Name: The Legend of the Gusty Ninja (Renamed from Already Gone. Rewrite of Already Gone)
Chappie Name: Already Gone
Pairings/Characters: Erm... Well, no pairings, not yet... Main chara's would be Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Jiraiya... Kakashi, Tsunade... Sai... And of course the rest of Kishimoto's characters, whom I can choose to bring in and turn into main chara's as I please.
Summary: In a mad, final attempt to bring Sasuke back to Konoha, Naruto loses control of the fox's power, and releases all nine tails. He nearly kills everyone in range. Rather upset at this, Naruto decides to leave with Jiraiya for further training, for another five years.
Well, naturally, like people do with time, he changed. Personality, looks... The whole nine yards. The quest is, was this change for the better?
Not to mention, Tsunade is making rather blatantly obvious attempts to start another Shinobi war. How will our poor heroes and heroines fare?
This story is rather AU, I kinda stopped reading the Manga after the whole 'Uchiha Redemption' plot a few chapters ago. If you read the Manga straight from Japan, you know what I'm talking about. Though, I did take the name of Jiraiya's book from the manga, for purposes such as keeping it close to Kishimoto's original idea.
Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, unfortunately. If it were, it would be full of Yaoi and violence. XD No worries to non Yaoi fans out there, this story is currently lacking a couple.
"Naruto, you tried to kill him! You tried to kill ALL of us! What the hell were you thinking?!" Sakura hissed angrily, fighting the overwhelming urge to scream at Naruto as she motioned violently towards the closed hospital room door. She didn't want to disturb the room's occupant, or the rest of the wing. Hell, it was bad enough they had already started to accumulate a few medic nin spectators. "You know you didn't have to go that far! I mean, look at him! We don't even know if he'll last the day with all that internal damage!"
"…" Naruto didn't respond, just crossed his arms irritably, eyes narrowed. His glare at her was icy, an expression he had never used towards her before. It's prolonged effect left Sakura feeling endangered, alarmed, and definitely made her hair stand on end. It alone made her adrenal cortex work overtime.
An awkward moment of silence passed between the two. Eyes still cold as ever, Naruto broke the moment. He reached for her chin, the bandages wrapping his hand coarse on her skin. He then turned her face towards the room in uncharacteristic forcefulness. "If I hadn't tried to kill him, it would be me in there right now, and you'd be stuck out here yelling at thin air, because he would have stayed with Orochimaru. Hell, you'd probably be in the hospital too. To top it off, he'd be disappointed he hadn't managed to kill us, and brooding over when he'd kill Itachi. Or are you really so deluded by images of grandeur, you thought your good looks would have been enough to bring him back?"
Sakura merely stared at him. She had to admit, that was some pretty sharp articulation, especially for the Uzumaki. The comments hit her hard and fast, so she responded the only way she knew how to (Before thinking through what had been said) - Defensively. Her entire body bristled in rage as she finally let out a cry of normal volume. "What the hell is that supposed to mean, Naruto?!"
Naruto merely gave her an amused smirk that said clearly, 'You're such an idiot.'. The coldness never left his eyes. The combination of the two (not to mention the bandages for the chakra burns on his face) gave his face an ugly, contorted look. Especially in comparison to the usual happy-go-lucky expression he usually wore on it. She could sense the change in his demeanor, the whole wing could - he was livid. "You know perfectly well what I mean, Sakura. Or should I refer to you as Sasuke's mistress?"
To her, the words seemed to hang in the hall air forever. Like malignant cancer or something else horribly unpleasant. She had no idea how to respond to that insult. After a minute, Sakura deemed words would not be a strong enough of a response. Inner Sakura was absolutely no help in this matter, with her usual commentary.
'Arg! Stupid, moron, idiot! Who does he think he is?!'
Sakura gave him a harsh back-slap to the face, one that threw him slightly off balance, forcing him to grab the white wall. The sound of her hand hitting his face still echoed down the wing loudly. She swung her hand for a second hit, Naruto easily catching it in the air, his smirk gone. Now only a red mark remained there, and a little river of blood ran down his face from his lip.
They stood like that for a few moments; Naruto's face already bruising where her blow had landed. He finally dropped her hand, tuning away from her. At first, he didn't move. "I'll be at home. Jiraiya-sensei is expecting me. If Sasuke decides to grace us with his conscious presence, you can call me."
Then he began walking down the hall, hardly making a sound. People gave him the right of way, though; they could feel the animosity bubble around him.
She wanted to stop him, god, how badly she wanted to stop him. Fight or not, he needed to be here for Sasuke… It hurt to see him walk away like that, to just turn on her with out saying anything about her slapping him. She somewhat wanted him to reprimand her, something, anything, just to show that he at least cared a little… She just wanted to see him turn around, face her.
But he didn't. He just kept walking.
But hell,Naruto had needed to be told off for what he did… Admittedly not hit though. He had been injured pretty severely from the Kyuubi's chakra, it had successfully burned a good portion of his body. Then again, he was out walking around, arguing even, whereas Sasuke was laid up. Possibly permanently.
"Coward!" She yelled out angrily, her voice breaking as the medic nins gathered stared at her as if she were in the wrong, on both accounts: hitting him and yelling in their hospital. Naruto did acknowledge this cry out from her though. He raised a hand as if to agree with her comment whole heartedly. Or else it meant to tell her to fuck off. Either way, it wasn't what she had wanted him to do.
--
Minutes later, Sakura finally moved from her spot, shakily pushing the door open to Sasuke's room. What has she done? The fight had left her stomach in painful knots. Didn't help any she had already been worried sick over Sasuke's condition. And now this…
Sakura didn't look at the man lying in the hospital bed. She avoided looking at his heavily bandaged body, at his bruised and broken face. She couldn't bear to look at Sasuke being reduced to nothing more that a sack of dilapidating meat on a stretcher. Sakura plopped into the chair beside his bed, and laid her head on its edge, thinking about how things had ended up this way.
--
Loud explosions and the crashing of falling trees broke the tranquil silence of the mountain range. A terrified flock of black birds flew out of their nests in the trees, just in time to avoid a large misfire of red chakra. It left a trail of destruction for miles, stopping only once it had hit the far mountain wall.
As the smoke and rubble cleared, a limping man's silhouette came into view atop it. His last step was on a loose rock, which resulted in him sliding and eventually rolling the rest of the way down. He laid on his back at the bottom for a minute, then tried to sit up using the arm that wasn't broken.
"Na… Naruto!" He began to scream hysterically. He watched in horror, as the same swell of chakra that had hit him began to form into the shape of a large red fox, towering over even the mountains, its nine tails swishing around in the air restlessly. The shadow of the monster fell over his broken body.
"Sasuke!"
He turned towards the scream, which was coming from his former team mate, Haruno Sakura. He grasped the Katana hilt at his side, ready to attack her, if necessary. He could probably muster up one last good lunge with his remaining chakra. She stopped running at this obvious threat, just watching now.
His attention split when he heard the Fox scream out. Just as he was turning around to look, a large paw slammed him into the rock face once again, pinning him there. Crushing his insides…
"Traitor…" The fox brought its head now to eye level, snarling at him. Its breath was like rancid meat, and large globs of saliva fell from his mouth, sending steam up from the ground, the acid content creating a hole under the traitor of Konoha. Sasuke was no longer conscious.
"Stop it Naruto! Please!"
The fox's head swung to the left, snarling at little Sakura nastily. The fox pulled his paw away from Sasuke, letting him fall into the hole his saliva made. He took a single step towards her, and leaned down to be eye level with her, blood lust radiating off him.
They stared at each other for a few seconds, Sakura uncertain what to do. She knew this wasn't Naruto, and that words would not reach him. Those angry red eyes told her that much. He was all Kyuubi now.
'Kyuubi' turned his head to the side as other Ninja approached them, crouching back for a lunge away from her. He couldn't seem to keep his attention on one target at a time, not with so many interruptions.
She too, turned towards them - Neji, Kakashi-sensei, and Lee. Sakura had the vague thought of wondering ,'Where the hell were Ino and the other boys?' "No! He'll kill you! It's not Naruto!" She shouted.
As if to confirm her warning scream, the fox lunged at the group, who scattered into the air. They landed as far off as they could, Kakashi and Shikamaru together; Neji and Lee landing near Sakura. Kyuubi used his tails to swipe at them as he roared into the sky, successfully hitting Kakashi and Shikamaru, throwing both them and the tree line back a few miles.
The cry sounded as if he were in pain.
Just as abruptly as he had attacked, the fox stopped moving. He just froze, seemingly no longer breathing. Then, he fell to the side. The Chakra forming His very realistic shape began to dissipate, like fur being blown away by the wind. A black form fell from where the head had been, hitting the ground with a heavy thud.
--
Sakura looked up as she felt the sheets shift under her now tear-streaked face. Sasuke had shifted positions ever so slightly, barely enough for him to now look down at her. The look on his face was one of confusion, and physical pain.
"What… Sakura…" He moaned slightly, turning his head to the window. Well, good to know he still had motor functions, and that insane resistance to pain that was just so… Uchiha.
"Don't move Sasuke-kun, you'll only hurt yourself more!" Sakura jumped up, arms stretching out over his body as if to hold him down should he try anything particularly stupid, like trying to sit up. "Tsunade sama and I both agree you have way too much internal damage for you to move… Or even really be awake at the moment."
"Where's… Naruto?" Was all he said to that, pointedly ignoring the rather soothsayer portion of Sakura and Tsunade's diagnosis. Damn pessimist of a kage…
Sakura froze, uncertain how to respond to this. The knots in her stomach clenched more tightly than before, sending an instant and horrible migraine to her forehead. "He… He was busy, so he left." She lied, the words coming off her tongue easier than she ever could have imagined. Sasuke had become so easy to lie to… Probably because of the fact he had abandoned them… And there she went defending him like he was the great father of gonga, to the point of slapping Naruto.
She'd really have to find a way to apologize to him for her actions. He really didn't deserve that.
"If you see him before me… Tell him…" Sasuke closed his eyes for effect, as if to go back to sleep. He sighed to add on. "… I'm sorry."
It had the desired effect. Sakura stared, as if not sure what to say or do. For the second time in her over opinionated life, she had nothing to say. Not even a rude 'Go fuck yourself'. These two boys she'd befriended were certainly giving her mental loops to jump through.
Inner Sakura scoffed. That was twice in one day. Outer Sakura was loosing her edge.
Sakura let her hands fall to her sides, as she heard his breathing regulate to that of a person sleeping. Her mind still ran over what had happened.
'He… He had apologized…'
'Yeah, peachy. Are we really going with this 'forgive and forget' shebang? If so, you need to do some serious apologizing to Naru-chan. Not like anything he said was completely inaccurate, or without basis, ya know?' Inner Sakura snapped nastily.
She sat back down again, pretending to ignore her little id. The migraine that had popped up from stress was easing up at his words. Sasuke knew he had made a mistake, and he was trying to make up for it already… Which was great.
' Then we come to... let's see... You think sorry'll be enough for Naru-chan? I think you're gonna be unpleasantly surprised with this outcome, usuratonkachi. Even though ya should, he ain't going to take it. Oh, and by the way, don't forget about checking up on the injured Kakashi-sensei, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, or Tenten. You hearing me?'
'Bite me... And I won't forget.'
Even if sorry wouldn't be enough for Naruto... No, wait, inner Sakura was the total idiot, of course he would be fine with that. Naruto was the forgiving type. He couldn't hold a grudge against anyone for long. The blond tended to find the best in people.
After all, she, Sasuke, and Naruto were together again, they could make up for it all now. Sasuke had already made the initiative to apologize. (Though it HAD taken blunt force trauma to the head coupled with mentally incapacitating pain killers) That would be the first step. Next was getting them all health and in perfect shape.
They could make up for everything, and it would all be okay..
She smiled to herself, all the pains in her body relaxing, stopping completely at the relaxing thoughts.
Everything would be fine.
A/N:
THIS IS THE REWRITE OF ALREADY GONE. PLEASE REFER TO THE TOP FOR FURTHER INFO. THIS STORY WILL CONTAIN A CRAP LOAD OF SPOILERS. . Read on if you dare!
This story takes place when most of the rookies are sixteen or so. It is a fiction where Naruto leaves again with Jiraiya, to train further, mostly to control the Kyuubi, learn the Sage techniques, etc.
Thanks to narni4eva for being my beta!
A/N End