Okay, just to make everything clear, this story was written awhile ago and I ended up taking off this site however I've decided to repost it and many others that I've discontinued or are awaiting a rewrite.
ALL of my active stories are posted on the profile for Fenris187 and none of the fics here will be updated.
Also, I own no IP at all right now and make no money off this free access fanfiction.
It was raining heavily and at the main gate to the village of Konoha we find a young pink haired girl waiting for her teammates and sensei to return. Her name was Haruno Sakura and right now she was cursing her own weakness.
"Why do I have to be so weak? If I was stronger I could be out there bringing Sasuke-kun back instead of just standing here waiting for Naruto-baka and Kakashi-sensei to bring him back," those were currently the thoughts going through her head as she just stood there like a statue before she noticed movement in the distance, "is that them? Do they have Sasuke-kun?" she began to run towards the figures only to stop dead in her tracks when she noticed that only two members of team 7 were there. "Kakashi-sensei where's Sasuke-kun?" she asked desperation clear in her voice as her sensei walked towards her. He stood at 5' 9 and wore a traditional Konoha Jōnin garb consisting of navy blue shinobi pants and long sleeved shirt, blue shinobi sandals and a typical Jōnin flak vest. He also wore a pair of black gloves with metal plates on the back of the hands and slanted his hitae-ate over his left eye. Currently clinging to his back was a boy about the same age as Sakura, who was wearing a tattered and torn blue and orange jumpsuit with a hitae-ate tied around his forehead. He had spiky blonde hair and three whisker like marks on each cheek. His normally bright blue eyes currently held an air of sadness about them.
"Sasuke, got away," came the older ninja's dejected reply as he refused to look his student in the eye before walking towards the hospital to get his other student treated for his numerous injuries.
As the Jōnin was walking away with her teammate, Sakura was only thinking one thing, "Sasuke-kun" before she fell to her knees and started sobbing at being unable to see her Sasuke-kun again.
Normally Uzumaki Naruto was a permanently happy individual, he would constantly smile despite the circumstances but right now he couldn't bring himself to put up even a façade of happiness.
He had just been a member of the team sent to retrieve Uchiha Sasuke, the person he considered a brother in all but blood.
The mission had started off badly when the group got trapped in a dome of earth that started to drain their chakra, when they finally managed to escape the trap, they left their friend Chōji behind to deal with the member that created the dome before running straight into another trap which ended up with them all getting stuck in a giant spider web. If it wasn't for Neji they would have all perished there. Then they were forced to leave Kiba and Akamaru behind to fight some two headed freak, only for the enemy to get reinforcements. He managed to get past the red headed girl who stayed behind to hold them off because of Shikamaru managing to trick her, but then Naruto got in a fight with the guy who took the barrel containing the unconscious Sasuke. No matter how much he tried Naruto simply couldn't hit the guy, even when he started to use the Kyūbi's chakra. Eventually Sasuke emerged from the barrel, and Naruto thought it would end there, he was wrong. Sasuke ran away to wherever it was the enemy was taking him, and Naruto only managed to escape his opponent thanks to the timely intervention of Rock Lee.
In the end though, Naruto was forced to fight his brother. The two went at each other like bitter enemies and Naruto was forced to draw on more of the Kyūbi's chakra than ever before, but in the end, he still lost, because he held back on his last attack.
Now look at him, in the hospital after a failed mission, the only one that mattered to him. He remembered before he left, he promised Sakura-chan that he would bring Sasuke back, he realised now that he was making that promise more to himself than her. But right now, he had broken a promise, he was worse than trash.
That was when she came in, he couldn't bring himself to look at her, he wasn't worthy to do such a thing (at least in his mind). He listened to her footsteps, coming slowly across the room, the pace was unbearable. What was really only a couple of seconds seemed like an eternity to Naruto as thoughts of how she would hate him for breaking his promise plagued his mind. He noticed how she was occasionally sniffing, it proved to him that she had been crying, his weakness had made Sakura-chan cry. When he thought that, he immediately wanted to just die, just so he couldn't hear her cry. He listened and he heard her, "Naruto, are you awake?" her voice was full of sadness and it sounded like she would burst into tears at any moment. He however just answered with a nod, he just couldn't bring himself to speak to her, not after the pain he caused her. "I-I'm s-so sorry," she was almost bursting into tears as she said this but what she said next surprised him, "I-I m-made you promise to bring S-Sasuke-kun back, if I hadn't t-then," she kept losing her composure before she couldn't stop herself and broke down right next to him, as he still refused to look at her, still convinced that he wasn't worthy, "m-m-mayb-be y-y-you w-wouldn-n't be in h-here!" she managed to get out through her sobbing, it was after hearing this that the blonde decided to ask the only question on his mind.
"Y-you don't hate me?" his voice was filled with sadness, confusion and a hint of desperation, almost as if he expected to receive nothing but hate but was desperately hoping that he would receive some form of compassion.
"O-of course I d-don't hate you, y-you d-did some-something, I-I just s-stood there w-waiting for you to c-come b-back," the pink haired girl replied while trying her hardest to make Naruto happy.
"B-but Sakura-chan, I broke my promise, I'm worse than trash," the blonde boy tried to reason with his crush.
"W-what! What are you talking about, you did your best! That's all anyone can ask of you!" the shocked girl shouted at him, simply because she couldn't believe what she was hearing, he hated himself for breaking a promise.
"But it wasn't enough, I wasn't strong enough, I broke a promise, I broke my nindo, I'm worse than trash," Naruto told her in a dejected tone.
Thinking quickly the young pinkette came up with a way to bring his spirit back up, "no, you didn't break your promise, you never said when you'd bring Sasuke-kun back, just that you would, so that means we can go after him, together next time, okay?"
When he heard this his thoughts started to travel at a million miles an hour, they could bring Sasuke back, they just had to hope that the snake bastard hadn't taken over his body yet, if he hadn't then, they had about three years according to the conversation the retrieval team overheard about the body changing process, to get strong enough to save their friend.
"Yeah, we just have to get stronger," the blonde said with happiness clear in his voice at the prospect of bringing Sasuke back.
- (Meanwhile at the daimyo's palace)
The daimyo was currently in a meeting with a well known political figure of Konoha, the heavily bandaged one eyed man was currently trying (and succeeding) to convince the Daimyo of what was best for Konoha (even if it was a lie).
"I assure you daimyo-sama, it was observed and stated in all witness statements that Uzumaki Naruto was the one who defeated the Ichibi during the Suna invasion just over a month ago, while it was also stated that the last Uchiha was helpless against it, as such I believe it is safe to assume that Uzumaki allowed the last Uchiha to escape, since none of his injuries were serious," the old shinobi stated calmly.
"I see, so you believe that this Uzumaki Naruto is a traitor and should be dealt with as such," the fire daimyo interpreted.
"On the contrary, due to lack of physical evidence I believe we should be lenient on the boy and merely banish him," the heavily bandaged war veteran claimed.
"Oh, if the boy is a traitor then shouldn't he be executed?" the wiry daimyo asked with curiosity lacing his voice.
"Normally yes, but that is to keep village secrets a secret, this child is merely a genin and therefore doesn't know any village secrets and hasn't had any village specific medicines used on him and as such there is no danger to village security should he be dissected by one of Konoha's enemies and since there is no physical evidence pertaining to his treachery it would cause a severe blow to morale if a shinobi was executed purely on suspicion of treason," the Cyclops explained to the daimyo.
"I see your point, I will write up the banishment order for you to take with you upon your return to Konoha Danzō -kun."
"Thank you daimyo-sama I will take my leave when you have finished," and with that the daimyo pulled out a pen and paper before signing the banishment order of the young jinchūriki.
- (Back in Konoha)
"So all of the retrieval team will be fine," a busty blonde was currently informing Naruto as he lay in the hospital bed.
"So Chōji and Neji nearly died, dammit, we all gave our all and still failed," the young teen said with tears freely falling from his glazed over eyes.
"However no-one actually died and that's all that matters," the woman said with a happy smile.
Just as Naruto was about to respond, the door was flung open revealing a bear masked ANBU who promptly stated "I'm sorry for the interruption Hokage-sama but Danzō has called for a council meeting, I am unaware of what it is about however he has in his possession a letter with the fire daimyo's official seal."
"I see, then I guess we will have to wait to continue our conversation gaki, if the fire daimyo is getting involved then I have no option but to attend this meeting, I'll see you later okay," and with that the blonde woman left the hospital ready to listen to the daimyo's orders.
- (at the council chambers)
"Alright Danzō what the hell are you trying to pull?" the buxom blonde shouted as she entered the council chambers.
"Nothing Tsunade-sama I am merely delivering a message from the fire daimyo himself," the bandaged man stated allowing no emotion to show on his face as he handed the letter to the leader of the village.
Tsunade took the letter off of him before sitting down in her assigned seat on the council, where she opened the official letter and started to read it. As she read it, the entire council could see the shock and fear in her eyes.
"N-no, Danzō YOU BASTARD!" of course her shout combined with the fact that she completely shattered the table in front of her with a single punch caused the entire council (except Danzō) to cringe in fear.
"You should be happy Tsunade-sama, the daimyo wanted to have him executed, however I managed to convince him to merely banish the child," the perpetrator stated calmly allowing no emotion to show on his features, just as he always did.
This however did not calm Tsunade, however she knew that she couldn't win this argument unless she went to the daimyo himself, and even then he would be hard to convince otherwise. She just had to keep herself composed long enough to tell the person she thought of as a little brother the devastating news, she knew he wouldn't take it well.
Naruto was happy, right now he was talking to Shikamaru, Sakura, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Ino, Iruka, Kakashi and even Jiraiya was there to talk to him, and he was happy that no-one blamed him for Sasuke's escape.
That was when Tsunade entered the room, the pain visible in her eyes, of course this got everyone's attention, after all what could possibly hurt the Hokage enough to make the pain visible?
"I'm sorry Naruto, but one of those bastards on the council m-managed to persuade the fire daimyo t-to, order your banishment," she said as calmly as she could, though she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes.
"WHAT!" was the unanimous cry of everyone in the room, except Naruto himself, since he was currently too dumbstruck to say anything.
"Who the hell managed to convince the daimyo to banish Naruto?" Jiraiya asked unusually calm.
"Danzō," the blonde woman stated.
"I see, well if Naruto is going to be banished then I guess he should get some training off me huh?" the gama-sennin said with a grin.
"Unfortunately if you did that, the daimyo's message was clear, anyone from Konoha who helps Naruto will be immediately executed," the slug-sannin said barely holding back her tears. Of course that last part got everyone's attention. Naruto would be on his own unless he joined another village or found some missing nin to travel with.
"I'm sorry Naruto but you only have to the end of the day to gather your stuff and leave the village before you will be considered trespassing and, and…" Tsunade started unable to finish.
"I-I understand Baa-chan, you can't do anything, I'll go now," and with that the young blonde got out of his bed to get himself ready for his banishment.
- (ROOT ANBU HQ)
"To summarise your orders you are to locate and retrieve the Kyūbi jinchūriki by any means necessary except the death of the host, he should leave the village later tonight so follow him until he is too far to reveal my plan now GO!" Danzō shouted at his private army of emotionless nin, who all quickly dispersed to take their positions for the plan.
"Soon, soon I will possess the Kyūbi and then, the nations will fall before the might of Konoha," were the only thoughts running through the bandaged nin's head.
It didn't take long for Naruto to do everything he needed to, he only really had one possession, the photo of him with team 7, as they once were, happy and carefree.
Then for the people he had to tell, there were only the Ichiraku's at the ramen stand and the Konohamaru corps. Neither took it well.
But right now we find him standing in front of the main gate to Konoha, where, he said his goodbyes to his home. He came early just so he didn't have to see the people he cared about, doing so might of caused him to stay too long, and if he did that then… he would be executed.
So with tears falling down his face, he set out to leave his home, with a new goal, simply to survive.
