Author's Notes: If you've seen some of my work before then you can tell that I'm still new and trying to improve in my english as much as possible, so please forgive any errors in grammar and spelling. I have so many stories that I need to finish but I felt like adding one more to the list. Since I'm all about redemption fics then I figured making this one out of interest. Enjoy...
The rain poured down on the terrain with a vengeance, sharp and merciless as it made contact to the ground. It wasn't near a storm, more of silent attack from the clouds above. The rain held no potential to be as deadly as it would have on a stormy atmosphere. No, there was a storm, but not from the sky.
Emotion, it is and aspect and characteristic that very well defines living beings. It holds feeling to life and its hardships, as well as the ability to face the challenges with uncertainty and wary, life is never easy when feelings are involved. Humanity and animals are no different when it comes to feelings, except for the fact that humans have a better grasp of them, they understand and run into depth where animals would just stick to basic primal instincts given to them by mother nature.
Relationships are the forefront of some of the most welcoming feelings in existence, yet there are always the feelings that are dreaded and fought very hard to never be introduced. Love, such a simple term that hold vast meaning, so many ways to love, but in the end they all lead to the same concept, companionship. Humanity can never be left to its own devices, solitude may be a temporal escape from the harsh realities of life, but that's just what it is, temporal.
Humans can not live without each other, the urge to seek acknowledgement and understanding will always out way the urge to be alone. The mind works in different ways but human traditions do not change, since the beginning of time social endeavors had always been a part of human nature, that will never change. To cut oneself from all is to cut oneself from sanity, it is all an unwritten law that can never be broken.
Love is an easy feeling to withhold, but so is hate. Hate can only be driven by betrayal misunderstanding, pride, and stubbornness. It is not uncommon to think of love and hate as the same thing, because, in a way, it is true. Love can only be created by ambition, a need to be accepted and understood, and a connection, so can Hate. These two emotions differ greatly from each other as well. Love is kind, controlled and blatantly thrust upon someone. However, hate is vicious, it eats away at one's soul until only a shell is left its wake, it bears no distinct value, only malice.
Naruto lived a hell of a life. He had sought never to entertain thoughts from his past circumstances, but they always came. He grew up in a orphange, with no love and little encouragement. His caretakers despised his very existence, making sure he never enjoyed his stay at that place, treating him as if he was an unwanted animal that was forced into their care, like they were the victims of a scandalous betrayal. He never understood any of it.
He had run away when it became abundantly clear that he was not welcomed. He had lived in the streets of Konoha for...Kami, he can't even remember how long, he isn't even sure he wanted to. The village hated him, they always made it known with their attacks, assaults, whatever it may be called. They tortured him, beat him to an inch of his life, peeled his skin only to pour poisons on the exposed flesh, cut him anywhere they could, and somehow he would survive it all. He felt sick to his stomach.
Even after everything they did to make his life in that village pure hell he never resulted to hating them, no. As ludicrous as it sounded, their treatment only made him want to prove himself more, to be accepted among them, to have a connection with them that held no mirth, to understand them. To understand why they hated him so much. He would have deemed himself insane from such thoughts if it were not for Sarutobi supporting his beliefs.
He lived a life of solitude until he was enrolled into the academy, meeting so many people. Although no one ever treated him seriously, he was still content with what he had, they were not his friends but at least they acknowledged his presence without attacking. To him, that meant everything.
He had gotten to know a lot of people, on of them being the Uchiha prodigy. Sasuke Uchiha, the last Uchiha, the chosen one, Konoha's hero. He was known by many things, but all Naruto knew him by was teme. He was a teme, an egotistical, social grabbing, attention seeking teme, and for the first time in his life Naruto found himself hating someone with a passion. It didn't make any sense, the villagers did far worse then Sasuke ever could, but he chose to hate the Uchiha anyway? Maybe he really had gone insane.
They were rivals, although Sasuke didn't see it fit to categorise them as such. They were rivals with a dislike for the other. He was the loud mouth, obnoxious, knucklehead who people occasionally dismissed while Sasuke was the silent, brooding, Uchiha prick that got all the attention, was there even any irony in that?
He hated the Uchiha. He hated him with a passion because of his attitude towards people, including himself. The Uchiha always thought of himself so highly, like everyone was beneath him, like he could do whatever he wanted. That alone was more than justification for his anger towards that teme.
Then they were put in the same team and Naruto felt like laughing at the irony of it all. The only reason he was so excited was because he was in the same team as Sakura, it was a bittersweet predicament. He actually thought that he could beat the Uchiha now, that he could show how strong he was to everyone, gaining Sakura's love in the long run.
It never worked out that way. Sasuke beat him every which way possible. He was better than him, faster, stronger, and he had Sakura wrapped around his finger, even if he never made any attempt to get to know the girl. He was living up to his prodigy status and Naruto was being left in the dust. It was such a frustrating period.
It was a long and rough road, but they finally conceded to tolerate each other, and with that came trust, followed by partnership. They were team seven, all of them, every single individual, united to fight together and support each other. Where did it all go wrong?
Sasuke seemed fine in that period. He was still a cocky bastard, sure, but he was also a friend and a teammate you could count on, Naruto trusted him with his own life.
The curse mark incident always escaped him, mainly because he was unconscious at the time, but it was still clear that Sasuke seemed somewhat off in the chunin exams, Something happened to his comrade, but it didn't seem too significant to warrant worry, so it was safe to say that Naruto easily brushed it off as a passing thought.
But when Sasuke started to show visible hostility towards not only him but Sakura as well, that's when he drew the line. Sasuke had changed over time and Naruto honestly thought it was for the better, oh how he wished that was the case. It turned out that Sasuke's attitude had hit a malicious streak, Naruto didn't know what prompted the change in behaviour, but it happened anyway.
Sasuke had become dangerous and Naruto was angry at his blatant act of disrespect towards Sakura and himself, it almost ended with them shoving a rasengan and chidori at each other, it was only luck that Kakashi was there to intervene, it could have ended much worse.
Not long after that, Sasuke left Konoha and Naruto could not hold in his shock when he heard that, no matter what had happened between them he always thought of Sasuke as a brother. They both grew up alone, Naruto more so. Although Sasuke had a family in the beginning, he still lost them quite early in his childhood. Naruto never had a family to begin with, so in a way they could relate to each other. To find out that Sasuke had left Konoha stung greatly.
It took so long to find Sasuke again and when he did, he finally saw some semblance of the person Sasuke was becoming, and to be honest, he was scared. Scared of losing his friend, his brother in arms, he was afraid for Sasuke.
He had vowed to bring him back, even going as far as to declare breaking every single bone in Sasuke's body to do so. It didn't take long for their little confrontation to turn physical, with punches and kicks for emphasis. It had escalated so greatly that he had to draw into the fox's chakra while Sasuke used that cursed seal for his own power, the grotesque wings and the psychotic face only made Naruto more resolute in saving his friend from making a huge mistake.
"So is this it?! After everything we've been through?! Did we mean nothing to you?!" Naruto snarled as his slit blood red eyes glared at Sasuke.
"I will admit...at some point I did consider you my friend," the winged figure said almost thoughtfully.
"So why are you doing this?!" Naruto screeched in fury.
"Simple dobe, I am an avenger. My purpose is to kill my brother and avenge my clan. To do that I need power...You wouldn't understand," Sasuke said sharply, as if it suddenly registered to him who he was talking to.
"You don't have to do this alone! We can help you through this! Don't throw away everything for stupid power!" Naruto pleaded earnestly.
"...You have no idea what I've been through! Don't even think you can relate to me," Sasuke sneered in disdain.
"I can relate! I grew up alone, just like you!" Naruto screamed pointedly.
"At least I had a family. You had nothing from the start." Ouch, even Sasuke could admit, albeit stubbornly, that it was a harsh thing to say.
"...You're right. I grew up alone, but that changed. I made comrades who I'd risk my life for, including you! Don't for one second think I'm going to go easy on you! I WILL bring you back to Konoha, or die trying," He whispered the last part.
"It won't end well for you dobe. I'm not going to hold back either," Sasuke said and then licked his lips, he was going to enjoy killing this nuisance.
"Aaaahh!" Naruto screamed as he charged at Sasuke at incredible speeds, fist ready to knock out the Uchiha.
Sasuke easily dodged all the fists that were aimed at him. Using Naruto's rage to his advantage he continued with his verbal assault.
"I thought of you as a friend before, but after sometime I realized you weren't worthy of such a rank. You don't deserve friends, that's why you're alone," Sasuke said mirthlessly, but the sick glee was still prominent.
"Aaah!" Naruto kept trying to punch or kick Sasuke, his anger dampening his sense of logic.
Sasuke saw an opening and then sent a powerful hook straight to Naruto's face, said boy flew and hit the ground hard. It did nothing to deter Naruto as he stood quickly and gathered his bearings.
Sasuke saw the change in demeanor and became more alert instantly. Naruto looked much calmer and that was not going to make this battle easy.
Naruto calmed himself as much as possible as the fox's chakra burned his skin. His anger was not helping him in this situation and now he was more prepared. He quickly disappeared.
Sasuke had less than a second to block the punch that suddenly came within an inch of his face, however, it had left his abdomen wide open and he realized, too late, that his face wasn't the intended target.
Naruto shot his foot and kicked Sasuke in the stomach, running his knee as far as he could. When the Uchiha began to convulse in pain Naruto used that opportunity to send a fury of fists at the Uchiha's face. Sasuke flew to the rocks near the waterfall and crashed into them. The Valley of the End was starting to slowly look like a miniature war zone.
Sasuke shot to the sky and dove straight at Naruto with his arms outstretched. A loud explosion resonated as Sasuke made impact, creating a large cloud of dust. When the dust cleared Sasuke was standing on a crater, Naruto was nowhere in sight.
Just as suddenly Naruto appeared behind the Uchiha and punched his skull, sending Sasuke skidding on the ground until he crashed into the waterfall itself.
Sasuke had enough of this. He needed to get to Orochimaru and Naruto was only delaying the inevitable. He looked at his former comrade and rival.
"After all that, after everything, you still think I'm going to go back with you?" The answer was obvious but Sasuke just needed to goad the idiot into a heroic rant while he prepared his finishing blow.
"Yeah, we're not going to lose you! I will not let you ruin your life you fricking teme!" Naruto spat and then saw that Sasuke was beginning to perform something. That's when he realized that this battle had stemmed on for far too long, it was time to finish this. He quickly made a kage bunshin that helped him to create a rasengan, with added affect thanks to the fox's chakra.
Sasuke prepared his chidori. He snorted when he saw Naruto summon a shadow clone for his own attack, what a loser.
Naruto made sure that he put everything he had into this rasengan. This was a do or die situation and Naruto knew that if he held back even just a little bit then the retrieval mission would all be in vain. A lot was riding on this, so many of his friends were putting their lives on the line to make sure that Sasuke's betrayal to the Leaf would not have repercussions in the near future, he was not going to fail them. He couldn't afford to fail.
Sasuke's chidori was almost at full strength and he stared at Naruto with contempt. He was not going to hold anything back, if the dobe died then it would be his own fault. Sasuke felt a slight amount of regret for what he was about to do, but that feeling quickly subsided when he convinced himself that he had no other choice but to do this. Naruto would not let him leave on his own, he had no choice but to kill him or risk going back to a village that most certainly had deemed him a missing nin.
"After all this is over, no one will stop me from achieving my goal," Sasuke said cryptically.
"Sorry Sasuke, but your goal has to wait a little longer," Naruto said seriously.
Sasuke's chidori was ready and so was Naruto's rasengan. They locked eyes and knew what was to come, the end of the battle was near.
Naruto jumped into the air with an outstretched arm, rasengan swirling furiously, and focused on his target. Sasuke did the same as the lighting coursed through his hand, ready for the final attack.
"RASENGAN!"
"CHIDORI!"
A loud bang could be heard as the two super powers clashed and battled for dominance. Naruto was trying his best to keep his demeanor in check, but he struggled to maintain it when thoughts of a dead Sasuke started to plague his mind. His outstretched hand wavered slightly, but held firm.
Sasuke was a little overwhelmed with Naruto's power and he was struggling press his assault. He kept calling for more power, which the curse seal provided eagerly, but he could not penetrate Naruto's rasengan. He started to slowly gain the advantage.
"Naruto!"
"Sasuke!"
They were putting their all into the attack. Naruto knew he could not kill Sasuke so he wasn't aiming for a vital point. Sasuke, however, had no quarrels with taking his former friend's life. As soon as Naruto's resolve dwindled, even for a second, Sasuke thrust the chidori at Naruto's chest. For a split second their eyes met and Sasuke couldn't help but stare at the emotions that were plaguing the knucklehead, determination, anger, confusion and...regret? What could he possible be regretful for? He witnessed Naruto's hand glide by his head and realized Naruto had just missed him. Then after he realized that Naruto's rasengan was so powerful that Sasuke felt his left shoulder snap painfully. He gritted his teeth as he added more pressure into his chidori until he was sure it went through Naruto's chest.
Another loud explosion came from the area, this one louder than the last. Huge clouds of dust and smoke went into the air, a symbol of catastrophe.
Sasuke was battered and bruised from the fight, it shouldn't have ended that way, he should have walked out of this unscathed, but Naruto had somehow persisted through the entire battle, even with everything on the line Naruto still couldn't finish the job, pathetic. Sasuke looked at his left arm and could see that it needed medical attention, that ugly gash was nothing to laugh about, hell every part of him needed medical attention. He also realized, to his shock, that he was completely exhausted, he could barely stand.
No! How did it come to this? He should have had a little more energy to at least make it to Orochimaru, but he didn't. He looked at his opponent and already knew that Naruto was either unconscious or dead, the latter made him feel uncomfortable for some reason.
He tried to move his legs but a sharp pain stopped him in his tracks. He looked down and realized, to his dismay, that the injuries which he sustained were more serious than he suspected. One of his legs was surely broken, the other bruised with sickening colors, he was sure that if he wasn't wearing a shirt then he would see far worse. He gritted his teeth in anger. That stupid dobe! Why did he have to come here? Why did he have to ruin everything? If he still had energy left then Sasuke would have made sure he killed the idiot.
A sharp pain on his abdomen made him grab his stomach and convulse. It was more painful than any of his injuries, they numbed in comparison. He heaved, he felt like someone was slowly playing with his insides, as if someone was rearranging his stomach. It didn't stop from there, it worsened tenfold. His whole body felt like it was set on fire and then dumbed in a pit of lava, the sensation was absolutely unbearable.
"Arg!" He grunted out as he tried his best to fight the pain but it was of no use. He could feel blood coming out of his mouth, nose, and ears. It was too much, too much to take, even for him.
"AAAAAHH!" He screamed to the sky as the pain overwhelmed him and then collapsed on the ground. Silence reigned at the Valley of the End. Only a light glow of pink could be seen covering Sasuke's body.
Kakashi was racing against time. He was frantic. Sasuke betraying the leaf and Naruto going after him. In the past he always thought that it would never come to this but it seemed that was not the case. He failed, he knew that, he failed as a sensei. It stung to no end that he thought he actually knew what he was doing when in fact it was the opposite. If Minato was still alive then Kakashi knew his former sensei would be disappointed in him for the way he taught his students, if not then he would be certainly pissed.
Kami, it was so messed up, the whole situation. It shouldn't have come to this. He should've been more careful, more attentive, but he knew now wasn't the time for what if's. He needed to find his students and pray that he wasn't too late, pray that there wasn't any casualties for his neglect.
He sprinted through the forest, using trees to aid him in his endeavor. It was hard looking for anyone since it was difficult to detect their chakra. Then he felt something, it was so faint that he would have missed it if he wasn't looking carefully, he sensed a chakra source, which was slowly fading. He went to it with as much speed as a former ANBU black ops had.
He could slowly see outlines of the Valley of the End and a sense of foreboding overcame him. For some reason he didn't want to know what was happening there, but he still persisted.
When he arrived he was actually surprised with the damage, it looked like there was a huge fight. He looked to the ground below and immediately saw the familiar blonde hair which was covered in blood. The boy looked terrible. Naruto looked dead to the world and Kakashi's heart stopped at the sight. He felt worse than scum.
He quickly jumped down and raced to Naruto. When he got to the boy he carefully analyzed his injuries. A lot of cuts and bruises, but the most significant injury was the big hole through his chest. Kakashi wanted to throw up at the sight.
He fought back the bitter tears as he looked at Naruto. Minato wouldn't be disappointed, he would downright kill Kakashi for this.
"I'm sorry sensei, I failed." There was nothing else he could say on the matter, the damage had been done and there would be no turning back from it. He set his face to that of grim determination. The only silver lining of hope was the fact that the wound was starting to slowly heal, indicating that Naruto was still alive, barely clinging on. He needed to get Naruto away from here and bring him back to Konoha. He quickly took another glance around and was met with an unexpected sight, Sasuke.
Sasuke was on the ground, on his face. Kakashi knew it was Sasuke becuase of the clothes, if it wasn't for that then he would have never identified the Uchiha. Kakashi could tell that he suffered some harsh injuries but not as significant as Naruto's. He quickly made his way to Sasuke to assess any damages, but before he could turn the Uchiha around he was met with another unexpected sight. Sasuke's hair was longer, so long that it went past his behind and covered some of his legs from view, which looked slightly thinner, along with his arms. It must have been the effects of the curse seal, Kakashi deduced.
He quickly turned the Uchiha around and was shocked to the core. Although Sasuke attained a lot of injuries Kakashi was not focusing on them, he was looking at Sasuke's face, which looked...feminine? He could see the similarities the face held to Sasuke, he could even see the familiar curse mark, but he could not comprehend what the hell was going on. When his eyes trailed down Sasuke's body he was met with yet another surprise. Two mounds were protruding from the Uchiha's chest and were constricted by the tighter shirt, it didn't take a genius to know that those were breasts.
As Kakashi continued his analysis he realized that Sasuke's body had a feminine build as well, sending him to complete bewilderment. What the hell happened to Sasuke? Did the curse seal somehow change him? Was this even Sasuke at all? No, now wasn't the time for this. Both children needed medical attention and Kakashi had to be quick.
He made a kage bunshin to handle the girl while he took care of Naruto. He filed away all his questions for later and quickly sprinted, with his clone, to Konoha.
Her head was pounding. She could feel her entire body, and it was painful. Every single part of her felt pain. It was truly an unbearable process.
She slowly opened her eyes and squinted when harsh light assaulted her vision. She slowly started to open her eyes again when she felt them adjusting to the light. She felt constricted, compressed, and she was finding it difficult to move her limbs, they were not responding at all. She took in the scenery around her and could already tell that she was in a hospital room, of not just any hospital, Konoha.
"With all those injuries you've sustained I'm surprised that you're awake so quickly." She quickly looked to where the voice came from and saw the Hokage herself looking out of the room's window, no doubt she was looking at the village.
"I ran a medical analysis on your body. You may have sustained a lot of injuries but you are still able to talk." Tsunade said as she tore her eyes away from the village and looked at the girl, who was bandaged from head to toe, looking more like a mummy than anything else.
The girl just stared at her with an unreadable expression and Tsunade had her doubts that anything productive would be said or done tonight. She wasn't giving up however, not after what Kakashi told her. She needed to make sure for herself of who this person really was, even if she bared a striking resemblance to Sasuke, she couldn't afford to run to conclusions.
"It is a bit too early into your recovery, so don't you worry. You don't have to say a lot yet. Tomorrow however is a different story. With that being said I need to know one thing." Taking the silence as a yes Tsunade continued, "Are you Sasuke Uchiha?"
Not even a shake of the head, the girl wasn't responding to her question at all and Tsunade had half a mind to use force to get her answers. She was about to ask another, more direct, question when she saw the girl look down at herself and gasp involuntarily, that was...interesting.
Her eyes were wide open in shock. She looked at her arms and chest as if she was seeing herself for the first time in her life. She had a hard time tearing away from the sight of her body and looking at the Hokage, wide-eyed.
Tsunade analyzed the reaction quite carefully, the girl seemed confused, if those wide eyes were anything to go by. Tsunade looked into those onyx orbs and saw the different emotions playing out, confusion, then anger, then surprise, then recognition, then resignation, and then finally indifference, the only indifference an Uchiha knew how to pull.
"I'll ask again. Are you Sasuke Uchiha?" Tsunade asked evenly.
The girl just stared at her with the same look and Tsunade was starting to lose her patience. She decided to try something else.
"You were lucky when we found you. If it were not for us then you could have died from your wounds. The same goes for Naruto." When she saw those onyx eyes waver at the very mention of said blonde Tsunade knew she was getting somewhere.
"His chest was the worst, it had a complete hole through it, barely missing his heart. I've seen a lot of things in my past but that had to be one of the most gruesome memories that will stay with me forever, Poor Naruto, such a good boy, he didn't deserve such a fate, but he is a ninja after all, a tool. Stuff like this happens every day." The girl full-out glared at her, especially when she heard the last statement, and Tsunade was now convinced that this was Sasuke Uchiha. She didn't mean the words she said about Naruto, she cared about him, but she needed to get the desired reaction out of the girl, which was a success.
"I shouldn't ramble on. Get some rest because I won't be as lenient as I have been tonight. You will answer my questions tomorrow, or there will be...consequances." Tsunade said with finality and then left the room.
Her tense body relaxed when the Hokage left. She breathed in a sigh of relief, that conversation could have turned fatal in an instant, she was lucky she kept her mouth shut. She looked down at herself and sighed again. It had finally happened, the jutsu had finally been released. After all these years of being forced to masquerade as a boy, because her father never wanted any daughters, and forced a jutsu on her that hid her gender quite thoroughly.
"All because I was a girl." It had been forced upon her a few hours after birth, according to her mother, and she had lived as a boy ever since. She even believed that she was a boy until her mother had told her the truth, when she was five. She snorted at the memory, it was hard for her to believe such a thing but her mother had finally convinced her, and with that came the questions. Why was she a girl if she was really a boy? Why her? What did she do to deserve this? The answers that came forth were not comforting.
She just couldn't help but wonder how people would react to the fact that the great Sasuke Uchiha, the male epitome of female interest, was in fact a girl herself.
Overtime she had grown to accept the situation. When her clan was murdered, she didn't even care about her gender anymore, the most important thing, the one thing that she had committed to, was vengeance. Her one and true goal was to kill her brother and avenge her clan in the process, only then could she focus on anything else like reviving her clan or something. She guessed the gender change was a blessing in some way, if she was discovered to be female, at a young age, then she would have been subjugated to a life of breeding instead of being a shinobi, the very thought made her shiver.
Now the jig was up, people would know sooner or later of her true identity, not that she cared. To make matters worse she ran away from Konoha, betraying them in the process, her escape had been a failure, things were not looking good there.
Naruto, when she thought of Tsunade's earlier words she gritted her teeth, she was angry with the old hag for her attitude towards Naruto's well-being. She silently hoped the dobe was alive, yes, even if she disliked the idiot, and tried to kill him, it wouldn't help for him to suddenly give up on life and die. Oh Kami, what will he do when he saw her true form, the real her, she felt like escaping Konoha all over again, no reasons coming forth.
She shouldn't care what they thought of her, she was an Uchiha prodigy, she doesn't care about them, only her goal matters. Knowing the village council they would try their best to get her nothing more than a slap on the wrist for her actions, since she was the last Uchiha. They couldn't submit her to breeding stock either, it was too late, she would fight it, and she thanked Kami for that. She looked outside the window and saw an ANBU operative situated there, just great. There was no escaping this time it seemed. She decided to get some rest and wait for the inevitable confrontations with everyone, especially Naruto.
AN: I've always wanted to try something like this. Tell me what you think. R&R