Introverted
Chapter Fifty-Three
Sakura looked towards the stone slab in the corner of training ground seven and clenched her fists. In the middle of the night, calmly, she took out the chisel. With a tranquil appearance, holding on a bright smile on her face, she chipped away with controlled hammer strokes the name that she refused to see on that stone.
She knew what she was doing was wrong, and was akin to vandalism, but did she care as long as the name disappeared from that slab? No. She didn't.
Naruto Namikaze. Someone had written his name on the slab —probably by mistake or to make her angry— and she now would correct the error by removing it. Then she would find the bastard who had dared write the name of Naruto on that stone and she would make him suffer by breaking every single bone of his body.
Because Naruto wasn't dead.
He couldn't be dead, because she refused to believe that. She refused to believe he could die. He could not die. He could not be beneath the ground. They hadn't found his body, but yet they had still gone ahead and claimed him dead.
He wasn't dead.
She refused to accept it.
She refused to accept a reality where Naruto was dead and beneath the ground.
Naruto wasn't dead. He wasn't still. Naruto was somewhere, most certainly kept prisoner against his own will, and nobody understood that. They all believed him dead. Burned to a crisp by Amaterasu, burned to a crisp and for no reason whatsoever but as revenge from a petty S-rank shinobi.
A traitorous Uchiha…
The older brother of Sasuke.
She had no tears left to shed, so she simply smiled. She had no screams of anguish left in her throat, no yells, and no angry accusations.
She had nothing left.
She had no one.
She knew she was purposefully ignoring Sai's presence, but it just wasn't the same. Sai was a friend, a good friend, a really good friend even —probably on the same scale of friendship as Ino had been before they had broken off contacts— but he wasn't on the same ladder as Naruto.
He had accepted his death. He had gone to his funeral and held his head low like everyone else —comparatively few people— had.
She hadn't.
That betrayal still stung her.
The funeral…she had refused to participate.
Her sensei's words…she had refused to listen to them.
Naruto was alive somewhere, and as she turned to dust with her right fist the light bit of rock with his name etched upon, she turned to leave.
"You know," a voice called. "I used to do the same," a silver haired shinobi called to her, in the shadows next to a tree. "They reprimanded me thrice before I stopped."
Sakura turned her gaze to the Jounin, narrowing her eyes. "You'll rattle on me?"
The man had a mask covering most of his face —his name was Kakashi, wasn't he the sensei of Sasuke?
"No," the Jounin shook his head. "Want to talk about it?"
He was flipping through the pages of Icha-Icha Consoling The Mournful Widow and had a general bored look in his eyes that made her frown. Did he really expect her to open up to someone she barely knew?
"Why should I bother?"
"Because I will rattle on you otherwise?"
She scoffed and made a 'tsk' sound. She couldn't poison him. She supposed someone would miss him.
"Please, don't look at me as if you're planning my murder," Kakashi drawled out.
"All right," she sweetly remarked with a bright smile and her eyes half-closed. "Then I won't look at you. Period."
"You want to know something funny?" Kakashi retorted. "I think you should actually hope he is dead."
Sakura's eyes smouldered with fury as she flung at the man a kunai as fast as she could. The Jounin merely deflected it with the hard cover of his book, and then commented.
"Think about it. If he isn't dead, why hasn't he come back?"
"He might be a prisoner! Or he might be wounded!" Sakura barked back, angrily stomping on the ground as she walked forward towards the Jounin.
"You mean the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi? The one who has complete control over his Bijuu?" Kakashi snorted. "Who are you trying to convince…me, or yourself?"
"Naruto wouldn't betray Konoha," Sakura murmured, her eyes glazing over. "He just wouldn't."
"Whatever makes you sleep at night," Kakashi remarked. "As long as it keeps you away from the monument, anything's fine."
Sakura clenched her fists, how dared he come here in the middle of the night and snipe at her? Didn't he have better things to do, like using the porn he had in his hands?
"I don't know if you understand it yet, but we are in the middle of a crisis," Kakashi deadpanned. "This is a veritable cold war, where the only wildcard left is whether Naruto is alive or not. Konoha is in the crosshair of enough countries to make the future of it being nothing more than a wasteland a reality. Kumogakure, Kirigakure, Iwagakure…heck, even Sunagakure might all attack or form alliances to destroy us. The only reason they don't is because they also hate one another. All that it takes is a simple spark…and then this arming up of forces will be unleashed."
Kakashi's eyes turned narrow. "Do you have any idea what it means to graduate at six from the Academy, after a single year devoted to how to prime explosive tags and throw kunai? Do you know what it means to have to walk up to an enemy outpost with a ball of rubber filled with explosives, and hope they don't kill you because you're a kid?"
He took a step forward, just as Sakura paled and took one back. "Do you know what it means, to watch your friends, your comrades, your family die one after the other in the middle of war? Do you know the meaning of suffering behind a trench carved out by the blood of your teammates, trying to hold the line because reinforcements will come at dawn, only to realize there are no reinforcements, and you're alone against dozens?"
His only visible eye shone with fury. "You have no idea of what war is, kid," he snarled. "And I hoped you would never have to know."
Kakashi then turned, and left in silence.
Sakura fell down on her knees, trembling like a leaf quaked by the wind…and there she cried.
Because one part of her mind was whispering to her that if Naruto had betrayed Konoha…
She had to kill him.
Betrayers had to die. It was the law.
And the law was everything.
Sasuke grumbled.
He had no idea why Kiba insisted on it. He and Shiro weren't going to fight him and Akamaru. The three-legged dog had grown to be as tall as his stomach —considering it bumped its head against it quite a few times. He didn't much care that he was acting like a recluse, or that 'the Duckbutt Uchiha I knew would accept'. He simply wouldn't fight.
He could hear Ami's form pressed against his side, but he ignored that too. Whether the girl had grown up and matured or not, he didn't even want to find out. He was actually glad Shiro's head was resting on his lap barking happily. One of the few key notes with being blind and unable to re-enter the shinobi service was that, in the end, he had a lot of time to spend in peace.
"Come on, fight me!" Kiba snarled.
"No," Sasuke remarked. "Dog breath."
"Why you—"
"That's enough Kiba," Ami said, "Leave Sasuke-kun alone."
"But Ami!" Kiba whined.
"No buts! Really, ganging like that on a blind person, have you no shame?"
"My sister said to kick his ass whenever he was moping, and what better way than spar with him?"
Akamaru yipped in agreement. Shiro just kept on barking happily, as Sasuke gently scratched behind his dog's ear.
"I'm not moping dog breath. I'm enjoying the sun."
"Pathetic," Kiba muttered. "Really? Where did the sour puss 'I have a certain man to kill' Uchiha go?"
"He died with his eyes," Sasuke retorted hotly. "And he'll stay dead."
Silence descended in the small corner of the Inuzuka's compound main house, as Sasuke carefully brought his face upwards to 'stare' at the sky, even without eyes. "I'm fine like this."
"Ehi," Ami suddenly said coyly. "What about restarting the clan? You can do that even without eyes, right?"
"No," Sasuke's single word froze both Kiba and Ami. "That dream died together with my revenge. I'll be the last Uchiha…and with that, I'll have my final revenge on my brother. I'll not condemn someone else to carry on my grudge, or to live in hatred of what could have been if he hadn't killed our clan."
"S-Sasuke-kun…" Ami murmured. "But…"
"Ohi, idiot!" Kiba barked. "What does your revenge have to do with finding a girlfriend and rutting like crazy?!"
"KIBA!" Ami screeched. "Gross! That's…that's really crass too!"
"What!? Just telling the truth: an idiot's an idiot no matter what!"
"And that's why you don't have a girlfriend, dog-breath? Or is it the flea powder?" Sasuke shot back.
"I'll let you know I have plenty! Like…a dozen!"
"All around Konoha?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow, his eyes closed shut.
He doubted he had anyone other than his hand, but then again one could never know. Maybe Kiba had finally given in to his basic instincts and gone the deep end of bestiality.
"Is that why you have bitches in heat following you around?" Sasuke asked once more.
"Y-Wait, no!" Kiba yelled back. "I'm not fucking with—"
"Stop it!" Ami shrieked, making Sasuke wince. "Really! Kiba, look what you've done! Sasuke-kun's turning crasser by the second because of you! Ah…I knew it! I'll have to check on him as much as possible to avoid this from getting worse!"
"No, really," Sasuke drawled. "I'm fine."
"Who's fine?" a female voice said then, as Sasuke's ears twitched.
"Hana-san," Sasuke said politely. "Is it true that Kiba ruts with dogs? He seems pretty proud of it."
Ami watched Hana's smile falter for a bit, before her eyes morphed to slits as she growled towards Kiba. The Inuzuka boy brought up his hands in defence.
"That's not true Hana-nee! It's not—argh! Ah! It hurts! Stop it! Damn it!"
A squirt bottle filled with pepper spray soon appeared from Hana's sleeve, which then ended up half-emptied on the boy's coat.
Sasuke's nose twitched, and his wasn't trained as much as those of the Inuzuka.
"Really, what did I do to be saddled with you?"
"Just because mom's off to the border doesn't mean you can do this, you bitch!" Kiba yelled as he thoroughly scrubbed his nose with tears coming down his red and swollen face. "You're not the Top Dog!"
"I'm the Alpha Bitch around here you bastard, you got that!?" Hana yelled right back, stomping a foot against Kiba's back and sending him sprawling on the ground with Akamaru whining about it.
Shiro just ignored everything, like his master did too.
Ami had to admit…it was somewhat funny watching Sasuke and his dog act precisely the same.
There was a moment of absolute silence then, as if no one had anything remotely interesting to say. It lasted a mere second, and then it was gone as Ami softly whispered. "Tomorrow…we're off on patrol near Kiri, right?"
"Yeah," Kiba snarled. "To think I won't see the Duckbutt for a month or two…fills my heart with joy."
"Likewise, Dog-Breath," Sasuke retorted hotly. "Not hearing your incessant yapping will do wonders to my brain cells...I begin to fear your stupidity is contagious."
"Now, now children," Hana interrupted. "Play nice and Kiba will get the nice red ball that goes squeak…"
"Is there a look of joy on the mutt's face?" Sasuke asked then. "Because I'm clearly imagining him with sparkling eyes over that red ball."
"You know Duckbutt," Kiba growled. "I preferred you when your sense of humour was non-existent."
"Some people can improve," Sasuke deadpanned. "For others there's still the Squirt Bottle I suppose."
"Grrr…."
Sasuke would never admit it to himself, or to the people around him…
But it felt good to be there.
Silence descended in the clearing after a few seconds, as his nose and ears twitched. Someone else had just arrived, and whoever it was, it smelled of a light sheen of antiseptic and alcohol —the industrial variant, for hospitals.
"Sakura?" Ami suddenly said.
"Sasuke," Sakura's voice came firm and cold. "I want to know one thing."
"Uh?" Kiba's perplexed voice cut through.
"How do I kill your brother?"
Sasuke's heart skipped a beat in that instant, as his fist naturally clenched.
Maybe…maybe he could have his revenge all the same?
Naruto closed his eyelids for an instant.
The stench of burned corpses reached his nostrils. The screams of the wounded echoed in his ears. He opened his eyes, staring at the population of a small and remote village torn apart, human after human, by a small group of Kumogakure shinobi. They moved not to actually slaughter them all, but to scare them into submission.
A few farmers were beaten; another couple had burns on their faces or hands. Raiton Techniques tore the simple huts of the civilians apart with relative ease, as the Jounin guiding the operation was a scar-filled bulky man in his fifties. He was laughing out hard as he heard the screams of fright of the civilians, and the smirk on his face told it all.
The man chose to scare them, not to kill them. Kumogakure probably needed the village, or its supplies.
Naruto unclasped the Butcher's Cleaver, and then bent his legs forward to thrust his entire body onward, as a light sheen of chakra covered his frame.
He spun as he twisted the giant blade, letting the screams soon dwindle to a shocked halt as he cleaved in half the leading shinobi of the assaulting force.
Blood sprayed in the air in a thin mist, as the lower part of the Kumogakure ninja took a few hesitant steps, twitched, and then fell down on the ground as its upper side screamed in pain for but a moment, before dying and landing with a sick 'thud' on the dirt a few meters away.
He capitalized on the moment. A Bijudama emerged from his mouth, piercing through the stomach of a Kunoichi and sending her to twist in mid-air as her innards viciously exploded outwards. She collapsed like an empty hand puppet, her Chuunin vest of no use.
By the second death, the rest of the Kumogakure troops awoke from their shock and dispersed. Running away from him, they didn't realize one tiny detail.
He wasn't alone.
The Yoroi Toshi of his Kage Bunshin thrust itself forward surrounded by wind chakra, stabbing through the heart or the stomach the retreating men and women, whose gaze widened as individuals covered in cloaks and masks blocked their way out.
A particularly quick Chuunin managed all the same to evade the lethal blow, his body flexing to the side and thrusting his own fist back at the Kage Bunshin, dispelling it with a single hit.
The problem was that now, the shinobi in question was alone against a dozen.
The villagers watched with a mixture of hope and sick fascination as their saviour slammed repeatedly onto the ground the remaining enemy, the crunching noise of bones breaking and soft tissue splattering on the ground making them grimace or avert their gaze from the gory scene.
"T-Thank you, shinobi-san," an elderly man murmured walking forward. He extended his hand, and Naruto merely looked back at him with his piercing blue gaze through his mask. "We are in your debt."
"Is this the right direction for the Land of Snow?" he asked back softly, pointing towards his destination.
"Ah, most certainly," the old man nodded quickly. "Are you wishing to join Shimogakure?" there was a grimace that settled on the elder's face. "It is a pity the Daimyo renounced to the shinobi village here, in the land of Hot Springs…there's no army to protect us either from the attacks…"
Naruto's ears twitched.
"Tell me," he said slowly. "Any news from the world?"
"The great Countries," the old man snorted as he slowly sat down on the ground with his legs crossed, "They're expanding. That's what they all say. These guys," he gestured to the corpses, "They came here for supplies. The village elder refused —winter's coming, and our supplies are low— and so they decided to 'even the score'."
Bitterly, the man added. "A village with no villagers doesn't need food, and anyway the Daimyo…he doesn't care. Yugakure is nothing more than a glorified hot spring village now, and samurai are useless against shinobi!" the old man growled as his voice grew heated.
Naruto merely looked in the direction he had to go, and then nodded back to the old man.
"Thank you," Kubikiribōchō sailed then in an arc, and the old man's head flew in the air for a moment before rolling down on the ground, blood splattering on the blade.
The rest of the villagers did not even have the time to scream.
In the silent and scorched village, Naruto merely began to look for food with his clones. All of them were eerily quiet as they worked in looting the corpses of the Kumo shinobi, the villagers' houses and the warehouse, which the ninja had left alone.
No doubt, another group would come around to look for the fate of the first one. Supplies weren't that difficult to bring around. All it took was one shinobi with a hefty scroll carrying the food sealed within, while another acted as a decoy.
The group's food scroll was soon in his hands, and as he snorted towards the corpse of their Jounin, he grimaced.
"You shouldn't have killed the entire village," he began quietly. "Forcing me to battle you lot…that's stupid. You know what happens when you do something stupid? You pay for it. You shouldn't have."
The reality was that, as a missing-nin, he was the enemy of everyone. As a Jinchuuriki missing-nin, he was a threat to all of the nations combined. Merely with the Kage Bunshin, he knew he had enough power to level a nation —and that was without using the Bijudama.
He was powerful, but the problem was to which depths he'd go in order to win. Was destroying half a country worth killing a single shinobi? Was killing an entire village worth using the Kage Bunshin?
As long as he merely hefted Kubikiribōchō, he was simply a lucky guy with a big sword —one a Kiri shinobi would recognize anywhere, but still way better than his trademarked Yoroi Toshi.
The moment he used the Kage Bunshin, the moment he used a Bijudama and the precise instant he left eyewitnesses, the enemy countries would know where he was.
He couldn't trust Konohagakure. He had been afraid of the consequences of his betrayal and so he had left. With what he had on his person, he wouldn't have gone far anyway, so as a shinobi he had stolen.
As a shinobi, he had endured.
As a shinobi, he had survived. He closed his eyes, letting the wind ruffle his hair, and then he trudged on.
He knew very little about the world or its political situation, but he knew that if he wanted to truly be at ease, he'd need to go somewhere war would not touch.
The land of Frost was nothing more than a barren extension of ice and snowflakes, where the Daimyo merely understood his place and granted passage to Kumogakure shinobi on his land in exchange for leaving the country in peace. They had a shinobi village, which merely acted as a sort of guard for the population, and that was it.
No Bijuus, no Jinchuuriki, nothing worth remembering in its history. The person in charge was a certain Doto Kazahana, while the princess of the land of Snow was a certain Koyuki Kazahana, his niece. The last Bingo Book entry he had grabbed from the corpse of a Kumogakure shinobi showed him that there were no renowned entries in their missing-nin category, which made it all the better.
He'd live in a nice and comfortable ice hut.
Naruto clicked his tongue against his teeth a moment later. Whom was he kidding? He was following some sort of basic instinct to go north, but he couldn't understand why. Something soothing was calling for him, and like a moth to the flame, he was answering the call.
He knew it felt like a trap, it smelled like a trap and it probably was a trap, but he still decided to go that way. The Matatabi was silent. Even if 'free' to roam, the two-tailed cat remained true to his word and stayed silent in a corner of his mind.
It was completely different from the giant Bijuu who had screamed against remaining a prisoner. He gave one last fleeting glance at the corpses strewn on the ground, and then disappeared in a flicker.
He had a long way to go yet.
A white Zetsu slowly appeared from the ground, in the middle of the village. It looked around for a single moment, making sure there really was no one left, and then smiled. He made a simple gesture of his right hand, and ten more Zetsu appeared from the ground.
The white creatures ate the Kumogakure's shinobi corpses, and as the Zetsu morphed, taking in their appearances, the 'leader' of the group remarked.
"How horrible! A Kirigakure shinobi killing people in the land of Hot Water…one of the swordsmen of the mist no less!"
"We must warn the Raikage," another acquiesced. "The Demon of the Hidden Mist isn't dead as they wanted us to believe."
Yet all of them were smiling with the same creepy smile as they said that.
Orochimaru glanced over to where Itachi was bringing his hands up to the fire to warm them. The Uchiha still covered himself in the Akatsuki cloak, and his teeth chattered from the cold. They were deep into the passage for the Land of Frost, and as the snake sannin hummed peacefully, Itachi commented.
"Aren't you supposed to be cold blooded?"
"Aren't you even going to try to take my head?" he remarked.
"If you didn't have the sharingan, I would already have tried," Itachi muttered with his gaze unflinching as he offered a roast gecko on a stick to the snake sannin.
"I hope my little Hebi-chan is all right," Orochimaru lamented as he accepted the Gecko and then flung it behind him. A few meters in the air, the Gecko exploded in tiny pieces of burnt flesh. "I mean, it shouldn't be too difficult, but you never know with them, right?"
Itachi said nothing, but merely narrowed his eyes to slits.
"Oh come on Itachi-kun, enjoy life a bit more," Orochimaru chuckled. "What little you still have left, that is."
"If only the roles were reversed…"
"Ah, you would undoubtedly kill me without a fault, that much I know," Orochimaru nodded. "But I am kind-hearted, deep down, and I simply cannot tolerate seeing you in such conditions. How fortuitous that you told me in time of your sickness, Itachi! Why, if you hadn't, I would have tried to get your body while in the Akatsuki such was my greed!"
"The way you say that while smiling is extremely creepy, Orochimaru," Itachi muttered back.
"Doesn't this bring back our time together as a team, Itachi? The two missing-ninjas from Konoha, guarding each other shoulder to shoulder as they fight against the unjust system of the world through senseless slaughter and bounty hunting! Can you smell the irony from here?"
"I can't even smell the rotting stench of the body you're inside of," the Uchiha said. "You expect me to smell something that doesn't exist in the first place?"
"Now, I find offense to that! And to think we went great lengths to ensure cooperation of Zetsu-kun!"
"Please, avoid using the Kun suffix…period."
A strong gust of wind flapped their cloaks.
"Shishui's eye is truly special indeed," Orochimaru quipped, "Pitiful that it can no longer be used." Itachi bit his lips.
"Then again, maybe in a few years your brother will have a brat or two, and then uncle Itachi might just appear as a ghost!" the snake sannin laughed at that. "Kukuku…or maybe Orochi-Jiji might just make his appearance."
"That image is so wrong, I will need bleach for my brain now," Itachi mumbled. "Why are you so sure he will pass by here?"
"Because you aren't thinking logically Itachi," Orochimaru quipped. "And then again, I have Zetsu trailing him…how difficult can it be to anticipate his travel vector?"
"Why not kidnap him in his sleep?"
"Ah, Itachi, Itachi, Itachi," Orochimaru made a tsk sound as he slowly slumped his shoulders, his eyes half-closed. "You never were one for the subtle and gentle approach. Not everything is solvable with meaningless slaughter! Come on think! We kidnap him and he'll try to run away. We talk to him and you'll see that he will follow us without an inkling of doubt!"
Itachi said nothing else, and Orochimaru merely lapsed in silence after that.
"You know what the fun thing is, about giving time schedules to imbeciles?" Orochimaru remarked suddenly, standing up. "It is that when then you strike earlier…they're too stupid to understand you were playing with them."
He disappeared in a flicker with Itachi soon following him. There, in the middle of the blizzard, a figure walked forward with steam surrounding his person.
Naruto was not enjoying the cold. He was a shinobi, he could endure the cold, but he didn't like it at all. He was more at ease in the warmth of the sun, not in the middle of a freezing blizzard lost somewhere where the sun didn't shine and seemed to have been forgotten by the gods.
Yet the call was ever so alluring. He knew it was supposed to be closer still, somewhere…
He slammed his body on the ground just as a blade of wind sliced above him
Naruto rolled out of an incoming fist, that tore apart the ground he had stood on but a second before. His eyes widened in surprise when they landed on Orochimaru, who was brightly smiling in his Akatsuki cloak.
"Oh! Naruto-kun! It has been a while, hasn't it?"
Naruto swallowed. Orochimaru of the Sannin stood in front of him, his face a mixture of crazy and scared.
"Is that your idea of subtle approach?" Itachi remarked calmly, appearing right next to him.
Naruto snapped his eyes from one shinobi to the other, and then felt his throat parched. "H-How?"
"The ground whispered to me," Orochimaru shrugged, "Who was I to remain deaf to its call? Very well, Naruto Namikaze…let me ask you this," he strode forward calmly, both of his hands forwards as if to appear harmless.
Naruto narrowed his eyes and flexed his legs, ready to run for his life.
"You have potential and power," Orochimaru began, "But you lack a purpose, do you not? You find yourself devoid of a master's whip and an objective in life now. You escaped, out of fear or maybe out of a well thought out decision, and everyone else believes you dead or is smart enough to make sure you are 'thought' dead." The snake sannin chuckled. "The problem is you have nowhere to go and no one to trust. You'll go around for a while looking for a place to belong, but in the end…they will all fail you," the golden eyes settled warmly on him.
"And then, one day, you will realize that your power makes you right. It doesn't matter what laws say. It doesn't matter what other people say. It doesn't matter what a Kage says, or what a Daimyo says…because you have the power, and they don't. Make a hand seal, and tear down a country. Make two, and destroy a nation. Make three…and the world will burn," the snake sannin clenched his right fist in front of the boy.
"What I am trying to say is that everyone who has power, in the end, begins to think of an objective to complete. Why go through life without something to look forward to, after all? Some wish to make a family, watch their children grow and then die of old age. Others wish for complete world domination, for changing the system, the world…some want revenge, sweet, sweet revenge…" his voice trailed off.
"Yet, in the end, a purpose can't be something shoddy like 'I'll protect my teammates' or 'I want to make friends' or 'I'll be Hokage'."
Naruto snarled as he felt a building pressure in the back of his head.
"Oh? What is this…can't remember, can you?" Orochimaru smiled. "You know, I was sure of it the moment I saw you, quiet and silent, that Danzo would place his hands on you. He always was interested in the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki after all…I just had to place a trap for him, one he could not avoid," he chuckled. "I did plan on killing you before leaving Konoha…I told you that already, didn't I?"
Naruto winced as he felt pain stab through his entire body.
"I decided to weaken your seal instead, let it deteriorate. I was pretty sure Danzo would step in with his Fuinjutsu knowledge, but the old crone didn't rise to the bait and the seal was left to rot a bit at a time," the snake sannin shrugged. "I made you into a ticking bomb, and yet…you went way beyond my expectations."
"I'm not a bomb," Naruto hissed.
"No? Then tell me, Naruto Uzumaki, the boy whose very own surname was stripped away from him, the one whose parents were hidden from, whose identity as Jinchuuriki kept silent…who was hated, scorned, blamed for things beyond his control…"
The wind died down around them.
"If you're not a tool of Konoha…if you're not a faithful shinobi of Konoha…if you don't have teammates to protect or a dream…what are you?"
Naruto swallowed and looked to the floor. His clenched fist felt warm, as he realized blood was dripping from his palms where his nails had dug in.
"You want to know the answer, Naruto?" Orochimaru smiled lightly. "You…"
The voice trailed off for an instant.
"Are me."
"That's not true!" he hotly retorted. His eyes shone with fury, yet the nagging sensation of…of him being…no, he could not be right! He refused to believe in that!
"No!?" Orochimaru laughed at that. "What am I, exactly? A powerful traitorous shinobi from Konoha? I was born an orphan, apprenticed under the Sandaime who became like a father to me. My teammates were a bunch of wrecks, one worse than the other," the snake sannin mumbled. "One left for his voyages, the other lost hope after the death of her family and love…yet I remained, loyal," Naruto hadn't realized it till then, but Orochimaru was now literally in front of him, speaking smoothly and slowly.
He couldn't jump away however, because just looking into the man's eyes was…hypnotic, to say the least.
"I remained in Konoha, loyal; waiting…waiting for my chance at becoming Hokage, waiting for my chance to prove my power, the power of my intelligence, was the best Konoha could hope for to defend from its enemies."
Orochimaru exhaled slowly.
"Yet in the end, your father was chosen. The Sandaime said it was because he feared for what I would do with the power, but the true reason was another…a darker one, a deeper one," his eyes shone. "You can't control a smart person. You need dumb bastards in power, or how else can you move their strings? With intelligence comes responsibility. With intelligence, comes the knowledge that what you do, how you do it, for what reason you do it…it bears a weight, and with the weight the puppet becomes too heavy to move."
Naruto took a step backwards then.
"You were guided," Orochimaru said taking a step forward. "Step after step towards a goal," he smiled. "A prophecy foretold that Jiraiya's apprentice would usher forth an age of peace…or one of complete destruction," both of his hands shot forth then, grasping onto Naruto's shoulders and pinning him in place.
"The man told the Sandaime, and the Sandaime knew he had to act. He couldn't risk you becoming a tool of destruction, and so he kept you weak. He kept you under control. He gave you nothing more than scraps from the table…the table that was your legacy," Orochimaru smiled. "I can give you the entire feast, Naruto Uzumaki. I can guide you, train you, and make you stronger than ever before. I can teach you things and techniques the likes of which you have never seen."
Slowly, Orochimaru's head moved to whisper at Naruto's ear.
"I will not command you, Naruto. I will not ask for your devotion or your blind obeisance…I will not force you, lie to you, or backstab you…I don't need to, because you already know, deep within your heart, that you cannot trust me, you cannot trust anyone…"
Orochimaru's smile became warm, as if it belonged on the face of a father proud for his son's accomplishments.
"You can only trust in yourself and your own beliefs, your own ideals. Am I right, Naruto?"
"What if you are?" Naruto croaked. "W-What if I don't want to follow you?"
"Then we will leave." Orochimaru replied, letting go of the boy's shoulders. "Mind you, I'm sure everyone has a moment where they desire to be left in peace, alone, to think about what they want to do with their lives. It is normal. I did the same, but I was far more productive as I built a network of spies all around the elemental countries at the same time as I went on my thoughtful thinking spree," the sannin held his smile up for a moment more. "Then again…I can't expect you to be as smart as me now, can I?"
"You'd just let me go?" Naruto asked then incredulously.
"Yes," Orochimaru acquiesced. "I don't really need you for my plans, Naruto. Whether you like it or not, you are merely a footnote in my master plan. Sure, you can become a wrench to my cogs, but that's only if you truly start being a bother…and you can't become a bother, because your very own presence would help me."
"So what is your plan then?" he asked back, his eyes slightly narrowing as Orochimaru turned, giving him the shoulders.
"My plan…it's funny, really," Orochimaru chuckled. "At first I thought that, if everyone was devoid of chakra, then the shinobi system would collapse. Then I realized it would simply mean that the era of samurai would come back. I followed Nagato's plan —you don't know him, do you?" he asked, looking at Naruto's perplexed face. "Never mind, I followed his for a while…his own is the creation of a super Bijuu-powered weapon of mass destruction, that would make war a no win scenario for everyone…but then I thought: what about scuffles? What about a single shinobi sent to assassinate another? Would you kill millions to get to one avenger?"
He chuckled. "Of course you wouldn't. You'd send two, then they'd send three, and then they would…"
Naruto's eyes snapped shut. When he opened them again, they were clear and cold.
"You spoke with a Bijuu."
Orochimaru's smile widened beyond proportions as he began to clap slowly.
"Very, very good," he said. "You surprise me time and time again with your ability to state the obvious, Naruto Uzumaki."
His golden eyes narrowed. "Now that you know, let me ask…why did you refuse their suggestion? What chains and shackles tie you yet to this miserable world? What possible reason would you have, you who can now slaughter innocents without even batting an eyelid?"
"It's…It's not right to kill people," the weak retort stopped Orochimaru on the spot.
"What?"
It was rare for the snake sannin to be speechless, but in this case, he had to.
"I understand…killing for reasons," Naruto muttered. "But if we kill only for the sake of killing, doesn't that make us monsters?"
"You killed children in a village."
"I was ordered to; the blood stains the hands of the Hokage and the one who issued the order, not on mine," he retorted crisply.
"You held no mercy for the villagers attacked by Kumo shinobi."
"They saw my special techniques, I had no choice. They shouldn't have seen them."
"Are you really shifting each and every single blameful action you have committed upon others?" Orochimaru whispered, "Are you really that broken, that you cannot realize your own faults?"
"I'm not broken," Naruto snarled. "I did what I had to do!" he screamed then, stomping his foot on the ground as it cracked. "I FOLLOWED ORDERS! I OBEYED! I BECAME THE TOOL KONOHA WANTED! The only times I acted as myself, I made mistakes. The last one just sent me here! Look at me! Do you think I'm happy with this!? It's cold out here…it's cold and there's no hope for me to return to…"
"Yes," Orochimaru nodded. "There is no hope."
His right hand extended like a whip, grasping firmly at Naruto's neck and squeezing as it retracted back, bringing the boy closer to his face.
Holding him up, Orochimaru snarled then.
"These were my words as well, a long time ago," Orochimaru smiled. "You can never be at fault for atrocities others made you commit, right?"
"Gah…argh…" breathing was difficult, as the hand squeezed tightly against Naruto's throat. "I followed orders, my superior is to blame," Orochimaru mocked. "But the dead remain dead all the same," he hissed.
"We will be heading somewhere special," he said then, dropping the boy on the ground. "If your claim is as such, then I want to see it. I want to see the truth in your hypocrisy," his cloak flapped as he turned to look towards Itachi.
"Itachi, inform Nagato that we are leaving his organization," he unclasped the Akatsuki cloak and removed the ring from his finger. "The Truth is something hard to swallow sometimes," he remarked dryly towards Naruto, "Which is why I will force feed it to you."
"You said I didn't have to follow you," Naruto coughed out, holding at his throat.
"Do you truly think you can go somewhere else?" Orochimaru retorted. "Sure, we can battle, and sure, you might be able to make more than enough chaos to get away from me…but I will keep on following you, and you'll have to keep on running. Or you can just follow me for a bit, find out the truth your heart desires and finally, if Kami wills it, understand that in the end the truth and your own truth are completely different things."
"Why the effort with me?"
"Because, my dear Naruto," Orochimaru cooed. "I see in you what Kushina Uzumaki never had: Minato Namikaze's cunningness."
The smile grew feral. "And simply because of that, I must guide you on the correct path."
Then his smile dropped, and with a serious voice added. "Do not worry. The truth I will let you see is impartial and completely lacks manipulation. The Waterfall of Truth is one of the hidden treasures of Kumogakure, located on a floating island to the North of here. Once you stand in front of it, the truth will become manifest. It might be ugly, or who knows…it might prove you right, but in the end it will simply be the truth."
Orochimaru's neck elongated as it stilled to a halt mere inches from Naruto's face.
"Good or evil, I wonder…is there any truth that lies in the middle of Grey?"
Naruto didn't answer, but slowly stood up and nodded. He knew how to choose his battles and this one…this was one he didn't even think for an instant he could win. Still, he had to know.
"How? How did you find me?"
"I have never stopped watching over you, Naruto," Orochimaru remarked with a small smile. In that moment, a perfectly spherical piece of glass emerged from his robes. "Really, I stole this from Sarutobi-sensei the day I left Konoha."
He chuckled. "And nobody even realized it was missing all this time."
Orochimaru hummed then. "How stupid can someone be, to leave a perfectly functional peeping sphere around their office? These things have won wars in the past."
The sphere disappeared into another one of the snake sannin's sleeves. "And let me tell you, Naruto," Orochimaru added carefully, "That trying to steal it will result in great body harm for yourself," he nodded sagely as he said that. "You want one? Find yourself another."
"All…right?"
"Can we go, now?" Itachi asked quietly, ignored up to that moment.
"Of course Itachi-kun! Here I was, forgetting about the guy who tries to kill me to no avail!" Naruto sweat dropped looking towards Itachi, who just stared back at him.
"See? I told you he'd follow us!" Orochimaru added whistling a tune.
"Is he always…"
"This is a good day," Itachi replied. "On his bad ones, he makes an active effort to look mad."
Naruto said nothing else.
And so…they trudged on.
Author's notes
Nagato's a threat…he'll come around.
The answer to Orochi's spying network?
The damn crystal ball in the Hokage's office, the one 'canon' has gladly ignored since then.
…
Plus the army of White Zetsu who can morph to become whatever shinobi they wish to become and travel through the ground.
Really, I'd think someone would use those meatbags for something more than a conveniently disposable army, considering their infiltration qualities.
