//A:N// Warning for gore and violence, I drew the image above (LOOK AT IT!)

Naruto sighed as he finally made his way back to the house, having had been let go about half an hour previous and was still unsure of where he was.
He must have taken a wrong turn or two before this, the entire area looking unfamiliar and a large building being seen in the distance but, it was late, and this was the only area with light he could see in any and all directions. Naruto groaned as the moist air proved icy cold in temperature and he sped his walk.
Once he was there, he looked around, seeing multiple bandits in the area. The silence he was hearing made him paranoid beyond belief, why was it so quiet?! Where were his friends? None of them were there, none! They were all gone. Kuruma was still there, but she was just so silent, as if she were only partially there. He felt so empty now, he'd do nearly anything to quiet the unbearably loud roar of silence.

"Hey kid! What are you doing here!?" One of the guards yelled, having had noticed Naruto's presence. A few others finally saw him, he had actually gotten through much of the large group's defenses and was currently fairly near the apparent base of the group.
"Hey!" The first man continued to walk closer, Naruto never once looked up, he let his face be shroud in shadows as he stared downwards and at the ground, his eyes seeming to glow in the shadows. The man grabbed the front of his shirt and began to lift him from the ground slightly, pulling a fist back, a few others having their own weapons a the ready.

"Self defense doesn't count as murder, does it?" Naruto asked in a quiet voice, still not looking up.

"Huh?" The man never had a chance to give a true reply, for Naruto suddenly snapped his head upwards, kicking the ground and flapping wings that they had yet to notice, to push his velocity upwards and thrust him higher in the air. His eyes, which now glowed with an intense light, leaving a trail from the sheer speed of his movement, as he used his jaw and sharpened, lengthened, teeth to rip at the skin of the other man. He had attempted to tear the wind pipe, but had missed as he did not normally use his wings in a fight.
The man jumped back, one of the nearer men swinging a bat laced with spikes in an attempt of hitting the intruder. Instead, the weapon hit the other man in the face, lodging itself in his face and proving to cause irreversible damage. The man screamed so horribly, his voice being filled with little more than an unintelligent, automatic, cry of pain. The second man froze in shock and horror, Naruto, however, was unfazed. He sprung from his position and seemed to zip through the air, kicking him flat in the jaw and sending him off with a sickening crack as his jaw broke and his neck breaking from its original position, being attached to the body by mere skin and durable tissue.
Naruto used his wings to push him off of the ground with a greater force then his legs could allow alone. He tackled the next person, the fight becoming blurry as more and more people, most of muscular build, fell victim to Naruto's unkept rage and growing lack of sanity.
Another duck, this time he spun on the ground in a position not unlike a handstand, and threw himself off from the dirt and into the air. A moment's pause as he flew through the air, his body turning and shifting as he allowed gravity to take its toll. How high up was he? His eyes should be open, yet he found them closed. He expected his breathing to be sporadic and his nerves fried, but at this moment, at this second, at this exact instant, he felt peace. He seemed to sense the ground coming and landed softly, shouting forwards, his eyes glowing again and leaving their trail of blued/yellowed light, and ended up finding himself on the other side of some man, his features appearing void of anything to help differentiate himself from the many others that now decorated the forest floor.
The man's blood stained Naruto's hands and claws, viscera coating his being from the many people he had dealt with in the previous haze of unexplained insanity. Naruto glanced over to his hand, licking lightly at his hand for the delicious flopped that covered him nearly completely.

"This place" Naruto mumbled to himself and anyone listening. He tilted his head upwards, as if it were raining and he were allowing the substance to bathe his face and clean his being. Naruto let out a single shaky breath, his body lowering itself so that he were sitting on his knees. The unfelt adrenaline that had cursed through his veins seemed to sap away instantly, leaving him exhausted and drowsy. He sat, letting his energy return, before standing again. He placed a hand on the wall beside him and tried to find his balance losses balance.
"I think it might be Gato's."

~Time Skip~

Naruto held the man by the top of his head, dragging him by his hair through the dark woods. Already he could see scavengers and hunters alike, all feasting on the carnage he had laid out as if it were a feast and he a masterful chief.

"Stop! Stop! Listen, whatever I did to you, I can make it up! I have mummy, I can pay you for anything! Please!" The man cried, still in his well suited pajamas, which were of a vibrant violet color with gold linings and were made of a silky fabric. Naruto ripped his hand upwards, yanking the man up and right in front of him.

"You think you can buy yourself out of this? After all you've done to the people here?! No, I think not, you will pay for your actions and suffer in purgatory." Naruto found himself hissing. Thinking back to all that he had seen of the town in the little time he had been here, and of all the sorrow that this being had caused to his younger friend.
"Purple and gold" Naruto hissed suddenly, gripping tighter on the already painfully held locks of hair. "Those are the colors of KINGS!" He yelled, throwing the man against a tree as he had already made his way so that he was now close enough to the building he had been making his way to.
"Do you see yourself as a king? Do you!?" He yelled "How DARE you rule over an unwilling people, stealing their wealth for your own pleasures! Killing any who stand up to you? REALLY?!" Growling could be heard as Naruto gained the attention of the others. A slight clapping noise resounded, the vines that had been wrapped around the bark suddenly beat to move, acting as if they were snakes, growing larger and thicker as they wound around the man's arms, holding him in place. Naruto snapped his head towards the other beings, a low rumble sounding from his throat, but not a growl. The sound was returned by the others and his body began to change, glowing before reforming into his animalistic self. Nightingale hissed, her mouth open wide and her tongue lifting into the air slightly, swishing up and down.
Ditsy's stomach let out a growl and she eyed the other hungrily, having had just watched her brother, not only eat, but torture the previous person made her apatite make itself evident and her stomach seem to empty of its contents to make room for the new. She opened her mouth wide, her grayish fur being clean of any blemish or blood, and her tail began ti whip to and fro excitedly. A high pitched rumble echoed through her throat, as well as a few yips that seemed to merge with the noise, the others joining suit. Nightingale strode forwards, somehow strutting despite her current form and for no apparent reason.
Her jaw snapped open and tore through the chest cavity's outer skin, beginning to tear and remove the rest of the flesh protecting the organs for the others to more easily view. She spat out the skin as it seemed to hold an odd flavor, a disgusting taste now sticking to her tongue. She let her to give loll from her mouth, purple foam oozing from her open maw.
The man laughed through his pain, a manic, crazed laugh. Nightingale began to spit out anything in her mouth, the taste disgusting and the foam beginning to seise in its coming.

"How DARE you!" Edward hissed, Nightingale wiped her mouth clean of the ooze. Edward plunged his mouth into the squishy tissue and ripped out the first thing his jaws found, easily moving past the unique seal that was laced with a mild poison for beings like him, it only worked for the outer layer of skin.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" The short man cried, desperation clearly evident in his voice.

"Too damn late" Edward seemed to hiss out, though his jaws only seemed to open to allow the organ to drop and give out a literal hiss. Just then, Naruto gave off a loud yip, almost a rawr or bark, and jumped out from the shadows. He grabbed the man's throat and was about to jerk his head, snapping his neck, before being stopped by another.

"Wait!" Kurama called out, her body being composed mostly of energy, bone, and muscle. She had been working on creating a new body, at least one small enough for her to exist outside of her kit.

"Mama!?" Ditsy asked in surprise and excitement, recognizing the voice easily.

"Hello kit" she greeted, nuzzling her with the skull she had been working to create, the muscle fibers sticking to it and veins being disturbed, some opening. Ditsy giggled despite this fact, her tail shooting upwards.

"Why do you stop me?" Naruto asked, his soft brow furrowing in confusion.

"Because I have a better idea" she replied, her thought seeming to leak out into the others.

"I'll get the wood~" Edward sang, practically hoping away.

"Where are you getting the flesh from to make that, anyways?" Nightingale asked, though Naruto looked on with sad eyes, his ears dropping.

"From Naru-kun's earlier playtime, he left me plenty of materials, I'm not done yet though." their mother responded, turning to give Naruto a proud smile, but it fell instantly when she saw his expression.
"Sweety?" She asked, unsure and worried

"You don't like my mind space?" Naruto asked sadly, looking down at the thought and lowering his head. Kurama's partially made ears swung back, her head doing similar, and she shook her skull of a face to and fro.

"Not at all!" She cried, moving over and doing her best to comfort her kit
"Your mind space is lovely, it's just that I need some true flesh and blood of my own, I can't use yours for forever!" She tried to reason. Naruto didn't reply, merely continued to rest in his newfound pity party. This would explain her absence from within him, though he could still feel a large chunk of energy in him, but her mind had left him entirely. Naruto merely hummed in response, not looking up. Kurama sighed, lowering her head, knowing Naruto wouldn't forgive her for a little while for whatever he felt she had done. She glanced back over, seeing Edward to be returning with a large chunk of wood beneath his more well wing.

"There's more organic material over there if you want to speed your healing, though you might need an alive sample..." Kurama said before moving into a more hushed form of speech, almost a mumble.

"Why, I'd love to! Might find some survivors, too, but first-" he finished his trot and dumped the junk he had collected, revealing a few other materials present as well. "I want to try my hand, or well, paw, in your idea!" He exclaimed cheerfully, setting his materials up and spreading them out so that he could see them better. Sitting on his haunches, he touched his front paws together before setting them both on the ground so that he was resting in a usual sitting position for a creature that moved on all fours. The objects seemed to twitch and jerk with blue electricity before glowing, merging and moving quickly into a near seamless mechanism composed mostly of wood.

The base was easily wood and seemed to morph into the ground almost, quickly loosing this connection and becoming a separate thing of its own. It went up high enough to reach around the abdomen of the chosen individual, what looked like an odd spinner being hooked onto the base by a little bit of metal, the tip easily being sharp and composed of metal. Instead of being powered by electricity, this was designed so that the part of the mechanism made to spin would move in a circular motion on Ed's command via alchemical manipulation. Ditsy trotted forwards, pushing the wood closer to their captive, so that the cold metal tip was lightly touching Gato's stomach.
With a nod, Edward activated his creation, and the man's internal organs began to be turned into slush.

~Line Break, Small Time Skip~

The sounds of slurping, lapping, and other sounds of consumption, could be heard in the immediate area of the still dark forest. Through the dim lighting, it could be vaguely seen that four individual beings, all stained in scarlet, has their snouts pressed into the open abdomen of a man whose face was just outside of the slight lighting. Once they were done, Nightingale opened her wing and pulled it into an awkward angle before swinging, her entire stance changing as she did, and the sound of something thick and fleshy being sliced resounded to all of those nearby. Gato's head fell to the forest floor with a dull thud, Nightingale turned to Naruto expectantly and gave him a large grin

"Welcome to our family"

-The Next Day

Naruto walked confidently alongside Inari, Sakura, and Sasuke, his ever present grin never seeming to leave his face. Sakura was saying something, and quite loudly at that, about something concerning Naruto staying out the night before. There was a commotion in town, this much was clear, and Inari was suddenly called over by someone he knew from the village.
Yells, both of horror and excitement, could easily be heard from where the group was in their original stance. There, jabbed onto a wooden stick, was the head of the one that had caused the entirety of the civilians' collected misery, his eyes wide and rolled so far upwards that the veins in them were clearly standing out in the white, his irises just barely seen at the top but easily clouded over in slight deterioration and unspoken agony. A single thing was written in slightly  damp blood, mostly brown in color:

The Predators Have Returned