Warning: Rated M for Violence, Sexual themes, implied Drug abuse, Suicidal behavior
This story is inspired by Dread Knight N7's "Father to a blond Hyuga", but will NOT follow storyline. This is Angst/Hurt/Comfort story with Dark themes. It's NOT a remake or adopted fic.
No need to say Timeline, Storyline will divert from Canon.
The Golden Fox and its Kit
Naruto's Return
"So Peace has finally deemed himself to arrive?"
Nagato asked, with a slight smirk. His body, linked to the Chakra transmitter, ached all over the loss of his Six Paths-
Especially the last one. The one he made with Yahiko's body.
He had put too much effort to make his friend's reminiscent remains perfect, powerful, Godlike; and still, somehow the Jinchuuriki of Kyubi managed to defeat him.
It was a joke. A horrible, laughable, joke that for reasons Nagato couldn't comprehend seemed to be reality.
"Are you the one behind all the attacks?" The vessel asked, "The real one?"
Ah. So the Jinchuuriki did suspect something and released the Chakra-pulse on purpose. Nagato had wondered if it had been just a fluke or if the Jinchuuriki actually knew infusing Chakra into the receiver would lead where Konan and Nagato stayed hidden. Now he had the answer. And he knew somehow, all of this was Jiraiya's doing.
Although there was something else that prodded his curiosity.
"Are you related to the Yondaime Hokage Uzumaki Naruto?"
Because even though the boy had been Jiraiya's most recent apprentice, the Jutsus he had used to fight the Six Paths were not strictly limited to the Toad Sage's usual arsenal. Now, Nagato remembered clearly, he was almost sure he had seen the Jinchuuriki use not only the Rasengan, but also combat seals including the Hiraishin. At the time the boy had managed to appear directly behind Deva Path, the body of Yahiko, Nagato had simply thought it to be a highly advanced Body Flicker Technique.
But no.
The Shinra Tensei he had performed repelled all kind of Ninjutsu and physical attacks. There was simply no way the Jinchuuriki could have reached Deva Path in 5 seconds in that distance. Unless the boy already planted the Yellow Flash's notorious marking kunai and simply teleported behind him.
The expression the Jinchuuriki wore to Nagato's question was answer enough.
"He was my father." The blond replied with a shrug, "Uzumaki was my mother's family name."
So was his, Nagato absent mindly thought for a second, but didn't wish to linger on that fact. Instead he grimaced and sneered at the boy who became a human sacrifice in the hands of his own flesh and blood.
"As I thought. You Shinobi of Konoha are simply disgusting. Always talking big about peace and truce, but in the end you show your true face. Nothing more than ignorant hypocrisy, egoistic betrayal. Just look at you Uzumaki Naruto,"
Nagato smirked condescendingly,
"You, the son of the famous Yondaime Hokage, sacrificed by the hands of your own father, branded as a demon, beaten, hated, despised by the whole village...and instead of protecting you as best as they could, they simply deliver the Jinchuuriki on silver platter-or did Jiraiya stuff your head with too much of his delusional heroism? Is that why you came to fight me alone?"
"SHUT UP! The only backstabbing bastard here is you!" the Jinchuuriki suddenly yelled, clearly shaken in turmoil of anger. Nagato could see the blaze in those brilliant blue eyes, nothing innocent but burning in absolute pain - he berated himself not realizing the vessel's connection with Namikaze Minato before, the semblance was uncanny. Granted, he had only seen the man once from far but it still left an imprint, like most powerful shinobi did. Especially those azure eyes were exactly the same, the same brilliant shade, but also because like his father's those eyes didn't belong to a naive child playing hero, but to a veteran warrior who had enough his share of war.
Pain. That was what everything was about, wasn't it? The pain of losing someone special, the pain that everlasts?
"Ah, I see you are hurt because of Jiraiya," Nagato mused aloud after a second and twitched his lips just to irritate, "Yes. Something we have in common. Our good old sensei, wasn't he?"
The blond Jinchuuriki seethed in fury at the careless mention of a possible 'link' they might or might nor have in his sensei. Nagato realized how the boy's fist twitched every time he mentioned their teacher's name. A very sore point, indeed.
"Why did you do it?" The Jinchuuriki finally chocked out and Nagato just cocked an eyebrow as best as he could with his rather paralysed face structure.
"Aren't you going to revenge his death? Isn't that the reason you came out of your hiding place?" The red haired man asked instead.
"Surely you must hate me. Now that you see me before you...I saw the bloodlust in your veins. There are not many who can emit that kind of killer intent-I believed it to be the Kyuubi but now I must correct my former observation. It was you. You want your revenge, don't you?"
Naruto gritted his teeth but after deep breath still managed to keep his calm. Konan tensed as she watched the boy, always protective of her last friend.
"If you kill Nagato and get your revenge, that won't change anything," she said, unable to hold back.
"Don't tell me what will and what will not be!" the Jinchuuriki snapped menacingly.
The Akatsuki members could feel his fury physically slicing their skin. For a brief moment Nagato thought that the Kyuubi would come free;
but before the malicious Chakra forced them to attack, the Jinchuuriki again focused his gaze to the red haired man. His whiskermarks had gone feral, his claws now drawing blood from breaking own skin, but still he didn't lounge to bring the last blow.
"I want to know why," the Jinchuuriki all but growled, "Tell me."
"Why I killed him?"
Naruto firmly shook his head once, before his blue eyes bored into the Rinnegan.
"No. Why did you change?"
That was not something Nagato thought the blond would ask. Not really realizing the stunned expression of his opponent Naruto continued to talk.
"I know who you are. Hard to miss with those weird eyes," the blond said in rigid stance, "Ero-Sennin, Jiraiya...He used to tell me stories about you. You and a guy named Yahiko and a girl called Konan. Three students from Ame, someone he thought would become the Child of Prophecy and bring true peace."
Nagato felt the dark blue haired woman next to him stir uncomfortably. Naruto was however too much engulfed in his own thoughts to notice.
"When we fought, you or the orange haired corpse talked about peace you wish to bring by inflicting pain. Why do you even bother? You killed Jiraiya, the one who taught you the meaning of peace in the first place. You murdered half of my village, you destroyed my house, my home. With Konoha down, other countries will see this as a chance and start another war. You are a destroyer not a peace bringer. So why do you even bother to justify your war?"
For the first time, Nagato felt anger stirring in his guts. After Yahiko's death the powerful Rinnegan user had never been shaken with emotions, it only had been the matter of his goals, to accomplish it. But now, this seventeen-year-old dared to come and talk about things he couldn't possibly understand? The suffering of a small village trapped between the greed of bigger nations, the endless pain only a war could bring?
"I am not starting the war, that is something that simply lies in human nature," Nagato said trying to regain his calm, "Human beings are ignorant, malicious and egoistic. There cannot be harmony, only fear that stops war-after all, your father knew this well, didn't he? After massacring hundreds of Iwa-nin in one day?"
The Fourth Hokage earned his truce with Iwa after he singlehandedly neutralized the enemy force; it was such a great and yet horrible deed that the Tsuchikage declared defeat although every last one of Iwa hated the Yellow Flash with every fiber of their bodies. Sometimes fear overruled hatred; that was precisely what Nagato hoped he could bring to this world.
The invasion to Konoha, Nagato thought, was no different. In his mind, this was just another step to temporary peace.
"There's nothing you can do. Jiraiya once told me 'When people get hurt, they learn to hate. When people hurt others, they become hated and are racked with guilt. But knowing that pain allows people to be kind. Pain allows people to grow. And how you grow is up to you. You know pain, you think about it, and the answer you find is up to you.' ...Jiraiya hadn't found his answer, but I have," the red haired man finished and looked down to the blond. "Have you?"
When asked during the battle the Jinchuuriki, he hadn't replied. The boy had heard it, Nagato was sure, but more in worry of his fallen comrades and trying to protect the pathetic rest of them, he hadn't given an answer. That was the only reason Konan hadn't already attacked the boy- because Nagato was curious. As a man of power, as lonely survivor, as a student of the Great Toad Sage. He wondered what the other candidate of the Prophecy would say.
Standing in front of his teacher's murderer, Naruto looked thoughtful. He didn't scream he wasn't going to answer to an enemy, he didn't say he would kill Nagato to bring peace to his precious village. The Jinchuuriki actually seemed to ponder about his answer and that made it all the more interesting, although Nagato couldn't imagine it making any difference.
"You said I would want revenge right?" Naruto asked after awhile, "You said that because you realized how much...how much Jiraiya meant to me."
Nagato didn't answer but the Jinchuuriki didn't care and went on.
"I never had a real father and after everything I went through...he was the only one who could help, who could get through the shell of pain I had created. He taught me what it means to be a true shinobi, but also what it means to be a parent. And do you know what parents first think of when they have a chance to make a difference?" he asked, suddenly there was a glint of fierceness in his eyes. Nagato couldn't fathom its origin and it made him uncomfortable.
"They think about their children's future." Naruto said calmly, answering his own question.
"They think about the happiness their children deserve, they think about all the good things in life their children hopefully can have. That's why I will never stop fighting the likes of you, I will never stop to believe in true peace, the peace Jiraiya believed in."
Then the fierceness went back to something Nagato did know; ire and detest.
"I hate you Nagato. I hate you because you took someone from me who meant so much. I owed him my life and now I will never be able to repay him. And you're right, it fucking hurts. I wish to burn you alive and I wouldn't be a bit sorry."
"Then why don't you?"
Nagato couldn't help but ask, unable to turn his gaze from the blond, who had so much power just boiling inside him but still somehow managed to hold back his killer intent. The azure eyes had turned to bright orange, the pupils crossing their lines. Nagato had never seen anything like this before, the immense power radiating from the Jinchuuriki was breathtaking.
"I will never forgive you. I just can't. Jiraiya, my Godfather, he meant so much to me and he certainly didn't deserve to die by the hand of his former student. ...But I am able to choose the future instead of a lingering past. That's what the Tsuchikage really did, you know. He didn't crumble in fear of my father, because a shinobi would always choose to fight their fears not surrender. No, he chose to have truce because he knew that was the best way his shinobi and their children could have a future. I hate Iwa for my own reasons, but still such decision is something I can understand. You see, people aren't really that much different."
"...Is that your answer? Thinking about the future? Disregarding everything that happened in the past?"
Naruto nodded. Nagato realized the Jinchuuriki was touching his hitai-ate, not the symbol of leaf but the kanji "忍", which meant Shinobi but at the same time enduring. The red-haired man suddenly understood that Naruto had changed the letter on the metal himself, whether as token of his own suffering or to remind himself that a true Shinobi beared pain and still fought his battles.
The blond wasn't dashing out answers because he never witnessed true pain; he was saying it despite. Nagato could only guess what the other had experienced, but from the information he had gathered through the years, it could be anything but bright and happy.
Nagato felt shock.
"How can you believe in it? How can you see the reality and still believe in Jiraiya's words? Is the future that only exists in your mind so much worth?" he whispered more to himself than to anyone else, but the blond Jinchuuriki answered regardless.
"It's not an absolute solution," Naruto said with a collected voice, "There isn't one. You can't change people in one day and you are wrong if you believe one man alone can make that much difference. But the faith Jiraiya had in peace was given to you and my father, and then from my father to me; and one day I will pass it down to my son. So even if I don't succeed, my son will carry the Will to the next generation! It's a long term project, Nagato, but not impossible and surely not delusional. It will happen, I have no doubt."
Nagato watched the boy-no, man- in front of him and acknowledged the truth; Uzumaki Naruto truly believed every word he said. Endured the pain like a true Shinobi and still fought to overcome his fears, believing in a better future. Somehow it reminded him of himself at that age, when Yahiko was still alive and Jiraiya was writing his first novel.
"I just want to protect them. No matter how much pain it causes."
he had said to the man,
"I will lift the curse. If any kind of peace exists, I'll grab hold it and never let it go. I refuse to quit."
Which was so similar and close to what Naruto put his faith in.
"You see, people aren't really that much different."
"They think about their children's future."
"That's why I will never stop fighting the likes of you, I will never stop to believe in true peace, the peace Jiraiya believed in."
"What's important isn't the way to bring peace, but the inner strength to believe that it's possible!"
"One day I will pass it down to my son. So even if I don't succeed, my son will carry the Will to the next generation!"
"It will happen, I have no doubt."
...Naruto was right. He had changed.
And wasn't it just like something Jiraiya would do, making him to realize that by a person whose name was "Naruto", the protagonist in a novel who quoted word for word what once was Nagato's own words?
At that moment Nagato did not see the blond Jinchuuriki, but his younger self, staring in the eyes of the creature he had become.
Was this the reason why he had lost to the blond? Because he lost himself on this road to be eaten by pain?
Nagato, the Rinnegan-wielder, felt for the first time after Yahiko's death, truly lost. He couldn't see his own future as clear as the Jinchuuriki was able to. Because no matter how much he tried to deny it, Uzumaki Naruto was powerful enough to end him here an now. With Konan's ability they would manage to survive, but that wouldn't change the fact they had failed their initial mission. A mission, he was now not sure he wanted to complete at all costs anymore.
"You have a son?"
Nagato asked breaking a long silence. That was not in his knowledge and made him wonder as he had caught the subtle hints. The blond looked startled for a second but soon regained his composture.
"Yes, I have."
He didn't say it with suspicion nor with shame, although Nagato knew he was only seventeen, nearly a child himself. But watching the pride shining in the blue eyes made Nagato forget all the doubt that formed. He was telling the truth, for a shinobi the blond was so honest it was refreshing and startling at the same time.
"You are willing to stop your hatred for his future?" he asked once more and Naruto bit his lips before answering.
"Not only for him, but also because of him. He doesn't know what it means to ache and I'm fine with that."
Nagato closed his eyes. The Chakra exhaustion made it difficult to breath and the long talk didn't do anything to help the condition. But it was worth it, Nagato thought and opened his eyes once more.
"You are like me, but also different. You truly live up to your name don't you Uzumaki Naruto?"
"Naruto isn't Naruto if he loses his faith."
the blond shrugged and watching the slight confusion, he held out a book in his right hand - The Tales of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja. Nagato never read it, but knew the blond was named after it because of Jiraiya, although he had conveniently forgotten about it since he no longer believed in Jiraiya's words.
"You let a book decide your fate?" he tried to sneer, but Naruto just shrugged again not at all offended. Instead there was a warm longing in his eyes, that shimmered even in the darkness.
"The book is a guide Ero-sennin left for me as is my name. Whether I wish to comprehend it or stay ignorant, is my choice."
"...I see."
Nagato said, but he couldn't stop the feeling that, that the book and the shinobi who was trying to live up to its words, was part of his own making; something he himself had dismissed because he couldn't stand feeling his pain.
"I have lost." Nagato said abruptly, "Not to you, Uzumaki Naruto. But to myself."
When the blond didn't open his mouth to retort, Nagato simply continued.
"This doesn't change that peace of big countries is built on the sacrifices of the little countries, or the fact that each mission Konohagakure undertakes funds the war. Ignorance doesn't make one innocent. Your current peace is nothing more than violence towards us."
Nagato once more closed his eyes, but this time not because of fatigue, but because he remembered Jiraiya's last words.
"Rather than guiding the world through pain, I wish you'd risen above your suffering, and used the strength given to you to show the way."
"We haven't spent that much time together...But still, I believed in you."
After all this time, was Jiraiya right?
The Child of Prophecy Jiraiya was meant to lead, the Saviour of the World Yahiko trusted to be in him, and the Faith he himself once held so close...
Nagato opened his eyes and saw his own legacy- believing in a better future.
He knew what he had to do.