Yes, The LightningHunter is back.
Hmm...that sounded good. Maybe I should change my penname to TheLightningHunter.
Anyway... well, nice to be back. After a holiday was followed shortly with the busting of my laptop's hard drive, it was only the lucky chance that I'd once made back-ups on a USB. Note to all readers- back up more then your fics, I lost my entire collection of images, videos, music and games.
As you can guess, I'm working very slowly on continuing those out-of-date back-ups, and if you've looked at my profile page, I have discontinued several fics.
However, seeing as rewriting is an arduous process, I merely decided to upload some other stuff I was writing while my laptop was out of order.
Like this- a hard hitting, brutal revenge story about Naruto. This chapter is very short, yes, that's because it's a little prologue to the story. No real revenge takes place in this chapter.
On, and to those moronic fools constantly writing about Naruto getting abused and type of shit, before he magically has his personality change and grow up to take revenge- you know the sort of idiots-, this fic is about Naruto taking revenge FOR Konoha. I'd like to remind the idiots that in canon, Naruto was never abused, or to be frank, hated. He was feared, not hated. No idiot was ever daft enough- or drunk enough- to take on what they perceived a demon, or even then, risk the wrath of the Sandaime.
I mean, seriously people, it sometimes help to put yourself in another's shoes. You think kid is demon. You don't attack it, you stay the fuck away. Hence why Naruto was always lonely- they thought he'd eat them or something.
Here's a little summary about the fic.
Naruto, early twenties. Set post-canon. Naruto being crowned Hokage. Village adore Naruto- as we see in canon at the Chuunin Exams, they seem to be won over quite easily. And then bad guys come and pretty much fuck up the entire scene. Story continues from there.
Prologue
The sun set over Konoha, but despite the dusk, the village was still in shades of red.
Why? Flames licked at the crumbled buildings, blood-stained bodies littered the ground, and the mud churned thick with cooling crimson fluid.
All this, due to one small battle.
"Milord." A shinobi (one clad in red, the clothes covering every inch of skin so that only his eyes were visible) bowed low to his master, the man who had initiated this massacre. "We finished our patrols. No building has not crumbled. No human has lived. This...village has been destroyed so completely that not even a lizard would live here for the next twenty years."
The commander lifted the man to his feet. "You have done well, Akai. Now, where is Kuroi!?"
The troops stood silent. They would not speak, it was all down to Kuroi to save his own life by appearing and ensuring his master's orders had been carried out.
"Where is Kuroi!? Has he failed!? Is he a coward, that he does not show his face!?"
"I am here, milord." A shinobi clad in much the same garb as Akai, only in black, appeared alongside the commander, bowing.
"Kuroi," the boss turned to face his soldier. "I trust you have carried out my orders?"
"Yes, milord."
"Excellent. But firstly...you were late, Kuroi. I instructed you to arrive on time. You therefore disobeyed me. And you know the punishment for disobeying me, Kuroi."
"Yes, milord." Kuroi obediently drew a vicious-looking dagger, raising it to his own chest.
"Stop, Kuroi."
"Milord?" Kuroi was clearly confused. He who disobeyed the master was a traitor. Traitors deserve death.
"You carried out my other orders. That warrants leniency. You however, will not get off scot free, Kuroi..."
The commander snatched the dagger from Kuroi's hand, and instead of impaling the black-clad shinobi, merely slashed him across the torso. He then followed up with a brutal punch into Kuroi's nose, undoubtedly breaking it.
Kuroi did not move an inch.
"Good, good. Now, can you prove you have killed the Daimyo and the ...new Hokage?"
In response, Kuroi removed a scroll from his belt, from which he unsealed a variety of blood-soaked items.
"The head of the Daimyo. The ceremonial hat of the Hokage. And, in that jar, milord...his eye."
The commander released a bark of laughter. "His eye? Kuroi, tell me about his end! I trust it was a fitting one?"
"Quite so, milord. I removed his eye while he was still alive. While the man staggered like a fool, I then stabbed him in the neck, before forcing him into a nearby building. And to ensure his death, I collapsed the building, before igniting it."
For a full minute, the commander did not stop his laughter. "Kuroi, you have surpassed all expectations!" he managed when he stopped.
The boss snapped his fingers, and Kuroi bent to the ground, retrieving the jar and handing it to his master, who keenly inspected it.
"Ah, his left eye...a pity I could not have a matching set."
"Milord, if you request it, I will at once search the wreckage to see if his right eye can be salvaged-"
"No, no, Kuroi, I feel that it would merely waste our time. One eye is good enough it." The commander grinned at the single cerulean eye. "I think I'll have it served as part of my dinner. But firstly...Aoiro!"
"Milord!" barked a blue-clad shinobi.
"Detonate the charges!"
"You heard the boss! Detonate the charges!"
And in moments, the Hokage Mountain exploded, the great carved faces collapsing, cracking, until it was nothing more than rubble.
"Troops!" The commander bellowed at his vast army. "Move out!"
And in moments, they were gone, along with any life.
The commander in his malicious thoughts, was full of pride and triumph of his great vicotry. He did not believe in the slightest he had erred somehow.
Unfortunately for him, he had. By telling Kuroi not to search the wreckage where he believed the newly-crowned Rokudaime Hokage to have died.
For, no one had told him just how resilient Konoha shinobi could be to death, particularly blonde demon containers.
And hours later, when the sun was rising again...
A bloody arm burst out of debris, followed by a second arm, then a head. A survivor. The man pulled himself out of the wreckage, his body soaked crimson, his clothes in shreds, and his single cerulean eye gazing bleakly at his surroundings.
And a single roar of anguish escaped his lips before he toppled to the ground.
"Konoha...Konoha is lost," he murmured to himself, over and over again.
The man stumbled through what were once roads, not caring for both his injuries and his state of undress. All that mattered to him was the land of his birth, no, his land, his people...all destroyed.
The thought could only make him scream again.
"It is a Hokage's duty to ensure he protects his land and people, even at the cost of his own life," he managed with his rasping voice, coughing blood as he spoke.
"Then why!?" he howled. "Why do I, Uzumaki Naruto, Rokudaime Hokage, live when my people are dead!? Kami-sama, do you mock me!?"
No, Naruto decided. Kami-sama was dead to him. No god, no deity could have let such an atrocity occur.
His people, his people...
His remaining eye suddenly widened. "No!"
With all the remaining strength in his legs, he sprinted for the Hokage Residence, or at least, what was left of it.
Despite Naruto's impressive strength and speed, the time still felt like an eternity. He hurtled into the wrecked building, his chakra blasting debris out of his way as he burst up several floors- but it was too late.
The broken body of Sakura lay on the ground. Kakashi's body lay not too far away, as was Yamato's and Sai's.
For the first time in many years, Naruto couldn't stop the tears fall from his right eye. His hands trembled as he reached for Sakura's cold skin. She had been dead for many hours, and judging by the many bruises and slashes on her skin, her death had not been easy or painless.
He sank to the ground, his entire body shaking, his head in his hands, his right eye desperately closed in an attempt to blot out the images...but they wouldn't stop. Countless pictures of his closest friends dying in many different, but all equally terrible and painful ways constantly flashed across his mind's eye, and damn it, he prayed that they had at least ensured their attackers had suffered just as badly-
But they were the only bodies there, and he could not smell blood that wasn't theirs. And his mind tortured him with images of his friends begging for mercy as they were tortured, all crying Naruto's name in hopes of rescue...
"Damn it!" He screamed, slumping against a wall. "Damn it!" His mind, still not thinking straight remained shut, as he crawled towards Sakura's prone body, his hand finding her kunai and bringing it to his throat-
"No!" Naruto threw the kunai away. "I can't die yet...not until they join my brethren."
Slowly, Naruto's mind began changing itself, twisting, warping, seizing hold of the idea of vengeance.
His soul was no longer there, but hate and anger reshaped his body into something new.
Such hatred, such wrath...old friends of his, but he had forced them away, confident he would shine through the darkness.
But no such luck. He was no light, but a shadow. He was born from darkness. And to darkness, he would take his enemies.
He then swore an oath to himself, one that he would soon repeat every day. "They will pay. I'll make them pay if it's the last thing I do."
After all, a shadow could only be eliminated if you extinguished the light.
A full three days later, Naruto stood in front of the fallen Memorial Stone. He had done all he could for his people now apart from seek vengeance. Each one of his brethren was buried, the funeral rites carried out as well as one man could do. Each shinobi's name was carved into the remnants of the Memorial Stone.
Naruto now was ready for his leave. His wounds healed, he himself clad in new clothes. An eyepatch hid his empty eye socket, and an ordinary brown shirt and green trousers were part of his new garb. The right sleeve of his shirt was torn off, but a red cloth was tied around his arm. His whiskers had been shaved off, and finally, a black scarf was thrown around his shoulders.
"...Rest in peace, citizens and shinobi of Konoha," Naruto whispered to himself. "We will have...vengeance."
Naruto placed his feet together, and saluted the fallen stone.
And with that, he turned away. He seized his pack- containing mostly provisions, considering that he was trying to use no sealing scrolls, due to the fact they would give away his presence as a ninja- and headed for the forests where he would track his prey.
No one would suspect some lone, cheaply-clad wanderer to be a shinobi on the path of vengeance.
The only thing suspicious was the missing eye, blonde hair and numerous scars.
Fortunately, Naruto had already devised a cover story.
He laughed emptily at the irony of it. His friends often wondered what it'd take to get him serious and smarter- it took their deaths.
By using some of the remaining equipment in the Hokage Tower, he had forged himself a set of papers. Uzumaki Naruto, shinobi and Hokage, was now nothing more than a nameless one-eyed mercenary.
His papers also stated his mother came from western lands rather than the Elemental Countries, explaining the blonde hair, which after all, was rather rare.
To top off the disguise, he'd left the kunai and shuriken behind, opting to use knives instead. He'd attached a few to his belt, and one in a leg holster, and a last in a shoulder holster.
"Smoulder for me, will of fire," muttered Naruto as his final prayer to his people..
He'd have to find the trail while it was still fresh. They could hide, they could run. But eventually, he'd find them.
And when he did, he would kill them.
Author's Notes:
Well, little else to say. No pairings people.
Let's talk about something else- oh yeah, my discontinued fics. Yeah, I'm going to delete them soon, if for some crazy reason you want them, PM me before that.
Oh, and some people may have seen parts of this chapter as being NarutoxSakura. Can't imagine why, and I doubt it really matters now, considering she's dead.
...hmm...what to say...anyone getting inFamous when it gets released? Looks pretty cool. So does Resistance 2. And I hear FarCry looks good...too much choice...