Wow, it's been three months since I started publishing this story, and now it's come to the end… well, it's not really the end, the sequal will start in a week from today, and this isn't even the final update on this piece of work, but still you know the meaning…
Chapter 14: The Cycle ends, The Menace Returns
********************Back at the Hidden Leaf Village*********************
"welcome back, Sasuke!" said the giant sign at the entrance to the Uchiha section of the village, the place used to be filled with ghost building, that only spiders lived in, but Ino has used her husband's money to call for a cleaning crew, "Damn, and here I was hoping to be the last sharingan user" Kakashi said to Gai, they were both at the back of the party, non of them even dared to think about asking one of the girls to dance, and they were both too old to even think about beer and sake, so they just sat and complained, like all the old people do.
"so how are you planning to recreate the Uchiha clan?" Naruto asked, soaking his throat with a second grade quality beer, "beats me, I guess I never thought about it…I think I'll start by going through the records and find the closest female kin alive and…" Sasuke started to explain his plan, only to be stopped by Naruto "what are you talking about? you'll end up like Kakashi that way, just do it" he pushed his friend towards a specific girl.
"Ahmm, would you care to dance with me, Ino?" Sasuke asked, blushing for the first time, "I'd love to" she answered, her husband wasn't even at the fire country, and her son was miles away in some kindergartener for the rich. "so. Ino and Sasuke.. this is new, what will Sakura say?" Hinata asked her husband, who was amused from the rare view of blush from Sasuke, "she left the party with Lee about an hour ago, and I think he had a ring with him" he responded with half a smile, it was about time that Sakura made something with her love life, and Sasuke's return gave her a new hope about how some things do work out in the end,
"And where's Kiba? I wanted to congratulate him and Shinzune about their third son" she continued with the 3rd degree interrogation, which Naruto didn't seem to mind, perhaps it was the gallons of bad beer, the sight of Sasuke blushing which made him so soft, it might have also been Hinata's presence, which had an amazing effect on him, no matter the situation.
"no, don't need it, don't want it" Naruto said to the elders, "but.. you always said…" "No! I was wrong, I've seen enough people at that position, I'm not going to let Karen grow up without a father, she'll have a perfectly normal family" he stated firmly, a childhood dream which was just a dream, nothing more.
"what did they want?" Hinata asked, "nothing particular, did I miss anything?" he lied, he knew she'll think the same as the elders, and make him take the job, the council has done a great work until now, and there were better candidates for the office anyway, "yes, quite a bit, Shino tried to Karaoke, but he apparently has a stage fear, when he opened his mouth, bugs started to fly out, not a sight for kids" she laughed, and he joined her, the thought of Shino Karaoke-ing was hilarious, to say the least…
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34 years, 364 days, countless enemies and friend, a newly discovered family, one wife and one girl, one day until he turned 35.
Naruto's day of birth was a memorial day for the 4th and all the fallen shinobies who fought the Kyubi, it used to be the worst day of the year when he was younger, and even today it wasn't a day for parties, all he planned was just to take Hinata on a romantic dinner, the place wasn't set yet, but he had a whole day to make the preparations, and so he sunk into his sleep and dreams.
------------------years ago-----------------
"how was your side?" the nose scarred chunin asked, "piece of cake, I took care of all the guards, they won't bother us, sensei" Naruto answered, Iruka picked up the powder bag, "this spy hideout will be a warning to the grass not to mess up with the leaf anymore" Naruto nailed the bag to the wall and started counting.
"so the next patrol is here? How many of them?" hid sensei asked, "five, seems like genins and a chunin, I'll take care of them, you just keep setting up the explosives" Naruto answered with smile and disappeared to the darkness, his weapons were still clean of blood, and he wanted to keep it that way.
The patrol passed the corner and noticed Naruto, he looked at them, the leader was a few years older than him, and the rest were at his own age. They all drew their weapons out and attacked at the same time, Naruto flashed out his shuriakns and threw them all at once with precise aim onto his enemies' hands, they all screamed in surprise when their Kunais, swords and chains hit the floor thirty feet behind them.
"Damn, they're too brave, it's gonna lead them to their deaths someday" Naruto thought to himself, he jumped between them, a quick blow to the chunin's face sent him to the ground. "take this!" two boys shouted behind him, he looked at them while performing a double backward kick, they were identical twins, the only way to tell the difference were the red and black strings they tied around their hands, Naruto suddenly realized that he was sinking himself with thoughts of family and friends again, he told himself that he could afford thinking like that in the middle of the battle.
He quickly defeated the other two, he threw the red headed boy out of the window and used one of the chains the girl held to tie her down, he was never able to hit girls like others could.
Naruto was on his way back to Iruka when he heard a scream, he started running towards the place where he left Iruka to set up the final attachment of the low-tech bomb, he heard the sound of a stab, followed by many others, he felt his foot touching a wet floor, he looked down to it, the liquid on it was crimson red, he looked at the source of it.
The body of the first man to ever say a kind word to him was there, a motionless body with a frightened look on it's face, Naruto looked up to the killer, the fire was already spreading into the powder bag, he had enough time to see the killer was the chunin he just fought mintues ago, and he had just enough time to hear his enemy say what iruka's face shouted in death, "Kid, Shinobis are tools of death, this way or another, a man must kill if he wants to hold what he considers important" the chunin said with a stanic grin, the flame reached the inner of the bag and a small voice was heard, it was just the exposition to the loud sound which followed.
****BOOM****
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Naruto woke up from the nightmare, he was soaking wet from tears, he went to the kitchen, to take a glass of water, he tried not to wake up Hinata, but she wasn't in bed, she wasn't at home at all, the lights were up at the kitchen and a broken glass was on the floor, water was flawing, and small blood traits as well, he run outside, not bothering to dress other than his shorts, the blood led him to the Hokage momentum, a woman was standing there.
She was about sixty, it seemed that she once had blond hair, and she had deep wrinkles a both sides of her face "I thought Itachi got you" he asked, trying to keep his temper done, "No Uchiha is ever worth to a Uzumaki, they aren't good enough, not them and not the Hyuga, they only get in the way, that's why I disposed of her for you" she held up a body, Naruto didn't need to inspect it to know who it was, he took a step, leaving his foot print in the dusk, "What the hell are you doing?" the Kyubi asked.
Shinobies had rules of their own, the main one was that battles never end and peace never lasts, a shinobi must always be on his toes, ready for anything to come, the battles of a ninja never ended, secrets were the trump card, letting someone know more about you more than you had to show him was death., a full step meant that Naruto has given up hope, that he wants this fight to be the last one of his, that only the outcome of the fight mattered to him, nothing else had and importance in Naruto's life.
"Wait, I figured it out, the order of the elements in the seal, it determinates what I can bring out, right now you can only call my body and chackra, but I won't be there to control it" Naruto ignored it, staring at the corpse, his eyes narrowed, heartbeat rate was increasing, nails grew into fangs, back bones into a tail and then nine, Naruto couldn't walk on two legs anymore, as he touched the ground, a cracking noise was heard, Naruto now held the power of a living Demon, a wig of the tail could cause the mountains to crumble, one breath could set a fire, a stare could freeze a man's heart.
35 years after the last appearance of the Kyubi, the leaf was dying, buildings fell to ruins, people torn to shreds, but it didn't matter to Naruto, he was dying too, and all he wanted was to die next to the one he loved, the only one who cared about him when he wasn't strong, the only one he didn't need to be strong to be with.
with Naruto's final breath, a spirit was released from his body, the spirit of once a great demon, but now it was just a soul, not attached to anything, the Kyubi didn't even have enough power to keep his gassy form, all he could do was to fall on the ground, and dissolve into a rip in the space, not strong enough to pass to the other plain, he was stuck between them, as a portal.
With Hinata's final breath, a spirit was released from her body, it struggled to hold his host alive, but it wasn't possible for the dead to live, he had to settle on the next best thing, a slight chance was better than nothing, the spirit returned to the body and started it's work, a body made of other bodies, both metaphorically and literally.
Shadow of Life – The End
Wow, that was some twisted chapter, I bet you didn't see that one coming, huh? It started all Disney ending and then it changed to some dark themes… but I still stuck a bit of fluff inside (man, I just can't write romance…)!
Just to clear a few things out about the pairings.
A. Sasuke and Ino. Yes, it's totally lame and stupid, but god knows I won't break Sakura and Lee up, even if they had no part in the story.
B. Sakura and Lee. I just can't see lee with anyone else, besides, they
already have a child, so it's 'bout time they do
something, isn't it?
C. Kiba and shinzune. Sure,
they haven't met eachother yet, but I still think Kiba's the guy to fall for older woman than him, and
besides, those two never got a line in the whole fic
anyway, so who cares?
I should probably also explain the whole ending and Kyubi stuff, but I'm too damn tired to do it, besides, you'll read about it when the next fic comes out…
Again, only one Shout out(!) to the same reviewer, Eikou.
1. I guess it's a universal thing, parents trying to help are annoying and have no idea.
2. You're right, 'Hate' is a bit too much for Sasuke, it's just that during the first 30 episodes, he was highly annoying, the climax was the Haku scene, which was too Yoai-like to think about… and all the rest of Shonon ai like scenes, each one more disgusting than the other. I guess now (chapter 197 in the manga) I don't hate him anymore, it's not that I like him, but he isn't as much of an "Gurrer! Just die already" character no more, so he's cool.
3. Tray, hha? Well, I guess Horo Horo will sound stupid in English…
4. from the 18 eps of YYH I've seen up till now, I must say Hiei seems to be the favorite, he has a Saitou\Vegita\Piccolo personality, so I think he rocks, other than the fact that he is going through a too quick personality change and didn't get quite as much prime time as he should have…
5. ooh, Bar Mitzhva… I'm glad that's over! Waking up at 8:30 at Saturday morning? Is the world crazy?
6. Today it rained here as well, damn, today was freacking hell at school, started up with economics test, than psychology (which is cool), but then P.E with the soviet couch from Uzbekistan! After that I had history class and then 3 hours of history test (modern Japan and the civil war of USA). But after that I came back home and burned 3 c.ds… so now I have 2 GB of free space, Rejoice!
7. don't own a DVD, but I can do the same with .ogm files… it's so damn funny!
8. Homework is bad, Drawing is good (2 bad I can't draw…) reading Manga is good (too bad I don't have enough cool manga on my computer), sunlight is bad, but going to the gym is ownish!
Hell, that was long…
I hope you enjoyed reading shadow of life, I know I had fun writing it, this story will be updated only once more, so if you have questions or anything to review about, this is the last chance to get a shout out (!).
Oh, yea, I forgot to write this, I wish all of you a…
Happy Hanuka: eat lots of Soofganiyot and Levivot, spin the spin thing, I enjoy the week off, from life,,, and do try not to burn your house down while playing with the candles..
Merry X-mas: sit under the tree, and do whatever the holiday tradition with the socks involve… and don't forget to leave a tooth for Santa, or was it cookies and milk?
Happy Kwaunza: do the things you do it Kwaunza, and feel however you should feel in Kwaunza… I'm not even sure this holiday exists…
Other people, just enjoy the following week, which will never return…