'I swear those guys better be alive when I get back.' Naruto continued sprinting after Sasuke. He had been fighting against a bone user when Rock Lee showed up. Although he didn't want to leave the fight, the green clad shinobi insisted he had it under control.
Over looking a large valley Naruto spotted Sasuke channeling dark energy. "What I want to know is how'd you know where that was." The Demon Lord asked as he approached.
"Darkness seeks out itself." The curse mark on Sasuke flared up, releasing massive amounts of chakra. "The orb started to glow faintly.
"You release him it will be the greatest mistake of your life!" Naruto yelled. Though it was no use, the orb shattered. "Fuck."
"I have been reborn!" A cloud of dark smoke appeared behind Sasuke, bringing forth the demon. Dark grey skin, large bat like wings, solid black eyes with a red dot in the center, a foot long horn on the forehead, tattered grey pants covered the lower half off the body.
"Ruin. Can't say it a pleasure." Kyuubi exited Naruto's body, ready to face the demon.
"Kyuubi, my it's been a long time. How are things sense I've been gone? Still plenty left to pillage, villages to burn?" Ruin had a sadistic smile. "Ah my eager young host. What a pleasure to meet you."
"What say we kill these fools?" Sasuke pointed to Naruto and Kyuubi. Naruto held his hands straight out to his sides, and Kyuubi's mouth was wide open. Bright red glow came from Kyuubi's mouth and orbs appeared in Naruto's hands.
"Yes, lets kill them." Naruto brought his hands together in front of him. Kyuubi and Naruto fired a pure beam of energy. Sasuke held up his palm and when the energy hit a large explosion kicked up a lot of dust and debris.
"God I hope that killed him." Naruto was nervous and he had a feeling it didn't work.
The dust cleared. Sasuke had gone up another curse mark level. Silver hair, and hand like wings from his back. Ruin was just a transparent figure behind him, his movements mirrors Sasuke's. "Damn, they're synched." Kyuubi cursed, going back inside.
"Oh that's not good." Sasuke flew towards Naruto, charging a Chidori. Naruto used the same attack. The attacks collided and lightning arced down from above their heads. "Sasuke, why are you doing this? Is this still about your brother?"
"Shut up! You know nothing about why I'm doing this!" Sasuke kicked Naruto away. "I watched you get power, power I deserved! I was given this power, and I'll get more from him. Just watch. I'll kill all who get in my way!"
Naruto attacked, duel wielding the Frost Sword and Berial's blade. Sasuke dodged the first blade, but the second cut across his chest and burned him. The Uchiha stuck his fist into the ground, and pulled up a large sword that seemed to be made of the earth itself. Ruin, mimicking his actions, now held a sword as well. "You'll go with that bastard!? The man who attacked our village, with every intention of watching it burn!"
Naruto shook with anger.
Flashback
Naruto stood atop the Hokage tower with Ino. "Well," The female blonde sighed. "It's better than it could've been."
"Yeah but it's still gone to shit. The old man is dead, we lost four council members and a number of our shinobi." Naruto sighed as well. "Let's not forget the casualties the Sons of Light suffered for helping us."
"How's Konohamaru doing?" Ino asked.
"Poor kid." The Demon Lord shook his head. "Crying his eyes out when I left him. He's with Asuma-sensei right now." Naruto gripped the guard railing tighter.
Ino put a hand on her lover's shoulder. "I know the two of you were close, how are you doing?" Ino felt him shutter and brought him into a hug. "You don't need to hide it from me, don't worry."
Naruto started shedding tears. He had lost a major guiding force in his life. Though he had expected the Third to die he hadn't imagined being this soon. "Thank you."
"Don't worry, I'd probably do the same thing. You're only human, emotions are natural." Ino softly kissed him. "Feeling better love?"
"Yeah." Naruto wiped his eyes. "Next time I see that snake, I'll rip his tongue out and strangle him with it, bet on it."
"That's probably the only bet Tsunade-sensei would win at." The young couple laughed lightly.
End Flashback
"You join him I'll have no choice but to kill you." Naruto rushed bringing the flaming sword down. Sasuke raised his, blocking it. Naruto kept swinging his blades, forcing Sasuke onto his knees. Unable to predict Naruto's moves because his Sharingan couldn't track him, Sasuke had to think of a plan. But he didn't think fast enough, Naruto unsummoned his swords and moved closer to Sasuke to deliver a strong punch.
Sasuke flew back, his sword shattering once he lost grip. Using his deformed wings the new demon container rocketed into the air. "Not bad Kyuubi. You have a strong host." Ruin spoke through Sasuke.
"Pyro, little help here." A pair of flaming bird like wings ripped through the back of Naruto's shirt, lifting him into the air. "I don't like doing this cause I'll have a major burning sensation my back tomorrow, but for you I'll just deal with it." The pair charged again, Chidori ready.
One cut up Naruto's side and it slowly started to heal. 'We gotta get our healing speed up.'
Sasuke had a large gash on his chest. "Grand Fireball Jutsu!"
"He never learns." Naruto slammed his fists together, covering himself in a large dome of ice. The dome cracked and burst open when the flames subsided.
"Behind you!" Kyuubi warned.
"Chidori!" Sasuke slammed his fist through Naruto's back.
"Well fuck," Sasuke removed his arm. "that's not good." Naruto dropped onto his knees. "I'll admit that stung a little." He was loosing blood fast, his vision fading. Naruto knew he could survive this, it just hurt and passing out didn't seem like a good idea.
Stepped past Naruto, his back toward the blonde. "It's been fun dobe. But it's time I end this trivial game." Sasuke drew a kunai.
"It ain't over yet." Naruto quickly stood up, placing his right foot on Sasuke's back he grabbed his wings. With the last bit of his strength he ripped off the wings. Because Sasuke was synched to Ruin his wings got ripped off as well. "How's that feel." Naruto said before passing out to Sasuke's screams of pain.
"Ow, my chest hurts." Naruto groaned as he sat up.
"Welcome to the world of consciousness." Naruto saw perhaps the greatest thing he could believe. Ino was hovering over him, but more importantly she had ramen with her. "Here, figured you'd be hungry."
"You always know the best cures." Naruto chuckled, but clutched his chest in pain.
"Take it easy, I had to patch up a big gaping hole there. Sure it was no problem for you because you were just laying there sleeping." Ino huffed. "Some of us actually had to try. Just be glad I love you and want to keep you around."
"I love you to." Naruto pause for a moment, the memories of the ordeal coming back to him. "How are the others, did they all make it back ok?"
"They're fine. Chouji and Neji were brought here in critical condition. Shikamaru, Kiba and Lee were better off thanks to Gaara and his siblings." Ino answered.
"Gaara's here?" Naruto had not seen the One tail container since the incident, he was curious as to how he was handling things with his demon.
"So Sasuke got away huh?" The slug sanin burst into a room upon hearing Naruto's voice from the hallway. "Tell me what happened."
So Naruto recounted the entire event. "Then I ripped his wings off and passed out. He must have crawled off before he passed out as well. A demon like Ruin, who was once human, is weakened by loosing it's wings. A massive power drain like that, surely he figured best to get away before I got back up."
"Is there anyway for Ruin to regain his powers?" Tsunade inquired.
"Kyuubi." Naruto ordered the fox out.
"All of us know of a way for Ruin to regain his abilities. He's going to try to find his sword, the Immortal Blade." Kyuubi paced around the room.
"Well that gives us a bit of time." Naruto spoke up. "Orochimaru wouldn't possibly let Sasuke leave by himself for a long time, and Ruin wouldn't want anyone else to know of the sacred location."
"So how long do you have before they make a move?" Ino asked.
"That, my sweet, is something that even I don't know. But that's irrelevant," Naruto climbed out of bed and reached for his clothes, "because we don't even know the location of the sword."
"Well that's just another thing you'll have to do on your mission then." Tsunade said before leaving to finish her work.
The days for Naruto were getting harder to bare. Each passing second was another tick closer to his departure. As much as he knew what he was going to do was important, it didn't make it any easier. If it was six months ago, leaving wouldn't have affected him. But now, he has something here. He has respect, respect of his fellow shinobi.
He now has love, something he wanted when he was younger but was denied. Jiraya and Tsunade, while weird, were the closest thing he could call parents. Kakashi, Iruka, Gai, Asuma, Ibiki, his weird uncles. Kurenai and Anko were his strict and psychotic, in Anko's case, aunts. Then there was Ino, brings a tear to his eye whenever the thought of having to leave her behind enters his mind.
But he wasn't the only one to be leaving loved ones behind. Tsunade had been staying late in her office, often with Jiraya there with her. They were talking a lot, getting closer, something that should've happened a long time ago if you asked Jiraya about it.
And there was one that wasn't so obvious to everyone. Mik, the renowned warrior of the light. He was leaving someone he quickly became attached to over the last month. And yesterday he could've sworn he saw Hana Inuzuka leaving a store, that sold supplies for babies. 'Oh that won't end well.' Naruto thought.
Heaving a heavy sigh he leapt off the tower to the ground below. He walked silently to the Yamanaka household. The whole way there people looked at him, whispering about how he failed to bring back the Uchiha. Indeed he did fail but he accepted that fact, he underestimated his opponent and lost. 'It won't happen again.'
Knocking on the door, he was greeted by an ever cheerful Ishima. "Hello Naruto dear." She quickly wrapped the boy in a tight hug.
"Hello, mom." She had insisted he call her that. Inoichi hasn't really come around to that yet but Naruto felt they were getting closer over the month.
"So are you ready for tomorrow?" Ishima asked her future son.
"Yeah, I'm ready. Just don't have to like it though." Naruto moved further into the house. Immediately he was hugged by Ino and kissed. "Hey there." He was invited over for dinner, kind of like a last minute celebration for him.
"About time you got here." She hurriedly pulled him to the dinner table. Talk of everything but tomorrow filled the household. Inoichi telling stories about missions he went on. Ishima, while being her sweet and caring self, really didn't have to bring up Naruto's return and talking about how many grandkids the two would make her. Inoichi had shot a glare at Naruto and his wife. Naruto just looked to the ground, face red with embarrassment.
"Don't worry we got a long time before that, right love?" Ino patted Naruto's shoulder, getting him to look up.
"Yeah, a long time." Naruto laughed nervously.
Stretching, the young blonde got out of bed. Turning off the alarm, then taking a quick shower, fresh clothes and went downstairs for breakfast. A simple breakfast; toast; eggs and juice. Out the door in under an hour. Racing through the streets heading for Konoha's gates the blonde thinks about everything that has happened in the last five months. Smiling at the thought Ino ran faster.
"Naruto!" She shouted and nearly tackled him to the ground. The large gathering of people laughed at them.
"Damn I'm going to miss you." With complete disregard for everyone else the two passionately kissed.
"Hey take it easy you two." Jiraya interrupted the two. Many were thankfully, anymore of that and the blondes were bound to start going at it right then and there. "Where's our great mystical holy leader?"
"I'm going to miss you." The young light warrior stood in front of the door to the Inuzuka compound, the young heiress holding him tightly.
"I know. Come back safe alright?" She kissed him lightly before pushing him toward the gates.
"I'll be perfectly fine. Me, Jiraya and Naruto, how much safer could it possibly get?" Hana had to admit that those three would be a powerful force to deal with. "Naruga!" Mik's partner bounded down the street and to his side.
Hana watched as they walked away. She had a sad smile and put a hand over her stomach. "Come back to us soon."
"There you are. What took you?" Mik didn't respond to Naruto. He just looked out the gates for a minute. "Hey it ain't easy for us either."
"I know, I know. Ugh this is not what I pictured when Vanthis made the proposition to become allies with Konoha almost a year ago." Mik sighed. "Well, no use standing around right?" Mik adjusted the sword on his back.
"Guess it's that time." Jiraya stepped away from Tsunade, who up until that point had been on the verge of tears.
Naruto stepped up to the other side of Mik, Ino crying overdramatically in the background. "That is not helping the situation!" Naruto yelled. "This is serious."
She stopped. "Sorry." Kissing him once more she stepped aside to let the others say their good byes. The other rookies were there, along with their senseis, Iruka, Shizune, Konohamaru and his troop.
"Well then." Mik walked out the gates. "Lets get this shit started!"
I know some of you wanted longer chapters. I do to but for a chapter like this it's kind of impossible. But upcoming chapters will be longer I can guarantee it.
