Don't own Naruto
"So that's it?"
Naruto Uzumaki stood before the Kyūbi no Yōko, the nine tailed demon fox. It had been some time since he had spoken to the beast, since he had finally gained control over the demon, he hadn't needed to interact with the beast to use it's chakra. This however was a special occasion.
"Do we just give up?"
He had been fighting Madara Uchiha for hours, it was an impossible battle. Every attack he knew, every technique he possessed, everything he had learned in his life had no effect on the Uchiha. Senjutsu, the rasengan, even the power of the nine-tailed fox had been useless.
"Fox!"
He wished it hadn't come to this, unfourtanatley he hadn't had any choice in the matter. Sasuke had returned to konoha, ready to destroy his old village and friends. The only way to stop him was with the power Itachi had lent Naruto.
It was the final words of Sasuke's parents, a last message to him recorded in a genjutsu. They begged their son to forgive the village, and to not let revenge posion his life.
Sasuke had dropped to his knees and turned himself into Anbu custody. It was only with Naruto's persuasion that he wasn't executed. He had recieved a life sentence, and was thrown into a dark Anbu prison.
"Dammit there must be something we can do!"
"There's no we anymore kit."
Naruto knew that the only thing left to do to stop the war was to kill Madara. So he took off in the night, the only one who knew that he was leaving, was Sakura. It was a familiar scenario, she attempted to stop him on the way out of the village.
"Naruto, where are you going."
At first he ignored her, clenching his fists so tight that his nails broke the skin of his palm, drawing blood.
"Are you...angry with me?"
Then she began to cry. He wanted so bad to speak, but his voice was lost. He turned toward her, wanting nothing more than to stay behind, but he knew the only way to protect her and the village was to end the war, to kill Madara Uchiha.
"You brought Sasuke back, why...why are you leaving...aren't you happy now...happy that we're all back together...why would you leave us...Naruto, are you listening to me?"
He turned away from her and started to walk away. Her sobs grew louder.
"Naruto don't leave me! Please...I know I said I love you...but if you leave me now...I don't know if I can forgive you."
Yet another thing that Sasuke got instead of him, she had promised she'd never stop loving him the night he left. Well, atleast she was honest with him.
As Naruto walked away her sobs grew louder, but she cared not who she woke, he wasn't betraying the village, he was saving it.
"Naruto, 'we' stopped existing when you imprisoned me in this damn seal, you're on your own with this one...figure it out yourself."
Naruto was expelled from his own mind, thrown back into the fight with Madara.
The Uchiha slammed his fist down towards Naruto's face, and he barely had time to dodge. As the fist shattered the ground under Naruto, he realized that Madara had him down on the ground, his hands around Naruto's throat.
Naruto punched at Madara's face, but the Uchiha used his teleportation technique to dodge the Naruto's fist.
'Damn.' If Naruto wanted to defeat Madara, he needed to find a way to get around that technique. Another punch was thrown at Naruto, but this one mad contact, breaking his nose. The fight was hopeless, there was just no way of beating that technique.
Naruto stared into the eyes of his attacker, the rinnegan and sharingan. Behind the mask was no emotion, no anger. This man felt no fear, no pain. Naruto couldn't win this fight, he was quickly approaching his death, he could feel it.
As the Uchiha lifted his fist to deal the finishing blow, a single cherry blossom landed on Naruto's chest. He stared at it, his spirit was revitalized, hope was renewed.
'Sakura!'
Naruto ripped himself free of the Uchiha's grip. He sprinted away, but stopped several feet from Madara. The Uchiha stared at Naruto.
"Why don't you just give up? You've already ruined everything...destroyed all my Zetsus, stopped the reincarnation of the ten-tails...It'll take me years to sort out a new plan, and years more to bring it about...Just let me kill you...then we can both leave happy."
Naruto closed his eyes for a moment.
"Never!" He opened his eyes, a renewed passion visible. He made his signature hand seal, and dozens of shadow clones poofed into existence.
Madara laughed through his mask, and the clones charged.
One by one they were all reduced to smoke, until only the real Naruto remained. He pulled a kunai from his holster and clenched it in his fist.
"I swear...I'll kill you!" Naruto charged at Madara.
"No more games." Instead of dodgeing the attack, Madara grabbed Naruto's arms. "Now you die fool."
Madara tightened his grip, breaking Naruto's arms and forcing him to the ground.
Naruto fought through the pain, and grabbed Madara's arms.
"No...now you die."
A kunai flew into Naruto's back, an explosive tag tied to the ring.
Madara tried to teleport away, but his hands were still on Naruto's arms.
"No!"
The tag exploded, and a flaming inferno engulfed the two ninja.
As the smoke cleared, the ferocity of the explosion was revealed. Both of the ninja were burned terribly, but in Madara's old age his weakened skin was burned far worse.
As the two lay on the ground, the thrower of the kunai walked forward, none other than Naruto Uzumaki.
The fallen Madara glared at him.
"No...impossible, you couldn't have been a shadow clone..."
The Naruto who threw the kunai then poofed out of existence.
"I wasn't." The burned Naruto stood up slowly and painfully. "I couldn't risk you seeing through my clone, so I grabbed you myself."
Madara chuckled softly.
"I've gotta admit kid...you sure are...tough."
With his broken arms swinging at his sides, Naruto stood over the Uchiha.
"I know." He slammed his foot down on Madara's throat, crushing his windpipe.
Naruto looked off in the direction of Konaha, a smile on his face. In his mind he saw all the great men that came before him, the Third, Jiraiya, his father, he knew inside that he had made them all proud. He made two make-shift slings for his arms, and sat against a cherry blossom tree. The pedals fell down on him like rain as the wind blew. The village was safe, the war was over, he could return home.
He concentrated the chakra of the nine-tailed fox into his arms, hoping to heal them before he made his way home. He looked around him, realizing the beauty of his surroundings, the rocky crater was surrounded by cherry blossom trees, and the pedals drifted down to the ground like snow.
He felt as if his spirit was slowly ascending to heaven. Then the sun began to set, never before had he experienced such beauty through nature.
The excruciating pain in his arms only brought more clarity to the wonderous event unfolding before him. The wonderful pinks and greens and reds...they reminded him of...
"Sakura-chan..." His voice was soft and very slow. He was caught in a swirling whirlpool of pain and beauty. He felt enlightened, nothing was clearer in the world than the wonders before him.
He found himself being drawn into a deep sleep. His eye-lids grew heavier and heavier, then a sudden realization hit him. He was too tired and injured to walk home, but his need to return to Sakura was to great to ignore. Making the correct hand-signs, he summoned the chief of the toads of Mount Myōboku, Gamabunta.
"NARUTO! WHAT HAVE YOU SUMMONED ME FOR, IT BETTER BE IMPORTANT!"
The toad chief looked down, seeing Naruto's broken arms.
"Kid! Are you allright? Who did this to you? I swear I'll kill 'em for it!"
Naruto smiled at the giant, and spoke in a calm voice.
"Madara."
Gamabunta's eyes widened in distress.
"He-He's here? Hop on kid, quickly, I'll get us out of here."
Naruto began to laugh.
"Why are you laughing?"
Naruto gestured toward the dead Uchiha with his head, Gamambunta let a small smile grace his face.
"Thatta boy Naruto!" He reached a hand out at Naruto, "Hop on, I'll take you back to the village."
Naruto groggily complied, and soon found himself falling asleep on Gamambunta's head.
Naruto's eyes shot open as he was thrown from Gamambunta's back, as he fell his vision was penetrated with explosions in the night sky.
"NARUTO!"
Naruto's back hit the cold ground, the agonizing pain made him want to scream, but instead he bit his lip untill he drew blood.
'What the hell is going on?'
He painfully stood up, but it was still to dark to see anything, only the illumination from the explosions gave him some clue of his surroundings.
"NARUTO, WHERE ARE YOU?" Naruto could hear Gamabunta yell from a distance, but the fear of being discovered kept him from shouting back, he didn't want their attacker to sneak up on him in the dark.
"NARUTO! PLEASE ANSWER ME!"
The toad's calls were growing more and more frantic, the urge to shout back was getting harder to resist.
"NARUTO!"
'Screw it.'
"CHIEF, I'M OVER HERE!"
Naruto felt cold steel press to his neck.
"Got you."
'DAMN!' Whoever it was holding the knife, they had Naruto, he couldn't see, and any small movment would cause the knife to slit his throat. However they meant no harm, for Naruto could sense no negative emotions from them.
"Tell your friend to leave you, and that if he tries to find you, you will die."
Naruto hesitated, and the blade was pressed tighter to his throat.
"GAMABUNTA! RETURN TO THE VILLAGE, I'VE BEEN CAPTURED, DON"T TRY TO SAVE ME OR THEY"LL KILL ME...TELL SAKURA I-"
"Thats enough!" The man holding the blade bludgeoned Naruto over the head, knocking him out.
Tell me what you think, new chapter soon, hopefully