank accounts, and the political power that will come with it."

Kizashi smiled and said, "Good. My daughter will get her dream boy, I'll be rich, and the demon brat will be sent away. I must ask though…what happens to the boy afterwards? He is supposed to be the village's weapon after all."

Danzo nodded and said, "My men will intercept him as he is taken away. After that, all it will take is a little nudge in the right direction and the boy will be our tool like he should have been years ago. Damn, Sarutobi and his bleeding heart."

Naruto's clone gritted his teeth as he heard this. The blonde then slipped back out of the house, undetected and quickly grabbed the ramen and proceeded to rush towards the hospital. The boss was going to be pissed.

Danzo glanced towards the corner and could have sworn that he saw a glance of orange, but immediately dismissed the idea. Maybe he should pay a visit to the eye doctor later. The future hokage couldn't have his eyes failing.

At the hospital a few minutes later…

Naruto turned towards the window as his clone returned from his ramen run.

"Thanks man," he said with a smile, you're a life saver.

Naruto downed the ramen rather lowly, as opposed to his normal eating pace, that being wolf as much down as you can in a few minutes. As he slurped down the last of the broth in his bowl, Naruto let out a sigh of satisfaction, having been able to enjoy his favorite food.

Naruto set his bowl to the side and leaned back in bed, ready to take another nap, but stopped when he saw that his clone hadn't dispersed yet. The blonde's gut immediately told him that something bad was going on.

"Did something happen?" he asked.

The clone simply sighed before exploding into a puff of white smoke. Immediately, Naruto's mind was assaulted by the clone's memories. This included being on the receiving end of a lot of glares from civilians, being greeted by old man Teuichi and his daughter, paying for his ramen, seeing Danzo and the old fossils, and the ensuring meeting between them and Kizashi.

As the memories faded, Naruto let out a growl. He always knew that the council and their like had it out for him. He should have known that they would pull something like this would happen after he got the village "prince" back. He knew that if it was Tsunade in charge, she would see the prick punished for abandonment. These guys however, apparently were invested in the Uchiha's sharingan and repopulating it.

After a few moments, the blonde began to calm down and think. The mention of changed medical reports and mission reports had the blonde worried. If the council had changed those, most likely they would portray him as a nuisance and hindrance while praising his team. Another thing that got his attention was the mention of the daimyo.

The hokage title was the most prestigious title in the village, but the daimyo was someone even granny would have to listen to. If he knew the villagers, the would jump at the chance to have him thrown out of the village and out of their hair.

Naruto let out a sigh as he got up from the bed. It looked like he was going to have to head out of Konoha after all. He would have to make sure to get a message to the old pervert when he got to a safe place.

Naruto quickly made his way to a small stack of clothes, threw them on, leaving behind his headband, and swiftly made his way out of the hospital.

Naruto, as quickly and stealthily as possible, made his way to his apartment.

The blonde ninja, soon to be former, quickly went through his items. He grabbed the basics, being a change of clothes, a sleeping bag, a medical kit, and some special food pills. He also made sure to empty out the jar of money he had saved up from various missions he had saved up. He called it the, "Get the hell out of dodge fund", jokingly of course, but now it seemed a lot more appropriate.

As far as equipment, he grabbed his old green goggles, some spare kunai and shuriken, and a roll of ninja wire. He also managed to grab a few explosive notes, flash bombs, smoke bombs, and a small pack of caltrops.

Naruto quickly sealed all his tools and equipment in various small scrolls that he could hide under his jacket.

Naruto was about to leave when he noticed something. He remembered it as a box of some of his old pranking supplies. There were stink bombs, paint bombs, fake vomit, real vomit (don't ask), fake dog poo, and other basic jokes and gags. Naruto grinned as a familiar glint filled his eyes. If any of his old pranking victims had seen him, they would have become extremely nervous. He quickly grabbed some of the stink bombs and paint bombs, leaving behind some of the grosser pranks, as he knew they wouldn't help him.

Adjusting his goggles on his head, he shot off and made his way to the village wall. Quickly and stealthily, the blonde made his way towards the main wall, with nobody noticing. Some looked up at the occasional sound of a roof tile moving slightly, but dismissed it as just a bird moving on the ceilings.

After a few minutes, the boy reached the village wall. With no one around, the blonde was quickly able to get over the wall without anyone noticing.

Meanwhile beyond the planet's atmosphere…

From above the ninja world, the planet would look very similar to another human populated world. The planet held blue oceans, with various areas of brown, green, and white all visible from the atmosphere. As opposed to the different land mass consisted of seven continents, the land on this planet had only one giant land mass, like the prehistoric supercontinent of Pangea.

Slowly, the view pans to show a large dome sitting in the dark side of the moon.

The dome appeared to be about the size of a baseball stadium and covered in tinted glass. The glass-like substance was a special polymer that was made to reflect the radiation from the sun, to keep the people inside from frying. The dome seemed to have a large metal ring on the bottom of it, with large rings digging into the rock, keeping it anchored.

Inside the dome, a figure is seen sitting at a chair. We see a large hand, with three fingers and a thumb, typing away at floating dark blue keyboard, with a dark blue holographic screen floating above it. On the screen in front of him you could see numbers, letters, and symbols of all kinds, going by at such a fast pace, you'd be amazed the person typing could keep up.

Above the screen he was looking at were various people all over the world below. Images of deserts, mountain, shores, seas, and various people.

Suddenly, a dark blue circle with a white exclamation mark appeared on the screen getting his attention. The figure hummed in interest, before pressing his finger into the circle. The image of Naruto going over the village wall.

The figure hummed again, moving his hand to rub his chin. After a moment of deliberation, he spoke.

"Caretaker," he spoke, "What is the current situation of subject Naruto Uzumaki?"

There was beeping noise, when a computerized female voice spoke.

"Subject Naruto Uzumaki, is currently a half a mile from the village of Konoha. Scan reveals a set amount of survival supplies, as well as tools and gear. A lack of a member of jonin level ninja or his team, as well as he no longer wears his headband there is a 97.661 percent chance that he is abandoning the village. Current destination unknown."

The figure nodded. It was highly likely that the boy had gotten tired of the treatment those lower lifeforms. Why is it that whenever a person of that low intelligence they react with anger and fear? It was understandable at time, but at moments like this it just caused some unnecessary problems.

The figure then responded, "What about the village itself? Are they aware of his leaving?"

The computerized voice responded, "Scanning."

The screen cycled through various images, all of them various areas of Konoha. The hot springs, the academy, and various other areas before it came across the hospital main area. There was the image of Danzo and the two elders speaking with the various members of the remaining rooking twelve.

"What is he saying?"

"A nurse apparently found Subject Naruto Uzumaki's hospital room and told her superiors who then told Danzo, who had just arrived. He apparently, expected Naruto to attempt to leave at some point."

The figure cursed under his breath and said, "What about his comrades?"

The computer let out a beeping noise and the screen showed various information, including the names of the ninja, heartbeats, brainwaves, blood pressure, and other various objects that would indicate a physical reaction.

"Apparently, Danzo has given an abridged version of what happened on subject Naruto Uzumaki's retrieval of Sasuke Uchiha as well as his status as the nine-tailed fox's holder. According to scans of the various members of the group "Rookies", Kiba Inuzuka, Sakura Haruno, Ino Yamanaka, and Neji Hyuuga are all experiencing a fusion of anger and disbelief. There is a 85.256 percent chance this is due to Kiba and Neji's injured pride three years ago, and Sakura Haruno's and Ino Yamanaka's hormonal attraction to Saskue Uchiha. Choji Akamichi, Rock Lee, Tenten, and Hinata Hyuuga, all experience disbelief. This is 87.528 percent likely due to Hinata's old affliction, Choji being out of the loop, Rock Lee's potential rivalry, and Tenten original indifference towards subject Naruto Uzumaki. Shikimaru Nara, Shino Aburame, and Sai Shimura, all seem calm. This react is, 87.265 percent likely, from the fact that they either knew of Naruto's affliction, or believe that something is not being told."

The figure sighed. He could understand all their reactions. He idly wondered what the academy was thinking when they implemented that dead last and rookie of the year crap? All it did was assign a label that everyone would hold over the dead last's head like it would mean anything. He had a prime example in that Jiraiya fellow. He was originally the dead last of his generation and now he was one of strongest warriors the village had, as well as a spy master.

A sudden blaring of an alarm got the man's attention. He turned back to the screen and was shocked to see that they remaining members of the rookies were now heading out.

"Warning. Threat to subject Naruto Uzumaki imminent. Konoha group "Rookies" members have been dispatched by Danzo to retrieve subject Naruto Uzumaki. According to examinations of mental states, emotional states, there is a 75.236 percent chance that some may attempt to physically harm subject."

The figure grumbled to himself, rubbing his chin in thought.

"What will happen if the subject is captured?"

The computer beeped, running through various numbers and computing various outcomes. After a few more moments it stopped and gave its answer.

"Probability of imprisonment: High. Probability of execution: Medium. Probability of weaponization: High."

The man slammed his fist down on the arm chair with a grunt of frustration. If this happened, all the planning and work he had put into his project would go to waste. The boy was a one of a kind, and probably the only person on the planet who seemed perfect for his experiment.

He had hoped that he could wait a little bit longer before revealing himself to the boy, but now was a good a time as ever.

"Caretaker," he ordered, "Send down one of the drones. Only one. Put it in stealth mode, and it shall only intervene when it became necessary. Give it a nonlethal payload, but allow it to access the lethal payload if it comes to it."

"Acknowledged. Orders set and recognized. Sending drone now."

Outside of the dome, a single figure can be seen moving through space. The figure approaches the planet below, turning red as it entered the atmosphere before it faded.

The figure then sat back in the chair as the image changed to show Naruto running through the woods as fast as he could.

"Now…let the show begin."

Back down on the planet…

Naruto was continuing his run. After a minute of debate, all while running, he had decided the best place he could hide is in Snow country, or spring as it had been renamed. First, however, he had to make it to wave country. If his luck held true, old man Tazuna would help him reach the country.

With a destination and a plan, albeit a very weak one, in mind, the now rogue shinobi ran as fast as he could. All the while making sure to keep his sensor abilities active. The blonde suddenly sensed a large amount of various chakra signatures heading in his direction.

Naruto swiftly jumped into a nearby tree, hiding amongst the red leaved leave, and suppressing his chakra as much as possible.

Within three minutes the remaining members of the rookies had arrived. Naruto quickly realized that simply hiding wouldn't cut it, especially with Kiba, Akamaru, Neji, Hinata, and Shino amongst the group, being expert trackers with the sense of smell, byakugan, and insect hive respectively.

Naruto calmly and slowly moved back out of the tree and began to move away. Putting as much distance between the group and himself as possible.

'Damn,' he thought. 'This could be a problem.'

It had been three years since Naruto had seen most of the members of the rookies. Almost of his information on them was outdated. The only members he knew about personally were Sakura and Sai. For the other members he had no idea about their current skill levels. He could make assumptions, but that could wind up making more problems than it would solve.

"This way!"

Naruto recognized the shout as Kiba's.

Naruto continued to run through the trees until a barrage of kunai and shuriken slammed into a tree branch in front of him.

Naruto stopped, and swift turned in the direction that the tools were thrown. The spiky haired blonde saw Tenten standing on a branch twirling a kunai on her finger, clearly the source of the attack. Beside her were Lee and Neji.

Apparently, they had managed to find him first, most likely to Neji's Byakugan.

There was a moment of silence between the three chuunin and one geni.

Finally, the silence was broken by Lee.

"Naruto, my friend, please you must return with us to the village."

Naruto simply scoffed and said, "Pray tell, why should I? Just so I can be arrested on trumped up charges? No thank you."

Lee responded, "Naruto please. There must be some kind of mistake. If you come back with us, you can set the record straight."

Naruto shook his head and said, "I'm sorry Lee, but that isn't happening. I've had it with that village, and I do not plan on going back."

Tenten tightened her grip on her kunai and Neji activated his byakugan.

Lee sighed and said, "Then please, forgive me for what I am about to do."

Lee launched forward with his fist cocked back, quickly joined by his teammates.

Lee was surprised when Naruto blocked the punch and countered with a punch to the solar plexus, knocking the air from the near chakra-less boy's lungs.

Tenten and Neji both charged and stabbed their weapons and hands forward at the same time. Naruto dodged, pushing Lee out of the way and into a tree in the process, before pulling out a pair of kunai and blocking Tenten's assault. Neji attacked from the boy's side, only for the blonde to perform a quick substitution with Tenten.

Neji was shocked when he found his attack striking his teammate instead of his opponent.

Neji's danger sense went off as dodged a pair of kunai aimed at his shoulders.

With Lee and Tenten temporarily disabled Neji stood alone in his regular stance. He was shocked at the amount of skill Naruto had shown in just a few minutes. However, it would not deter him from completing his mission.

"Give up now, Naruto. It is your fate to be defeated by us today."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at Neji's words and asked, "I thought you were out of that phase. Fate doesn't control everything you know."

Neji answered, "It does not matter to those who cannot rely on their own power."

Naruto narrowed his eyes before getting into a basic stance of his own. One that Neji didn't seem to recognize.

Neji launched forward and attacked with a few basic jyuken strikes, but it was blocked by the blonde.

"Dynamic Entry!"

Naruto let out a cry of pain as he felt Lee's foot slam into his back.

The boy was sent rolling as he was swiftly followed by the recovered Tenten. The bun haired girl unsealed a staff which connected with the still recovering blonde's body and knocked him into a tree.

'Damn it, there are too many trees. I need some room to move.'

"Leaf Whirlwind!"

Naruto was drawn from his thoughts just in time to see a barrage of low and high kicks sent his way. replace himself with a log a good distance away. With that, a sudden rush of memories of one of his clones getting taken out by Kiba filled his mind.

The blonde then swiftly got up and ran, with team 9 in hot pursuit. After a few moments Naruto came into a clearing of trees.

Naruto stopped near the center the clearing and waited.

"Leaf Great Whirlwind!"

"Gentle Fist: Tenketsu Needle."

The blonde swiftly dodged and parried a wave of low, mid, and high kicks from Lee and a single strike from Neji.

As they were continuing to brawl, Tenten sat up in a tree a little bit away, hidden in the shadow of the leaves and branches, a bow and arrow in her hands. She took aim and waited for the right moment to strike.

Seeing her opportunity, she fired.

Naruto let out a cry of pain as the arrow entered his shoulder. He winced at the pain, but kept his head in the fight. The whiskered rogue ninja sent out a wave of wind chakra from his body, knocking the duo of fighting ninja off balance. Then, grabbing both of their heads, he slammed them together before throwing them off in different directions.

Tenten launched out of a tree and shot forward, a sword unsealed and ready for use.

Naruto responded quickly and focused some more of his wind chakra into his hand. With a swing of his arm the wind chakra wrapped hand struck the blade and sliced it clean into several pieces. Tenten's eyes widened before she got punched in the stomach.

Tenten responded with a kick, that Naruto blocked and countered with a kick of his own.

The two grappled for a moment before the blonde brought his knee up into the girl's stomach with enough force to knock the girl into the air. In midair, Naruto grabbed her leg and threw her a good distance away.

Neji and Lee, now recovered from getting knocked around, got up and were ready to attack.

Naruto, realizing he had to end this quickly, pulled the arrow out of his shoulder with a grunt.

Pulling another object of interest out of his pocket, Naruto pulled his goggles down over his eyes.

"Look at the birdie!"

Naruto threw the object up into the air. The flash bomb went off temporarily blinding the three, Neji especially with his byakugan activated.

Naruto quickly formed two clones and all three of them attacked the team.

A barrage of punches to the chest and face knocked Neji on his butt, breaking his nose, cracking a couple of ribs, and blackening both of his eyes.

Lee's attacker knocked him in the jaw, the temple and then proceeded to dislocate his shoulder, then punch in in the knee's overextending the joints, making him cry out in pain.

Finally, Tenten received a mix of chakra enhanced punches and kicks to the face and stomach.

All three chuunin hit the ground out could and in a good amount of pain.

To end it, all three clones got up and stomped down on the three ninjas. The strikes were powerful enough to knock the three of them out.

Naruto panted that had been a bit of a pain. Naruto quickly pulled out his medical kit and applied a bandage to his shoulder. He also took a solider pill just in case some of the others found him.

Naruto was about to make a run for it, when he was suddenly aware of something rushing towards him.

He dodged just in time for a familiar pair of spinning drills of fur to rush past him.

Naruto turned and glared at Kiba and Akamaru as they came to a halt.

Naruto suddenly turned towards the direction they came from to see the rest of the retrieval team standing there.

"Naruto," Shikamaru called out, "You know you can't win against us. Just come back with us already, troublesome blonde."

Before the boy could respond, Sakura decided to butt in.

"Just give up now, baka," she said, angrily, "You couldn't take me back when we were in the academy and you can't take all of us on now. Just give up and come back so you can get your punishment!"

Naruto glared at his former crush, having grown out of it a year into his training trip and asked, "Why should I, Sakura? Why should I go back to be punished for completing the mission and bringing back that duck-haired traitor? I'm not going back to be brought up on trumped up charges, while Sasuke gets a slap on the wrist!"

Sakura was about to say something, but Naruto cut her off.

"If you say something about trying to kill Sasuke, then push those thoughts out of your dumb mountain-sized head bimbo. You weren't there so anything you have to say about what I did to Sasuke means absolutely nothing! I'm not going back to just be blamed for something that should have been done long ago, so the council can have its sharingan and Sasuke can have his perfect record. If you want to take me back to Konoha you're going to have to drag me back half dead!"

Sakura growled angrily and shot forward, her temper overriding her better judgement.

She drew back her arm and was ready to slam her fist into the blonde's face. She had done this so many times, and was assured of her own superiority over the boy that she was shocked beyond all words when Naruto held up a hand and caught her fist.

Naruto stared at his former teammate and former crush as he tightened his grip on her fist. Sakura, not entirely used to being in pain, fell to one knee as she felt the bones in her hand grind together.

"And to think…I used to find that forehead of yours charming."

Sakura's eyes widened as he looked at the blonde before she was punched so hard she went flying. She rolled across the ground and stopped right in front of the rest of the team.

Sakura groaned in pain, a nasty bruise forming on her face. She stood up on shaky legs before leveling a fierce glare at the boy who dared to hit her.

"That's it! I'm dragging you back to Konoha in pieces!" Sakura raged, nursing her injured hand.

They were about to engage each other when a familiar voice, to Naruto, spoke up and sent an all too familiar shiver down his spine.

"I'm sorry, but we cannot allow that."

Naruto's eyes widened as he slowly turned towards the source of the voice.

'No…no way. My luck cannot be that bad!' he thought, and prayed that it wasn't who he thought it was.

Unfortunately, it was.

Walking out of the tree line was one Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki.

The recently turned rogue ninja cursed himself as he had completely forgotten about the Akatsuki, and the chance that he may run into one. Naruto gulped as he realized that he was currently in a no win situation. Even if he dealt with the Konoha team, he would have to deal with these two.

He wasn't the only one nervous. The retrieval team, despite youthful arrogance, didn't believe that they could take on these two. They all knew what Itachi was capable of and that was years ago. In all that time, there was no doubt in their minds he had gotten more powerful.

"Naruto Uzumaki," Itachi said, "I suggest that you come with us."

Naruto glared at the man and looked between the two teams out to capture him. One so he could be dragged back and punished unlawfully, and another so he could be used to some greater game that he didn't know about.

Kisame saw Naruto's hesitance and quickly got impatient.

"Forget reasoning Itachi," the shark man said, "I'm just going to cut off the brat's legs and we can drag him back."

Lifting his bandage wrapped weapon, Kisame launched forward, appearing in front of Naruto in a few seconds before the blonde could perform a substitution.

Kisame smirked maliciously as he swung his weapon.

Naruto closed his eyes and braced for the pain.

CLANG!

The sound of the bandage wrapped sword striking metal was not the sound everyone expected. Naruto slowly opened his eyes and gasped at what he saw.

There was someone holding off Kisame's weapon with his bare hands.

The figure stood as tall as Kisame himself. He was apparently wrapped up in advanced chakra armor. The armor area of his chest and abdomen resemble dark gray muscle. The upper arm, upper legs, and sides were black and had a metal sheen to them. On each shoulder was a small thick shield, most likely a pauldron. His forearms and lower legs had dark gray armored gauntlets and greaves/boots on them with dark blue lines tracing their sides, glowing with power. His head was covered in a helmet designed after a samurai helmet, with a completely black blank face and everything else dark gray.

The armored man shifted his weight and sent Kisame's sword upwards and then punched Kisame in the jaw sending the S-rank murderer flying like a rag doll.

Kisame hit the ground a grunt right next to his teammate.

"Damn that hurt," he said as he got up and angrily pointed his weapon at the interloper shouting, "Who the hell are you."

"My name is of no importance to you, Kisame Hoshigaki."

His voice was deep and sounded mechanical.

He turned his towards Naruto and then at the group. From his point of view, the world looked dark blue as he scanned all the conscious members of the group. Based on bio energy levels, brainwaves indicating states of mind, and other physical elements, they were deemed a mid-to-low level threat individually and mid-to-high all together. However, a similar scan of Kisame and Itachi showed him that they were a potentially high threat level individually and together.

He turned his head towards Naruto before pointing at the retrieval team and asked, "Do you believe that your current skill set will be sufficient in disabling them?"

Naruto looked at this new member in surprise and slowly nodded.

"Good. You shall deal with them. I shall face off against these two."

Naruto nodded and stood up and faced against his former comrades.

With that the new guy and Naruto both charged ready for the fight to begin.

Cut! Okay, so I decided to take a different route with the beginning of this story. As opposed to Naruto nearly being killed, I decided to step out of my comfort zone a bit and try out Naruto leaving the village on his own. How will Naruto fair against his former comrades, how will the drone fair against the two members of the Akatsuki? You'll just have to find out. Oh, and before I forget, when you see the underlined speech for the robot, think Blade wolf from Metal Gear Revengeance. He sounds awesome.

Anyway, constructive criticism is accepted, and flames will be ignored let me know what you think.