Why do I still feel sad? Sasuke is back, Hinata is finally going out with me, what could go wrong.
The only thing I want is missing from my life. Sakura.
Meandering through the village, he didn't even stop for ramen he just kept walking. He didn't know or care where he was. Looking up, he couldn't help but smile. It was the training ground. He could still here Kakashi saying, "The best way to beat me is teamwork the strategy none of you used. Naruto stopped by a pond to sort out his feelings. He let a smile grace his face, remembering the day Sasuke came home . . .
"Don't go Naruto, you'll die. I don't care about Sasuke anymore, don't do this for me." Sakura cried as Naruto and Kakashi were leaving the village. "Don't go I love you."
"Sorry Sakura but I don't think you really do. Right now, you'd do anything to get me to stay. I know you still love Sasuke, and will do anything to see him again. That is why I won't rest until you're in his arms. Good buy, Sakura." Naruto kissed her forehead and turned out of the village and soon, maybe out of this world.
Here they were. 5 hours of mindless meandering through the village hidden in the sound (or its remains), this is what he and his sensei found. Naruto looked up at the stone grey building that housed his closest friend.
"Let's do this Naruto," Kakashi said as he walked in. Breathing deeply, Naruto followed. At least 50 shuriken went to meet both of them. Naruto had to create shadow clones to take most of the hits.
"Some welcoming party" Kakashi muttered as he, more cautiously continued. Suddenly a glowing white hand met his chest. All Kakashi had time to do was say "What the-" before collapsing to the ground. Dead.
"Why you, Show your self, who ever you are!" Naruto screamed in rage. This acquisition was unnecessary, because he already knew who it was.
"Long time no see, Naruto," Said the all too familiar voice. Sasuke kicked their dead sensei's body out of the way, showing little remorse if any, to walk across the floor to his once friend.
"Why Sasuke, why kill him? Don't you even have any feelings for him least?" He already knew the answer, that bonds were useless and unimportant. That Sasuke had already severed all his bonds.
"Heh heh heh. Same foolish Naruto. Will you never learn? Caring will only bring you pain and hurt, Sever those connections now and I might need to use more then one finger to defeat you."
"SASUKE! YOU'VE GONE TO FAR. I'M BRINING YOU BACK TO THE VILLAGE IN THE NAME OF KAKASHI SENSEI!" Naruto screamed.
"Die Naruto, die like that stupid sensei of ours," Sasuke snarled throwing shuriken as he spoke, "Shuriken shadow clone jutsu," suddenly 10 shuriken turned into 100.
"Shadow clone jutsu" The 100 shuriken sallied harmlessly into the replications.
"Sasuke, how could you kill Kakashi like he means nothing to you?! How could you betray the village," With each word Naruto slashed through the air wit a kunai at Sasuke. With increasing difficulty, Sasuke parried each blow. Finally Naruto's blow sent Sasuke into a wall. "How could you hurt Sakura like that? I fight for not just myself but for the village, to avenge Kakashi's death, and for Sakura. Wind style: Rasengan." The swirling energy gathered in his had forming the familiar ball of chakra.
"Naruto, it is because of you I left the village. You're improvement was so great that I had to find a way to become strong to, that is why I betrayed the village. Why are you so blind as to think that I will some day return. Itachi is dead, Akatsuki fell, and you expect me to come home? Killing Itachi has opened my eyes to the light. The village is meaningless. I don't give a . I'm not sorry, Naruto. Chidori: 1000 Flapping Birds." The dark blast formed in his hand filling the room with the sound of birds taken flight.
Both jumped Naruto tears streaming down his face and Sasuke with malicious laughter. As the attacks clashed, Sasuke activated, the power of his level 2 cursed seal. "What Naruto, you're not going to call on the demon fox again?"
"Nope, two evils don't create a good and with this rasengan, I hope to purify the evil within you, and drive it out. Wind style: Purification Rasen."
This jutsu was something Naruto had As the two attacks collided an orb formed around the combatants, but unlike the orb that formed during their last bought, this wasn't an orb of destruction, but one of hope. As light and dark collided. Naruto's rasengan changed from blue to gold as the Rasengan drove into Sasuke. An evil howl shrieked a noise no one could forget.
"This is you're punishment for betraying Sakura and the village, killing Kakashi sensei, and hurting us all. FOR SAKURA"
And with that, Naruto drove the Rasengan completely through Sasuke's body. The evil shrieked louder then ever, but with the dark energy leaving Sasuke it turned into a whisper. But Sasuke didn't die. He didn't even fall. His hideous wings turned into bright bird-like wings, his grey skin turned a glistening pink, and his hair turned bright gold. But most interesting was his curse mark it had changed from 3 apostrophes into one larger one.
"Thank you, Naruto. I have been overcome by desire and hatred. I have now tamed my curse mark. My cursed seal now blesses my. Behold the blessed seal level 2. Come my friend; let us finish this fight for honor, and not vengeance. For our sensei." Sasuke smiled brighter then he ever had before. Although Naruto thought and was proven right that it was just the overwhelming power to do good that came with his new mark.
"For honor" Naruto agreed, and started his Wind style: Rasengan
"Chidori" Sasuke said. It was a different Chidori, though. Not of blackness and destruction, but of hope. Instead of being fused with black light, it was a bright white.
The two attacks clashed once more with Naruto victorious. "Come on Sasuke. Back to the village, there is someone waiting for you."
As they approached the village entrance, Sasuke started to grow nervous. Would they forgive him? Would anyone accept him now? All these worries were then drowned out by the wind suddenly being knocked out of him by a hug of inhuman strength.
"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke. Your back" Sakura chanted. Sasuke responded to silence her with a kiss. To Sakura, everything seemed ok. Sasuke was back.
"I love you," He whispered in her ear.
"Me to, Sasuke, Me to." Sakura looked over his shoulder at the blond haired man behind him. Tears in her eyes she said "Thank you, Naruto.
The next day was Kakashi's funeral. Sakura saying Kakashi would have forgiven him dragged Sasuke there.
After the funeral, Tsunade gathered everyone for an announcement. "Today it is my honor, to welcome back Sasuke Uchiha. The second-", her next announcement was cut off by the cheering. "As I was saying, it is also my honor to crown 3 new Jonin. Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki."
Naruto beamed under the moonlight. If you couldn't read emotions, you'd have a hard time guessing how sad he was. Sakura was now Sasuke's, and he had Hinata, but it still felt wrong. But he had to do what was best for Sakura. If she wanted Sasuke, then so be it.
Naruto sighed as he pulled back from memory lane. He was almost late. He managed a quick shower and a change of clothes before running off towards the Hyuga's.
"Hello is Hinata ready?"
"I'm here Naruto."
Naruto's mouth stood agog at the beautiful girl before him. His girlfriend, Hinata Hyuga. The kiss they shared shortly after drove all thoughts of Sakura from his mind.
Just for a second though.
Naruto smiled at his 19th birthday. What wasn't to be happy about, it was his birthday for god's sake. Looking at his friends he couldn't help but smile at how much they changed.
First there was Shikamaru. He had gone from the annoyingly lazy, quiet, good for nothing, idiot to a caring person who was willing to do some work if it meant that his friends benefited. With Temari with him he looked happier then a male from the Nara clan ever should. Instead of wearing his hair back like he used to he had cut it short but still kept it long enough to keep his hair somewhat the same.
Temari had changed to. Her overconfident, stressing, cocky, and aggressive side had long gone and was replaced by a much nicer and more calmed down version of her. Shikamaru had changed Temari nearly as much as Temari had changed him. Despite these changes they fought constantly, like Shikamaru's parents, but always made up.
Kankuro was one of the only members of those 15 ninja who had participated in the events at the chunin exams 7 years ago without a girlfriend, "because I'm to cool", he says. All of Chio's old puppets had fallen into his possession and, along with some custom made puppets, he now owned over 3,000 puppets of almost impossible strength. And he remembered all of their names. Konkuro's eye paint changed daily. Today it was 3 circles surrounding his eyes with lines extending from it.
Gaara was still the Kazekage. He had owned his skills to replace those lost when the Shikaku was extracted from him, enough to not only turn into a controlled version of his Shikaku form, but to create multiple copies of him. He had extended his abilities to a level where he can control, not only sand, but soil and solid rock.
Choji was (almost impossible to believe) thin. He had learned a special jutsu that allowed him to store all of those calories in a fourth pill. Like Kankuro he also wasn't involved with anyone. Despite his change in size, Choji never lost his love for barbecue. Whether it was a small snack or a big meal Choji still loves to eat. Also he can extract the calories for any living substance within 3 feet of his heart.
Ino had long since forgotten Sasuke and had moved on. You could say her love life had gone to the dogs. She was Kiba's girlfriend. Ino's mind based jutsu ability had increased to the ability that she could control over 30 minds at once to fight the enemy with themselves. She even used it to talk with Akamaru. She had hair that ran all the way down to her ankles before a cut. She still wore her hair over one of her eyes.
Kiba hadn't changed at all. His voice still had that gruff, bark like tone to it. His jutsu was still the same as well. Changing Akamaru into a copy himself and attacking. Akamaru was a different story. Despite being near the end of a dog's life, being a nin-dog extended his life by a lot. He had grown another foot in every direction.
Shino was still his self-secluded self. He didn't change at all excluding clothing. He now wore a blue overcoat with several pockets and bags strapped around it to hold all of the bugs he could use. He now used a multi-size jutsu similar to Choji's. He could increase the size of bugs to roughly human sized. He was another of those without a girlfriend.
Hinata had changed a lot since she started dating Naruto. She was now outspoken and assertive with an "it's my way or the highway" sort of feel around her. Her blue hair was now tied back in a braid. She had a move variant for every one of Neji's Byakugan moves, and regularly sparred with him.
Neji had become a more powerful ninja then Naruto would have ever liked to admit. Neji wore his hair in single clip just before the end, and braided in the front. During the battle in which Gai had died, he had confessed to Ten-Ten how he felt about her and found out she felt the same. He still feels guilty because Gai had died protecting them from a blow that they had failed to see while they had been kissing each other. He had even gone as far as to create jutsu for Byakugan users.
Ten-Ten still uses weapons but also combines these moves with ninjutsu that increase weapons potency. She still wore her hair in 2 buns in the back of her head. Now here clothing style looked much more like the Hyuga's style. Ten-Ten has started not only dressing like a Hyuga, but also even basing some techniques off of their moves. Like Neji, Ten-Ten feels guilty for the death of Gai. Ten-Ten has learned proficient taijutsu in the name of her sensei. Despite this, neither she nor Neji's taijutsu compares to Lee's.
Rock Lee feels the most pain for his dead sensei. He constantly says that it is his entire fault, although he had the least involvement in his death. Through plastic surgery and make-up, Lee is an exact carbon copy of Gai. Lee is currently the only one of the people at the party to have taken on a team of Genin. Ironically, all of his students excel in ninjutsu, but are hopeless at taijutsu.
Sakura had probably changed the least. She still wore her hair short and at point in the end. Her ability at medical ninjutsu has jumped to the point were she can heal 20 minor wounded, with little effort and at the same time. Naruto had thought with Sasuke back that she would revert to the old Sakura that was obsessed over looking nice for Sasuke, but she actually seems to only care if she is completely filthy.
Sasuke had changed the most dramatically since his defection. Now that Itachi was dead, the most important thing for him was his friend. He now fights not to live till he can kill Itachi, but to allow others to live. Having awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan Sasuke's added ability is that he can slightly see into the future to percept enemy attacks. He now wore clothes that were almost an advertisement for the Uchiha clan.
Naruto realized how big the change in his life had been since all those years ago. He now could place a meaning to the word friend. All the people here were here because they really cared for him. With Iruka, Kakashi, and Tsunade (who was extremely sick) dead or dieing, the people who really cared were here. Not just mentally but physically. Now his most powerful jutsu was his Typhoon Rasengan. By combining his natural efficiency for wind jutsu with a newfound ability for water jutsu.
"Naruto" a voice he recognized as Hinata's whispered," it's time to blow out your candles.
He stopped looking at his friends and gave into the choruses of "make a wish" and "blow out the candles". He used a quick wind jutsu to blow out the candles, shared a quick kiss with Hinata and finished up his party with a game of pin the shuriken on the bull's eye. Later he opened his gifts. A book from Sakura (figures), a crud drawing of Lee from (whom else), some new shuriken from Sasuke, a new suit from Hinata, and a few other miscellaneous items. "Great more for me to clean in this room" he thought. Despite that he smiled. What could make this better?
"Sakura" said a quick voice in his head.
"Shut up" he said back.
"Not until you say you love her."
"Do not."
"Do to."
"I love Hinata, not Sakura."
"No you don't."
"Who are you anyway?"
"You."
"No you're not."
"Yes I am."
So, in the midst of this mental battle, he went to sleep.
"I'm so bored" Naruto sighed. Sasuke, Neji, Rock Lee, and Kiba had left on a secret mission, Hinata and Sakura had left on a girl's only shopping spree, and with no one strong enough to spar him without risk of death around, he had nothing to do.
"I know! I'll train with the Kyūbi's chakra" Naruto exclaimed. So he picked up a pack of seals Jiraiya left him, left a note for Hinata and found a clearing about 7 miles from the village and set up his protection seal. That way if he lost control, he couldn't escape without being hit with a suppression seal.
"Lets go" One tail, two, three, four, five! He could feel the nine tailed fox pressing his mind but he still had control. Six, seven, eight! He could feel the pressure building to a level he couldn't control. Then the pain left him for a second and struck twice as hard in his abdomen.
"He he. Thank you Naruto" was the last thing he heard before he blacked out.
"Where am I? Who am I?" Naruto thought. He looked around and saw a giant gate before him. "So the nine tailed fox summoned me here, why? But wait the seal isn't there!" he fell silent at another realization. The seal hadn't broken; he was just on the other side.
"So Naruto how does it feel?" said a voice filled with an ominous tone and a wicked chill. "How does it feel being surprised? Not able to move?"
"Fox, let me go!"
"Ahhhh . . . no. But I'll tell you what. I'll destroy Konoha, and you can watch hi-definition. " He snapped his teeth together and a large screen appeared in Naruto's cell. It showed, what he could only guess to be, what the fox saw. "Now sit back and watch, boy, as I destroy the place and people you hold most dear.
And so Naruto watched as everyone he held awaited their death.. "I have to do something," he said. "Rasengan" he cried ramming the spinning orb into the cell door. "Rasengan, Rasengan, Rasengan!" Naruto cried to no effect.
"Okay magic door try this Typhoon Rasengan!" Even this, his most powerful jutsu, failed. "I give up. It is going to be entirely my fault that my friends will be killed." He started to cry. "Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Neji, Ten Ten, Lee, I'm sorry."
"Sasuke I'm sorry to. I never meant to scorn all the training we did together. I know I promised that because I beat you I wouldn't ever lose. Even just a training match against my students."
"Sakura now that I'm out of control and I'm probably going to kill you, I have no trouble admitting this. I love you. I thought that because you were meant for Sasuke, I was meant for someone else. I understand now. I was meant to destroy the world, not to love someone."
The tears started coming faster then ever. He cried for the people he killed, the people he was going to kill, and for the people he loved; when all of the sudden he heard, "NARUTO. DON'T GIVE UP. I KNOW SOMEWHERE IN THERE IS MY BEST FRIEND." A soothing voice called that at the same time sounded like a knife edge.
"Sakura. I don't believe it. Could it really be?" But it was. On the video screen it showed Sakura, cut-up and bleeding openly standing next to Hinata.
"I WON'T GIVE UP ON YOU, SO DON'T GIVE UP ON YOURSELF."
"WE'RE ALL HERE FOR YOU," cried many other voices, all at once. Sakura had been joined by the rest of the group even Sasuke, Lee, Neji, and Kiba who had come back from their mission.
"They're all with me. They believe in me." A flood of memories hit Naruto like a bullet: the day he graduated the academy, when he and Sasuke fought Haku, the first round of the chunin exams, his training with Jiraiya, his fights with Kiba and Neji, his fight with Gaara, his training to learn the rasengan, Sasuke's defection, when he learned Jiraiya was his godfather and that he was dead, the same day when he found out that he was the son of the fourth hokage, the day he defeated Pain (Nagato), and the day he brought Sasuke back, were just a few of these memories.
"I've got to believe in myself, like they believe in me. Let's do this. Typhoon Rasengan". This time the bars started to bend. "I can do this. Watch out fox." The bars shattered.
"Rahhhhh . . ." the fox shouted gripping his head. "What is happening? Is this that feeling human's call pain?"
"Yes fox, and now this is the end for you," Naruto shot from the sky fist clenched. "Take this." and with that punched the fox across the village. The first person to hurt the fox.
" Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. . ." the fox growled, "You forget Uzumaki. Your brain is imprinted on mine. Ultimate rasengan X 5. The fox surrounded his entire body with a swirling energy mass and rammed himself into Naruto.
"Heheheheheheh." Face my newest jutsu fox, Void Clone." The Naruto clone the fox attacked turned into a dark void slowly sucking the demon in.
"No!! Not again!! I refuse to be put away like an old coat. Giga Rasengan X 30,000." The fox's mouth opened so wide to reveal a swirling mass of energy the size of the village and growing.
"Check mate fox. Shadow Clone Jutsu Typhoon Rasen X 50,000 Gun." Naruto created one million clones and every pair of four clones made a typhoon rasengan and put them all in the original's hand. "As the future Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village. I wouldn't want all my friends dead and I wouldn't want to lead a non-existent village would I?" At this exclamation the mass of rasengans all flew at the fox, each forcing him further back into the void.
"If I'm going so are you!" the fox cried releasing his mass of power just as his muzzle was sucked in the vortex. With no defense, Naruto just watched his death as it got closer and closer. Then out of nowhere it flew off back towards the vortex. Sakura stood in front of him, bloody fist out stretched.
"No one hurts my closest friend." She helped Naruto up to his feet and momentarily afterwards, not caring that everyone, including Hinata and Sasuke were watching, he kissed her. They kissed for what seemed for at least an hour because when they let go of each other the sun was raising. "Make that my boyfriend" Sakura whispered into his ear.
"The sun is rising on our future together" he said back.
"Let's hope our friendship can survive this," Naruto giggled. With a look back at Hinata and Sasuke, both had tears in their eyes (he couldn't tell whether they were of happiness or anger), he blacked out.
"Where am I?" Naruto thought out loud. His entire body hurt, he couldn't think straight, every part of him was aching. "What is this feeling? It's like an entire part of my being has been taking from me. What's going on here?"
"NARUTO!!" Sakura called from the now open doorway. "I was so worried. Are you okay? Can you move your hand? Are you thinking strait? Are you hungry? Do you remember what happened last week?"
Of all these questions thrown at him in one breath, the last one brought everything back. His goofy smile was replaced with a hard look as he saw the destruction the Kyūbi had caused all over again. But most importantly he remembered what happened with Sakura that day. Remembering the feeling of triumph that the p art of him who still loved Sakura felt at the kiss, he pulled Sakura forward and kissed here with more passion then he had that day.
Sakura's eyes slowly closed as they pulled themselves closer to the other. The 2 shared a passionate 3 minutes like that before Naruto sensed Hinata approaching, and ended the moment before she saw. So to make it convincing that nothing had happened Naruto started a conversation in his important voice which just made him sound like an actual high ranked ninja.
"Casualties?" he asked Sakura.
"Little deaths but so many injuries that you're the only one with a signal room." Sakura replied with an equally serious voice
"Who died?"
"Actually only 2 deaths occurred the first was an academy student who thought he was strong enough and didn't know why everyone was so scared. The second was. . .
"Naruto," Hinata's voice wafted from the doorway. So happy that you would have guessed she had given up on Naruto. But when she saw Sakura her face and voice hardened and took a seat on the other side of his bed. "Don't mind me, just continue." Hinata said coolly
.
"Any way," Sakura continued with a much softer tone then Hinata. Naruto saw tears in her eyes and wondered why, "The other death was . . . I'm sorry Naruto but in her old age the attack just came to fast. Tsunade is dead." At this Sakura completely broke down and started crying her eyes out while Naruto was struggling to keep control of his emotions to.
"What do you have to be sorry about? She was your sensei. If anyone should apologies it should be me for letting it happen." Naruto said, his own eyes tearing up. "Hinata could you leave for a second? I want to talk to Sakura alone."
"Suit yourself," Hinata replied and left the two alone.
"Sakura, before we help the village repair itself, we have to fix things up with our closest friends. I can't afford to have Sasuke get angry and leave again, and I have to explain what I did to Hinata."
"I agree. I need to patch things up with Hinata and Sasuke to."
"Naruto, you have a visitor," said the receptionist. It was Sasuke. "I guess we'll start now, Sakura." Naruto said as he looked up at his best friend. "You go find Hinata."
As Sakura was leaving she gave Sasuke a smile but he didn't return her gesture, just kept staring at Naruto.
"Naruto we need to talk. Sasuke said.
"Yes Sasuke, yes we do," Naruto responded with nearly as much indifference as Sasuke had addressed him with. Looking into his friends eyes, it was not hatred, dislike, or even slight anger. It seemed more like he just wanted answers. "So what is it you want answered?"