*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*
"You did a pretty good job, there, Faker."
"Naruto" turned around to see…another him.
"Defeating the Nine-Tails and all…even getting to see Mommy," the second Naruto said in a sarcastic voice.
"What-what the hell! Who are you?"
"Have you forgotten already? I'm your darkness, remember. We met a few moments ago, in that fountain of truth, or whatever you call it."
"Wha-but, I defeated you already! You disappeared!"
"Defeated me?" The dark Naruto began to laugh. "Haha…hahaha! HAHAHA! You think you defeated me? Don't be ridiculous. You can never defeat me. Didn't I tell you? I'm the real you. Imposters can never win against the original."
"My faith in myself didn't work…?" "Naruto" muttered to himself.
Suddenly dark Naruto reappeared in front of him in an instant. "Enough talk, you pathetic failure!" He jammed a Sage-enhanced Rasengan into "Naruto"'s stomach. "Just die already!"
"Gu-urgh!"
"You thought that by telling me I should become you, and hugging me, you thought that would make me disappear? You're an idiot, like they say. Like I told you, my only mistake was letting that Kyuubi guy set his eyes on me, and letting thus letting myself be sealed off by the same damn seal of the Fourth. But it doesn't matter now, because thanks to you and your stupidity, you've absorbed me into your psyche completely, so now I can show up whenever I want," dark Naruto stepped on "Naruto"'s chest, and knelt down on one knee. "You're pathetic. How thick do you have to be, to still believe in Konoha, even after Mom just told you the truth, that Konoha used her as its weapon! And that bastard who dares call himself our father! He was a dumbass just like you, killing himself and forcing us to live this hell for some bullshit prophecy! Why should we save this world when everyone thinks we're less than trash?" He snarled and kicked "Naruto" in the face, causing his body to roll to the side.
"Damn it…I'll just have to defeat you again then!" "Naruto" claimed while forcing himself up.
"Then, allow me to destroy your foolish illusions! Witness the power that we could have wielded together! Feel the pain that I've endured!" dark Naruto screamed. A mass of dark chakra appeared around him. It grew rapidly, then suddenly enveloping everything. "I'll destroy you, imposter!"
"Naruto", exhausted from his earlier fight with Kyuubi, could only watch in horror as his self-proclaimed darkness created a gigantic rasengan made of swirling black and red chakra. He had to do something! But he was so tired, and—
"AHHH!UHG!" "Naruto" screamed as the giant rasengan tore into him, obliterating him completely. As the rasengan dispersed, the dark Naruto continued to glare at the empty space where "Naruto" had been, before slowly beginning to chuckle.
Suddenly Itachi Uchiha appeared in front of dark Naruto.
"Naruto-kun…this is truly disappointing. I had expected more from you…"
"You! What the hell do you want, and what did you do to me that time with your chakra?" dark Naruto demanded, shocked out of his momentary glee.
"A gift…to send you back in time," Itachi answered sadly.
Naruto's eyes widened. "What? How is that possible?"
"There is a forbidden Uchiha technique…that bridges reality and illusion…by forcibly activating it at the moment of your death using my chakra that I gave you, and mixing with the chaotic energy of the Kyuubi…reality could be cracked, and a hole in time created." Itachi sighed. "This was the last resort, if the other measure failed…but never did I expect you to die like this…"
Itachi reflected on his plan which he thought would almost certainly succeed. Had Sasuke decided to attack Konoha, he would have surely taken Itachi's eyes for power…and Naruto would battle him. In that moment when Naruto saw Itachi's Mangekyou Sharingan again, Shisui's eye would appear from within Naruto cast a very persuasive genjutsu on Sasuke. And if that had failed…Naruto was an Uzumaki and therefore possessed Senju blood, allowing him to cast Izanagi by sacrificing Shisui's eye. But this ludicrous turn of events…
"Oh? So what now?" Naruto smirked as he realized the implications of Itachi appearing right when "Naruto" had been destroyed.
"Unfortunately…I'll be forced to send you back in time along with my chakra in you, as I originally crafted this Jutsu to be a forced activation…" Itachi responded as he motioned forward with his hand.
Suddenly the world around them seemed to crumble and cracks appeared everywhere. Itachi disappeared and Naruto could see the outside world again, with Killer Bee. But they didn't seem to notice anything. Instead, this cracked world began shaking and a black hole appeared in Naruto's stomach.
"What the hell!"
Meanwhile, the fox in his cage had witnessed everything, and smirked. He had lost the battle, but had won the war. All the chakra he had used over the years to nurture Naruto's darkness had finally paid off. It was just a matter of time until he would have his freedom…
Naruto woke up in the middle of a forest. Suddenly a rush of memories hit him, seemingly of various places in the forest around him. They were the memories of the clones that he had made to search for Sasuke awhile back, that time when he met Itachi in the forest. He realized that he was truly back in time, and that the clones must've dispelled the instant he arrived in this world and eliminated the previous Naruto that was in that body.
He became alert in an instant and entered Kyuubi Chakra mode in order to sense all hateful or loving presences around him. It was faint…but he sensed…Itachi, along with Sasuke, who was like a beacon of hatred getting closer to Itachi.
He should probably go to Itachi, and see whether this Itachi knew of Naruto's trip in time. Thus, he moved with incredible speed characteristic of the Kyuubi Chakra mode, and reached Itachi in less than thirty seconds, bursting through the ceiling and landing in front of the Uchiha, who was sitting on a throne.
"…! Naruto-kun…?" Itachi said in a surprised voice.
"I-I'm sorry, Itachi-san…I failed…I couldn't save him…" Naruto said while looking down.
Itachi stared at him for a moment. "Then, you are from the future?"
"Yeah…I was killed by Sasuke in our final battle…" Naruto looked away for a moment.
Itachi closed his eyes for a moment. "Sasuke…" he whispered. Naruto, who was still in Kyuubi mode, sensed Itachi's intense love for Sasuke manifest strongly.
Suddenly, Itachi gasped in pain as he found Naruto's hand in his chest. "Wh-what is…the…meaning…of this?" He managed to get out, before Naruto ripped out his heart and crushed it while grinning evilly. "You let your guard down, Itachi…didn't you think even for a moment, that when I returned, it would not be the same me? Hahahaha….HAHAHAHA!" Naruto laughed as he looked at Itachi's dead face. Then his expression turned dark again as he turned off Kyuubi mode.
"I can't believe…you sacrificed so much for that pathetic village. Your clan did so much, founding the village, then becoming the military police, adding to the fame of the village with your sharingan…and yet, you chose to help the village slaughter your own clansmen! What's wrong with you? You're the one that told Sasuke that he needed hatred to become powerful! Yet I can still feel it…your love for Sasuke and the damn leaf village…even though you're already dead!"
Then he noticed the sharingan eyes. "Hm…I wonder, he did say he was forced to send me back along with his chakra…"
Naruto gouged out Itachi's eyes. He then gouged out his own eyes and placed Itachi's eyes into his empty eye sockets. Then he sent massive amounts of the Kyuubi's chakra into his eyes, causing it to heal quickly and assimilate the new eyes into the body. He now possessed Itachi's normal black eyes. Channeling chakra into the eyes again, he found that he could now see chakra. Channelling even more chakra into his eyes, he tried to activate the Mangekyou sharingan. However, nothing happened.
"So it seems I can use it as an Uchiha would, but how do I activate the Mangekyou? Hmm… I can feel Itachi's chakra running out." If it ran out completely, he would be unable to deactivate it, and it would likely become far more difficult to use. Then he crushed his previous eyes, deactivated his sharingan.
"Now…what to do…?" Naruto knew what he wanted. He was strong, but he wasn't strong enough to fulfill his goals yet. He would have to win against all of Konoha and her allies, as well as the Akatsuki, if he wanted to take revenge upon all those who had wronged him. But he was not foolish enough to believe that he stood a chance against such forces alone. It was questionable whether he could even defeat Nagato, given that he would have lost multiple times that battle if not for certain interventions, and he had no intention of forgiving and talking him down this time.
He needed to gain more skills, build up his power without his enemies interfering, and gather forces loyal to him and his new objectives. He glanced at Itachi's corpse thoughtfully. Taking out a scroll, he proceeded to seal the corpse in case it turned out useful. Through the hole he made dropping down, he jumped back to the roof of the Uchiha hideout and looked around at the forest. He needed to make his next move soon, or Sasuke would arrive at any moment.
Then he paused. Something important was happening. A critical event in the previous timeline took place during the mission to pursue Itachi…what was it?
Then he tensed as he realized it— the death of the only person who had shown him nothing but kindness from the moment they met, the only one for whom he bore no hate and had no reason to hate.
Last time, he was told that Jiraiya had died when he returned from this mission. That meant, Jiraiya could be in Ame right now, fighting a losing battle against Pain. Ame was not too far from here. Maybe…
Naruto drew on the segregated Kyuubi chakra once more, and flashed away.
There were many people the old Naruto considered precious that dark Naruto hated. They were the liars who put on false faces. They supposedly accepted Naruto now, but they didn't always. It hurt just to think about them.
But the Pervy Sage was different. He had no obligations, no duty, to Naruto like the Hokage or Kakashi, but he helped him all the same. He was a powerful Sannin, and Naruto was just a weak little genin. But even so, he treated Naruto like his own son, and trained him when nobody else would. Maybe it was because Naruto's name happened to be the same as the one in his first book. Or maybe it was because Naruto was the son of his former student. Naruto didn't know why Jiraiya did what he did. But he did know that, of all the people he had met, Jiraiya was the only one who had never wronged him and didn't hesitate to help him, he was too good for this world. And despite knowing that Jiraiya would never approve of the way he was now, he didn't want his mentor to die.
He only hoped he wasn't too late.