His First Time
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!
A/N: Doragon Nasshimaru belongs to Felix the Eeveetrainer. Thanks for letting me borrow him! –hugs-
Summary: Was losing your innocence supposed to hurt this much? Was the other hurting as well? Naruto will never forget this, but it's not who—or what—you think it is.
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His breath came in short, desperate puffs. His eyes darted around frantically, searching for his opponent. Jiraiya's gravelly tones rang in his head. Size up your enemy. What's he got that you don't?
The brown haired boy was clever, well-equipped, familiar with the territory, and confident of his victory. He had many, many dragon jutsu at his disposal (and a kickass katana that Naruto was more than a little envious of), and he knew how to use them best. He rode on one now, a silvery blue water lizard, his russet eyes scanning each tree for Naruto. The blond took stock of the situation, trying to gage his foe's weaknesses. Nothing came to mind, however: Doragon Nasshimaru was the boy's moniker, the solar dragon boy. He was a collector of dragon jutsu, and on one of his recent escapades had killed a Leaf Ninja. In accordance with protocol, he had to be hunted. In accordance with protocol, he had to be killed.
Not so in accordance with protocol, Naruto had been selected for this mission. Jiraiya had recommended him, in fact. His orders had been clear. Find the brunet. Kill him. Take back the fuuton dragon jutsu scroll stolen from the Hokage's office, and return all the other scrolls to their original owners.
Naruto had been confident of his ability to succeed. Until Jiraiya had taken him aside for a little talk.
"Do you know why I suggested you for this mission?"
"Because I'm gonna be Hokage! I'm the best man for the job!"
Jiraiya rolled his eyes. "Kakashi can kick your ass any day. Hell, Iruka can kick your ass any day."
"Hey!" the blond pouted.
"Naruto," the white haired hermit's voice had a sense of urgency to it now, "Listen carefully. You want to get Sasuke back, right?"
"Yeah!"
"Well, you can't do that. Not unless you've killed someone. You know why? Because Sasuke will have already killed someone under Orochimaru's tutelage. He will be able to fight you knowing the pain of taking a life. He will win. Not because he's stronger—but because he will attack you with the intent to kill. If you want to subdue him, you have to go at him intending to kill."
"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said, "I know!"
Jiraiya sighed. "No, you don't know. Remember everything I've taught you, kid. Don't come back without killing him. And don't ever look into his eyes."
"Why not? What, am I gonna fall in love if I look into his eyes?" he snickered at the thought. His teacher smacked him upside the head, but there was a lingering sadness in his eyes. "Don't let it change you, Naruto. Promise me you'll still be a complete moron when you come back."
"Heyyy! I'm not a moron!"
Naruto shook his head. What the hell had the ero-sennin been talking about? He didn't know. What a stupid thing to say to him before sending him on a mission. Why couldn't he have given him advice, like 'he's got a trick knee,' or 'he's got a chin of glass,'? That would've been a lot more useful.
"There you are you little jerk, you better watch out, you're about to get your ass kicked!" the gleeful scream jerked the blond out of his reverie. Nasshimaru leapt gracefully off his dragon, the latter disappearing in a spray of mist. Turning in midair, he aimed a powerful kick at the Leaf ninja. Naruto met it head on, rasengan swirling in his hand. The brunet avoided it at the last second, drawing his katana and cleaving downwards. Naruto spun to dodge the blow, his fuuton fizzling out. Pushing upwards into the sky, he hurled a volley of kunai at the boy, who deflected them with his katana.
"What a loser," Nasshimaru crowed, "I'm gonna clean my shoes with your skin!"
"Keep dreaming, teme!" Naruto shot back, dropping to the forest floor and henge'ing into a log. Nasshimaru rolled his eyes. "Oh, very good, you're invisible now."
He dove down on the water dragon, and yelled, "Earth Release: Mother Dragon Womb!"
The ground Naruto—or what he'd thought was Naruto—lay on was sucked in suddenly as a mammoth brown dragon rose from the depths of the earth. Nasshimaru cocked his head to the side, as though listening for a heartbeat inside the beast. "Hey, no fair, you henge'd into something else!"
"Smart of you to notice," Naruto snarled in his ear, a kunai pressed to his opponent's jugular, "Ready to surrender?"
"Surrender?" Nasshimaru laughed, "What makes you think you got me?"
A bad feeling blanketed the kyuubi carrier, and he whirled around to be caught by the obsidian katana; the dark haired boy had used kage bunshin! He jerked back, and the sword was thrust at him again. He clashed against it, kunai in his hand and teeth bared in a savage grin. The water dragon roiled in the air, throwing them both off. The brunet shot away into the trees, but Naruto cut him off, drowning him in a barrage of sharp needles like the ones he'd seen Haku with years ago. When the dust settled, Nasshimaru was trapped in a tight cage of them.
"Give up now!"
"Give up trying to make me give up!" the dragon boy yelled back, breaking free with another earth dragon that carried him free of the obstacle.
Naruto growled deeply in his throat. This cocky bastard was pissing him off. His confidence irked him, his obstinacy shook him. It was like looking at a merge of himself and Sasuke—the sure-footedness, the hotheadedness. And that line—give up trying to make me give up—that was something stolen right from Naruto's mouth.
Attack to kill, Kyuubi's voice hissed to him, you'll never succeed otherwise!
Even without realizing it, Naruto took the fox's advice. He barged towards Nasshimaru, kicking out viciously. The boy blocked it with a wrist and sent a flurry of punches his way. Naruto ducked each one, and spun into a low kick that sent his opponent sprawling on the ground. He snatched the opportunity to push a knee into his back and pull his arms into a strangle hold, a knife held to the brunet's throat.
"You can just kiss life goodbye now," the blond said cockily, and hesitated for just a second before plunging the kunai into his flesh. A loud poof was heard, and the clone disappeared on the wind just as a loud roar caught Naruto from behind: "Fire Release: Flame Flower Dragon!"
Stupidly, the kyuubi jinchuuriki retaliated with his favorite fuuton. "Rasengan—!" he willed the word back as soon as he'd said it, but the swirling little ball of chakra powered air and the gigantic fiery lizard collided, blossoming into a fireball of mammoth proportions. Nasshimaru had the good sense of envelope himself in his watery ride, the dragon evaporating under the inferno's heat, but leaving him unscathed except for a few minor burns. He peered curiously towards his opponent, and chuckled as he saw the body on the charred forest floor, small fires licking at his skin. But the chuckles petered away and gave rise to disbelief as red chakra began venting from the blond's pores like steam, beating out the fires and healing the boy's burns faster than any medic ninja ever could.
"Bloody bleeding bugger," Nasshimaru breathed, "What the hell are you?"
Naruto was in pain. Sure, it was numbed by Kyuubi's chakra, but it was still pain. The boy had never been too good with pain. Pain hurt. It hurt like a bitch in, well, pain. And he was un-amused at the fact that it was his signature jutsu that did this to him. Suppose when he fought Sasuke, the same thing happened? What then? Only use rasengan against his chidori, Jiraiya had warned him.
The blond wasn't too concerned about his enemy. The brunet was surely dead by now; he'd been right on the fire dragon's tail and didn't have the benefit of evil demonic chakra.
Oh sure, Kyuubi grumbled, I heal your ass, and I'm evil demonic chakra, huh? That's gratitude for you.
"Wood Release: Encasing Dragon Cage!"
Fuck. It. All.
Four walls of teak rose around the demon vessel, winged lizards writhing on them. Naruto groaned and sat up, glaring up at Nasshimaru.
"What the hell was that?"
The blond frowned. "That was your own jutsu, retard!"
The dragon rider shook his head. "I mean the chakra change in you! What was that?"
"That was the demon sealed inside of me—uh," Naruto kicked himself mentally, "I mean, that was my awesomeness!"
"A jinchuuriki?" Nasshimaru's eyes widened, "A corporeal jinchuuriki? No way! Man, if I turn you over to Akatsuki, I'm gonna be able to buy the last Uchiha dragon scroll from that stupid old tanuki woman!"
The U-word set Naruto's blood boiling and the A-word had his fury zipping into over drive. "You bastard!" he spat, letting Kyuubi's power rush through his body and supercharge a shuriken with chakra. Nasshimaru couldn't have stopped the weapon even if he had time to; it knocked him off the water dragon and pinned him to the nearest tree by a single limb. Blood flowed steadily from the wound and Nasshimaru stared at it in uncomprehending awe.
"Holy shit," he swore, "You just disabled my arm!" The dark eyes turned darker with anger. "I'm gonna get you for that, asswipe! You thought taking out my arm would stop me from fighting you're as mistaken as I was in my fifth grade math final!"
Naruto was past listening. He let the demon fox's chakra power up another rasengan, and flew at the brunet, killing intent venting from his pores. The dragon boy watched him with calculating eyes and flipped his body upwards right before the blond rammed into the tree. The force of the attack shook him free, and Nasshimaru landed on the ground with a soft thump, grunting at the strain on his shoulder. The star weapon was embedded deep into his flesh, and he pulled it out, whimpering a little. Machoism was way overrated. This shit hurt.
"You're gonna die," Naruto snarled, jumping down to face his opponent. Nasshimaru growled, "No dumbass, you are. Lightning Release: Fervor of the Gods!" and leapt out of the way as a golden dragon, crackling with blue electricity swooped the blond up in its million volts mouth. Naruto shrieked as agony wrenched through his being like acupuncture gone horribly wrong, and even Kyuubi couldn't heal fast enough without more control.
Let me take charge!
Oh, fuck no!
Let me take charge kit, you're dying here!
You're just gonna flatten the whole mother fucking peninsula when I wake up, aren't you?
Screw this. I'm taking charge.
Raw power issued forth rapidly, and the dragon imploded onto itself. Nasshimaru cursed eloquently in four different languages and bit his thumb, slapping it onto a scroll to summon an earth dragon. An ashy brown beast rose from the bowels of the planet, and the brunet leapt onto it.
He was so angry he thought he'd explode from it. Time to use the biggest weapon in his arsenal. That blond idiot wouldn't know what hit him.
Naruto took one look at his face, and he knew. The boy was going to use a fuuton. He didn't know how, he just knew, and he knew that an earth dragon couldn't protect him from a wind attack, and he still had Kyuubi to heal him. He'd blow up this dragon as well, just like the one with the fire, except this one really would kill his enemy.
"Wind Release: Wing Bladed Dragon!"
"Rase-Shuriken!"
The world seemed to hold it's breath as the two teens clashed. Gusts of air would have blasted them both back several miles, but trees blocked their way. A roar like the one that accompanies a giant's death was heard, and everything went black for Naruto.
The first thing he did when he came to was send out a chakra pulse for other energy sources. And for the love of God, there was. Why wouldn't the bloody bugger just DIE?
He staggered over to where Nasshimaru lay, breathing shallowly, russet eyes watching him with a mixture of fear and apathy.
"I lost," he said in disbelief.
"I have to kill you," Naruto said wearily.
"Yeah," the brunet sighed, "I know."
Naruto raised a hand, kunai poised, and Nasshimaru shut his eyes tight. The blond's hand wavered, his will weakening, and a rush of thoughts overwhelmed his mind.
He's your age.
He could have been you.
He could've been Sasuke.
He fought for himself. He lost. If you'd lost…you'd be him.
The pain he will face—the fear he will face…taking away his life…
He's your age.
He's your age.
He could've been you.
The kunai fell out of his hands, and he started filling his hand with killer chakra. "Ra—ra—rasengan…" he willed the words to have venom in them, to feel hatred, but it was impossible. He didn't know the boy. As far as he did, he was just as innocent as he was. He'd done nothing wrong except to make a living.
"It's your first time," Nasshimaru realized. He groaned. "This is gonna take forever."
"Have you killed before, then!?" Naruto's voice was harsher than he'd intended, and the brunet's eyes were hard as he looked at him.
"Yeah. I have."
He had to do it. Jiraiya's voice rang loudly in his head. Don't let it change you, kid.
He had to kill him.
He thought of Sasuke, and wondered if he had killed yet. Probably. No, almost certainly. He wanted to kill his brother, and he hadn't even hesitated to try kill Naruto for that. Maybe he'd already killed, even before he'd left. Naruto shuddered at the thought. Sasuke. Pure, cocky, arrogant, annoying, friend, want. Those were the words that came to mind when he thought of the stony Uchiha.
A sob wrenched itself from his throat, and he fired up a rasengan in the palm of his hand. "I'm sorry," he said, and kept saying it, long after Nasshimaru's body had been reduced to shreds.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
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That was the product of two weeks of editing, re-writing, scrutinizing under various levels of sleeplessness and depression, and many, many cups of coffee. I hope it didn't suck, gee, I really do. The ending evaded me for a whole four days. And I'm still not thrilled with it.
Props again to Felix-the-Eeveetrainer's awesome OC whose awesomeness I think I just flushed down the drain. Go read one of his stories for a better Nasshimaru.