"Human talking"
"Human thinking"
"Demon or Summon talking"
"Demon or Summon thinking"
Jutsu will be underlined
Looking back on it now it seemed that he was born with a speed over everything mentality. Itachi told him that when he was an infant he would always wobble as he stood up before taking off in a run and falling on his face. "You didn't have much strength in your legs but you could definitely get them moving"
It was only when he started training with Naruto that he questioned the level of his endurance. The blonde could spar for hours on end without getting winded. Outside of actual combat Sasuke had only seen his friend out breath twice and both times were when he was trying to create some new Wind Release technique.
Naruto would say "Don't worry about it; I've always had a freakish amount of stamina". Sasuke's pride wouldn't allow that though and for a while he incorporated endurance training into his workout plan. But when he came to the realization that he would never be able to outlast his rival in a fight, he decided to totally eclipse him in speed.
Maybe if he had kept up the endurance training he would have enough chakra left to carry both of his friends in a shunshin. Maybe he wouldn't have to choose…
Ino watched in satisfaction as yet another rock clone fell before her axe. She was about to ask Naruto how he was doing when she felt a large spike in Earth chakra right under their position. She turned to pick up her injured teammate/crush but saw a squatting Sasuke already had Naruto in his arms. Time seemed to slow as she gazed into his eyes. She had never seen such a look of agony on Sasuke's face but what was even stranger was that as he mouthed out 'sorry' his tears turned bloody and for a split second the pattern of his Sharingan completely changed.
Her two teammates sped away in a blur leaving her alone. "What the hell?" Ino wondered to herself as she dodged an Earth dragon. Her answer came in the form of a second earth dragon that exploded from the ground directly beneath her airborne position. The dragon's maw clamped down above her navel leaving only her upper body visible. Ino didn't even scream, she just coughed up an ungodly amount of blood and slumped forward, her eyes open but lifeless.
The earth construct tossed the young kunoichi's corpse at her friends' new position but before it hit the ground it was intercepted by a green and black blur. The new shinobi took a drag of the halfway gone cigarette in his mouth before looking down at the dead Genin in his arms and letting out a smoky sigh. "Hyuga-san take team 7 back to the FOB to see the medics, leave this nin to me" Asuma Sarutobi ordered handing Ino over to Han.
"Let's go guys" Han said turning to leave. "Take Ino and Sasuke with you, I'm staying here" Naruto said standing up and taking a deep and only slightly pained breath. "Uzumaki, leave now!" Asuma ordered only to be met with a pair of angry, red, slitted eyes.
"Not going to happen" Naruto stated, his voice deep and gravely, a red, two tailed chakra cloak forming around him. "Fine, Hyuga, Uchiha go" Asuma conceded. Making three unique hand seals Naruto bit his thumb and swiped it over his summoning tattoo "Summoning: Armored Excavation squad". As the smoke cleared 7 armadillos of multiple sizes equipped with helmets and digging equipment appeared.
"Whha-what's up?" the largest who was obviously afraid of the malevolent chakra shrouded Naruto asked. "There is a powerful ninja hiding underground lobbing earth jutsu at us. Force him topside, keep him from resubmerging and set up a perimeter so that no other enemy nin can enter the area. Be careful and avoid a direct confrontation" Naruto instructed. The armadillos quickly got to work, effortlessly going underground. It took 30 seconds for the first subterranean explosion to rock the field and 3 quakes later Rotsuchi jumped out of the ground, pissed but unharmed.
The armadillo that spoke to Naruto emerged beside his summoner with an unconscious Machi in his arms. "We found this woman before we set off the mines" "Take her to the FOB" Naruto ordered the armadillo who complied without hesitation.
"Fire Release: Ash Pile Burning" Asuma said taking in a deep breath and exhaling a stream of ash based gunpowder that expanded into a smoky cloud right before reaching Rotsuchi, temporarily hiding him from view. Naruto who had studied the technique extended a cloak hand/claw into the cloud of gunpowder igniting it. Naruto found Rotsuchi's body inside the explosion and grabbed his throat squeezing it as hard as he could.
As the smoke cleared Asuma and Naruto saw their basically unharmed opponent with darkened, blackish grey skin trying to get out of the blonds hold. "His skin isn't burning" Naruto stated wondering why the scorching effect of his cloak wasn't doing any damage.
"Incoming!" Asuma yelled before a volley of kunai and shuriken flew from out of the wood line on their right side but Naruto formed a shield like chakra construct and blocked the projectiles with only seconds to spare. "I created that clone to see how my Iron Skin jutsu would fair against your demon's power. I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised at the results" Rotsuchi taunted as he walked out of the woods, his clothing badly singed but his skin just as dark as his clone's.
"Naruto, find a way to take out that clone, I'll keep him busy" Asuma ordered. Naruto was about to say something but was cut off. "Don't disobey me two times in row Chunin" Asuma stated. Naruto's first instinct was to just kill Asuma a do as he pleased but he fought the impulse, recognizing it as an effect of the tainted chakra coursing through his system.
"Hai, Taicho" Naruto said before unsealing Kubikiribōchō and taking of in a sprint. "Bad move Sarutobi. If you were your father or older sister I might be worried but…"
"You knew my sister?" Asuma asked. "Oh I got to know her real well back in my Anbu days" Rotsuchi grinned lecherously.
"You! You're the asshole who raped my sister and left her to die!" Asuma yelled channeling wind chakra to his trench knives. "Yeah, but if it makes you feel better she got even with me last year, bitch nearly beat me to death"
"What are you talking about, my sister died on a mission 7 years ago" Asuma asked. "Did she now?" Rotsuchi laughed before unslinging his war hammer and charging Asuma.
Naruto raised the clone into the air for the fifth time before slamming it back into the ground with little to no effect. "Fuck! Blunt force doesn't work: burning or piercing it with the cloak doesn't work and cutting it with a wind chakra enhanced blade damn sure didn't work" Naruto thought to himself looking at his broken Kubikiribōchō, the top half of which was where it fell on the ground beside the clone.
"I think we should try that thing" the Kyuubi suggested. "Feel like being more specific?" Naruto thought back. "Oh you know, that thing that you created by blending our chakra natures. The blowtorch thing that you're so afraid of" the kyuubi chuckled.
"It never made it out of its developmental stage, I mean I almost blew myself up the last time I messed with it. Plus Danzo threw a fit and forbade me from attempting it again until I was 14"Naruto answered. "Ah, but that was almost two years ago kit. Your wind chakra control has improved since then. Plus I 'm awake before the explosion this time so I can help with the fire chakra manipulation"
"Using an experimental technique in the middle of battle is foolish and if it backfires you deserve what you get" Naruto said quoting Danzo word for word. "Yeah, but if you're having so much trouble with a clone how much longer do you think the monkey is gonna last against the real thing?"
"You could just give me more tails of your chakra" Naruto suggested.
"The blowtorch created from our chakra working together is probably hotter than 5 tails of just my chakra and if I pumped anymore of my chakra into your body right now your ribs would probably explode and damage your internal organs"
"Fine, I hope we don't die" Naruto sighed canceling the Kyuubi's cloak. Naruto then started to saturate the air in the field with so much of his chakra it took on a nearly unnoticeable green tint. Pulling the methane, oxygen, carbin dioxide and nitrogen present to his position he carefully charged the gasses with different amounts of his chakra.
Holding what was left of his sword with both hands and channeling pressurized wind chakra around it Naruto pushed different amounts of the gasses along the blade.
"Your turn" Naruto stated allowing the Kyuubi to channel its fire chakra into the blade. The effect was immediate as a massive stream of whitish-blue energy twice as long as Kubikiribōchō's normal length erupted from the weapons hilt vaporizing the blade instantly.
"Too much! Too much!" Naruto yelled cutting as much wind chakra as he could without allowing the technique to become unstable. The Kyuubi slightly cut the flow of its chakra as well but while fire chakra control is paramount, the amount of fire chakra actually needed for the jutsu was infinitesimal so Naruto barely noticed.
"See kit, we didn't blow up, got it to work and all it cost us was you're sword" the Kyuubi smugly said. "I only have 50 seconds worth of fuel around me to sustain the jutsu" Naruto thought before noticing the clone was conveniently charging him. Naruto rushed forward to meet it and easily pierced its chest before burning/cutting up leaving a half inch gap that was bordered by red hot, molten iron covered rock.
The clone promptly collapsed in a pile of smoking rocks. Turning around Naruto saw Rotsuchi and Asuma, whose left arm was apparently broken (it was just hanging limply) pushing against each other, iron skinned war hammer vs. single flying swallow.
"Looks like the monkey is done for"
Thinking quickly Naruto tried to perform a substitution with Asuma but he flared his chakra and broke the technique. "Duh, Naruto he doesn't know it's you" Naruto chided himself before channeling a small amount of the Kyuubi's chakra and trying again.
"Alright, you want to switch then we'll switch. Hope you've had better luck then me kid" Asuma thought to himself while allowing the technique to execute.
Rotsuchi felt the change in chakra and jumped backwards. "That's a pretty light around your sword you little shit, what do you call it?" He asked but didn't receive an answer. "Fine don't tell me, you're about to be paste anyway!" Rotsuchi yelled before sprinting a few steps and bringing his weapon down on Naruto's head smashing the ground. "Wait, that didn't feel ri ough!" Rotsuchi thought before his chest was pierced by an incredible heat. Everything in front of him seemed to go up in smoke and once it cleared both Naruto and Asuma were in front of him.
"In honor of the sword I lost in its creation I'll call it Torch Release: Executioner's Blade" Naruto said before Rotsuchi's head started to fall forward but was caught and jerked back up by Asuma. "Two things before you go to hell, asshole. One: That smoke Genjutsu I used before substituting with the kid was created by the woman you raped. Two: Your son's name is Konohamaru" the Sarutobi said before punching the half-dead man in the face.
Naruto took a deep breath feeling strange as his technique ran out of fuel. Asuma tapped his earpiece and said "Snakeskin, this is Smoke one, requesting sitrep, over " a few moments later he ended the transmission and turned to Naruto. "We took heavy losses but the enemy is retreating, let's head back to the FOB" Asuma suggested. Naruto nodded before turning, walking a few yards and losing consciousness.
Next day 0942Hrs:
Naruto woke up in a small tent with two cots separated by a ratty blanket with two scrolls sitting on it. Sasuke was sitting Indian style on the other cot staring at the scrolls stone faced. Sitting up Naruto noticed that he was shirtless and that his abdominals were wrapped in bandages. "Teme, what happened?" Naruto asked. "You tell me" Sasuke asked suddenly getting angry but still looking at the scrolls. "What do you mean?" Naruto asked trying to play dumb.
"What do I mean? WHAT DO I MEAN!?" Sasuke yelled before placing his feet on the ground, shifting to the edge of his cot and leaning closer to the scrolls. "You hear that Ino? He wants to know what I mean." Sasuke whispered to the rolls of paper.
"Sasuke…your creeping me out" Naruto hesitantly said. "Then I guess we're even because that red chakra you used yesterday creeped me out" Sasuke said before finally looking up from the scrolls, activating his Sharingan and looking right at Naruto. "You know, the strangest thing happened last night" Sasuke said lifting the blanket and scrolls and placing them on his cot revealing a burn mark on the floor. "Careful kit" The Kyuubi internally warned.
"I was in this tent crying my eyes out blaming myself for not being able to save her when some medic-nin brought you in here and laid you down on that cot. I guess I had figured you used some kind of secret, double edged jutsu to kill the ninja that killed Ino. But when I asked the medic how you were doing he said that besides a small case of chakra exhaustion and some bruised ribs that you would be fine."
"I asked myself, how that was possible? If that jutsu healed you and gave you a boost why did you wait to use it? Why did Asuma-taicho, a Jonin, let you have your way when you did? Why was he afraid of you?"
"Then I thought back to when I met you and realized that we became friends because you reminded me of my brother, you know, before he turned into a murderous asshole. I thought back to the first time I saved you and remembered how that assassin called you a demon. That's when I wondered, could Naruto have just let Ino die?"
"I quickly dismissed the thought. After all why would you spend so much time hanging out with her helping her train and just let her get killed? But all this reminiscing and questioning made me realize both of us, me and Ino, have always blindly followed your lead. That whether you really care about us or not you've been brainwashing us ever since we became friends with you. Grooming us to be your…I don't know…henchmen or something."
Sasuke then closed his eyes and took a breath, blood streaming down the sides of his face.
"I looked at you and saw Ino die again in my head. I got so angry that my Sharingan activated and then evolved. You're lucky I was able to look down in time because black flames shot out of my left eye." Sasuke then opened his eyes revealing their new pattern. The color sceme of Sasuke's eyes was inverted (black iris and red pupil and tomoe) and had six tomoe instead of 3.
"I'm going to ask you some questions and if I feel like you're lying to me I'm going to kill you. What was that red chakra? Why did you wait to use it and do you think of me as your friend or your tool?" Sasuke finished his red tomoe seemingly glowing.
Naruto knew that due to the state the young Uchiha was in he was fully prepared to go through his theat, consequences be damned; and with the Mangekyō trained on him that he didn't have many options. If he tried to escape or attack Sasuke would see the buildup of chakra and roast him alive. There was a chance he could dodge Sasuke's Amaterasu but then again maybe he couldn't. He could lie but maybe it was time Sasuke knew the truth.
"I'm a jinchūriki, container of the nine tailed fox; it was its chakra that I used. I can tap into its chakra at will but when I do my judgment is impaired and I start to lose control of myself the more of it I use. The chakra heals me when at low levels but damages me when in excess so I had to wait for my injuries to heal before taping into it."
"The Kyuubi feeds on anger and hatred so when Ino was killed and Asuma-taicho tried to keep me from avenging her I was so pissed that it was able to flood me with its chakra. Luckily it had healed me enough for my body to handle the strain of its chakra. Sasuke, I… I'll admit that when I met you I thought that you might be of use to me, especially after you saved me from that assassin."
"But don't act like I was the only one. I know that you started hanging out with me because you thought that I could help you get stronger and we both know that Ino started hanging out with us because of her crush on me. But even though we were all using each other we eventually became real friends."
"Everyone else in my life either hates me, wants to use me for something or were ordered to be around me. I'm an orphan Sasuke, you and Ino are the closest things to family that I've ever had and I'd die for you." Naruto said only lying in the last four words of his speech, he would never die for just one or two people, his desire to take over Root was too strong to allow it.
Sasuke looked at his friend as if sizing him up before deactivating his bloodline. He wished he thought Naruto was lying. That would mean there would someone else to blame besides himself. He ran a hand threw his hair and sighed digesting everything he had been told, starting to silently cry. They sat in silence for ten minutes at first looking at each other and then at the scrolls containing their fallen teammate before Sasuke spoke.
"I believe you and I'm sorry I thought you let Ino die"
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the Kyuubi before I just… was afraid you guys would…" "I get it" Sasuke interrupted.
"So what's the condition of the FOB?" Naruto asked desperately needing to change the topic of conversation. "We were barely able to hold the base. Only two platoons worth of our shinobi and like 4 or 5 of the Kusa-nin survived the battle. On the plus side the replacement troops and an entire platoon of med-nin showed up around 2130 last night" Sasuke said no longer crying and wiping his face.
"Did you hear anything about Machi-sensei?" Naruto asked.
"No sorry, I've been too busy wallowing in self-loathing and planning to kill you to leave this tent. I only know about what I know because the medic-nin that brought you in here tried to cheer me up with the info. I didn't say anything back to him so he gave up and left" Sasuke informed him.
Naruto stood up and pulled on his hoodie and Chunin vest and turned to the Uchiha. "Then let's see what's going on" Naruto said walking out the tent. Sasuke grabbed the scrolls and followed him.
The FOB was filled with shinobi, all scrambling about trying to find their new posts or running in and out of the medical tents. Naruto and Sasuke walked over to the command tent and saw Han exiting it. "Good, I was just on my way to retrieve you two" Han said stepping aside and holding the tents flap open for them. The place was packed but there were two vacant stools off in a corner. "Sit down, I'll be back in a minute" Han said before walking off.
Five minutes later he walked back with Asuma who had his injured arm wrapped and in a sling. "Let's go outside" The group left the command tent and walked to the small unoccupied training field. "Before I start the brief I want to give you two my condolences, losing a teammate is always tough" Asuma started. "Thank you" Naruto said while Sasuke just looked at the ground.
"The war council has ordered you two back to Konoha ASAP but since there's a medevac caravan scheduled to leave in two hours so you'll head back with us. The caravan will consist of 5 horse pulled wagons with myself, Anko Mitarashi, Han here, Ayano Aburame, Etsuo Akimichi, you two and Genin team 9 sans Gai-Taicho who's filling in for me as a Company commander, pulling guard. Any questions?"
"How is Machi-sensei?" Naruto asked. "And Uroka-sensei?" Sasuke added. "They're both stable and are two of the patients we will be transporting." Han answered. "The convoy will be forming up at the south entrance in an hour, be there ready to go 10 mins prior" Asuma ordered retrieving two "Hai, Taicho"'s in return.
1850Hrs, Fire country:
Sasuke was walking alongside the second wagon in the caravan looking at the scroll in his hand. Tenten who was walking beside the forth wagon was irritated that the young Uchiha wasn't scanning his sector and called out to him "I how bout you stop staring at that damn scroll and pay attention?" Sasuke wiped around Sharingan blazing hitting Tenten with so much killing intent that her breath hitched. Turning back around Sasuke thought to himself
"I should burn this scroll. If it comes from him I should definitely burn it." remembering how said scroll came into his possession.
Flashback, previous night, 1 mile south of FOB Tobirama:
"Alright Kabuto, this is far enough, can you really bring Ino back to life?" Sasuke knew that following this shady med-nin so far away from the FOB was a bad idea but he was desperate to find a way to get Ino back.
"Not me Sasuke-kun, such a feat is currently beyond my abilities however Orochimaru-sama can return your teammates soul to her body"
"Orochimaru? Yeah…you know what, I think I'm going to run away now" Sasuke said preparing to shunsnin. "Then I suppose that Ino-chan will stay dead and Itachi will continue to live" Kabuto said turning to leave, hiding his smirk with the majority of his hand while adjusting his glasses with his pointer finger.
"What?" Sasuke asked his voice dropping dangerously and his Sharingan activating. "Orochimaru-sama will not only revive Ino but he is willing to take you on as an apprentice and he guaranties that after only three years of training that you will be powerful enough to defeat your brother"
"What's the catch?" Sasuke asked. "After Itachi is dead you allow Orochimaru-sama to transfer his soul into your body" Kabuto answered. "What will happen to my soul?" Sasuke asked not completely believing that even a shinobi of Orochimaru's caliber could manipulate souls.
"It will be transferred to a plane of existence between here and the afterworld and placed in stasis for eternity. It will be like going to sleep and never waking up" Kabuto sort of lied.
"I don't …" Sasuke started but was cut off by Kabuto. "Orochimaru-sama knows this is all very hard to believe so he prepared a gift for you" Kabuto said pulling a purple scroll out of his pocket and tossing it to Sasuke.
"What's in the scroll?" Sasuke asked. "A power that if you'd had during the battle would have allowed you to save both your teammates" Kabuto responded.
"You have one week, if you decide to decline the offer burn the scroll before the week is up or it will explode" Kabuto said before starting to melt away revealing himself to be a mud clone.
Flashback end:
Naruto jumped down from a tree and landed beside Sasuke putting a hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright teme?" "I'm fine Naruto" Sasuke responded. "Well you just called me Naruto so I know you're not all right, look you got to…" Naruto started but stopped talking when he saw that Sasuke had stopped listening to him and was looking ahead with his eyes squinted which was strange because his Sharingan was still active.
"Teme?" "I think…I think we're walking into an area wide Genjutsu" Sasuke said uncertainty present in his voice. "You sure?" Naruto asked. "No but I'll try dispelling it anyway" Sasuke answered before forming the ram seal and whispering "Release".
The forest around the Caravan shimmered away revealing an open field with two individuals wearing black cloaks with red clouds on them. The taller of the duo pushed up the straw hat that covered their eyes and spoke. "Hello little brother"
A/n: Sorry for the wait, had some holiday family drama. Made a lot of big moves in this chapter and I'm anxious to hear what you guy think so please review!
Ps. I've never seen anything like the Torch Release in the fanfic's I've read, it's my creation so shout me out if you decide to use it in your own story.
