Sup readers, here's the thing. I wanted to get both chapters of A Little Lie done by Christmas as well as other things to do a massive update. But my dad came to visit me and my sisters, both my parents are in real-estate and so were not together, heck most of the time were not even in the same country. So I'm spending a lot of time with my dad, saw rules of engagement a lot (all day during Christmas), clearing out snow from the driveway (takes literally forever! All day anyway), and studying for exams that were delayed. So don't worry I haven't forgotten about my other stories, it's just that I'm lazy as hell is all. This prologue was edited by "Have a Little Feith." This story was inspired by Advent of Shadow's story, Betrayal and Naruhinasakufan1's Betrayal II. ENJOY AND REVIEW!
I don't own naruto
It was early morning and Naruto was sitting on a bed all covered up in bandages. His head was down and eyes were directed to the sheets that were covering him. He didn't even move, he didn't even blink, and if you weren't paying attention to him, it would almost seem as if he wasn't breathing. Hell, his eyes made him look lifeless. Most people who couldn't see his eyes would just think he was concentrating on something or maybe he had too many things running through his mind. But really, Naruto was just staring at blank space, his mind was completely cut off from the rest of the world. All of his thought revolved around a single word question…"why?" That seemed to be the most popular word of the day.
"Why, Naruto...almost died…", "Why Naruto; you were able to beat me and not him…We trusted you!", "Why did you fail! I almost lost the ability to be a ninja for you!", "Why Naruto? I left it all up to you", "Why, you asshole! Akamaru* and I almost died!", "Why did I ever put my faith in you Naruto!", "Why did they take you instead of me? I wouldn't have failed…", "Why did you try to kill Sasuke! You are all covered up in his blood!", "You made a once in a lifetime promise to forehead, the same one I would make you promise me, and you couldn't keep it! WHY!", "I nearly died and they let you go after Sasuke? Why you?!", "Boss you're supposed to be the coolest…Why did you fail!", all of these phrases came back to haunt Naruto. All of these "whys" and hatred kept coming back to him; all of those harsh words were tearing his mind and heart apart.
Everything was tearing him apart. Sakura, Tenten, Ino, Hinata, Shikamaru, Lee, Neji, Kiba, Choji, Shino, they were harsh to him yet they didn't even care that he did his best to bring Sasuke back without killing him; Konohamaru was upset because Naruto was able to bring back the "the jerky traitor". He nearly got killed in the process, just to bring him back in one piece. Everyone on the team was upset that they all threw their lives so that Naruto could chase and bring back Sasuke. Most of the girls assumed that it was Sasuke's blood that was on Naruto, Tenten and Ino never got the memo about Naruto being hit in the chest twice by a chidori, Sakura didn't seem to care about hearing that bit or about him in the first place. Hinata just said "…almost died…" and ran off, Naruto's guess is that she was mad at him because her cousin was almost killed (In reality she just couldn't handle the thought of Naruto almost dying and looking at Naruto's condition… She couldn't handle that kind of thought so she ran to get it out of her head). The whole villagers somehow think that the Sasuke ran away because he felt weak in Konoha due to the lack of strong "Role models" to teach him how to be strong and take down any opponent… Like say Gaara from Sunagakure (Hidden Sand village).
He hasn't even seen Shizune, Tsunade, Pervy-sage… err… I mean Jiraiya, or Kakashi-sensei. He can't guess what exactly they're going to say, but what he can guess is that they will use that same word everybody else used…"why." All of the flashbacks, all of the disappointments, all of the failed attempts to get everyone to like him, everything just made his mind go blank. His vision went from staring at the white cover sheet of the hospital bed to the orange Jacket in his hands and then faded from orange to black…
"Why did this have to happen to us? Have we not suffered enough, Jiraiya?" Tsunade asked with tears in her eyes. "Why? What did we do? Why do we deserve this?" She whispered loud enough for him to hear.
"I don't know…to think…that I would outlive another student of mine. Only this time, it will be caused by my own hands" Jiraiya curled his hands into fists. "Can't you just have faith in him? I will train him to control it and that would only be scraping the surface!"
Tsunade cried more and shook her head slowly. "As much as I want to," she said in a whisper that was loud enough for him to hear, "I can't afford to. The village must come first and the council has already voted…and majority won. *Sniff* I never should have bet that necklace…it's cursed and *Sniff* it always will be."
"YOU'RE HOKAGE!" Yelled Jiraiya, this was not surprising to Tsunade. "You have absolute power over this village; the council has no power, only you do! They only make suggestions and only you can enforce them!"
"And I have to enforce this one; I have to do what's best for the village. It's the responsibility I accepted and keeping him around is too much of a risk."
Jiraiya opened his mouth to argue but, what other choice is there? "Fine," said Jiraiya as he took out his large scroll (which is actually a contract) from his back and unrolled it until it got to Naruto's name, he lowered his head to the point where the shadow created by his hair covered his eyes. "He won't need the contract anymore" suddenly a drop of water hit the summoning contract. Tsunade took her eyes off the scroll and onto her old teammate and saw tears slowly trailing down his downcast face. He bit his index finger and formed a couple of hand seals and chakra started on the tip of his index finger and the blood on the finger, much to the surprise of Tsunade, started floating and formed a weird figure, it was a triangle with a circle inside and inside the circle was a dot "Contract Bleaching Jutsu" thought Jiraiya as he moved his finger to the very top of Naruto's name and pressed his finger on it and dragged it all the way down to Naruto's blood print and marked all blood finger prints, after that the entire section bleached into black.
Tsunade dried her tears as Jiraiya rolled up the summing contract and put back where it was (Behind his back) they both took their time to cool off(or heat up, either way you like) to get the after effects of crying off. "ANBU!" called out Tsunade, soon, six masked men and women appeared, they had their heads bowed and were kneeling. "Get the sealing cave prepared and gather all the jonins with high chakra reserves to meet us there!"
"Hokage-sama," said a female ANBU, "If I may ask, what for?"
"Sorry, what," asked Tsunade with a hint of venom in her voice.
"What is the reason for this decision?"
Tsunade stayed quiet for a moment before she spoke again. "We are going to extract the nine tailed fox and reseal it inside the Biju urn." This earned a bunch of gasp from the Anbu.
"But Hokage-sama the fourth-" Began another masked man.
"I am well of ware of what the fourth did but Naruto is now out my hands" said the fifth Hokage as she turned around and looked outside of her window. All the Anbu Black Ops had heightened hearing and could hear many things, but they were surprised to hear a drop of water hit the floor. "What are all of you waiting for? Go. NOW!"
"Yes Hokage-sama!" They all yelled in unison and left as quick as they came.
"Let's go Jiraiya," said Tsunade sadly as she walked to the door. She opened it and found a hand that was about to knock on the door. "Not now Danzo," she said with poison in her voice. "If you came to convince me of anything then you're sadly mistaken. I have already made my choice," she said as she walked down the hall with Jiraiya following her. As soon as they were out of reach, Danzo, the man wrapped in bandages smirked.
"Oh I know Tsunade Senju" he thought in his head. "But you were wrong. I did, more or less, convince you and Jiraiya to follow my plan. Though I must admit it would take me at least two, three maybe even four years before I could use Shisui's left eye again, even with your grandfather's cells. Shisui, your genjutsu really is of the highest caliber and it has done Konoha a great service." Danzo's toothy smirk deepened with each thought.
Tsunade and Jiraiya arrived at the Hospital and made their way to the room Naruto was occupying only to find Shizune holding Tonton (Tsunade's pet pig)peering inside the room with a said look on both their faces.
"Shizune?" asked Tsunade with a raised eyebrow.
"Ah…Tsunade-sama, are you alright?" Shizune asked as Tonton let an "oink" as if it was asking the same question. Tsunade seemed
"How is he?" Tsunade asked ignoring Shizune's question.
"Not so good, all of his friends scolded him and," she let a sigh out through her nose, "I think he took it too hard." she said in a sad tone. Jiraiya went inside followed by Tsunade while Shizune and Tonton could only watch before Shizune followed in and continued, "He hasn't even moved in a long while he hasn't even responded when… well… when anything happened. I tried talking to him but it's like he can't hear me. And when I injected him, he didn't even flinch, it's like he's…" Shizune didn't want to finish.
"I see" said Jiraiya in a monotone voice, "they broke him… and they cut deep into him, very deep…. At this point… we would only be putting him out of his misery."
"Putting him out of his-?" Shizune began before she gasped and her eyes widen at the shock of what she just realized. "Jiraiya! Surely you don't mean-!"
"SHIZUNE!" Yelled Tsunade earning a gasp from Tsunade and a worried oink from Tonton; "today is your day off isn't? You should go.…"
"Tsunade-sama…what happened?"
"…There… there was a vote… majority ruled. So now I have to seal away the Nine Tailed Fox"
Shizune gasped again keeping her eyes wide open "TSUNADE-SAMA PLEASE DON'T DO THIS!"
"Shizune go…NOW!" Shizune could only stare at her master before she shut her teary eyes and ran.
Jiraiya crouched next to Naruto. "Naruto, you there?" Jiraiya asked but Naruto didn't do anything he just sat there, clutching on to his bright orange jacket, nothing even bothering to look alive. Jiraiya noticed an almost half eaten ramen bowl. "At least he ate his favorite food" Jiraiya thought sadly. Before he let out a "Hm," when he spotted Naruto's orange pants and boxers neatly folded on the other side of the room. Jiraiya stared at for a minute before he moved to grab it and moved back to Naruto, grabbing Naruto's jacket. Jiraiya took the hospital cloths off Naruto and put his jacket back on him only he didn't zip it. Through the entire time, Naruto acted like a Barbie doll or an action figure, he didn't react or move on his own. Jiraiya was careful as to not remove the bandages
"Jiraiya what are you doing" Tsunade asked.
"Were doing it today, right? The boy doesn't have any spirit left. Look," Jiraiya pointed to the ramen bowl, "he had his last meal… but it seems that he couldn't enjoy it. We might as well let him wear his favorite clothes one last time," he said as he put the boxers on Naruto before the pants. He got Naruto to stand up and as soon as he did, a member of the ANBU black ops showed up. This member was wearing a cat mask and was kneeling down.
"The preparations are complete Hokage-sama," reported the ANBU.
"All right, you're dismissed," Tsunade didn't even finish the sentence before the ANBU member left. "Let's go… Jiraiya"
"Right," said Jiraiya in a meek voice. Jiraiya was about to pick up Naruto when Tsunade stopped him and Jiraiya gave her puzzled look.
"I'll carry him, I don't want any surprises," Tsunade said as she hoisted Naruto over her shoulders and made the seal for the Body Flicker Jutsu and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"How'd she know?" Jiraiya thought sadly thought out loud before he followed in Tsunade's footsteps and did the same thing.
Iruka was just making his way to the hospital with a smile on his face. Sure his special one of a kind student came back home almost dead and pale, heck he was probably on deaths door. This was a traitor retrieval mission. Iruka had his failure in the same sort of mission... Actually, Ninja's go AWOL everyday. Most return, some charged with treason for killing a comrade, others for theft and the list goes on. And what hurts the most is not the bruise, so to speak, but the pain in the gut. Your most trusted friend, hero, rival, superior soldier, anyone you've looked up to suddenly turns his/her back against the same exact principle he/she taught you...that hurts the most. Iruka frowned, Iruka lost a good friend the day Naruto graduated... If it wasn't for Naruto, Iruka would be in the same situation Naruto is in. A few years ago when he became the teacher of certain batch of students he had actually failed the same type of mission. When he was feeling down, Naruto's arrogance and ignorance some how snapped him out of it. He saw himself his old student, so he took in himself to change his miniature self. And after spending some (undesirable) time with him, he realized that they had a lot more in common then he thought...that's why he could guess what Naruto probably feels like at the moment. He's probably lifeless right now and no decent amount of ramen could possibly revive him.
Iruka smiled once more. But Iruka knows Naruto better than anyone. Iruka was resisting the urge to eat what could be the greatest batch of ramen Teuchi has ever made in the New Naruto size bowl. If anyone could revive Naruto it would be-no! That person is Iruka. Iruka held his head high. Though Naruto failed, he learned something, something very valuable. Iruka and many other ninja's who truly and surely fought with the pride of Konoha, the will of fire, have come to know the lesson that can't be described in words, a lesson that can't be summarized so easily, a lesson that can only be truly learned one way and on by the student alone. Life maybe the cruelest teacher but he's a damn good one. Iruka was confident that Naruto had already learned that lesson, he probably doesn't realize it. The probability of him realizing it in his life time is very slim... but alas he knows it.
Ignoring the weight of the food, he walked onward, he thanks the metal box which housed such a meal, otherwise his will would have shattered. He was confident that after Naruto falls asleep today...tomorrow he would wake up anew. Somehow, he wouldn't be the same person. He would still have the same mind, the same flesh, and the same blood. But he would be new. He would be exactly what people around him need him to be. People around the streets saw him, both of working class and nobility, low ranking and high ranking. Some smiled, others shrugged off curiosity, some just stared in confusion and anger.
As he walked onward, he stopped at he stared at a certain woman. It was Shizune. She looked at him with teary eyes as said eyes released streams of liquid down her cheeks. She looked up and gazed at him. Iruka couldn't help but to stare into those eyes. It wasn't that he knew something was wrong... he simply knew enough to know why she was in her current condition.
"Naruto..." ran through Iruka's head. His eyes began to open up more, his heart began to race, and his temperature began to rise. He suddenly let go of the metal box that housed the provender. Somehow, time slowed down. The metal box fell down slowly until its metallic clang began to reciprocate. The impact could be heard at least a block away. The broth of the ramen began to soil the ground and the heat began to escape...
Somehow...Iruka's prediction came true.