Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I don't make any money with it, Kishimoto Masashi does.

Legend:

"Ordinary people talking"

"Ordinary people thinking"

"Demons/Summons"talking

Demons/Summons thinking

WARNING: None

SUMMARY FOR THE WHOLE STORY!!

In the aftermath of the Sandaime's death the council takes the role of leading Konoha till a new Hokage is elected. They use this chance to get ride of the unwanted 'demon brat' and hire an assassin to murder him. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on the point of view, is the assassin no one other than Naruto himself. Well, 'herself' to be truthful, but no one knew that of course.

With a little persuasion on Kyuubi's part Naruto leaves Konoha in the unaccounted, but not unwanted company of Sasuke and Sakura. But travelling with the adopted daughter of the 'King of Demons' that seems to suffer from a hero complex and attracts trouble left and right is not easy and keeping a low profile almost impossible. Soon tales of their heroic deeds will travel the world and more than one village would love to get their claws on the trio.

Akatsuki, Orochimaru, Danzo and his Root, lovesick demons with a desire to become the new king through the hanyou Naruto, are only a few of the problems they will encounter on their way to become the best, especially with Naruto's own uncontrollable demon powers running rampage once in a while.

Their journey will lead them throughout the elemental nations and Naruto will finally learn of her true heritage. Be it the truth about her father or her mother whose strange connection to the county of whirlpool she shares. What secrets are the two sannin hiding?

And then there's the prophecy. The question is will Naruto be able to cope with the destiny that she has been fated with and lead the nations to peace or will the many enemies she collects on her way through live be her undoing and consequently the undoing of the world?

Killing Perfection

by Godwolf Fenrir

Prologue: The calm before the storm

It was a beautiful day, the day after the Sandaime's funeral. The sun stood high in the sky above Konoha, caressing the village and its inhabitants with its gentle rays. While villagers and ninja alike were busy repairing the damage inflicted on the buildings by the Suna/Oto invasion a lone figure sat on top of the Hokage Monument, more specifically the Yondaime's spiky head, mind somewhere else.

Uzumaki Naruto was currently walking the corridors symbolising the seal that held the greatest demon known to humankind. It was not really a homely place with all the pipes lining the sealing and water covering the floor. The dim light didn't help to lighten the atmosphere either. The only one who was normally able to do that with his mere presents and personality was on his way to his 'prisoner'. But instead of the usual 'foxy grin' a worried look adored his face…

"Kyuu," he called out the moment he set foot into the chamber that held the great demon Lord. "You there?"

A snore followed his words bouncing of the walls and creating an ominous echo. "Where else should I be?" Thekitsune growled annoyed. "On a vacation maybe?"

"Who knows what you are doing in here when I'm not around?" The blond remarked shrugging, tiny smirk in place. He simply loved to ruffle the kitsune's fur whenever he got the chance to do so.

Suddenly the shadows behind the bars parted and revealed the most feared being in history. Kyuubi no Yoko manifested himself not in his greatest form but a horse-sized one. Before Naruto could react one of Kyuubis tails lashed out, going straight through the bars and bonked Naruto on the head. Hard.

"Oww! What the hell!?" Naruto yelled, nursing his abused head. "Stupid fox!"

Faster than he could react the same tail lashed out at him once again, bonking him two more times.

"First of all don't, I repeat DO NOT, call me," the demon shivered by the mere thought of it, "KYUU! EVER!"

"But…"

"Secondly," Kyuubi continued, this time growling considerably louder. "Show some respect. I-"

"Yeah, yeah," the blond interrupted , massaging his forehead as if he was suffering from an incoming migraine, effectively cutting the kitsune off before he could even get started. He knew out of experience that the demon liked to hear himself talking and would go on and on and on… and on, when he was not stopped in the beginning. "I already know how great you are. Kami knows you mention it often enough…" Muttering the last part quietly under his breath, fully aware of the fact that the kitsune could still hear him thanks to his far superior senses. Nevertheless Naruto couldn't resist to add one more verbal slap. "Didn't save you from getting your ass sealed, thought."

Luckily instead of pummelling the blond into the ground the demon Lord choose to simply ignore him. He was right after all. No sense in denying the obvious truth.

"Thirdly," Kyuubi continued, changing the conversation into a direction where his ego was more or less save from Naruto and his big mouth. "How often did I tell you not to come in front of me in this hideous disguise!?"

"What have all the people always against my jumpsuit?" Naruto hollered, fake tears running down his face.

Sighting Kyuubi bummed him on the head for the fourth time that day. "I didn't mean that second fur of yours and you know it. Besides I like the color…"

Stopping his antics Naruto grinned at his tenant, eying his reddish-orange fur. "Sure you do. And the answer to your question is two-thousand-eight-hundred-and-ninety-eight times," he replied without a second hesitation. "Including this time of course."

"Stop being such a smart ass," the demon Lord chuckled and let one of his tails wander to Narutos neck, searching for that special spot… "Ahh! There you go." With a flicker of youki Naruto began to change and with him the whole sewer.

The pipes along the walls disappeared along with the darkness and chilling atmosphere. The water that covered the floor remained, but it deepened slightly and cleared to a crystal-blue so one could see the ground below, which changed from hard smooth stone to soft white sand. Little islands rose out of the water covered in soft moss and occasionally a few beautiful colored flowers. Big, well shaped trees grew out of this islands and formed a dense roof of leafs concealing the walls.

Every last one of the leafs gave off a soft green glow while they gently floated in a nonexistent breeze. It was a beautiful landscape that reflected Naruto's gentle and bright nature much better than that Kami forbidden sewer, additionally it was a more appropriate environment for its foxy inhabitant. Even the bars of the cage had changed, well not really but green ivory had wound itself around them, so they did not look so much out of place anymore.

"That's much better," Kyuubi repeated ogling Naruto's new appearance, thought there wasn't much to see. Nearly all the changes were concealed by the baggy orange jumpsuit. Naruto's face was now more heart-shaped, the cheekbones more pronounced and the lips fuller. Under the orange clothes Naruto wore was a well developed body, for a twelve year old girl that is, hidden from view.

"And what do I do when someone saw that?" Naruto inquired, her voice finally matching her gender. "These changes are not restricted to this place, you know!"

"I know, but you seem to forget that that second fur of yours isn't exactly skin tight and your bangs are hiding your face just fine." The demon sat down eyeing the female in front of him with pride. "Besides they will just think that it is your Oiroke no Jutsu and assume that you are playing a prank again."

"I guess you are right, thought Project 'Hokage Mountain make-over' was supposed to be my last prank, my masterpiece, well my last prank that could be tracked back to me at least."

"Sure, but those useless ningen don't know that, now do they?" Kyuubi mused, a dreamy expression entered his features and a contend sight escaped him. "Besides I preferred the pranks you played on Konoha's 'royalty'. Do you remember when you dyed all of the clothes of the Hyuuga main branch orange? Or the time where you changed the red in each and every Uchiha clan symbol to hot pink?"

"Oh yeah!" Naruto exclaimed with a wide grin. "That were the good old days! Thought they never realised that I did it for their own good…"

"For their own good?" Kyuubi asked with a raised eyebrow and more than a spark of interested in his voice. "You mean you didn't do it simply because they were stuck up assholes that needed to be knocked down a few pegs?"

Naruto snorted, rolling her eyes. "That was one of the reasons… don't look at me like that Kyuubi… well fine that was the main reason, but all pranks had a deeper meaning!" Suddenly a more serious look entered her eyes. "It was to show them how bad their security really was… I mean if I could sneak in that easily, any Jonin worth their pay could do it also!"

"True," Kyuubi admitted thoughtful. "Never looked at it that way, probably had too much fun watching them freaking out… But they never realised it either."

"No, they didn't and look where it got them!" Naruto sighed shaking her head gently as if she still couldn't believe their stupidity. "Hinata-chan was nearly kidnapped, Hizashi-san lost his live in the political aftermath and the Uchiha are nearly extinct. All because they were too prideful to admit the obvious fact that the 'demon child' was able to outsmart them and evade their security!"

Kyuubi blinked a few times then a smirk appeared on his muzzle. "You are more like me, or every other demon fox for that matter, than even this idiot villagers accuse you to be, my sly little kitten."

"Thanks I guess, now is only left to decide if that is a good thing or not…"

"True," the kitsune Lord mused. "But that is a matter of perspective, I guess. Thought you are the embodiment of everything that makes a kitsune. I can't wait till you hit puberty fully…"

"Ero kitsune," Naruto growled, crossing her arms over her chest with a glare in the leering kitsune's direction. "I may be cunning, gifted in shape shifting, love pranks and am fairly good looking, but I am no urge driven vixen!"

"Not yet at least," the fox muttered under his breath, innocently swaying his tails. Naruto on the other hand shook her head on the antics of the great Lord, choosing to ignore him and not to comment.

"Well back to topic. You do know why I am here, right?"

"I have my suspicions, how could I not? That council is so predictable that it isn't even funny anymore," Kyuubi chuckled, despite his own words. "Let me hazard a guess. You used my youki against Shukaku-teme, they found out somehow and are now out for blood. Your blood to be exact. Does that sum it up?"

"Yeah, that sums it up quite nicely, thought the method through they hope to achieve their goal is interesting for a change, to say the least."

"Really?" Kyuubi asked surprised. "That really would be something new… No ROOT agent that tries to dispose of you secretly?"

"No," Naruto answered, shaking her head. "They are trying to hire Sesshomaru to do it this time around…"

"Are you serious?" Kyuubi inquired to make sure that he heard not wrong. When he saw Naruto nod and her serious expression he couldn't hold back his laughter. "That is too good to be true!"

"Hmpf, I received or rather found a letter addressed to Sesshomaru in the mission assignment room. The, and I quote, 'High council of Konohagakure no Sato granted you an audience-' blah blah blah. I didn't even know that I asked for an 'audience'!"

Kyuubie chuckled slightly but Naruto continued. "You are chuckling and haven't even heard the best part yet, the part where they 'grant me the great honor to carry out a mission for the good of the village' that was a quote too."

This time the fox Lord couldn't handle it anymore and broke out in full-blown laughter. Only the fact that he was the Lord of the bijou and had to hold up appearance stopped him from rolling around on the floor. "Sweet Kami, they are so full of themselves," he managed to choke out between laughs. "If only they knew!"

"Good thing they don't and I intend to keep it that way," Naruto growled.

"Yeah, that's probably for the best", agreed Kyuubi slowly calming down. "Did they mention what that 'mission for the good of the village' contains?"

"No, they probably feared that someone might get curios that wasn't Sesshomaru and opened the scroll," Naruto mused, tipping her index finger against her chin. "Considering that we are in a shinobi village that fear isn't so farfetched, really. Even thought they suck horribly in looking underneath the underneath, like Kakashi-sensei would put it."

"How true," Kyuubi muttered in agreement. "But why are you coming to me with this?"

"I don't know what to do," the blond admitted. "I have very limited options and none are very appealing. Either Sesshomaru doesn't show up altogether which would surely result in ROOT shinobi coming after both of my identities or Sesshomaru accepts the mission and the 'Kyuubi-gaki' has to 'die'."

"There's another option, you know!" Kyuubi remarked.

"Yeah, but I don't want Naruto to become a nuke-nin either. It would only prove them all right and everything I worked so hard to achieve would have been in vain." Naruto balled her hands into fists shaking with anger at her helplessness. "Besides if I went rogue it would be like giving every last Kyuubi-brat hater a personal invitation to come after me."

Kyuubi snorted, his tails swaying softly behind him.

"As if they would be able to capture you of all people, you are a master of Hensōjutsu (disguise and impersonation), Shinobi-iri (stealth and entering methods) and Intonjutsu (escaping and concealment)."

"Yeah, but that sadly does not mean that I am invincible," Naruto argued. "Sure I'd kick any Chunin's ass hands down in face-to-face combat but a Jonin? Nah, not jet anyways."

"You're probably right," Kyuubi agreed. "We focused in your training on the finer arts of being a ninja so far. Not big, flashy attacks that could level almost anything with one strike." He stood up and paced from left to right, tails swinging in every direction. Sometimes Naruto wondered if the tails had a mind of their own since she had never seen them even brush each other.

"Good thing that that was not what I had in mind," Kyuubi continued.

Naruto relaxed her balled fists and raised a delicate eyebrow. "Then what had you in mind? If you don't mind me asking that is."

"Not at all," the demon purred. He stopped his pacing, turned his head to Naruto and smirked. "You see I had a combination of two of your options in mind."

"And that would be?"

"Well…," Kyuubi drawled. "'Naruto' has to die and 'Sesshomaru' has to leave. Simple as that."

"Could it be that you did not listen to me, like two minutes ago, because I was sure I said that I didn't want to leave!"

"Oh, I heard you, all right," Kyuubi replied calmly absolutely unfazed with her screaming. "Sadly there is no way around that. If Sesshomaru doesn't take the mission, somebody else surely will. And Naruto can't magically avoid every attack without them getting suspicious." Kyuubi searched Naruto's face, especially her eyes, for a reaction. What he saw didn't please him at all. An array of motions flashed over her face: anger, betrayal, even fear. She looked defeated with her head bowed, eyes downcast. A look that was not meant for her, everyone but her.

"I have to admit that my heart isn't into it, but I have to consider that it is most likely for the best," Naruto spoke, eyes full of unshed tears barely held back. "I would be able to finally train without fearing that somebody would stumble upon me, I could finally start on higher class ninjutsu and youki training."

"Yes," Kyuubi confirmed, getting as close to her as the bars would allow. "You could help people like you did in Nami no Kuni. And someday you could even return here, I'm sure." He carefully wrapped his tails around her, hugging her to his furry chest. That was all that it took for Naruto to crack. She clutched his fur in an almost desperate hold, sobbing quietly. "Hopefully Konoha will then no longer be ruled by old uptight bastards who can not see the difference between a demon Lord and an angel. Naruto this is not farewell forever, only for now." Kyuubi placed his head on her shoulder and let her cry into his fur. It was an uncomfortable situation for the demon. He was a being of destruction, the embodiment of inferno, but when he made the decision to adopt her as his own a few years back he accepted that things like this would be his duty too. It was no longer only the seal on Naruto's belly that connected them, it was something much deeper, a connection forged by an ancient ritual that Kyuubi nearly cost his existence.

Sure, Kyuubi the great Lord of all demons was still a monster hell-bent on destruction, but even the most terrifying and murderous being had a soft spot. For Kyuubi it just so happened to be his prison.

Kyuubi chuckled in his own head. "I remember it now… at first I thought it was the Stockholm syndrome, sympathising with my jailor but then, as I watched her live, 'feeling' what she felt, watching her get up every time somebody pushed her down… It was then that I realised something… something very important…" He leaned his head against hers, tightening his hold once more. "That realisation ultimately saved my existence. How ironic…"

"Thank you Kyuubi tou-san," Naruto mumbled into his fur but the kitsune's sharp ears were able to pick it up none the less. Naruto reluctantly loosened her grip on him and he did the same. She wiped her eyes and smiled at him. "At least I get to see the world, meet new people and learn new things… but I will come back." Her smile went suddenly from happy to downright evil. "Even if it is only to rub it in their faces that I am then the greatest Shinobi in the world! Even greater than the Sandaime or Yondaime!" Naruto proclaimed seriously.

"Sure kitten," Kyuubi agreed, slightly shivering. "But could you first stop smiling like that? You are scaring me. ME! That is just a tad bit disturbing…"

"Now you are exaggerating…"

"Maybe, but it does not change the fact that the evil side is not your thing. You better remain in the light."

"Says the one who should be trying to convince me to join him on the dark path."

"While that is true it wouldn't be worth it…," Kyuubi answered, waving one of his paws in dismissal. "You would give the dark side a bad image."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto asked dangerously low.

"Oh, nothing…. Nothing at all."

Both realised that their argument was absolutely pointless, but it lightened the mood and that was all that counted for the moment. Thought the following uncomfortable silence wasn't helpful at all.

"So," Kyuubi began once again. "When is that council meeting supposed to take place?" He hated that he had to asked that question, but they had to organise a few things before then.

"Sundown," was all that she said.

"Well, then we should get started," Kyuubi exclaimed in a horrible cheerful voice. "When you are outside again make a few Kagebunshin and henge them into different people. Then send them to make a few errands. We need food for the journey and extra weapons."

"Hai, but were should we go?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Hm…Tanzaku Gai would be a good stop," Kyuubi replied thoughtfully after a few moments. "We need money for the journey and since you never took the money for the missions you undertook as Sesshomaru we are currently a little shorthanded, besides with your luck the fastest and easiest way to get a large sum of money is in a gambling hall."

Naruto tapped her chin apparently deep in thought. "That's not such a bad idea, I heard they have this amazing castle that I always wanted to see… Well then that's settled, Tanzaku Gai it is!"

Without another word Naruto faded out of existence, meaning that she had left the seal. Kyuubi sighted deeply, closed his eyes and shook his head slowly. Even thought Naruto seemed happy again as she left, he knew deep down she was not. She played the role of the happy-go-lucky idiot for so long that it came almost naturally to her. She masked her emotions better than any ANBU, but that didn't mean that that was a good thing. Maybe leaving Konoha would permit to heal her broken heart somewhat, because finally the real Naruto would be able to show herself without having to fear what others might say or do.

"Someday this idiots will regret what they've done," Kyuubi thought, gritting his sharp teeth as he watched the beautiful forest turning once again into a dark sewer. "Someday Narutos true heritage will be revealed, thought I wonder how Naruto will react when the truth is revealed to her… I really hope that it won't crush her completely…"

"Stupid council," Naruto cursed under her breath, her eyes fluttering open. She scowled in annoyance reapplying her special henge. Slowly she rose to her feet, eyes travelling to the village below her and she could feel her heart clench. This would be the last time she would see the village, her home, in a very long time. Despite everything she still loved Konoha with all her heart and would do anything for it and its inhabitants. Even leave.

"Will somebody miss me?" The blond whispered into the wind, sadness evident in her voice. "Anybody?" The wind suddenly picked up, gentle blowing around her. Without thinking Naruto leaned into the caress enjoying the feeling of the warm air on her skin. Spreading her arms and letting her orange jacket flutter in the wind, she looked into the sky. It was still blue and the sun still shone brightly, but one could hear rumbling in the distance. In more than one way was the calm before the storm about to end.

TBC

Translations:

hai-yes

gaki-brat

kitsune- fox

tou-san- father

ningen - human

nuke-nin -rogue ninja

Sesshomaru- graceful/perfect killing

Author's Note:

INFO ON KITSUNE

Stories tell of kitsune playing tricks on overly proud samurai, greedy merchants, and boastful commoners.

Other common goals of trickster kitsune include seduction, theft of food, humiliation of the prideful, or vengeance for a perceived slight.

Kitsune keep their promises and strive to repay any favor.

See ya next time an please review!