Sasuke extended his hand which held his violet charm and stared at Naruto with a disappointed look.
"You said so yourself after our bell test, that no matter what, our bond, our connection, is unbreakable" Sasuke yelled out to Naruto who just stared at him with his now dull blue eyes that were previously red.
A breeze passed by as they stared each other down, Sasuke waiting for a response from Naruto. His blond hair was even more rough than before and he had noticeable eye bags beneath his eyes and his orange iconic sweater was zipped down, revealing a pitch black shirt beneath that looked dusted. His headband wasn't tied around his forehead and he was still slouching lazily. He then scoffed and turned around, his back facing Sasuke but he didn't walk away.
"I sure am naive,heh, but those words, my past self up to this point means nothing anymore," Naruto said, he then turned half his head around and smiled. "Well see ya around, Sasuke, you sure did waste a hell of time on me."
Naruto said enjoying himself as he walked away, waving at Sasuke while smiling. Sasuke, however, was having none of this and gritted his teeth while putting away his charm. He activated his sharingan that had two tomoe and dashed towards Naruto, wanting to catch him off guard. Naruto heard the footsteps rapidly getting louder as it got closer to him, he looked behind him and saw Sasuke getting ready to swing his fist, but Naruto didn't react in time and got punched in left side of his cheek and fell off the statue of Madara, and landed in the water. He had his eyes wide open and saw Sasuke again getting ready to land on him and yet again he was to slow to react and as soon as Sasuke landed, he was kicked and sent flying into some stone wall before he was grabbed by the collar of his shirt and put up close to Sasuke's face, indicating that he was the one who grabbed him.
"I WILL BRING YOU BACK TO THE VILLAGE EVEN IF I MUST BREAK EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOUR BONES!"
////
"SHUT UP!," yelled Naruto in front of Sasuke's face.
He then used both of his feet to kick Sasuke off of him and lunged forward when he succeeded. Sasuke then tried immediately running towards Naruto again but this time he dodged it. He looked back and widened his eyes to see that his curse mark from Jiraiya had activated. Naruto had two black, tear like lines running down from his eyes like Jiraiya did. Coming from his neck upwards, were crack like lines that were also black with a hint of red. His whiskers were now more rough and seemed like scratches. A storm of grey clouds then began to cover the light of the sun.
"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" Naruto yelled out, running to Sasuke with his hand sign.
Multiple clones of Naruto rushed to Sasuke with the intent to kill him. He then grabbed one of the clones and threw him at 2 others, making them disappear in smoke and grabbed 3 shuriken, which he held between his fingers, and threw them at 3 clones but another 3 were behind him so the shuriken also had made the 3 behind disappear. He then launched himself in the air, staring down at the remaining shadow clones and forming 3 hand signs, he yelled out, "FIRE STYLE: FIREBALL JUTSU!".
Flames that formed a fireball came from his mouth, it began burning all of the remaining clones. He continued to launch himself into the air looking for the real Naruto before he heard a flicker behind him. He tried looking back but what he got was a punch to the face and he was sent flying back to ground and landed in a puddle of water from the waterfall near them.
He landed on his back, groaning in pain as he tried to get back up, however Naruto has just landed as well and ran up to Sasuke. He crouched to get a hold of Sasuke's collar attached to his shirt ,since he was on the ground, and lifted him up. Sasuke opened his eyes and saw the hatred and anger in Naruto's eyes, but he could also see a bit of sadness in there. Sasuke glared back with a look off determination as he shook off the pain from landing.
"I'm not- I won't give up!," Sasuke stated trying to get off of Naruto's hold. "I WON'T LET YOU LEAVE!"
Naruto just chuckled at what he said.
"I already have" Naruto responded to Sasuke's last sentence before plunging him to the ground. The force of the plunge made a crater in the ground and Sasuke's face buried down there. Naruto then put his foot on top of his back and lunged down placing his hand behind Sasuke's head, trying to bury his face more into the ground, suffocating him.
/
Meanwhile...
Sakura, the kunoichi of Team 7, was walking down the streets of konoha to Naruto's apartment. The villagers around her seemed so happy and cheery, like nothing wrong had happened. This made her mad in the outside as two of her closest friends and teammates were probably battling it out as her previous discussion with one of them the night prior to this, made her worry. How could anyone be happy at a time like this? She asked herself that question as she stopped in front of a semi large building that seemed more destroyed the more you walk to the left.
She entered and walked up some stairs, turned left and walked down a hall that had no roof at the end. She stopped by a door in front her and held out her fist, ready to knock but stopped herself as she frowned.
'What am I thinking? He's not here now, but...but I know Sasuke will bring him back!' Sakura thought to herself as she just let herself in.
She looked around in shock and saw how messy it was, like if a small hurricane just hurled in here. The cabinets were either hanging to the side or just completely broken. There was a small table cut in half, and the legs in pieces, the bed's blanket was on the floor seemingly torn, and pieces of a chair were scattered. She examined it and was left with the conclusion he lashed out to himself here.
As she was examining, she saw pieces of glass laid on the floor near the corner and walked up to it curiously. She came upon a broken picture frame with its glass scattered and the picture laying to the floor so she couldn't see what the picture had. She squat down and picked up the picture, accidentally cutting a small skin on her finger by pushing aside the glass on top of it, turned it around and saw it was the picture of her and Team 7.
Obito smiling nervously with both of his hands on top of her 2 teammates, Sasuke and Naruto who seemed annoyed, and then Sakura herself on the bottom of the picture smiling happily with her fists up to her chin like a cheerleader wearing pom poms. Sakura smiled weakly as happy memories of her and her team came into mind. A single tear rolling down her cheek with the realization that those memories are just that and that nothing will ever be like those days again. She began now sobbing as she held the picture of her team close to her heart and her tears landing on the glass below her, her weak smile now into a frown.
'Sasuke...please..keep my promise and bring Naruto back..' she said in her mind.
/
Minutes later
Sakura was back to walking in the village, as she was not allowed to leave to go help the Naruto Retrieval Team. Her eyelids had a mixture of red and pink from her crying from earlier in Naruto's apartment, and her eyes seemed dull, as if she had just woken up. She passed by a bench and stopped as a memory from the previous night came in to mind, she did not want to remember however and continued walking trying to shake off the feeling she gets from it. Fear and Regret. She could've stopped him that night, but she didn't, she couldn't. She turned a right, with the path to the Hokage's Tower right ahead.
She stopped for a second and glared at the monuments behind it. All the previous hokage's faces carved into stone. She remembered Naruto's words of being hokage as his dream when Team 7 was formed but now, it was a happy memory as she got to know Sasuke more but now sad because she didn't acknowledge Naruto's dream then. As she was about to take a step forward, a flash of brown passed by, heading out of the tower and it caught her attention. She nodded to herself before running after it as fast as she could.
She was just barely able to catch up when the figure all of a sudden came to a stop in the middle of a small forest. She hid behind a tree, a couple of meters away and realized the figure was her sensei, Obito. She began to ponder what he was doing and decided to eavesdrop on him. Sakura saw him bit his tongue and slammed it to the ground, with his opposite hand making a sign. She saw his lips move but couldn't make out what she heard, the next thing she knew happened was that a puff of smoke came out and a dog with the leaf's village headband and clothes came out.
'Pakkun?' she wondered to herself.
She sat down on her knees and began crawling slowly on the grass, trying not to make sounds as she wanted to hear what he was saying to Pakkun.
"Pakkun, please do me a favor and try to track down Sasuke's and Naruto's scent, this is an emergency so I beg of you" Sakura was able to hear from Obito.
The summoning dog began twitching his nose, trying to catch the genins scent. Sakura stopped behind a bush still on her knees, but was now able to hear them more clearly and gasped in a whisper like tone when her sensei had said about tracking her teammates scent.
"Got it," Pakkun replied. "Although its faint, I can get their scent."
"Alright! Lead the way" Obito told the dog as he began leaping in front of him before Obito followed.
Sakura stood up carefully and saw their backs against theirs running away. She then pictured Sasuke and Naruto'a back walking away from her and leaving her behind. She put a look of determination and ran after them.
"I won't run away this time, It's my turn to help!" Sakura said to herself.
/ / /
Naruto had put his foot on top of his back and lunged down placing his hand behind Sasuke's head, to bury his face more into the ground, trying suffocating him. He chuckled to himself before he widened his eyes in what was happening in front of him. Dark purple chakra began leaking out his curse mark from Orochimaru and dark swirls began to cover him. He had lost control and was know using for rage and not what he was meant to use it for. The purple chakra had covered Naruto's hand, which was still behind Sasuke's head, and had burned his hand. He grunted in pain and leaped backwards a few meters, holding his arm that had been burned. He looked back at Sasuke and saw him struggling to get up in a push up like way. When Sasuke got up, he slouched a little forward lazily and began breathing heavily, in and out.
"Naruto...*huff* you're not *huff* you're not the only one who can use the darkness in them to their advantage, you miscalculated, *huff* I've already won this battle!" Sasuke said as he roared his last words, and running at his full capacity towards Naruto.
"NO YOU MISCALCULATED, I AM THE ONLY ONE WHO WALKS AWAY VICTORIOUS AND OUT OF THIS HELLISH VIL-"
"HYA!" Sasuke interrupted him by punching below his chin and used his leg to kick Naruto's stomach.
The real battle had just begun.
Naruto landed crouching, gritting his teeth in anger as red chakra began spilling out. His eyes once more became red with a black slit in the middle. His nails also became longer and sharper, so were his fangs.
"You'll regret this, Sasuke!" Naruto yelled out in anger then tried charging at him with his nails.
"The only one who'll be feeling regret is you for trying to abandon your home!" Sasuke responded in anger as well, as he too began to charge towards Naruto.
They were getting pretty close when then Naruto pulled out his right arm and tried scratching Sasuke's eyes out and lunged forward before he was caught by Sasuke's right arm too. Naruto tried attacking then with his left arm but Sasuke had also stopped that. They were now pushing each other with full force, one with pure rage in their face, and the other determined to save his friend. They glared at each other before finally Naruto had roared out a scream and used his knee to kick Sasuke in his stomach and succeeded. Sasuke grunted a little in pain but then used his foot to kick Naruto's chin again like he did minutes prior.
They both let go of each other and jumped back to the positions they were in before. Sasuke with one arm around his stomach and Naruto down on one knee. Naruto recovered faster however because of his kyuubi chakra and went again for the attack, he began charging his rasengan hoping this would finish him. Sasuke would not let this catch him off guard however and stood back, held his left wrist, and flicked it charging a chidori and looked back at his former teammate.
'I used one earlier against those four ninjas Jiraiya sent, I better not let this one go to waste' thought Sasuke.
'I'll make sure I finish him this time' Naruto thought to himself while roaring and getting ready to plunge his rasengan to Sasuke.
The both yelled in exclamation as their signature jutsus had clashed with each other, shaking the valley they used as their one-on-one. Smoke began appearing from their clash and it covered their vision, Sasuke however pushed back at him with all his might and was able to launch Naruto to the cliff's wall nearby and created a hole for him from the power.
Sasuke began gasping for air as his chidori took a lot of his chakra, he bent down to catch his breath before he tried shaking it off. He got up again and headed to where he had launched Naruto who seemed unconscious because his kyuubi chakra was gone and he wasn't able to tell if he was awake since his face was facing the ground, but he still laid motionless. Sasuke stopped a foot away from him before extending his arm to grab his collar attached to his sweater.
"Let's get you back to the village, dobe" Sasuke said calmly when he got a hold of his sweater.
Sasuke was then shocked when Naruto's hand began shaking upwards and grabbed his, as if he were trying to stop him.
"Wh-why..," Naruto said weakly before he shot his head back up at Sasuke. "Why do you want to desperately bring me back!? Why am I so important to you now!? WHY DO YOU CARE, YOU NEVER DID BEFORE!"
Naruto yelled in Sasuke's face. Sasuke looked at him again and saw the mixture of anger and sadness at war with each other.
'He keeps looking at me with those eyes, as if he's a burden' pondered Sasuke.
"It's our bond, remember," Sasuke responded. "We are alike you know, I don't have my parents as well, they were annihilated by my brother in front of me so that pain can relate to yours"
Sasuke told this to Naruto calmly and loosened his grip on him. There was silence for a moment as Naruto hadn't responded.
"At least you had parents-" Naruto said angrily. "I've been all alone from the start, not knowing who my family even were. You had one so you know that feeling that lies in emptiness inside of me, I have no one"
Sasuke was taken back by his response and Naruto glared at him again.
"WHAT ABOUT US!," Sasuke yelled in his face, irritated that Naruto wouldn't wake up and realize the horrible path he is choosing. " YOU HAVE ME, SAKURA AND OBITO BY YOUR SIDE. SHIKAMARU, NEJI, CHOJI, KIBA, AND ROCK LEE RISKED OUR ASSES FOR YOU. HINATA WAS IN A RIVER OF HER TEARS AND SAKURA BEGGED ME TO SAVE YOU! DON'T LET THAT OLD GEEZER GET TO YOUR MIND WITH THAT DAMN CURSE MARK."
Sasuke began to catch his breath as he finished yelling out multiple sentences. He then began hearing chuckling from Naruto, who was back to facing the ground, but then shifted into laughter and cackling. Sasuke was then all of a sudden launched back and landed on his back, scratched. He was about 8 meters away from Naruto who was still laughing like a maniac. He lifted his head a little, enough to see Naruto, and closed one eye in pain with his teeth gritted together.
"You don't get it, don't you?," Naruto said, finally stopping his laughter. "I'm a monster. At least, that's how I am seen as. Jiraiya promised to help me control it, train me and get me out of this living hell. Not only that, but I can get information about my parents. The villagers of the leaf- no, everyone, I was just used for their enjoyment and nothing more than just a demon, a monster."
Sasuke saw the look again, the mix of the anger and sadness residing inside in by his looks. This time though, it seemed to be more sadness in his look. He felt then to stop then and there and give up on saving Naruto, but he thought back to the desperation of Sakura hours earlier, the fear in Tsunade's eyes, the determination of the Naruto Retrieval Team to save him, the sadness in Hinata's eyes to Neji. He couldn't let them down no matter how much Naruto fought back.
"I'll save you from the pain you're in" Sasuke said to himself as he got back up.
"They haven't...they haven't came back" said a shy female voice.
"C'mon they'll be back with him in no time, just keep believing Hinata!" said a girl with brown hair tied up in two buns.
A breeze passed by them both as one had a single tear coming down rolling on her cheek.
A night earlier/
Naruto who was sitting on a large tree branch was staring at his bright orange charm that had a crack formed ,frowning, as he thought of his recent clash with Sasuke and how he almost could've killed Sakura. He was tossing it around in his palm before a kunai had landed next to his head and stuck into the main branch of the tree he laid his back on. He held his charm tightly before turning his head up and saw his sensei, Obito. He looked back down, as he did not want to be given a lesson by him now.
"I heard from the other what had happened," Obito told him. "Mind telling me what's going"
Naruto felt annoyed by his presence, the last person he wanted to talk to him about his problems was Obito. He gritted his teeth.
"Tch. I don't need to tell anyone" Naruto responded harshly.
Obito folded his arms above his chest and glared at Naruto who still refused to look at him.
"With that attitude you'll never be hokage" said Obito almost in a teasing manner.
Naruto finally looked up at him ,irritated , with the face of someone who had just been picked on by his likes.
"Does it matter now! You know what's inside of me right, no one in this village would except me to be hokage"
"You're the one making yourself what they called you, if you keep listening to those hurtful words then you'll only became what they fear of you"
Obito didn't want to lecture Naruto right now, but he had no other choice. Naruto was quiet with his mouth shaking while turning into a frown. He shot back a glare and cold eyes at his sensei.
"YOU TRY HOLDING A MONSTER INSIDE OF YOU! YOU TRY BEING IN MY SHOES FOR ONE DAY!" he yelled back at Obito who looked at him with no expression.
"I already have," Obito said before kneeling down. "I didn't know who my parents were either and I too wished to become hokage one day. I had a team and a teacher, who I made close friends with, well except one who I had an iffy relationship with. It was all normal until one day, I lost them both and years later, I lost my teacher too."
Obito was telling all of this to Naruto who was in a state of shock. He had never told them this before so he was surprised.
"A girl I loved, whom I wasn't strong enough to protect and my iffy friend who gave up his life for me, I was in a state of depression but...but..," Obito hesitated on the last words. "But it was reality. I have to face through those hard times whether or not I liked it because it was the truth. Look where facing that head on brought me too today. This is just the beginning of your life, there are much more hardships to face so don't act like a brat."
Naruto was left speechless after what he had learned about Obito.
"Either way...," Obito continued as he stood back up. "I expect you to meet me at the training grounds tomorrow, think about what I told you in the meanwhile."
With that, Obito walked to the end of the tree branch before jumping off into the distance, leaving Naruto alone to think about their conversation. He sat in the same spot for a long time, about 15-25 minutes, before finally standing and getting ready to head back to his apartment room. Just as he was about to jump off, four unknown ninja surrounded him.
He looked around them and stepped back when he realized they were cornering him.
"Who-Who are you four?!" Naruto asked in exclamation.
"West Gate, Sakon,..and Ukon"
"East gate, Kidomaru"
"South gate, Jirobo"
"North gate, Tayuya"
"We are Jiraiya's Elite four!" they said in unison.
The one who had two heads, both Sakon and Ukon, had fair-skin and straight, light-blue gray hair, with long bangs that covered each different eye, their bangs were on opposite sides, with long bangs that covered each different eye, their bangs were on opposite sides.
The one who called himself Kidomaru was a dark-skinned shinobi with black, shaggy hair tied into a ponytail and black eyes. He was the second-tallest member of the team and also had six arms.
Jirōbō was a large and imposing young man, towering over the rest of his teammates. He had fair-skin and narrowed, slanted orange eyes, had three tufts of orange hair on his head: a mohawk of sorts that ran down the middle and two similar styled tufts of hair at the side.
The girl, Tayuya, was a fair-skinned girl with a slender build and is the shortest member of the team. She had brown eyes that were accentuated by her eyelashes extending into the corners of her eyes that falls past her shoulders with long parted bangs framing either side of her face and one between her eyes. She also wore a black hat with pipe-like stripes and bandaged sides, keeping her bangs in place while the rest is pushed back behind her ears to trail down her back.
They all had wore at least a red haori like Jiraiya with Kidomaru and Jirobo both having no sleeves, Sakon/Ukon with their sleeves all the way to their wrists where they were tucked in by black-arm warmers, and Tayuya having her sleeves be cut off below her shoulder. They all also wore traditional sandals with leg warmers or bandages above.
'J-Jiraiya?' Naruto thought to himself as he tried to find a way out the situation he was in currently, moving from side to side.
"Chill out pipsqueak, we're just here to offer you something that you surely won't refuse.." Tayuya told the freaked out Naruto.
"I can refuse anything I want! Especially if you're working with that old man.." Naruto responded angrily.
"Are you sure about that one blondy...,"said Ukon before Sakon took over. "You should hear us out before jumping into conclusions."
Naruto put his charm in his pouch and grabbed out a kunai instead. He gritted his teeth and yelled at them, "Not a chance!"
Kidomaru then grabbed Naruto's kunai with his hand above lower and middle and crushed it before using his other arms to launch Naruto back into the building. He slammed his back as he grunted in pain and fell to the floor.
"What a joke. You're not on the right level as us" said Kidomaru as he jumped down to Naruto's body laid down on the floor, before the rest of the four jumped down as well.
"Kimimaro would've suited Jiraiya more than trash like you" taunted Sakon.
Naruto tried to get back, push up style way, but when he did his curse mark began to activate and slowly the black zig zag cracks coming from his neck reaching his chin began to appear, so was the black lines from his eyes rolling down in the color of fire before turning pitch black. The four elites had widened their eyes in realizing her had received a curse mark but then wiped that expression off when they smirked.
"Seems like someone wants to go through the fun way" smiled Tayuya.
"We'll just see if this is really fun considering how weak you are appear to be" added on Sakon.
"Shut it two face!" Naruto roared.
Naruto's whiskers became more scratch like and his red eyes with slits made an appearance. He tried to repeatedly punch Kidomaru before he was sent back to his position but stood up again breathing heavily, not giving up. He then formed a single hand sign.
"Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!" Naruto said to himself as 5 clones of him appeared in front of himself.
He tried to use the clones as a decoy while he attacked secretly but that plan quickly failed as Jirobo had grabbed him using his large arm and Sakon/Ukon had taken out the clones with Kidomaru. Jirobo tossed Naruto to Sakon/Ukon who had caught him in his ankle and held him upside down. Naruto tried moving around to get Sakon/Ukon's grip off of him but it proved to be useless after a few seconds, however using his claw like nails, he was able to get a scratch below his knee which had left a burn spot and ripped a piece of the haori.
"Sad,.. I thought this gonna be fun but I guess you're just a weak demon-" Sakon said as he tightened his grip on Naruto's ankle before throwing him like he was an empty milk carton.
Naruto landed on his side before rolling on the front of his body. He growled in anger as he would not let himself get thrown around like trash. He was especially mad by what Sakon had commented about him of being a weak demon. He hated being called weak and demon as it reminded him of his lonely days. He tried getting up but his hand wobbled each time and ended collapsing. The four of the ninja Jiraiya had sent all closed up on Naruto who was angry at himself. Tayuya smirked before she spoke up.
"What a piece of shit. If only you had someone out there to give you more strength like us" Tayuya said in a deceiving manner.
"And lucky for you there is..," Sakon joined smilingly. "Jiraiya is willing to help you, he can train you, help you, and save you from here."
Naruto put on surprised look when he heard "save". He shakingly tilted his head up to the four surrounding him.
"W-What?" He asked.
"Y'know, how these villagers treat you with cruelty and pain, calling you demon and whispering behind your backs" said Tayuya as she stomped her foot on Naruto's head.
Naruto began breathing intensely as he remembered those horrible memories of the villagers calling him demon, wishing for his death, making no kids get near him which made him lonely. Those times he yelled out, I want to be hokage, they just laughed or completely ignored his dreams. Being made fun of, looked down on and misunderstood. He hated that. He wanted them to go away. To disappear. To be gone forever. But. It could've been worse, he held on to that and thought about what his sensei had said and tried to look for a bright spot in his situation but all that happened was another stomp on his head from Tayuya.
"No wonder why a shit head like you is trash. Jiraiya is offering you a chance, one that suits you so why stay here," she concluded. "You're used around here like a scapegoat, being blamed on for everything something else did."
Naruto felt provoked and in his rage, red chakra began to cover his body and soon, a one tail had emerged from the red chakra. He immediately jumped towards with his fist extended and his claws now pointed to Tayuya who stepped back a little before Sakon/Ukon stepped in and swiftly had punched back Naruto. However he landed on his feet this time and his hands that were not covered by his sweater began to be covered by cracks that had then engulfed it and turned his hands into a shade of dark grey with a hint of brown from his tanned skin.
"That all you got." Sakon said to the frustrated Naruto.
Naruto held then the same hand sign as earlier to summon a shadow a clone but only sent out two. One had stayed behind by Naruto's side and the other for the attack, running like a fox. Naruto leaned his arm back to his clone and wind began forming into a blue sphere within their hands.
"Is that- hmph I see you already know Jiraiya's maneuver," Sakon said dodging the shadow clone headed towards him. "However, he branded me with a gift too"
2 black like lines began rolling down his eyes just like Naruto's but instead of cracks coming from below the neck, it seemed like curved lines and blotches rising. The shadow clone tried to attack from the behind but Ukon was aware and used his arms from Sakon to attack, which got rid of the clone. Naruto though finished his ransengan and tried attacking Sakon/Ukon with it. Naruto hadn't perfected the jutsu, but in his mind he thought it was enough strength to deal enough damage.
He ran roaring his rage to the attached twins with his ransengan and had tried going for the chest but Sakon/Ukon had fast reflexes, though they slouch a lot, and dodged it barely in time, but still got their foot hit by the sphere of wind. Naruto landed on his knees from his almost success but immediately got kicked by Kidomaru again which pissed him more than he already was but had no more chakra. His one tail form died out and his curse mark began receding slowly to how it was before, then fell once more. Naruto was furious but more ashamed at his loss.
"Wanna keep dancing or pay attention shithead" shot Tayuya at the seemingly tired Naruto.
Naruto stood up from the floor and sat down with one leg extended and the other bended up as he relaxed his hand on the bended knee and looked to the floor.
"What is it that you want" replied Naruto harshly.
"Your key to power and recognition lies in that curse seal of yours," Sakon replied to Naruto while pointing at him. "No such control however is a problem, we Jiraiya's Elites have perfect control and strength thanks to him, none of which you can gain from here. He can help you achieve your goals just like us and may even know about..."
Sakon stopped for a second before smiling maliciously.
"Your parents"
Naruto had put on the look of if he had seen a ghost. He clenched his fists before looking to Sakon/Ukon who were still smiling.
"My...parents?.." Naruto asked.
"I overheard him speaking some stuff about them when they were alive, not only that but you can get the strength and ideals you want from him,...and be saved from this wretched village" Sakon finished.
"We see much bright things in your future once you side with us" added Tayuya.
Naruto sat quietly with an expressionless look to his face as he filled his head with their words and remembered the pain he had to endure to show everyone he was strong and not the demon they called him to be, but it was never good enough.
"We'll leave you think about his offer, if you want to contact us we'll be outside the gates" said Sakon.
The elite four began to turn their backs against Naruto as he took out his orange charm and stared at it. He tried to think back to his memories with Team 7 and the Rookie 9, but were each getting filled with all his painful memories and the bad times of him and Team 7. He then squeezed onto the glass which made the crack on it expanded even more. Just as the four were about to leave Naruto,spoke up.
"Wait!" he yelled out.
The elite four looked back at Naruto who was gaining his balance while standing up.
They saw him extend his arm out and saw the cold and dull eyes of Naruto.
"Room for one more.." he added on.
The four ninja had smirked as their first part of the mission was a success.
"You might wanna pack up pip squeak, we'll be waiting, you know where to find us" replied Tayuya.
With that, Jiraiya's elite four had departed Naruto who was getting ready to head back to his apartment, one last time.
/
It was night. The streets were empty, the air was calm and no street lamps around were on. There was just a bench with a pink haired kunoichi who let the wind pass by her hair which was cut. She heard a bit of rustling from her left and it caught her attention. She looked and saw her teammate, whose name was Naruto, walk with an emotionless look with his arm carrying a string attached to a bag-like back pack behind his back, she didn't take this as a good sign.
She let the boy pass her from the bench she was sitting on and looked straight trying to not look at him.
"So..," she said without looking at him as the boy stopped at the word she spoke. "...Where are you going this late.."
The last sentence began a sudden silence between the two ninja and a leaf had rustled loud enough to let them know their quietness.
"What are you doing this late here, you should be asleep" he responded coldly which made her frown a little.
"I believe I asked first" she said to his response.
She gave in and turned her head to him but was caught off guard when she saw that Naruto had half his face glaring at her with black lines rolling down from his eyes. She bit her tongue as she was scared. She hadn't seen those lines rolling down since the chuinin exams in the forest of death and the battle on the hospital roof. She knew something wrong was going on.
"It's none of your business, Sakura, you should go home, please, stay out of this" he said to Sakura.
"You're leaving aren't you" she stated back which surprised Naruto.
She stood up and walked to Naruto who turned his head back the opposite way.
"I'm not dumb, now tell me why and where are you going" she said as she was pulling a punch to Naruto to try and force him to tell her, but he stopped the punch which made Sakura prove her suspicions but wanted deep down to have it be false.
"I'm done being your punching bag, a scapegoat to this village," he told her harshly before pushing her back. "If leaving this village means being free then I'm taking that chance."
Sakura began to form tears in her eyes, she was a crybaby but this made her begin to cry like no other.
"N-No...No..No I won't let you!" she exclaimed as the tears released.
She grabbed her charm and shoved it in Naruto's vision. The green had matched her eyes and were both twinkling, the shininess in the charms glass and her tears reflecting the moon's light.
"Fi-Fine! If you-you're going then t-take me with you!" she yelled hesitantly.
Naruto widened his eyes a little for just a second before they returned to the emotionless and cold state they were in before. He took Sakura's hand ,that was holding the charm Obito-sensei had given them as a reward for passing the bell test, and placed it down.
He wasn't going to let this wave of guilt get to him as he had felt worse.
"No. You don't mean it, plus you have a family and friends here for you, you're needed more here" Naruto said as his response.
"S-So do- SO DO YOU!" exclaimed Sakura but Naruto just nodded his head in disagreement.
Naruto let go of Sakura's hand and began walking away again. Sakura stood there in shock trying to move her lips to say something...but nothing came out. Naruto was walking further and further away from Sakura, however she finally said something.
"IF YOU LEAVE I'LL SCREAM" she yelled at him.
He was out of her sight all of a sudden so she tried to scream but was stopped when she felt something behind her.
"Thank you Sakura..." she heard Naruto whisper those words in her ear right as her eyes rolled back and fell unconscious.
/////
"Wait Pakkun!" said Obito as he came to a stop.
"hm?"
Obito stood silently as if he was trying to hear something he could't.
"You can come out now, Sakura..." Obito said turning his back to see her hiding behind a tree, getting out of that hiding spot.
"Sensei..." Sakura said as she tried to come up with an explanation.
She was told specifically not to leave the village to go after Naruto but she still did. Óbito was waiting for a response while Pakkun sat by ,patiently waiting for the two to move on.
"Obito-sensei I just wanted to—"
"Just come along," Óbito sighed. "You're apart of this team too so I see no reason to leave you behind"
Sakura eyes lit up and ran towards Óbito and Pakkun. She felt slightly of use which made her happy for a second but remembered what Naruto had done to her.
"Obito- I'm picking up more scents, it's those kids" Pakkun said twitching his nose.
"Choji, Neji, kiba, Shikamaru and Rock lee" said Sakura to herself.
"Wait...There are 3 more...they're sand-nin!" pointed out Pakkun.
Obito narrowed his eyes thinking in suspicion but decided their was a bigger problem ahead. He then heard Sakura gasp lightly and looked behind him again to see Sakura staring up. There were dark grey clouds swirling around, rumbling.
"This isn't good—," told Pakkun to Obito and Sakura. "Seems like a storm is coming and with a storm, comes rain, and with rain comes loss of scent"
Obito put on a face of determination before turning back to Pakkun.
"Then we better hurry up and get to those two" Obito replied.
/
Thunder began to rumble and two former best friends were seeming to have a stare off. They glared at each other for a while letting the thunder be louder until one of them made a move. Naruto had formed a single hand sign and said something to himself that Sasuke couldn't hear from his distance but immediately knew since right after, 12 Naruto clones appeared surrounding him.
Sasuke tried to look for a way to escape all the clones without wasting too much chakra but saw Naruto turn his back behind him and begin to walk away, leaving the clones to deal with Sasuke while he goes to Jiraiya. Sasuke was again pissed at this and tried to just run up to Naruto but was then punched in the side of his face by his clone that was still surrounding him and preventing him to chase after the real Naruto.
"DON'T RUN AWAY FROM ME!" Yelled out Sasuke, recovering from the punch.
Sasuke then ran up to him again, this time jumping up and yelling, "FIRE STYLE: PHOENIX FLOWER JUTSU".
Multiple fireballs began raining down and got rid of some of the clones around him but a few were still left heading to Sasuke to stop him from getting any closer to Naruto. Sasuke wasn't going to let a few clones stop him however and when the clones appeared in front of his way, he angrily punched them with fire appearing in his fist as he knocked them down, making them disappear too. Now that the clones were gone, he continued to run after Naruto who began growing his red kyuubi chakra again. Sasuke then felt his curse from Orochimaru growing more intense and before he knew it, his left eyes turned black with yellow irises. He kicked Naruto in the side of his stomach to get his attention which had worked since he crashed to the floor and his head bounced it little from landing harshly.
Sasuke began to breathe intensely and wanted this battle to end very soon as he was not only getting tired, but promised Sakura to bring Naruto back, as did Neji to Hinata. He looked at Naruto who began to get up and recover. However, something different was happening. Naruto's lines rolling from his eyes were no longer straight, they were now in a zig zag shape and his skin became a much darker color that seemed to be a dark grey with a bit of brown, and his zig zag lines became pure white now. Naruto's hair became more rough and pointed with a bit of it growing. His sweater was unzipped revealing a black shirt underneath and his teeth began to turn into fangs. His eyes became black as well but with his red eyes and slits in between.
He stared coldly at Sasuke before extending his hand and pointing at him. He then put on a smile with his teeth showing, chuckling a bit.
"Let's see you beat this now..Sasuke" he taunted at Sasuke while catching his breath.
Naruto was in front of Madara's statue while Sasuke was in front of Hashirama's. The water they were now on reflected their images, but was blurry with Naruto's. Naruto then began forming a sphere of wind, a Jutsu called Rasengan. While Sasuke was thinking.
'Damnit, he's charging another one of those, the only thing I can counter with that is a chidori but... I already used it twice. If I use it again I'll be out of chakra' thought Sasuke frustrated.
All though Naruto seemed to have the upper hand, he had bruises and scratches from their previous clashes and not to mention the jutsu's he had used spent his chakra. Sasuke closed his eyes, grabbed his left arm by the wrist, and began to charge his chidori.
'I have no other choice, if it means to save him then I have to' Sasuke finished in his mind while smiling angrily.
'Time to end this battle!' Exclaimed both Sasuke and Naruto in their minds.
Naruto and Sasuke glared at each other one last time before finally pushing their feet, and headed towards each other with much determination.
"SASUKE!"
"NARUTO!"
They both yelled out each other's name as their signature jutsu's collided with each other, shaking the valley around them and created a sphere of smoke and explosion.
In the sphere though, there was Naruto and Sasuke pushing each other back with all their might and energy. They were back in their original forms and we're using their remaining strength as their last straw. Sasuke plunged a red chidori to Naruto but he, just barely avoided it and scratched his forehead protector instead, creating a slash through the konoha symbol. Naruto had a pitch black rasengan and plunged it into Sasuke's stomach, which made him cough up blood. They were now headed separating from each other. In one desperate attempt, Sasuke tried holding out his hand shaking to Naruto to grab a hold of him, but Naruto had not moved and instead allowed himself to slip away from Sasuke.
Sasuke was now completely out of energy and chakra to continue and no matter how many times he tried to wake himself up to use just a bit more strength, he fell backwards as he lost consciousness and most importantly, he lost his friend. Now, he was inside of the water of the valley, falling down deeper into what seemed a dark blue sea, setting off a dark aura. His eyelids were a bit open but make no mistake, he wasn't awake. Bubbles began to slip out of his mouth that was hanging open. It felt like he was drowning in nothingness, failure, all empty. As he fell down deeper into the dark waters, a bright light appeared from above the water that shunned Sasuke's eyes. He fluttered them open, seeing only a blurry image of a bright hand extending to him. Reluctantly, he extended his own, still not being able to see right, blinking every second or narrowing them. He grabbed onto the hand until he heard a loud splash.
Both Sasuke's and Naruto's body washed ashore next to a forest. Sasuke was laying on his back and Naruto on his body facing the grass. Both seemed to be unconscious and drips of water began to land on their bodies. The rain poured down until Naruto began groaning in pain and received his consciousness. He got up wobbling until he finally was able to get his balance and stood up, almost falling back down. He felt a sharp pain on where his curse mark laid and grabbed onto it, leaning on his knees again, gripping it tight and squeezing his eyes shut before opening them again and seeing Sasuke's motionless body, being hit by the water and facing the sky.
Naruto crawled to him and placed his face directly above his, frowning. His headband then untied and landed in Sasuke's before sliding down.
"Why— I don't...I don't understand why...why would you go so far for me" asked Naruto hesitantly although he knew Sasuke wouldn't hear him.
He stood back and placed his hands in the pockets of his shredded sweater and took out a kunai. He placed it above Sasuke's heart, attempting to kill him then and there. But felt something fall out of his pocket. He looked down with his emotionless eyes and saw his orange charm facing him.
"It represents an unbreakable bond between friends, if you and your friends carry these lucky charms with them, nothing can ever drive you apart, you'll always find your way back to each other. A connection between you three."
He remembered his sensei's words. Back then, he had took those words to his heart and truly believed they all shared a bond and no matter what happened, they'll always have each other's back. Naruto, saddened a little by this memory returned the kunai back to his pocket and couldn't bring himself to kill Sasuke. He instead reached out for his charm and decided to keep it with him. With that, he took one look up at the raining sky frowning and what looked like to be a tear rolling down, was just rain that was sliding down him. He looked back down and walked slouching to Jiraiya's hideout into the dark forest. His bag washed up ashore just as he disappeared into the forest with a different copy of his picture with Team 7, then in the one in his apartment room , leaking out of the bag all wet and torned where Naruto stood.
/
*Rumble*
Obito, Sakura, and Pakkun stopped at what appeared to be an earthquake, was happening. Sakura covered herself as the earth rumbled below and above her.
"Agh!" Sakura yelled out as an intense blow of wind also came along with it.
"It came from where the boys scents are!" Pakkun stated as he stood his ground with his paws buried to stop himself from being flown away by the intense air.
"Don't let this stop us! We have to-we must hurry" Obito yelled.
Pakkun and Sakura nodded in agreement as the three continued to run.
It took about 10-15 minutes before they reached the Valley. Pakkun however lead them down a different path and what expected them, was not their expectations.
Pakkun passed by a bush with leaves by a tree covering above it. Obito shortly behind him, removed the leaves and pushed them aside but what he saw made him put on an expression of shock. The laying down Sasuke, a forehead protector slashed through, and a bag with a picture of their team facing out was what he saw and what he did not anticipate. Pakkun sniffed the items and frowned.
"They're Naruto's" he concluded.
Sakura who was running slowly behind finally caught up with the two. She bent her legs, semi crouching and was catching her breath. After a few seconds she looked up and had the same expression as Obito. Her mouth hanged open as she gasped. She examined the little area thoroughly before collapsing on her knees and slouched down.
"N-no...h-he...he." Sakura began stuttering as water began leaking from her eyes, not from the rain but in the form of tears.
"Pakkun can we catch up to Naruto" Obito said
fiercely, clinging onto hope, however Pakkun just nodded in a disapproving manner.
"With this much rain, I can barely make his scent out, I'm sorry Obito."
Obito frowned in anger and clenched his fists together while gritting his teeth. He let someone else in his life leave. Sakura was still crying, hugging herself to try to stop but she couldn't. That night she could've prevented this, but she didn't. She felt guilty but so did Obito for sticking around him the same night.
"S-Sakura, go get Naruto's stuff, we're taking Sasuke back to the hospital as quickly as possible" Obito told her to try to get her to stop sobbing.
He carefully began lifting Sasuke up and held him in a piggy back style while, holding his feet beside the sides of his stomach and Sasuke's head resting on Obito's shoulder. He smiled weakly beflre quickly turning into a frown.
'I'm sorry I was too late, Sasuke, I know you must've fought your hardest against him.' thought Obito as he, Sakura, and Pakkun began making their way back to the leaf.
/////
A day had passed since the Naruto retrieval team had left and failed. Everyone who was sent was sent to the hospital and was now awake except for Sasuke who still hadn't regained consciousness. Besides his hospital bed where he was laying on. Sakura sat there in a chair, laying her head on the desk next to her and taking a nap. She had looked after Sasuke after her and Óbito had returned with somber news. Sasuke was all bandaged up in his face except for his eyes and underneath his nostrils. His arms were also bandaged up until his wrists and filled with square bandages until it reached his ankle, it had it wrapped up.
"Uhh..." Sasuke groaned, squeezing his eyes.
Sakura immediately woke up and stood up, almost pushing the desk back and moving the bed. Sasuke lifted his bandaged arm in front of his eyes. It was morning so the sun rays were hitting through the window to him. Sasuke opened his eyes slowly, blinking twice before finally, he had woken up.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura exclaimed in glee as she got teary and immediately hugged him.
Sasuke took a bit of time to let this sink in as he looked confused of what exactly happened.
"Where am—"
"Let's see you beat this now..Sasuke"
"Ah! Naruto where's Naruto! Did he- Is he—" Sasuke yelled out but widened his eyes at Sakura's expression who had let go of him at the mention of Naruto.
It all came back to him now. He had lost, didn't he. Sakura had placed her hands held together on her lap and looked down with a frown of sadness. Sasuke looked away from her and frowned himself in anger.
"Seems like you're awake" said a slim voice.
Both of the genin looked back surprised and saw Orochimaru smiling while leaning in the corner of the room.
"You- Where have you been!" Sasuke exclaimed but flinched a little in pain afterwards.
"I've been busy you could say," replied Ororchimaru while walking up to Sasuke. "But I'm back now, and I've heard what happened yesterday."
"Yesterday? That was yesterday!?" Sasuke asked in shock.
He looked towards Sakura who had nodded her head, yes, and Sasuke gasped lightly. Before gritting his teeth in anger and looking away from the two.
"It was a close battle, but he still edged you out,eh?" Orochimaru told the angry Sasuke.
"Don't remind me!," Sasuke shot back. "Why are you here now either way.."
Orochimaru smirked at his reply.
"Unlike your, friend, we can train to help you advance in training to save him. I spoke to Tsunade-sama while you were out and she approved of it if you agree to come,however this training will take a very long period of time ," Orochimaru told him. "It's all up to you however"
Orochimaru began walking towards the exit door and raised his hand up to wave goodbye. He opened the door and exited into the hallway, leaving Sasuke thinking and Sakura by his side.
"So...what will you do" said Sakura to the pondering Sasuke.
"I couldn't keep my promise to you.. and I couldn't stop Naruto," he began saying, he opened his palm and looked at it. "I feel like...if I were him when I was still my arrogant self, I would accept their deal for strength. Seeing myself now, I couldn't save him and nor will I ever beat my brother. After I began to warm up to you two, I saw no need for vengeance, I had everything I needed which was enough, so I was afraid of gaining power, if it meant returning to that phase. My fears. My downfall. My last chance."
Sakura stared at him with pity and wanted to speak.
"Y'know, I always felt behind you two. I guess it could've been my fear of getting hurt but then that escalated to being useless. You were fighting with Naruto all that time while I was doing nothing. I know you tried the best you could, if I were In your position, I would be dead as a corpse, that's why, just do what you wish to, accepting it won't make you selfish or arrogant and denying it won't make you weak. But if anything, you'll still bring Naruto back right..." Sakura phrased as Sasuke smiled at her last sentence.
"Of course, I will bring him back. No matter what it takes." smiled Sasuke.
Outside the door however was a female hyuuga, eavesdropping and silently crying.