Saviour || A Naruto Fanfic

Chapter Sixteen : Realisation Dawns

They had almost reached the village, when Naruto finally decided on a name for her white fox.

"Aniki, how's Arashi?" she asked, looking up for the approval of her newfound big brother.

"I think it's fine," Madara replied, a bit absently. His mind was anywhere but on the small beast.

After all, he was returning to Konoha with a multitude of deeds against him. He had tried to kill his only friend, as well as gravely injuring the Nidaime. Years after their deaths, he had come back once more, this time to raze the village to the ground, by unleashing the Kyubi.

Speaking of which ... Naruto's chakra seemed quite familiar, but it was not an Uchiha chakra. Which made him wonder why he knew her chakra so well. Was this destiny, after all?

Meanwhile, Kurama was equally restless. He could believe Naruto befriending Madara - the girl didn't have any reservations about who she befriended - but really?! Taking him back to the village? All he could see was a good bashing, either from Tobirama, the Senju or the villagers. Or probably all of them, though he knew that she wasn't going to give up the idea easily. 

"Kit, please be careful. He's the only Z-rank criminal there is, and you're trying to take him back to a village that he tried to destroy once upon a time." He tried to reason with her.

'That's okay, Kura-nii,' Naruto responded firmly in her mindscape. 'We're going to be just fine.'

Kurama sighed and gave it up. But he wanted the man to know exactly what he was getting into; it might be the only chance of dissuading Naruto from running headlong into trouble.

"Kit, switch with me for a while. I wanna say something to Madara." Naruto did so at once.

"I'd be careful if I were you, Uchiha," he growled out, making the man's eyes widen in shock. "Yea, no wonder you felt she was familiar from somewhere. Rotten Yondaime sealed me into his newborn daughter, then he boycotted her till like a week ago. Tobirama is the one who officially took her in, so watch out, big time. And as for Hashirama considering you his friend, well, it's true enough. You know full well that you're in mortal danger if you go through with this."

"It's not that I don't know," Madara replied. "I just won't see her get hurt. My Rinnegan is developed to almost the final stage. Minus Hashirama, I could destroy any of the other shinobi without breaking a sweat. And I have the winning card against him, it would seem. I would have left her to them, but Tobirama is no longer the strongest shinobi around. The Yondaime can beat him, even if he's a useless bag of shit. Also, being the goofball that he is, Hashirama works for the good of the majority, so there's every chance she's going to be pushed aside. If he can save two instead of one, he'll do that, and I don't want to lose her. Thank Kami I don't work the way he does. I protect what I love, and I don't love Konoha. I love her, so I'll be protecting her."

'You two are acting like I'm a mouse that's gonna get swooped by an eagle.' Naruto pouted in the mindscape, as she absently picked out petals from the flowers in a forest.

'You're not, but that doesn't mean we can't protect you.' Kurama replied in their little world.

'Okay, so now let me get back to my body, you mean fox.' Kurama laughed as they switched.

"You can switch places with the Kyubi?" Madara seemed interested, and she frowned at him.

"Stupid fox," she muttered, before looking up at him. "His real name is Kurama Otsutsuki."

"I see." The tone in her young voice made it clear that he shouldn't be calling the fox 'Kyubi'.

"Whoa, are those real?! Like, real blackberries?" Naruto jumped down from his arms, as she ran over to the bushes. True enough, there were huge clusters of blackberries growing there.

"You like blackberries?" Madara laughed, the answer was evident, but she looked so cute!

Then, suddenly, it struck him. When was the last time he had laughed like this? For something other than destruction, that was? Never? No... the days he had spent, when they were young... the days he had still been friends with Hashirama... they had joked and laughed like this.

He knew then that Hashirama had been right. What you couldn't do on your own, you passed it on. Even Hashirama hadn't been able to live forever, to make sure that the village stayed safe. He passed it on to his brother. Tobirama had passed it on to his student, Hiruzen. For safety measures, Hiruzen had passed it on to his pupil's disciple. That was how things worked. That was the true meaning to Konoha. That was what had kept the Will of Fire alive until now.

He finally understood. All the questions that Hashirama couldn't answer, he had answers for. The difference between him and his old friend, had been logic and reasoning. Hashirama was confident in acting upon instinct, while that was a concept completely foreign to him. When he did something, he thought it out. He didn't just jump into things headlong. No wonder he had outlived Hashirama. 

But he hadn't enjoyed his life. Ever since the moment he had cut ties with his friend, he had lost fun, and he didn't enjoy it. His brothers had all been more talented than him. Only after all of them had died, had he truly given up. He didn't smile; rather, couldn't smile. Smile for what? For the dead corpses of his loved ones? For the loss of his friend? What could he smile for?

Yet Hashirama had died, with a smile on his face. The people around him had wept, yet he had been smiling! How?! How could he be so sure of what he was leaving behind, a legacy?

Maybe now he understood. You had to believe in yourself, before you believed in the words of others. Naruto had shown him. She didn't trust him, until he had protected her and she had sensed sincerity in his words. And when she did finally open up, she had all the confidence that Hashirama used to have. She was like a mix of them both: Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha.

He smiled, as he helped her gather blackberries. Whatever she did, he was going to trust her. Sunshine had entered his dark abyss of a life, and he wasn't about to let it go, no matter what.

A/N: Thanks for the votes and comments on The ANBU Prodigy. Shoutout to @NazNuraisha and @Readingisonmymind and @Ice_Kitsune4801 

I think this story might end up as either SasuNaru or ShikaNaru (maybe, no wait, it's more likely to be SasuNaru) but the other one (The ANBU Prodigy) is gonna be ItaNaru.