I will have what you took from me!
Summary – Some people just can't let go of power. Will you fight for what you believe in?
AN – This just sort of popped into my head and I had to get it down. I know that it's no where close to what really happened, and if the Third Hokage being evil bothers you then don't read. Same goes for if you violently object to the Fourth being Naruto's father.
I took a small break from writing my other story "More than a legend" to write this so I hope that it's good. I always thought that if Chiyo could survive sealing Shukaku in Gaara then the Fourth should have survived as well, being best ninja Konoha ever produced etc don't you think?
Anyway enough blurb that nobody really reads anyway and on with the story…
The sky was red, the burnt colour of blood, his blood, the blood of those dead and dying around him. The young man turned slowly, this couldn't be happening . . .
Two weeks earlier.
Outside the wide window dawn was just breaking over the roofs of Konoha. The first shining rays flooded the room and illuminated the profile of a man, slumped forwards with his head on a desk, fast asleep.
He snored softly; his makeshift pillow of half-completed documents stuck to his cheek, his white coat with red fire embroidered around the base was lying over his shoulders. On the back read the words: "Yondaime Hokage" – Fourth Generation Fire Shadow.
On a futon over the other side of the room lay a fourteen year boy, with an unruly shock of silver hair and a mask over his mouth and chin while a hitai-ate bearing the symbol of the leaf covered his left eye. The boy, small and skinny for his age, was also fast asleep, having passed out from exhaustion several hours earlier than his golden haired sensei.
The door to the room banged open, barely eliciting a stir from either of the rooms occupants, the man who entered sighed, ninja where supposed to be able to react to another's presence at all times, he couldn't have this. Grinning evilly, he crept up to the sleeping mans side and crouched down. He allowed himself one small nostalgic smile at the sight of his sleeping ex-student before filling his lungs with air and screaming "BOO!" into the mans ear.
The man leapt into the air and immediately turned in the direction of the most evil cackle ever. The white haired man hastily dodged the well-aimed paper-weight thrown in his direction which shattered on the wall behind him.
"Good morning," he chirped.
The golden haired man sent him a death glare before turning to the futon and the young boy. "Kakashi? Where you here all night?"
The boy, having woken up at the yell, simply nodded once before stating, "You too."
The man glanced down at his desk, before sheepishly reaching up and peeling a document off his cheek. "Oops."
Kakashi rolled his visible eye in his sensei's direction before sliding gracefully off the futon and coming over to stand next to the desk.
The white haired man chuckled, "Ah well brat can't win 'em all."
The golden haired man grinned and wiped the traces of ink the document had left off his cheek. "Yeah, you'd know a lot about that, right Jiraiya-sensei?"
Jiraiya simply smiled beatifically.
"Sensei," Kakashi said hesitantly, occasionally the man could be a little strange, and there where indicators that this was going to be one of those times. Kakashi trusted the man with his life and would follow any order to the death, on the battle field or off, but that didn't mean that the older man was entirely all there. So Kakashi watched his sensei subtly out of his stormy grey eye and tensed the muscles of his leg to make a run for it if it turned out that this was one of those times.
"Yes Kakashi?"
"Are there any missions today?"
The young man shook his head, hair falling into his eyes slightly with the movement. "No not today, or not yet at least. You should go eat something; I'll let you know if something comes up." Reaching out, the man ruffled the boys' untidy hair before Kakashi nodded and excused himself.
The young Hokage smiled sadly as he watched the boy leave. Sighing he turned to his sensei, one of the legendary Sannin, noticing that the older mans expression had become concerned at the look on his blonde students face. "He's been withdrawn ever since the war, not that I blame him, losing Obito and Rin."
Jiraiya looked at him, the mans brilliant blue eyes spoke volumes of the pain and sadness he was feeling, both at losing two of his students and at the pain of the one he had left. "Sometimes they just need time," he offered reassuringly.
The Yondaime smiled at him, grateful for the comforting words, although, the Sannin noticed, his smile didn't reach his eyes.
As he struggled for something to say the door banged open and a ninja rushed in waving a scroll frantically. A few feet inside the door the man stopped, flushing bright red as he noticed the occupants staring at him.
"F- Forgive me Lord Hokage, b but you need to see this."
The Yondaime waved him in, advancing nervously to the desk the ninja dropped the scroll and shuffled back a few paces, hesitant under the gazes of two of the most powerful ninja in the country.
The Yondaime picked up the scroll and unfurled it, after quickly scanning it he looked sharply at the man before him. "Is this true?"
Jiraiya reached wordlessly for the scroll.
"Y Yes sir."
Jiraiya's eyes narrowed as he read the report. "A giant nine-tailed fox? Heading this way?"
This just wasn't real, there was no way. It had to be an enemy genjutsu, mustering his dangerously depleted chakra reserves; he formed the hand-seal and murmured "Kai."
When nothing changed he paled further and a mocking laugh sounded.
One week earlier.
Over the past week reports had flooded in, all about this fox and the destruction it was wreaking as it quite literally cleared a path to the village hidden in the leaves.
The young Hokage had sent out countless ANBU teams to try and help but so far none had returned, and the body count rose.
Jiraiya-sensei had told him that the fox was a demon, a being of limitless chakra. One of the nine biiju, the strongest. The young man smiled bitterly, well of course.
Jiraiya himself had become worried about his ex-student. The boy may have surpassed him in rank but he was only 21 and these burdens where weighing heavily on his once proud shoulders. His handsome face was becoming deeply lined and his golden hair was practically standing straight, well more than normal, with the amount of times he had run his hands through it in sheer frustration at his helplessness in the situation.
Kakashi too was worried, although he didn't show it, and his sensei didn't know he knew, the young ANBU was fully aware that the Hokage was neither eating nor sleeping, at this rate he was going to collapse.
Eleven days after the first report had come in the Professor had entered the Hokages office. Kakashi had been standing on the ledge outside the window trying to see how long he could successfully mask his chakra before his sensei noticed him, but as the door opened he ducked down out of sight and listened to the ensuing conversation between the Fourth Hokage and his retired predecessor, the Third Hokage.
"How are you holding up?"
Kakashi could sense his sensei's smile, the man had been training him since he was five and he had come to know his sensei at least as well as himself. "I'm okay, just trying to think of any way to help the villages."
"You look tired," the old man had said bluntly, Kakashi could have cheered, finally someone said it. "Maybe you should take a break." At that, however, Kakashi frowned, take a break? With this going on? What was the old man thinking?
Apparently his sensei was thinking along the same lines, "I don't think that would be a good idea, Sarutobi-sama."
"I'll cover for you."
"Thank you for the offer, but no, I have a duty to the people of Fire country, I can't just take a break any time a situation becomes stressful."
Kakashi heard the door close; there had not been a word of goodbye said. "Okay Kakashi you can come out now."
Kakashi grimaced through his mask before climbing into the room through the window to find his sensei looking at him amusedly. Kakashi shrugged, so his technique needed work.
"What was that about sensei?"
The Yondaime frowned, "I'm not sure, keep this to yourself though, just in case . . . "
As Kakashi opened his mouth to ask in case of what, a ninja skidded into the room. The Yondaime and his student looked up startled. "What is it?"
"Lord Hokage-sama, the demon-fox sir, its only two days away from the village."
Goose bumps rose on his skin, and he shivered, swaying heavily from severe chakra loss and exhaustion. The technique had taken its toll and he knew that he didn't have the strength to fight.
The screams of the dying faded, until there remained him, the baby, the dead and the man in front of him.
Two days earlier.
The Yellow Flash of Konoha. That was what they had called him. A title gained from a technique he had developed that allowed him to move at such speed that all an onlooker would see was a flash of yellow light after he moved for he travelled faster that the light. That and his blonde hair. The beauty of his technique though was that it didn't just have to be channelled thought the legs to run at amazing speed. It could, say, be channelled though the hands to increase the speed of hand seals. The Yondaime looked down at his list of a thousand hand seals to be performed in rapid succession and hoped it would be enough.
But of course it wouldn't be. The young man felt sick with the task that stretched out before him, he knew what he had to do, he just hoped that they would forgive him.
He suddenly laughed, some idiot he felt, he shifted the weight of the baby he had been holding in the crook of his arm back into the centre and smiled at the figure before him brandishing a kunai.
"No need for that any more, it's over," he said triumphantly.
One day earlier.
"Wake up!"
A screech in his ear violently roused him from the first sleep he'd gotten in weeks. The Yondaime rolled over to be faced with his wife looking as though she was going to have heart failure. "Wass'up?" apparently his brain hadn't quite caught up with his eyes yet.
"The babies coming you dumb fuck!"
SHIT! Of all the times to happen, he thought distractedly as he rolled out of bed and hopped around searching for any semblance of clothes. The baby wasn't due for weeks yet, which is the only reason his wife was anywhere near the village right now. She had refused to be evacuated although had grudgingly agreed to stay in the safe house inside the stone head monument.
But today of all days was the day that the fox would arrive outside the gates, if the reports of the scouts that had managed to return where to be believed. Finally dressed he hurried over to the bed and helped his wife to stand grabbing the "baby" bag from the floor he walked her slowly to the hospital.
The hour was early and the streets had been empty, all ninja where gathered at the walls, waiting, while the civilians who could not or would not be moved where probably asleep or at least faking it. The hospital however, was always open and his status as village leader would have guaranteed access even if it weren't. Passing through the doors, the hairs on the back of the young mans neck rose as he felt someone watching them, but as his wife gave another pained groan as a contraction ripped through her he banished it from his mind.
"It's over," the other repeated in a calm voice the young man had been hearing since his early childhood. "Yes, you're right."
Suddenly another was on the scene, shock of grey hair streaked with red, clothes covered in blood. "Sensei," he screamed, "Get out of here."
Six hours earlier.
The fox was huge, towering over the height of the walls, fur a deep red like its eyes, sharp fangs and claws gleamed and nine powerful tails toppled mountains and levelled forests with every swing.
Rank upon rank of ninja had lined up a mile from Konoha in an attempt to hold the fox back from the village. The front line had been obliterated in a matter of seconds. The screams barely registering before the demon fell upon the second line which held out only slightly longer. The third line retreated and joined up with the fourth line where they held the fox back as around them the number of dead and dying increased.
Jiraiya was in that line, fighting with tooth and nail just to stay alive, he was looking out for Kakashi as best he could, but within minutes chaos ruled and the powerful Sannin barely knew where he was let alone anyone else. The ninja next to him was ripped apart by a blow that he could not entirely avoid and his shoulder and left arm exploded with pain.
Kakashi had lost sight of the Sannin pretty quickly and knowing that he was on his own had pulled up his hitai-ate to expose the sharingan in his left eye.
"Come on cry-baby," he whispered as the eye burned and watered, "don't quit on me now."
"Kakashi? What…?"
The man in front of him had whirled and thrown his kunai straight at the boy. A shower of blood flew and Kakashi hit the ground.
Four hours earlier.
The lines had been forced to retreat, the fox was too powerful. It was now right outside the walls, or what was left of them, the surrounding village was in pieces, debris was everywhere, fires were starting and quickly spreading fuelled by despair. The death count was massive, and the only thing that spilled from their lips, apart from screams, was one question, "Where is the Fourth?"
The hospital was on fire, smoke was filling what parts of the building the flames hadn't yet reached, yet the maternity ward was oddly unaffected, calm even. Those who remained struggled to get a panicking young woman through her first birth while her husband looked on, clearly torn between a desire to stay with her and to protect the village.
One final heave and the sound of wailing filled the air as a tiny baby boy with his fathers' blonde hair and blue eyes entered the world. His mother fell back exhausted and his father pressed a kiss to her sweaty brow murmuring endearments as he pushed her hair back from her eyes.
"He's healthy," one of the doctors proclaimed a moment later cutting the umbilical cord.
The young mans grin lit up the room, as a nurse handed the baby to his mother, "What are you going to call him?" she asked.
"Naruto," the new mother replied tiredly.
The Yondaime stroked the baby's tiny forehead tenderly. "He's perfect," he whispered.
"Now go," his wife told him fiercely.
"But . . ."
"Go and save your people, I'll be fine."
The Yondaime looked at her and nodded once before kissing her swiftly and leaping out of the sixth story window.
The young woman watched him leave with tears in her eyes and fought back the waves of agony gripping her, she hated lying to him.
The doctor looked at the dying woman and thought that he had never seen a braver person.
The young man stared, unable to comprehend what was happening. As the events registered he bared his teeth and snarled. Gently laying the baby on the ground, he took a step forwards and almost overbalanced.
He couldn't win.
Two hours earlier.
A massive shout rose from the ranks as the Fourth Hokage appeared on the battle scene. Quickly assessing the dame the young man began issuing orders as he prepared to take on the demon.
Several tentative attacks later it became apparent that the fox was all but indestructible. The Yondaime landed on the ground just inside the walls after a failed attack on the fox to be met by a slap on the shoulder from his sensei whose right arm dangled uselessly by his side. "Sensei, you're alright."
"Of course I am brat."
"Where's Kakashi?"
"I'm not sure, we lost each other, I'm sorry kid but I haven't seen him in awhile."
The Yondaime blinked back furious tears at the implications behind that, all his students where gone. He had failed to protect them all. "Sensei, I need you to cover my back while I dash to the hospital."
"I hate to tell you this whelp, but the hospitals gone."
The young man spun around and sure enough the hospital had collapsed in on itself from the fire and falling rubble. He raced with all speed to the site leaving his sensei staring after him bemusedly. Tears flowing freely down his cheeks he dug through the rubble, shifting massive blocks of concrete and timber frames. After several long minutes he heard the faint sound of a baby crying. Sending chakra to his arms he braced himself and heaved a boulder weighing at least a tonne out of his way in his desperation and fear.
There in a small bubble lay Naruto, the babies wails now as clear as day, he had not been harmed. The Yondaime reached in and pulled his son to safety, cradling the baby close he wept with the knowledge that everyone else in the hospital could not have survived. That the carnage had claimed the doctors and nurses, that the number of dead had risen to include his wife.
The young man looked at his son and offered a silent prayer for what he was about to do, "Forgive me, I had never planned to use Naruto, but now there is no other way."
The man in front of him had readied another kunai, the Yondaime reached for his own weapons pouch only to realise it wasn't there."Why Professor?" he choked out.
Thirty minutes earlier.
Holding the baby, his son, the Yondaime sprinted back into battle. Summoning Gamabunta as he neared the site he stood tall on the massive toads head. Gamabunta's eyes narrowed, "Well kid, let's take that fox bastard down," the toad leapt forwards, his momentum carrying him to within a hundred paces of the demon.
The Fourth Hokage looked full into the face of hell and felt no fear, he looked down at the seal he had drawn on his son's stomach and felt as though he couldn't breathe. Dimly he was aware of Jiraiya racing to the toads' side, calling his name, before a swipe of a fox tail sent him soaring backwards.
The fox opened its jaws and roared, the power of its voice bringing yet more of the walls crashing down. The Fourth Hokage knelt on Gamabuntas' back laying his son down before him. He summoned chakra to his hands and flew through the thousand seals of a demon sealing technique. The fox lunged for him, tails whipping through the air like knives.
Behind the Yondaime the enormous form of the death God rose and impaled the charging fox on his sword. The demon screamed and in that scream the young man heard untold eons of endless pain and suffering before the foxes form began to dissolve. The atoms of the demon spiralled down to be absorbed into the body of his son through the seal and with a jolt the Yondaime realised that his own chakra was powering the technique. He only hoped it wouldn't give out until it was over.
The Third Hokage simply looked at him, "Because you are everything I ever wanted to be."
The Fourth swayed and again took a step towards his fallen student.
"Why?" he asked again, tears running down his cheeks.
"Because you took everything from me, and I want it back."
The older man lunged towards the Fourth Hokage, kunai outstretched, all reason gone from his eyes.
The baby screamed.
Two minutes earlier.
The Fourth Hokage slid from his toad summons back, with his son in his arms. He landed in a sea of blood and friends and fought back a retch. His chakra was almost gone, his vision was blurry, his limbs where shaking. With a rumble Gamabunta disappeared.
The young man looked down at the baby, "We did it, you little hero," he whispered tiredly. The baby cooed.
"Yes you did," said a voice from behind him. The Yondaime slowly turned to see his predecessor standing before him covered in blood, with a kunai held ready to attack.
The Fourth Hokage so weak now, fell to his knees as the Third drew back his kunai. Unable to lift an arm to defend himself, the kunai made contact with a flash of blood.
A trickle of blood fell from the young mans mouth as he fell backwards, his throat slashed. As his soul departed this world his last thoughts where of his son, and how he hoped he would be seen as the hero he truly was, of his village, how ashamed he was for letting them down, and of his wife, and how he hoped that they would soon meet again.
One minute later.
"I will have what you took from me, Fourth Hokage."
End
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