Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Naruto, or else Kyuubi would have a much bigger role in the series, because he's just that awesome.
This story is a bit darker than my other one, as there's no lovey-doveyness. Just darkness and and blood and gore and burning flesh and explosions and body snatching and aliens from space and and and... Yesssss... Nehehehehehe. Okay... I may have been lying about some of that. But some of it's true too!
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Pain. Burning, fiery, incinerating pain that threatened to turn bone to cinders.
That was the senation that gripped Naruto as he gazed in disbelief at his 'taichou,' his brother, his first, best friend, Sasuke-teme from amongst the flames that licked greedily at his flesh, blackening the skin which, struggling futilely, prolonged the agony endlessly, growing more pink skin which immediately burned, again, and again.
Mouth parted as it finally grew to be too much as his eyes liquified, spilling down his cheeks as seemingly molten air was pushed out of his lungs, unable to even be called a scream due to the fact that his vocal cords had been ripped to shreds, disabled, devoured. Only a choking hiss escaped, lost amongst the crackling flames.
Despite the fact that Naruto was a living pyre, despite the fact that his eyes had been destroyed, the Kyuubi's chakra sadastically proved strong enough to paint the scene in his mind from a horrifying 360 degree angle, imprinting on his mind his final moments... and the sadastic, pleased smile that was on Sasuke's face as crimson, three-tomoe'd eyes suddenly became more akin to shurikens as he achieved the Mangekyou Sharingan.
And as Naruto died, the Kyuubi's chakra, which had fought to the last to heal him, suddenly sucked back into his charred body, presumably sucked back to the Kyuubi as it was wrenched to Hell. Presumably.
The flames of the corpse continued for only a minute before the body was simply bones, blackened, a ridiculous, stupid grin on the skull's face - the same grin that every skeleton had.
"Boy... You foolish, insufferable brat, how dare you let yourself get killed!"
Azure blue eyes cracked open, glazed over with the memory of pain, only to clench shut again as the cold water of the floor was granted access to them. Raising his head up, eyes stinging, the young, blonde man rubbed at his eyes roughly, focusing on the 'physical' sensation in an effort to blot out the emotional pain...
Even thinking such base thoughts was enough to make him shudder, hand moving down from his eyes to instead clutch at his chest, heart throbbing, stopping, and starting again - like a heart attack.
Still, desperate for anything to distract him, his mind immediately latched onto the most prevalent question. 'Why was he alive?' The only thing that he could even consider was... Eyes snapped open as he suddenly dashed down the familiar, rotted hallway, skidding in a spray of water to a stop in front of his prisoner's cell.
Crimson eyes regarded the Jinchuuriki with amusement, before they blinked, and the deep, booming voice that had been awakened him spoke again. "Wondering why you're alive? Dumb ape." Flames seemed to flicker into life behind the behemoth that was behind massive bars, providing a black silhouette against the darkness, all nine tails splayed outwards in a darkly majestic gesture. "The answer is this..."
"I REFUSE TO DIE!"The flames that had limned the Kyuubi's body meshed perfectly with the demon's roar, before dimming as the fox-like creature finished speaking.
"Enjoy my gift, brat." Ivory white fangs appeared in a resplendent, unpleasant grin, before crimson chakra began to drip from the Kitsune, looking for all the world like he was a wax model, melting in the flames. An image that Naruto felt, with a pang of pain, that he'd represented himself not too long ago.
And as each glob of the demon's form splattered to the ground, it suddenly seemed to expand and become more gaseous - although that wasn't entirely correct, as it remained a rather liquid quality, seemingly thicker and more consolidated, almost as though it had a membrane around it.
The 'gas' chakra began to creep along the ground, before suddenly springing outwards in a number of whip-like tendrils, wrapping around the wide-eyed blonde's form. Immediately, he began screaming, and screaming, and screaming in a way that would have been precisely how he'd sounded only minutes ago while Sasuke killed him, a sound that would haunt a person's mind and memories until the day they die - and leave them afraid that they'd meet that howling banshee upon their death.
To the sensation of being burned alive once again, Naruto collapsed in his own mindscape.
Nothing...
Blissful nothingness. No pain, no agony, nothing burning or prickling.
Naruto could have sighed. In fact, he felt so good, he did. Not.
Perturbed by this impossibility, and upon finding himself failing upon a second try, he opened his eyes. Or rather, he tried to, and something else responded. Feeling... something... warm like the chakra he used to use creeping upwards from his belly.. And when it managed to accomplish what it intended, he tried to gasp as sight suddenly filled him, such beautiful sights that what had previously constituted as his sight was akin to being blind.
Colors, such beautiful, vibrant things that made him want to weep with joy upon seeing them, filled his gaze, a heavenly bouquet of vision. Vibrant blues that eddied and swirled with the currents of the wind - the very chakra that made it up! - formed his sky and danced through other visions. Green, incadescent energy raced through the woodland around him, overlaying the more natural colors of everything, and making him forget his previous fear.
Eager to see more, he turned his head, and 'felt' eyes widening in sudden glee, as he saw a beautiful lake, shimmering magically, and immediately causing his mind to demand water, telling him that he was thirsty - after all, he'd just been incinerated twice over! Crawling, so intent on the water that he was ignoring what his eyes showed him of his limbs, he made it to the water. And when he glanced down, he wanted to scream - and finally, his chakra decided to grant him such a capability, replicating lungs as it pushed out air through his teeth - while he was disabused of any ability to ignore what he'd become... a monster. Such a sight removed any joy he had upon his new capabilities of sight.
Two, boiling, crimson points glared out of the ebony darkness that filled the otherwise empty eyesockets of a skull, surrounded by the white of pure bone - seemingly repaired from previous charring - and crimson strands of swirling chakra, reminiscent of hair, sprouting from his head, seemingly without purpose (beyond perhaps the fact that he still saw himself as somewhat human, and it was an effort to maintain that image).
More crimson cables, with far more purpose, however, sprouted from various parts of his skull, connecting his mandible to the rest of the head, and from there... head to spine, spine to ribs, sternum, shoulderblades... He shuddered, for he knew that he was what his village had always called him - a demon, a monster.
And a voice, befitting such a monster, echoed out of his thoughts, weariness just barely able to be heard. "Happy with your gift boy?" Amused, cutting laughter echoed throughout his mind, swallowing up whatever he replied with. Instead, he lay there, gazing into the water, like a puppet's whose strings had just been cut.
He never knew how long he lay there - minutes, hours, days... It felt like weeks. His body didn't need food or water anymore, nor sleep, so nothing served to differentiate the time that that his mind was in stasis. It was only through sheer willpower that he managed to recover fragments of his broken psyche, and get on with his life - such as it could be called.
Through testing, he found that ninjutsu still worked, and so a henge became his weapon of choice, concealing his body, making him appear as though he were still human. Although... however human his outside appearance was, his mind was about as monstrous as his 'natural' form now, even if he had 'recovered.'
He was having to recognize the facts that nobody would want to be saved by a monster like him, so being acknowledged as he was was impossible. Money served no purpose, as he had no need for food, water, or any luxuries. And without the first as a motivator - the strongest one that he had - and with the second, the sheer desire to survive empty as well...
For the longest time, he wandered aimlessly amongst various civilized towns, numb to the world, unsure what to do.
It all changed one day.
Nobody would have expected the sunny, warm day to be a day of dark change. After all, dark things were meant to take place in dark places - at night, or during a rain storm. Not on a day perfect to dally in the fields with a loved one, or for the more down to earth, to toil over the land!
Such were the thoughts of everyone, including Naruto, despite the fact that he found little joy in the world these days. It didn't stop him from occasionally trying to live among others for short times, and today... he was helping with the harvest.
Brilliant, gleaming sickle - brand new, a gift from the farmer - sliced through the wheat easily, cutting it down in wide swathes. Repetitive, pleasant. Activity a person could get lost in, which was precisely what it was to Naruto; an escape.
Such an activity was not to be, however, as one of the many people from Naruto's past, forgotten life, and thus someone he never expected to see again, was wandering through this nameless town on her way back from a mission.
Kurenai Yuuhi, the genjutsu mistress, had not expected any ninja to be active in such a quaint community, and so it was very much to her surprise when she paused to buy some supplies that she felt the queerest of unpleasant sensations. Goosebumps rippled along her flesh, and slivers of fear pierced her, while a weightiness nearly sought to grind her into the ground. All of this served to make her warily glance back and forth, for any sign of what was causing her such anxieties.
It wasn't until she was beginning to leave, her newly bought food and water sealed in a standard storage scroll, that something caught her eye from the side - one farmer amongst many, and yet... his image rippled, distorting vaguely while her crimson eyes regarded him, the illusion nearly broken just by the fact that her mind was trying it's utmost to pierce the shell that it created.
Failing that, however, caused her to make her mistake. Hands rose upwards, one forefinger crossing the other while she intoned "Release!" to send a burst of dispelling chakra towards the person, the ninja.
And like a bubble bursting, Naruto felt his skin, as he'd taken to call it, vanish. One moment it was there, another, it was gone in a burst of crimson chakra, heavy, malevolent - the chakra of the beast that lay, not in his navel, as everyone had assumed, but in his very soul. The chakra that had overlaid the area and provided the fear necessary for Kurenai to become wary.
And for the genjutsu mistress, the surprise was instanteous, focused as she was on the skeletal beast. But for everyone else... it wasn't until one farmer saw the creature, the spectral thing, shrouded in crimson, holding a scythe, that everyone else found out what was amongst their midst as he yelled.
And Naruto, so fearful of rejection since he'd become a monster in his own mind, in his own eyes, found himself swept up in the voice of the Kyuubi, whose rage and hatred found the perfect flaw in his mind - the rage towards the person who had broken his own, momentary, delusion. "KIll-Kill-kill-kill-kill-killkillkillkillkillkillkillkill." The voice of imprisoner and imprisoned became one for just a moment.
And a moment was all that he needed, as the Kyuubi-chakra eyes glanced in the direction that the dispelling energy had come from... and managed to meet the crimson eyes of the beautiful Konoha ninja. The knowledge of who she was, where she was from, was unimportant for the moment.
It wasn't even important that she realized who she was, recognizing the same chakra that many of the older Konoha ninjas had felt so long ago. "Kyuubi?" Swiftly, the logical jump. "Naruto?"
It wasn't a concious thing, that let him spring from the earth, kicking up a spray of dirt, as he lunged at Kurenai. It wasn't a concious thing as the blade rose, nor as it fell. It wasn't a concious thing that stole the life from the Genjutsu mistress who's surprise slayed her. It wasn't even a concious pleasure that he felt, upon taking her life.
What was a concious thing came afterwards, as the Kyuubi, like a vampiric parasite, sprang tendrils - much akin to the ones that had consumed him and brought him back to life - that latched onto the elder ninja's corpse, and devoured the fading blue chakra that was the other's energy, and life-force. From there, Naruto felt something instictive begin occuring, and, still in his blood lust, he moved as his 'instincts' demanded.
Flicker.
Crimson eyes snapped open, gazing in surprise as a skeleton, hunched over his face, began to slowly fall, cold bone smacking against his cheek, causing one hand to immediately move upwards, smacking across his flesh. Flesh?
Dainty fingers, covered in calluses, ran along his face slowly, tracing it, feeling pouty, ruby lips, and soft, black tendrils of hair. He, or rather, 'she' felt a small grin begin stretching across her face. While horror filled him, the fact that he was capable of feeling... his mind destroyed any excuses he might have had, demanded morality to remove itself from his presence, and greedily savored the sensations.
He had found his purpose.
It wasn't long before Naruto Uzumaki discovered the limitations of his new existance. Kyuubi's chakra was naturally toxic to anyone that it filled or covered, and while his chakra signature, and body, were protected for a short while by the native chakra of Kurenai's body, within a week, the 'native' chakra had nearly finished disintegrating, used up simply from coating the crimson energy that formed bonds, enabling Naruto to use the body he possessed. Within a week after that, the body had begun decaying, nerves dying and causing Naruto to once more plunge into world lacking touch and scent as he knew them.
Within a month, his body was nearly the exact same as it had been when he'd first 'woken' up after his death. Within another week, he was craving a new body. Within that same week, he'd killed another ninja with greater chakra reserves so that his body could last longer.
It was clear that he wasn't able to work for a village under these conditions - he doubted they'd like active ninjas to keep dying, and their bodies to begin rotting away, which was only in addition to the fact that once the native chakra of each body vanished, only the Kyuubi's chakra was able to be sensed, a dead give away to the fact that not everything was as it seemed. So it was up to him to devise a new plan... After he'd gotten his revenge, of course. For with the new ability, the new lease on 'life,' he realized that his 'brother' had gotten away scot-free. And that simply wasn't acceptable.
Sasuke's days were numbered.
Within five years of Kurenai's death, and fifteen years of Naruto Uzumaki's original death, he became known as the Crimson Reaper, a cut-throat ninja whose real identity was often questioned, but never found out. They only knew that each time a person met with the ninja, was always different, in stature and in voice, causing much of the speculation to run - almost hysterically - towards an organization... And yet the chakra was always the same.
Yes, I took a break from my original story for a (not really) brief oneshot. This idea came to me while I was listening to, "A little Piece of Heaven," by Avenged Sevenfold. Rather dark, morbid, and, to my mind, awesome. But that's just me. Hopefully you liked it as well.