Naruto Shippuden: Swan Song
Chapter Twelve
Sasuke's Regret
His cold onyx eyes mirrored what was taking place. His teammate's life was being drained to the bone. He can only sigh arrogantly at his teammate. His new attitude made the raven-haired boy hate everybody from Konoha, including his former team.
'…' Nothing came across the boy's mind. Everything that once was dear to him was gone. No more bonds, no more friends, and no more authority figures. He now lives an egotistical lifestyle, he is now always first.
'Stupid monster, you were part of the problem in the first place. If you haven't shown up sixteen years ago, my family and most of all; my brother will be still alive. Tit for tat monster, tit for tat.' He coldly thought as he bashed on the Kyuubi. Madara told Sasuke that the Kyuubi attack sixteen years ago was all but a natural disaster; he told him it was people's malice that summoned the monster from the flames of hell.
He told him a lot of things.
But this fact wasn't factual. It was no other than Madara that summoned the Kyuubi, still bent on revenge. But this was revenge underneath a revenge. Madara summoned the Kyuubi to not only try to destroy Konoha; it was also to frame the Uchiha clan. He was betrayed by the Uchiha clan when he needed their help to take over Konoha, Konoha later found out that he was planning this takeover; they shunned him from the village. That was when Madara decided to do this himself, to battle the first Hokage. Unfortunately; Madara lost that battle, he was defeated. That was when Madara started planning to take revenge on Konoha and the Uchiha clan.
But how can Madara frame his own clan? Well, it was quite simple but yet painful. It was a fact that the Uchiha clan can control the Nine tailed fox with their Sharingan. But how can you summon a beast from hell? Long ago, before any village or nation was formed, a monster formed from nine different beasts was summoned by a powerful but sinister ninja. Countless people had died because of the monster's horrible power, it seemed like the world was going to end. But then; a ninja from the Namikaze clan came to battle the beast. It was said that this ninja had all five types of Chakra. It was also said that these two ninja were the ninja of prophecy, one to save the world, one to destroy the world. Eventually the ninja from the Namikaze clan won the battle, he had to sacrifice his life to seal the nine beasts into nine different landscapes. That was when the nine great ninja nations were formed.
But unfortunately, the beasts broke the old seals that once contained them, and once again they are free. But for some reason, they couldn't combine together again to form the horrible monster that once brought destruction. But their power were still great even without forming. That was the period when four nations were destroyed. That's why today they are only five nations left. So that was when nine separate clans, including the once legendary Namikaze clan, took on the beasts. The end result was terrible, six clans all killed, and poor numbers were left for the Fuuma clan, the Senju clan, and the Uchiha clan. And once again they had to seal the beasts again, but this time lands were not strong enough to contain the beasts. So that was when the first idea of Jinchuuriki's came into existence. So nine families with new born children had to agree to let their kids to be the containers of the foul beasts. And that was that for the next fifty years.
Yes, it is true that the beasts die when the people who are the containers die, but the beasts were automatically sent back to hell. Then war erupted between the five great nations, neither side show any sort of slowing down. Then the nations got desperate, they resorted to forbidden Jutsus. That's right, the beasts were summoned once again, but this time the beasts were controlled by their country leaders. Same result, but this time some of the new Jinchuuriki's resorted to elixir so that they can live forever so they can control the beasts for eternity. Madara was one of those nine Jinchuuriki's who were successful of achieving immortality. And a strange twist of fate, every other nation blamed the land of fire of the war, so they sent over the beasts of the Jinchuuriki's who failed and died because of drinking elixir's, and stuck all the beasts in the land of fire, never to be heard again. The rest is unknown… until Madara went to battle against Senju, he used the Nine tailed fox against him, but lost.. we all know the rest of the story.
Madara summoned the nine tailed fox in Konoha on that night sixteen years ago, the night where everything changed. Madara could've destroyed the village that night, but he didn't expect to be beaten by the newly appointed hokage Minato Namikaze. Madara got cocky and challenged the fourth hokage, it wasn't until he was beaten that he realized that Minato was from the Namikaze clan, Madara was badly injured, Minato was about to use the Shiki Fujin jutsu on Madara, but the nine tailed fox was out on a rampage, nearly destroying the village, Minato decided to go after the beast. Madara knew he will never get back the Nine tailed beast back, so he escaped. For now…
Madara's plan worked, He got the Uchiha clan in really hot water.. not only did they isolated the Uchiha clan in the furthest corner of Konoha, but to be able to complete his revenge on the Uchiha clan, he had to somehow influenced the 3rd Hokage who just came out of retirement to send a spy in the Uchiha clan to monitor their every move. So Madara came to Konoha again, to brainwash the 3rd Hokage. It was successful, and they picked a person from the Uchiha clan to spy on the Uchiha clan. That persons name was Itachi, he was against this from the start, but he didn't like killing, but the 3rd Hokage told him that if he doesn't do this, a coup de 'tat would happen and many people will die. So Itachi spied on his family, and he found out that there was going to be a coup de 'tat, so he told the 3rd Hokage, and one thing led to another, and a few days later, his whole clan, except his brother, was dead.
So that's what really happened, Madara brainwashed the 3rd Hokage and made him to kill them. It was like Madara could see how everything will happen, he wanted Itachi to join the Akatsuki, so that Sasuke will kill him to gain an new version of the Sharingan so that Madara could steal those eyes so that he can realize his revenge on Konoha, and rule the world.
Sasuke still stared at the unconscious teammate, he was getting irritated just by staring at him. Hatred filled his eyes, his whole being under a fit of rage, he had to get out of there, it was only a matter of time before he loses it. He stepped outside, staring at the distance, rain filled the sky, the visibility was low but that didn't matter because of his eyes being all powerful now. He can't help but wonder what he had done, he never wanted this kind of life, he wanted to be happy and live a accomplished full happy life. He wanted to be the village hero, Hokage maybe. Then Naruto appeared in his mind, he thought about that guy, that's what Naruto wanted too. They grew up in a lonely cold lifestyle, Naruto never gotten paid attention by others, Sasuke grew up mourning about his parents. They were both hurt, so they can relate to each other. But they will never admit to each other that they're the same, because boys will be boys. Tears started to fill his now emotion driven eyes, after all this time, after all this suffering.. he realizes that the life of an avenger was not fulfilling, it was only fueling his anger and his depression. His friend's life energy was being sucked out of him, and there was nothing he could do, he could only just stare at his dying friend, regretting that he helped Naruto's enemies. If there was a way to make this all better, he would take it.
'I'm sorry Naruto..'
It was like a monsoon out there, rain pouring out like a river. Sakura was drenched in cold rain and many others were experiencing this as well. But their adrenaline were blocking all of it out. They stopped a mile behind the border, planning what they were going to do. The city was still five miles ahead, they can only see lake in front of them now, but they knew better, they knew not to judge a book by it's cover.
"It seems like the city is only five more miles now, but it's best if we stopped here for right now, plan out our action." Kakashi said. Many others agreed with Kakashi, it just seemed weird to go out there unknowing of what that landscape contained. So that's what they did, they camped out there for the night.
The tents were being blown away by the monstrous winds, but the tents never left ground, and after a while, the storm settled down. Sakura was in her tent, thinking about what's out there waiting for them, and mostly about Naruto's fate. It just scares her to think that the one person who thought he would never die was possibly going to die, but the time to cry about it was over, now it was time for action. Then a disturbance rang through her ears as she opened her eyes, she thought it was only Tsunade checking up on her or her friends. But;
It was Sasuke.
She couldn't believe it. There he was, outside of her tent, trying to open the tent. She knew she was defenseless, and she couldn't do anything to stop him if he was here to kill her. But then, Sasuke smiled a bit at her, a smile of nothing but… happiness?
"Sasuke? What are you doing here? You have some nerve to come here…" Sakura said to her former teammate, Sasuke just shrugged at her.
"I know, but.. I'm not here to kill you," Sasuke stated to Sakura. Sakura raised her eyebrow a bit, a little surprised to know that Sasuke was not here to kill her.
"Then, why are you here for then? Take me away and force me to marry you?" Sakura sarcastically said. Sasuke smirked a bit.
"Not yet, I'm here for one thing only, and my purpose here tonight is to help you guys bring your future Hokage back to you."
-End of Chapter Twelve-