So, this is basically my idea of where the series will go, with my own twist on it. I don't know yet but there might be some slight SasuNaru later on... Please review!
A/N: I started this long before the series got to where it is...I think it was just after Sasuke left so...yeah...I know it doesn't fit...just enjoy the story please... ^_^
Naruto panted as he looked around. He cried out in pain and clutched his shoulder as he dropped to his knees. He was dying and he knew it. Sasuke was lying a few feet away from him, eyes dead, and a gaping hole through his stomach. Naruto just wanted to let go, to just leave this place and be happy.
'And perhaps in a little less pain.' He though bitterly. He felt his face make solid connection with the dirt. 'That's funny, I didn't feel myself fall.' He was staring at the raven's face now.
His hair was still damp with sweat and blood and his eyes stared blankly into the distance, seeing everything and nothing at the same time. A trail of dark crimson went from his mouth and pooled into a black puddle on the ground. Naruto wished desperately that things would have turned out differently. He wished that Sasuke would have come back to them, that it hadn't come down to a final fight. He vaguely wondered if the rest of his teammates had survived their fights with Sasuke's…some of which were still missing… He looked over to the raven and couldn't contain the sorrow that filled his heart.
Tears leaked out of his blue eyes as he thought of the past. Poor Sakura…she would be devastated. She had loved Sasuke so much and Naruto had broken his promise to her. He couldn't bring Sasuke home to her. Suddenly a final piece completed a puzzle in the back of his thoughts. What about the rest of the village? If he died, the Kyuubi would be released once more! He couldn't allow that to happen but… Now that he thought about it, the fox had been awfully quiet.
"Kyuubi?" Naruto called in his mind.
"I'm here kit…what do you need?" the usually ferocious voice was tired and strained.
"I can't let you out….you know that right." Naruto said. There was a long silence followed by a short, humorless laugh.
"Yes…I know that…I've known I wouldn't be free again since I was sealed in this body." Kyuubi stated. Naruto grunted in agreement and stood up. He had an idea about how to keep himself alive but…
"This will probably hurt." He warned the fox.
"Why don't we find out?" Kyuubi's voice was bitter and resigned and Naruto chuckled a bit before he concentrated on summoning the rest of both of their chakra to his index finger.
It began glowing in a swirl of blue and orange. Naruto took a deep, shuddering breath and placed it in the center of the seal on his stomach. He was attempting to fuse his life with the Kyuubi's. Naruto would be unable to die as long as Kyuubi lived. He was giving up the rest of his normal life for the people who had shunned him but more importantly for his friends and those who had loved and accepted him. How was he to know that at that exact moment, the rest of the Bijuu were being set loose on his village?
Memories of places he had never been and battles he had never fought overwhelmed him and he dropped once again to his knees, screaming in agony. How was he to know he was being put through all of that pain for people who were no longer alive? He landed face down on the ground and lay there clutching his head. His breath came in short, shallow waves and the bloody scene in front of him slid in and out of focus.
"You were right kit…that did hurt." The normally distant voice was unsettlingly close.
"N-no pain…ugh…no g-gain… That's what they s-say isn't it?" Naruto panted hoarsely.
He lay there for a few more moments as he struggled to return his breathing to normal. Eventually he found enough strength to pull his bruised and battered body off the ground and stood up. He picked up Sasuke's body and tossed it over his shoulder before setting off. Sakura would want him to have a proper burial and despite everything that had happened, so did he.
It was a long journey back to the village but he didn't want to stop. He knew that if he did he wouldn't be able to get back up. Finally he reached the end of the trees and smiled, expecting the gates of his home to appear before him in a few seconds. But when he reached the entrance, all that lay before him was a pile of rubble. His home had been reduced to smoking piles of rock and debris. There were bodies of fellow ninjas everywhere, some of them ripped to almost unrecognizable pieces.
The further into the village he got, the less ninja and more civilians he saw. He found himself standing where the academy once stood and saw a patch of red underneath a pile of rocks. He carefully dug through it, afraid of what he would find. He pulled Sakura's limp form off the pile and couldn't fight the powerful urge to be sick. Her chest was torn open and her limbs stuck out at odd angles. Underneath her mangled body were the bodies of several children whom she had obviously died protecting. He looked around him in disgusted shock.
'What….h-how…I don't understand." He thought weakly, fighting the bile rising in his throat.
"Lend me your sensed kit." Kyuubi's voice surprised Naruto and he looked around wildly for the speaker before realizing where it had come from.
"How?" Naruto asked.
"Just close your eyes and relax." Kyuubi instructed.
Naruto did as he was told and suddenly found that he couldn't see hear or smell anything. He was still in total control of his body but all of his sensed were gone. It was a very unnerving feeling.
"Hmm…other Bijuu have been here." Kyuubi said as everything slowly slid back into focus.
"Other Bijuu? But how? You don't think the other members of Sasuke's group could have…" Naruto couldn't figure it out.
"I don't know what to think kit." Kyuubi said unhelpfully.
"I-I don't believe it! There has to be someone left! There just…has…to…" Naruto hit the ground with a 'thud'. His damaged body had finally given out on him. The last thing his tired eyes saw were the faces of his teammates, bloody and cold but together again at last.