In 16 year old Naruto Uzumaki's opinion, the most evil and dangerous shinobi in the Elemental Nations was Madara Uchiha. The man behind the mask was public enemy number one to almost every single resident, shinobi or civilian, of the lands whether they knew about it or not. Indeed, Madara was manipulating Nagato and subsequently the entire Akatsuki organization. In addition, the masked man had orchestrated the Kyuubi incident one and a half decades ago, an event that Naruto had several great personal connections to. Lastly, though unbeknownst to the teenage Uzumaki, Madara was waging war against everyone in order to obtain the Hachibi and the Kyuubi.
Even though he did not know about Madara's declaration of war, Naruto still regarded the masked man as the primary target he must take down. In addition to taking down Madara, Naruto had another goal - take back Sasuke. This brings us to our blond hero's current situation. In order to get ready for a possible confrontation with Sasuke, Naruto was on a lively island training to control his inner demon. With the full power of the Kyuubi no Yoko in his arsenal, he would become strong enough to complete all of his goals.
The first stage of training apparently entailed meditating near The Waterfall of Truth and confronting his "dark side". Since the Kyuubi was a mass of chakra that fed off of negative emotions, the first step to conquer its power was to vanquish all of the evil in the Jinchuuriki's heart. This logic was satisfactory to Naruto as he sat down on a rock and assumed a basic pose of meditation.
At first, Naruto could not make out anything in the waterfall ahead. After a brief period of concentration, however, he could make out a lone figure in the dropping water.
The mysterious persona could only be described as a mass of pure malevolence. As it approached, an ominous shiver went down Naruto's back. This foreboding feeling turned into one of shock when the figure was fully visible, as it had finished walking through the waterfall. The man in front of the still meditating Jinchuuriki walked with a confident gait. He was wearing orange and black clothing which were all to familiar to Naruto. He had wild, spiky blond hair partially covered by a familiar metallic headband. His cheeks had six distinctive whisker marks, three on each side. All in all, an almost perfect replica of Naruto Uzumaki had stepped forward from the waterfall.
If it weren't for two main differences, Naruto would have wondered when he had created a Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone) and why the clone had walked out from behind the waterfall. However, the Uzumaki had no such questions as he got up on his feet to confront the replica in front of him.
The only visual differences between Naruto and the person that had emerged from the waterfall was the fact that the mysterious man was completely drenched in water, and the dark pigmentations that covered his eyes. And as if it was because of the eyes, the man emitted an aura of pure unadulterated hatred.
"Why didn't you sign the autographs at Ichiraku?" questioned the mysterious man, "They all… suddenly changed their tune and started sucking up to you. What a bunch of pests. They've always treated us like outcasts."
This prompted Naruto to ask the obvious question: "Who are you?"
The man smirked at the question. "Can't you tell by looking? I am you," the malevolent being replied. "I'm the real you. The truth inside you. I'm your darkness." With this answer, the identity of the mysterious man was clear. He was the darkness that resided in Naruto's heart. Deep down inside of the orange ball of hope and optimism was a mass of evil. A cancerous mass, which needed to be removed if Naruto was to control the power of the Kyuubi.
"This is called the Waterfall of Truth or something, right?" he continued while staring up. "To think it could bring me up to the surface like this. Pretty good place!"
The "real" Naruto who had not come out from behind the waterfall could only stare back at "Dark Naruto". With a resolute sigh, he had made his decision. "So, I will have to defeat you if I need to conquer the Kyuubi," he said, stating the obvious.
With that, the battle had begun. Naruto executed his goto tactic for fighting battles, rushing straight at the enemy. Dark Naruto chose to do the same. They met at midpoint of their previous positions, both parties had moved at the exact same speed it seemed, and a short brawl ensued. The "Bright" Naruto started with a right jab at his opponent. Dark Naruto easily dodged this punch and replied with a left hook. Similarly, that move was dodged by the equally swift Bright Naruto. The close-combat quarrel continued in that fashion, neither side landing a solid hit on the other. However, Naruto eventually managed to land a solid hit on Dark Naruto's face, forcing him to back out of the skirmish.
'Yes! I got him.' Naruto rejoiced at his victory in the short Taijutsu bout. Though it was slight, Dark Naruto appeared to be slower than Naruto. In order to press this advantage, Naruto was about to leap forward and engage the injured Dark Naruto in another hand-to-hand fight. However, he thought of a better way to press his advantage. By forming his signature cross hand seal, Naruto performed the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu) and created twelve clones to assist him.
In reply to this move, Dark Naruto created twelve clones as well. Though he had 'lost' the last brawl, he wasn't going to give up. The 26 total Narutos went at it. Because of the number of clones, the Bright Naruto's speed advantage was made quite apparent. After the smoke cleared, Naruto advanced with two of his clones onto the lone Dark Naruto who had no copies of himself remaining.
The clones were quickly dispelled, but not after Bright Naruto's side got a few hits on Dark Naruto. The two combatants leaped away from the center of their fight, creating distance between the two once again.
'Okay, I'm clearly faster than this guy. If I just keep on making clones and fighting, I should be able to defeat him,' thought Naruto. And so he did. For several minutes the Bright and Dark Narutos summoned clones and collapse on each other. Though Naruto ended up getting much more clean hits on Dark Naruto than the other way around, it was barely visible. It seemed Dark Naruto shared the "real" Naruto's endurance as well. As a result, the battle continued. Kunai, Shuriken, and blows were thrown all about, and eventually slight fatigue was visible on Dark Naruto's face.
It was clear that Bright Naruto would emerge victorious in this battle if it continued and escalated further. In order to avoid defeat, the shrewd Dark Naruto brought up his hands and engaged Naruto in conversation instead of combat for the time being. "Stop! Why are you trying to fight me? Your enemy should be the people behind you, not yourself," Dark Naruto mentioned as he pointed to the two people behind Naruto. Yamato and Motoi were standing there, unable to see what was going on between the Narutos.
"Why would I ever fight Yamato-sensei and Motoi? They've been doing nothing but helping me ever since I met them."
"You fool! Don't you realize that they are just like the others? Deep down inside Yamato condemns you as the Kyuubi that attacked the village 16 years ago-"
"No he doesn't! Yamato-sensei helped me learn my wind element. Remember the time he asked me to rely on my own power instead of the Kyuubi's? He knows that I am not the fox," Naruto interrupted.
"You don't understand. Everyone in the village hates us for what we did. Even though some of them may thank you for defeating Pein, they are just saying that! Why do you keep associating yourself with the village? After everything they've done to you. After the beatings, the looks, the ignoring, the sabotage, and after that. How can you forgive them?" Dark Naruto spluttered almost nonsensically.
"It wasn't their fault, they didn't know I wasn't the Kyuubi. I forgave them a long time ago. Look on the bright side of things. All of my friends; Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei, Shikamaru, Kiba..." Naruto replied, seeing the emotional wreck that Dark Naruto was turning into. Now the nature of Dark Naruto was clear: a small part of Naruto's being never forgave the villagers' actions in the pass. This fostered into deep seated hatred for them. Dark Naruto was simply misguided. Naruto would show him the way.
Dark Naruto replied with a cluster of words that were impossible to make out. With that, he charged directly at Naruto, his emotions slowing down his speed tremendously. Instead of charging back, Bright Naruto stood his ground and pulled Dark Naruto into a big embrace. "Shhh. It's okay. I know how you're feeling," comforted Naruto. Dark Naruto just fell limp in Naruto's arms. "You have to just let go of those feelings. You can't fight against me, you are me."
After those statements, and a long pause, Dark Naruto raised his arms to reciprocate the embrace.
However, hugging and dispersing was not what Dark Naruto had in mind. Instead, he carefully placed his right arm behind a specific part of Naruto's back and gripped a hidden kunai that slid from his sleeve. With a simple thrust, Dark Naruto plunged the kunai into the unsuspecting Naruto's heart, completely piercing the organ with the extremely sharp knife.
Naruto's brain only registered pain as a sickening quantity of blood sprayed out of his heart. Dark Naruto took a step back as Bright Naruto fell, obviously leaving the world of living. "You fool."
As Naruto lay lifeless in a pool of his own blood, Dark Naruto revelled in the success of his plan. He had realized as soon as he materialized that this would be his last chance to take over. Unlike the dead blond, he was no fool and knew that he wouldn't be able to defeat Naruto in a straight-up fight. They had the exact same chakra, strength, speed, endurance, techniques, etc. Dark Naruto never even entertained the idea of beating up Naruto to take over.
Instead, he had plotted a plan to, quite literally, backstab Naruto. By taking a couple blows and making it seem that he was slower than Naruto, he was able to lull him into a false sense of superiority and was able to get near him. Then, he turned into an emotional wreck. This prompted Naruto, who was assured that he could defeat Dark Naruto in a battle, to try to defeat the darkness within Dark Naruto. "Sorry, but I'm not as pathetic as Nagato was," spat Dark Naruto. The rest was simple. Naruto never saw it coming.
After staring at the corpse of the once lively Naruto for a while longer, Dark Naruto looked up to the sky. "You were wrong! I was not a part of you. YOU WERE ALWAYS A PART OF ME!" The unchained monster spent a solid minute laughing maniacally at the body of "Bright Naruto", as the dark pigmentation around his eyes merged with his face and the malevolent aura vanished. Now that the imposter was gone, the REAL Naruto Uzumaki was finally back in business.
Naruto glanced over at the two men that were patiently waiting for the physical body of Naruto to get up. They will think that the "Bright Naruto" was still illegitimately controlling the body. They would be wrong. The physical body of Naruto stirred and got up, with seemingly no change to his body whatsoever. However, the true owner of the body just got it back after it was stolen from him several years ago.
Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze wasn't going to continue the course that his impostor set up. No, he was going to have revenge.
This 'new' personality of Naruto had two defining characteristics. Number one, his mind was clear of all hindering factors. Anything that inhibited his mental capacity was eliminated. He thought pragmatically and strategically. And number two, he was going to get everyone. He found a reason to hate everyone he knew. No matter what good they had done, he only looked at the negatives. Anything bad they did was magnified immensely and overcame any positive actions. "And for that, I must kill them."
A/N: So this is the first chapter to a medium-length story. This was mainly a set-up chapter, and the time travel will happen in the next chapter. This also means that the coming chapters will be a lot longer. Please review!
Specials List:
Kyuubi: Also known as Kurama, The Nine Tailed Fox, etc. Name for the mass of chakra that is currently sealed inside of Naruto and the dead Minato Namikaze. It is a Bijuu (Tailed Beast) that is distinctive by its Red-Orange Fur and its nine large tails.
Hachibi: Also known as Gyuuki, The Eight Tails, etc. Name for the mass of chakra that is currently sealed inside of Killer Bee. It is a Bijuu (Tailed Beast) That is distinctive by its Ox-like appearance with 4 horns on its head and its eight large tentacles.
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu): B-rank supplementary jutsu that creates replicas of the users that are made of chakra. The chakra is evenly split between each clone created and the user, making them indistinguishable based on chakra alone. Each clone usually dispels after a few hits. Memories that each clone develops will transfer to the user once it dispels.
Kunai: A black dagger with a handle wrapped in bandages and a small ring attached to the end of it. It is one of the most common ninja tools and can be used as both a projectile and a close-ranged weapon.
Shuriken: A sharpened, four-prong metal star with an open circle in the center. It is the one of the most common ninja tools and can be used as a long range projectile.