• Darkness spread across his vision, everything turning hazy with rain, but he had to move on. He couldn’t, no, he wouldn’t, stay in Konoha any longer. The council had branded him criminally insane, a danger to the village. That had happened weeks ago, and he just managed to escape. He needed to keep going… the gates were straight ahead…

    ‘NO!’ he cried in his mind as he slipped. ‘I will not go back!!’ He picked himself off the hard, wet ground and started forward again. He put every last ounce of strength into making it out of the gates. He then jumped onto a tree branch and ran until he fell.

    Naruto Uzumaki has just become a missing Nin.

    One startled Itachi Uchiha looked up from the rabbit he had just killed.

    ‘Chakra. Familiar chakra at that.’

    He transformed, tied the rabbit to his belt, and set off in the direction of the chakra. (What?! Like hell he was just going to leave it here! He worked hard to kill that stupid thing!!) Itachi started to move quicker. He could smell the blood in the air, and the chakra signal, while staying stationary, had begun to weaken.

    ‘Blood. And lots of it. Whoever’s chakra that is must be dead or dying. But… why is it familiar?’

    Itachi made a mental list of who it could possibly be.

    ‘It can’t be Sasuke’s, so who else could it be? It’s not Hidan’s or Kakuzu’s, nor is it Sasori’s. Is it Deidara? No, not quite…explosive enough. Orochimaru and Paine are dead, so it couldn’t possibly be them. Same with Tobi and Kisame. It’s definitely not the Sabakuno kid’s either. It’s not creepy enough… so who could it be? ’

    During Itachi’s (exceedingly long) inner monologue, he had reached the clearing in which the mysterious chakra was contained. (Somewhat morbid) Curiosity overcame caution, and after flicking a kunai and two shurikan into his hands, he entered the clearing.

    Now, entering the clearing meant no protection against enemy ninja and the (now pouring) rain, so Itachi decided to make his little (unauthorized) rendezvous short. He hated getting wet. For goodness sakes, he should have been a freakin’ werecat, not a werewolf.

    Having shaken himself out of his thoughts (again..), Itachi edged around the, well, edge of the clearing and made his slow, edgy way to a lump of white and red cloth. Crouching down, he picked up a stick and poked it. The thing let out a soft cry of pain, and curled up into a ball. He poked it again. It curled up tighter. Damn. Whatever it was, it was still alive. And mumbling words in some strange dialect…

    “Помощь… не позволяйте им получать меня! Это повреждает... НЕТ!!!!!!"

    Slightly alarmed, both at the words and the familiar-yet-strange chakra, Itachi took a step back. Then took a step forward. And another step forward. He knelt beside… whatever it was, gently grabbed it by the shoulders (maybe), and flipped it over. Golden hair fell in front of (rather exotic) features contorted in pain. Six black whisker scars were made to stand out even more by the now pale skin.

    ‘Satisfied, Curiosity?’

    Itachi’s it was now a he. And his name was Naruto Uzumaki.

    Itachi Uchiha, one of the most powerful ninja ever, was shocked speechless. Naruto Uzumaki, Naruto Uzumaki, was lying on the ground before him, beaten within an inch of his life. Naruto Uzumaki, the 15-year-old carrier of the Kyuubi. Naruto Uzumaki, who had kicked his a** for hurting emo-king-of-the-year Sasuke.

    Damn.

    Just the first part...