Whirlpool's Rebirth
I don't own Naruto and Katsuo Uesugi belongs to Trife while Satoru Yasuhiro is my OC
Author's note: Yeah sorry for those of you that wanted to see Kiba get chewed out or something. If you want I could make an omake for it in the next chapter. I had originally
Chapter 9: The End To One Problem
Today wasn't starting off good at all, then again how could it? A few days ago Tsunade had informed him that one of their council members was coming to Uzu and was hoping to become acquainted with him. This wouldn't usually bother him, but the person that was coming was Danzo Shimura. Naruto remembered several times when he was a kid in the Hokage's office that Danzo and the Third Hokage would meet. Any time this happened one could practically cut the tension with a knife. He never did like the man as a kid and if what Tsunade told him about the council member was true, then he knew that this meeting was anything but friendly.
For some reason nothing was going right for him today. Danzo would be arriving at some point today, Hinata would not be able to visit soon due to a clan ceremony, and one of his most hated events just started and would last another week. Staring at the towers upon towers of paper work could mean only one thing. Tazuna started his vacation.
Looking through the paper work made Naruto really appreciate how hard Tazuna worked for him. He couldn't believe the number of duplicated paper work that was submitted by different council members but at the same time asked for the same thing. At one point Naruto had thought about simply creating a stamp that he could make the process faster. This had been a good idea till Karen asked him how he would prevent forgery. Luckily this statement gave birth to another idea. The last thing Naruto needed was his council members thinking they could try to go behind his back. He went back to signing the documents but had a stamp made that he could infuse chakra into. The idea was to create an invisible seal that would only become visible when his chakra was channeled into the paper. So far this had worked well and he had even prevented a few forgeries from being submitted.
Going through the tons of paper work Naruto had decided not to use his shadow clone. After years of using the technique he had discovered the pros and cons. The pros were that the clones created were exact copies of you. The cons... were that they were exact copies of you. Shadow clones were great when you wanted to do something but just needed more people. But if the thing you were planning to do was something you didn't want to do then the clones wouldn't want to do it either and in many cases would out right dispel themselves.
"Hey get the hell out of my way."
Naruto brightened up at hearing Tayuya's voice. If any one could provide a decent distraction from this work it was her. The door opened to reveal Tayuya holding yet another stack of papers. The tired Kage was tempted to get up and kick her out along with the papers.
"Where the fuck is all this paper work coming from!" asked Tayuya as she began looking at the towers.
Naruto let out a sigh. "Tazuna is taking vacation, so where he normally filters through all this crap I have to do so now."
Tayuya let out a scoff. "Sucks to be you right now. I don't see why you don't hire else to go through this paper work. It'd be at least a fucking D rank mission to at least get rid of all the damn duplicates."
Hearing this caused Naruto to raise one of his eyebrows. "You know that's not such a bad idea."
Tayuya gave him a blank look as if she couldn't believe he was even considering the idea. Deciding it was just better to ignore the comment, she sat down the papers before laying on one of the couches. She would stick around to at least see how this plan went. And if possible laugh at the poor saps that ended up with this job.
Naruto called for one of his Anbu and sent him off to gather some of the Genin teams. After some time a Genin team walked in with their Jonin sensei prepared to take on a mission.
"Glad to see you have responded. I need a team to perform a D rank mission." said Naruto.
The Genin all groaned and mumbled about wanting to have a higher ranked mission.
Before Naruto continued he revealed a evil smile. "Oh I am so glad you feel that way because this is no ordinary mission. In fact this mission can be quite dangerous for your mental health and could possibly drive you insane."
The Jonin sensei looked curiously at his Uzukage while the Genin all got excited at the prospect of getting a challenging mission.
"Well I'm glad to see that you all can't wait for this mission because you've been looking at it the entire time." said Naruto.
"Huh." said the trio of Genin
Naruto covered his mouth to hide his chuckle. "Oh yes. You see your mission is to go through this paper work and sort out all duplicate papers."
The only thing that could be heard in the room for a few seconds was Tayuya's vain attempts to hold her laughter in. As if on signal all three Genin started complaining while Tayuya's laughter could be heard above all of them. The Jonin quickly got his team to quiet down before addressing his leader.
"Sir as you can see my team is highly against doing this mission and I for one wouldn't want to risk my students' mental health."
Tayuya began laughing again despite nearly being out of breathe.
Naruto looked a little depressed. "Well I understand, you are dismissed."
The Jonin gave a quick bow before preparing to usher his team out of the room.
As he watched them leave his face went back to his smile as he spoke. "It's just such a shame."
The three Genin and their sensei stopped and turned.
"I mean this mission would pay twice the normal D rank mission and would go down as a A rank in all of your records, but if you don't want to do it... I guess I'll just have to find another team to."
Before he could finish his sentence the trio began protesting again. Smiling the entire time, Naruto began giving them instructions on what he wanted them to do before sitting back down in his chair and watching. It was rather fun to watch the Genin go through the paper work and get frustrated over how idiotic or unnecessary some of the requests that were written on the papers. A few hours later the Genins and their sensei left looking as if they had spent the entire time stuck in an insane asylum.
Naruto smiled as he looked down at the three small stacks of paper that had been placed neatly at his desk.
"Well that worked out better than I thought it would, but what are you going to do next time. It's not like you can just keep fucking handing out double pay and high marks in records repeatedly just to make paper easier work for you." said Tayuya.
Naruto nodded at what Tayuya said. She was right, he couldn't keep doing that. Looking down at the large pile of papers that had been dumped on the floor he got up and created shadow clone. Transforming the clone into a large bag, he began putting the trash in it. Afterwards he had one of his Anbu gather the council members. One way or another he wasn't going to be dealing with this again.
The council members waited for their Uzukage to arrive. Some bickered about him being late to a meeting he called for while others were curious to the nature of the meeting. The door swung open and Naruto made his way to the long rectangular table. He didn't bother sitting down and instead dumped the contents he had in his bag. One of the council members picked up one of the many pages and gave it a quick look.
"Don't worry everyone this meeting will be quick. Now as I'm sure some of you can tell theses papers are most of the forms you have been sending me." said Naruto pointing to the large pile.
The civilian side looked at the paper work confused and slightly worried while the shinobi side hid their thoughts from their faces.
"The fact that most of these documents ask or talk about the same thing is nothing but a waste. All these papers are nothing but duplicates. Usually Tazuna deals with all the civilian paper work and only sends the ones that he thinks need my signature, but right now he is enjoying his vacation while I am stuck dealing with this mess. Now I am going to give you two choices either you can learn to communicate with each other and discover that you have common goals." said Naruto pausing to allow the men and women think about the option he gave them.
"Or I can get rid of the use of these forms permanently and we can have mandatory meetings where we'll discuss improvements and changes that need to be made in our village. I really don't care what option you choose because as far as I'm concerned neither me nor Tazuna will deal with this much paper work again."
As he finished his statement he walked out of the room slamming the door behind him. It took him a few seconds to realize he was still holding onto the shadow clone bag. After dispelling the clone he began making his way back to his office.
Opening his door he looked at Karin as she stood patiently waiting for him.
"Naruto Danzo just arrived."
He didn't even try to hide his agitation. "Yeah that's just great. I finish dealing with our council members and now I have to deal with another village's."
"What was our council doing." asked Karin curiously.
Naruto's reply was quick. "Killing trees."
Karin gave a small chuckle before leaving to bring Danzo in.
The Uzukage and the Konoha council member simply stared at one another while silence filled the air. Danzo wore two sets of robes, one white and the other black. The black one was worn over the white one and covered everything except for one of his arms. Various bandages could be seen covering up most of his right arm and right side of his face. The man's age showed with his creases on his face and the on eye that wasn't covered in bandages seemed barely open.
With him were two ninjas. One of them was obviously an Aburame as his body was completely covered except for his mouth and hair. Instead of a hood he wore a black mask that had a Konoha head band along with glasses built in to hide his eyes. Over his black shirt and pants he wore an open short sleeved black jacket with red straps over the shoulders. A red sash was wrapped around the man's waist and a black cloth that was split down the middle went down to his knees and circled around his waist. Whether the black cloth was some form of apron or apart of the shirt, Naruto didn't know.
The other ninja that had accompanied Danzo was an enigma to Naruto. He had long auburn hair with the back tied in a high pony tail. Looking at the man's face reminded Naruto of the Yamenaka, but instead of light blue eyes the man had yellow. He had a brown short kimono on with black pants. Over the brown kimono was a identical jacket like the Aburame and over his forehead was a black Konoha head band.
Seeing as the old council member wasn't going to start Naruto decided to do it himself. Whether the silence was a show of respect or insult Naruto didn't know.
"So what brings you to Uzu? I know we have nice scenery here but I doubt you came all the way here just for that."
Danzo had stayed silent a few seconds longer than necessary. "Well I was hoping to discuss a few things with you. Such as our current alliance agreements and other such things."
Naruto narrowed his eyes. "I believe that is something your Hokage should do."
Once again Danzo allowed a few seconds of silence before continuing on.
"Yes normally that would be the case, but lately with Akatsuki causing trouble she has been far to busy to bother with such things as ... politics. Me and other council members have been hoping to further increase relationships between Konoha and Uzu."
Naruto was beginning to see why Tsunade didn't like this man. Already he could tell that Danzo liked to over step his boundaries and go behind others backs. Hiding his dislike Naruto decided to continue on with the discussion despite the small twinge in the back of his head.
"I guess as a fellow Kage I can understand this, so what exactly about our agreement would you like to ... improve."
Naruto didn't know why but the soft smile on Danzo's face bothered him. He didn't sense any ill intent or mischief from the smile, but something didn't seem right. He decided that it was nothing but ninja paranoia playing tricks on him.
The two talked back an forth for several hours. Karin and Tayuya had watched both Danzo and his men intently waiting for the first sign to strike if needed. Karin didn't like this. There had been several times that she had sensed that something wasn't right but she couldn't tell what was wrong. If that wasn't enough then the chakra she was sensing from Danzo was just disturbing. It felt like a mixture between three different beings. She recognized several signatures as those of the sharingon in Danzo's bandaged arm along with another she wasn't familiar with.
Then there was the way Naruto was acting, something that had even disturbed Tayuya. Even though Tayuya had hidden it on her face Karin could sense it in her emotions. Danzo had mentioned that he knew that Naruto had defeated Kakazu and was wondering if Naruto would be willing to allow Konoha nins to have a look at the corpse. Naruto had not only done nothing to hide the fact that they still had the body but was even considering the idea.
Several times during the meeting Karin had kept looking towards Naruto and had tried to sense if he was under a genjutsu or something. But every time she did he seemed normal. It was when Danzo asked about Deidara's arm that Tayuya decided to act.
"I have heard rumors that you used one of the Akatsuki member's arm as a bargaining chip with the Tsuchikage. Is this true, and if so were you able to learn anything interesting before handing it over?"
Before Naruto could open his mouth Tayuya slammed her hand on top of his shoulder and sent a pulse of chakra through him. At first Naruto seemed bothered by the slap on his shoulder but out of no where his face contorted into rage.
He directed his new found rage at Danzo. "Get out! Get out and get off my island now!"
A sneer appeared on Danzo's face before he quickly went back to his passive look.
"It appears we are no longer welcome here, it's really a shame that our two villages couldn't become closer."
"GET OUT NOW!" yelled Naruto.
Doing as he was told Danzo rose from his chair and made his way out of the office followed closely by his two ninja. The second they were no longer in sight Naruto called for his Anbu. Four masked ninja appeared immediately and Naruto turned to Karin.
"Were you able to sense anything strange about him?"
Karin gave a quick nod and went to explain what she sensed but was cut off by Naruto.
"Good, Write a very detailed report about what you sensed and then have Katsuo deliver the message to Konoha the second your done, make sure to include what happened here."
After saying that Naruto turned and ordered his ninja to follow him.
"What are you going to do?" asked Tayuya.
"I'm going to make sure that bastard leaves." stated Naruto.
Danzo and his men were walking at a slow pace towards the docks when his orange haired ninja leaned towards him and whispered.
"Sir we are being followed."
The old council member nodded. "I figured as much Fu. It's not like they would just trust us to leave of our own accord."
The orange haired ninja shook his head. "No sir there is someone else following us."
Not liking this new unknown, Danzo gave the command to take to the trees and increase their speed.
Naruto and his four Anbu had stuck to Danzo's group like glue and had made no attempt to hide their presence. When he saw the thought to be crippled man leap up into the trees and take off he instantly became suspicious. He filed away the thought of the man's fake frailty for later thoughts and focused more so on the reason why Danzo started running.
The man knew that Naruto couldn't attack him despite the genjutsu that had been placed on him without causing strife between Uzu and Konoha. So why was it that Danzo now felt it necessary to speed up.
His answer soon appeared in his peripheral vision when he saw a black blur with red clouds dash off towards Danzo.
"Alright I want you four to continue shadowing Danzo while I deal with our new guest."
Without a word the four each gave a sign of understanding and sped up to catch up with Danzo while Naruto veered off to the new threat.
The Akatsuki cloaked man suddenly jumped back as a giant shuriken buried itself in his path. It didn't take long for the owner of the weapon to become known as Naruto landed and reclaimed his weapon. With a quick jerk the weapon was free and brandished in front of him as if it were a shield.
"What are you doing here?" Naruto demanded.
With his Sharingon active, Sasuke leveled a glare towards Naruto.
"Out of my way, I have not come for you."
Naruto let out a scoff. "Your clothes say different. I didn't think you would stoop so low, I guess most Uchiha are just meant to be murderers and thieves.
His glare grew as he listened to Naruto. "You have no clue what your talking about. Nothings has changed. You couldn't understand me when we were just genin and you can't now. Despite the pain you've felt it's nothing compared to mine. Now get out of my way!"
"Your right, nothing has changed. Your still the same arrogant, self righteous, ass you were back then. You think your the only one who has suffered. Your only right about yourself. The rest of us have changed and for the better. While you have been running around chasing your revenge I have been achieving much higher ambitions. Tell me Sasuke, what have you achieved in the years since our fight at the Valley Of The End other than the death of your brother? And why haven't you returned to Konoha?"
Sasuke had chuckled darkly at Naruto's speech and questions. " Your achievements mean nothing to me. And as far as Konoha, I would sooner burn it to the ground than return there now that I know the truth."
Naruto looked puzzled at Sasuke's statement. "What are you talking about?"
"I don't have time for this. Move out of my way or I will kill you!" said Sasuke.
"Akatsuki don't kill jinchuriki, they capture them."
Sasuke did nothing to hide his agitation. "I don't care about their goals. All I care about is my vengeance and killing all who try to stop me."
In the blink of an eye Sasuke dashed towards Naruto with his sword drawn and lightning chakra dancing on the blade. Naruto simply blocked the attack with a small shift of his now wind infused shuriken. Both teens stayed deadlocked as they stared at one another.
In Konoha
Sakura was boxing up the last of her belongings as she prepared to move into a new apartment. She reached for the last item which was a picture frame. The picture was one she and her old team had taken. She studied the picture carefully. In the middle of the picture was her while Sasuke was on her left looking off to the side uninterested and Naruto was on her left looking annoyed as Kakashi ruffled his hair while the picture was taken. Looking at the picture she couldn't believe how happy she looked back then.
The dust on the picture had obscured some of the details and she began wiping it away. The glass cracked and she winced when she accidentally cut herself. She brought the bloodied digit to her face and began healing it. Once she was done with that task she looked back at the picture to see the damage that had been done.
She was mortified when she saw that the glass had cracked in a way that had perfectly separated each person in the glass from the others. Not only that but the blood from her finger had fallen and splattered over Naruto and Sasuke making it look as if they were covered in their own blood. Sakura quickly removed the picture and wiped off the little blood that had sunk through the cracks.
She wasn't superstitious, but she didn't want to think about what the picture could have meant.
At the same time Sakura was packing to move, Hinata was at Naruto's old apartment laying on the bed. She had come here several times when she wanted to be alone. In time it had become her sanctuary and she always came here when she missed Naruto. Turning her head she took a long sigh and inhaled Naruto's scent from the pillow. Whether his scent still lingered around or if it was just wishful thinking she didn't know, but the act alone made her feel better.
Though it didn't help the yearning that only grew with each act that she did in the apartment. She mentally cursed as she recalled how Kiba had interrupted her and Naruto. He had tried on several occasions to apologize, but the teenage Hyuga wouldn't forgive him. Maybe in time, but right now the incident was still fresh and her longing was not making things any better.
Luckily for Kiba the Hyuga council was providing a nice distraction or at least the half that was against her and Naruto having a relationship. It was stupid that she had been forced to stay due to a Hyuga ceremony that didn't even require her presence.
'When will they learn that their doing nothing but bringing us closer together.'
Yes the distance apart had been annoying and the lack of time together had grown frustrating. But that only made them that much more happy to see each other. It had also made them enjoy each minute with each other as if it were their last. The festival was a prime example of this as they became inseparable. Once they had been alone they were prepared to show each other how much their love meant.
She ignored the small pain she felt when she thought about how they hadn't been able to complete the process. Instead of lingering on that she moved on to their departure and the three words she had longed to hear. Closing her eyes, she allowed herself to relive the moment that lived up to her happiest moment.
A sharp noise to her side woke her from her memory. Looking over she saw Naruto's team picture, the way the cracks appeared on the picture worried her.
Back in Uzu
Sasuke grinned victoriously as the lightning from his hand danced out of the hole in Naruto's chest. Taking in the environment around him Sasuke couldn't help but laugh at how ironic things were. Their fight had moved to a rocky area with a waterfall nearby and he had just plunged his Chidori into Naruto, a scene all to familiar to their fight at the Valley Of The End.
Naruto gagged a few seconds before a spray of blood shot out of his mouth and covered Sasuke's still embedded arm.
"This ... is the third time you've hit me... with that-" another vomit of blood poured out of Naruto's mouth. "attack."
Sasuke's grin slowly turned into a scowl when he sensed power gathering in Naruto.
"It's also the third time you missed my heart!"
As soon as Naruto finished his sentence he thrust his hand forward, an incomplete Rasengan spinning in it. Having been prepared for an attack Sasuke leapt back avoiding the attack, only to be sent spiraling from the after shock of the attack. His instinct was the only thing that saved him from breaking his skull onto the ground as he used his hands to bounce away.
Turning around he could see the red chakra flowing off of Naruto and his wound already fully healed. When the red chakra dissipated Sasuke took it as a moment of weakness and sprung to attack. Unfortunately for him Naruto had withdrawn the Fox's chakra only needing it to heal his injury. In mid charge one of Sasuke's hands went forward and a web of lightning shot from it towards Naruto. A single hand sign from Naruto was all it took to form a water clone from the water fall and have it intercept the attack. The steam created from the water clone was the perfect distraction for Naruto to rush through and reengage Sasuke before he had another chance to perform another jutsu.
Reaching behind himself Sasuke cursed as he remembered that Naruto's wind powered shuriken had destroyed his sword and was forced to use his fist. As the two clashed they couldn't help but think how hard the fight had become and how the other was preventing them from using some of their better techniques.
'If I could only get him with a genjutsu. But I can't seem to make eye contact with him.' thought Sasuke.
'Damn it I can't use some of my more powerful jutsu or he could just copy it and, my ice and boil jutsu are just too damn draining for this type of fight.'
A quick burst of lightning from Sasuke's body had forced Naruto from trading blows and had given the Uchiha enough time to form a few hand seals. Recognizing the hand seals Naruto formed his own as Sasuke launched a Grand Fire ball jutsu at him. Water from a nearby river shot out surroundeding Naruto and froze in place forming a hardened barrier. Sasuke, who had used the fire ball to hide his movements stopped when the smoke clear and saw Naruto performing another set of hand seals. The ice barrier that had protected him soon grew spikes aimed towards Sasuke.
Seconds later the large spikes had shot off. Sasuke pumped chakra to his legs and used the burst from his feet to fly towards the sky. While mid air he formed the necessary hand seals for his Chidori and allowed gravity to let him descend on Naruto. Seeing this Naruto sent another barrage of ice spikes towards Sasuke, but due to the sun behind him Naruto's aim was off. With no other alternative, Naruto abandoned his barrier and leapt back in time to watch Sasuke plow through it and dart towards him with his Chidori still active. When Naruto had been forced onto the lake created from the waterfall he smirked and simply stopped.
When Sasuke got within three feet of Naruto he thrust his attack only to watch as Naruto disappeared before his eyes. He searched around franticly till he found Naruto. Using his eyes he saw that Naruto was channeling more chakra to his feet than normal. Trying to copy the technique Sasuke found that he could move faster across the water by doing so. But Naruto proved to be far better with the technique as he once again disappeared out of Sasuke's view except this time landed a few blows. Trying time and time again Sasuke just couldn't seem to catch Naruto. Getting desperate Sasuke formed a few hand seals after jumping out of the water and attempted to electrocute the lake.
Seeing even the slightest spark alerted Naruto to Sasuke's plan and he once more disappeared. A mere second before finishing the jutsu, Sasuke had been kicked back into the lake. Attempting to finish the fight, Naruto never saw the hand seal Sasuke performed. Naruto realized his careless action when Two Sasukes emerged from the lake, one below him holding his legs in place and one behind him with his arms under Naruto's arm pits and locked together behind his neck effectively prevent him from attacking either of the two holding him.
'Bastard copied my water clone jutsu.'
Naruto watched as the real Sasuke got up and slowly turned to face him.
"I told you before I don't have time for this. This ends now!"
Horror struck Naruto as he watched Sasuke's eyes transform from it's three tomoe Sharingon into a new Mangekyo Sharingon. The new form seemed to be a red design of three intersecting eclipses with a black background. Naruto didn't have time to think on how the eyes looked as he ran through a long set of hand seals when he saw Sasuke's left eye begin to bleed. Sasuke unleashed his Amaterasu just as water sprung up beneath Naruto and surrounded him. The black flames hit Naruto and the two clones in mere seconds as Sasuke watched coldly as the flames burned.
Confident that Naruto had perished he turned around and prepared to look for Danzo. A few splashes alerted him and he spun around to see Naruto a few feet away from the still burning flames. Naruto quickly tore off the top of his kimono and leather armor to rid himself of the few black flames that had attached themselves to his clothes.
"H-How did you? That was a direct hit there's no way you could have dodged my attack!" yelled Sasuke as he stared at Naruto in disbelief.
Taking a second to ensure that there were not anymore flames on him, Naruto didn't immediately respond.
"Your right, I didn't fully dodge it."
Without warning Naruto repeated the same hand seals he did just before the Amaterasu hit. Water once again sprung up beneath Naruto except this time Sasuke got to see it latch onto Naruto and quickly freeze. Naruto was covered in a jagged like ice armor from head to toe. His torn clothes hung loosely as the ice only seemed to attach itself to his skin.
"For once you really have something to be proud of. It's the first time anyone has forced me to use my Tundra armor."
Naruto smirked as he saw the look on Sasuke's face and was trying to act over confident to hide the strain his jutsu put on him. It hadn't been long since he created the Tundra armor, but he knew it's ups and downs. The jutsu required an enormous amount of chakra due to the fact that it took both of his ice chakra and his fire chakra to sustain it and perform it safely. Without his fire chakra heating his body he risked giving most of his body frost bite due to the freezing temperatures his armor produced.
In fact if he didn't have the combined efforts of Karen and Hinata he wouldn't have never been able to make the technique battle ready.
He didn't know at first if his Tundra armor would protect him from Amaterasu but it was his only hope. Luckily the ultimate fire jutsu and, in Naruto's opinion, the ultimate ice jutsu only managed to cancel each other out. Now all he hoped for now was that Sasuke didn't figure out the Tundra armor's only other weakness. The fact that he couldn't use any other jutsu while it was active, the concentration needed for him was too much to allow him to.
In a burst of speed Naruto launched across the lake, quickly closing the gap between him and Sasuke. The Uchiha quickly prepared to fire another Amaterasu at Naruto. Seeing the focus on Sasuke's face led Naruto to predict this and changed course just as the black fire erupted next to him. Sasuke tried to follow Naruto's movements, but he was just too fast. Ducking at the last second saved Sasuke's left eye as one of Naruto's jagged fists passed over his head.
Before Sasuke could try to look at him, Naruto jumped over the bent Uchiha and put a bit of distance between them. Sasuke ceased trying to follow Naruto and calmed himself down.
'It looks like I'll have to test it out early.' thought Sasuke
Naruto was preparing to go on the offensive again when Sasuke decided to speak.
"For once you really have something to be proud of. It's the first time anyone has forced me to use my ultimate defense." said Sasuke throwing Naruto's own words back at him.
A purple aura began to slowly build up around Sasuke. At first Naruto thought Sasuke was just simply using his curse mark form, something he had learned a great deal about when Tayuya told him of it. But then the purple aura began to take form into a ribcage like apparition.
"This is my final Mangekyo Sharingon technique. Susanoo."
Naruto wasn't sure if he was supposed to be impressed or not. Though cool looking, it didn't seem like an ultimate defense.
He ran over to Sasuke's left blind spot and threw a kick at the new defense. Other than a few cracks the rib cage seemed unharmed and Sasuke simply gave him an mocking glare.
Naruto jumped over Sasuke so he was positioned in front of him and punched aiming for the glaring opening in the skeletal barrier. Sasuke had been waiting for this however and Naruto's right arm burst into black flames.
On instinct Naruto leapt back and yelped as he saw flames on his arm. He had to refrain himself from using his other arm to grab the burning appendage. Luckily his armor was doing it's job and had kept the flames from touching his skin. Sasuke smirked as he prepared to use one of his eyes to spread the flames.
A few cracking sounds stopped Sasuke from proceeding with his plans. The ice on Naruto's arm fell off, taking the flames with it. Frustration stirred in Sasuke as the bare arm was quickly consumed by the regenerating ice. He didn't like seeing one of his most powerful jutsu made useless, especially with the pain he was now feeling. The combination of his Susanoo and Amaterasu was beginning to become unbearable and his eye sight was quickly disappearing.
This fight had to end soon, this thought ran through both sides minds.
Elsewhere in Uzu
With the Uzu Anbu being distracted by his hidden agents, Danzo made his way towards the fight taking place. When Fu explained the chakra he felt, Danzo quickly realized that Naruto was one of the two fighting, with luck the two fighters would tire each other out and make it easy to abduct both of them.
He had been disappointed when his genjutsu was broken, but now he had an opportunity to do more than he had originally planned for.
His two ninja stopped when they saw two obviously high level ninja fighting and Danzo raised his eye brow when he saw that the second ninja fighting was Sasuke Uchiha.
'Yes, things just might turn out for the better.'
Taking advantage of the fact that neither of them had noticed Danzo or his men, they watched and waited for the end of the battle.
Naruto stared at the now giant skeleton like being that surrounded Sasuke. He couldn't really understand how but at some point Sasuke raged himself into gaining more power. If Sasuke was a jinchuriki then it would be some what understandable, but in this case he wasn't and so the increase in power just didn't seem... logical.
Fighting the now evolved Susanoo had become a pain in the ass for Naruto. His breathing had started to become ragged, his body was beginning to feel numb thanks to the fact that he was having trouble channeling fire chakra, and he could barely move his limps. Thankfully this seemed to be the same as Sasuke's situation.
Naruto's armor was the only thing that had saved him from dying on several occasions, but being crushed, thrown, and knocked away by Susanoo was slowly wearing him down. If the fact that Naruto couldn't approach Sasuke wasn't bad enough, then the fact that Susanoo apparently had long ranged attacks as well was.
Sasuke simply glared at Naruto's attempts to fight him. It had become obvious that Naruto couldn't perform ninjutsu while he was using his Tundra armor and genjutsu against Sasuke was next to useless. Which left Naruto with only one option, taijutsu.
Naruto's persistence was annoying Sasuke. It was his fault that he could no longer chase down Danzo. It was his fault that even if he did find Danzo he would be in no shape to kill the man. And it was his fault that his revenge would have to wait another day. With a loud roar Sasuke sent another wave of chakra towards Naruto.
Forcing his body to move, Naruto barely dodged the attack. Using Sasuke's attack as the signal to attack he began another mad dash. Susanoo swung it's arm trying to grab Naruto, only for the Uzukage to flip over the appendage. This action however left him open for Susanoo to slam it's other hand down on top of him. Had they still been on the lake this wouldn't have been so bad. Instead of the cool liquid , Naruto found the rough earth beneath him. He could already imagine the broken bones he would have if not for both his armor and the nine tails fox.
The hand on top of him receded back to it's original position laying next to it's side and Naruto slowly made his way back on his feet. Sasuke sent another blast of chakra at Naruto before he could get a good footing. This choice had instantly turned bad when not only did his attack dissipate before it reached Naruto but so did his Susanoo.
Not allowing this turn of events to cause too much shock to come into play, Sasuke quickly gathered his remaining chakra to form one last Chidori. Naruto watched as Sasuke charged at him, unable to do more due to the damage and exhaustion that racked his body. Sasuke's attack hit spot on right over Naruto's heart. But with the armor being partly made up of wind chakra his Chidori had only allowed his finger tips to dig into his skin.
For several seconds Sasuke, Naruto, and unknown to them, Danzo stared on surprised that Sasuke's attack had done nothing more than leave a spider web of cracks in Naruto's Tundra armor. Not even bothering to repair the damage on himself or his armor, Naruto hands went straight for Sasuke's neck.
Sasuke had panicked when he felt the hands grab and tighten around his neck. Fear began rushing through him when not only did he start having trouble breathing, but then he could feel Naruto's ice chakra slowly entering his body. The sensation of his muscle's stiffening and his lungs start to harden was beyond painful. Then came the worst part. He was going numb, his body wouldn't respond, and the fact that he was dying became evident in his mind.
To say he could feel the icy fingers of death snare him would only be ironic at this point.
Naruto stared into Sasuke's eyes as his literally squeezed the life out of someone he had once called his friend. At the moment adrenaline and the instinct to survive blocked out all thoughts of what he was doing.
A sickening crack, caused not by Sasuke's spinal cord breaking but by the frozen muscles around his neck crumbling from the pressure Naruto put on it. Hearing this Naruto dropped the corpse onto the ground and stared down at it. The cracks on his armor began growing and the ice slowly began to melt now that Naruto was no longer channeling the chakra to sustain it.
Soon Naruto stood drenched, not even taking his eyes off Sasuke. The events of the last few minutes slowly began to digest in his mind. He wasn't allowed long to think as foot steps could be heard off to his left. The new presence caused him to become alert and he turned to see Danzo and his two body guards.
Naruto scowled. "I thought I told you to get off my island!"
Danzo stopped and simply stared past Naruto, his focus on Sasuke's corpse.
"We were on our way to the docks when we noticed your fight." lied Danzo.
"It appears you've killed one of our missing nins, I would be happy to take his body back to Konoha. Of course you would be rewarded." said Danzo
Naruto moved to a spot putting him in between Sasuke corpse and Danzo.
"I'll tell you one last time! Get off my island or I'll forcibly remove you!"
"You're in no condition to be making threats Uzukage." said Danzo giving the Naruto's title a sarcastic tone.
Danzo gave his ninja a signal and both nins jumped to opposite sides of Naruto, taking stances to prepare for a fight.
"I guess it's up to me to just take two missing nins back to Konoha."
Naruto looked back and forth at both the Aburame and Fu. Danzo was right, his fight with Sasuke had left him very weak. All he had left to fight with was the Fox's chakra. He didn't like using it, but he wasn't about to let his pride and dignity get him captured.
Just as Naruto was about to draw upon the chakra, the root nins attacked. Both however were forced to retreat as three large demon like being fell from the sky and surrounded Naruto.
"HEY BOSS, I PERFECTED MY COOL JUTSU!"
Naruto looked up towards the source of the voice to find three large clay like birds flying up above. He focused his eyes to see Tayuya and Satoru riding on one of the birds as Karin and other Uzu ninja rode on the others. Danzo and his nins left seeing that the odds were against them now.
The birds slowly descended and the ninjas jumped off while Satoru had the birds land and wait.
"Thanks guys." said Naruto while slowly relaxing his tired body.
Tayuya and Karin took notice of Sasuke's body.
"What... happened?" asked Karin.
Tayuya gave Karin a scolding look. "Isn't it fucking obvious what happened. The emo fought Naruto and got himself killed."
Naruto didn't respond to what they were saying. He was too tired and there were other things that needed to be taken care of.
"Karin, did you send Katsuo to deliver your report to Konoha?"
Karin nodded her head, too stunned by the sight of Sasuke's corpse to say anything. She had never seen Naruto kill like this. Most of the time's his kills were quick and painless. Sasuke's crushed wind pipe told her that Naruto had attempted to strangle him. The pale and almost blue skin were obvious signs that his body temperature was far colder than it should be which told her that his insides had been frozen. What was most disturbing was the look of horror on Sasuke's face. Evidently he was very aware of his death. The last thing she noticed about his face were the still active Sharingon and the several darkening veins that had been caused from blood being unable to flow thanks to the grip around his neck.
She walked towards Naruto and enveloped him in a hug. He wasn't showing it, but she knew that his mind was slowly processing what he had done. He had killed before, but never like this. Naruto slowly returned the hug, he didn't know why but it felt like he needed it.
Two weeks later
Hinata and the rest of her team had just passed through Uzu's gate's. Kiba's bickering was completely ignored thanks to the worry Hinata felt from the news she had heard from Tsunade that Danzo had tried to cast a genjutsu on Naruto. Luckily Katsuo arrived with a report from Karen and Tsunade had set up several ambushes waiting for Danzo's return.
The second he walked into the gates he was arrested and put into interrogations, that was when they discovered the secret about Danzo's bandaged arm. Afterwards Tsunade had sent letters to Naruto thanking him for letting her deal with Danzo, but she hadn't gotten a response. She had sent several more only to get silence in return.
This was when Tsunade had become concerned that something had still happened to Naruto and called for Hinata and the rest of team eight. The Hyuga ceremony was over so there was no reason to not send Hinata. Tsunade hoped that Naruto was just sick or something minor.
Hinata made her way into the Uzu office only to find Tayuya sitting at the desk.
"Where's Naruto?" asked Hinata.
Tayuya's head snapped up slightly sleepy. Without thinking Tayuya answered her question.
"In the morgue."
Everyone in the room went silent. Hinata was the first to act and instantly dashed out of the room and headed for the room. While Kiba went ballistic and Shino simply stayed silent as usual. It took a second for Tayuya to realize what she said and explain in further detail.
The morgue was a cold room that appeared to have everything made of metal. The sliding cabinets held numerous bodies in the walls and the smell of death was replaced by several disinfectants and sterilizers. The only bodies that could be seen were the one on a metallic table and the Kage standing before it.
Naruto stared down at the corpse on the table. He had found himself here several times now. Looking over the damage he caused to Sasuke, he couldn't stop himself from relieving the moment. Except when he relived it he could actually feel the feelings he felt during that moment. Anger, fear, sadness, and when it was all over regret. The regret seemed to stay with him, as if it was a stain on him.
He kept asking himself if there was another way. Sasuke was too low on chakra to fight back, so why did he kill him? Not only that but why did he choose on of the longest and most agonizing ways to kill Sasuke. He could have slit Sasuke's throat with the sharp edges of his armor or he could have broke his neck in a quick twist. No he chose to choke him while forcing his ice chakra into him, slowly freezing the organs and killing the cells in his body.
Naruto reached up to Sasuke's eyes and attempted to close them... again. Thanks to the frozen skin they couldn't close his eyes without breaking the skin off. Sasuke's last moment alive was forever frozen showing everything he felt before death. A constant reminder of what Naruto did to him.
The doors behind burst open and Hinata stood still looking at the back of Naruto. Immediately she closed the gap between him and wrapped her arms around him tightly and cried on his back. She had felt uneasy the entire trip towards Uzu and hearing what Tayuya had said made Hinata fear the worst.
Seeing him standing there had been huge relief and she couldn't help the rushing emotions that had been catching up to her.
Naruto turned around and returned the embrace while whispering soothing words to make her feel better. She became confused when she felt him shuddering against her and finally buckled sliding down to the ground taking her with him.
The question on why he was in here finally rose from her mind and she looked back at the table Naruto was looking at minutes ago. Seeing Sasuke Uchiha laying dead on the table was shocking. Taking in the signs of his death it had become obvious to her how he died. She felt her jacket getting wet and putting everything together finally gave her an answer.
As the Uzukage Naruto was not only his village's strongest ninja and leader he was also it's symbol. He couldn't let out the feelings he felt in front of the other nins of his village as he didn't want to appear weak to them. As a leader he always had to appear strong for his men.
For some reason Hinata seeing him like this felt right. Her presence alone seemed to bring out the bottled emotions in him and he slowly felt the bulk of his burdens leave him. He still felt guilt, but he knew that would never truly leave him. Sasuke had once been a friend to him. Albeit he was always an ass, but a friend was a friend.
Hinata held him even after she felt him relax and slowly calm down. Her hand weaved through under his Kage hat and through his hair. Once she felt the top of his head she began to slowly message his scalp. It was moments like this that reminded her that despite how strong they became or what their professions were, the fact still remained that they were still only seventeen and were not invincible or immune to such things as depression or regret.
"Thank you." said Naruto
"For what?" asked Hinata, though she felt she knew what he was thanking her for.
He slowly removed his face from the crook of her neck. "Thank you for coming, I've wanted to see you again for so long."
Hinata's thumbs glided down the sides of his face, removing the last bit of tears.
"You should also thank Tsunade, and apologize to her as well. We've been worried, you haven't replied to any of the letters she's sent."
Naruto nodded. "I'm sorry, I've just been... distracted."
Hinata gave him a chaste kiss. "It's ok I forgive you, I love you."
"I love you too." replied Naruto.
In truth he needed to hear those words from her just as much as she yearned to hear them again.
Shortly afterwards Hinata guided him out of the cold metal room. He didn't need to be here right now, and as his girlfriend she would do whatever it took to keep him from lingering in despair. He had been her pillar of strength before, it wasn't only right that she became his when he needed her.
