22 Wrath

"Hey, old man, what do you need from me so early in the morning?" Naruto asked the Hokage once he arrived in his office.

"Straight to the point, I see. Well, my boy, I would like to offer you to join the Anbu." Hiruzen answered him.

"The Anbu?" Questioned the blonde.

"Yes. Konoha's Special Assassination and Tactical Squad. The reason why I told you not to use your Magic with your teammates is so that I can give you this choice. Your special abilities would perfectly fit the Anbu, and this way we can try to keep them a secret from those inside and outside the village for as long as possible." The Hokage explained.

"And what other benefits are there beside that?" The Uzumaki asked.

"You will be sent on harder, higher rank missions with a bigger reward. You..." Hiruzen started explaining about the benefits before he was interrupted by Naruto.

"I'm in." A bigger reward was all he needed to hear before his Dragon instincts took over. The prospect of getting more 'treasure' was irresistible to the blonde.

"You're in?" The Hokage questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"I will be paid more, right?" Naruto asked back.

"Yes." Replied Hiruzen, amused that this was his reason for joining.

"Then I want to join." The blonde declared and asked. "When do I start, and what do I need to know?"

"You will need to learn quite a few things, but you can start right now. I have already picked an easier mission for you. We have received a report that a village in our country was recently attacked by bandits. They have captured more than a dozen villagers and are currently hiding somewhere in a forest near the village. Your task is to find the bandits and save the prisoners." The Hokage explained the job. Normally, such an easy mission wouldn't be given to an Anbu member, but Naruto needed practical experience more than anything else.

Hiruzen pulled out an Anbu garb, a porcelain Dragon mask, and a tanto from under his desk and presented them to the Uzumaki. "While in the Anbu, your codename will be Dragon. For this mission, you will be accompanied by Tenzo and Neko."

Once the Hokage mentioned their names, the two Anbu Ninja flickered in the office and bowed to Hiruzen with respect. He already knew Tenzo, so he carefully observed the purple-haired woman who was wearing a cat mask for a moment. After that, the blonde took the equipment that the Hokage gave him.

While Naruto was putting on his uniform, Hiruzen continued explaining. "Tenzo and Neko will lead you to the area where the bandits should be hiding. The mission is yours to handle, and those two will oversee how you will do. They will only intervene if you are unable to handle the situation."

After the Uzumaki got dressed, the three Anbu members departed towards the direction of the forest. Tenzo and Neko led the way with Naruto following behind them. The blonde didn't know the Body Flicker Jutsu, so the two older Ninja had to move at a slower pace so he can keep up with them. After running for two hours straight, they finally reached their destination.

"You are on your own from here, Dragon." Tenzo stated to Naruto.

The blonde didn't even need to use his sense of smell to locate the bandits since he could feel a massive amount of negative emotions in a certain direction. Grief, pain, sadness, anger, he had never felt so many negative emotions at once before.

At some point, while he was learning his Magic, the Uzumaki had gained a form of empathy. He couldn't quite understand what someone else was feeling, but he could distinguish the emotions if they are negative or positive. Ever since he returned to his current body, he could sense negative emotions to an even higher degree, due to Kurama being sealed inside of him.

Naruto quickly found a cave that was hidden from sight by the greenery around it. Sinking into his shadow, the blonde entered inside. The cave led deeper underground to what appeared to be an underground labyrinth. Using the negative emotions that he felt, he easily found the correct path.

Within minutes, he reached an underground cavern, which the bandits were using as their hideout.

On the left side, there was a cage filled with chained up male villagers, wearing nothing but rags. They were all bruised and beaten, barely able to stand straight.

On the right side, there was another cage filled with chained up female villagers. Unlike the male ones, they had no clothing whatsoever. The females looked in an even worse condition, with not a single one of them being able to stand up.

Seeing the scene in front of him, left the Uzumaki frozen in shock for a brief moment.

Naruto then saw a black-haired bandit open the female cage, and take out a girl with blonde hair, who looked to be around fourteen years old at most.

"I need something to relieve my stress and you, little slut will do the perfect job." The bandit said with a lecherous grin.

The blonde girl in a way reminded him of Mavis, and after hearing the bandit, something snapped in the Uzumaki.

Exiting his shadow, he had already unconsciously entered his demon form. His body covered in black and white tribal markings. But unlike his fight with Mizuki, the black tribal markings were pulsating and moving around, as if they were alive. The blonde didn't feel any of the conflicting emotions that his clones experienced when they previously entered his demon form. The only emotion he felt was Wrath, begging to be released on the bandits.

The Uzumaki created ten clones, who blocked the exit of the cavern, making sure that not a single one of the bandits escape.

With a burst of speed, Naruto appeared in front of the bandit who spoke and stabbed his hand in the black-haired man's chest. Grabbing his still-beating heart, the blonde took it out from the man's body.

The last thing the bandit saw was an Anbu with a Dragon mask staring at him emotionlessly with his one white and one black eye while holding his heart before he crushed it in front of him.

The blonde girl witnessed the scene and was scared out of her life. She wanted to escape but didn't have the strength to even stand up. The only thing that she could do was to slowly start crawling away from the dead man.

Another bandit witnessed that and started screaming. "We are under attack! Sound the al...grrgr." He couldn't continue since a hand tightly grasped his throat.

"Die." Was all he heard, before the Uzumaki crushed his windpipe, letting his head fall on the ground.

There were twenty more bandits in the cavern, who all grouped up. One of them spoke up, trying to encourage the rest. "He is alone. We can take him on if we work together."

Oh, how wrong he was. Naruto didn't even bother taking out his tanto or even utilizing his Magic. Using only his bare hands, the blonde went on the offensive, killing the bandits in the most brutal ways he can. Crushing their beating hearts in front of them, squashing their throats or tearing them limb from limb.

The cavern was filled with the dying screams of the bandits, and within moments, half of them were dead. The other half tried escaping but found that there are ten more Ninja who looked exactly like the demon they were facing. They tried begging for their lives, but they all died just like the rest of the bandits.

"My, my, those goons were truly useless." A brown-haired man walked in from a tunnel on the other side. He was wearing a forehead protector with Suna's symbol on it. The symbol was scratched, signifying that he is a Missing-nin.

"I didn't expect you, stupid tree huggers, to go after us so fast. No biggie, a dumb shorty like you stands no chance against me. That crystal bitch would be happy to receive a Ninja as a slave." The man tried goating Naruto, but the blonde didn't say anything and simply started walking in his direction.

"Not much of a talker, huh? Don't worry that will change, when I make you scream and beg for your life." The Missing-nin said and started making hand seals. "Wind Release: Air Bullets"

Multiple air bullets were sent in Naruto's direction, but the blonde made no moves to avoid them and walked through the Wind Jutsu. Not a single one damaged him or his Anbu garb.

"What?!" The man was confused for a moment but started making hand seals for his most powerful Jutsu. "Wind Release: Great Breakthrough" A giant blast of wind came out of the brown-haired man's mouth.

Again, the Wind Jutsu did not affect the Uzumaki, and the blonde continued walking in the man's direction.

Seeing that Wind Jutsus had no effect on the Dragon masked Anbu, the Missing-nin started throwing shurikens and kunai at him. Despite the weapons hitting him, the blonde didn't stop and continued walking in the direction of the Ninja.

At first, the brown-haired man thought that he would easily deal with the Ninja who killed his underlings. Now seeing the blonde taking on his Wind Jutsus with no visible damage and still walking towards him despite having numerous weapons piercing his body, he felt scared. He was about to try and escape before Naruto appeared in front of him holding one of the kunai that the Missing-nin threw.

"You talk too much." The Uzumaki said and stabbed the kunai through his cheeks. Entering one and exiting through the other.

The blonde grabbed the Missing-nin and threw him on the ground. Quickly he crushed both of his knees and tore his arms. For the first time since he entered the cave, he used his Magic by covering his hands in black flames. He crouched next to the brown-haired man and started burning him alive, gurgled cries of pain filled the cavern.

"Dragon!" Tenzo called out from behind him, but only received a flaming fist as a response. The Anbu member had no problem dodging the attack.

"Dragon calm yourself. The mission is done." Neko said with worry in her voice.

Naruto's Wrath had subsided after dealing with the bandits and the Missin-nin, but hearing the concern in Neko's voice brought him back to reality. Looking around the cavern he saw the dismembered bodies of the bandits and the captured villagers staring at him in fear.

"I did this?" The Uzumaki questioned with a weak voice, remembering all of his actions from a moment ago.

"It's okay Dragon," Neko said in a calming voice and brought the blonde in a tight hug. Rubbing his back, she continued whispering that everything is alright.

"Tenzo, I'm returning to Konoha with Dragon. Deal with everything else here." The purple-haired Anbu said and disappeared with Naruto using the Body Flicker Jutsu.