Day 1
Orochimaru and Sasuke were getting ready to head out the gate as Sasuke had accepted to go on training with him for good purposes. But before they had stepped out, Sasuke went to a field area and saw Sakura underneath a tree waiting for him. This was the training grounds. Where team 7 would prepare for missions, train together, or just casually hang out. Sakura had a different outfit on, the skirt from her usual outfit was still there but she had a light pink top on sorta like her hair color, but more orange blended in. She was wearing arm gloves as well that began from underneath her shoulder, to being cut off halfway through her fingers. (AN: Basically her Winter Movie outfit)
"I'll be waiting for you two here. You and Naruto, and I promise you the day you both are here, I will be as strong as you two." Sakura had told him.
"Then when I come back, I'll come here, and I'll bring him back, that's my promise." Sasuke replied to her.
Sasuke then turned around and began walking away. A breeze passed by and shook the trees along with Sakura's hair. She stood still before smiling to herself. She held her fists together and looked up at the bright blue sky.
Day 1 had begun.
Day 8
'Starting today, I train under Tsunade-shishou. She has agreed to take me as her apprentice and teach me medical ninjutsu. Maybe I can finally be of some use to you guys. She also said that she'll help me out with my physical strengths. It seems that I might be able to finally land some decent enough punches now! I apprenticed to her yesterday but it was until now that she had agreed to my request. Not to mention, it is very breezy today. The trees at our training ground were shaking like crazy. I wonder if I could count how many leaves fell down, it gets a little boring without you two around, no more quarreling, no more fights. It's been really peaceful around here, well the hyuuga estate has been lively recently and I'm seeing less of Neji and Hinata now though. The last time I saw Neji was when he departed the hospital and I last saw Hinata crying again. It's changed a lot since that incident, but I believe it can be lively once again!'
Day 365
'A year now huh. I know Orochimaru said it was gonna be long but damn, I didn't think he meant more than a year long, or I just don't know what's considered to be way, Chuinin exams are underway again, which means I have a chance to be a rank higher than you two haha! Although if I must admit, I have been getting quieter these past few months. It hasn't felt the same since you two left. On the bright side, the suna siblings visit frequently a lot now and Gaara has even become Kazekage, if Naruto were here then I'd bet he'd be jealous..
....
How is he either way? Does he even miss us?
....
Ah! I mustn't let myself be like this! FOCUS! FOCUS! *ow* hehe I've been trying to drag myself to avoid getting too deep into thought about Naruto. Sorta makes me heh..well..anxious. It's weird but it's also quite funny. Ignoring that though.... I do hope your training is going really good! Ooh! Speaking about training, I finally learned how to use medical ninjutsu! I once even brought back a fish hehe, getting so worked up over a fish is weird but it's exciting for me since I finally have the skill to be someone like Tsunade-shishou. I've also been practicing Taijutsu a lot for combat with her, that means I have to wear gloves all the time now for no harm. Well, wonder how things are going for you...
Day 913
'It's been way too long. 2 years and a half now! Yea I've been keeping track! There's nothing better to do but train and train. I have been going shopping with Ino when we're not battling over our rivalry and having the suna siblings is a lot of fun. Neji even moved up to Jounin level. Hinata has been keeping herself out of everyone's shoes however and confessed to me that she loved Naruto. Apparently she felt the same as me of feeling useless and like they could've done something but didn't. I try to keep encouraging her but a few days later, she completely gives up. Rock lee has been now 100 percent healed too and is now one of our high level taijutsu users in the village. Shikamaru is as smart and lazy as ever, but he and Temari seem to have a close relationship so I'll keep my eye on them for a while and Kiba and Shino have been hanging around with each other a lot. Ten Ten usually doesn't appear and Choji is well- Choji. Have you changed? Sasuke-Kun...'
/
A tall girl with a red top with the same design as the upper-half of her outfit from 2 years ago, accompanying this are black gloves, low-heel, knee-high boots, black shorts underneath a short grey apron skirt, and grey elbow protectors. She had the konohagakure forehead protector, worn like a headband with pink cloth around the metallic piece. Her hair was up to her shoulders in a cotton candy pink color and the wind had pushed through it, making a rustling noise with the leaves from the trees around her. She brought something up to her and stared down at it. A green star shaped charm, reflecting the sun's warm sunlight rays and glowing a beautiful spring green.
'Out everything he chose to leave behind, he didn't leave his charm, meaning that we'll for sure find each other' thought the girl as she brought her star shaped charm to her chest, smiling.
"He didn't leave his behind, meaning we'll find a way back to him, like I promised..."
The girl widened her eyes in that voice. She looked behind and a male with raven colored hair, wore a sweater with a high collar attached and seemed to be stuck to his body like a shirt and was a navy blue with 2 rectangle patches beneath his chest, one on both side in the color of a sky blue and the zipper broke above his pants a few inches up and could barely see a black shirt beneath, his pants seemed like Anbu pants but in the color of Navy blue to match his sweater. He also wore gloves, cut off at his fingers like hand warms and a black wristband made out of cloth on his right wrist. He had a belt tied to with a katana or sword attached. He laid his right arm on his hips and swayed his head left, smirking.
"Long time no see Sakura...looks like you did wait for me here." the male said.
"S-Sa— SASUKE!" Sakura yelled out in glee.
She ran up to him giggling. She was so happy to finally see him again after all that time. Although she was happy that Sasuke had returned, only one more question had remained.
What had Naruto been doing the past 2 years and a half?
.(AN to know before you start reading: ok majority of this is inspired by UltimaShishigawa's story of Sasuke and Naruto reversed so if it seems familiar then I just wanted to add a fun adventure for Naruto so I took inspiration from that and a chapter of Fruits Basket. Also another change in adding is switching Yahiko and Kabuto. Since Kabuto worked under Orochimaru, I wanted to give Yahiko to Jiraiya and have Kabuto be the one to begin the akatsuki. Ok that's all for now)
Day 1 (somewhere else)
"You'll be staying here in the meanwhile before we need to relocate again. Make yourself comfortable," said an unfamiliar man. "Once you've done that, Jiraiya-sama will meet you in the main hall outside his lair room. Don't take too long."
"This is already better than my crappy apartment room. Tell him I'll be there soon to get my training ready" said a young male voice.
"Alright." Said the man walking away.
The young male had examined the room before walking in and laid on the bed. He was on his back with both his hands behind his head with a
sweater all ripped up as he stared at the ceiling. He had no expression and just dazed off.
'What do I do from now on? If I return, I'll be tormented again. Do I just strive to be the strongest?,' thought the young male. 'Did any of it matter until now?'
An image of Team 7 going their separate ways appeared in his and a clip of him throwing his picture of Team 7 played in his mind with the glass cracking loudly popped out. It had broken, just like his bonds. Snapped. Cracked. Done. It was like nothing of importance cared. A pitch black gap in his heart, nothing to ever fill it. Something was missing in his life but nothing seemed to fill in for it. He was mad but confused. He imagined his former friends, Sasuke and Sakura, looking at him with full hate and disappointment in their expressions. He tried calling out to them but they turned around and walked away, disappearing into the light while he remained in a dark corner, alone.
From now on he was alone. From his right eye, just a tear rolled down and nothing else. He was surprised. He stood up and walked to a mirror that was across from the bed he was on in his new temporary home. He looked at himself with nothing in his looks and placed his hand at the mirror as he saw the tear fall.
'Why am I sad...it's better to be alone. No one can hurt me this way. I'll be stronger.' He thought to himself.
He also thought about punching the mirror right then and there. His reflection showed just a shadow of his former self that has been corrupted. He tried to smile weakly and show happiness but quickly after cringed and instead frowned in irritation. He placed his hand off the window and finally punched it, creating a huge crack and a bit of shards either falling off or stuck inside his fist which made him begin bleeding. He didn't know why but this pain truly made him smile.
'I should get going now' the male said in his mind while taking his hand out of the cracked window and shook off the shards stuck inside it. He was still bleeding but chose to ignore for the time's sake and headed out the door.
No regrets.
Day 8 (somewhere else)
"RASENGAN!" yelled out the young male.
He had a wind sphere in his palm, running to a tall man, with his notable feature being his white long spiky hair, who had smirked. He had his arms crossed below his chest as he awaited the young male to get to him. When he did, he was about to be hit with a jutsu before he dodged by just tiling his head to the side but incoming was a kick he did not expect and barely managed to grab onto his foot. Out of nowhere then, the foot he grabbed onto disappeared in a puff of smoke and heard a battle cry behind him. He twisted his head behind to see the same young male with the same jutsu in his palm and plunged it into his stomach. Little did the young one know that this was also the same trick he had used and he too disappeared in a puff of smoke when his jutsu had landed.
He went wide eyed as his jutsu disappeared and looked around his area to see where his mentor had just gone too. All of a sudden, he heard clapping from behind his left, he turned around to see his mentor clapping with a vicious smile. He was resting his back on a tank he had in his lair he used for experiments and stared at him with approval.
"I applaud you, Naruto, you were close but I know the same trick as you" said the man stopping his clapping.
"You need to teach me those maneuvers you use and stop reading those pervy books you read, Jiraiya-sama" said the young male, identified as Naruto.
"Fine, fine," Jiraiya said chuckling. "How good are you at wind style?"
"Good enough to be able to master something that the 4th hokage took years to do" Naruto responded to Jiraiya's last question.
"All right," Said Jiraiya, walking up to Naruto before placing his hand on his shoulder. "We'll start there"
Day 365 (somewhere else)
'How many hideouts does this guy have?' Naruto thought in his mind as they relocated again.
He understood why they needed to keep locating again and again, if they stayed in more than one spot for long then someone might have figured out from a nearby village and warn others since he was practically a rogue missing nin. What he wondered was why and how did he have this many hideouts. Naruto had a small bag with him with 2 scrolls inside and placed them on the side of his desk in his new temporary room. He twisted his head to the side a little bit and still caught a glimpse of his reflection. He had now slightly longer, spikier hair than before and his skin was a bit more tanned and was a bit taller.
He wore an orange haori with long dangling sleeves that seemed to not fit him, that cut off a few inches above his wrist, with a high collar and behind a red circle with a black swirl imprinted on it and extended to his knees that was fastened by a black belt. Underneath that haori was a black shirt that ripped above in the middle, showing bits of his chest. He wore ruffly pants as well that got tucked into bandages below his knee that transitioned into black sandals. His curse mark was surrounded by the suppression seal Óbito had given him a year ago. He glared hatefully at his reflection but kept his sanity. He hadn't established a healthy relationship with his tailed demon and actually never spoke to it but each time he got crazy mad, the fox would take over. It only happened about once throughout his time with Jiraiya but if he had to be honest with himself, he worried about being overtaken again.
'Am I even supposed to care anymore..'
Day 913 (somewhere else)
"Wind Style: Air stream Jutsu!"
A stream of wind had come out of Naruto's mouth and aimed it at a couple of trees that were then completely decimated and clouds of smoke appeared from the destruction. He had complete control of his wind style and had worked on jutsus with it. He was above the underground hideout, training out in the open without the worry of being caught by someone nearby, since he knew he could easily wipe them out and prevent information from being leaked. Naruto then took out a shuriken and spinned it around the tip of his fingers before blasting it with a large gust of wind, making the small weapon be able to slice off the tree he aimed for. He smirked at his process before chuckling at himself for his progress.
"Naruto-kun.." whispered a soft male voice.
He looked behind him, frowning, and saw one of Jiraiya's servants with his brown messy hair covering his face, sticking out of the ground. He was experimented on by him as his body shifting caught an interest in Jiraiya.
"J-Jiraiya-sa-ma...wishes to speak...t-to you.." the servant had stuttered to say nervously.
"Hmph," Naruto made the noise out of his mouth while walking up the servant. "I'm on my way"
Naruto was walking through the dark hallways with only a few lanterns, hung up by the side of the walls as the only light.
'What does the old geezer want now' thought Naruto angrily.
He came up into a large door and pushed it open to reveal the Toad sannin leaning against the wall reading a sort of poetry book instead of his usual make out books.
"Ahem.." Naruto made a fake coughing noise to get his attention which worked.
"Oh Naruto, I didn't hear you come in," Jiraiya said, putting away his book and walking next to a chair before sitting down on it. "Sorry for cutting your training above, I just wanted to give you a new mission to sort out for me. On the topic of training, I want to see how good you've gotten working on your own these past few months so I want this mission to be a sorta test for you. You'll figure it out once you make it to the small village your "test" is being held in. It's not too far from here, just keep going west and you'll eventually find it."
Naruto turned around, getting ready to leave the room.
"All right then, I'll be on my way immediately" he responded emotionlessly before walking out the door, and shutting it and leaving a smiling Jiraiya.
Naruto did exactly what Jiraiya had told him and continued to walk west and did quickly find the small village, being protected by a large wooden fence. Naruto focused his chakra on his feet and began walking up the wall easily, before making it in and landing on the pavement of the village. Luckily, no one had seen him trespassing and decided to continue walking. The village reminded him of his past home he saw as a living hell. He tried pushing those memories away before looking into a dark alley and saw a young, skinny boy, looking like he was hiding on his knees while sobbing. Naruto put on a shocked face as he imagined the young boy as himself when he was younger.
"Did you hear what happened to that kid? I heard that his parents had disowned for not meeting their expectations" Naruto had heard a female villager whisper around which made him irritated.
"Kids with their small sized minds can't be perfect and it's disgusting" whispered another female voice behind.
He began to hear all the mean and harsh voices around him which made him breathe in anger and clench his fists while gritting his teeth. The memories of him starving outside the village and the villagers just commenting about him behind his back made him pissed. He despised people like that and wanted to cut off their throats so badly and eat their flesh as their blood poured out beautifully and their souls to be trapped in the flames of hell, their screams to be used as lullabies. However, he was able to keep his sanity together and relaxed a little before walking into the dark alley and up to the little boy. He bent down on one knee and took out some currency from his pocket and placed it in front of the boy.
"Use this to buy yourself some food, you need it more than me." He said.
The little boy's eyes had lit up as he quickly grabbed the money and thanked Naruto over and over. Naruto retained his expressionless look and stood up. He patted the boy on the head before walking out the alley and continued his way into the village, trying to figure out what his mission was.
'Adults think they can just abandon their child and the others to leave them to rot' he thought irritated, but then felt a dark aura.
He walked into a dark forest that had given off some bad vibes and reached a cave that had seemed to be pitch black on the inside.
"NO YOU CAN'T TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME!"
Naruto heard a woman yell and looked to the other side of the cave and saw a lady with long orange with her bangs covering one of her eyes and a plain white sleeved shirt and black leggings. She was being held back by several ninja as she tried to get them off of her.
"MA'AM YOU CAN'T INTERFERE WITH THE RITUAL YOU KNOW THE RULES!" One of the ninja yelled.
"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN THAT'S MY ONLY FAMILY LEFT AND I WON'T TOLERATE ANYONE TAKING HER AWAY FROM ME NOW LET ME GO BEFORE I KILL YOU ALL" the woman continued to scream.
'Here's someone with an actual sense of sake' Naruto thought as he just watched the woman try to stomp on the shinobi's feet and get away.
Naruto threw 3 shuriken to the 3 Shinobi that were grabbing a hold of the woman and successfully made them land on the side of their neck which had made them faint. The woman stopped her ambush and stood there in surprise before looking up at Naruto with his hand stretched out, indicating he had been the one to throw the shuriken.
"What's going on here" Naruto asked the woman.
"Who are you? Why did you stop them for me? I've never seen you around?" The woman asked repeatedly with an annoyed tone.
"Just a wanderer wondering what's going on here" he replied with the same tone as the woman.
"Fine. I'll tell you what's going on. If.." the woman stopped to place her hands on her hips. "If you save my daughter from there."
"Depends what your daughter needs saving from"
The woman glared at Naruto with the eyes that weren't covered by her hair. Naruto did the same back, waiting for her to tell her what had been going on in the cave.
"Every year, this village holds an energy ritual to give up one's life to give their energy to our god. Only 2 villagers are selected each year and yesterday my daughter had been selected to give up her life and feed her energy to the god" the woman told Naruto this information.
"I see.," Naruto had turned around facing the cave and decided to walk in before stopping. "I'll stop this useless ritual and save your daughter then, but I need a description of her."
"Easy, she's a cute girl with cute hair, cute eyes, a cute body and cute dress" the woman replied.
Naruto facepalmed in his mind but outside he just put on a "are you serious" face without looking at the lady.
"A more clearer description." He said again.
"Fine. She was last wearing a short-sleeved dark yellow dress with a long-sleeved light yellow shirt underneath, and a pair of beige and light-brown colored boots. She also has my orange hair but it's cut off at her shoulders and looks like your age. There now please go save her and I guess you could stop the ritual too." The woman added on with her last comment in a sarcastic tone.
Naruto nodded his head before walking in and leaving the woman behind.
Although the cave gave off a dark aura and vibe, it was filled with sparkling gems and crystals. Some a neon blue, others a pastel pink and some with a mixed gradient of both. The one that caught Naruto's attention were the pink ones. He stopped halfway in the cave with the crystals and gazed at the bright pink one that had a green gradient on the bottom with a dark purple crystal next to it. An image of a pink haired kunoichi with beautiful green eyes and a raven haired genin appeared in his mind.
'I wonder....how have they been and if they have changed...' he thought in his mind before smiling weakly.
He hasn't thought about them in what seemed like years. There were times where he would have a brief thought about them but wasn't fully into thought. Now he was wondering about their well being which surprised him a little. He couldn't think about them, not right now, and continued to walk into the cave. Naruto then made a turn and a huge black crystal sticking out of the floor and below saw countless bodies lying on the stone floor. Some seemed to have their bones attached to their skin and sticked out, as if the liquid in them was sucked out, while very few retained their usual body. He examined the cave area before his eyes caught a glimpse of a girl that seemed to be the same age as him with all the details the woman had told him. Naruto held a hand sign before he produced a shadow clone and nodded to it as it went off to the girl. The clone realized the girl was breathing heavily and grabbed her bridal style.
"Good. Now get her to safety, I'm going to see what this crystal is" ordered Naruto to the shadow clone, which nodded yes before taking off with the girl close to his chest.
Naruto then walked up to the large crystal and gazed at it. He placed his hand on the crystal and focused his eyes on the huge mineral before catching his reflection and quickly looking away ashamed. He hated his reflection. The way he looked had made him irritated and cracked almost every mirror he saw. He wanted to keep his sanity together but still, he vendes his arm back before forming his fist and punching the black crystal hard. The impact had shook the cave and small rocks along with dust were falling from above, the black crystal had also created a crack and the reflection of Naruto had been broken up to 11 pieces.
"Leave...do not....interfere"
Naruto had heard from above him and decided to look up. His eyes saw a creature that was pitch black with yellow markings emerging from the crystal. The figure then had turned into enormous teeth with a mouth opened up that had then swallowed Naruto with goo sticking out.
Inside the creature Naruto had begun kicking and kicking annoyed by the black goo inside that was trying to devour him.
"Aarrgghhhh! What the hell is this" he groaned in annoyance.
He then shot his eyes open as the 2 black lines began rolling down his eyes. He had activated his curse mark. Over time, Jiraiya had taught him how to control his mark and no longer saw it as an awful curse but had a little bit seen it as a blessing. His thoughts and behavior had changed over time as well as his personality. Why was it that his perspective on everything had changed so much?
"Wind Current: Air suffocation!," He yelled out while creating a tiger sign. Wind had filled in the void he was in of the black goo which had begun to push it back before he yelled out. "RELEASE"
The air had pushed out the goo and he freed himself, completely separating and melting it. Some of the black goo had remained on the floor and a little puddle of it laid on his cheek before he wiped it off with his thumb.
"That was too easy...," Naruto told himself, turning to the black crystal that now had the crack from earlier. "Now time to get rid of this ugly gem"
He then proceeded to form a shadow clone and extended his arm backwards to the clone and began to form another one of his signature jutsu's, however this one was shaping into a form of a 4 points star, namely a shuriken. The clone then saluted as it disappeared in smoke and Naruto was left with the gist of wind in his palm in the shape of a shuriken.
"WIND STYLE: RASENSHURIKEN!"
He yelled out the name of the jutsu before slamming it into the black crystal, shattering it into a thousand pieces. He smiled at crystal shattering into a thousand pieces, flying in the air like rain but quickly put on a shocked face when the image of the picture of team 7 shattering came into mind. He quickly tried to shake it off and placed his hand on his face to calm himself down and smiled once again maliciously when he had.
'This was a way too easy mission, I need to convince him to give me way harder ones with more tasks to do' wondered Naruto.
He then heard running footsteps come into the cave and looked behind him before seeing the clone he had summoned earlier with the girl he had promised to save from the begging woman earlier in his arms. He then walked up to the clone and placed the girl behind his back, carrying her in a piggy back style. The girl then let it out a sigh, but was fast asleep. The clone then disappeared as well and Naruto began to walk out.
He couldn't help but feel something in his gaping heart when he heard the girl breathe behind his ear. For so long, he wanted someone to carry him with care as well behind their back, as they got home and happily smiled together. Oh how long he had wished for the feeling. He began to envy the girl, as she had a mother who was worried sick for her. He couldn't lie to himself and had thought a little of being in that girl's shoes, laughing together with his unknown mom. Throughout the time he was with Jiraiya, had given small descriptions of his mother and father when he had the courage to ask him about it. Before this moment, he had actually stopped thinking about them and instead worried about what he will do for the rest of his life, a new goal to reach out to. Naruto then snapped out of his thoughts when he squinted his eyes at the rays of light that began leaking out, and saw he was nearing the exit of the cave. It was still bright as day and was able to make out the woman he encountered earlier, sitting on her bottom with her legs bent up to her face where she had hid it and her arms hugging her knees. Naruto then fully exited the cave and had dropped the girl carefully to the ground, but still made some noise which had caught the woman's attention.
"Is this the girl you're looking for.." Naruto commented.
"K-KIKYO!" she yelled out in glee with her eyes lit up. "THANK YOU! THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!"
The woman thanked Naruto before crawling fast to her daughter that began to regain her consciousness. She then held her upper body up from the floor and hugged her with tears leaking out. The girl began to flutter her eyes open and groan in awakening.
"M-mom..." she whispered. "You're c-crushing my back.."
The woman had let go and let her daughter gain her balance.
"Sorry hun...you need to thank this kind boy for saving you too..his name is—" she cut of her last word as she realized she did not know Naruto's name. "Ah i believe we never exchanged names, my name is Riku Kyoko and my daughter you just saved is Riku Kikyo."
"My name..." Naruto uttered. He hasn't introduced himself to anyone in years since he usually has been in hiding with Jiraiya. "Uzumaki...Naruto.."
"Th-Thank you v-very much Uzumaki-kun" Kikyo said in a very shy manner.
This shy manner had made Naruto remember a certain shy girl he knew. He however suppressed the thought of remembering her and instead replied to the girl before turning his back and walked off.
"Wait! Is there something I can repay you for saving my dear Kikyo!" Kyoko had yelled out to Naruto which he heard perfectly fine so he thought she had no reason to scream.
"It's alright with me, go enjoy time with her or whatever, I'm going to wander off to more places probably" replied Naruto with no emotion as usual now.
"Well you'll surely visit us, right?" Kyoko had continued to say.
Naruto began to walk away however but made a yes noise and disappeared off into the forest again. As he was walking off though, he smiled. This smile though was a true one. A one without malicious intent, accomplished or a fake, it was a real light one. He hasn't smiled like this since the chuinin exams which felt like forever ago. He then quickly shifted it back to a frown.
'Why did things happen this way...'
2 weeks later
Naruto was in his small and shallow room with only one small lantern as light. His bed was just a blanket on the floor with a single pillow. He actually enjoyed having his rooms be like this each time he had to relocate. Mostly because half of the time, there were no mirrors, thus no having to see his reflection that he hated. He did have a small desk however which had a scroll and a kunai on it. He decided to walk out the room and into the long dark hallway as usual. He then appeared into a slightly more bigger room with the only noticeable difference being the light was a bright white instead of a flamish yellow from the lanterns.
From behind however he heard multiple steps land and in curiosity, looked behind. He saw the usual Jiraiya as always and his right hand man, Yahiko along with someone he did not recognize. It was a boy who looked his age with short black hair and black eyes. His skin was pale and he wore a black and gray long sleeved shirt that showed off his stomach, black Anbu pants and ninja sandals, black gloves and an Anbu sword on his back with a konoha forehead protector.
"Who might this be?" Naruto asked Jiraiya and Yahiko.
"We were at the Tenchi Bridge and ran into some familiar faces, your old team to be more specific" Jiraiya said enjoyingly.
Naruto widened his eyes in anger and glared at the black haired ninja. Sasuke and Sakura were the first names and faces then appeared in his mind and wondered what he had to do with them.
"The name is Sai. Sasuke and Sakura have told me a lot about you, Naruto.." Sai said smiling.
Sasuke and Sakura had been thinking about him too? And that Sai guy had known them and told him about himself. Naruto had many thoughts rushing into mind but still had his angry look down. His whiskers then started to become sharper again, his eyes glowing in a blood red color, as he was letting his anger get the best of him again. He saw the smile the black haired ninja had and immediately identified it as a fake. He knew because there were many times where he had faked it too.
Without thinking, he angrily gritted his teeth and lashed out at him at Sai, slapped him across the cheek with full strength, causing him to collapse on his knees and create a bruise mark on his skin. Jiraiya smirked at this like he was watching his favorite drama show and Naruto kept glaring at Sai hatefully.
"I think that's enough Naruto," Yahiko said, trying to calm Naruto down.
Sai had begun rubbing his cheek with no expression like he couldn't feel the pain but wanted to at least feel something. Naruto's whiskers then returned to normal, so did his eyes, and he began to walk back into the hallway.
"I'm going to take a nap" he said as he entered the hallway leaving the 3 behind.
"Ah forgive him for that attitude, he just gets a tad bit too sensitive when someone reminds him of anyone or anything related to Konohagakure.." Jiraiya told Sai almost chuckling.
Half an hour later-
Naruto had decided to fall asleep on his floor bed again as his irritation made him tired. He wanted to just wander off into sleep and just relax like usual whenever he's sleeping, but after hearing the mention that Jiraiya had ran into his former teammate, he couldn't stop thinking about them now. What were they doing so nearby? He felt like he was sinking into a nightmare. Why did he still care? He tried to make himself fall in a trance to relax but it quickly proved to be really useless. But then, all of a sudden a loud creaking noise from behind his back echoed through the room. He assumed it was Jiraiya or Yahiko checking up on him, getting ready to notify him about something. However nothing happened. Not until a large explosion occurred in the room which awakened Naruto.
There was a huge cloud of white smoke surrounding the area, but when it cleared, there was a large hole beneath him in what used to be his temporary room with the Sai guy he had met earlier with a scroll in hand staring up above. Naruto was above the hole on the ground, as the hideout was underneath the ground. He stood up and his ears were catching rushing footprints to the now destroyed hallway. And coming from the hallways was one of his former teammates. A girl. He squinted his eyes at her to get a good look.
—
A few minutes before....
Sakura and Sasuke were running through the dark halls of the hideout, bursting through every single door in a hurry in their sight.
"He's not here!" Yelled the female, Sakura.
"Not here either" replied the male, Sasuke.
They kept opening and opening doors. They had been tasked with a new mission with 2 new people. One of them being Sai as a replacement for Naruto, and the other named Captain Yamato, since their mission prior to this had their previous leader, Óbito, overuse his ability the Mangekyou Sharingan to save the kazekage. Their new mission had them investigate Jiraiya's hideout that had been recently leaked to the village and grab intel on Naruto's whereabouts. They accepted the mission reluctantly but at the same time determined and truly wanted to bring their former friend back.
After Sasuke had opened a door, an explosion from a nearby distance had shaken the hallway and caught both of the shinobi's attention. A small rock from the underground ceiling had landed on Sasuke's head and turned his attention to that. He rubbed it on the spot the rock landed and then realized that Sakura had begun running towards the explosion since they heard it. The hallway had stopped shaking and Sasuke ran after Sakura who was running her full speed.
"WAIT SAKURA" Sasuke yelled out.
Sakura couldn't hear him though as she only focused on the explosion down the hall. She came into the end of the hall where she saw Sai standing, looking up but Sakura didn't care what he was looking up at and instead was mad at him since it had proved her suspicions of Sai trying to assassinate Naruto behind their backs. She made it to the hole and had her eyes only on Sai. She quickly slid in and grabbed Sai by the shirt and yelled in his face.
"BASTARD! So you were going to kill him all this ti—"
"It's been a while..Sakura.."
Sakura was cut off by a familiar voice she couldn't believe she was hearing. She went wide eyed and slowly turned her head up while releasing her grip on Sai. She fully looked up and gasped lightly when she recognized who it was. She stepped on her foot behind her other leg, and her lips were shivering.
"Naru...to..." she said shakingly. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. That last time she had seen him, he had made her faint and left, she was somewhat happy to know he was still alive but in shock to see him now. The thing that stood out to her the most was the purple eye holes underneath his eyes, as if he hadn't been sleeping.
"Is something wrong? Are you not happy to see me after so long" Naruto taunted at Sakura who was still in shock. Naruto glared at Sakura with eyes no one could read, she had grown so much in what he saw.
Just then, Sasuke had run in too without looking up and stopped to catch his breath while looking at Sakura and Sai. Sai was now looking away and Sakura gazing up.
"Sakura what's going on-" Sasuke said before he too was cut off.
"Sasuke is here too I see" Naruto said calmly at Sasuke who now had put on the same expression as Sakura, however with a little bit of an angrier face.
"Y-You..." he managed to say which caused Naruto to smile.
"Long time, no see.." he said chuckling . He might have sounded like he was not amused but inside he felt like he just wanted to slice them in half so he could prevent from feeling all these mixed up emotions. Somewhat inside him, he really did feel relieved to see them.
Sakura was then feeling the same emotions she had when she had first come into contact with Jiraiya. Paralyzed in fear. Was this really the Naruto she knew or is the Naruto she knew gone? Sasuke had mixed emotions about this "reunion". He was mad at him for having abandoned the very village he swore to protect and be the kage, he was happy to finally see him and felt like he had another chance to bring him back, but couldn't forgive him for the trouble he had caused him and his friends.
"Are you just gonna stare?..." Sasuke said with a touchy attitude. Everyone's eyes had turned to him as they were shocked by his manner.
"Tch. I thought you missed me, you were the one after me that day..." Naruto, entertained, had said. "Guess you hate me too, especially after I tried to kill you.."
Sasuke recalled that day at final valley but pushed those memories aside for now. He stepped forward with his head held up to see Naruto who was blocking the sun's rays.
"I don't hate you but I won't let you get away with this anymore..." Sasuke responded.
Naruto grew a big hostile grin before jumping off the part of the earth he was on and swiftly landing in front of Sasuke. His left hand on Sasuke's right shoulder and his head laid on the other next to Sasuke's left ear. Sakura tried to do something by running towards Naruto but had felt a hand grab her wrist and looked back to see Sai trying to stop her. He nodded at her before she finally stopped trying to free herself from his grip.
"Y'know...the Sasuke I recall was all on about trying to get revenge on his elder brother for murdering his clan.." Naruto whispered coldly . "What happened to that.."
"The Naruto I recall wasn't making poor life choices and letting the darkness consume him" Sasuke shot back at him.
Naruto snickered a little until it turned into full out manic laughter in Sasuke's ears. He extended his arm that was on Sasuke's shoulder behind, and began to grow claws like nails, able to tear through skin.
"I was the darkness to begin with," Naruto chuckled, stopping his laughter. He was about to plunge his claws inside behind Sasuke's back where his heart was located.
Sai pulled out his sword and stopped Naruto's claws from stabbing into Sasuke. Naruto scoffed before he grabbed onto Sai's sword and crushed the iron. Sasuke however stood still with no fear but Sakura had her adrenaline raise and as soon as Naruto had crushed the sword with his grip, Sakura moved in the way and pushed Naruto back with a punch. Her and Naruto were now about 3 meters apart and Naruto had his feet digged into the ground by trying to stop himself from being launched back even further by her.
"I-I....I didn't..I.." she stuttered with her fist out as she caught her breath.
Naruto smiled at this and glared at Sakura with amazement.
"Heh...you haven't changed, Sakura.." Naruto laughed. "I guess I really shouldn't be surprised"
Sakura's lips were stuttering as she put herself in a fighting position. She wanted to say that she didn't mean to hurt him but she realized she was already years late for that. Sasuke took out his katana and swung the blade. Sakura then tried to step up but was stopped when Sasuke suddenly began to talk.
"Don't, Sakura. This time I'll bring him back like I promised, just don't interfere" Sasuke said, stopping her tracks.
Sakura wanted to say something but Sai had held on to her wrist again, preventing her from getting to say or get to Sasuke. Naruto smirked darkly which made Sakura shiver in fear and sadness. Why was it that out of everyone, he was the one to fall into darkness? Sasuke held on tighter to his katana before bringing it up and pointing the end of the blade to meet Naruto. He stared down and let his bangs cover his face.
"I will bring you back, right now.." Sasuke said with a sore tone.
"I'd like to see you try..." Naruto scoffed. Sasuke gritted his teeth at this and dashed to him with a katana by his side, swinging it at Naruto but he easily dodged.
Naruto leaped to his right and landed swiftly with air pushing him down like he was riding the current. His expression now as if he were bored or displeased and gazed at Sasuke like he was trying to tell him to step up his game. He then proceeded to lunge his knee to Sasuke's stomach making him grunt in the pain he felt but used his shaking arm that was holding his katana to try and land an attack at Naruto. Naruto, however, sensed this and held onto the katana before pushing back Sasuke along with the sword.
Both of the ninja had stopped for a moment to catch their breath but Naruto was looking down at the hand he held to the katana and saw the dark, oozing blood spilling out. The blade was of course sharp and seeing as he held a firm grip on it, obviously there would be an injury. Suddenly then kyuubi's chakra began to heal the deep cut before sending off burning smoke, indicating that it had been healed. Sure Naruto didn't want to have the burden of carrying a tailed demon within him but at times he was thankful for its use. He then began to bend his fingers up and down, reassuring it was healed. Sasuke took this chance, as Naruto seemed to be distracted, and began to form hand signs. These signs were ones designed for the signature Uchiha fire element and he took up his left arm with two of his fingers held together and his others bent down, placed it above his mouth before he whispered out a jutsu, hoping Naruto wouldn't hear to catch him off guard.
"FIRE STYLE: FIREBALL JUTSU"
A huge ball of fire came from within his mouth before he spit it out and multiple pieces of fireballs began raining. Naruto who was focused on his hand, felt warmness from above and turned his attention to the flying fireballs aiming at him. His adrenaline pumped up and began to try to dodge attack. Yet, because he had reacted too late, a small fireball had landed on his left shoulder and another had burned the right tip of his haori. When the rain of fire had stopped, he crouched down a little and grabbed onto his shoulder, focusing on the slight burn to ensure it would be gone. Sasuke wouldn't let him have the chance however and went in again, charging his katana with the shiny blade to the rogue genin. Naruto then just barely was able to dodge this and landed behind Sasuke.
"I think it's time I ended this." The cold words that echoed through Sasuke's ears coming from Naruto who seemed pissed.
"Alright then, but I will come out the victor this time I assure you..." Sasuke replied with a taunt. Naruto cackled at this ,brought his arm behind his back, and the wind began to circle around his palm.
"Y'know..I never knew you were that funny, guess like I don't know you after all" Naruto spoke out.
Sasuke saw the wind form and immediately realized what he was going to use. It was the last jutsu he had seen him used before he had gone rogue, so he knew there was only one other jutsu that could counter Naruto's. Sasuke performed hand signs before flicking his wrist and creating a lighting substance around his hand. Sasuke looked at Naruto with a mad glare as he was annoyed that Naruto had yet to come to his senses. Sakura hated this, she hated seeing her friends fight each other. Sakura most of all hated herself for not being able to save Naruto from his loneliness on that day she encountered him leaving.
"SASUKE!" Naruto roared out with his Rasengan, running to Sasuke.
"NARUTO!" Sasuke copied, with his Chidori.
The hole they were in shook and smoke covered the area. All they could hear was a snicker and the wind of smoke
AN: Uh add some feedback or criticism :]