Hi all, Thought I'd mention this was the first time I've tried something like this.
Enjoy.
…. I don't own Naruto by the way …..
It was dark.
Why was it dark?
Slowly his other senses started to float into his consciousness. First was the pain. Oh god the pain. It was as if a white hot knife was trying to split his soul in two. If he had some sort of self-awareness he would have tried to recognise what was happening, why it was happening, even where the hell was he but honestly the fact that his soul was being split in two really prioritised what he was thinking about.
He may have been dense but even he would have learned what to do in a situation where he had no idea what the hell was going on, therefore he tried to calm down. This allowed him to recognise the second thing that came across, this was that he could see. Anybody would think that being able to see would make things easier, oh how wrong they would be. All he could see was a misty red haze. This started to freak him out. Just what the hell was going on!
After several minutes, although they seemed like hours, Naruto was able to fully see the situation he was in. He was in a sewer. Just fucking great. Of all the places he would be, this would be the one that made the most sense. After pinpointing where in his own mindscape he was, Naruto trudged towards the inevitable place that he would have to go to finish whatever was started. Thank god ero-sensei made him meditate, if it weren't for that he would have seriously lost it.
Snaking left and right through the familiar tunnels, Naruto finally reached the cage of the Kyuubi. Sullenly he looked up at the thrashing tailed beast in a mixture of resentment and resignment.
"Why the hell did you bring me here Fuzzball!?" Naruto yelled, sick of being in the dark about whatever the hell was going on.
"Ahah my jailer graces me with his presence." The Giant fox had an enormous grin that stretched ear to ear. "Why, I'm about to be set free and finally destroy your puny body that has kept me imprisoned for years!"
Naruto looked at the fox somewhat puzzled before what he said finally set in.
"Whatever's going on must be screwing with your head because there's no way I'm letting you out. You're not eating my friends or my home or my family…." The young blond shouted. He was getting so angry, that if he wasn't leaking eight tails worth of Kyuubi's chakra he would have been exploding right now.
"Hahahahahahah" Kyuubi laughed, he interrupted his rant. For a giant demonic fox he seemed almost giddy. "There is honestly nothing you can do at this point. You've released 90% of my chakra, there's nothing you can do. Look down, look at what remains of the 'almighty' fourth's seal that you had such faith in."
A shell-shocked Naruto slowly looked down to the seal. To his horror the seal was openly leaking darkness into his mindscape at an alarming rate. The vague circular resemblance was still there, but the normal spiral that made up the majority of the seal was now just a black inky mess.
The Kyuubi almost reading his mind decided to offer him a life line. "Open the seal. If you do me this favor now I will acknowledge that you weren't as puny as I previously thought. Open the seal and I will only annihilate Pein, no more no less, for now..."
Although the Fox could not be trusted Naruto started to think about the offer. 'At least this way Sakura-chan and Tsunade-bachaan can get everyone out of the village and escape.' Dejectedly Naruto slumped his way towards the gate. Marching to his ultimate death, he started to feel an ironic sense of fulfillment. He was finally going to become the demon that the village thought that he was.
Reaching up, he found his hand gripping what appeared to be a piece of paper; this was what made his life special. This was also what made his life way more difficult than what it should have been. Steeling himself he prepared to do what was necessary. His precious people flashed before his eyes as he started to tear…
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A man said from behind he calmly stated.
With a gasp Naruto spun around. To his utter disbelief the man who was his role model stood before him. The man who single handedly turned the tide of the third shinobi war, the man who also single handely ruined his life by sealing the gigantic problem in front of him into some ink on his stomach.
"Yondaime, damn you what the hell are you doing here!" The Kyuubi roared. After the sudden appearance of his judge he started to thrash about even more to Naruto's surprise.
"How about we go somewhere a little quieter" The yondaime calmly asked. Immediately they appeared in a white plain that stretched on for what seemed like miles.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Naruto-kun, it's been a while…" The yondaime began only to be cut off by a still bewildered Naruto.
"How does the fourth hokage know my name?" Naruto openly questioned almost rhetorically.
"Well I would be a pretty shoddy father if I couldn't remember my own sons name huh?"
The world that Naruto thought was real started to crash down around him. The man who singlehandedly ruined his life, well not quite, things had started to look up for him but the point still stood. He had been denied a childhood by the people he was saving throughout his very short life. This was done to him by the very person in charge of keeping these people safe. The real kick in the balls was that this exact person was his father; the person who was meant to watch out for him, teach him, care for him…
Within an instant a fist was buried in Minato's stomach. "WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?! YOU FORCED YOUR SON TO CARRY A HUGE FOX IN HIS STOMACH, WHICH LITERALLY DESTROYED THE VILLAGE. I WAS BEATEN. I STARVED. THE ONLY PERSON WHO ACTUALLY CARED WAS JIJI FOR ALMOST ALL OF MY LIFE. I WONDERED WHY?! WHY WAS I PICKED TO HAVE…"
Naruto suddenly found himself with an inability to speak. This was majorly affected by the sudden hand placed on his head. "Wow. I knew you'd be pissed but wow. You really took after you kaa-san y'know. To answer your question I chose you because you are my son. How could I force this on someone-else's family if I wasn't willing to do it to my own? I do want to make it up to you though…"
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nagoto was struggling. Thinking yourself as a god and then struggling, really shakes up how you view yourself. So for Nagato, or 'Pein', as he goes by now was seriously freaking out. Here he was, controlling a massive ball of earth and debris, 100ft in the air, with a jinchuriki who was releasing 8 out of 9 tails worth of chakra poking out. It was almost a relief, 'almost' being key, when the de facto leader of the Akutsuki appeared.
"Nagato, I thought you said you'd handle this?" the so called Tobi questioned.
"Do not doubt me Madara. This jinchuriki has been unexpectedly troublesome." Pein stoically replied whilst trying to keep the strain out of his puppet's voice. Honestly he wasn't sure whether he was keeping Madara from interfering or trying to reassure himself.
"Nagato, I grow tiresome of this oversite on my part. You are done for today. Wait for me to get back so that I can deal with you." Madara condescended. After this he disappeared in a vortex, reappearing next to the soon to be nine tails; soon after they spiraled into Madara's own dimension.
Now in a place that consisted only of pillars of varying height and width, Madara looked directly into the nine tails eyes. "Why I trusted Nagato to do this I do not know. Considering his hatred of all major hidden villages, let alone his hatred for konoho in particular, I'm surprised it went as well as it did." Madara commented.
Casually observing the thrashing soon to be released tailed beast, Madara focused on the nine tails with his visible sharingan. Within seconds the beast calmed. 'Now for the extraction…'
Slowly but surely the beast split from the body of its jailor…
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Naruto and Minato were attempting to catchup, when Naruto doubled over in pain. Clutching his seal Naruto started to scream in pain. Minato attempted to question Naruto on what the hell was going on but he was just in too much pain. Attempting to gauge what was going on, worried that he had run out of time and messed up his heart to heart, he channeled some of his limited chakra into the seal.
Slowly the diagnostic of the seal filtered into him. It appeared that both the Kyuubi and a familiar chakra were breaking the seal apart. The rapid breakdown of the seal was being slowed by a source, a source that he recognised as Kushina, but that was to no avail. It was like trying to stop the flow of Niagra Falls using a plank of wood. Realising that it was futile to stop the flow he tried to latch himself to Naruto's own chakra.
Within minutes the Kyuubi had been extracted. With so much of its chakra being released it was almost trivial for the rest of itself to be released. A pacified Kyuubi was looking at his jailor with sharingan eyes.
Naruto slowly rose. Feeling absolutely drained with only a trickle of the energy that he was used to flowing through his veins; without the veritable flood of energy he was able to feel a somewhat foreign chakra in his pathways. Realising that it was his tou-san, Naruto turned his attention to the giant fox and the person that was nonchalantly standing next to it.
"So I see you survived the extraction." Madara rhetorically questioned.
Naruto was about to yell back at him when he heard a voice in the back of his head. 'Son, stall whilst I get us out of here. Remember what this feels like, because honestly it's the only way I can teach you this jutsu'
Hearing this Naruto decided to wing it. "What the hell. Why'd you take the Kyuubi out of me?" He asked, barely able to keep the pant out of his voice.
"Don't think that I will do the old, 'I'll tell you what my plans are because you're not going to live' routine, because quite frankly that's dumb." Madara condescendingly surmised, shortly after he flung a barrage of kunai at the downed Uzumaki.
Minato had to think quickly, 'I guess I can't be a picker or a chooser. Come on, Come on, there has to be one of my seals in at least a useable condition!'
Almost immediately he found one and used his most infamous technique to teleport to it.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Pein, no Nagato, Nagato was honestly re-evaluating his choice of conspiring to create Akutsuki. His arguably righteous decision to create world peace had been hijacked by an Uchiha with narcissistic tendencies. Deciding that taking stock of the situation was probably a good idea, Nagato started to assess the situation. Conan was the only person who truly knew who he was, he had spent his entire life trying to enact his dead best friend's dream and he had for all intents and purposes wiped out an entire village off the face of the elemental nations for kami's sake.
During his inner monologue Nagato started to cough up an obscene amount of blood. 'Crap, nearly all of my paths have been destroyed and a good deal of my chakra is gone…'
Deciding to attempt to make things right after his impromptu epiphany he turned to Conan. "Conan, I…." Nagato started to apologise. "I'm sorry…" This last part came out as barely a whisper.
"Nagato, what are you talking about. We've gone so far, we're so close to Yahiko's dream; no the dream that everyone shares in, one way shape or form." Conan replied. She was honestly confused for the first time that she could remember; ever since the incident that meant that Yahiko wasn't to be with them, Nagato had been here beacon of strength. The unwavering pillar of decisiveness was crumbling. It was crumbling and she had positively no idea as to why her world was crumbling.
Deciding that swiftness was the best way to deal with this Nagato went for the kill. "I've messed up. I've messed up so badly that the future that I forbade myself from perpetuating has just become reality for thousands of people. Not only is it a reality, I created it!"
Conan was stunned. Her unshakable faith was wavering. Of course their mission would end up with lives lost, it was inevitable due to the nature of their pursuit. "Why now, why not earlier when we could have actually made a difference!?" Conan cried. Hoping that she could change her only friend's mind, so that everything that they had done wasn't for nothing but causing people pain.
"Conan, I am truly sorry…" Nagato muttered, shortly after this he started the hand seals that would be his ultimate demise.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Kakashi was gone. He had bought enough time for Choji to escape but he had miscalculated how much his curse would affect him. Finding himself wedged between two slabs of rock, he evaluated his life so far as there had not been a lot of it left. Shortly after his father passed away (this being the least painful way of putting it) his life started to go downhill. It could have ultimately ended in the same way as his fathers if it weren't for a certain set of people who replaced his rather painful family. Obito, Rin, Minato-sensei, Kushina-kasaan (her idea not mine) and lastly Jiraiya-sama; it was a shame, nigh damn right tortuous, how they were slowly removed from his life. All of his family had been destroyed apart from two. Jiraiya gave him something that removed the pain temporarily but apart from that the relationship was mutually painful so nothing really happened that would help either of them cope.
The other half of the relationship that gave him the most pain. This particular pain in his ass was named Naruto. Honestly, Kakashi was still unsure whether he was named after a maelstrom from his father's side; or whether his mother set it up as a good idea to call their son after a ramen topping. Kami forbid it was an unholy mismatch between the two, although that was neither here nor there. It honestly didn't mean an awful lot to him seeing as he reminded him of two of his precious people. This did not include the fact that he fought and carved out a special place it his heart that was pretty much full.
The internal sililoque that he was having was honestly an object in futility. These were the thoughts that popped up as he slinked towards a campfire. This wouldn't be so strange if it weren't for the familiar body that was also occupying the place by the fire. It was very strange how he felt that this was all preordained.
"Ahh Kakash-kun, it's far too soon for this but that is neither here nor there. Come son; let me know the story of your life…" the sliver head seemingly replied to an unanswered question.
Naruto flashed beside his silver haired sensei. A million questions flooded his already saturated mind but one seemed to eclipse all the others. 'Why the hell is Kakashi-sensei stuck between two rocks, and why the hell isn't he helping everyone else?'.
.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Luckily for the blonde his distant cousin finished his long series of hand signs. All the way through he had ignored the desperate cries of his closest friend.
Conan knew exactly what he was planning. Spending years with a person gives the person a sort of entry into their closest peoples head. Knowing what was about to happen was not however going to help her current predicament.
'He can't be serious. Not after all that has happened. To Yahiko. To the Akutsuki. The lives we have indirectly harmed. For the love of Kami why won't he stop' Conan mentally screamed. Deciding that perhaps there was still a chance she all but screamed at Nagato, "What the hell are you doing?!"
Just about finishing his last set of seals, Nagato halted on the penultimate seal, "Conan…" he tried to start. His voice cracked too much to continue. Of course it would be difficult. No it would be downright impossible. How could he seriously convey the shear amount of hate he had for himself now realising what he had started; this wasn't even including the near genocide he had just committed. He was prepared to do this in the name of peace, but realising how far he had been manipulated he decidied that he would try to make things somewhat right.
"Conan" he restarted "I am truly sorry to leave you like this but we've messed things up. We aren't the heralds of peace that we thought we were. We are pawns for that thrice cursed Uchiha and I'll be damned if we help him any longer. You no doubt know what I plan to do and again I want to be sorry for this but it's necessary…"
"Pein… Screw it Nagato-kun! You don't have to do this. Leave all of this alone, we can hide away, bide our time, wait till all this is over and try again….. just please don't leave me like Yahiko…." Conan started to breakdown. Shortly after this she heard a voice, barely above a whisper.
"Conan…." The voice started. "Come here".
Silently obeying the voice she trudged towards the source she now realized was Nagato. As she neared the source of the voice hands suddenly gripped her head. Alarmed at first, she relaxed realising who it was; The angel to the god of shinobi, in her entire life, decided that nothing quite compared to this moment in time. Conan was losing the entirety of what she held dear. There was nothing else for her. No Akutsuki without Nagato. No future without Nagato heralding it. No peace in the world without Nagato.
Her thoughts were cut off when a forehead was pressed against hers.
"Conan come now, you are far stronger than this." Nagato started. "This world needs someone to lead it. I thought that I was the child of prophecy. Logically it must've been me but looking back I totally disagree. I cannot lead. I am no leader, all this time I needed advisers and persons of incalculable power. I think I met the one to lead us, no matter how brief the encounter was."
"Nagato-kun please. We can start again. It doesn't have to end like this, we could….." Conan started to desperately try and convince Nagato.
"Conan, gomenasai…"
With that Nagato completed the final handseal.
"Rinne Tensei" Nagato cried out.