An: Good day to all of you. This is my newest work, Naruto: Dark Empire. Like I say in all my work, leave a review at the end and I might reply to you in the next chapter. Now one more thing. This fic is a challenge option issued by Challenger. If you are interested in taking up a challenge option, my advice is to take a look at his profile, as he has a large variety of options, and I will likely be taking more of them after completing some of my other works. Now please enjoy the first chapter of my newest work.

To Become A Monster

Naruto sobbed as he sat atop of his one safe place, having been ignored by his parents so that they could train his sister Naruko, who they claimed to be the Child of Prophecy. Ever since the night of the Kyubi attack when the Sandaime Hokage had sacrificed himself to seal the giant fox inside of his sister, his father and mother doted on the girl, always saying that she needed to be ready for the decisive days when she would change the world. This led to Naruto being ignored by not only his parents but by just about everyone. A few hours earlier he had gone to his father and asked if he would help him with his academy jutsu practice, but the older blonde had told him no, saying that he was going to be taking Naruko out to train and work on some more jutsu. His mother had also said that she would be going with and just brushed off Naruto.

"Why do they always ignore me..." he sobbed.

"Who does?" a voice asked from behind him. Jumping Naruto turned to see a person standing there wearing all black, with an orange mask with only a single eye opening on the left side of the mask.

"My parents..." Naruto stated cautiously. The person nodded as he walked over and sat next to the blonde.

"I see. You're Naruto aren't you?" he asked, causing him to nod "I know about you. I've been keeping an eye on the Yondaime for some time now, and I see how he and Kushina treat you. It isn't fair is it?"

"No... Why do they always pay attention to Naruko?"

"Because they have made a mistake in thinking that she will one day change the world." the man replied "But I think they are wrong."

"You do?"

"Yes. I think that you are the special one. You don't have any of those gifts that she does, yet you work so hard and try your best in everything. That is something special that should be embraced by everyone, not ignored for some girl that has a demon inside of her."

"What demon?" Naruto asked. The man then told him about the attack of the Kyubi and how Naruko was the one to have the demon sealed inside of her.

"But just because she has some extra help doesn't mean that she is the Child of Prophecy." the man stated.

"I guess..." Naruto muttered.

"Tell me Naruto, do you know the story of the wolves and fox?" he asked.

"No."

"The story goes that there was a small and clever fox that got trapped by a pack of big strong wolves. These wolves made the fox hunt for them and bring them food, making them start to get lazy while the fox got stronger and stronger. It took some time but soon the fox was able to escape from the wolves that had gotten fat and lazy while the fox was now strong and fast. The moral of the story is that if you work hard you can do anything."

"Wow... I want to be like that fox." Naruto smiled.

"Maybe you can be Little Fox. Tomorrow is the festival for the Kyubi's defeat and the birthday party for your sister right?"

"Yeah it is..." Naruto nodded.

"Come back here tomorrow night, and I will help you escape this den of wolves." the man promised "Come back here tomorrow and I will help you get strong. Come back here tomorrow and I will care for you from now on."

Naruto started to smile and nodded his agreement "Ok. I'll be back tomorrow night... um..."

"Tobi." Tobi nodded as the blonde nodded his agreement and ran off from the top of the monument back to his home while Tobi watched, knowing that what had just set in motion would change the entire world. That night Naruto began his packing, getting what gear he was going to need in order to leave and make sure that he would be able to survive. As he planned he decided that since he was leaving he might as well take something useful from his parents, as a final way of sticking his nose up at them for the way they had treated him.

The next day his parents and his sister went out to do some shopping for the party, leaving Naruto alone just like he had wanted. He soon had the lock picked on the family library and grabbed the Scroll of Sealing that Minato had made and only let Kushina and Naruko look at. Naruto however had watched his father go into the scroll countless times and made sure to disable the security seal on it and then placed it by his pack. He then went to the armory where he started taking several of the weapons, including his mother's sword Aka rippā(Red Ripper) and making sure to remove his father's Hiraishin seal from all of the items. Once he was packed he waited until dusk when the party was in full swing and he was sure no one would notice him missing. Naruto slipped away into the darkness with the only one noticing that he had left at all was a young heiress to the Hyuga clan.

"There you are." Tobi stated as he saw Naruto approach, carrying a large pack with various items including a large scroll and a blood red katana "I see you brought some things."

"Just some stuff to help make me stronger or to live with." Naruto replied with a large grin. Tobi nodded and motioned for Naruto to follow him as they started to walk. By the time Tobi agreed to stop it was dawn and they were quite the distance away from Konohagakure no Sato.

"Now I'm going to tell you a few things while we rest." Tobi began as Naruto nodded "What we are going to do is head for a group of people that I have been gathering called the Akatsuki. There we can start training you and make you stronger."

"Are the Akatsuki strong?" Naruto asked.

"All of them are S rank." Tobi promised "And one of them has eyes that were once the same eyes that the Rikudo Sennin had." Naruto's eyes widened at this and he waited for Tobi to continue "We have plenty of very strong people that will train you and this way you will never be looked down on by anyone."

Naruto had stars in his eyes as he listened to Tobi and soon his masked friend told him it was time to get going again.

It was several hours past dawn when Minato finally noticed that Naruto was missing.

"Kushina? Have you seen Naruto?" he shouted.

"No!" she shouted back "I haven't seen him since last night!"

Minato frowned at this. He didn't spend much time with the blonde, but he always at least saw his son at some point during the day. He walked up to his room and opened the door to see that the bed was made and that there was very little sign that he was ever in this room. Minato searched around the house for Naruto but after not finding him he decided that he must have gone over to a friends house. A few hours later he went to the library to look through his scroll and decide what to work on next with Naruko when he saw that it was gone.

"Kushina!" he shouted as he found his wife "Someone has taken the Scroll of Sealing!"

Kushina's eyes widened at this and they next went to the armory where they found that Aka rippā was gone as well. They soon had an ANBU squad searching the village for the possible perpatrator and any sign as to where the items had gone, but to no avail. That night they realized that Naruto was gone as well. They searched for him through out the village but found that there was no sign of him. Minato had no choice then but to gather the ANBU and have them spread the search beyond Konoha's borders.

"Search the area, the entire border of Hi no Kuni. Find Naruto and bring him back. He may have been kidnapped by an enemy village. Odds are that they also took the items that we have found missing from my household as well." Minato ordered.

"Hai Hokaga-sama!" The ANBU nodded as disappeared. However by this time Naruto and Tobi were already over the border and entering Ame no Kuni.

The blonde was shocked by the constant rain that the country had and was shocked at how much water there was. Soon Tobi led him to a group of three people, one was a man with orange hair and black piercings sticking out of his face. His eyes were purple ripples and he seemed odd to Naruto. The next was a blue haired woman who had an origami flower in her hair and looked at Naruto cautiously. The last was the most unusual of the three. He looked like he was being eaten by a venus flytrap and his body was half white and the other half black. The Black half had a completely yellow eye and no mouth while the white one had a green eye and a visible mouth.

"Naruto, meet the people that will be helping to look after you while I am away." Tobi explained "The orange haired man is the vessel for the true man with the Rinnegan, Nagato." the man nodded calmly "The young lady is his friend Konan. And the last is Zetsu, a literal split personality."

"Cool." Naruto grinned as Zetsu just chuckled, in two different voices.

"Why have you brought him here Tobi?" Konan asked.

"He is going to be a valuable assest one day. This is the true Child of Prophecy." Tobi replied.

"Is he now?" Nagato asked calmly "What makes you so sure."

"Call it a hunch." Tobi replied "Like my hunch about how things would play out here a long time ago."

Nagato simply nodded and Zetsu spoke up.

"So what can he do?" the white one asked.

"Is he strong?" the black half continued.

"He has potential, and he brought with him some very interesting items." Tobi smirked as Naruto set down the scroll and the katana.

"Those are items from Konohagakure." Konan noted "They belonged to the Hokage and his wife."

"And he is their ignored son." Tobi replied.

"I see. Then you are Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze. A distant relation." Nagato noted "I too am from the Uzumaki clan."

"So we're related?" Naruto asked with a grin.

"We are. I will help you train and be strong as well cousin." Nagato promised.

"I will too." Konan smiled as she looked at him "He will be quite powerful when he gets older."

"I guess I can help too."

"Of course we will help."

"Excellent. Now Naruto, you need to do what they say. I have important things to do and people to recruit. Nagato, get Kisame to help him learn kenjutsu, might as well help him learn to use what he took." Tobi ordered.

"I will inform him." Nagato nodded as Tobi looked at Naruto.

"Now you be a good boy for them and I will see you again soon." Tobi promised.

"Ok." Naruto nodded as Tobi turned and left while Konan kneeled next to him, placing a comforting hand on his sholder.

"Come on, you must be exhausted. Let's find you a room and you can get some sleep. Tomorrow we will see what you can do and help you be strong." Konan promised.

"Right." Naruto grinned as he followed the three into Ame. The next day Nagato and Konan took Naruto to a training ground where they had him do various exercises and had him perform every jutsu that he had learned. It wasn't much but he proved to be at the average level.

"We have a lot of work to do." Nagato stated as he took out a scroll and handed it to Naruto "I want you to learn a jutsu from here every month. The first few are easy, but they get progressivly harder. Also, since you can not seem to use a standard Bunshin I want you to go into the Scroll of Sealing and learn the Kage Bunshin. This will serve multiple purposes."

"Got it Nagato-sensei." Naruto nodded.

"Ok Naruto. I'm going to be helping you learn the knowledge aspect of being a shinobi." Konan explained "Because you can't just be all brawn with no brains."

"Right." Naruto nodded as Konan had him sit while she started with various practical aspects of being a shinobi and different bits of knowledge that he would need. Naruto found that his was rather difficult for him at times, but Konan was a patient teacher and wouldn't move on to the next subject until he had learned what she had wanted him to. Once they finished they stood up and saw that there was a blue skinned man approaching that looked like a shark, carrying a massive bandaged up sword on his back, along with two practice swords.

"So this is the brat that he wants me to train?" he asked.

"This is him." Nagato nodded "Naruto, this is Kisame, your kenjutsu instructor."

"Nice to meet you." Naruto bowed.

"Yeah yeah." Kisame chuckled as he tossed him the practice blade "Let's see what you got."

Naruto held the blade like he had seen his mother hold it when teaching Naruko and moved forward, swinging the blade at Kisame who blocked it easily enough but let Naruto continue the barrage of attacks and smirked that someone who had only seen this much and had never actually done any training himself could do this well. It was a few moments before Kisame blocked another swing and then stepped forward and disarmed Naruto with a smirk.

"You got some talent, and you seem to have watched some good people. But here is where I start pushing you to the point where you could eventually become a swordsman of my caliber." Kisame chuckled as Naruto felt very worried. The rest of the afternoon was spent working with Kisame who worked Naruto to the bone, straight to the point where he couldn't walk and Konan had to carry him back to his room, where she laid him down on the bed and made sure that he ate some soup that she had brought to him.

"Is this what it's going to be like every day?" Naruto asked.

"At first." Konan nodded "But things will get better."

"Really?" Naruto asked.

"Yes. Soon you won't be so tired after training and will be able to walk back on your own, and the training will get tougher and tougher. Soon you will be a force to be reckoned with, once you manage to complete your training." Konan smiled. Naruto only grinned as he ate some more before falling asleep. Konan only smiled as she tucked him in and walked out, letting the blonde rest.

Back in Konoha, Minato was worried about Naruto. He had recieved various reports from ANBU that Naruto was nowhere to be found and that they couldn't seem to locate him at all. What was worse was that they were no closer to figuring out which direction that he had gone in, or where those valuable items had gone to either. Minato sighed as he read through another note and then walked out of the room, only to find Jiraiya waiting for him.

"Minato." he stated.

"Jiraiya-sensei." Minato sighed.

"I heard Naruto is missing." Jiraiya stated bluntly.

"He is. I don't know where he went to." Minato explained.

"And how is that possible. He's your son!" Jiraiya exclaimed, shocking Minato "You should be looking after him!"

"I do!" Minato shouted back.

"Is that so? Then how is it that a five year old boy managed to take both the Scroll of Sealing, and Aka rippā, and manage to slip away without so much as a trace?!" Jiraiya asked.

"He must have been taken." Minato stated.

"By who? Kiri? They are to busy fighting themselves to do that. Kumo? They haven't tried anything since you made it perfectly clear that another kidnapping would end with another war. Iwa? They're too terrified of you to even enter Hi no Kuni half the time. Suna? They would more likely kill the boy and leave him as a message to you. Some other small country? They would have left a ransom." Jiraiya listed off "It's more likely that he ran off while you focused so much on Naruko." Minato blinked at this and was about to respond when Jiraiya cut him off "I've been back for a few days now and I've seen how you treat Naruto. You completely ignore him so you can train your daughter. It sickens me to see the way you treated your son, the way you ignored the boy you named after the character from my first book. You have disappointed me Minato."

Minato now looked down in shame as he realized the truth of his teacher's words. He had focused so much on Naruko, thinking that she was the Child of Destiny, but he had neglected Naruto and now it was possible that he would be unable to remedy that mistake.

"Do you know what has happened to him?" Minato asked.

"No I don't." Jiraiya sighed "I went to meet an informant that night and wasn't around for the party. But that is obviously when Naruto slipped away. Ask around and see who noticed him leave. You might get a lead from there."

Minato nodded at this and soon had his ANBU going to all the party guests to try and find out what had happened the night of the party. It didn't take long to find out that Hinata had seen Naruto leave, heading towards the Hokage Monument, and he soon had a tracking team up there, searching for him. They managed to find his scent and another person's as well and they were soon following the trail, all the way to the border where Naruto had crossed and was now beyond Minato's reach.

"I have failed..." Minato sighed. They were soon heading back to the village where Minato would now have to tell his wife that their son had left the country and was gods knew where, with gods knew who. For all they knew he might be dead. Minato felt shame at his actions and knew that Kushina would as well, knowing that they had driven their only son to run off.

A year later and Naruto was now standing at the level of a genin, having trained dilligently over the months, working hard to master all of the techniques that Nagato had given him. Konan had also drilled more knowledge into him so he could now state different facts about different countries with ease, along with various facts about the wars and important figures from various villages histories. Zetsu had taught Naruto about how to survive in the wilderness and the better aspects of espionage, teaching the young blonde to be a sneaky bastard and learn all that his enemies did before they learned anything about him. Kisame had kept up with the kenjutsu training and now Naruto could last a few minutes in a spar against the older nin, while still being able to walk back to his room. During this time there had been two new members joining. Kakuzu, a man that had taken interest in the blonde and helped him with his ninjutsu practice and even helped him work on his chakra control. The other was Sasori, who looked like a young boy and started teaching Naruto about poisons and puppets.

"Sasori-sensie, I'm not very good at this." Naruto complained as he tried to work the puppet Sasori had given him.

"It's fine. This is a complex skill. It requires great amounts of chakra control and lots of patience. However this is also good for chakra control and teaching you how the different puppets work so you can handle a fight against any puppet master from my former village." Sasori explained as he had Naruto continue his work. During this year Naruto had seen Tobi several times and he always brought back a gift for the blonde, giving him sweets sometimes, or new kunai and shurikens. At the moment the masked man said he was going to be away for a time while he settled some unfinished business in Konohagakure. Naruto was worried about his friend but was certain that Tobi would be fine. It wasn't long before another person joined their group, this one recruited by Nagato.

"Kukuku. So you're Naruto-kun." Orochimaru laughed as he saw the blonde working on his water walking exercise.

"Yeah. Who're you?" Naruto asked, gripping a kunai.

"My name is Orochimaru. I am a new member of the Akatsuki. Leader-sama said that it would be in my best interest to train you." Orochimaru chuckled as he looked at the blonde and could easily tell his parentage "I too used to live in Konohagakure no Sato."

"Why'd you leave?" Naruto asked.

"I was wronged. I was denied the title of the Yondaime Hokage, given to your father instead. Then my former teacher had the nerve to run me out while I worked on experiments to make one stronger."

"Stronger?" Naruto asked with a grin. Now Orochimaru had to grin as he realized that he had hooked the blonde and could now begin his experiments anew.

"Yes. Perhaps you might be interested in this?" Orochimaru asked.

"Yeah." Naruto nodded as Orochimaru motioned for the blonde to follow him so that they could begin. Naruto's screams ripped through the Akatsuki base, shocking both Konan and Nagato who had all of his bodies heading for the source. They found Orochimaru's room and the blonde strapped to a table while being injected by something.

"Orochimaru!" Konan shouted as she sent a storm of paper to seperate the man from the young shinobi "What do you think you are doing?!"

"Helping him." Orochimaru chuckled "He agreed to this experiment."

"Did he?" Nagato's Deva body asked with a glare.

"He did." Orochimaru promised "When the serum is done feel free to ask him."

It took several minutes but finally the serum stopped and Naruto ceased screaming in pain. When he opened his eyes they had changed from the cerulean orbs to red iris's with the whites now black. Konan gasped at the change and Naruto looked at her and smiled.

"It's ok Konan-sensei. Orochimaru helped me get stronger." Naruto chuckled as Konan got him down.

"What have you done?" Nagato asked Orochimaru.

"A new serum. This one brings out the latent potential in the person, unleashing their full strength. However I have had to add another serum that will help heal the person since this much power would shorten the lifespan and I am certain that Naruto would like to live for some time." Orochimaru chuckled "I have various other serums as well that I am sure that Naruto might be interested in."

"I need time to recover." Naruto replied "But I want more."

Konan and Nagato traded looks but knew that the blonde would not be denied. Konan then took Naruto back to his quarters where he would rest while Konan and Nagato informed Tobi about what had occured.

In Konohagakure Minato had thrown himself into his work, his way of trying to avoid the guilt. He had never stopped looking for Naruto, and any time that a foreign diplomat gave them a mission he informed the team to keep an eye out for his son. So far there had been no word of Naruto and this was more cause for concern. Kushina had taken on the full time role of training Naruko, having her work harder then her entire class and trying to forget about Naruto as well.

"Come on Naruko. You need to move faster then that." Kushina chided the young blonde girl.

"I am trying." she panted as they started again "I'm only human."

"You have to be more then that." Kushina reminded her "You need to be the best you can possibly be."

Naruko only sighed at this and they began going again. Naruko silently blamed Naruto for the recent change in her parents and she hoped that he was dead for this. She hated him for not having this grueling training thrust upon him and being trained night and day. Worst she hated him for being able to leave and do what he wanted.

A week later news reached Minato that the entire Uchiha clan had been murdered by Itachi. Minato had known that there was trouble brewing with the clan and Danzo had warned him that there might be a revolt if things didn't calm down soon. Minato had spoken with Fukaku several times and the clan head had agreed that it would not be in the best interest of the village if things didn't settle down, but the hotheads in the Uchiha clan wouldn't seem to listen. Now it seems that Itachi had snapped and killed all of the except his brother Sasuke, who Minato now had under watch, to make sure he didn't hurt himself or someone tried to finish the job that Itachi had started.

Tobi and Itachi soon arrived in the Akatsuki and found Naruto had undergone quite the change. The blonde had grown several inches, his eyes had changed and he was far stronger then Tobi remembered him being before they left. The blonde was currently sparring with Kisame and was holding his own quite well, given the fact that Kisame wasn't going all out against the blonde.

"Nagato, what happened?" Tobi asked.

"Orochimaru performed experiments on Naruto." Nagato stated "Naruto wanted them done, and he has changed signifigantly. His chakra control has stablized, and his reserves are as great as my own. His taijutsu skills are increasing and I have both myself and Kisame sparring against him regularly, though he is now roughly equal to a chunin in ability. His ninjutsu skills have skyrocketed as well. He is mastering ninjutsu left and right and Kakuzu and I are both running out of ninjutsu to teach him. It appears that his primary affinity is for Wind, but he can use the other elements easy enough to the point where you can barely tell the difference. Genjutsu just slides right off of him, and his kenjutsu is at the point where Kisame has to take him seriously sometimes to beat him."

Tobi blinked his one eye at the status report and reminded himself to thank Orochimaru for his. Naruto's progress shocked him but now that he had Itachi here he was certain that he could increase the blondes training regiment twofold at least.

"Keep an eye on him. And work him harder. I want him to be far stronger by this time next year." Tobi ordered.

"For what purpose?" Nagato asked.

"The village ignored the Child of Prophecy. I am simply turning that child into a monter to destroy the world." Tobi replied calmly as he walked away.