A/n- Sorry it's taken me so long to update, especially after leaving chapter three on such a horrible cliffhanger. My excuse was that it was the holidays. Also rejoice! All that's left after this is the epilogue. YAY! Thanks to everyone that reviewed.
Chapter four- Bittersweet Moments
Ino stood in shock as she stared into Sai's dead eyes. Than with a gasp she pulled her sword out out his heart and dropped it as if it were acid. Sai collapsed to his knees as he looked up at Ino.
The blond girl brought a hand up to cover her sob, she didn't mean to kill him. She loved him. He was supposed to dodge like he had a hundred times before when she'd used that move in their spars. She stared into his eyes as the light slowly drained from them and felt a tear slip down her face, "Why don't cry? You're about to die I killed you. But you look like you don't even care. Why- Why didn't you dodge? You're stronger than me, you could've dodged. I was only going to knock you out. Tie you up and let Ibiki fix you when this was over."
Sai looked up at her and smiled. Ino saw the soft emotion that sparked in his eyes for a brief moment before his face froze in death. Stuck with a peaceful, happy look on his face. More tears slipped from Ino's eyes as she saw him die, "No. No you- you're not dead. You can't die. You wouldn't be happy dead. You shouldn't smile when the person who loves you kills you. That's not the way love works."
Ino didn't know how long she sat there crying before she heard Naruto scream in pain and Danzo laugh. Her head snapped around to the room where her fight had started and she took a step forward desperate not to lose a friend so soon after losing her boyfriend. But her common sense froze her steps. She was much weaker than Naruto, if he was struggling than she would just get in the way. Besides, she had her own mission to fulfill, and she would be able to best help Naruto by telling a jonin what was happening. So with a last sorrowful look at her dead love, she took off towards Ibiki and the endangered ex-root. "Hold on Ruto. Help will come soon."
.
.
Naruto felt at peace as he floated in the blackness. This was a wonderful feeling, his pain was gone, and, even though he would have rather lived longer and done more with his life, he'd say putting a stop to a century old conspiracy, a seventy-something year-old puppet master and killing a bijuu by the time he was fourteen was pretty good. With a content sigh he let his consciousness begin to recede again.
A bright light hit the blonds eyes and he let out a groan of protest. In spite of the fact that he was floating he tried to roll over but the light didn't dim, in fact it almost seemed to grow brighter. He threw an arm he didn't know he still had over his eyes to block out the light that was keeping him from sleeping, and let a pleased smile cross his face as the light dimmed enough for him to relax.
Then the poking started. Naruto tried to ignore it at first but it only took a few pokes to make him growl in annoyance. The poking stopped for a moment before it continued at a faster pace. The blond tried to swat away the pokey thing but missed. The poking once again paused. And Naruto allowed himself to relax. At least, until he heard a feminine laugh, "Wow, Mina-kun. He's even worse about getting up than you are."
"I was never this bad." a deep male voice defended.
The same female voice, this time with a bit of disbelief in it, answered, "Uh-huh, and who would have a better idea of how hard it is to wake you up than the wife that wakes you up everyday?"
"My students." was the males smug reply. Naruto heard a light smacking sound, "Ow!"
"Oh you big baby. Our newborn hit harder than that." the woman said.
Finally Naruto decided he should open his eyes and see who the heck was talking, and as his eyelids rose he looked into... his face. No her face, she looked a lot like what a green eyed, red-headed version of his orioke no jutsu would look like. He looked past the woman into a pair of blue eyes the color of his own a his thoughts froze in shock. Blond hair, blue eyes a face that bore a striking resemblance to the Hokage monument.
The blond boy shot up in shock and accidentally hit foreheads with the woman, "Ow! Naruto!"
He kept staring. His father. That blond haired blue eyed man that, aside from the coloring, looked nothing like him was his father, the freaking Fourth Hokage. The young Uzumaki turned stunned eyes to the red-headed woman who, aside from coloring and... well being a girl, looked almost exactly like him. He stared in wonder, his mother. This had to be his mother. The woman he had often imagined was sitting in front of him rubbing her forehead in annoyance.
The boy felt tears come to his eyes, "Mom. Dad." The parents looked at their son and nodded with loving smiles on their faces, "Crap. That means I'm dead doesn't it?"
The smile on his mothers face fell back into a look of annoyance, "No you're not dead yet, though it's certainly not for lack of you trying. You have about thirty seconds before you die, and that's why we're here. To save you."
"Ummm, I kinda just slit my own throat, how do you save someone from that?" Naruto asked.
It was his father who answered, "With the regenerative abilities of the Kyuubi of course."
The boy looked less then impressed, "The demon who is apparently at the moment still trying to kill me?"
His mother smiled, "Pretty much, but don't worry we have it all worked out. So taking into account the time dilation of a dream state we have about five minutes of dream time before we need to save you. So..." Kushina sprang forward and wrapped her son in a hug. She was soon joined by Minato who wrapped his arms around both of them, "How are you sweetie? Aside form currently dieing are you ok? Have you had a good life?"
Naruto stayed frozen in shock for a moment before he slowly let his arms rise to wrap around his mother, and he allowed himself to relish the feel of a parents embrace, "Yeah, I'm fine. I missed you, I always wondered what it would be like to be hugged like this. Life's been hard in Konoha, but it's good. I've made good friends and... I've made a place for myself."
Minato pulled away from the hug first, "Your hard life is my fault Naruto. I'm sorry. I've seen the way the villagers have treated you, we both have. I knew it would be bad from marrying your mother, but not like it was. It was never that bad for Kushina."
The boy looked confused, "What do you mean? Why would things be bad for mom?"
Kushina pulled back enough to look her son in the face, "I was the Kyuubi jinchuuriki before you son. I wasn't strong enough to hold it back without help when you were born. That's why it had to be sealed into you."
Naruto was wide eyed, "A jinchuuriki? You?"
His mother nodded, "Yes, and I'm so sorry for the life you had to lead."
Naruto shook his head, half in shock and half in negation, "It-it's alright. I more than anyone knows what it's like to hold the Kyuubi back. Heck, I killed myself to stop it, how could I hate you for that." the boy looked over to his father, "And dad if you have access to all my memories you should know that I already forgave you. You... you didn't really have a choice."
The man smiled and ruffled his sons hair, "I know, but I still had to ask for your forgiveness."
The boy smiled, but the smile fell into frown of confusion when he felt the world flicker for a moment. Kushina pulled him closer, "We're running out of time. Naruto, we're going to wake you up soon and as soon as you wake up I need you to turn into the shodai."
The boy shook his head, "I can't, every time I try to use his DNA I turn into the Thing instead."
"You won't this time son," Minato said, "I'll be stabilizing your jutsu so that only the Shodai's DNA gets mimicked."
Kushina turned to him, "And I'll be doing what I can to control the Kyuubi's chakra until the Shodai's DNA kicks in. We'll need his DNA and me to counteract Danzo's stolen bloodlines and control the Kyuubi's chakra."
Naruto nodded in understanding, "I understand. But, will I see you again after this?"
The red-head sorrowfully shook her head, "No sweetie. We're just chakra remnants of your parents and this will use up all the chakra that's left. But when you die, and you had better not die for a long time, we'll be waiting for you. But no matter what we love you."
Minato nodded with a smile, "She's right Naruto. We do love you. Now we're almost out of time and there are a few things you need to know before we let you wake up. First I'm leaving you with the knowledge of how to correct the seal if it starts to break like this again, but you need to know that you won't be able to fix it yourself. It will have to be a ninja you trust. Also I need to tell you about a threat to you and all of Konoha, his name is Madara..."
.
.
Naruto woke up screaming, or at least trying to. His hand flew to his still shorn throat and he panicked as he felt his death draw closer. Almost without thought the hand that wasn't holding his bloodied throat reached for the DNA pills of The Thing. He offered up a silent prayer of hope that his parents knew what they were doing, and then put the pill into his mouth and let it dissolve as he channeled all the chakra he had left to spare.
The change was immediate, but not at all what he was expecting. He could feel his DNA shifting, but it stopped in the middle, he was still himself but he could feel the power of the Mokuton bloodline inside of him. All nine tails of the Kyuubi's chakra pulled free of the seal, but instead of forming a new body of chakra it fell around him as a nine-tailed cloak. He could feel the Shodai's bloodline, and his mother holding the Kyuubi in check, giving him perfect control of the monster.
In that moment he regretted that there was only enough of his parents chakra left for this one use. Never before had control of the Kyuubi been easier, nor the bloodline the imprisoned monster gave Naruto. Physically he was alone, but he had never felt more surrounded by allies. His parents would hold control of the Kyuubi and his transformation as long as they could, but that meant Danzo had to die before their help was lost.
Naruto set his jaw determinately as he made the familiar sign for shadow clones. He was stunned when nearly a thousand appeared. He had underestimated just how much power the Kyuubi had, and he knew he would need to be careful of he could grow very fond of having this much chakra. Tainted and generally uncontrollable though it was.
The blond focused on the kazaana kunai around Danzo and smirked. The old cripple may be able dodge one Naruto doing that jutsu, but how would he fair against a thousand. He and all his copies simultaneously started the kazaana. And the room exploded into chaos. All the Narutos were attacking Danzo at once and accidentally running into each other as they tried to use the same kunai causing hundreds of the clones to explode into white smoke. White smoke that hazed vision and added confusion to chaos.
After hardly any time at all had passed Naruto stood on the other side of the room from Danzo. Only a hundred of his clones were left, and as he looked at the old man his eyes once again widened. Danzo was untouched. In fact he looked exactly the same save that now two of the sharingan eyes on his arm were closed instead of just the one that was closed before. A thought pinged in his head, a vague suspicion about how Danzo might be surviving such deadly attacks.
With this suspicion in mind Naruto once again sent his clones in using the kazaana. He needed to see if he was right.
The blond watched as his clones circled Danzo in a yellow cyclone, wind covered kunai occasionally flashing silver from within it. He winced the few times his clones collided and he got the memory of what it was like to collide at high speed with himself.
Then the attack was over. He and his 75 clones looked at the again unharmed Danzo. Only this time there were three sharingan eyes closed. Naruto felt a feeling of joy mixed with irritation fill him as he realized he was right. The blond didn't know how, but those eyes were somehow being used to keep Danzo from harm. And that meant his job just got a lot harder. At a glance it looked like the old man had twenty sharingan eyes that were still open and Naruto had no idea if the eyes he'd already used would reopen at some point.
If they wouldn't, all the blond had to do was outlast him. Which, even with the enormous chakra demands of kazaana, wouldn't be too hard as long as he was being strengthened by the Kyuubi's chakra. But if the eyes would open again at some point, maybe after they'd rested or something, then he had a time constraint and waiting him out probably wouldn't work.
Naruto's mind quickly flipped through all the strategies he could use with his power and arsenal knowing what he did about Danzo. Then he smiled as he settled on a tried and true one. If brute force works, use it.
The blond created another thousand clones and sent them in using the kazaana, and watched as pure chaos once again reigned. When those clones were almost gone and there were five eyes closed Naruto sent in a fresh wave. For what seemed like eternity this was how it continued between Naruto and Danzo. The blond sending in wave after wave of clones as he watched the eyes blink shut.
Five.
Seven.
Thirteen.
Then, before either side could react a Naruto clone appeared in front of Danzo in a poof and stabbed him through the heart before he had the chance to activate whatever jutsu was keeping him safe.
The old mans eyes widened in shock as he collapsed. How... how had that clone gotten so close? He made sure that the Izanagi kept all the kazaanaing clones at bay. As his muscles stopped working from loss of blood he thought back over the chaotic fight and realized that during the wave upon wave of clone attacks there had been a small mouse inching closer. He had thought it odd that a mouse wasn't running from the battle, but with the focus needed to control his jutsu and keep track of all the clones he hadn't really had time to think about it. The old man gave a last bitter smile. Even with all his amassed power, he'd been defeated by a fourteen year old boy, and a jutsu as insignificant as a transformation.
Danzo let himself relax as death came closer. He was old and tired. Perhaps it was time to leave Konoha's safety to a younger generation. He only hoped they would have the will to do what was necessary to keep it safe. A will his young apprentice hadn't... seemed..to.
Naruto watched the life fade from Danzo's eyes before he collapsed gasping. Crazy amounts of chakra or not that battle had been exhausting. He let his eyes fall to a close in relief as he reached inside his mind, 'Mom? Dad? Are you still there?'
'Yes Naruto.' the voice of his father answered inside of his head, 'We can stick around long enough to replace Kyuubi in the seal and reverse the partial transformation into the Shodai. Then we'll be out of chakra.'
'Oh' the blond thought, 'Thank you... for helping me. I would have been joining you in heaven had you not.' Naruto could feel his consciousness fading into sleep, 'I'm glad got to meet you.'
Right before his consciousness faded completely he heard the quiet voice of his mother, 'We love you Naruto.' Then the blond was gone. Enveloped in a world of dreams.