(There are going to be two AN for this. This one and the one at the bottom. Both are important so do read them if you are a fan and follow my work.

This first AN is going to be talking about what this story will be like in order to give you a proper idea of what to expect. Now, I at first was going to be making this story a Naruto cross Marvel story. I had planned to use symbiotes so it would lean more to Spider-man cross. I was going to use Carnage but after thinking about how I wanted this Naruto to be and some interesting ideas I had coming up in my head, I scrapped the idea. Especially since Carnage wouldn't work personality-wise for Naruto unless I made Naruto a lot crazier than what one would become in this world. I could have used Venom but that has been used already and I don't want to just copy others (unless I have a proper way of doing it and making it my own idea). SO, this story is going to just be a straight Naruto story that I'll most likely make up as I go lol.

As with such a change, there will also be a change of name. Instead of being called A World of Red and Black it shall now be referred to Mask Breaking Away. Without further ado~ enjoy the chap.

P.S.: The AN at the bottom will explain updates with other stories)

Leaking through the Cracks

Normally the evenings of Konoha would be a beautiful sight to behold. People would be leaving jobs, walking the parks, going on dates, children playing around. The "usual" things that civilians did. Today was different though. There was a crowd of people standing in shock. Horrified expressions plastered their faces from what they were seeing. Two Chunin level shinobi were standing in front of a butcher shop and were keeping the people from looking in any more than they already have. Inside the shop was a total mess with blood splatter on the walls and over the counter. The owner of the shop was dead. He wasn't just dead though. They found his body in the backroom freezer where the meat was kept for storage. He was hanging on a hook by his intestines making his body swivel clockwise before it would be forced to swivel counter-clockwise. The man was missing his head which they found on the hook where his intestines were on. He had multiple cuts and gashes across his body showing that whoever did this made it so he would bleed out of as many parts of his body at once. However, whether it happened before or after his head was removed would have to be held for later questioning.

There was another issue though. With the ANBU that showed up to look at the dead body, they couldn't find a trail of any kind to lead them to whoever the killer was. Not only was the scene pretty gruesome to look at but they also couldn't figure out who could have done such a thing. Another problem was the fact that if you counted this murder there were five other murders that had happened within the walls of Konoha that were all unsolved with who could have done it. Each murder was gruesome and no one had any idea who it could be. There was a pattern to the murders but it was unseen to everyone, even the Hokage. Each person that was killed had really no connections to each other so there wasn't any kind of way to figure out what they did to get murdered like so.

"Who could have done such a thing?"

"Ah man not Tikota."

"All that blood, I think I'm gonna hurl."

These were the few comments that came from the crowd of people outside. The only person in the crowd did not care for what was in front of him. He was watching the scene far in the back between the few people in front of his small frame. His cold blue eyes looked on to the scene without remorse and turned to walk away. No one noticed him so it was easy for the child to get away from wandering eyes. As he walked, he made his way outside of Konoha to one of the nearby training ground areas with a river. No one ever bothered to pay attention to him so it made it easy to become undetectable to those around him.

As he made his way to the river at the training ground he looked into the water and saw his reflection stared back at him. He had spiky sun-kissed blonde hair that just seemed untamable. His blue eyes could put oceans to shame but at the moment they were colder than ice. Looking down at his hands he could see untainted skin that he cleaned after what he did the night before.

This boy was Naruto Uzumaki... and he was a murderer. Now, most would agree that a child of nine years old shouldn't even know the concept of taking a life, but Naruto was different. Ever since he could remember he was always treated differently than most kids. Growing up at the orphanage for the short time he was there taught him as such. The main problem is most of the caretakers. They treated him like he was worse than the worms who lived in the dirt. Every day that he lived there he would always be forced to do the chores that the other kids were supposed to do. Even some of the tasks that the ADULTS were supposed to do! When the lights went out instead of putting in an order for someone to fix it, they made him do it! He suffered electrical shocks that could have, maybe even would have, killed him if not sent him to the hospital for a month. He had to thank his higher than normal endurance and healing factor for surviving those times.

Despite being forced to fix things he had no prior understanding of, he managed to get them done. It was only when he did the task given to him correctly that they fed him too. If he messed up, he would be forced to go the day without any kind of nourishment. At least doing those jobs for the ungrateful assholes gave him some skills to use when he finally left the place.

Once he turned five, he decided for himself he would no longer live under their foot anymore. But he didn't leave without taking vengeance on one specific person that was the worst towards him during his stay there. The guy was around his late forties and would constantly beat Naruto with anything he could get his hands on. Naruto was lucky he could outrun the older man, it allowed fewer bruises. The man always would make Naruto his personal lap dog and make him fetch anything he wanted or do any task he asked to be done or else he would beat him into the ground. When the night came that Naruto used to escape, he came up with a plan that would certainly get back at the bastard.

He took some chemicals he found in a closet that was meant for cleaning and combined them together. He wasn't sure what each one was but all he knew was that it wasn't good for someone to drink any of it. He learned that when one of the kids got sick when he drank a bit of the liquid that was in the bucket for mopping the floors. The kid was throwing up constantly and couldn't keep anything down for two days. Naruto wasn't sure what was going through that boy's head when he did that but he didn't care anymore. The kids at the orphanage were indifferent to him but didn't do anything to make his stay there better.

After making the deadly combination of chemicals he went to the kitchen and poured it all in a glass before mixing in some orange juice. He then left and headed to the man's personal bedroom and placed the glass on the dresser next to the bed. Whenever he woke up, he would always make Naruto or one of the other kids bring him a glass to drink for the morning. After that Naruto made his escape out of the orphanage and began his life on the streets. When morning came, he heard people talking about the poisoning of the caretaker and how he died not five minutes after drinking the concoction.

Normally people would be more affected by such news but it was later found out that the man was a sexual predator towards the female orphans. They received confessions from several girls about how the man would always force them to do whatever he said or they would go missing and to never be seen again. Because of this, not many cared who did the deed, they were just glad a disgusting man like that was no longer among the living and couldn't prey on any little girls. Naruto didn't plan on murdering the guy. When he found out that he killed the guy he was horrified and had to find the nearest trash bin to throw up in. Just the thought of how he must have died made him queasy for quite a while. He would always wonder if what he did was the right thing? The more he thought about it the more he came to the realization that if he hadn't then those girls would have been in more danger. He didn't know the man was doing such things to the girls but knowing made it less of a blow to him.

Now that he was on the streets though he had to find a way to survive. He thought that once he was out and away from the orphanage that he would have an easier time in life. He was wrong though. It seemed that whatever hate that was aimed at him by the caretakers was also passed on to the people in the village. No matter where Naruto went or who he ran into they would most of the time glare at him or hit him. It was not long that he learned a majority of the village did not like him.

It was one evening though that he finally cracked and didn't want to take the abuse or hate anymore. It was when he was simply walking around the village since it was a nice night to relax. He ended up walking into a drunk man. When the man saw who it was bumped into him, in his drunken state, he was filled with rage. Drunken rage but rage none the less. He took the bottle that was in his hand before breaking it across Naruto's head, leaving a gash with blood flowing down the side. The man then dragged him into an alleyway and proceeded to use the broken bottle to cut him up. He even grabbed a part of a busted pipe and whacked him hard with all his strength. When he finished with the thrashing, he decided to humiliate the boy more and relieve himself by pissing on him. Once finished he kicked Naruto one last time before stumbling away back home.

Naruto had laid there on the ground broken and crying, but it was in that state that something in his head snapped. That man's face was engraved into his mind and Naruto wasn't going to let this go by without punishment. So, the next night Naruto waited behind corners and in alleyways watching the man once he found him. It was obvious that the man was a total alcoholic and enjoyed all kinds of drinks. There wasn't a time of day that he wasn't slightly buzzed and when night came around, he would go get fully hammered. Naruto watched the disgusting waste of life for three days and nights. It was the fourth night that he struck. The man had gotten completely wasted after celebrating a promotion at his job. He was wobbling back home with a bottle of sake in his hand and a stupid happy grin on his face.

He never noticed the pipe fly from the alleyway into his head.

When he came to, he found he was in an alleyway. If he was sober, he would realize it was the same alleyway that he both beat and humiliated a certain blonde-haired kid. Then came the blows. They weren't all that strong but they still hurt. He wasn't sure where they came from since each blow aimed for his face and other body parts. Soon each attack was breaking his already weakened body. Bones broken and large bruising appeared on his body. The man managed to open one of his eyes that wasn't swollen and saw who it was that attacked him. It shocked him to see it was Naruto.

He was going to say something but Naruto glared at him with crimson slitted eyes that made him shut up before he watched in slow motion as Naruto began smashing the pipe he had been using as a weapon on his face. He didn't stop and continued smashing in the bastard's face until it caved into his broken skull with blood leaking from his mouth. Naruto stood there panting from all the anger he released onto the man before he left the scene quickly.

This was the missing pattern that no one ever knew about. Each murder that has happened over the recent years inside of Konoha was all connected to Naruto. Each person murdered was someone that pushed Naruto too far. They all had done something to him that would cause him to break what little sanity he was holding to and enact his revenge upon them.

After the murders, he would always find a place to get rid of whatever was used to fulfill his desire for blood. It was what he was doing at the moment. After the murder of the butcher last night he hid the weapon he used in this area. Walking towards a tree with a hole in it he moved his hand inside and pulled out a cleaver that had dried blood on it. As he stared his cold emotionless eyes onto the blade, he could remember everything that happened that night.

(Flashback – Night before)

Tikota was busy placing some fresh meat he had in his freezer. He needed to make sure each meat he had was ready for the next day. A tedious task to do, but one that was worth it. He was about to place another large piece of meat on a hook when he heard movement coming from the front. Raising an eyebrow, he dropped the large slab of meat on the ground and wiped his hands off on his apron and went to investigate.

Looking around the dim-lit shop he didn't see anything out of place and thought it was all in his head from working so late. He was turning around when the sounds of something running across the shop could be heard. He turned around quickly and began searching for whatever it was inside his place.

"I swear if those damn rats returned again, I'll have to shut down the shop and do a full cleansing."

Unknown to him it wasn't any kind of rat. In the corner staring at Tikota with crimson eyes and pupils slit like a fox was Naruto. In his left hand was a cleaver that he took from the counter after it was left there earlier. His glare was malevolent. Slowly he made his way to the back of the butcher. His footsteps barely made a sound for any civilian to take notice enough. The proper distance was reached that he could strike. He raised the blade and was ready to strike.

Tikota turned around suddenly with his eyes seeing nothing but empty space. There was a noticeable tenseness to his body and trickles of sweat falling down his face. Shaking his head, he let out a tired sigh before relaxing himself. "Obviously, I need more sleep."

If he had the decency to look up, no one did though, he would have been prepared for the clever that came down into his shoulder blade along with a foot to the back of his head. The force knocked him down with a painful yelp. He managed to turn his head enough to see the crimson red eyes of his attacker with their face set into a vicious snarl.

Fear was all that the man could possibly feel at the moment.

"Who's the little pig waiting to be carved now?" Naruto asked rhetorically while kicking the bastard in the head. Pulling the clever from his shoulder blade, Naruto began to chop at the different parts of his body while Tikota did his best to crawl away from the kid but stopped when he felt the cleaver dig deeply into his knee joint from the back.

"GAAAAH! Fuck! I'm sorry! I-I-I didn't mean what I said!" the man tried to say but Naruto wasn't having any of that shit. It sickened him greatly that this fat bastard was trying to plead for his life now after what happened two days prior. With a growl, he pushed the man over before cutting deep into the man's stomach and pulled hard with more blood spewing around and the beginnings of his entrails falling out.

Such a sharp clever was most likely his pride to use. Now it was being used on him. Tikota had tears falling from his face and blood spilling from his mouth. Staring up at the blonde he couldn't help but shiver at the cold bloodthirsty stare he gave him.

"Ha-have m-mercy…"

"Mercy is for the deserving. Not the bastard who would use his own knife to cut into a child and throw him in the dumpster to bleed out. All because he dares ask for some fresh meat. Well, this shop is about to have the freshest meat come in tonight!"

The man's eyes widen while trying to back away but could barely move his own body. The blonde boy moved forward placing both hands on the cleaver before swinging with everything he had and hit the man in his neck. There was a loud gurgling sound as he choked on his blood before Naruto violently ripped the blade out of his neck. Blood splattered all over the place with lots of it flowing down the man's hand as he tried to keep the blood from spilling out. Naruto wasn't done though. Kicking his hand away from his throat he swung the cleaver again and dug deeper into his neck.

He then swung again.

And again.

Once more.

And with a shout, he swung one last time with the cleaver going through the last remaining pieces of his cervical vertebrae and muscle with his head flying through the air and getting blood everywhere. He stood there panting as blood from the man's head flow down on the ground and fell onto him. Looking down at the headless man he placed the cleaver on the ground before dragging both the body and the head away to the back room.

Such a display would easily make people wary about the happenings in the village.

(Flashback end)

"Only one place to hide this effectively," Naruto said to himself before tossing the cleaver straight into the river where it would be carried off and he won't have to worry about someone finding out about it.

Hopefully

Now that this was over, he decided to head to Ichiraku's for some ramen. While walking back to the village he slowly integrated his mask back onto his face. Something he's created to hide his true self from those around him. Everyone considered himself the too damn happy, pranking nightmare king, orphaned dead last nobody that constantly ate ramen and screamed about being Hokage.

The only thing true about that statement was mostly the ramen.

Behind the mask though? He had no qualms about killing anyone that pushed him too far. If it were up to him, he would live the village entirely. The only thing stopping that train of action was one, him not knowing where he would go. He has never been outside of Konoha besides the few training grounds that were still relatively close to the village. And two, despite most of the bigots of the village, he still had at least four people that truly cared for him.

Two if you didn't count some of those "people" actually being animals that some would consider… "dangerous".

He actually chuckled at the thought of his companions "playing" with some of the villagers.

()

Morning came earlier than expected for the blonde. The sun was shining through his window to his face. It was utterly annoying. Groaning he simply turned his face away from the sun and pulled the covers higher. He was content to go back to sleep but that wouldn't happen soon. A weight was soon felt on his side along with the sound of distinct purring as something nuzzled its furry face against his cheek. Peeking an eye open the blonde couldn't help but smile at the creature. Petting its head lightly, receiving another purr, he sat up in his bed with the animal sitting in his lap now.

"Morning Kiko. Thank you for getting me up." He got a meow and licks to his hand for the petting. Kiko was an adolescent black jaguar that he found a year and a half ago. She was lost in the forest without food and he was camping nearby. The smell of cooked fish had brought her to him. He fed her and allowed her to stay with him to warm up during the cold night. After that, the kitten began following him around and wouldn't leave his side. It actually made him feel happy since he was camping out to have a chance to get away and be alone. Finding a companion in the wild cat was a boon to his depressing mode. With her and his other companion, it made being home alone without anyone else less sad. They kept him company and enjoyed to play with him. Being home with them was his one solace in life.

The kitten jumped from his lap to the floor and went to the kitchen. She did her duty in getting her master up. Now she would wait for him to feed her and hopefully not have to fight the other one for her meal. Naruto yawned and stretched before getting up from his bed. He took a hot shower and brushed his teeth before dressing in a navy-blue T-shirt with cargo shorts on. Today was awkward for some reason. He didn't have the drive to put on the horrible orange jumpsuit that he normally did when he was going out with his mask on. Now, don't get him wrong. He would forever love orange, but even he knew that the jumpsuit was a little much to be desired.

Despite the fact that many pranks that he has done before was in that outfit and he was never caught unless he wanted a good chase.

Turning to his full-body mirror that was cracked slightly from being old. He couldn't afford a proper mirror with how people liked to charge him double if not triple the normal price for certain things. He was lucky to grab this from someone who was throwing it away for a newer one. As he looked at himself in the mirror, he tried to incorporate his mask to himself but the fake smile was straining against his face. He slowly dropped and he frowned trying to wonder why it was difficult for him to put the mask he always wore up.

He stared at his reflection and it stared back at him. Both versions of the boy were contemplating this dilemma and one of them knew a proper answer for why this was to be. As Naruto stared on his reflection seemed to gain its own sentience and spoke to him.

"The mask you wear is breaking."

"Why now though?" Naruto asked his reflection. The mirror him just shrugged while placing his hands in his pockets as the real him did.

"Maybe that last kill took more out of you than you initially anticipated." This caused a frown to appear on Naruto's face. Indeed, he could tell that throughout the years with each murder he committed as an act of revenge, it would become harder to go back to pretending. Pretending to be someone he wasn't. Pretending to be an idiot was already hard enough in the academy, but pretending that the glares and hated words not quietly whispered to him always wore down his resolve to keep the mask on.

Usually, it was easy for him to ignore them and keep going like nothing they were doing was affecting him. It was only when one of the foolish villagers attacked him in a way that made his self-control slip made it so he couldn't ignore them anymore. Luckily it didn't happen often. While he knew the ninja of the village were slightly clueless on who it was committing these murders, considering how spaced out they were, the villagers accused him.

While true, they had no proof, so it made their words mute to listen to. What shinobi worth their career would listen to a civilian about a child being the one to kill your neighbor?

Not a damn one. Especially when said child was in favor of the Hokage.

"How long will you pretend? How long will you keep at it? Everything you've done will come back to bite you in the ass." Naruto nodded to his reflection's words. It wasn't like he could hide his trail all the time. Really you would think any sensors would be able to track his chakra from the crime scene. It was those thoughts that always had him on edge. He knew that if he was found out to be the murderer than he could really just kiss his chance at being a shinobi goodbye. So far, he has gotten lucky.

"As long as I can. What that entails, I have no idea. For the moment, things will continue as they normally do. Hopefully, today can go on without incident." Nodding to himself the blonde boy turned away from his reflection and began making his way to the kitchen. Idly he thought to himself that he should really get a hobby.

Talking to yourself through the mirror could not be healthy.

There was a yipping sound and Naruto felt something drop down onto his head. Another smile came to his face as he looked up at the silver fox kit that decided to join him. "Well, hey there. Sleeping in high places again?" A small yip was all he got before the fox curled up in his hair. Shaking his head lightly he couldn't help but remember how he adopted his little Emiko. It was actually related to the second person to die officially by his hands. Just thinking about back then made his hand twitch some.

(Flashback)

A six-year-old Naruto was walking around an empty park. He had recovered from his little mental break that happened half a year ago with that drunk man. He had been in shock when he got home and wouldn't move from his spot on the bed for the whole day. Contemplating what he did and if it was right or not and feeling scared that he did it so easily. It wasn't one to get angry so easily but that beating the man gave him just… it pissed him off.

He was lucky though to not have been found out. The pipe was staying in his room in a secret compartment he liked to use to hide some of his personal belongings. Not that there were many, to begin with, so it left a lot of space to hide it. He was glad that his Jiji found him that apartment to stay in but it got lonely often by himself.

Today was Saturday and clear skies all around. Naruto figured it would be good to escape the crushing loneliness of his home and get fresh air. This park he was in was further south from where he stayed and a less frequent one that people visited. It was that reason alone that he chose to come here. Most of the time if he went to any other park and tried to play with the kids their parents would glare at him and take them away. Besides being confused this also hurt him and made him sit on the swing set feeling depressed.

Shaking his head, the blue-eyed boy decided that he could find a way to have fun by himself here. Since he planned on getting into the academy, he could find a place to train himself probably. Maybe find a good camping spot. Smiling he got into a light jog and went around the park to see what he could do here. Looking around at the varies trees he decided that he should try climbing them. Ninjas were good at climbing and getting to high places so he would practice doing that.

He spent around ten minutes finding the largest tree in the area and another forty trying to climb it. There was a lot of falling, a lot of scraping, and a lot of determination to not give up. He would climb this tree dattebayo!

Two hours passed and Naruto was a quarter of a way up the tree, sitting on a branch and holding onto the trunk panting. He chuckled and gave a victorious fist pump while laughing soon after. This tree was tall and the bark was hard to keep a grip on but he managed to do it. Turning his attention away from the tree he was high enough to look over the park a bit through the tree line. Smiling he sat there and enjoyed the breeze that was coming through. Nature was always something he could appreciate and find time to enjoy. It was still pretty early in the afternoon so he could afford to just sit and relax here. He closed his eyes and let out a soft relieved sigh and relaxed on the tree branch.

It wasn't even fifteen minutes into his nap that he heard the cry of some kind of animal. Opening his eyes, he looked around when he heard another yelp sound before the sound twigs breaking was heard. Looking down from his perch above he saw a sight of a silver fox running away but it looked to have a bad leg and was wounded. Then Naruto saw a man with a knife in his left hand that was bleeding slightly chasing after it. Naruto wasn't sure why the man was chasing the fox but he didn't think the poor creature deserved it.

It took a while for him to get down from the tree but once he hit the ground, he gave chase to see if he could find a way to stop the man from trying to harm the fox more. Once he caught up to the man, he saw that the fox was cornered and shaking scared against a tree. Its injury was making it harder for it to continue running. The one who chased it moved closer while rubbing his hand that was obviously bitten by the fox.

"I'm going to enjoy cutting you apart. Especially after you bit me you little shit." He heard the man growl out while holding the knife tightly in his hand. The fox was whimpering at this point and doing its best to be ready to fight back without succumbing to its injury. Naruto saw this from behind a bush and knew he had to save the little thing from the mean man. Running out of the cover he was in he did his best to tackle the man's legs. Since he wasn't expecting him the man stumbled rightfully and looked to see the brat that ran into him. Snarling since he knew exactly who this was so he began using his hand to smack him.

"Get off of me! Damn demon brat! Should have known you would come here to protect your kind!" Naruto ignored what he was saying and did his best to block the hits before kicking him in the shin causing the strikes to stop. Quickly without much thought, he ran and picked up the small fox before dashing away. The man growled loudly and gave chase. He would not let the demon take one of his own kind and keep it alive.

Naruto did his best to run as far as he could without further harming the small fox. The creature curled up in his arms shaking scared while hoping the young human would get away from the evil man. The boy stopped in his tracks while looking around the clearing he managed to get into. He wasn't sure how far back the guy was but he needed to find a place to hide. Most of his energy was spent climbing the tree earlier so he really couldn't keep running for long. Hearing an angry shout from behind gave him enough reason to move again.

Luck would escape the duo as Naruto turned his head to see that the man was getting closer. This distraction was enough for him to have his foot get caught on an overgrown root making him trip and drop the fox. The silver kit rolled out of his grasp and looked up to see the boy that rescued it trying to get up, only for the one that was chasing them to stomp on his back sending him back down. The fox watched as the man began kicking and stomping on the blonde boy while the kid kept trying to cover himself with his hands.

"Stupid fucking demon. Learn your place bitch." He said while Naruto was doing his best to protect his body but his arms were not cut out to blocking such an assault for so long. He was preparing to block another stomp when he heard the man scream and the familiar sound of a fox yelp. Looking up he saw that the silver fox he helped had bit the man on his hand, coincidently it was the same one as before, making him drop his knife back away. He had smashed his fist into its face before kicking it away. He stalked over to the fox while holding his wounded hand under his armpit.

"I've had enough of you…" He spoke slowly with contempt. Naruto so he was ready to just stomp the little fox out. Looking down he saw the knife and moved his hand to grab it. Once he firmly had it in his hand he struggled to stand up. That beating he received was harsh but he wouldn't let it stop him. His eyes, now being red with his pupil being slit like a fox, stared forward. His face became a slight snarl before he rushed forward just as the man was about to stomp down on the neck of the fox.

With a small war cry, he lunged forward and stabbed the knife into his back making the man cry out in pain. Quickly the knife was pulled out by the blonde before being shoved into the man's side, unknowingly piercing his kidney. He stumbled to the side and fell over with Naruto over him before he started to kick him in the face multiple times until he stopped moving. Huffing and panting the blonde saw the man was still and his side was bleeding heavily with the knife still there. Turning away from him he moved to the small fox kit and picked it up.

"I got you. He can't hurt you anymore."

(Flashback end)

After that incident Naruto took the fox home, finding out it was female and did his best to nurture her back to health. He didn't know much about healing injuries or wounds so he found time to read up on animal anatomy whenever he found time in the library. He also found books that talked about treating injuries for beginners or for anyone who couldn't get to a doctor right away. The job wasn't perfect, barely even good, but it was passable to keep the fox from hurting herself anymore. He spent time with her in his home and did his best to get her food to eat and made sure she didn't hurt herself while recovering. After the fox was at least healthy enough to walk and run around his home with a slight limp he figured it was time to take her home. He was surprised when she didn't run off into the forest when he took her back to around the park he was at. She stayed with him and had hopped into his arms licking his face. This made him happy as he had a new friend now that would stick with him forever. He just had to keep her out of sight since it was obvious the people of Konoha had a bad view of foxes.

Naruto got breakfast started with something rather simple. For him, it was simply a bowl of cereal and a fresh-picked apple. For his two companions, who were totally not wrestling each other right now, rolling all over the place, it was chopped fish for Kiko and some rabbit jerky for Emiko, his little fox kit. All of this was gotten either from stealing it from the market when they closed or him catching the meat himself. Hard work for someone so young as him. But you tend to learn patience when you've stalked prey before. Seeing that both of his companions were still rolling around fighting he sighed before getting out of his seat and picked them both up by the scruff of their necks.

"Can't you two get along? If you act nice more often then I won't be spoiling you with anymore treats." That seemed to shape them up really quick as their bodies slacked in his grip. He nodded his head before setting them down near the table with their bowls. "Now eat up. It's only six in the morning so I still have a good hour before we can head to the academy."

This was news to them and it got them excited. He had never taken them with him to the academy he always was going to so they made good work in eating their breakfast before Emiko hopped up into his hair and Kiko perched herself on his shoulder. Giving them both scratches on their heads he left his apartment and locked it up.

Not that he had anything valuable to steal anyway. The lock was also flimsy and easy to break as proven from past times.

Making his way to the academy from the rooftops was both the fastest and easiest travel route for him take. He also did it so he didn't have to run into any morning risers that had to set up their business. It was only just hitting seven o'clock and Naruto got inside his classroom. It was still early in the day so there weren't many people here. Not one of his classmates was in yet so he decided to take a seat in the back away from where he would usually sit. Kiko moved from his shoulder and down to his lap as he sat down before curling up comfortably. His hand idly scratched her head softly while he leaned his elbow on the desk with his head resting in his palm. Closing his eyes, he decided to get some more sleep in until class would start.

An hour had past and the class had filled up with students. Each bringing in their own noise that served to grate on Naruto's nerves but he continued to block them out and sleep more. A couple of his classmates did notice him in the back and found it strange that he was back there and even more so that he didn't have his orange jumpsuit on. These were just fleeting thoughts for the average kids there so they easily went back to doing their own thing. The few who did notice the change had some curiosity surge through their eyes but not enough to really care. Shikamaru Nara was one of the few to notice. At first, he thought something may have changed but just chopped it up to him just needing to wear new clothing. Being in the back was strange considering he usually sat next to the brooding Uchiha or at the window seat behind him.

Either way, it was too troublesome to really care why. He needed to do what the blonde was doing and nap.

Kiba Inuzuka was another to notice the change but for a little bit different reasons. Mainly because he smelled two different animal scents on Naruto. If he focused his eyes on his head, he could have sworn he saw a flash of something silver and possibly a tail. For now, he would ignore it because the dobe wasn't all that important.

As everyone was getting settled into their usual spots and cliques, there was an unmistakable rumble heard coming their way. It wasn't long till voices could be heard shouting from the hall. Everyone already what was about to happen and just waited to see the fallout. Only a few knew things would be different considering Naruto wasn't where he normally was. It wasn't long for the door to the classroom to be barged open loudly with two girls pushing each other to get inside first. One was Ino Yamanaka and the other Sakura Haruno, both known to be the loudest girls of the class and biggest fans of Sasuke Uchiha.

Not that the stupid brooding boy ever took notice of any of his fangirls. The boys all speculated he played for the same team instead.

"Out the way forehead! I was here first!"

"Like hell you were! I got here first Ino-pig!"

It was a… well I wouldn't call it a struggle really more so just a quick bout of pushing past one another. Ino was the one to make headway first and managed to slip by Sakura causing her to trip and giving Ino the time to make her way up to Sasuke. His row was empty, something that was weird to her considering who usually sits there at times, but it didn't bother her at the moment and she took her spot next to her very one-sided crush. Seeing Sakura get up and move she didn't try to contain the victorious smirk on her face and smugly patted the seat next to her. The pink-haired girl gave a growl and stomped over before taking her seat with a huff.

"You obviously cheated."

"What?! How did I cheat! You were the one who was trying to cheat using that fat forehead of yours to push through the door!"

"I wasn't the one using that fat ass of yours to push me out the way!"

"Who you calling fat!"

Like usually the two were butting heads already causing a big disturbance. As all of this played out, Naruto couldn't help but groan to himself and open an eye. If anyone would take notice, they would see it was not filled with warmth at all for seeing his supposed crush. No, it was filled with a cold indifference with a side of annoyance.

'Why the hell do they have to be so loud in the morning.' Slowly a very chilling pressure began spreading throughout the room. Everyone stopped what they were doing and couldn't contain the shiver running up their spines. Both Ino and Sakura took pause as the pressure seemed to be focused on both of them causing the color in their skin to lose its pigmentation for a second. Everyone was confused about where this feeling was coming from but it took all of a second for it to just immediately disappear.

'I need to reign myself in. It'll be easier to deal with this.' Naruto idly thought before the mask of a goofball was applied to himself and the cold atmosphere around him disappeared. Both Emiko and Kiko noticed this change in their master but didn't bother with it since they knew about this fake side of him. Getting up from his spot he moved down closer to a different row that would be closer to everyone. Considering where he usually sat was taken and he didn't honestly feel like dealing with those two near Sasuke he sat down next to someone else for a change. This person was a little surprised that he sat next to her and couldn't help to look down and push her two fingers together shyly.

"Hey, Hinata! How are you doing?" Naruto seemed to ask the girl with her looking up and doing her best to not faint or blush from being this close to him.

"A-ano, I am d-doing fine." Hinata idly looked down when she noticed movement and spotted little Kiko climbing back up to his lap. She gave a silent gasp as the cub looked up to her. "I-i-is that…"

"Hmm? Oh, hehe, yeah this is my friend Kiko." Naruto picked up the black cub and petted her head softly causing her to purr. This cute scene caught the attention of a couple of people in class as they watched Naruto set down the jaguar on the table with her stretching and moving over to where Hinata sat. The cub stared at her for a while like she was waiting for something. Hinata seeing this hesitantly moved her hand out and held it to the small creature. A few sniffs and a lick later had Kiko rubbing herself on Hinata's hand and the girl petting her softly.

"Hey look at that! She actually likes you!" she heard Naruto say while smiling widely. This caused Hinata to blush some and smiled back at the cub. She was surprised when the cub jumped causing her to quickly move her hands to catch her and let her lay down in her lap comfortably.

"Hey, dobe! Where the hell did you get that thing?" came the shout of Kiba, asking the question that was on the minds of most of the people in the class. Naruto didn't instantly reply and continued to talk with Hinata while chuckling at how lazy Kiko was being. This caused the male clan heir to growl standing up. "Hey! Are you listening to me!"

"No."

This caused Kiba to face fault to the ground before getting back up to growl at him. Before he could do anything Iruka made his appearance to the class alongside Mizuki. Soon everyone got settled down as class began to start. Today was going to be a short lecture on combat before they went outside for the usual spars that they do.

()

"Alright, class. Today you'll be sparing against another classmate. We'll be going by name order for last names. When I call your names step into the ring and then on my mark you'll start. This will be a two out of a three-type match with the winner being the one who knocks their opponent down first two times." Iruka said while holding a clipboard in his hand. Soon he started to call names with it being boys vs boys and girls vs girls. Inwardly Naruto didn't understand why this was a thing. Shouldn't they be taught to fight one another equally? He shook his head and decided to block out most of the fights and just continue to talk with Hinata. She was surprisingly pleasant to be around, minus the stuttering. Her confidence issue was plain to see so he figured that she would grow out of it as she grew stronger.

Emiko had long since got off his head and was on his shoulder now watching the spars with him. Many were surprised to see a fox of all things with Naruto as well and when asked about it he simply ignored the question. It was strange, to say the least, but not something that many would care about. Kiko was still in Hinata's arms being petted. Time went on like this until it was finally Naruto's turn to head in the ring for his spar.

Unsurprisingly it was against the local emo known as Sasuke Uchiha.

"Alright Emiko, you gotta hop off now." The fox nodded her head before jumping to Hinata's shoulder. While the girl had confidence issues, she at least could fight decently unlike most of the other girls here. Emiko knew that most of the girls here were not up to par with what a shinobi should be. Her master complained about it frequently at times whenever he was home. Of course, he barely cared but simply referred to all of them as a joke. Even a couple of the boys were just chumps waiting to be killed because of their ego or foolish delusions of grandeur.

The blonde made his way to the ring and stood across from his opponent. Sasuke looked at him with a slight smirk on his face. Knowing he would win this easily just like all their other spars before. Naruto was the dead-last for a reason and he was top of the class. He didn't understand why he kept trying to face him when the results always ended up the same.

"Alright, both sides ready?" Iruka called with both boys giving a nod. Nodding back, he threw his hand down to start the match. "Hajime!"

The match began and was turning out how everyone was expecting, with slight differences. Sasuke, for the most part, was winning the confrontation with Naruto "barely" able to land a hit on him. Only Shikamaru was able to tell there was something different going on with the blonde. Usually the match would end rather quickly with Naruto not really fighting properly and just throwing whatever he thought would land a hit on Sasuke. This time however the blonde seemed to be doing less of that and was actually making moves that, if it weren't for Sasuke obviously being better, would probably land a hit on the Uchiha. Soon the first point was giving when Sasuke landed a punch and hook kick to the blonde's face. As per the norm, the boy's fan club was cheering loudly for him. Naruto didn't stay down long and stood up while wiping the dirt from his face. He could see Sasuke standing there with an "I am superior to thou" look on his face. It honestly pissed him off that the resident emo thought he was actually good.

'Why do I let him win all the time?' The next match began and this time Naruto was slowly, to everyone else, putting up a much better fight. His left foot managed to even send Sasuke back. Things were picking up as both boys were going at it again. A few people were surprised that Naruto was actually landing a few hits but ultimately, they knew he would be sent down again.

'This mask I wear grows heavy each year, so why do I constantly keep hiding?' Sasuke blocked a right punch before using the dobe's arm to his advantage and tossed him to the other side before continuing his assault. He had to admit that the idiot was doing better than he normally did. It wouldn't matter though since he knew that he would always be better than Naruto. That's just how things have been going throughout their time in the academy. The blonde had moved quickly to the left but fell for the feint attack with Sasuke spinning into an elbow to the temple before a sidekick sent Naruto flying back to the ground. His fanbase began cheering again and Sasuke didn't even try to hold back the smirk on his face as he saw Naruto lay there on the dirt.

'I can afford to drop the mask… just this once…' Naruto thought to himself with his fist clenching before slowly got back up from the ground. He idly heard Iruka saying Sasuke was the winner of their match but he wouldn't let it go like that. Just this once…

"Where are you going Sasuke." Everyone turned to see Naruto glaring towards Sasuke's back as the Uchiha heir turned around with a bored questioning look on his face. Though he couldn't help but feel a slight shiver and gasp escape his lips when he looked into his eyes. Those bright blue orbs were cold and felt as if they were piercing through his very being. "This isn't over yet. I am still standing." Naruto slowly stood tall before narrowing his eyes on him.

"Face me now unless you're a coward."

"Now Naruto, I've already declared this spar over. Sasuke won and..."

"Silence!" Naruto yelled with a strange feeling of authority as his glacial eyes stared down Iruka. The scarred chunin froze in his track as he couldn't shake off the dangerous feeling, he got from looking at those eyes. He wasn't alone in this shock as the whole class was left in surprise. Choji even dropped his bag of chips at what Naruto had just said. Honestly what has gotten into the blonde now? What changed in him?

Naruto turned his head back to the raven-haired boy and got into a stance. Sasuke stared at him incredulously before shaking his head and moved back to the center of the small arena ring. "If you want to lose again so badly, all you had to do was ask dobe." Settling into his own stance the two boys were left into a stare-off. They watched each other carefully trying to find an opening to exploit and use against the other. It was Sasuke who decided to make the first move and end this quickly. He honestly had no idea why the dobe was even trying.

As Sasuke charged at him Naruto took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second and reopened them. Time seemed to move slowly and he could see each twitch in Sasuke's form. This was something Naruto found out he could do. When concentrated enough and his adrenaline was pumping through his veins, he gained a sort of, Hyper Awareness. This kind of awareness was common for shinobi alike since their job descriptions required them to always be on edge and take notice of their surroundings. However, most shinobi only had a heightened awareness of them making it so they that they can obviously keep up with their opponent and react on time. Naruto was different. His awareness reached a level that it was almost like he had the Sharingan but instead of just affecting his eyes it went for all of his main senses, them being touch, sight, sound, and smell. It didn't affect his taste since, let's be honest, who the hell taste the air or their enemy during a fight.

Off in some underground base, a pale long-haired shinobi by the name of Orochimaru sneezed. He had received some new data for some of the experiments that he was conducting and now the paper was ruined with his germs.

Back to the fight, Naruto waited patiently for his egoistical opponent to come closer to him before he made his counter move.

'Right feint into left hook'

Naruto easily predicted and sidestepped the feint before blocking the hook. His counter was a fist straight into Sasuke's kidney causing him to gasp and spit up blood. He hit a lot harder than before.

'Destabilize footing for access to ribcage'

His right foot came kicking Sasuke's left leg causing him to lose balance before Naruto used this to knee his chest and bruising his ribs. Sasuke coughed more before trying to go back on the offensive.

'Anger is evident, the guard is down. Duck wild swing and punish with double shot to chest. Cracking ribs further'

He ducked the Uchiha's left swing before both of his fist came forward directly to his chest. A few people cringe as it seemed they could hear his ribs sound like they were breaking. At this time Sasuke felt like he would lose his breath from the punishment his chest took. As such he wasn't expecting for Naruto's left elbow to come up and hit him in his chin. The blonde used this advantage and began a harsh assault of fists to the face and knee strikes plus kicks to his body. Managing to block one of the hits Sasuke used this to throw hasty attack to hopefully give him some breathing room. His little "plan" failed as Naruto tilted his head to the side and gave him a sidekick that pushed him back.

'Use arms to bring in for headbutt to cartilage'

He grabbed both of Sasuke's arms and pulled him forward before ramming his head into his nose with many cringing further from the sound of hit breaking and the blood that was starting to burst out.

'Finish with sweep kick into an elbow drop. The final assessment will be: broken ribs, broken nose, bruised back, and bruised sides.'

Naruto moved and swept the boy's legs from under him before jumping lightly off the ground and dropped his elbow down hard on Sasuke's chest. The raven-haired boy coughed up blood while not feeling like it was possible for him to stand up after what happened. Everyone watched as Naruto panted lightly before standing up and looked down at Sasuke with cold indifference. Sasuke had one eye barely opened and for a second, he swears he saw his brother standing over him with that same look in his eyes.

He hated that look.

"Let this be a lesson to you. All of you." Naruto started with his eyes now moving towards the rest of the class. Many flinched backward from how he stared upon them with his eyes. These eyes shouldn't have been on their goofball of a classmate. It was wrong and different from what they were used to. "In the real world there is no one who will be there for you always. You won't have someone tell you when a fight is over all the time. You finish that fight. If they can't get up then you can turn your back on them. Until they can't stand back up or are dead then you have no right to say the fight is over."

With his peace said he walked out of the arena leaving Sasuke to lay there in pain before Iruka finally shook the shock off and went to go take the boy to the school infirmary. As Naruto walked by most of his classmates moved out of the way for him. When he came face to face with Hinata he saw her looking down to the ground before holding up a water bottle shyly to him. If she was honest with herself, that whole display somewhat scared her. Whatever change happened in the blonde boy didn't feel right to her but it wouldn't stop her from being kind. Naruto took the bottle gently and gave her a small thanks. Calling for Emiko and Kiko to come with him. Both fox and jaguar got back to their respective places on Naruto before everyone heard the bell ring. Taking that as his cue to leave for the day he left the area without bothering to turn back to look at the many gossiping faces of his classmates.

'This mask I wear has broken. I won't be able to hide who I am for much longer.'

He would worry about everything that would happen because of his actions today later. For now, he needed to get some ramen and relax.

(AND SCENE! Few, that was a long write. Now to not waste time and get to tell you about what exactly will be happening here on this page of mine with my stories.

I am almost done with chapter 5 of Rise of the Inukitsune and after that I will most likely make the 6th chapter and then working on the next chapter for Elemental Uzumaki (probably gonna do 3 new chapters for that one). Then I will move to New Face of Death. After I've updated those stories they will be placed on a sort of back burner and I'll be updating the other stories I started and talked about. I won't get much done for those and will most likely come back to the main three later on.

I'm going to be writing a lot of one-shots sometimes or just little challenge ideas and whoever wants to do them can feel free to message me and take them to do.

I can't wait for the break and get out of school for a good 3 weeks.

Speaking of school, it is my main reason for not working on any stories. I spend all day at my school and then come home late and just want to sleep. It barely gives me time to even play any video games that I want to play for crying out loud! So yeah. I hope you liked this start of a new thing and do leave some reviews for this story. Good Night and live well!

Jangoman signing out!)