A/N: Hey guys, welcome to the new chapter of Kid of the Hunt.There actually isn't much to say now, so enjoy the new chapter and feel free to comment.

It hadn't been a few hours since their big fight with the possessed Naruto. No one of the Desert Hunt present could understand what was going on.

Karin, Temari and Gaara stayed in hospital to watch over the still unconscious Kankuro. His injury itself was nothing too serious, but he did lose a lot of blood and had to be taken care of quickly.

"Kankuro, what happened?", Deidara yelled, running in with Utakata just after they finished their little contract. He rushed to side of the bes and looked at the unconscious boy.

"It..it was Naruto. No, it was something else. His swords seemed to be possessed by some kind of demon, and it took over his body.", Karin explained, her eyes not leaving Kankuro.

Both Deidara and Kankuro looked shocked and confused. Naruto, possessed, did something like this?

"So he has another demon besides the Kyuubi inside if him?", Utakata asked. "Do you know who or what exactly he is?"

Karin shook her head. "No. I caught up on some reading about Ninja history, and there were haunted weapons back then too, but not quite as much as this one."

"Well, what are we waiting for? We have to go out and search for Naruto, so we can find out how to undo this!", Deidara yelled.

"He left.", Temari told him. "He was able to use some sword of esacpe tactic, he flew into the dunes and was gone immediately."

"At least, whoever this demon is", Gaara started," he isn't in control of the Kyuubi anymore. Jiraiya-sama from Konoha fortunately made sure of that."

"But still, that guy can pack quite a punch.", Kankuro groaned, his eyes opening for the first time in hours.

"Kankuro!", Karin yelled and hugged him, while Temari and Gaara visibly relaxed as well.

The puppet user blushed slightly from the hug, but shrugged it off quickly. "Deidara is right. We have to find him, and this time, we'll save him."

The Uzumaki looked him into the eyes to ask him if he was crazy to say that after he lost so much blood, but only saw steely determination and guilt in his eyes.

"Do we have any clues were he could've went?", Utakata asked.

"Well, this Rhaast or whatever his name was seemed very determined to kill the Hokage Danzo. He said since he was the leader of the strongest village everyone would fear him if he killed Danzo.", Kankuro replied, his voice still a bit sore. He drank the orange juice and ate the cookies he apparently got from the nurse to regain his blood again.

"But wasn't Naruto very determined to kill him too?", Karin asked. "Maybe there is some sort if connection to what the demon wants and what Naruto wants?"

"That sounds more probable than you realize."

The group turned around to see the Toad Sage, Jiraiya, sit there in the window, watching the group from a bit further away. Even though Naruto never really spoke ill of the Sannin, especially Karin and Kankuro were on edge with Konoha-nin around.

"How would you know?", Gaara asked slowly and collected.

"Because of him.", Jiraiya told, pointing to Kankuro.

"I saw it when I sealed the Kyuubi's chakra. The moment he sliced you with his sword, the demon faltered. I saw him look at you very closely and then shake his head frantically, as if he was trying to get something out of his head."

"Naruto sometimes seemed to hear voices, he gripped his head and shook it as well. He didn't want to press the matter, but I'm pretty sure it was Rhaast.", Karin told. "So wait, you think..."

"If this Rhaast was able to manipulate Naruto, maybe Naruto is abke to manipulate Rhaast noe as well.", Jiraiya concluded.

"Isn't this a bit farfetched? We have no guarantee that that's true, and if we rely only on this, we might run into a bigger mess next time.", Temari countered.

"No, this sounds fairly reasonable.", Utakata objected. "It is a similar concept to the Bijuu. Entities which inhabit your mind, your body and your soul. Since you always spend time with something sealed inside of you, it is normal that your personalities rub off on each other."

"Correct.", Gaara agreed. "We all noticed how Naruto was far more agressive in everything he did, which went even beyond his hate for Konoha."

Jiraiya really tried to not look saddened by that fact.

"So it is clear that this demons rage rubbed off on Naruto when he tapped into more of his power, just how you are naturally more agressive when a Bijuu lends you its powers. As he told me himself, the Kyuubi and Naruto have been friends for a while now, or at least made peace with each other enough to be able to cooperate. So when Rhaast taps into Naruto's or Kyuubi's power, he will be affected by them as well."

"And since the Kyuubi is sealed away, the demon can only use his and Naruto's powers.", Jiraiya concluded.

"We have to find him, and try to tickle out Naruto. Only problem is, we probably won't tickle.", Deidara spoke.

Karin turned to the Toad Sage and looked into his eyes. She saw the guilt and sadness as well as determination, similar to how Kankuro looked at her a few moments before. "Do you know where Rhaast could be? Maybe he uses some safe spot Naruto knows as well."

Jiraiya shook his head. "I don't believe this... thing will rest too long anyway, so there's no point in searching for a safe spot. I believe he will search for Danzo to finalize what he started."

"And where is Danzo?", Kankuro asked again.

"Well, Konoha is destroyed...", Jiraiya trailed off, thinking about the tragic scene he was just barely able to survive. 'Thanks to Naruto.'

"What?", Gaara asked, their disbelieving faces uniting them all.

"I joined Naruto to help him defeat Danzo, but one of the Akatsuki showed up. He had the Rinnegan, and before Naruto could save me, he launched a Rinnegan Technique, the Shinra Tensei. He aimed for us and the village, so I am sure Konoha is no more.", Jiraiya finished depressed.

Sure, Konoha has lost its shine through the years, and the treatment of Naruto gave him a new perspective, but originally, Konoha held its valurmes ridiculously high, to never give up and never abandon their conrades was the most important lessons the ninja learned there. It was home to generations of splendid ninja, all of the flawed but very good people at heart.

At least the Ninja teams weren't present, but still, the majority of people were dead.

It was the first time he could really think abour how Naruto saved him and, involuntarily, Danzo as well. Jiraiya knew that technique from his times with Minato. Since Naruto was able to recreate the Hiraishin, it meant he probably knew already who his parents were. He would've loved to be the one who tells him, mabye Tsunade would've loved to be as well, but this chance was dead as well.

While Jiraiya was lost in his thoughts, the others processed the information. Only one of them looked terrified. It was Deidara.

"Rinnegan? No, that must've been Pain.", Deidara stuttered in fear.

"Yeah, how do you know him?", Jiraiya asked.

"I was a member of Akatsuki once, until I found Naruto and joined him. Pain was our leader. Noone knows his past or where he's from, yet alone what he's capable of."

"You're Deidara then, right?", Jiraiya asked, to which Deidara nodded with a questioning glare. "Yeah, my spies found out someone left Akatsuki, but couldn't figure out who it was. I suppose they meant you."

"Back to the topic: Where can we find Danzo?", Gaara asked impatiently.

"Right. Even though Konoha is destroyed, it still is the place Danzo lived in his entire life. If there was one thing Danzo actually was passionate about, it was Konoha. I suppose he will go back, to take a look at whatever remains of the village. I am sure Naruto will find him there as well."

Karin nodded. "Alright, then let's go." She pushed down Kankuro when he wanted to stand up, but got shoved out of the way lightly when he stood up a second time to walk out of the room. Giving her a glare, he saw that the other Jinchuuriki waited in front of the room since there wasn't enough space for all of them.

"Mr. Sand, you're able to stand!", Killer Bee called out, the first to notice his presence.

"Scorpion, are you okay?", Fuu asked worriedly.

"Fuu, as long as we're for ourselves, you can call me Kankuro, please. Listen guys, we have a new mission..."

While Kankuro informed the others, Gaara turned to the Toad Sage. "What will you do?"

"I'll go with them. This became a personal matter with the destruction of Konoha, and since Akatsuki seems to be on the move, we have to keep every Jinchuuriki save.

Karin nodded. Maybe Naruto wouldn't approve of it, but right now, they needed to find and save him as quickly as possible. She turned to Utakata and said: "Can you please look for Yagura if he's feeling any better yet? Be at the gates in 15 minutes, regardless if he comes along or not." Utakata nodded and walked off to the mansion.

"Uh, wait Utakata.", Karin called out. She cut her hand and wiped off the blood, giving him the bloodied cloth so he could break the seal at the mansion.

"We'll come as well.", Gaara concluded, to which Temari simply nodded her head in finality.

Karin smiled. "Ok, then let's go."

Abandoned village, just outside of Sunagakure

Silence. Complete and utter silenced filled the place where a little town used to be. The houses were destroyed, what little flora once had been their was burned to crisp and the ashed have been taken away. Though, a faint, clanking, metallic sound could be heard.

There he stood, in all his demonic glory. The possessed body of Naruto Uzumaki, being the jailor of Rhaast as well as Kyuubi was too much to handle.

Rhaast though seemed to have his own problem.

"Insolent brat! One should know when to accept subjugation!", the demon mindlessly yelled into the golden, eternal dunes of the Land of Wind. An outsider would think he'd be crazy.

"Well Rhaast, you were so kind to whisper in my brain, so I'm just making sure to return the favor.", Naruto told with gritted teeth, standing in front of the cage of the Kyuubi. He turned around to see the Bijuu lying on his belly, as usual.

"Hey Kurama, try to help me out of here!", Naruto yelled towards his companion.

"As you can see kit, I am quite limited in my movement", Kyuubi growled towards him, baring his fangs.

"Ugh, damn it. So I am damned to lurk around here and whisper into his head?", Naruto groaned.

"Well, welcome to the party then. If you didn't notice you have been consumed by your hatred and not realize this thing infested your soul, then maybe you haven't learned anything from your life as a Jinchuuriki.", Kyuubi answered with his signature snarl.

"What do you mean? How was I supposed to know something like that would happen? Of course, there were those whispers, but I thought it would be my subconscious or something like that.", Naruto yelled back, frustrated.

"Well then you are more gullible I thought you would be! Wasn't that the whole point of leaving your village of weaklings and training with the Shodai Hokage? To go some place where people didn't think of you to be a time bomb waiting to explode? Instead you just go on and pick useless fights until you snap and unleash a demon upon this world!"

"Well why didn't you complain that you thought all of this was pointless? I just wanted to go somewhere were I could acutally build a life and get appreciated for what I'm doing!"

"I thought you'd gotten better then that. I thought even you couldn't be that stupid to ignore everything you learned painfully until you become the very thing you wanted to prove to everyone you aren't! Now what did all of that lead up to?"

Naruto just turned around to look into the darkness, sewer-like eternity what was his mind. He gripped his fists hard enough to turn his knuckles white. His face mask was taken off long ago, so anyone who would stand there would see Naruto baring fangs while his whiskers were thick and black in color. His red eyes looked angry, but concealed something deeper within them.

"You are trapped within your own body, unable to move or to do anything else other than witnessing how this foreign entity will wreak havoc upon this world only because you, despite knowing better, let yourself be controlled by your damn hatred. He started to attack your friends already, and he won't stop. I myself know a nefarious killer when I see one! So it's time for you to ask yourself the big questions! Who even are you, and what do you even want?", Kyuubi yelled, almost roared towards the Jinchuuriki.

Naruto's shoulders shook, and it took every ounce of his remaining self control to not break out in tears. He knew the Kyuubi told the truth. Now that a demon took hold of his body, he couldn't deny how it dominated his every movement in the past months. Of course his hate itself was still understandable, but not the way that he let it influence his decisions. He pulled his friends into fights that were personal because he couldn't just cope with his past and try to live a life with those he has now.

But whatever happened, he wouldn't give anyone the satisfaction to see him cry. So Naruto only sat down in a cross legged position, his back still turned to the Kyuubi. He closed his eyes, breathed in and out and tried to meditate, to reflect on everything and try to come up with any possible solution.

Due to his position, he didn't see the Kyuubi smirk slightly until he laid back down to take a nap.

Konohagakure, 2 days after its destruction.

Empty. There was no other term to describe how this once proud place looked like.

Well, there still was the debris of all the buildings which stood there, and a lot of blood which tainted everything in a now rather dark red, brown colour.

Only the lower half of the Hokage Monument, which was not hit by the Shinra Tensei fully, was left to remind every passing merchant what actually has been here before.

Although, one living soul still did lurk around here. It was the leader of this pile of debris, the old warhawk Danzo.

He simply kneeled in the spot where his apartment once was. There wasn't much left to look at anymore other than memories to dwell in.

But since someone appeared behind him, even that was not possible anymore. He sighed and turned around to see the the 'Kyuubi child', now ironically possessed, even though it didn't seem it was the Bijuu actually.

"Returning to this place right after it was annihilated. Odd, but somewhat predictable.", Rhaast snickered, unsheating the four swords which he inhabited before.

"Alright then, let's get this over with.", Danzo spoke, in his usual, indifferent tone.

Taking controlled jumps so he wouldn't trip over the wood and stones lying around, he jumped onto Danzo and pointed his swords towards the old man to try and pierce him. Danzo jumped back and countered with Fuuton: Daitoppa to push him back

Rhaast simply stuffed his feet into the debris to stop his movement, but almost stumbled backwards.

He attempted to attack again, but was much faster this time. He sheathed his swords back and performed a cross hand sign.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu", he yelled, and created four Shadow Clones of himself, assisting him to charge towards the Hokage.

Three of the clones ran towards Danzo with their swords in their hands, while one ran directly next to the original Rhaast to help him create a vibrant, white sphere of wind energy.

Danzo easily dispelled the clones, while Rhaast was able to step right in front of him. Before Rhaast slammed the orb into his enemy, he stopped running as quickly aspossible, spun around on his left heel to slam the orb right into the chest of Danzo, who replaced himself with a clone.

"Fuuton: Rasenshuriken!"

Rhaast sent off the warhawk into the sky, driven by the orb until it exploded in the sky, consuming his body in a glowing sphere.

Suddenly, he felt himself being unable to move and stirred, trying to break free of his hold. He wasn't actually able to feel anything holding him, but still couldn't move a muscle.

Suddenly, his body was covered in strange seals, and Danzo came back into a physical form right in front of him, about 5 metres away.

'Come on, just come a bit closer', Rhaast thought.

And just as he hoped, Danzo ran into him, his staff ready to thrust through the head of the monster. Right as he stood in front of him, Rhaast exploded in a red cloud, throwing back the body of Danzo which yet again disappeared into dust and reappeared in front of him.

'One less, six eyes to go.'

"Fuuton: Shinkuujin"

Danzo took his staff, unsheathed the sword within it and breathed onto it, coating it in glowing white wind chakra.

He swung down, and Rhaast saw that the blade had greatly increased in range so the strike would definetly hit him.

Danzos sword connected to the head and split the helmet in half, causing the red flame like appearence of the demon to disappear and the rest of the body to drop down lifelessly.

Danzo stood there for a brief moment until he turned around and walked away. A few seconds later, he moved his head to the right to avoid the stab from the demon, who looked like he was alive and well. Even though he did miss him, he was able to make a little cut at the cheek of Danzo, drawing a drop of blood.

"Hahaha, did you really expect to kill me, you, a mere mortal? Now get ready to die!", Rhaast yelled.

"Umbral Trespass!"

He dispersed into three clouds and flew into Danzos body while the four swords of Rhaast hovered over the Hokage.

Danzo quickly ran out of the crater and onto the rocky ground outside of the village. In that moment, Rhaast materialized over the warhawk, gripped his swords and slashed him open.

Yet again, he didn't draw blood.

"Fuuton: Shinku Tai Gyoku!"

Rhaast was knocked into the back by the incredibly large wind sphere, knocking him away into the distance to crash into a rock and destroying it.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!", Danzo yelled, placing the seals onto the ground so that he performed his summon.

Just as Rhaast stood uo again, he heard the familiar noise of a abnormally large, elephant-like creation.

He narrowed the holes he had as eyes. "His death was an illusion, too. So that's why you ran out into the free field"

Danzo wanted to command his summon Baku to suck in his enemy, he heard two loud screeching noises, which sounded like it belonged to two women.

Danzo turned his head right to see Tsunade and Shizune. They did not bother to look at the fighting ninja, but just saw the scene which played out two days ago in front of them.

"Danzo! What happened here?", Tsunade yelled at the warhawk standing on his summon.

"Well, after this mercenary you probably ordered to assassinate me, someone came to destroy Konoha with the Rinnegan."

"Hahaha, too bad I wasn't able to slaughter these people myself. Whoever did this sure had taste. Too bad you will all not live to see the day I kill him, too.", Rhaast laughed.

"No, everyone..." Shizune muttered, tears silently streaming down her cheeks.

Even Tsunade, despite all her anger, wasn't able to hold back her tears. Their village was reduced to nothing but ashes, no one even knew why, and the tyrannical Hokage was still alive.

Rhaast laughed while he looked at the two women who shed their tears without a sound.

Then again, he shook his head. He was confused what was going on, until he recognized just who was trying to break out.

"Baa-chan, Shizune-chan...", Naruto thought when he saw his former friends cry right in front of him. He didn't know why, he didn't want to feel sympathetic for them, but he couldn't help it as his heart ached with sadness and anger. Now more than in the last two days, he pushed against the mental confines holding him in his mind.

"Use your sympathy for them, kit. Anger won't help you. You have to infest unknown feelings into him to push him away".

Rhaast didn't know why, he just had two look at the two while unnerving, foreign emotions seeped through his ghostly body. What was it that went through him?

His hands then started to tremble and slightly moved towards his helmet, holding it tightly as he ripped it away. It seemed to be glued in place. After quiet a bit of effort and painful screaming though, he was able to rip it off, so he proceeded to claw at his forearm protectors.

The yells he was producing drew the attention of Tsunade and Shizune away from the crater and made them look at him instead, while Danzo was simply waiting, intrigued by what was happening.

The forearm piece was glued on it as well, so the hand which tried to rip it away started to punch it instead, until a nasty one hit him so that Rhaast produced an ear-piercing yell.

For only one or two seconds, the pain made the red ghostly flames fly away from its pace, as both Rhaast and Naruto yelled in pain together.

He was able to rip it off then, and now more simple than the others, got out of his armor until only the red flame on his head stayed in place. In the place the armor was a moment ago, now was the black ninja clothing Naruto got in Hashirama's temple.

The form then grabbed at the red head and tore it away from the place it was in. Again, it produced a mixed scream of both Rhaast and Naruto.

With one final, forceful yank, he ripped it off, so the flames left his head, dispelled into red sparks and flew back into his body, same went for the armor.

When the flames were off, Naruto immediately fell onto all fours and heavily gasped for air, chest heaving up and down. The four swords fell down and created a metallic sounded when they landed on the floor.

Naruto noticed his lack of mask which apparently got left behind since he did not have it on in his mind.

Slowly, he staggered up on his feet and lifted his face to reveal his face to the three Konoha ninja. His crimson red hair and eyes, his animalistic fangs and his black, deep whisker scars.

Danzo didn't react at all, since he already knew who was underneath the mask, but Tsunade's and Shizune's red, puffy eyes widened, both beyond confused.

Naruto winced when he saw the look on them. His cover was officially blown, there is no way to hide anything now anymore. Finally, his past caught up to him.

Then, his steely gaze turned towards Danzo, whose eyes left him and looked onto the village which was destroyed. Naruto followed his gaze and looked at his old home village.

"You have surprised me, Uzumaki. I never would've guessed you are able to surpress such an unhuman creature.", Danzo called out. Naruto turned back to gaze into the eyes of the warhawk.

Then he saw something in the Hokages eyes he never would've imagined to see in him: Pain, regret, sadness. Even though Danzo tried to not look like that, Naruto could always read someones hidden pain from their eyes.

Naruto turned his gaze back to the village, the only sound he heard was the blow of the wind. He looked onto the ground, but returned his gaze back to the face of the Hokage.

"Who was it? What was taken from you?", the jinchuuriki asked, waiting for the response.

Somehow Danzo knew there was no way to hide it from him. Of all the people, Naruto should know about something like that.

"...My wife. In the night of the Kyuubi attack, she was killed when our house collapsed. When I saw the Kyuubi, and looked into his eyes, I saw the Sharingan. And when I heard the Uchiha wanted to make a coup d'etat, it was enough for me. The only thing I ever cared about was my wife and this village. When she was taken away...I had to protect the last thing that remained for me. The Uchiha and the Kyuubi were the most hated beings for me ever, so I did everything in my might to destroy them. I projected it onto you. I will not beg for forgiveness, I know there is no possibility for that to happen. I can only apologize deeply.", Danzo finished hoarsely. Behind the cunning and ruthless tyrant was a broken man who lost everything he had.

Naruto wanted to return something, make a snarky remark, anything. But it didn't feel right. He remembered how the Kyuubi talked to him about being consumed by his hate, and tried to stay above that, as much as it what possible. He simply nodded, looked into his eyes, and said:

"I understand. I forgive you, Danzo Shimura."

Danzo was surprised, but couldn't form an answer since someone else started first.

"Impressive. Both of you were able to overcome your hate for each other, breaking out of the vicious cycle you've been stuck in."

Danzo and Naruto turned towards the voice, to see the same man floating in the air who previously destroyed Konoha.

"You. Why did you destroy Konoha, what's your deal?", Naruto asked.

The man turned towards Naruto to connect his Rinnegan eyes with the jinchuurikis crimson ones.

"The people inhabiting the Village Hidden in the Leaves were unable to break from their hate, and their hate only leads to more hate. They did not leave the cycle like you did, so I gave them the push they needed.", his monotonous voice answered.

Before the men could retort, the thunderous voice of Tsunade roared out: "You destroyed Konoha? Then I will make sure you will pay for that!"

"So you are unable to break from your hate? How unfortunate."

"Why did you have to destroy the village, they didn't do anything to you!", Shizune yelled out, still crying.

"It is quite easy, actually. Sometimes you must HURT in order to KNOW, FALL in order to GROW, LOSE in order to GAIN, because life's greatest lessons are learned through PAIN."

No one said a word when they heard the words uttered to them like a manifesto.

"Uzumaki.", Danzo called out, getting the attention of Naruto. "I can see you don't have many sympathies with of him, since he is an Akatsuki. If you would do me the honour to erase this persons pathetic existence, I would be grateful.", his rough voice finished, eyes fixated on the floating Akatsuki.

Naruto bent down to pick up his swords. He hesitated, thinking about Rhaast, but was convinced to keep his emotions in control. 'There is no hate left in me.'

He grabed two swords with his normal, two with his chakra arms which shot out again and grinned towards the Akatsuki.

"Right. Let's teach this the asshole a lesson."

Without moving a muscle, the man raised his hands into the air, and yelled out: "You will get to know me. You will get to know pain!"

A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Leave your opinions in the comments, and stay tuned with the next chapter.