A Different Path

Living In The Present

Naruto's POV

Naruto jumped from tree to tree.
"So what are we supposed to do, again?" Kurama yawned lazily, being able to fall asleep in any moment.
"The Raikage assigned me to a stealth mission. We need to extract intell from a gang of missing nins by any means necessary. The information can be used against the whole world, not only the Hidden Cloud." Naruto informed him.

"Eh, life's a bitch. Any other details I need to know about?" The Tailed Beast rolled his eyes. Naruto was the one to actually complete the missions, but Kurama would always help him by giving him chakra in the worst cases, and offering support. They would think everything through, together, and come up with plans. But in the end, Naruto got all the glory and fame from completing almost-suicide missions and wiping out S ranked ninjas from the Bingo Book. And that pissed off the big, grumpy fox.

"I should just enter Sage Mode instead of searching the whole Land of Lighting." Naruto sat down and brought his hands on his hips, closing his eyes. A few minutes passed while Kurama annoyingly tapped his claws on the Tailed Beast psyche wet floor. The upper part of the blond's eyelids turned a reddish orange while his cerulean eyes transformed into sandy yellow ones, just like a frog's. Ahem, just like a toad's.
"Alright. Let's see." He sensed multiple chakra networks around him in a five mile radius. A few mammals, lots of insects and finally, three shinobi. But the one in the lead had a dark aura around him and a huge amount of chakra, almost as big as Naruto's. Almost.

"Are you getting the same feeling?" Naruto looked up to the big fox.
"Yeah. And I don't like it. You know what it resembles to." Kurama ruffled his fur, a shiver running down his furry spine.
"Orochimaru's Cursemark." The blond concealed his own chakra and headed towards the group, under the cover of the leaves.
He walked a few minutes in utter silence until he heard muffled voices in the distance.
"... Shouldn't we open the scroll and see what we're involved in?" One of the two scrawny ones spoke up.
"Idiot. Lord Orochimaru specified clearly not to open the scroll. And we're going to respect his wish, understood?" The shinobi with the dark aura glared at them, earning terrified gulps and sweatdrops. He had layers of well-built muscles and looked a little like a wolf, his glistening green eyes containing killer intent which could scare off even the most stubborn and proudest toad. His bark-brown hair was put together in a braided bun, a few rogue strings jumping out of it.

"Hmm.. That one seems to be in charge. What will you do?" Kurama evaluated the situation.
"I'd rather get rid of those two first, who seem to be loudmouths. Then I corner the hillbilly and pull every detail out of him, the easy way or the hard way. It depends on him." Naruto smirked in a sadistic manner.
"It seems like a good plan to me." The Tailed Beast chuckled, scrunching his silky, fox nose. Naruto tip-toed behind the group and sliced the throat of the one who was the first to speak. He could have killed them with a simple blast if his Sage Mode hadn't worn off. And usually, he wouldn't have killed them. But these guys had murdered lots of innocent people.
"What?! What's happening?! It can't-" Naruto cut open the other's throat too before he could freak out even more.

He fell to the ground with a shocked face, warm blood dripping from his fatal wound. And so was Naruto's first, unfortunate victim. The blond stood before the third man who seemed quite surprised. But that wasn't the only feeling reflecting on his eyes. And it wasn't fear, oh no, no. It was pure excitement.
"Finally, someone worth fighting." He smirked like somebody who's recently won the lottery. Naruto cleaned the blood off his kunai with the edge of his right sleeve, fluttering it in the air afterwards to wipe away the remaining liquid.
"Excited, aren't we?" The Leaf nin's face remained emotionless.

"Prepare to fight the mighty Akira!" He roared like a madman, his eyes bubbling out of his face.
"This might turn out to be a little longer than expected." Naruto sighed with his arms crossed on his chest, facing Kurama in the Tailed Beast psyche.
"We don't have time to lose. Use my chakra and wrap this up quickly." Naruto did as he was told and let out a little of the red chakra, as a huge shockwave, blasting Akira away. He fell down with a loud thud that knocked all the air out of his lungs. He didn't even get to show off with the Cursemark Orochimaru had given him. How sad.

Naruto dusted himself and walked over to the unconscious man at his feet.
"So much for mighty and powerful..." He muttered out loud. The blond put his hand on the guy's forehead and closed his eyes. He then opened them as the red ones Kurama possesses.
"I actually wanted to see his Cursemark.. It could have been pretty interesting, you know?" Naruto pouted like a little puppy.
"You've been having a lot of mood swings, lately. Creepy." Kurama narrowed his eyes.
"Yeah. But you still love me." He made a kissy-kissy face, even though it wasn't his style at all. He knew his Tailed Beast was secretly worrying about him, about him changing into some emotionless robot and tried to show him, occasionally, that he could still feel, just to calm his worries. Naruto focused on the task at hand and searched Orochimaru's pawn's mind. Nothing particularly useful.

"Wait.. The scroll." He snapped the guy's neck and grabbed the scroll laying somewhere near the first kill. Naruto broke the seal and opened it. Inside laid jutsu formulas he vaguely recognized.
"But this is.. The Reanimation Justu. A forbidden jutsu created by the Second Hokage. I guess it's something Orochimaru picked up on the way. And this feeling.." His thoughts trailed off.
"It's him. But what could he be doing with that snake's jutsu?" Kurama joined, equally concerned and interested.

"If not.. Kurama! Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" The fox nodded his head with a distant gaze. "They're trying to reanimate Madara Uchiha. Orochimaru gets to destroy his former village and he gets the Rinnegan. T-"
"We're screwed." Kurama interruped him, sighing.
"I would have said it a little more nicely but I guess that works out. And if they want to reanimate an Uchiha.." Naruto's cerulean eyes widened slightly.
".. Then they need to get to the Hidden Leaf Village."

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Heya! What's up everyone? I guess you're wondering who's that him guy aren't ya? Well, let me tell you that you might actually know him. You'll find out eventually, don't worry. Oh, and I need to ask you something. Please tell me if my grammar is wrong 'cuz I'm not a native, okay? Anyway:
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~Until then!~
~Bella~
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