Naruto: Making of a Hokage

Sound's End Arc

Ch.26 Cruel Reality

Neji, Lee, and Tayuya jumped from tree to tree with a couple of Naruto clones following after them with an unconscious Kiba.

A few moments ago Naruto had stayed behind in order to make sure that the base was destroyed while Neji led the team to the nearest village to seek medical aid for Kiba. Thanks to the Byakugan, they avoided the groups of Sound ninja still searching for them. If things remained that way then they could get Kiba the help he needed.

"Hmm..." Neji narrowed his eyes on the area up ahead. Groups of Sound ninja were sitting in a clearing, probably taking a break from their search. The way they were spread out left little room for them to slip by unnoticed so he changed directions to an open area of the forest that had a single person walking. Since it was just one person then they wouldn't have much trouble since they had the advantage in numbers. He could also go around but that would waste time Kiba did not have.

With that in mind he sped his pace in the direction of the unwatched part of the forest.

Ino, Sakura, and Shino moved through the trees surrounding Konoha. They had just been gathered for a mission in the Sand Village. It was a C-Rank but because it could become more dangerous due to the resent Akatsuki activity, they were chosen for the mission instead of the usual Genin team.

Ino was a bit torn on taking this mission. On one hand she could take a break from the Flower Shop but on the other, she probably wouldn't be there when Naruto returned.

Sakura smiled when seeing the pout on her friend's face, "Don't worry Ino, we'll probably be done with the mission quickly so that you can go back to Naruto."

"Shut up Forehead," she rolled her eyes, not missing the teasing tone in Sakura's voice, but laughed nonetheless. She was still a kunoichi of the Leaf so she had to take herself a bit more seriously when it came to missions.

Naruto was leaning against a tree when the memories of the clones finally hit him. They were finally done setting up the explosive tags and while it took a lot more time than he first thought, it was great to finally be done with the mission.

Without a word he made the appropriate hand seal and the whole base went up in flames causing powerful shockwaves to rock the area. He shielded his eyes from the debris before jumping up a nearby tree.

'I'm finally done with his mission that was a lot more taxing than I thought,' he let out a breath, stretched his arms over his head, and began to make his way South of the base.

All he had to do now was regroup with his friends and -

He landed on a tree branch with an unreadable expression on his face, his eyes shadowed by his hair. Memories from the two clones with Neji and the others had just gotten to him...

With the same unreadable expression he jumped at the nearest tree branch in order to make his way South, where the group had gone.

...

The reality of the world they lived in had never struck.

There were many times when he felt threatened but something on the back of his mind always believed everything would be okay in the end. And why shouldn't it think that? His missions, despite being dangerous, never went wrong.

He always came back to the village safe and sound.

...

How should he even react? The memories were not even his own. A large part of him thought that it wasn't even real, that he had to see it himself to believe it. Right now he felt nothing, he was numb. The memories were not his so there was a possibility of them not being real.

Ah...

He finally felt something...

A stabbing pain struck his chest as he passed by...him.

The lifeless body, covered in blood with the eyes still open. The body of a great ninja and an even better friend.

The group came to a halt before a single Sound ninja standing in a large clearing.

"Hey, Konoha shinobi..." the ninja began in an amused voice, "Do you want to see my power?"

With that said the ninja made a single hand seal, dark purple chakra exploding around him as his body began to grow in size before the group of Konoha ninja.

Neji was the first to react, having seen the amount of chakra coursing through the man's growing body he knew that he was dangerous, "Quickly! Let's leave while he's busy!"

The group listened and was on the run in a matter of seconds, Tayuya holding a look of horror on her face.

They could feel the chakra exploding behind them before it disappeared and, without a single warning, a massive hand drove Neji into the ground, kicking up a cloud of debris.

Naruto said nothing as he passed by the crater in which Neji's lifeless body lay.

His face remained unreadable as he passed by the next one...another good friend.

"Neji!" Lee cried out in terror as the massive creature with dark purple skin turned its attention to them.

"Run you fucking idiot!" Tayuya screamed but to no avail as one of the clones was crushed under the creature's giant fist...the clone carrying Kiba to be exact. The next clone was soon to follow.

Kiba's body was a bloody mess, bones sticking out in several places, but he turned away from it and continued to move.

He could feel something now...

Now that he realized the memories were real he finally felt it. After years without it. He felt it.

'This is all my fault... Kiba still had time! We could have waited!'

'If we had all stuck together I could have helped. I'm sure we would have won if I was there!'

Naruto gritted his teeth, tears stinging his red eyes when he finally saw the thing. They weren't tears of sadness, not yet, these were tears of hatred, of pure uncontrolled rage.

'I'll kill him! I will absolutely murder him! I'll destroy him until there's nothing left!'

The hulking monster turned away from the two ninja standing in front of him to see someone approaching with blue chakra flaring around his body.

"I'll kill you!" Naruto roared as he ran at the monster, red eyes blazing in fury.

The ninja inside the monster smirked. Another ninja to kill, how should he go about this one though. He chuckled as he punched at the incoming ninja only for him to disappear the moment his fist got close enough.

"Drilling Fist!" Naruto roared as he appeared before the monster and drove his fist into its chest causing it to cry out in pain as the fist dug into its body but Naruto wasn't done and formed a Rasengan on his left hand before driving it into the monster's chest as well, causing it to screech in pain.

"Not yet! Not yet! Not yet! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" Naruto roared as three clones appeared at his sides, all holding a Rasengan which they quickly drove into the monster as well.

The man from within the hulking monster spat out blood before swatting the ninja and his clones away with a hand. He panted wearily as he watched the ninja crash against a tree but get back up almost instantly and charge in at him once again.

"Giant Rasengan!" Naruto screamed as a massive Rasengan formed on his hand.

The monster quickly sidestepped the attack before lashing out with a kick that made Naruto cough up blood before being sent hurling through the air. He gritted his teeth as he adjusted his body in order to face the monster once again, finally getting a good look at it.

It had a dark purple body, muscular arms and legs, as well as long black hair. The most noticeable thing on its body were the various bloody wounds on its chest.

Naruto smirked at that before turning his body away from the monster and putting a hand to his lips, "Wind Style: Devastation!" The power behind the gust of wind shot him straight at the monster that did not have time to react as he rammed a Giant Rasegan into its chest, drawing an anguished screech. Next he reached into his vest and pulled out as many explosive tags as he could before stabbing them into one of the gaping wounds on its chest.

The monster roared as it swatted Naruto aside once again but he simply smirked as he crashed on the ground and made the appropriate hand seal.

Tayuya had been a second away from dying when a furious Naruto entered the fray with vicious attacks that rivaled that of the monster's. Soon the two were gone from the area, leaving her alone with a panting Lee who had fought the monster with taijutsu only to lose quickly as he had been to devastated over the death of his teammate.

She could understand why he felt that way. To have someone you were close to die so suddenly was sure to leave you scarred.

This monster of a 'human' did not know this. He killed just to kill. Tayuya had seen this show of sadistic enjoyment for killing once before and that was when Orochimaru had first introduced the Sound Four to this brutish beast.

When she saw the seals in the base she knew it was him. He was the only one who would use the seal to monitor everything in the base, not even Orochimaru showed such dedication for a single base.

Tayuya was violently brought out of her inner musings when an explosion rocked the area, kicking up flames, shockwaves, and a massive cloud of debris.

She gritted her teeth as she shielded her eyes from the debris, "What the hell are you doing Shithead? You should run."

Naruto panted while standing atop a tree. He had used chakra like an idiot making for lousy control and a big blow to his reserves. He probably wouldn't even be able to make it back home due to how low his chakra reserves were.

A trail of sweat ran down his face as he noticed a shadow in the debris. His eyes hardened immediately, murderous rage building up again when he saw a man with black hair crawl out of the debris, one of his legs was missing and he was covered in wounds but...it was not enough to satisfy Naruto's thirst for blood.

Naruto jumped down the tree and approached the fallen man with a cold expression on his face.

The man laughed before falling on his back, "Damn! You're pretty strong Konoha shinobi! I had no idea you guys could actually be strong."

Red eyes narrowed on the laughing man. He didn't have access to the Kyuubi's chakra anymore, this was the first time he felt something coming from it in years. Before it was chakra mixed with hatred but now it was just pure hatred.

"Hey shinobi, are you going to kill me?" The man laughed before shaking his head, "That would make you just like me so do it. Come on, one of the weaklings I killed was a friend of yours, right? Wouldn't it make sense to kill me then?"

Naruto's eyes widened in realization, his blood running cold as he remembered something he had heard only moments ago.

'What if right now I did something to make your hate consume you? Do you think you could take it?'

So it had really been his fault.

They would have gotten back to Konoha safe and sound were it not for his mouthing off to someone like Orochimaru.

It was all his fault but...

He glared at the fallen Sound ninja.

No!

It was his fault! He was the one that killed them in cold blood.

"I'll..." Naruto trailed off as he unsheathed his katana, "I'll kill you."

The man laughed in response.

Ch.26 End

I know it happened very suddenly but that's how death is, unexpected. When I first planned on having them die I really thought it would be easy to just write them being killed but when I was actually writing the scene I felt like shit.

Anyway, I'm going to be starting a side story to this one focusing on Fu. I think it's necessary since adding her important parts in this story would affect the flow of it.