A/N: This is a really old request from my beloved beta-reader ALF which I'd lost and just recently found again. This is an odd fic compared to some of the rest of my work (really not saying much, all my work is screwy), but I hope you all enjoy it. I have a crush on Yondaime like whoa now, in any case. Purr.
This is my first Naruto fic and I've found that it's extremely difficult to write about any of the characters actually doing anything. It's bizarre-- I know it's an action manga, but I just wanted to make Yondaime and Sandaime sit around and talk about their feelings for the whole damn fic. I think I'm beginning to understand why all of The Engine Driver's (my absolute favourite Naruto author) fics involve introspection and lots of pretty rather than action scenes. o.0
Note: I made up his name and it may actually suck. You may flame me for this if you like. XD
xoxox
Flashdry
xoxox
No one knew where the woman had come from or why she was there, and Reitanmaru planned to keep it that way.
Nobody ever called him that anymore, of course. They called him 'Yondaime' or 'Hokage-sama,' and it unsettled him every single time. He had been a boy once, determined to make his name known far and wide. He had, of course, succeeded in becoming known across the lands, but... the price of that fame was his name. Hardly anyone even remembered it, and some had simply never learned it at all.
The woman had given up her name in exchange for protection. He was glad to oblige-- the child in her belly was worth its weight in falling stars. It was already cursed to die, he had felt it the first time he'd laid his hand on her belly and felt it feebly stir. And because it was already fated for death, he would feel no guilt when he used it for his Final Plan.
He stood and donned his long white cape, red at the edges as though dipped in fiery blood. Reitanmaru had no place in this war. Yondaime was needed. He strode out the door, ignoring the shrieks of agony from the down the hall. It was birthing time, and thus time for his plan to come to fruition.
The Third was, predictably, waiting for him on the bench outside. "Is it time, Fourth?" he asked in his trademark gravelled rasp.
Don't think, Raitenmaru reminded himself. " Yes," he said. "What is the situation outside?"
The old, wiry man stood and clasped his hands behind him. "The jounin are holding it off at the outskirts, but they won't hold for much longer. Perhaps another three hours at most. Will you be ready by then?"
Yondaime unconsciously shook his fringe of yellow hair out of his face and then nodded. "Perhaps another half hour is all I need. By then it will be finished and I will be able to carry out my plan."
Sarutobi's face deepened in a grave frown. "Are you sure you wish to do this, Fourth? There might be another way that won't..."
"No," Yondaime replied tiredly. "There is no other way that involves less loss of life. Thank you for your concern, Sarutobi-sensei, but this is something I've chosen to do, and I won't be backing out of it. I'll ask you to cover my back and not get in my way when the time comes."
"Raitenmaru..." Sarutobi said quietly, putting a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "You are the bravest of men."
Yondaime laughed bleakly. "Either that or the craziest."
Down the whitewashed hall, an echoing scream with edges like knives sounded... and reverberated, lasting for nearly thirty seconds before dying away into a ragged, shuddering gasp. Immediately afterwards came a thin high-pitched yowl. It sounded terribly weak.
Yondaime bolted down the hall to the birthing room and threw the door wide open. The woman was covered with a clean sheet, and she cradled a bloody lump of flesh in her ashen trembling arm.
"It is done," she whispered.
He knelt beside her and clasped her free hand. It was cold as rivers. "I hope someday you'll be able to forgive me for this," he murmured, then reached up and brushed long tendrils of sweat-lank dark hair from her sodden face. He pressed his palm to her cheek and felt her lean into him.
"I already have," she said, horribly faint. "This was my gift to you-- please use it well and save our home." She paused, gasping for breath. "Will you... make sure he is taken care of? His name... is... Naru...to..."
Life left her like a pale thread slowly unspooling, her last breath sighing endlessly into stillness.
Raitenmaru shut his eyes for a moment, struggling with a tightness in his chest, then leaned forward and pressed his lips to her cooling forehead. "I won't forget," he told her staring eyes. "You have most likely saved them all. I promise I won't forget."
The infant boy puled pitifully. A nurse rushed forwards with a rush-woven basket and scooped the child into it. "God be with you, Hokage-same," she said fearfully, then passed the basket off to him and bolted.
"It's time, Sarutobi-sensei," Yondaime said over his shoulder. "Let's go."
The two of them raced over the rooftops towards the southern edge of town, which appeared to be aflame. It was terribly dark, the smoke blotting out the stars and the fire blinding them to all else. The ground beneath them seethed with violent tremors.
"Take care of Konoha, Third," Yondaime shouted over the whistling wind of their motion. "I know it's strange, but you'll have to take back the Hokage-ship when it's over. There are no others qualified at this time and you still have many years of strength. Watch over my son, as well, if you will. The last as a request from a friend."
"Of course," Sarutobi answered. "You're about to give your life for this village. The very least I could do is take care of your brat."
They grinned together and reached the battlefield.
Fallen shinobi lay everywhere, burned and melted beyond recognition by the lashing tendrils of the demon fox's chakra or crushed into the earth by its feet. The ground was a churning mass of mud on the ninja side and frothing dust on the kyuubi's where the heat of its power had flash-dried the wet soil. The air was jarring, full of bellowed commands and screams for help and sheer primal howls of fury.
Yondaime felt perfectly equanimious about losing his life if it meant stopping this insanity. "Time to go," he said with grim joy, and set the basket down beside him.
"Godspeed," Sarutobi said, and pulled him into a rough embrace.
He returned it, grateful for the presence of his friend at his back. Then he stepped back. "Better get out of range."
Sarutobi nodded, infinitely sad, and bounded away across the devastated plain to guard him from afar.
Raitenmaru took a deep breath and gashed his thumb open on his teeth. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" he yelled, pressing his hand hard down into the earth. A flash of black scrolling inscriptions, and then the earth trembled as a toad too giant to assimilate with one glance roared up beneath him.
"Finally time, is it, eh?" the gigantic scarlet toad bellowed around the pipe jutting from his mouth. "Can't say I'm too torn up, though you were a good master. I'm sick and tired of this furball messing with my village and it's about high time someone did something about it."
"Yes, it's time," Yondaime agreed. "Take me to the fox and keep it off me while I perform the seal."
"Will do, boss," the frog said respectfully. "Hup!"
And suddenly they were flying over the heads of the awed and hopeful ninja. They landed with a shuddering boom face to face with the snarling demon fox. Its nine tails swayed menacingly through the air behind it, lashing with the threat of its rage. It snarled, so low as to be nearly inaudible except for a thrumming in the bones.
"Stick-legged furface! Get out of my town!" the toad bellowed.
The kyuubi growled.
The toad pulled his sword, and the fight began in earnest.
Paying no attention to the battle, Yondaime affixed himself to the toad with the help of his chakra and began to work. With extreme focus, he drew a complex series of symbols over the belly of the exhaustedly squalling baby boy. "Shh," he murmured. "It'll be done soon. I'm sorry for the life you're going to lead, but I hope someday you'll understand why I'm doing this. Konoha is more important than just one of its residents, even if that resident is just a child."
The child stopped crying and stared up at him with remarkable blue eyes through a shock of familiar yellow hair. It was almost as though the child understood, for suddenly he giggled and waved his chubby arms with great delight.
Raitenmaru laughed and tousled his hair. "'Atta boy," he whispered.
Then he stood, reopened the wound on his thumb, and traced more symbols up his arms. Chakra roared through him, more than he'd ever dared to touch in his life. The toad was helping, he could feel, and the reserves Sarutobi and the other jounin had been steadily pouring into him for days broke and flooded through him. He was aflame with it.
"Come and get it, furface," he said fiercely, then flickered his hands through a complex series of hand-seals that sealed his fate. The chakra billowed out of him and began to swirl ferociously, like a hellish whirlpool.
The kyuubi growled uneasily and tried to back away, but found it could not-- the chakra vortex was steadily pulling it in. It resisted with everything it had, claws digging great furrows in the earth and muscles bunching with stunning power, but in the end even the earth moved with it and it fell into Raitenmaru's waiting arms. By then it was no longer a physical creature the size of a large building but merely a force so hot Yondaime could feel the flesh searing from his bones.
Through the pain, he willed himself to complete the technique. "Fuuin... no... jutsu," he gritted, and with everything he had left compressed the blazing red power of the kyuubi down into a tiny compact ball. That ball he pressed through the wall of the infant's belly, who immediately shrieked in terror. With a quick twist of his hand, he completed the last tiny gap in the black circle of seal inscriptions and felt the fox's power wink out. It was asleep in the child's body, and God willing, it would always remain so.
Naruto's eyes rolled up in his head and he fell mercifully into unconsciousness. The entire world fell completely silent and Yondaime fell back onto his haunches.
It was then that he felt the wind running through him. There was nothing left to him, no flesh, hardly any bones. The peaceful breeze whistled through his empty ribcage. Channeling the kyuubi had literally torn his body apart.
Time to die, he thought, curiously relieved. Sorry, Naruto.
The darkness welled up from within and all around him and swallowed him, and all he could feel was gratitude for the silence in it.
xoxoxoxox
A/N: See? Weird. Anyway, Yondaime is love. And so is ALF. Thanks so much for everything, beloved! 3