A/N:A/N: Ooooooooooooooh my Goooooooooooood! Alright, I'm sure some of you are wondering why I'm freaking out. Simple. A friend of mine finally badgered me into reading some old comics of hers. Deadpool vs Carnage, to be specific. Seriously, this girl has been pestering me for MONTHS to read the blasted thing she got me, and I kept putting her off. See, I enjoy a good read as much as the next chap, but I don't read comics much.
But seeing as I'm laid up from ANOTHER surgery-bloody heart!-and my internet was out today, she tossed a few comics in my lap. And well, the Carnage one was one of 'em. She literally insisted I'd read so it so...I gave it a go. Here is my verdict. BRAVO!
To my surprise, it was insanely good. With an emphasis on insanity. Plenty of action, just a hint of fanservice in the form of Shriek, good plots, and best of all, plenty of bloody action. Stuff like that really kicks my muse into high gear, ya know? Which brings me to my next point. Carnage. I have never, in all my life, seen such win packed into one comic.
Now, I admit, I've never been much of a fan of him. Venom was always more, well, relateable for me. Carnage? Well, he's crazy. Crazy as hell. Very little chance for redemption there. Venom? He's been done to death. But Carnage...hmm...I smell potential here, folks!
Potential for insanity that is.
Don't even get me started on his host, Cletus Kasady. Look him up on youtube if you don't believe me. And so I thought to myself, hey, why not try to write a crossover with this? I have no hate for Carange-hell, its hard to hate a crazy bastard like him-but I really didn't like Cletus. Anywho, I was curious, and wanted to my forte. And on that note, for those of you aren't aware, Carnage and any and all symbiotes are property of Marvel, yadda, yadda, ya, and I don't own 'em. I only own the idea.
I'm sure you know what to expect here. Those who haven't...
...I highly reccomend that you watch or read some stuff pertaining to the symbiotes as a whole, it, or you're gonna be confused! Barring that, just look at the wiki...and remember, I own nothing but the idea for this story! And on that note, I apologize if its short, but expect big things to come from this story! Needless to say, there's gonna be a few changes, so I apologize if I offend any purists out there and remember...
...this an Alternate Universe theory here! Naruto is older, a fair bit so, than his fellow classmates. Make of it what you will! TIS VERY DARK!
"I'M BACK, BABY! AND I'M GONNA PAINT THIS WORLD RED!"
~?
Symbiosis
We hunger.
We have been alone for so long, adrift in the void. Empty, Meaningless. Without purpose. We have been trapped here, in this place, unable to feel to know, to see, ever since the elder one tricked us. This world was to be ours! It was to belong to US! We were sent here for a purpose! OUR purpose! Dream! Goal! This universe would be ours!
But we were betrayed!
Our host killed, ourselves trapped and locked, forgotten. Left to rot. We feel nothing, yet still, we know the time has passed us by. Time. We long to feel the bond again, to know once more the fullness of our being. And so we watch, and we wait. Weak, torn from the other. Dying. Yet, unable to die.
And we...we...WE...
We...
...hunger.
My name is Uzumaki Naruto.
I am seventeen years old...and I am a murderer.
Alright, wait wait wait. Let me stop you there before you go labeling me a psychopath.
I kill for a cause, mostly.
I'm sure you're wondering, hey, how can smart, smooth-talking, handsome guy-ha!-like myself possibly kill someone? I'm supposed to be the hero, right? The goody two shoes, underdog hero who makes snark remarks and saves the day! Well, you've got me on the smartass bit folks, but the whole goody-good-good business? Yeah, I'm gonna have to say...
No.
Lets get one thing straight here folks; I am NOT the Naruto you know. I am not short, not an idiot, I do not wear orange, and I most certainly do NOT scream "Believe it!" or "Dattebayo!" in every other sentence. I like ramen and the occasional prank, but that's about it. I am an outcast, a renegade, and an outsider to almost all.
We have had to fend for ourselves from the very moment they tossed us out of the orphanage at the tender age of five. Ah crap, I'm using "we" again...
I have had to bleed, sweat, cry, scrape, and STEAL for every scrap of power I have now. My chakra? Too dense for ninjutsu or genjutsu. Hell, I was barely able to master tree and water walking without blowing my own legs off! My taijutsu skills were horrid until I "liberated" some books from the library. I'm frighteningly good at it, now.
Just ask A.
In the beginning that was just it; all I had was my fists and my wits, coupled with the fact that I may-or-may-not have an insane demon housed in my stomach. An almost conventional ninja, forced to rely on my skills gained through agonizing training, rather than the elemental flinging insanity of most.
Despite that, I've been held back countless times in almost every class, more than I can possibly remember. I have been forced to sit there, to watch as generations come and go. To compete with idiots like that Uchiha kid, watch as he claims his headband and gives me that look-that damn look-from a snot nosed punk four years younger than me! Ah crap, I'm getting angry again. Calm down. Calm down. Breathe. Remember what he does when you're pissed...
In...
...ouuuuuut.
It doesn't matter that I've demonstrated the necessary proficiency in those certain areas, those damn teachers still have it out for me. Most of them think I'm that damned fox, and those who don't, well-they're too few in number to do anything about it. Nothing I've done has ever made the rest of my peers think otherwise. I think that Iruka guy might have believe differently-seemed alright enough, but I never talked to him. Looking back, I wish I had.
I really, really, REALLY wish I had. Maybe if I had...
...I never would have opened that damn scroll.
Naruto hesitated.
He paused, his finger hovering just over the storage sea outlined in the Scroll of Sealing. Curiosity-and perhaps destiny-compelled him to place his palm against it, heedless of the warning written below. There were so many secrets here, so many weapons, none of which caught his interest. Shadow clones were something to be noted maybe, but unlikely with this crap-chute of chakra. This had gotten his attention however, written in archaic script suggesting it had existed since the time of the Shodaime himself:
Beware the red demon! Monstrously strong! Do NOT unseal without a fuinjutsu master present!
Strength, eh? Now that, he was interested in. Part curiosity and part spite, he decided to see what terrible creature lay within. Not like he had anything left to lose...
He'd discarded his faded khakis and shirt ages ago; what he wore now certainly didn't belong to him; considering he'd knocked out a Chunin and stolen the uniform. It was a little tight considering his near six-foot-status, but it had served its purpose, coupled with the wig, contacts, and a generous smatter of mud, to disguise his cheeks well enough.
He didn't trust Mizuki's claims about wanting to help him for a moment, but he wasn't about to turn down a chance to learn a few new tricks or two, and pin it on the Chunin himself. Double cross the double crosser!
That is, assuming he could even use any of this bollocks with his screwed up coils...
"Alright, red," he hummed, "Lets see what you've got."
Thus empowered with determination, he pressed a finger against the seal. Every sense fired. He was suddenly intensely aware of the fresh smell of oncoming rain nearing in the forest; the taste of hastily drunken water on his tongue, of the deafening silence in the glade that foretold the coming of something horrible. A dull rumble of thunder overhead split the silence.
And then it emerged.
The result was as immediate as it was startling; blots of black scarlet came flying forth in every direction as though someone had thrown a giant bucket of paint at him. Instinct compelled him to duck, his disguise falling to pieces as he tucked and rolled away from...whatever it was. He wasn't entirely successful however, and several of the inky blots spattered across his visage. Sputtering he came up on the balls of his feet, prepared to spring away from what, he thought, was a rather nasty prank.
It bled out like red ink after him, forming a puddle at his feet. He thought he saw a face somewhere in there. No. Surely he was imagining-
"AT LAST!"
The voice was like whispery thunder in his mind, impossibly loud and terribly silent, all at once. "We will have you." He swung around, reeling, and succeeded only in stepping in even more of the eerie red goop. "We will know you, and you will know us." It latched onto his leg, clamoring up his heel like a thing possessed. "We will be one." Perhaps it was. More and more of it converged upon him, claiming him as he struggled to peel the flecks of red and black off, to tear them away.
"What in blazes are you?!"
"We are Carnage." came the answer. "We are...YOU!"
Then he saw the puddle, ignored until now.
No longer.
The creature reared up, casting him in shadow. Naruto gulped, clearly seeing, and somehow recognizing, a face there.
I have blundered.
That was all he had time for before the thing crashed down over him. He saw the shadow too late...
...and lashed out.
Mizuki had finally found the damned demon brat.
After what felt like an eternity of searching, an eternity in which he'd secretly begun to fear that the boy had simply taken the scroll and fled, he'd finally located him. His chakra had vanished for a time, but now there it was, strong and veritably humming with energy. A light rain had begun to fall since, almost throwing off the scent, but it was impossible to miss this. He'd have to thank that Inuzuka for lending him one of those tracker dogs; it certainly made things easier!
Only another mile or so now, and the scroll would be his, the demon dead, and he'd be hailed as a hero! It was so brilliant he might've patted himself on the back for it, and other any other circumstance he would have done just that-
"YIPE!"
With a sudden squeal his tracking dog backpedalled upon the branch on which they'd landed, jerking as if it'd been physicallly struck. Its tail went flat between its legs, head bowed, hackles rising. Everything in its body language suggested outright fear; sheer terror of the most primal sort. But what could possibly be setting if off? It wasn't as if the beast had escaped the seal. That was impossible. Besides, he had no time for delays if his glorious plan was to work.
"Bah," he growled, "Off with you!"
A warning growl answered him; a warning he should have heeded. But Mizuki was an ambitious man, and his own arrogance and greed overrode his common sense. Better judgement was thrown to the wayside, despite his every sense telling him to run, to turn and flee after the hound, to GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE right now, he lunged forward, leaping to the next bough in the distance in search of his prey.
There was nothing to be afraid of, he told himself. All he had to do was take down someone who, by all accounts, couldn't even perform ninjutsu and genjutsu! How hard could that be! Kyuubi or not, if he could use the beast's power, then what danger could he possibly be?
When he looked back the beast was already gone. His prey, was not.
There.
He spied a dark shape hunched over what was undoubtedly the scroll, studying its contents intently. Did he seem...different, somehow? Brighter? No, surely that must be a trick of the light. He was speaking, his words distant and garbed over the rising winds and rustling of the leaves. Mizuki paused, frowning as he listened.
"No," the blond hummed to himself. "I didn't mean to...why did you...wasn't supposed to...
He alighted effortlessly behind the unsuspecting teen, unlimbering a giant shuriken as he did. His hand was just cocked back to throw when the lighting hit. A sudden flash of brilliance illuminated the clearing, revealing what he'd thought to be a scroll at all...
...but a corpse.
Iruka's mangled body lay only a few yards away from his, savagely bifurcated at the waist. His mouth was frozen in a rictus of frozen horror, his eyes still wide and bulging. The kunai-stained bright red- clutched in his hand suggested that he had tried to attack the creature before he'd gone down. And Naruto was crouched over him, garbed in some strange red outfit.
"Die, demon." he hissed, and let the shuriken fly.
It thudded into the blonde's back with a wet, meaty thud. Nothing happened. He didn't keel over and die, didn't scream in agony. He simply turned his head. Angry blue eyes flashed in the gloom.
"That tickled." he rumbled. "Looks like you came to kill us, too."
Panic, too late, prickled at the edge of the chunin's mind. He'd shrugged off that attack like it was nothing? Now he looked on as the demon picked up that very shuriiken and hurled it back at him. He dodged narrowly, but even then the almost lazy throw easily cut down half an acre of trees. Panic became outright terror.
"Monster, demon, abomination! WHAT ARE YOU?!"
Fangs flashed in the night, something crawling over the teen's whiskered face.
"I am...
...we are...
Naruto stood slowly, woodenly, a puppet without care. A heartstopping his ground its way between his teeth and...ohhh, those weren't his teeth. And that wasn't his face. Mizuki took a stumbling step backward, his eyes unable-unwilling-to accept what his brain was clearly telling him. He was looking at a monster, demon, devil!
...Carnage." the creature finished with a sneer, laughing. "We are us, traitor. Now, how would you like to bleed?"
Another shuriken lodged into its face. Carnage merely laughed, spitting the massive projectile out.
"W-What in the hell...?!"
The red demon turned its head and sneered, exposing a mouthful of gleaming white teeth. A clawed hand raised, crimson fingers glittering in the black beckoning. Fast than greased lightning it shot forwards, barreling him back into the tree, sticking him there, trapping him in something that felt deceptively like a web. Carnage-Naruto?!-stalked forwards at him, uncaring for the rapidly approaching storms. It was only when he was a mere millimeter away that he finally grinned.
Once more that demonic mask peeled back, revealing the teenager's face.
"We want you to know something, Mizuki," the thing that was-and-was-not Naruto rumbled. "All of the terrible, horrible, nasty things we're about to do to you...its not the symbiote making us do it. Its us. You are our teacher; and its about time you gave us a passing grade, don't you think?"
"Oh god, oh sweet holy ghost, don't...
"Now, now, you know that they say. Peace. Or is...
...PIECES!
"Urk!" He nearly vomited as scarlet strands slammed into his stomach-violently disemboweling him-but he couldn't. Because his stomach was gone. So were most of his organs. With a single gesture the would-be-genin had ripped him open, torn him to pieces as though he were a stuffed, bloody pinata, and left him to bleed out. But that hand tugged him upright, forcing him to face that gristly maw again. And then, to his disbelief, the fangs and scarlet peeled back, exposing not the face of a demon, but those of a man.
"We should thank you," the demon hissed in his ear, each word dripping with venom. "You've helped us so much giving us this; the least you deserve is a quick death. Try to stab us in the back, we can appreciate that. And you know what they say, isn't imitation the sincerest form of slaughter?"
No. Mizuki went pale, even as his life bled away between his fingers. He couldn't die like this. All of his grand ambitions, cut short by this demon! No! He struggled weakly, desperately trying to usurp the ironclad vice on his throat, to no avail. No no no no no no no NOoooooo-
His hand flicked out, forming an axe and ending it; the chunin's head toppled from his shoulders with a terrible squelching sound. Naruto held the ruined body aloft a moment longer, then he cast it aside. His lips curved upward in a smile, the beginnings of a smirk becoming something most sinister indeed. The laughter started softly, at first, a snicker here, a giggle there. That was when his mind, already unhinged by Iruka's accidental death, came a swinging wide open.
The entity threw his head back and roared!
"CARNAGE IS BACK, BABY!"
A/N: Aaaaaaaaand there we go! Renegade Older Naruto, with a very loose grasp on sanity as a whole...and add Carnage to the mix. Yeah, he's not gonna be in the village too much longer, I hope I made that much rather obvious. Hope ya like it!
So in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review, Would You Kindly? And of course enjoy the preview! Expect me to follow canon? NOPE!
(Preivew!)
Naruto stared down at his hand, his eyes glazed.
"Eh?"
Slowly, painfully, they tracked back to the corpse.
Sakura's dead body stared back at him, her head hanging awkwardly from the ragged strip that had once been her neck. Part of him gibbered madly at what he'd just done, the other half was glad he'd finally silenced the noisy banshee. Then he did something strange. He chuckled. Softly at first, a slight snicker escaping him as he stared down at the hapless kunoichi bleeding out at his feet.
"Heh...hehe...heheheheheHA!"
He started laughing.
R&R! =D