Disclaimer: Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto. I'm also owned by Masashi Kishimoto. So in actuality, I don't own Naruto, we're more like partners mutual service to our lord. Also, Masashi Kishimoto is a cheap bastard, and he don't pay me jack. Even for this story. Can you believe that guy?
A/N: Alright, Here is my third attempt to write a multi-chapter Naruto story. I'm hoping this will follow the success that Hinata's Confidence has obtained. Also, to those who are fans of Hinata's Confidence? I WILL get some new chapters up. I don't know when, but I will. I have no intention of letting that story die on me. Not yet, I can still wake it back up. Just watch.
Also, when I'm describing the Sharingan, please refer to /Naruto/402/17/ if you want to have a good visual of what I'm describing. Thanks.
Enjoy.
Chapter 1: The Burning Leaf
Gray clouds rolled overhead, mashing and consuming one another as they squeezed the droplets of water from one another. The rain intensified as the minutes went on, giving off a loud, if not dull thud against the stone path. Footsteps could be heard at first. Quiet, far off, and slow. They intensified as he drew closer, first faster, than louder, than closer by. He stepped in perfect harmony with the rain, each thud on the stone synchronized with the pitter patter of ever falling rain from upon the ground.
The trees are burnt.
His breath could be heard. At first calm, collective, almost serene. But then it was quicker paced, as if in shock. Then it came in ragged strands, a marathon runner having finished his race, but this boy kept moving on. His gasps could be heard through the thick noises around him. All the while, the same thought ran through his head.
The trees have burnt.
Naruto ran down the stone path towards Konoha, the Village of Hidden Leaf. It had been four years since he had last been in Fire Country, and so when he had returned, a wiser man, he had expected things to be as timeless and unchanging as ever before. Those thoughts evaporated half way along the Konoha Highway, where the trees, so revered in the Fire Country, had signs of burning. The signs intensified as he moved ever closer to Konoha, and by the time the gates were in view there was hardly and forest left. The Hidden Leaf was hidden no more.
As Naruto approached the gates, He took in a sharp breath. The great gates of Konoha, that had once stood tall and impassive above all, were now in ruins. They hung off the hinges, splintered and worn, the great leaf pattern burned from their surface. Holes dotted the walls of the village, many of the guard towers no more or caved in. It was a horrific sight. Konoha, at least on the outside, was a derelict. Scowling angrily, Naruto ran towards the once great gates. The gates were not aligned, and he easily walked between the two.
For the first time in four years, Naruto set his sights on Konoha. He couldn't see much, because of the dark rain and thick fog that covered his vision, but what he could see was just as bad. The check-in station had collapsed, the road was torn up, and the buildings on both sides were gutted. Naruto clenched his fist. In his short absence, Konoha had been destroyed. For one horrifying moment, Naruto wondered if everybody who had ever lived here was dead. His fears were silenced a moment later.
"Halt!"
From the gray sky, Two ANBU dropped before Naruto. Both wore the standard ANBU armor and face masks. Both had Kunai out, and stood in battle stances in case Naruto should attack. Naruto relaxed, he too had dropped into a battle ready stance upon the arrival of the Special Jounin. Naruto raised his hands, a solemn look filled his eyes and darkened his face.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki." He said simply. The ANBU both tensed. One looked at the other, and the other at him, and in unison, they nodded. They vanished, and Naruto quickly felt a presence behind him. He dropped to the ground, swiping his leg out and throwing the first man off balance. The second ANBU came from above, but Naruto had already taken his assailant's kunai. Naruto dodged the second attack, and cut two dashes in the pressure points in the man's arms, and in his left leg. The second ANBU toppled over onto the first ANBU, knocking the breath out of him. Naruto stood up straight, threw the kunai aside and grabbed one by the collar, hoisting him up to glare directly into his eyes. Naruto was in no mood for this.
"Tell me! What the hell happened to Konoha!? Why did you attack me, who the hell's in charge!? If you guys are left, than there must be somebody!! Answer me!!" He shouted. The disheveled ANBU raised a shaky hand, and pointed further down the Konoha highway.
"Hokage's... office..." He said, before passing out. Naruto threw him aside, and the ANBU hit the road with a thump. After making sure both of his assailants were incapable of following him, Naruto set off down towards the Hokage's Office.
Loud splashes echoed within the gray fog as sandals splashed through the forming puddles on the stones of the Konoha Highway. When they halted, the scene has changed. Closer to the center of Konoha, a bit more clustered, and the building stood. Within the windows glowed small, warm fires. Families huddled around the fires, eating what little they had and shivering as they did so. A few looked up at the boy outside, giving him sympathetic looks. Then, their glances moved towards the boy's forehead, and then eyes lit up in realization, and quickly they scrambled to their windows, closing curtains and blocking their view of him. They boy ground his teeth. He wanted to know what the hell happened to the place he had once loved, he needed to know how this had happened. Cursing, Naruto ran towards the Hokage Office.
At the gate to the main entrance, two ANBU stood guard. When they caught sight of Naruto through the fog, they moved to position. However, they were to slow as Naruto thundered past them, knocking both out before they knew what had happened. Kicking open the main doors, Naruto continued, running up the spiraling stairs. At each door along the stairwell he encountered an ANBU, and each one fell to Naruto just as quickly as the last. In less than a minute, Naruto stood at the doors of the Hokage's Office. Taking a breath, Naruto put his right foot forward, kicking the door in. The office door snapped in half like a twig, falling to either side of the door way as Naruto entered. When the dust cleared, Naruto stood in the door way, facing the desk of the Hokage. A chair was stationed on the other side of the desk, turned away from Naruto.
"Welcome Naruto. After four long years... you've returned to us."
Naruto clenched his fist. He knew that voice, but it couldn't be...
"Tell me..." The chair spun, revealing the occupant. He wore a smug smile. "How do you like the new Konoha?"
Naruto's head fell. His teeth barred, his fists clenched so hard that blood began to ooze from his palms. All at once, he looked up at the figure in the chair.
"Sasuke!!" Naruto shouted. The dark haired boy in the chair smiled.
"Naruto." Sasuke said simply. He put his hands on the desk, leaning in closer to Naruto. "You didn't answer my question." Sasuke said. "How do you like the new Konoha?" Sasuke asked again.
Naruto responded by appearing before Sasuke in lightning speed, aiming a punch at his face. Sasuke didn't move a muscle, and just before it hit the punch was blocked by another hand. It belonged to an ANBU. This ANBU was different however, in that his armor was all black instead of gray.
Naruto pulled back his punch and just as quickly kicked the strange ANBU in the head. The ANBU barely dodged, only to have a rasengan smashed into his chest. The man went flying out the window, and fell ten stories before crashing into the ground with a loud crash, very much dead. Naruto turned back to Sasuke, the same anger in his eyes. Sasuke grimaced.
"I see you haven't been fooling around those past four years, even an elite 'roots' member failed to take you down..." Sasuke said. Slowly, he pushed himself out of the chair, reaching down to grab his sword, propped against the desk. "But even so, You're still nothing before a Hokage." Sasuke said, looking up to reveal blood red eyes with three prongs within.
Looking down, eyes cast in shadow, Naruto smiled. "You idiot..." He said, a ghost of a smile on his face. A split second later he was standing in front of a quite surprised Sasuke, fist reared back. "You're NO Hokage!!"
Naruto's fist collided with Sasuke's face with a loud crunch, and with all the force of a bullet, Sasuke went flying through the windows behind the Hokage's desk, glass shattered and was lost in the rain. Wasting no time, Naruto ran and jumped out the window, landing on Sasuke's falling body and grabbing the Uchiha by the collar.
"Why!? Why would you do this!?" Naruto reared back his fist, landing a blow to Sasuke's stomach. "Why would you destroy Konoha!?" Another punch, this time to the left ribs, the breath was knocked out of Sasuke. "Why would you take everything I love and rip it from me!?" Naruto gave Sasuke's falling body another beating before jumping off him. Sasuke hit the ground with a smash as the ground under him gave way. Naruto jumped into the crater, and began once again to punch Sasuke with all his might.
A punch to the rips. A punch to the neck. A punch to the face, to the ribs again, over and over Naruto beat on Sasuke. Eventually, he paused for a breath, and Sasuke summoned his energy, throwing Naruto off of him. Naruto gained his balance in the air, landing on his feet a few meters away from Sasuke. Said raven haired boy got unsteadily to his feet.
"How does it feel Naruto? How does it feel to have everything you love torn from you, right before your eyes? Now you know how I felt when my clan was slaughtered, now you know the difference between losing what you love, and losing what you never had the chance to love!" Spitting out blood, Sasuke gave a smile and a dark laugh. "Your strength has improved too much, even with my Sharingan I couldn't keep up with your movements. In that case, I'll stop messing around, and simply end this now. Feast your eyes on the true power of the sharingan, Naruto!!"
Slowly, Sasuke's eyes changed. From the rims of the red iris of his eyes, black began to encroach into the red. Soon, the black stopped, and now his eyes were different. Sasuke's Iris was black, with a red atom shape of six points in the middle, surrounding his pupil. Once the eyes had finished changing, Sasuke gave Naruto a glare.
"Let us close the curtain... Naruto."
Raising his hand, Sasuke turned his palm upwards, and a piercing scream filled the air as bright blue lightning filled his palm. As he clutched his fist, the lightning intensified, and soon a roaring thunderstorm was contained within Sasuke's hand. Naruto held out his hand as well, and within formed a light blue sphere. Concentrating a little, he placed wind chakra into his own rasengan, completing the jutsu with one hand, a nifty trick he had perfected in his training. With the wind chakra incorporated into the rasengan, Naruto looked up at Sasuke.
"Sasuke... where's Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked. Sasuke looked up at Naruto, an almost remorseful expression on his face. His eyes twitched a little, and black flames began to erupt in the middle of the electrical storm held in Sasuke's hand.
"Amatarasu." Was all Sasuke said. Naruto charged Sasuke. Sasuke did the same to Naruto.
The two attacks met with a fierce clash. At first, it seemed that the lightning of the Chidori would be negated by Naruto's wind chakra, however, the black flames within chidori quickly over took the wind chakra. After a few seconds of fierce combat, Sasuke's attack won out, and all at once was slammed into Naruto's chest. Naruto felt the twin pains of lightning and ever burning fire cutting through his skin, drawing blood. After a few seconds the attack finished, and Sasuke withdrew his hand from Naruto's chest, throwing his old friend to the ground.
"Do you see now, Naruto? The true power of the Uchiha... even you cannot hope to match it." Sasuke said, standing over the torn body of his friend.
Naruto gasped for breath. His vision was darkening. He knew the wound he had just received was fatal. His hand grasped at the wound, feeling for how deep, how large it was, in the hope that it could be closed by his own powers alone. No such luck, he would need an expert medical ninja to close this wound. If Sakura had been there...
"You still have me kid."
'Shut... up...' Naruto thought to himself.
"Brat, you should know. You'll die from that wound, no doubt. You know only my power can fix it."
"I... Won't ever... use you... again!!" Naruto screamed to himself. Summoning his remaining will, Naruto rose unsteadily, shakily, and after a few moments, was standing, wobbling on his feet. He clutched at his bleeding chest, glaring at Sasuke.
"I won't... forgive you. I wanted... I wanted to save you! But now..." Naruto paused, wincing at the pain from his wound, "Next time... I'll kill you!" He shouted, venom seething from his very words. Sasuke simply smirked.
"You will try to kill me, and you will fail. Isn't it obvious Naruto? You lost! You can't hope to beat me!" Appearing before Naruto, Sasuke punched him hard in the stomach, then kicked him in the side of the head. As Naruto stumbled back, Sasuke made quick hand seals, and from his mouth spewed burning flames. Naruto took their full force, landing face first on the ground. He growled to himself. At this rate, he was a goner. He wanted to keep fighting, but he knew that he would die. There was no doubt in his mind.
Pushing up from the ground, Naruto ran away, making large, quick steps that were in sync with the pitter patter of rain. In a few moments he was lost in the gray veil of rain. Sasuke looked after him, a bored look on his face. Two 'root' members dressed in black ANBU armor landed on either side of Sasuke.
"Shall we go after him, Uchiha-sama? He is after all, the main target." The one on Sasuke's left said. Sasuke gave a small nod.
"See to it. Bring him back here, dead or alive, I don't care." Sasuke turned around and headed back towards the Hokage office. The two root members nodded to each other, and then they were off, speeding after Naruto.
Naruto stumbled down the road, each breath more ragged than the last, each step a bit less coordinated, each movement a bit more erratic. He was loosing too much blood, too fast, he would be down for the count soon if he didn't get indoors and find a way to heal the wound. It was about a minute after he had fled that he heard it, even over the rain. Footsteps, two people, and both were after him. Quickly, he ran into an alley, leaning heavily against the wall to sink into the shadows. For half a minute, the footsteps were all around him, then moved on. Just as Naruto thought he had lost them, one of the figures jumped from a roof into the alley, landing before Naruto and withdrawing a kunai from his pouch.
"A merry chase kid, nice job evading us for so long, especially with that wound of yours. But it's over now."
The root member moved in for the kill, but Naruto was ready. Withdrawing a kunai from his own pouch, he gracefully circled around the elite ninja, and slashed across his back. The man drew a sharp breath, falling against the wall, breathing hard. Naruto was about to move in to finish it, but as he did his arm gave, and the kunai fell from his hand. His body was in far to bad shape to go up against these guys, that last attack had taken the last out of him.
The root member finally, caught his breath, and slowly, he got up. He gave a sharp whistle and a few seconds later a second root member showed up beside him. Naruto scowled. One was bad enough, he couldn't fight two of these guys like this! Even so, he did his best to drop into a defensive stance. He was unable, however, to dodge the the two kunai blows launched at him. He was cut deep on both shoulders, and he fell back against the wall, his legs threatening to give way. He yelled at himself to stay standing, to keep going. But his strength was seconds away from failing him, and he wouldn't be able to take another attack and live. As the two root members closed in, Naruto closed his eyes.
"Getsuga!!" A voice shouted, tearing through the silence of the falling rain. A bright, spiraling drill of chakra burst through the air, catching the root closest to Naruto in the chest, grabbing hold and drilling him into a nearby building. This threw the second root off guard for a second, enough time for a powerful kick to bypass his defenses, snapping his neck.
"Konoha senpu!" Another voice shouted. All at once two more people, both clad in green Chunin vests ran into the alley after the other two individuals. One more figure ran into the alley, clad in all white robes. He ran up to Naruto, placing a finger on the boy's neck.
"Dammit, he's lost way too much blood, he'll go into cardiac arrest soon! I can stabilize the bleeding, but we need to take him to see-"
The rest was lost on Naruto, as the adrenaline in his system thinned, and with the tension lifted, he blacked out, and the rest of the scene was lost to him.
End Notes: That's it for chapter one, hope you enjoyed it. This is just an intro of sorts, the story will start to develop more in the next chapter, which I aim to make a bit longer. Please drop a review if you got this far, it would mean the world to me.