Naruto and (The Last Assassin's)

The streets of Konoha were quiet, a single leaf drifting down from the surrounding forest. Footsteps suddenly echoed off of the walls in the central part of the village. A man ran panting into the village square, moonlight gleaming off of his sweat-soaked silver hair and his Konoha hitae-ate as he slowed to a stop, pushing his wire-frame glasses back up his nose. 'I think I finally lost it.' He thought to himself. 'Now, I need to find the other members of my team and report back to Otogakure before it finds me again.' Having recovered enough to start moving again, he turned and got ready to leap onto the rooftops. Before he could take a single step, he heard a slight *click* behind him. The man reacted swiftly, his actions betraying his fear. He spun around, took a step back, and drew a kunai knife all in one movement. His eyes widened as he took in the full appearance of his tormentor.
A tall figure stood before him, dressed in a pure white cloak, cinched closed with a red sash and a golden belt that had the hilts of several small knives showing. The figure wore buckled combat boots over its feet, and a strangely shaped hood, one that swept forward to a point over its forehead, shadowing its face. The most frightening aspect of its appearance, however, was the blank ceramic mask that concealed its features, a mask that was normally worn by a villages hunter-nin squads. This particular mask, however, did not have a village symbol. Instead this mask had a symbol he had never seen before. The bizarre symbol resembled a letter "A", only without the cross stroke and had what looked like a cestus underneath it.
The man smiled and put his weapon away when the figure remained motionless. 'I guess it means me no harm after all.' The man thought after a few minutes as he calmly stepped towards the figure. The man stopped dead when the figure tilted its head at him, as though pondering a question. Before the man could step away again, the figure reached out and, in a move the man could barely see, grabbed the man's throat. Shocked and frightened, the man grabbed the figure's arm, in an attempt to pull the hand from his throat. Before he could however, he heard a pop, felt a sudden pain, and then everything went dark. The figure laid the body on the ground, pulled something from its cloak, threw it into the air, and pinned it to a nearby wall with a straight-bladed throwing knife. The figure then turned and vanished into the night as if it had never been. The moonlight shone down on the sleeping village, a village that would soon know that Tamashii no Naruto, The Spirit of the Maelstrom, had struck again.
AN: This will be a prequel for the main story which will start next chappie.
Also: Kudos to anyone who could possibly miss who the victim was. I swear, I made it as obvious as I could without just naming him. :p
Naruto Uzumaki was tired. The four year old had been running for what seemed like hours, but he dared not stop and rest. As he ran, he thought back to what had led him to this point. He remembered thinking that if he kept to himself and didn't attract attention to himself, that he would be able to go and enjoy the festival for the first time in his life. That line of thinking had vanished the moment that the first drunk saw him. Before he could get back to the relative safety of his new apartment, a large mob had formed, screaming their intent to "finish what the Yondaime started." For the past 45 minutes, the mob had been steadily pressing him southwest, directly toward the city wall, where he would be trapped against the large wall and at the mercy of the crowd f blood-thirsty villagers. To is knowledge, however, there was one place he could go to hide, but it wouldn't be very pleasant, he could head into the one place nobody would follow him, Training Area 44, The Forest of Death. If he managed to get inside, he could head to the tower in the center of the forest in an effort to find Anko Mitarashi, the caretaker of the forest and second-in-command of the ANBU Torture and Interrogation department. Unpleasant or not, any escape was better than the future he currently faced, so when the chain-link fence that marked the forest's borders started to blur past, he shocked his pursuers by veering toward it, scaling the fence at speeds that even jonin would have trouble matching. The mob watched in stunned disbelief as the young boy disappeared into the depths of the infamous Mitarashi's Playground. The boy knew that there were no civilians, and few shinobi that would willingly follow him, so he was safe for the time being. After resting for 15 minutes, he started to walk deeper into the forest, heading for the center of the forest and the tower where he knew he'd find the young tokubetsu jonin.
He had been walking for almost an hour, when he suddenly heard a deep voice in the depths of his mind. "Stop here." He stopped in recognition, having met the Kyuubi no Kitsune almost a year earlier, as a result of a particularly bad poisoning attempt. The demon would never admit it, but the boy's attitude during the incident had impressed it and it now held a kind of grudging respect for its young jailer. 'Do you sense something?' Naruto asked internally. "Something seems off about the tree to your left, you might try wiping some blood on it in case there is some kind of seal" the Fox replied "I sense something familiar nearby, but I can't pinpoint it, but it seems to be in the general direction of that tree." Trusting the demon's words, Naruto reached over to the tree in question and wiped his bloodied hand across the rough bark, only to jump back as a very complex and intricate seal appeared on the tree, glowing a bright white. The boy's eyes widened as the tree slowly melted away, leaving a marble trapdoor in its place. Naruto slowly approached the slab of stone, ignoring the feeling of smug satisfaction emanating from the Fox. Noticing that it was carved with the same seal that had appeared on the tree, he wiped his still-bloody hand across the stone, eliciting the same white glow, along with the sound of multiple mechanisms unlocking. Gripping the metallic handle with both hands, he lifted with all his strength. Slowly the stone door grated upward, until it was high enough for him to slip under. Lighting a match, he placed it under the marble door, noting the curved stairwell that appeared. He was about to shake out the match and proceed to the tower, where he would inform Anko, when he suddenly sensed unfamiliar and hostile chakra signatures approaching him from all directions. In a panic, he slid into the staircase and quietly slid the stone back into place. As soon as the stone was flush with the ground, he saw several steel bars slide into notches in the stone with a click, locking the stone slab into place. Anyone who would be watching from outside would have seen the carved seal flare a bright blue, than fade away leaving the tree in place again, as if it had never left.
Meanwhile, Naruto had started to descend the staircase, not noticing the small seals carved into the walls glowing a bright blue, then fading away as he passed them by, when a question suddenly popped into his mind, 'Hey Kyuubi, What exactly is this place anyway?' "Kit, I cannot be sure, but I believe that this is the Lost Sanctuary, a place where two important artifacts are said to be hidden, sealed away from the world until such time as they are needed again." the Fox explained. "Legend has it, that hundreds of years ago, in the 15th century, a man named Ezio Auditore da Firenze traveled from a very distant land, coming here, to what would later be the Elemental Nations. It is said that he brought two very valuable treasures with him, artifacts that had united his people and brought peace to the land. According to legend, Ezio brought them here, where he built The Sanctuary, a maze of rooms and traps, built to both conceal and protect these artifacts. I can't say for sure, but I believe that you have stumbled into The Sanctuary, the long-lost hiding place of the treasures of The Brotherhood."
By this time, Naruto had reached the end of the stairwell and was now standing in front of a large, intricately carved door. 'Kyuubi, what do you know about these treasures, do you know what they are?' he asked. "Kit, the stories don't give very much information, but I have been able to find a little bit of information. According to legend, the first treasure is a very ancient scroll called the Assassins Creed. The Creed was supposed to be the moral guidelines that the Brotherhood was to follow, their code of honor, if you will. The creed was first instituted by the legendary Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, the legendary Grand Master of the Assassin Order. The second treasure is less spectacular, but no less important, the famed Assassins Library, formerly hidden in their fortress in Masyaf. The Library was said to contain all the knowledge that the Assassin Order collected over thousands of years. It is said that one could learn anything and everything in the Library, up to and including." The Fox paused for dramatic effect. "Their fabled fighting style, the Shinpetekiken, the Mysterious Fist."
By the time the Fox had finished explaining, Naruto had explored most of the underground complex. First, he had discovered a bunking area that appeared large enough to comfortably house ten or fifteen men. About twenty minutes later, he had come across a mess hall that had enough provisions stocked to last him several years before he would have to go shopping again. Another half-hour had seen him find an armory, one that contained an astounding amount of weapons, both on display over the walls and stored away in wooden crates. He had then found what he assumed were the master suites, a large bunking area and one that he promptly decided would be his sleeping quarters. Ten minutes later, he uncovered a massive steel-lined room that he assumed was a training area or a dojo of some kind.
His next discovery left both him and Kyuubi speechless. He had opened a pair of truly massive oak doors and had stepped into an enormous library; one that he later discovered took up nine massive rooms, each dedicated to a particular art. The first three rooms covered assassin teachings, taijutsu, and genjutsu, while the remaining rooms covered the six different styles of ninjustu; normal, katon, suiton, raiton, doton, and futon, the elemental styles of fire, water, earth, wind and lightning each having detailed jutsu scrolls to facilitate learning. The nine rooms were filled with scrolls detailing every jutsu both well-known and forgotten. In short, Naruto decided, it was a shinobi's dream, a truly massive library were he could learn any jutsu that had ever been taught. Ten minutes found him walking down a hallway, its walls covered in such intricate seals that even the Kyuubi couldn't understand them. That came as a surprise, as the Kyuubi had been able to identify every security seal so far, but for one as ancient as him to not be able to identify them was a chilling change.
He had been inspecting a large, ornately carved, gold-plated, oaken door, when he suddenly heard the deep mental voice of the nine-tailed demon. "Kit, I've been watching from your eyes, and it seems to me, that this is a very nice base. You could potentially live here for many years before having to show yourself. In fact, if I understand your situation correctly, you could even let the fools back in the village think that you are dead, while you live and train down here for years." Naruto paused in his work and answered the Fox 'You know, you may be right, Fox. That mob clearly saw me run straight into the most dangerous training ground in the entire village. It would be only too easy for the Council to label me dead without having a body. In fact they would probably assume that I was killed and eaten by some wild animal, making an identifiable body impossible to recover. And you are correct about my supplies, by my most accurate estimate, I have enough food, lodging, and training materials to live in comfort for, at the very least, seven years. At the most, I can live down here for a full ten years in complete comfort.' With that, he pushed open the door and strode confidently inside. Inside, he found a large, circular chamber with three doors exiting it, one in front, and one on each side. Going to the first door, he tried to open it, pushing with all his strength, only for nothing to happen. Moving quickly, he went to the other doors, only for the same thing to happen. He then noticed a raised dais in the center of the room. Going to it, he noticed that the dais held a single pedestal, one that stood in the exact center of the dais. On the pedestal, he saw a single, unfurled scroll. Walking over to the scroll he read it aloud. The Trickster, the Riddler, the One who keeps The Balance. The One who possesses many faces. He who finds Life in Death and who fears no evil. He of the Diamond Soul. Only He who solves my riddle and proves himself worthy may proceed and find the greatest of all treasures. 'I never was, am always to be. No one ever saw me, nor ever will. And yet, I am the confidence of all, to live and breathe on this terrestrial ball. What am I?' Naruto stood silently, pondering the question, for several minutes. Suddenly he remembered the Third Hokage speaking to him after he had met the Kyuubi, after he had feared that he was the demon in some way. Lord Third had calmly listened to the boy's fears while he thought of a way to calm him down. After Naruto had expressed all of his fears and anxieties, the reigning third Hokage had a simple solution to the problem, a quote that the boy now spoke. "He who fights monsters had best be wary, lest, through his actions, he should become a monster himself. In explanation, darkness is not inherently evil, nor is light inherently good. Riddle, your answer is the one thing, the thin line, that separates the hero from the monster; the promise of the future." An ageless voice sounded out, seemingly coming from everywhere at once, "Congratulations are in order. Young hero, you are the first person in many hundreds of years to solve my riddle. Now you may advance, but be wary, for now you shall face your true test." With that, there was the sound of three deadbolts unlocking all at once, the sounds echoing in the silence. Taking a moment to compose himself, Naruto strode calmly up to the center door and pushed it open, revealing a long hallway. Moving down the hallway, he soon found an oak door that was covered in a thin layer of carved gold leaf.
Moving forward, before his nerve failed, he pushed the door open stopping dead at the sight within. A double line of strange men stood in an honor guard before the door. The specters all wore the same outfit; a long white hooded cloak shadowed their features, an ornately carved gold belt serving to cinch the cloak closed while holding several small throwing knives. A white mask served to conceal the men's features. Beyond the men stood a single pedestal, near which another spirit stood, dressed in an identical fashion as the others, but wearing a mask of pure gold rather than the ivory of the others. As Naruto reached the pedestal, he saw that it contained a single, unfurled scroll, one that looked incredibly old. The scroll held a single passage, the ink so faded, it could hardly be read. The boy read the passage, and as he read, he heard a multitude of voices call out, as if answering him. "When other men perform senseless acts of cruelty, remember to never stain your blade with the blood of the innocent. When other men would draw attention to themselves, remember to hide in plain sight. When loyalty is in short supply, remember to never betray the Brotherhood." The specters began to recite the passage along with him. "Where other men blindly follow the truth, remember that nothing is true. When other men are limited by morality or law, remember that everything is permitted. We work in the dark, in service to the light. We are those who walk the razor's edge between good and evil, and keep balance between the two. We are the Assassin Order. We are Assassins." As he finished, silence reigned as the specters vanished, leaving only the young ningen and the gold-masked specter in the room. "Altaïr." Naruto spoke the name with a sense of deep respect. The shadowy figure nodded its head as a deep and powerful voice filled the room. "Indeed, young ningen, I am Altaïr Ibn La'Ahad, Grand Master of the Assassin Order. I know your name as well, young Naruto, son of Minato, heir to the Uzumaki and Namikaze Clans and now Heir to the Assassin Order. However, I would know what your plans are. Will you seek out your Hokage and hand our Sanctuary over to the Shinobi? Or will you accept our creed and our teachings? What is your path, young Jinchuuriki? You know that your village believes you to have perished in the forest above, and is currently holding a great festival in celebration of your "successful"assassination. Your villages Hokage has had his men search the forest from top to bottom in search of your body, however, finding nothing, you have been declared as Killed In Action, in service to the village. You now stand at a crossroads, you can return when you have completed your shinobi training and your assassin apprenticeship. I will now leave you to your choice and await your decision." With that, the spirit stepped away, leaving the boy to his thoughts. After ten minutes, the young apprentice had made his decision. Walking up, he spoke directly to the spirit, "Altaïr, son of none, it would be an honor to train under you. I vow that by the time my studies have completed, I will have mastered all of the hidden arts that the Order has collected." The specter then answered, "Naruto, son of Minato, I, Altaïr Ibn La'Ahad, Grand Master of the Assassin Order, hereby accept your apprenticeship. Now come, my student, there is much work to be done." With that, both master and apprentice faded and disappeared, leaving only an empty room.
A/N – And now the groundwork is set for Naruto's training. The training is going to cover the next chapter.
Thx for the reviews especially one marshmallow jam, who I thank profusely for the long and detailed "training note." XD To EbonPurlight – the previous chapter was only as short as it was because it was only a prologue. Finally a request – I need as many jutsu, both canon and ideas for original created, as you guys and girls can send. This is so that I can properly train Naruto next chappie.