Author Notes: Greetings, in the last chapter I mentioned Neji's father giving Naruto the injection that nullified the sharingan, that was an error – it should be Hinata's father. I fixed it on the day of the release but wanted to make sure no one is confused. Here's chapter 10.
Special thanks to:Rain-XIX for pointing out Kakashi's sharingan mistake. Thumbs up!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 10
Conviction
OUTSIDE ROOM 3125
Two eyes stared through the transparent glass beside room 3125's front door. The pupils shrinking in size and eyes burning furiously with the color of crimson.
They were Sasuke's eyes.
Sasuke clenched his fists continually until his nails carved into his skin and red fluid seeped out of it, slowly hitting the ground. He still couldn't comprehend what had happened, no he refused to believe what had just happened.
All he saw was a crying Tsunade violently shaking the frail blond boy's head back and forth, screaming incoherent sobs that he couldn't hear through the door.
He gazed at the medics surrounding the two blondes; not one of them moving from their spots, not one of them were doing their jobs like they were supposed to, not one of them was helping; they all stood there with their heads down not uttering a single word.
Sasuke was finally coming to terms with the situation, however, he pushed the thought right out of his head as bile started to quickly come up his throat and out his gaping mouth.
He tasted the disgusting vomit as it slid through his inner tongue and out of his mouth – it tasted like ramen.
"BLEUGHHHH"
Sasuke vomited again and again without stopping.
He didn't even attempt to stop as a flush of emotions rushed through his convulsing and shaking eyes.
Then a thought finally hit him like running straight into a brick wall.
'Naruto's dead'
ROOM 3125
All the medics in the room stared at their fellow doctress as she screamed the dead boy's name over and over again with tears streaming down her face making it no longer recognizable.
The heart monitor that stayed eerily silent beside her only caused her screams to worsen and get louder.
None of the other medics knew what to do, they had never seen Lady Tsunade so emotionally broken and traumatized before. All of them were scared of telling her that the boy was gone – never to come back again.
They just gazed silently as the maddening screams and sobs grew stronger and more incoherent as the blond swallowed her own tears in the process.
They just watched as the nightmare was finally coming to its deathly end.
NEXT SCENE
Two eyes suddenly flushed open; quickly gazing around its surroundings and trying to find out what had just happened.
However, everywhere it looked – there was only pure and unpolluted darkness around him.
The eyes suddenly started convulsing rapidly trying discern anything that was out of the ordinary, pleading that something would be out of place, hoping there was something that he could follow, but in the end - there was nothing.
Everything around him was empty.
Everything around Kurama was completely and utterly void.
Suddenly, just as Kurama began to despair; he heard a sound – a soft childish voice.
"Hehehe…"
Kurama quickly turned his gaze towards the high pitched giggling that he'd just heard a millisecond ago but couldn't recognize it as it was so brief.
Nevertheless, he felt hope filling his eyes once more as he turned, thinking that it was his stupid loudmouthed landlord who would curse and annoy him in his sleep, thinking it must be him.
"Kit!? Is that y-"
Just as Kurama turned around to face the direction of the giggling; he was stupefied.
In front of him was a small girl, a girl who he had never seen before but her appearance eerily resembled that of Naruto.
She had the same blond hair, the three whisker markings on each side of her cheeks, and the same sky blue eyes that oddly had the same glint in them as Naruto's.
"N-Naru..to…?"
Kurama questioned the little girl that was smiling and skipping around in the void of darkness that surrounded them.
However, the girl never answered. She just continued skipping and playing as if the giant fox that was in front of her wasn't there at all.
Kurama was annoyed that the child didn't answer back as he creased his eyebrows.
"Child, who are you?"
"Hehehe…"
The child ignored him once more and continued hopping in place, enjoying the game she was individually playing with no one but herself.
Kurama became outraged at being ignored a second time and immediately let out killing intent.
"YOU STUPID BRAT, WHERE IS NARUTO, WHY DO YOU LOOK LIKE HIM, WHERE IS THIS?"
The child finally stopped playing and looked up at the fox that was all of a sudden in front of her.
She walked closer towards the fox with her tiny feet holding a curious expression on her face.
She walked bit by bit, inch after inch, until finally she touched the fox's paw in front of her.
Kurama flinched as he noticed the child touching his paw but curiously gazed at her.
She had no emotions of fear or despair, in fact he couldn't sense any emotions at all. Any normal human would feel something and most of them feared him. Naruto at first feared him too but that slowly changed over the years.
However, the tiny girl in front of him was devoid of any such feeling. She was blank, like a white canvas no one had ever drawn on; like she was gazing at another being for the first time in her life.
Kurama was baffled at the child's ignorant mind, she was practically empty in the head.
Kurama just observed the child rubbing the fur on his paw in a curious manner, rubbing it back and forth, scratching the ends of his fur with the tips of her tiny fingers.
However, Kurama then noticed the child's mindscape start to fill and grow. No, it wasn't that her mindscape was growing, it was that she was absorbing his mindscape, his chakra and his very being into her – literally.
"YOU DAMN BRAT!"
Kurama screamed at the tiny girl with sudden rage and flung his claws directly towards her.
As his claws were about to make contact with the girl's head, a vortex suddenly appeared out of thin air on her abdomen and began to suck his claws in, and eventually his whole arm directly into her.
Kurama screamed and roared trying to remove his arm out of the black hole that was on the girl's stomach but the force was too strong.
Both his arms were being sucked in at a deathly fast rate as Kurama struggled to move back, in the opposite direction.
However, as he was trying the remove his arms – he noticed the girl growing as she sucked in his very being.
The girl was becoming taller, her hair growing lengthier, and her eyes growing much sharper.
"W-WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU!?"
Kurama screamed in desperation, as his arms became fully submerged in the black hole and his legs slowly started drifting towards it as well.
The girl was now growing much taller, her body maturing much faster, and her mind growing much fuller than before – as she continued absorbing the giant fox into her.
"Y-YOU FUCKING PUNY BRAT, I'LL KILL YOU!"
By now, most of Kurama's body was fully submerged into the girl and only his head was sticking out onto the opposite direction of the black hole, fighting for dear life to get out.
However suddenly in the vast void that was around him and the girl, he saw a light coming from the opposite direction of them.
He took a glance at the light and saw a man standing there. A staff in his hands, two horns sticking out of his head, and numerous spiral circles on both of his eyes.
"H-Hago…romo!?"
However, before Kurama could ask anymore, he had vanished and had been fully absorbed into the, now, fully grown girl.
There was silence until the man with the spiraling eyes slowly walked towards the girl and placed his right hand on top of her head.
The girl's eyes looked dead as if she was unconscious however strangely her body was still standing and erected straight.
A light shone from the man's hand that was on the girl's head and the man began muttering incoherent words that didn't exist in the normal world, except for one.
"Naruto"
NEXT SCENE
Two eyes immediately opened and looked forward. The eyes were convulsing rapidly from left to right and squinting at the same time from the lack of moisture around them.
The eyes glazed around in desperation to find an opening for light to shine in, however no source of light could be found, only a brown colored wall in front of it that was inches away from making contact with its eyes.
Beneath the convulsing eyes, a small voice could be heard as it struggled to scream from its mouth.
"…He...l…"
"…H…e…l…p…"
Beneath the voice, there were two hands that were struggling to get up out of the tight spot it was in, where it could barely budge due to the confined space it was in. The hands tried pushing against the brown wall in front of it, using what little might it could summon but the wall wouldn't budge.
The mouth began to hyperventilate when it noticed how squished its body was within the brown walls surrounding it.
There were brown walls on all sides of its body, just inches away from touching its body, with no holes in at all making it suffocating to just breathe.
The body struggled again to push the brown wall in front of it but this time it summoned power to its legs to try and push the wall again, pushing the knees up onto the wall while receiving support from its feet pushing beneath it.
However, the brown wall still wouldn't move.
The owner of the body became desperate, suffocating from the lack of oxygen in the confined space it was trapped in.
Realizing it didn't have enough strength to push the wall open, all it could do was scream out for help, hoping that someone would hear its desperate plea for help.
"H…e…l….ppp"
"P…l…e…a..se….so..me…o…n..e"
The voice barely let out any volume as the body's mouth was exhausted and had no energy left for a greater outburst.
With one final urge of desperation and lethal earnest, the voice let out its last scream.
"HHE…L….P"
CEMETERY
Tsunade, Sasuke, Kakashi, and the council stood in the middle of the cemetery, gazing at the gravestone in front of them.
There was no name etched on the gravestone, it was just a blank gravestone that looked more like a decoration than an actual grave belonging to someone.
That, however, was the point of it.
When Naruto had died, the council came to a decision to keep his death a secret until some time had passed.
Kakashi became outraged at this and lost his usual cool demeanor that was usually present all his life.
Tsunade had gone completely insane at the blond's death. She refused to believe that Naruto was truly in fact dead, as she drank herself to bed everyday thinking that Naruto would come back the next morning when she woke up and when she realized he didn't, she again succumbed to heavy drinking throughout the day, going back into a trance waiting for her vibrant blond to show up in front of her again. She repeated this process over and over again gradually killing herself little by little in the process, and being called an alcoholic from the neighboring bars.
Sasuke remained silent and distanced himself further away from people as his eyes looked even more lifeless than they had previously been. He shut himself off from other people and refused to talk to anyone, not that he had many to talk to in the first place.
Only these three, the council, and the medics that were there at the hospital during Naruto's final day knew of what happened to Uzumaki Naruto, and they were all ordered to keep quiet about the incident and never reveal any details regarding the night of Naruto's death.
This was the prime reason Naruto was buried with an empty gravestone that was disguised as a decoration.
The council had originally decided on burning the body making sure that no one would ever be able to discover any evidence of his death, but Kakashi had painstakingly and continuously tried to convince them that he be buried at the official Konoha cemetery.
In the end, the council submitted to Kakashi's constant bickering and arguments, and decided to go with his proposal.
Kakashi, however, was still bitter at the fact that no one else knew of Naruto's death other than the few here.
Tsunade stepped forward and immediately fell in front of the grave stone. She was still intoxicated from all the alcohol she had this morning and the night before.
"Naruuttooooooooo…hiccup…you stupid brattttttt…hiccup...hurrryyy….and…wakkee..upppp…I.. ha..ve…to…smack…youuu…hiccup…"
Tsunade crouched down in front of the gravestone and started hitting it lightly, not having enough energy to muster up the strength to leave any damage on the stone.
The council members eventually said a prayer and left the cemetery.
Sasuke and Kakashi looked quietly at Tsunade as she grumbled curses at Naruto in front of his own grave.
"Naruuutooooo…say…hiccup…dattebayo…comonnn….sayy..itt…"
Kakashi showed a slight frown on his face at the grumbling Tsunade that was in front of him.
He slowly walked towards the dirty blond and tapped her left shoulder with his right hand, showing a pitiful expression towards her.
"Come…Tsunade-sama…it's time to go…visiting hours are over"
Tsunade looked back over her shoulder and onto the man slightly behind her.
"Whhaatt…I…Havee..hiccup…to…get…Naru....to"
"He…He's not joining us…he no longer will…"
Tsunade wailed her arms like a child in displeasure at Kakashi's words and continued to drunkenly mutter curses with Naruto's name, while Kakashi tried to calm her down.
Behind the two, Sasuke remained quiet and looked at the gravestone with his blank lifeless eyes.
He felt nothing, his whole body was numb, his mind was empty, and he looked like shit. He never would have thought Naruto's death would affect him this much, but it completely destroyed his soul.
As he stared emptily at the grave - he remembered a painful memory the blond had told him when he came back to Konoha.
'You have no one Sasuke, besides me…you're all alone'
Sasuke couldn't help but let out a small whispered chuckle at the piercing words that shattered his already empty mind.
Sasuke felt pathetic as Naruto's words hit him harder and harder as each second of his life passed by.
For the first time in his life, he felt absolute and utter regret.
He looked down on the muddy ground, as rain started to pour down slowly onto his hair, and began to think.
'If only I had stayed…If only I had never gone out of Konoha…if only I didn't focus on revenge…on the clan…but now...everything was…pointless'
'I had everything…and I gave it all up…'
'What do I do now…tell me…what…the…fuck do I do now, NARUTO!?'
Sasuke clenched his teeth and hands as hard as he could, and felt moisture coming out of his eyes. It was the rain, it must be the rain, he muttered as he stared hard at his feet.
Just as Sasuke was about to ponder in his thoughts once more, he heard a chilling voice call out to his ear.
"…H…e…l…p…"
He immediately looked up to see if the arguing duo in front of him had called him but then noticed they were still arguing back and forth against each other.
'Am I imagining things or i-'
"P…l…e…a..se….so..me…o…n..e"
Before Sasuke could finish his thoughts, he heard the voice again, this time much more distinctly clearer than before.
"N-Naruto!?"
Sasuke gasped.
The old Sasuke would have ignored the voice and would be rational about the situation. There was no one other than him and the arguing duo in front of him that were present, and not a single chakra signature for miles away could be sensed as the cemetery was far out of the public reaches of Konoha. The old him would accept Naruto's death and not even think about tarnishing his ego or reputation by suspecting that the blond was still alive.
But, he was different now – he didn't care anymore.
Sasuke immediately ran forward towards the grave and knocked Kakashi and Tsunade out of the way as they were bickering.
When Sasuke reached the front of the grave – he started digging furiously, desperately like an asylum convict gone mad.
Kakashi was stunned at seeing Sasuke like this, more so when he looked at the brunet's face while he frantically dug.
He would have never guessed that Sasuke could make such a pathetic expression, an expression of a desperate man who was clinging onto futile hope.
Even Tsunade was perplexed by the sudden unexpected action of the brunet and even more stunned when she saw the maddening eyes of the man as he started digging hysterically for his life.
So much emotion was flushed on Sasuke's face, his face that was used to being expressionless, that was used to being completely void of any feelings, made it look as if deep cracks were running through his cheeks and beneath his eyes.
Kakashi got up and slowly walked toward the frantic brunet.
"Sasuke…that's enough…he's…he's de-"
"HE'S ALIVE!"
Sasuke's sickening yell made Kakashi flinch for a brief moment.
Tsunade watched the brunet as he continued to dig with chakra imbued into his hands, rain pouring down hard onto their bodies as the mud became wetter beneath the brunet's knees.
Tsunade walked closer to the brunet and sat quietly beside him as he continued digging desperately, watching his expression that she had never seen before on the Uchiha, but she had seen it somewhere else.
It was the same – as him.
Tsunade immediately got up and helped the Uchiha start digging, until she had – had enough and punched the ground until mounds of mud flew up above into the air, knocking back the unprepared Uchiha several yards away and forcing Kakashi to jump back a few meters onto the ground.
All that was in plain view now was the casket in front of Tsunade.
Tsunade gazed at the casket and started hyperventilating, remembering the night Naruto had left from this world, remembering the night his heart had stopped, remembering the night she had failed to save him.
While her eyes convulsed at the sight of the casket, Tsunade immediately jolted back into reality - forgetting the trance she had been in so far, forgetting the endless amount of sake she had drank, and forgetting that she had witnessed Naruto die by her very own hands.
The realization pierced her aching heart suddenly as she grabbed her chest tightly and looked toward the Uchiha who was slowly getting up.
Tsunade walked slowly towards the Uchiha but stopped meters away before reaching him.
"Na…Naruto…he's…dead…"
Thunder roared and lightning hit the air behind Tsunade as she muttered those words to Sasuke, tears dripping out of her eyes realizing she had said it with her own mouth.
The Uchiha gazed back at the dirty blond with madness running through his crimson eyes, looking straight through Tsunade and into the casket behind her.
"He's alive"
Rain fell hard on all three of them, making them feel every pore of their body being hit by it.
Kakashi and Tsunade were both dumbfounded at the look Sasuke had just given while saying that. The amount of conflict that was going on in his eyes, him not even blinking once as he said it, the look of utter chaos being released from the expression on his face, and the red lines of sclera branching further into his white eyes.
Both Tsunade and Kakashi at that point in time thought the same thing about the man in front of them.
He's broken.
Sasuke ignored their looks and ran forward in a crazy obsessed manner, not realizing the two in front of them were taking on defensive stances.
They were ready to stop him from getting further close to the casket but he simply charged straight ahead not blinking an eye as the rain hit harder on his pores.
Kakashi looked towards Tsunade and Tsunade nodded back.
Kakashi then gazed at the man in front of him with a pitiful look on his face, as his uncovered eyes started to frown.
Kakashi threw a feint kunai towards the brunet and gave a signal to Tsunade beside him.
Tsunade nodded once more and took up a fighting stance, as Kakashi readied his stance as well.
However, before either two could make a move, they were shocked to see what had happened.
The kunai Kakashi threw, which was supposed to be a feint, hit Sasuke straight in the chest. Sasuke didn't even try to dodge the attack, much less block it, but that wasn't what shocked them the most.
No, it was the fact that he was still running forward, straight at them towards the casket with a kunai pierced into his chest, with that mad look in his eyes.
"NARUTO, NARUTO, WAIT I'LL COME RIGHT NOW!", Screamed Sasuke with a volume that sent the crows flying.
Kakashi and Tsunade both flinched at the earnestness in his voice and the desperation he gave of as a whole.
At this moment, a part of them actually wanted to believe the man in front of them, and that maybe – Naruto was still in fact alive.
Tsunade and Kakashi eased out of their fighting positions and just let Sasuke run right past them, as they soon began to follow behind him.
Sasuke immediately jumped toward the casket; punched the left and right sides of it, making holes that he could grip, and then swung the top off.
"NARUTO!", Sasuke yelled at the top of his lungs as he looked into the casket.
Tsunade and Kakashi were right behind him, and looked together with him.
However, all of them were stunned at what they saw.
Everyone stopped moving, their pupils shrinking and their eyes widening in astonishment.
Sasuke looked straight ahead into the blue orbs that pierced his shattered soul and at the same time gave life to them - however they didn't belong to the person he was expecting.
Suddenly a hand came towards him and touched his cheeks.
"…Than…ks…te…me…"
Author notes: It's beginning.