Chapter 21

Worlds Apart

"Father"

His voice was barely above a whisper as his eyes laid upon the man to whom he owed his existence to. The person whose blood flowed through his veins and the one who gave him a pain that nothing in the world could heal.

The despair in his heart threatened to swallow him whole now that he knew the bitter truth.

In the end, it was not he who was fucked up.

But the world itself.

And so, even with the three pronged kunai lodged in his throat, even with blood leaking from his neck and mouth, even though his face was covered by the liquid matching his bright red hair...

He laughed.

Minato stood on the other side of the battlefield. His eyes fixed on his target, his usually calm blue orbs stared in surprise on seeing the young boy regain his footing. Even the most strong ninja couldn't survive a lethal wound to the neck, but this blood stained boy not only survived.

But was laughing.

He glanced across his students. Rin seemed fine and was simply knocked out. Obito had minor wounds but nothing life threatening. But Kakashi...

Sadly, he knelt beside his most prized student checking his pulse. Silence was his answer...

Kakashi Hatake was dead.

Across the field, he could see the charred remains of a lot of Konoha Shinobi. He grimaced on seeing Kagami's badly burned corpse among them. If not for the seal he had marked on Obito that warned him of his younger son's impending death, he might just have lost his son alongwith Rin as well.

What answer would he have to give to Sakumo now that Kakashi was killed?

His only solace was the fact that Obito and Rin were still alive. He doubted he could have faced Kushina and Mikoto's wrath if Obito had died.

Granted, Mikoto was Obito's biological mother and had taken care of him. But Kushina had also been introduced to the boy by her best friend and over the years came to care for him, even love him as her own son.

He had never married Mikoto, nor could he ever marry Kushina after everything both of them gone through with the affair related to their only son, Naruto.

Minato shivered on even imagining the pain he could feel if Obito had died. He had already lost one son to this useless war, he couldn't afford to lose another.

He had failed to protect Kakashi, but he would do anything to save Obito and Rin. Even if it meant killing a deranged teenage boy...

The Konoha elite Jounin grasped his three pronged kunai again as the malicious dark chakra around the bloodied boy flared again. Kami, he was relentless and bloodthirsty.

"How devious..." said Minato sadly,

"Hypocrite...Konoha...shinobi...I'll...butcher...every...last...one...of...you"

Minato closed his eyes. The words said by the young shinobi didn't bother him, to each his own beliefs and thoughts. But it wouldn't stop him from doing his duty as a teacher and father.

He flashed right behind the boy through the connection between the three pronged kunai in his hand, and its counterpart lodged in the boy's neck. His hand moved swiftly to bury his weapon deep into his enemy's brain.

Only to have the boy dissolve into thick dark smoke...

Minato hissed on being caught right in the middle of the foul chakra. It was freaking burning his skin, his vision completely blocked. But his hearing wasn't, and it alerted him to the next attack.

Following the sound he clashed his kunai against another kunai, his senses screamed as he performed a hasty shunshin barely avoiding the dark tendrils that missed his heart by mere inches.

He was astonished to see those tendrils had rematerialzed from the dark smoke, just as the dark smoke now turned back into the form of the boy again. The Konoha Jounin watched in surprise, the boy had yanked off the kunai previously lodged in his neck and had tried to attack Minato with his own weapon.

The wound on the boy's neck was life threatening, but Minato keenly watched the size of the hole had reduced considerably.

"His healing abilities are off the charts..." thought Minato sharply,

His enemy was still standing on death's door but the sheer fact that he was still standing and fighting was enough to keep Minato on his toes. This was definitely an A or worst case S class shinobi.

"So...you're...the...Yellow...Flash...the...irony...still...amuses...me" said the boy hoarsely,

Minato didn't respond and simply fetched a handful of his special kunai from his pouch. He could see the gears turning in the boy's eyes, and even though he didn't say it Minato saw the boy had gained a brief idea about his technique now.

But he still had the advantage since his opponent was badly wounded. It was not a fair fight but they were ninjas.

To his credit, Minato remained calm despite losing his student and so many comrades. His focus fixed only on his opponent, even as he was unaware of the desperate attempts his enemy made to tear through his mind.

"He can resist my mind powers. Even after witnessing so much death and tragedy, he can still remain calm?" thought Naruto venomously,

Despite his brave and reckless fight, he could feel his life ebbing out of his body. His healing powers had reduced the bleeding. Not stopped it.

Even for this little fight, he might just have overused his healing cells thereby shortening his life.

He neither feared death or worse.

But he was not stupid unlike his bloodthirsty cult followers.

"This man is not someone to be trifled with. I can't afford to fight him any longer in this state..." thought Naruto bitterly,

He wanted to rip Minato apart limb from limb, kill the man's Uchiha son right before his eyes, reduce Rin to a mindless husk but the rationale side of his mind was begging his revenge hungry heart to reevaluate the situation.

If Minato was here, then it wouldn't be long for the rest of the elite Konoha Jounin force to return back. Fighting his father alone was a daunting task, and he doubted his rag tag army could face Konoha elites after fighting this camp's forces for long.

The bid was sealed when the mark on his arm flared again signalling the accomplishment of objectives. On the other flank, Kisame fired a green flare showing he had secured the prisoners and crushed anyone that got in his way.

He might not have gotten everything he came for, he may have lost a part of his heart and soul after learning the bitter truth, but the Akatsuki was victorious.

With this Konoha Garrison wiped out, and with the death of so many veteran ninjas including Kagami, the Hokage would be forced to reconsider his options. The invasion across Suna's lands would be halted for atleast a few weeks as Konoha forces tried to reorganize their soldiers and think of another strategy.

And now that he knew Kakashi was his father's student brought him a little satisfaction. His death would not hurt the man as much as Obito would have, but it would have to do for now.

"Why?"

He was brought out of his thoughts when the blonde in front of him asked him that in a pained voice as he looked at the death and destruction around them.

"Because...this...is...my...justice..." replied Naruto, his eyes burning with pure determination and ambition.

"Justice for what?" said Minato disappointedly, searching the boy's gaze for answers.

"Blood...must...have...Blood"

Those words hung in the air as a form of destiny that had been etched in this moment. Minato could not see the boy's face clearly due to all the blood on his skin, but he could read those eyes. And in them he saw a sea of pain, sorrow, loneliness.

But most of all he saw something in those eyes as they stared at him.

It was betrayal.

He remained frozen in place even as the boy transformed back into dark smoke and in a few seconds disappeared from the destroyed camp.

Minato didn't know for how long he stood there, his eyes fixed on the spot where the boy had been standing.

His thoughts fixed on one thing...

Why were those eyes so familiar?

He stumbled.

The soil of Fire Nation tainted by his blood as it continued to fall from his skin. Yet the pain paled in comparison to what he felt in his heart. He had always known he was not somebody most people would love or like to be close to, his powers were not normal, and he was usually indifferent to other people's feelings except for a selected few.

He had done things for his country that would make most civilians blanch, every day of his life he had stared into the darkness and kept on fighting.

When Uzu was lost, his revolution was all that kept him going.

Alongwith the fact that maybe destroying Konoha would hurt his parents. But he was wrong...

For their joy and pride was not Konoha, but a boy.

He had prepared himself for years to be called a freak by them, even hated in the worst case scenario.

But to see them simply forget about his existence, replace him with another boy and live normally as if nothing had ever happened. He could bitterly accept Minato doing these things considering he was Obito's father, but his mother too?

Strolling through that boy's memories, Naruto knew Obito was not Kushina's son but of a woman named Mikoto Uchiha.

And yet Kushina had given him everything that originally belonged to her real son.

One which she had discarded like a trash can the moment he was born.

His legs finally gave out as he fell to the ground, broken and torn apart. Mentally and physically...

As his blood pooled around him, staining the green grass, threatening to drown him he felt a lone tear fall from his eye.

Painfully he twisted himself around so that he could stare at the sky. His hand slowly rose up as if trying to grasp the world and tearing it apart with his bare fingers.

"Great...Kami...be...my...witness...without...fail...I'll...get...revenge...on...all...those...bastards...all...of...them...with...these...hands...no...matter...what...it...takes!" screamed Naruto,

His promise boomed through the lands promising death and destruction to its people. But even in the midst of determination and hatred, there was pain and sorrow.

Alone in this deserted forest, for the first time he allowed his tears to fall freely.

For the Nation he had lost, For the Clan he had lost, For the leader he had lost, For the Family he might have had in another life, for all the things he had done.

He cried alone.

The Akatsuki forces waited patiently at the rendezvous location, some 30 kilometers away from the now destroyed Garrison camp. The mission was a complete success with full destruction of all enemy forces, with only 15 Akatsuki men dying in battle.

Atleast 25 Suna Shinobi had been rescued, 5 had been in too bad shape to rescue and their own comrades put them out of their misery instead of leaving them to rot in Konoha's gruesome prisons enduring worst kinds of torture.

Yahiko stood amidst the victorious group nursing his bruised left arm. To his credit, he had managed to eliminate seven chunin, three genin, and with Hidan's help he even helped take out one Jounin.

All in all, he had killed so many people today. Yet he was not rejoicing unlike the barbarian cult members, he had seen them butcher Konoha ninjas left and right like cattle. Even if they got injured, including strikes to vital organs, they simply got back up and continued fighting.

It was as if they were immortal.

He still shivered on remembering Hidan's rampage and the faces of so many young Konoha genin who threw themselves at the Akatsuki only to receive brutal deaths in return.

He didn't like what he had seen today, definitely hated what he had done, now he was no different from any other ninja. But he had done it for Ame, and as long as his nation was safe he would continue to bear this sin.

There would be a time to pay for all these sins, but until then...

Kisame stood to the side indifferent to the commotion around him. A few of the Akatsuki were tending to the Suna shinobi who were not in a very good shape, most were wounded and some even sported signs of torture. So much for Konoha's benevolence...

Suddenly the cult members stopped rejoicing and instantly knelt on the ground.

Yahiko turned around and saw the reason for that.

He flinched on seeing Naruto return, his entire body covered in blood, even his face mask given by Kisame was smeared in the red liquid. The small part of his face that was visible was deathly pale, and his red eye had transformed back to its natural iris of blue.

There was a tightly wrapped cloth around his neck which was soaked in blood.

"My lord!" yelled Hidan in horror on seeing the condition of his leader.

"Stay calm. It's me who's injured, not you..." rebuked Naruto, his stern gaze remained relentless despite his condition.

Yahiko and Kisame quickly moved to his side, even as the Akatsuki leader saw the freed Suna shinobi staring at him in awe, fear and trepidation. None of them were in any shape to fight if he chose to kill them.

And considering his force had obliterated a powerful Konoha Garrison on its own, their fate was literally in his hands.

Still, they were all injured and were bleeding just like him. He smiled at the irony again as he placed his hand at his own neck wound, removing it he saw his hand stained with the same red liquid that was pouring from the Suna shinobi's wounds.

"Regardless of our allegiances or beliefs, we all bleed the same..." said Naruto amusedly,

He brushed off Yahiko and Kisame and directly walked towards the Suna shinobi. To be honest, he barely had any bitter feelings about the Sand Village and its ninjas. It might be due to the fact that Suna refrained from participating in Uzu's destruction, or didn't back stab the surviving Uzumaki like Konoha. They were just a nation with whom the Uzumaki clan had minimal contact.

But it would change now...

Kisame smiled as he saw Naruto take the first steps of their revolution.

"So it begins..." thought Kisame in satisfaction,

Naruto reached the injured shinobi and came face to face with a remarkable woman. He had never seen her before in his life, but just one look in her proud and determined brown eyes made him stop. She was a fairly tall kunoichi and had green hair that she had tied in a bun on top of her head with a hair needle running through it and one short and long strands of hair with orange tips framing each side of her face. She was wearing a sleeveless, backless top and short tight pants, with two lapels on the front and the back. An obi was around her waist, as well as purple arm-warmers which extended up to her shoulders, and bandages were wrapped around her tights and ankles.

He easily spotted the nasty bruises on her skin and her crooked nose, tell tales signs of someone that had been tortured recently. If those physical signs were not enough to show it, the small haunted look in her eyes confirmed what she had been through.

Yet there was a fire in her eyes, a protective desire as she stood between him and her injured comrades.

"A fine shinobi. Maybe Suna has a chance after all if they have ninjas like her..." thought Naruto admirably,

She extended her hand towards him which he respectfully shook with his own.

"I am Pakura of Suna. I don't know you or your fighters, but you saved my men. For that I thank you..." said Pakura honestly, but a skeptical look arrived in her eyes a moment later.

"What are you going to do with us now? And who sent you to save us?"

Naruto looked her right in the eye.

"We are shinobi that do not belong to any village but bear a grudge towards Konoha. Nobody sent us to save you, we attacked Konoha forces and since you were there, we decided to save you..." answered Naruto frankly,

"That's understandable. But still I doubt you did that just out of the goodness of your heart..." said Pakura skeptically, earning a nod from him.

"You're right, we have some other goals in mind as well. As it is, war wages across the entire shinobi world. It's not just Suna, but many other smaller villages who are suffering the tyranny of Konoha, Kiri, Kumo and Iwa. Those four villages have ample resources and yet they attack others selfishly. But the Akatsuki will stop them..." declared Naruto decisively,

"Are you proposing an alliance?" asked Pakura curiously,

"Maybe. I have a few contacts in different villages, individually none of us can beat Konoha. Even your village will eventually lose in this war of attrition, and you know I am right..." said Naruto bluntly,

Pakura flinched but one look at her abused and injured comrades combined with the countless defeats her village had suffered these past few weeks was a proof that the claim made by this boy was true.

He was so young, yet the power she felt from him was alarming.

"The Yellow Flash will destroy us all..." said Pakura dejectedly,

She narrowed her eyes when the boy smirked. Her eyes widened and a shocked gasp escaped from her lips when he produced one of those abominable three pronged kunai from his pouch. The weapon that was all hundreds of her fellow Suna shinobi saw before their doom.

"You came across the Yellow Flash and survived?" asked Pakura in disbelief, as he grimaced.

"We fought to a stalemate, he was fast but I managed. And don't worry, I have disabled the seal on this kunai so he won't teleport in front of you anytime soon..." pacified Naruto,

He curiously saw the Suna shinobi seeing him in an entirely different light. And was that admiration he saw in their eyes?

Even Pakura seemed astonished by his small feat...

"You..." said Pakura in shock,

She saw him grimace a little as more blood leaked from his neck. Wordlessly, she raised her hand towards the wound. He stopped her, but one look from her stern gaze made him back down.

For his compliance, he was rewarded as she channeled medical chakra. The bright green energy slowly stopped the bleeding and after a few long minutes the wound was sealed temporarily.

"I have done what I can. You still need to visit a hospital, but you won't die anytime soon..." said Pakura kindly,

"Thank you, Pakura..." replied Naruto awkwardly,

Pakura frowned inwardly. Did he actually expected that she would allow him to die when he saved her and her comrades? The simple fact that he survived the Yellow Flash itself marked him an important ninja in her eyes, one which her village needed in this desperate hour.

She didn't have much of an opinion about this alliance he was proposing, that was for the Kazekage to decide.

"Here, take this scroll to your Kazekage. It has details of my proposal..." said Naruto seriously, as he handed her a small scroll.

Pakura eyed it cautiously making him chuckle faintly.

"You can check it from every angle, it's safe. I assure you..." reassured Naruto,

"I'll do that. Now, I must leave with my men..."

He nodded.

Pakura turned and faced her injured soldiers, despite their rescue and the news of someone surviving the Yellow Flash she saw despair and defeat in their eyes. They had lost the will to fight completely.

And rightly so...

A month ago, she was tasked with destroying this same Konoha Garrison Camp in order to halt the invasion in Suna. Nearly 200 Suna ninjas were under her command for this mission. But unfortunately, the Yellow Flash was stationed at this camp at the time of the attack.

She closed her eyes on remembering the slaughter that blonde monster had inflicted on her forces. That bastard had single handedly killed more than 70% of her force. Only 40 shinobi were left by the time he was done, most of whom were badly injured battling the remaining Konoha Garrison ninjas that had pounced on them as well.

Instead of letting her remaining shinobi die, Pakura had surrendered. They were in no condition to fight after all.

She had heard reports that 10 more of her people had either succumbed to their wounds or died during interrogation by the enemy.

The remaining 30 were scheduled to be transferred to Konoha Central Prison, but they were saved by the Akatsuki.

Yet not everyone had managed to be saved.

5 of her ninjas were badly wounded and it was simply not possible to evacuate them. With heavy hearts, the remaining 25 were forced to end the misery of their comrades.

The 25 beaten men and women that now stood in front of her had lost friends, relatives, siblings, some even children to this war.

And it had broken them.

However, they looked up when they saw the fire and passion in her eyes.

"Our force was defeated, but we are still in the fight. We lost comrades, yet they live on in each of you. I promise to get all you brave ninjas back home alive so that we can all fight another day. Guarding our pride and discipline, shall we not follow the road home in good order?"

Nobody scolded the Suna Shinobi as they gave tearful nods to their leader, some even openly wept.

Even the cult members remained silent much to Yahiko's surprise.

Naruto remained stoic knowing that he was the one who started this war. The suffering of these people happened due to his actions and their pain would bear on him forever. History always demanded blood, pain and suffering before change. The Ninja World was going through that phase and he steeled himself because he knew there was more to come.

Both for him and the world.

If not anything else, this mission had confirmed that for him. Yet he would not give up...

Pakura and the devastated Suna Shinobi were surprised when Naruto saluted them. The Akatsuki members didn't know what to do, so everyone except for Kisame followed their leader's actions. Even Yahiko gave a tearful salute to the ninjas in front of him.

"May we meet again, Pakura of Sand..." wished Naruto respectfully,

She smiled and returned his salute. The gesture repeated by the remaining Suna shinobi as they got back their on feet.

Yahiko was caught in this moment, he had been wondering what was the point of the blood he had shed. But now watching these two sides arrive at a mutual respect for each other, the prospect of a future alliance in this war...

He glanced at Kisame who was grinning. Is this the Revolution the Kiri ninja was hinting at?

The Ame ninja saw Naruto and Pakura whisper something between each other before the Suna kunoichi smiled. With one last salute, the Suna survivors walked away as Naruto turned to face his own comrades.

To their surprise, he was smiling.

"Let's go home, everyone..."

Author's Notes: End of chapter.

Hope you guys liked it.

This story has crossed 100,000 views. So thank you everyone...

To make it clear, Minato is unmarried. Nor do I have plans to give him a Harem, he simply has two sons from two different woman. That's pretty normal even in our real world.

Read and Review, okay?

Until Next Time,

Blackwolf501

PS: No cliffhangers this time!