Disclaimer-I do not own Naruto in any way shape or form, all rights to Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

Important Announcement: To those of you living in the EU, let it be known that in less than two weeks, the parliament of the European Union will be voting on Article 13, should it pass, there will be fines to those who wish to cite sources, those who make fanart, fanfiction, meme, or parody could face stiff financial penalties or perhaps even jailtime. This is worse than Net Neutrality being at stake, this is government sanctioned suppression of your ability to create, to make fanworks, before it was just corporate, now it is Government. To those of you reading this, I implore you, contact your MEP, get involved, because if Article 13 passes, you will not be able to make fanworks ever again. I wanted to announce this sooner, but had no way to do so.

As I am sure you are all aware, I do not make money through fanfiction, I have to work to survive, I have to pay my bills and put food on my tbale, so fanfiction has had to take a backseat.

I am announcing however that I will be able to work on fanfiction more often, though I cannot promise anything specific.

But, with that said, please, enjoy this chapter, it is short, but I felt I had waited long enough to post a chapter.

Please leave a review, flame, or recommend if you really enjoy.

Ja-ne!


The scene that was discovered by the small party of Konoha Shinobi, was truly an unsettling one. Homes, strewn with decorations lie empty, and the streets littered with the remains of the dead.

Their bodies, though appearing mummified, were recent, their flesh sunken, their skin stretched tightly over their bodies, their sockets empty, crows having already come to pick clean what little edible flesh had remained.

Kushina kneeled over a pair who had been left aside, their bodies devoid of moisture, form...nothing.

Minato stood beside her, looking down, as they both looked back at Naruto, who was looking at the various bodies, while other ANBU were looking at each body, while med-nins carried the remains to a nearby cart. They would be transferred to the fire capital and cremated, any names that could be found would be placed on the sacred memorial at the fire capital.

It was a heartwrenching scene for most...but to a Shinobi, and those who had seen the true horrors of conflict, of war.

This wasn't even a Tuesday.

Minato gently grabbed Kushina's shoulder, who sighed, "Its all gone, their blood, their moisture, even their bone marro was drained dry. The only thing keeping the bodies together is the skin on the bones, there is less strength in the flesh than a piece of string." she slowly stood up, "It matches all other accounts of the one we are searching for." she spoke softly, as she recited the name of the one that they were to hunt.

Morbus...the devourer.

Kumogakure had been obsessed with Kekkei Genkai, though their land allowed them great defensive capability, when put on the offensive, they were limited. Kekkei Genkai offered the unique opportunity to acquire abilities from clans, and utilize them against their adversaries, securing their position.

At first, they had kidnapped men and women to breed, to produce a child in order to raise to be a loyal soldier of Kumo. At one point, they had successfully captured a male Uchiha, and for a brief time, had a small Uchiha clan.

It was all washed away when they discovered the truth. The resulting carnage had damaged Kumo severely, half of the 'clan' had fled to Konoha, while the other half remained to cause as much damage as possible to Kumo, to ensure that they had vengeance for the horrors their father was forced to endure.

Kumo lost the second Shinobi war because of their actions.

But still they tried, and in time, discovered a parasitic organism, a form of leech, which allowed them to harvest blood. They didn't need live captives to breed anymore, all they needed was genetic material. With a healthy Ovum, and the right med-nin jutsu, they could accomplish what they desired.

A Shinobi, who had served Kumo for decades was chosen, not only for his loyalty, but because he was in the waning years of his life. He sought to serve Kumo, but due to his advanced age, he would not be able to be anything more than a liability. He and Minato had fought once in the war, and while Minato had come out on top, had Morbus been but a few years younger, Minato knew that battle would not have ended the way it did.

He was the only man that had injured Minato during the third Shinobi war.

The man had volunteered for an experiment which would have allowed him to regain some measure of his life back...however, the experiment went wrong, his mind was shattered, whoever he was before, was gone.

But, he lived either way, when he should have died, his existence was a threat to the balance which the Shinigami so carefully ensured.

It had taken Minato storming into the Raikages office and forcing him to give up the information to find this out, but, it was well worth it.

They had also gained full documents on every last detail on the experiment. They might be able to replicate the experiment at some point, but, with more careful results...though neither Minato nor Kushina wanted to even consider that now.

Now, they needed to find Morbus...and Naruto had to kill him.

Minato gestured for Naruto to com closer, he had been inspecting a few of the dead...how odd it was, to see him become so cold emotionally over these last few months.

It was necessary though, he would have to take many lives, even before he killed those the Shinigami had resurrected to slay.

He would need to be cold to do what needed to be done to save his life.

How tragic, he hadn't even reached the middle of his teen years, and already he was expected to perform such tragic tasks.

He stood next to them, and looked at them, "So, is it him?" he asked, though he clearly already knew the answr.

Kushina nodded, "Yes Sochi...it's him, he was here. Within the last few days if the decay is correct." her eyes scanneed the town, which had once been celebrating, "He cannot have gone far, he has to still be in Hi no Kuni, so long as we can find his trail we can track him...and you will be able to kill him." she said with a softer tone.

How cruel, that a mother and father could not do what they could to protect their son, their child, that he should have to bare the burden of taking a life, when they have the power to do so for him.

"Hey, we found somebody!" one of the ANBU yelled, as they heard a loud scuffle.

Kushina, Minato and Naruto sprang into action as they followed the ANBU's voice, the scuffle growing louder, as they heard trash cans fall over.

They turned into an alley, where they found an ANBU holding onto a little girl, who was crying loudly as she kicked at the ANBU, "No, no, don't kill me please!" she screamed, crying as the ANBU tried to restrain her.

"I'm not going to kill you just-"

"Let her go, now!" Minato's voice struck through the ANBU with greater force than a blade could hope to do so.

Without question, he let the girl go, who then ran down the alleyway and hid behind some trash cans, as Kushina walked towards the ANBU, her posture conveying her fury.

"Just what the hell was that?" she demanded as she looked the ANBU up and down, "What made you think that was in any way a good idea?"

The ANBU was clearly nervous, but spoke anyways, "We found her in the alley and-"

"What, you thought terrorizing her would be a good idea?" Kushina snarled as she shoved the ANBU aside, and walked down the alleyway towards the little girl.

Naruto moved to follow her, but Minato placed his hand on his shoulder, "Wait..." Minato ordered, as he watched from afar, "...she knows what she is doing."

Naruto silently looked back at Kushina, as she slowly moved closer to the crying child.

"Hey there...it's ok..." she slowly stepped forward, her voice soft and soothing.

The little girl looked up at her, and trembled, her eyes fearful. She had long dark green toned hair, and blue eyes, her outfit was torn, and she had a hand mark on her shoulder, but what was strange was that the mark had what appeared to be bite marks, very similar to that of Leeches.

Kushina frowned seeing that, knowing full well what it meant. She slowly moved closer, "What's your name?"

The little girl was still fearful, but, her trembling had reduced, and she sniffled, "L-Lum...m-my name is Lum."

Kushina smiled in response, "Lum, what a pretty name." she placed her hand on her chest, "My name is Kushina."

Lum's eyes widened slightly, "K-Kushina...Uzumaki?"

Kushina nodded her head, she knew who she was, "Yes, that's me."

Lum seemed to relax a bit, and slowly move away from the alleyway, as Kushina slowly squatted down, and extended her arms, "It's ok, you are safe now. Nobody is going to hurt you."

Lum began to move forward, only to stop as her eyes darted over to the ANBU who had grabbed her, and her trembling began to return.

Kushina looked back, and frowned at the ANBU. Within seconds, the ANBU had left the alley, leaving Kushina, Minato and Naruto, and a handful of other ANBU.

Lum relaxed a bit, and slowly walked forward, until she was close enough for Kushina to wrap her arms around and pull close. Kushina cooed softly as she rubbed Lums back.

Lum sniffled as she was picked up and brought over to Minato and Naruto.

Minato smiled as he turned to Naruto, "We'll leave these two alone." he looked around, his eyes glancing at one of the bodies...a small boy, likely Lums age, "We need to find Morbus, he can't be far."

"W-who's Morbus?" Lum asked softly, her ears perking up as she zoned in on Minato, her eyes red from crying.

Kushina hugged her softly, "Morbus is the one who did this, we are going to find him and bring him to justice."

Lums eyes went wide at hearing that, "H-he did this…?" she looked at them, and her eyes turned to the corpse that Minato had glanced at, and her body began to tremble, "H-he is the one y-you're after?"

Minato frowned, but nodded his head, "Yes, we aren't sure where he went, but-"

"He went north." Lum said, her voice becoming cold, as her trembling continued, as Kushina felt her hands curl into fists.

Kushina looked down at her, "How do you know?"

Lum's eyes began to dribble with tears, "H-he k-killed my Ataru...a-and he tried to kill me..." she said as she pointed at the body, "He made me watch as he drained him d-dry, h-he then came at me. B-but he couldn't do it...h-he wasn't able to. H-he headed north after that." she began to sob as she clung to Kushina, "H-he killed everyone, b-but he couldn't kill me!" she screamed into Kushina's chest as he sobbed.

Kushina hugged the little girl closer and rubbed her back, as she glanced back up at Minato and Naruto.

Naruto's eyes were hardened, as he looked down at the deceased child...Ataru.

Morbus had taken the lives of all these villagers, sparing only Lum, who likely only survived because he could consume no more.

And now, he was going to kill Morbus, the first of the fifteen lives he would need to take, in order to save his own life.

It was an added bonus avenging the deaths of everyone he had murdered.


AN: Short, I know, but I needed to update it.

To those of you looking for fanfiction, I recommend the following.

-Sympathy for the Devils by Angel Arcano92

-A Simple Mission by Leaf Ranger

-Maelstrom Siblings by Leaf Ranger

-Legacy-Greatcow

-Ataru 10 by brown phantom

-Inuhanyou and the fox jinjuriki by brown phantom

-Bleach of Rencarnation by brown phantom

-Secret Sarutomes by brown phantom