Hey everyone, Chicken's back with a brand new story. This one is also about Naruto dying, but hey, read it, he doesn't just die. I won't give away any plot. And people, please tell me if my story sucks or needs correcting, because for once, I've found an actual story that I really enjoyed writing, and I mean enjoyed. Because for once, I'm actually adding a named OC, and I rather like the little guy (snicker). This OC also happens to be loosely based on me, the author, and what I would be, and what I'd like to be, in anime, or real life. And any further stories I write will also show appearances of me and this character.

Lee: YOSH! Your youthful exuberance shows again, youthful Chicken! We await your excellent stories!

Gai: LEE! Another youthful idea! Let's sell his stories on E-bay, like we did with his house, and his family, and his dog, and his cat, and his chickens, ducks, turkeys, Game Cube, PS2, Xbox, computer, laptop, soul, elves, trees, cars, countries, board game, 2 trolls and an orc! I can't believe how much stuff we've sold of his! All we haven't sold is the clothes off his back and that 24 karat diamond kitchen sink of his.

(They both throw mischievous glances at me)

Chicken: Ohhh no… not the sink, anything but the sink! Take my clothes! Take 'em! Here's my shirt, my pants, my socks, EVERYTHING! Just leave me the sink!

(As I lay there naked, a thought comes to me)

Chicken: I'll just go kill a yak, and all my troubles'll be over… clothes, diamond sink, high-protein milk… yeah, life is good.

And so, ON WITH THE FICTION AND PLEASE READ ALL THE WAY THROUGH!

It had been five years. Five long years, and tonight was the anniversary of Naruto's death. Everyone in the village gathered around the Naruto Memorial, located on top of the Hokage Mountain. Naruto had long ago earned their respect by not only single handedly destroying the Akatsuki, nearly killing himself in the process, and somehow returning Shukaku to Sabaku no Gaara. The biggest thing to earn their respect and gratitude though, was returning Sasuke to Konoha, and after they had heard what had happened to Naruto that fateful day, their respect for him grew.

Then, and then, oh the heroic deed that he did. Sacrificing himself to not only save Konoha, but all of the other countries as well, by destroying the demi-god that Orochimaru had become.

All of his friends stood at the front of the gigantic crowds, always surprised that every year, the people who once hated him, despised him, spat on him, would come to the memorial to mourn.

The great bon-fire that roared 30 feet in the air, lit up the smiling visage of the fifty foot tall statue. They had carved it in the form of Naruto standing, holding a bowl of ramen, scratching the back of his head while holding onto a pair of chopsticks. And another part of the statue, that not all of the younger generation fully understood it's significance, was the nine-tailed fox that wrapped itself around his feet.

Konohamaru sighed, hugging Hanabi tighter to his chest as she cried. Ever since his death, Konohamaru had matured from the short, annoying, hero-worshipping honorable grandson into the taller, braver, hero-worshipping Jonin that he was now. He had started dating Hanabi when they were fifteen. Though she had seemed almost reluctant to date him, she realized that he was one of the only people to actually appreciate her, not just her skills. She looked up from his soaked shirt, and threw a glance at Sakura, who was being held by Lee, who in turn was being held by Gai.

As disturbing as the sight of two grown men holding each other, wearing green spandex no less, she couldn't help but feel a little pity for Sakura. She had taken it the hardest. Once Naruto had given up his child-like crush on her, they became closer then they had ever been, being almost better than brother and sister.

Though of course Sakura wondered what had taken Naruto's attention away from her, and had told him this herself, and in front of a large group of people, mostly Hyuugas. Naruto had blushed, stuttered, stalled, diverted, eluded, and just plain avoided an answer, until Sakura grew irritated enough to beat it out of him. It was then that Naruto embarrassedly confessed to be secretly dating Hinata. Fortunately, the Hyuugas had been of the branch family, and became only moderately psychotic at this confession. Neji had stood up, cracking his knuckles, and declared that Naruto had to "prove that he was worthy". Naruto had proved it, and proved it well. Unfortunately, he still had half of the branch family utterly pissed at him, and was schooled utterly and completely. Hanabi gave a slight smile, remembering that day when she had walked into the large restaurant that was near the Hyuuga compound, finding a small crowd of branch Hyuugas standing around a half-dead Naruto. Hanabi hadn't found out the reason for the beating until a year after, when Naruto had walked up to Hyuuga Hiashi, and asked him for Hinata's hand in marriage. Hiashi, however, felt that his daughter marrying jinchuuriki scum was beneath the Main house, and promptly told him so. Naruto had asked again a year later. Hiashi turned him down again, and the process was repeated several times over several years until Hiashi finally decided that they could be married on one condition, that he was able to beat Hiashi. Naruto and Hinata were twenty when they announced their engagement.

Speaking of her sister, Hanabi looked around, trying to find her. They too had grown closer over the years. Not finding her from her position wrapped around Konohamaru, she let go, and began walking around, trying to find her quiet sister. She always, always came here, especially today of all days.

"Hanabi-Chan, what are you doing?" Konohamaru asked, grasping Hanabi's hand as she searched the clearing around the statue, looking into the crowd here and there, seeing pairs of white eyes here and there, but never the right ones.

"Hinata-neechan isn't here." Hanabi said, growing more worried. She walked over to Sakura, and told her the problem. Sakura became as worried as Hanabi and gathered up the former Rookie 9 to help. Whispers ran through the crowd as everyone wondered where Hinata was.

Hinata however, was not even in the crowd. In fact, she wasn't even on the mountain. She was sitting in Naruto's old apartment, which was now hers, looking in the bathroom mirror, contemplating her life. She was supposed to be married four years ago. She and Naruto had been planned there marriage to be on Hinata's twenty-third birthday. The wedding never came. All because of the snake. She had been there; she had watched her love die. Tears coalesced in her eyes as she looked at herself, remembering what had happened that day…

"What are you doing, foolish boy?" Orochimaru said, grinning, as Naruto clamped onto his back. Naruto wrapped his arms under the sannin's and behind his head, putting Orochimaru into a Full Nelson.

"I'm killing you." Naruto said grimly, as a red chakra began to engulf them.

"Ha. I'd like to see you try, boy." The Snake Sanin said, his wicked smirk growing wider. But fear entered his eyes, as his super-human strength could not break the fox's hold. He attempted to wrap his tongue around Naruto's neck, but it was engulfed and burned away by the demonic chakra.

His fear became terror as he felt a change come over his captor. He heard clothing tear, as all of the sudden he was lifted off the ground. A reddish snout protruded from the boy behind him as dark red fur began to cover his body. Orochimaru watched the fur rise from the boy's arms, tightening their clamp on his shoulders as his muscle mass increased too. He felt stabbing pain as the hands on the back of his head transformed into claws. Nine tails suddenly wrapped themselves around the Sanin's body, making Naruto's hold even greater, rendering Orochimaru almost completely immobile. Orochimaru could feel the claws on the back of his head move, forming hand signs painstakingly slow.

"Wha… What are you doing fool!" Orochimaru screamed at Naruto, his tongue regenerating.

"I told you. I'm killing you, permanently." The now fully-transformed demon vessel growled. After two minutes of slow, slow hand signs, his hands finally stopped on the Sign of the Tiger. Orochimaru, recognizing the hand signs and realizing what Naruto was about to do, he laughed.

"Fool! You can't kill a god! And if you use that kinjutsu and somehow do manage to kill me, you're dying too!"

"I know." He said grimly, as he opened his fox-like maw. He clamped down on the back of Orochimaru's neck, making him howl in pain. Through the snake's hair, he muffled…

"HOKAGE NO JUTSU!" (Fire Shadow Technique)

Orochimaru screamed as both he and Naruto were engulfed in a ball of flames. The ball began to shrink, making him scream even more, as they were compressed into a meter-diameter ball. The ball exploded in a bright flash of light, consuming the room and half of the Snake Sannin's hidden Otogakure Compound in a gigantic pillar of fire, stretching far into the sky, visible from Suna and Konohagakure. After the flash, the sound of the explosion followed.

Gaara had been feeling a familiar chakra building for the last few minutes, and he began to search through the compound, crushing and blowing away any sound-nins that got his way. He felt the familiar chakra growing still, when he realized that it was youki, demonic energy. Only one other person in this compound could possibly posses this powerful of youki, in these almost impossibly large amounts… Naruto! Gaara was about to start running, when…

BOOOOM! Gaara, Hinata, Shikamaru, and Sakura, and a small force from Konoha, all fell, being in different parts of the non-destroyed compound. Gaara, embarrassed at being knocked off of his feet, blew through a wall with his sand, trying to find the source of the explosion. He noticed the disappearance of the Kyuubi's chakra, and he couldn't find Naruto's chakra anywhere. He blew through several more walls, passing some extremely surprised sound-nins, a small group of Konoha-nin, Sakura, and a room full of computers and T.V. screens. After six or more so walls, he finally broke through the final wall, and came across the smoldering ruins that were the other half of Orochimaru's compound.

The sheer force of the explosion had blown out the flames, but there was still an insane amount of heat being given off, enough to where Gaara's searching sands where glassed as they passed over. He felt a presence next to him.

Hinata was kneeling next to him, a look of desolation and hopelessness as she looked at the scene before her, realizing what Naruto had done.

"What happened?" She whispered, her lips barely moving, tears beginning to run down her face. Gaara looked down at her; an unfamiliar feeling of pity began to grow in his chest as he watched the girl next to him.

"What happened!" She said, looking at Gaara, pleading him to tell her that what lay in front of was a lie. He just looked down at her, the feeling of pity growing.

"What happened to my fiancé, dammit!" Hinata screamed, pounding on his leg. This surprised Gaara, surprised him so much that his sand didn't even move. He just let her kneel there punching his leg, tears streaming down her face as she screamed.

"Dear god in heaven." Came a voice behind them. They both turned to face Shikamaru, who was standing in the hole in the wall behind them. They could see both Sound and Leaf nins standing behind him, vying for a better position to see what had happened.

"What is it? What happened?" they could here Sakura's voice behind the crowd. Gaara watched as a pink head of hair began to force itself through the crowd, then underneath Shikamaru's arm. A look of horror crossed her face at what she saw.

Hinata punched Gaara's leg again. "I want to know what happened!" She screamed at him. She broke down crying as she began to throw half-hearted punches at Gaara's leg again. Gaara quickly became fed up with this, as he grabbed her wrists, and yanked her into an upright position. She looked up into his cold green eyes. She was about to say something, when Shikamaru interjected with a thought of his own.

"I believe we passed the security room somewhere back through these holes. If the remaining shinobi from Otogakure would be so kind as to show us there, we might let them live." The sound-nins heard this, and listened, not wanting to face the wrath of the Leaf shinobi any more. They all backtracked through a couple of walls, when they came across the room with all of the TV's and computers. They argued among themselves for a bit, and then one shinobi stepped up to a large computer that was hooked up to an even larger television. He sat down in front of it, and began to click things on the screen. They heard him mutter "Got it" and then he clicked the "Display on Second Screen" button.

What they saw and heard was unbelievable as they watched Naruto put Orochimaru into a standing Full Nelson, and then proceed to transform into a nine-tailed half-fox. They watched as they compressed into the tiny ball, and they saw a bright flash of light. There was nothing after that, the camera had been destroyed in the explosion.

They stared at the screen in awe, tears streaming down Hinata and Sakura's faces as they began to cry. Shikamaru, his face set into emotionless neutrality, told the nin at the computer to make a copy of that on a tape or disk. After a few minutes, the nin presented him with a tape of the entire happening, and even a few extras that showed the whole day and all of what had transpired inside the compound. They even had some external shots of the explosion from some cameras outside of the compound.

After three day's travel, they arrived back at Konoha. They took so long because Hinata was exhausted, emotionally and physically, and was reluctant to move at all. Fortunately, they did finally get her moving, after telling her that Naruto wouldn't want her to sit around and mope. She still traveled slowly though, and the large combination group of Sound and Leaf nin didn't help all that much

When they got back, they were immediately shuffled into the Hokage's office, sound and all.

Hinata remembered the look on Tsunade's face as she looked at the motley crew of ninja stood in front of her, covered in soot, smudged in dirt, and burns and scrapes of varying degrees. When Tsunade realized that some of the ninja in front of her were from Sound, she nearly went berserk, but after the situation was explained, she calmed down. Hinata could also recall watching Tsunade's face as she watched Naruto's last moments, rewound it, then watched it again. The look of utter desolation stood out in her Hokage's eyes. She remembered being told to leave and tell no one what had happened, and that the sound-nin to remain in the office. She had gone home, and completely broke down, locking herself in her room for three days. After that, it was followed by emotional breakdowns and severe depression, and unable to be able to tell anyone, not even her sister or father that her fiancé was dead, no one could comfort her, because they didn't know what the problem was.

Hinata remembered the day the statue was commemorated, and the speech that Tsunade had given in memory of Naruto. It had started…

"Konoha, today is a day to celebrate! Orochimaru is dead!" It had been followed by an impossibly loud cheer. After a few minutes, the cheers began to die down, and she continued, "But today is also a day to mourn, for one week ago, Naruto sacrificed himself to kill Orochimaru." A hush fell over the crowd. No one had expected this. Naruto's friends, besides Hinata, Sakura, Shikamaru, and Gaara, all stared in shock at Tsunade. That's when Tsunade hit the play button for the giant screen behind her, showing the entire crowd what had happened. There was a collective gasp throughout the crowd as they watched Naruto transform into his nine-tailed fox form, and most of the crowd gave a shout as they saw Naruto and Orochimaru become a small ball, followed by a bright flash, and then it showed the explosion from outside. After the crowd had settled down, Tsunade had unveiled the 50 foot tall Naruto statue, which had made a couple of people laugh, actually.

Of course, for the next few weeks she had received sympathy letters, "I'm sorry"s from her friends, and surprisingly, a lot of support from her family. But no one could understand what she was going through, though their help did make her feel better.

Hinata walked out of the bathroom as her trip down memory lane had made her depressed, and went over to the now immaculately clean kitchen. She was glad that the owners of the apartment complex hadn't complained when she moved in after Naruto's death. She couldn't stand not being near things that reminded her of him. She also didn't pack much, because most of her clothing was already here. Hinata blushed, thinking that thought had sounded inappropriate. She imagined Sakura or Ino giving her a mischievous glance as they had their own interpretations of it. She and Naruto had never done anything of the sort! Yes, they cuddled a lot, and slept in the same bed, and (Hinata blushed at this) had done some very suggestive kissing, but they had never, ever, had done it! Sure, they had been tempted a few times when they had shared baths together, and they both really wanted to, but they had agreed that they would do nothing until after the wedding.

Tears came to Hinata's eyes as she remembered that she would never be married. She new in her head that she should move on, because Naruto wouldn't want her to sit and mourn his passing forever, clinging to him even though he was gone. He would want her to be happy and find a new love.

She sighed, tears streaming down her face as she headed down the hallway towards the bedroom. She walked in and over to the dresser, where a myriad of pictures, ranging from Naruto's graduation as a genin (he even had the picture where he was wearing the body paint), to the Rookie Nine all standing in a group picture. She laughed at the picture of him and Rock Lee doing a "good guy" pose. She picked up a picture of her and Naruto kissing. She smiled as she remembered that day, the day where Naruto had announced their engagement to the world. A small picture had fallen out of it when she picked it up.

Hinata stared curiously at the picture, then blushed as she realized what it was. Somehow, without her knowledge, he had obtained a picture of her at the beach, wearing an extremely skimpy two piece, showing more than hiding her rather large assets. She sighed, and set down the picture, opening one of the drawers on the dresser. She pulled out a pair of lavender silk pajamas. She put them on, then threw herself onto the bed. She crawled under the sheets, and snuggled her favorite pillow, which was bright orange with a bowl of ramen on the pillow case. It had been Naruto's favorite pillow too, and they would often get into large pillow fights over this pillow.

Tears began to stream down her face as she cried herself to sleep, a smile on her face as she remembered the blonde-haired goof that she had been in love with.

Early the next morning, outside Konoha

The birds chirped cheerily in salutation to the sun. A light mist had begun to form low to the forest floor as the dew began to evaporate. A small green locust began to stretch it's legs as it prepared for a long jump to the small bush that was across the path that led through the forest. The grasshopper, crouched preparing to jump when Crunch!, a large paw stepped on it. The paw was white, and the size of a man's hand. The paw led to a large leg, which led to an even larger body, the body of a huge fox, as big, if not bigger, than Akamaru. The fox had a conspicuous red spiral on it's forehead. Perched upon it was a man in a bright white cloak, his face hidden by shadows.

Next to the rider and his mount walked a samurai. The samurai was short, only about five feet tall, and his thick blonde hair made him even taller. Sticking almost straight up, his hair tacked on another six inches to the man's height. He wore a white/beige kimono, with a large black and red fox design on his back. At his side, he wore a wakizashi and a flask. On the opposite side, he had a tanto and a small pouch. Strapped to his back, the samurai had a huge dai-katana; the blade was longer than him. His hands were mostly covered by the sleeves of his kimono. He reached up to scratch his cheek, revealing leather arm-guards with steel plating.

The three stepped out of the woods, and saw the walls of Konoha less than a quarter of a mile in front of them, two guard towers on either side of the large gate in the middle of the wall. A small grass snake slithered across the path in front of the fox. The large fox reacted quickly, pouncing on, then devouring the small snake. The rider shivered in disgust.

"Have I ever told you how much I hate snakes, Tetsu?" He said, addressing the samurai.

"Many, many times. Geez, I don't know how many snakes that makes. Thirteenth? Doesn't he ever get full?" Harada Tetsunouske said, looking at the fox. The fox quickly swallowed the last of the snake, and threw a glare at the short samurai.

"No, I do not, human. You best remember that when your sleeping." The fox said, whipping all nine of his tails back and forth. The fox glared at him hungrily. Tetsu shuttered.

"So, this is the famous Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The walls are friggin' huge!" Tetsu said with a smile, effectively changing the subject.

"If you think the walls are huge, you should see the actual city!" The cloaked man said, becoming excited, "The buildings are all like four stories tall, and all the food tastes really good, and the ramen is even better. Especially Icharaku's Ramen! I wonder how Ayame's doing? Ever since the old man passed away, I hope she's been able to keep the shop open…" In the process of all of his chattering, his hood had fallen down, revealing a spiky mass of blonde hair, cerulean blue eyes, and a huge grin on his face as he continued talking. Tetsunouske just shook his head, a smile of his own on his face as he watched his friend continue talking.

"It's probably good your back home, Naruto"

All right, I'm bettin' you all knew who it was at the end, but hey, I don't care. Isn't Tetsu great? He rocks, I know, I created him. Wait'll you see the next chapter, where he kicks some major ass with his dai-katana.

And in all honesty… is it dai-katana or daitachi, I can't remember… someone help me…

R&R DAMMIT! I'll probably reply back, with something insincere and generic…

Hasta luego,

ChickenDeNoodleyNoodle The Third, The most youthful chicken of them all!