Naruto the Scarecrow

Chapter 3

Naruto gulped, he knew that Kurama was asking a lot but he also knew he was right. He had to do this, he just had to.

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Naruto spent the next four days practicing Kurama's nature transformation. It was hard work and in that entire time Naruto could only make fire chakra appear on the palm of his right hand. It resembled a small unstable ball of fire flickering as if a strong breeze would snuff it out. Kurama also told him to try and walk up the side of his cell with chakra. At the start he couldn't even stick to it, but with continual practice he eventually managed to stand on the wall with his right hand aflame.

Naruto also inspected every part of his cell that he could reach. The walls were solid and the steel bars too strong for him to budge, even with Kurama's chakra gloves. There was no way to escape his cell and he had no chance of beating his captors when they fetched him for his fights. Naruto would just have to keep doing what he was told for the moment until he had a good chance for freedom. 'If I had managed to trick him into freeing me, the cell would have no hope in keeping me here but now I am sworn to help Naruto and freeing me now would kill him."

Kurama knew that he had skipped a large chunk of Naruto's actual ninja training. It would've been far easier if he could teach him ninjutsu but he didn't know how. Using hand signs to cast a flame would be infinitely easier than dropping him into the deep end and starting with nature transformation but Kurama couldn't do that; he had no idea what the actual hand signs looked like. On the plus side, if he did manage to escape and get back to Konoha, Naruto would be the strongest six year old in the entire village. He would pick up their teachings in ninjutsu faster since his chakra control would be at a higher level than others his age.

The injury suffered from the brand was healing slowly. It still hurt a lot but in four days Kurama had managed to heal it as if two weeks had past. The mark itself was nothing special, just a plain circle four centimetres in diameter located roughly two centimetres above his left kidney. In order for the mark to scar, Kurama was forced to slow his healing factor down to a crawl.

The sound of his door being unlocked caught Naruto's attention. He looked towards it and spied Akari looking back at him with a sadistic grin.

"Hope you're feeling better brat, it's fighting day for you,"

Naruto swallowed, he didn't know if he had trained enough for another fight. He also knew that Akari would not give him a choice in the matter, so he sighed and walked over to his door, following Akari all the way to then into the pit.

Naruto could see his opponent across on the other side. It looked like a twelve year old boy with an ugly scar running down the left side of his face but apart from that he was utterly unremarkable.

"Naruto, do you want me to take control here? I do not believe you have trained enough yet," questioned Kurama.

"Let me have at least a minute or two. If I'm going to get stronger I will need to fight my own battles and not rely on you to save me," Naruto replied, a touch sombrely.

"Okay but remember what we discussed. Surprise and speed without exposing yourself."

Naruto eyed his opponent with a grim expression.

"FIGHT!" the announcement for action came through.

Naruto breathed out spreading out his legs evenly and raising his hands up. Naruto was watching his opponent charge towards him. Waiting until his opponent was almost upon him Naruto concentrated on his right hand and fire burst into life in his palm. He thrust his right palm forward into the chest of his opponent with as much speed and strength as he could manage without losing his balance. The older boy screamed in pain and backed away several paces, clutching at his chest in agony. Naruto could see the indent of his strike seared into skin.

Not letting this opportunity go to waste, Naruto stepped forward and grabbed the other boy's face with his burning right hand. Cries echoed throughout the underground arena as Naruto scorched his opponent's eyes. Stepping back as the blinded boy started flailing about randomly; Naruto flanked the poor boy and started choking him to death with his left arm wrapped around his throat. A tormented choking could be heard as the boy desperately struggled to breath. Sub-consciously, Naruto's arm relieved some of the pressure. Despite his earlier resolve, killing another boy had affected him too deeply. However, Naruto only received a painful elbow to his ribs for his moment of mercy. Steeling himself, Naruto choked the boy even harder than before. Even with the nails digging into his forearm, Naruto didn't let up on the pressure and the boy's life slipped away.

Naruto let the limp body fall away as he stepped back. The all too familiar feeling of disgust rose inside him but Naruto quickly shoved it away, into the dark corner of his mind. He couldn't afford to fall apart now, not when he actually had a friend to lose. As Naruto continued to suppress his emotions, a distinct numbness started in his hands and feet. Naruto didn't really pay it much heed, 'Perhaps this is what strong people feel? Lack of feeling makes it easier to fight.' This new sensation wasn't physical; it was all mental as a result of Naruto giving himself physiological damage as he suppressed his feelings of disgust, sadness and anger.

Kurama himself was disturbed. 'Perhaps all the suffering Naruto has endured broke him? Or these circumstances are forcing him to become a colder person? A boy of six shouldn't be having these kinds of thoughts. I did promise to make him stronger but at what cost? Will the boy who wouldn't let sadness stop his smile have to die so that we don't have to undergo any more pain?'

Kurama knew that these kinds of questions would never be answered but he still could not help but feel regret at the death of Naruto's innocence. "I have to ensure that he doesn't become some kind of crazed cold-blooded killer, who wipes out life without a second thought."