A/N: AHOY!
This, a SERIOUS NarutoxOverwatch story, because everyone seems to be pining for that, as well as a Resident evil one. After that, NO MORE new stories for awhile, if I can help it. Not a Watch is going to be updated weekly if I have anything to say about it, and I'm going to try my best to update one story a week at the VERY LEAST. Should be easier considering my job situation finally leveled out. Ah, feels good to have a schedule again, it does!
So here we go!
A Ninja's Calling!
AND a warning, folks!
This gets DARK in places.
You have been warned readers!
Naruto's going to put up one hell of a fight!
The tone of this story will be somewhat different from that of Not My Watch, in that it will be more serious with brief moments of levity. I hope you enjoy that one as I update it alongside this!
"You have my sympathies."
~?
Calling
You know, somehow, I always thought the future would be...different.
It's funny, I know.
We don't really think about the future, do we?
Oftentimes we become so focused on the present and sometimes the past, but never the future. Living in the moment, days gone by. We don't think to look forward until its too late. Take me, for instance. For as long as I can remember, I never gave any thought to it. My future-my dream-was to be Hokage. It was my goal. My calling. I was determined to prove everyone wrong, to show them that I wasn't a monster, that they couldn't bring me down, because I wouldn't let them. I couldn't think of anything else, couldn't BE anything other than that if I tried. So I didn't think of the future. I just assumed that everything would work out, that one day, everything would be alright, that would reach that lofty goal.
Even as Sasuke left.
Even after Jiraiya died.
Even as Akatsuki fell apart.
Even when the war broke out.
Even after Sasuke and I sealed Kaguya away forever, I was still determined to reach that goal. I was going to drag the ol' duckbutt back into the light come hell or high water. I was going to BEAT some sense back into him, and that was that. There was never any room for doubt in my mind. Perhaps that was what ultimately killed me. I never allowed myself to falter. Never considered that fate might not bend to me, that reality could be far older, crueler than I realized. I'd never WANTED to consider that the friend I once knew might not exist anymore. You could even say I was blind to it. I couldn't see the danger there, the coldness in his eyes.
Until my oh-so grateful "friend" betrayed me and blew a hole in my chest.
Until I used the last of my strength to cut that very friend down.
Until I collapsed, covered in his blood.
Ironic, isn't it?
We defeated an otherwordly goddess, only to fall prey to our own natures.
For all my grand speeches, when it came down to it, I killed Sasuke.
I SWORE that I would save him, but I cut him down, and he, me.
But I've done it, right? I've saved everyone. Just had to die.
Honestly, I'm amazed I haven't bled to death, yet.
These are my last thoughts, my final moments.
Ah hell, everything's fading to black.
I don't want to die like this.
I don't.
I...
(...?...)
Do you want to live?
...what?
Do. You. Want. To. Live?
I...yes. Why?
Excellent. You have a calling then, my child.
I don't...who are...
That is of little consequence. Now, you have work to do.
Wait! I don't understand!
You will, soon enough. Suffice it to say you have my sympathies...and my pity.
Oi! Wait just a damned-
RISE.
(...Somewhere in King's Row...)
Naruto's world came back to him in fits and spurts.
Slowly at first, then with increasing clarity, the darkness gradually receded from his vision, like a long cherished friend, reluctant to leave him. In place of the heavy and all-consuming blackness that had tormented him with its suffocating embrace, he found himself feeling oddly light, as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Reflexively he sucked in a preemptive breath and was rewarded with a stabbing jolt of pain; as if someone had wedged an ice-pick between his lungs. It'd certainly explain the blood he tasted, at any rate.
"Uck, what in the world...?"
He found himself staring at a smoky sky brimming with bleak-colored clouds; a horizon promising rain in the form of an oncoming storm. So too, did he see other things. Strange things. The buildings around him looked as though they'd been blasted apart by an incredible explosion; portions of walls lay melted, bricks shattered, the floor slagged around his feet by intense heat. No, that wasn't quite it he realized, it looked as though his landing zone-wasn't it?-resembled something of a giant crater, as though he'd fallen from a great height and flattened it when he landed with equally great force. Judging by the sundered state of his surroundings it had not been a pleasant landing.
And if anyone had been nearby...
The scent of fire and burnt flesh filled his nose again when he inhaled anew, nearly causing him to gag outright.
With that, sensation came rushing back.
His first true realization that he hadn't perished in the final battle with his fallen friend came in the blazing pain in his right side, the sound of his own coughing, and the flinty taste of blood in the back of his mouth. Something cold and blunt and horribly sharp was cutting into his back, forcing an unnatural ache in his chest. His chest. The thought of his grievous wound had him jolting upright, all thoughts of his decaying sanity and ungodly voices momentarily forgotten in the clamor to ascertain the state of his being.
'Oh, I don't want to look...
Part of him dreaded what he might find when he looked down and fought the impulse, but in the end his his eyes betrayed him. His vision still clearing, he fumbled at his torn jacket with numb hands, and forced himself to rise upon the points of his elbows so that he might see. Instead of the gaping hole that had once been a surely mortal wound, he found that his chest had merely been badly burned, rather than shredded to pieces. A flash of relief coursed through him, punctuated by another spark of pain. However he'd survived, he was still very much in pain, and it was all he could do to cling to consciousness.
The thought made him grimace.
"Don't you pass out on me." he ground at his body through gritted teeth, forcing himself to his hands and knees, "C'mon, get up...
If he passed out now, here, alone...
As if to counter that very claim, a figure appeared over the rise.
Silhouetted against the backdrop of a burning building, he beheld a vision of almost ethereal beauty, a young woman with blue skin clad in a brightly colored jumpsuit, wearing some strange multi-eyes apparatus on her head. Pale, golden eyes swept over him without a trace of emotion, as though he were little more than a mote of dust before her gaze. Then, incredibly, as he looked on, they softened. Just a fraction of a degree, barely enough to notice. For a fleeting moment he thought she was going to speak to him. Instead, she drew back to the lip of the crater and touched a hand to her ear.
"This is Widowmaker." her rich, accented voice rang out between them. "We've found the origin of the explosion, and a survivor. Orders?"
A beat of silence passed.
And then:
"Reaper." When next those gold orbs flicked to him, they were cold as glacial ice. "Take him."
"Affirmative."
A swirl of black smoke in his peripherals served as his only warning.
Even wounded though he was, Naruto somehow reacted in time.
The world blurred as his body exploded in a burst of chakra-fueled motion, legs scissoring out to trip up his would-be attacker and drag him down into a waiting Rasengan. Brutal, but effective. Quick and easy. At least, that had been his intention. Instead, a vicious bark of sound caught him mid-strike and agony howled across his unprotected back, forcing him to stumble and abort. Flinging himself away, the blond managed a parting shot, slamming a clenched fist across his attackers jaw-at least it felt like a jaw-and tumbling into the street.
Alright, whatever was going on here, he couldn't allow himself to be captured.
Even in his injured state, he should be able to escape these two-
"You can't outrun me."
Icy numbness locked around his arms as his pursuer caught hold of him from behind, dragging him into a full nelson. Crippling weakness followed, nearly driving him down in his captor's chilling grasp. As if someone or something were leeching the very life from his bones. Not just his chakra, but his very life force. Stubbornly, he fought against it the only way he could.
"Get off!"
The blond hissed and smashed his head backward with all his remaining strength.
"Aaargh!"
For the most part, his unexpected counter was at least partially successful. An annoyed grunt and the sudden slackening of his captor's grasp informed him he'd at least staggered up his opponent. Alas, any satisfaction he might have felt withered away when his right leg buckled under a blossom of red, forcing him to a knee. Biting back a snarl, the baffled blond cast a bewildered glance at his pursuer, scowling as the man in the mask idly ambled after him. What the hell? He hadn't even been hit, back there! So how...?
"Careful, kid." a voice like boulders grinding down a mountainside grated behind him, "Don't make me take the other leg. Shotguns make for messy work."
Despite himself, Naruto managed a wan smile.
"Okay," he wheezed, "I seriously need to lay off the late-night Ramen...
If the woman was a picture of beauty, then this one was the very symbol of death.
Wrapped in black and muted grey, his visage was a mask of angular bone carved from the dead. His headbutt must have cracked it; for he glimpsed a pair of furiously bright eyes within, raw and hungry. A foul miasma trailed after him as he cocked his weapons. Strange, block cylinders, the both of them. As he looked on, he cast them aside and seemingly drew another pair from the folds of his cloak before leveling them at him. What weapons were those? How were they hurting him before he could react? In the short time that he'd been held, he'd lost almost all of his remaining strength. Fighting wasn't much of an option now, muss less flight.
Even so, he forced himself up on his good leg, struggling to stand.
With a grunt, he flung himself around a broken building.
Never let it be said that he listened to the odds.
This stalling tactic did little more than cause his adversary to circle around, but still, it gave him a much-needed window of opportunity. A few seconds were an eternity to a shinobi. By the time the aptly named "Reaper" had found him again, he'd had all the time in the world. Of course, his adversary wasn't aware of this and made the mistake of charging in after him. Reaper was far, far too eager. As such, he never noticed the thrown smoke bomb until it was already upon him. Acting on instinct, he blasted the small, dark sphere the moment it entered his vision.
Mistake.
The seemingly innocuous little ball reacted violently to being fired upon and exploded into thick white smoke, searing his retinas and seizing his lungs. A delaying tactic. Reaper hated those. Raising an arm to shield his face from a possible attack, he bellowed a challenge into the haze.
"Did you think this would stop me? You're just as blind-
A brace of knives flew out of the fog and thudded home into his upraised arm to punctuate that statement. One even struck his second shotgun square in the barrel, causing the weapon to choke and sputter. Infuriated, he discarded his now useless weapon and ripped the knives free from his limb. This time he heard the telltale whistle of flung projectiles before they reached him and nimbly ducked, allowing the throwing stars to shoot harmlessly away into the smoke. Growling, he straightened up. Fine. If the little shit wanted to make things difficult, then difficult it was! Again, he heard another wave, and again, he evaded the flung projectiles before they could reach him.
He did not, however, evade the explosive tags attached to them.
THOOM.
The ensuing explosion would have surely killed anyone else; as it stood, Reaper only survived because he was, technically, already dead. That didn't make the pain any less agonizing. Singed and badly burned, hacking, coughing, cursing himself for getting out of bed today, he swept forward out of the smoke, shotguns blazing.
"BOY!"
'What are you doing?!' Widomaker's voice cracked at him like a whip through his earpiece, 'Our orders are to take him alive!'
"Then you get down here and do it!"
Remarkably, their target was waiting for him in the ruins of the very building he'd just escaped.
"No more running!"
"Come get me, then!"
On that much, Naruto thought, they agreed.
After all, he'd given him ore than enough.
He just needed a few more steps.
Just a little more...
"Listen, you!" he declared loudly, thrusting an impudent finger at his foe and causing him to hasten his pace, "I don't know who the hell you are, or what you want with me, but if you think I'm going quietly you've got another thing coming! And where do you get off dressing like a damn edgelord, hmm?! You trying to take ol' duckbutt's title or something?!"
Despite the mask's lack of expression, he could still feel those cold eyes on him.
"Are you trying to talk me to death?"
"Nah, I'm not trying to kill you. He is."
The earth burst beneath Reaper's feet in the next instant.
"What?!"
Even as he swore and spun to face the sudden explosion of dirt it was already too late; twin hands tracked with the movement and seized him by the ankles in an iron grip. Then they pulled. Before he could so much as blink they hauled him down, dragging him into the suddenly pliable ground with startling force and speed. In no time at all the tables had turned and he found himself buried to the neck, trapped within layer upon layer of hardened soil. Arms pinned at his sides and legs bound, the fierce hunter snarled, glowering up at his captor through the broken orifice of his fractured mask.
"You! What is this?!"
"Headhunting jutsu." Naruto sneered, thumbing his nose at the enraged Reaper. "An old trick I picked up from my teacher. It should hold you for awhile. Now," scowling, he leaned down on his good leg and took hold of the man's mask. "Let's see who the hell you-DEAR LORD!"
The twisted visage waiting for him behind that mask had the blond jerking back and slapping it back on out of sheer shock. What the hell was wrong with this guy?! Who had a face like that?!
His pursuer merely lowered his head, glowering at his earthen prison.
When he finally spoke, it was on a laugh.
"I am death."
Before his very eyes man became smoke, physical form fizzling away to nothingness in a plume of dark miasma. Said miasma swarmed forward, rushing over and past the blond, leaving him feeling even more drained than before. When he turned to follow, the smoke vanished anew. It was as if he'd simply ceased to exist. Behind me! Realizing his peril Naruto threw himself backwards in a desperate attempt to put distance between himself and this new threat. If he could vanish at will then he could be anywhere, but so long as he didn't have those damn boomsticks of his then he might just have a good chance at-
A harsh click followed by the cold embrace of a muzzle against the back of his head swiftly availed him of that notion.
"You're done." Reaper's voice trickled into his ear.
A disbelieving laugh escaped the battered blond.
"Seriously, what the hell...what are you?"
"Already told you," came the gravely response, "You're coming with us. Dead or alive."
Naruto turned and spat at his mask.
"Oh fuck you, ya damn edgelord-
That was all he managed before Reaper's shotgun struck him across the face.
Then sleep claimed him once more.
A/N: CLARIFICATION! Naruto-and Sasuke shortly before his demise-never lost their marks in this story. Make of that what you will. Naruto just fought and nearly DIED, to Sasuke. Weakened and exhausted, he wasn't able to put up much of a fight and thus, got snatched up by Talon.
I bet you're wondering how Naruto wound up in the distant future that is Overwatch? Well, so is he!
Fear not, you'll have an explanation sooner than you might think.
This...This chapter was actually a little depressing for me to write. I don't like the idea of hero dying to achieve their objective, much less Naruto, but I felt it had to be done. Realistically, I belive Sasuke was, and is too broken to simply be redeemed at a drop of the hat as he was in the manga. By all rights, someone should have DIED in that fight, and in this sense, both Naruto and Sasuke genuinely did. The Infinite Tsukoyomi was released, everyone was freed, and that pesky Uchiha will remain firmly in the DEAD category.
The difference?
Somehow, someway, SOMEWHEN, Naruto came back.
Pairing MAY or may not be obvious, loves. And aye, I know about the comics. But hey, this is fanfiction, is it not?
Now, Naruto's not going to get all edgy or any such thing in this story mind you, but he's a bit shocked at the moment. He's still himself, if that laugh at the end was any indication. As to where he'll wind up...who knows?
And there we go.
Only time will tell.
So in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review...
...Would You Kindly?
And of course, enjoy the preview!
(Preview!)
"SOMBRAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Relajate, its only a little color-
"I am NOT going to relax! He dyed everything pink! PINK!"
"To be fair, you DID try to blow his head off."
"DIE DIE DIE!"
"Ah, chill! I'm sure it'll wash out...Reaper? Where are you going? Oi! Gabe...?"
"I am going to find that little blond idiot and I swear, I'm going to fucking strangle him!"
"Don't be such an edgelord you big baby-
"CAYATE!"
:3