Sixteen Years Later in Konoha.
"Sasuke! Give that scroll back! I know you can't destroy Konoha!" Naruto shouted, ruffling through the leaves of the trees which came in between him and Sasuke.
Naruto and Sakura were after Sasuke's trail from a long time. He had left the village and became a rogue ninja.
When they had almost given up, Sasuke had came slithering in Konoha, after a scroll that was supposed to be powerfull enough to destroy the whole village.
After Naruto and Sakura got to know about it, they ran all the way into a forest and were now close behind Sasuke.
Sasuke's arrogance was what spurred him to take revenge from his brother. But he took the dark tunnel to reach the height of power. Yes, he was dark and evil now and was working with Akatsuki to destroy his own village. But he was also the only heir left of the Uchiha Clan.
Akatsuki was the organisation of different ninjas who want to take over the power of the Ten-Tailed monster to rule all the five great ninja villages. It consists of ten highly powerful ninjas including Sasuke, and Naruto knew that. But still, inside his heart was a tiny flicker of hope that told him that Sasuke was not bad and that he was still his best friend.
Naruto does all he can to bring him back because Sakura-his love- loved Sasuke and he wanted her to be happy. This was not the only reason, it was also because, during the dark and lonely times of his life, Sasuke was the one to help him. He had become his best comrade and they even shared their first kiss with each other.
Naruto reminiscised all these small nemories and kept his hope up. He had to bring Sasuke back, no matter what, even if he had to fight him in a battle of death. But he also knew that Sasuke was more powerful than him.
Sasuke, on the other hand thought the total opposite. He felt that Naruto was more powerful as he was not able to kill him.
Someone had told him that to be powerful he had to be cruel and had to kill his best friend. And that someone was his own brother, Itachi.
He was the same person who had trusted Naruto to look after his brother but Sasuke didn't know about that. He was successful in killing his brother to avenge his clan, but the shock of the truth had once again wavered him from his original path.
So, another war had broken out in Konoha because of Sasuke's new found hate towards the village he grew up in.
"Sasuke...please!" Sakura cried, still following, "or I will have to kill you!" She shouted rubbing her eyes as her pink hair ruffled with the air and hid her tears.
"Sasuke! Can't you see how much she loves you? Why don't you come back to our- to your village?" Naruto shouted after him as he also tried to control his tears. He rubbed his eyes and finally took a long leap and landed just in front of Sasuke, blocking his way.
"Sheesh..." Sasuke heaved a sigh of disbelief and attacked him. Naruto could have easily dodged it, if Sakura had not come in between. The kunai with the fireball hit her too hard and she collapsed with pain.
"Sakura!" Naruto shouted, and then added to Sasuke, taking her in his arms "Temme...!"
"Hn!" Sasuke gave his evil laugh and said, "Thats what you get for trying to stop me." Then he launched himself forward and disappeared into the forest.
"Sasuke!" Sakura tried to shout but all that came out was a croak.
Since Sasuke had left this opportunity to kill them meant that he still had some feelings inside him. He couldn't make up his mind to kill his best friends. That was another hope that he was still humane.
"Don't! Just don't force yourself. You rest here. I will go get him back!" Naruto assured her and added with his big grin. "Its my promise!"
He helped her sit under a tree and then turned to leave after him.
"NO!" Sakura croaked. "I will come with you." She tried to stand but was unsuccessful.
Ignoring her comment Naruto looked about in all the directions and then sighed. "What the hell....where are we? I have never been to this part of the forest before! Where should I go?" He scratched his head with both his hands and jumped around in his silly boy way.
After moving back and forth for about five minutes, an idea struck him and he sat down still to move into the sage mode.
It was a technique he learnt recently which had helped him defeat Pein of the Akatsuki. He was the rumoured leader of Akatsuki and was the most powerful enemy he had fought with. The victory had made him a hero and Itachi's words replayed in his mind.
"It isn't that if you become Hokage, everyone will acknowldege you. It's the ones who are acknowledged that can become Hokage."
The sage mode was in which one can sense the power or, in this case, the chakra of others present there - even far away. In this mode it was the power of the nature that helped one to fight. It was the most powerful technique which not everyone can master fully, for, except of course, our Naruto.
It took him another five minutes to change but as soon as he changed, he put both his hands on his head, clutched his hair and groaned in pain. This was not what usually happened.
"W-What happened, Naruto?!" Sakura's voice was full of concern even though the kunai had hit her real badly in her stomach, which was still bleeding.
"Th-This place's nature energy is too strong! Uncontrolable! It is filled with some kind of powerful and radiant energy!" He shouted in pain.
"Whats happening to you? You are changing... changing into a frog!" She screamed.
"I can see that but I can also feel Sasuke's chakra! Come with me... its not safe to be alone here." With that he took Sakura on his back and moved in Sasuke's direction.
"Naruto! You are changing at a very high rate! Please release your chakra or..." she almost whispered the last words "...or you will die."
"I can't do that Sakura chan...or I'll lose track of him..." he said and then fell down straight on his head. "He is here.." he managed to say and then closed his eyes.
"You dumb fool! Can't you see you are dying! You are not able to control- Naruto?" She shook him hard and cried "Naruto! I can't afford to let you die! You cannot die! You-you promised me..." She cried and sobbed on his body. "You promised," She whispered again, but this time to herself.
"Who is there? " she swung back as she heard some movement in the nearby bushes, still clutching her bleeding wound.
The familiar evil laugh rang through her ears and her eyes widened with fear. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Sasuke! Don't you see what you did to him?" Suddenly, as if an unatural power surged from within her, she snapped at him, "Come out, you coward! I will kill you!"
"Hn! You? You will fight me?" He appeared in front of her out of nowhere. "Look at yourself! And look at that dobe!" He laughed. "He can't even control his own power!"
Sakura looked down in horror. Yes, it was true. Naruto was changing into a stone. But, but there was something in Sasuke's tone that she knew it was alright. She knew Sasuke can't kill them, afterall they were together- Team 7.
But still she was not sure and Naruto was dying in front of her own eyes.
Then all her beliefs were trashed as she heard him say,
"I will make it simpler for you both..." and with that he did the signs and a huge fireball was ready to hit the any moment.
"NO!" Sakura shouted and covered Naruto's body with her own. As soon as she did this, Naruto's body started to glow along with the surroundings.
The fireball was repelled by this strange power and Sakura saw Naruto returning to normal. The repelled ball hit Sasuke instead.
But as soon as his body turned totally normal and he clutched Sakura's hand, there was a very strong blast and the ground on which they all were shined bright white and sucked the three of them inside.
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A/N
I hope you don't kill me for this long and seemingly insignificant chapter! Believe me it is not, because here is where the story starts!
Question: Why do you think Itachi told Sasuke that he will become powerful only when he kills his best friend? On top of that, he left it to Naruto to bring Sasuke back on the right path.
What was Itachi thinking?
Answer in comments!
Vote if you liked :›
~Sassy