Warning: Bloody, Violent, Major Character Deaths.
Pairings: You can read it as SasuxNaru if you want.
Disclaimer: I'm a teenager living in a ramshackle house in the middle of the US. I highly doubt I own Naruto.
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He'd managed it somehow. Naruto had brought Sasuke back to Konoha. The whole affair was a blur, he could barely remember how it had happened. Things should have been wonderful; happy even, but they weren't. Instead Naruto found himself standing here at the platform that looked at the Hokage monument with Sakura beside him, and she was crying. It wasn't that happy sobbing that it should have been. No, Sakura was crying that heart wrenching, soul shuddering, body wracking silent sobs as tears flowed unashamedly down her cheeks.
Kakashi was standing beside her with his hand resting on her shoulder, his knuckles were white. Naruto even fancied his eyes were bloodshot, he knew his own were. When he had first heard the news he had been aching inside, his head was a screaming mess and his had yelled, and argued, and pleaded. Then the numbness had set in, and that was all he felt now; cold and numb. He was staring through the small wall of people before him that separated him from his team mate; staring passed them, and straight into obsidian eyes.
Sasuke was watching him from his kneeling position his face as unreadable as ever, but Naruto knew different. The Uchiha's eyes showed a sliver of regret that there was no more chances. Naruto didn't know what made him do it, but he did it all the same. He mouthed the words to the Uchiha; a promise, and Uzumaki Naruto never went back on his promises.
'We go… together.'
For a moment Sasuke's eyes widened minutely as he read the words on the blonde's mouth, and then with a small smirk he nodded just as subtly to Naruto. Behind him there was a snap of fingers, and the next there was nothing.
Naruto watched in horrified fascination as a katana came downward in a swift arc (though to him the world moved in slow motion) and connected with the back of Sasuke's head. The sound was sickening in his ears, and made his stomach want to revolt his mind refused. Through bone, and flesh, and muscle the keen blade cut until the Uchiha survivor's head was complete detached. The head dropping to the ground to roll a few feet forward; the blank stoic face staring, and gaunt as blood seeped from the stump of a neck. Behind the head his body tumbled down to smack soundly against the ground. Blood was spilling and pooling , and it was all so red and vivid and…. And alluring.
Naruto's breath hitched in as the world slowly lost its sound. First the voice of the man proclaiming the sentence of execution as carried out and successful for the people who had not been able to see it happen, and then the sounds of the crowd went. Silence drew in slowly until even the sound of Sakura's renewed crying was gone.
It reminded him very much of something breaking; shattering into a million small pieces with a sound that carried the decibels of a gunshot. Sound came pouring back in to fill his ears; rushing and tumbling like the river and falls of the Valley of the End. He didn't realize the snapping sound had been that of his own mind. Naruto didn't realize much at all anymore. All he knew was the blood. In the depths of the blonde's mind laughter was building up and spilling forth with the waves of chakra. The paper seal on a pair of barred doors went up in flames and Kyuubi surged forth, spilling outward into every corner of his hosts mind, and there he found something that made him all the more gleeful. For once he, and his host were of the same mind.
'Kill…Kill them all! Every last one!'
Two minds sounded in perfect sync, screaming and roaring until the mental battle cry rose, and spilled from the blonde's throat. Naruto's voice was an odd cacophony of a growling roaring voice and his own, brittle with rage. Sakura gasped in surprise as he screamed beside her. Kakashi's head slowly turned as he stared, single visible eye widening in surprise. The crowd was turning as well to see the source of years of hate and misplaced fear come to fruition.
His head tilted back as the markings on his cheeks deepened beyond what they'd ever been. His eyes glowing a terrifying vermilion to surpass the spilled blood that was seeping close to the front row's shoes. Widened eyes slowly narrowed, his canine teeth elongating as finger nails grew and sharpened into claws. Brilliant fiery chakra boiled up around in overshadowing his human features, and morphing his already changing appearance further.
'That's right.' The Kyuubi purred. 'Set me.. free…'
The last word was hissed out gleefully as his host's broken mind gave no sign of caring. Behind Naruto's figure nine tails slowly unfurled, opening and twisting and twirling savagely. A horrified rasp ran through the crowd. Kakashi dug his finger's into Sakura's shoulder and began to drag the girl away.
Sakura shook off the man's touch, and darted forward, "Naruto!" she screamed. "Don't do this! You can't do this!"
Tears spilled from her eyes in renewed amounts. The now viciously muzzled head turned and leered at her, "That… brat isn't here anymore." A rumbling voice told her.
As the words settled across the crowd it was as if a cue had been giving. Screams of terror exploded, and civilians began to press they're way toward wherever they thought safety lay. Shinobi leapt into action throwing kunai, senbon, and shuriken in clouds set to darken the sky. The beast simply flicked a tail, sending a wave of pure chakra to deflect the weapons.
A group of Anbu appeared in a circle around him while Sakura was dragged away, kicking and screaming, by a horrified Kakashi. The beast slowly sank down to crouch on all fours, the shreds of Naruto seeming to be gone but for the knowledge that his body lay beneath the boiling chakra. The Anbu lunged forward with weapons gleaming, and for a moment they seemed to have struck true. The illusion was shattered as the masked shinobi exploded. Blood and flesh spattered across the ground and those standing to near. The screaming became louder peppered with yelps of pain as some poor souls were trampled in the stampede to flee the legendary monster.
For a moment the Kyuubi simply sat there; reveling it seemed, then without warning he lunged forward faster than one could blink. Claws surging forward to maul anything in his way, sending waves of pure chakra scalding across the ground and people. The ground tore with an odd whine of cement and steel. A buildings foundation cracked and it began to lean precariously. Shinobi charged in with weapons in their hands and Jutsu on their lips. Ninja and civilian alike fell before the nine-tailed demon like wheat for the reapers scythe. The streets were running with blood as he continued his massacre, moving with the crowd of fleeing villagers to slaughter as many as he could.
Nearing the center of the village his pursuit was halted by a wall of Anbu to his left and right. Before him stood the 'Rookie Nine's' Sensei's along with the Hokage and Jiraiya, and at his back what remained of the Rookie Nine themselves.
Sneering and shaking blood from his claws the Kyuubi taunted them with his every motion. They all knew what must be done, though none wished to carry out the order, or even if they could. Tsunade lifted her arm and pointed toward the waiting beast, "You have you're orders." She stated, the slightest of quavers detectable in her voice.
Chakra powering them, they leapt forward to confront the greatest monster of Konoha's history.
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When the battle drew to a close, none were left uninjured. The center of Konoha itself was a ruin. Buildings gone and gashes tore into the ground. A crater here and there, among the blood and carnage a body lay prone. His blue eyes still open as his friends stood not far off. The light slowly faded from those eyes. A red whirl of chakra misted into the air howling, and screaming it's rage in the shape of a massive fox before it dissipated like so much bad tempered smoke.
Naruto followed shortly after his eyes slowly closing while those who had cared wept or mourned in their own way.
"I've been waiting, dobe."
"Not long I hope."
"You really came…"
"I said I would."
"And you always keep you're promises."
"Of course, teme."
"Was I selfish?"
"It was my suggestion."
"You didn't have to…"
"I wanted to."
"You could have gone on without me."
"Never…"
"I'm glad."
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A/N: Ahh the Angst, the tragedy, the possible Shounen-Ai fluff... Another one of those random oneshots that popped into my little head after watching an AMV called Their Heaven about Sasuke and Naruto. The song was Lacuna Coil's Heaven's a Lie, and with repeatedly listening to it and typing away, this is the result. The endings a little rushed, but I didn't feel like describing the whole Kyuubi battle when it got right down to it.
Review if you feel so inclined.