"Dead Maelstrom"
Chapter 7: "Harsh Tide"
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and VIZ Media. Deadpool and the larger X-Men Universe belong to Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, and 20th Century Fox. I have no position among any of the above that would allow me creative control or ownership of either property and I make no money from this story. I'm only doing this for fun.
Author's note: Sorry it's taken me so long to come out with this chapter; I've been busy with other story ideas, as you can see. Right now, though, I'm ready to kick this story back into gear. Hope you guys can forgive me, and hope I've earned that forgiveness with this chapter. Now, let's rock!
The first thing Shirasen saw when he awoke from his night of intense training was a very beautiful girl, with porcelain skin, long black hair, and soulful brown eyes. The girl wore a pink kimono and a black choker around her neck, and carried a basket full of herbs. Shirasen smiled up at her, almost unaware that he was still wearing his mask.
"Am I in heaven?"
"No, you're still very much alive," the girl replied, in a gentle, melodious voice that soothed his heart.
"Blasted fox isn't gonna let me die yet," Shirasen mumbled to himself.
"What brings you out here?" the girl asked.
"Training," Shirasen replied. "You?"
"Someone close to me was injured recently," the girl explained. "I'm picking these herbs to help him recuperate."
"That's cool," Shirasen said.
"What are you training for?" the girl asked.
"So that even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, because I'll be the evilest thing in that valley," Shirasen answered.
"Why do you wish to become the evilest one dwelling in this valley of which you speak?" the girl inquired.
"Because the evilest one is usually the strongest one," Shirasen replied. "And I'm going to be the strongest."
"Do you desire strength for yourself, or for someone else's sake?" the girl wondered.
That question made Shirasen think, back to when he'd been no more than 11 years old and had his first encounter with true depravity. It had been during an X-Factor investigation into the violent murders of several residents of the district known colloquially as "Mutant Town." X-Factor had found out who was behind the murders, all right . . . and Naruto had stowed away just for thrills.
X-Factor, alongside the X-Men's covert strike team and Wolverine's longtime foe the Silver Samurai, battled the Reavers . . . and were losing badly. The Reavers the X-Men knew had been thugs who'd upgraded themselves with cybernetics. The Reavers they were fighting now were even worse; they were religious fanatics who'd splintered from the Purifiers and upgraded themselves with Sentinel implants. Believing that God was on their side, they fought the mutants with a fervor that was positively monstrous.
That was what Naruto was witnessing. He was seeing his friends . . . his teachers . . . his family . . . fall one by one to the Reavers' mad assaults. And what was he doing while the family that had taken him in was being thrashed by the Reavers? Hiding. Hiding like some scared little kid. Technically, he was a scared little kid, but that didn't make it any better.
One of the Reavers, a woman with extendable metal blades for fingernails named Lady Deathstrike, stalked toward Wolverine, ready to finish him off. Another of the Reavers, a blonde with sword blades extending from her cybernetic arms, was about to cut Siryn's head off. Seeing these horrible things about to happen to two of the people he loved most, it was a little understandable that young Naruto just snapped.
With a bloodcurdling roar and blood-red chakra lashing out all around, Naruto charged the blonde Reaver and snapped her blades off her arms. Nothing but pure fury – and the burning chakra of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox – driving him, Naruto beat and slashed her viciously until she was felled by the sheer ferocity of his assault.
"What the hell?! Somebody, kill that little freak!" one of the Reavers shouted.
No such luck; Naruto's reflexes were so fast that he was easily evading their assaults . . . and even seemed to be able to counter them before they happened. One particularly unlucky Reaver had his arms sliced off by chopping strikes from Naruto, as though his hands were obscenely sharp blades.
"Damn," Gambit remarked. "Petit homme's gone berserk."
"Man . . ." Madrox groaned. "Quicksilver, stop him before he kills one of them!"
"Forget 'one,'" Wolverine commented. "Try 'all.'"
By this point, the Reavers had come to understand that they were severely outmatched. Their Sentinel technology allowed them to understand and interpret mutant signatures in ways that enabled them to react faster and more appropriately to mutant powers. Unfortunately that technology did not prepare them for the kind of power being exhibited here, and the confusing thing was that it was reading multiple mutant signatures from that one kid.
Lady Deathstrike glared at Naruto and moved to slice him to ribbons with her finger claws. Unfortunately for her, Naruto grabbed her wrist and squeezed viciously, the claws he had somehow grown piercing her skin. The cyborg assassin locked eyes with Naruto . . . and saw hellfire. In fact, that very hellfire was scalding her skin, peeling it away slowly and excruciatingly, and it didn't take long for her to see that the hellfire was an aura surrounding the boy's body.
"What are you?!" she yelled. "What in the hell are you?!"
Naruto merely smiled viciously, and threw her to the other Reavers, then prowled toward her, ready to finish her off. "Retreat!" Lady Deathstrike yelled. "RETREAT!"
Quicksilver transplanted himself between Naruto and the Reavers. "That's enough, kiddo. They're beaten!"
Naruto snarled and punched Quicksilver aside before charging the fleeing Reavers. He suddenly froze in place, restrained by Psylocke's telekinetic grip. He resisted, though, almost like a man stubbornly trudging through snow with a heavy weight on his back.
"Naruto, stop!" Siryn yelled. "Stop!"
Naruto panted heavily, the infernal rage inside him demanding blood, but something in Siryn's voice had gotten through to him. Then he felt strong arms wrapping around him tightly, holding him in place yet somehow comforting. "Ototo-chan," a gentle voice whispered. "You can stop now. Stop for me, ok, Naruto-kun?"
"Nee . . . sama . . ." Naruto growled, his voice strained but losing its demonic edge. The hellish crimson aura faded out and his eyes shifted back to their usual blue, while his claws shortened back into ordinary fingernails. He collapsed against Monet, his head resting on her chest.
"Naruto . . ." Monet murmured, stroking his spiky locks. "What happened to you?"
That was a day Shirasen would never forget, and in remembering it, he knew how to answer the girl's question. "It's not just for me. If I become the strongest, I can protect everyone I love from the people that would hurt them just for being what they are. I can protect the people that are dear to me from the people that would make them suffer because of something they can't change."
"That is the true purpose of strength," the girl remarked. "It's not to lord over others, but to protect them, to shield them from whatever may seek to harm them. You truly become strong, when you have someone to fight for."
Shirasen smiled beneath his mask. "Do you have someone you care about?"
"Yes," the girl replied. "I care about him a great deal. I would do anything for him."
"He's lucky, to have someone like you," Shirasen remarked.
"I must be getting back," the girl said, looking up at the sky. She stood up and turned to walk away, which happened to give Shirasen a chance to cast an appreciative gaze at her backside. "You do not have to worry. Your dream of becoming strong enough to protect those you love will come true."
"Thanks," he said.
While she was still within hearing range, the girl spoke six words that really threw Shirasen for a loop: "By the way, I'm a boy."
What the HELL?! Shirasen thought, watching "her" walk away from him just as he spotted Sasuke walking toward him. Aloud but quietly, "No way in hell does a boy have an ass that fine."
Just as Shirasen was musing on the impossibility of the "girl" he'd just been talking to actually being a boy, Sasuke had caught up with him. "Hey. Kakashi sent me to grab you for breakfast."
"What, were you worried?" Shirasen mocked.
"No," Sasuke replied. "Sakura was, though."
"And I care why, exactly?" Shirasen mocked.
"You're the one constantly trying to get in her dress," Sasuke replied. "You explain why you care."
"Whatever," Shirasen grumbled. "Let's just get back already."
Sasuke scoffed. "Whatever."
When the two boys got home, Sakura asked Shirasen, "Where were you?"
"And you care why?" Shirasen asked.
"Shirasen, you idiot!" Sakura yelled. "If anything happened to you, I – oh, just forget it, you jerk!"
"What did I do?" Shirasen wondered. "And what's her damage, anyway?"
"How did your training go?" Kakashi asked.
"Fine, Kaka-baka," Shirasen replied. "Listen, you're an experienced man, so I feel comfortable asking you this. Is it possible for a trap to be that damn good-looking that you can't tell it's a trap and even if you can, you just might not care?"
"Possible, but very rare," Kakashi answered. "Honestly, you only get that sort of thing in shojo manga."
"Thanks, that's all I needed to know!" Shirasen said.
As this conversation was going on, Inari was sulking. "What's the point? Gato's just gonna kill the lot of you, anyway, along with everyone else who gets in his way."
"You talk like you're beaten already, you will be beaten," Shirasen responded. "That's what Cable-sensei used to say to me. It's all a state of mind."
"State of mind, nothing!" Inari yelled. "It's not some nightmare that you'll be beaten, it's reality! The strong survive, and the weak lose!"
"Another thing Cable-sensei said to me once, 'The strong are strong so that they may protect those that are not strong. Once the strong use their strength to dominate and oppress, they are no longer strong, merely bullies that think they are strong because they have greater power,'" Shirasen went on.
"Your 'Cable-sensei' was wrong!" Inari insisted. "That's not how the world works! But you don't know a damned thing about that, do you?! I bet you've never experienced real suffering before!"
At that, Shirasen drew both kodachi and darted behind Inari, holding one blade to the side of Inari's neck and the other dangerously close to his kidney. "That's rich, kid," he commented, all humor gone from his voice. "Really rich. I've never experienced real suffering before? At least you have your mother and grandfather. I never knew any of my real family. I've spent my entire early childhood without that kind of fortune, and being spat on by virtually everyone in my village because of what I am didn't do jack to help.
"And you know what? That's paradise compared to what they did to the friends I made in the other place. I was lucky to never know my parents. My friends' parents couldn't bear the sight of them after they found out what they were, and they either threw them out of their lives or outright tried to kill them. There are organized lynch mobs out there in that place that would try to kill my friends just because of what they are, and you're talking to me about not knowing real suffering?"
"Naruto, that's enough!" Sakura yelled.
"Even I have to agree," Kakashi said. "I make a lot of allowances for you, Naruto, given your skill and experience, but threatening a child is beyond the pale."
"He needs to understand," Shirasen retorted grimly.
"Well, you're not going to make him understand by pointing a sword at him," Kakashi replied.
Shirasen withdrew his kodachi from Inari and sheathed them again before leaving. "Whatever. I've made my point. Later." In a flash, he was gone, leaving Inari, Tsunami, Tazuna, Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi with stunned looks.
"What kind of maniac is that?!" Tazuna exploded.
"Our maniac, whether we like it or not," Kakashi answered coolly as Inari fled to his room and Tsunami followed to try to calm him down. "Now, mind explaining why Inari's such a cynic for his age?"
"It's his father," Tazuna began. "Not his father by blood, but he was a man Inari admired and looked up to. That man, Kaiza, was a hero in this country, a protector of the weak and downtrodden. When Gato took over, he decided to make his authority known by executing Kaiza for daring to stand against him. That broke this country's spirit, and he's had near-total free reign ever since."
"It didn't just break this country's spirit . . . it also broke Inari's heart, didn't it?" Kakashi mused aloud.
"Yes," Tazuna confirmed heavily. "He was never the same after that."
Meanwhile, Shirasen was blowing off some steam by beating the crap out of some bandits. Gato's hoods, no doubt, the red-clad swordfighter remarked as he dodged their assaults and retaliated with severed limbs. Kicking aside the last of the bandits, Shirasen turned away and to the young girl they'd been hassling. "You won't have to worry about them for now." He pulled a silver kunai off his thigh and tossed it to her. "Hold on to this. You'll probably need it in the future."
He dashed away, seemingly there one second and gone the next. One of the bandits, who'd been lucky enough to keep both arms, groaned. "We gotta tell Gato."
When the bandits came to Gato and told him what had happened, Gato glared at Zabuza and his young partner. "I want you to finish off that punk kid. But make sure his corpse is intact so I can mount it up in the town square and show those fools what happens to people who oppose me!"
"Yeah," Zabuza grunted. "We'll do that."
Shirasen had stayed out all night blowing off steam, to the point that by the time he was on his way back to Tazuna's place, the rest of the team had gone off with Tazuna to guard him while he completed the bridge. While he was on his way and ready to make whatever apologies he had to, he noticed some bandits running in the opposite direction of the house . . . and one of them was carrying a woman over his shoulder.
Aw, damn, he thought. I'd recognize that ass anywhere. Tsunami! Hang on, babe, I'm coming!
As Shirasen pursued the bandits that were running off with Tsunami, he spotted Inari chasing them as well. So they finally dropped, huh, kid? Good for you.
"Let go of my mother!" Inari yelled, charging the bandits with courage born of sheer rage at what they intended to do to his mother. One of the bandits turned to face the kid and drew a sword, ready to cut him down.
"You're brave, kiddo, but that's not gonna save you."
"But I will!" Shirasen shouted, jumping out of his hiding place and delivering a brutal scissor kick to the two bandits. With an agile twist of his body, he moved to catch Tsunami and landed safely with her in his arms. "Hey there, gorgeous. Fancy seeing you here." He turned to Inari. "Thanks for the assist, kid. Couldn't have taken them down without you."
"You're . . . you're welcome," Inari stammered out.
Gently helping Tsunami to her feet, Shirasen drew his kodachi again, sensing the bandits getting up to attack. With extremely fast swings of his swords, Shirasen cut down the two bandits and turned back to Inari and Tsunami. "Take care of your mother, kid. She's a keeper." He ran at full speed toward the bridge, figuring that Zabuza and that fake hunter ninja would be giving his team some trouble.
Indeed, the two rogue ninja were giving Team 7 trouble. Kakashi and Zabuza were fighting it out, and Zabuza was doing much better than he had the last time, presumably because he'd figured out Kakashi's tricks. As for the fake hunter, he had Sasuke trapped in a dome of ice-formed mirrors that he was using to attack Sasuke again and again from all possible angles at once. As for Sakura, she was guarding Tazuna, although she did throw a kunai at one of the mirrors the fake hunter was using to attack Sasuke.
Unfortunately for her, the fake hunter caught the kunai, and didn't seem all that concerned. At least, he wasn't so concerned until Shirasen streaked by and slashed him while passing. The fake hunter was surprisingly fast, though, and managed to use his mask as an impromptu shield of sorts.
"What's cracking, little bitches?!" Shirasen asked.
"You know . . . you could have stayed quiet," Kakashi groaned. "You'd have done a lot more good that way."
"Not as much fun, Kaka-baka," Shirasen answered. "Now, just stay back and let me take care of Zabuza. Like I was going to before that fake hunter bitch stole my kill!"
"No, Shirasen," Kakashi contradicted, "help Sasuke. He needs it more than I do."
Shirasen smiled underneath his mask. "Well, I can at least pay back that little punk for stealing my kill." He rushed the dome of mirrors and jumped up to deliver a flying kick to one of the mirrors. To his surprise, he ricocheted off, but flipped over to the other side and drew his kodachi, swinging at the mirrors with them. While he managed to cut deeply into the mirrors, he didn't quite break them. "Damn it! What does it take to make these things break?!"
Then he got an idea, an idea that made him dash into the dome of mirrors and start slashing at them from the inside. This made the fake hunter react, namely in the form of a barrage of needles from every mirror. Shirasen blocked as many as he could with his swords, but even with his speed he couldn't deflect all of them. Fortunately, he had certain other things that could deflect them.
"Shirasen, what are you doing?!" Sasuke asked.
"Saving your ungrateful ass!" Shirasen replied.
"I don't need you to save me!" Sasuke yelled.
"Well, you sure looked like you needed me!" Shirasen shouted back.
Just then, the fake hunter assaulted both boys with a barrage of needles thrown from every mirror surrounding them. "Crap! How the hell is he doing this?!" Shirasen asked.
"Look in every mirror as hard as you want," the fake hunter replied. "You will never discover the secret."
"Yeah?!" Shirasen retorted. Throwing himself into hyper-speed overdrive, Shirasen attacked every mirror within range, forcing the fake hunter to come out and counter him. To his surprise, Shirasen was moving almost as fast as he could via the mirrors, and managed to kick him in the stomach. The fake hunter twisted in midair and fell back into one of the mirrors before Sasuke's fireball could get him.
"So close," Sasuke muttered.
"I think I know how he's doing this," Shirasen said.
"How?" Sasuke asked.
"The same way I do it," Shirasen replied. "Those mirrors create distortions in time and space that allow him to move faster than we can react to. Well, faster than you can react to, anyway."
Sasuke bit back an angry growl. "Just tell me how we beat this guy!"
"You can't beat me," the fake hunter answered stoically.
"And what the hell is the deal with you, anyway?" Shirasen asked the fake hunter. "Masquerading as a hunter ninja just to save a scumbag like Zabuza! Well, you can forget it! I have too much to do to let you kill me!"
"I do not desire your deaths," the fake hunter replied calmly, yet with a hint of sadness. "They are merely a means to an end, and that end is the protection of someone precious to me. I live for him, I fight for him, and I would gladly die so that his dreams may become reality. Now, in this place, in this time, our dreams will collide . . . and if I must, I will harden my heart, kill the kindness in me, and end your lives."
"Bring it!" Shirasen challenged.
The battle raged on, Shirasen and Sasuke attempting to keep up with the fake hunter despite the insane speed of movement granted by his technique. While Shirasen and Sasuke seemed like they were at a disadvantage, Sasuke was getting better and better at seeing the fake hunter's moves. Not to mention that Shirasen was having an easier time actually keeping up with the fake hunter.
Let's see if this works . . . Shirasen thought, and swung once again with his kodachi. The fake hunter managed to dodge the swords, but sharpened tendrils of chakra extended from each blade and sliced apart a mirror. "Yes!"
The fake hunter looked surprised, if his body language was anything to go by. Shirasen smirked underneath his mask and swung again, only to be blocked by the fake hunter's needle. "You're better than I thought you would be," he remarked.
"Thanks," Shirasen remarked, just as he swung with his other blade. The fake hunter dodged . . . right into a fireball from Sasuke, which he barely managed to evade. It did scorch a leg of his hakama, and his ankle. Slowed by the injury, the fake hunter was still able to dodge Sasuke's subsequent kunai assault. This merely left him open to a sweeping kick from Shirasen.
The fake hunter attempted to escape into a mirror, only for Shirasen to dart ahead of him and cut apart that mirror as well. In response, the fake hunter jumped into the air and back-flipped into a higher mirror. He reverted to the needle barrage that had formed much of his strategy, realizing he was safer in the mirrors than he was actually fighting Shirasen and Sasuke close-up.
Shirasen and Sasuke dodged and deflected the needle barrage with their swords and kunai, and Shirasen cut apart another Ice Mirror, slowly destroying the fake hunter's refuge. "Now to really finish things off!" Shirasen shouted, and sheathed his swords, then pounded his fist into his open hand, creating 12 clones. "You know what to do."
"Yeah, boss," another Shirasen answered.
The baker's dozen of Shirasen went into a flurry of crimson, slashing at the mirrors and confronting the fake hunter, who used his instant transport ability to attack them. One Shirasen managed to kick the fake hunter in the stomach, while another managed to elbow him in the chin.
At the same time, Sasuke was watching for his moment to strike, and when he saw his chance, he took it, unleashing a massive fireball that the small army of Shirasen managed to dodge by merging back together. The fake hunter was able to outrun the fireball, but not without a scorched sleeve and a burn wound on his arm. Realizing he'd allowed things to go too far, the fake hunter was ready to end the fight now.
To that end, he aimed such a heavy rain of needles at Shirasen that he was sure that even this red menace wouldn't be able to dodge them all. He didn't have to, though, because Sasuke had shoved Shirasen out of the way and taken most of the needles himself.
"What the hell was that for?!" an outraged Shirasen asked. "I could have dodged those!"
"Y-yeah . . . sure . . ." Sasuke choked out sarcastically. "You're not that good."
"How do you know?!" Shirasen retorted. "I kicked your ass before, man! You think I needed you to save me!?"
"Just . . . shut up . . ." Sasuke choked out, collapsing to the ground as Shirasen caught him.
"Aw, damn . . ." Shirasen murmured. "Bitch made you a goddamn pincushion."
"You never . . . stop talking . . . do you?" Sasuke groaned painfully.
"Yeah, well, I'm trying to keep you from going into the light," Shirasen retorted. "You hear me? Don't go into the light, damn it! The light is not your friend! The light is death! Don't go into the light!"
Sasuke wasn't talking very much, just staring up at Shirasen like it was so much effort for him to even breathe, let alone talk. "Shirasen, I want you to make me a promise."
"What, man? You're talking like you're gonna die, and I know you're not gonna die! You hear me! You're not dying here!"
"You can't . . . will me to live . . ."
"Well, you're going to live whether you like it or not! Damn it, Sasuke, hang in there!"
"Promise me . . . Naruto . . . that you'll find my brother . . . and that you'll kill him."
"Kill your brother? Why?"
"Because . . . I won't be living long enough to face him . . . and he's the one . . . I swore to kill . . ."
"Why?!"
"It was my dream . . . my ambition . . . and you . . . don't let your dream die . . . Naru . . . to . . ."
And Sasuke spoke no more.
"Sasuke! Sasuke! You son of a bitch! Wake up! Wake up, damn you! You don't get to die here, do you understand?! You don't get to die here! Son of a bitch!"
The fake hunter looked on from the mirrors, seeming almost sad for Shirasen. "Is this your first time seeing someone you loved die?"
Shirasen glared at him. "Shut the hell up! Don't talk to me like you're my friend!" The rage boiled up inside him, like the flames of hell surging to grasp his heart and boil his blood. "You're dead!"
A hellfire-coated Shirasen charged the mirrors, a blur of berserker fury that smashed mirror after mirror despite the best efforts of the fake hunter to deflect his assault. The fake hunter jumped out of one of his remaining mirrors, and attacked Shirasen directly, only for Shirasen to brutally punch him right in his masked face. An extra pulse of kinetic force sent him flying through a mirror and out of the incomplete dome.
The fake hunter tumbled on the ground, struggling to his feet as Shirasen charged, ready to finish him off. Shirasen only stopped when the fake hunter's mask fell apart completely, revealing his face, a face Shirasen recognized all too well. It was the girl he'd been talking to only yesterday, the girl he felt he'd connected with so well that day . . .
. . . And "she" was the one who'd killed Sasuke Uchiha.
Shirasen stopped mid-charge, one sword at the unmasked hunter's throat and the other pressing against his-her kidney. "You. Why?"
End Notes: Well, now's a good point to end this chapter. Sasuke is dead – or so we think. The identity of Zabuza's partner has been exposed to Shirasen, and now Shirasen has a dilemma on his hands. Does he kill him-her? Or does someone else take the decision out of his hands? Will the story of the bridge have a happy ending for anyone? Just what happened in that fateful battle with the Reavers to make Naruto what he is today, and will it have any impact on the choice he makes next chapter? For the answers to those questions, you'll have to hang on for the next chapter, which will come sooner than this chapter did. Enjoy.
