Hey everyone, SamJaz here. Sorry about the delay, we've just been doing other stuff until now, but we promise to get back on schedule with this story from now on!
So who thinks that the sharingan is just too powerful now?
The One Eye Of The Demon
Chapter 25
Aftermath and the Fifth
After leaving Temari's room, Naruto vaulted himself onto the sofa next to Sasuke who was reading a textbook that Kankuro had left behind.
"Elemental Manipulation, huh?" Naruto asked.
"Apparently I'm dual natured." Sasuke replied, his eyes not leaving the page. "Fire and Thunder." He glanced up at Naruto. "Does Kyube know if they can be mixed?" He asked. "Like, Earth and Water chakra makes Wood element?"
"Ever heard of a wonderful little thing called Napalm?" Kyube asked the two boys.
"Napalm apparently." Naruto replied. "Any idea what that is?"
"No clue, but I'd rather figure it out myself, so don't tell Naruto." Sasuke asked the Kyube.
"Fair enough." Kyube decided. "I'm guessing you can read him like a book."
Sasuke ignored the Kyuubi, and Naruto realised that Sasuke couldn't hear him without his Sharingan, so he re-iterated Kyube's point.
"Pretty much anyone I'm close to at this point." Sasuke sighed, closing the book on his finger wearily. "Things are about to hit the fan." He added.
"I've noticed." Naruto replied with a sage like nod. "Big time."
Sasuke dropped his book onto the floor and sighed. Naruto saw and recognised the slightly dejected look and knew the problem. "Sakura threw away your porn?" He asked.
"Burnt it." Sasuke sighed. "Apparently Yuri is of the devil and belongs in hell."
Naruto laughed. "I'll get Haku to get you some more." He offered. "I don't even bother buying my own since I found her library."
"Thanks. She has a library?" Sasuke asked.
"It was a walk-in safe, but apparently some things are more important than Jutsu scrolls."
"I bet you've got clones studying them as we speak." Sasuke sighed.
"The scrolls or the porn?" Naruto asked with a grin.
"Both." Sasuke grinned. "You off to Shikamaru?" He asked.
Naruto nodded in response to Sasuke's question before asking his own.
"How did you know?" Naruto asked.
"Everything's about to go down the crapper," Sasuke replied, "You've got some secret mission from your dad to do, you've got a deadpan snarker inside your skull and you have two girlfriends that you're living with and know about your bigamy." Sasuke leaned over to the table and opened a bottle of soy sauce. "You need a plan and well, Shikamaru's a genius."
"Got that right…" Naruto replied, before looking at Sasuke with disgust. "Dude, you're actually drinking that!?"
Sasuke pulled the bottle from his lips. "It's morning, and the only other drink in your fridge is booze!" He defended himself. "And it's pretty good once you get used to the psychosis!"
"What psychosis?" Naruto asked with concern.
"I dunno, but I'm flying this couch to the moooooooooooooon!"
"That's your cue to get the hell outta here before it becomes your fault Kit."
On the journey through Konoha, Naruto was experiencing something he wasn't used to; Admiration. Apparently he was no longer just a demon child.
He was Konoha's demon child, and they were proud of him.
No sign of an apology though, but Naruto figured that he'd just have to take what he was given.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, Naruto my boy…" Jiraiya said to Naruto as he hooked an arm across Naruto's shoulders, "But you are currently living with both of your girlfriends without parental supervision."
"Yeah, so?" Naruto asked.
"And am I also correct in the assumption that these two fine ladies are both aware and supportive of your bigamy?" Jiraiya asked. "One of them being a lesbian and a Naruto-phile, and the other is enough of a pervert to watch you bang the first girl, so long as she gets her turn on the Naruto-wagon?"
Jiraiya then pulled Naruto around to face him, holding the boy by both shoulders as he looked him in the eye. "So why is it that my sources can confirm that both of these two girls still have their virginity?" He asked.
That one question, in Naruto's mind, equated to the words "Oh glorious Naruto-sama! I hear that you have developed the Uzumaki Demon Torture! Please, oh please let me have the honour of being the one you test it upon, oh mighty one!"
The doctors stared at the mass of what was supposed to be Jiraiya that lay on the hospital bed, it was a marvel at how the thing was still alive with the way his kneecaps had been attached to his elbows, how his spine had been folded and how many bladed weapons had been used to inflict maximum pain whilst keeping blood loss to a minimum.
"It does beg the question though. Why are you still a virgin, Kit?"
"DUDE!" Naruto shouted in the hospital corridors. "I'M LIKE TWELVE!!"
Naruto then looked around, then walked hurriedly for the stairs, feeling very silly.
"Never should've brought the old man here in the first place…"
"Was your trip a productive one then, hmm?"
The blue haired youth smiled to the hunched-over man as he shuffled a deck of cards and placed it upon the table.
"See for yourself." He offered.
The card was black, with the numerals XIII emblazoned upon it and a sombre skull staring up at them.
Shikamaru was meditating in the family forest when he opened his eyes and lay back, hands behind his head. "Hey Naruto." He sighed.
Naruto fell down from the branches and landed next to his friend. "Ya know, if I wasn't so good at sneaking up on everyone else, I'd think I was useless at it."
Shikamaru sighed as Naruto lay down opposite him. "This is going to be troublesome, isn't it?" He asked.
Naruto didn't bother asking why Shikamaru knew he had a problem. Naruto was clever, but Shikamaru was smart. "Danzo's been chosen as the fifth Hokage." Naruto told him.
Shikamaru scowled for half a second. "Troublesome." He muttered. He remembered when he used to come to the Nara household, demanding that Naruto be put into ROOT, which was basically Danzo's child ninja slave plant.
Naruto removed the bandage covering his right eye with a sigh. "What do we do now?" He asked, demon eye contracting in the new light. "Even I know that Danzo will send this place down the drain."
"We need something on him." Shikamaru decided. "ROOT'll make it too bothersome to take him out directly, so we need some leverage to control him."
Naruto grimaced. "Mind reading then."
Shikamaru nodded. "If ROOT gets in the way, then…"
"I'll have to leave…" Naruto finished, with a conflicted look on his face.
"You wanted to see me Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked as he looked upon the weathered face of the Third.
"Yes…" Sarutobi sighed from his hospital bed. "How much do you trust Naruto?" He asked.
Kakashi gave the old man a little eye smile. "With my life." He replied.
Sarutobi smiled. "Then I should tell you this." The old man replied. "Naruto's more elaborate pranks were planned by Shikamaru."
Kakashi couldn't see any connection between these two facts, so he hid his confusion and listened.
"As we speak, Naruto and Shikamaru are plotting." Sarutobi told Kakashi. "Normally, this is merely problematic, but with Kami's involvement in this situation, what we have is Pandora's Box and a young boy with a crowbar."
Kakashi realised the severity of the situation. "Shikamaru strategizes… Naruto executes…"
"This begs the question…" Sarutobi sighed. "Will you follow Naruto?"
Naruto flipped onto his feet and walked some distance from Shikamaru. "We were interrupted last time." He pointed out.
Shikamaru smirked and rolled into a crouch. "Let's go." He taunted, bringing his hands together to form a circle.
Naruto drew the Despair cautiously, his demonic chakra reacting to something malevolent. Something dark. Something evil.
Then Naruto saw the darkness rise into Shikamaru's hand. "Heh…" He laughed. "What am I getting all worried about?" He asked. "You're ultimate attack is shadow manipulation!"
Then he moved as fast as he could to dodge the black spike that shot for his face. "WHAT THE CRAP!?" He gasped.
Then the wide grin appeared in the blackness. "hELLO…"The mouth said to Naruto, who was terrified of this… thing Shikamaru had summoned.
"Get yourself together Kit!" Kyube snarled. "I'm not gonna cover your ass in this fight!"
Naruto shook his head clear, then ran for the Shikamaru, blade at the ready. More black spikes came from Shikamaru's hand, but they collapsed at the chakra-rejecting touch of the Despair.
"That all you got!?" Naruto laughed, charging.
"bEHIND yOU…"
Naruto ducked and span around to slice at the first spike, which had turned around to stab him in the back. Like the others, it collapsed at the touch of the Despair, but when Naruto turned to cut the next spike, his blade was blocked.
Shikamaru was holding a black sword with white teeth covering the blade, and a crazed, blue eye at the hilt. "This is more than mere chakra…" Shikamaru grunted, using both hands to match the strength of Naruto's one handed weapon.
Naruto twisted the Despair, trying to gain purchase, then let lose a roundhouse kick for Shikamaru, who blocked it with a black, child-like hand from the ground. Despite its immature shape, the tiny fingers were both powerful and sharp, to the point where blood flowed freely from Naruto's leg.
Naruto gritted his teeth against the pain, then twisted his body to deliver an Axe kick to Shikamaru, who merely collapsed into the ground, letting Naruto fall into the dirt.
"I know your power." Shikamaru told Naruto as he walked out of an eye that appeared on a tree trunk. "You're like a hurricane when you fight, an unstoppable force that destroys anything in its path and leaves chaos in its wake. How was I supposed to match up to that?" He asked.
"You became something untouchable…" Naruto replied, getting up to his feet. "The Shadow."
Shikamaru nodded. "Course, it's not all just running away and hiding behind spikes." He shrugged, closing his eyes. "Eventually you'd get me, so I learnt this." Shikamaru opened them, showing two blue eyes with rings, and the world turned to blackness.
Naruto's normal eye immediately flared demonic, and hellfire consumed the darkness, which writhed and sliced at the crimson flames. It was a Genjutsu, a battle of wills between Naruto and Shikamaru: The Demon and the Nightmare.
A fox's face appeared in the flames beside Naruto. It roared at the darkness, as a red eye's crow slowly emerged from the shadows beside Shikamaru.
"I knew this power…" Kyube growled beside Naruto. "Morrigan…"
"Good to see you too, my dear fox." The crow cackled with glee. "All power, no brains as usual?"
Naruto threw the Despair into the ground between Shikamaru and himself, creating a spiralling vortex of the red flames and the black shadows, drawing the chaos back into the ground as the forest returned to existence.
"Who's Morrigan?" Naruto panted, unused to having so little chakra.
"There's more to this world than the tailed beasts…" Shikamaru gasped, gulping in air before standing back up. "Daemon's are just better at hiding."
"Tell him that we're better at killing!" Kyube hissed. "It's the perfect comeback!"
"We're better at killing." Naruto sneered, agreeing that it was a good taunt. "Hell, you just admitted that all your monster is good for is running away!"
"I never said that." Shikamaru sneered, raising a hand to point at his feet.
Naruto was doing the same thing.
"You son of a bitch…" Naruto grunted. "How the hell did I fall for that!?"
"Because you're stupid." Shikamaru laughed, bringing up a black fist from the ground to punch Naruto in the Jaw.
Naruto withstood the attack, and several more as the shadows pummelled him repeatedly.
"Finished..?" He asked, looking at Shikamaru.
"I've still got some chakra left…" Shikamaru grunted, taking in a deep gulp of breath.
"Did you know that in the east, there's a type of Taijutsu called Muay Thai?" Naruto asked. "It's become a sport, where he two fighters beat the crap out of each other for five three-minute rounds?"
"You asking for a break?" Shikamaru asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's not like you."
"No." Naruto snickered. "I'm just saying that the winner of those matches is often the one who lets the other guy wail on him for the first couple of rounds while he pretends to get his ass beat down." Naruto grinned. "This way, the other guy tires quicker, and he can figure out how to beat his fighting style."
"And besides." Naruto added as the swelling on his black eye lessened visibly. "I'd rather have a few bruises than no Chakra."
"Ah crap." Shikamaru sighed, realising the mess he's gotten himself into as he mimicked Naruto's movement of drawing the Kitsune from its seath.
Shikamaru was then forced to bring his hands together in a kendo stance as Naruto charged his blade with Wind Chakra. "Ready to get your ass handed to ya?" Naruto asked with a smirk.
Then Shikamaru scratched the back of his head. "This is really too troublesome…"
Naruto realised that Shikamaru wasn't using Shadow possession anymore, but the black line on the ground was still there. He jumped out of the way as black hands rose from the earth to grab him, launching his Wind release at the shadowy limbs, slicing them apart as more hands came from the forest to grab him.
Naruto hacked and slashed against them as Shikamaru calmly walked towards the Shortsword that Naruto had stabbed into the earth earlier, then pulled it out. Darkness filled the forest again, and the black limbs began to drag Naruto into the abyss with childlike glee.
Then he exploded in a cloud of smoke.
Shikamaru just stood there in awe, then slapped his forehead at his stupidity.
Shikamaru was smart.
Naruto was clever.
Later that day, most of the Ninja in Konoha were gathered outside the Hokage's tower as Danzo walked onto the balcony, adorned in the robes and hat that now marked him as the Gondaime Hokage.
'So, we exchange one cripple for another…' Naruto thought to himself.
"Something seem wrong to you?" Kyube asked Naruto.
'You mind read him already?' Naruto asked.
"Mind Reading is a precise art kit, which is why you hate doing it so much." Kyube replied. "Hearing thoughts, spirit walking, they're all easy enough, but Mind Reading is both difficult and rarely pleasant."
'What're you getting at?'
"His mind is like a fortress with the gates locked and barred, the drawbridge raised, and sharks in the moat." Kyube replied. "But you can see some pretty disturbing stuff through the window."
Naruto sighed, knowing enough about minds to recognise that Kyube wasn't making a metaphor. He locked onto Danzo's visible eye with his own demonic eye, and he was not prepared for what he saw.
"Itachi's the good guy…" The statement was just a whisper.
"Well fuck me."
-}+{-
So who knows what Kami is yet?