FULL CIRCLE
Dislcaimer: I'm not putting one here because if I owned Naruto I wouldn't need to write fanfiction...dumbass
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My **FIRST** fanfic...so be nice..cuz if you flame me....I will hunt you down and flame YOUR ass...but I'll do it with matches....and lighter fluid...and a demented psychotic smile XD
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"Is that all you got? Eh dobe?"
As I stood there, exhausted, I couldn't help but admire the irony of it all. Ten years had come full circle. Ten years of hard work. Ten years of sweat. Of blood. Of tears. Of hard-fought victories. And of too many tear-filled funerals. Too many good friends -no- comrades had died throughout the years.
Jiji. Asuma. Ero-Sennin. Kaka-sensei.
And after all those years, after ten long years, it all comes right back to where it all began.
The Valley of the End.
I couldn't stop the sad smile from reaching my bloody lips.
"What's so funny, dobe?"
I slowly rise to my feet. As I stand atop the head of the statue of the Shodai, I gaze across the falls to the figure perched on the visage of the bane of my existence.
Well...what used to be the bane of my existence. I chuckle to myself.
To think. Back then, all I cared about was brinking back the same man whom my gaze settles upon. Bringing him back, for the sole purpose of seeing the smile upon the face of the one girl I loved. A promise of a lifetime just for a smile. How naive I was. But then again it was that naivety that ended up leading me to my beautiful wife.
********FLASHBACK**********
"Naruto!" she laughs as I drag her along, the blindfold securely in place. "Where are you taking me?!"
"Nuh-uh! It's a surprise"
A mere five minutes later I stand behind her, the scent of her bubblegum-pink hair wafting under my nose. She's giddy with anticipation. It's hard not to know that with the way she's bouncing on her heels impatiently.
"Okay Sakura-chan...close your eyes....Don't open them 'til I say, okay?"
"Oh hurry up, you goof," she chides playfully.
As I take the blind fold off, she gasps at the view before her.
I just knew that she would love my favorite getaway. I laugh to myself as she stands there awestruck and wide-eyed as she takes in the view from atop the Yondaime's head.
"It's...It's...wow..."
"So suffice to say I left you speechles, ne Sakura-chan?" I tease.
"Yeah...you always seem to do that Naruto....kun"
I go stiff.
Did I hear that right?....Naruto...KUN?
"Sa....Sakura-chan?" I asked hesitantly.
"Naruto-kun....I really like what you've done for me for my birthday...REALLY! I do!" She seems to be struggling with her words, something that definitely isn't Sakura-esque. "But I was hoping you would give me something a little more...special....this year. Something I really want...."
"Of course Sakura-chan. Anything for you." I say with my trademark foxy grin. Even if I don't think I will like what she asks for, what with the way she's acting setting off every warning bell in my brain, if it's for Sakura-chan, I'll do it anyway.
"I'm...I'm really glad you said that Naruto-kun" she says as she takes several steps toward me, her hair covering her eyes....
Wait...Is she...Is she BLUSHING?!
""because...Naruto-kun....for my my birthday..."
Now she's right in front of me....
"...for ever actually..."
She grabs ahold of my jacket...
"....what I want...."
And now she's on the tips of her toes reaching up to me...
"...is you..."
********END FLASHBACK**********
That had been my first kiss. The first of many. And the first of many nights where she stayed over at my worn out apartment. From that day on, I fought for another reason. For my Sakura-chan. And then, two years later, I fought to come home. To my wife. A year later, to come home to my wife and son, Jiraiya-chan.
I laugh. Even at only 2, Ero-Sennin rubbed off on his grand-son without even being there. Damn kid is way beyond breast-feeding but still likes to cop a feel on his Aunty Ino.
Can't say that I blame the squirt though. Just wish Sakura-chan would agree to another "Spice-Up Night" with Ino....She's a bigger nympho than Sakura-chan.
"What so DAMN FUNNY?!"
I come out of my trip down Memory Lane to see an enraged Uchiha glaring at me.
"Just thinking about how ironic it is that this so-called dobe has done more than the greeat Uchiha genius. It's quite ironic, ne Sasuke-chan?"
I can see the fury in those ruby orbs. He's pissed. No. He's beyond pissed. After all, he left because I kept nipping at his heels while he was in Konoha. Yet even after he left to gain the power he sought, I still managed to stay right on his back.
If you consider killing Pein (all six of his bodies as well), Kisame (Kami rest the poor fish-bastard. After all, he really did just want the ultimate battle), Hidan (AFTER he somehow pieced his body back together and climbed out of the hole Shika bombed his sorry ass into), and Kakuzu (hell of a field test for the Fuuton: Rasenshuriken) staying in the pampered prick's shadow. And after killing Madara, the pamperred "Prince" STILL thinks I'm his inferior.
"I could have done anything you did. And I would have done it BETTER!" he sneers.
"Yare, yare. Keep tellin yourself that. After all, you weren't the one who killed Itachi now were you?" I smirk.
And that's the final straw.
"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!" He roars as he charges at me, his kusanagi drawn and poised to strike.
I just smile and lean back, the blade harmlessly passing above me as I release the chakra from my feet and start to fall down the side of the statue.
As he begins his descent down the cliff face after me, I silently form my trademark Kage Bunshin and have them launch off of me so that they hit the water first. As I land agilely land on the water's surface, I jump back, creating distance between myself and my one-time brother.
As I deflty continue to duck, doge, and weave my way around his attacks, I allow my mind to think back to how this war had begun.
The Iwa forces had seen a weakness. So in the wake of the ensuing battle my fellow Konoha shinobi and I waged against Akatsuki, we returned to the village just in time to have a messenger from an outpost on the border of Iwa arrive with word that a massive force of five thousand strong was headed for Hi no Kuni, and after that, Konoha itself.
In the end it turned out that Sasuke and his fellow Taka memebers had fled Ame during the battle and headed to Iwa to help "persuade" the Tsuchikage to amass a force and march onto Konoha, of course with Sasuke himself leading the army.
In the end, Tsunade managed to rally our remaining forces and sent a messenger hawk to Suna to request urgent reinforcements in time to stave off the attack. The battle was still waging above us, about a kilometer to the east, despite the fact that the Suna reinforcements haven't arrived yet.
I was suddenly brought out of my musings by a not-too-nice cut along my cheek.
As my battle raged on with my once-best-friend, we both continued to wear each other down. Amazing how a kunai to the gut here, a sword wound through the lung there will do that. But after the beter part of an hour, we both began to feel it. The end. It was coming. Our fight would be over soon. An one of us wasn't walking away. Not this time.
As if reading my mind, Sasuke smirked.
"This ends today, dobe. This time I'm not inclined to let you live. You WILL die by my hand."
As I start to shout my own...colorful...words back, I'm cut off by a very familiar voice, a very...beautiful voice....
"OH SHUT UP YOU SNAKE-FUCKER!!"
Too bad the words don't match the voice.....
As I look up to the canyon walls, I have to consciously hold back the gasp from escaping my lips.
There, on the walls of the canyon, literally smashed together, had to be upwards of ten thousand shinobi. And for all my gaze takes in, I can't help but be amazed at one fact: there are hitai-ate with the symbols from not only Suna and Konoha, but the Fire Daimyo's personal Shinobi Guard as well. As my eyes swept the walls of the Valley, my gaze came to rest on the source of that beautiful voice that had just come to my defence with her....colorful....words.
The beautiful bubblegum locks of my wife were swaying in the breeze as she helped hold up Lee and Kiba. On both sides of her stood Tsunade, Gaara, Shikamaru, Ino, Hinata, Kiba, Lee, TenTen, Neji, Konahamaru, and all the others. My comrades. My friends.
My Nakama.
Suddenly a maniacle hackle broke the silence. I turned to see an insane glee on Sasuke's face, his eyes glazed over, crazed, laughing as though he thought the thousands of shinobi being here, outnumbering him were somehow irrellevent...
As if to answer my question he turned his crazed eyes towards me and said the words that cemented my belief in his insanity.
"Well dobe. At least you'll have an audience for your death. And after yours, I'll carry out theirs. One. At. A. Time."
"You're an idiot."
That definitely was NOT what he was expecting, judging by the shocked look on his face.
"I thought you might like to know something, Sasuke-chan. I know how you feel about Sakura-chan being yours...but allow me to let you in on a little secret...She. Is. My. Wife."
Oh yeah. That pissed him off.
"You keep your hands off her! She only came running to you because she couldn't handle the wait. She'll come running to me. Just watch! She'll be mine! I will walk away after I kill every last one of your friends. I'll take her with me and make her my perfect Uchiha bride" he crowed, his maniacal grin growing.
"Oh shut up. I'm tired. I want to go home and bang my wife. So let's just finish this so I can taste her sweet, sweet, juicy pussy as I bend her nice round ass over the kitchen table-"
"NARUTO!!"
I turn again to see my beautiful wife blushing madly, along with just about every other shinobi present. If not for the fact I was too far away, I could've sworn I heard Oba-chan muttering something along the lines of "Dear Kami please not another one....Damn you Jiraiya..."
I turn to see my opponent in an even more enraged state.
"I'M GONNA RIP YOUR THROAT OUT DOBE!! SHE'S MINE!! HOW DARE YOU VIOLATE HER!!"
"Well....she just so happens to like being violated..at least she hasn't complained about it..." I smile, despite the immense pain racking my body, I continue with my taunts.
Other than the obvious side-effect of making Sasuke lose focus in his rage, my...provocative...taunts are serving another purpose: buying me time as I continue to focus the Faji-teme's(1) chakra for a final, game-ending move.
Now that he had enough time to complete the task, he smirks as he looks up at the man he once considered the closest thing to a brother.
"Enough of the games, Teme. What's say we end this once and for all? No tricks. No slight of hand. Just one last attack."
The crazed look in his eyes seemed to glow for a second as he held his hand up, the blue electricity of the Chidori glowing in his palm.
"It's your death Dobe. I'll kill you and take MY Sakura."
And with that he charged, and I just grinned, not moving a muscle. I heard the screams from my comrades, telling me to move. They had no idea.
Without a sound, without warning of any kind, I raised my right hand, the skin glowing and etheral red from the enormous amounts of condensed yokai I had amassed in it, and I struck.
The ensuing backlash hurt like hell. Well...I'm sure it would have hurt like hell. You see the problem is it's kind of hard to feel much of anything when you just burned the skin and a good portion of your muscle tissue off your own body. Condensed, solidified yokai has a tendency to burn anything and everything it comes into contact with when you use it to detonate an Exploding Kage Bunshin. Especially one you pumped full of Senjutsu chakra. Not to mention the fact that I had five of them. Luckily I have the bakakitsune o heal him.
As I open my eyes, I'm greeted to the lovely site of my beautiful wife looking down at my face as she has my head resting in her lap.
As I chance a look around, the entire army of shinobi are watching me, hopefully only in awe of my healing factor...even though I know some of the men are oggling my wife.
"Naruto...."
I look up and I see my Sakura-chan crying.
"Yes, my Hime?"
"It's finally over. The war. Akatsuki. Sasuke. Orochimaru. It's all finaly over."
"I know Hime. I'm glad too."
As she helps me to stand, I start to hear an odd sound. It sounds sort of like thunder off in the distance, but it seems to be growing louder. Then it hits me.
I look around at the thousands of shinobi and kunoichi as they start to clap, then the cheers and rauckus shouts join in. My Nakama come and join me, congratulating me, a few of the kunoichi threatening me if I ever use my...bedroom life...with Sakura-chan to taunt an opponet again, and various people just clapping me on the back.
Hell, Gaara even hugged me. Yeah. I'm still creeped out. And that was a hundred "congratulations" ago. I pause as Oba-chan approaches me, the mass of shinobi going silent.
She has a massive grin on her face. Which tells me one thing: this day is going to get either really better or really worse. Really worse.
She stands in front of me and places her hands on my shoulders as she faces the masses.
Then she says the one sentence that 'd dreamt of since childhood.
"You're looking at the soon-to-be Rokudaime Hokage!!"
And they erupt. Again.
I, Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto, have just succeded in realizing all of my dreams. I defeated the most powerful organization the Elemental Nations had ever known. I killed the "immortal" Uchiha Patriach. I've been married to the love of my life for years. I have a beautiful son. I finally put to rest the last remnant of my past that still haunted me and my family. And finished it all off by realizing my childhood dream. This day couldn't end better.
"Naruto-kun....Jiraya-chan's staying the night with Tsunade....and Ino-chan says she wants to try on top tonight...."
Or maybe it can.
END
Author's Notes:
(1)- as best as I could find, it roughly means "Fuzzy Bastard". XD in Naruto's mind, a perfect name for the most powerful demon to ever walk the Shinobi World.