Categories > Anime/Manga > Naruto > The Darkness Within

Aftermath

by SotF 0 reviews

When the dust settles, what is there for the survivors of a catastropy

Category: Naruto - Rating: PG-13 - Genres: Angst, Drama - Characters: Naruto, Sakura, Temari - Published: 2007-04-27 - Updated: 2007-04-27 - 1259 words

2Original
AN: The following are technically set after the events of the main story, but are mainly about the reactions of other characters who observed the release of the "God-Slayer"

In the darkness of a cell within the place morbidly refered to on occasion as Hotel Hibiki, Temari sat and pondered her fate.

She was the only living Sand Ninja that had been in Konoha and the last survior of her family.

Orochimaru has assassinated and impersonated her father to gain additional support for the god forsaken raid on Leaf. An act that ended up costing Sand almost as dearly as it had Sound, but had ultimately left Sand defenseless and a prime target for the vengeful villages that had lost shinobi during the attack.

Gaara had been slain by the one named God-Slayer, left entombed within a glass prison formed by the death of very demon he contained and killed him in turn.

Kankuro had, in the end, died by her own hand after she found him.

The puppet master would not have lived much longer even with the best medical attention in the world. It had looked like he'd been dipped in acid up to the ribs with the legs dissolved and most of the stomach eaten away.

He'd begged her to kill him, to end his suffering. She almost couldn't do it, but still she had, slain the last other member of her family.

The Leaf ninjas had found her staring blindly at the glass of her younger brother.

Now she sat shivering in the dark.

Before that day, she had never thought much about darkness, but that black chakra had changed that. Thick like smoke and filled with an aura of menace that made it seem evil in and of itself while the screams of the dead and dying echoed across the battlefield.

She never wanted to be alone again, and yet she was.

Temari did not truely hate the creature that had been unleashed, but she felt unceasing ager at the one who had unleashed the scourge upon the world.

Did she really have what it took to be a ninja, Sakura wondered for the nth time since the Day of the Crimson Sky.

The death and destruction of everything had changed the face of the village in ways she could not consciously begin to comprehend or describe. Some of the more obvious ones included the near annihalation of the Hyuuga's leaving only three survivors and placing the mousey girl, Hinata, into control of the clans remnants.

The council was shattered when their private booth was consumed by the same blast that converted a demons sand to glass leaving the village entirely in the hands of the Hokage for the first time in decades.

She would have found the situation almost funny if she hadn't seen it.

The forest had been the beginning, the snake freak had been the cause for the entire mess if what she had overheard when trying to see her teammates in the containment facilities that were being used as overflow from the hospitals when the mental trauma areas were transfered to house the wounded.

Very few of the wounded were not from the attack itself as many would have thought, but they seemed to mainly be of civilians who had been trampled by those fleeing the event as well as from debris coming from the battles.

In the end the event had destroyed her team in a different way.

Kakashi had become distant, barely even leaving the monument he normally visited daily save to sleep or when dragged off to eat.

Sasuke was catatonic, seemingly from staring straight into the maelstrom of the God-Slayer when the traitor, Kabuto, had attempted to snatch him.

Naruto, well, she didn't seem to be able to get information on just what happened to him after he was found.

And to top it off, bodies were still being found and the list of the missing was still impressive in size and had been posted several places in the village.

Ino had yet to leave the hospital and was watching over a few members of her family that seemed to act as if their head was stuck in a mental blender.

Iruka had also had an everpresent position outside the door to the room Naruto was in occasionally with the Hokage's brat of a grandson as well as his cronies.

She had decided the the light of the sun was the best thing in the world as the light proved that the shadowy nightmare was over.

Five Years Later
Naruto Uzumaki wondered of his fate and about the changes the past few years had made on him.

The deaths of hundreds of thousands still lay heavy on his heart, but he also realized that it had been out of his control. It was still a heavy burden as warden to not just one but two monsterous entities.

In the end the fox had given up and its existance ended in their last attempt to retake control of the body, something that made him almost miss the demon.

The last words the Kyuubi had said was that it would never alow a creature of that power to destroy any world, especially the world it was existing on. The worlds comments still had the teen confused to some extent, but he understood the sentiment and the power surge was enough when coupled by the suprise attack was enough to damage the flawed seal enough to entrap the God-Slayer within their mind as well.

With the "death" of the demon, the chakra had melded with his own through the seal and its production capability increased as the seal no longer required any chakra to function as it had done its designated job. The downside was that he had trouble sleeping and got flashes of the demons memories at times, but he gained full and seemingly free use of Kyuubi's other abilities including a true regeneration that meant from gaining it on, pretty much as long as it wasn't instantly fatal, it would heal pretty damn quick.

Naruto had also spent the last several years learning anything and everything that his teachers, well actually any teacher, could train him in doing. In the end it was for a goal that would be needed.

He would have to defeat the monster still lurking within him, he would have to fight and defeat the God-Slayer or there would always be a chance that the destroyer of nations could escape and either repeat or trump the Day of the Crimson Sky.

And that was a situation that was dire enough to convince just about anyone to aid him in preparing.

In training they had visited every single one of the Hidden Villages in the hopes of finding any jutsu they had overlooked in order to gain every advantage against a foe that did not know mercy or remorse and would not hesitate to cheat if it could.

He had grown close to his companions, the two remaining members of the legendary three and the Professor himself. But he wondered if in these preparations they had lost some part of themselves in their almost reckless gathering of advantages in the hopes of finding a way to win while growing as strong as they could in the process.

Now he was preparing himself for that final controntation, and closed his eyes while tracing a specific seal upon the dust before him.

And then the orange clad ninja faced the crimson clad and ink skinned abomination.
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