The Crimson Shadow.
Read! Important!: Now you can be wondering… 'shouldn't she be working on her other stories?' well, you are correct, I should. But I just find it has waaay too much plot-holes in it and I didn't really know where to go with it anymore! I hope you don't really mind. Anyhow, how this started: I opened Word, suddenly an idea popped into my head, and I started typing.
Now you should know, before you read this, that I don't have a Beta, nor do I speak English originally! There could be some faults in my grammar or words. I don't mind if you point it out though.
Another thing! Danzo Shimura is alive! As much as you may hate it, I need him for this story.
So yeah…
I am alive!
Prologue: Reasons.
~* The best way to get to trouble is with a smile, even if it's a fake one. *~
A tall boy stood in front of a gate. His unruly blond hair with red streaks in it swaying violently in the wind, and he was slowly putting his Jounin jacket away. After that, he untied his hitai-ate, and left it on the ground.
The boy – no, man – sighed loudly, and looked back through the gate. His azure eyes flashed in sadness though quickly turned back to being cold, and emotionless. 'why..?' was what lingered in his head, 'why did it have to come to this?'.
He thought back to that moment. The moment he was told to leave The leaf.
( FLASBACK ) -
Naruto walked casually over the streets of The Leaf Village, his hands raised up and behind his back as he usually did. Though as calm as he seemed, he really wasn't. You see, the fact is, now that the war was over and the Village was calm, peaceful – and finally built up again – and it was creeping him out! Normally he was so used to all the hectic stuff but now.. Yes, he had achieved his dream. Yes, he was happy. And yes, he shouldn't be thinking this but; why can't something exciting happen..?
(A harsh blow of the wind flew past him, it taking the leafs with it. He shivered, and suddenly felt like something was about to happen.)
Naruto stopped – he had felt a flare of chakra – and looked around. His hand slowly moving to grab one of his kunai out of his pouch. Next thing he knew, he was being attacked. Not taking a moment to take a look at his opponent, not even thinking why he was being attacked, he jumped side-wards; successfully dodging the attack.
The other ninja stepped past him – as he had expected the attack would hit – and Naruto took advantage of this. He jumped to the front with his newly achieved speed and aimed his kunai for the Ninja's neck, aiming to slice it and get this battle over with. Though of course, that isn't what happened as the ninja jumped up, put his kunai back and switched it for his sword, and jumped back down, successfully slicing Naruto's back.
Naruto gritted his teeth and bit down a scream of pain as he lunged forward again. The ninja didn't expect him to recover this fast, and was taken by surprise as suddenly he felt something cold against his throat, which quickly turned to a stinging feeling, and then he choked on his own blood.
Naruto catched the – now limp – falling body in his hands, and laid it down on the cold ground. He was now able to actually look at his attacker. The first thing he noticed was his mask: 'ANBU,' he knew with a sinking feeling in his gut. With shaking fingers he decided to take off the mask, hoping it was just some assassin or someone he didn't know. Once the mask was off he was greeted by lifeless brown eyes, which he – luckily – didn't know. He couldn't have bared the feeling if he had just killed a friend of his.. Though this was awful too! This guy has – had loved ones! What had he just done?! He killed a fellow Leaf shinobi!
Naruto slowly started feeling panic, and a lot of it. What would happen if someone found this out? Why would they send a comrade at him? Would he be.. executed? This certainly isn't allowed!
In his panicked state, he didn't notice when 4 more ANBU showed up. Until he finally felt a hand on his shoulder. He jerked up, lunged out with his kunai in a pathetic attempt to defend himself, but was grabbed by his arm before he could hit. And then, everything turned black.
As Naruto opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed is that there were a lot of other people in this room – he knew this, since he can feel a lot of chakra in the room. 'So I'm not in jail,' he mused, 'So then, where am I?'.
As his eye-sight started getting back to normal, he saw he was currently sitting tied up. With chakra suppressants. On the floor. In the council room.
"Uzumaki Naruto." He heard a gruff, old voice say. His eyes automatically followed this voice, and landed upon a council member – and former teammate of Sandaime-jiji – which he really didn't like. Danzo. "You have been caught killing an innocent leaf Shinobi. Do you have a way to explain your doing?"
Naruto felt all the eyes on him, and he knew, without even looking at them, that they weren't really gentle. Was Tsunade looking at him like this, too? He turned his head to the side as if to avoid the gazes. "I was attacked, and I defended myself." He stated simply.
Danzo's visible eye flashed in anger, "Bullshit!" he roared, "You don't go killing someone when you are attacked, boy." Naruto cringed at the last part. He was sure the old man was gonna say something more- Ah, well, never mind.
"One of the most important Shinobi rules," he continued, "Do not kill a fellow comrade. Didn't you know this, Uzumaki?" he spat the last word like venom. Oh yes, this man was definitely someone who hated him that's for sure.
Naruto turned his head back to face the council, he quickly scanned all of the faces – most of them were disgusted: probably a lot of civilian between there. – and noticed Tsunade-baa-chan sitting at the end of the large table. He couldn't exactly figure out her emotions. Sadness maybe..? hope..? what was it? He couldn't take his time to figure that out however, as the was an answer expected of him. "I do know this." He murmured.
The council started talking, most of the civilian spatting the word demo' at him or, it was the demon who had taken over. He rolled his eyes at their words, he really thought – or maybe, hoped. – that that would've been over by now. He and Kurama had come on friendly terms, after all.
Though soon these words started getting more harsh, to the point he himself actually wanted to get out of there. Just to get some fresh air. He was literally choking on all those venomous words they were spitting out, "He should be executed!" one said, "Kill him in front of whole Konoha!", "Ban him! Leave him to die in the outside world!" another said.
And Naruto was slowly breaking down inside. Outside, his eyes were wide open and hazel-nut eyes looked back at his. Now he knew what her emotion was: Regret.
"Quiet!" Tsunade roared, as she got out of her chair. "None of this will happen! He made a mistake and-"
"You're naïve, Tsunade." Danzo cut in. "Obviously, you can't decide everything on your own. I propose we vote for the boy's faith." The council started roaring and talking once again, and Naruto – neither did Tsunade – didn't like where this was going.
"Alright," Danzo started once again, "Those who want him to be banned… raise your hand." Not to Naruto's surprise, more than half of the council raised their hands. Leaving Naruto just sitting there, having nothing to say to his defence. He glanced once more to Tsunade, but she just shook her head in defeat.
"Uzumaki. You are to leave this village in 2 hours. Take your necessities with you, and don't speak of this with anyone." Naruto hesitantly nodded, and Danzo gestured to the ANBU behind him, "Boar, take off his chakra suppressants and bindings." The ANBU obeyed, and did as he was told, leaving Naruto with the tingly sensation of getting used to his chakra again – since it's a lot, it's gonna take a while, he suspected.
"You are dismissed, Uzumaki." Naruto looked over to Tsunade once more, but, seeing as there was nothing to do, he left the room with a shunshin.
Naruto appeared inside of his apartment, taking a few leafs with him, – due to the shunshin, - and immediately started searching around for his supplies frantically. While he was certainly broken inside, he couldn't grief about it now; he needed to use all the time he had to seal everything up and take it with him. He could do that later.
He heard a grumble in the back of his mind, and immediately knew Kurama had woken up again. He just sighed and hoped to fox wouldn't trouble him now, since he was fairly busy. Of course, he just couldn't keep his mouth shut could he?
"Oi, Naruto." He heard. Though, he didn't bother to answer. Couldn't the fox sense he was busy or something?
"Naruto." he started again, this time a little louder. But said person was still ignoring him.
"Naruto! Oi! Wake up human!" the fox roared again, which actually made Naruto put his hands over his ears – which, to his despair, didn't work.
'What do you want you damn fox?! Go back to sleep!' he shouted – well, thought – back.
"What's up with you?! The whole mindscape is flooded, boy! What happened?!" Naruto huffed. Wow, the fox showed concern… Well, he should've expected that. Though with his clouded mind, he didn't really thought of that.
'The almighty Kyuubi doesn't know what's going on? Maybe you should've been awake then you lazy old fox!' Naruto could hear the fox growl at him, but he honestly didn't really care.
"Silence! I am showing concern for you, boy! Tell me what's going on! Normally, you don't act like this! And why are you so frantically searching around in your house?!" Naruto rolled his eyes, while sealing another thing away into one of the few seals he had on his arms. He kept quiet for a while, until he heard another growl, indicating the fox wanted an answer.
'Search my memories or something ya old furball…' Naruto deadpanned, leaving an amazed Kurama in his mind.
'Oh yes,' Kurama mused to himself, 'he has gotten smarter. I forgot.'
After a few minutes of silence, and sealing things away, Kurama started speaking again. Though hesitantly this time.
"Kit.. I know how yo–" Naruto already knew what he was going to say, and before he could continue, he cut the fox off.
'You don't know how I feel! After all, I'm an human, aren't I? And you are the almighty Kyuubi! Don't you hate humans? Don't you? Let me tell you something! I ha-'
"ENOUGH!" Kurama roared inside of Naruto's mind, making him wince. "Naruto! Stop! This isn't like you! I know you are mad, but if you were to enter your mindscape, you'd be surprised of how it changed only because of this! If you are going to continue like this, I'll forcibly take over your body!"
Naruto grunted as a response to Kurama, though he did think about what he said. 'Yeah, he's right.' He mused, 'This isn't like me at all.'
( FLASBACK OVER ) -
The man turned to face the path before him, 'No, I can't travel by path.' He turned to the trees, and focused chakra into his feet. He made one high jump, successfully landing on one of the upper branches of the tree. He turned around once more, looking at his – old – village with content, and then jumped off in the opposite direction. To never see the leaf again.
How was it? Good? Great? Stupid? Well, I'll continue this if I get around 5 reviews… I don't know how many people will like this though. We'll see. I'll try to make my chapters longer, as well. So.. Good reviews means more chapters! And a longer chapter length! :P
Thanks for reading ^_^.
REUPLOAD, SOMEHOW MY OTHER UPLOAD GOT... WEIRD.