Well, it took a little longer than I thought it would to get it up. After reading some reviews, I decided to have a little fun with this chapter. So I hope you enjoy it. I put a lot of stuff in this one, but hopefully it won't be anything bad. Well, this will be my last post for a while with the holidays coming up. But I will still be writing over the holidays, and should have the next chapter up sometime beofre New Years. Well, with that, on with the chapter.
Disclaimer: Sorry, but I still don't own Naruto
Chapter 7: Confessions
Jiraiya stared off into the forest ahead of him, looking at trees that had been twisted in half, rocks that had been scorched, small fires still burning here and there. Naruto had been here.
"Jiraiya-sama..."
"Hn" Jiraiya turned to see the Sakura staring at him, trying her best to keep from crying. He smiled at the kunoichi, happy to see someone so worried about his pupil.
"Weren't you going to tell us what's going on, about Naruto I mean."
"Yes, I suppose now is as good as time as any. I'm sure you've noticed how Naruto has redecorated the forest." The shinobi nodded. "This won't be easy, Naruto is clearly pissed about something. And the Kyuubi is using it to try and take over, permanently."
"Using what?" Kiba asked, still not completely sure of what was going on.
"His anger, pure rage, depression. All of the negative emotions that Naruto has saved up all through his childhood."
"How, Naruto-kun was always smiling, he always seemed so happy." Hinata said, staring off in front of her, noticing a red glow softly pulsing in the forest ahead.
Jiraiya smiled at the kunoichi, and softly laughed to himself. "You would think that wouldn't you. The way he smiles you would never thing anything bad ever happened to him. None of you really knows what happened to him when he was a child, do you?"
Jiraiya explained to the shinobi about all the cruel things that the villagers did to Naruto. How they torched his home, beat him, mocked him, painted his house with graffiti. He told them about various times they had to wait on the blond shinobi before going on a mission, about the real reason Naruto would be late. Because the villagers would stop him, and hurt him. Then he would show up, and act as if nothing had happened. To say that the shinobi were shocked would be an understatement.
Kiba was the first to speak, "Why! Why didn't he tell us! Why did he...hide that from us!"
Shikamaru looked at a loss for words, "I...never knew..."
Sakura's tears quickly gave way to anger, "Those...Those bastards! I'll rip them apart!" Sakura punched a near by tree turning it into splinters.
"Ahhh, I've taught her well."
Jiraiya looked behind him to see Tsunade, Gaara, Sai, and Kakashi quickly approaching.
"Hm, finally decided to join us. I take it Danzou is dead."
"No, he's not."
"What! You let him live!"
"Well, lets just say he's in good hands." Gaara smiled, and Jiraiya quickly had to turn his head away from the Kazekage.
"How did you beat him, anyway?"
"I think I can explain that," said Sai.
--Flashback--
Sai and Gaara stared down at the bloody body of Danzou, who looked up at the two, weakly.
"h-how, wh...what did y-you do to m..me..."
Sai smiled at the old man, "Earlier this morning, when you briefing us on the attack on the Hokage, I slipped a special kind of drug into the tea you were drinking. This drug, it acts very slowly. It takes hours, sometimes even days before it finally takes affect. It's a poison that slowly closes off all of your chakra points. I stole it from the Hokage's office a long time ago." Sai smiled at the old man on the ground.
"During the fighting he came to me and told me what he had done, so I waited until the poison finally took effect. And you pretty much know what happened after that."
"So, are you going to kill me?"
"No, there's no need. I've crushed your arms, your legs, and your lower spine. You'll never be able to perform jutsus again. You won't even be able to walk without someone to aid you. So I'm just going to leave you here. In case we need something to distract Naruto. Judging by the way things look, Naruto will be a tough one to deal with."
Gaara looked up at the forest, which looked like it was on fire.
"Sai, was it. We should go and follow the others. They could probably use some help. And as for you, I'll leave you in the capable hands of my sibling."
Gaara and Sai disappeared into the forest, as Kankuro walked up to Danzou.
"Well gramps, looks like it's just you and me. Here, let me help you up." Kankuro attached chakra strings to the old man, and slowly began to walk him away.
"Why don't we go and find something fun to do. I heard from that Shino guy that there was a large mound of fire ants over here. Why don't we go and keep them company."
--End Flashback--
"After we left, we met up with Tsunade-sama and Kakashi, and then we found you." Sai finished his story.
Ino stared blankly at Gaara.
"What?"
"Nothing...I just don't want to think of what your brother is going to do to that guy." Gaara smiled.
"Well, Jiraiya, since we're all here, would you mind explaining to us, JUST WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH NARUTO!!"
"Hokage-sama, please calm down. I'm sure Jiraiya-sama was just getting to that." Kakashi looked at Jiraiya, who furiously nodded his head in approval.
"Well, as I was saying earlier, the Kyuubi feeds off of all Naruto's negative emotions. Since that is all that the Bijuu are, pure raw dark emotions. They didn't start out that way mind you. The Bijuu were summoned a long time ago during times of great war, by powerful shinobi who were trying to rule everything, and everyone. They were used to slaughter thousands of innocents, devouring their chakra, their very souls, to become stronger. In the process, they took all of the hate, anger, jealousy, greed, all of the negative feelings. Soon, they became powerful enough to rebel against the shinobi that had summoned them."
Jiraiya stopped as an explosion rocked the forest , all the shinobi had to stop and brace themselves against the trees to keep from falling.
"We're very close now, Naruto is probably just about 30 or 40 yards ahead of us. We should wait a while and see what happens."
The shinobi quickly moved to the forest floor and hid, waiting for Jiraiya's signal to move.
"Jiraiya-sama, please finish telling us about Naruto." Jiraiya turned and saw Neji staring at him, somewhat fightened.
'Heh, even the Hyuuga is worried about him. Or just really scared, I can't tell.' Jiraiya smiled.
"Well, as I said, the Bijuu were summons, just like Gamabunta, or even Orochimaru's Manda. They were arrogant, shallow, and powerful, but they were only as bad as the person who summoned them. That is until they had devoured so many tainted souls, soon they become more powerful than any normal summon, and became dark, became evil. With the original summoner gone, there was no way to send them back to the other realm. So they continued to do what they were originally summoned to do, to destroy. Their power just continued to grow, and soon villages began to take notice of this. This eventually led people to try and capture them, and use their power."
"But they were too powerful, right, they couldn't be controlled." Sakura looked at the white haired Sannin.
"Right. And since they couldn't be controlled, people started to look for other ways to use them. This eventually led people to try and seal them inside themselves, thinking that if the Bijuu was inside them, they could control it. But it wouldn't work, adults couldn't contain the Bijuu, not successfully anyway. Shortly after being sealed, the Bijuu would break the seal and rip it's way out of the container. Eventually it was discovered that if sealed in a new born infant, the Bijuu's chakra would slowly start to merge with the child, allowing the child to contain the Bijuu. The Bijuu containers came to be called Jinchuuriki."
"I remember reading about Jinchiruuki. They were used as nothing more than weapons. No life, no other purpose, just used to destroy anything they were told to." Shikamaru closed his good eye. "How could people be so heartless."
Jiraiya continued with his history lesson, "Terrible wars were fought by the Jinchuuriki, and many died. Many Jinchuuriki died, despite their great power,though not because of the wars. But because of the people who sealed the Bijuu inside them in the first place. After people realized that the child would eventually absorb the Bijuu, they decided to only leave the Bijuu inside them for a set amount of time before they would remove the Bijuu and seal it in another child, and kill the original Jinchuuriki."
Gaara shivered, "It's a painful process, it feels like someone is ripping your body apart piece by piece. I wouldn't wish that on anyone." Temari put a consoling hand on her brother.
Lee looked up at the Sannin, a bit confused, "So what's all that got to do with what's happening to Naruto-kun."
"I told you that so you would all understand what I'm going to tell you next. Out of all the Bijuu, the Kyuubi was the greatest, it came to be known as the King of Demons. And it constantly appeared around what came to be known as the Country of Fire. The reason they called it the Country of Fire was because of the Kyuubi. After Konoha was founded, it became a great Village because of the Shodaime's ability to control the Bijuu. He could not defeat the Kyuubi, but he could make it submit, and send him away. Everyone came to the Shodaime asking for protection from the Kyuubi. It was this reason that the Shodaime eventually lost his life. After that, Kyuubi attacks became more and more frequent."
"The Kyuubi was a constant threat until my pupil, the Yondaime finally found a way to seal the Kyuubi away. By creating a new seal with the Death God himself, Shinigami. But it came at a price, the user had to pay with his soul. So, he sealed the Kyuubi away in his new born son, Naruto."
"Wait, so you're telling us that Naruto is the son of the Yondaime." Kakashi stared at Jiraiya shocked.
"Well, yes, I am."
All of the Shinobi sat, shocked at this new revelation. It was quiet for a while until Ino blurted out, "So that's where he got his good looks from." If only looks could kill, the glare that Sakura gave Ino would have sent her to at least the fifth level of hell.
The shinobi were brought out of there musings as a loud scream pierced the forests, followed by another explosion.
"That was Naruto!" Sakura started to run towards where the scream came from, only to be stopped by Jiriaya.
"Wait, just hold on. I have just a little more that I need to tell you." Sakura sat down, waiting for the Sannin to finish.
"I think you should hurry up, Jiraiya, or else she is going to rip you apart trying to get to Naruto." Jiraiya swallowed the rowing lump in his throat as Sakura sat back down, cracking her knuckles as she did."
"Right, right. You see, there was a reason that the Yondaime chose to put the Kyuubi in his own child. Yondaime was always a happy person, always smiled, just like Naruto. And remember how I told you that the Bijuu were fueled by the dark side of the human heart. Well, the Yondaime thought that if the Kyuubi was sealed inside a child that had a pure heart, the Bijuu would weaken, and would have been purified, eventually becoming a new kekkei genkai, like the Byakugan or the Sharingan, and that Naruto would pass this ability to all of his descendants. And from what I can tell, it would have been the ability to call upon the Kyuubi's tails, like Naruto does now. Except he and his descendants would be able to control it. This would give Naruto an ultimate Jutsu, allowing him to become a hero, and a protector of Konoha."
"How do you know all this Jiraiya-sama?" Jiraiya reached into a pouch on his back and withdrew a scroll with the seal of the Fourth on it.
"I found a letter that the Yondaime had left, explaining what the Seal he had created was meant to do. But the seal isn't working like it should. Something went wrong, and now the Kyuubi is trying to force its way out. And if the Kyuubi keeps forcing itself on Naruto like this, it will eventually kill him and the Kyuubi will be free once again."
"Well, then what's the problem, why isn't it working?" Sakura grabbed Jiraia and began to shake him. Jiraiya could see that all of the shinobi were starting to get very worried.
"Well, to be honest I can't tell you. I can't tell you how the seal works, The only way I would be able to tell how it works if if I closely studied it."
"Well, why don't you 'closely study' it?"
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"He'd have to be dead before I could study it properly." All of the shinobi were silenced at his answer.
"The only person that would be able to tell us how to fix this would be the Yondaime."
"There's got to be something we can do, right?"
"Well, there might be, but for now, we have to save Naruto before anything else can be done. Sakura, take this seal, while we distract Naruto, I want you to put this on his forehead. It should bring him out of this, then we can take him home and figure out what to do from there."
Sakura took the seal and wiped away the tears that were forming in her eyes. ' I'm coming for you Naruto, just hold on.'
The group of shinobi crept up to a clearing in the forest. Trees laid broken and splintered, craters and broken rocks covering the ground, and in the middle of it all stood Naruto. Red chakra wisping around his body, two tails floating behind him. His jacket, vest, sandals, pretty much all of his clothing was ripped to pieces. Except for his pants, which were ripped, and soiled with blood and dirt. His body was covered with blood and scratches. Large wounds in his arms and stomach were the most noticeable.. But the thing that stood out the most, was his eyes. Both had a slit down the middle, like a fox normally would, but one eye was red, and the other blue.
"Jiraiya!" Jiraiya turned to look at Tsunade, who stared at him somewhat confused. "Why isn't he healing, why isn't the Kyuubi healing his wounds anymore?"
"Well, you all noticed how after his meeting with Sasuke his wounds didn't heal. It's just like that."
"But you said it was because of the Chidori that his wounds weren't healing properly."
"Well, I lied. The truth is that the Kyuubi stopped healing his wounds. The Kyuubi stopped healing his wounds as soon as the seal started to weaken. Instead, with the weakening seal, he's trying to tear his way out of Naruto's body."
"Come on out, I can hear you over there..."
The shinobi cringed at the voice they heard, it sounded pained, like an animal that was dying. Slowly all the shinobi approached Naruto, and surrounded him.
"I see, so you came to save the child...he doesn't deserve to be saved. Why don't you just let him die."
"Shut your mouth you damn fox! Don't treat me like I'm not here! I can hear every damned thing you say!"
"Naruto, what's going on? How are you and the Kyuubi here at the same time?"
"I don't know, it's never happened before."
"Naruto, what's been going on out here, you've really done a number on the forest." Jiraiya started to move closer to Naruto, while nodding for Gaara to do the same.
"Heh, the fox and I were having a little argument."
"So, you're going to try and send me back into that prison. Well, no use in dragging it on, is there. Come and stop me."
Naruto spit a large amount of blood on the ground, and when he looked back up he let out a slow growl, both eyes a dark crimson red.
"NOW!"
Gaara sent his sand out to capture Naruto, no, he's not Naruto right now. They were fighting the Kyuubi. The sand slowly wrapped its way around him.
"Gaara be careful! We don't want to hurt Naruto more than he is already!"
"I know, but it's not easy trying to hold him like this, I'm not sure how long I can hold him like this."
Shikamaru ran up next to Gaara, and wrapped Kyuubi-Naruto with his shadow. "I'll do what I can to help. You others hurry up!"
"GUAAAAH!" Shikamaru's shadow slowly started to turn red.
"What! What's going on!"
Temari ran towards Shikamaru. "Get out of there you two!"
Kyuubi-Naruto threw out his arms, breaking the sand and shadow jutsus, sending the two shinobi flying into a nearby rock face. Temari quickly ran to the two shinobi's side, and quickly started to apply a basic medical jutsu to them.
"Pathetic, you think you can stop me with such weak shinobi!"
Two arms suddenly burst out of the ground, grabbing Kyuubi-Naruto's feet, and started pulling him into the ground. The rookie 9 and team Gai surrounded him.
Lee started out towards Kyuubi-Naruto, "Naruto-kun, please stop this. You're stronger than the demon, snap out of it."
"Heh, hehe, HAHAHAHA! You think he can hear you! Soon this bastard child will be dead, and I will be free. Once I'm free, the first thing I'll do is devour all of you. Starting with you." Kyuubi-Naruto looked over towards Sakura, and licked his lips. "You know that he cares about you deeply, even loves you. So that's why I'll eat you first. Then again, maybe not. I should actually thank you."
"What are you talking about?"
"Why because your part of the reason that I am even able to be here right now. You broke the poor childs heart, you hurt him deeply. Always going after the Uchiha, and always being mean to him. He was always happy, always able to shrug off everything the villagers did to him. But when you rejected him, you sent him into a deep depression, and slowly the seal started to weaken. The seal only works when he is happy, when he experiences pure emotions. But thanks to you, you freed me."
"Wh-what..."
"I was only able to come out so far at first. But after the Uchiha boy left, and you had him make that promise, to bring back the love of your life. He lost hope, that was almost the most broken he had ever been. Then, after the fight with the Uchiha boy, after being impaled through the chest by, and actually almost dying when his neck was broken, that's when he lost everything."
"I...I..." Sakura began to cry softly.
"Sakura! Don't listen to him, he's playing with your head!"
"B-but, he's telling the truth, I did do that."
"Ahh, you see, I find that the truth is the most painful thing to use when talking to mortals."
"I was foolish, and I did a lot of mean things to Naruto, but no more. I'm going to take care of Naruto now."
"Heh, pathetic. If you were smart, instead of listening to me, you would have tried to stop me. But you chose to just stand around, all of you, and let the sharingan user's trap go to waste. Mortals are so...pitiful."
Kyuubi-Naruto dug his hands into the ground and chakra exploded from the ground scattering all the shinobi across the forest. He then picked up Kakashi and threw him into Jiraiya, knocking him to the ground.
"Umph! Idiot, what are you doing!"
"Sorry, Jiraiya-sama, but thanks for catching me." Jiraiya threw Kakashi off of him and got up.
Shino quickly recovered and came up behind Kyuubi-Naruto, his bugs quickly beginning to swarm Kyuubi-Naruto, devouring the red chakra. As they did, they slowly burst into flames, until almost all of the bugs that Shino had summoned were nothing but dust.
"Nice try, but I've dealt with your kind before." One of the red tails lashed out wrapping itself around Shino's body, before launching him into a nearby rock.
Neji and Hinata, seeing that he was distracted, quickly activated their Byakugan and ran up to Kyuubi-Naruto to try and close off all of his chakra points. Hinata struck from behind while Neji flashed in front, and they both began to simultaneously strike him. Slowly the Red chakra started to dissipate, and Kyuubi-Naruto lowered his head. Neji and Hinata watched briefly before breathing a sigh of relief.
"Heh, just kidding." Kyuubi-Naruto screamed, a huge burst of chakra exploding from his body knocking the two away. Tenten quickly ran over to address their wounds.
Lee stepped up, and quickly surveyed the situation. The only ones that weren't really injured were him, Sakura, and Ino. But Ino was currently attending to Chouji, who was still injured from all the precious fighting and had gotten re-injured when Kyuubi-Naruto destroyed the surrounding area when he escaped from Kakashi's trap.
Sakura stood, watching hesitantly, not really knowing what to do.
"Sakura-san, please, do not worry. I will stop Naruto-kun for you." Sakura turned as if to say thank you, but instead just remained silent. Lee then assumed a stance that Sakura was all too framiliar with.
"Hachimon!" (Eight Gates) chakra slowly started to seep around Lee's body. Kyuubi-Naruto just watched as if amused.
"This should be interesting, well, hurry up then."
"Initial gate, open!" Chakra began to pour out of Lee's body at a rapid pace now. Lee slowly started to raise his head. "Heal gate, open!" the Chakra began to spin, kicking up rocks and dirt around him, Lee's muscles and veins started to expand. "Life Gate, open!" the Chakra began to spin violently, Lee's muscles bulged, his skin starting to change color.
Kyuubi-Naruto watched with a smirk, Sakura noticed, almost as if he were excited about Lee's transformation.
"Harm gate, open!"
'Well, he won't be smiling for much longer, not after Lee finishes this.' Sakura smiled, watching Lee, though she hated to think about how much this will injure Naruto.
"LIMIT GATE, OPEN!" Chakra exploded, engulfing the area, as Lee took his stance once again, ready to attack.
"What, that's all. Surely you can open more gates than that...well then, come and get me." Kyuubi-Naruto just smirked.
Lee locked eyes with Kyuubi-Naruto, "Five is all I'll need..." Lee quickly disappeared and began to pummel his foe.
Sakura watched as Lee beat upon Kyuubi-Naruto, and was shocked to see that Kyuubi-Naruto wasn't trying to fight back. In fact, he was smiling. Suddenly all that Jiraya said came back to her.
The Kyuubi is trying to rip it's way out of Naruto...That's why it isn't healing him.
Sakura looked up as Lee was preparing his attack, realizing that the Kyuubi is using Lee's attack to escape from Naruto's body.
Lee grabbed Kyuubi-Naruto, the tape from his arms and legs wrapping themselves around Kyuubi-Naruto's body. The tape starting to burn from the Kyuubi's chakra.
"FINAL LOTUS!" Lee's started to beat Kyuubi-Naruto, thrusting his body at dangerous speeds towards the ground.
"LEE STOP! KYUUBI'S USING YOUR ATTACK TO ESCAPE FROM NARUTO!" Lee hesitated at her word and using the last of his chakra to move in front of Kyuubi-Naruto, and knock him out of the way. Lee struck the ground hard, and Kyuubi-Naruto flipped and landed gingerly on the ground a fair distance away. Sakura quickly ran over to Lee to heal his wounds.
"Stupid bitch, you would ruin a good thing now wouldn't you." Kyuubi-Naruto smirked at the kunoichi before turning his attention towards the only two opponents left.
"Well Tsunade, looks like it's up to us." Jiraiya turned to look at Tsunade and saw that she had already rushed at Kyuubi-Naruto. "God, when she gets mad, she acts just like Naruto."
Jiraiya rushed in after Tsunade, and the two repeatedly exchanged blows with the beast. Tsunade throwing punches, and the Kyuubi blocking them, and Jiraiya following with blows of his own. Kyuubi-Naruto quickly retreated and stared at the two Sannin in front of him.
"We need to end this soon, I don't think Naruto's body will last much longer."
"You two are quite powerful. I'm having trouble keeping up with you in my current state. You're lucky, if I were free I would kill you with the flick of one tail."
"Tsunade, calm down. He's trying to make you angry."
"Well, it's working. And I'm not angry, I'M PISSED!"
"Calm down, we don't want to hurt Naruto. We just need to hold him down long enough so I can use the seal on him."
"Right, well, lets go get him."
Jiraiya started to form hand seals as Tsunade rushed the Kyuubi. "Doton: Yo Mi Numa" (Earth Element: Yellow Spring Swamp) The ground around Naruto's feet transformed into a swamp causing the Kyuubi's feet to stick into it. Tsunade flew above the Kyuubi's head, and delivered a powerful blow. Kyuubi-Naruto tried to block it, but it ended up knocking him back into the swamp, completely immersing him in the swamp. Tsunade and Jiraiya landed at his side.
"Well, that should do it, now Jiraiya, hurry and use the seal so we can get out of here. The rain is really starting to get to me."
"Jiraiya reached into his jacket to pull out the seal...but couldn't find it. "Damn, where did I put it. Oh, shit, I gave it to Sakura."
"Oh, too bad, it was a nice try though." Fire started to rise from the Kyuubi's body, slowly burning the swamp around him, and the Kyuubi slowly started to peel his way out of the swamp.
"Dammit!" Tsunade lunged at the Kyuubi, only to be knocked back by one of it's tails. Jiraiya quickly stepped in the way and caught Tsunade as she sped away from the Kyuubi. The two skid across the ground and finally came to a stop at the edge of the clearing.
"That's all, hmmm, how disappointing. And here I thought they wanted to save the poor child. Heh...HAHAHAHA! Well, time to be freed from this hell!"
Kyuubi-Naruto began to form a Rasengan in both hands. And slowly raised his hands, and noticed that Sakura was slowly walking towards him.
"Naruto, stop, please."
"Come to get a first row seat have you, well, have fun watching him die."
Sakura lunged at Kyuubi-Naruto and wrapped her arms around him. "NO! Naruto! Snap out of it...please...don't leave me! I Love You!" Sakura tightly shut her eyes as she waited for what happened. She could feel the rain falling on her face, but noticed that this rain was warm unlike the rest that was falling. She slowly opened her eyes and was met by to deep blue eyes, tears streaming from them.
"SaKurA-ChaN...I-I LoVe You toO..." Sakura gripped him tighter as he passed out.
(A/N): Well, they finally said they love each other. The next chapter will be the beginning of the actual NaruSaku-ness. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. As always, please Review and tell me what you thought, and maybe what to do for later chapters, you know, the usual stuff. Well, I'll update as soon as I can, but until then, I wish all my readers a Merry Christmas, and hope that you all have a safe and satisfying Christmas as well. Peace to you all.
