Oh my gosh!

Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews and favorites/alerts!

When all the comments started pouring in, I couldn't sit still. I just knew that I had to update as fast as possible!

Here's the next installment. Sorry it took me so long. School is keeping me very busy.

Hopefully I won't disappoint everyone : )

To answer a frequently asked question:

Both Naruto and Kakashi are the same age in this story – about 16.

I shifted the time frame a little to allow for that. I really hope that this doesn't make anyone angry.

Stillness

Chapter 3

"Every act of creation is, first of all, an act of destruction..."*

All around, he could hear the sound of a thousand birds in the ecstasy of flight.

The Chidori …

How aptly it was named.

Though, he would have thought that something with such vibrant energy would be hot.

Instead, he felt like he had been submerged into an icy lake.

The air was frozen in his lungs, each breath becoming a thick, heavy, ball of steam as it left his windpipe.

He couldn't feel the pain in his chest; he could only see it. His eyes could just make out the hissing lightning-shaped chakra burning the skin there.

He missed…Naruto thought incredulously. He missed my heart…

But only just.

And what did it matter, anyway? He could already feel the darkness looming over his consciousness. Any minute now, he would pass out and all his efforts would be wasted.

No! I can't!

The Rasenshuriken wavered in his palm. He kept it alive with sheer will. Without the Kyuubi's chakra, he wouldn't be able to form another one, and without this attack, they wouldn't stand a chance. He had hoped to buy the Yondaime some time to prepare the seal. While Gamabunta held the fox in place, Naruto could deliver the blow. Then, while the beast was stunned, his father would be free to trap him. He'd been prepared; adrenaline had already filled every muscle in his body. But then, something had gone wrong.

He was stopped in mid-jump. The shock had been great enough to disorient him. At first, he thought that he must have been knocked back by one of the Kyuubi's tails. He'd had trouble breathing and his limbs were not responding to his mind's commands. Then, the sound around him seemed to disappear – all sound except for the steady breathing at his back. His breathing. Like before, he recognized his teacher's all too familiar chakra.

His teacher…

Was it so far-fetched to think that they were one in that moment? When he moved to inhale, he felt the man's hand shifting against his muscles. Why wasn't he withdrawing?

"Ka…kashi-sen…sei…" he whispered, feeling blood rising up into his throat. Had his lungs been hit? If so, then he didn't have much time. He coughed up bloodied mucus, willing his vision to focus on Gamabunta and the man on his back. What had just happened? Why had his teacher attacked him?

"You will die before you lay a hand on the Yondaime," a lethal voice whispered in his ear. "I don't know who you are, but you signed a death warrant when you attacked this village."

What was he talking about? Attack Konoha? The very idea was preposterous. A sudden realization hit him. In order to seal the Nine Tails, wouldn't the Hokage have to give up his life? The knowledge was vague in his mind. Naruto had only heard about the events of this night in brief spurts of conversation. Even Jiraiya had been unwilling to reveal the truth of what had happened on the night the Fourth had died. Perhaps it was to protect him. Ever since Naruto had found out about his father after his defeat of Pein, he had pored over countless scrolls and books in an attempt to find out what seal he had used to imprison the fox inside his body. Perhaps the old pervert had known that Naruto would want to find out and feared that he would try to release the seal.

It was true – he had considered that at one point. Controlling the Kyuubi had become more and more difficult with each passing season. The stronger he became, the more power the Nine Tails accumulated. And then, with Sasuke joining Akatsuki and lending them his Sharingan, Naruto had known that possessing the Nine Tails was equivalent to signing for his own execution. He'd researched the matter thoroughly, but had come up with the same conclusion over and over again. There were several ways to break the seal, but all of them lead to the death of the host. Just as the forming of the seal sucked away the life of the one performing the technique, so would undoing it drain the life of the one who was sealed.

His father's face was unreadable; why wasn't he doing something? Why was he just standing there? When Naruto had told him of his plans, he'd seemed to agree. Though, now that he thought about it, it seemed suspicious that he had been so ready to give up his life based on the words of a stranger.

Wrong…his mind tried to reassure him. To this man, he shouldn't have been a stranger at all. He was his son!

You have no proof…he told himself. Nothing concrete, anyway…

So, why had the man agreed to help him? Hell, he'd even smiled back at him.

He called my name…the boy remembered fondly.

He'd taken him to the Toad Scroll and had watched as he'd signed his name in his own blood. In that one instant in the Hokage's tower, his father had looked at him with pride. For Naruto, that had been a magical moment. How many times had he imagined his parents calling for him? How many times had he wondered what his name would sound like on their lips? And, like a dream come true, there it was –

Naruto…

But now, he began to doubt. If his father truly recognized him, why was his face so impassive? Why wasn't he reacting? He'd just been attacked; he was coughing up blood; he was dying! Yet, still, he stood silent, emotions completely absent from his features. Had he counted on this? Had he somehow coordinated this with Kakashi? It was safe to say that his teacher hadn't trusted him from the beginning; his body bore cuts of various sizes from the man's blade. If the Hokage had somehow commanded him to kill Naruto, he would not have hesitated.

This is bad…He hadn't counted on this when he'd rushed into Konoha to try and save the day; he'd been so busy looking around for enemies that he hadn't stopped to consider that he hadn't yet made allies. And what could he have expected? A monster was ransacking the village and someone shows up out of nowhere, claiming to be the grown son of the Hokage – naturally, that would sound suspicious. And, naturally, he had completely failed to foresee the obstacles before he leapt into the rushing current of the problem.

"Kakashi!" the Hokage bellowed suddenly, anger crossing his face. That stupid, futile, hope flared up in him again. Surely, now his father would come to his defense. Surely, he would somehow fix the situation, as impossible as it seemed. Foolish though it was, Naruto desperately wanted to believe that he hadn't made a fatal mistake. It was one of his most devastating flaws – the belief that all people were naturally good and could understand each other if they were given half a chance. But, without acknowledging the boy's hopeful eyes, the Fourth turned away."Take him and follow us!" he commanded.

With a rough jerk, Kakashi withdrew his hand from the boy's shoulder. The pain was more horrific than anything he'd ever felt before. Coupled with the stinging of the cuts on his arms and legs, it was almost unbearable. Over and over again, he dubbed himself a hopeless idiot. Of course his father wouldn't do anything. How could he? Even if he did believe in him, what could he have done to save him from such a grievous wound? Though he tried to reason with himself, he couldn't help but feel betrayed. He'd seen Kakashi's coldness directed towards their enemies before, but had never imagined that he would feel it pointed in his own direction. And his father…

The Rasenshuriken withered and died, just as the final hope shriveled in his heart. He hadn't realized that his teacher's hand had been the only thing keeping him standing; as soon as it was gone, Naruto fell forward, almost hitting the ground before he felt a pair of arms roughly pulling him up. As though he was in a thick fog, he felt his former teacher toss him on his back. It was warm – possibly the only warm thing left in his immediate vicinity. Strange, that, for he was certain that the man carrying him wanted nothing more than to kill him in cold blood; even with his senses weakened, he couldn't miss Kakashi's malicious killing intent.

They followed Gamabunta's erratic leaps through the air. Through his haze of agony, Naruto could only feel Kakashi's strong arms supporting his legs. Without that grip, he would have fallen. At blinding speed, they reached the Kyuubi, landing on the rooftop of a broken building just below its stomach. The great beast looked down in that moment, narrowing its enormous, red, eyes. It opened its mouth and roared, sending a powerful blast of wind and chakra flying their way. He didn't have the strength to try and brace himself against it; Kakashi was caught off guard and nearly let him slip but recovered quickly.

Gamabunta leapt forward and shot a bullet of oil in the monster's face. It might as well have been a pellet, for all the good it did. Though, in comparison to a human man, the bullet was as large as tidal wave, when the attack hit the fox, it was only large enough to blind it in one eye. The monster howled in pain and fury, opening its great maw and spitting out flames. Several blurred shapes flew in front of the Hokage, shielding him with barriers of chakra.

At the Hokage's signal, Kakashi sprang forward and deposited Naruto on the ground. He saw his father's hands moving through complex seals at blinding speed. The chakra around him was spiking, building, and writhing in preparation for the coming technique. Then, a horrible pain. The Yondaime's hand slammed down against his chest – right on his solax plexus – and his world was filled with flame.

A large, hulking mass of black shadow emerged behind his father's back. It was a faceless demon wearing a white mask. With eerie howling, it reached forward and wrapped white, ghostly, arms around the fox's body. A flowing kimono was wrapped around the figure's shape; the sleeves were long and billowed outward. Just for a split second, the hem of one sleeve brushed against Naruto's cheek. The place that it touched turned deathly cold; his heart seemed to shiver with unspoken trepidation. This thing was death – he knew it as surely as he knew its purpose. He heard the Kyuubi growling and hissing as its chakra was forced into Naruto's human body. It was useless. Nothing could resist those arms or that blood-chilling howling; not even the Nine Tails could stand up to death when it was so intimately wrapped around its body. Slowly, the previously indestructible body of fox began to dissolve into transparent chakra.

The energy seemed to fill every one of his blood vessels; it spread like wildfire through his veins and muscles, through his pores and his skin. The feeling was one similar to falling from a great height, only instead of fear, one could only feel pure ecstasy. He saw Kakashi's face above him. Through the transferring vision of the Nine Tails, it seemed so much whiter and more defined. He tried to recall if he'd ever seen his teacher in this sort of light, but couldn't recall any memories beyond the past few hours. His mind was still trying to break past the knowledge that his father was about to give up his life for the safety of Konoha and couldn't help but ask – was the village worth the sacrifice?

Was Konoha worthy of living on at the cost of his father's life? At the cost of his own life? He knew without doubt that, despite the change in the villagers' attitudes in the past few years, he could never be accepted as a true part of the whole. He would always be an outcast, and if he did manage to survive this merge – again – then he would be just as shunned as he had always been. Could he live through that again? Could he bear to be rejected after he'd spilled so much of his own blood towards the cause of acceptance?

He wasn't sure any more…

Now that he was watching his father's courageous act with his own eyes, he really wasn't sure…

But, soon, those thoughts were stolen from him too. The amount of rushing chakra in his ears tuned out everything. The feeling was all too familiar. It was the same sort of sensation that he experienced when the Kyuubi's chakra leaked from the seal. For the past several years, in his training, he had pushed himself beyond his limits and had nearly lost his sanity too often.

But this time, something was different.

There was too much energy – so much that he felt he might drown in it. Normally, the Nine Tails chakra hurt him when he used it, but this chakra was on the verge of tearing him apart. When he focused his vision on the rushing tide of power, he saw it was almost black. In his research, he had learned that the tailed beasts – particularly the Kyuubi – were split into two halves of chakra – a positive and negative half. He'd assumed that his father had only sealed away the positive half in him in the past…

But not now…

Realization hit him cold and hard. He looked at the older man before him with eyes no longer clouded with innocence. This was real; this was happening; this man truly distrusted him and wanted him dead. If he managed to seal the black chakra inside him, Naruto's body would be torn to shreds.

"Father…why?"

The man before him wavered. His skin was turning grey, his brilliant, blue eyes fading to a dull azure. Yet, still, those tired eyes were filled with hatred. Even as his life was leaving him, he had enough resolve to feel that.

"You are an imposter," he replied with hard finality.

This time, the pain of his injuries and the boiling chakra in his veins seemed to be completely insignificant. This time, he understood that all the pain he had ever felt up until this moment had meant nothing. There could be no worse agony than the torment of being rejected by your own kin.

The words were hot coals in his throat.

The ground stopped shaking; the howling ceased. He watched, horrified, as his father fell forward, his face drained of life, his lips already turning grey. The howling god of death faded into nothingness. Naruto's chest pulsed with heat. In less time than it took to blink, Kakashi was at the Hokage's side, his eyes filled with more emotion than Naruto had ever seen.

"Hokage-sama!" he shouted desperately.

No…not like this…Desperate, Naruto forced his uncooperative body to roll over. What had he done to deserve this – to meet his father only to watch him be torn away? Better that he'd died in the hands of Akatsuki than face this sorrow…

"Tell me what to do, Sensei…" he heard Kakashi murmur. "What should I do?" All the ANBU formality that had been wrapped around the man like an impenetrable cloak fell away. He gripped the man's hand as if it was a lifeline; it was trembling.

"Don't let…" already, his father's voice was fading. Kakashi leaned in closer. "Don't let the Council take him…" He whispered it, but Naruto heard him clearly.

"Father…" the boy called out weakly. The Hokage turned his head and glared. As he watched helplessly, the man's pupils widened. It was pivotal, seeing the light of life leaving his eyes.

"My son is dead…" he responded with his last breath. His body went limp. He died just like that, looking not at him, but through him. Naruto closed his eyes and felt all strength and will to fight completely disappear.

If this was a twisted nightmare, he would awaken from it shaken and badly scarred.

If this was truly happening, then there was no longer any need to resist or to think of the future. If he lived through this ordeal, there would be no future to think of. There wouldn't be a single soul that would acknowledge him; there wasn't enough resolve left in him to try and force anyone to feel otherwise. Out of all the people that had ever ostracized him, his father's rejection hurt the most. After sixteen years of climbing, he'd slipped and fallen just as he was about to reach the peak of his journey. He'd gone from a point of near success to a point of guaranteed failure. Although he shouldn't have seen anything but the back of his eyelids, he could still clearly see his father's blank eyes - frozen in denial of his son.

Denial - he should have been used to it. He'd lived almost his entire life battling the denial of his very existence.

Yet, he still quaked inwardly at the thought of having to see another person act as if he wasn't there...

I'm a ghost…

There is no purpose to my life…

And with that thought, he spiraled into stillness.

...

...

What did you think?

Again, I'm sorry for any typos. I will fix them as soon as I find them :)

I kept reworking this chapter and changing things over and over again.

I'm not really satisfied with it, but who ever is with their work?

Drop me a line and share your thoughts :)

Hope to hear from you soon!

(*Quote by Pablo Picaso)