FicWad

Beginning of the end or end of the beginning


"Is there a deadlier combination than a bored writer with writers block?" - Kung
Lou


Ch1: Survivors guilt


Naruto strode south, always south. His pace had slowed from a hysterical run to what was now a more measured and methodical pace along a game trail he had been following for the last few days. Vast grasslands surrounded him, reminding him of his travels with Jiraiya years earlier. It was a huge contrast to the endless and ancient forests that surrounded the hidden village of the leaf. But unlike grasslands he had travelled through in the past, he had never visited these lands before, not in all his travels or any of his previous missions, in fact he had not even known land existed so far south across the oceans.

He could feel his vast reserves of chakra ebbing on low now that his hysteria had started to calm and his adrenaline fuelled body started to flush itself of excess biological proteins. Kyuubi's infernal grumbling was louder in his head now than it had been for years and Naruto had little doubt that his lack of sleep and physical exhaustion contributed to Kyuubi's rowdiness. His mind tried to shied away for the reason he was trudging so far south through unexplored grasslands. It was as if all his training, his own stores of chakra combined with the might of Kyuubi had availed him nothing.

In the end it had availed him nothing. The images of a giant hydra flanked by a dozen massive snakes crashing through the village walls was forever burned into his mind along with other memories, one more traumatic than the last. Now that his flight south had slowed they crowded his mind in an agonising and a traumatic display of all that he had fled.

At the moment the giant and extremely powerful summons burst through the village's walls and attacked the leaf shinobi, Naruto had been surrounded by his mentor's, trainers, friends and backed up by Tsunade's legendary strength. He had been confident in his own strength and that of his comrades, perhaps overconfident. Still he had been sure that once again the Leaf would triumph and repel their attackers from what he had seen as another testing of their defences, another probing of their borders. Naruto was confident his own strength would easily dominate the then upcoming skirmish, his training had paid off and he had a few new moves he had wanted to try out. No one had expected this attack to be more than previous probes had been.

The skirmish hadn't gone as well as he had convinced himself it would and he hadn't been able to try out his new moves, the attack had obviously been planned a lot less haphazardly than previous probes of the leaf defence had been, or perhaps that had been their plan all along, to establish a pattern of weakness to convince the leaf Nins to lower their guard. While he and all his leaf comrades had been focussed on the strength of the attacking force before them, it had been assumed that the walls had remained unbreached, the village secure leaving only the enemies before them. No one thought it possible that the real attack was to come from behind their own lines.

All his strength had been insignificant to the outcome of that conflict. What burned him with shame, grief and an unquenchable rage was that he had been taken out of the fight before he could even begin to lend his might to the people of the Leaf. He had seriously let down his comrades that day and they, rather than he, had payed the ultimate price.

To say he had been surprised, caught off guard, were mere excuses that he would not allow himself, they were excuses unworthy of lessor Nins and he held himself to a higher standard. His tuition under two out of the three legendary Leaf Sannins should have eliminated any recklessness and enhanced his vigilance and readiness to face threats to the Leaf and deal with any unexpected treachery. He had been sloppy and it had put his strength out of the fight when his village had needed it the most.

Not only had he been jumped from behind but he had also seriously underestimated his opponent. He had quickly been manhandled and dominated by his attacker, an attacker that seemed to have developed counters to all of his favourite attacking styles and techniques. He had been unpleasantly reminded that he had let his training lax. The sound of the Hokage monument falling on him, burying him alive from where he had been flung wouldn't allow him to sleep any more than the memory of what greeted him when he finally dug himself out.

By the time he had freed himself from several tons of debris, the fight had been decided a long time ago. Walking through the remains of the hidden village of the leaf, staring in disbelief at the glinting leaf head guards that adorned the dead, dead that were scattered in unseemly poses that quickly striped any dignity that they had held in life as they intermingled with the dead of their enemy filled Naruto with a grief and rage that would not let him go.

It ate at him, even as it urged him to pick a direction and run. It was a primal and cowardly instinct but he had given into it. South, he had chosen it at random and run, expending the chakra that should have been used defending his village, comrades and friends. That could have been used if he had been a little less arrogant and a little more focused. He ignored a small voice that exclaimed at his cowardess and the silent and bloodthirsty laughter he could feel coming from the demon within him.

He had not even noticed when the ground he ran on turned to liquid, he just automatically compensated for the chakra flow within his legs and feet, paying no mind to the increased expenditure of chakra as it firmed the surface tension beneath his feat. All the while his mind was locked into a guilt driven frenzy, fleeing from the memories of such devastation, death and of his own guilt and incompetence. Neither could be so easily outrun, though he tried.

By the time he had recovered some - enough, reason and control over his faculties he had found himself racing towards a foreign shore over an unknown ocean. Behind him was an endless expanse of water and before him was an unrecognisable shore. Only the amount of chakra he had expended told him how far from home he had run and provided an indication of where he was now. A long way from home, or at least what had been his home. He was unsure if there were any survivors and he had run before he had a chance to look.

The cyclical nature of the images crowding his brain unrelentingly combining with memories of the stench of death and the unnatural quite which permeated throughout the destroyed village quickly quietened any feelings of denial or disbelief that he might have felt. He felt shamed that he hadn't even looked for survivors among the dead, he had not done what he had never thought he would when faced with such a testing scenario, he had run.

Even more, in his flight out of fire country, he had totally disregarded any sort of defences or scouting. If he had run into the remnants of the army that had attacked the leaf he would have been in trouble, the fact that he hadn't encountered them in his flight was more likely due to luck rather than any real skill. Naruto shivered as he thought about the possible outcome of being caught off guard a second time, he had no doubt that he would have been killed. No amount of excuses would have helped him then.

Even before stepping onto the solid ground of the foreign shore, he had created two concentric rings of Kage Bunshins to scout for traps, enemies or anything that might tell him where he was now. It was something that he should have done long before the sound had attacked his home. Like everyone else he had been lulled into a false sense of security thinking that their village had remained safe from infiltration. He had been arrogant, convinced of the leaf's strength - no longer, this defence was one that he would never allow to falter in the future as he had in the past. If he had maintained his scouts in the hidden village of the leaf despite his sense of relative safety then events would have transpired far differently.

That had been a few days ago and none of his clones had reported anything suspicious. Even his outermost ring of scouts had failed to find any evidence of enemy Nin despite travelling for several hours in all directions. It was clear that he hadn't been followed to wherever he had found himself and he had yet to find anything that provided even a low level threat so there was nothing stopping him from comfortably resting to recover his strength - except the memories he had attempted to flee.

He had long ago mastered the ability to maintain his clones while he slept, which had provided for more restful nights and more than a few failed ambushes. While not as powerful as he, the clones could take on far more powerful Nins when working together, it had amazed Jiraiya the first time they had awoken to a pile of bound and struggling sound Nins. Two Squads of sound Nins had been intercepted by twice their number of Kage bushins three miles from where Naruto and his sage trainer had made camp. No matter how ingrained a teams team work was, nothing could beat a team that thought with the same mind and knew what each other would do before it happened.

It had taken him some hard training, but now he liked to think of his kage bunshins as just another extension of his body. It was what made him such a powerful fighter, only the ease at which his clones were killed and their limited ability to expend chakra restricted the techniques potential.

Tiredly passing orders for his scouts to scatter, hide and stand guard, Naruto settled down for a sleepless night haunted by nightmares and violent memories. It almost felt unfair that he would be fully recovered from his long flight, perhaps even a little more powerful from his exhaustive flight, after a full nights rest. He would recover and continue to grow in strength but his home never would. The guilt that gnawed at him would take a long time to diminish but he knew it would never completely disappear.

$$$$$$$

"My god Tsunade, is there nothing that I can do? It doesn't seem right that it should end like this. There must be a way to beat this," Sakura entreated the ancient woman on the stretcher before her. The jutsu that the aged Hokage usually had permanently applied to alter her appearance had long since worn off, exposing her decaying frame for all to see. Nothing that Sukura had learnt to date could help the older woman and Tsunade had refused to answer her student's probes and not so subtle questions into the area of Kinjutsu's.

All that Sukura could do was make Tsunade more comfortable in her last days. It broke her heart to see her mentor and teacher so despondent and bitterly resigned to her fate as she had been since the attack on the village by Orochimaru and his cohorts of the sound. The loss of Naruto, the destruction of the village and the massive loss of life seemed to have robbed Tsunade of her will to live, not even Ton-ton could cheer her up these days. "Sakura, you know that the genesis seal extracts a heavy price on the body every time it is used. I have used it one last time, my body has given me no alternative."

Tsunade's voice rasped like her throat was half filled with phlegm, her lungs choked with bloody fluid and from what Sukara had seen they probably were. She had seen battlefield injuries before, had seen friends die from injuries more gruesome than she liked to remember in detail. As a medical Nin she had even been there trying to save their life more often than not and so seen their moment of passing. Rarely had she seen someone die of old age. For a hidden village it just didn't seem right.

Having spent years learning her craft under Tsunade and working closely with her, she was both a friend and teacher. Sukara had seen perhaps more than anyone except Shizune who the real woman behind the mask and beneath the Hokage robe was and to see her like this....

"It seems somehow fitting that I follow Jiraiya and Orochimaru to the grave, the three truly are no more. Orochimaru was a greater prophet than he was villain." Tsunade's bitterness was evident to all those within sufficient distance to her last rasping.

"Miss Sukura," Sukura dragged her eyes away from her dying mentor to the young Gennin gripping her shoulder. He had distracted her just in time, she really couldn't be seen to beat on the old Hokage, although Tsunade clearly needed some sense knocked into her.

"Shino says there is a squad of sound Nins headed this way. They will attempt to keep them away from the convoy but in case the fight gets out of hand he sent Konohamaru and I to help guard the Hokage." Udon's voice had just started to deepen, shaking of the sound of youth. In its place was the strained undertone of a child trying to maintain his courage in the face of uncertainty.

Sakura just shook her head in amazement and despair. It was times like these that she felt old, even though intellectually she knew she was in her prime. She still held memories of the two boys in front of her playing with Naruto as children. It made her wonder how Tsunade felt. "Thanks Udon, Konohamaru, help me with Tsunade," even as they saluted and moved to help the aged Hokage out of the stretcher to a more easily defendable spot they were stoped by a series of phlegmy coughs and an aged and wrinkled hand. "No, leave me in peace. I don't have much longer and I wish to see the outcome of my time as Hokage. To think," Tsunade's voice broke as tears leaked down and along the wrinkles beneath her eyes, "that I achieved what so many others had dreamed for only to leave the village of the leaf in ruin. Nawaki, Dan, Naruto, I have left your dreams in ruins."

"Old woman," Konohamaru's vicious growl shocked Sakura "I assure you that Leader is not dead." The young Gennin towered over the Hokage with his hands clenched into fists and his eyes blazing in rage, "and when he returns he will drive the sound before him." Sakura shook her sadly at the young man's impossible faith, she had seen the Hokage monument collapse, burying her former team mate alive, no one could have survived that - not even Naruto, though even she had to admit that he had surprised her a few times in the past. She hoped that this time would be another.

"Konohamaru," her rebuke seemed to cut through his anger and his shoulders slumped tiredly. Even the newly graduated Gennins had been assigned strenuous and often dangerous tasks in an attempt to guide the convoy of injured and beleaguered survivors and civilians to safety. She didn't say it, but privately she acknowledged and respected the sacrifice Jiraiya and Tsunade had made for the village of the leaf.

When it became obvious that the tide of battle had turned against them, Tsunade had instructed everyone below Jounin rank to flee with the civilians while the two Sannin lead a kamikaze attack on Orochimaru in a desperate bid to end his threat to the Leaf forever and to cover their escape. Few of the Jounin and ANBU that had accompanied the Hokage had managed to catch-up to the convoy though they had succeeded in buying some time.

She was sure that it wasn't just the Hokage that was feeling so miserable. Looking around at the grubby children watched over by often-bloodied adults was heart wrenching. The number of orphans out numbered the children whose parents had survived. Sukura gripped her kunai firmly in preparation to defend the convoy in case some enemies made it through to the convoy. Strained her ears, she attempted to track the progress of the battle from the sounds through the trees, before giving it up as hopeless. She would just have to deal with the sound Nin if and when they came.

Sukura was lucky in some respects, her role as a senior medic ensured her position in the convoy. Only in the most extreme of circumstances would she be required to fight. It was a privileged position of relative safety. A number of Leaf Nins had died since fleeing their village.

Secretly she hated it though. Her team mates were risking their lives every day, some had already died and the chances of more dying over the coming days were high. If she hadn't understood her role in the convoy so well she would have rushed to their sides already. It filled her with a reckless frustration.

"Konohamaru, don't be so hard on Tsunade okay," Sukura mumbled away from a restlessly dozing Tsunade. "She really did do the best she could under unhappy and difficult circumstances. Like you, I grieve over Naruto's loss but it is unfair to blame Tsunade for it." 'Besides' she added to herself 'There will be plenty of time to grieve if we all survive.'

"Sukura," the young Gennin replied capturing her in his burning gaze. "Leader has survived and I will prove it to you. He is stronger than you know, I had thought that the Hokage understood that or at the very least his former team mate did. When the time comes and he hasn't found us I will find him. No cheep trick will keep Naruto down for long or prevent him from fighting me for the title of Hokage."

"Moegi is coming, we should continue moving." Konohamaru muttered glancing in the direction the sounds of combat had come from. Sukura hadn't even noticed when they had stopped since she was so focussed on the drive and determination displayed by the Thirds grandson.

She couldn't help but be amazed at how much the Thirds grandson had grown under her former team mates playful nurturing. He had grown from the annoying brat he had been to the confident Gennin before her. It boosted her confidence in the Leaf's future even in these dark times knowing that there were such promising children to succeed her. Confirming Moegi's message of a reduced threat to the convoy, Sukura started the train of survivors moving again.

Just to the east of the village was a little known network of caves. They were easily defendable and would provide an ideal palace to rest and gather strength. It was difficult to make speedy progress with so many injured Nin and civilians making what should have been a three-day journey into a week long haul. By providing such an easy target for the surviving Nins of the sound they had been repelling attacks at all hours.

They were all exhausted and desperately in need of rest. Still they were close and if they continued at the pace they had been travelling at they should reach the caves by nightfall. Already a small number of Gennins had been sent to prepare the caves for habitation. Once the rest of the convoy arrived then the real job of fortification could begin.

"Konohamaru, once the caves have been secured I'm sure that the Hokage won't mind sending your team on a special mission to find out what happened to Naruto. If he did survive then why hasn't he caught up with us by now and where the hell have the sand been? We are supposed to be allies damn it!"

Tsunade's eyes shot open at Sakura's display of annoyance and frustration. "The sand are in as dire a situation as we are, perhaps even worse. Gaara would not have forgotten his ties to this village so easily." Sakura frowned as the old woman started to mumble about death and destruction before once again easing into a troubled sleep.

$$$$$

Naruto desperately spun to the side forcing away the last remnants of sleep and ignoring the burning of his skin where he had rolled over the remains of his campfire. In less than a second he had a kunai in one hand and a tightly focused Rasengan shining brightly in the other. His stance favoured both easy defence and rapid attacks as he casually readied himself for anything.

From the moment he had awoken half his clones started to make a beeline in his direction to aid in any potential skirmish while the other half waited for the opportunity to run interference with any potential enemy. Uncertainty and lack of knowledge on the field of battle favoured him and his clones made the most of tilting the battlefield in his favour.

After a few minutes waiting for an attack that had yet to materialise, Naruto began to feel a little foolish. His clones still had not found any evidence of an enemy or even the likelihood of an attack. Still one of his clones had been destroyed by something, which proved that there was something worth investigating. Although his rest had been haunted by the destruction of his home and the amusement of the fox demon dwelling within his belly, he felt emotionally and physically recharged.

His confidence had started to reassert itself and Naruto felt ready to take on the sound army himself if they were to attack him. First however he needed to locate himself, find a way home to wreak vengeance and to investigate whatever had destroyed his scouting clone.

Stashing his Kunai and dispersing the tightly focussed ball of chakra in his hand Naruto started to approach the location his scout had been destroyed. Ordering his clones to remain diligent and to tighten their net around him he readied himself for anything only to find nothing. Or rather nothing more the stone remnants of what looked like an ancient tower. Little remained of the tower but the foundations and knee high stone walls, even then the remains of the walls remained crumbled to nothing in places leaving only the faintest outlines of five rooms and an ancient stairwell.

It amazed Naruto that he or his clones had not stumbled upon the ruins earlier. Sure they were hidden from obvious view by the vast tracks of grasslands but there was little excuse for his scouts being that sloppy. If they had missed something this large and obvious then what chances did they have of finding an enemy Nin determined to conceal his presence. Yet more evidence that he allowed his training to slip, after all any deficiency in his clones were a reflection of his own skill and abilities.

Harmless or not, something had destroyed his clone within these ruins. He had run from one threat already, he was determined not to run from another. 'After all' he thought wryly 'if I am the last living Shinobi of the Leaf, doesn't that make me Hokage?'

Naruto grinned in anticipation as he thought about the potential for an up and coming fight. Whatever had destroyed his clone within these ruins had managed it in such a way that no information was reported back to him. Only a powerful attack taking his clone by complete surprise could do that. Even with his training slipping, it wasn't that easy to sneak up on one of his clones. This meant he could completely let lose with his massive strength.

Entering the ruins carefully Naruto noticed that there was no grass or foliage within the ruins. The barren ground seemed to crunch under foot, with the apparent age and degradation of the tower he would have expected that the grass from the surrounding savannah to have completely choked the ruins by now, so why... Naruto frowned in confusion. There seemed to be too many unknowns, to many inconsistencies for comfort. If these grasslands were not so obviously deserted then he would have been suspicious of a trap.

Upon entering the boundaries of the ruins Naruto was surprised to find that the ruins were a lot larger than he had first thought from his outside inspection, almost as if a carefully crafted Genjutsu protected the real size of the ruins. He had encountered traps in the past, which had drawn unsuspecting Nins into what seemed to be a relatively safe region only to have them summarily slaughtered.

It could not have been the case with these ruins though since he had investigated and tried dispelling whatever technique lay over the old stone ruins unsuccessfully and that could only mean that someone infinitely more powerful than Jiraiya was responsible for the trap or that nothing existed and he was imagining it. While he could not dispel the possibility that there existed someone infinitely more powerful than his old mentor he doubted such a person existed. Even with almost full access to Kyuubi demonic reserves he had encountered limits to what he could achieve.

Naruto jerked in astonishment as another clone was destroyed, around him his clones visibly expressed the same astonishment and unease that he did. 'What was going on?' he thought. He could feel no evidence of an enemy and yet his clones seemed to be running into something powerful enough to destroy them, an enemy that he should at least be able to see over the empty grasslands and knee high walls. Momentarily flooding the area with a burst of charka, Naruto assured himself that he was not caught in a Genjutsu trap.

Sending a command that would ensure that his clones would only explore the ruins in pairs Nuruto continued his own examination and exploration. Even as he noticed that he was sub-consciously walking towards the centre of the ruins another two of his clones vanished. Naruto growled in frustration, whatever was destroying his clones was not only managing to stay hidden within the ruins by staying hidden from all of his and his clones senses, but also seemed to be getting closer to him.

He didn't know how that was possible; looking around he could see clearly the barren earth patterned with stone foundations and knee high walls. He didn't know anyone that could hide without the aid of a Genjutsu in a place like this. Particularly when his clones could examine the contents of every destroyed room in the decayed tower. Naruto had already assured himself that there was no active Genjutsu so what was he facing.

Ordering his clones to gather around him Nartuto continued his inexorable approach towards the centre of the ruins. He didn't know what lay there but ever since he had entered the ruins he had felt an attraction, almost a guiding hand. Kyuubi's almost constant rumblings had increased in intensity as he entered the ruined tower and approached the centre of the ruins, Naruto could almost make out what the demon was saying now. Never had he been able to communicate with Kyuubi directly before without first submerging himself into his own mind.

Besides he was curious and he would have made a bet with Tsunade that whatever lay at the centre of these ruins was linked to whatever was destroying his clones. A gut instinct told him that to face the ruins guardians without access to the centre of the ruins would be suicidal. His gut had saved his life before and he wasn't about to ignore it now. He may be supremely confident in his abilities but he was not suicidal.

Naruto picked up his pace as another pair of clones was destroyed. 'Anything that could destroy a pair of Kage bunshins in plain sight without revealing itself was too powerful to take lightly' he thought with a little trepidation. If Naruto or any of his clones had been less focussed on their search for the ruins guardians then they would have noticed that the size of the ruins had grown substantially.

Noticing what had seemed to be the remains of a tower with five rooms and a stairwell expanding to a complex array of halls and expansive rooms would have shocked and unsettled Naruto more than the prospect of facing an overwhelmingly powerful foe. Instead he remained focused on reaching the solid looking mounds of stone that marked the towers central chamber.

Catching a flicker out of the corner of his eyes he watched yet more of his clones explode. Kyuubi seemed to be roaring unintelligibly in his mind and his stomach had started to freeze up in fear. He had not felt this helpless since Susuke had saved his life on his fist C-rank mission. Thoughts of Susuke hardened his resolve as he stepped into what Naruto could only imagine must once have been a magnificent chamber at the centre of this ancient tower in a land that he hadn't known existed.

"Pay attention you foolish brat!" The shock of hearing Kyuubi scream orders at him unsettled him so much that he almost failed to dodge the charging shadow. Naruto would have rated his reaction time, as amongst the best but in the face of such speed the best he could manage was to partially block the shadows blow with his leaf protector while throwing himself the other way.

Slamming through several walls quickly told Naruto painfully why they were left standing when the rest of the tower seemed to have been destroyed long ago. He almost would have preferred being thrown into the Hokage monument again. Using the rest of his clones to run interference Nuruto regained his feet. Even though that shadow had not touched him directly, his charka coils felt worse than if he had challenged Neji to a fight after a hard days training.

"The stone, it's our only hope. You must..." Naruto ignored Kyuubi's almost desperate pleading and focused on the one sided fight with his clones quickly being decimated. He was about to jump the shadowy figure when a glimmer caught his eye.

It must have been the stone the Kyuubi was ranting about, deciding he had nothing to lose against such a powerful opponent Naruto scooped up the stone before collapsing in excruciating pain. Even as he watched the last of his clones fight desperately to keep the indistinct figure away from him through dimming eye sight Naruto swore that if he survived then he would never listen to the damn fox again.