When Death Comes

Chapter 4

Hiruzen rubbed his forehead in hopes of alleviating his headache as he sat down in his chair. For the second time in a couple of days he felt inspired to pull out his strongest sake and drink himself into a stupor. It had taken nearly two hour to pacify the council as they raged about the Uzumaki's escape.

Surprisingly the results of Naruto's stroll through the village hadn't been as bad as he had first assumed. There had been some damage done to many of the buildings around the village due to the explosives he had somehow planted, only the one ANBU that had actually been able to engage him had been lost with the only survivor being Neko who would be incapacitated for the foreseeable future due to her injuries.

Oh and of course there was the mysterious disappearance of Danzo Shimura. It seemed that no one had seen the man for the whole week since the attack and he wasn't present at the council meeting afterwards.

Hiruzen had no doubt that the man was dead.

Danzo had been a rival to Hiruzen the majority of his life, he had been someone whom Hiruzen had once trusted, someone whom Hiruzen had respected both as a shinobi and a man.

These were all things that Hiruzen had once felt towards Danzo Shimura. Now he felt nothing. He felt as though he should mourn the loss of his once friend. He felt as though he should want Naruto's head for ending the man's life.

But he didn't.

Instead his only thoughts were of Naruto. How the boy had suffered at Danzo's hands, how the boy had been twisted and tricked and betrayed. How the boy he had loved as a grandson was now so grossly unrecognizable that Hiruzen found it difficult to associate the two as the same person.

When he discovered what Danzo had done Hiruzen was enraged, for the first time he felt hate towards the man he had called friend. Hiruzen suspected that, to him, Danzo Shimura had been dead for many years and the man whom had replaced him was someone not worthy of his grief.

So as the days passed and Danzo was still not found. Hiruzen felt nothing. Nothing but a sense that in some way the death of his true friend had been avenged.

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Contrary to popular belief Naruto was not insane. At least he did not believe himself to be so. He was capable of rational thought, he was capable of using logic to solve problems, and he was capable of understanding both his emotions and the emotions of others. He simply chose not to.

It was easier to be insane. To not have to worry about doing the right thing or thinking through his actions and their consequences and in Naruto's opinion; it was more fun too.

In his mind he knew that staying in Konoha was a terrible idea. He understood that he was putting himself in unnecessary danger and that there was really nothing to gain by remaining there.

He simply didn't care.

He wanted to see the results of his actions and watch the reactions of people to the anarchy he had sown. It was fun to him.

His favorite part of the whole thing was the sense of paranoia that covered Konoha and its citizens. It was as if they feared he would come back at any moment and finish what he started. Parents watched over their children carefully, shinobi were in a constant state of high alert, clans had locked down their compounds, many civilians had even taken to locking themselves in their homes.

Of course their fears were unfounded. Naruto was not particularly interested in destroying the village or even killing its shinobi.

This was another misconception.

Naruto was not a bloodthirsty monster who seeked to destroy everything in his path. In fact Naruto had never killed anyone who had not in some way wronged him. Of course it hadn't always been this way.

When he left the village he had been nine and as he travelled he fell more and more under the control of the Kyuubi he had once contained. He eventually came to a point where he killed anyone that even looked at him the wrong way and seeked out fights in every village he visited. He had felt no remorse over any of his actions and in fact felt vindicated in the killings. He was of the opinion that everyone was out to get him and there were no people that were worthy of the life they had been given.

The Kyuubi had conveniently twisted his memories to turn him against even the few people who he did trust. The Hokage became someone who never did enough, who let his shinobi and his council do as they wish to him, the Ichiraku's became nothing more than treacherous bastards who were trying to lure him in with their 'kindness' just so they could see the look of despair on his face as they abandoned him like all of the others.

Naruto was interrupted from his thoughts as the person he was looking for entered his vision. Ayame Ichiraku was now 18 years old and even more attractive than he had remembered she had grown to a respectable height of 5'4 and had grown her brown hair well past her shoulders. She was walking down the street holding a bag of groceries heading in the direction of Ichiraku Ramen.

Naruto smiled slightly to himself as he was overcome with some of his most precious memories. It had taken many months for him to discern what was real and what was fabricated by the demon but eventually he believed that he had successfully discarded all traces of what the demon had done. Silently, Naruto took to the streets channeling a small bit of chakra into the seal in his stolen ANBU cloak rendering him invisible.

Remaking all of the seals he had placed in his own coat had been an irritating and painstaking process, he had even been forced to go out to one of his nearby bases to get some of the materials as the sealing supplies he kept in the storage seal on his wrist had been depleted. But the effort was well worth it as it allowed himself to continue to skulk the village with almost no chance of being caught.

He walked next to Ayame expertly sidestepping around people as they were about to run into him. As they walked she smiled and greeted several civilian shopkeepers as she passed them. This confused Naruto slightly as he remembered many of the other shopkeepers boycotting Ichiraku's for choosing to serve the 'demon child'. After a moment of thought he came to the conclusion that after he left they must have decided to forgive the Ichiraku's 'transgressions'.

After a about another minute of walking they arrived and Naruto watched as she opened entered the stand hugged her father and proceeded to put away the groceries.

Teuchi had remained mostly unchanged in the years he had been gone, though perhaps he had a few more wrinkles and had started balding slightly, and maybe put on a few more pounds. Naruto chuckled silently to himself as he imagined what Teuchi's reaction would be if he expressed his thoughts to his face.

Naruto chose to lean on the back wall of the stand as Ayame and Teuchi began preparing to serve their customers. He would wait until they closed before revealing himself he decided as their first customer took his seat.

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After 8 hours of serving ramen Ayame and Teuchi finally closed. Naruto's stomach growled though of course Ayame and Teuchi didn't hear it as the silencing seal on his cloak muffled any noise he made. As they began to put away ingredients and cooking utensils Naruto revealed himself.

Smirking to himself he walked up to Ayame and deactivated the silencing and invisibility seals. "Boo" he whispered causing her to nearly jump out of her skin and forcing him to duck as she swung the pan she was holding at him.

Teuchi turned around as well grabbing a knife off the table to his right. "Who the hell are you!" he demanded.

Naruto shook his head and chuckled as he removed his hood. "That hurts. I never imagined you would forget your best customer, maybe you're going senile old man." Ayame's eyes widened in shock as she took in the appearance of the man in front of her. Despite the changes in height and eye color she could recognize the shockingly bright blonde hair anywear.

"Naruto!" She exclaimed rushing towards him and embracing him tightly. Naruto allowed her to embrace him in slight surprise. He hadn't anticipated that she would so willingly approach him after she heard all the stories of his exploits. After a moment he returned her embrace gently holding her against his chest.

He glanced at Teuchi who stood in stunned silence still gripping tightly to the knife in his hand. He could see him shifting his eyes to look at Ayame in with glimmers concern in his eyes. Seeing this Naruto gently freed himself from her embrace and took a couple steps back.

"I'm not gonna hurt her old man" he said but the words seemed to do nothing to pacify Teuchi. Who continued to hold to the knife in his hand.

Ayame rolled her eyes and walked towards her father smacking him over the head. "What's wrong with you," she demanded "It's Naruto. No matter what else he's done, he's still the starving little boy who we picked up in the rain. Besides I'm sure most the stuff we've heard was greatly exaggerated, if nothing else we should hear him out, we owe him at least that much."

Naruto was once again surprised by the girl's actions. The words made him . . . happy. It was something he hadn't felt for quite a while but he had no other words to describe what he felt when the girl he saw as his big sister could overlook his actions so easily.

Teuchi dropped his head slightly and apologized while putting the knife down on the table. Naruto just shook his head and waved off the apology, a big grin on his face. "Don't worry about it. Though I suppose there is one thing I should clear up." The grin left his face and was replaced with a grim look of resignation. "Most of the things you've heard about me; are probably true."

Ayame opened her mouth to speak but was silenced as Naruto continued. "I've killed people. Almost all of them are from this village and most of them were just trying to defend their homes. I feel no remorse over my actions, I like instilling fear in people, and to some extent I enjoy killing. According to almost every account I'm nothing but a monster not really worthy of life, and the fact of the matter is that that's probably true." Here he let out a strained laugh.

"I don't expect you to trust me or even like me. In fact I expected you to fear and hate me, but despite that I wanted to see you guys again. I wanted to at least show you what I've become and tell you guys that there was nothing you could do to save me from this fate. You guys and the Hokage are the only ones who ever saw me as human the time I spent eating ramen in this shop are the happiest memories I have and for that I thank you. Ayame you are like a big sister to me you tried to teach me right from wrong and helped me when I was sad or scared. Teuchi you advised me and treated me like I was your son, I remember all of times that I had trouble dealing with the civilians and you offered to kick their asses for me. Thank you" He smiled somewhat sadly at them.

Ayame was understandably shocked at his words. It was hard to associate the little crybaby whom she had come to see as her brother with the horrible stories she heard about him and he himself admitted to be true. Despite that she found it difficult to hate him or even fear him. He was a product of his environment and the treatment he received she had always thought that it was a miracle that a child so young could suffer so much and remain sane.

It seemed she was right. He hadn't come out of his childhood sane and despite his words she couldn't help but feel like there was something more she could have done. She could have protected him more, she could have made sure that he understood that no matter what there was at least one person that cared about him. Tears began to blur her vision as she followed this path of thought and once more she rushed forward to hug him, despite the fact that he stiffened in her grip, she held on tight crying silently into his chest.

Teuchi having followed a similar train of thought walked slowly towards him and pulled the both of them into him.

If he was shocked the first time he was embraced this time he was certifiably stunned. He couldn't even bring himself to speak as he was hugged by both Ichiraku's. Ayame began to whisper into his chest and Naruto had to strain even his advanced hearing to hear her.

"I love you."

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A/N: Of all of the chapters this was by far the most difficult to write. I wanted to try and capture a different side of Naruto and I think I did that. I would also like to say that I haven't decided to add a pairing and if so which one. As such I would like to hear your suggestions, both the character and why. I also threw in a little bit of Hiruzen's point of view in an effort to try and show his feelings towards Naruto as well as add a little more about what Danzo did to Naruto which will be fully explained pretty soon as well as some more explanation about what happened with the Kyuubi. I will say that Danzo's actions directly resulted in Naruto's rampage and subsequent leaving of the village. I also changed up the format of the writing a little bit and want to know what you think. Overall I was pretty satisfied with this chapter and I hope all of you were as well. Thank you for reading.

-Silent Silas