Title: A World Without Evil, Sort Of…
Author: Justarius
Submission Date: 4/6/07
Synopsis: What would Konoha be like if the Nine-Tailed Fox didn't exist? And neither did any of the other tailed demons. Well, Naruto and Sauske are about to find out. However, the Fourth doesn't really like spies, so…
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other characters shown in the manga of anime Naruto. Like everyone else here, this is just done for fun. :P
Previously…
"Well, maggots," said Ibiki calmly, "unless you two want to get stepped on, we're going to be having a rather lengthy and detailed chat." Ibiki then proceeded to pull out a tool pouch, containing all sorts of tools; whose use neither Naruto nor Sasuke were really interested in finding out, but whose use Ibiki seemed to want to demonstrate to them anyway.
Sasuke sighed, and turned to Naruto. "You know, dobe, keeping me from defecting by defecting yourself doesn't really work."
--Konoha Hospital, Natos Dimension—
"WHY AM I ALL TIED UP, SCARFACE? LET ME OUTA HERE!"
Naruto's outburst was heard throughout the hospital. Some of the nurses even commented about how fast Ibiki resorted to the painful torture, it was so loud.
Ibiki went to Naruto's bedside and slammed his fist into Naruto's gut. Naruto coughed up blood. Sasuke was shocked at the harsh treatment for the outburst. He was about to protest, but Ibiki spoke first.
Pulling back his arm, Ibiki growled, "I have not permitted you to speak yet, demon. I suggest you tone it down, though, when we do permit you to."
Ibiki smiled down coldly at Naruto, then at Sasuke. Naruto glared hatefully at Ibiki, though his tears of pain. Ibiki had been wearing spiked knuckles when he made the blow.
Sasuke had never seen Naruto look at anyone like this. Usually, he was happy and goofy, or stubborn and pouty. But he never looked at anyone with so much hatred. If Naruto weren't strapped down, Sasuke wouldn't be surprised if Naruto tried to rip out Ibiki's throat. His head hurt from thinking about Naruto this way. Surely the boy wasn't capable of performing such an atrocious act, was he?
"Hey!" shouted Sasuke, "there's no need for you to punish him like that. All he did was go after me to keep me from-"
Ibiki pummeled Sasuke in the same manner as he did Naruto. Sasuke groaned out in pain as he coughed up blood. Naruto watched this all with red eyes, snarling.
"Boy, you two are pretty dense," remarked Ibiki, wiping off his glove. "I guess you both like punishment. Well, more fun for me! Now, if you are both finished with the commentary, shall we begin?"
-- Hokage Tower, Natos Dimension --
Sarutobi sat at his desk, finishing up the paperwork for the classification of Orochimaru as a missing-nin. All that he needed to do was send a copy of this to the other hidden villages and his name would be posted in the Bingo book.
The Third Hokage frowned at the paper. If only I hadn't been so trusting, then maybe more lives would have been saved. He cringed. Poor Arashi. His beautiful daughter's birthday was to be this weekend. It would also be her first year in the Academy an a couple of months.
The door to his office opened. Arashi, the acting Fourth Hokage, entered with his son, Naruto. Oh, Naruto, thought Sarutobi. You used to be so cheerfuland animated. Now you make Hyuga Hiashi look like he's a circus clown.
Naruto stood next to Arashi, looking at the Third's desk as if it might grow arms and attack if he didn't stare it down long enough. Uchiha Itach and Uchiha Sasuke enteres as well. Itachi was reserved, as usual. Sasuke was his cheerful self.
Well, thought the Third, a small smile creeping back to his face, at least the Uchihas were able to withstand the loss of their clan head. Itachi has been doing a great job of running their affairs. He would probably be a suitable contender for Hokage after I die and Arashi seeks a second to train.
Arashi looked up first. "Sarutobi-sama, I spoke with Naruto about the demons I found, and he claims not to have any Idea as to how a demon could come up with his image."
"Yes, Sasuke is at a loss as to how this happed as well, Hokage-sama," said Itachi.
Sarutobi stroked his beard for a moment. "Well, maybe Ibiki will be able to find out some of that it the two of them are present for the interrogation."
"If it'll help Ibiki get to Orochimaru," remarked Naruto coldly ," I'll help Ibiki cut them up."
Sasuke and Sarutobi looked at Naruto sadly. Sasuke felt bad that his sister was murdered, but he missed his happier friend and teammate too.
Arashi sighed at his son's outburst. "Look, Naruto, this is a different matter here. We need to see just how the races of demons know of us. This is much bigger than just your sister. Orochimaru tried to summon the legendary nine-tailed fox. The village might not survive if Orochimaru is going to war with us using a demon army."
"So then why did you let him get away, Great Hokage-sama?" snorted Naruto. "He summons two demons he conveniently knocked out for you, and he still gets away from you? Maybe you and Tsunade-sama should trade titles."
Sarutobi raised his hand to call forth silence. Naruto complied, but was still obviously seething. Arashi looked at Naruto, genuinely hurt by his harsh words. Swallowing his pride, however, Arashi spoke next, calmly.
"Well, I agree with Sarutobi-sama. I want Sasuke and Naruto to go to the hospital room immediately to see if we can get a rise out of the demons. Maybe they'll cause them to slip some useful information.
Sasuke smiled challengingly at Naruto. Now he would be able to see a real demon, whose very existence had been a subject of much debate in the Acadamy until yesterday. However, his teammate ignored his excitement and left without a word. Sasuke frowned. Naruto used to be the life of the team. Now it's almost like he doesn't care about life anymore.
Itachi patted Sasuke on his shoulder, knocking him out of his thoughts. "Hai, Hokage-sama," said Sasuke, startled by the sudden return to reality.
"Alright, Sasuke, but I need you back at the compound to take care of some things for me tonight after you are done. Don't linger with Naruto too long."
"Hai, Itachi."
Looking cheerfully determined, Sasuke took off after the young blond, hoping to break him of his recent mood.
-- Konoha Hospital, Natos Dimension --
Ibiki sat on the ground, stunned. The blond had seemingly burned through his bonds and freed the ebony-haired demon while he interrogated him. Then, the two of them proceeded to take out ten ANBU black ops, and tie him up in said ebony-haired demon's restraints. Now, the ebony-haired demon, calling himself Sasuke, and who also had the sharingan, had a kunai to his throat and was interrogating him!
"Why did you try to torture us?" asked Sasuke, pushing the kunai forward against his throat to encourage a swift reply.
"Hokage-sama said you two are demons. We suspect that somehow, demons from your realm are spying on us," remarked Ibiki, tempering his face to be clear of all emotion.
"That's enough of that crap!" yelled Naruto. "For the last time, we're not demons! And Hokage-sama wouldn't EVER command our torture!"
Sasuke looked at Naruto concerned. Ibiki had obviously hit a nerve. Why did he care so much if Ibiki called them demons? If anyone saw them in the state they were in after their battle, he would be surprised if they thought the two were normal. As for the torture, maybe this was some sort of genjutsu that Ibiki and the ANBU were under. Must be a really powerful one…
Damn it! thought Sasuke. If Naruto didn't hunt me down, I wouldn't have to deal with this stupid mess. I could be focused on killing Itachi.
Making the hand sign, Sasuke tried to dispel the genjutsu. "Release!"
Ibiki took note of this. So, even though he has the sharingan, he still needs to dispel genjutsu. I guess that means that this one's sharingan is fake.
The two ninjas were startled out of their thoughts when Naruto, who was moping in the corner, suddenly shouted "Oh that's just great! Now you want to mock me too? If this is how you're gonna treat me after trying to rescue Sasuke, then maybe I'll defect too!"
Sasuke turned to look for what new issue caused Naruto's outburst when he saw two Narutos. However, one of them had blue eyes so cold that it could freeze water and didn't have any whisker marks. And right behind him, he saw himself, but only as if he didn't have a care in the world. Sasuke reactivated his sharingan, and didn't see through the genjutsu, much to his surprise.
"You really think we'll believe you'll defect from Orochimaru? Please," sneered the whiskerless Naruto.
Whiskered Naruto was taken aback. "You would accuse me of allying with Orochimaru? That's IT!" Naruto created a Rasengan mixing his and Kyubi's chakra and charged full speed at the new Naruto. "You forgot the whiskers, jerk!" he shouted as he charged.
The new Naruto threw a kunai at him, but it was easily dodged. He then looked at the Rasengan angrily, while he made a handsign. Engulfing himself in yellow chakra, the new Naruto teleported to the kunai he threw, when right behind him was the new Sasuke with a four-tome sharingan active and a fully charged chidori aimed right at Naruto's side.
"Naruto, stop!" shouted Sasuke, cringing over the impending doom. However, it was too late for Naruto as he impaled himself on the chidori. Coughing up blood, Naruto fell to the ground, having his left lung pierced. Sasuke smacked Ibiki in the back of his head with the kunai hilt. However, before Sasuke could react to his other, more innocent self; the whiskerless Naruto, looking only slightly irritated, slammed a half-power rasengan into his head.
This is it? Sasuke though as everything got blurry and dark. It was all we could to stand up to a few clones and then they just wipe us clean?
The new Naruto walked over to the fallen Naruto and grabbed his throat. "This will be simple, demon. You either tell me how you got my form, how you got the rasengan, the location of Orochimaru's hideout, and why you are going by my name; or you die."
With what little strength he had remaining, Naruto struggled against the strong fist that cut off his air supply. Amid the struggling, where the new Sasuke was freeing Ibiki, Sasuke noticed the seal on Naruto's stomach. Examining it with his sharingan, he recognized its purpose from old books in his father's library. He gasped.
"Wait, Naruto! Look at that seal!" he shouted, abandoning the unconscious Ibiki. "He really isn't a demon. I think he has Kyubi no Kitsune sealed within him. If you kill him like that, Kyubi might escape."
Naruto looked at Sasuke with a raised eyebrow. "What makes you so sure?"
"Well, the symbol in the center of the seal is Kyubi no Kitsune, according to dad's text on demon lore. Also, the outer part is one of the most complex entity seals known."
At that moment, Sakura and a whole army of med-nin burst in. "Is everyone OK? We heard the commotion and thought it a bit much for interrogation."
Naruto looked disappointed at the whiskered boy he held, who had finally feinted from exhaustion. "Yeah," he grumbled, "heal up those two. I want to know their stories. Sasuke says they aren't demons 'cause of some seal on my look-alike's stomach."
Sasuke frowned at this. "Do you think they might be experiments of Orochimaru? That would explain their anger at our suggestion that they are allied with Orochimaru."
"I don't know where he would have gotten enough of our blood for a clone," said Naruto, thoughtfully. "Oh well, we can figure that out when they wake up." He looked at Ibiki. "They may be able to take out some pretty powerful ninja, but I think dad can handle them. I'll recommend that he continue the interrogation with the old man."
Sasuke looked at the ruined room. "Sorry about the mess, Sakura."
She smirked. "Well, at least one of my team members cares about my well being. Too bad the other doesn't. So, when are you gonna issue my aprin and feather-duster, Naruto?"
Naruto waved her off. Sakura and Sasuke looked at him, concerned. If Sakura made a comment like that in the past, Naruto would get all embarrassed and apologetic for offending his 'Mistress'. For these last couple days, though, he seemed to be hiding all his emotions.
"Thanks, Sakura," said Sasuke. "Hey Naruto, you want 'ta get some ramen before we go back?"
Naruto sighed. "Nah, I have too much work to do tonight."
Too much work? For ramen? This is serious, thought Sakura. I know it must have been hard to find his sister like that, but he's acting like he'll become an alchoholic and he's only thirteen.
After Naruto left, Sasuke turned to Sakura. "Don't worry about him. I'm sure that when he sees the surprise prank we have set up for him for his birthday this weekend, we'll shock hime right out of his blues."
"I hope so. I'm really worried about him. Nothing used to get him down. There must be some law of physics that he's breaking by being upset this long."
"Yeah." Looking at his watch, Sasuke jumped up. "Hey, I have to see Itachi right now, so I gotta run. See ya!" Sasuke took off out of the hospital.
Smiling, Sakura looked at the two remaining guests (A/N: Ibiki and the ANBU were moved by the other med-nin to other rooms). The one that looked like Sasuke would need a bandage for his head, but he should be fine. The other would probably need his lung rebuilt if he ever wanted to be a ninja again.
Sighing, Sakura took a wet cloth and began to clean the blood from his wound.
"That's strange," she said, examining his chest carefully. "Where did the wound in his chest go? And how can he breathe so easily with only one good lung?"
Author's Notes:
Alright, here's chapter 2! Thanks for the good reviews. Sorry I put off the discussion with the 4th. I wasn't happy with everyone just sitting comfortably discussing issues over a cup of tea just yet. Now, I feel more comfortable with it (though maybe without the tea and comfort :P)
I probably won't update this fast again (I am in school, you know…), but I'll do my best.
Q&A:
Q: Who is alive and who died in this world?
A: Well, as you probably just read, Sasuke and Naruto both exist in this world. So does the 3rd, the 4th and Itachi. As for the rest, RAFO.