Yes! My second fic! I'm on fire! (Rubs hands together). I just randomly had an idea for a story when I was reading the manga Blade of the Immortal (a kick-ass Seinen series), and went off of that. If enough people like this story, I might try to regularly update it. I planned this story out already to be different than my other fic. Darker and more angsty.
-G.S.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, as you might have guessed.
Naruto: The Perfection of Anatomy
The Valley of the End. What a fitting name to give to the waterfall bordering the Land of Fire and the Land of Sound. When Konoha was founded, statues of Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama, the first Hokage, were built on either side of the waterfall to commemorate the battle between Madara and Senju. Both were probably the greatest ninja who ever lived and both sought control over who would reign as Konoha's first Hokage.
Right now, the valley served as the battleground between Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto stood on top of Senju's statue and Sasuke stood on Madara's statue on the opposite side of the waterfall.
"Sasuke!" yelled Naruto, breathing heavily and ready to collapse from charka exhaustion. "Just come back, damnit!"
Sasuke shot Naruto a death glare. "Don't act like you understand me!"
"I know what its like to be lonely, Sasuke!" shot back Naruto. "Both of my parents died before I got to know them!"
"You don't know the pain of losing something!" shouted Sasuke harshly as he began to charge up a chidori in his left hand. Instead of the normal blue color the chidori gave off, an evil black lightning sphere appeared in his hand, probably from the curse mark's chakra. "That pain is worse than anything!"
Naruto grimaced. It was too late to reach Sasuke now. He was hell-bent on going to Orochimaru, and it was obvious that he would kill anyone who got in his way. Not only that, but Naruto felt that his chakra was almost completely depleted. He would have to rely on the fox's power for one last, desperate attack. He felt the fox's red chakra flowing through his body. Three tails of red chakra flowed behind him. Naruto focused, and using all of the fox's chakra he could, formed a red-colored rasengan in his right hand.
"God damnit, Sasuke!" Naruto screamed as he and Sasuke both charged, ready to meet in the center of the waterfall with their final attack. Naruto felt like pulling out, but felt Sasuke's killing intent. Naruto felt a couple tears run down his cheek.
He is really trying to kill me!
In the middle of the waterfall, Sasuke's chidori clashed with Naruto's rasengan, creating an explosion of chakra that didn't make either ninja flinch. At first, it looked like both attacks were evenly matched, but Naruto finally pulled out.
"Sasuke, let's just stop this," Naruto said calmly as he deactivated his rasengan. "I trust you. Let's just go back to the village, together."
Sasuke just sneered. "You really are fucking stupid!"
Naruto's eyes widened as he felt Sasuke's chidori pierce the center of his chest. For a couple seconds, both ninja seemed to hover in midair. Sasuke, with his left arm going through Naruto's body, and Naruto, with a shocked expression on his face. Before Naruto slumped over, he remembered Iruka's first lesson in the ninja academy. "A ninja can never afford to let his guard down."
Sasuke pulled his arm out of Naruto's chest and laid him on the ground. Sasuke collapsed besides Naruto's body, exhausted, and back in his original form. Wincing, Sasuke got up and stared at Naruto for a couple moments.
"Dobe," whispered Sasuke as he turned his back on Naruto's body and walked across the border, into the Land of Sound.
Naruto woke up suddenly, surprised to see the village gate. He was also surprised when he looked up and he saw his sensei's face. Even though it was mostly hidden by a mask, Naruto saw concern and exhaust in Kakashi's eye.
"Sensei…" Naruto said softly. His chest burned so badly, it felt like he was going to black out. "Sasuke…"
Kakashi looked down at his blond haired student, shocked that he was even conscious. "Naruto, don't talk now! I'm going to get you to Tsunade-sama as fast as I can!"
Naruto looked down at his chest to see a big gaping hole. Red chakra surrounded the wound, which was probably the thing keeping him alive.
Damn fox, Naruto whispered. Too freakin' selfish to let me die….
Tsunade got up and sighed.
"Too much damn paperwork," she grumbled to no one in particular. Smiling mischievously, she pulled out a bottle of sake from her 'secret drawer' and chugged the bottle down, sighing contently.
Tsunade's drinking time was interrupted by her office door slamming open, and almost shattering from the impact.
Tsunade turned around angrily and was about to give the rude intruder a world of hell, but stopped when she saw a distraught Kakashi carrying a barely-conscious Naruto with a gaping hole in his chest.
"Tsunade-sama, please help Naruto!" Kakashi pleaded, but he didn't even have to. In a split-second, Tsunade had Naruto up in her arms as she stormed off to the hospital wing. Kakashi followed right behind her, even though he was almost out of chakra from running to the sound border and back without stopping once.
Hinata walked through the halls of the Hokage Tower, ready to take another mission. It certainly was a stressful, yet beautiful day to her. She woke up nice and early for sparring, and surprised Hiashi Hyuga, her father, with her new technique. Hiashi dropped his serious façade, and for once looked overjoyed at his eldest daughter's progress. Not only that, but she heard that Kiba, Choji, Shikamaru, and Neji were seriously hurt, but she was relieved and glad when she found out later on that they were all okay. Even though she could have done without the drama of having her friends hospitalized, Hinata was having a good day. The only thing that would make the day better, she thought, was seeing her one and only love, Naruto. As Hinata got closer and closer to Tsunade's office, Hinata heard a faint rumbling sound, which grew louder and louder. Hinata was curious at what was making the sound, and found out when she rounded the corner and saw Tsunade stampeding through the halls, pushing people, things, and ninja alike out of her way.
Hinata's good day was immediately thrown into hellish chaos when she saw who Tsunade was cradling in her arms: a barely conscious Naruto, beaten half to death, with a hole in his chest the size of a fist. Hinata froze, not knowing what to do, and collapsed as Tsunade and Kakashi sprinted past her towards the hospital wing. Hinata grabbed her head and wanted to wake up from her nightmare. Finally, she managed to stand up just as Sakura came running down the hall.
"What's going on here?" Sakura asked, oblivious to the cause of the commotion.
Hinata just weakly pointed in the direction of the hospital wing and Sakura began to follow Tsunade's path of carnage, broken vases, splintered doors, and bruised ninjas.
Hinata followed the path to Tsunade's operating room. Looking up, she noticed that the operating light was on.
Can it be? Thought Sakura happily. Is Sasuke back? Sakura took another look at the operating room. That bonehead Naruto better not have hurt my poor Sasuke!
After a couple of hours, the operating light turned off and an exhausted, stressed, and pissed-off Tsunade (three times as dangerous as a pissed-off Tsunade) was being ushered out by Shizune.
"Let go of me, damnit!" Tsunade roared, as she tried to fight her way back into the room. "I can still do something!"
It took all of Kakashi, Jiraiya, and Shizune's strength to keep her outside of the room.
Sakura jumped up. "Is Sasuke alright?"
Kakashi, Jiraiya, Shizune, and Tsunade all gave the oblivious Sakura a death glare.
"You go in and see for yourself," Kakashi said sadly.
Sakura took a couple of reluctant steps into the room, hoping with all her might that Sasuke wasn't lying on the operating table with a gigantic hole in his chest. Let's just say she was surprised that her fears were half-right. It was Naruto who was lying on the operating table with a hole in his chest, and, surprisingly, still conscious. The red chakra was still surrounding Naruto's wound.
"Where's Sasuke?" Sakura demanded.
"I'm so sorry, Sakura," Naruto said softly. "I couldn't keep my promise…I failed."
"Damn right you did!" exploded Sakura, who, in the heat of the moment, forgot that Naruto was heavily wounded. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted you! Sasuke was right! You are a failure!"
Naruto winced at Sakura's harsh words, and felt his heart break in two. He knew that he could never face Sakura, or the village, ever again. It was his most important mission, and he blew it. Just because he let his guard down and didn't want to fight.
"And you wanted to be Hokage? HA! As if! Sasuke would make a way better Hokage than a screw-up like you.
Kakashi couldn't take anymore. He stormed into the room and raised his hand to slap Sakura when….SLAP. Someone beat him to it.
Hinata had been so quiet, that Kakashi and Sakura didn't notice that she was standing there. Hinata usually preferred the background. She was much too shy to stand out.
Sakura put her hand up to her red cheek and looked over at Hinata, stunned. The shy and quiet Hinata slapped her.
"What the hell was that for?" Sakura screamed, and pointed toward Naruto. "If you want to slap someone, slap this loser! He-"
SLAP!!!!
Hinata slapped Sakura again, twice as hard, which sent the pink-haired kunoichi sprawling on the ground. Sakura looked up to see Hinata's menacing glare. A couple tears fell from her eyes.
"DON'T YOU EVE SAY ANYTHING BAD ABOUT NARUTO-KUN EVER AGAIN!" Hinata yelled at the still-shocked Sakura. "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, WHORE? TO DECIDE THAT SASUKE IS BETTER THAN NARUTO? I CANT BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE SUCH A BIAST PIG!"
At this point, everyone within hearing distance was shocked, including Hinata. She didn't want to stop, though, since she already said that much.
"H-He didn't bring Sasuke-kun back!" Sakura argued, finally finding her voice again, although it was shaky in the face of the violet-haired tidal wave of rage in front of her. "H-He didn't bring my Sasuke-kun back."
Hinata was even angrier than before. "THAT TRAITOROUS SCUM THAT YOU CALL 'SASUKE-KUN' ALMOST KILLED NARUTO!" Hinata forcefully grabbed Sakura by the back of the neck and pushed her forward so that she can see Naruto better. "DO YOU SEE IT? DO YOU SEE WHAT THE FILTHY TRAITOR YOU CALL 'SASUKE-KUN' DID? IS THIS WHAT A TRUE SHINOBI WOULD DO TO A COMRADE?"
"Hinata," Naruto said weekly as he reached out and touched her jacket, immediately causing Hinata to go silent. "T-Thank you, but I deserve all of this. I swore on my nindo that I would bring him back…"
Hinata's anger began to swell up again. If Naruto wasn't so injured, she would have actually hit him. New tears began to swell up in her already watery eyes. Naruto's gaze fell onto her eyes, and for the first time, he stopped and stared at them. He marveled at how beautiful they were a silky shade of light purple.
"Why?" asked Hinata quietly, just above a whisper. "Why do you still defend her? Even after all these things she put you through, all that heartbreak?"
Naruto's eyes widened. He didn't know what to say.
"Cant you see I'm right here?" Hinata asked softly as her tears started to stream down her cheeks. Crying, Hinata ran out of the room. Soon, Kakashi, Tsunade, Shizune, Jiraiya, and Sakura followed suit. Naruto just lied on the operating table and thought about everything that happened. Sasuke's betrayal, Sakura's disapproval, and…Hinata's words. He stopped when he heard voices outside the door. He recognized one of them as Tsunade's. Naruto was amazed, not at Tsunade's bad mood, but at the fact that he can hear the argument through the operating room's thick, reinforced steel door as clear as day.
"We have to do something!" yelled Tsunade angrily. "He might die at this rate!"
"B-But w-we cannot, H-Hokage-sama," answered another, shakier voice. "The strange red ch-chakra is c-covering his wouns. W-We cannot even touch them."
"I know that!" Tsunade yelled. "But we can't just sit here while he dies on the operating table!"
"W-We can only w-wait," the other voice said. "M-Maybe his c-condition will improve."
"If he doesn't look better in the morning, I swear I will KILL you!" yelled Tsunade as she stomped off.
All of that day's events were just too much for his body to take, and Naruto's wound seemed to be burning more than ever. It felt like his chest was being pressed up against a barbeque grill. Finally, the pain became to o unbearable, and Naruto blacked out.
Thanks for reading! If you liked it, please review! If enough people liked this chapter, I might start to regularly update the story. Also, check out my other story, Promises of Tomorrow. It is much more lighthearted than this story, and you'll love it if you're a fan of NaruHina fluff.
-G.S.