Bright Orange
Chapter 07: Breathe
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Naruto's bedroom was dark, the lights turned out for the night, with dusty moonlight streaming into the room through the windows. The light illuminated the wilting little line of plants that sat on the sill that I kept forgetting to water. I felt vaguely guilty about that.
I sat on my bed, my tools laid out before me. There was the brace of ten kunai that I had found in Naruto's closet, as well as my sword. A small container had been filled with ground down pepper for throwing in people's faces, and I had a total of three shuriken. That was essentially the end of the weapons that I had been able to scrounge up, though I had also gone ahead and purchased a few feet of rope, just in case.
Some part of me had hoped that maybe Mizuki would supply me with some more tools in an attempt to help maximize my chances of stealing the Scroll, but the only thing he had given me was a slip of paper detailing the guard changes and where to find the Scroll. I supposed he wouldn't want to give me anything to use against him in the event I decided to betray him.
He didn't know that I already had decided to do just that, but that was besides the point. Sneeze powder, some rope, and some pointy things that I barely knew how to use were all I had to use against Mizuki if I couldn't learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu in time.
My heartrate refused to pick up, seemingly exhausted from the first couple of hours of overthinking my situation. A numbness had fallen over me, and there was static in my ears. I hadn't moved in well over an hour, just staring at my tools and thinking.
What if…?
What if…?
Finally, my body unfolded and brought me into the kitchen, which was just as dark as the bedroom. I stumbled around a bit until I found what I was looking for- a scroll that was blank save for some hasty, sloppy basic kanji on it. I assumed that Naruto had used it to practice back when he was first learning his kanji, but had gotten bored, and so most of it was blank.
I carried it back to the bedroom and grabbed a pen on the way.
In the event of my death, let this be the last will and testament of Naruto Namikaze.
Yes, I know who my father is. I know many things that are true regardless of the whether you believe me or not. For instance, I know that Kushina was the second jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails, and Mito was the first. Sarutobi, my mother gave you a scarf that she knitted for me before she died. Let these truths prove the truth in what I am about to say. I beg you, whoever finds this scroll, heed my advice.
If I die, The Nine-Tailed Fox will eventually reform. Do not attack him. His name is Kurama, and at the moment his hatred of humanity is absolute. I am unsure of how long this reformation will take, but the longer it takes the better. The group of S-ranked ninjas known as Akatsuki is seeking him, and if they get him, then all is lost.
If you are unable to stop them and they start coming after Kurama, it means that the other eight Tailed Beasts have been sealed by the Akatsuki. In which case, follow these directions: Go to the Uzumaki Mask Shrine. I am unsure of where it is, but somewhere in its collection is a mask that will allow you to free a spirit from the stomach of the Shinigami. Put it on and free the spirit of Minato Namikaze. Then, and this is important whether or not you consider it ethical, use the Impure World Resurrection technique to reanimate him. Within him is a version of Kurama that will work in cooperation with Minato. He is your best bet of defeating the Akatsuki. Be brutal and swift, because if you do not eliminate the Akatsuki then the world is lost.
At the soonest opportunity, eliminate the creature known as Zetsu. If the black half survives, the chances that the world will end is nearly 100%, even if you succeed in killing all the rest of the Akatsuki. If you are not absolutely certain that Black Zetsu is dead, then keep searching for him.
The one behind Akatsuki is Pain, aka Nagato, a former student of Jiraiya. DO NOT send Jiraiya to face him unless he is in Sage Mode and willing to kill both Nagato and Konan. His Six Paths are strong, but his real body is frail. If you kill him, destroy the Rinnegan he possesses.
The one behind Pain is Obito Uchiha aka Tobi, who is convinced this world would be better off stuck in a perpetual illusion. The best person to go against him is Kakashi Hatake, as they share the same ability, Kamui, with access to the same pocket dimension.
The one behind Obito Uchiha is Madara Uchiha. He is capable of taking on all of the shinobi in the world all at once. If given the opportunity, Obito will use the Impure World Resurrection to bring him back, and there are very few who can defeat him.
That plan to use the Impure World Resurrection had occurred to me during my first few days of in this world. The only thing that kept me from carrying it out myself was not knowing the Impure World Resurrection and the fact that I couldn't remember whether putting on the Shinigami Mask would kill its user. Still, it might prove useful in the future, whether or not I was around to see it.
I paused, pen hovering over the paper. A drop of ink fell onto the blank space and began to slowly dry. If I died and Kayuga was still reborn it would be too late to do anything. Only Naruto and Sasuke, blessed with the Sage's chakra, had been able to beat her in canon, so there wasn't much point in telling anyone about her. I couldn't even remember if she had any obvious weaknesses. That took care of most of the important things, like the end of the world. What else was there? What else was important?
Slowly, the pen lowered again.
Sasuke Uchiha, know that your life will be full of pain and confusion no matter what you do. Nothing is as it seems, but once you learn the truth just know that giving into anger will be the worst mistake of your entire life. If Orochimaru ever approaches you, do not go with him. The power he offers is not the kind of power that will allow you to kill Itachi. It will kill you instead. Find loved ones and cherish them. Remember that you are the last light of the Uchiha clan, and if you become consumed by revenge, then the Uchiha will truly die.
I leaned back and surveyed the words. I couldn't include the truth of Itachi's actions, nor that the Leaf had told him to do it, as whoever found the scroll would never let him see it. Technically, if Sasuke went with Orochimaru then he would gain the power to kill Itachi, but if I was dead then I wouldn't be around to feel bad about lying. It would be far more important for Sasuke to remain loyal to the Leaf Village, whatever the cost. Without a Naruto to bring him back from the brink, Sasuke would go full psychopath, and if he still ended up receiving the Sage's chakra even without me, then no one would be able to stand up to him.
Letting the ink dry, I slowly began to pack up my tools. The scroll was written in English, so that it would take whoever found it time to decrypt it. After all, once I stole the Scroll, doubtless someone would search my apartment and find it. If I survived and was questioned about it, I could simply say it was my diary or some such, and say I wrote it in a code I'd made up, then ask for it back.
I looked over at my alarm clock, visible only thanks to my night vision and the faint traces of moonlight in the room. It was time to go.
My body wouldn't move.
My fingers twitched, then fell immovable again.
I took a deep breath in, and slowly let it out, letting my eyes roam over the apartment that technically belonged to me. Breathing and seeing. Two things that were so consistent in both of my lives, yet in just a few short hours, I might not be able to do either if Mizuki had his way.
…Well, it was too late now. I needed to get going or I wouldn't be able to steal the Scroll. Wouldn't be able to put any of my plans into action.
Wouldn't be able to save the world.
I took a deep breath in…
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….and slowly let it out. The Hokage Tower loomed in the distance, dim and foreboding. I was sure that other parts of the village were active at this time of night, but this wasn't one of them, and the streets lay quiet and dark.
Well, not exactly quiet. There were quite a few bugs out at night, and their chittering and skittering that was so easy to overlook during the day filled the hollow spaces of the night. I felt oddly put at ease by their noise for some reason that couldn't be limited to the purely pragmatic effect of my footsteps not being as easy to hear.
From what Mizuki had written, security on the Hokage Tower at night was not very high. There were two ninja that rotated every thirty minutes on the outside of the building, and there was another set of guards on every third floor. Given that there was only a total of six floors and I only needed to get to the second, I only needed to get past the first set and it would be smooth sailing.
I supposed the lack of serious security made sense. Every Naruto fan's first exposure to the place was knowing that it was where the Hokage kept the Scroll of Sealing, but that wasn't exactly widely known here in the Naruto Universe. And even if you did know, who would be crazy enough to break into the building where the Hokage worked and slept?
No one would dare. Not unless they were stupid or desperate.
Luckily for me, I was both.
I could've taken the rooftops like a good ninja. It probably would've been faster, but, even if I was in a much-altered state of mind than usual, I didn't trust myself to not freak out due to the height and fall off a house.
Figures. Even when I had supernatural powers and a primordial demon in my gut, I still wasn't a badass. Maybe Neji was on to something with all that fate talk.
I shook my head in irritation at the negative thoughts plaguing me. They would be of no help to me now.
The area was familiar to me by now. I didn't want to just depend on Mizuki's intel, and so I had scoped out the area slowly over the course of the week. I didn't have a perfect mental map, but I knew where the shadows were deepest and the best vantage points.
My thoughts so consumed me that I nearly took one step too far. My sandaled foot was just peeking out from behind the corner, all of my weight on my back foot. One of the shinobi on guard would barely be ten feet away at the front entrance, and if he was halfway competent then he would've seen it.
Ah, there was the adrenaline.
My balance wavered as I slowly pulled my foot back. I could've jerked it back, but that would've run the risk of throwing me off enough that I fell over, and that certainly would've been loud enough to draw his attention, not to mention the ire of those living in this area. Then again, those affluent to live near enough to the Hokage Tower probably had access to some pretty powerful sleep medication.
Despite my best efforts, the gravel under my feet still crunched as I crouched and pressed myself flush to the building beside me. My fingers fumbled for my pocket, and I slowly withdrew a metal spoon that I had polished to the point of gleaming. Naruto hadn't had any small mirrors in his apartment, and the only ones small enough at the stores I had gone to had been parts of makeup kits, which would've looked odd for me to buy.
The angle was tricky, but eventually I got a stretched little picture of the Hokage Tower entrance, and its sole visible guard. I had to squint but could make out the figure as he leaned against the entrance, arms crossed lazily. I had to hand it to the man, he was perfectly motionless, like a human gargoyle. He was a true shinobi.
….Or he was sleeping.
No, there was no way. Even if security was lax, there was no way the guard would be sleeping. I glanced down at the cheap plastic watch I had picked up. The plan was for me to sneak in through the front door in the brief window when the first guard left and the next came to take his place. I was sure that that went against most military procedures, but I supposed it fit for someplace as relaxed as the Leaf Village.
…Still, there was no way that that guy was sleeping, right?
My breath began to come harder. Every minute that I could buy before Mizuki expected me to act was a minute I could use to master the Shadow Clone Jutsu and get an edge against him.
Should I risk it? Should I risk it? Should I….Should I…..
A sudden rage overcame me that nearly shook my tiny body. Would Naruto have hesitated like this? In that moment, I nearly rushed forward to take the front entrance, throwing consequences to the wind.
No. No, I couldn't do that. I bit my lip a bit too hard, and the hot blood that trickled into my mouth was enough to keep me from rushing forward. I was in uncharted territory here. I had no idea how Naruto had managed to do this in canon, and I still didn't have even half of his abilities. I had to do this like me, not like Naruto.
I let out a shaky breath that seemed far too shallow to be healthy, and my hand moved for my pockets. After a moment of feeling around, my fingers managed to find my shuriken. Naruto wasn't one for ninja tools, and his shuriken were dull enough that they didn't cut my fingers. Still, they had their uses.
Holding the little metal weapon awkwardly, I checked on my spoon mirror and took aim. I backed up and chucked the shuriken with as much strength as I could muster from my crouched position.
Which was apparently, more strength than I had anticipated. The shuriken, clumsily aimed, sliced through the air and slammed into the very door that I wanted to sneak into.
The man that had been narrowly missed by the flying projectile didn't so much as flinch. For a moment, part of me wanted it to simply be because he was so badass that he didn't care about poorly aimed shuriken, but then it became clear that he was actually fucking asleep.
A shinobi. Tasked with guarding scrolls of great importance.
I waited for several more seconds, agonizing over my decision, before slowly inching around the corner and laying eyes on the door to the Hokage Tower. It was a very visible place, with multiple vantage points that allowed one to monitor it, and yet Mizuki's information said that this was one of the only guards.
And he was…Dear lord, I actually had trouble wrapping my mind around it. Glancing at my watch, I darted out from behind the corner, wincing at every step that I took for how loud they seemed. Finally, I reached the doors and laid my hands against the cool wood.
Unlocked. Because of course they were.
I pried my shuriken out of the door and hoped that no one would notice the gouge in the wood before I got out. Then again, given the quality of the ninjas in charge of guarding the Hokage Tower…
Something shuffled behind me, and the adrenaline decided to double its presence in my bloodstream. I nearly ran face first into the door in my effort to open it, and it closed behind me just in time for me to heard an unfamiliar voice, its sound blunted by the wooden door between us.
"Damnit, Ryu, can't you ever stay awake for one shift?" A fond female voice reprimanded. Someone outside shuffled.
"Come off of it, Nosuke. We both know this job doesn't really matter. Even if somebody got past, they'd have to deal with Lord Third." The male voice was foggy with sleep, likely the man outside who had so recently been asleep. I felt a shot of something between smug satisfaction, and disdain for Ryu.
"I don't suppose I could convince you to stay awake out of commitment to doing your job well?" Sarcasm dripped off of Nosuke's voice, thick enough to spread on a slice of bread.
"Hmph. Well, you've been trying for the past few months. If you haven't managed to do it yet, I can't imagine it'll take tonight of all nights."
I rolled my eyes and crept away from the door, deeper into the Hokage Tower. The easy part was over. The two shinobis' banter faded quickly as I located the staircase and moved up, placing each footstep surely before moving up. I didn't want to trip and fall down the staircase, after all. Although, at this point, I wasn't partially convinced that even then I wouldn't be caught.
Finally, after exactly twenty-two steps (I counted), I was on the second floor. According to what I had managed to eavesdrop over the past week, this and the third floor were the Archives. All of the paperwork for the mission undertaken by the Leaf Village. Maybe the whole idea of putting the Scroll of Sealing here was just that there would normally be no one who would search through mounds of paperwork just on the off chance that there might be a powerful Jutsu scroll hidden here?
Yeah, let's go with that. It allowed me to maintain some sort of faith in the Leaf Village. I pulled out the slip of paper that Mizuki had given me, squinting at the contents. What had been the room number again?
The room was just a few doors down, and it was filled with scrolls of all sizes, piled on top of each other haphazardly. I immediately discarded all of the small and medium sized scrolls. I knew the Scroll of Seals was nearly as big as I was, and there were very few of those.
I unrolled one of the giant scrolls, skimmed its contents and threw it aside. Some sort of complicated genjutsu. Effectively useless to me.
The second one was written in tiny, cramped kanji that I could barely dechipher, both for their size and the kanji themselves being too advanced for me. But the third…
The paper unfurled and displayed the kanji that spelled out Shadow Clone Jutsu. This was the Scroll of Sealing.
I swallowed heavily. Part of me was tempted to just sit down and use the Scroll here, but I couldn't risk using chakra in the Tower. I didn't know if one of the guards was a sensor or not, even Mizuki hadn't been able to figure it out.
The Scroll came with a convenient strap, as if designed for transport. I just shrugged, not even surprised at this point, and slung it over my shoulder opposite my sword sheath. The weight was almost too much for me and I staggered to the side. Cursing softly, I stumbled out of the room and made for one of the windows. I didn't want to risk an encounter with any of the guards.
"Going so soon, my boy?" A leathery voice asked softly.
A bar of cold iron was inserted into my spine, and my hands began to shake. "Hel-hello old man." I said, my voice sounding reedy to my ears. Turning slowly, the third Hokage came into view. He stood in front of the staircase leading to the third floor and was dressed in clean linen pajamas. He looked oddly frail without his billowy robes and Hokage's hat.
"You do realize that you won't be able to be a ninja if you leave here with that Scroll, don't you, my boy?" Sarutobi said conversationally, seeming genuinely curious. I was acutely aware of the fact that the old man could likely cross the distance between us before I could even finish blinking.
I licked my lips and gave the man a shaky smile. "He said you would say that." I said vaguely. I could mention Mizuki directly, but once I got away I would need Mizuki free to follow me into the forest, not pursued by the Third Hokage.
Let me correct that: If. If I got away.
The sudden enormity of what I was attempting to do crashed over me. I had forgotten. This confrontation had to have happened in the original Naruto storyline. For someone to have known that Naruto had stolen the Scroll, they would've had to have caught him in the act, because otherwise all they would've had to have gone on was Mizuki's word.
So Naruto had confronted the Third Hokage and gotten away. But how?
Oh fuck.
Fuck.
Fuuuuuuuuuuck.
The Sexy Jutsu! I had completely forgotten about it! That was how Naruto had knocked out the Third Hokage in canon, and I, in my infinite wisdom, had decided to focus on the Substitution Jutsu instead.
The Hokage didn't move as my fingers shakily moved and shaped themselves into a Ram seal. "Who said that I would say that?" He asked blandly. He clearly didn't think I could do anything to injure him.
Well…he was sort of right. I had only managed to pull this off once, after all, and never with this particular application in mind. I licked my lips and gave the man my best smile as I began to let my chakra flood into the world. The tingle of energy overran my skin as my chakra shroud materialized.
"Please…" I whispered. "Please!"
I wasn't sure who I was praying to. I only hoped that they were listening.
The Jutsu took form, and a cloud of smoke overtook my vision. The Transformation Jutsu was hard to describe from the inside. If the form you assumed was too far away from your own, it pinched in a way that was very distracting, and you were simultaneously aware of the film of chakra covering your body.
I did not have the experience that Naruto had with the Sexy Jutsu, and if it came down to it I probably couldn't have pulled off his exact variation of it. Luckily, the base Transformation Jutsu meshed well with imagination, and I had that in spades.
The form solidified, and I probably would've enjoyed having breasts a lot more if I hadn't been in a life or death situation. I wasn't exactly sure what I looked like but given Sarutobi's slack jaw and the trickle of blood dripping onto the floor from his nose, I figured that I must look pretty damn fine.
"You're right, Lord Hokage. I've been very naughty. Would you like to…punish me?" My voice was higher than Naruto's normal tone, but probably much lower than what Naruto's Sexy Jutsu form had used. To really sell it, I cocked my hip to the side and gave him a look.
A little bit too late I remembered that the Sexy Jutsu normally employed discrete bits of smoke to cover highly sensitive areas, smoke that I didn't know how to maintain with chakra. However, it appeared that the old man was not entirely unappreciative.
The Lord Hokage, the man dubbed as the Professor of the Leaf, let out a pathetic groan and blood burst from his nose. He fell bonelessly to the ground in a heap. Well, I considered as I took a closer look, not completely bonelessly. Gross.
I stared at the man for slightly too long. I hadn't planned on it, but this was a prime opportunity to try and steal the old man's crystal ball, which would inhibit his ability to spy on me in the future…But that would take a lot of time, since I wasn't sure where it was located, time better spent learning the Shadow Clone.
Speaking of which, I needed to get a move on.
A shiver went through me, and goosebumps rose my Transformation constructed body. Chakra continued to amaze me. I had better get out of here though. As I moved to the window, I saw my reflection and was momentarily struck dumb before the woman in the woman turned bright red and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
I opened the window and made the leap from the windowsill to the building next door, sticking to the wall with my chakra. The Scroll was very heavy on my back, but even as I made my way down and dashed for the forest, my face was still hot.
Gods above, I was glad that no one from my original world had been around to see what the sexiest woman I could imagine looked like. Talk about humiliating…
However, as the cold wind whipped by me, my embarrassment receded as I got closer and closer to the forest. I had no idea how long I would have before the Hokage would wake up and Mizuki would come for me. And I couldn't count on Iruka coming to save me. At our rendezvous, I had subtly told Mizuki I would prefer it if he kept Iruka away. He probably thought it was because I didn't want to confront the man after I had betrayed the village.
In reality, I just didn't want him to see what I was going to do to his friend.
I took a deep breath…
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…and slowly let it out. I blinked open my eyes and found myself face to face with a short boy with spiky blond hair and blue eyes that were hooded with exhaustion. His fingers were fixed in a cross-like sign, and his elbows were drooping. He had been using up far too much chakra, far too fast.
Curiously enough, I felt fine, even though I only had- I took a moment to check- less than a hundredth of the chakra I was used to having. I guess that was because my tenketsu technically hadn't been subjected to the experience of pumping out several hundred joules of chakra. I also didn't feel any of the fatigue that I remembered feeling mere seconds ago. Or rather, that the other me had been feeling. My Prime, if you will.
I wondered why I didn't feel exactly the same. After all, the Shadow Clone Jutsu was supposed to replicate my Prime down to the smallest detail. Now that I was looking I could spy a small spot of dirt on Prime's pants that was exactly mirrored on my own, even though the fabric and the dirt on me were just chakra, just like the rest of me.
Maybe, since my muscles were really just an accumulation of chakra, they didn't produce fatigue toxins in the same way? Or maybe the lactic acid buildup was simply too much for the Jutsu to replicate? Surely not. After all, since I was capable of abstract thought, surely that meant that all the neurochemicals in my brain had been replicated as well, and there was no reason that chakra would have a harder time replicating acids.
Well, that was assuming that I even had a brain. After all, as the Transformation Jutsu thoroughly demonstrated, just because something looked like it was alive didn't mean that it really was. It was just a thin film of chakra, easily disrupted, just like the Shadow Clone. In fact, I'd needed to use some of my knowledge of how the Transformation worked to really get the Shadow Clone up and running to create…well, me.
I knew that chakra retained some of the memories and characteristics of the one who generated them, so it was possible that, rather than actually going through the process of replicating everything from muscles to bones made out of chakra, I was really just a blob that was shaped like Naruto and had his skin laid over it.
I took two fingers and placed them in the nook where my neck met my jaw. After a second, I found it.
Thump-thump
Thump-thump
I had a heartbeat. Did that mean that I really had a heart? Or was it just the chakra that made up my body mimicking the superficial marks of having a heart?
A faint grinding sound tickled my ears and I brought my attention back to my attention, who was staring at me with dull eyes and clenched teeth. He really did look awful, and I could see what Ayame said about us smelling bad.
"What's the square root of nine?" He immediately lashed out, seeing that he had my attention. A faint smile quirked at my lips. I had found that, while some Shadow Clones could look and act like me, they lacked even basic cognitive abilities beyond following simple orders. Asking them a simple math question was what I had decided would be the deciding factor in whether or not the Jutsu had succeeded.
"Isn't the fact that I have the ability to get lost in thought a sign that the Jutsu worked?" I asked rhetorically.
I expected a grin to break out on my Prime's face, but instead he seemed to sag, his fingers finally falling out of the cross position they had been in for well over two hours. I feel a phantom pang for the relief he must be feeling. We had been getting progressively higher and higher strung as time crept along and Mizuki hadn't shown.
Of course, I had been formed with the knowledge that the Shadow Clone Jutsu had succeeded, so I was feeling a bit more mellow.
My Prime and I both sat down in a mirror of each other's movement. It was more than a little unnerving, but I assumed that I'd have to get used to it. I wasn't feeling tired, but I of all people knew how irritated I would get with talking to someone who was standing while I was sitting, and I clearly remembered the desperate desire to just sit down that I- or rather my Prime- had been feeling.
The Scroll sat between us, only unrolled to about a foot to reveal the instructions to the Mass Shadow Clone Jutsu. It had taken us nearly a half hour just to puzzle out the meaning, but my Prime hadn't wanted to screw up the process too badly. After all, if he created a warped clone and absorbed its memories, would that affect his own mind as well. Speaking of which…
"Do you want to test out the memory return thing? See if it's working now?" I asked.
My progenitor gave me a look that would've been unreadable for anyone other than me. Or rather, us. I needed to figure out how pronouns would work here. "I don't know…" He muttered. "I mean, you're sapient, right?"
I nearly rolled my eyes, then realized that I didn't need to disguise my feelings, and instead reached out to smack the back of his head. It felt very satisfying. No wonder my friends did that to me so often.
"We already decided that there was no need to think of us as separate beings." I lectured my reflection. "We're essentially the same person, and after the Jutsu is done, it'll be as if you had just had a different train of thought. As long as I don't exist for over a month, I probably won't develop enough individuality for it to matter."
A bit of life returned to my Prime's blue eyes, and he gave me a wry smile that was completely out of place on Naruto's face. "When did you get so smart?" He asked.
I scoffed. "Please, don't flatter yourself. You're just too tired to think straight. You know how stupid you can be when you're tired."
"Hmph. Guess you're right. On the upside, it's kind of nice to have intelligent conversation for once."
Both of us laughed openly. "And I suppose that talking to yourself will look less odd this way." I joked.
My Prime snorted. "If we manage to survive the night, that is." He reminded me. My smile fell as I remembered that just because he had produced one sapient Clone didn't mean we were safe.
I began to unravel the rest of the Scroll as my Prime crossed his fingers. With half a dozen puffs of smoke, six more Narutos were sitting among us. Two of them went to work, disappearing into the forest with their kunai and rope, and one clone took off towards the village, quickly Transforming into an unassuming visage.
Three of the Naruto Clones just stared at us with glassy eyes. They were duds, Clones that couldn't do anything but take basic orders. I stopped unrolling the Scroll and ordered the three to hand over all their kunai and the three copies of their swords. The three complied and then disappeared into a giant cloud of smoke, leaving behind their weapons.
I took the pile of pointy things and piled them onto the end of the Scroll, preventing it from rerolling shut. Across the clearing was a much larger stack of weapons. We weren't sure how long they would last, but they shared the same durability and sharpness as their originals (even if it wasn't the same for the Clones themselves), so there was no reason to not try and find some use for them.
The clearing that Mizuki's instructions led me to a small clearing, which had a small shed, in which had been a giant scroll to copy the Scroll's contents into. We had immediately grabbed that blank scroll and relocated to a much larger clearing further away to do our training. Mizuki thought I would take the copied scroll to Orochimaru, which of course I had no intention of doing, but it would be good to have a physical copy to peruse later, after the Shadow Clone copies of it were destroyed.
I could use this time to partially memorize the contents though. Writing something down helped you understand it, after all.
Suddenly, something clicked into my brain, and I had a sudden feeling of vertigo as my brain suddenly had the clear, clean memories of a sword stabbing into my stomach overlapping the same memory of simply sitting on the forest floor in the clearing.
"Gods above, I'm an asshole." I muttered to myself. He could've just released the Jutsu to test the memory return, but of course he had to stab himself instead. I could feel the echo of his amusement at the thought of annoying me and the original, as apparently, we looked all too serious when he had been formed.
The original met my eyes. "Did you get that too?" He asked. I nodded, and he smiled grimly. Since that Clone had succeeded and I had gotten the memories, then the other Clones knew that they could continue with the plan rather than test the memory return as well.
"Do you want me to do this?" I gestured to the Scroll. It would be better if he were to remain alert so that he could make more Clones, but I wanted to run it by him first.
The Prime shook his head and formed a group of a dozen Clones, most of whom were functional. The functional Clones nodded at us and disappeared into the forest.
I sighed. "I guess I'm on Plan B, then?" I asked rhetorically.
"Damn right." My progenitor agreed. "Think you're up to it?"
I cracked my neck and gave the Prime a lazy grin that didn't betray the clenching in my guts. Plan B was practically unbeatable, but if we had to resort to it, we would be risking much. "I think I'm a little bit more inclined to it than you. Hard to meditate with a stick up your ass, right?"
The Prime smacked my head almost hard enough for me to disappear. "No swearing." He chided. "Our parents raised us better than that." He shooed me away and took over my job of recording the Scroll while I sat by the trees and shut my eyes, trying to shut out the world.
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It wasn't hard to figure out where to go once I was back in the village. The lights within the houses were still off, but blurs of darkness darted across the rooftops, all converging at the place of the break in, and I followed on the ground, picking up my speed to shinobi levels as I reformed my Transformation into the visage of a painfully generic shinobi with broad shoulders and long hair, the opposite of Naruto.
The rooftop of the Hokage Tower was crowded with various shinobi, far more than I had expected to see. Given that only ten-ish people seemed to graduate from the Ninja Academy per year and their forces had suffered quite a bit from the Nine-Tails Attack, there were probably a few hundred shinobi here. I was surprised we could all fit.
The Hokage was surrounded by ANBU and weathering the yells of the surrounding shinobi with calm stoicism.
"That brat has finally shown his true colors. Lord Hokage, please authorize deadly force when we finally track him down!"
"Sir, what level should we assume the boy to be?"
"What if he's already gone? The other nations would never pass up a chance at someone like him."
To my surprise, not all of the shouts were overtly negative towards Naruto. In fact, most seemed to prioritize getting back the Scroll of Sealing over harming Naruto, and only showed disdain for him as a traitor rather than hatred for a jinchuriki.
Still, I wouldn't want them to know who I really was. Here I was, surrounded by the people tasked with defending the village, and none of them could see through my Transformation. Were there no sensors in the Leaf Village?
Throughout all the questions and demands, the Hokage said nothing, staring at the crowd with the same expression as a weary teacher waiting for their class to quiet down. On one level, I respected the resolve he could show in the face of so many screaming shinobi, on the other hand, he had to have woken up just recently if he still wasn't answering questions, and if I really had been a traitor I could've been out of the country already.
…Wait, there had to be more to this. The Hokage had his crystal ball, and I knew he used it to observe Naruto in canon during the Mizuki Incident, so why even assemble the forces?
"Hey, do you know what's happening?" I asked a kunoichi next to me, my voice low and gravely.
"Not much." The woman admitted. I tried not to stare at her, surprised at the familiar voice. That was the same voice as the woman who had come to relieve that slacker guard up front. What was her name…Nosuke? "One of the guards came upon the Hokage passed out and sent out an emergency signal to gather all of us, but we haven't been given any more orders or information, except for the fact that it was Naruto Uzumaki who did it, and he stole the Scroll of Sealing."
I narrowed my eyes as I digested the information. So, the Hokage hadn't been the one to assemble his forces, huh?
Several pieces fell into place. I couldn't exactly verify it, but I had a feeling that only a few select people knew about the Hokage's ability to monitor anyone he wanted in the village. It was, after all, a huge invasion of privacy. The NRA would kill to have such an ability. So Hiruzen couldn't simply say 'don't worry, I'll use my all-seeing crystal ball to track him down', but he had to do something to take control, and soon. After all, it was now common knowledge that an academy student had beaten the Hokage.
But then again, how had anyone known that it was me who had stolen the Scroll in the first place? That didn't sound like information that Sarutobi would want out and about.
Then I saw a flash of blue hair and realized that Mizuki was standing not five feet away from me, silent and still as he stared at the leader of the Leaf Village. As I watched him, I saw a twitch at the corner of his mouth, and there was open malice shining in his eyes.
Well, that explained how people knew. Mizuki must be quite a social butterfly at these little gatherings.
"Are you all done?"
Say what you want about Hiruzen Sarutobi, but he could really shut up a group of people. He gave a sweeping look that seemed to look everyone in the eyes individually.
"Yes, it is true that Naruto Uzumaki stole the Scroll of Sealing and his location is unknown at this time." Sarutobi continued. I noticed he didn't say anything about my having knocked him out in the process. "However, know that I have heard your comments. While Naruto has a unique position in our village, he is still technically a civilian and has not shown any desire to kill or seriously injure any member of the Leaf Village. As such, he is to be taken alive, and is only designated to be a C-Class threat. He is presumed to still be within Village limits. The ANBU will tell you where to search. Dismissed."
With that, the Hokage disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and the shinobi around me began heading towards the ANBU to receive their assignments. I kept my eyes on Mizuki and saw him slowly slip away and leap towards the forest.
I should probably release the Jutsu now and alert the other Clones of Mizuki's incoming presence.
But…
The Hokage had disappeared, presumably to go check his crystal ball. He would be able to see everything going on in the forest, then he would see me kill Mizuki. I was sure I could spin the situation so that it wasn't too suspicious, especially with how crazy Mizuki was, but…I was mostly sure that the crystal ball homed in on a particular chakra signal to track people, and currently my chakra was spread across several dozen Clones. How would that affect its capabilities?
With so many shinobi moving at once, no one noticed me moving to the stairs and heading downstairs. I wasn't sure what the top floor was normally used for, but in this case all of the doors were dark except for one, and even from down the hallway I could hear people talking.
I crept closer, and the words became more audible…and I definitely heard my name. I put my ear to the door and shut my eyes, focusing on the sounds coming from within.
"…and I'm mostly sure that someone's outside." A monotone voice said.
Ah shit. I jerked my head away just in time for the door to spring open. Within was the Hokage sitting in front of a small desk with a small crystal ball nestled in a purple pillow that was glowing with a cornucopia of varying colors.
Surrounding him were some very familiar looking people. A tall man with a covered face and spiky silver hair, a buxom woman with red eyes and odd clothing, as well as a scruffy looking man with a cigarette in his mouth. I had just gotten caught eavesdropping on a group of people with enough firepower between them to decimate a city.
"Hm, he doesn't look familiar. Who are you?" The tall man with silver hair asked me, his single hooded eye focused on me with an intensity that betrayed his relaxed appearance.
I struggled not to show too much of the fear that was coursing through me. If anything happened to me, it wouldn't hurt the original, I reminded myself. That fact was not very comforting, and I could feel a bead of sweat roll down my skin. Thankfully, being able to pull of the Sexy Jutsu under life or death situation had made my handling of the regular Transformation that much easier.
"I'm…Arashi." I said. Could none of them tell that I was under a Transformation? I knew that it could mimic people fairly well, but was it really that powerful? Hell, if Sarutobi knew my chakra signature well enough to use the crystal ball, then why couldn't he recognize me when I was right in front of him?
I looked at the crystal ball, which was still rapidly moving through various hues with no real pattern that I could see. Was this its default, or was this an effect of the Clone's presence?
"Is there something you find interesting about my crystal ball, young man?" The Hokage asked. "And you might as well come in if you're already there."
How could I spin this so that I could find out whether or not the ball was active? Words ran through my mind and I opened my mouth…
The various colors on the crystalline surface fizzed, and suddenly resolved itself into a picture of a nondescript young man with long hair wearing the typical garb of a Konoha shinobi. He looked very surprised, and so did the picture of the Hokage and the jonin within the crystal ball.
Curious, I took a step back, and the image fizzled out again. I took a step forward, and the image came back.
A tension like static filled the air, and my grasp on the chakra covering me was suddenly and violently ripped away. I gave a cheeky smile to the stunned expressions on the ninja's faces and reached back in my mind for that odd mental switch that was present in all Clones from the moment we came into existence.
I had gotten all the information I needed, after all.
"Bye!" I flicked that mental switch, and whatever anchored the chakra in Naruto's shape disappeared.
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The forest was quiet at night.
My back was pressed into the rough bark of one of the trees, practically glued there with chakra. For further measure, my arms and legs were also channeling chakra to help me stick to the tree. A breeze as cold as anything I had ever felt before ripped through me, and the tree swayed gently.
After the first time that had happened, I had become glad for Naruto's goggles, as otherwise my eyes would've been watering too much for me to see. They gave everything a slightly greenish tint, but the moon was full, and its rays illuminated everything below me.
Had this been any other day, I would be full of pride. This was the tallest tree that I could find in the vicinity of the clearing, and I had climbed it. Limbs trembling, eyes shut, and heart pounding, I had managed to get to the top with a combination of mundane tree climbing and chakra-endowed tree climbing. For someone with my particular phobia, it was tremendous progress.
But now wasn't the time for pride. I knew other Clones were also posted around the clearing in various intervals. A few of them hadn't managed to climb successfully, and I now had more than a few memories of falling to my death from those who had slipped up. It was our job to observe and report, and so we couldn't be distracted by our fears.
Down far below, I could see the clearing that Mizuki had told us to go to, the same one where Naruto had learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu in canon. One of the first Clones was down there, paining out a copy of the Scroll of Sealing. He had been at it for over twenty minutes and had gotten a good way of the way through, even though the work itself was worthless. Both he, and the fake Scroll of Sealing, were just Clones of the originals after all.
I knew that there were more of us down there. Like me, they had abandoned the orange jumpsuits in favor of the little dark clothing that Naruto had at his apartment, just enough to let us blend in with the forest background.
Another breeze shook the tree, and I clung all the tighter to the tree, even as I kept my eyes roaming. I could see the patterns that the wind was having on the leaves below, catching and releasing the branches and needles at random. It was so soothing…
Something glinted in the distance, and something moved in the trees that wasn't caused by the wind.
I barely had time to register that thought before more memories slotted into my brain, another one of the patrol Clones. Mizuki, dressed for battle, had passed by not ten feet from one of the Clones, a maniacal smile on his face.
As if in response to the previous burst of memories (which it was), another wave of information swept into my mind from one of the Clones back at the base. Cold determination from another Clone gave me something other than the tree to cling to.
There were Clones in the bushes.
There were Clones in the trees.
There were Clones armed with kunai. Clones armed with swords. Clones armed with the simple desperation of a man way out of his depth and willing to fight anyway.
A cold smile came to my face as I watched the traitor slowly approach the clearing. Mizuki may be ready for battle…
But so were we.
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"Hello, Naruto." Mizuki's voice came from above. My fingers spasmed, and I shot a glare at the man as he dropped down onto the forest floor, trying to play off my scared reaction as merely being surprised. There was a good ten feet between us.
Mizuki had decided to forgo the maniacal grin that I had known he had had on his face mere moments ago, but his face twitched in a clear effort to keep it off. "Hello, sensei." I said with a certain degree of irony. "How goes things on the home front?"
"Oh, fantastic." Mizuki purred, his smile slowly winning its fight against his self-control. "Everyone is searching for you...but no one knows that you're here."
I snorted and gestured to the fake scroll, which wasn't even halfway done. "Well, do you think you could help me out here? I'm not the fastest writer."
"Oh, I'll help you out, alright." Despite the ominous words, Mizuki somehow managed to keep his voice level, though his grin had grown so large that I could individually pick out each one of his teeth.
Then, in a blur of motion, he unholstered one of the giant shuriken on his back, and sent it hurtling straight at me. Given how close we were, it would've been impossible for him to miss…
Had I not already been halfway through the hand signs for the Substitution Jutsu. A moment of disorientation later, and I was staring down at Mizuki from above. Fear rose up in the pit of my stomach, and I clung desperately to the bark of the tree.
Focus, you moron, I chastised myself.
"Mizuki, what're you doing?" I yelled down at him. The man's head jerked up and his eyes immediately focused on me.
"Just getting rid of a little upstart who thinks he's clever." Mizuki said, no longer trying to restrain the grin on his face or hatred in his voice. His eyes were wide, and even from far up I could see that his pupils were dilated. It all combined to give him a manic air.
"We had a deal! You get nothing if you kill me!" I yelled. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something shift. Another Clone, no doubt. My eyes went from Mizuki to the enormous shuriken that was embedded into the tree across the clearing. He only had one more of those, and presumably he had all of the standard ninja tools on him as well.
Mizuki sneered at me and then, with another blur of motion, there was a hail of weapons flying at me. This time, I wasn't prepared, and the brief second that it took for me to stop sticking to the tree with chakra cost me.
The kunai bit into my skin, and I-
-watched as our first Clone died to Mizuki's assault. It looked like Mizuki had lost three kunai to kill that Clone. However, given that he had exploded into smoke and how Mizuki was looking around, it seemed that he thought that Clone had Substituted himself away.
It would be no good if Mizuki went charging into the forest to look for Naruto. He needed to stay in the clearing.
"Mizuki, stop!" I shouted from my hidden position. It wasn't hard to put fear into my voice. "I'll do whatever you want, just don't kill me!"
The man's narrowed eyes quickly locked on my position, and he sent another barrage of kunai at me. I tried to leap out of the way, not wanting to waste anymore chakra, but Mizuki wasn't a chunin for nothing, and the last thing I saw was the kunai thudded right into my-
-throat constricted as I saw Mizuki nail the Clone that had spoken out, and his memories passed into me. Even if there wasn't enough time for us to feel pain before we died, it was still a disconcerting experience.
Mizuki let out a bark of laughter that went up an octave higher than it should've. "I know I got you that time, you little shit! So, you went ahead and learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu rather than just copying the Scroll and running, eh? Don't think this means I can't track you down!"
The response to that among the Clones was pretty universal. Namely, we threw our kunai at him. Our aim wasn't that good, but the dozens of weapons that suddenly cut through the air effectively made up for that deficiency.
The blue haired chunin danced around the sudden shower of metal, and to my frustration (but not surprise), he had managed to avoid most of the weapons, with the worst injury he took being a cut on his cheek that barely bled at all. He was littered with numerous small injuries, but none were crippling like I had been aiming for.
"Is that all you've got, Naruto?" The man shouted. He took the other shuriken off his back and spun it skillfully, readying it to throw.
"Not even close." A cold voice said.
It spoke to how quickly we had diverged in thought that I was taken by surprise that a Naruto Clone emerged from the bushes, sword at the ready as he advanced with his eyes narrowed. However, we were still at our base the same person, and I could see his logic. Changing up our strategy would keep him off balance. This was a battle of attrition, one we could win.
The Clone charged, and Mizuki lazily dodged his sword swing and drove the shuriken into his chest. By the time the smoke of his passing had cleared, three more Clones were charging at the man with weapons held high.
A grin made its way onto my face as I watched Mizuki parry and attack the sudden horde of clones that were coming at him. Mizuki was a skilled fighter, there was no doubting that, but it was hard to suddenly adapt to fighting a group of enemies who could work in perfect harmony and replaced members as soon as they fell.
A window of opportunity appeared, and I scrambled for my kunai before letting it fly at Mizuki's exposed back. I bit back a swear as one of my Clones stepped into the path of the weapon and popped. The force of my throw carried me forward and I nearly capsized down to the ground, but managed to keep my grip.
The battle continued, and I continued to watch, as did several other Clones, watching how Mizuki chose to block and parry. Rather than lasting longer, Clones began to die quicker as they gained more experience fighting the man and Mizuki kept upping his speed and ferocity. Worse still, every time one Clone died, there was a moment of lag in the others as they processed the new memories. Pressure behind my eyes began to build as more and more Clones died to the traitor.
I could see lines of injuries appearing on Mizuki's form, and his manic grin had become a scowl that he maintained through puffs of breath. He ducked under another sword strike as he lashed out with his enormous weapon, taking the life of another Clone.
A glint of steel, and a kunai sunk into Mizuki's shoulder. His arm spasmed and his enormous shuriken clattered to the ground. The Clones didn't hesitate, and Mizuki soon gained bleeding wounds just above his hit, along his collarbone, and all along the inside of his arm.
"Enough!" The shinobi leapt into the air, and for half a heart-pounding second, I thought he was coming for me, and was going to make serious on his threat to hunt us all down. Instead, his hands blurred together, and the earth exploded.
The dust that it threw up was enough to cloud my vision, but not for long, and soon I saw the results of Mizuki's Jutsu, and my blood ran cold. Enormous spires of earth jutted out of the ground, littering the entire clearing. The shed off to the side had been completely destroyed, and so had the Shadow Clone copies of the real and copy of the Scroll of Sealing.
My heart sank as no more Clones came to join the fray. Were they like me, paralyzed up in the trees? Surely the Prime was sending more Clones, but if I was the only one left, then that left Mizuki free to try and track down the Prime before the Clones arrived.
That couldn't be allowed to happen.
So instead, I gathered up my chakra, and began to climb down to the forest floor.
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"Heh. Knew I got you with that one, brat." Mizuki spat at me. Literally, he spat. I could feel spittle land on my face and grimaced, raising a shaky hand to wipe it away. My other hand was covering a gaping wound in my side that had already thoroughly stained my hand red.
"Why, Mizuki?" I asked, making sure to make my voice raspy and thick. I wasn't sure exactly how someone sounded after they had been stabbed, but I imagined that it sounded somewhat like that. "We had a deal."
The traitor threw back his head and cackled as he stooped to pick up the Scroll of Sealing that was lying a few feet away from me, covered in dust from the explosion of earth. "I don't care about prestige." He sneered at me as I struggled to move. My back was propped up against the back of a tree and I glared daggers at him through labored breathing. "Just power. And Orochimaru will give it to me if I give him this Scroll and tell him that one of the Leaf Village's greatest weapons is dead."
"Greatest weapon?" I gave him my best confused look even as a sudden rush of information dropped into my head. I struggled to contain the grin that was fighting for space on my face. The Clones had arrived.
"That's right, Naruto. They never told you, but the truth is that you are actually the Nine-Tailed F-"
A sudden squelch interrupted him, and Mizuki's eyes bugged out before they slowly moved down to see the bloody sword tip protruding from just below his solar plexus. He looked over his shoulder and found that the Scroll of Sealing was no longer there, having released its Transformation, replaced by my recently formed Shadow Clone.
Blood began to dribble out from Mizuki's clenched teeth, and his hands blurred towards one another, probably to cast that earth spike Jutsu again.
"Now!" Someone shouted. In an explosion of blue and yellow, Mizuki was tackled towards the garden of protruding earth spires, the Shadow Clone that stabbed him through the back moving aside but leaving the sword within him. Multiple Clones grabbed his exposed limbs and stabbed their kunai into his flesh, punching through the skin and bone of his hands and into the earth. Ropes surrounded every possible place that Mizuki could leverage force, binding him as tightly as possible. The hilt was driven up against the earth and drove the blade further into Mizuki as was physically possible. Mizuki jerked and screamed with pain, which elicited no sympathy for his captors. We all remembered dying dozens of times at his hands, after all.
"I have to tell you, that looks really cool from a third person point of view." Mizuki's eyes bulged as I stood easily, pulling my hand away from the wound in my side, releasing the Transformation and making the 'wound' disappear. That Jutsu really came in handy.
"You little bastard." Mizuki hissed, his voice somewhat strangled from the rope around his throat. It was looser than the others, to allow him to speak. "You tricked me."
"Yup." I said blandly, striding forward. I looked toward one of the Clones who were watching the two of us with crossed arms and narrowed eyes. "Is Plan B still a go?"
He nodded. "Though apparently all of the memory influxes make it hard to relax, something he was quite persistent in telling the Prime."
I snorted. Good to know that even the most laid-back and confident of us could be assholes with the pressure dialed up. I glanced towards the traitor and a grin grew on my face. "Plan B was releasing the Nine-Tails, by the way." I informed him casually.
A few Clones snickered as Mizuki choked seemed to choke on his own saliva. "What? You can do that? Wait, you knew?"
Of course, Plan B wasn't to release Kurama, just to ask him for his chakra, but there was no reason to clarify for Mizuki. It was our last resort, because even if none of the shinobi could find us now, surely the demonic chakra would act as a beacon, and then people would know that I could summon that power as needed.
"Of course I knew." I told the man. "Why else would people hate me so much?"
"Then why would you join Orochimaru if you didn't need information?" The man ground out. His ability to speak through the pain of his injuries was almost admirable.
"Oh, come on." One of the other Clones burst out. "We were never going to join Orochimaru. You weren't luring us out here. We were luring you."
"Stop playing with your food, men." A weary voice chided. I turned around and saw two figures shuffling out of the trees, one supporting the other. They both had the same features, but one's eyes were hooded and dark, his features haggard.
The Prime.
I took a step back, as did the other Clones, as the Prime and his Second moved closer. Over the Second's shoulder was the real Scroll of Sealing, with the copy nowhere in sight. I wondered where it had gone.
"Do you want me to do this?" The Second asked, his voice gentle. I was struck for a moment how bizarre this was, one version of myself comforting another version of myself, and exchanging looks with other Clones I saw they felt the same.
The Prime waved him off and took a few steps forward under his own power, nearly buckling. I remembered how tired I had been when I was him, and that had been several dozen Shadow Clones ago. "You're not my mother." The Prime complained. He made a shooing gesture. "You know what to do."
The Second pursed his lips and nodded before jogging off in the direction of the Leaf Village, Scroll of Sealing bouncing up and down on his back.
The Prime looked back at Mizuki, and his weariness seemed to melt away. A shiver went down my spine as I saw the cold look on Naruto Uzumaki's face.
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My steps came easier as I drew closer to the traitor, though it still took far too much effort for my liking. I was down to a mere fraction of the chakra that I normally had, and my tenketsu burned like embers as my nervous system screamed at me.
"It's beyond stupid for me to be here." I mused aloud, looking over Mizuki's restraints lazily. "There's still technically a chance you could break free, even if my Clones would kill you before you could reach me."
Mizuki sneered at me, seemingly unconcerned with my inner thoughts. "Why did you lure me out here? How did you know about my meeting with Orochimaru?" He demanded. He was surprisingly cogent for having most of a sword poking out of his stomach.
I looked into the man's dark, manic eyes and tried to feel something. Pity, disgust, maybe even sympathy. After all, weren't we similar men? We wanted power and used subterfuge to get it. But still, all I could feel was a bone deep weariness. I just wanted this to be over.
"I'll answer…your first question." I decided. I shrugged my sheath over my shoulder and drew my sword with it's audible, dramatic shiink. "I needed your plan so that I could get my hands on the Scroll of Sealing. Of course, I'll be returning the original so that I can still be a ninja, but I needed to learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu. However, I did have another reason."
"Oh yeah? Do tell." The man bit out. A fit of coughing overtook him, and he vomited a heap of blood down his front. I could just leave him be and have him die, but that would defeat the point of this little game.
"Because I need to be able to kill you." I said blandly. "I don't have time to hesitate about killing someone when the stakes are high. I need to learn to kill my enemies when need be, and you just happened to be the closest one at hand that no one would miss."
Mizuki strained against his bindings, but a combination of his overwhelming restrictions and the amount of pain he was in kept him firmly in place. My sword was almost ten times the weight it should've been, but the point didn't waver as I gently placed it at the Mizuki's throat, just below his Adam's apple. His eyes crossed as he tried to keep the tip in vision.
I looked around at the Clones surrounding me. All of them had stoic looks on their face, and as I met their eyes they nodded. I knew what had to be done, but something about seeing physical agreement helped.
To Mizuki's credit, he didn't beg. He didn't plead. He didn't try to barter or threaten me. He met my eyes and spit a wad of phlegm and blood into my face.
I wiped it off with one hand and felt the muscles of my face contort into something approximating a smile. Despite my best efforts, it wouldn't budge.
Mizuki gasped as the blade plunged forward, barely going in a few inches before meeting resistance. A slight frown touching my mouth, I put more of my weight behind the weapon, and the steel began to inch forward until I could feel it exit the back of his neck and slam into the earth behind him. Rivulets of blood were staining his shirt and the ropes that bound him, permeating the forest with its thick, revolting scent. His eyes bulged out of his skull as his lifeforce seeped out of him, and then his head dropped forward, his body going limp.
I removed the sword, now slick with blood, and let it drop to the ground. I took a deep breath, and slowly let it out. In a darkly ironic twist, despite my tiredness…I doubt I'd be able to sleep now.
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The room was filled with a sweet, smoky aroma that was slowly filtered out through an open window that looked out over all the Leaf Village. It made sense to give the Hokage's office a view over the entire village so that the Hokage could see any threats, but despite my Clones breakthroughs about heights, I was still a bit leery.
"You…tell an interesting story, Naruto." Sarutobi said, his voice slow and heavy. I noticed that he didn't call me 'my boy' but couldn't bring up the energy to care. I was sure that I wasn't nearly as tired as the Prime, but I still had all the memories of dying dozens of times.
The Scroll of Sealing was laid out on the desk between myself and Sarutobi, who stared at me with heavy eyes. He hadn't said anything in quite awhile after I'd told my story, which was basically just the first Naruto episode, but with a darker twist at the end. Mizuki tricked me into stealing the scroll, we fought, he told me about the Nine-Tails, and then I used the Shadow Clone Jutsu to win.
"I do have a question…why did you come to us? Why send a disguised Clone to spy on us?" The man asked. His voice was calm, and I knew that he probably believed me given that there was precedent for mentors convincing young ninja to steal precious artifacts, after all that's how the Sword of the Thunder God got stolen. But still, I needed to give an explanation so as to not provoke suspicion.
Unfortunately, sending in a Clone wasn't something that Naruto would've regularly done. So instead of going with bravado, I met the man's dark, deep eyes and tried to channel both sincerity and somberness.
"Because I'm smarter than Mizuki gave me credit for. Stealing a high-priority document and memorizing its contents…sure, Iruka has told us about how we might have to do that. But the defenses were way too weak for it to be a good test of stealth, and then for the secondary obstacle to be a Kage? That's too suspicious. So, when I came back and the entire force of the Leaf Village was assembled? Yeah, I got suspicious."
Sarutobi took a deep pull on his pipe and let it out again, mulling over what I said. "And why you decided to eavesdrop on us rather than just telling us that Mizuki had tricked you?"
"Because Mizuki was on the way, and I needed to let the Prime know." I lied immediately. "I know you're fast, old man, but in the time it took to explain everything to you and for you to find the clearing, Mizuki could've found and killed the real me."
Sarutobi looked at me with surprise…and then a broad smile broke out on his face. "Ah, so you already figured out that Clones transfer memories to their original?" He asked rhetorically. "And the fact that you managed to learn it in a few hours? I think that you're far more intelligent than you give yourself credit for."
I felt a flush cover my face and dropped my gaze from the Hokage's eyes, even as he chuckled in amusement. "T-thanks, old man." I muttered.
When I looked back to Sarutobi there was still a gentle smile on his face, but there was also something else in his eyes, with long lines prominent on his face. "My boy…you don't have to be strong now."
"What?" The word slipped out of my mouth without my consent, a byproduct of my tiredness.
The old man gave me a gentle smile. "Killing someone for the first time is never easy."
Something caught in my chest, and I bit my lip. The Prime hadn't been sure how well he would react to killing someone, so he had sent me to explain the situation properly. "Then…I'm not the one you want to talk to."
The old man's brows furrowed, and instead of answering, I pointed out the window. Sarutobi followed my direction to see the Hokage Monument, covered in dark shadows as everything else was in the middle of the night.
However, if you squinted a bit, on the very top of cliff, over the Fourth Hokage's face…you could see a spot of yellow hair.
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The entirety of the Leaf Village yawned out beneath me, its details almost completely hidden despite my night vision. That was okay. I wasn't really looking at it.
All of my Clones had dispersed, returning to me almost a quarter of my chakra, which helped with the chakra exhaustion, but didn't help with the burning pain of my tenketsu, which didn't decrease in the least as I trudged up to the Hokage Monument. I wasn't exactly sure why I had done it. Apparently, my flair for the dramatic was so deep rooted that even emotional turmoil couldn't dislodge it.
I snorted at that thought. Even my thoughts were overly dramatic. After all, I barely felt anything right now.
Even the height barely affected me. My legs dangled over the edge, a dozen feet from the enormous head of Fourth Hokage. If I went over, would I be able to stick to the head in the brief second after I slammed into it and continued falling?
That thought failed to fill me with any fear whatsoever. When my Clones had been up in the trees, they had needed to fight through their fear by constantly reminding themselves that this was necessary to prevent Mizuki from killing us. Now…
The sound of grass being crushed underfoot got closer and closer, and then suddenly the wind that had been brushing up against my back was gone.
"I would recommend looking at the Village when the sun is rising. It's quite a beautiful sight." Sarutobi's voice came from behind me. "And with all the orange, I think you'd quite enjoy it."
It was a good thing that I didn't have to look at him or pretend to be Naruto at the moment, because I just couldn't summon that kind of enthusiasm. Instead, I gave a non-committal grunt.
The wind started to rustle through my hair once again as the old man settled onto the cliff next to me. Unlike me, he didn't dangle his legs over the edge, and instead had them gracefully folded almost like he was meditating. His voice wasn't as warm as they had been with my Second, but I was glad for that.
Violence had never been a big part of my life. In fact, it had specifically been excluded from my life. My parents had always been very much aware of what a life of violence could do to a person, and they made sure to keep that away from me and my siblings. No violent books, no violent movies, no violent video games.
So of course, I had always been curious. Forbidding children from seeing violence was the quickest way to get them interested in it. I could've certainly pulled off being a crazy berserker, but that had never been as fascinating as the ruthless chess master who used everything they could to their advantage. People like Nick Campbell, people like Kiritsigu Emiya, people Gaius Sextus.
Of course, I knew that part of the arcs of these characters was learning to let people in, that their methods were imperfect and took a severe psychological toll on them. However, you couldn't deny the results.
So of course, I had been curious. Could I be like these men, do what they do?
I took a deep breath…and let it out. My breath wasn't shaky, and as I raised a hand to run it though my hair, it didn't tremble. I wasn't freaking out. What did that say about me? Was I some sort of psychopath? Why wasn't I freaking out? Why wasn't I freaking out? Why wasn't I freaking out?
"Why…" The word came thickly out of my mouth, and I swallowed. "Why don't I feel anything?"
I was sure that I would berate myself for this later. Revealing that I wasn't freaking out about killing someone wasn't good for my cover, but…Sarutobi had been a shinobi for decades. He had to know someone who had gone through something like this, right?
Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Sarutobi to reach out to put a hand on my shoulder, hesitate, and retract it. He slowly pulled out his pipe, and the mountaintop became briefly scented with the familiar smell of his tobacco before the wind pulled it away.
"People react to trauma differently, my boy." He said finally. "The first man that I killed was somebody who wasn't even a threat to me. It was a mission to eliminate a camp of bandits, men who had no experience wielding chakra. When we were done, my entire team had killed fourteen men. Of those fourteen, I had killed seven."
The man paused, seemingly lost in his own memories. He was an old man, after all. "And…?" I prompted.
"And that night, I decided to take the first shift watching over our camp, and once I was alone, I spent nearly an hour doing nothing but shaking and vomiting. I never let my teammates or sensei know about that and put up a stoic façade instead. It took years for me to admit that it had shaken me."
I let out a long breath. "That…doesn't really help, old man." That was a bit dick-ish to say to someone who was (probably) trying to help, but…Sarutobi freaking out and not wanting anyone to know didn't scan very well to the reverse happening to me.
"I was getting to that." The Hokage chastised gently. "Because I wasn't the only one who killed their first person on that mission. My best friend killed five men, and one reason I was so ashamed of my reaction was because he didn't seem to have reacted at all. When I tapped him for his shift, he immediately got up and took his position."
His best friend. That would be Danzo, wouldn't it? I got a sick feeling in my guts at where this story might be going.
"But then, I woke up in the morning, and he hadn't switched out with anyone else. I found him watching the sunrise, having stood there for over seven hours without moving. At the time, I thought that it was because he wanted to prove that he could do his job without needing to sleep, he was just like that, but years later…I realized he was dealing with it in his own way, by shutting down and convincing even himself that nothing was wrong. And he went on to be a great ninja, one of the best in the Leaf Village."
...
A bubble of hysterical laughter nearly rose to the surface, but it was crushed underneath the great apathy that covered my thoughts. So…the reassurance that I wasn't a monster was that Danzo Shimura turned out to be a good apple? The man who harvested Sharingan eyes from the massacred Uchiha, who trained children to be unfeeling killing machines, and worked with a homicidal missing ninja, all for the greater good?
Yeah…That did sort of sound like something I would do.
"Thanks, old man." I said finally. "That…that helps."
And it did, just not in the way Sarutobi intended it. Danzo may have once been a good shinobi, but once he became obsessed with securing the Leaf Village, he was willing to sacrifice anything and anyone to do it, including the members of the same Village he was trying to protect.
For the greater good…
I wouldn't do that. Nicholas Campbell didn't become truly powerful until he learned to let people in. Kiritsigu Emiya learned that his methods could never truly fix the problems he was trying to solve. Gaius Sextus was only willing to do what he did because he knew that his heir would be the one to truly fix things.
Danzo never learned those lessons, but I knew better. I wouldn't sacrifice innocents to complete my plans, wouldn't fuck with children like he did. I wouldn't hesitate to kill those that stood in my way, but I was trying to save the world, not just the Leaf Village.
The night continued to grow colder as Sarutobi and I watched over the Leaf Village. My fingers and toes became numb, as did my face, but I couldn't bring myself to move, and Sarutobi didn't suggest that we go inside, even when he ran out of tobacco and he could do nothing but stare out over the buildings.
All too soon, the darkness was leeched away by the first rays of the sun dawning on the horizon. Its rays were incredibly painful to my exhausted, bleary eyes, and yet I still didn't move. I watched it continue to rise and transform the Leaf Village. I saw the bare beginnings of a city stirring, and knew within a few hours people would be going about their daily lives once more.
I took a deep breath of the crisp morning air and turned to Sarutobi and offered him as much of a smile as I could muster. "It really does look beautiful, old man."
"It does indeed, my boy. Every day that you can see the sun rise is a good day."
I hummed noncommittally. "Thank you…for sitting with me. Do you want to go inside? I'm sure that you have duties to attend to today."
The old man smiled without moving his eyes away from the Village below. "No. I think I'd like to stay here for a while longer."
I turned my eyes back to the buildings and streets hundreds of feet underneath my feet, aglow with the bright orange and red morning rays. "That sounds nice."
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Boom! This chapter was so long that I considered breaking it up into two parts, but considering that I'd been building to this fight and aftermath since the first chapter, I figured I'd to it in one go. So y'all are welcome.
Questions are welcome, and always remember to FOLLOW, FAVORITE, AND REVIEW