Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to whatever firms own its right, as I sure as hell don't own it, and no profit is made of this drivel… Got that?
Warnings: A warning in general I suppose? No spoilers, but I'd like to think that there is some slightly disturbing stuff here. Somewhat angsty I guess, but without wangsting… I hope. This should be more of a dark and twisted kind of a story. Read at your own risk…
Uzumaki
By: Azrael's Wing
Another day another mission, and as I walk through these streets I'm shunned and scorned as always… as if nothing I've ever done mattered at all. All these missions, they've meant nothing to them at all. Aside from my friends, most of the villagers would still consider me much more of a threat then an ally, no matter how much blood I've shed for them these years. So caught they are to their fear and hatred for the fox, letting those emotions spiral so badly out of control…
Spirals… How curiously often I see them these days. There are so many spirals in the world, so many ways I can see it bend around me, its shape carved into the very symbol of this village. Then again, I also see it upon myself… Hell, I've made it a badge of mine.
I wear it on my back, on my forehead; I even wear it engraved upon my very skin itself. How could I escape it when it's even within my name? That spiral, it seems to rule my life these days, wishing to pull me under its twining spell. Sometimes it would like nothing than to follow them in their spiral of vengeance. But no, I won't follow that path. I'm better than them… or that is what I'd like to believe in, if I believe in anything these days…
Suddenly though, my morbid thoughts are interrupted, a sharp feeling of pain pulling me back to the reality. I turn around, but already I know what I'll see. It will be nothing new, nothing but a variation of what I've seen before.
There is a child over there, a little girl besides her mother. They both turn away the moment I look at them, but for a briefest of moment I can see their eyes, and the hatred is still deep within there. Then again, where could it have gone anyway? I'm here, still alive, aren't I? The symbol of their darkest hour, still walking amidst them…
Nonetheless, I walk on… the fools mask tightly pulled to cover face, and only my eyes betray the turmoil within. If the eyes are mirror of the soul, then what do mine show, glowing crimson as they are? Perhaps someone could tell me what do they show when my tenant grows restless…
Kill them, mutilate them and rend them from limb to limb! Are you going to let humiliate you so? Show those fools… and the rant goes on. It is nothing new to me, nothing I haven't countless times for the past six years. It is not the voice of Kyuubi no Kitsune that I dread these days. The old fox is but a familiar presence these days and has been for quite a while. Perhaps too familiar I think some times, but no reason for fear anymore. No, that is reserved always for the voice that follows.
They will die soon enough and will get what's coming to them. Soon they will burn and their ashes will be scattered to the winds. The old snake is coming here, I can smell him in the air, and then there shall be a reckoning… that voice says in my head, and a great fear comes over me for a reason I can't identify. Those words, wherever they come from… they always ring far too true. As I change my walk to a sprint and speed towards the Hokage tower, my mind has no time to wonder why that voice always sounds so eerily familiar…
Halfway there I hear an explosion and the pillar of smoke that rises from horizon clearly tells me its horrid tale, its shape twirling into the ever present spiral. I curse at the mocking sight even as I try to run even faster, the words spilling from my lips made of language beyond mortal minds. None of that helps my plight however, and as I reach to the center of this vortex of dread I can see I sight that makes my blood boil within me.
The tower of power is in ruins, its skeleton littered with bloody and battered remains of ninjas… most of them from Konoha. All around this lay Manda's coils as Orochimaru's summon rests, its job clearly done for now. However, what takes my attention from the carnage is the sight at the base of the tower.
At the very moment my eyes see the sight, Kakashi falls to the ground, a hole in his chest where his heart should be. Besides him lies Iruka, more than half of his body charred to the bone. And there, right in front of me, stand the makers of this nightmare: Orochimaru, his blade still sticking from Tsunade's back where she kneels in front of him, and Sasuke… the electricity still racing through his dripping and bloody hand.
At the sight of me both of them smirk, their faces bearing near identical grins. No doubt they are goading me, trying to incite me to some rash action as usual. It does not matter, as I cannot hear them and the sight of them is beginning to into swirling purple mist… like a spiral.
Now in my mind, I hear voices. There is Kyuubi and its roars, raging about this injustice upon his honor. There is Naruto, grieving for loss and burning for hatred. …but, if I can tell them apart, then who am I? Where is that voice I dread, or is it the one that he dreads? A thought rises to my mind, a thought I wish not think of… but I have no other choice. I open my mouth to utter a word and then I hear it.
No!
And then everything shatters, my mind sundered into splinters. Who am I? Kyuubi? Naruto? I don't know, perhaps something in between? In the whirlpool of my mind, all those shards of self twist and turn. In that vortex turned into a melting pool, in there something new is born. Something of fire, something of rage, and in a toss between ying and yang a new form has come.
All this happens in blink of an eye, a sundering and a rebirth. My form changes instinctively to a one from familiar a Jutsu, but my hair shows my heritage to those who would know. Fiery flames worthy of hellfire, my mane and my eyes as well…
Even the traitorous snakes are shocked by this sudden change. Unnerved by this transformation Sasuke charges to attack me, his prone hand bristling with electricity. So certain is he of his victory, he lets a grin form to lips… a grin I wipe away when a tail made of chakra rips away his right arm. His threat neutralized, I swat him away like an annoying insect and concentrate my attention to the man behind this atrocity.
There is no smile upon his face anymore, but a grimace of distaste instead. Soon enough though I have no time to think of this, for as much as a bastard he is, a Sannin he is as well. Even with some of my powers unleashed he is a challenge, and that doesn't even count the Sound nins serving him.
Soon the battle rages fully and the air is filled with chakra of deadly intent. A Punch, a kick, a parry and a blast… that's all my mind knows for now. One by one I manage to take them down but the mastermind stays back, preparing some little present for me no doubt. Even so, by every slaughter it becomes easier to wield my powers, and soon there is no challenge in these insects.
Suddenly though, a presence comes to senses… no, two of them. Perhaps summoned by the raging torrents of chakra Itachi and Kisame arrive, and then… the battle begins anew.
For a while they rule the battle, their teamwork sublime and to confounding my senses, but by now I know something of them as well. Samehada drains chakra, eating it like a ravenous beast. Perhaps it would be time to give it something to truly digest.
I charge at Kisame and power up Rasengan, and just as I thought, his sword rises to block it. So it blocks it, and the second, and the third… More and more of chakra I blast at it in a blink of an eye, and then it starts to glow, spider webs of damage marring its scaly surface. Suddenly it blows, overpowered by my crimson chakra, and then I see a sight of a handless shark, half of his head missing as well.
For Itachi though this is of no concern and fight goes on. His speed overpowering compared to mine, he tries to take me down, his attacks ripping and rending my flesh like a vortex of steel. For while I let this go on, my chakra regenerating every wound as they come, but eventually my pride cannot take anymore.
Acting purely on instinct, two crimson tails of chakra strike from my back at Itachi. Striking faster than an eye can follow they wrap around him, burning his clothes and skin with their flames. As my tails start to twist him around he simply tells me to do it, a peaceful smile gracing his lips. Then I grant his wish, faintly remembering an old rhyme so fitting to this…
Round and round the mulberry bush,
Pop goes the weasel,
…and then there flies his head, now finally free of all the earthly worries.
Here comes the evil…
So pleased I am at my achievements that I fail to notice Orochimaru and his unfolding plans. Suddenly I'm surrounded by snakes, their slithery bodies coiling tightly around me, and I can feel the pain and numbing feeling from their poisonous fangs.
Paralyzed by this, I have to listen to this snake of a man, to hear his taunting voice and mocking words. I hear him boast of his plan, how his traitors infiltrated and poisoned most of the other teams, how he and his servants killed my friends and family …and I hear him laugh at my attempts to protect the villagers. Hear him sneer at my acts to protect those that fear and hate me.
It's the last one that shatters my composure and sparks my rage to its greatest heights… for it is true. For ages I've held back on my true powers and abilities, hoping that the villagers would accept me. But never ever did that work, and always the hatred remained. Why? Why should I care what happens to them when I unleash my powers? Let them burn and rain down in ashes, for there is no one here left for me to care about anymore.
No limits in my mind anymore, the nine tail of power unleash from my back and skewer that blasted snake. Soon a vortex of power forms around me, the crimson chakra my tails burning hotter than the very fires of seventh circle of hell and growing exponentially.
I hear the screams of tormentors rise in a cacophony of terror, the village of the leaf turning into ashes for the eternity. In the center of this I stand, untouched by my very own funeral pyre and I watch and wonder…
Who am I then? Uzumaki Naruto is dead to the world, Kyuubi no Kitsune is no more. Who then am I? As the flames of rebirth rise higher and higher I decide and choose. Uzumaki, that is all… From birth to the death, from death to rebirth, am I but another step in the never-ending spiral of life? So be it…
From the village I take what little I can. Clothes to cover my naked blood drenched form, some mementoes to remember this by… and some food to feed my hunger on the way. Then I leave the place, the still smoldering ruins sending yet another smoky spiral to the skies. Spirals… perhaps they aren't that bad after all.
Epilogue
Finally clean of blood, gore and ashes I travel, now miles and miles away from Konoha… or, what was once known as Konoha. Even this far away I can still see the trail of smoke spinning in the darkening sky and I smile at the sight.
In the horizon I can see another traveler coming by the road, my sharp eyes already recognizing the familiar white and spiky hair. It is Jaraiya, her old master coming back to Konoha after a long time of absence.
I have no fear of recognition though. With no whiskers and the crimson hair, I'm just another pretty face for him, that's all. And true enough, as soon as I meet up with him he leers at me, his face without any sign or knowledge of my true nature.
As it's late, we both settle down for a camp, and I offer to share with him my rations. They're from Konoha I say, pointing at the faint sign of smoke in horizon, and say they were having a barbeque when I left.
He accepts, his stomach crumbling in response, and asks what kind of meat it is. I go to the tent and take the meat from my pack, at same time absently touching the two mementoes I took from the village with me… a shattered blade and a broken headband. A hungry grin forms to my face and I bear my fangs when I tell him it's grilled snake…
The end…?
AN: Yikes! What a plot bunny this one was… Just too bad I didn't have to holy hand grenade of Antioch at hand with me when it bit me. As for inspiration… a horror manga named Uzumaki and the name's possible connection with Naruto. After all, Uzumaki means vortex, whirlpool, spiral and that sort of things… and so I got an idea for this twisted piece of work. Not much to do with the original Uzumaki (aside from the fixation with spirals) but hopefully this fix makes some kind of (very twisted) sense. Of well, back to writing 'The Knight of Shadow'…