Embrace My Darkness
Full Summary: Naruto encounters Dark Naruto in the Waterfall of Truth, and one of the factors that he uses to discourage Naruto was his feelings for Sakura. Naruto has no counter for this; therefore Dark Naruto swallows him up and takes over Naruto's body personally. Then he decides to go encounter Sakura along with the rest of his friends back in Konoha, and Sakura discovers a whole new other side to Naruto. Naruto himself, while being stuck in his own conscience, also finds out something entirely new about Sakura. Will things remain the same between the two?
Main Pairings: Naruto and Sakura.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.
A Love So Deep
Naruto stood in the midst of the small piece of land that lay on the river that originated from the waterfall before him. On the opposite side stood his dark half, or the "real" him, as he had introduced himself a while back. Naruto was perplexed, as he was still trying to grasp his head around the situation he was currently in. He figured it would be better if he engaged in more conversation with his counterpart, so he held back his desire to engage the red-eyed him in combat.
"By the way, "fake"," Naruto felt a vein twitch a little in his forehead after being called this for around the umpteenth time that day," I've seen all your feelings and emotions so far since you were a kid, and there's one thing that I can't seem to get my head around," Dark Naruto continued the conversation the two were currently engaged in. "Yeah, and what's that supposed to be?" Naruto inquired from him, curious as to what he was going to bring up this time. He had already brought up the issue regarding the fact that all the villagers praised Naruto now, whilst in the past they treated him like he was a leper and kept an arm's length away from him. Naruto had seen the logic in this, but he really did not see the need to admonish the villagers for what they did. After his encounters with Gaara, Killer Bee and Utakata, who were fellow jinchuuriki from other villages, he realized that they had gone through the same thing that he had, but nevertheless they still put their all into training and becoming stronger, and now they were well-respected and admired by their villagers. Heck, even Gaara had gone a step further and had become the Kazekage of Sunagakure, all whilst he was still a Jinchuuriki. Naruto just chucked it down to the simple fact that people feared what they could not fathom, so he really couldn't blame them for treating him like crap. Besides, it gave him his ambition of wanting to become Hokage, plus seeking acknowledgement from the villagers, and he had managed to get one step closer to his goal. All the villagers had respected him now, and there was even talk of how he would be a fitting Hokage if he rose up to the seat now.
"I'm referring to your feelings for your pink-haired friend," Naruto gulped a little. He suddenly realized that the conversation had taken a turn for the worst, since there was only one girl with pink hair who he had given his heart to. "Her name is Haruno Sakura. Honestly, I think she's really attractive and is a wonderful person, but isn't she one of the people who has hurt you a lot, emotionally I mean. She's always shown more care for Uchiha Sasuke than you, and even recently she lied to you about the way she felt about you. And yet you still love her so much after all that," Dark Naruto continued. Naruto felt his blood turning cold at this revelation. There was honestly truth in what his counterpart had said, and despite what he felt for Sakura, he felt that he would never win her over, even if he put his best foot forward. He had always been content with watching over her and making her happy, but a small part of him had wished that she had started seeing him in the way that he looked at her. He had been content with waiting for her love after all this time, but still he wondered how long it would take for her to finally look his way. Was that day ever going to come? With the events that had happened in the Kage Summit, Sai had revealed to him that Sakura was only thinking of him when she had had lied to him, so Naruto had his hopes flare up for a moment, but then Sai revealed that she was committed to her love for Sasuke, which caused his previously risen hopes to diminish just as fast as they had risen. Still, there was one thing that he could have taken heart from, so he decided to bring it up to Dark Naruto since he felt it was the appropriate situation to bring it up in.
"Heeh, you may be right about that, but remember when Sai revealed to us Sakura-chan's intentions? He never said that she lied about her feelings for me; he just said that she didn't reveal the decision by the rest of Konoha 11. So I think I still may have a chance at winning Sakura-chan's heart, dattebayo!" Naruto proudly countered, and rose his hand to his chest to add to his morale. Yes, there was still a chance, as long as he didn't give up, he thought to himself, and he wouldn't let this new look-alike of his diminish his hopes. Dark Naruto looked at him serenely, then shook his head and sighed, before closing his eyes and saying, "Is that really what you believe? Even if what you say is true, do you know how she will react if both you and Sasuke were placed in front of her and she was asked to choose who she wanted to spend the rest of her life with? Do you honestly believe that she would choose you in a heartbeat, because even I have to say, that no matter what feelings Sakura may have for you, I always think she will place her feelings for Sasuke above her feelings for you, and I think you think that a little too," Dark Naruto calmly explained to Naruto. Naruto took in each and every word he was saying, and he felt his heart sink inside him. Truthfully, he had always bore those doubts inside him, and had always wondered the same thing himself. Of course, whilst the trio of him, Sakura and Sasuke were younger, she would obviously choose him over Naruto, evident in how she always fawned over him and always had his name on her tongue. However different things were, and even if he had felt that the two of them were closer than never before (since she had hugged him just recently), he still couldn't shake those fears out of his body. When he had made that promise to Sakura to bring Sasuke back to Konoha after he had defected, he had resolved himself to have his heart broken once he had brought back the raven-haired boy. However, in the time that he had spent together with her, his feelings for her had grown deeper and deeper, and now he was sure that in the event Sasuke returned to Konoha, his heart would be shattered even more than when they were kids. He was not sure whether he was ready to take on that pain.
He stayed dumbfounded for a few minutes after what he had just been told, and Dark Naruto proceeded to add on, "See what I mean? Your silence just proves me correct and you're too honest to deny that." Naruto was not sure whether he was being complimented or simply being called out due to his naiveté, but he decided to respond this time. "So, what do you think about the whole matter yourself? While I'm happy that you haven't referred to Sakura-chan with the same hostile tone you used to describe the other villagers, I'm assuming you had thought of this matter beforehand?" Naruto asked the man. At this point, Dark Naruto smirked and began walking closer and closer to Naruto. "Oh, that's easy. We'll just switch places for a while, and I'll get to see for myself what it is that you love about Sakura so much for me. Pretty easy, right?" Naruto's eyes widened in surprise as he realized the weight that the suggestion carried. However, he was a second too late in responding, as Dark Naruto had finally reached where he was. He felt a hand being plunged into his chest, and a slight tinge of pain. His eyes moved weakly to his chest area, and he saw that there was no blood. It was quite logical, actually, since he was in his soul and obviously he could not succumb to physical injuries here. However, he saw something slowly spreading from his chest in all the directions of his body.
It looked like something dark and gooey. There was no wet feeling that came from it as it spread to the rest of his body. Naruto tried resisting a little, but then that voice spoke up again, drowning out his resolve, "Why are you struggling? You know that I'm right about what I said regarding Sakura, so I want to see for myself what it is you like so much about her. It isn't such a bad deal is it?" Naruto slowly felt his limbs growing limb and the voice haunted him in his head. However, just before the dark substance had reached his face and covered his mouth; he shot one last glance at his opponent. Dark Naruto was a bit surprised as he saw the resolve that burned in those cerulean blue eyes, and for a moment he thought that he was about to start resisting again. His lips parted slightly to say the last words that he could as he felt his consciousness slipping away slowly.
"Just, promise not to hurt her, okay?" Naruto requested of the man.
Now it was the turn for Dark Naruto's eyeballs to widen open in surprise. "T-this guy…." He thought to himself. Of all the things he could say in that situation, and he decided to make the man promise that he would not hurt the girl he loved. He smirked a little, and then thought to himself, "This might actually be more interesting than I thought at first." Looking straight into Naruto's fiery eyes, he responded, "The moment that I hurt her in any way I will give this body back to you. But I will interact with her in the way I want. Agreed?"
Naruto nodded weakly, the black substance having reached his eyes by now, and then Dark Naruto snapped his fingers, and Naruto's body immediately got sucked into his. There was no searing pain, since he was not exactly sealing a Tailed Beast into himself, but the impact made him take a few steps back. After he was the last one left standing in the place, he looked at his surroundings and said to himself, "This will be fun."
A/N: There's chapter one guys. It was more of a prologue to a bigger story, so forgive me if it's too short. I promise the other chapters will definitely compensate for this short length. As always, make sure to read and review.