[Naruto's Earth Grudge Fear Chapter 1]

{Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, so please don't sue me}

XXX

Naruto was sitting in the old man's office once again. He usually came here when he was board or lonely as he didn't have any friends and some of villagers would look at his with looks that resembled fear. He didn't know why some of the villagers were scared of him. He didn't do anything scary in his opinion, and he was always polite. The people at the ramen stand were kind, and a good number of people were kind to him, but there were always that one person who looked at him like he might attack at any second.

Naruto came to the old man, because he wanted someone to play with him. The other kids always played some weird games like hide and seek, duck duck goose, and a few others that Naruto thought were pointless. He just could not understand what they thought was so fun about such silly games, but then again Naruto knew he was different because all he wanted to do was learn how to be a real ninja, but all the old man would let him practice was bukijutsu, fuinjutsu, and the academy tiajutsu.

When Naruto got to the old man's office, he was greeted by the man's secretary. She was a kind older woman whose hair was starting to grey, but her eyes were still that sparkling green that spoke of mischief. She usually played with him when she had the time, she was one of the only people Naruto truly acted like a kid his age around, but today she had errands to run and told him the Hokage would be back in a few minutes so he should just wait in his office.

Naruto was eight years old, with shiny sun blond hair that stuck out in every direction making his head look like the sun. He had bright crystal blue eyes that seemed to sparkly when he was excited. He was slightly tan, with three faint lines on each side of his face. He wore a dark blue pair of cargo pants, black ninja sandals, and a black tee shirt, which had the symbol of his clan on the back. The symbol was a circle filled in by a red swirl inside of it, which kind of reminded Naruto of the nine tailed fox's tails he had seen in pictures. Naruto was the last known member of the illustrious Uzumaki clan, and for that he was allowed to stay in the Uzumaki clan compound.

Naruto usually waited for the old man to come back, but today he was just too excited. He would be starting learning how to use jutsu and start real ninja training today, although he would be teaching himself from the scrolls in his clan compound, but still he was very excited. He came to the old man to ask for advice on what he should train in first, so he would not make a mistake, but since the old man was not around Naruto decide to take a look around.

The old man's office was filled with scrolls, paper work, and had a large desk in the center of room. On the wall were four faces. The one on the far right was the fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. Minato was famed for four things. The first thing was the invention of the Rasengan, the panicle of chakra control and shape manipulation. The second was his use of the Flying Thunder God Technique, which let his travel at unheard of speeds, but was limited by the number of kunai with a special seal he invented, and where those kunai were at the time. The third thing was that he destroyed a large portion of Iwa's military force all by himself, which was probably the reason he was made Hokage over the other worthy candidates. The last great thing he did was the defeat of the Kyuubi kitsune, but it was also the reason he died.

The second face to the far right was the old man, Saritobi Hiruzen, the third Hokage, AKA the old man. The old man is the longest running kage to ever hold the title of kage. He is said to of mastered every jutsu in the village, except the ones that require a bloodline to use, or a secret technique that the clans would not let him learn.

The picture next to the third Hokage was the second Hokage. He was the Nidaime, Tobirama Senju. He was responsible for establishing Konoha's organizational system. He established various organizations such as the Academy, the ANBU, the Chūnin Exams, and the Konoha Military Police Force, which was run by the Uchiha clan. He died trying to negotiate a peace treaty with Kumo, but was attacked by the legendary gold and silver brothers which eventually lead to Tobirama's demise, and because of the incident Kumo and Konoha have been at each other's throats ever since. He was also the one who invented the jutsu the fourth Hokage became famous for, The Flying Thunder God Technique.

Then there was the Shodai Hokage. He was responsible for the creation of the hidden villages, bringing together the clans, bringing a more stable peace amongst the elemental nations, and was the only man in history able to tame/defeat all nine of the legendary biju. He was the only person to be born naturally with the Wood release bloodline, which he used to achieve these feats. Sometimes Naruto really wished he had such an awesome ability, but was determined to be great no matter what.

As Naruto was searching through the old man's office looking to find something interesting, his foot got caught on the rung causing his to fall face first into the wall. This caused the picture of the first Hokage to rattle, and fell down, but luckily Naruto had fast reflexes and caught it before it could fall to the ground and become damaged.

"Owwwwww! How am I going to be a great ninja, if I am tripping over rugs" muttered Naruto. As he stood up to put the picture back on the wall, he noticed a small opening in the wall that had a small scroll in it. Curious, Naruto reached in and grabbed the scroll eager to find out what was inside it. He placed the picture of the first Hokage back on the wall, and returned his attention to the scroll he found.

As he read the scroll he became very interested. Apparently a man by the name of Kakuzu had tried to assassinate the first Hokage using a kinjutsu by the name of Earth Grudge Fear. It talked about how the man could create powerful black treads from his body and manipulate them to do all kinds of incredible things. It said he could replace his organs with someone else's too keep his self-alive and healthy. It gave him the ability to use all five of the elements, it increased his overall abilities, and bettered his healing abilities.

Naruto thought this jutsu was amazing, not understanding how dangerous kinjutsu were, and decided that he wanted it. Naruto removed the note that the Shodai had left so he could read the rest of the scroll. It said to gain the ability to use the Earth Grudge Fear one must place their dominate hand over the seal matrix that was positioned at the center of the storage seal and push chakra into his dominate hand before placing his hand on the seal. It had a little caption at the bottom about how the Earth Grudge Fear was a deadly technique, but was potentially lethal to the one trying to obtain it as the threads could kill the one trying to gain its powers.

Of course Naruto being the excited eight year old that he was disregarded the warning, and started to channel his chakra into his right hand. They had unlocked their chakra the first day of class last week, and were taught the basics on how to channel it. As soon as Naruto was sure he had done everything correct he slammed his right hand on the seal, and for a spit second thought nothing was going to happen. That was when thousands of black hair thin string like things shot out of the seal and started to pierce Naruto's skin. Naruto freaked out and started shouting, but no matter what he did, more of the black strings rushed into his body. He could feel them wiggling around inside his body as they were everywhere. He could feel them moving to his head, his fingers, and his legs, everywhere. He continued to scream for help, and try and get away from the threads, but they just kept coming.

An ANBU ninja with a crane mask rushed in, and saw what was happening. He was not like some of the villagers who feared the boy, and knew he was a good kid from watching him during some of his shifts. He instantly went to cut at the strings, but when he did cut threw them, the just re connected themselves, but now the strings where attacking him to keep him away from Naruto. After five minutes of the strings were gone, but if you looked closely enough you could still see them moving under the boy's skin. Acting fast, the crane masked ANBU grabbed Naruto, and rushed him to the hospital, where they took him, and started to try and help him. After the nurses had taken the boy away the ANBU member instantly body flickered to where the Hokage was.

[Four hours later]

"Huughhhh what hit me" asked Naruto, as he tried to sit up, only to be pushed back down by an even wrinkle Hokage. He looked like he was ten years older, but he had a look a happiness in his eyes that told Naruto that he was happy to see him.

"Geeze old man you look like hell" laughed Naruto at the irony of that statement. The Hokage did not miss it as well as he chuckled good naturedly. After the friendly chuckle, his eye turned serious, and Naruto knew he was in trouble.

"Naruto what happened in my office while I was away? Where did you get that scroll, and why did you use it knowing it was a kinjutsu?" asked the Hokage in no nonsense kind of voice.

"Well I was in your office waiting for you to ask if you would give me some pointer so I would know where to start my ninja training, but you were not there, and your secretary had to leave, so I decided to wait in your office. I was so excited that I couldn't sit still, so I started to look around your office, but made sure not to touch anything that could be important like you said. While I was looking around a tripped on your rug, and went face first into the wall right underneath the Shodai's picture. I guess the impact caused it to fall, but I was able to catch it. When I went to put it back on the wall I saw that that scroll was there and started to read through it. It sounded like a really cool ability, and I wanted to be the best ninja in the village, so I decided to use it. I didn't realize it would be so painful or dangerous, so I am glad I was able to get away before it finished." Spoke Naruto, as he explained what had happened. The Hokage had a surprised look on his face, which Naruto figured was because there was a scroll in his office that not even he knew about.

"I think you are misunderstood what had happened to you Naruto-kun. You see you did activate the kinjutsu, and once a kinjutsu starts it is almost impossible to stop. You were already too far in the process of adapting to that kenjutsu to stop, so now you are probably the only person alive who can use the Earth Grudge Fear kinjutsu. Congratulations Naruto." Spoke the Hokage with a twinkle in his eye.

"You mean it really worked?" shouted Naruto, was a look of pure excitement on his face.

"Yes, but I was reading up on the Earth Grudge Fear, and I discovered it will be a while before you can start to use it without harming yourself. You will need to greatly increase your chakra control which will not be easy for you, because you already have such a large amount of chakra for your age. It is good that you're starting to learn chakra control early as it would be hell for you if you waited till you were older. I want you to rest for today, and tomorrow you can leave. If you are good I will give you a couple of scrolls on chakra control exercises, so that you can start your training tomorrow. For now I want your body to get acclimated to having those strange threads living inside of you." Spoke the Hokage, as he stood up, and walked out of the room. "Oh and by the way, I am giving you the scroll that contains the Earth Grudge Fear, but you have to promise me you will not let anyone else use it until you are old enough to make those kinds of decisions" spoke the Hokage. He tossed Naruto the scroll that contained the Earth Grudge Fear, and walked out of the room.

Naruto just smiled at the old man, and waved as he left. He kept looking at the scroll, as he opened and closed his hand around it with a smile on his face. He could already tell he was a little bit stronger, and would only keep getting stronger from here on out. His dream of becoming Hokage, and bring fame and fortune to the Uzumaki clan was that much closer to being realized.

[The Next Day]

Naruto was released from the hospital, and as soon as they let him get out of the wheel chair he rocketed off towards the old man's office. It took about ten minutes, but Naruto had plenty of stamina to burn and wall easily able to make it to the old man's office in half that time. As he walk up to the secretary to ask if the old man was in, she scooped him up into a hug, and told him how worried she was. It took ten more minutes, but he was finally able to convince her that he was fine. Normally he would have been aggravated that someone was keeping him from his training, but he was far too happy that someone cared enough to shed tears for him, so he put up a smile and comforted her until she was better. After that little moment she lead him into the Hokage's office where he was stamping a bunch of papers with a look that said he wanted to burn all of it to ashes.

"Hey old man how it hanging?" asked Naruto, as he sat across from the old man with barely restrained enthusiasm. The Hokage saw this, and was actually happy for a distraction from his paper work.

"Nothing that a trained monkey couldn't do" grumbled the old man, as he sat back in his chair. "So I am guessing you are here to get the scroll I filled with chakra control exercises?" ask the Hokage with a smirk.

"Yes! I cannot wait to start training, so that I can be an awesome ninja like you" spoke Naruto. He knew from watching some of the old man's meeting that compliments could get you anywhere. The old man seemed to realize this if the smirk he was currently wearing was any kind of give away.

"Ok, but I want you to promise me that you will not try and use the Earth Grudge Fear until you have at least mastered water walking" spoke the old man, as he held the scroll just out of Naruto's reach. Naruto grumbled about the stipulation, but finally conceded.

"Alright old man you got a deal, now give me the scroll I am dying over hear" shouted Naruto. The Hokage laughed at his plight, but tossed Naruto the scroll anyways. As soon as the scroll made contact with Naruto's hands, he and the scroll disappeared. If the Hokage didn't know any better he would have figured Naruto had just used the Flying Thunder God Technique to leave his office.

[With Naruto]

Naruto was running at the speed of a low chunin towards his favorite training spot. Naruto had been teaching himself how to throw kunai, shuriken, and senbon since he was six years old by using his clan's scrolls. It was slow at first, but it didn't take him long to figure it out. After that he just needed to get used to it. Now though Naruto would be starting to learn something to do with chakra, and he was very excited.

When Naruto finally got to his secret training ground, he sat in the center of it. It was perfect in Naruto's opinion. There were thick trees that formed a semi-circle around a small clearing covered by soft green grass, and white clover flowers. It was connected to a good sized pound that was also surrounded by thick trees. Naruto figured he was the only person who know of this place, and he was plenty fine with that.

He opened up the scroll the old man gave him and began to read. There were a couple of chakra control techniques. There was how to activate your chakra, then the leaf balancing exercise, followed by tree walking, which was the exercise before water walking, and finally kunai spinning, before you get into some seriously crazy stuff. Naruto rolled up the scroll and placed it on the ground beside a tree. He hadn't mastered the leaf floating exercise at school yet, which aggravated him because he really wanted to learn how to walk up trees, but the old man's lessons rang in his head about how the basics were very important, and that if you skip steps it is bound to haunt you in the future. With those things in mind he reluctantly decided to master the leaf balancing exercise first.

He picked up a leaf that had recently fall, and placed it on his head while using his chakra to make it stick. Naruto was told that the longer he could hold it there the better, and after the ten minute marker you were considered adequate at it. Naruto wanted to be the best, so he figured he would need great chakra control. His mission was to be able to keep the leaf on his head for at least one whole hour.

For the next two weeks Naruto practiced the leaf balancing exercise constantly. He would run for an hour a day, do some light exercises, read about some basic seals at his compound for a while, and followed by an hour of bukijutsu (Weapon techniques) practice. Naruto made sure his skills with the kunai, shuriken, senbon, and the katana did not get rusty as he practiced mastering is chakra control.

After Naruto was successfully able to keep the leaf connected to his head for a solid hour he moved on to the next technique, tree walking. It was much more difficult than the leaf balancing technique because he not only had to channel chakra to the bottom of his feet, which was the hardest place in the human body to channel chakra, but also had to make sure that he sent the appropriate amount of chakra so that he did not fall off of the tree.

It took about the same amount of time to perfect the tree walking technique as it did the leaf floating technique, but another two additional weeks to master tree walking while throwing kunai. Naruto figured that combining chakra control and bukijutsu training together could only help in the long run. He fell out of the trees while practicing 'tree combat' as he called it more times than he could count, but thanks to his lighting fast reflexes was always able to catch himself before he came to any serious damage.

When he finally believed he was ready to move up to the next level, Naruto went to his own private pond. It was a good sized and very deep. Naruto wondered how many people caught colds from practicing this, but knew he wouldn't since he had never been sick before. It only took a week to learn the water walking technique, but an additional two to be able to jump up and down on the water without falling through. Then there was the fact that he would try and mix in bukijutsu by throwing kunai at targets set up around the lake. Some of the targets were in plain view, while others were only barely sticking out. Naruto was proud of himself for how far he had come.

'Ok I kept my end of the deal, now I can finally start practicing using my Earth Grudge Fear' thought Naruto, as he sat down in a meditative position.

He slowly started to feel out his chakra, and then used it to connect to the countless threads that were now a part of his body. He could already control the threads somewhat when he first got them, but now he could literally will them to do his bidding. At first he just got use to moving them, and having one or two threads poke out of his skin. It was weird watching it, but Naruto also thought it was cool. He started to twist the threads into a thin rope, willed it to pull back, and then willed it once more to slash at the tree in front of him. He was amazed at how deep the slash mark made.

"Oh yes totally worth the pain for getting such an amazing power" spoke Naruto as he continued to training how to manipulate the black treads.

For nearly two years Naruto continued to train himself, as well as to push himself to the limits. He was already really skilled at making seals, and could not wait to learn how to use the seals his family made for the lord of the Hōzukijō castle to keep the prisoners in line. It was too bad that his natural affinity was for wind and not fire, so he knew he would have to wait to learn how to use them.

He practiced multiple forms of bukijutsu every day so that his skills would always stay sharp. So far he could honestly say he was the best at throwing weapons in his entire school, even better than the chunin that worked there. He always carried a light brown wood handle, wood sheath, and no guard wakizashi on his belt behind his back. He was very skilled using it, but was too short to use a full sized katana so he settled for something that would work almost as good until he was big enough to use a full sized katana. He used an Uzumaki clan kenjutsu style that was unique to the Uzumaki clan. The style was called the Dance of the Wind Goddess, as it was fast, graceful, precise, and looked like a deadly dance.

A year ago he learned that he had a wind release affinity, which was odd since it was such a rare affinity to have for some living in fire country, but he attributed that to the fact that his mother hadn't been born in Fire Country but in Uzushiogakure. Naruto knew that when he started doing real missions he would be able to collect the hearts from fallen ninja and in turn their elemental affinities. He was absolutely giddy thinking about mastering all five elements. It only took one year to truly master his wind release, and he used a few months to master a few useful wind techniques. The most useful wind technique that he learned was the Flying Swallow Technique which increased all of his bukijutsu skills, as well as his Earth Grudge Fear attacks.

After searching through the Uzumaki clan library Naruto found a scroll depicting a tiajutsu style that the lord of Hōzukijō castle had sent them as a thank you present for making the Heavenly Prison Techniques. It was called Grass Shadow Style, and from what Naruto read it was really good. It used fast compact attacks, quick agile reversals/locks, and a powerful defensive stance. Naruto has spent the last year practicing it, and he could honestly say he was pretty good, but without experience or anyone to practice with he could only get so good.

He didn't have any luck performing genjutsu. He asked the old man Hokage about that, and he explained that even though he had good chakra control for someone with Naruto's chakra reserve, but for him to be able to use even intermediate level genjutsu Naruto would have to have nearly perfect chakra control. Naruto was depressed when he heard that, but settled for mastering the Genjutsu Release Technique to make sure he did not fall prey to a master genjutsu user. He did have some ideas on how to get around his handicap, but that would have to wait till later. Still without someone to actually put a genjutsu on Naruto all of his training was more theoretical than anything else.

Now Naruto was off to the academy for his final year at the academy. He didn't see the point in going as it was all a bunch of bs in his opinion, but that would change when he became the Fifth Fire Shadow. He knew the old man was slowly dying inside, metaphorically speaking, having to deal with all the woes of the people, the power hungry council, the giant stacks of paper work, and the winy clan heads. He knew the old man only had about another six more years in him before he would not be able to take it, which was perfect for him, as it would give him time to get powerful, renowned, and experience. He would be the Fifth Fire Shadow at fifteen, youngest ever, and prove himself as the greatest kage ever thus elevating the Uzumaki clan in the eyes of the world. He would honor his ancestor's sacrifice in the second shinobi war by becoming the bane of the countries that destroyed his ancestral home.

The only problem Naruto was having was the old man would not let him take the heart of a prisoner with a fire release. He wanted to try out the Organ Assimilation Technique of the Earth Grudge Fear, but the old man had been putting him out. He wanted a fire release heart so that he would be able to use fire release techniques to their fullest, but the old man kept dodging the subject. Well not today, he was about to march in there and tell the Hokage what's what.

"Hello Naruto-kun how are you today?" asked the Hokage's assistant in her ever friendly manner. Naruto really liked her; she was almost like a sister trying to make up for lost time, or a very loving aunt.

"Hello, I am here to see the old man. Is he in today?" asked Naruto. He always showed respect as it would make becoming Hokage easier if people liked him, but when he spoke to her his words were softer more genuine and she just knew he meant all of the kind things he said to her.

"I am sorry Naruto-kun, but the Hokage is down in Torcher and Interrogation today. A spy was caught and I seams he just won't crack. I heard that neither Anko nor Ibiki could get him to crack." Spoke the secretary.

That shocked Naruto. He had heard of the masterful skill Ibiki had with interrogation prisoners and Anko Mitarashi was not far behind him in terms of skill, although he had heard her methods were far more sadistic.

"Ok well I need to talk to him, so even if he was peeping like he said his student did I would still go talk to him." Spoke Naruto with confidence.

"Oh you're really pumped up today aren't you? Going to try and corner the Hokage again and make him let you take one of the prisoners hearts for you collection" laughed the secretary. She was disturbed at first when he explained to her all that his kinjutsu could do, but over time she got over her shock, and after seeing it in action she could see how practical it was. She found it funny that every day he would come here to argue with the Hokage only to be bribed with something else like a new jutsu, or something else. She remembered when he mastered his wind release the Hokage gave him an B ranked wind release jutsu. He was so excited he completely forgot why he was there and rushed off the learn how to use it. She didn't see him for a whole week, which depressed her, but when he did finally come back he had swag in his step and she just knew he had mastered it.

"Yeap and he won't get away from me this time!" shouted Naruto as he ran towards the T&I building.

[20 Minutes Later]

Naruto was walking through the T&I building getting funny looks from the ninja with the animal masks, but they didn't say anything to him. After a few minutes Naruto was directed to a room that had four people in it. The first person was the Third Hokage with a serious look on his face; the second was a man with a bandana on his head, big black trench coat on, and scars all over his face. The third person in the room was an attractive woman with a mesh body suit on, thick grey trench coat, an orange skirt, with combat boots on. She had a pineapple shaped hair style and the color of her hair was a bright purple color. The last guy was tied to a chair, and looked worse for wear. He was a dark skinned man, which meant he was probably from Kumo, with fresh cuts on his body, was soaked to the bone, and looked like he had been starved hear recently.

"HEY OLD MAN I NEED TO TALK TO YOU!" shouted Naruto with a grin on his face. Everybody, including the beaten to hell and back Kumo ninja, looked at him in shock.

"Naruto-kun what are you doing here?" demanded the Hokage already dreading what he was about to say.

"You have been avoiding my request, so don't think hiding down hear with our foreign buddies is going to hide you from me. As you know I am a natural born tracker" Grinned Naruto.

"Naruto please let's not do this now" spoke the Hokage looking like he was hoping to avoid this conversation.

"Nope, you promised that you would let me use my kinjutsu as soon as I mastered water walking, but you have been avoiding letting me use 'that' ability." Spoke Naruto as he crossed his arms in front of his body.

"Sigh ok Naruto you can use it on this guy just as soon as we get all the information out of him as we can." Spoke the Hokage with a tired look on his face.

"Is that all? Why didn't you say so, I'll have this idiot singing in no time." Spoke Naruto. Anko looked like she was about to say something snappy, but stopped when she saw thin black thread starting to come out of the kids skin. The threads traveled to the struggling Kumo ninja, but he stopped struggling as soon as the threads entered his brain. Naruto had a theory that he could use the Earth Grudge Fear to manipulate the brain if he did it right. After a few minutes he found were his brain stored the memories and instantly Naruto started to see the things that this guy had seen. He found who he was, that he had the scorch release bloodline which was a combination of wind and fire, and why he was spying on Konoha.

"He was here to scout out the Hyuga clan compound. Kumo is planning on kidnapping one of the unmarked Hyuga children while we signed a peace treaty with them. This would make it impossible to go to war with them, get the unmarked Hyuga back, and basically protect Kumo from any possible reproductions for their actions." Spoke Naruto, as the black threads started to retract back into his skin.

Every was gasping at what Naruto had just said. Ibiki was amazed at the potential the Earth Grudge Fear had with interrogation as was Anko, but they were all surprised at what Kumo was planning on doing. Before anyone could react, Naruto shout out many of the dark threads that inhabited his body into the Kumo ninja's chest, and then using the strings removed the man's heart. He used the black threads to open a hole in his chest to allow the new heart to enter, and used those same black threads to stich himself back up. Thanks to his healing capabilities, Naruto healed without even the faintest of scars.

Looking back at the adults who had looks of shock on their faces, Naruto said "well I got what I wanted, so I will catch you later old man, scar face, pineapple head." After saying his good byes Naruto ran off to test out his now natural fire release affinity.

"Well that was surprising." Spoke Ibiki, as he watched the kid run away with a smile on his face like he just won the lottery.

"Very." Spoke the Hokage, as he walked off contemplating how he was going to make sure Kumo didn't get an unmarked Hyuga child.

"I think I am in love." Spoke a very stunned Anko, which promptly made the Hokage and Ibiki do a double take.

'Oh poor Naruto-kun/gaki. You have a very deadly snake after you, so you better watch out' thought Ibiki and the Hokage, as the felt sorry for the young blond.