Chapter 2
It was after midnight and Naruto was walking through the woods towards the wave country. He complained to the fox several times how boring it was, since the fox refused to answer any of his
questions. He was walking alone for the past few hours, constantly alert that there may be some sort of danger around. The nine-tailed fox that was at first walking with him was now back
inside him and he was coming closer to the village which they agreed will be their first stop on the way to the Wave country.
"Kit, do you smell that?"
`Yes, the villagers and a group of people coming closer to the village.´Naruto responded to Kyuubi.
"The village should be over that small hill, get to the top so we can see what`s happening" Kyuubi said, with Naruto doing so without a word.
Once he got to the top, he laid down, and focused some demonic chakra to his senses, so he could find out what was happening. It took some time but they found out that some kind of bandits
were harassing the villagers and they probably requested help from Konoha shinobi, but the bandits were here and they probably knew about the request, since they started looting and taking
women and children with them. Kyuubi was barely able to persuade Naruto into following them instead of just charging in while they were in the village. After another hour the bandits were on
their way, and Naruto was close behind. He followed them for a few more kilometers to a cave in which the were storing all their loot. It was obvious that they weren`t ninja, some of them
probably had basic training but they weren`t skilled. After some planning with the fox inside his head, he went forward, watching not to trigger any of the traps that were placed around the
entrance.
After taking care of the two sleepy guards with the combination of a Kage Bunshin and a hit to the back of the head, he turned towards the cave and was about to enter when the fox said,
"Kit, you have to finish them."
`What, but I don`t want to..´ He didn`t get a chance to finish as the fox interrupted him.
"They wouldn`t hesitate to kill you, and don`t tell me that you forgot all about your dream, how will you protect people without killing the bad guys, these guys are doing this willingly, they
chose this path in their lives, you have sworn to stop all those that follow that path, so start!" Naruto wanted to say something, but he knew that the fox was right, he would have to kill sooner or
later, and at least he can give them a clean death.
After quickly ending their lives with a kunai to the heart, he went inside the cave.
30 minutes later
A group of people ran out of the cave, running towards the village. Since the cave was made of many rooms and corridors, he first took care of the guards and freed all the women and children.
He was never really good at stealth, but with a demon helping him, he could be good at almost anything, he managed to kill a dozen bandits without them even knowing he was there, only one
who was left was their leader, who was by skill a high Genin, he had a sword strapped to his lower back, the hilt on his right side. The battle was short but fierce, the man was in his mid thirties
and he obviously had experience in fighting with a combination of kenjutsu and taijutsu, however he lacked speed, because Naruto was much smaller and it was easy to avoid all the slashes and
deliver a few strong kicks followed by a shuriken in the head. After cheking the rooms for any more survivors, he made two dozen shadow clones to carry all the loot the bandits have stolen from
the people, he took the sword and strapped it to his lower back like the leader of the bandits, and after taking some money for himself he took some robes and tried them on. After he was fully
clothed he was in a dark brown robe with a hood covering his hair color and a fake ANBU mask covering his face. His clones were ahead and he told them to stop and transform into different
people so the people wouldn`t suspect anything. He wouldn`t have thought of it if the fox hadn`t warned him, the last thing he needed was a story of a man who knows a Konoha forbidden
tehnique, and there are only a few people who can make it.
When he got to the village the villagers were scared but after they saw that he isn`t attacking them they stayed and watched him and his group of more than 20 men carry their stolen goods. The
villagers that were taken were already back and the entire village was up and waiting what would happen next. The clones placed all of the supplies on a pile in the middle of the small village, the
village itself had no more than 50 buildings, and most of them were old shacks. After making sure that all his clones were done he thought about making them all disperse, but quickly decided
against it since it would ruin his cover, hewaved goodbye them and they silently left towards the woods. He then turned and walked towards the nearest villager who was visibly afraid, but
Naruto was walking in a non-threathening manner and that seemed to keep the old man from running away. When he got close enough he asked the old man,
"Tell me, who is in charge here?" Using a calm tone, which further calmed the man, who thenn towards a big man in the crowd.
The "man in charge" visibly tensed when he was pointed to, even though he tried to hide it. Naruto then walked up to him and said,
"I would like to talk to you in private." the man nodded and led Naruto inside one of the bigger houses in the village. After they were inside Naruto noticed a woman, who was probably the wife of
the leader of the village. she was watching from inside the house and saw everything that happened, then Naruto noticed a small boy, no more than 5 years old, he recognised him as one of the
taken villagers. Since Naruto was carefull about hiding his face from the villagers in the cave they probably wouldn`t recognise him, but he still needed to be carefull. The man led him to a small
room with a table and a few chairs, it seemed to be some sort of a dining room. After they sat down, the village leader said,
"Now who are you and where did you get all that stuff outside?"
Naruto calmly explained that he was travelling and that he met the group they saw, they saw that the bandits attacked, and decided to follow them. After explaining that he is a traveller and
would like to stay the rest of the night in the village,and avoiding all questions about his identity but the man saw that and asked him,
"What is your name? What do I tell the people of the village when they ask me who saved their children?" the man asked in a cautious tone.
"I don`t have a name anymore, I am not wanted where I was born, and people of my village would like nothing more than to see me dead. So now, I am dead, I am starting a new life without
nothing to lose, if I live long enough I may find something worth living for. But right now, I have only one person, and neither of us are ready yet. On a different matter, will all the stuff I brought
back be enough payment for a night of sleep without disturbance and a single meal in the morning? And you don`t need to worry about all the other people you saw, they decided to travel the
entire night." the man was surprised that his own people would want him dead, since he is clearly a good person.
"Of course, I would even offer you more, but I have a feeling that you would refuse to stay any longer. You can stay at my house, follow me so you can see where will you be sleeping." at that
Naruto nodded, and they both got up.
After the man showed Naruto his room, he said,
"Well, I`ll leave you to settle in. Thank you for saving my son from those bandits. I understand what your path is, you should think of a nickname for yourself, I`ll have to explain everything to
the villagers." After a few moments of silence, Naruto finally said,
"You can call me The Red Fox" then Naruto turned around, and went to lie down for the night.
Tommorow morning around 9 am
Naruto woke up after a few hours of sleep with another headache, this time it was even worse than before, he got up, got dressed, and he was about to put his mask on when he decided to change
it a little. He took out a kunai and made three scratches across each cheek, he then cut his finger and made 9 tails of blood on the forehead, going from the center of the mask all over the forehead.
Kyuubi was impressed by the design of the mask and said something Naruto would never expect to hear from the Demon Lord,
"Kit, I`m actually starting to like you..." Naruto just smiled, and took his forehead protector.
Before putting it on he made a horizontal scratch over the Konoha emblem. He placed it above his forehead like Sakura, that way it helped in taming his wild hair and didn`t get in the way for the
mask. After he was fully clothed he got out of the room taking all his belongings with him. He slowly found his way to the dining room and saw the entire family there. Wife was making the
breakfast, the man of the house was drinking tea at the table, and their son was helping his mother. When they saw him enter the room they weren`t afraid, instead they smiled, the wife even
made a deep bow and said,
"Thank you very much for saving my son from those people." Naruto made bowed, and replied,
"I only did what was the right thing to do."
The kid also bowed and said a simple `thank you´ before returning to help his mother with breakfast. Naruto simply sat down at the table and waited for the breakfast.
"Would you like anything special for breakfast?" the woman asked without turning around.
"No. Whatever you are having is fine." Naruto said.
After a few more minutes of waiting the woman started bringing out different dishes of food, there seemed to be a lot more than what they were used to, but Naruto just shrugged it off. Naruto
stared at the food in front of him for a few seconds, then he decided that he will take off his mask in front of them, these people were nice to him, he could at least show them his face. He took of
the mask and placed it at the side of the table, the man seemed to tense at the site of the slashed forehead protector and the woman seemed sad when she saw his face and realised that he was
indeed just a boy. Naruto said his prayer and slowly started eating, the last time he ate something was before the mission to get Sasuke. He ate slowly, not wanting to offend the people that took
him in, and the people ate with him. He was very hungry and he was able to eat a lot, it took him half an hour to get full, after he was finished he placed on his mask and got up. He turned to the
people in the house and deeply bowed,
"Thank you for your hospitality and your food." the man smiled and bowed back,
"If you ever need help, just come and ask, this village owes you much, but what should we say to the shinobi from Konoha, we already sent for a mission..."the man asked, getting a little worried
about mentioning Konoha.
"Tell them that The Red Fox came, that you don`t know who I am, and that you can`t describe me, that should be enough." Naruto replied and turned towards the door to leave.
When he came out he started walking through the village, his next stop, Wave country. During his walk through the village he noticed the looks the villagers gave him, only this time, the looks
were nice and warm, the children were looking at him in awe, and the older people gave him the looks full of satisfaction. They were glad that there were still people who are willing to help total
strangers by risking their lives.
He got out of the village with a smile on his lips, this village actually liked him, true they didn`t know about the Kyuubi, but noone would accept him if they knew about the Demon inside him. He
just prayed to Kami that Tazuna didn`t know about it.
At the same time in Konoha
Tsunade was waiting patiently in front of the hospital room, she found the letter in his apartment, and saw that all the rookies, Iruka, Ayame, Teuchi, Kakashi, herself and Jiraiya should be
present at the reading of the letter. She arranged for all the rookies in the hospital be transferred in the same room. She didn`t want to come in since Sasuke was inside and she was afraid that
she would kill him. While Sasuke was asleep, Jiraiya found a way to completely block out the cursed seal, and when Sasuke woke up, he didn`t try to run, he didn`t speak to anyone, he simply
stayed silent and stared into nothing. He seemed to be sorry, but Tsunade couldn`t risk it, she knew that she would just snap his neck if she was alone with him. Slowly all the invited people
arrived, Neji, Chouji and Kiba were in their beds, rest of the rookies were pushing them through the corridors. They all knew about the demon, she told them along with Tazuna, and had to allow
him to hold the funeral in Wave country, since she knew that Naruto`s final resting place would never be honored in Konoha.
She couldn`t force herself to open the letter and read it, so she called for a nurse that never acted hostile towards Naruto. Once they were all gathered they came inside the room, since they all
knew what happened between Sasuke and Naruto, a terrible killer intent washed over the entire room, all of it directed towards Sasuke. He didin`t move, he was just sitting there looking at his
hands in his lap. The room was pretty big, only one bed, several chairs were in the room, and two ANBU were watching Sasuke. Tsunade signaled them to get out of the room, when they were
outside Tsunade started,
"Naruto left a letter... You were all called here, because that`s what he wanted."
"Are you sure that there isn`t one person too much here Hokage-sama?" Neji started staring at Sasuke,
"No, it says that he should hear the contents of the letter too." Tsunade then gave the letter to the nurse and sat down.
That letter changed many lives that day, Sakura and Ino asked Tsunade to teach them medicine, Jiraiya and Tsunade decided that it`s time to at least see if there is anything between them,so did
Neji and Tenten. Many tears were shed in that room, most surprisingly at the end when Naruto forgave Sasuke for everything, Sasuke started crying, his eyes were covered by his hair but tears
were falling on his lap. Everyone started remembering evry time when they hurt Naruto, physicaly or emotionally, and they regretted all of it. After all the patients were back in their rooms, Ino
and Sakura went to prepare themselves for medical training, Tenten, Hinata, Shino, Lee and surprisingly Shikamaru, all went training. Hinata trained until she fainted from exhaustion, and she
had to be carried home. They were all going to the funeral tomorrow.
Elsewhere
It took him 6 more hours of silent traveling through the thick forest to get to the "Great Naruto Bridge".
`I thought they were just joking when they said they would name the bridge after me...´
"Well, they obiously weren`t joking, Tazuna might accept you even with me inside you"
`I hope so, because this is my laste chance, and they probably think I`m dead since Tazuna was in Konoha, and he should arrive soon too, since I was avoiding all the roads´
He then started slowly walking over the bridge. He wanted to wait for the old man to come home before he made his presence known to them. Going through town was interesting, few people
would stare at him, he looked like a hunter nin so peole would stay out of his way, and not pay attention to him. The entire place was a lot cleaner than the last time he was made his way
to the hill overlooking the village and turned to the two graves in the clearing. He kneeled down in front of them and told a silent prayer for their souls. After that he mentally silently with them,
he talked about all that happened, the fox was outside and on guard for any intruders. As he finished talking he said another prayer and just stared at their graves. The sun was already low, he
was talking for hours, and then the fox came to him,
"Someone is coming, hide behind the trees." Naruto silently did so.
After a few minutes a familiar figure came from the direction of the village,
`I...Inari?´
Inari kneeled down in front of the two graves with tears in his eyes, Naruto was worried about him, so he enhanced his hearing and listened to Inari. After a few minutes of listening Naruto had a
small simpathetic smile on his lips, Inari was crying because his hero was dead, he was crying because of him. After Inari left Naruto slowly followed. When he came to the house with his
enhanced hearing he listened to what was happening inside,
"...that`s a stupid reason!" the female voice said.
"I know, I`ll go to the mayor tomorrow and ask that he breaks all trade agreements with Konoha, to think they would treat a hero that way, he protected their village from a Demon Lord all his
life!" male voice said.
"He`s even a bigger hero than any of us thought." a young voice continued.
Naruto smiled under his mask and knocked on the door, he couldn`t wait for their reaction when they see him here.
The doors opened and he saw a face of an old friend.
"How may I help you?" said Tazuna a bit unnerved by the mask wearing boy.
"I was wondering if I could stay at your house for some time?" said Naruto with a muffled voice that Tazuna didn`t recongise.
"I`m sorry but I don`t think I know you."
"You do know me, but I can`t take my mask off outside, can I please come in?" Naruto said in a non-threatening voice.
After some thinking Tazuna nodded and moved out of the way for the boy with a mask.
Tsunami and Inari were both surprised by the appearance of the figure with a scary mask. After they all sat down, Tazuna started,
"Well then, who are you, you said that you can`t take off the mask outside."
"Very well..." Naruto said and brought his hand over the mask, he took off his forehead protector and placed it on the table before taking off his mask. To say that they were shocked would be an
understatement. Their eyes were wide, their mouth wide open, they were trying to speak, but couldn`t find any words in them.
"I`m sorry for coming here, but I need a favor." Naruto began seeing that they need some time to recover from the shock.
After a few moments Tazuna recovered and started shooting questions at Naruto, he explained everything from the Sasuke`s departure to his arrival in Wave country. They took him in and told
him that his funeral will be held in Wave country tomorrow. He thought about going but decided against it, even though he would get to see some of his friends again. He also found out that all
his friends were informed about the Kyuubi, few of them were shocked and started seeing him differently, most of them have found even more respect for him, Shikamaru already knew since he
figured it out by himself. Shino knew it was something, but didn`t know what exactly, Ino, Sakura, Tenten, Lee were all surprised but agreed that Naruto is not a Demon. Hinata was quite
surprising the morning she woke up, she immediately started training hard, and when she found out she just said,
"I know he`s not a demon and I still love him" , with a smile on her face, and left to train more. That left all of the rookies and all of the senseis shocked, she was smiling, she was training as hard
as she could, she didn`t stutter, she openly admitted that she loved him, and didn`t even care about the was surprised, last he heard she was an emotional wreck, he didn`t
understand what happened to her so that she would change like this.
"Kit, it may have something to do with the fact that she was awake when you kissed her..." said the kyuubi mentally with a chuckle, and Naruto blushed an impossible shade of red.
Tsunami just giggled while Inari was confusingly looking at Naruto.
They spent the next few hours talking in a relaxed manner. They agreed on telling the rest of the country that Naruto is dead and that most of Konoha is happy for it, that way any friends Naruto
has will be forced to leave right after the funeral instead of visiting Tazuna and Tsunami. After he explained what he needed them to do while he is unconcscious, they all had dinner together and
went to their rooms for the night.
Day of the funeral
Naruto woke up, once again with a headache, this time even greater than the last time. It soon passed like all the others, and he went downstairs for breakfast, it was already 10 am, so he spent
the next few hours prepairng everything vith Tsunami, cold water, clean towels, and similar since the Kyuubi informed him about all that they will need. Tazuna sent the messages last night
about the funeral, and they have agreed that he will be buried with Zabuza and Haku early in the afternoon. After everyone was prepared to leave for the funeral, the Kyuubi told Naruto that he
should lie down since the effects will start soon.
Naruto was lying on the bed, Tsunami kneeling next to him, Kyuubi teaching Naruto how to make a tehnique similar to Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu (Forced sleep tehnique)
"Have fun on my funeral." Naruto said with a small smile,
"That`s not funny, we`ll have to pretend that you really are dead." Tsunami said also with a small smile on her lips. Tsunami and Naruto have made a strong bond, they were like a mother and
son, and Inari didn`t mind since he already started calling Naruto his nii-san.
Naruto said while performing the seals,
"Well, good night, see you in a few weeks... Jiga Kensei no Jutsu." And with that he fell asleep.
Naruto`s mindscape
"Well, how do we do this?" Naruto asked.
"Patience kit, you`ll be reliving all the emotional moments again, only this time, you`ll feel everything. Keep your mind focused, you need to resolve this now, I don`t need an emotional wreck for
a vessel."Kyuubi said in a stern voice.
"Right, anything else i should know about?"
"Keep your mind on your dream kit,oh and...good luck." with that Naruto felt a strange feeling like something was pulling him from behind and then, suddenly after a white flash, he saw his
battle at the Valley Of the End.
Outside world
Tsunami placed another wet towel on Naruto`s forehead and stood up, before she left for the funeral, she turned around again to look at hi, hus eyes were twitching, his body was sweating, his
face was red from the heat. She didn`t want to leave him but she had to. She had to leave him so she could go to his funeral.
The funeral
The ceremony was big, only few people in the entire country didn`t go to it, so there were hundreds of people gathered around the grave, while up front were the few Konoha shinobi. They were
all given the looks of hatred and disgust, even though the ceremony itself was short in duration, it was extremely emotional, and many were crying. The people of the Wave country knew about
the demon and they didn`t care, that made the rookies question the will of fire they were all told about as kids, and with the looks they were getting from the people, they knew how Naruto felt as
a kid, it only strengthened their respect for him. They left soon after the ceremony, most of them that is, since Hinata noticed strange behavior of Tazuna and his family, she told the rest of the
rookies that she`ll catch up with them, she just needs some time alone.
As she got to their house she was about to knock, but first she silently made a few hand sings and whispered,
"Byakugan" she searched the house and found that everyone is in the same room gathered around a lying figure.
She would always recongnise his chakra signature so she immediately knew who was lying on a bed.
She burst through the door and ran to the second floor and straight into the room,
"Naruto-kun..." she froze when she saw him lying there, sweating, with a wet towel on his head.
"Dammit! I knew that I should have stayed downstairs, now everyone will know that he`s alive..." said Tazuna,
"What`s wrong? Is he okay? How is he?" Hinata started shooting questions at Tsunami.
"You must be Hinata." Hinata nodded, "Were you followed?" Hinata shook her head, her eyes never leaving Naruto.
"Come on, let`s leave give them some privacy." Tsunami said and had to pull Tazuna and Inari out of the room.
Hinata sat next to Naruto, and looked at his face, she then did something that would make her old self faint instantly. She kissed Naruto, and whisperd to his ear
"Now, we`re even, I`ll be waiting for that day." she moved away and heard him mumbling in his sleep,
"...Hinata...chan...so pretty..." at this Hinata could not do anything else than blush,
`He...He`s dreaming about ME? He even called me pretty...´ Just when she started daydreaming like her old self she noticed someting,
`Wait, is that... a nosebleed?´ her eyes widened, Naruto was having a more "eventful" dream about them, her thoughts were stopped when she heard a deep chuckle from behind her, coming from
a small fox with nine tails.
"I just had to do that, oh where are my manners, You may call me Kyuubi," at this Hinata tensed and got in a defensive stance between Naruto and the fox," Oh? Another brave one, you two make
a nice couple. Anyway I have no desire to fight anyone, all I am here for is to inform you that I will be teaching him from now on, I will give him power but it is up to him to decide how to use it.
You are perfect for him, so I will give you a gift, something that will allow you two to meet once in a while." Hinata dropped her stance and looked at the fox with a questioning look,
"Don`t talk, just do what I say, cut your finger and hold out your hand." After a few seconds of thinking about all the fox said, Hinata did what was asked and held out her hand. The fox came
over to her and licked the blood off her finger, as soon as it did that the finger instantly healed.
"Now for the explanation, every once in while during your dreams you will find yourself in a forest, walk around and you will meet Naruto, he too will be dreaming and he will see you so you two
can spend about an hour or two talking. You both have to be sleeping, You need to be calm and don`t expect it t work every night. Oh, he`s going by the name "The Red Fox" now, he`ll be walking
around the world helping those who need help, and before you ask, he used a lot of my power, now we`re connected, he`s becoming stronger and I`m becoming... "nicer", ugh, i hate that word"
said the Kyuubi, leaving Hinata confused,
"Now leave, he`ll be like that for at least another 2 weeks and you can`t help in any way." after finishing the last sentence, the fox dissapeared in a small burst of flames.
Hinata needed to think over everything she heard from the fox, so after few more minutes of looking at the love of her life, she left the room, apologized to Tazuna and Tsunami, and finally
promised them that she won`t say anything about him being alive.
She left the house with a smile.