Hi there! So I had this weird idea of Naruto being an 'Onii-san' and Sasuke being a handsome badass. So- just the usual thoughts of a freaky writer ^^
I hope you like it! The beginning will be a bit sad, though…
I DO NOT OWN NARUTO!
Prologue: Failure
He felt cold raindrops piercing through his skin like some senbon-needles. Poking his still tensed muscles and waking him up again. His whole body hurt, like it was on fire… What it actually was...some minutes ago as he was fighting Sasu-
SASUKE!
He tried to pick himself up from the mud, but had to lean back again as black points appeared in front of his eyes. Naruto's sense of balance was thrown off, like that of a drunk. What the heck happened?
He remembered Sakura begging him to bring Sasuke back to the village. He remembered Sasuke and him speaking about family, about going back to Konoha. He remembered them fighting!
Naruto hoped it was a dream. Slowly his hand went up to his chest. He felt it. Sasuke really pushed his Chidori through him, leaving a little scar close to his heart. He really wanted to kill him. Get rid of him like some-
Naruto shook his head, even though it made him flinch in pain. It wasn't good to think about something like that. It would only cause him more grief.
Slowly, and really carefully, Naruto opened his eyes again just to see a bunch of gray clouds crying down on him. He sat up again, but not as fast as before, and started to stretch his muscles slightly. The sound of dropping water grew fainter and the raining slowly stopped.
Naruto watched his surroundings- a lot of rocks and destroyed trees were scattered around him and some craters changed the landscape completely. Where there was once a huge waterfall, now- there was a gigantic lake. The statues of the first Hokage, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha weouldn't be able to be recognized ever again and the little forest nearby was half cut down.
Carefully, to not cause him any more pain than necessary, Naruto got back on his feet.
Cling!
He looked down- just to see a headband lying upside down in front of him. It couldn't be his own. Naruto's was still tied up on his forehead. So it could only be… Sasuke's?
Slowly he picked it up and turned it around just to see the Konoha symbol with a vertical line cutting through it. Showing that it belonged to a missing-nin.
"Naruto."
He turned around to see his sensei, Kakashi, who was panting heavily- his ninken Pakkun sitting next to him with concern in his eyes.
"Where's Sasuke?"
Naruto just looked down. How could he tell his sensei that he could not stop Sasuke, when Sakura, Choji, Neji, Kiba, Shikamaru, Bushy Eyebrows- heck, even Akamaru believed in him getting Sasuke back? How could he let them all down? He should have done better!
"Gone," said Naruto simply without looking up "I could not stop him… I was- I WAS TO WEAK!"
He clenched his fists and felt blood running from where his nails and even the headband cut into his skin. Slowly he looked up and saw Kakashi's calm but sorrowful face. He shook his head and looked back to Sasuke's old headband. Even though he felt pretty weak, the pain started to leave and Kyuubi was already beginning to heal his non-critical wounds.
"It wasn't your fault Naruto," said Kakashi and stepped forward "Let's return to the village. As far as I am informed, Neji and Choji could still die from their wounds."
Naruto grew concern for both of them and just nodded. The longer they stayed away, the more people would believe them to be fatally wounded as well. He should not cause any more worries than necessary.
Kakashi nodded to Pakkun and the ninken vanished with a "Bye pup." Then he went over to Naruto and tried to help him jump through the trees, but Naruto just turned away.
He did not want anybody near him. He did not want Kakashi to see the grief in his eyes. He did not want him or anybody else to tell him that it wasn't his fault. Because it just was. He could have pumped more chakra in his last attack. His Rasengan was far from being as strong as he trained it, but he wasn't willing to hurt Sasuke.
The moment he had realized, he could add more chakra in his Rasengan, he felt scared about accidentally killing Sasuke. But at least that leftover chakra seemed to have mixed with Kyuubi's again, to heal his wounds. He wasn't sure if Sasuke's juin would have done the same to him. What would have happened?
As Naruto thought about all these different possibilities, he failed to notice the medic-nins who caught up with Kakashi, asking him if Naruto was all right. They were still scared of the so called 'demon brat' and felt a lot safer behind him, next to a jonin.
Even thought all of them were tired, they reached Konoha by the early morning. As Kakashi spoke with the two chunin at the southern gate, Naruto just slipped through the so called 'village security' and hurried to the hospital- ignoring all the heinous looks he received.
He nearly jumped through the door by entering the hospital and just took off to the reception, where a blond medic-nin sat. She gave him a disapproving look before signing some papers.
"I need to know where Choji Akimichi and Neji Hyuuga are." Naruto told her, while trying to stay as calm as possible.
"Then I need your name." she just said with an annoyed expression on her face.
"Naruto Uzumaki."
"Pardon?"
"Naruto Uzumaki."
"Sorry, I didn't seem to understand you there."
"Na-Ru-To U-Zu-Ma-Ki!" he repeated, putting as much pronunciation as possible in every syllable and at the same time clenching his fists, so as to not yell throughout the whole hospital.
"Geez! You don't need to yell into my face, mister! So- what were their names again?"
It's just as always- so just stay calm, just stay calm, he reminded himself, So take a deep breath and ask again with a smile on your face.
"Choji Akimichi and Neji Hyuuga, my sensei said they would be critically wounded. I know you hate me like nearly everybody else in this village, but I do not have any damn moment to waste if they really could die. And if you really hate me, you could get rid of me by just telling me where they are."
The woman looked him over, skeptical. Naruto could nearly see her thinking about what to reply to that blunt statement. It did not fit the usual Naruto-clown.
"Down the hallway and on the left is the Akimichi-boy. The Hyuuga should be either on the next room or on the right hand side."
"Thank you!" Naruto followed the description and soon found Shikamaru sitting in front of the room to the left, Temari of the Sand next to him, giving said person a long stare. He could not help but feel weird. Something did not seem to be 'normal'.
It took him a moment to notice that it was Shikamaru's face –or to be more exact, what was in his eyes. Tears.
"Shikamaru." Naruto spoke quietly, Mister Troublesome looked up and quickly wiped the tears away. Naruto decided to do not speak about these tears. Not that he would deny them, but did somebody die? Who? Choji? Neji? Both?
Shikamaru seemed to notice his worry, but before he could say something Temari did.
"Both Choji and Neji, are still in critical condition. Tsunade-sama did her best, but we don't know if it will be enough. That Kiba and his noisy pet are nearly fine again, thanks to Shizune and my brother. Lee will be fine in no time- after his intoxication," which just got a weird look from Naruto, but Temari continued, "And as for your smart cookie, he just got a broken finger- so how are you?"
"Wait, what are you even doing here?" replied Naruto. Totally ignoring her question.
"She and her brothers were the reinforcement troops from Suna. Without them we would have some more people in these rooms and-"
He stopped. One of the red lights above the doors was turned off and all three of them looked to the left room. The door slowly opened and Tsunade walked out, followed by three other medic-nins. All of them with tired expressions on their faces. As she looked up, her experienced eyes looked them over to find any more wounds, her hemophobia would just have to deal.
After realizing that they were fine, a smile appeared on her face, reminding her why they were here themselves.
"He will be fine."
These four words seemed to be a miracle for Shikamaru. He nodded in relief and sent a silent prayer to Kami to thank him. It was one of these good messages he wished for and actually received. Naruto felt relieved to hear that at least Choji would be back soon.
"I will check on Neji; you should start with your report Shikamaru and Naruto, did you get checked?"
"I feel fine, Obaa-san." Naruto replied but quickly stepped away to get as much distant as possible between him and those evil eyes.
"Just get it done!" she hurried in the other room and the other medic-nins followed, with a little gap between them, and shot angry looks at Naruto.
After the door closed, Shikamaru mumbled a "Hai" and put his hands in his face. After some seconds of silence he just added a little "Troublesome" to it and looked half-happy, and half-crying at them.
"Naruto, you really should get a checkup. I don't want you to overstress your body, or sit here if you are poisoned, or if you have any further injuries. Make sure Sasuke gets a checkup as well," he advised like a chunin normally would do.
"Sasuke." Naruto looked at Shikamaru with concern in his eyes "I could not stop him... I am sorry," he said.
Shikamaru sat there in silent for some seconds, before he shook his head.
"Can't help it. We should have done better…"
Naruto just nodded and put Sasuke's headband next to Shikamaru. He went back down the hallway. Shikamaru was right… and wrong. They did their best, but him? Naruto could not do his job right- it was his fault, not theirs!
He left the hospital, leaving a confused blond medic at the reception. As he walked through the village, he felt the villager's hate directed at him. It was like they already heard about his latest mission and could not forgive him for not 'saving' the last Uchiha. So he just jumped over the rooftops, fleeing those hatred-filled eyes.
He got home and just threw himself into the bed- wanting to flee from this world… or was it really the world?
"You are pathetic."
Naruto opened his eyes and saw a gigantic fox, who was sitting behind a huge gate in the middle of a sewer. They locked eyes with each other and just stood there, thinking about, what happened in their fight with Sasuke and his juin.
"The seal broke partly. You could have killed us both, you know that brat?" Kyuubi yelled.
"That explains your gate." Naruto replied calmly as he inspected the old, rusty gate, which was wide enough open for him to step inside.
"IS THIS ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY? WHAT DO YOU EVEN THINK, WHO YOU ARE SPEAKING WITH? YOU ARE BARELY AN INSECT TO ME! AN INSECT THAT I HATE WITH ALL MY HEART! YOU-"
"Cut it, please." Naruto said quietly. If it would not be for Kyuubi's sensitive ears, he would not have heard it. But the demand did not make him shut up. It was the "please." He never heard that from Naruto before, or even from any other human being. It was always like "Holy! Run for your lives!" or "A monster!" or his favorite "How much sake did I drink again?" But the word "please?" What was the meaning of this?
"I don't want to fight with you. As I fought Sasuke, I felt your feelings. They were as human as everyone else. You aren't really a demon with all your heart, are you?"
For once in his whole life- he was stunned. Left without words in front of a thirteen-old! Barely a kit and he, Kyuubi no Yoko, did not know what to reply at all. All his arguments were just gone, after looking in his pure blue eyes.
He noticed his feelings? Everybody else denied that he even had 'feelings' till now. Everybody else would run away from him. Everybody else would just say he was more evil and heinous than it was possible without further proof.
In the distant they could hear water dropping down from the ceiling. It seemed like the time stopped. Then Kyuubi no Yoko smiled. He didn't smirked or did one of these fake smiles Naruto carried through Konoha nearly every single day.
He just, well, smiled.
"So, what do you want, kit. You aren't here for any chakra or a kekkei genkai. And you aren't here for any of my specialties." he said while sitting down in his cage.
Thousand questions shot through Naruto's head, but he ignored them and sat down as well.
"I need some advice… Kyuubi-san," Naruto said watching him closely.
The same night, Neji survived his shot in the chest, and Tsunade said he would be better in at least two weeks- same for Choji. Afterwards she sent Sakura, her new apprentice to Naruto to get him to her office in the Hokage-tower. But he already was there.
He handed over two scrolls, one for her, the other one for Sakura, so she would know that he felt sorry for not bringing Sasuke back like he promised, but he would try again.
He bowed before her and requested a training journey. He wanted to leave, but stay a Konoha-shinobi for now. He needed time to think about what happened- alone. Not with any of this villagers close by. And not with any Anbu, Jiraiya, or Kakashi watching over him.
He said he would still leave either way- even as nuke-nin if he had to.
Before dawn Naruto Uzumaki left Konoha with the promise to come back…
YEAH! How was it? It's my first all-English story… so:
PLEASE! Tell me how it was, please!
Thank you!
PS My mother tongue is German… so… there could be a lot of writing mistakes, I don't have a beta-reader. ^^° Help is appreciated.
PPS I'm not sure with the title yet… If you guys have any ideas, I would love to read them ^^