"Then I guess. . ." Nagato took a deep breath as his body shuddered, death nearing the gates for the older Uzumaki. "I will put my hope into you, Naruto Uzumaki."
Naruto looked at the broken man in front of him, the head of his main Path that made up the body of his deceased friend, Yahiko, in his hand. "I didn't want to fight." Naruto said to the red-haired man in front of him, his Rinnegan was dim and devoid of light.
"You killed my only friend left in this wretched world. You massacred my village in mere seconds. You killed women and children too." Nagato said as he met his fellow Uzumaki's impassive gaze. "Who are you?"
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto responded. "I'm from a different future from this one. One where you killed Kakashi-sensei," He took a step forward. "One where you flattened my village with a single Almighty Push." Another one. "One where you killed Jiraiya-sensei." Nagato could hear the restrained anger in Naruto's tone.
"I'm not sure how that's possible," Nagato spoke hoarsely. "But it seems you've had your revenge. You also ended the Hidden Rain's cycle of hatred by killing us all." Naruto nodded.
"I'm not the naive boy I used to be," Naruto replied as he walked forward, dropping Yahiko's head to the ground as it barely bounced and simply rolled over, his eyes burnt out and facing Nagato. "I'm willing to make the decisions I need to in order to create peace."
"Heh," Nagato chuckled out before wincing in pain. "Y-You sound exactly like I do. Tell me, what happened to me in your old reality?" Naruto frowned.
"I convinced you to go with a different way for peace. Then, you revived everyone in the village except for Jiraiya and died." Nagato's eyes widened.
"I see. You must have been quite the speaker to have convinced me to change my ways and give up my life to return the ones that I stole. Tell me, Naruto Uzumaki, why didn't you try the same method?"
"I wish I could," Naruto responded honestly. "I really do. But time isn't on my side and I couldn't wait. I need the Rinnegan to prevent Madara from rising again." Nagato shook his head.
"You're too late, Madara has already risen." Naruto crouched down, getting eye level with the broken man.
"How strong is he?" He spoke in barely a whisper, but his voice filled Nagato's ears as the man frowned in disdain.
"He beat me in two seconds. His jutsu are incredible and he is the strongest man I know." Naruto cocked his head to the side.
"Stronger than me?" Nagato glared at Naruto.
"You took fifteen seconds." He sighed as he pulled his arms out of their holds. "And it seems, that I was never a god, just a disillusioned man who was bested by a child." He let out a mirthless laugh. "Naruto Uzumaki, you and I are exactly the same. We are willing to do anything in order to maintain peace and order. A part of me abhors your very existence but another is impressed that your will is so strong."
"Going through hell and watching everyone you love die can turn even the softest of people into pure steel." Nagato nodded, agreeing with the statement. He looked up at the grey stone ceiling above him and sighed again.
"Hold on, Yahiko, Konan, I'll be returning to you soon." He looked back down at Naruto. "Just kill me already."
"Any last words?" Naruto spoke as he brought out a kunai from his weapons pouch. Nagato let out a shaky breath.
"My only regret is that I couldn't shape the peace Yahiko had envisioned. But maybe it was never my path in the first place. Perhaps I was only a pawn in a larger game." He shook his head. "No matter, I'm ready to die by your hand, Naruto Uzumaki."
Naruto nodded and quickly planted the kunai into the elder Uzumaki's heart. Nagato coughed, a small stream of blood coming out of his lips before he slumped over, his body already growing cold, dead.
Naruto impassively dug the godlike eyes out of Nagato's skull, sealing them away quickly before turning around and walking out of the secret room. As he emerged, the rain hit the top of his blond hair, the smell of burning houses and burned flesh filling his nostrils as the sound of the rain hitting the ground beneath him echoed in his ears.
A single sound coming from his right halted the teen in his steps. He turned his dull blue eyes to the origination of the sound and saw a mother pushing debris off of herself and her son, who couldn't have been much older than seven or eight.
They were both wearing ordinary clothes with several burn marks permanently carved into the fabrics made of cotton. The woman had shielded her child from any physical damage, it being evident the way she hovered over him. She had black soot marking her face and when she saw Naruto just staring at her, her body seized in fear as she tried to drag her son away, only to stop as she realized her legs were pinned underneath a pile of rubble.
"Run!" She cried out as she pushed the child away from here. "Get away! Live!" The boy looked to Naruto then back to his mother, tears streaming down his face, before running. Naruto's apathetic look terrified the woman.
"How far are you willing to go in order to prevent a repeat of your past?" Kurama asked his container, no longer being jailed by the blond jinchuuriki. Naruto met the demon's vermillion red eyes with unfaltering blue.
"As far as it takes."
With a quick flick of his wrist, Naruto sent a shuriken towards the woman, impaling her forehead and killing her instantly. He unsheathed his sword and quickly pursued the child, who he could hear panting from less that five feet away.
As Naruto readied to strike the boy down, the child tripped over an extended water pipe and crashed onto the wet metal beneath them. He turned around and made Naruto do a double-take.
He glared at him with such hatred that it reminded himself, of, well, him. Back when he first came to this world, he was filled with such rage and sadness, and now he had inflicted such pain onto a child. This boy hated him with every fiber of his being.
"I'll end this cycle of hatred," Naruto whispered to himself as the grip on his sword tightened. He took a stepforward and with both hands thrust the sword forward, piercing the child's heart. The boy looked up at Naruto, meeting his gaze with his sea-green eyes that were now filled with nothing but despair. He had nothing.
And now he didn't even have his life.
He slumped forward down onto the ground, the rain already getting his deceased body wet. "N-Naruto?" A familiar voiced asked out in shock. Naruto froze.
No. . .
He spun around and saw Obito, Sakura, and Sai. "L-Lady Tsunade sent u-us to help you s-steal the R-Rinnegan," Sakura stuttered out as she saw the blood-covered teen for the first time in years in such a gruesome fashion.
"That was a civilian, correct?" Sai asked aloud as he walked past Naruto without even a hint of hesitation.
"What have you done?" Obito whispered in horror as he looked at the destroyed landscape of what was once known as the Village Hidden in the Rain. His eyes trailed down to the freshly slain boy and his eyes only grew sadder, looking at Naruto with such disapproving eyes. "Why?"
"I hope you do end up telling us," A deep voice, Madara's voice to be exact, spoke. Naruto looked to his right and saw the masked man standing on a pile of destroyed metal, surveying the area. "Such brutality, I think I'm genuinely disgusted." Naruto couldn't see through the single eye-hole in the swirling white mask, but he could feel it staring directly at him.
"Shut up!" He shouted. "I did what I had to do, I don't need someone like you to judge me! You've done horrible things!" He glared at the masked man.
"Yes I have, and to you, I'm the villain." He turned around and gestured at the destruction. "Look at this!" He turned his head to the side so that infinite black void of an eye-hole drilled deep into Naruto's soul. "Are you sure you're still the hero of this story?"
Naruto's nostrils flared as he immediately turned into a bright golden yellow, his hair flickering upwards like a roaring fire. Nine truthseeking orbs appeared behind him and he glared heavily at the man in front of him.
"I'm going to kill you and stop you from doing whatever you want next." The masked man chuckled.
"Are you sure this isn't an excuse just to kill yourself?" He boomed. "After everything you've done, everything you are, everything you will do," The masked man was suddenly behind Naruto, once again leaving no trace of ever leaving his spot on top of the metal despite being in a different place.
'So fast!' Obito thought as he activated his Mangeykou Sharingan. This was bad news, the Akatsuki were here.
"In the end," The masked man continued. "You'll always end up hating yourself more than you'll ever hate me." Naruto tried hitting the man but he was gone. "The next time we meet, Naruto Uzumaki, it will be our last!" The masked man said from atop of the metal again before completely disappearing, not a trace of his existence being left besides the memories of being seen from Team 7.
"Damn it!" Naruto shouted as he deactivated his Sage of Six Paths cloak. "He got into my head! Distracted me!" He cursed loudly and saw Obito and Sakura approaching him rapidly. He quickly turned around.
"I need to be alone for awhile, I'll meet you guys back at the village. We'll get some Ichiraku," He promised before dashing off. Obito frowned.
"I thought he would have gotten better after three and a half years," He whispered sadly. "What did Jiraiya-sama do with him on that trip?"
"I'm not sure, Obito-sensei," Sakura spoke with worry in her tone. "But we have to save Naruto and Sayuri no matter what!" Obito let a faint smile cross his cheeks.
"Yeah, I guess so." He'd get his team reunited again one day.
One day.
And done. Eh short but oh well.
So, uh, yeah. Just chilling out here and, uh, being me.
Til next time my lil demons!