Chapter Thirteen: Konoha Demon Reborn…

"Naruto?" Sora's voice crackled with strain and seemed to flicker between human and demonic, indicating some sort of a struggle.

"What are you doing Sora?! I thought we worked on this last year!?" Came Naruto's confused, worry-laden voice.

"I-I know… This bastard… put… some kind… of a… seal… on my… stomach… and now I… can't… regain… full con…trol…" Sora's voice indicated an intensifying in the struggle, and his shirt burned away from the power of the evil chakra. The shirt exposed a bloody, burnt torso with a sloppy seal taking up a large portion of Sora's stomach. The seal would occasionally pulse red or blue, sometimes a dark purple.

Naruto turned his attention to the old man, and his sensitive nose picked up a similiarity in the scents of the two people in front of him. Naruto's eyes opened wide as realization dawned on him, "You… You heartless ass hole! You put this burden on your own son!? You're despicable!" Naruto finished his tyrade with a vigorous punch at the old man's face, but the man's staff moved to intercept it, and the punch was brushed off like a fly.

The man let out a hearty laugh, "Ha-ha-ha! What's it to you!? I mean, it's not like you care! Sora's a monster, why don't you get out of here while you still can?"

Naruto let out his own laugh, but his was solemn and hid a tone of mocking, "How dare you call him a monster! He's more of a person than you'll ever be! You're no better than the people you're trying to kill were! Why can't any of you damned adults practice that which is the most fundamental of all shinobi arts: looking underneath the underneath?!"

The old man seemed to have come to a realization of sorts, "You talk as if you understand wh-" He was cut off by a large flare of Kyuubi chakra accompanied by an agonized scream from Sora, "what Sora is going through. Tell me, boy, why must you insult Sora's sacrifice?!"

Naruto growled angrily, "Insult!? I know damn well what he's going through! I've had to bear the very same sacrifice and burden he has! How dare you act and talk all high and mighty like you have a valid reason for your actions!"

The old man's eyes widened a bit, but he quickly regained his composure, "Tell me, boy, what is your name…?"

Naruto seemed to be caught off guard by this question, "Wha-… My name? My name's Naruto… Naruto Uzumaki…" Naruto answered slowly.

The old man let out a crazed laugh, and his voice rang out with a renewed vigor, "Hahaha! Oh the Irony! What are the chances that the other kid whose father sealed the Kyuubi into is the one to come and try to stop us?!"

Naruto was visibly confused, "What are you talking about? My dad died early on in the Kyubi attack, and then the fourth sealed the Kyuubi into me when the time came…" Naruto's voice betrayed his uncertainty and confusion.

The old man's senile laugh returned, "You young fool! You actually believe all that crap Konoha fed you!? No, boy, Minato Namikaze, a.k.a. the Fourth Hokage, was your father!" Naruto stiffened and his mind raced, little did the three shinobi know, a group of ANBU had just reached the perimeter of the clearing and heard the last of the old man's speech.

Just as the ANBU were about to mobilize, Asuma shot out of the treeline, barreling down on the old man and yelling, "Kazuma!" The old man quickly spun around and blocked both of Asuma's wind chakra-infused blades with his staff.

"Ah, Asuma, long time no see, eh? I see you're still on the other King's side, no?" Came Kazuma's reminiscent retort.

The two old men exchanged a series of blocked blows before leaping away and back toward the treeline where Asuma appeared from, as a rather violent surge of Kyuubi chakra flew off Sora, forcing the ANBU to retreat as well, and burning Naruto's skin before blasting him backwards. Naruto staggered to his feet after laying in a smoldering indent in the ground for several minutes, revealing to the ANBU that several of his partially-healed wounds from the day's earlier battles had reopened, and his blood freely flowed down his torso to soak his remaining clothes. Naruto hung his head, hiding his face from everyone's eyes, and began walking up to Sora. As he got closer, he began to speak, "Sora… I know how much you've gone through, all at the hands of your own father. I can' go back in time to fix your childhood, but…" Naruto had reached Sora and stopped within arm's length of the struggling teen, "maybe I can save what's left of your life… by taking your burden as my own once again." Several more ANBU squads had arrived to hear Naruto's offer, and Kazuma and Asuma stopped their taijutsu battle in favor of watching what was unfolding between the two Kyuubi Jinchuuriki.

Naruto spoke no more, but went through a series of hand seals calmly, but quickly. The sequence was rather short, as far as most of Naruto's jutsu went, and Naruto promptly thrust out both arms as soon as he had finished and gripped Sora's shoulders, Tsunade's necklace dangling between them, hanging right in front of Sora's heart. "I was afraid it would come to this, but I'm glad Kyuubi taught me this after we parted ways; Demonic Ninja Art: Sacrificial Resealing!" Naruto tightened his grip as Tsunade's necklace glowed brightly, and the Kyuubi's chakra began to swell around Naruto's hands, burning away even more skin. The necklace's bright, pure, green glow began to change into a sinister red. The Kyuubi's chakra began to flow away from Sora, forming a large dome of spirals that surrounded the both of them, with a rather large margin. The dome swirled continuously, and a giant fox head formed at the top. After several pulses of chakra were sent off from the dome, the dome began to slow down in its swirling movement, and it began to shrink down in size, seemingly centering around Naruto. After several seconds the dome shrouded only Naruto, and the fox head began to yell in pain and rage. The strands of demonic chakra closed in on Naruto again and when they contacted his skin they began to coil around him like a Python.

Naruto let out a heart-wrenching scream of pain as the chakra strands seemed to be trying to squeeze the life out of his withered body, visibly pulsing in and out. The strands continued to test Naruto's willpower for several minutes before the fox head gave out another scream and flew up and then down in a giant arc, bringing the strands of chakra with it as if they were it's tails, and aimed straight for Naruto's screaming mouth. Naruto made no moves to close his mouth, as the fox head gave one final scream before flying into Naruto's mouth, and down his throat, the chakra tails following suit, and both entities burning anything they touched, which caused Naruto to scream even louder.

In an instant everything settled down, rocks began to fall back down to earth, rocks that had once been suspended in the air by the sheer power of the chakra, and Naruto was shaking violently where he stood. He swayed in either direction several times, before his mouth wrenched open in one final scream of agony, before collapsing into a heap on the ground, Sora following suit quickly afterward, his petrified body and glazed eyes reconforming to the parameters of a sleeping human body.

Disclaimer: I know that some of the events and dialogue in this chapter may resemble that of the official Naruto Manga/Anime (shippuuden). I make no claim to the originality of these dialogues, and I admit to having derived this dialogue from the official ones. I make no money or any other benefit from this story other than my own enjoyment and (hopefully) the enjoyment and entertainment of the other people who use this site. I do not own Naruto, be it the Anime (regular nor Shippuuden), or the Manga. I own only this story itself and the ideas contained herein.

~Darth