Hello again!
WARNING: This is where the story will deviate from the manga/anime etc. Naruto will be a little OC, but it will define his character for the rest of the story.
Read on!
Naruto stared at the Konoha hitai in his hand and ran in fingers along the scratch he had etched across the leaf symbol…
Rasengan!
Chidori!
He sighed. He had pulled his punch, but Sasuke-teme was too immersed in the cursed seal's corruption to rationally perceive that. He had left the Valley of the End with the notion that he had won the battle.
He had lost. Horribly.
Naruto glared at his now-normal human hands, imagining claws extending from his fingertips. It would have been so easy: two inches higher or lower, and in exchange for Sasuke's punch to the gut, Naruto could have taken off his scalp or his jugular, leaving the traitor to bleed to a messy death.
But I couldn't, he thought. I didn't want to sever the bond like Sasuke wanted to kill me. Now, though…
Naruto imagined Sasuke standing before him, in all his arrogance and hatred.
Naruto wanted nothing more than to plunge a kunai into his cold black heart.
No more holding back. Next time I see that bastard I will kill him. That's a promise! I don't go back on my words!
His musings were interrupted with a knock at the door. Puzzled, he remained silent, wondering why doctors chose now to knock before entering his room. Usually they just came in so they could treat his wounds, which were healing remarkably fast.
"Stupid fox is good for something, I guess," Naruto said aloud.
"Damn straight, Naruto! Do you have any idea just how badly you were injured?"
Naruto started at the voice, then turned to face a grinning Tsunade.
Naruto returned the grin with a smirk. "Oh, hey there Obaa-chan!"
Against all odds, the Legendary Sucker gave no sign that the jibe affected her. Instead, she sat down on the bed. Naruto waited expectantly.
Tsunade noticed his uncharacteristic silence. Strange. He really IS more thoughtful than I gave him credit for.
Aloud, she began her prepared speech. "Naruto, do you have any idea what Sasuke did to you?"
Naruto nodded. "Sure," he began. "He betrayed me and Sakura and the rest of Konoha. He put a four-inch hole in my shoulder, broke about six ribs, and drove me to charka exhaustion! That stupid bastard! And all for the joy of being Orochimaru-teme's new body! So hell yeah, I know what Sasuke did!
Naruto realized that he was standing on the bed, and had just shouted at the Gondaime Hokage who, if he played his cards right, might name him the Rokudaime.
He sat down and had the humility to blush. "Gomen, Hokage-sama."
Tsunade stared once again. The loudmouth ninja who won her jade necklace from her was gone.
He's still loud, if the ringing in my ears is any indicator. She thought. But this trauma changed him. Just like Jiraiya…
She stood up abruptly, inspired. "Naruto, there's someone I have to see right now, but I'm clearing you for visitors. Is that alright with you?"
Naruto sighed and looked out the window at the ironically beautiful day outside. "Sure, but I doubt anyone will want to see a demon."
SLAP
Naruto stared ahead, shocked. Tsunade had just sent his head on a merry-go-round, and now…
Now she was pulling him into a bone-crunching hug.
"Oh, Naruto…" She sobbed. "Why can't people see you for the hero you are? You have to remember: you are NOT the Kyuubi! You are Naruto, and you have saved us all from that force of destruction." She pulled away and held him at arms' length. "Promise me you'll never forget that!" Then, she grinned crookedly. "Besides, I lost my necklace to the future Hokage, not some demon bastard!"
Naruto smiled, eyes blurry, yet he refused to let them fall. He fingered jade pendant hanging around his neck, then said, "I promise, Obaa-chan. That's my nindo!"
Tsunade smiled, and turned to leave. "Besides," she said over her shoulder. "I think you'll be surprised at who shows up here before the day is done!"
Tsunade walked down to the lobby of the hospital, having just been told by Shizune that Neji was stabilized and that visiting could commence.
But first, she groaned silently. I have to explain a few things to THIS.
A veritable mob of genin and jounin lingered in the lobby, talking. When they saw Tsunade, however, they immediately quieted down and turned to face the Hokage, who grinned weakly.
Kurenei fired the leading shot. "Hokage-sama, why is my student currently in the hospital intensive care?"
Asuma followed up with a one-two: "And why are Chouji and Shikamaru injured? I heard from Ino that Chouji was just pulled from death? How was he almost killed in the first place?"
And finally, a vicious uppercut was delivered by the famous copy-ninja:
"Where the hell is my team?"
Tsunade sighed and explained how she had asked Shikamaru to lead a team of exceptional genin to retrieve Sasuke. She then explained that all members of the team, including the Sand team that she had begged (she didn't say begged, though she knew that she literally got down on her knees in the letter she sent to Gaara.), had all come back alive and were well on the way to recovery.
Kakashi still wasn't satisfied. "I said, 'where the hell is my team?'"
Tsunade looked down. "Kakashi-san, you know very well that Sasuke has defected to Orochimaru. Naruto has suffered extensive injuries at his hands trying to bring him back! You know this, you carried him back yourself!" She inhaled, and continued. "Sasuke is now officially declared an S-class missing nin, to be captured or killed on sight."
Surprisingly, there were no protests in defense of the Uchiha prodigy. Instead, much to her pleasant surprise, several of the jounins began grumbling until Kurenai said aloud:
"Is Naruto going to be alright?" Several other jounins nodded in agreement, wanting to know how the Jinchuuriki was faring.
Tsunade was puzzled, to say the least. "Yes, he is going to make a full recovery; why are you all so curious?"
Asuma spoke up, "Well, the kid almost killed himself trying to help Konoha; that kinda improves his image in the minds of some people, y'know? Mention his name on the streets, and you'd be surprised how many people have a different take on that kid."
The jounins nodded in agreement once more.
Tsunade turned away, hiding her tears. When she had reasserted control, she announced, "Now that this is over with, there's still someone I need to see. The genin are now seeing visitors!" With that, she leapt to the ceiling as a veritable throng of ninja surged towards the infirmaries.
She scanned the crowd from above, feet firmly stuck to the ceiling, when she saw a flash of a white mane; then it was gone, and the hospital doors swung shut.
She grinned. She loved the thrill of the hunt. With a crunch, she propelled herself off the ceiling, flipping around in mid-air to land running out the door.
Jiraiya was in for a doozie.
The young genin decided that they would visit Naruto last since, by all accounts, he had had the worst time of it. Rumor had spread somehow that Sasuke had confessed that Naruto was his best friend – and then proceeded to try and carve his heart out. They all believed that Sasuke did not deserve visitors yet, and so they proceeded to see Naruto.
Sakura led the way to Naruto's room, having just been told where it was by a particularly disgruntled med-nin; Sakura realized that all the hospital staff referred to Naruto as if the name had a bad taste to it.
She shook it off as she almost took a wrong turn. Focus, woman! (Hell yeah, get your head in the game!)
She looked over her shoulder to see that the genin had kept up. She counted them all: Shikamaru, who was deemed well enough to make the rounds with them, Hinata, who looked ready to faint, Ino, who was staring ahead determinedly, and Shino, silent as ever.
Sakura nodded in affirmation, then turned to open Naruto's door, which had suddenly appeared in front of her.
Why am I so distracted? She wondered. It's not as if something is wro-
"How are you feeling, Naruto?"
Sakura stayed her hand upon the handle. That was Tsunade-sama! With Naruto! She whispered this information and made the "Sshh!" motion with her finger. She motioned again to the door, and the genin scrambled silently to listen at the frame. They were ninja, after all; who could blame them?
"Besides," Ino whispered. "We all want to know if Naruto's okay, right?" Heads nodded their assent.
And so they listened. And as they listened, their mouths slowly dropped lower and lower until they touched the floor…
After Tsunade found Jiraiya and explained her plan, she immediately returned to the hospital to confront Naruto about his experience in the Valley of the End. She hoped he would be slightly less emotional than her last visit, but she didn't count on it. She still needed to know, however; paperwork was a pain, but mission reports were top priority.
"So," She had began. "I want the details of your fight with the traitor."
Naruto stared ahead stonily. Then, without looking at Tsunade, Naruto began his narration.
"I confronted Sasuke when we stood atop the two statues at the ends of the Valley."
He paused, then regained his momentum. "I leapt across and punched him, but all he did was spit blood at me. At this point, half of Sasuke's face was affected by the cursed seal; one of his eyes was this weird yellow."
He took a breath, and continued. "We fought for a little, but I held back because I didn't want to hurt him. Sasuke-teme took the opportunity to pound me into the ground. Eventually, I fought back. This was when he gored me here with the Chidori."
He pointed, and Tsunade shivered. Dan was killed by a similar wound; Naruto must have deflected it at the last second.
Her attention was brought back to Naruto, who had continued saying "That's when I summoned more of the Kyuubi's charka than ever before. It healed all my wounds quickly, and allowed me to beat the crap out of Sasuke. But he activated the next level of his sharingan, I think, because then he was able to follow my every move. I didn't land a hit on him again until…" He petered off, hesitating. Was it okay to tell Tsunade what happened next?
Tsunade was now wondering. This kid's pretty eloquent; was he faking stupidity this whole time? Was it all just a mask?
She motioned for Naruto to continue. He started, but decided that he could tell her anything, and it would be okay. However…
"Tsunade-sama?"
She almost fainted at the name. It just didn't sound right coming from Naruto; he must want something truly important.
"Yes?"
He inhaled deeply. "Promise me that you won't tell any of the other genin about this?"
She smiled. "Of course not. But I expect you to tell them when you're ready. Agreed?"
He gave a fox-like grin. "Agreed!"
He sobered up, and explained. "Sasuke killed me, obaa-chan. He dropped me from the cliff onto the bottom of the Valley head-first. It snapped my neck; I remember it clearly." Seeing Tsunade's horrified look, he added, "It still itches, too!"
Then, he scared her all the way to death. "Then, Kyuubi overwhelmed me with power. The demonic charka covered my body and made me a tail. From then on, there's this haze, but I used more charka than my body could handle; it was like it had a life of its own, but I controlled it. Sasuke couldn't keep up, and activated his cursed seal so that he became this winged beast. It was horrible, but I'm in no place to comment, neh?" He sighed. "The rest, you already know. We went at it with our best attacks, and I pulled my last punch so I wouldn't kill Sasuke."
He glared suddenly. "I regret it now. I'm not gonna go after him and become like Sasuke-teme, but if I see him again, I will kill him."
Sakura slumped to the ground, tears pouring down her eyes. The other genin, shocked into silence by the knowledge they had just gained, could only listen to Naruto's final thought:
"And that's a promise!"
Sakura gasped, then eeped as Ino's hand clamped over her mouth. Hinata shook her head, deactivating her Byakugan.
"It's too late," she said softly. "Hokage-sama knows we're here."
The genin exchanged scared looks.
When she heard the noise, Tsunade started suddenly, then glanced at the door.
"Oh no…"
"What is it, baa-chan?" Naruto asked cheerfully. "Someone steal your sake?"
He frowned as Tsunade turned to face him, a look of utmost sorrow upon her face.
"Obaa-chan?" he asked fearfully.
"Naruto," Tsunade said. "Go open the door for me, will you?"
Puzzled, he got up, wincing, and crossed to the portal.
He pulled the latch and opened the door.
He stared.
Shikamaru, Shino, and Ino watched as his breath ceased.
Hinata locked eyes with him. "Naruto-kun…" She whispered.
He turned his gaze to Sakura, who cowered under his glare.
Red charka seeped out of his skin, visible to all. He crouched, snarling.
"Naruto!" Tsunade screamed.
He leapt.
Bum-bum-BUUUUM!
Woo-hoo! Extra-long chapter! Yes! Hope y'all enjoyed it, because more's a'comin'!
