"Never underestimate the transformative qualities of an extreme negative experience."

-Yamanaka Toji, on the evolution of mindscapes

Chapter 9

Bleeding Off the Edge

Mei looked out at the open hills and frowned. There was no dead body, no sign of a struggle. The sun was creeping ever higher in the sky, and here she was, confused, but fairly certain her clone trap had worked. She would have felt a violent death if it hadn't, but it had dispelled of its own volition. Unless the enemy had some sort of ridiculously fast-acting hypnosis technique…

There should have been a dead body waiting here, but there wasn't. In a line of work with so many ways to avoid death, it was always best to assume the enemy was still alive until they were cooling in front of you, so until she could verify it, her enemy was still alive. She made a show of stopping to wipe her forehead. She would be best served if they underestimated her.

"You should work on your acting." There was something cold at her throat. She winced and felt it pierce her skin ever so slightly. Warm blood dripped lazily down her vulnerable neck. "I mean seriously, a puddle? It hasn't rained out here in days." She slowly, steadily began bringing her right hand into the correct seals for a simple genjutsu, only to feel something hard dig into her lower back, followed by a burning sensation. Her arms went limp. "Ah ah, none of that. Now tell me where the samurai are, before my arm gets tired and I slip through your windpipe."

Mei's brain was locked in a panicked loop, jumping from moment to moment, berating itself for being so stupid. First she let some powerless civvie get the drop on her, and then she had the gall to think she could lead the team sent after them. Zabuza's approval felt paltry reward for the fact that she was almost definitely going to die here.

"My name is Mei."

"Oh really? Well, I'm not boiling to death right now, so I'm going to assume you're not who I'm thinking of. Still, not what I asked." Another sharp blow to her torso, this time uncomfortably close to her kidneys. She let out a cry of pain and barely kept herself still enough to avoid a tracheotomy. "The samurai. Now."

"They're not here!" Was something on her face bleeding? "We knew trackers could use the blood on the bolt. I was supposed to lure them away and kill them." No, just tears. Pathetic. There was a tense moment. She heard a deep breath, and a sigh.

Then there was a hand over her face. Her vision made a sharp left turn, and she died with a loud snap.

IRI

He couldn't stop seeing it. Tazuna's head cracking, falling into itself, then blood and grey stuff flying everywhere. It was like breaking an egg, only more complicated. Someone was shouting. Couldn't they see they had to put him back together again? He could feel something warm on his face.

'WAKE UP, DUMBASS!' He blinked, and everything came flooding back. People were screaming outside. The sun was streaming in through a hole in the ceiling.

Tazuna was dead, and his killers were here, ready to hurt more people, while he sat around gawking like an idiot.

"Naruto!" Sakura was shaking him. He had to go stop the samurai from hurting people. He pushed himself to his feet on barely steadied hands. He was so weak.

'Naruto, you're not weak, you're in shock. Now, pull yourself together.' Right. He had to get moving. People were in trouble; innocent people who had helped him. He didn't have time to be weak.

IRI

This was an active combat situation. Sakura could remember every little regulation and tactic for this exact moment like the book was open in front of her, so she didn't have to dig too far to find the appropriate checklist.

1: Evaluate your resources. Naruto was picking himself off the ground, coming out of whatever stupor he'd been in before, and Sasuke was already on the roof, peering into the distance. They had almost no equipment and detouring to the center of the village to get it would waste time they didn't have. They'd have to make due.

2: Evaluate the terrain. The village could have provided a lot of places to hide and attack from, but there were civilians everywhere, and considering they had gotten through the wall, the enemy wouldn't have much trouble with old houses. Not great on that front either.

3: Evaluate your enemies. They were up against samurai. Based on the destruction they'd just caused and Sango's testimony, they were powerful chakra users, so direct confrontation was not a good idea. Ranged attacks and traps were their best bets, but considering how limited their arsenal was, their chances of success were low.

They could all very easily die here, just like Tazuna had a moment ago. She might never see her father smile again, never kill another of her mother's plants, never read her brother another bedtime story.

She'd never felt more alive. "Uchiha! What do you see?"

Sasuke dropped back down through the hole, landing with an impact-diffusing roll. "Two enemies, busted in from the North. Sango's moving to intercept."

Sakura cursed. The situation was already going to be complicated what with the civilians, now they were going to have a noble in the middle of everything making a scene. She turned her attention to Naruto, who was staring out the window at the hole in the wall. Seemingly oblivious to the blood on his face. She reached out to touch his shoulder, but as her fingers brushed his jacket, he whirled on her, his glowing eyes wide with barely restrained panic. Before she could even get a word in, he shot through the roof and disappeared across the rooftops.

"We should follow him," Sasuke said, "He'll get himself killed if he rushes in alone." Sakura groaned, doing her best to relax her jaw. Tensing up was a bad idea, no matter how on edge she was. He shot out into the sun, and she followed, into her first real battle.

IRI

The samurai were already halfway to the square by the time Sango arrived. She had no illusions as to her chances against them. She was a noble: she could pick out some standard illusions, but beyond that and the spark-making trick her father had taught her, the opened Gate behind her navel was little more than a status symbol. Now, standing in front of two armed warriors, she was more aware of that fact than ever.

Haru and Kaze flanked her protectively, but they were trembling almost as much as she was. A pressure emanated from the intruders that she had hoped never to feel again. They were better than her, some treacherous voice from the depths of her instincts whispered. She needed to run. Creatures like this were dangerous.

"Hello again, hime." The larger one spoke with the Old Tongue accent of a Tetsu no Kuni native. He was missing an eye, teeth bared like a blood-mad hound. Something told her this was the more powerful of the two. Just as before, the younger mercenary stayed silent, looking off to the side as though everything made him supremely uncomfortable. "We are here for the old man." He chuckled to himself. "Not yours obviously. If you could take us to him now, it would be appreciated."

Haru growled something indistinct, but obviously uncomplimentary, and drew his sword. He might have run in if Sango hadn't stopped him. "You can't fight them. You'll die."

"Sango, your father-"

"Is dead. Would you like to join him?" She didn't turn to meet his eyes, but as he eased back off her arm, she knew she had reached him.

"Oh, how precious. Such a hotheaded bodyguard must be taxing for you to deal with." His arm blurred, and Haru's head parted from his shoulders. The tall samurai held his sword ahead of himself, as though he'd just executed a thrust. Sango watched, disbelieving as the decapitated corpse of her bodyguard fell to the dusty ground. "Tell me where Tazuna is or my apprentice practices on the other one."

A flash of yellow was all the warning they received. One moment the tall one was standing there with a smirk on his face, the next he was whirling as something bright gold collided with his student, hard enough to kick up dust and send him flying into the nearest house. Naruto skidded awkwardly out of the dust cloud, breathing ragged as he barely righted himself. His enemy blinked, taking in every strange detail of this new challenger: the grey and orange jacket, the bright blond hair, the round face marred by abject rage and drying blood.

He grinned, and moved.

IRI

Naruto might well have died right then if some instinct hadn't told him to dodge. He was barely out of the way when the invisible whatever-it-was tore past him and punched a hole in another house. In the fraction of a second he had to think, he decided that an overpowered shunshin had worked pretty well on the other guy. He flooded his body with Kurama's chakra, crouched, and shot forward, just slightly off target, coming to a halt and scrambling to change direction in time to hit him in the back.

But already the man was turning to meet him, and instead of attacking he ended up barely avoiding a slash that would have taken his head off. Naruto jumped back and pulled his only two kunai out.

Footfalls behind him. He turned and found the younger samurai he'd hit on his way, covered with cuts and bruises, but more importantly, winding up for a slash that would cleave him in two. For the second time in less than a minute he was about to die.

This time he was saved by a kunai out of nowhere. The knife embedded itself in the meat of the samurai's arm, sending him reeling back with a loud cry of pain. Sakura followed it, attacking her enemy with a sword. "I've got him, focus on the big guy!"

A series of loud impacts and a blast of heat reminded Naruto that there was in fact a very dangerous mercenary right behind him, easily backpedaling away from the small fireballs Sasuke had thrown at him. He was laughing. Naruto gripped his knives tighter and forced his legs to move.

IRI

Sakura was out of her depth. This was not unusual, but this time, as she charged forward and met steel with steel, she was very aware she might die because of it.

She was up against a samurai, ostensibly a master swordsman. Generally they fought by channeling their chakra into their blades to increase durability and sharpness. Sakura could feel it as their swords met; a powerful weight on her soul as her energy met his.

Every academy graduate knew some kenjutsu. Swords were among the most widespread of weapons, and shinobi prided themselves on utility, so they had no stigma against "battlefield acquisition." Still, it wasn't exactly core curriculum; the only type covered outside of specialty classes was the standard katana. She would have been better off barehanded than trying to swing around a tachi cavalry sword, or spirit forbid an old-style chokuto.

But even with the right weapon she was being pushed back. Her opponent had an advantage in size, experience, and chakra potency, all of which she felt as he hammered a powerful downward slash into her blade and sent her skidding backward. If it weren't for one of his arms being out of commission, she'd probably be dead already.

She could feel the first insidious tendrils of panic as she barely deflected a quick thrust away from her neck, feeling the terrible force of the impact all along her arms. She could barely keep herself focused enough to step away from the kick he aimed at her knees, and the tip of his blade scored a deep cut on her forearm when it came back around. All she could consciously think was that she was going to be killed by some idiot with eyelid tattoos, and it was all Naruto's fault.

The idiot stabbed at her chest, and she turned it aside, forcing her mind to focus. She'd created an opening in his guard; his torso was wide open. She lunged forward, putting her body weight behind a stab right to his heart.

IRI

Sasuke shot forward, throwing a shuriken to distract the enemy's attention as Naruto shot around from the other side to pincer him. The man flicked the projectile out of the air contemptuously, blocked Naruto's first slash, and caught his follow-up stab by the wrist. There was a loud crunch, and with a yelp Naruto fell to his knees, his fracturing bones still in the smiling lunatic's grip as he dropped his weapons.

Sasuke pulled another two shuriken, one for the throat, the other for the arm holding Naruto. The man let go, moving aside to avoid them, and Sasuke met him blade to blade, cursing his weak body as he pushed as much chakra into his kunai as it could handle. Direct hand-to-hand was definitely a losing proposition.

His sharingan showed him a punch, but he was much too slow to dodge it completely. Instead he rolled with it, spinning away and coming up in a crouch just in time to block the heavy downward slash that would have opened him from shoulder to hip. He grunted with the effort, bracing his hand with the other. He could see it a moment ahead: mundane metal shattering under the weight of two dueling chakras. He was dead if he stayed where he was.

So he dropped his weapon and rolled aside, feeling the blade bite into the flesh of his arm as he evaded it, and doing his best to ignore the pain. He could see so clearly. In a second the man would be recovered. Sasuke leapt forward, putting his full body weight and the force of a chakra-assisted leap into a heavy punch right to his opponent's unprotected guts. It was like hitting a brick wall. Even with heavy reinforcement, he could feel his fingers crunching. The man went staggering back, wheezing as he tried to recover his breath. "Fucking... Red-eye... Bitch." Before he could recover, Naruto leapt from behind him, wrapping blazing yellow arms around his head and neck and letting out a screeching cry of pain and primal rage.

It was like a small bomb going off. Naruto was thrown back, skidding through the dirt as the samurai reeled away, clutching his face with his free hand and waving his sword with the other as if to ward off further attacks. Sasuke scrambled for the kunai he'd abandoned. It was perilously close to breaking, but he couldn't do a large enough fire jutsu without both hands , so it was the only weapon he had left, and taijutsu was worse than useless if they wanted to end this quickly.

"Fucking cunt-face little shits!" Sasuke's perfect eyes looked up from the ground and etched a nightmare into his memory. The man's face was horribly burnt, and what was left of his nose hung awkwardly by a few strands of strand of flesh and skin, but his eye was completely intact. The other was a lidless pit. His mouth was pulled into a rictus of rage and agony. "I'm gonna turn you into a red fucking stain!"

Eight shuriken rained down on him from the side, and he went stumbling back, barely protecting his vitals. A split second later, Kakashi was behind him, kunai plunging toward his liver. He turned it aside by the barest inch, but it was already too late. There was a sound like a flock of birds, and Kakashi's other hand went right through the samurai's chest in a flash of bright blue. The body twitched for a second before it was unceremoniously dumped on the ground. Sasuke couldn't quite put his finger on that sound. Something about it was so strangely familiar...

"Report!" Sasuke blinked. Right. He was on a team. He was thirteen, and a Konoha shinobi. For a second he'd been somewhere else entirely. "Sasuke!"

"Right, right, we-" He was interrupted by Naruto's voice, anguished like he hadn't heard before.

"SAKURA!"

IRI

This was all his fault. He'd rushed in like an idiot and now Sakura was bleeding out on the ground in some middle-of-nowhere village, and the old guy who just wanted to help his country was dead, and it was all his fault. The guilt was almost enough to make him forget that the bones in his left arm were basically crushed below the elbow.

The major cut was on her side, just below her ribcage. He had his jacket pressed to it to staunch the bleeding, but it barely seemed to be helping at all, partly because he only had one hand to use and partly because there was just too much blood.

"I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry…" His hand was red, the ground was red, everything was red. Someone was talking over his shoulder.

"You don't know any medical jutsu?"

"Not good enough for this. I could bandage her up, but the wound's too deep. She'd be dead in a few hours." He didn't need to see the panicked orange in Kakashi and Sasuke. It was in the air, a smell like copper, a drumbeat echoing in his ears. He could see the colors jumping back and forth in Sakura, slowing down as she moaned in pain, grasping at the dirt.

"Naruto. Naruto!" Sasuke forced him to turn and look him in his blood-red eyes. "Naruto, you're the only person here who can heal." He blinked. That was crazy. He couldn't do that, not to a person.

"But... the pigeon… I might just make it worse!"

"Fuck the pigeon! If you don't try she dies!" He turned back to the wound, terror and hope warring for supremacy in his mind. It had been years since he'd even tried healing something else. Maybe…

'Do you think we can do it?' He could feel Kurama shifting uneasily.

'Honestly? No, but Sasuke's right. We can't exactly make it worse, can we?'

"Right." He did his best to swallow the doubts that were clogging his windpipe and thought, hard. He thought about how the Kurama's chakra felt different when he was healing himself: the slight tickling that he could feel in his left arm at that very moment. The idea came to him abruptly. It was crazy. Then again, the whole situation was insane to begin with. He forced a shaky smile onto his face that was as much gritted teeth as it was bedside manner. He could do this.

He pulled his jacket away and took hold of his injured arm, barely suppressing a scream as bone shards ground against each other. He thought about good things. Sparring with his teammates, hot ramen from Ichiraku's, the stars from the top of the Hokage monument. As quickly as he dared, he moved the arm on top of Sakura's wound, and pushed more of Kurama's chakra into it, feeling flesh begin to knit back together as fire danced across it.

Then, he took that chakra, ever so slightly different from how it normally would have felt, and shoved down. Sakura screamed.

This chapter is much shorter than normal, and I'm sorry for that. There just wasn't anywhere else to end it without murdering the pacing, or doubling the length.

I've gotten some reviews asking about the reincarnation of Ashura and Indra, and how that plays into the religious framework I've been setting up. In all honesty, I don't know if I'll even use that story thread. I felt it was terribly executed in canon, but the idea isn't without merit. I've considered it once or twice, but if I do use it, you can be sure it will be very different from what we saw originally.

On that topic, I'd like to reiterate that this story is not an alternate timeline, it's an entirely separate version of the Narutoverse. Canon is a suggestion as far as Regressed is concerned. If something didn't make sense, be it lore, mechanics, or any other aspect of the original story, it will be modified, expanded on, or cut out entirely. A few other (in my opinion better-executed) takes on this sort of fanfic are Shinobi: Team 7 by Gallyrat, Naruto: Fortune Favors the Fox by Chrisrawr, and Sagacity Unbroken: Shadows of the Green Sky by Endfall, so if you like this story, I'd definitely recommend you check those out too.

Thanks for reading!

Scavenger