Categories > Anime/Manga > Naruto > Love and War
Love and War
Disclaimer: I am not a genius and therefore do not own Naruto nor any of its characters.
Prologue
*10 Years Earlier*
Sasuke watched from a distance away amazed with what he had seen Naruto do. He had actually managed to kill the Akatsuki leader, all six body doubles. But at what price?
A loud, animalistic roar exploded from Naruto’s mouth, or whatever he was now. Blood red chakra surged all around him and took the distinct shape of a fox around the ninja. Sasuke knew this was the same power used to fight him three years ago at the Valley of the End, Kyuubi’s power. But now, it was a lot different. Now the chakra was more abundant, more powerful, and more sinister as he could sense Kyuubi’s presence grow stronger as more tails formed.
There was five tails already, with a sixth one growing and increasing the amount of chakra surrounding Naruto. The massive amount of energy started to have and affect on the surrounding area. The earth crumbled underneath him and trees burst into flames.
“We’ve all got to get the hell out of here!” Sasuke looked to the voice and saw Kiba yelling at everyone watching the horrifying monster Naruto was becoming.
“But what about Naruto-kun?” half asking and half yelling Hinata in desperation. She feared what was happening to her crush and tried to run closer to him. Kiba and Shino stopped Hinata grabbing both of her arms and didn’t allow her to take a step further.
“No Hinata!” Shino’s yelling seemed to surprise everyone, seeing as he is rarely heard raising his voice. “We’re sorry but there’s nothing we can do for him now!”
“He’s right Hinata! Let’s move!” Her two teammates started taking her out of the perimeter when she suddenly yelled something else.
“Wait! Look!” Kiba and Shino stopped and looked back to where she pointed. Sasuke also looked and his face instantly matched the shocked looks on the three teammates.
“Sakura!” Even Sasuke yelled her name, but stopped surprised in himself. ‘Wait, why would I care? I left everything from my time in team 7 in Konoha! My memories… my feelings… I let go of all of it for vengeance.’ Then, something struck him. ‘Itachi’s dead… and even Madara… so what do I do now? I’ve achieved my only life goal, and have nothing else to live for. But why do I feel like I’m forgetting something?’ He looked intently at Sakura, as if watching her would give him his answer.
She looked frightened beyond belief. She was profusely sweating from the heat wave and her body trembled uncontrollably. ‘What is she doing?’ thought Sasuke. ‘If she stays there she could be-’
“N-Naruto!” yelled Sakura with as much might as she could muster. She was trying to keep herself composed but was failing miserably as her voice wavered when she spoke. “I know you can control this Naruto! You have too strong a will to let this monster take your soul!” Naruto paused for a moment, the chakra still surging all over his body. For a second it seemed as if Sakura’s words got to him, but then he turned to face the cherry blossom and everyone’s eyes widened.
She was staring directly into Kyuubi’s face. Not only had the chakra formed an outline of the bijuu around Naruto’s body, but also formed the shape of Kyuubi’s face!
The kitsune grinned maniacally at her and spoke with a beastly voice. “Sorry little girl. Naruto is no longer of this world.” Sakura gasped and Kyuubi laughed hard, sending a small shockwave around the area and knocking the kunoichi back.
‘What is she doing?!’ Sasuke watched as the bijuu’s tails pointed in front of its open mouth and a glowing sphere started to form. At first the Uchiha thought this was the same technique Naruto used against him at the Valley of the End, but quickly realized it wasn’t in the least bit the same.
Also, he noticed Kyuubi aiming straight at Sakura.
“Die!”
‘No!’
He didn’t know how he did it. He didn’t know it was possible for him to do so. Sasuke had just finished his battle with Uchiha Madara before he came here to watch the Konoha ninja battle Pein, so he was completely drained of chakra and injured all over. So how could he have done it? Sasuke would never know.
Kaboooom!
Kyuubi fired an enormous blast of concentrated chakra, absolutely destroying everything in its path. Nothing was left ahead of the bijuu but smoke and he started happily laughing, thoroughly amused with the raw power he held.
“… akura… Sakura…” The cherry blossom’s hearing slowly came back, having almost been deafened by the blast. “Sakura! Are you okay?” She suddenly realized someone’s arm wrapped around her and holding the kunoichi close to their body. Her Eyes popped open and looked at her savior, finding none other than…
“Sasuke-kun!”
The Uchiha loosened his grip and spoke to her. “Are you okay Sakura?” he asked, never taking his eyes off Kyuubi.
“Wha… oh… y-yea, I think so.”
“Good.”
Now Kyuubi noticed the two of them behind him and faced the ninja. “Ah, the Uchiha boy.” Sasuke stepped between the bijuu and kunoichi intent on protecting Sakura.
“Stay back Sakura. I promise I’ll protect you with my life. No matter what.”
“Sasuke-kun…” Then Sakura notice his back bleeding profusely from where the blast caught him. “Sasuke-kun you’re hurt!”
“Don’t worry about me.” Kyuubi started laughing.
“Poor little Uchiha boy. Just because I said your chakra is more sinister than my own does not mean you are stronger than I!”
“Tch.” Sasuke glared at the monster. He held his left hand out a little and tried to pump chakra into it. The sound of chirping birds filled the air as he activated Chidori, but it quickly fizzled out. ‘Shit! Not enough chakra!’
“Hah! You’d never stand a chance of fighting me! The great Yondaime didn’t even try to because he knew I was unbeatable!”
Sasuke closed his eyes to think for a moment.
“With Yondaime and Yamato dead, there’s no one who can stop me from turning this land into a living hell!”
“You’re right,” interrupted Sasuke, “I don’t stand a chance fighting you.”
Kyuubi laughed amused. “So you finally see that it’s hopeless?”
“But,” he interrupted again, “you’re wrong about something else. You’re not undefeatable.”
Kyuubi stared at the Uchiha. “Elaborate.”
“Yondaime knew he couldn’t defeat you, in battle, so he found another way. A way that didn’t involve him having to fight you.”
“Your point?”
Sasuke smirked. “All I have to do is force Naruto’s conscience out and you’ll lose your control over him”
The bijuu laughed again. “You fool! Uzumaki Naruto is dead! No amount of effort you make can bring back a dead man!”
Sasuke closed his eyes calmly and took three deep breaths. Then they shot open, his Sharingan flaring. “You’re lying.” Kyuubi didn’t say anything. “I realize now, I never really severed my ties with Naruto, with any of my… my friends. They’ve just been hidden from me as I believed my only purpose was to kill my brother.” Sakura watched him, tears starting to fill in her eyes. Not tears of sorrow or despair like when she thought they lost him forever, but tears of joy and happiness knowing he never truly left.
Oh Sasuke-kun…”
Naruto is still in there. I can sense him. That dobe is just sleeping at the worst time possible, and my purpose is to wake him up!”
Kyuubi glared at Sasuke. “Okay. So he still is alive. But when my final tail grows back, I will devour his soul and become even more powerful than ever!” He roared and a seventh tail slowly started forming. But with the formation of this tail, the others became longer and his body grew more than twice its size. “And what makes you think you have the skills to force me back into that weakling?!”
Sasuke closed his eyes and smirked. “Baka.”
“I don’t need all of my tails to kill you, Uchiha!” Kyuubi charged at Sasuke.
Sakura started to feel the fear from before, but when she looked up at Sasuke’s calm face, her body relaxed. ‘He promised he’d protect me.’ The cherry blossom grasped her hands together and held them close to her chest. ‘I trust you Sasuke-kun.’
“Did you forget? You said my chakra was more sinister than yours, just like Uchiha Madara. He was the only person in the world who could command Kyuubi no Youko, and since I killed him, that means…”
Kyuubi wasn’t listening as he approached Sasuke ready to obliterate him.
“Die Uchiha!”
Immediately, Sasuke’s eyes snapped open and shot forward a full blast of murderous intent, instantly dispelling the enormous mass of chakra in a large explosion directed away from Sasuke and Sakura. Nothing but a large smoke cloud was left of the kitsune.
“… I have become strong enough to command you.”
From the smoke they could see a figure moving around. It slowly got closer and Naruto emerged from it, falling over. Sasuke reached with his left arm and caught him.
Naruto opened his eyes and chuckled. “Heh, what took so long, teme?”
“Hmph, dobe.”
“Naruto!” exclaimed Sakura, relieved her comrade was fine. “Thank goodness you’re all right.”
“Hey Sakura-chan,” he replied waving weakly, “are you okay?”
She nodded her head. “Yea, I’m fine.”
“Good.” Naruto and Sakura were too busy feeling happy to have everyone re-united that only Sasuke heard the voice in the distance.
“Katon: Nenshouken.”
Reacting quickly, Sasuke pushed Naruto and Sakura away and something stabbed his left shoulder.
“Aaagh!” Almost immediately, the object stuck in his shoulder started burning like hell.
“Sasuke!”
“Sasuke-kun!”
The Uchiha fell on his knees unable to take the intense heat searing his skin. Sakura saw a long red blade and noticed how it quickly burned Sasuke’s arm. She quickly concentrated her chakra to her hands. ‘This jutsu is meant to burn flesh so the longer it stays in, the more damage is done to the body when taking it out!’ She placed a hand where it stuck out of the skin and the other on the red blade, wincing in pain and quickly pulling it out with all her might. Ignoring the burn on her hand, Sakura applied her medical jutsu on Sasuke’s open wound to stop him from bleeding to death.
She pulled it out in time because the second it hit the ground, it instantly cooled. ‘This would have been worse if I let that cool in his shoulder!’
Clap, Clap, Clap
“Excellent Sasuke.”
Naruto and Sakura raised their heads to the voice trying to find the intruder. But upon hearing the voice a second time, Sasuke knew whom it belonged to. Knew it, but couldn’t believe it.
“What? How… how is it possible?” A figure stepped out of the trees still clapping. “How can you still be-”
“Alive?” Naruto and Sakura looked at the intruder, unknowing of who it was.
“Sasuke-kun,” started Sakura, “who is this guy?”
Naruto was about to ask the same thing, but upon closer inspection of the man, he saw something in his eyes he never thought he’d see anymore in someone other than Sasuke.
“Sharingan?” Naruto looked from the man, to Sasuke, and the man again. “No. H-He couldn’t be a… I thought you and Itachi-”
“He is.” Naruto looked at him shocked. “This man, his name is… Uchiha Madara.”
“What?!” exclaimed the other two at the same time.
“How is it possible,” asked Sasuke, “I just killed you!”
Madara chuckled. “Simple. I had Pein create a body double of me. One to test the extent of your abilities.”
“What the hell do you mean?”
“Well,” started the other Uchiha, “I suppose now that all the events are set, I can tell you everything. I’ll start from the beginning; fifteen years ago.” The three ninja watched him nervously. “It all started with that fool of a Sannin Orochimaru. So desperate was he to get the Sharingan that he used Kuchiyosei Edo Tensei to resurrect me. Who better to get the Sharingan from than the most legendary of the Uchiha clan? But, he was arrogant. He brought me back forgetting who exactly I was, the strongest of all Uchiha, and the one who discovered the Mangekyou Sharingan. Well of course, he failed miserably to take my body. So after I left, I decided to have a little fun. I summoned Kyuubi to help me destroy Konoha, and eventually rule the world.”
He took a pause before continuing. “Unfortunately, it seems being brought back from the dead had taken away my ability to control the bijuu and… well, you know what happened.”
‘He’s the reason Kyuubi attacked the village fifteen years ago! Iruka-sensei’s parents were killed, Yondaime died saving the village, and Kyuubi was sealed in me, all because of him!’ Naruto clenched his fists.
“Yes, after that I realized if I ever wanted to be as strong as I use to be, I would have to pick someone from my clan who had the potential to command a bijuu, so I waited. Though, I didn’t have to wait long before someone with incredible talent emerged. Your big brother Itachi. He had it all; talent, skills, intelligence, and above all, mastery of the Sharingan at such a young age. He was perfect.
“But, there was a problem. Even if I showed him how to achieve the Mangekyou Sharingan, what would stop him from suffering the drawbacks of the next level of the Sharingan; blindness? But my question was quickly answered as I remembered how I stopped myself from going blind. My brother’s eyes. So when the time came, I showed him how to gain its great power and helped him eliminate the entire clan, not before telling him of the aftereffects of Mangekyou though. So inevitably, he spared your life in hopes of saving his later on.
“After that day though, I started to re-think things. Itachi could have become strong enough for me to take his abilities, but who’s to say someone who devotes their life to hating another couldn’t become a better candidate? So I kept my eye on you as well, Sasuke. And I have to say; I was quite impressed with your growth. And not only was one of my candidates somewhere easy to observe, but the very Jinchuuriki that held Kyuubi was close by! Lucky me.” He chuckled but Sasuke and Naruto glared at him. “Also, ever since I joined the Akatsuki, I grew less impressed with Itachi and more so with you. Now all the pieces were in place. All I had to do was sit back and watch.
“Sometime later, the brothers finally meet again. The final showdown. Whoever emerged the victor was worthy enough to be my prize. And, as I expected, the younger brother was victorious. I knew you’d win because of those hate filled eyes, which is why I had a body double made. When the time came, you had to prove your worth and eliminate my fake. As if my plan couldn’t have gone anymore perfect, I set it up so you would be completely exhausted and watch as Pein sacrificed himself to bring Kyuubi out stronger than before. Your final test: with Jiraya, Yamato, and Kakashi gone, you had to prove your worth by achieving the power to control the most terrifying of all bijuu.
“And now, here we are. Years of planning, all for this one moment. Sasuke… Naruto… both of your powers are mine!” The earth began to shake and the sky turned dark. Sasuke and Naruto stood up, but almost fell back down because of their lack of energy. “With the both of you exhausted, there’s no one who can stop me!”
“We would beg to differ!” Then something large landed between the three and Madara. They looked up and saw a giant two-headed dog. “Don’t worry,” spoke one of the heads in Kiba’s voice, “we’ll take care of it from here! Ready Akamaru?” The other head barked and the giant dog jumped and started rapidly spinning. “Soutourou: Garouga Kujiku!”
“Foolish ninja.” Madara simply raised his hand and caught the full force of Kiba’s attack. The Konoha ninja’s continued to spin in his palm, seemingly un-phasing him.
“Chou Baika no Jutsu!” Behind the Uchiha, Chouji’s body grew enormously huge and he was charging at Madara.
“I’m not so easy to fool!” He easily redirected Kiba’s attack and threw him into Chouji’s direction.
“No!” yelled Kiba. “Chouji! Look out!” He slowed down his attack, but couldn’t prevent himself from colliding with Chouji and the two crashed to the ground in a heap of destruction.
Madara grinned. “You weaklings can’t ever hope to-”
“Hakke: Nishou!” Someone caught him off guard and struck him twice on the chest. “Yonshou!”
“Who-” Four more strikes came and he looked down. Hinata was moving at a speed none of the other Konoha ninja have seen in her before.
“Hachishou!” Madara had to react fast. “Jyuuroku-” He kicked her in the stomach, halting the attack, and sent her flying with a hard punch.
“Hinata!” yelled Naruto suddenly finding himself extremely worried about the kunoichi.
“Fine! If you’re in such a hurry to die, then I’ll kill you first!” He pointed at her, but for some reason, couldn’t form his jutsu. “What?” He felt a stinging pain on his arms and saw a large bug biting him with other smaller ones surrounding it. He was going to throw them off, but found he couldn’t move his arms… or his legs… or his whole body for that matter. “What the hell?!”
A distance behind him stood Shino, Shikamaru, and Ino.
“The large bugs inject a toxin that paralyzes the limbs while the smaller beetles will make it harder to use jutsu by absorbing his chakra,” spoke Shino.
“My Shinbunrishin no Jutsu targets the part of the brain that control movements and deactivates them,” said Ino smiling
“With all of us blocking chakra and paralyzing his body-”
“YOU THINK THIS CAN HOLD ME?!” Madara’s body started shaking as he tried to force himself to move.
“Crap!” Shikamaru weaved a few more hand signs and poured more chakra into his jutsu, making his shadow split into different sections, rise off the ground, and wrap all over the Uchiha’s body. Him and Ino winced, struggling to hold their jutsu. “Just hold on Ino! All we have to do is keep him from moving.” He then looked over at Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura. “Naruto! Sasuke! Hurry up and finish this guy off! We can only hold him off for so long!”
Naruto nodded his head. “Right! Thanks Shikamaru.
“Just shut up and do it already!”
Naruto looked to Sasuke. “You still have some fight left in you?”
The Uchiha looked at him for a moment, then slightly smiled. “Yea… I still have something up my sleeve.”
“Good!” Here we go!” He formed a hand sign. “Kagebunshin no Jutsu!” Two clones appeared behind Naruto and started manipulating chakra in the original’s hand. Sasuke watched in amazement as one formed a swirling sphere and the other applied a different type of chakra. As soon as the second type was added, a high-pitched whirling noise filled the air and a four-pronged shape spun around it and grew larger until it looked like a giant shuriken.
Sasuke smirked at Naruto. “Well, I have to say, I’m impressed Naruto.” Then the curse mark spread across his body and transformed into his second state. Feeling an increase of chakra again, Sasuke focused it into his left hand and a chirping noise could be heard, which was soon replaced by a flapping noise as the lighting emitting from his palm turned black. With that, he reversed the flow of chakra from the curse mark and his body morphed again. His skin turned its normal color, his hair turned white, and the large hand-like wings jutting out of his back grew feathers on the webbings, also matching the new color of his hair.
Now it was Naruto’s turn to be amazed at what he saw. “Sasuke… is that really…”
“Not even Orochimaru knew the Cursed Seal of Heaven was capable of a third form.” Now the sound of flapping was replaced by a different, louder noise; that of lightning striking and birds screeching. The formerly black electricity turned pure white and increased in capacity.
“Sasuke-kun…” The Uchiha turned and looked at Sakura. She gasped, but from surprise rather than fear. She had heard that people looked like monsters in the second state of the curse mark, but in this new form, Sasuke didn’t. He looked more like… an angel.
Sasuke seemed to sense what she was thinking. “Sakura… I promise I’ll never let you see me as a monster… ever.”
She smiled and nodded her head. “Hai.”
Sasuke and Naruto faced their enemy with determined eyes. “Ready Naruto?”
“Yea! Let’s finish this once and for all!”
The two ninja started their run at Madara, Naruto on the left and Sasuke on the right. Their individual techniques glowed brighter as their jutsu remained mere centimeters away from each other.
Even though the other Uchiha couldn’t move, he started laughing out loud at the approaching ninja. “Hah! Did you forget?!” His eyes transformed into the three-pointed Mangekyou Sharingan. “I can still use the most powerful fire jutsu with a simple look!” His eyes widened and the black flames of Amaterasu appeared shooting straight at his opponents.
“Naruto!”
“Hai!”
The two pushed their jutsu together just as the flames converged them from every direction.
“Sasuke-kun! Naruto!” Sakura’s heart sank watching the fires consume her closest friends. The crackling flames continued to burn in a large mass where Sasuke and Naruto were seen last. ‘N-No! They can’t be gone’ She paused for a moment watching the scene scared, but gathered her resolve. ‘Yes. They’re still alive, I know it.’
At that thought, a large, violet sphere emerged from the dark fire and moved toward Madara.
“What?” The color of the sphere started fading and Sasuke and Naruto were now visible inside, the clashing of their jutsu together in the center.
“Okay Ino, let’s clear the way!” Shikamaru and Ino cancelled their jutsu and quickly jumped away. Madara felt his body being freed from the others’ techniques but had no time to react, seeing as the second he was free, he too was encased in the now black sphere with Naruto and Sasuke. He watched in shock as the two ninja’s jutsu seemed to slowly reach him.
“Fuuton: Rasenshuriken!”
“Kamigami no Chidori!”
On impact, Madara’s body glowed brighter and brighter until it dispelled the black sphere and a blinding white light filled the whole area, forcing everyone in the vicinity to shut their eyes tightly.
Booooom!
An explosion rattled everyone’s ears. They noticed the light fading and opened their eyes. A smoke cloud in a large crater was all that was left. Sakura frantically ran up to it, the other Konoha ninja following suit, and stood waiting for the smoke to clear.
To Sakura, it seemed to take many long, agonizing hours. “Sasuke-kun… Naruto… please be okay.”
Finally, it dissipated. Naruto and Sasuke stood in the middle of the crater, Naruto grinning and Sasuke smirking victoriously. Naruto gave everyone a thumbs up. “We’re number 1, dattebayo!”
“Whoo hoo!” yelled Kiba.
“You guys rock!” exclaimed Chouji.
“Excellent,” said Shino.
“Great job you two!” smiled Hinata.
“Go Sasuke-kun! Go Naruto!” cheered Ino.
“I suppose it was pretty cool,” smirked Shikamaru.
Sakura let out a relieved sigh and smiled down at her two friends. ‘Thank goodness you two are all right.’ Her attention drew to Sasuke. ‘Thank you for coming back Sasuke-kun. You saved us all.’
An intense pain shot throughout Sasuke’s body and he fell over in agony.
“Sasuke?!”
“Sasuke-kun!” Sakura slid down into the crater next to an alarmed Naruto and knelt down next to him. What she saw horrified her.
Sasuke’s back was drenched in blood from his previous injuries. She promptly turned him on his side and saw more blood pouring out of the hole in his shoulder. ‘Oh no! The curse mark must have made his wounds worse!’ “Naruto, hold him on his side! I have to stop the bleeding!
“A-Alright.”
She hastily prepared her medical jutsu. “Please hold on Sasuke-kun! Don’t die on me, please don’t die on me!”
Sasuke’s eyes slowly opened. The pain was so intense that he couldn’t move and started to black out. The last thing he saw before his vision completely faded was Sakura’s frantic, yet for some reason beautiful face. Then it hit him. ‘Sakura… I remember. My other life goal. I… need someone… someone to help restore my clan…’
And he lost consciousness.
*Present Day (10 years later)*
Sasuke lazily opened his eyes. The house was dark and he heard nothing. He was still tired from last night. Or was it this morning? At the moment, he didn’t care. Not a second after his eyes shut again had someone lightly shook him and spoke with a soft voice.
“Time to get up.” Sasuke groaned.
“Ten more minutes…” The person shook him again.
“Come on, it’s morning.”
“Five minutes…” He heard a sigh and footsteps walking away from him. ‘Yes… just five more minutes of sleep…’ Then a bright light filled the room making Sasuke squint from its shining through his eyelids. “What the hell?” He tried to sound angry, but was too tired and sounded more groggy than anything. Slowly, he opened his eyes, getting use to the sunlight emitting from the open curtains.
When his eyes adjusted, he saw someone with long pink hair smiling over him.
“Rise and shine, my Sasuke-kun.”
Author’s Note: Whoo! That took forever! Well, there it is, my first fanfic ever posted, ever. I have the next part all written up, but it might be a couple weeks before I type it all. Please review, and please don’t be too harsh!
Disclaimer: I am not a genius and therefore do not own Naruto nor any of its characters.
Prologue
*10 Years Earlier*
Sasuke watched from a distance away amazed with what he had seen Naruto do. He had actually managed to kill the Akatsuki leader, all six body doubles. But at what price?
A loud, animalistic roar exploded from Naruto’s mouth, or whatever he was now. Blood red chakra surged all around him and took the distinct shape of a fox around the ninja. Sasuke knew this was the same power used to fight him three years ago at the Valley of the End, Kyuubi’s power. But now, it was a lot different. Now the chakra was more abundant, more powerful, and more sinister as he could sense Kyuubi’s presence grow stronger as more tails formed.
There was five tails already, with a sixth one growing and increasing the amount of chakra surrounding Naruto. The massive amount of energy started to have and affect on the surrounding area. The earth crumbled underneath him and trees burst into flames.
“We’ve all got to get the hell out of here!” Sasuke looked to the voice and saw Kiba yelling at everyone watching the horrifying monster Naruto was becoming.
“But what about Naruto-kun?” half asking and half yelling Hinata in desperation. She feared what was happening to her crush and tried to run closer to him. Kiba and Shino stopped Hinata grabbing both of her arms and didn’t allow her to take a step further.
“No Hinata!” Shino’s yelling seemed to surprise everyone, seeing as he is rarely heard raising his voice. “We’re sorry but there’s nothing we can do for him now!”
“He’s right Hinata! Let’s move!” Her two teammates started taking her out of the perimeter when she suddenly yelled something else.
“Wait! Look!” Kiba and Shino stopped and looked back to where she pointed. Sasuke also looked and his face instantly matched the shocked looks on the three teammates.
“Sakura!” Even Sasuke yelled her name, but stopped surprised in himself. ‘Wait, why would I care? I left everything from my time in team 7 in Konoha! My memories… my feelings… I let go of all of it for vengeance.’ Then, something struck him. ‘Itachi’s dead… and even Madara… so what do I do now? I’ve achieved my only life goal, and have nothing else to live for. But why do I feel like I’m forgetting something?’ He looked intently at Sakura, as if watching her would give him his answer.
She looked frightened beyond belief. She was profusely sweating from the heat wave and her body trembled uncontrollably. ‘What is she doing?’ thought Sasuke. ‘If she stays there she could be-’
“N-Naruto!” yelled Sakura with as much might as she could muster. She was trying to keep herself composed but was failing miserably as her voice wavered when she spoke. “I know you can control this Naruto! You have too strong a will to let this monster take your soul!” Naruto paused for a moment, the chakra still surging all over his body. For a second it seemed as if Sakura’s words got to him, but then he turned to face the cherry blossom and everyone’s eyes widened.
She was staring directly into Kyuubi’s face. Not only had the chakra formed an outline of the bijuu around Naruto’s body, but also formed the shape of Kyuubi’s face!
The kitsune grinned maniacally at her and spoke with a beastly voice. “Sorry little girl. Naruto is no longer of this world.” Sakura gasped and Kyuubi laughed hard, sending a small shockwave around the area and knocking the kunoichi back.
‘What is she doing?!’ Sasuke watched as the bijuu’s tails pointed in front of its open mouth and a glowing sphere started to form. At first the Uchiha thought this was the same technique Naruto used against him at the Valley of the End, but quickly realized it wasn’t in the least bit the same.
Also, he noticed Kyuubi aiming straight at Sakura.
“Die!”
‘No!’
He didn’t know how he did it. He didn’t know it was possible for him to do so. Sasuke had just finished his battle with Uchiha Madara before he came here to watch the Konoha ninja battle Pein, so he was completely drained of chakra and injured all over. So how could he have done it? Sasuke would never know.
Kaboooom!
Kyuubi fired an enormous blast of concentrated chakra, absolutely destroying everything in its path. Nothing was left ahead of the bijuu but smoke and he started happily laughing, thoroughly amused with the raw power he held.
“… akura… Sakura…” The cherry blossom’s hearing slowly came back, having almost been deafened by the blast. “Sakura! Are you okay?” She suddenly realized someone’s arm wrapped around her and holding the kunoichi close to their body. Her Eyes popped open and looked at her savior, finding none other than…
“Sasuke-kun!”
The Uchiha loosened his grip and spoke to her. “Are you okay Sakura?” he asked, never taking his eyes off Kyuubi.
“Wha… oh… y-yea, I think so.”
“Good.”
Now Kyuubi noticed the two of them behind him and faced the ninja. “Ah, the Uchiha boy.” Sasuke stepped between the bijuu and kunoichi intent on protecting Sakura.
“Stay back Sakura. I promise I’ll protect you with my life. No matter what.”
“Sasuke-kun…” Then Sakura notice his back bleeding profusely from where the blast caught him. “Sasuke-kun you’re hurt!”
“Don’t worry about me.” Kyuubi started laughing.
“Poor little Uchiha boy. Just because I said your chakra is more sinister than my own does not mean you are stronger than I!”
“Tch.” Sasuke glared at the monster. He held his left hand out a little and tried to pump chakra into it. The sound of chirping birds filled the air as he activated Chidori, but it quickly fizzled out. ‘Shit! Not enough chakra!’
“Hah! You’d never stand a chance of fighting me! The great Yondaime didn’t even try to because he knew I was unbeatable!”
Sasuke closed his eyes to think for a moment.
“With Yondaime and Yamato dead, there’s no one who can stop me from turning this land into a living hell!”
“You’re right,” interrupted Sasuke, “I don’t stand a chance fighting you.”
Kyuubi laughed amused. “So you finally see that it’s hopeless?”
“But,” he interrupted again, “you’re wrong about something else. You’re not undefeatable.”
Kyuubi stared at the Uchiha. “Elaborate.”
“Yondaime knew he couldn’t defeat you, in battle, so he found another way. A way that didn’t involve him having to fight you.”
“Your point?”
Sasuke smirked. “All I have to do is force Naruto’s conscience out and you’ll lose your control over him”
The bijuu laughed again. “You fool! Uzumaki Naruto is dead! No amount of effort you make can bring back a dead man!”
Sasuke closed his eyes calmly and took three deep breaths. Then they shot open, his Sharingan flaring. “You’re lying.” Kyuubi didn’t say anything. “I realize now, I never really severed my ties with Naruto, with any of my… my friends. They’ve just been hidden from me as I believed my only purpose was to kill my brother.” Sakura watched him, tears starting to fill in her eyes. Not tears of sorrow or despair like when she thought they lost him forever, but tears of joy and happiness knowing he never truly left.
Oh Sasuke-kun…”
Naruto is still in there. I can sense him. That dobe is just sleeping at the worst time possible, and my purpose is to wake him up!”
Kyuubi glared at Sasuke. “Okay. So he still is alive. But when my final tail grows back, I will devour his soul and become even more powerful than ever!” He roared and a seventh tail slowly started forming. But with the formation of this tail, the others became longer and his body grew more than twice its size. “And what makes you think you have the skills to force me back into that weakling?!”
Sasuke closed his eyes and smirked. “Baka.”
“I don’t need all of my tails to kill you, Uchiha!” Kyuubi charged at Sasuke.
Sakura started to feel the fear from before, but when she looked up at Sasuke’s calm face, her body relaxed. ‘He promised he’d protect me.’ The cherry blossom grasped her hands together and held them close to her chest. ‘I trust you Sasuke-kun.’
“Did you forget? You said my chakra was more sinister than yours, just like Uchiha Madara. He was the only person in the world who could command Kyuubi no Youko, and since I killed him, that means…”
Kyuubi wasn’t listening as he approached Sasuke ready to obliterate him.
“Die Uchiha!”
Immediately, Sasuke’s eyes snapped open and shot forward a full blast of murderous intent, instantly dispelling the enormous mass of chakra in a large explosion directed away from Sasuke and Sakura. Nothing but a large smoke cloud was left of the kitsune.
“… I have become strong enough to command you.”
From the smoke they could see a figure moving around. It slowly got closer and Naruto emerged from it, falling over. Sasuke reached with his left arm and caught him.
Naruto opened his eyes and chuckled. “Heh, what took so long, teme?”
“Hmph, dobe.”
“Naruto!” exclaimed Sakura, relieved her comrade was fine. “Thank goodness you’re all right.”
“Hey Sakura-chan,” he replied waving weakly, “are you okay?”
She nodded her head. “Yea, I’m fine.”
“Good.” Naruto and Sakura were too busy feeling happy to have everyone re-united that only Sasuke heard the voice in the distance.
“Katon: Nenshouken.”
Reacting quickly, Sasuke pushed Naruto and Sakura away and something stabbed his left shoulder.
“Aaagh!” Almost immediately, the object stuck in his shoulder started burning like hell.
“Sasuke!”
“Sasuke-kun!”
The Uchiha fell on his knees unable to take the intense heat searing his skin. Sakura saw a long red blade and noticed how it quickly burned Sasuke’s arm. She quickly concentrated her chakra to her hands. ‘This jutsu is meant to burn flesh so the longer it stays in, the more damage is done to the body when taking it out!’ She placed a hand where it stuck out of the skin and the other on the red blade, wincing in pain and quickly pulling it out with all her might. Ignoring the burn on her hand, Sakura applied her medical jutsu on Sasuke’s open wound to stop him from bleeding to death.
She pulled it out in time because the second it hit the ground, it instantly cooled. ‘This would have been worse if I let that cool in his shoulder!’
Clap, Clap, Clap
“Excellent Sasuke.”
Naruto and Sakura raised their heads to the voice trying to find the intruder. But upon hearing the voice a second time, Sasuke knew whom it belonged to. Knew it, but couldn’t believe it.
“What? How… how is it possible?” A figure stepped out of the trees still clapping. “How can you still be-”
“Alive?” Naruto and Sakura looked at the intruder, unknowing of who it was.
“Sasuke-kun,” started Sakura, “who is this guy?”
Naruto was about to ask the same thing, but upon closer inspection of the man, he saw something in his eyes he never thought he’d see anymore in someone other than Sasuke.
“Sharingan?” Naruto looked from the man, to Sasuke, and the man again. “No. H-He couldn’t be a… I thought you and Itachi-”
“He is.” Naruto looked at him shocked. “This man, his name is… Uchiha Madara.”
“What?!” exclaimed the other two at the same time.
“How is it possible,” asked Sasuke, “I just killed you!”
Madara chuckled. “Simple. I had Pein create a body double of me. One to test the extent of your abilities.”
“What the hell do you mean?”
“Well,” started the other Uchiha, “I suppose now that all the events are set, I can tell you everything. I’ll start from the beginning; fifteen years ago.” The three ninja watched him nervously. “It all started with that fool of a Sannin Orochimaru. So desperate was he to get the Sharingan that he used Kuchiyosei Edo Tensei to resurrect me. Who better to get the Sharingan from than the most legendary of the Uchiha clan? But, he was arrogant. He brought me back forgetting who exactly I was, the strongest of all Uchiha, and the one who discovered the Mangekyou Sharingan. Well of course, he failed miserably to take my body. So after I left, I decided to have a little fun. I summoned Kyuubi to help me destroy Konoha, and eventually rule the world.”
He took a pause before continuing. “Unfortunately, it seems being brought back from the dead had taken away my ability to control the bijuu and… well, you know what happened.”
‘He’s the reason Kyuubi attacked the village fifteen years ago! Iruka-sensei’s parents were killed, Yondaime died saving the village, and Kyuubi was sealed in me, all because of him!’ Naruto clenched his fists.
“Yes, after that I realized if I ever wanted to be as strong as I use to be, I would have to pick someone from my clan who had the potential to command a bijuu, so I waited. Though, I didn’t have to wait long before someone with incredible talent emerged. Your big brother Itachi. He had it all; talent, skills, intelligence, and above all, mastery of the Sharingan at such a young age. He was perfect.
“But, there was a problem. Even if I showed him how to achieve the Mangekyou Sharingan, what would stop him from suffering the drawbacks of the next level of the Sharingan; blindness? But my question was quickly answered as I remembered how I stopped myself from going blind. My brother’s eyes. So when the time came, I showed him how to gain its great power and helped him eliminate the entire clan, not before telling him of the aftereffects of Mangekyou though. So inevitably, he spared your life in hopes of saving his later on.
“After that day though, I started to re-think things. Itachi could have become strong enough for me to take his abilities, but who’s to say someone who devotes their life to hating another couldn’t become a better candidate? So I kept my eye on you as well, Sasuke. And I have to say; I was quite impressed with your growth. And not only was one of my candidates somewhere easy to observe, but the very Jinchuuriki that held Kyuubi was close by! Lucky me.” He chuckled but Sasuke and Naruto glared at him. “Also, ever since I joined the Akatsuki, I grew less impressed with Itachi and more so with you. Now all the pieces were in place. All I had to do was sit back and watch.
“Sometime later, the brothers finally meet again. The final showdown. Whoever emerged the victor was worthy enough to be my prize. And, as I expected, the younger brother was victorious. I knew you’d win because of those hate filled eyes, which is why I had a body double made. When the time came, you had to prove your worth and eliminate my fake. As if my plan couldn’t have gone anymore perfect, I set it up so you would be completely exhausted and watch as Pein sacrificed himself to bring Kyuubi out stronger than before. Your final test: with Jiraya, Yamato, and Kakashi gone, you had to prove your worth by achieving the power to control the most terrifying of all bijuu.
“And now, here we are. Years of planning, all for this one moment. Sasuke… Naruto… both of your powers are mine!” The earth began to shake and the sky turned dark. Sasuke and Naruto stood up, but almost fell back down because of their lack of energy. “With the both of you exhausted, there’s no one who can stop me!”
“We would beg to differ!” Then something large landed between the three and Madara. They looked up and saw a giant two-headed dog. “Don’t worry,” spoke one of the heads in Kiba’s voice, “we’ll take care of it from here! Ready Akamaru?” The other head barked and the giant dog jumped and started rapidly spinning. “Soutourou: Garouga Kujiku!”
“Foolish ninja.” Madara simply raised his hand and caught the full force of Kiba’s attack. The Konoha ninja’s continued to spin in his palm, seemingly un-phasing him.
“Chou Baika no Jutsu!” Behind the Uchiha, Chouji’s body grew enormously huge and he was charging at Madara.
“I’m not so easy to fool!” He easily redirected Kiba’s attack and threw him into Chouji’s direction.
“No!” yelled Kiba. “Chouji! Look out!” He slowed down his attack, but couldn’t prevent himself from colliding with Chouji and the two crashed to the ground in a heap of destruction.
Madara grinned. “You weaklings can’t ever hope to-”
“Hakke: Nishou!” Someone caught him off guard and struck him twice on the chest. “Yonshou!”
“Who-” Four more strikes came and he looked down. Hinata was moving at a speed none of the other Konoha ninja have seen in her before.
“Hachishou!” Madara had to react fast. “Jyuuroku-” He kicked her in the stomach, halting the attack, and sent her flying with a hard punch.
“Hinata!” yelled Naruto suddenly finding himself extremely worried about the kunoichi.
“Fine! If you’re in such a hurry to die, then I’ll kill you first!” He pointed at her, but for some reason, couldn’t form his jutsu. “What?” He felt a stinging pain on his arms and saw a large bug biting him with other smaller ones surrounding it. He was going to throw them off, but found he couldn’t move his arms… or his legs… or his whole body for that matter. “What the hell?!”
A distance behind him stood Shino, Shikamaru, and Ino.
“The large bugs inject a toxin that paralyzes the limbs while the smaller beetles will make it harder to use jutsu by absorbing his chakra,” spoke Shino.
“My Shinbunrishin no Jutsu targets the part of the brain that control movements and deactivates them,” said Ino smiling
“With all of us blocking chakra and paralyzing his body-”
“YOU THINK THIS CAN HOLD ME?!” Madara’s body started shaking as he tried to force himself to move.
“Crap!” Shikamaru weaved a few more hand signs and poured more chakra into his jutsu, making his shadow split into different sections, rise off the ground, and wrap all over the Uchiha’s body. Him and Ino winced, struggling to hold their jutsu. “Just hold on Ino! All we have to do is keep him from moving.” He then looked over at Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura. “Naruto! Sasuke! Hurry up and finish this guy off! We can only hold him off for so long!”
Naruto nodded his head. “Right! Thanks Shikamaru.
“Just shut up and do it already!”
Naruto looked to Sasuke. “You still have some fight left in you?”
The Uchiha looked at him for a moment, then slightly smiled. “Yea… I still have something up my sleeve.”
“Good!” Here we go!” He formed a hand sign. “Kagebunshin no Jutsu!” Two clones appeared behind Naruto and started manipulating chakra in the original’s hand. Sasuke watched in amazement as one formed a swirling sphere and the other applied a different type of chakra. As soon as the second type was added, a high-pitched whirling noise filled the air and a four-pronged shape spun around it and grew larger until it looked like a giant shuriken.
Sasuke smirked at Naruto. “Well, I have to say, I’m impressed Naruto.” Then the curse mark spread across his body and transformed into his second state. Feeling an increase of chakra again, Sasuke focused it into his left hand and a chirping noise could be heard, which was soon replaced by a flapping noise as the lighting emitting from his palm turned black. With that, he reversed the flow of chakra from the curse mark and his body morphed again. His skin turned its normal color, his hair turned white, and the large hand-like wings jutting out of his back grew feathers on the webbings, also matching the new color of his hair.
Now it was Naruto’s turn to be amazed at what he saw. “Sasuke… is that really…”
“Not even Orochimaru knew the Cursed Seal of Heaven was capable of a third form.” Now the sound of flapping was replaced by a different, louder noise; that of lightning striking and birds screeching. The formerly black electricity turned pure white and increased in capacity.
“Sasuke-kun…” The Uchiha turned and looked at Sakura. She gasped, but from surprise rather than fear. She had heard that people looked like monsters in the second state of the curse mark, but in this new form, Sasuke didn’t. He looked more like… an angel.
Sasuke seemed to sense what she was thinking. “Sakura… I promise I’ll never let you see me as a monster… ever.”
She smiled and nodded her head. “Hai.”
Sasuke and Naruto faced their enemy with determined eyes. “Ready Naruto?”
“Yea! Let’s finish this once and for all!”
The two ninja started their run at Madara, Naruto on the left and Sasuke on the right. Their individual techniques glowed brighter as their jutsu remained mere centimeters away from each other.
Even though the other Uchiha couldn’t move, he started laughing out loud at the approaching ninja. “Hah! Did you forget?!” His eyes transformed into the three-pointed Mangekyou Sharingan. “I can still use the most powerful fire jutsu with a simple look!” His eyes widened and the black flames of Amaterasu appeared shooting straight at his opponents.
“Naruto!”
“Hai!”
The two pushed their jutsu together just as the flames converged them from every direction.
“Sasuke-kun! Naruto!” Sakura’s heart sank watching the fires consume her closest friends. The crackling flames continued to burn in a large mass where Sasuke and Naruto were seen last. ‘N-No! They can’t be gone’ She paused for a moment watching the scene scared, but gathered her resolve. ‘Yes. They’re still alive, I know it.’
At that thought, a large, violet sphere emerged from the dark fire and moved toward Madara.
“What?” The color of the sphere started fading and Sasuke and Naruto were now visible inside, the clashing of their jutsu together in the center.
“Okay Ino, let’s clear the way!” Shikamaru and Ino cancelled their jutsu and quickly jumped away. Madara felt his body being freed from the others’ techniques but had no time to react, seeing as the second he was free, he too was encased in the now black sphere with Naruto and Sasuke. He watched in shock as the two ninja’s jutsu seemed to slowly reach him.
“Fuuton: Rasenshuriken!”
“Kamigami no Chidori!”
On impact, Madara’s body glowed brighter and brighter until it dispelled the black sphere and a blinding white light filled the whole area, forcing everyone in the vicinity to shut their eyes tightly.
Booooom!
An explosion rattled everyone’s ears. They noticed the light fading and opened their eyes. A smoke cloud in a large crater was all that was left. Sakura frantically ran up to it, the other Konoha ninja following suit, and stood waiting for the smoke to clear.
To Sakura, it seemed to take many long, agonizing hours. “Sasuke-kun… Naruto… please be okay.”
Finally, it dissipated. Naruto and Sasuke stood in the middle of the crater, Naruto grinning and Sasuke smirking victoriously. Naruto gave everyone a thumbs up. “We’re number 1, dattebayo!”
“Whoo hoo!” yelled Kiba.
“You guys rock!” exclaimed Chouji.
“Excellent,” said Shino.
“Great job you two!” smiled Hinata.
“Go Sasuke-kun! Go Naruto!” cheered Ino.
“I suppose it was pretty cool,” smirked Shikamaru.
Sakura let out a relieved sigh and smiled down at her two friends. ‘Thank goodness you two are all right.’ Her attention drew to Sasuke. ‘Thank you for coming back Sasuke-kun. You saved us all.’
An intense pain shot throughout Sasuke’s body and he fell over in agony.
“Sasuke?!”
“Sasuke-kun!” Sakura slid down into the crater next to an alarmed Naruto and knelt down next to him. What she saw horrified her.
Sasuke’s back was drenched in blood from his previous injuries. She promptly turned him on his side and saw more blood pouring out of the hole in his shoulder. ‘Oh no! The curse mark must have made his wounds worse!’ “Naruto, hold him on his side! I have to stop the bleeding!
“A-Alright.”
She hastily prepared her medical jutsu. “Please hold on Sasuke-kun! Don’t die on me, please don’t die on me!”
Sasuke’s eyes slowly opened. The pain was so intense that he couldn’t move and started to black out. The last thing he saw before his vision completely faded was Sakura’s frantic, yet for some reason beautiful face. Then it hit him. ‘Sakura… I remember. My other life goal. I… need someone… someone to help restore my clan…’
And he lost consciousness.
*Present Day (10 years later)*
Sasuke lazily opened his eyes. The house was dark and he heard nothing. He was still tired from last night. Or was it this morning? At the moment, he didn’t care. Not a second after his eyes shut again had someone lightly shook him and spoke with a soft voice.
“Time to get up.” Sasuke groaned.
“Ten more minutes…” The person shook him again.
“Come on, it’s morning.”
“Five minutes…” He heard a sigh and footsteps walking away from him. ‘Yes… just five more minutes of sleep…’ Then a bright light filled the room making Sasuke squint from its shining through his eyelids. “What the hell?” He tried to sound angry, but was too tired and sounded more groggy than anything. Slowly, he opened his eyes, getting use to the sunlight emitting from the open curtains.
When his eyes adjusted, he saw someone with long pink hair smiling over him.
“Rise and shine, my Sasuke-kun.”
Author’s Note: Whoo! That took forever! Well, there it is, my first fanfic ever posted, ever. I have the next part all written up, but it might be a couple weeks before I type it all. Please review, and please don’t be too harsh!
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